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Q:
Converting Ext4 Simple/Dynamic drive back to Basic/Partition
So basically i was trying to add a 5th partition and in that process I've converted my whole disk to a dynamic drive, which contains both NTFS and EXT4 with Linux on dual boot. Now the problem is it seems like i can't convert EXT4 volume back to basic, but i'am able to convert NTFS volumes, which will result in Unallocating the EXT4 volume.
So is there any software or a way to convert the dynamic disk back to basic disk including the EXT4 partitions?
Extra Information:
Windows Diskpart shows the EXT4 drive as RAW, Other disk management software's like AOMEI Partition Assistant show it as UNKNOWN, whereas the disk properties from my computer show it as EXT4
Attempt-1
Following the link provided by @harrymc.
These are the partition on disk:
executing the sfdisk --change-id /dev/sda 4 7 i converted the 4th partition to NTFS.
As you can see that my Drive D and Drive F, NTFS & EXT4 are shown in a single partition /dev/sda3 which is not true. Also my other partition /dev/sda1 is nearly 1MB.
So following the rest of the guide i converted them to ext4 & ntfs but when i started my windows os it showed the devices like this:
It converted the devices but the problem here is sfdisk cant differ b/w partition 1 & partition 2 and now it allocated both of them in a single drive.Where my EXT4 drive is of 100GB and NTFS partition is of 99.5GB.
So the method failed and I've went back to revert changes and covert it back to dynamic disk and now i am back in the same place.
A:
I Have found an article for Windows 7:
Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk.
This article describes doing the conversion without data loss,
using an old and free version of Partition Wizard 4.2 Free
(Partition Wizard is currently version 12, but only the
paid version can do this conversion).
I went as far as running the program and verifying that it starts up correctly
in Windows 10. I have (for obvious reasons) not dared to try actually converting
my disk between Basic and Dynamic.
The article lists this procedure:
Download
Partition_Wizard_4.2_free.zip
(also available boot ISO)
Unzip and run PWIZ.exe
Right-click on the dynamic disk and select "Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk"
Click OK
Click the Apply icon and then Yes
Reboot.
Always take a full backup before any disk or partition work.
User experience as reported by the poster:
In spite of Partition Wizard 4.2 not analyzing correctly the Linux partition,
the conversion to Basic was successful as regarding the disk,
with no data loss.
The Linux partition was preserved in content, but was marked as unallocated
in the partition table. To mark it again as ext2/3/4 needed changing
its id from 0 to 83 using a command such as:
sfdisk --change-id /dev/sda 3 83
Finally easybcd was used to add the Linux partition to the bootloader and
it booted successfully.
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mit
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P. J. Carey
Paul Jerome "P. J." Carey (November 4, 1953 – December 7, 2012) was an American professional baseball player, manager, instructor, and farm system official.
In , Carey served as senior advisor, player development, of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. Carey was a minor league catcher, coach and manager, and a Major League coach and player development official, during his 40-year baseball career, which began in .
Carey was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Scranton Preparatory School in 1971 and attended the University of Scranton before signing his first professional contract with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1972. A catcher who threw and batted right-handed, he stood tall and weighed . His four-year playing career was spent at the Rookie, Short Season-A and Class A levels of the Philadelphia organization, where he batted .215 in 143 total games. From 1976 through 1979, Carey coached on Phillies' farm teams before launching his managerial career in 1980 with the Bend Phillies of the Short Season-A Northwest League.
His minor league managing career extended for 22 seasons — largely at the Rookie or Short Season-A levels — between 1980 and and included stints with the Phillies, Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds, and Colorado Rockies. He served as a coach on the Rockies' Major League staff in 1997. After 13 years with the Rockies, Carey joined the Dodgers in as minor league field coordinator, and held his position as senior player development advisor from .
References
External links
Baseball Reference
Category:1953 births
Category:2012 deaths
Category:Asheville Tourists managers
Category:Auburn Phillies players
Category:Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Category:Billings Mustangs managers
Category:Colorado Rockies (baseball) coaches
Category:Los Angeles Dodgers executives
Category:Major League Baseball bullpen coaches
Category:Minor league baseball managers
Category:Sportspeople from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Category:Pulaski Phillies players
Category:Rocky Mount Phillies players
Category:Spartanburg Phillies players
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Q:
how to rethrow same exception in sql server
I want to rethrow same exception in sql server that has been occured in my try block.
I am able to throw same message but i want to throw same error.
BEGIN TRANSACTION
BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO Tags.tblDomain
(DomainName, SubDomainId, DomainCode, Description)
VALUES(@DomainName, @SubDomainId, @DomainCode, @Description)
COMMIT TRANSACTION
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
declare @severity int;
declare @state int;
select @severity=error_severity(), @state=error_state();
RAISERROR(@@Error,@ErrorSeverity,@state);
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
END CATCH
RAISERROR(@@Error, @ErrorSeverity, @state);
This line will show error, but i want functionality something like that.
This raises error with error number 50000, but i want erron number to be thrown that i am passing @@error,
I want to capture this error no at frontend
i.e.
catch (SqlException ex)
{
if ex.number==2627
MessageBox.show("Duplicate value cannot be inserted");
}
I want this functionality. which can't be achieved using raiseerror. I dont want to give custom error message at back end.
RAISEERROR should return below mentioned error when i pass ErrorNo to be thrown in catch
Msg 2627, Level 14, State 1, Procedure spOTest_DomainInsert,
Line 14
Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'UK_DomainCode'. Cannot insert
duplicate key in object
'Tags.tblDomain'.
The statement has been terminated.
EDIT:
What can be the drawback of not using try catch block if i want exception to be handled at frontend considering stored procedure contains multiple queries that need to be executed
A:
SQL 2012 introduces the throw statement:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee677615.aspx
If the THROW statement is specified without parameters, it must appear
inside a CATCH block. This causes the caught exception to be raised.
BEGIN TRY
BEGIN TRANSACTION
...
COMMIT TRANSACTION
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
THROW
END CATCH
A:
Here is a fully functional clean code sample to rollback a series of statements if an error occurs and reports the error message.
begin try
begin transaction;
...
commit transaction;
end try
begin catch
if @@trancount > 0 rollback transaction;
throw;
end catch
Before SQL 2012
begin try
begin transaction;
...
commit transaction;
end try
begin catch
declare @ErrorMessage nvarchar(max), @ErrorSeverity int, @ErrorState int;
select @ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE() + ' Line ' + cast(ERROR_LINE() as nvarchar(5)), @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(), @ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();
if @@trancount > 0 rollback transaction;
raiserror (@ErrorMessage, @ErrorSeverity, @ErrorState);
end catch
A:
Rethrowing inside the CATCH block (pre-SQL2012 code, use THROW statement for SQL2012 and later):
DECLARE
@ErrorMessage nvarchar(4000) = ERROR_MESSAGE(),
@ErrorNumber int = ERROR_NUMBER(),
@ErrorSeverity int = ERROR_SEVERITY(),
@ErrorState int = ERROR_STATE(),
@ErrorLine int = ERROR_LINE(),
@ErrorProcedure nvarchar(200) = ISNULL(ERROR_PROCEDURE(), '-');
SELECT @ErrorMessage = N'Error %d, Level %d, State %d, Procedure %s, Line %d, ' + 'Message: ' + @ErrorMessage;
RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage, @ErrorSeverity, 1, @ErrorNumber, @ErrorSeverity, @ErrorState, @ErrorProcedure, @ErrorLine)
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Film Review: The Gift
Written by Tommy Tracy
In a summer filled with heroes, espionage and dinosaurs, some great, some truly horrendous, it’s refreshing to see something so original. The Gift, written, directed and starring Joel Edgerton, is a thriller and mystery, keeping you on the edge of your seat the entire run time. Edgerton plays Gordo, a strange man who happens to run into former schoolmate Simon (Jason Bateman) and his wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall). Simon and Robyn have recently moved from Chicago to Los Angeles (the reverse of what I personally have done, ironically) so Simon can start his new job at a security firm. Gordo attempts to befriend the couple, sending them gifts and inviting them to a couple’s dinner where they are the only three present. While his methods are strange, his intentions seem genuine, something Simon mistakes for creepiness, thus ending the threesome’s friendship. This sends Gordo off the deep end.
Photo Credit: Matt Kennedy
This is all I’ll say of the plot because after the friendship ends, this film kicks into high gear. Part horror, part thriller, part mystery, The Gift has a lot going for it. Edgerton is incredible in this role as Gordo. He plays creepy and intense incredibly well. Not only that but you actually feel for this guy. While he is technically the “villain” of this story, I feel he is sympathetic and good-natured, even if he goes about it the wrong way. Rebecca Hall is also fantastic, reminding me a lot of Shelley Duvall in The Shining, vulnerable and frightened. Jason Bateman is great as Simon, losing himself in this role, something I’ve never seen from him before. This is Bateman’s best acting performance. He’s actually very despicable and makes you start to root against him.
The best thing about this film is the seed of doubt that is planted early on in the film. Is Gordo lying, trying to get more out of this couple then it seems? Are these gifts he’s sending out of friendship or does he want something more? Is Gordo as creepy as he comes off or is it all in Simon’s mind? Is Robyn over her demons from Chicago or will they resurface? Is Simon telling the truth to his wife or is the past that Gordo implies coming back to haunt him? It’s these seeds of doubt that make this film so intriguing because just one little lie can and has ruined lives in this story. Rumors are spread, jobs and health are in jeopardy and it’s all because the truth is being withheld. If it sounds like I’m being vague it’s because the film is a little vague. The film relies on you to decide for yourself, something rarely seen but I truly appreciate.
Photo Credit: Matt Kennedy
The only fault I have with The Gift is concerning Robyn’s past. It is alluded to that she may or may not have had an alcohol and drug problem but never really brought up again. I mentioned earlier that I like the film’s ability to make you decide for yourself but this one seems like something they should have elaborated on a little more. It’s just dropped after one incident and never brought up again. Another knock I have is the marketing. I’m not going to take points off the film for this but they market this film as more of a horror movie with jump scares and not the psychological thriller that it truly is.
The Gift is great. An excellent story mixed with a twist that I did not see coming truly make this film one of a kind. Very rarely am I actually rooting for the “villain” but with Bateman’s excellent portrayal of a two-faced sociopath and Edgerton’s ability to make me feel sorry for him, I do. Edgerton truly deserves an Academy Award nomination for his writing, directing and acting because he pulls off the hat trick so well with this. Please go see The Gift and not make it one of those films that is talked about five years later as being underrated and should have done better.
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---
author:
- 'Weidong Bai,'
- 'Milind Diwan,'
- 'Maria Vittoria Garzelli,'
- 'Yu Seon Jeong,'
- Mary Hall Reno
bibliography:
- 'LHC.bib'
title: 'Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider'
---
Introduction
============
Since the discovery of oscillation properties of neutrinos, their fundamental roles in shaping the universe have become an important line of inquiry [@pdg:2016]. A high-luminosity neutrino program with a flux of neutrinos produced [at an energy scale of few GeV]{} is the focus of the large experimental neutrino physics community working on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) [@Acciarri:2015uup; @Acciarri:2016crz; @Abi:2018dnh]. With a proton beam energy of 80-120 GeV, pions are produced with the highest multiplicity in proton-nucleon interactions. Thus the beams at DUNE are predominantly muon neutrino (and muon antineutrino) beams, generated by charged pion decays. Future measurements of muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance, and of the differences between neutrino and antineutrino rates, will allow the extraction of elements of the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) mixing matrix with better precision than they are currently known. The mixing of tau neutrinos with muon and electron neutrinos will be determined indirectly through disappearance and appearance probabilities since at these energies, tau neutrinos are not directly produced in the beam and the tau mass threshold severely suppresses the number of tau neutrino charged-current events at the far detector.
Recently, attention has turned to opportunities of measuring the interactions of highly energetic tau neutrinos produced by $pp$ collisions at the LHC [@Park:2011gh; @Feng:2017uoz; @Ariga:2018pin; @Ariga:2019ufm; @Buontempo:2018gta; @Beni:2019gxv; @Beni:2019pyp]. Tau neutrino beams would allow for direct tests of lepton universality and to explore tau neutrino PMNS mixing in the traditional three-neutrino mixing paradigm and in scenarios including additional exotic neutrinos. It was already recognized several decades ago that through the production and prompt decays of the $D_s^\pm$ and $B$ mesons to taus and tau neutrinos, hadron colliders produce large fluxes of tau neutrinos in the forward direction [@DeRujula:1984pg; @Winter:1990ry; @DeRujula:1992sn; @Vannucci:1993ud]. Electron and muon neutrinos and antineutrinos from $D$ and $B$ meson decays will also be produced. Charm and bottom quark production in the Standard Model mostly occurs in quark-antiquark pairs, leading to an approximately equal number of hadrons and antihadrons[^1], so there will be approximately equal fluxes of neutrinos and antineutrinos from heavy flavor. In our discussion below, we will refer to both particles and antiparticles as neutrinos. As described in 1984 by De Rujula and Ruckl [@DeRujula:1984pg], using Feynman scaling arguments, a quark-gluon string model and empirical extrapolations based on collider data available at the time, a few thousand tau neutrino events in future $pp$ and $p\bar{p}$ colliders could be detected with a 2.4 ton detector placed 100 m distant from the interaction point along the tangent to the accelerator arc. An estimation of the neutrino flux using <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span> [@Sjostrand:2019zhc] tuned to Tevatron data and rescaled to a $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV center-of-mass energy gives qualitatively consistent event rates [@Park:2011gh].
In the last few years, there is renewed interest in far-forward neutrino production and detection [@Feng:2017uoz; @Ariga:2018pin; @Ariga:2019ufm; @Beni:2019gxv; @Beni:2019pyp; @Buontempo:2018gta; @Abreu:2019yak]. The proposed ForwArd Search ExpeRiment at the LHC (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Faser</span>), primarily dedicated to searches for light, extremely weakly interacting particles [@Ariga:2019ufm; @Ariga:2018pin; @Feng:2017uoz], would be sensitive to tau neutrinos if the detector mass is sufficiently large. The location of the detector is projected to be 480 m from the ATLAS interaction point along the colliding beam axis. The <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Faser</span> collaboration uses a pseudorapidity cut $\eta>6.87$ on particle momenta (here, neutrinos) in its second phase to determine if they enter a detector of radius 1.0 m. Other evaluations for this baseline use $\eta>6.7$ [@Buontempo:2018gta]. For a half-cylinder, 2-meter long lead detector covering pseudorapidities $\eta>6.7$, Beni et al. [@Beni:2019gxv] used <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span> 8 [@Sjostrand:2019zhc; @Sjostrand:2014zea] to find $\sim 8,700$ tau neutrino events for a $3,000$ fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity at the LHC. We adopt a minimum pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ in this work for definiteness. Our results for $\eta>6.7$ are qualitatively similar.
A source of high-energy tau neutrinos opens the possibility of new tests of the Standard Model that can not be done at DUNE. Measurements of LHC forward tau neutrino interactions can be used for direct tests of lepton flavor universality in charged current interactions with much higher statistics than achieved by <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Donut</span> [@Kodama:2000mp; @Kodama:2007aa] and <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Opera</span> [@Pupilli:2016zrb; @Agafonova:2018auq]. Measurements [ of the interaction cross-sections]{} of muon neutrinos from heavy-flavor decays at the LHC with the nucleons/nuclei of the target will help to close the gap between direct neutrino cross-section measurements for $E_\nu<370$ GeV [@pdg:2016] and the IceCube Collaboration’s determination [ of the averaged cross-section for neutrino plus antineutrino deep-inelastic scattering with nucleons]{} for $E_\nu=6.3-980$ TeV [@Aartsen:2017kpd]. LHC forward neutrinos will provide the first opportunity for direct neutrino and antineutrino cross-section measurements for neutrino energies up to $E_\nu\lesssim 2$ TeV.
In this paper, we perform a new evaluation of the $D$ and $B$ meson contributions to the $pp$ differential cross section as a function of tau neutrino and muon neutrino energy for $\eta> 6.87$. Differently from previous evaluations which are limited to leading order/leading logarithmic accuracy, our evaluation accounts for the effects of next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD radiative corrections to the heavy-quark hadroproduction [@Nason:1987xz; @Nason:1989zy; @Mangano:1991jk] and neutrino deep-inelastic-scattering cross-sections. The effects due to the intrinsic transverse momentum of initial state partons confined in the protons are accounted for by a simple model adding $k_T$-smearing effects to the standard collinear parton distribution functions (PDF) as an input for the calculation. The same model might also mimic the effects of the resummation of logarithms related to initial-state soft gluon emissions in an approximate and purely phenomenological way. Furthermore, we include a description of the fragmentation of partons into heavy mesons, relying on widely used phenomenological fragmentation functions. To study the effects of different choices of the values of various parameters entering our computation, we compare our theoretical predictions with the LHCb data on $D_s^\pm$ production [@Aaij:2015bpa] in the rapidity range of $2 < y < 4.5$. As discussed below, the effect of the transverse momenta of initial state partons can significantly impact the predictions for forward tau neutrino event rates. In general, the LHCb and other charm data give hints of the need for higher-order effects in the description of single-inclusive open D-hadron production, beyond NLO and the limited logarithmic accuracy of the parton shower implementations and of the analytical resummations of various kinds of logarithms presently available. Power suppressed non-perturbative terms might also play a relevant role, considering the smallness of the charm quark mass, still larger but not too large with respect to $\Lambda_{QCD}$. At present, it is not clear if the discrepancies between theoretical predictions and experimental data at low transverse momenta can be completely cured within the collinear factorization framework, or if it is necessary to go beyond this scenario. Considering the unavailability of rigorous perturbative and non-perturbative QCD theoretical calculations accurate enough to reproduce the shape of the experimental transverse-momentum distributions, we incorporate initial-state partonic $k_T$-smearing effects in a purely phenomenological way in the QCD calculation of $D_s^\pm$ production for the phase space covered by LHCb and assess their impact on the predicted number of neutrino charged-current interaction events.
Measurements of the PMNS mixing angles are least constrained in the tau sector, [compared to the other flavor sectors]{}. We demonstrate how sterile neutrino mass and mixing parameters can begin to be constrained by measuring oscillations of LHC tau neutrinos, and we discuss the challenges to pushing these constraints to sterile neutrino masses of order $\sim 20$ eV.
Heavy-flavor decays are not the only sources of forward neutrinos, but they dominate the forward tau-neutrino flux. The contributions from $pp\to W,Z$ production followed by $W,Z$ leptonic decays are negligible for $\eta {\mathrel{\hbox{\rlap{\lower.75ex \hbox{$\sim$}} \kern-.3em \raise.4ex \hbox{$>$}}}}6.5$ [@Beni:2019gxv]. On the other hand, for muon and electron neutrinos, charged pion ($\pi^\pm$), kaon ($K^\pm$) and $K_{e3}^0$ decays are most important. For our evaluation of muon and electron neutrino oscillations, we use parametrizations of light meson distributions based on <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span> distributions [@Koers:2006dd].
We begin in section \[sec:general\] with an overview of the far-forward geometry used for our discussion here. In section \[sec:production\], we present our $D$ and $B$ hadron production results. Energy distributions of charged-current interaction events generated in a forward detector by neutrinos from heavy-flavor production and decay are shown in section \[sec:results\] for both tau neutrinos and muon neutrinos. In our estimation, we also account both for muon neutrinos from the decays of charged pions and kaons and for electron neutrinos from kaon decays. Section \[sec:newphysics\] shows an application to the study of tau neutrino oscillations, considering a 3+1 oscillation framework with three active neutrinos and one sterile neutrino. We conclude in section \[sec:conclusions\]. Appendix A collects formulas for the decay distributions to neutrinos.
Overview of forward neutrino detection geometry {#sec:general}
===============================================
A forward detector along a line tangent to the LHC beam line necessitates calculations in high-pseudorapidity regimes. A detector with radius of 1.2 m placed at 480 m from the LHC interaction point is used for the evaluations in ref. [@Beni:2019gxv]. This corresponds to a neutrino pseudorapidity of $\eta>6.7$ for detection. The <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Faser</span>2 proposal [@Ariga:2019ufm] has $R=1.0$ m, corresponding to $\eta> 6.87$, which we use for the results shown below. A prototype <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Faser-$\nu$</span> [ at even higher $\eta$, ]{}with a 25 cm $\times$ 25 cm cross sectional area and length of 1.35 m of tungsten interleaved with emulsion detectors, will have a few tens of tau neutrino events [ with]{} [ an integrated luminosity of]{} [ 150 fb$^{-1}$ delivered during Run 3 of the LHC]{} [@Abreu:2019yak]. A detector radius of $1.0$ meters, for a comparable target mass, increases the number of events by a factor of $\sim 50$ when scaling by cross-sectional area alone.
The LHC interaction region is a very compact source of tau neutrinos. Most of the tau neutrinos come from $D_s\to \nu_\tau \tau$ decay. The $\tau\to \nu_\tau X$ decay is also a prompt process. The characteristic size of the region [where]{} tau neutrinos [are]{} produced by $D_s$ decays is of order $\gamma c \tau_{D_s}
\simeq E_{D_s}/m_{D_s}\cdot 150\ \mu$m, so of order of $1.5-15$ cm for $E_{D_s}=200$ GeV$-2$ TeV. The tau decay length $c\tau=87.11\ \mu$m, multiplied by the $\gamma$-factor for the same energy range, gives a size of $0.98-9.8$ cm. Similarly, $\gamma c \tau_{B^+} = E_{B^+}/m_{B^+}\cdot 496\ \mu$m produces a size of $1.9-19$ cm for the same energy range. Thus, for tau neutrinos produced along the beam pipe, the longitudinal distance is a few to 20 cm. The transverse size is $17\ \mu$m [@Bruning:2004ej] from the proton bunch size. The compact source means the assumed detector radius of 1 m and distance of 480 m from the interaction point translates to a maximum angle relative to the beam axis for the tau neutrino three-momentum of $\theta_{\rm max}=2.1$ mrad ($\eta_{\rm min}=6.87$). This same constraint applies to the momenta of muon and electron neutrinos from heavy-flavor decays.
While the focus of this paper is on heavy-flavor production of neutrinos in the forward region, consideration of oscillations in a 3+1 mixing framework also requires an estimate of the number of electron and muon neutrinos from both heavy-flavor decays and light-meson decays. In sec. 4.2, we make an estimation of the production of electron neutrinos and muon neutrinos from light-meson decays. The light-meson decay lengths are long compared to heavy-meson decay lengths, so the detector and magnets near the interaction point play a role. In ref. [@Abreu:2019yak], an evaluation of the number of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ events in a detector of 25 cm $\times$ 25 cm cross sectional area finds that most of the events below 1 TeV come from charged pion and kaon decays that occur within 55 m of the interaction point and stay within the opening of the front quadrupole absorber with inner radius of 17 mm. This corresponds to light-meson momenta lying within 1 mrad from the beam axis. A more detailed discussion of this point appears in section 4.2.
Heavy-meson production at small angles with respect to the beam axis receives dominant contributions from the transverse momentum region below few GeV. For example, for $E_{D_s}=1$ TeV, approximating the neutrino direction by the $D_s$ direction means that the $p_T$ of the $D_s$ meson must be smaller than 2.1 GeV, and even smaller for lower energies. Non-perturbative effects related to the intrinsic $k_T$ of the partons confined in the initial state nucleons are important at such low transverse momenta. Additionally, perturbative effects related to the appearance of large high-energy logarithms together with those due to initital-state multiple soft-gluon emissions, are potentially relevant in the $p_T$ range \[0, 15\] GeV of the LHCb data considered in this paper, covering low to intermediate $p_T$ values.
In our evaluation of differential cross-sections for open charm and bottom production, we include Gaussian $k_T$-smearing to better match LHCb data, using a purely phenomenological approach. In this approach the non-perturbative effects are reabsorbed in the $\langle k_T\rangle $ smearing model, which may also mimic part of the all-order perturbative effects in a rough way. We found that a better description of the LHCb data, given the renormalization and factorization scale choices discussed below, is provided in our approach by a $\langle k_T \rangle$ value larger than typical intrinsic $\langle k_T\rangle$ values of $\sim$ 1 GeV reported in the literature. This gives hints that, on the one hand, non-perturbative physics aspects not yet well understood might be particularly relevant for the process we are studying, and, on the other hand, the contribution from the Sudakov resummation of double logarithmic perturbative terms related to the emission of an arbitrarily large number of soft gluons, missing in fixed-order calculations, may be large. Since our focus is on $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ production, we use the LHCb data for $D_s$ production at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV for rapidities in the range $y=2.0-4.5$ [@Aaij:2015bpa].
Forward heavy-flavor production and decay at the LHC {#sec:production}
====================================================
We evaluate the single-particle inclusive heavy-flavor energy and angular distributions. Our approach relies on perturbation theory (pQCD) in the collinear factorization framework. In particular, we include NLO QCD corrections to the heavy-quark production cross-sections [@Nason:1987xz; @Nason:1989zy; @Mangano:1991jk].
As noted above, at very high rapidities, the effect of relatively small transverse momenta of the initial state partons can affect the acceptance of neutrino events. In shower Monte Carlo event generators like <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span>, the transverse momentum distribution of the produced heavy quarks is affected, on the one hand, by the effects of multiple soft and collinear gluon emissions, accounted for with a limited logarithmic accuracy by the introduction of Sudakov form factors resumming the relative main logarithmic contributions, and, on the other hand, by the inclusion of a small intrinsic transverse momentum, related to the confinement of partons in finite-size nucleons and the uncertainty principle. An alternative to the collinear factorization approach is to use unintegrated parton distribution functions that have a transverse momentum $k_T$ dependence in addition to the usual longitudinal momentum fraction $x$ dependence [@Catani:1990eg; @Collins:1991ty]. In both collinear and $k_T$ factorization, further higher-order effects can also modify the transverse momentum distribution of heavy-flavor hadroproduction in the low $p_T$ region. In particular, the effect of the resummation of high-energy logarithms, not yet implemented into a publicly available code, and the joint resummation of these and other logarithms could also play a relevant role, which deserves future dedicated investigations, but is beyond the scope of this paper.
In the present absence of calculations capable of fully reproducing the experimental shape of the transverse momentum distributions of charmed mesons at small transverse momenta at the LHC, our approach here is phenomenological and uses Gaussian smearing of the outgoing charm quark. With the NLO QCD calculation of $g_{\rm NLO}(q_T,y)=d^2\sigma({\rm NLO})/dq_T\, dy$ for the quark, we evaluate the Gaussian smeared one-particle inclusive charm-quark distribution $g(p_T,y)=d^2\sigma/dp_T\, dy$ according to $$g(p_T,y) = \int d^2 \vec{k}_T\, f(\vec{k}_T,\langle k_T^2\rangle) g_{\rm NLO}(q_T=|\vec{p}_T-\vec{k}_T|,y)\ ,$$ where $f(\vec{k}_T,\langle k_T^2\rangle)$ is a two-dimensional Gaussian function normalized to unity, $$\label{eq:gaussian}
\int \, d^2 \vec{k}_T\, f(\vec{k}_T,\langle k_T^2\rangle) = \int \, d^2 \vec{k}_T\, \frac{1}{\pi\langle k_T^2\rangle}\exp[{-k_T^2/\langle k_T^2\rangle}]=1\ .$$ The smearing generates a shift of the outgoing heavy-quark momentum vector $\vec{q}_T$ by $\vec{k}_T$ after the hard scattering, before fragmentation. The single Gaussian $f(\vec{k}_T,\langle k_T^2\rangle)$ is equivalent to starting with two Gaussian functions, one for each incoming parton ($k_{iT}$), making a change of variables to $\vec{k}_T= (\vec{k}_{1T}+\vec{k}_{2T})/2$ for one of the integrals, and integrating over the other parton’s $k_T$, $$d^2 \vec{k}_{1T}\, f(\vec{k}_{1T},2\langle k_T^2\rangle) \,
d^2 \vec{k}_{2T}\, f(\vec{k}_{2T},2\langle k_T^2\rangle)
\to d^2 \vec{k}_{T}\, f(\vec{k}_{T},\langle k_T^2\rangle)\ .$$ This definition of the effective $\vec{k}_T$ variable distributes the transverse momentum smearing equally to the one-particle transverse momentum and to the recoil hadrons [@Apanasevich:1998ki]. The quantity $\langle k_T^2\rangle$ is related to the average magnitude of $\vec{k}_T$, $\langle k_T\rangle$, by $$\langle k_T\rangle^2=\langle k_T^2\rangle\pi/4\ .$$ As we discuss below, we set the $\langle k_T^2\rangle$ value based on comparisons with double-differential distributions in rapidity and transverse momentum for forward $D_s$ production measured by LHCb at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV [@Aaij:2015bpa].
Charm quark fragmentation to mesons is accounted for by using fragmentation functions of the Peterson form [@Peterson:1982ak]. For $c\to D^{0}$, $D^{+}$ and $D_{s}^{+}$, we take fragmentation fractions 0.6086, 0.2404 and 0.0802, respectively [@Lisovyi:2015uqa]. The parameter $\epsilon$ in the Peterson fragmentation function that describes the hardness of the meson spectrum relative to the heavy quark is taken to be $\epsilon$ = 0.028, 0.039 and 0.008 for $D^0$, $D^+$ and $D_s^+$, respectively, and $\epsilon = 0.003$ for $B$ production [@pdg:2019]. The fragmentation fraction for $B$’s is $b\to B^+=b\to B^0=0.362$ from ref. [@Aaij:2019pqz].
We use the NLO nCTEQ15 parton distribution function (PDF) grids for proton targets [@Kovarik:2015cma] in our evaluation of charm production in $pp$ collisions. As noted below, we use the NLO nCTEQ15 PDFs for lead targets in our neutrino cross-section calculation. We take a charm pole mass value $m_c=1.3$ GeV consistent with the choice of PDFs. A $b$-quark pole mass of 4.5 GeV is used here, also consistent with the PDFs. We use renormalization and factorization scales ($\mu_R, \mu_F$) which are factors $(N_R,N_F)$ of the transverse mass $m_T = \sqrt{m_Q^2 + p_T^2}$, where $p_T$ is the magnitude of the transverse momentum of the heavy quark $Q=c,\ b$. The values $N_R = 1.0$ and $N_F= 1.5$ are used for our default parameter set, but we also show predictions obtained with the more standard choice $N_R=N_F=1.0$.
The scale input, the PDFs, the fragmentation functions and the non-perturbative transverse momenta all influence the predicted heavy-flavor energy and rapidity distributions. Since our focus is on tau neutrino production, LHCb data on forward $D_s$ production [@Aaij:2015bpa] are used to set $\langle k_T\rangle$ for selected $(\mu_R,\mu_F)$ combinations, after fixing the PDF and fragmentation function details. The $D_s$ data cover the range $0< p_T<14$ GeV$\,$[^2] and $2.0<y<4.5$. While varying the input parameters, a $\chi^2$ is computed, which combines the double-differential predictions, the binned data and the experimental uncertainties. As additional constraint, the integrated cross section evaluated with our Monte Carlo integration program is also required to be within the experimental error bars of the measured cross section for the same kinematic region.
![Comparison between LHCb experimental data on double-differential distributions in the meson $p_T$ and $y$ for $D_{s}^\pm$ production in $pp$ collisions [@Aaij:2015bpa] and our QCD predictions. Data (and predictions) for different $\Delta y$ bins are shifted by $10^{-m}$ where values of $m=0$, 2, 4, 6 and 8. The upper left panel refers to the case $N_{R}=1.0 $ and $N_{F}=1.5$, where $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (N_R, N_F) \, m_T$, both fixing $\langle k_{T}\rangle = 2.2$ GeV and in the collinear approximation ($\langle k_{T}\rangle =$ 0 GeV). The upper right and lower left panels refer to the same scale configuration with the shaded band showing the uncertainty built by seven-point scale variation in the range $N_{R,F}=0.5-2$ for $\langle k_{T}\rangle =2.2$ GeV (best fit to data) and $\langle k_{T} \rangle =0.7$ GeV (our default value), respectively. The lower right panel shows the same as lower left, but with $(N_R, N_F)$ = (1,1). \[fig:fit-LHCb\] ](Ds-LHCb13-pTdist-kT0n2p2.pdf "fig:") ![Comparison between LHCb experimental data on double-differential distributions in the meson $p_T$ and $y$ for $D_{s}^\pm$ production in $pp$ collisions [@Aaij:2015bpa] and our QCD predictions. Data (and predictions) for different $\Delta y$ bins are shifted by $10^{-m}$ where values of $m=0$, 2, 4, 6 and 8. The upper left panel refers to the case $N_{R}=1.0 $ and $N_{F}=1.5$, where $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (N_R, N_F) \, m_T$, both fixing $\langle k_{T}\rangle = 2.2$ GeV and in the collinear approximation ($\langle k_{T}\rangle =$ 0 GeV). The upper right and lower left panels refer to the same scale configuration with the shaded band showing the uncertainty built by seven-point scale variation in the range $N_{R,F}=0.5-2$ for $\langle k_{T}\rangle =2.2$ GeV (best fit to data) and $\langle k_{T} \rangle =0.7$ GeV (our default value), respectively. The lower right panel shows the same as lower left, but with $(N_R, N_F)$ = (1,1). \[fig:fit-LHCb\] ](Ds-LHCb13-pTdist-range-kT2p2.pdf "fig:") ![Comparison between LHCb experimental data on double-differential distributions in the meson $p_T$ and $y$ for $D_{s}^\pm$ production in $pp$ collisions [@Aaij:2015bpa] and our QCD predictions. Data (and predictions) for different $\Delta y$ bins are shifted by $10^{-m}$ where values of $m=0$, 2, 4, 6 and 8. The upper left panel refers to the case $N_{R}=1.0 $ and $N_{F}=1.5$, where $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (N_R, N_F) \, m_T$, both fixing $\langle k_{T}\rangle = 2.2$ GeV and in the collinear approximation ($\langle k_{T}\rangle =$ 0 GeV). The upper right and lower left panels refer to the same scale configuration with the shaded band showing the uncertainty built by seven-point scale variation in the range $N_{R,F}=0.5-2$ for $\langle k_{T}\rangle =2.2$ GeV (best fit to data) and $\langle k_{T} \rangle =0.7$ GeV (our default value), respectively. The lower right panel shows the same as lower left, but with $(N_R, N_F)$ = (1,1). \[fig:fit-LHCb\] ](Ds-LHCb13-pTdist-range-kTp7.pdf "fig:") ![Comparison between LHCb experimental data on double-differential distributions in the meson $p_T$ and $y$ for $D_{s}^\pm$ production in $pp$ collisions [@Aaij:2015bpa] and our QCD predictions. Data (and predictions) for different $\Delta y$ bins are shifted by $10^{-m}$ where values of $m=0$, 2, 4, 6 and 8. The upper left panel refers to the case $N_{R}=1.0 $ and $N_{F}=1.5$, where $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (N_R, N_F) \, m_T$, both fixing $\langle k_{T}\rangle = 2.2$ GeV and in the collinear approximation ($\langle k_{T}\rangle =$ 0 GeV). The upper right and lower left panels refer to the same scale configuration with the shaded band showing the uncertainty built by seven-point scale variation in the range $N_{R,F}=0.5-2$ for $\langle k_{T}\rangle =2.2$ GeV (best fit to data) and $\langle k_{T} \rangle =0.7$ GeV (our default value), respectively. The lower right panel shows the same as lower left, but with $(N_R, N_F)$ = (1,1). \[fig:fit-LHCb\] ](Ds-LHCb13-pTdist-range-kTp7-xf1.pdf "fig:")
Fitting the LHCb [data]{} for $D_s$ production with $p_T<14$ GeV, by minimizing the $\chi^2$ with $\mu_R=m_T$, $\mu_F=1.5\,m_T$ and varying $\langle k_T\rangle$, leads to $\langle k_T\rangle=2.2\pm0.7$ GeV ($\langle k_T^2\rangle = 6.2$ GeV$^2$). This represents a reasonably good fit, with $\chi^2/$DOF$=2.8$ and the cross section within $10\%$ of the experimentally measured cross section in this kinematic region. With this parameter choice, the theoretical total cross section for $\sigma_{c\bar{c}}$ is within 2% of the central value of the LHCb estimate reported in ref. [@Aaij:2015bpa].
The predictions with $\mu_R=m_T,\ \mu_F=1.5\,m_T$ and $\langle k_T\rangle=2.2$ GeV, together with those for a $\langle k_T\rangle=0$ evaluation using the sames scales and the LHCb data [@Aaij:2015bpa], are shown in the upper left panel of figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\] with the solid and dashed histograms, respectively. From top to bottom, the panel shows data and theoretical evaluations in five different rapidity bins of $\Delta y=0.5$ width for $2.0 < y < 4.5$ and normalization shifted by $10^{-m}$ where $m=0$, 2, 4, 6, 8. The upper right panel of figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\] shows the scale uncertainty band obtained as an envelope of seven combinations of scales between factors of 0.5 and 2.0 of the central scales $(\mu_R,\mu_F)=(1.0,1.5)\,m_T$, namely with the combinations of $(N_R,N_F)$ equal to factors of $m_T$ of $(0.5, 0.75)$, $(2, 3)$, $(1.0, 0.75)$, $(0.5, 1.5)$, $(1, 3)$, $(2.0, 1.5) $ and $(1.0, 1.5)$. Similar results are obtained for $D^\pm$ and $D^0,\ \bar{D}^0$ production. For the same scale and intrinsic transverse momentum choices, the $p_T$ distribution of $B^\pm$ mesons at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV for $y=2.0-4.5$ lies $\sim 10\%$ below the data [@Aaij:2017qml]. The $B$-decay contribution to the total number of tau neutrino events amounts to less than 10% , as shown in the following, so for bottom production we use the same scale and $\langle k_T\rangle$ choices as for charm production, with the replacement $m_c\to m_b$.
Alternatively, one could also consider varying $N_F$ and $\langle k_T\rangle$, with $N_R$ fixed, to find the two-parameter combination which provides the best fit to the LHCb 13 TeV $D_s$ data on double-differential cross-sections in $p_T$ and $y$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. We find that $N_F=1.44$ and $\langle k_T\rangle=2.23$ GeV is the best fit in that case, with $\chi^2$/DOF=2.68 and with corresponding predicted $\sigma_{c\bar{c}}$ for 1 GeV$<p_T<8$ GeV and $2.0<y<4.5$ amounting to 87% of the central value of the experimental result by the LHCb collaboration, which they extrapolate from $D_s$ data. The 3$\sigma$ allowed interval of $\langle k_T\rangle\ (\langle k_T^2\rangle)$ values turns out to be an ellipse that spans the range $2.02-2.44$ GeV ($5.20-7.58$ GeV$^2$) for $N_F=1.26-1.62$, favoring a lower $N_F$ and higher $\langle k_T\rangle$ (and vice versa) for excursions from the best fit when $N_R=1.0$. An examination of the differences between the full charm meson production data from LHCb, their total charm-anticharm pair cross sections, and theoretical predictions varying simultaneously the three parameters $N_F$, $N_R$ and $\langle k_T\rangle$, would be interesting to better understand the roles of $\mu_R$, $\mu_F$ and $\langle k_T\rangle$ in theoretical predictions of charm production [@underway]. Since our focus here is on $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ production, in the following sections we use $N_F=1.5$, $N_R=1.0$ and $\langle k_T\rangle=2.2$ GeV as representatives values of the range of parameter choices that lead to a reasonable description of the experimental LHCb data, together with more widely adopted choices of the same input parameters. As we will see, $\langle
k_T\rangle=2.2$ GeV leads to a suppression, relative to predictions with smaller $\langle k_T\rangle$, of neutrino production in the forward region.
The large value of $\langle k_T\rangle =2.2$ GeV is difficult to reconcile with theoretical expectations for the strong interaction effects that we approximately model with the Gaussian factor. Large $\langle k_T\rangle$ values have been used in some analyses. For example, the NLO evaluation of direct photon production in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at the Tevatron, without resummation effects but including $k_T$-smearing with a Gaussian function, shows good agreement with CDF and D0 data when $\langle k_T\rangle =2.5$ GeV ($\langle k_T^2\rangle = 8.0$ GeV$^2$) for the photon [@Apanasevich:1998ki]. A smaller value of $\langle k_T^2\rangle=1$ GeV$^2$ for the gluon PDF in the unpolarized proton is used to describe polarized proton-unpolarized proton scattering to $ J/\psi X$ and $DX$ in ref. [@DAlesio:2017rzj]. On the other hand, in an analysis of di-$J/\psi$ production at LHCb [@Aaij:2016bqq], the unpolarized transverse momentum gluon distribution, factorized in terms of the usual collinear PDF and a Gaussian as in eq. (\[eq:gaussian\]), yields $\langle k_T^2\rangle = 3.3\pm 0.8$ GeV$^2$ [@Lansberg:2017dzg]. Non-perturbative Sudakov factors are introduced on top of resummation procedures to describe the transverse momentum distributions of Drell Yan and $W,Z$ production. For example, non-perturbative parameters in impact parameter space that translate to values of $\langle
k_T^2\rangle$ in the range of $\sim 1-2$ GeV$^2$ are obtained in ref. [@Bacchetta:2018lna] to augment the corrections from resummations to better fit the experimental data.
![Differential distributions of the energy $E$ of the $D_{s}$ produced in $pp$ collision at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 (left) and 14 (right) TeV, for $D_s^\pm$ pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$. Predictions obtained within our framework using $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle = 0,\ 0.7, \ 1.4$ GeV, are compared to those of a computation based on NLO hard-scattering matrix-element matched to parton shower followed by hadronization, according to the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Powheg + Pythia</span> framework. See text for more detail. []{data-label="fig:CDs-kT"}](Ds13-kTnPOWHEG-eta6p87-kTvar.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Differential distributions of the energy $E$ of the $D_{s}$ produced in $pp$ collision at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 (left) and 14 (right) TeV, for $D_s^\pm$ pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$. Predictions obtained within our framework using $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle = 0,\ 0.7, \ 1.4$ GeV, are compared to those of a computation based on NLO hard-scattering matrix-element matched to parton shower followed by hadronization, according to the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Powheg + Pythia</span> framework. See text for more detail. []{data-label="fig:CDs-kT"}](Ds14-kTnPOWHEG-eta6p87-kTvar.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
The effect of a more conservative value of $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV ($\langle k_T^2\rangle=0.6$ GeV$^2$) is shown in the lower left panel of figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\] along with the scale uncertainty band, again with our central scale choices $(\mu_R,\mu_F)=(1.0,1.5) m_T$. Figure \[fig:CDs-kT\] shows predictions for energy distributions for $D_s$ production in the very forward region, with $\eta > 6.87$, using different approaches, at two different center-of-mass energies. Predictions of a computation relying on NLO QCD matrix-elements matched to the parton shower and hadronization algorithms implemented in <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span>, with matching performed according to the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Powheg</span> [@Frixione:2007vw; @Frixione:2007nw] method, are compared to those obtained by combining NLO QCD results with the Gaussian transverse momentum smearing model using $\langle k_T \rangle = 0,\ 0.7$ and 1.4 GeV, followed by fragmentation. All the distributions shown use the same default central scales and charm quark mass. In the NLO + shower Monte Carlo computation, the parameters related to fragmentation and intrinsic transverse momenta are tuned to pre-existing experimental data. The parton shower algorithm accounts for the effect of multiple soft and collinear partonic emissions on top of the hard-scattering process, affecting the kinematics and the dynamics of the event, inducing modifications of the distributions at the fixed-order level. The energy distributions of the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Powheg+Pythia</span> computation for $D_s$ production in the forward region agree well with our Gaussian smeared NLO predictions when $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV, as shown in both panels of figure 2. The lower left panel of figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\] shows that the lower value of $\langle k_T\rangle$ agrees less well with the data at higher transverse momentum but agrees well in case of lower $p_T$ of the meson, the kinematic region that dominates in the total cross-section and in the production of a forward neutrino beam.
![[The effect of fragmentation of charm quark to $D_{s}$ which shifts the energy distribution to lower energy for both $\eta>4.5$ (left) and $\eta>6.87$ (right). Shown are the differential cross sections]{} of charm quarks and $D_{s}$ mesons produced in $pp$ collision at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV for $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle =0.7$ GeV, as a function of the energy $E$. Note that the $D_s$ fragmentation fraction has been set to unity to demonstrate this effect clearly. \[fig:CDsEeta\]](cnDs14-eta4p5.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![[The effect of fragmentation of charm quark to $D_{s}$ which shifts the energy distribution to lower energy for both $\eta>4.5$ (left) and $\eta>6.87$ (right). Shown are the differential cross sections]{} of charm quarks and $D_{s}$ mesons produced in $pp$ collision at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV for $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle =0.7$ GeV, as a function of the energy $E$. Note that the $D_s$ fragmentation fraction has been set to unity to demonstrate this effect clearly. \[fig:CDsEeta\]](cnDs14-eta6p87.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
It is more conventional to use scales equal to $(\mu_R,\mu_F) = (1.0,1.0) m_T$. We show in the lower right panel of figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\] the double differential distributions $d^2 \sigma / dp_T dy$ for $D_s$ production in different rapidity bins, rescaled as above, obtained using as input of our computation these scales and the same value of $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV as in the lower left panel. The scales of $(\mu_R,\mu_F)=(1.0,1.0)m_T$ typically give rise to predicted cross-sections lower than the LHCb data, at least considering the present limited accuracy of the theoretical calculations, but the data are still included within the large theoretical scale uncertainty bands.
Finally, we illustrate the effect of fragmentation in figure \[fig:CDsEeta\]. In the left panel, the charm and $D_s$ energy distributions are shown for $\eta>4.5$ at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, while on the right, the energy distribution is shown when $\eta>6.87$. For both panels, the fragmentation fraction for $c\to D_s$ is set to unity to allow a direct comparison of the charm and meson distributions. The right panel of figure \[fig:CDsEeta\] shows that the impact of the fragmentation function extends to very high energy in the very forward region.
Neutrinos from the heavy-flavor hadrons {#sec:results}
=======================================
Tau neutrinos
-------------
Tau neutrinos and antineutrinos arise primarily from the prompt decays of $D_s$ mesons into $\tau + \nu_\tau$, where $B(D_s\to\tau\nu_\tau)=(5.48\pm 0.23)\times
10^{-2}$ [@pdg:2019]. The decay of the $\tau$ itself is also prompt and produces a tau neutrino, which is the dominant source of high-energy tau neutrinos in the forward region since the tau carries most of the energy of the $D_s$, given $m_{D_s} = 1.97 \ {\rm GeV}$ and $m_{\tau} = 1.78 \ {\rm GeV}$. The energy distribution of the $\nu_\tau$ that comes directly from the $D_s$ leptonic decay (called the “direct” neutrino) is straightforward to calculate. Keeping the polarization of the tau [@Barr:1988rb], the energy distribution of the $\nu_\tau$ from the tau decay (here called the “chain” decay neutrino) can also be obtained. The latter distribution, after integrating over angles relative to the tau momentum direction, is discussed in refs. [@Pasquali:1998xf; @Bhattacharya:2016jce] in the context of the atmospheric tau neutrino flux. Here, we need the full energy and angular distribution in the collider frame to apply the requirement that the neutrino pseudorapidity fulfills the $\eta>6.87$ constraint. Details of the tau neutrino energy and angular distribution from $D_s\to \tau\to \nu_\tau$ appear in ref. [@Bai:2018xum]. The distributions of tau neutrinos and antineutrinos from the $D_s$ decays are identical because of the zero-spin of the meson (direct neutrinos) and the compensation of particle/antiparticle and left-handed/right-handed effects in the chain decays of the tau [@Barr:1988rb].
$B$-meson production and decay also contributes to the number of tau neutrinos, but at a level of less than 10% of the contribution from $D_s$ production and decay. The branching fractions to taus from charged and neutral $B$’s are $ B(B^+\to \bar{D}^0\tau^+\nu_\tau) = (7.7\pm 2.5)\times 10^{-3}$, $B(B^+\to \bar{D}^*(2007)^0\tau^+\nu_\tau) = (1.88\pm 0.20)\times
10^{-2}$, $ B(B^0\to {D}^-\tau^+\nu_\tau = (1.08\pm 0.23)\times 10^{-2}$, and $B(B^0\to {D}^*(2010)^-\tau^+\nu_\tau) = (1.57\pm 0.10)\times
10^{-2}$ [@pdg:2019]. We use the central values of all the branching fractions. The energy distributions of tau neutrinos from $B$ meson decays are discussed in appendix A.
![ The neutrino energy distributions for tau neutrinos and antineutrinos from the direct decay $D_{s}^\pm /
B^{0,\pm}\rightarrow \protect \overset{{\scriptscriptstyle (-)}}{\nu}_{\tau}$ (green) and the chain decay $D_{s}^\pm/
B^{0,\pm}\rightarrow\tau^\pm\rightarrow
\protect \overset{{\scriptscriptstyle (-)}}{\nu}_{\tau}$ (orange) and their sum (blue) for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$, produced in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV. Predictions are obtained using as input $\langle k_T\rangle =0.7$ GeV with our default scale $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0,1.5) \, m_T$ (left) and with the standard scale $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0,1.0) \, m_T$ (right). The contributions from both $D_s$ and $B$ mesons are shown separately. []{data-label="fig:NutauCS"}](Fnutau14-6p87-kTp7.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![ The neutrino energy distributions for tau neutrinos and antineutrinos from the direct decay $D_{s}^\pm /
B^{0,\pm}\rightarrow \protect \overset{{\scriptscriptstyle (-)}}{\nu}_{\tau}$ (green) and the chain decay $D_{s}^\pm/
B^{0,\pm}\rightarrow\tau^\pm\rightarrow
\protect \overset{{\scriptscriptstyle (-)}}{\nu}_{\tau}$ (orange) and their sum (blue) for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$, produced in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV. Predictions are obtained using as input $\langle k_T\rangle =0.7$ GeV with our default scale $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0,1.5) \, m_T$ (left) and with the standard scale $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0,1.0) \, m_T$ (right). The contributions from both $D_s$ and $B$ mesons are shown separately. []{data-label="fig:NutauCS"}](Fnutau14-6p87-kTp7-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
Figure \[fig:NutauCS\] shows the energy distributions for tau neutrinos and antineutrinos from both the $D_s$ and $B$ meson decays with neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$. The contribution of the direct and the chain decays are shown separately, as well as their sum. The left panel shows the distributions with our default scale combination $(\mu_R,\mu_F)=(1.0, 1.5) \, m_T$, while the right panel shows the same distributions, but using as input $(\mu_R,\mu_F)=(1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$. Qualitatively, the distributions are similar, although, as expected from the discussion in section 3, the differential distributions using the latter scale are lower than with our default scale choice.
The number of neutrino events per unit energy can be written as $$\frac{dN}{dE} =\frac{d \sigma (pp \rightarrow \nu X)}{d E} \times {\cal P}_{\rm int} \times {\mathcal L}\ ,$$ where the interaction probability in the detector is $${\cal P}_{\rm int} = \bigl( \rho_{\rm Pb} \times l_{\rm det} \times N_{\rm avo} \bigr)\, \frac{ \sigma_{\nu_\tau Pb}}{A_{\rm Pb}} \ .
\label{eq:Pint}$$ Here, we use an integrated luminosity ${\mathcal L} = 3000 {\ \rm fb}^{-1}$ and a lead density $\rho_{Pb} =
11.34 {\ \rm g/cm^3}$. The nucleon number of lead is $A_{Pb}= 208$ and $l_{\rm det}$ is the length of the lead neutrino target in the detector which is also characterized by a cross sectional area of radius 1 m (thus $\eta>6.87$) for our discussion here. For reference, a detector of lead with radius of 1 m and length $l_{\rm det}$ = 1 m has a mass of $\sim$ 35.6 ton. For the number of events, we quote the number of events per ton of lead (per 2.8 cm depth of a lead disk with radius 1 m). As discussed in more detail in ref. [@Bai:2018xum], we evaluate the neutrino and antineutrino charged-current cross sections at NLO, including mass effects [@Kretzer:2002fr; @Kretzer:2003iu; @Jeong:2010za; @Jeong:2010nt; @Reno:2006hj], using the nCTEQ15 PDFs for lead [@Kovarik:2015cma]. For neutrino energies above $\sim 10$ GeV, deep inelastic scattering (DIS) dominates quasi-elastic scattering and few-pion production [@Lipari:1994pz; @Kretzer:2004wk]. At the energies of interest, the neutrino DIS cross section is roughly a factor of $\sim 2$ larger than the antineutrino cross section. Kinematic corrections due to the tau mass reduce the charged-current cross section by $\sim 25\%$ for a neutrino energy $E_{\nu}$ = 100 GeV, and by $\sim 5\%$ for $E_{\nu}$ = 1000 GeV [@Jeong:2010nt]. NLO corrections are small, less than $\sim 5\%$ for neutrino energies of 100 GeV, as shown e.g. in ref. [@Jeong:2010za].
![ Our predictions for the tau neutrino and/or antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ for $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions (solid histogram) refer to the $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV value and the bands arise from the $\left\langle k_{T} \right\rangle$ variation in the range $0 < \left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle < 1.4$ GeV. The results obtained with $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV are also shown (dashed histogram). The upper plots are obtained by setting the QCD scales to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) m_T$, while the lower plots refer to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) m_T$. NLO corrections are included in the DIS cross-sections. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-kT\]](Nnutau14-6p87-Ds-band-p7-ton.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![ Our predictions for the tau neutrino and/or antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ for $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions (solid histogram) refer to the $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV value and the bands arise from the $\left\langle k_{T} \right\rangle$ variation in the range $0 < \left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle < 1.4$ GeV. The results obtained with $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV are also shown (dashed histogram). The upper plots are obtained by setting the QCD scales to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) m_T$, while the lower plots refer to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) m_T$. NLO corrections are included in the DIS cross-sections. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-kT\]](Nnutau14-6p87-B-band-p7-ton.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![ Our predictions for the tau neutrino and/or antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ for $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions (solid histogram) refer to the $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV value and the bands arise from the $\left\langle k_{T} \right\rangle$ variation in the range $0 < \left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle < 1.4$ GeV. The results obtained with $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV are also shown (dashed histogram). The upper plots are obtained by setting the QCD scales to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) m_T$, while the lower plots refer to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) m_T$. NLO corrections are included in the DIS cross-sections. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-kT\]](Nnutau14-6p87-Ds-band-p7-ton-xf1_v2.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![ Our predictions for the tau neutrino and/or antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ for $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions (solid histogram) refer to the $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV value and the bands arise from the $\left\langle k_{T} \right\rangle$ variation in the range $0 < \left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle < 1.4$ GeV. The results obtained with $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV are also shown (dashed histogram). The upper plots are obtained by setting the QCD scales to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) m_T$, while the lower plots refer to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) m_T$. NLO corrections are included in the DIS cross-sections. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-kT\]](Nnutau14-6p87-B-band-p7-ton-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
In figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-kT\], we show the number of events per unit neutrino energy per ton of detector lead for tau neutrinos and antineutrinos from the $D_s^\pm$ (left panels) and $B$ meson (right panels) decays, evaluated for a total integrated luminosity ${\cal L} = 3000 \, {\rm fb^{-1}}$. The upper panels include results with our default scales $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\, m_T$, while the lower panels show the same quantities using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\, m_T$. The central solid histograms are obtained for $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV, and the bands reflect the uncertainty range due to the variation of $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ in the range $0 -1.4$ GeV. We also present predictions for $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV, that are shown with the dashed histograms.
![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the tau neutrino and antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ and for the $pp$ collision with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5) m_T$ and the upper and lower limits arise from the QCD 7-point scale variation range in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS pQCD cross-section. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]](NnutauA14-6p87-Ds-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the tau neutrino and antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ and for the $pp$ collision with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5) m_T$ and the upper and lower limits arise from the QCD 7-point scale variation range in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS pQCD cross-section. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]](NnutauA14-6p87-B-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the tau neutrino and antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ and for the $pp$ collision with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5) m_T$ and the upper and lower limits arise from the QCD 7-point scale variation range in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS pQCD cross-section. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]](Nnutau14-6p87-Ds-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the tau neutrino and antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ and for the $pp$ collision with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5) m_T$ and the upper and lower limits arise from the QCD 7-point scale variation range in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS pQCD cross-section. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]](Nnutau14-6p87-B-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the tau neutrino and antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ and for the $pp$ collision with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5) m_T$ and the upper and lower limits arise from the QCD 7-point scale variation range in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS pQCD cross-section. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]](Nanutau14-6p87-Ds-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the tau neutrino and antineutrino number of charged-current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ and for the $pp$ collision with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5) m_T$ and the upper and lower limits arise from the QCD 7-point scale variation range in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS pQCD cross-section. \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]](Nanutau14-6p87-B-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
Incorporating $\langle k_T \rangle$ effects has a large impact on the predictions at low energies as expected from figure \[fig:CDs-kT\]. In particular, computing charm production with $\langle k_T \rangle = 0$ GeV, enhances the number of events per unit energy by up to $\sim 8\%$ at $E_\nu \sim$ 100 GeV with respect to the case with the default $\langle k_T \rangle = 0.7$ GeV, whereas the differences are less than 1% for $E_\nu {\mathrel{\hbox{\rlap{\lower.75ex \hbox{$\sim$}} \kern-.3em \raise.4ex \hbox{$>$}}}}$ 1000 GeV. The lower limit on the number of events per unit energy, corresponding to the case $\langle k_T \rangle = $ 1.4 GeV, is lower by $\sim$ 16 (5)% at $E_\nu \sim$ 100 (1000) GeV with respect to the case with $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV, whereas the difference reduces to 1% or even less for $E_\nu {\mathrel{\hbox{\rlap{\lower.75ex \hbox{$\sim$}} \kern-.3em \raise.4ex \hbox{$>$}}}}$ 1500 GeV. On the other hand, if $\left\langle k_{T} \right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV, the number of events from $D_s^\pm$ in the peak of the distribution is a factor of $\sim 2/3$ lower than in the peak for $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV. The $\left\langle k_{T} \right\rangle$ sensitivity of the predictions of the number of ($\nu_\tau$ + $\bar{\nu}_\tau$) neutrinos from $B$ meson decays is much smaller than for $D_s$ meson decays. A comparison of upper and lower panels shows the stronger impact of the factorization scale dependence on the predictions for $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ from charm mesons than from $B$ mesons.
Figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\] shows the uncertainty bands associated with the QCD scale variation in the range considered in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\], for a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$. These bands are computed as envelopes of seven combinations of $(N_R, N_F)$, equal to factors of $m_T$ of $(0.5, 0.75)$, $(2.0, 3.0)$, $(1.0, 0.75)$, $(0.5, 1.5)$, $(1.0, 3.0)$, $(2.0, 1.5)$ and $(1.0, 1.5)$. For neutrinos from the $D_s$ decay, the upper boundary of the band is larger than the central prediction by a factor of $\sim 3-4$, while the lower edge of the band is 40 $-$ 60% smaller than the central prediction for $E_\nu \lesssim 1500$ GeV. Thus, the QCD scale uncertainty band in our evaluation with $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV has overlap with the prediction using $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 2.2 GeV, as follows from comparing figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-kT\] and \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]. For neutrinos from $B$ meson decays, the scale uncertainty bands are smaller than for neutrinos from $D$ mesons. In particular, the edge of the upper uncertainty band is a factor $1.5 - 2$ larger than the central prediction, whereas the lower uncertainty band extends to about 20% below the central prediction for $E_\nu \lesssim 1000$ GeV. The scale uncertainty bands around central predictions with $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) m_T$, as shown in figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\], have similar sizes to those in figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\]. However, the latter choice leads to an overall lower central prediction for the number of events from both $D_s$ and $B \to \nu_\tau$ and $\bar{\nu}_\tau$ than the case $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) m_T$, as follows by comparing figures \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\] and \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\].
![The same as figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\], but adopting a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$ and seven-point scale variation around it. \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\]](NnutauA14-6p87-Ds-p7-ton-xf1-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\], but adopting a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$ and seven-point scale variation around it. \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\]](NnutauA14-6p87-B-p7-ton-xf1-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\], but adopting a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$ and seven-point scale variation around it. \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\]](Nnutau14-6p87-Ds-p7-ton-xf1-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\], but adopting a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$ and seven-point scale variation around it. \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\]](Nnutau14-6p87-B-p7-ton-xf1-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\], but adopting a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$ and seven-point scale variation around it. \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\]](Nanutau14-6p87-Ds-p7-ton-xf1-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:NutauEventLHC-scale\], but adopting a central scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) \, m_T$ and seven-point scale variation around it. \[fig:NutauEventLHC1\]](Nanutau14-6p87-B-p7-ton-xf1-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
0.35in
$\nu_\tau$ $\bar{\nu}_\tau $ $\nu_\tau + \bar{\nu}_\tau $
------------------------ ------------ ------------------- ------------------------------ --------------------- ------ ------ ------- ------
$ (\mu_R, \ \mu_F) $ [(0.5, 1.5) $m_T$]{} [(1, 0.75) $m_T$]{}
$\langle k_T \rangle $ 0 GeV 1.4 GeV 2.2 GeV
$D_s$ 2451 1191 3642 3799 3261 2735 11008 1716
$B^{\pm,0}$ 96 46 142 144 137 127 214 115
Total 2547 1237 3784 3943 3398 2862 11222 1831
: The charged-current event numbers for tau neutrinos and antineutrinos in 1 m length of the lead detector (equivalent to $M_{\rm pb} \simeq$ 35.6 ton) assuming central scales ($\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) \, m_T$ in the computation of heavy-meson production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 14 TeV and an integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. []{data-label="table:events1.5"}
0.35in
$\nu_\tau$ $\bar{\nu}_\tau $ $\nu_\tau + \bar{\nu}_\tau $
------------------------ ------------ ------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------
$ (\mu_R, \ \mu_F) $ [(0.5, 1) $m_T$]{} [(1, 0.5) $m_T$]{}
$\langle k_T \rangle $ 0 GeV 1.4 GeV 2.2 GeV
$D_s$ 1591 774 2365 2455 2143 1822 7834 1179
$B^{\pm,0}$ 87 42 129 131 124 115 202 91
Total 1678 816 2494 2586 2267 1937 8036 1870
: Same as Table 1, but adopting ($\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0) m_T$ as central scales in the computation of heavy-meson hadroproduction. []{data-label="table:events1"}
In tables \[table:events1.5\] and \[table:events1\], we present the total event numbers for $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$ and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$, respectively, for 1 m of lead (35.6 ton). Assuming an integrated luminosity of 3,000 fb$^{-1}$, each table shows separately the number of $\nu_\tau$ and $\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events from $D_s^\pm$ and $B$ meson decays, respectively, and the total number, each for selected ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale and $\langle k_T\rangle$ choices. Table \[table:events1.5\] shows that when using $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5) m_T$ and the $\langle k_T\rangle$ value that yields the best match to the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Powheg + PYTHIA</span> $D_s^\pm$ energy distribution in the far forward $\eta>6.87$ region ($\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV), the total number of tau neutrino plus antineutrino events is predicted to be $\sim 3,800$. Factorization and renormalization scale variations around the QCD central scales yield a very broad uncertainty band on the number of events, varying in the interval $\sim 1,800 - 11,200$. On the other hand, the central scale choice, with $\langle k_T \rangle$ variation in the range $\langle k_T\rangle=0-2.2$ GeV, produces a smaller uncertainty in the number of events, which span the range $\sim 3,900-2,900$. Table \[table:events1\], where we set $(\mu_R, \mu_F)
= (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$, shows as well a broad range of predicted number of events, with a central value of $\sim 2,500$ events for $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV. This number amounts to a factor of $\sim 2/3$ of the one obtained in the evaluation with $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$.
Muon neutrinos
--------------
![Our predictions for the muon neutrinos plus antineutrinos energy distribution for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, with neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta > 6.87$. Left: Shown are the contributions from each charmed hadron $D^+$, $D^{0}$, $D_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{c}$ and their antiparticles, together with their sum. Right: Total contributions from the charmed hadrons and bottom hadrons are presented, respectively. The total for $B$-hadrons accounts for the contributions from $B^+$, $B^{0}$, $B_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{b}$ and their antiparticles. The upper plots refer to the scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$, while the lower plots correspond to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$. The value $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle = 0.7$ GeV is used as input in all cases. \[fig:NumuCS\]](Fnumu14-6p87-kTp7.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Our predictions for the muon neutrinos plus antineutrinos energy distribution for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, with neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta > 6.87$. Left: Shown are the contributions from each charmed hadron $D^+$, $D^{0}$, $D_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{c}$ and their antiparticles, together with their sum. Right: Total contributions from the charmed hadrons and bottom hadrons are presented, respectively. The total for $B$-hadrons accounts for the contributions from $B^+$, $B^{0}$, $B_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{b}$ and their antiparticles. The upper plots refer to the scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$, while the lower plots correspond to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$. The value $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle = 0.7$ GeV is used as input in all cases. \[fig:NumuCS\]](Fnumu14-6p87-kTp7-total.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Our predictions for the muon neutrinos plus antineutrinos energy distribution for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, with neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta > 6.87$. Left: Shown are the contributions from each charmed hadron $D^+$, $D^{0}$, $D_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{c}$ and their antiparticles, together with their sum. Right: Total contributions from the charmed hadrons and bottom hadrons are presented, respectively. The total for $B$-hadrons accounts for the contributions from $B^+$, $B^{0}$, $B_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{b}$ and their antiparticles. The upper plots refer to the scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$, while the lower plots correspond to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$. The value $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle = 0.7$ GeV is used as input in all cases. \[fig:NumuCS\]](Fnumu14-6p87-kTp7-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Our predictions for the muon neutrinos plus antineutrinos energy distribution for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, with neutrino pseudorapidity $\eta > 6.87$. Left: Shown are the contributions from each charmed hadron $D^+$, $D^{0}$, $D_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{c}$ and their antiparticles, together with their sum. Right: Total contributions from the charmed hadrons and bottom hadrons are presented, respectively. The total for $B$-hadrons accounts for the contributions from $B^+$, $B^{0}$, $B_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{b}$ and their antiparticles. The upper plots refer to the scale choice $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$, while the lower plots correspond to $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$. The value $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle = 0.7$ GeV is used as input in all cases. \[fig:NumuCS\]](Fnumu14-6p87-kTp7-total-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
At the interaction region, the muon neutrino and electron neutrino fluxes from heavy-flavor production and decay will be nearly the same, coming primarily from the neutral and charged $D$ semileptonic decays. Figure \[fig:NumuCS\] shows the energy distributions of the sum of muon neutrinos and antineutrinos. The upper two panels are for $(\mu_R, \mu_F)
= (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$ and the lower two panels are for $(\mu_R, \mu_F)
= (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$. The left plots show the contributions from the charmed hadrons, $D^+$, $D^{0}$, $D_{s}^+$ and $\Lambda_{c}$ and their sum. In the right plots, the total contributions from all charmed hadrons and the bottom hadrons are shown. As can be seen in the left plots, the decays of $D^{\pm}$, $D^{0}$ and $\bar{D}^{0}$ dominate the muon neutrino and antineutrino distributions. This is due to larger fragmentation fractions and decay branching fractions to muon neutrinos compared to those of $D_s^\pm$ and $\Lambda_c$. Similarly, the muon neutrinos and antineutrinos from $B$ meson decays are mainly from $B^{\pm}$, $B^{0}$ and $\bar{B}^{0}$. The bottom hadron contributions, compared to the charm hadron contributions, to the inclusive muon neutrino plus antineutrino energy distribution at $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV with $\eta>6.87$ is about a factor $\sim 1/60$ smaller than the distributions from charm at low energy, and a factor of $\sim 1/20$ at high energy. As in figure \[fig:NutauCS\] for $\nu_\tau + \bar{\nu}_\tau$, figure \[fig:NumuCS\] shows that the predicted energy distribution of $\nu_\mu +\bar{\nu}_\mu$ from charm is $\sim 1.5$ larger for $(\mu_R, \mu_F)
= (1.0, 1.5)\,m_T$ than for $(\mu_R, \mu_F)
= (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$, while the smaller contributions from $B$ hadrons are much less sensitive to the scale choice.
![Our predictions for the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV for 1 ton of lead target as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with a pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV. A value of $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV is adopted for the central predictions, while the uncertainty bands accounts for the effect of $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ variation in the interval $0 -1.4$ GeV. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS cross-section. The integrated luminosity amounts to ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. \[fig:NumuEventLHC\]](Nnumu14-6p87.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Our predictions for the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV for 1 ton of lead target as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with a pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV. A value of $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ = 0.7 GeV is adopted for the central predictions, while the uncertainty bands accounts for the effect of $\left\langle k_{T}\right\rangle$ variation in the interval $0 -1.4$ GeV. NLO QCD corrections are accounted for in the DIS cross-section. The integrated luminosity amounts to ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. \[fig:NumuEventLHC\]](Nnumu14-6p87-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
The corresponding predictions for the number of muon neutrino and antineutrino charged-current events per unit energy for a 1 ton lead target for $\eta>6.87$ are shown in figures \[fig:NumuEventLHC\] and \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]. Figure \[fig:NumuEventLHC\] shows the number of muon neutrino and muon antineutrino events per unit energy from heavy flavor, including uncertainty bands from $\langle k_T\rangle$ variation in the range \[0, 1.4\] GeV for $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\, m_T$. Again, the dashed histograms correspond to results with $\langle k_T\rangle=2.2$ GeV. The left panels in figure \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\] show, from top to bottom, the sum of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ charged current events per ton of lead, for $\nu_\mu$ and for $\bar{\nu}_\mu$, all for $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.5)\, m_T$. The right panels show the same, but with $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\, m_T$. Each panel includes a wide uncertainty band reflecting the theoretical uncertainties associated with scale variation. Our evaluation using NLO perturbative QCD gives a factor of $\sim 13$ in the ratio of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ to $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events based on heavy flavor alone, with our default input parameters.
![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$ (left) and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$ (right), respectively. The upper and lower limits in each panel arise from 7-point scale variation in the same range as in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]](NnumuA14-6p87-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$ (left) and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$ (right), respectively. The upper and lower limits in each panel arise from 7-point scale variation in the same range as in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]](NnumuA14-6p87-p7-ton-scale-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$ (left) and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$ (right), respectively. The upper and lower limits in each panel arise from 7-point scale variation in the same range as in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]](Nnumu14-6p87-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$ (left) and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$ (right), respectively. The upper and lower limits in each panel arise from 7-point scale variation in the same range as in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]](Nnumu14-6p87-p7-ton-scale-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$ (left) and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$ (right), respectively. The upper and lower limits in each panel arise from 7-point scale variation in the same range as in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]](Nanumu14-6p87-p7-ton-scale.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"} ![Uncertainty range due to the QCD scale variation in the muon neutrino and antineutrino number of charged current events per GeV per ton as a function of the incident neutrino energy for neutrinos with pseudorapidity $\eta>6.87$ generated by heavy-flavor decays in $pp$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV and integrated luminosity ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. The central predictions are obtained using as input $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1, 1.5)\,m_T$ (left) and $(\mu_R, \mu_F) = (1.0, 1.0)\,m_T$ (right), respectively. The upper and lower limits in each panel arise from 7-point scale variation in the same range as in figure \[fig:fit-LHCb\]. \[fig:NumuEventLHC1.5\]](Nanumu14-6p87-p7-ton-scale-xf1.pdf "fig:"){width="48.00000%"}
Heavy-flavor hadron decays, however, are not the only sources of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$. In principle, pion, kaon and weak gauge boson decays can also contribute. In ref. [@Beni:2019gxv], the contributions from $W$ and $Z$ production and decay to neutrinos are studied. They show that neutrinos from weak gauge boson decays populate mostly in the pseudorapidity range of $|\eta|<4.5$, but are negligible in the region $\eta>6.5$ [@Beni:2019gxv].
At first glance, one might expect that pion and kaon decays will not be important sources of neutrinos. Pions with $E_\pi>9$ GeV have $\gamma c \tau>500$ m. Charged kaons have $\gamma c \tau>500$ m for $E_K>67$ GeV. Pion and kaon contributions to the number of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu
$ at high energy were neglected in the earlier work of ref. [@DeRujula:1992sn]. Park, in ref. [@Park:2011gh], used <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span> to account for pions and kaons, requiring the decay to occur within 50 m of the interaction point to guarantee that particles decay inside the beam pipe, leading to a factor of $\sim 100$ times more $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ events than $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events.
In ref. [@Abreu:2019yak], a more detailed evaluation of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ events is performed for a detector with $25\times 25$ cm$^2$ cross-sectional area at 480 meters from the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Atlas</span> interaction point. They find a factor of $\sim 1000$ more interactions by $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ than by $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ when pions and kaons are included, although with a different energy distribution. Their evaluation of heavy-flavor contributions is done using <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span> [@Sjostrand:2019zhc], while their light hadron production is estimated using the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Crmc</span> [@crmc] simulation package with <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Epos-LHC</span> [@Pierog:2013ria], <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Qgsjet-II-04</span> [@Ostapchenko:2010vb] and <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Sibyll</span> 2.3c [@Engel:2019dsg; @Fedynitch:2018cbl; @Riehn:2017mfm]. They find that most of the neutrinos with energies above 1 TeV from charged light hadron decays come from pion and kaon decays in a region within $\sim 55$ m from the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Atlas</span> interaction point. They find that magnetic fields sweep lower-energy charged particles away if the particles have travelled 20 m downstream from the interaction point and have passed through the front quadupole absorber of inner radius 17 mm. They also find that two-body decays of charged pions and charged kaons are the dominant sources of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ production.
Our primary focus here is on the heavy-flavor contributions to the number of events from $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$, however, guided by the results of ref. [@Abreu:2019yak], we can approximately evaluate the number $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ that also come from pions and kaons. We evaluate the $\pi^\pm $ and $K^\pm $ two-body decay contributions to the flux of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ with the requirement that the charged mesons decay within 55 m of the interaction point and the decaying hadron’s momentum lies within an angle of $\theta< 1$ mrad relative to the beam axis to stay within the opening of the quadrupole absorber.
We use the parametrization of Koers et al. [@Koers:2006dd], based on fits to <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Pythia</span> distributions for charged pions and kaons as a function of energy and rapidity, to generate the pion and kaon distributions. For reference, pion and kaon charged-particle multiplicities per interaction in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV are $\sim
50$ and $\sim 6$, respectively [@Koers:2006dd]. Two-body decays are implemented, as for the $D_s^\pm \to \nu_\tau \tau$ case, with the requisite changes to the initial and final particle masses. Compared to figure \[fig:NumuCS\], charged pions and kaons contribute a factor of $\sim 100$ more $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ than heavy flavors do, as shown by the blue and red curves in figure \[fig:pionkaon\]. We will turn to the issue of the oscillations of neutrinos of different flavors to tau neutrinos, so we also include in figure \[fig:pionkaon\] $K_L$ production and decay into $\nu_e+\bar{\nu}_e$, shown with the green curve. We use the Koers distributions for $K^+ +K^-$, then divide by two for $K_L$. The three-body semileptonic kaon decay is evaluated following ref. [@Cirigliano:2001mk]. The peak of the electron neutrino distribution from $K_L$ decays is about a factor of $\sim 2$ larger than the peak of the electron neutrino distribution from heavy-flavor decays.
![The $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ energy distributions from charged pions (blue) and kaons (red) and the $\nu_e+\bar{\nu}_e$ energy distributions from $K_L$ semileptonic decays (green) for forward neutrinos ($\eta>6.87$) from the decay of mesons produced in $pp$ interactions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, considering those mesons whose decay occurs within 55 m of the interaction point and whose momentum lies within an angle of $\theta<1$ mrad from the beam axis. The meson energy and rapidity distributions are evaluated using the parametrization of Koers et al. [@Koers:2006dd]. \[fig:pionkaon\]](pionskaons-fig.pdf){width="48.00000%"}
Three-flavor neutrino oscillations of the much larger number of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ from charged pions and kaons to $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ could, in principle, overwhelm the number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ from heavy-flavor decays. However, the baseline of 480 m is not at all optimal for $\nu_\mu\to\nu_\tau$ oscillations in the standard scenario with 3 active flavors. In two flavor approximation, for a mass squared difference of $\Delta m_{32}^2\simeq 2.5\times 10^{-3}$ eV$^2$ and a mixing angle $\theta_{23}\simeq \pi/4$, the oscillation probability is $P(\nu_\mu\to \nu_\tau)\simeq 2.3\times 10^{-6}/(E^2/{\rm GeV^2}$), so for energies above $E_{\nu_\mu}=10$ GeV, $\nu_\mu\to \nu_\tau$ oscillations give a negligible contribution to the number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$, even given the large theoretical uncertainties in the number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events per unit energy. The $\nu_e\to \nu_\tau$ oscillation probability is even smaller. In the next section, we turn to tau neutrino oscillations in a 3+1 neutrino mixing framework to illustrate an example of a signal of new physics that could be probed by a forward neutrino detector at the LHC when heavy-flavor uncertainties are under better theoretical control.
New Physics {#sec:newphysics}
===========
The detection of a large number of identifiable $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events would offer opportunities to explore a new corner of parameter space for neutrino oscillations into a fourth “sterile” neutrino. The baseline of 480 m is most sensitive to a fourth neutrino mass $m_4$ of the order of tens of eV.
The flavor eigenstates $\nu_{l}$ can be expressed as a superposition of the mass eigenstates $\nu_{j}$ according to the formula $$\nu_{l}=\sum_{j = 1}^{n_{\nu}}U_{lj}\nu_{j}\ ,$$ where $n_{\nu}$ is the total number of neutrinos subject to oscillations: for the standard oscillation scenario with three active neutrinos, $n_{\nu}=3$, while for an oscillation scenario with three active neutrinos plus one sterile neutrino, $n_{\nu}=4$. The full transition probability appears in, for example, ref. [@pdg:2016]. The blue lines in the two panels of figure \[fig:dips-nuOsci\] show that tau neutrino survival probability $P(\nu_\tau\to \nu_\tau)$ in the three-flavor scenario approaches unity in the energy range $E_{\nu}\in[1,1000]$ GeV. The values of the parameters used here for three-flavor mixing are $\sin^{2}(\theta_{12})=0.310$, $\sin^{2}(\theta_{13})=0.02241$, $\sin^{2}(\theta_{23})=0.580$, $\Delta m_{21}^{2}=7.5\times10^{-5}$ eV$^{2}$ and $\Delta m_{31}^{2}=2.457\times10^{-3}$ eV$^{2}$ [@Esteban:2018azc]. The values of all CP phases are taken to be zero. For a baseline of 480 m, the tau neutrino survival probability has significant features in the few MeV energy range and below, but not in the energy range of interest (see the position of the peaks of the energy distributions in section 4).
![The survival probability $P(\nu_\tau\to \nu_\tau)$ as a function of the tau neutrino energy $E_\nu$, for the standard 3-active-flavor oscillation framework [@pdg:2016] and in a $3+1$ oscillation scenario, considering a baseline of $L=480$ m. Besides results in the standard framework, the upper panel shows results for the 3+1 scenario with $m_4 = 20$ eV, for $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.08$ and 0.15, whereas the lower panel shows results for the 3+1 scenario with $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.15$ and $m_4=1$ eV, 20 eV and 1 keV. \[fig:dips-nuOsci\]](nutau-survival-20eV-Utau4.pdf){width="70.00000%"}
![The survival probability $P(\nu_\tau\to \nu_\tau)$ as a function of the tau neutrino energy $E_\nu$, for the standard 3-active-flavor oscillation framework [@pdg:2016] and in a $3+1$ oscillation scenario, considering a baseline of $L=480$ m. Besides results in the standard framework, the upper panel shows results for the 3+1 scenario with $m_4 = 20$ eV, for $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.08$ and 0.15, whereas the lower panel shows results for the 3+1 scenario with $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.15$ and $m_4=1$ eV, 20 eV and 1 keV. \[fig:dips-nuOsci\]](nutau-survival-mass-dips.pdf){width="70.00000%"}
The transition probability in the scenario with three active and one sterile neutrino flavor, in the case when the mass eigenstates fulfill the hierarchy $m_4\gg m_{1,2,3}$, can be simplified to [@Giunti:2019aiy] $$P(\nu_{\alpha}\rightarrow\nu_{\beta}) \simeq \delta_{\alpha\beta}-4(\delta_{\alpha\beta}-\mid U_{\beta n_\nu}\mid^2)\mid U_{\alpha n_\nu}\mid^2 \sin^2\Biggl(\frac{\Delta m^{2}L}{4E_{\nu}}\Biggr)\ ,
\label{eq:probability}$$ where $\Delta m^2=m_4^2-(m_1^2+m_2^2+m_3^2)/3\simeq m_4^2$. For $m_4\sim 20$ eV, oscillation effects in the tau neutrino survival probability can be pronounced. The highest energy oscillation node with this hierarchy occurs at $$E_{\nu\textrm{-max [GeV]}}= \frac{\Delta m^{2}L}{2\pi} = 0.807\,\Delta m_{\textrm{[eV]}}^{2}L_{\textrm{[km]}}\ .\label{eq:Enu-max}$$ Introducing a heavy sterile neutrino extends the region of pronounced oscillation dips in the tau neutrino survival probability to a higher energy with examples shown in figure \[fig:dips-nuOsci\]. When $m_4 = 20$ eV, a survival probability dip occurs at $E_{\nu_\tau} = 155$ GeV, an energy near that of the peak of the unoscillated tau neutrino number of events per unit energy. Using eq. (\[eq:probability\]) and $|U_{\tau 4}|^2 = 0.08$ and 0.15, the $\nu_\tau\to\nu_\tau$ survival probability is shown for $m_4 = 20$ eV (upper panel) and $m_4 = 1$ eV, 20 eV and 1 keV (lower panel), all for a baseline of $L = 480$ m. The values of $|U_{\tau 4}|^2$ are acceptable according to current IceCube constraints [@Jones:2019nix; @Blennow:2018hto]. Matter effects can be neglected with the density of the Earth’s crust $\rho\approx2.6$ g/cm$^{3}$ and the electron fraction $Y_{e}\approx0.5$ [@Ohlsson:1999xb; @Li:2018ezt].
As the lower panel of figure \[fig:dips-nuOsci\] shows, for increasing $m_4$ masses, oscillations become rapid over the full neutrino energy range, even at low energies, so their average determines the $\nu_\tau$ survival probability. Given the uncertainties in the absolute scale of the $\nu_\tau + \bar{\nu}_\tau$ flux in the very forward direction, an average decrease in the number of events due to oscillations into sterile neutrinos would be difficult to extract with measurements of forward LHC neutrinos. For this reason, we focus on our example of the case $m_4 = 20$ eV.
Figure \[fig:nu\_tau-nuOsci\] shows the number of events as a function of energy, in the standard three-active-flavor oscillation framework (black histogram) and in the 3+1 oscillation framework with $m_4 = 20$ eV and $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.15$, considering our default heavy-flavor QCD input parameter set and $\langle k_T\rangle = 0.7$ GeV (left) and 2.2 GeV (right). The orange-dashed histogram shows the effect of $\nu_\tau$ disappearance due to oscillations in a 3+1 scenario with $|U_{e4}|^2=|U_{\mu 4}|^2=0$, where a dip is visible at neutrino energies $\sim$ 150 GeV.
![Predictions of the number of $\nu_\tau + \overline{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current events as a function of neutrino energy in absence of oscillations and in presence of oscillations in a 3+1 mixing framework, for various choices of the oscillation parameters in the same experimental setup already used in section 4. Numbers of events are reported for a ton of lead detector, for $\langle k_T \rangle$ = 0.7 GeV (left) and 2.2 GeV (right).[]{data-label="fig:nu_tau-nuOsci"}](nutauOsc14-kTp7-ton.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![Predictions of the number of $\nu_\tau + \overline{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current events as a function of neutrino energy in absence of oscillations and in presence of oscillations in a 3+1 mixing framework, for various choices of the oscillation parameters in the same experimental setup already used in section 4. Numbers of events are reported for a ton of lead detector, for $\langle k_T \rangle$ = 0.7 GeV (left) and 2.2 GeV (right).[]{data-label="fig:nu_tau-nuOsci"}](nutauOsc14-kT2p2-ton.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"}
![The ratio of the number of $\nu_\tau + \overline{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current interaction events and the number of events at 1 TeV in each case, as a function of neutrino energy, without oscillations (upper left plot) and in a 3+1 oscillation scenarios with different mixing parameters. The numbers of events are evaluated for $\langle k_T \rangle$ = 0.7 GeV for three different ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choices. []{data-label="fig:Rnu_tau-scale"}](Rdnde-noOsc-kTp7-scales.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![The ratio of the number of $\nu_\tau + \overline{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current interaction events and the number of events at 1 TeV in each case, as a function of neutrino energy, without oscillations (upper left plot) and in a 3+1 oscillation scenarios with different mixing parameters. The numbers of events are evaluated for $\langle k_T \rangle$ = 0.7 GeV for three different ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choices. []{data-label="fig:Rnu_tau-scale"}](Rdnde-Ue26em3Umu25em4Ut2p15-kTp7-scales.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![The ratio of the number of $\nu_\tau + \overline{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current interaction events and the number of events at 1 TeV in each case, as a function of neutrino energy, without oscillations (upper left plot) and in a 3+1 oscillation scenarios with different mixing parameters. The numbers of events are evaluated for $\langle k_T \rangle$ = 0.7 GeV for three different ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choices. []{data-label="fig:Rnu_tau-scale"}](Rdnde-Ue20Umu25em4Ut2p15-kTp7-scales.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![The ratio of the number of $\nu_\tau + \overline{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current interaction events and the number of events at 1 TeV in each case, as a function of neutrino energy, without oscillations (upper left plot) and in a 3+1 oscillation scenarios with different mixing parameters. The numbers of events are evaluated for $\langle k_T \rangle$ = 0.7 GeV for three different ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choices. []{data-label="fig:Rnu_tau-scale"}](Rdnde-Ue20Umu20Ut2p15-kTp7-scales.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"}
![The same as figure \[fig:Rnu\_tau-scale\], but considering different values of $\langle k_T \rangle$, for our default ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choice. \[fig:Rnu\_tau-kT\]](Rdnde-noOsc-NR1NF1p5-kT.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:Rnu\_tau-scale\], but considering different values of $\langle k_T \rangle$, for our default ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choice. \[fig:Rnu\_tau-kT\]](Rdnde-Ue26em3Umu25em4Ut2p15-NR1NF1p5-kT.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:Rnu\_tau-scale\], but considering different values of $\langle k_T \rangle$, for our default ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choice. \[fig:Rnu\_tau-kT\]](Rdnde-Ue20Umu25em4Ut2p15-NR1NF1p5-kT.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"} ![The same as figure \[fig:Rnu\_tau-scale\], but considering different values of $\langle k_T \rangle$, for our default ($\mu_R$, $\mu_F$) scale choice. \[fig:Rnu\_tau-kT\]](Rdnde-Ue20Umu20Ut2p15-NR1NF1p5-kT.PDF "fig:"){width="49.00000%"}
The oscillation dip may be partially filled in by $\nu_\mu\to \nu_\tau$ and $\nu_e\to \nu_\tau$ oscillations, where the $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_e$ come from heavy-flavor decays and from $\pi^\pm,\ K^\pm$ and $K_L$ decays. The NOMAD experiment set the most stringent limits on effective mixing angles with $\nu_\tau$ for 3+1 scenarios with $\Delta m^2\simeq m_4^2{\mathrel{\hbox{\rlap{\lower.75ex \hbox{$\sim$}} \kern-.3em \raise.4ex \hbox{$>$}}}}30$ eV$^2$ [@Astier:2001yj; @Astier:2003gs], $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:etau}
\sin^2 2\theta_{e\tau} &\simeq & 4 |U_{e4}|^2 |U_{\tau 4}|^2 < 1.5\times 10^{-2}\\
\label{eq:mutau}
\sin^2 2\theta_{\mu\tau} &\simeq & 4 |U_{\mu 4}|^2 |U_{\tau 4}|^2 < 3.3\times 10^{-4}\\
\label{eq:emu}
\sin^2 2\theta_{e\mu} &\simeq & 4 |U_{e4}|^2 |U_{\mu 4}|^2 < 1.4\times 10^{-3}\ .\end{aligned}$$ We use $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.15$ to illustrate sterile neutrino mixing effects. For $|U_{\mu 4}|^2$ and $|U_{e4}|^2$, eqs. (\[eq:etau\]-\[eq:emu\]) must be satisfied. For illustration purposes, we take $|U_{\mu 4}|^2=5\times 10^{-4}$, a value close to the maximum mixing consistent with eq. (\[eq:mutau\]). The Troisk tritium beta decay data can be used to set limits on $|U_{e4}|^2$ for sterile neutrino masses in the range of $1-100$ eV [@Belesev:2012hx; @Belesev:2013cba]. For $m_4=20$ eV, $|U_{e4}|^2{\mathrel{\hbox{\rlap{\lower.75ex \hbox{$\sim$}} \kern-.3em \raise.4ex \hbox{$<$}}}}6.7\times 10^{-3}$ comes from the Troisk upper bound. The other constraints, eqs. (\[eq:etau\]) and (\[eq:emu\]), are satisfied by this value of $|U_{e4}|^2$, considering our aforementioned choice for $|U_{\tau 4}|^2$. We use parameters $|U_{\mu 4}|^2=5\times 10^{-4}$ and a slightly lower value of $|U_{e4}|^2 = 6\times 10^{-3}$, still satisfying the constraints discussed above, in the blue histogram in figure \[fig:nu\_tau-nuOsci\]. In the figure, $\nu_e$ and $\nu_\mu$ (and anti-neutrinos) from heavy-flavor decays and from $\pi^\pm,\ K^\pm$ and $K_L$ decays are included.
The spectral shape of the number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events changes with different choices of mixing parameters. If $|U_{e4}| ^2=|U_{\mu 4}| ^2=0$, spectral distortions will be conspicuous, even if $\langle k_T\rangle=2.2$ GeV (corresponding to a total smaller number of events than our default case $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV), as can be seen in the right panel of figure \[fig:nu\_tau-nuOsci\]. Keeping the same value of $|U_{e 4}^2|$ and increasing the $|U_{\mu 4}|^2$ value to $|U_{\mu 4}|^2<10^{-3}$, the $\nu_\tau\to\nu_\tau$ oscillation dip in the energy distribution of the events is not significantly modified because muon mixing parameters are quite constrained as discussed above. This effect is shown in the green histogram of figure \[fig:nu\_tau-nuOsci\], obtained by setting $|U_{e4}| ^2=0$ and $|U_{\mu 4}|^2=5\times 10^{-4}$. When $|U_{e4}|^2\neq 0$, electron neutrinos coming primarily from $K^0_{e3}$ that oscillate to $\nu_\tau$ because of sterile neutrino mixing additionally fill in the spectral distortion of the $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ event number as shown in figure \[fig:nu\_tau-nuOsci\] with the solid blue histogram for $|U_{e4}| ^2=6\times 10^{-3}$.
Untangling the physics of a $3+1$ flavor oscillation scenario, from the standard 3-flavor oscillation scenario, considering the QCD theoretical uncertainties related to the choice of the scales and of the phenomenological $\langle k_T\rangle$ smearing parameter, will be difficult if the mixing parameters $|U_{e4}|^2$ and $|U_{\mu 4}|^2$ are close to $6 \times 10^{-3}$ and $5 \times 10^{-4}$, respectively. The challenge is illustrated in figs. \[fig:Rnu\_tau-scale\] and \[fig:Rnu\_tau-kT\]. These figures show the numbers of tau neutrino plus antineutrino charged-current events, with each distribution normalized to the corresponding number of events at 1 TeV for that distribution, to highlight the effect of the scale dependence and of various values of $\langle k_T\rangle$ on the shape of the distribution. In figure \[fig:Rnu\_tau-scale\], $\langle k_T\rangle
=0.7$ GeV is fixed and the scales are varied. In particular, although a peak is still visible, the case with all three elements $|U_{\ell 4}|^2\neq 0$ in the upper right panel presents a slightly shallower dip in the oscillated $3+1$ spectrum as compared to the case with $|U_{e4}|^2 = 0$ and $|U_{\mu 4}|^2 = 0$ shown in the lower right panel. Figure \[fig:Rnu\_tau-kT\] shows that a large transverse momentum smearing can somewhat obscure the spectral features of $3+1$ oscillations as well. A dedicated study of $3+1$ oscillation scenarios that includes detector resolution effects would be important to understand in detail the reach of a forward tau neutrino experiment along the LHC beamline.
Conclusions {#sec:conclusions}
===========
Theoretical proposals to exploit collider production of tau neutrinos and antineutrinos via heavy-flavor decays in the far-forward region have a long history. Recent proposals of experiments to detect BSM particles with feeble interactions have made our evaluation timely. This work provides a first evaluation of the number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ charged-current interaction events in the very forward region, including QCD effects beyond the leading order/leading logarithmic accuracy considered in previous estimates and studying the effects of different sources of QCD uncertainties previously neglected. We focus on neutrinos with pseudorapidities $\eta>6.87$, consistently with the geometry of a 1 m diameter cylindrical detector at a distance of 480 m from the interaction point [@Feng:2017uoz; @Ariga:2018pin; @Ariga:2019ufm] to illustrate a number of effects.
Thousands of tau neutrino plus antineutrino events are predicted for 1 meter of lead (35.6 ton) target. Theoretical uncertainties are quite large due to, in particular, the renormalization and factorization scale variation in the heavy-flavour production cross-sections. Seven-point scale variation around the central scale combinations $(\mu_R,\mu_F)=(1.0,1.0)~m_T$ and $(1.0,1.5)~m_T$ causes differences amounting to a factor of $\sim 4 - 6$ between the upper and lower limit of the predicted event numbers, for $\langle k_T\rangle=0.7$ GeV.
The introduction of the parameter $\langle k_T\rangle$ in the Gaussian smearing factor $f(\vec{k}_T)$ in eq. (3.1) distorts the far-forward tau neutrino and antineutrino spectra. This is also the case in fixed-target experiments like SHiP [@Bai:2018xum]. The collinear parton model is sufficient for central collisions, but for forward production, as we have shown, non-collinear effects have a significant impact on the number of events for forward neutrino production at the LHC. Although the Gaussian form of $f(\vec{k}_T)$ is imperfect, it can approximate non-perturbative QCD effects and mimic part of the perturbative effects beyond fixed-order. A comparison with LHCb double-differential cross sections in $p_T$ and rapidity for $D_s$ production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, for $p_T$ $\in$ \[0, 14\] GeV in five rapidity bins in the range $y = 2.0 - 4.5$, shows that the experimental data are reasonably reproduced by theoretical predictions in a framework combining NLO pQCD corrections to the hard-scattering, $k_T$-smearing effects and phenomenological fragmentation functions. Experiments that probe heavy-flavor physics in the very forward region (e.g., ref. [@Aoki:2019jry]) will help to better quantify and disentangle the need of accurate procedures jointly resumming different kinds of logarithms and that of more rigorous descriptions of non-perturbative QCD effects, as well as the limits of the collinear approximation. The inclusion of both small $x$ and $k_T$ effects in theoretical evaluations of heavy-flavor production at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) have implications for measurements (see, e.g., refs. [@Bacchetta:2018ivt; @DAlesio:2019qpk]). In another arena, predictions of the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux [@Bhattacharya:2015jpa; @Bhattacharya:2016jce; @Gauld:2015kvh; @Garzelli:2016xmx; @Benzke:2017yjn; @Zenaiev:2019ktw] will also be constrained by measurements of the tau neutrino energy spectrum in the far-forward region at the LHC.
For a baseline of $\sim$ 500 m, oscillations in the standard 3-flavor scenario are negligible at the energy scales of the tau neutrino beams in our setup. On the other hand, in a 3+1 oscillation scenario, including a sterile neutrino in the ${\cal O}$(20 eV) mass range with three active flavor eigenstates, oscillations could give rise to visible signals in the energy dependence of the tau neutrino events. The contribution to $\nu_\tau$ events due to $\nu_\mu\to \nu_\tau$ oscillations is not important due to the small value of $|U_{\mu 4}|^2$. This is the case even though there are $\sim 100$ times more $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ produced from charged pion and kaon decays than from heavy-flavor decays. The number of $\nu_\mu+\bar{\nu}_\mu$ from heavy flavor decays is larger than the number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ by a factor of $\sim$ 10. The $\nu_e \to \nu_\tau$ oscillation effects are also small.
Therefore a large number of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ events in this energy range would provide an opportunity to constrain $3+1$ oscillation models with a sterile neutrino in the 10’s of eV mass range. In the case of $\nu_\tau$ disappearance, the location of a dip in the charged-current event distribution as a function of tau neutrino energy will constrain the mass of the fourth mass eigenstate (mostly sterile neutrino) $m_4$. The quantity $|U_{\tau 4}|^2$ is currently poorly constrained. We showed that, as long as $\nu_e\to \nu_\tau$ appearance is suppressed, for $|U_{\tau 4}|^2=0.15$ in principle the oscillation effect would be unambiguous, even with the theoretical uncertainties in the predicted numbers of $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ interaction events. However, uncertainties in heavy-flavor production present challenges to constraining the 3+1 sterile neutrino parameter space accessible to a far-forward neutrino experiment at the LHC. Practical aspects of tau neutrino detection in the high-luminosity environment will also be a challenge because of the muon neutrino background.
\[sec:appendix\]
Decay Distribution
==================
Neutrinos can be produced through the three-body semileptonic decay process of $D$ and $B$ mesons, $D(B) \to K (D) l \nu_l \, ( l = e, \mu)$ . The distribution of neutrinos from the decay in the rest frame is respectively given by $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{{\rm d}\Gamma (h_i \to \nu_l)}{{\rm d}x_\nu}
&\sim&
\begin{dcases}
\frac{m_{D}^5 \, x_\nu^{2}(1-r_h-x_\nu)^{2}
[3+r_h(3-x_\nu)-5x_\nu+2x_\nu^{2}]}{(1-x_\nu)^{3}} \quad {\rm for} \quad h_i = D
\\
\frac{m_B^5 \, x_\nu^{2}(1-r_h-x_\nu)^{2}}{(1-x_\nu)} \hspace{13.5em} {\rm for} \quad h_i = B
\end{dcases}
\label{eq:dkdistm0}\end{aligned}$$ where the fraction of energy transferred to the neutrino is $x_\nu = 2 E_\nu / m_i$ and the hadron mass fraction is $r_h = m_f^2/m_i^2$, with $m_i$ and $m_f$ being the hadron masses in the initial and final states, respectively. The corresponding cumulative distribution functions (CDF) are $$\begin{aligned}
F(x_\nu) &=& \frac{1}{\Gamma} \int_0^{x_\nu} d x^\prime \frac{\textrm{d}\Gamma}{\textrm{d}x^\prime} \\ [1em]
&=&
\begin{dcases}
\frac{1}{D(r_h) (1 - x_\nu)^2} \biggl[ x_\nu
\Bigl( 2 r_h^3 x_\nu^2 - 6 \, r_h^2 (2 - x_\nu) (1 - x_\nu) + (2 - x_\nu) (1 - x_\nu)^2 x_\nu^2 \nonumber \\
\hspace{8.7em}
- 2 r_h (1 - x_\nu)^2 x_\nu^2 \Bigr)
- 12 r_h^2 (1- x_\nu)^2 \ln[1 - x_\nu] \biggr] \quad {\rm for} \quad h_i = D \\
\frac{1}{D(r_h)} \biggl[ x_\nu \Bigl(x_\nu^2 (4 - 3 x_\nu) -8 r_h x_\nu^2 - 6 r_h^2 (2 + x_\nu) \Bigr)
- 12 r_h^2 \ln[1 - x_\nu] \biggr] \hspace{1.2em} {\rm for} \quad h_i = B \nonumber
\end{dcases}\end{aligned}$$ where $D(r)=1-8r-12r^{2}\ln(r)+8r^{3}-r^{4}$.
The $B$ meson also decays to tau neutrinos via $B \to D \tau \nu_\tau$, and the $\tau$ lepton decays subsequently to $\nu_\tau$. In this case, there is an additional effect due to the non-negligible mass of $\tau$. With the additional mass term $r_\tau = m_\tau^2/m_B^2$, one obtains the distributions of $\tau$ and $\nu_\tau$ from $B$ decays: $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{{\rm d}\Gamma (B\to\tau)}{{\rm d}x_\tau}
&\sim& \frac{m_B^5}{(1+r_\tau-x_\tau)^3}
(1-x_\tau+r_\tau -r_h)^2 (x_\tau^2 - 4 r_\tau)^{1/2}
\biggl[ r_\tau^2 (3x_\tau-4 ) \\
&&
+ ~ x \Bigl( 3+ 2x_\tau^2 - 5x_\tau +r_h(3-x_\tau) \Bigr)
- r_\tau \Bigl( 4+5x_\tau^2 - 10x_\tau + r_h(8-3x_\tau) \Bigr) \biggr], \nonumber \\ [1em]
\frac{{\rm d}\Gamma (B\to\nu_\tau)}{{\rm d}x_\nu}
&\sim &\frac{m_B^5}{1-x_\nu} \, x_\nu^2 (1-r_h -r_\tau-x_\nu)
\Bigl(r_h^2 - 2 r_h(1+r_\tau-x_\nu)+(1-r_\tau-x_\nu)^2\Bigr)^{1/2}. \nonumber \end{aligned}$$ Here, $x_\tau=2E_\tau/m_i$ is the fraction of energy transferred to tau. The expression of the CDF for $\tau$ and $\nu_\tau$ from $B$ decays is too complicated to be presented here, hence we show the results in Figure \[fig:dkdist\], together with the results for $B$ decays in $\nu_\mu$.
\[ht\] ![Left panel: The fractional energy distributions $x_i=E_i/(m/2)$ in three-body semi-leptonic decays in the rest frame of the decaying heavy particle with $m=m_{D_s}$ and $m=m_ B$ and $i=\nu_\mu,\ \nu_\tau$ and $\tau$. Right panel: The cumulative distribution function for each of the three-body decays shown in the left panel. []{data-label="fig:dkdist"}](NormDist-4.PDF "fig:"){width="45.00000%"} ![Left panel: The fractional energy distributions $x_i=E_i/(m/2)$ in three-body semi-leptonic decays in the rest frame of the decaying heavy particle with $m=m_{D_s}$ and $m=m_ B$ and $i=\nu_\mu,\ \nu_\tau$ and $\tau$. Right panel: The cumulative distribution function for each of the three-body decays shown in the left panel. []{data-label="fig:dkdist"}](CDF-4.PDF "fig:"){width="45.00000%"}
The energy fractions $x$ span the following range: $$\begin{aligned}
0 < &x_{\nu_l} &< 1 - (\sqrt{r_l}+\sqrt{r_h})^2 \nonumber \\
2 \sqrt{r_\tau} <& x_{\tau}& < 1 + r_\tau - r_h \ . \end{aligned}$$ For electron neutrino ($\nu_e$) and muon neutrino ($\nu_\mu$), the maximum value of $x_\nu$ is simply $x_\nu^{\rm max} = 1-r_h$.
This work is supported in part by Department of Energy grants DE-SC-0010113, DE-SC-0012704, and the Korean Research Foundation (KRF) through the CERN-Korea Fellowship program. The authors would like to express a special thanks to the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics (MITP) of the Cluster of Excellence PRISMA+ (Project ID 39083149) for its hospitality and support. We thank the Rencontres du Vietnam/VietNus 2017 workshop at the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), QuiNhon, Vietnam for support and discussions in the early stage of this work, and we thank C. Giunti and M.L. Mangano for comments and discussions. M.V.G. is grateful to the II Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Hamburg for hospitality during the completion of this work.
[^1]: Differences in the forward region between the total number of hadrons and antihadrons from quark-antiquark pair production arise from the recombination of forward final-state heavy quarks with partons from the initial-state protons non participating to the hard scattering, considering the fact that the parton distribution functions of the up and down quarks in the nucleon differ from those of the antiquarks.
[^2]: The LHCb measurements reported in Ref. [@Aaij:2015bpa] extend to a $p_T$ value of 15 GeV for $D^\pm$, $D^0$, and $\bar{D}^0$, while, for the less abundant $D_s^\pm$, the experimental results in the largest $p_T$ bin are not reported.
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equipment
Last year we added ducks to our chicken coop. It worked quite well, except for the mess they made of the waterer. For a long time we had the waterer in the chicken house raised so only the chickens could get to it, and a general water trough outside. This worked for a while, but eventually became a mess in its own way. If only we had an automatic water system…
Then one day we got our FarmTek catalog in the mail. Looking through it, I saw that they had a plan for making a poultry drinker with a 5-gallon bucket and their Super Flow push-in Nipples. Basically you get a 5-gallon and drill 3 holes in the bottom. push the drinker nipples in, fill with water and hang it so the bottom is about eye-level for your poultry. We keep the lid on the bucket so that the water stays clean, but we only snap it on in 1 or 2 places so it’s easy to take off.
We ordered 6 nipples but just make one waterer to begin. We showed the poultry how to drink from it by holding their beaks to it and they will drink from it, but still prefer the outdoor water bowl. I think if we switched over to only this type of waterer, they would use it without problem.
We made a 2nd drinker when our ducklings were old enough to house with the rest of the chicks. The young chicks, ducklings and poults adapted more quickly to the new system than the older birds did.
Here are photos of the drinker in the chick nursery:
Chicks and ducklings drinking from hanging waterer
Another picture showing the handle
They are still using this waterer exclusively, however, when the rain fills their little pond up they prefer to drink out if that. Even though they have been trained to use this bucket drinker, drinking out of a trough (or puddles) is more natural to them.
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Second Mumbai Film and Comic Con to be held at Bombay Exhibition Centre Goregaon between December 21-22, 2013
The second edition of ‘Mumbai Film and Comics Convention’, an event dedicated to comics, films and everything in between is all set to enthuse fans in Mumbai by bringing one of the biggest pop culture event of the year.. the second Mumbai Film and Comic Con is going to be held between December 21-22’ 2013 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai.
With the increasing synergy between films and comics, Comic Con India found Mumbai to be the ideal place to introduce the brand new convention, and introduced ‘Mumbai Film & Comics Convention’ last year.
Jatin Varma, Founder, Comic Con India, shared, “We head in to our 3rd year in Mumbai bigger & better than ever before! This is the biggest convention we have ever organized, with tons of new exhibitors, activities and exclusives! We hope to party all weekend with Mumbaikars this December!.”
Comic Con India as always is planning a whole slew of activities for Mumbai Film and Comics Convention (MFCC), ranging from workshops to interactive sessions, display and sale of a wide range of comics & merchandise, special corners for creating comics and cartoons, Cosplay, Contests, Book launches and lots more with an aim to promote and bring together local, national and international talent in India to generate more interest among fans.
Cosplay(costume contest),one of the major attractions at Comic Con India, will be more appealing than ever! As it’s Mumbai Film and Comic Con, people will not only get to dress up as their favourite comic character but their favourite movie actor/character as well. Comic Con India will continue to give assured prizes to everyone in costume, but now there are 5 categories that have been created to increase one’s chances of winning gifts. Each day, one winner will be chosen from each of five categories:
1. Comic book/graphic novel
2. Animated Series/Movie
3. Manga/Anime
4. Sci-Fi/Fantasy
5. Gaming
Both days, One lucky winner out of the chosen 5 will get the awesome chance to win GOLDEN TICKET TO SINGAPORE TOY, GAME AND COMIC CONVENTION 2014.
There are going to be special sessions with the leading artists and writers in the country. There will be special Screening of Burka Avenger followed by question and answer with its creator. An exclusive movie session has been planned with Tere Bin Laden Sequel Cast (Manish Paul & Pradyuman Singh) and Abhishek Sharma (Director) for the movie fans at the convention.
There will more than ten new titles to be launched at the convention. Few book launches to look out for are Gandhi by Campfire, Shiva – Book III by Vimanika Publishing, The Skull Rosary by Holy Cow Entertainment, Tinkle Hindi Collections by Amar Chitra Katha Publishing, Zombie Rising by Chariot Comics which will be launched by special guest – Luke Kenny (VJ on Channel V and Actor, Rock On) and Munkeeman 3 by Pop Culture Publishing which has been planned to be launched by Creator Abhishek Sharma (Director of Tere Bin Laden) and Special Guest Manish Paul (Actor, Mickey Virus).
Comic Con India is a unique event celebrating the illustrated medium, which brings together the whole comics industry and related fields such as Merchandise, Toys, Games, Films and Animation, along with fans of this culture from all age groups. Now, after years, the comics’ community in India has a platform where they can meet and interact.
Sales and footfall
At the first Comic Con India in Feb’11, the turnout was approx. 20000 and Sales touched 25,00,000 in just two days. At the Comic Con Express Mumbai, the travelling version of Annual Indian Comics Convention that took place in October ’11, the turnout was around 12,000 and Sales touched 30,00,000 in two days. AT the second Comic Con India that took place in February this year, the response was humungous with the footfall touching 35,000 and sales scaling 50,00,000 in three days.
Last year the traveling version of Comic Con India went to a new city – the Technology capital of India – Bangalore in September 2012, the turnout was 35,000 and the sales crossed over 65,00,000 in two days. At the first ever ‘Mumbai Film and Comic Con’ that took place last year in Mumbai in Octtober last year, the turnout was an estimated 26,000 and the sales crossed over 45,00,000 in just two days.
At the third Comic Con India that took place in February this year, the response was tremendous, footfall touched 50,000 and sales touched one crore in a matter of three days. At the first ever annual ‘Bangalore Comic Con’ that took place in the south India city in June this year, the turnout was about 62,000 and the sales touched 1.25 crore in two days. Adding a new city to the travelling version, The Comic Con Express went to Hyderabad in Sept’13, and the response was overwhelming. At Hyderabad, the turnout was 25,000 and the sales touched 75,00,000 in mere two days.
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For those of you I haven’t yet met, I’m Cathy Dove, Vice President of Cornell Tech and a resident here on Roosevelt Island. Together with Dean Dan Huttenlocher, I’m very excited to be leading Cornell’s efforts to develop our new tech campus. I’m going to be using this column to periodically update Islanders on our vision, plans and progress.
It’s hard to believe that it has been less than a year since the City selected Cornell to build an applied sciences campus that will introduce a new graduate tech model and grow the tech sector in New York. Since January 2012, we have been in true “start- up” mode; hiring employees, finding space, and all the while ramping up plans for our future campus on Roosevelt Island. In the last few months, we’ve hired star faculty, moved into our temporary campus space donated by Google in Chelsea, launched a unique partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce and begun accepting applications for our “beta” class of computer science students, which will start in January.
In addition to these very visible activities, we’ve also been hard at work behind the scenes. On the academic side, together with our academic partner Technion, we’ve been designing a distinctive model of graduate tech education that will closely connect academia and industry to spur innovation and economic growth in New York City and beyond. In addition, we’ve also been spending a great deal of time crafting a campus plan for the Roosevelt Island site that will guide our project over the coming years, conducting a very thorough environmental review, and creating early design concepts for the first academic building. I am pleased that the appropriate city agencies have agreed that our planning is at a stage where we can now share this material with the community. This week we officially launched the seven-month public input process known as ULURP.
Ever since Cornell was chosen by Mayor Bloomberg in December to build the campus, we’ve been working hard to meet with as many members of the community as possible, and that effort will only intensify now as we begin official hearings with the community board, borough president, city planning commission and finally the full city council. We’re very much looking forward to a full dialogue on all aspects of the plan.
You can see current renderings of the campus here on Roosevelt Islander Online. Our goal is to create a publicly-accessible campus that stitches the Island together, connecting to the open space and circulation systems on the north and to the parks, Southpoint and Four Freedoms, on the southern tip of the Island. A central pedestrian path will welcome Islanders from the northwest corner of the campus, winding through the campus buildings and into a series of active public open spaces offering breathtaking views of the Manhattan and Queens skylines. The campus will feature a river to river experience, with open spaces pulling people in from the esplanade. The buildings will be social and welcoming, with public spaces on the ground floors, including a public café in the academic building that spills out into the open spaces. We want the campus to be a great new amenity for Roosevelt Island residents, a place that feels part of the community.
The elements of each phase of campus development are being designed to connect academia with industry to spur innovation and entrepreneurship, economic development, jobs and a growing tech sector in New York City. The first phase, due to open in 2017, will include all of the activities necessary to make the campus feel whole from day one, including an academic building, a residential building for students and faculty, a corporate co-location building for startups and tech companies looking to collaborate with the campus, and an executive education center with hotel facilities.
Design work is already underway on the first academic building by Pritzker Prize- winning architect Thom Mayne. We aspire to make this a net-zero energy building, one of the largest of its kind in the country. We are evaluating a number of ways to generate the energy needed to achieve this unique level of sustainability, including a canopy of solar panels that would be an exciting design feature in addition to serving an important function. I think you’d agree it’s the type of bold thinking that has always been at home here on Roosevelt Island.
This is an exciting time for Cornell Tech as well as for Roosevelt Island. We still have a long way to go before breaking ground in 2014, but the process is well underway. The first of many opportunities to hear more about all the details of the campus plan is coming up at the Community Board 8 meeting on October 22. I hope to see you there or at one of the other meetings during this review process. I’ll be back soon with another update on our progress and more information about Cornell Tech.
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Vice President Mike Pence kicked off the first campaign rally in 2020 Thursday by urging supporters of President Donald Trump to “have faith” as the elections approach.
“In these divided times, as this election year begins, I encourage you to have faith,” Pence said. “Have faith in this president, whose drive and vision have made America great again.”
Pence spoke at the beginning of a Trump campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday.
He also reminded supporters to have faith in God.
“If we put our trust in Him who has ever guided the destiny of this last great hope of earth, that he will yet bless Ohio and America beyond anything we could ask or imagine,” Pence said, referring to Ohio’s state motto, “With God All Things Are Possible.”
He also asked Trump supporters to keep up the enthusiasm for their campaign and to tell their friends and neighbors about everything he and the president had done to make the country better.
“I know that with your continued support, with our strong allies in Congress and in your state house and with God’s help, we’re going to deliver a great victory for the American people straight through the state of Ohio,” he said.
The vice president also defended Trump against the House effort to impeach the president, criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for dragging out the Democrat-led effort impeachment process.
“Remember they said it was urgent, and now Nancy Pelosi has been sitting on those articles of impeachment for almost a month,” he said. “It is a disgrace.”
Pence praised Trump, noting that he would do whatever it took to keep the country safe and economically strong.
“He never quits, he never backs down. He believes in you and fights for you every single day,” he said.
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46 Wn.2d 251 (1955)
280 P.2d 257
HARRY B. MEYER et al., Respondents,
v.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY et al., Appellants.[1]
No. 33107.
The Supreme Court of Washington, Department Two.
February 25, 1955.
John D. MacGillivray and Willard W. Jones, for appellant.
Ralph Booth McAbee, for respondents.
MALLERY, J.
We must decide whether a commercially operated ditch fifteen feet in average width with domestic water running in it from two to three-and-one-half feet deep, is an attractive nuisance along the unfenced portion of its course through the city of Richland.
At about noon, on August 28, 1953, plaintiff's two-year-and-eight-months old son left his home. He was unattended and on a tricycle. He traveled over two thousand feet to Thayer drive, a hard-surfaced thoroughfare parallel to and about two hundred feet distant from the ditch in question, which was unfenced and easily accessible to him. Shortly thereafter, the boy's drowned body was taken from the ditch near the city limits. There were no houses near the scene and no eyewitnesses to the tragedy.
From a judgment for damages for wrongful death in favor of the plaintiffs, the defendant appeals.
Because of the nature of the contract between the defendant and the Federal government, the law applicable is the same as if the ditch was on the defendant's private property.
The deceased infant's age eliminates any question of contributory negligence, and we are not concerned with the ordinary duty of care of an owner of property toward a known trespasser. The defendant is not liable unless the doctrine of attractive nuisance applies.
The respondents, in support of the judgment, contend that the ditch was an attractive nuisance and should have been *253 fenced at the scene of the drowning, as it was where it passes through the more populous areas of the city.
[1] This state adheres to the attractive nuisance doctrine. However, our question is: Under what circumstances will a watercourse constitute an attractive nuisance?
[2] It is the weight of authority that a natural watercourse is not an attractive nuisance, and that an artificial one is not if it has natural characteristics. As was said in Somerfield v. Land & Power Co., 93 Kan. 762, 145 Pac. 893:
"The canal, as will be observed, has the characteristics of a natural stream and can no more be regarded as an attractive nuisance than would a river flowing through the city or a pond or lake therein."
See, also, McCabe v. American Woolen Co., 124 Fed. 283.
[3] The doctrine is applied to watercourses only when there is some circumstance constituting a trap or hidden danger which the immature mind would not appreciate or could not resist, as in Bjork v. Tacoma, 76 Wash. 225, 135 Pac. 1005, upon which respondents rely. In that case, the city used a wooden flume, with a cross section two-feet square, to carry its domestic water supply. At one time, an opening had been cut in the top of the flume from which water had been taken. Later, a cover had been nailed over the opening, but in time the nails had rusted away, the cover had come loose and had been missing for two weeks before the death in question. The opening in the flume was near a regular playground for the children in the neighborhood. A three-year-old boy, who had played at jumping over the opening, somehow got sucked through the flume and was drowned. The court said:
"A distinction between an open flume carrying a stream of shallow water or an irrigating ditch, and an enclosed box with an opening such as is here maintained on premises used as a common playground in a populous city, may be soundly made, both by reason of its location and its greater danger. A child falling into such a hole obviously had no chance either of rescue or escape."
[4] The facts and distinction made in the Bjork case point up the natural characteristics of the ditch in the instant case. *254 It was not unnaturally dangerous, had no element of deception or of an inextricable trap, and, in fact, presented no danger by reason of being artificial that was different in any way from that of a natural watercourse. We hold, as a matter of law, that it was not an attractive nuisance.
The respondents, in support of the judgment, lay stress upon the age of the deceased child. They say:
"To `Little Harry' Meyer, the two-year-and-eight-months-old victim in the instant case, the ditch two to five feet deep and fifteen feet wide was certainly not an `open and apparent danger.' At that age, can it be speculated that to him this was any danger at all?"
[5] The presence of danger to an unattended infant is not necessarily a test of anything but the need of parental care. An infant is afraid of nothing and in danger of everything when left to his own devices. The primary duty of care is upon the parents of an infant. Sullivan v. Huidekoper, 27 App. D.C. 154. Their neglect will not convert a situation admittedly dangerous to an infant into an attractive nuisance which would not be so classed as to older children.
The judgment is reversed.
HAMLEY, C.J., HILL, WEAVER, and ROSELLINI, JJ., concur.
April 4, 1955. Petition for rehearing denied.
NOTES
[1] Reported in 280 P. (2d) 257.
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Margot Robbie has "never met anyone" like Cara Delevingne and she has likened her to a "rare gem in this world".
The 'Suicide Squad' star has gushed about her co-star, who she has dubbed a "rare gem in this world".
She said: "She is a rare gem in this world and I've just never met anyone like her.
"She is the most genuine person you can ever meet and there's nothing calculated about that girl. She's like a little comet just blasting her way through this world."
The 26-year-old actress - who hails from Australia - has spent a lot of time in the UK and is more than happy to try some of the country's delicacies including black pudding.
She told Glamour magazine: "At my first bite of black pudding, I was like 'yum' and then someone said it's dried blood and I was like 'I can't'. Once I knew, I couldn't get past it. I tried but I can't."
Meanwhile, Margot previously described Cara as her "new drinking buddy".
She shared: "What made working on the film even more amazing was that I found my new drinking buddy in Cara. It's no myth about the British being able to drink, Cara is hardcore. I struggle to keep up. But we have the most fun ever. She is definitely now one of my drinking buddies for life."
Margot is also good friends with another famous Brit - Prince Harry.
She revealed: "He [Prince Harry] is pretty quick on text, actually. Unlike me. I write back four days later, weeks later sometimes."
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On Thursday morning, thousands of people across the city were confined to their homes as many employers suspended office work and the public health department suggested everybody practice “social distance,” while a blanket of grey clouds covered the sky.
The bad weather added to the feeling of impending doom making for a quiet and dreary day in L.A.. But for the tens of thousands of people living without a roof over their heads, the heavy rains exacerbated the threat of the coronavirus.
At 3rd Street and Rose in Venice, before the rain hit, increased enforcement of LAMC 56.11, the ordinance that bans people from sleeping on the sidewalk during the day, continued near the Bridge Housing Shelter that recently opened. The ordinance is strictly enforced around shelters.
As sanitation workers began to take down tents, the rain finally made it to the pacific ocean, eventually putting an end to the sweep but ultimately leaving folks stuck in the rain, unsheltered.
According to multiple organizers and unhoused residents, these sweeps happened across the city on Thursday morning despite LASAN’s reported policy to halt sanitation cleans during inclement weather and they’re scheduled to continue in the coming days. The forecast in L.A. is never certain but as of now, it’s supposed to rain almost continuously until next Saturday.
For years organizers have protested against these sweeps and proposed alternatives that could be enacted immediately to the deaf ears of city leaders. But now as the coronavirus has evolved into a pandemic and spread across California and more recently Los Angeles County, the city is starting to take them seriously again.
“Were proposing to the city a package that they’ve never been more interested in listening to because of the coronavirus outbreak and it’s showing that all of the stuff all along has been more than affordable.” David, a 40-year resident of Venice that is currently unhoused, told L.A. Taco over the phone.
In addition to being more susceptible to catching the coronavirus, it’s also more difficult for the unhoused to get tested or seek treatment after they contract the disease.
On Thursday community members across multiple different organizations advocating for everything from prison reform to unhoused rights had a conference call to create a proposal that they will present to city officials this week. David said the coalition has a meeting with Councilmember Mike Bonin scheduled for today. Their plan calls for sweeping legislation to alleviate the pressures caused by the coronavirus for the most at-risk populations in Los Angeles.
L.A. Taco reached out to Councilmember Mike Bonin’s office but did not receive a response in time to feature his comments in this report.
The unhoused community is arguably one of the most vulnerable groups of people when it comes to coronavirus. The CDC lists handwashing and social distance as the most effective ways to control the spread of the coronavirus but with almost no access to 24-hour bathrooms, showers or other hygiene services, the unhoused are more susceptible to contract and spread the coronavirus. Already on average, three homeless people die every day in Los Angeles. COVID-19 has the potential to make this number increase drastically.
At the same time, rain makes everything worse for the unhoused and can be deadly or exacerbate virus symptoms even further. Hypothermia can occur at temperatures as high as 60 to 70 degrees and cold water increases the rate of hypothermia 25 fold. In L.A. County in 2018, more unhoused people died from hypothermia than in New York City and San Francisco combined. With temperatures ranging from the low 40s to mid-60s and rain forecasted until next Saturday, the threat of hyperthermia is a grave concern.
In addition to being more susceptible to catching the coronavirus, it’s also more difficult for the unhoused to get tested or seek treatment after they contract the disease, the CDC says that an infected person can carry the virus for several days before displaying symptoms.
We’re coordinating closely w/ @LAPublicHealth & @LAHomeless & working to protect our most vulnerable residents from COVID-19 by opening more hygiene stations across the city, distributing hand sanitizer to unsheltered Angelenos & implementing best practices in preventing spread. — Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) March 12, 2020
In response to these concerns, on Thursday the city announced that it would be distributing over 100 hygiene stations across the county to bring handwashing stations and other services to the unhoused. On Wednesday, Councilmember Bonin installed over 35 portable hand washing units across his district.
The fact that city officials are trying to introduce basic services to the unhoused as a result of a worldwide pandemic while also continuing sanitation sweeps is a red flag for some organizers though. “It’s sort of counterintuitive, you’re making all these efforts to bring out all of these very expensive services and at the same time you’re making an effort to make it difficult for the most needful to be near them,” said David. Organizers are calling for all sanitation sweeps to be temporarily stopped.
Over 40 organizations have been advocating for more services for the unhoused for over two years now through the Services Not Sweeps Coalition. Last year, the coalition was involved in deep negotiations with the Mayor’s office to bring services to the unhoused but after months of deliberation, the conversations stopped. Later the city announced a similar plan that would bring some services to homeless encampments under the Mayor lead CARE and CARE+ teams.
“For the record, we gave these proposals to the Mayor’s Office seven months ago and met with Szabo, Guerrera, and the City Attorney’s Office routinely to discuss,” Pete White, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network told L.A. Taco in June of last year after the Mayor announced the CARE program. White added that “The real sticking point was criminalization and removing law enforcement—they hemmed and hawed on that one.”
What started off as a more “compassionate” approach to sanitation cleans evolved back into an enforcement driven model, when late last year the CARE/CARE+ program was revamped after only a couple of months. In a January report, LASAN said, “The program encountered challenges in its first months, including communication, coordination, and decision-making in the field. LASAN also heard concerns about the program directly from Council offices.”
LASAN proposed a number of changes to the CARE and CARE+ programs in the report including a promise to “fully enforce LAMC 56.11 at every location they visit.” L.A. Municipal Code 56.11, also known as the controversial sit and sleep law, bans people from sitting, sleeping or storing certain property on sidewalks and other public spaces during the day time.
The decision “shocked” Councilmember Mike Bonin who told L.A. Taco in January, “I was surprised and disappointed that it was just sort of announced and was not something that the council got to discuss or debate.”
Organizers point to a long history of relying on enforcement rather than services as being a major part of the problem. Had the city adopted the proposal that Services Not Sweeps coalition proposed they might have been better prepared for an event like the coronavirus.
The coronavirus has in many ways put a spotlight on some of the state’s and city’s most contested issues from prison reform to food insecurity to homelessness.
Some organizers also questioned how effective basic handwashing stations are to a community of people that are living outside. “Although a good thing, just by the nature of homelessness and living outside, they are not going to help fight the spread of a virus,” Mark Horvath, a former unhoused resident of L.A. and co-founder of Invisible People said on Twitter, “Because they live outside in an unhealthy environment, the moment they walk away their hands will be dirty again.”
Horvath also pointed out that getting to hygiene stations might be challenging for some unhoused people. Based on LAHSA’s most recent homeless count, each station would service an average of over 585 people and 4 miles of the county. “HOUSING is the only way to guarantee people will wash their hands regularly. Oh, and it ends homelessness too.”
While the city has lagged behind on creating housing and services for the unhoused, grassroots coalitions have picked up the slack. Now as a result of the virus, they’ve had to put some of those efforts on hold.
This week, service providers like SELAH, a neighborhood homeless coalition that was co-founded by city council nominee Nithya Raman, decided to cancel outreach programs and events, “While it pains us dearly, our organization has decided that in an abundance of caution we will cease our four on-site events where groups of unhoused and housed individuals gather,” Selah said in a newsletter. They will temporarily pause all group events until at least March 21. “We feel that it is crucial that we do our part to prevent transmission, especially amongst at-risk populations.”
That means no Saturday suppers or community potlucks for dozens of unhoused folks in the Silverlake, Atwater and Echo Park areas of Los Angeles. The group does plan on doing engagement to pass out hygiene kits and facts sheets to make their unhoused community aware of how they can stay safe though.
The coronavirus has in many ways put a spotlight on some of the state’s and city’s most contested issues from prison reform to food insecurity to homelessness. This week the Services Not Sweeps coalition has been working behind the scenes to create a new list of demands to present to the city that calls for all sanitation sweeps to be temporarily suspended and 24 access to restrooms in parks and government property.
Is it better late than never? The next couple of weeks will let Los Angeles know.
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The Measurement of Palpebral Fissure Height Using the Intersection Angle (the Réal Angle) Between the Meeting Points of the Upper Eyelid and the Edge of the Cornea.
We evaluated a new palpebral fissure height measurement to evaluate medial, lateral, and overall ptosis. We photographed 250 Koreans (44 males, 206 females) and evaluated their Réal 1 angle (angle between the meeting points of the upper eyelid and the corneal edge), Réal 2 angle (angle between the meeting point of the upper eyelid, medial corneal edge and a vertical line through the center of the pupil), Réal 3 angle (angle between the meeting point of the upper eyelid, lateral corneal edge and a vertical line through the center of the pupil), and Réal 4 angle (Réal 2-Réal 3). Angles were compared between sexes and age groups. We then evaluated the Réal angles of 13 Korean actresses. Mean age was 31.85 ± 14.60 years; Réal 1 was 129.01° ± 14.23°, Réal 2 was 68.20° ± 7.49°, Réal 3 was 60.80° ± 9.65°. There was no significant difference between the sexes in Réal 1, Réal 2, and Réal 3 angles. Réal 1 increased with age, and Réal 4 decreased with age. All Réal angles were significantly different between age groups. The actresses' mean age was 30.66 ± 8.01 years; Réal 1 was 102.84° ± 10.16°, Réal 2 was 57.87° ± 6.10°, and Réal 3 was 44.97° ± 8.74°. This simple measurement of palpebral fissure height using Réal angles consistently evaluated the amount of medial, lateral, and general ptosis. For average Korean eyes, the lateral portion of the upper eyelid is slightly higher than the medial portion; however, this lateral portion droops with age. Korean actresses have vertically higher eyes than average Korean women. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .
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Director says casting lends “gravitas to roles that are rooted in naiveté and youth.”
Gary Briggle and Wendy Lehr
Ben Krywosz
In these days of non-traditional casting, Nautilus Music-Theatre in St. Paul, MN, is taking non-traditional in a whole new direction.
In its current production of the classic mini musical The Fantasticks, the director has cast 64-year-old Gary Briggle as Matt (The Boy) and 72-year-old Wendy Lehr as Luisa (The Girl), characters described as 20 and 16, respectively, in the script. They sing the duets “Soon It's Gonna Rain” and “They Were You.” The two actors are married in offstage life.
With musical direction by Jerry Rubino, the production is in the middle of a sold-out limited run that concludes April 19. Also in the cast: Brian Sostek, Christina Baldwin, Jennifer Baldwin Peden and William Gilness.
“This casting came about for a variety of reasons," said director Ben Krywosz. “Our group of artists have been talking recently about advancing years, artistic adventures, and the innate stylization of music-theater. We wondered how we might use the non-naturalism of music-theatre to offer our artistic elders an opportunity to focus on direct storytelling. Gary and Wendy (each of whom did the roles ages ago) bring a sense of maturity and gravitas to roles that are rooted in naiveté and youth. And Jen and Christina, both parents of young children and daughters of elderly parents, resonate deeply with their roles, transcending gender and dealing simply with the urge to protect their offspring.”
Krywosz added, “When an influential piece like The Fantasticks becomes part of the canon, it becomes harder for audiences to see (to paraphrase El Gallo), ‘not with their eyes, for they are wise, but with their ears, and hear it with the inside of their hand’— in other words, beginner’s mind. How can interpretive artists recreate the kind of impact the piece had on audiences in 1960, 56 years later?
“Our casting requires audiences to use theater’s most powerful tool — their own imagination — to help us create a climate in which the power of the words and music engage. And by using beloved members of the Twin Cities’ theatrical community, we were guaranteed of an audience connection through extraordinary performances.”
Based on Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand, The Fantasticks tells the story of two young lovers who live in adjacent houses. Their fathers have built a wall, ostensibly to keep them apart, but really to bring them together. Among other things, it's a story about growing up.
The show has music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It opened Off-Broadway May 3, 1960, and, after a bumpy start, ran 17,162 performances, still the longest continuous run in American theatre history for a show on a full performance schedule. The original run closed in 2002, but a 2006 revival is still running Off-Broadway, and has piled up its own run of more than 3,800 performances.
The Fantasticks is performed at the Nautilus Music-Theater studio at 308 Prince St #190 in Lowertown St. Paul, MN.
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Influence of elastic strains on the adsorption process in porous materials: an experimental approach.
The experimental results presented in this paper show the influence of the elastic deformation of porous solids on the adsorption process. With p(+)-type porous silicon formed on highly boron doped (100) Si single crystal, we can make identical porous layers, either supported by or detached from the substrate. The pores are perpendicular to the substrate. The adsorption isotherms corresponding to these two layers are distinct. In the region preceding capillary condensation, the adsorbed amount is lower for the membrane than for the supported layer and the hysteresis loop is observed at higher pressure. We attribute this phenomenon to different elastic strains undergone by the two layers during the adsorption process. For the supported layer, the planes perpendicular to the substrate are constrained to have the same interatomic spacing as that of the substrate so that the elastic deformation is unilateral, at an atomic scale, and along the pore axis. When the substrate is removed, tridimensional deformations occur and the porous system can find a new configuration for the solid atoms which decreases the free energy of the system adsorbate-solid. This results in a decrease of the adsorbed amount and in an increase of the condensation pressure. The isotherms for the supported porous layers shift toward that of the membrane when the layer thickness is increased from 30 to 100 mum. This is due to the relaxation of the stress exerted by the substrate as a result of the breaking of Si-Si bonds at the interface between the substrate and the porous layer. The membrane is the relaxed state of the supported layer.
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Functional conservation and cell cycle localization of the Nhp2 core component of H + ACA snoRNPs in fission and budding yeasts.
We report the identification of a novel nucleolar protein from fission yeast, p17(nhp2), which is homologous to the recently identified Nhp2p core component of H+ACA snoRNPs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We show that the fission yeast p17(nhp2) localizes to the nucleolus in live S. cerevisiae or Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells and is functionally conserved since the fission yeast gene can complement a deletion of the NHP2 gene in budding yeast. Analysis of p17(nhp2) during the mitotic cell cycles of living fission and budding yeast cells shows that this protein, and by implication H+ACA snoRNPs, remains localized with nucleolar material during mitosis, although the gross organization of partitioning of p17(nhp2) during anaphase is different in a comparison of the two yeasts. During anaphase in S. pombe p17(nhp2) trails segregating chromatin, while in S. cerevisiae the protein segregates alongside bulk chromatin. The pattern of segregation comparing haploid and diploid S. cerevisiae cells suggests that p17(nhp2) is closely associated with the rDNA during nuclear division.
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Get up to:
100% Bonus
Up to first $500
* New customers only.
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Peter Mueller (b. 1954)
Madison and Mequon, Wisconsin
Peter Mueller
Skates worn by Peter Mueller when he won his gold medal at the 1976 Olympics.
Source: Paul Mueller.
As a child Peter saw other children speed skating in races held at Madison's Tenney and Vilas Parks and wanted to join them. Officials told the six-year-old that he was too young, but his father Paul talked them into letting Peter race with the seven-year-olds. Peter amazed everyone by winning.
Within a year or two Paul Mueller and a handful of others created the Madison Speed Skating Club, which eventually produced stars such as Eric and Beth Heiden and Casey FitzRandolph.
After the Muellers moved to Mequon, Peter's winning ways continued, and he earned the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics. In 1977 he came in second at the World Championships, beaten only by the invincible Eric Heiden. The same year he married Leah Poulos, a silver medalist at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.
After retiring in 1980, Peter began his coaching career. He coached a professional Dutch team, then Olympic medal winners Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen. Peter coached the Norwegian team in the 2006 Olympics.
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First break of the original in May 2016. Welded, it broke again in June, so was replaced with a new one.
Replacement broken in the same way, after just four months.
What seems to be a minimal weld, probably just a spot-weld i.e. the two components held together while a high (not high enough) current is passed through the joint
FOC replacement looks just the same, so I'll get it reinforced. OK, the breakages are probably down to the traffic calming 'pillows' we have to suffer round here, but I have no choice but to drive over at least one of them, and a significant detour to avoid another four.
Finding a 5/8" bar on eBay (the original RB V8 bar was 9/16" but the CB was 5/8" so should be fine) I decide to swap that and then see how the drop-links go. It came without pivots or end-stops, but the bushes were good. New pivot rubbers (1B 4526) are cheap enough at under £2, but annoyingly I forget that the Ron Hopkinson pivots and straps are rounded, but the originals ('straps' BHH 2000) are angular. Never mind, the RH ones do for the time being, at less than £2 the P&P on the correct ones is more so they can wait for a supplier visit. Being thinner this time I have some suitable hose so use that with Jubilee clips for end-stops to prevent sideways movement.
Factory pivot straps top, RH lower - one hole on the latter slotted to aid fitting the second bolt. The factory straps have to be checked against the chassis rail holes and 'adjusted' to suit before attempting to fit the bolts.
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Magnetite-Coated Boron Nitride Nanosheets for the Removal of Arsenic(V) from Water.
It is widely known that the existence of arsenic (As) in water negatively affects humans and the environment. We report the synthesis, characterization, and application of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) and Fe3O4-functionalized BNNS (BNNS-Fe3O4) nanocomposite for removal of As(V) ions from aqueous systems. The morphology, surface properties, and compositions of synthesized nanomaterials were examined using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, surface area analysis, zero-point charge, and magnetic moment determination. The BNNS-Fe3O4 nanocomposites have a specific surface area of 119 m2 g-1 and a high saturation magnetization of 49.19 emu g-1. Due to this strong magnetic property at room temperature, BNNS-Fe3O4 can be easily separated in solution by applying an external magnetic field. From the activation energies, it was found that the adsorption of As(V) ions on BNNSs and BNNS-Fe3O4 was due to physical and chemical adsorption, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity of BNNS-Fe3O4 nanocomposite for As(V) ions has been found to be 26.3 mg g-1, which is 5 times higher than that of unmodified BNNSs (5.3 mg g-1). This closely matches density functional theory simulations, where it is found that binding energies between BNNS-Fe3O4 nanocomposite and As(OH)5 are 5 times higher than those between BNNSs and As(OH)5, implying 5 times higher adsorption capacity of BNNS-Fe3O4 nanocomposite than unmodified BNNSs. More importantly, it was observed that the synthesized BNNS-Fe3O4 nanocomposite could reduce As(V) ion concentration from 856 ppb in a solution to below 10 ppb (>98.83% removal), which is the permissible limit according to World Health Organization recommendations. Finally, the synthesized adsorbent showed both separation and regeneration properties. These findings demonstrate the potential of BNNS-Fe3O4 nanocomposite for commercial application in separation of As(V) ions from potable and waste water streams.
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Changes in the prescribing of liquid oral medicines (LOMs) in the northern region of England between 1987 and 1992 with special regard to sugar content and long-term use in children.
To assess the changes in prescribing of liquid oral medicines used long-term in children and to observe any patterns of change in sugar-free prescribing. Prescribing patterns in 1992 were compared with those in 1987. Information on these and on the sweetening agent in each liquid oral medicine was obtained from several relevant sources. The survey covered the Northern region of England, and Great Britain overall. Data on numbers (in 1000s) and quantities (1) of liquid oral medicines prescribed and dispensed during 1992. All generic and propriety preparations with equivalent therapeutic effects were included. There was a small percentage reduction in the use of liquid oral medicines among all medicines dispensed in Great Britain in 1992 compared with 1987. The total volume of liquid oral medicines prescribed in the Northern region increased from 320,000 l to 442,600 l of which the total quantity prescribed as sugar-free increased from 35 per cent to 50 per cent. Children who require medicines long-term are often those for whom dental disease and treatment carry the greatest potential risks. Use of solid rather than liquid dose forms of medicine should be promoted and the trend towards the sugar-free options in liquid medicines should be encouraged and sustained.
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The present invention is directed to a box top opener and more specifically to a one-piece molded plastic opener suitable for gripping one end of a box top whereby the end of the box top may be pried up and bent back to facilitate pouring out of the contents of the box.
Many boxes on the market today containing granular materials, such as soap or the like, have the upper end thereof enclosed by overlapping flaps which are adhesively secured together. Such boxes usually have two parallel dotted lines or score lines along the edges of the top extending inwardly from one end of the box and directions stating that the top of the box should be torn back along the two parallel dotted lines or score lines. Some boxes are further provided with a dot on the side of the box adjacent the top edge between two angular intersecting score lines which define a triangular flap which must be pressed inwardly prior to tearing the end of the top upwardly. Depending upon the thickness of the stock material of the box and the effectiveness of the score lines, if any, the opening of such a box can prove to be extremely frustrating and difficult especially for people having very little strength in their fingers or suffer from arthritis. Women with long fingernails often complain about opening boxes of this type since they frequently break their fingernails in the process.
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December 17, 2012
China Stealing Christmas
China stole Christmas past and maybe future with the help of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms and bankers. China from around 1980 on was ready to sell us goods at cheap prices and in the late nineties Goldman, and other corporate culprits, devised a way for the American citizen to pull equity out of their homes, when in fact there was very little equity, to buy goods from China. The gimmick was sub-prime loans.
Now, as a result, we are in a battle with China to maintain our standard of living and our economic position in the world. We not only lost the equity in our homes, but at the same time transferred much of our wealth to Asia by consuming what they produced. The battle is not over; however, we need to make serious adjustments if we are to win.
"By 2030 Asia will be well on its way to returning to being the world’s powerhouse, just as it was before 1500."
Presently the Defense budget of the United States is equal to the combined defense budgets of the next 13 countries in the world.
Our defense budget is $711 billion while China's is $150 billion, a little more than 20% of ours. India's defense budget is not even among the next 13 countries.
The Next Generation/American Progress report, The Competition that Really Matters, found that by 2030 China will have 200 million college graduates -- a number that eclipses the total U.S. workforce -- and by 2020 India will be graduating four times as many students from college as the United States.
Another problem is the lack of early childhood education for half of U.S. children and the quality of teachers, the Next Generation/American Progress report said.
"In the United States, high school students who choose to enter undergraduate programs for education have SAT scores on average in the bottom third of all students tested, which stands in sharp contrast to nations with impressive student results," the report found.
China and India are overtaking the United States in college graduates as summarized by the graph below taken from a study by the Center For American Progress linked above.
Unless we decide to use our defensive weapons for offensive purposes, by 2030 we will no longer be the dominant economic power in the world.
Defense As % of GDP
Below are two charts, one comparing what the United States spends on Defense as a percent of GDP and the other comparing our federal, state and local Education budgets to GDP. They both hover around 5%.
Given the state of the world, we are more at risk of losing our position in the world as a result of falling behind in education than we are of being defeated militarily.
Federal, State, and local education as % of GDP
Therefore, we should be reducing our defense budget and transferring the funds to education. We can no longer be the military power for the rest of the West. They must start paying more for their defense.
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NIR-emitting and photo-thermal active nanogold as mitochondria-specific probes.
We report a bioinspired multifunctional albumin derived polypeptide coating comprising grafted poly(ethylene oxide) chains, multiple copies of the HIV TAT derived peptide enabling cellular uptake as well as mitochondria targeting triphenyl-phosphonium (TPP) groups. Exploring these polypeptide copolymers for passivating gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) yielded (i) NIR-emitting markers in confocal microscopy and (ii) photo-thermal active probes in optical coherence microscopy. We demonstrate the great potential of such multifunctional protein-derived biopolymer coatings for efficiently directing Au NP into cells and to subcellular targets to ultimately probe important cellular processes such as mitochondria dynamics and vitality inside living cells.
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Interrelated and integrated studies of subjects with periodontal diseases are being carried out. The goals of the ongoing studies are to improve knowledge of factors contributing to the etiology and pathogenesis of periodontal diseases, as well as to use this knowledge to monitor the progression of diseases and to improve diagnostic and prognostic capabilities. Subjects are initially screened and clinically characterized by investigators in the Core section of the Center, and appropriate clinical samples and other pertinent information are collected. Clinical, biostatistical, and data management support are provided to the other study groups involved in the Center. During the past year, two categories of subjects have been studied. Subjects with periodontitis are being observed longitudinally to determine clinical, immunological, and bacteriological parameters associated with progressing periodontal sites. Data from these studies will provide information regarding the nature of progression of periodontitis and provide a basis for rationale therapy and prognosis. The second category of subjects are those with early onset forms of periodontitis and their families. Our data indicate that the expression of early onset periodontitis (juvenile periodontitis JP and severe periodontitis SP) is genetically determined. Therefore, we are continuing to enter families identified via probands with these diseases into our studies in order to test genetic hypotheses of the mode of transmission in these diseases and to study clinical and immunological features of these diseases. Finally, in vitro studies aimed at determining some of the immunological pathogenic mechanisms that contribute to periodontal diseases have been accomplished.
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SINGAPORE: Five McDonald’s employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, said the fast food chain in a press release on Sunday (Apr 12).
The employees worked at outlets in Lido, Forum Galleria, Parklane and Geylang East Central, which have been deep-cleaned and closed until further notice.
All other employees working at the four outlets have been told to serve a company-imposed 14-day leave of absence, regardless of whether they had come into contact with the confirmed case, said McDonald's Singapore. Their daily temperatures and health condition will be closely monitored.
The five confirmed cases are now quarantined in medical facilities and are being monitored by medical personnel, as per the Ministry of Health’s guidelines.
They had normal temperature readings at the start of their respective work shifts, said McDonald’s Singapore.
The details of the five cases are as follows:
Employee 1 works at the Lido outlet and was last there on Apr 2. The employee also worked at the Parklane outlet for one day on Mar 30. The employee visited the doctor on Apr 3 for a sore throat and fever, and was given five days of medical leave. The employee visited the doctor again on Apr 8 and was sent for a swab test.
Employee 2 works at the Lido outlet and was last there on Apr 3. The employee had rest days from Apr 4 to Apr 6 and visited the doctor on Apr 7 for joint pains and muscle aches.
Employee 3 works at the Parklane outlet and was last there on Apr 8. The employee also worked at the Lido outlet on Mar 30, Apr 1, 2, 3 and 6. The employee visited the doctor on Apr 9 for a fever.
Employee 4 worked at the Forum Galleria outlet and was last there on Apr 8. Employee 4 is a roommate of Employee 3. Employee 4 was well but was requested by McDonald's to go for a swab test on Apr 10.
Employee 5 works at the Geylang East Central outlet and was last there on Apr 8. The employee visited the doctor on Apr 9 with a fever and was referred to the hospital for a swab test.
In response to CNA queries, McDonald's said about 210 employees are serving a 14-day leave of absence that has been imposed by the company.
"This is an added precautionary measure on our part to ensure that these employees stay isolated and safe at home," it added.
Employees who are isolated have been advised to take their temperatures twice daily and to see a doctor if they are feeling unwell. McDonald's said it would continue to monitor these employees' well-being over the next 14 days.
“As we continue to uphold all important safety measures to the highest standards, we also want to encourage our customers to wear a mask when they visit our restaurants for takeaway in line with the latest recommendation, for their own safety and that of our employees,” said McDonald’s Singapore managing director Kenneth Chan.
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
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Versace family and Blackstone expected to sell in deal likely to be announced on Tuesday
US luxury group Michael Kors is set to announce a deal to buy Milanese fashion house Versace in a deal worth about $2bn, according to two people briefed on the talks. The agreement, expected to be announced on Tuesday morning, will see the Versace family selling alongside US private equity firm Blackstone, which took a 20 per cent stake in Versace in 2014. At that time, the US private firm injected €150m of fresh capital into Versace and acquired €60m in stock in Versace’s family-owned holding company. A spokesman for Versace declined to comment. Michael Kors and Blackstone were not immediately available for comment. The deal would come after Versace, one of the last independent fashion houses, put the brakes on an initial public offering because market conditions were not deemed suitable, according to a person briefed on the decision. It would be the latest independent European runway brand to decide to sell in recent months. Italy’s Missoni family announced an agreement to sell a minority stake of its eponymous brand to a private equity venture backed by the Italian state before the summer, and Antwerp-based Dries Van Noten sold a majority stake to Spanish luxury group Puig in June. Meanwhile, Michael Kors has been seeking to buy up brands in order to create a US rival to European luxury conglomerates LVMH, Kering and Richemont."
"
The Versace family, which owns 80 percent of the company, will continue to have a role under any agreement, the people familiar with the situation said. Donatella serves as creative director, while Santo is chairman.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported earlier that Versace could be sold this week for about $2 billion, with several groups interested including Kors and Tiffany & Co. LVMH, PVH Corp. and Tapestry also looked at Versace in recent months, according to a report on Sunday by Women’s Wear Daily."
"Michael Kors set to Destroy Versace" would be a more accurate headline!
More duty-free bags with logos out there...great!
Click to expand...
Yes, that's my issue with this! I'm afraid if they buy Versace they are just going to turn it into a Michael Kors 2.0 because that's all they know. You can't teach someone who sells duty-free bags to the point of over saturating the world market how to maintain an exclusive brand, it just doesn't happen.
Yess.
Google, there are more sources, one blog-alike that's why i didnt take it as quelle.
But seems MK will buy it.
( I got this news coincidentally and googled to know more and i was so surprised! )
Click to expand...
Just googled it myself and I am surprised as well ! I wonder if Tisci was planning to go to Versace, but this development maybe deterred him because I still find the Burberry appointment strange. I don't know.
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muse: verb \myüz\
1: to become absorbed in thought; especially : to turn something over in the mind meditatively and often inconclusively
2: archaic : wonder, marvel: to think or say reflectively
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Doing the Hokey Pokey - Facing the Future Part 2
I talked last time (Part 1) about how often when I'm thinking about the future I can slip into an attitude or posture of FEAR instead of standing in FAITH. I am definitely still learning this dance move, but basically God has me working to turn these feelings around (that's the Hokey Pokey part J) so that I can move on in His strength all the way to victory! It goes something like this (though the order varies depending on how He leads):
STOP. Come before His throne and get down on my knees. Be still. Look up and listen. Look back and remember how faithful he has ALWAYS been. Throw my burdens into His hands. Thank Him for all He's done before and what He's going to do still. Turn away from the sin I may have fallen into. Push back and resist the enemy. Put my hands in God's and let Him lead. Trust Him. TRUST HIM. TRUST HIM! Climb up on His lap and maybe all the way up to His shoulders and see what He sees when He looks at my future! And then make some choices...
To be DETERMINED instead of dreading.To start being COURAGEOUS instead of cowardly.To choose to be CONFIDENT and stop despairing.To be TRUSTING instead of anxious.To be FILLED WITH FAITH instead of fearful.
To BELIEVE and KNOW that IN CHRIST I CAN BE...
EXPECTANT instead of worried.HOPEFUL instead of discouraged.ENCOURAGED instead of depressed.BRAVE instead of timid.PERSEVERING instead of giving up.STRONG instead of weak.BOLD instead of afraid.FEARLESS instead of terrified.EMPOWERED instead of powerless.SECURE instead of insecure.ENLIGHTENED instead of confused.EQUIPPED instead of incompetent.AT PEACE instead of falling apart...EXPECTING and PROCLAIMING VICTORY instead of declaring defeat.COUNTING IT ALL JOY instead of whining!!!
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
Why??? BecauseGodsaysso.(In 2 Corinthians 4 it also says...)
6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak...
I have to believe it and speak it. I will not lie down and give up because my victory is not dependent on my own power. Christ bought it for me with his blood. I will not squander that! My victory depends on God and I HAVE THIS TREASURE and no one can take it away from me.
Who Am I?
Want my posts via email? It's easy to start or stop.
NO GUILT ALLOWED!
This is a guilt-free blog. You are free to read as much or as little as you like but you can't feel guilty for not commenting. I'm honored that you would take time to stop by! I love getting comments, but don't ever want you to feel bad for not leaving any. (However, I have created a spot for you to sign your name and let me know you were here if you'd like. Like how we used to have people sign their names on the walls of our old house... Just for fun! But don't worry... still no guilt allowed!) ; )
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1. Field of Invention
The invention generally relates to authentication, and more particularly to digital authorization of entities using sound.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growth of electronic commerce, use of public communication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to access various secure networks, systems and/or applications has also grown. For example, users may gain access to banks (online or by automatic teller machines (ATM)), a private network such as an intranet, a secure server or database, and/or other virtual private network (VPN) over a public communication infrastructure by digital authentication.
However, with the introduction of a system of communication wherein face-to-face contact is not possible, opportunities for fraudulent or unauthorized access have increased. Misappropriated identity in the hands of wrongdoers may cause damage to individuals, organizations or other entities.
To prevent unauthorized access, various security schemes have been developed to verify user or entity identification such that only authorized entities are given access. One technique for user authentication and access control can be implemented by a access code generating device, such as a token. Here, a unique access code is periodically generated displayed to a user. Typically, the access code is generated from an algorithm that is based on a secure information and the current time. The user is then required to input the currently displayed access code to gain access.
In some systems, a password is also required to gain access. These types of systems are known as the two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is typically based on something that a user has, for example the token, and something that a user knows, such as the password. Because both pieces of information are used to authenticate a user, systems implementing the two-factor authentication may be less susceptible to attacks than a single-factor authentication.
While a token as described above may prevent unauthorized access, it is cumbersome because users must manually enter each access code during each access. Also, errors are more likely to occur due to the manual input of the access code. In some systems, a user is required to input the access code more than once during each access, which increases the inconvenience and possibility of errors. Furthermore, because the access code may be based on time and is continuously displayed, a constant computation may be required by the token, thereby shortening the battery life of the token.
Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient, more convenient and/or more secure way to implement a control access system using a device.
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And they’re back! No, not the players, the dins. Shouts of “You need to do better than that” and “That was embarrassing” were heard by my own delicate ears.
Yes, if something is poor state it, it’s not a crime, but to say it’s embarrassing? Anyway, I am of the opinion ‘If you can’t beat them join them’. BENNETTS SHIT! Joking… Joking.
Seriously, I don’t think anyone had a bad game, or could in their first game back since returning to training a few days ago. Three of us met at the top of the Eastern Road midday to car share up/along to Salisbury. A journey which included mocking one another for various reasons, none of which you can unfortunately relate to.
Once we arrived we were greeted with signs advising we couldn’t park in any of the residential streets – an instruction I would have blatantly ignored however, I wasn’t driving.
It was a good job too because once we arrived at the *insert whatever awful name Salisburys ground is here* we found out it was only a pound to park. A pound! In a day and age where Freddos are about 50p. So fair play to Salisbury for that.
To be fair, the ground actually had a fair few hundred spaces, which did prompt us to get a beer after the game to avoid queuing when we wanted to leave. Once inside the ground you can actually appreciate how shit Rodney Parade is. For a non-league ground it was pretty impressive. I won’t bore you with my description of it but look it up.
The pitch was like a carpet, and yes “it’s the first game back” I’m fully aware, but it still looked incredible for a club four (?) divisions below Pompey.
I’m glad that after Claridge failed to get in the Pompey hot seat again before Jackett was given the job, he managed to wangle a attention seeking unofficial testimonial. Someone I personally think is attention seeking but hey ho. He done well when he played for us so I’m told.
It was nice to see some of the reserve players who we haven’t be able to see much get some game time. Unfortunately Talbot didn’t thunderf*** a volley top corner but I’ve got a good feeling it’s coming soon.
May really impressed me with a few quality passes across the pitch and his composure as well as Lalkovic, someone I’ve never been that bothered about before. It was however pointed out to me that he was up against Salisbury’s second choice right-back, so I retract my praise and will wait until more matches and harder competition to make a judgement.
Main was described to me as 95% shoulders – which you can kinda agree with. He worked well second half with Kabamba. Neither of our keepers were tested much, unlike Pompey fan Charlie Searle who was between the sticks for the hosts.
He actually contributed to one of my favourite pre-season moments when the tannoy announcer requested over his system “We’ve had some complaints from people regarding language. Please don’t swear”.
The Pompey fans reacted in the best way possible by chanting anti-scum songs at a child wearing the stripes. Which before you condemn, remember, he’s only a poor little scummer. Charlie sang and clapped along which personally I found highly amusing.
The announcement actually reminded me of the time Crewe’s PA announcer pleaded for fans not to abuse the officials, you can imagine the reaction.
On the subject of officials you won’t hear a better reaction from a Lino today after someone yelled “How’s Froddo doing you hobbit?” at the rather small official. “Ask your wife” might not have got a round of applause at Fratton, but it certainly did today.
It wasn’t just the Pompey reserves we saw today. We also caught a glimpse of the horror that is the second rate drummers attempting to gee up the crowd – at a non league friendly – to give them credit they did sing very apt songs, their single “If you can’t bang a woman bang a drum” will be available on iTunes later this week. At least their honest.
There was one thing that did disappoint me today, it wasn’t the line up, or the moaners, or the fact the burger girl didn’t look at me the way I wanted her to, but the fact that when the Pompey players where leaving the ground via the other side of the bar today, Gareth Bae Evans decide to take an alternative route.
Leaving me with tears in my eyes as I stood there longing for him to turn around and walk past me whilst I had my camera ready for our special moment. My wait for a photo with Bae goes on – but I will find him – and I will marry him.
Peace. PUP
@PompeyMemes
Watch highlights here.
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He has been working on the project for about three months now, but he has been making very quick work of getting everything up and running. As of a few weeks ago, the project was in a pretty unstable alpha stage, but after pounding away at some bugs, he is now able to render any game he pleases.
The clone uses an Altera DE1 board just like his previous builds, and he has been able to emulate all three if the main chips that make up the Turbografx logic board. He has yet to work on the Programmable Sound Generator, but that is slated for the near future. While the FPGA currently stores ROMS in its flash memory, he has plans to add the ability to load games from an SD card.
Keep reading to see a pair of videos showing his console clone in action, it’s impressive.
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First Democratic debate lineup
FWIW I would venture to guess that I’m in the 99.44th percentile in terms of knowledge in regard to this subject among the general population, and I still don’t know who Delaney and Ryan are, as in I couldn’t tell you anything about them. Could be a bad sign for them.
Second night:
Bennet
Biden
Buttigieg
Gillibrand
Harris
Hickenlooper
Sanders
Swalwell
Williamson
Yang
I could tell you something about everybody in this group — not much but something — mostly because three of them actually live within three blocks of me. Except for Swalwell. Can’t say I know anything about him.
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"It was said that the military governor and the collective punishment are two faces for the same coin. The Israeli Military Governor was facing very tough difficulties to impose non-collective punishments. And despite the fact that the policy and decision makers realized that imposing collective punishment is like discarding the new born with the birth water, we continued this approach and expanded it."
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Get outside and have an outdoor adventure
Enjoy the school holidays with outdoor adventures. Try new activities, enjoy the fresh air and let the kids run off some steam this summer.
The school summer holidays have just started and like many parents you’ll be thinking about how to entertain the children for the next six weeks. With tablets, games consoles, smartphones and television you may spend some time trying to get them off their devices and into the outside world.
At Rock UK we are passionate about bringing adventure into learning in the outdoors. We give children and young people (and those young at heart) a chance to experience exhilarating adventure in a safe environment.
Many studies have highlighted the health benefits children get from spending time outdoors. Research by the National Trust showed that children now spend less time outdoors than their parents did growing up. The majority of parents believe that playing outdoors makes their children more imaginative and creative and feel it is important for children to have a connection with nature.
When children and young people are outdoors there is more freedom to be active which keeps them fit and healthy, reduces stress and improves their mental health. It allows them to produce vitamin D from sunlight which keeps bones healthy and enhances their mood. Having an outdoor adventure gets them to explore new things, develops their creativity empowering them to push boundaries and grow in confidence.
With four centres across the UK there’s a centre not too far from you. Throughout the summer our centres run holiday clubs and/or activity days at Frontier Centre in Northamptonshire; Carroty Wood in Kent; and Summit Centre in the South Wales valleys. In the Scottish borders Whithaugh Park also provide family adventure days and holidays.
Across all our centres we offer a range of over 40 instructed outdoor activities from archery to climbing, high ropes to bush craft, raft building and many more.
We asked some of our activity instructors their favourite things to do outdoors as a child. Here’s our suggestions for an outdoor adventure.
Build an outdoor den at your local woods or in the garden
Go for a long walk or bike ride around a nearby country park
Try a new activity locally such as archery, climbing or canoeing
Stay up ‘til it gets dark and stargaze
Go camping and enjoy living in the outdoors for a night or two
Go on a Scavenger hunt and collect stones, leaves, shells and more.
For the not so squeamish, go on a bug hunt, explore under rocks and logs for different creepy crawlies
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Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is joining his running mate Donald Trump in calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton and for the Clinton Foundation to be shut down after the Associated Press reports more than half of Hillary Clinton’s meetings as secretary of state with non-government officials were with Clinton Foundation donors.
“The fact Hillary Clinton’s official schedule was full of meetings with Clinton Foundation donors is further evidence of the pay-to-play politics at her State Department. No one is above the law. The Clinton Foundation must be immediately shut down and an independent special prosecutor be appointed to determine if access to Hillary Clinton was for sale,” Pence stated in a press release on Tuesday afternoon.
Pence added, “It would be a dereliction of duty by President Obama and his Justice Department if they fail to act on these startling new facts right now.”
https://twitter.com/AP/status/768166957728358400
Pence’s press release linked to the Associated Press report, which notes, “More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money – either personally or through companies or groups – to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.”
Trump called for a special prosecutor to oversee an investigation into the alleged pay-to-play relationship between the Clinton Foundation and the Department of State during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state at a campaign rally in Ohio on Monday night.
“The Clintons made the State Department into the same kind of Pay-to-Play operation as the Arkansas Government was: pay the Clinton Foundation huge sums of money and throw in some big speaking fees for Bill Clinton and you got to play with the State Department,” Trump declared. “The amounts involved, the favors done and the significant numbers of times it was done require an expedited investigation by a Special Prosecutor.”
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251 P.3d 65 (2011)
Arthur Eldean HOCKETT, Individually, and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, Appellants,
v.
The TREES OIL COMPANY, Appellee.
No. 103,309.
Supreme Court of Kansas.
May 20, 2011.
*67 Rex A. Sharp, of Gunderson, Sharp & Walke L.L.P., of Prairie Village, argued the cause, and Barbara C. Frankland and David E. Sharp, of the same firm, of Houston, Texas, were with him on the briefs for appellants.
Jeffrey L. Carmichael, of Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock & Kennedy, Chtd., of Wichita, argued the cause, and Will B. Wohlford, of the same firm, was with him on the brief for appellee.
Kimberly A. Green and David W. Nickel, of Depew Gillen Rathbun & McInteer LC, of Wichita, were on the brief for amicus curiae Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association.
Tammie L. Lord, of Legal Services Bureau, Kansas Department of Revenue, was on the brief for amicus curiae Kansas Department of Revenue.
The opinion of the court was delivered by JOHNSON, J.:
Arthur Eldean Hockett appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of The Trees Oil Company (Oil Company) on Hockett's purported class action against Oil Company for the alleged wrongful withholding of taxes and fees from royalty payments. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL OVERVIEW
Pursuant to an oil and gas lease with Oil Company, Hockett has a 1/8 royalty interest in the production from a Haskell County well which produces natural gas (hereafter referred to as the "Hockett well"). Oil Company operates the Hockett well, along with a number of other oil and gas wells in this state.
Oil Company sells the gas produced from its Haskell County wells to certain entities that the parties refer to as "first purchasers." Helium is extracted from the raw gas and sold separately. Before paying Oil Company for the production, the first purchasers deduct the severance tax imposed by K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 79-4217 and the conservation fee imposed by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) under K.A.R. 82-3-307. Oil Company then pays Hockett 1/8 of the net sales proceeds, i.e., 1/8 of the amount Oil Company actually receives from the first purchaser.
On March 9, 2009, Hockett filed an action against Oil Company, which was styled as a class action. The class was defined in Hockett's petition as: "All royalty owners who were paid royalties for oil and/or gas produced from wells located in Kansas in which The Trees Oil Company has owned any working interest between Jan. 1, 1996 to the present." Hockett claimed that Oil Company had no statutory right to subtract an amount from royalty payments equal to the conservation fee and had no statutory right to deduct a helium severance tax from royalty payments. The petition's prayer declared that Oil Company "should be ordered to provide an accounting and to pay its royalty owners within the Plaintiff Class for underpayment of royalties in the amount of the Conservation Fee deduction taken and severance tax deduction taken on helium."
Oil Company filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The motion argued that Oil Company could not be held liable for complying with the KCC regulation on conservation fees and that the severance tax on *68 gas included helium as a matter of law. The district court denied the motion to dismiss but requested the filing of a summary judgment motion.
Hockett filed two motions for partial summary judgment: one addressing the conservation fees question and the other addressing the severance tax issue. Oil Company responded to Hockett's motions and filed a cross-motion for summary judgment. After further summary judgment pleadings, i.e., responses and replies to responses, the district court conducted a hearing on August 31, 2009. On September 23, 2009, the district court filed a journal entry denying Hockett's motions and granting Oil Company's motion for summary judgment. The district court found, in relevant part:
"[O]n the issue of the severance tax, the tax was enacted to be an [e]ncumbrance on the gas stream and all constituents contained therein. For that reason, the Court finds that the severance tax was appropriately charged on helium upon Plaintiff's royalty portion of the recovered helium.
"... [O]n the conservation fee charged under K.S.A. 55-176, ... the state was attempting to impose an oil and gas operations fee and ... by imposing a mill levy on volume as opposed to a percentage of proceeds from production, ... the conservation fee was to be imposed on all participants in the oil and gas venture, including the royalty owners."
Hockett appealed to the Court of Appeals, and this court transferred the appeal pursuant to K.S.A. 20-3018(c). Hockett presents two issues on appeal, which we paraphrase as follows: (1) Whether the district court erred in holding that K.S.A. 55-176 imposes a conservation fee on royalty owners; and (2) whether the district court erred in holding that the severance tax imposed on "gas" means that the tax is assessed against helium. We take the liberty of first addressing the severance tax issue.
REIMBURSEMENT FOR WITHHELD SEVERANCE TAX ON HELIUM
A. Standard of Review
The ruling from which Hockett appeals is the granting of summary judgment in favor of Oil Company. While it appears that there may be disputed facts in this case, none of them is material to the issue upon which the district court ruled as a matter of law. Accordingly, we review the summary judgment under a de novo standard. See Genesis Health Club, Inc. v. City of Wichita, 285 Kan. 1021, 1031, 181 P.3d 549 (2008). Additionally, Hockett asks us to interpret the severance tax statutes, which presents a question of law over which this court exercises unlimited review. See 285 Kan. at 1031, 181 P.3d 549.
B. Analysis
Hockett asserts that his royalty payments were wrongfully reduced by the amount of severance tax attributable to helium. He apparently does not challenge that the severance tax applies to royalty owners. See K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 79-4217(a) ("Such tax shall be borne ratably by all persons within the term `producer' as such term is defined in K.S.A. 79-4216, and amendments thereto, in proportion to their respective beneficial interest in the coal, oil, or gas severed."). Rather, the basis for Hockett's claim of wrongful deduction is that he believes there is no statutorily imposed severance tax on the helium component of the extracted gaseous product.
Hockett's statutory interpretation argument begins with the statutory language that imposes "an excise tax upon the severance and production of coal, oil or gas from the earth or water in this state." K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 79-4217(a). The statute does not explicitly refer to helium. Hockett points out that the term "gas" is defined as "natural gas taken from below the surface of the earth or water in this state, regardless of whether from a gas well or from a well also productive of oil or any other product." (Emphasis added.) K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 79-4216(c). Hockett contends that the physical properties of helium are so different from natural gas that helium must be considered in the "any other product" category. Therefore, he argues that the legislature's inclusion of the "any other product" language in the definition of gas manifests an intent to exclude *69 helium from the severance tax, even though the gaseous helium is randomly commingled with the hydrocarbons and other gases at the time of severance.
Pointedly, Hockett does not discuss another provision in K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 79-4217(a) that specifies the severance tax "shall be applied equally ... to the gross value of the gas severed and subject to such tax." The Secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDR) has interpreted this provision to answer the very question presented here, i.e., whether helium is subject to the mineral severance tax. In Revenue Ruling No. 92-1998-01, effective December 31, 1998, the KDR Secretary opined that, since helium is a component of natural gas and is measured as part of the full volume of gas as it is severed, helium contributes to the gross value of gas at the wellhead, making helium subject to the severance tax.
Granted, "[a]n agency's interpretation of a statute is not conclusive; final construction of a statute always rests within the courts." Denning v. KPERS, 285 Kan. 1045, 1048, 180 P.3d 564 (2008). However, for purposes of this appeal, the point is that the KDR was explicitly and unequivocally assessing a severance tax on helium during most of the applicable time period. Therefore, the first purchaser had no choice in the matter; it had a legal obligation to collect the severance tax on the gross value of gas produced at the Hockett wellhead, including the tax on Hockett's 1/8 share of the helium, and then to send the money to the KDR. See K.S.A. 79-4220.
Likewise, Oil Company had no control over the tax assessment against the helium component of the severed gas, either as to Hockett's 1/8 share or Oil Company's 7/8 share. Oil Company never possessed any of the money used to pay the State of Kansas the severance tax and, therefore, it could not have effected a deduction of Hockett's share of the tax from the royalties. In effect, Hockett is asking Oil Company to pay his share of the severance tax out of the Oil Company's own pocket, after Oil Company has paid the tax on its own 7/8 share. Hockett provides no basis, either statutory or contractual, for imposing the obligation on an oil and gas lessee to pay the lessor's share of taxes.
The severance tax money that Hockett seeks to recoup went to the State of Kansas. If Hockett believes that the KDR was not statutorily authorized to assess a severance tax on his share of the helium, he should seek redress against that agency. Oil Company has no legal duty to refund the State of Kansas' severance tax to Hockett out of Oil Company's separate funds. Accordingly, on the severance tax issue, Hockett's petition failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and we can affirm the district court's summary judgment in favor of Oil Company. Cf. Robbins v. City of Wichita, 285 Kan. 455, 472, 172 P.3d 1187 (2007) (correct result in district court will be upheld even where court relied upon wrong ground or assigned erroneous reasons for decision).
REIMBURSEMENT FOR WITHHELD CONSERVATION FEES
Hockett also complains about the reduction of his royalty payments by a proportionate share of the conservation fee assessed by the KCC. Hockett's basis for this claim differs from that relied upon in the severance tax claim. Unlike his challenge to the KDR's statutory authority to assess a severance tax on helium, Hockett does not contest the KCC's statutory authority to assess a conservation fee. Rather, Hockett's claim is that Oil Company owes the entire fee and that he, as a royalty owner, has no legal obligation to share in that operational expense.
Accordingly, if Hockett is correct, then Oil Company's royalty payments effectively allocated 1/8 of the conservation fee to Hockett and, in that case, Oil Company would possess the money that Hockett now seeks to recoup. In other words, Oil Company is the proper defendant for this issue. Our task is to determine whether the conservation fee, like the severance tax, is to be borne ratably by all persons with a beneficial interest in the gas.
A. Standard of Review
Again, we are reviewing a summary judgment entered in favor of Oil Company where *70 the material facts are not disputed, and we apply a de novo standard. See Genesis Health Club, Inc., 285 Kan. at 1031, 181 P.3d 549. Likewise, this issue involves statutory interpretation over which we exercise unlimited review. 285 Kan. at 1031, 181 P.3d 549.
B. Analysis
Statutes and Regulation
Both parties point to K.S.A. 55-176(a) as providing the statutory authority for the imposition of the conservation fee. That provision states, in relevant part:
"[T]he [KCC] shall assess operators or their designated agents for all or part of the actual costs and expenses incurred in: (1) The supervision, administration, inspection, investigation; (2) the enforcement of this act and the rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this act; and (3) monitoring and inspecting oil and gas lease salt water and oil storage, disposal and emergency facilities."
Elsewhere, the term "operator" is defined as "a person who is responsible for the physical operation and control of a well, gas gathering system or underground porosity storage of natural gas." K.S.A. 55-150(e). Hockett, as a royalty owner, has no responsibility for the physical operation and control of the Hockett well, i.e., Hockett is not an "operator." Likewise, Oil Company does not assert that Hockett is its designated agent. Accordingly, Hockett's straightforward argument is that the plain and unambiguous language of K.S.A. 55-176 only authorizes the KCC to assess a conservation fee against Oil Company, the operator of the Hockett well.
To implement K.S.A. 55-176, the KCC promulgated K.A.R. § 82-3-307, which provides in relevant part:
"In order to pay the conservation division expenses and other costs in connection with the administration of the gas conservation regulations not otherwise provided for, an assessment shall be made as follows.
(a) A charge of 12.90 mills shall be assessed on each 1,000 cubic feet of gas sold or marketed each month. The assessment shall apply only to the first purchaser of gas.
(b) Each month, the first purchaser of the production shall perform the following:
(1) Before paying for the production, deduct an amount equal to the assessment for every 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced and removed from the lease;
(2) remit the amounts deducted, in a single check if the purchaser desires, to the conservation division when the purchaser makes regular gas payments for this period; and
(3) show all deductions on the regular payment statements to producers and royalty owners or other interested parties."
Oil Company points out that the regulation assesses the conservation fee against the first purchaser, based on the total production, and requires the first purchaser to give written notice to both the producers and the royalty owners. It suggests that this framework supports its contention that the royalty owners proportionately share in postproduction costs and fees. We disagree.
First, the regulation does not explicitly purport to assess the conservation fee against royalty owners. The use of total production to measure the amount of an operator's conservation fee could fulfill the purpose of equally applying the fee to all operators, regardless of the fractional interest being paid as royalty, e.g., 1/8 or 3/16. Assessing the fee against the first purchaser may simply be the most effective, efficient means for the KCC to collect the fees. Likewise, the notice requirement would allow a royalty owner to calculate the proper amount of royalty he/she/it should be receiving, given that the first purchaser's payment to the operator is less than the gross sales price.
Next, even if an intent to assess conservation fees against royalty owners could be gleaned from the regulation, the KCC exceeded its statutory authority. See In re Tax Appeal of Alex R. Masson, Inc., 21 Kan.App.2d 863, 867, 909 P.2d 673 (1995) ("To be valid, a regulation must come within the authority conferred by statute, and a regulation which goes beyond that which the *71 legislature has authorized or which extends the source of its legislative power is void."). Under its plain language, K.S.A. 55-176 simply does not give the KCC authority to assess conservation fees against royalty owners.
Contractual Provisions
Oil Company's better argument is that neither the statute nor the regulation precludes a royalty owner from agreeing to pay a proportionate share of the conservation fee, i.e., the issue is governed by the parties' contract. It suggests that the subject contract, i.e., the 1941 oil and gas lease, manifests the parties' intent that the lessor/royalty owner is obligated to share in paying the operator's conservation fee, which was statutorily authorized some 45 years after the lease's execution. See L. 1986, ch. 201, sec. 28 (initial adoption of K.S.A. 55-176). Oil Company divines this intent from the language of the lease's royalty clause, which states: "The lessee shall monthly pay lessor as royalty on gas marketed from each well where gas only is found, one-eighth (1/8) of the proceeds if sold at the well, or if marketed by lessee off the leased premises, then one-eighth (1/8) of its market value at the well."
Oil Company asserts that it sells Hockett's gas at the well, so that he is only entitled to receive "one-eighth (1/8) of the proceeds." It then recites selected quotes from a number of Kansas cases to support its argument that "proceeds" refers to the money Oil Company actually receives from the first purchaser. See, e.g., Matzen v. Cities Service Oil Co., 233 Kan. 846, Syl. ¶ 9, 667 P.2d 337 (1983) ("An oil and gas lease which provides that the lessee shall pay ... one-eighth of the proceeds if sold at the well ... is clear and unambiguous as to gas sold at the wellhead by the lessee in a good faith sale, and [the royalty holder] is entitled to no more than his proportionate share of the amount actually received by the lessee for the sale of the gas."); Lightcap v. Mobil Oil Corporation, 221 Kan. 448, Syl. ¶ 5, 562 P.2d 1 (1977) ("Where a lease calls for royalties based on the `proceeds' from the sale of gas, the term `proceeds' means the money obtained from an actual sale and lawfully retained by the seller."); Waechter v. Amoco Production Co., 217 Kan. 489, 512, 537 P.2d 228 (1975) ("Proceeds ordinarily refer to the money obtained by an actual sale."). Under Oil Company's interpretation of those cases, "proceeds" in this case means the amount of cash-in-hand it receives from the first purchaser, after the first purchaser makes the deductions mandated by state agencies, such as the conservation fee deduction. Accordingly, Oil Company argues that it complied with the lease's royalty clause when it sent Hockett 1/8 of the actual money transferred to its possession from the first purchaser.
The holdings in Oil Company's cited cases do not support its proffered definition of "proceeds" as being the sale price less conservation fee deductions. For instance, in Waechter, this court was called upon to construe a royalty clause which utilized the same language as presented in this case. Later, a lease containing such a royalty clause would become known as a Waechter lease. See Matzen, 233 Kan. at 850, 667 P.2d 337; Lightcap, 221 Kan. at 458, 562 P.2d 1.
Highly simplified, in Waechter the lessee had a long-standing contract with an interstate gas purchaser, which was subject to federal regulatory approval. The contract paid the lessee a price per thousand cubic feet (mcf) that was allegedly less than the then current market value of gas at the wellhead. One of the questions presented on appeal was whether the term "proceeds" in the subject royalty clause meant the price per mcf in the purchase contract between lessee and purchaser which had been approved by federal regulators (sale price), or meant the prevailing market rate per mcf of a willing seller and willing buyer without regard to either the purchase contract or regulatory constraints (market value). Waechter held that "where gas is sold at the wellhead there are `proceeds' of that sale the amount received by the seller from the purchaser." 217 Kan. at 512, 537 P.2d 228.
Obviously, in defining "proceeds" in terms of the amount received by the lessee/seller, Waechter was merely distinguishing the actual gross contract rate per mcf from a hypothetical wellhead market rate per mcf. The *72 opinion did not purport to address the impact on royalties of any deductions from the gross sale price which the purchaser might make to pay expenses attributable to the lessee/seller. To the contrary, Waechter's holding would actually support Hockett's argument that royalties are to be computed based upon the gross sale price.
Lightcap, 221 Kan. at 448, 562 P.2d 1, closely paralleled Waechter. Oil Company points to Lightcap's declaration that "the term `proceeds' means the money obtained from an actual sale and lawfully retained by the seller." (Emphasis added.) 221 Kan. 448, Syl. ¶ 5, 562 P.2d 1. The reference to "lawfully retained" was inserted to address the fact that the federal regulatory agency had disapproved the contract rate as filed and had adjusted the rate downward. 221 Kan. at 451, 562 P.2d 1. The seller could only keep that portion of the sale price paid by the purchaser that was based on a federally-approved rate. Accordingly, the "proceeds" of the sale for royalty purposes only included that portion of the sale price that the lessee/seller was legally authorized to receive. Again, the case has nothing to do with state-mandated deductions from a federally-approved gross sale price.
In Matzen, the issues again revolved around whether royalty owners were entitled to an amount in excess of their proportionate share of the sale price based upon a hypothetical market value of the gas. With respect to the treatment of "proceeds" from the sale of gas at the wellhead, the majority of the Matzen court continued "to adhere to the majority opinions in both Waechter and Lightcap." 233 Kan. at 860-61, 667 P.2d 337. The case adds nothing to the question presented here. Oil Company's citation to Holmes v. Kewanee Oil Co., 233 Kan. 544, 548, 664 P.2d 1335 (1983), is similarly unavailing.
In conclusion, what the cases cited by Oil Company teach us is that the term "proceeds" in a royalty clause refers to the gross sale price in the contract between the first purchaser and the lessee/producer/seller, so long as the contractual rate per mcf has been approved by the applicable regulatory authority. If the lessee claims that it is entitled to compute and pay royalties based upon an amount less than the gross sale price, it must find the authority to do so somewhere other than in the lease's royalty clause.
Postproduction Expenses
Oil Company makes a fleeting reference to an alleged "longstanding general rule in Kansas that the operator and the royalty owner proportionately share in post-production costs and fees." It does not explain why the conservation fee should be characterized as a post-production cost or expense. To the contrary, the fee is authorized to allow the KCC to police production operations to insure that they are being carried out appropriately. Considering that purpose, the conservation fee is more akin to a production cost. We are not persuaded by this brief argument.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we hold that the KCC is not statutorily authorized to assess the conservation fee against a royalty owner who is not also the operator of the subject well. Accordingly, the conservation fee withheld by the first purchaser is an expense attributable to Oil Company, as the well operator. In computing Hockett's royalties, Oil Company was not permitted to deduct the amount of its conservation fee expense from the gross sale price under the contract with the first purchaser. The district court erred in granting summary judgment to Oil Company on the conservation fee issue; that ruling is reversed, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings.
Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
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A new high-rise trend led by the Condo Generation, is pulling into two downtowns. A small but growing number of Gen-Con parents are forsaking dreams of family homes … you know, the one with the white picket fence and the swing set in the large backyard … for condos in the city. There are already family-friendly buildings in downtown Toronto, and Mississauga, with more on the way.Builders, architects and realtors agree that over the next decade an increasing number of parents will decide to raise their children in high-rise condominiums within the city core. Urbanization, a Toronto condo think tank, isn’t so sure. They believe that as long as units are small, prices are high and monthly fees mount, the suburbs will continue to be a beacon to most Moms and Dads. In downtown Toronto, the Aura (College Park), and Distillery (Parliament and Front) projects have successfully been selling 2- bedroom with den units and three bedroom condo suites to people who have infants and school-aged children. While there are few if any condos in downtown Toronto that have swings and slides on their rooftop terraces, builders in downtown Mississauga have hit pay dirt by doing just that. An aversion to commuting, a desire to live in a community that is relatively crime free and wanting all the amenities that downtown has to offer are the three big reasons why bringing up baby now takes place 55-storeys up! Trading backyard lawns for roof gardens has a growing appeal to the current generation of new parents.“There is a trend, a wave coming," says Mark Cohen, a senior executive with The Condo Store Realty Inc. “It is not because families don’t want that backyard and 21/2 kids. It is just that the low-rise opportunities in the GTA are small. The Green Belt has frozen the last of the available land for affordable new housing. Milton and Bowmanville are now THE place for starter homes, and, for many that makes a 21/2 and 3-bedroom downtown condominium attractive.”Condo Store Realty Inc is a real estate marketing and investment company that will be launching four condo projects this year. Two of the proposed buildings are in the downtown core and their plans include a few large family sized units.“I have been following condo selling patterns for 25 years. People are changing their minds about where they want to live their lives and more significantly how they want to live their lives,” he continued. “At the same time we are still a Mecca for immigrants. New Canadians, be they from Europe or Asia, don’t have an aversion to bringing up children in multiple unit dwellings. And let’s face it, downtown Toronto is a very safe place to raise a child.” In the condo world, families don’t necessarily conjure up that traditional picture of Mom and Dad and a couple of kids. For companies selling units, families simply means at least one adult and at least one child living in the suite some of the time. “ Many of the so-called “families” in our buildings are single parents, their children aren’t living with them all the time. It could be the father with weekend custody or the mother who has them during the week. You might even have the mothers and fathers in the same complex but on different floors or in separate towers,” said Debbie Cosic, sales director for Amacon’s The Residences at Parkside Village in MississaugaVancouver based Amacon, is planning to create a de facto downtown for Mississauga over the next decade. Its Residence at Parkside Village will include over 6,000 condos (16,000+ people) in a dozen buildings on a 30-acre empty lot adjacent to the Square One Mall, the YMCA, the Living Art Centre, Library and City Hall in Mississauga. Construction is expected to begin this fall on their first building, the 36-storey Tower One – The Residence.
CUTLINE:Mark Cohen“We analyzed what people want and as a result we have put family sized units into our first three building,” continued Cosic. “It is not just families with infants who are moving in, we are expecting tweens and teens too. We have it all. There is a school, a public park and, of course Square One, within sight of our (soon to be built) condos.” “ The Tower One building is 95% sold already,” continued Cosic. “25% of the units have been purchased by families (single and dual parents). The same is true with our second building (Tower Two – The Grand Residence) and that is already 75% sold.”
CUTLINE:Model Suite for the proposed Grand Residence includes a child's bedroom
The units being snapped up by parents tend to be 21/2 bedroom suites – homes that have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a walk-in kitchen and a windowless, door-less den. The 6’ x 7.5’ den can be converted into a small nursey, or spare bedroom simply by adding a door. These 1,020 sq. ft condos sell for about $320,000, less than what a new Mississauga house costs.The amenities for families include a Wifi gaming area, a swimming pool and even an outdoor children’s playground, complete with apparatus on top of a multi-storey glass podium. It should be noted though, that the apparatus area shown on the Amacon scale model has a smaller footprint than the building’s proposed dog run!Parkside is still a few months away from breaking ground. Also on Burnhamthorpe Road, Smith Davies Developments is building Onyx, its fourth tower on the street. The three completed towers - 375 units Solstice, and 669 unit City Gate Phase I and II – have a mix of condo sizes including 21/2 bedroom units, lofts and townhouses.
CUTLINE: A rendering of the rooftop common area to the Solitice Project
“Onyx Condominiums and Lofts is a 36 storey spire currently under construction in the heart of the Mississauga City Centre, says Renee Bourgon, marketing director for Davies Smith Developments. “ Most of the available suites are one and two bedrooms, and probably too small for a family. But, what is causing a stir, at least with hip parents, are the two storey lofts which span the entire north face of the tower.”“Solstice and City Gate have far more parent appeal. We have put garden homes on the ground level. These units feel like a house on the inside and from the outside they are part of the building,” she continued. “The main floor has the kitchen, living, dining and bath and upstairs there are two-bedrooms and a convertible reading nook. They are good for people starting a family.”CUTLINE:Renee Bourgon, marketing director for Davies Smith Developments
“My personal belief is that, given the changing demographics in Mississauga, people raising children in condos will become the norm. Multiple starts have outsold single-detached here and I believe this will continue in the future. We will see more people moving to the city core.”
CUTLINE:10,000+ people will live in an area that is now an empty field. The multi-building complex will include family unit condos. The field is adjacent to the Square One Mall and Mississauaga City Hall, in Mississauga, Ontario.
In Toronto’s core there are pockets of families living in high-rise condos and their numbers will increase as purchased, but not yet built projects, are opened. The largest is Aura, a Canderel Stoneridge project.The Montreal-based condo builder is poised to begin construction of the 75-storey condominium tower just south of College Park at the corner of Yonge and Gerrard. The residential skyscraper will create a vertical community of close to 3,000 people … many of whom will be under the age of 18. “What we have done is for the first 55 floors we have created a stack of 3-bedroom units on the southeast corner of Aura,” explained Riz Dhanji, Canderel Stoneridge’s vice-president of sales and marketing. “These have sold very quickly. We weren’t surprised; we could see there are a lot of people (who already own smaller condos) wanting to move up to the 3-bedroom. These are people who have two kids or they are planning to have kids.”Most of the building’s suites have been sold, but with the remaining inventory Canderel Stoneridge has rejigged some of the units. “We have created larger 2 bedroom with dens and they are being picked up too,” continued Dhanji. “People are either downsizing or upsizing and the 21/2 has a real appeal.”Aura is the third phase of a massive project that is rejuvenating the Eaton College Park Block. The people, who are moving into the recently opened buildings on Bay Street, are, for the most part, coming alone.“ The units in Phase One and Two are smaller, and as a result attract singles and couples, which is typical for downtown” he continued. “ The reason for this is that developers tend to build small. They feel there is a price point that consumers won’t go past. For families $400,000 for a larger unit can be a tough sell.”However Dhanji is finding with Aura that old adage – if you build it they will come – holds true. The appeal of the larger suites coupled with a desirable location out trumps price point concerns. The company’s gamble to create larger units has paid-off because of life-style reasons. Parents are choosing to live in the Yonge and Dundas district because it has it all – entertainment, restaurants, schools, world-class health facilities, and a large police presence. Whether it is budget driven or for environmental reasons, people moving into Aura are bringing their offspring but not their cars … the building has upped the number of bike racks available for residents. A 1068 sq ft 3-bedroom suite on the lower floors of Aura sold for about $620,000 (all are sold out now). A 1,393 sq. ft 3-bedroom suite on the upper floors (+55), sold at $960,200 with parking and a locker. The condo price without a parking spot and storage was $917,700.Including the size of the balcony the 3-bedroom units that are on floors 6 to 55 are about 1,100 sq ft. The units have two modest sized bedrooms on one side of the curved unit and on the other wall there is a large master bedroom with en suite bath. Indoors and outdoors meld in the living area – kitchen, dining, living room and the door to the balcony are all in one large 16.6 x 7.6 area. City councilor Adam Vaughan wants to see more new family-friendly condos buildings in the downtown core. The Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina councilor tells condominium developers to commit to building three-bedroom family units in 10 per cent of all new condos.Core Architects, an award winning downtown firm, is being innovative, to abide by Vaughan’s 10% rule in the design of a two new condo projects in his riding. Concerned that 3-bedroom units will not sell, Core has come up with a Transformer style building, that creates family sized suites only when there is a Gen-Con demand.Working with Freed Development, Core has designed an 11-storey building that will be constructed at Portland and Niagara Street (near Bathurst and King St W) in Toronto. Most of the suites in Seventy5 are geared to singles and childless couples and are sized small. However, there are a few 2-bedroom suites strategically placed adjacent to 1-bedrooms. Side-by-side, the two units can be converted into 3-bedroom suites. “We couldn’t design a building with 10% (family sized) because they won’t sell – the cost for most people is too high. That is why we came up with the convertible,” explained Core architect Charles Gane, “That means we put a 400 sq ft single condo beside an 800 sq ft one and half or two bedroom condo. If someone wants to purchase both at the same time, we can simply knock out a panel and they have a larger suite.”“5% of the suites are full size and a further 5% are convertible, which fits what councilor Vaughan is pushing for,” he continued. “It is very flexible. You could buy both units and keep the one-bedroom as an investment unit and when a child comes along, the wall can come down. Or conversely, when a child leaves home, the wall can go back, and you have a rental unit.”There is no concrete in the wall between the two convertible units, making the expansion relatively simple. However, the newly constructed condo will have two front doors, two kitchens and two taxable addresses. One of the kitchens can be removed and stored for when the extra unit is no longer needed, unfortunately one can’t warehouse taxes.“I don’t think we are the first to do this, but, I think we are the first in this city. It was done out of necessity.” Core has designed two convertibles buildings in Toronto, the aforementioned Seventy5 and Six50King, a two-building complex near King and Spadina.
CUTLINE: Model of proposed Distillery District condo which will include family sized units“ There are different parts to the family market, based on the age of the children, the number of parents and the number of children,” said Mathew Rosenblatt, a principal with Cityscape Development Corporation, owners and developers of the Distillery District. “There is part of the family market we call specifically, full family.”“ That is our niche within that family market,” he continued. “I would say we seem to attract young couples who are pregnant and who see that this is a good place to have a child. We see people with children (touring their model suites), probably up to the age 5, and some with older children as well.”Cityscape Development Corporation acquired the historic 13-acre Distillery District 8 years ago. Since then the company, along with its partner Dundee Realty, has turned a century old liquor factory into a tourist destination complete with theatres, art galleries, restaurants and public spaces. It is also building condominiums, some of which are larger sized family friendly units.“What attracts families to the distillery? Well for one thing, all of the roads are pedestrian only. The air is clean, it is urban park,” said Rosenblatt. “ In the summer you see mothers’ groups -- moms with strollers – coming to the Distillery to take it all in, knowing that their children are safe.”“There is an early learning centre on the second floor (of a building off Parliament Street) that children living in the Distillery are attending. My daughter is enrolled in the daycare,” he continued. “For older children there is a non-denominational, co-educational private school on the property.” Voice Intermediate School is housed in the historic Cooperage Building. The 8,000 sq ft school teaches grades 4 through 8 and specializes in the arts. “We market the fact that there is an early learning centre and a private school here,” said Mathew Rosenblatt. “The Cityscape partners have always viewed that it is the mix of the tenants that makes a neighbourhood. If we only went for the money we wouldn’t be selling family suitable suites at all.” The company has already built and opened Pure Spirit, a loft and condominium community within the Distillery District. Most of the suites are sold, but, their website lists a 6th floor 1,109 sq. ft 21/2 bedroom loft for $550,000. There is also an empty 21/2 bedroom on the 31st floor suite for sale for $687,000. Their on site sales office is now marketing condos in the second and third phase of the of the project. The 40 storey Clear Spirit Courtyard and Tower will have 21/2 bedroom units ($627,000) in the Courtyard section of the building and 21/2 ($925,000) and 3 bedroom ($999,000) on the penthouse levels of the Tower.The Gooderham, the final tower in the Distillery will be a 35-storey glass 310 unit building. It too has family suitable 21/2 ($1,033,000) and 3 bedroom ($1,415,000) suites on its penthouse levels. Is this Gen-Con movement to the centre of cities a real force or just wishful thinking? According to Urbanation’s Jane Renwick, if there is an incoming wave of family buyers, it hasn’t made much of an impression on the overall sales figures in Toronto.“ I hate to be a naysayer, but I think we’re trying to cultivate a trend here. We’re not seeing a lot of three bedroom units being built, or in the pipeline. If families were demanding larger condominium units, then developers would be building them. We looked at data from 2002 to 2007 and about 1% of the suites were three bedroom layouts,” said Renwick the executive vice-president of Urbanation Inc. The consulting company tracks the Toronto high-rise condo market and regularly publishes a condo data report.“ A lot of families who are in the market for a place to live are still wanting a single family home… yes the one with the white picket fence,” she continued. “There are some major lifestyle issues that are just not attractive to families when it comes to condo living. If you consider a typical condo layout, it has a very small entrance way – once you park a stroller at the front door and create a play area in the living room, getting in, out and around becomes problematic.” “ It is also a case of simple economics (that has stopped the Gen-Con downtown wave). Dumping the car will save you money, but if you get out a mortgage calculator and look at the numbers, you’re paying about $474 a square ft for a condo in the former City of Toronto. Multiple that by 1,230 sq. ft – the average size of a 3 bedroom unit – and you are looking at $583,000, or $2,436 a month in mortgage payments (based on 20% down, a 25 year amortization period and a 5-year fixed mortgage rate of 3.9%), plus $554 in condo fees and you’re pushing $3,000 a month – about the same mortgage payment as a $700,000 house. “Of course, this simplified comparison does not consider the additional carrying costs of property taxes, utilities, and insurance. However for single parents, or couples with a baby who can live in a 700 sq. ft one bedroom plus den unit, condo living is an affordable option.”
Condominium complexes are types of condominiums which copied the popular townhouse complex in terms of location as well as amenities. These new types of condominiums are known for their peaceful and luxurious environment, perfect for a growing family. However, other than its environment, condominium complexes also became popular because of its amenities such as swimming pools, gyms, and other recreational facilities such as parks and playgrounds.
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Trump administration officials have suggested they may scrap a two-year-old agreement to fund a nearly $13 billion proposed commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River with an even mix of federal and state money.
The move could upend the plan for the Gateway tunnel, which is widely regarded as one of the nation's most urgent infrastructure projects.
A spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of Transportation signaled the agency's lack of support in response to a joint announcement last week from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pledging to repay $3.6 billion in federal loans to cover each state's share of the megaproject's cost.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is also contributing $1.9 billion, which it plans to borrow from the federal government and repay.
The federal transportation spokeswoman said her agency now views those loans as part of the federal government's contribution to the tunnel, a position that appeared to break with past funding practices for large transportation projects, in which states often use federal loans to finance their share.
"I think it's a nonsensical position," said Scott Rechler, chairman of the think tank Regional Plan Association and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member. "The states are saying they are going to pay the loans back with interest. This is a project that can't get financed any other way."
The governors' announcement stated that NJ Transit and New York state would repay $1.9 billion and $1.75 billion federal loans, respectively, borrowed through the Department of Transportation's Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program.
"The plan now seeks 100% of its funding from federal sources," the department's spokeswoman said, highlighting how the agency now appears to view those loans as akin to grants. "No actual local funds are committed up front. They propose the project is funded half in grants and half in loans. This is not a serious plan at all."
But transit experts said several large infrastructure projects around the country have drawn on RRIF loans and other low-interest federal debt programs, such as the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, to cover state contributions for infrastructure while also tapping contributions from the federal government.
"This pulls the rug out from under the Gateway project and every other project like it in America," one transportation official told Crain's.
Business groups were also taken aback.
"I think it's just a poor reading of the facts," added Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City. "Unlike the federal government, states don't print money. They rely on loans, including federal infrastructure loans, that they can repay over time. Under no scenario does that diminish their obligation and contribution to the project."
A spokesman for the Gateway Development Corp., an entity comprised of members from Amtrak, New York and New Jersey organized to oversee the tunnel project and related infrastructure, expressed confusion with the Trump administration's position.
"Last week's announcement is consistent with the 50:50 federal/local framework, and was submitted in accordance with longstanding U.S. Department of Transportation guidelines," the Gateway spokesman said.
The Department of Transportation's new opinion on the financing programs is part of a pattern of lukewarm support for Gateway by the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the federal government pulled its representative from the Gateway Development Corp. board, and President Donald Trump's executive budget proposal earlier this year would defund federal grant programs that were expected to pay for portions of the Gateway project, notably the $1.5 billion replacement of New Jersey's Portal Bridge.
Trump has instead floated the idea of a $1 trillion spending plan for infrastructure that would raise as much as 80% of its funds from public-private partnerships. Details of that plan are expected early next year. A key panel of business executives that was organized to help envision the funding vehicle disbanded in August after corporate leaders distanced themselves from the president following his comments on the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Wylde remained optimistic, given the economic importance of building a new rail tunnel to Manhattan under the Hudson before the deteriorating existing one must be partially or completely closed for repairs. "The Partnership has been repeatedly assured by the White House and by the Department of Transportation that this is a national priority," she said. "I can't imagine they're not going to ensure that this gets done."
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A man is asking the public to help identify who he is after suffering a severe spell of amnesia.
Nicknamed “Robert” by hospital staff, he was found in a public park in Peterborough at 6am on 18 May but is unable to recall his real name, age or history.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) had been hoping that his memory would return but as yet there has been “no sign of improvement,” staff say.
Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
In an emotional appeal to the public Robert said: “The last few weeks have been truly horrible. I go through so many different emotions. At times I am angry, frustrated, depressed, lost and confused.
“I just need to find out my name and I hope someone out there will recognise me and help.
When police came across Robert in the park he said he had no memory of who he was, nor how he came about being there. He was taken to hospital where staff found no signs of physical injury.
He had no wallet, mobile phone or any documents on his person.
Robert is described as in his early 20s, roughly 5ft 9in tall weighing 13st. English is his second language, the hospital says, with his accent appearing to be eastern European. He apparently understands some Lithuanian and Russian.
Dr Manaan Kar Ray at CPFT, said: “Amnesia can last for anything from a few hours to a number of weeks. It is now nearly two months since he was found and there has been no improvement in his condition.
“Clearly this is very upsetting for him as he cannot recall any details of his life including his own name, age, where his is from, or what he does for a job.
“We have made strenuous efforts to help him with his memory – including taking him back to where he was found – but nothing has been successful so far.
“Our staff have spent a lot of time with him, helping him to recall day-to-day activities, and he can use a computer and play football and basketball, but we are still no closer to finding out who he is.
“Understandably, he is now getting very frustrated and I hope this appeal will mean someone will recognise him and come forward.”
Anyone with information can call 01733 776014 between 8am and 8pm every day.
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June Westbury
June Westbury (July 26, 1921 – February 11, 2004) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1979 to 1981, sitting as a Liberal.
Westbury was born, in Hamilton, New Zealand. The daughter of Philip William Cantwell and Doris "Dolly" Halcrow, Westbury was educated at Brian's College in Auckland, New Zealand, worked for the Auckland Savings Bank and moved to Canada in 1947. In 1949, she married Peter Westbury. She served as a Winnipeg city councillor from 1971 to 1979, and was associated with the Independent Citizens' Election Committee. She served as Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1970 to 1973, and was a member of the regional and national executives of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.
She first ran for election to the Manitoba legislature in the provincial election of 1973, but lost to New Democrat Ian Turnbull by over 1,500 votes in the central Winnipeg riding of Osborne.
When Lloyd Axworthy resigned his seat in 1979, Westbury ran to succeed him in the riding of Fort Rouge, and defeating New Democrat Vic Savino by 368 votes. For the next two years, Westbury was the only Liberal MLA in the legislature. She was chosen Woman of the Year in Political and Government Affairs in 1979.
The Manitoba Liberal Party saw its support decline to historic lows in the early 1980s, and Westbury was defeated by New Democrat Roland Penner by almost 2,000 votes in the provincial election of 1981. She did not seek a return to elected office after this time, but assisted Liberal leader Sharon Carstairs in the election of 1988.
Westbury was known as a supporter of the arts within Winnipeg, and worked to make the Legislative Building of Manitoba fully accessible to female members. She was a supporter of the Manitoba Opera Association, as well as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
When Videon applied to the Community Committee in 1977 to request television recording equipment be allowed, Westbury was quoted as saying "I support the idea because the more coverage we have, the more community involvement we can hope for."
She died at the Convalescent Home of Winnipeg at the age of 82.
References
Category:1921 births
Category:2004 deaths
Category:Manitoba Liberal Party MLAs
Category:Winnipeg city councillors
Category:Women MLAs in Manitoba
Category:People from Hamilton, New Zealand
Category:Women municipal councillors in Canada
Category:20th-century Canadian women politicians
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Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, in its implementation in a microscope assemblage, is suitable for the investigation not only of non-directional molecular diffusion, but also of directional transport processes, such as particle flow, that may be overlaid on the diffusion. The concentration and diffusion coefficient of correspondingly labeled molecules, and the absolute value of their flow velocity can be derived from autocorrelation analysis of the fluorescence signal of the molecules. The radial symmetry of the focus about the optical axis makes it impossible, however, to determine the direction of the flow. (Publications: Brinkmeier (2001) in: Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy—Theory and Application, pp. 379–395, eds.: R. Rigler, E. Elson, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg/Berlin; Dittrich & Schwille (2002): Anal. Chem. 74, 4472).
European Patent EP 0 941 470 discloses a system in which an FCS module is associated with an imaging scanning microscope. The FCS module is coupled directly onto the scanning microscope. The light for FCS examination is coupled out of the detection beam path of the scanning microscope and conveyed to the FCS module. Unequivocal detection of the diffusion direction is not possible with this system.
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Minot AFB's Editorial Policy & Submission Guidelines
This Web site, www.minot.af.mil, is the only official, publicly accessible Web site for Minot Air Force Base, the 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing.
This Web site is a means for the installation commander to keep Airmen and members of the general public informed of news and information affecting the installation.
Only information cleared for public release in accordance with Defense Department Web Policy and Air Force Instructions 35-107 and 33-129 will be posted to this public Web site. The guidelines on this page are intended to help members of the Minot AFB community to submit appropriate information for publication on this site.
For more information, call the Minot AFB Public Affairs office at (701) 723-6212 or e-mail.
Editorial Policy
The Minot AFB's Public Web site is the commander's primary communication tool to transmit information to the base community. The following editorial policy guidelines apply to achieve this goal:
1. The public Web site provides the commander a primary means of communicating mission-essential information to members of the organization. The commander normally defers all decisions on news propriety, story placement, publication date and use of photography to the Public Affairs officer.
2. News and feature stories on people and organizations provide recognition of excellence in performance and help set forth norms for mission accomplishment.
3. News coverage and content will conform to policies of the Air Force and the commander. News reporting will be factual and objective. News coverage will avoid morbid, sensational or alarming details not necessary to factual news reporting. News writing will distinguish between fact and opinion. When an opinion is expressed, the source will be identified. This public Web site will not publish commercial news or editorials.
4. This public Web site will keep Airmen and members of the general public accurately informed about military matters affecting their futures. This will assist the commander in improving morale and quelling rumors.
5. News and editorial content will provide information to all members of the Minot AFB community to improve the quality of their lives and thereby the effectiveness of the work force. This includes officers, enlisted members, civilian employees, family members, retirees and Reservists and Guardsmen.
6. This Web site will de-glamorize the use of alcohol and tobacco products. Articles concerning the club, unit, or other activities may mention these products as long as the emphasis is on the activities and not the products.
7. This public Web site will not display commercial advertising.
8. Event announcements published on this Web site must be made available to all readers without regard to race, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation or any other non-merit factor.
9. The contents of this Web site will conform to applicable regulations and laws relating to libel and copyright, the Air Force Privacy Act Program and Standards of Conduct, as well as U.S. Government printing and postal regulations.
10. Locally originated articles will reflect the policies of the commander and be in the interest of the Air Force. Editorials should help readers understand Air Force policies and programs. They must not imply criticism of other government agencies, nor advocate or dispute specific political, diplomatic, or legislative matters. Statements or articles on legislative matters by people or agencies outside the DOD, including officials or candidates for public office, will not be used.
PA Guidance and DoD Imagery
AFPAA STATEMENT: The Air Force trains its photographers, photo-journalists, public affairs specialists and public affairs officers the importance of maintaining absolute credibility of official DoD imagery.
The Air Force solidifies DoDI with Air Force Instructions 35-101, Public Affairs Policies and Procedures, and 33-117, Multimedia Management. The information contained in these instructions echo the intent and information contained in the DoDI.
AFI 33-117, paragraph 2.8.1. reads, "The alteration of a photographic or video image by any means for any purpose other than to establish the image as the most accurate reproduction of an event is prohibited."
POSTURE: Active. Queries beyond the scope of this guidance should be directed to AFPAA, (703) 696-1158 (DSN 426-1158) or appropriate unit. Organizations should respond to questions relating to their mission or the related policy concerning image alteration. Refer calls to AFPAA only if they go beyond the scope of location-specific information or this PAG.
STATEMENTS: The Department of Defense has policy, DoD Instruction 5040.05, dated June 6, 2006, which prohibits the alteration of all photographic and video images. The purpose of this policy is to ensure the absolute credibility of official DoD imagery.
It is DoD policy that imagery is an essential tool for decision-makers at every DoD level.
Mission success and the protection of lives and property depend on official DoD imagery being complete, timely, and above all, highly accurate.
Anything that weakens or casts doubt on the credibility of official DoD imagery in or outside the Department of Defense shall not be tolerated.
Publication Guidelines
Deadline: All elements of this Web site are updated daily, as time and mission requirement permit. In order to ensure adequate coverage or advertising of an event, information should be submitted no later than one week prior to the event. If submitting self-written material, please send to public affairs no later than close of business on Tuesday of the desired week you'd like to see it run.
Rewrite: All copy submitted will be rewritten as needed to ensure it conforms to Air Force journalism guidelines for news writing. This includes conforming to the guidelines in the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and appropriate story length.
Prominence: The location and manner in which an item is presented on this Web site will be determined by the Public Affairs officer.
Recurring Columns: Recurring columns from base agencies are normally discouraged because of the time and commitment required to keep the Web pages up to date. Units requesting dedicated space on this Web site must designate a content manager, and prepare and submit six months of content prior to page publication. The public affairs officer will determine if a request for a recurring column has merit.
Award Winners: Stories and/or photos of award winners are limited to group-level and higher. Awards below wing level may be mentioned in a regular (news or spotlight) column and published on a space-available basis.
Change of Command: Stories and/or photos are limited to group-level or major tenant organizations. Squadron-level change of command announcements may be published in the "news briefs" column.
Photos: Photos normally accepted for publication include on-the-job action photos. Photos containing photos containing classified information, alcoholic beverages or cigarettes, dress and personal appearance violations, safety violation or which compromise force protection measures will not be published. Photos should be accompanied by a brief description of the action pictured, the date of the photo, the ranks, names and units of people featured in the photo, and the rank and name of the photographer.
Fund Drives: Coverage will be limited to those campaigns authorized by Air Force regulations, namely the Combined Federal Campaign and the Air Force Assistance Fund.
Coordination: Articles published on this site will be coordinated with affected agencies as deemed appropriate by the Public Affairs officer. Controversial or "sensitive" articles will be coordinated with the commander, and higher headquarters, when necessary, before publication. Changes to style or news writing will only be made when directed by the Public Affairs officer.
Writing Guidelines
Passive Voice: Avoid the use of passive voice (e.g. The policy was approved.) and use active voice instead (e.g. The committee approved the policy.)
Direct Address: Only address your audience directly (e.g. You should do ...) in commentary and editorial articles.
First Person: Only use first person (e.g. I, we, me, my, etc.) in commentary and editorial articles.
Full Identification: Full ID includes a person's rank, first name, last name, unit of assignment and duty title.
Abbreviations and Acronyms: Do not use abbreviations. Acronyms are only used on second reference when the meaning is clearly understood.
Jargon: Avoid the use of jargon and technical language. Have experts explain technical in common terms.
Attribution: All news articles should include direct or indirect attribution from two or more sources.
Plagiarism: The Air Force has a no-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism in any public affairs publication.
Military Ranks: Associated Press style is used for military ranks on first reference.
Courtesy Titles: Courtesy titles or conversational ranks, as appropriate, will be used in second and later references to people in all internal information products.
For example, Lt. Gen. William J. Johnson on first reference would be referred to as General Johnson throughout the remainder of the product or, in subsequent references.
Individuals can be referred to by their job title (e.g. the maintainer) or by generic rank alone: the general, the sergeant, the senior airman, the colonel, etc. For Airmen with specialized titles, the specialized titles will be used in subsequent references.
For civilian men, use Mr. with their last name in second and subsequent references. For civilian women, later references are to Ms. Jones, unless the woman asks to be known as Miss or Mrs.
Capitalization of Airman: Capitalize Airman and Airmen when referring to individuals in the U.S. Air Force: He is an Airman. If a generic term is needed, use the term Airmen: The Airmen returned to their base. An exception is when "airman" is part of a compound lower-case noun: A staff sergeant and a senior airman received awards.
Elements of News
Timeliness
Journalists stress current information - stories occurring today or yesterday, not several weeks ago. News story submissions should generally be no more than a week old.
Impact
Stress the important information that impacts the audience - Airmen and family members, and members of the general public, when appropriate. Don't overlook the "me factor" that your audience craves. Broad appeal is important.
Prominence
News stories about prominent people tend to generate more interest than those about ordinary people. Readers are especially interested in what our leaders have to say about important issues and events. That's not to say that we should exclude articles about ordinary people, but that we appreciate the importance of prominence.
Proximity
This element can be physical - stories occurring here at Minot - or psychological, Airmen interested in the lives of other Airmen around the globe. On one hand, the Air Force community is local and on the other hand, it's global.
Singularity
Deviations from the normal - unexpected or unusual events, drama or change - are more newsworthy than the commonplace. In the Air Force community, most stories with this characteristic will deal with change: budget, manpower, infrastructure, processes, etc.
Conflict or Controversy
Conflict is also another common thread in Air Force news stories: overcoming hardships, balancing career and family, war. Conflict is also present in organizational and service rivalries, sports news and features, and self-improvement. In each of these stories, the conflict can be positive.
-------------------------
While the focus of the Minot AFB/PA office is typically on Mission, People and Infrastructure articles, writers can submit several other types of articles as long as there is a clear military relationship demonstrated in the writing. These other articles include:
- Sports
- Travel features
- Self-improvement articles
- 'How-to' articles
- Hobby features
- Personality features
- Historical features
- Editorials/commentaries
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+ (-6640)/2158?
-94
What is 47/4*(-1818801)/(-1612899)?
53/4
What is the value of (351869/(-602))/(8 - 1) + (-40)/16?
-86
What is the value of (-16)/3*(38375/(-1250))/(-307)?
-8/15
Calculate (-116)/(27209/(-507) - -55).
-87
Evaluate ((-164844)/(-456) - 366)/(27/(-26) - -1).
117
What is the value of (41/4 - 180/(-240)) + -30 + -36?
-55
What is the value of ((-55)/132*-8)/((-122)/1281)?
-35
What is (-7)/(44 - -5)*(-203)/87 + 163/(-3)?
-54
((-3)/27)/((-5)/(75/42) - 146608/(-48510))
-1/2
Evaluate 5 + -46 - (-82 - -15).
26
What is the value of ((-34)/(-5))/(6/28*35196/18855)?
17
Calculate (-86 - (-3948)/47)/(4/246*(3 + 3)).
-41/2
What is 5 + ((-3816)/165)/6 + (-159)/265?
6/11
Evaluate 4485/(-598)*(6/(-33) - (-2)/10)/1.
-3/22
What is (((-95)/228)/((-10)/6))/(338/104)?
1/13
What is 198/(-36 + 18) - (-1 + 1 + -2)?
-9
Evaluate 11/((-1*3/15)/((-3)/5)*-3).
-11
Calculate (((-55472)/(-7920) - 7)*10)/(6/11)*3.
2/9
What is the value of (-39)/533 + 665808/8507664?
2/393
Evaluate (-7 - -241)*(-20)/((-1680)/14).
39
Calculate 376/14 + (3702/42 - 89).
26
What is (-18834)/344 - (-1 + (-12)/(-48))?
-54
What is the value of 15/21 - 1972/203 - (3 - -38)?
-50
Calculate 42/(-20)*(44/8 - 8).
21/4
Evaluate (-3873)/(-9037)*77/6*7*-2.
-77
What is -10*(1541/938 - (-5)/(-38 + 3))?
-15
(-35)/((-210)/48) + -33
-25
What is the value of ((-200)/(-14))/((-8 - -5)/((-1197)/(-114)))?
-50
(-23)/368*112 + 174/26
-4/13
Calculate 397207/3916 + -102 - 18/(-24).
2/11
What is (-64750)/1120 - (-210)/(-448)*(-10)/(-25)?
-58
Evaluate ((-180)/(-525))/(-6) + (-169105)/(-16275).
31/3
(4/(2128/4))/(53930/(-37751))
-1/190
(-64 - 767/(-13)) + (-68)/(-14)
-1/7
Evaluate (5/3)/(-132 + 28725/225)*28/(-10).
14/13
-33 + 13 + 35 - 2233/147
-4/21
Evaluate -32 + ((-31976600)/(-9900))/101.
-2/99
Evaluate 4700/(-35250)*(-5)/(-39).
-2/117
Calculate (-822)/(-548)*6596/(-102).
-97
(((-252)/1050)/((-4)/15))/((-15)/(-25))
3/2
What is (1274/(-7))/13 + (-671)/(-88) + 7?
5/8
Calculate (-9146)/(-77741) - (-28)/(-1394).
4/41
Evaluate ((40/(-48))/((1925/(-2332))/35))/((-2)/3).
-53
Calculate ((-9)/(-2))/(72/480).
30
Evaluate 237666/7293 - 30/51.
32
What is ((-268)/(-3015))/(6/54) - 14*(-14)/80?
13/4
What is the value of (-7 + 172/(-2))*(-17)/(-663)*-13?
31
Evaluate (71 - 623/(-89))*(-1)/3.
-26
What is (1739/(-846))/((-4)/(-10)*30/24) - -3?
-10/9
Evaluate (-3)/((-3927)/161) + 912/(-5016).
-1/17
Calculate -16 - 20298/8330*7 - -33.
-2/35
What is the value of ((-14)/(-24))/((-5719)/17974)?
-11/6
(-156)/32 - -5 - (-10 + -9 + 5321/272)
-7/16
Calculate ((-8)/(-638))/((-1962)/(-9483)).
2/33
Evaluate (0 - 14/(-315)) + (-57837)/(-1755).
33
What is the value of (-51)/(-87 + 189) - 2/(8/(-202))?
50
Calculate (15/10 - 5)/(105/910 - (-814)/2860).
-35/4
Evaluate ((-5580)/6696 - 16589/(-618)) + -26.
1/103
What is the value of (5/2)/5*(59/12 - (-1734)/(-408))?
1/3
Evaluate 3/(153390/(-2100) - -73).
-70
What is (-10314)/(-20055)*(-14)/(-90)?
2/25
Calculate (-41 - (759/(-22) - 6))/(13/(-14)).
7/13
Calculate 15 + 2088/(-145) - -1 - (2 - (-127)/(-5)).
25
What is the value of 169680/49086*(-18)/(-8) + 8*-1?
-2/9
4810/(-2590) - (-4)/70
-9/5
Calculate (-32314)/604 - (1 + -20) - (3/(-2) - 2).
-31
What is (-17 - -19)*(100/32 + -2)*(-76)/(-3)?
57
What is (8/12)/((1/(6/(-16)))/(-2027 - -1879))?
37
Evaluate (-14 + (-1224)/(-90))/(557/(-4590) + 34/289).
108
(-14 - (-5733)/420)*(-3 - 7)/(-70)
-1/20
260/(-234) + -19 + (-5177)/(-279)
-14/9
What is (-249)/(-830)*15/81 - (-25718)/396?
65
What is the value of (-70)/(-3) + 5544/1512 + -96?
-69
What is ((16/322)/1)/(4870/(-17045))?
-4/23
What is 6800/595*1281/(-244)?
-60
((-81)/10*3*(-5)/(-6))/((-57471)/38314)
27/2
What is the value of (-20)/(-58 - -18)*(47 + 1)?
24
What is 2/4*((-244)/(-1288) + ((-1166)/308)/(-53))?
3/23
What is 89/((-3115)/1400) + (1 - 67)?
-106
Calculate 66/120*24 - (-11)/(-5).
11
-1*(-28 - (-1660)/60)*48
16
Calculate (-2)/4 - ((-16 - (-1254)/12) + 13).
-102
((-214)/(11128/(-12)))/(3 - 2)
3/13
What is the value of -31 - (0*(-22)/(-550) + 62)?
-93
7*((-624)/(-48) - ((-2)/2 + 13))
7
Evaluate (2/(-474))/((-81)/540*(-40)/(-540)*-15).
-2/79
Evaluate (-70 - (-33 - 30)) + 84/11.
7/11
What is (-87)/(-87)*(-10 + -5) + -52?
-67
Evaluate (-86)/12 + 101080/(-912) + 112.
-6
What is 255/25*1480/444?
34
(-15)/12*7/(-105)*100/(-300)
-1/36
Calculate (3850/605)/(34/(-187)).
-35
What is the value of (-624)/(-1404) + (-6)/51 + 11466/(-1377)?
-8
Calculate 34 + -1 + (282/(-5217) - (-13825)/(-925)).
18
Calculate 50/(22000/132) - (-654)/40*2.
33
Calculate -12688 + 12836 + 461/(-3).
-17/3
Evaluate ((-11190)/2984)/(30/(-208)).
26
What is the value of 132/72 - 126177/(-2466)?
53
What is ((-1)/(-4) - 0)/(2/(-270)) - 5283/(-7044)?
-33
Calculate (150/(-130))/((-855)/25935).
35
What is (-12740)/170 - -13 - -62?
1/17
Calculate (-36)/(-120)*(-8580)/585.
-22/5
Evaluate (4/18)/(304/60192) - 20*-1.
64
1*(-36)/2 - (-123 - -100)
5
Calculate -12 - (2/(-72))/(7/3010).
-1/18
What is (1296 - -62)*(-96)/1344?
-97
Calculate (-705)/10*((2240/15)/(-16) + 10).
-47
What is the value of 476130/(-7532) - (-15)/70?
-63
Calculate ((-9982)/1610 - 3/((-6)/4))*(24 - 9).
-63
What is (-603)/134*4 + 71?
53
-35 - (21 - (-852)/(-15))
4/5
Evaluate 18325/1466 + (-14)/4.
9
What is -4*(3664/736 + -5) - (-3 - -3)?
2/23
Evaluate 1817/621 - (-172)/2322.
3
Evaluate 235/94 + 41 - 33.
21/2
What is the value of (-14 + 407/22)*((-1344)/36)/(-14)?
12
What is (7 - -10) + (-17 + 15)*(-45)/(-10)?
8
What is the value of (340/(-969))/((-4)/246*-41)?
-10/19
(-220528)/70168 - 759/(-21)
33
Calculate ((-250)/441 - (-104)/234)/(9 + (-1353)/154).
-4/7
What is the value of 25/(-4) - (-1 + 18 - 21) - 7077/(-84)?
82
Evaluate 53/(-1749)*55*((-168)/(-5))/(-2).
28
What is (1*2/21)/(110/336 - (-2080)/(-7280))?
16/7
What is the value of 758/(-3366) + (-705)/19975*60/(-9)?
1/99
Evaluate (-34)/1258 + 128592/(-2109).
-61
Calculate 24461/(-3477) + 6/171.
-7
Calculate ((-1140)/90 - -11)*(-6)/35.
2/7
What is the value of (-4676)/(-8246) - 794/(-12307)?
12/19
What is the value of (-8)/14 + (-96)/(-42) + 83159/(-21245)?
-11/5
Calculate 134*(399/(-931) + (-1)/14) - 19.
-86
(8/(128/100))/((-2760)/(-26496))
60
What is the value of 96 + (-208 - -39) + 94?
21
(-11079)/68936*6*2/(-81)
1/42
What is the value of 2688/(-128) - 1827/(-91)?
-12/13
Evaluate (6/(-18))/((-120)/5400).
15
Calculate -15 - (1610/(-60) - (-20 + 8)).
-1/6
Calculate ((-2688)/(-1026))/(-4) - (1088/(-153))/16.
-4/19
Evaluate (-3192399)/22225 + -1 + 144.
-16/25
Calculate (1812 + -1786 - (1 + 24))*0.
0
What is the value of ((-2 - -3)/(35510/(-268)))/(6/10)?
-2/159
Calculate (164 - (-74175)/(-450))*(1 + 21).
-55/3
What is ((-570)/15)/((-1332)/36 - -36)?
38
What is the value of ((-51)/(-9) + -7)/(232986/927)?
-2/377
What is (82/410)/(1/5)*(-2 - -37)?
35
Calculate 1260/18 - 66 - (66 - (1 + -2)).
-63
Calculate 659 + -649 + (4 - 0).
14
(64/96)/((-32)/336 + (-11)/(24563/(-187)))
-58
What is (63/((-12348)/(-4760)))/((-5)/7 - -1) + -5?
80
What is the value of (-50)/(-14) + (-2840)/70 + 41 + 4630/(-1160)?
1/116
Calculate (-95 - -118) + (-784)/(112/8).
-33
(-6)/22 - (-785664)/33759
23
What is the value of 17 - (4092/(-310))/((-6)/60)?
-115
What is 2*(-22 + 1316/56)?
3
What is ((-10)/136)/((-4700)/118440)*(-2)/(-9)?
7/17
What is (6 + 1500/(-240))*((-119)/(-15) - 1)?
-26/15
Evaluate ((-37)/(8806/(-68)))/((-2)/4)*7/94.
-2/47
((-17)/408*64/(-20))/((-12)/(-90)*5)
1/5
What is the value of 8/104*(-52)/(-16)*-2*64?
-32
(-2)/9 - (-4 + (-42028)/(-13671) + (-125)/(-175))
-1/93
Calculate ((-375)/35)/(3/(-4)*(-780)/(-2730)).
50
What is 3870/(-105651)*15155/15 - -37?
-1/117
What is the value of (-7)/((-294)/(-140))*924/88?
-35
What is (75/2700)/((-3)/(-2484))?
23
Calculate (-27 - 1)*(-47160)/99036.
40/3
What is the value of 20 - ((-106960)/(-4032))/((-5)/(-4))?
-11/9
What is the value of (-7664)/(-105380)*(-3 - -16 - -2)?
12/11
Evaluate -21 - 25/(425/(-578)).
13
Evaluate 1 - 7 - (30/(-360) - 35/(-60))*-86.
37
Evaluate 3475/(-6255) - (-663)/27.
24
What is ((-783)/(-108) + (1 - 8))/((-127)/(-24892))?
49
What is 793/(-12) + 157/3297 + 6/168?
-66
Evaluate ((-24)/16)/(247/494).
-3
Calculate ((-476)/(-322))/(828/4761).
17/2
(186 - 39270/210) + (22 + 1)*1
22
Calculate (17/(-1))/(-44 + (-5568)/(-128)).
34
What is the value of (-18)/(-14) + 12*(-3706)/32
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[Undifferentiated carcinoma with lymphoid stroma (undifferentiated carcinoma nasopharyngeal type?). Optical, electron microscopical and immunofluorescence study (author's transl)].
A case of undifferentiated carcinoma with lymphoid stroma of the paired gland is reported in a chinese woman with positive Epstein-Barr virus serology. The histologic appearance of the tumor is very similar to undifferentiated carcinomas nasopharyngeal type (UCNT). Ultrastructural study reveals features of epidermoid differentiation. Immunofluorescence study shows numerous and predominant IgA plasma cells in the stroma. The relationship between this tumor and the benign lymphoepithelial lesions of the salivary glands are discussed. The present case and the review of the literature emphasize the morphological and epidemiological similarities between UCNT and undifferentiated carcinoma with lymphoid stroma of the salivary glands.
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A simple method for determining the optimal dosage of progestin in postmenopausal women receiving estrogens.
Progestin is often added to regimens of estrogen therapy in postmenopausal women to reduce the risk of endometrial hyperstimulation, but it may cause undesirable metabolic effects. Therefore, a low dosage is recommended. At present, the only way to determine whether the dosage of progestin is causing the desired secretory transformation of the endometrium is by endometrial sampling, which is invasive. We studied 102 postmenopausal women undergoing estrogen therapy who also took a progestin for 12 days each month, and we correlated the day of onset of bleeding with the endometrial histology over a three-month period. A bleeding pattern suitable for interpretation was observed in 96 women. Regardless of the preparation and dosage of the estrogen and progestin used, wholly or predominantly proliferative endometrium was always associated with bleeding on or before day 10 after the addition of progestin; wholly or predominantly secretory endometrium, or a lack of endometrial tissue, was associated with bleeding on day 11 or later. We conclude that the bleeding pattern reflected the histologic condition of the endometrium and that adjustment of the dosage of progestin so that regular bleeding is induced on or after day 11 may obviate the need for endometrial biopsy.
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The MIT Technology Review has a plan — or three — to take down Bitcoin.
Writing in an article titled “Let’s Destroy Bitcoin,” tech writer Morgan Peck presents three scenarios that she believes could lead to Bitcoin’s eventual demise.
The first option is a “government takeover,” whereby governments create their own digital currencies — dubbed “Fedcoins” — which will allegedly “improve upon the efficiencies of Bitcoin,” presumably reducing or even eliminating demand for decentralized cryptocurrencies.
Another of MIT’s strategies to take down Bitcoin involves the “tokenization of everything.” In this scenario, economic activity evolves into a hyper-efficient mass-barter system, in which virtually every company releases its own cryptocurrency and an automated system allows users to seamlessly trade their “FacebookCoins” for “ToyotaCash” depending on which asset they need to complete a transaction.
“Think of this as an incredibly efficient barter system,” says Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University. “Barter is generally inefficient, but if you have a network and you tokenize the goods and services and enable it with a blockchain, it can become very efficient.”
The author’s most unique strategy to take down Bitcoin involves social media conglomerate Facebook masterminding a stealth takeover of the cryptocurrency.
In this scenario, Facebook launches a multi-pronged attack on the cryptocurrency’s current implementation.
First, the company creates a proprietary, third-party Bitcoin wallet and integrates it throughout Facebook’s product suite, a scheme designed to trick users into giving the company outsized control of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Peck explains:
“For those who already use Bitcoin, the experience is so vastly superior to what they’ve previously experienced that they immediately migrate their funds to their Facebook wallet. Those who don’t yet own any bitcoins, or have never heard of them, could be given the option of earning some on the site, either by watching advertisements or by writing Facebook posts for others to see.”
Meanwhile, the company would secretly launch a mining operation, which it could perhaps augment by allowing users to opt-in to a Coinhive-style mining script in exchange for an ad-free browsing experience.
Once Bitcoin has firmly entered the mainstream and become inseparable from Facebook’s product suite, the company could wield its influence to quietly fork Bitcoin and force its users — most of whom are ignorant of the software’s technical details — to adopt the new version, which will be structured however the company sees fit.
Could one of these scenarios come to fruition, leaving Bitcoin as currently structured by the wayside? Peck certainly seems to think so. I, however, have my doubts. Here’s a follow-up post in which I explain why I believe these strategies are far-fetched.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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It is now undergoing trials and testing in preparation for its scheduled to return to service on Oct. 20. That's the latest in series of deadlines, most of which have been busted. This time the Alaska Marine Highway System is booking passengers on the Tustumena's scheduled runs between Kenai Peninsula and several Kodiak Island communities.
"You know, a lot of people are so skeptical, they just say 'I'll believe it when I see it,'" said Kathryn Adkins, city clerk in Kodiak Island's Port Lions.
The city has had ferry service since its founding shortly after state ferries began operating in the 1960s, she said.
"We're very reliant on it, between here and Kodiak especially, but also between here and the mainland," she said.
This summer lodges couldn't ship in supplies for tourist season, and building projects are on hold waiting for ferry traffic to resume.
Some summer residents couldn't get their cars to Port Lions and didn't come this year, but Adkins said Port Lions expects visitors as soon as the Tustumena begins running.
"We get a lot of Alaska residents coming in on the ferry during deer-hunting season, and we may still get some of those this fall," she said.
The delays at Seward Ship's Drydock resulted when additional deterioration needing attention was discovered during the overhaul. Then a series of repairs failed to pass inspection and had to be redone.
In some cases, bad welds had to be cut out and replaced. In another case, the company used steel that was too thin.
"The plating that was too thin was removed and the proper size steel plats were installed and inspected by the USCG (U.S. Coast Guard)," said Jeremy Woodrow, spokesman for the ferry system.
"All repair work to date has passed USCG inspection," he said.
Although the Tustumena is in Resurrection Bay, it has had to undergo incline and stability testing, ferry officials say. That's the potential final hurdle.
Getting the final review and certification by Coast Guard authorities based in Washington, D.C., may be difficult due to short staffing related to the federal shutdown, Woodrow said.
However, ferry officials are confident they can get a temporary certification based on the test results and will make the Oct. 20 sailing date, he said. On that day, the Tusty is due to travel from Seldovia to Homer and then onto Port Lions, Ouzinkie and Kodiak on the island of the same name.
Passenger vessels such as the Tustumena are top-heavy compared to other ships, and need careful ballast calculations to deal with the higher center of gravity, said Capt. John Falvey, general manager of the ferry system. Those calculations change as ships are overhauled and age, he said, and must be certified by the Coast Guard
"Ships gain weight as they age, they just do," he said.
Among the changes made to the Tustumena include a new state-of-the-art emergency slide system, the last of the ferries to get it, he said.
Adkins said some Port Lions residents had begun to doubt whether they were ever going to see the 49-year-old ferry again. But Falvey said during the summer that the Tustumena, while slated for replacement, is expected to provide several years of additional service.
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Q:
Which Java Collection should I use?
In this question How can I efficiently select a Standard Library container in C++11? is a handy flow chart to use when choosing C++ collections.
I thought that this was a useful resource for people who are not sure which collection they should be using so I tried to find a similar flow chart for Java and was not able to do so.
What resources and "cheat sheets" are available to help people choose the right Collection to use when programming in Java? How do people know what List, Set and Map implementations they should use?
A:
Since I couldn't find a similar flowchart I decided to make one myself.
This flow chart does not try and cover things like synchronized access, thread safety etc or the legacy collections, but it does cover the 3 standard Sets, 3 standard Maps and 2 standard Lists.
This image was created for this answer and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The simplest attribution is by linking to either this question or this answer.
Other resources
Probably the most useful other reference is the following page from the oracle documentation which describes each Collection.
HashSet vs TreeSet
There is a detailed discussion of when to use HashSet or TreeSet here:
Hashset vs Treeset
ArrayList vs LinkedList
Detailed discussion: When to use LinkedList over ArrayList?
A:
Summary of the major non-concurrent, non-synchronized collections
Collection: An interface representing an unordered "bag" of items, called "elements". The "next" element is undefined (random).
Set: An interface representing a Collection with no duplicates.
HashSet: A Set backed by a Hashtable. Fastest and smallest memory usage, when ordering is unimportant.
LinkedHashSet: A HashSet with the addition of a linked list to associate elements in insertion order. The "next" element is the next-most-recently inserted element.
TreeSet: A Set where elements are ordered by a Comparator (typically natural ordering). Slowest and largest memory usage, but necessary for comparator-based ordering.
EnumSet: An extremely fast and efficient Set customized for a single enum type.
List: An interface representing a Collection whose elements are ordered and each have a numeric index representing its position, where zero is the first element, and (length - 1) is the last.
ArrayList: A List backed by an array, where the array has a length (called "capacity") that is at least as large as the number of elements (the list's "size"). When size exceeds capacity (when the (capacity + 1)-th element is added), the array is recreated with a new capacity of (new length * 1.5)--this recreation is fast, since it uses System.arrayCopy(). Deleting and inserting/adding elements requires all neighboring elements (to the right) be shifted into or out of that space. Accessing any element is fast, as it only requires the calculation (element-zero-address + desired-index * element-size) to find it's location. In most situations, an ArrayList is preferred over a LinkedList.
LinkedList: A List backed by a set of objects, each linked to its "previous" and "next" neighbors. A LinkedList is also a Queue and Deque. Accessing elements is done starting at the first or last element, and traversing until the desired index is reached. Insertion and deletion, once the desired index is reached via traversal is a trivial matter of re-mapping only the immediate-neighbor links to point to the new element or bypass the now-deleted element.
Map: An interface representing an Collection where each element has an identifying "key"--each element is a key-value pair.
HashMap: A Map where keys are unordered, and backed by a Hashtable.
LinkedhashMap: Keys are ordered by insertion order.
TreeMap: A Map where keys are ordered by a Comparator (typically natural ordering).
Queue: An interface that represents a Collection where elements are, typically, added to one end, and removed from the other (FIFO: first-in, first-out).
Stack: An interface that represents a Collection where elements are, typically, both added (pushed) and removed (popped) from the same end (LIFO: last-in, first-out).
Deque: Short for "double ended queue", usually pronounced "deck". A linked list that is typically only added to and read from either end (not the middle).
Basic collection diagrams:
Comparing the insertion of an element with an ArrayList and LinkedList:
A:
Even simpler picture is here. Intentionally simplified!
Collection is anything holding data called "elements" (of the same type). Nothing more specific is assumed.
List is an indexed collection of data where each element has an index. Something like the array, but more flexible.
Data in the list keep the order of insertion.
Typical operation: get the n-th element.
Set is a bag of elements, each elements just once (the elements are distinguished using their equals() method.
Data in the set are stored mostly just to know what data are there.
Typical operation: tell if an element is present in the list.
Map is something like the List, but instead of accessing the elements by their integer index, you access them by their key, which is any object. Like the array in PHP :)
Data in Map are searchable by their key.
Typical operation: get an element by its ID (where ID is of any type, not only int as in case of List).
The differences
Set vs. Map: in Set you search data by themselves, whilst in Map by their key.
N.B. The standard library Sets are indeed implemented exactly like this: a map where the keys are the Set elements themselves, and with a dummy value.
List vs. Map: in List you access elements by their int index (position in List), whilst in Map by their key which os of any type (typically: ID)
List vs. Set: in List the elements are bound by their position and can be duplicate, whilst in Set the elements are just "present" (or not present) and are unique (in the meaning of equals(), or compareTo() for SortedSet)
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of optics, specifically in changing the characteristics of the resonance of optical waveguide micro-resonators, very small optical micro-resonators with sizes on the order of 0.1 micrometer to 1 millimeter. Examples of such waveguide-based micro-resonators include, optical micro-ring resonators, and one-dimensionally periodic photonic band gap waveguide structures.
2. Prior Art
Micro-resonators, which are micrometer-sized optical resonant devices with resonance wavelengths in micrometer range, have gained significant interests due to its potential applications in integrated optics for optical telecommunication. Micro-resonators are useful as add-drop filters in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) applications in optical telecommunication, since they can be designed to have resonance at the telecommunication wavelengths. In WDM applications, each micro-resonator adds or drops distinctive wavelengths of light that are resonant with the device. In such applications, an ability to locally tune the resonance of micro-resonators according to the specific wavelengths is crucial for successful implementation of micro-resonators in integrated optics.
Small micro-resonators, formed from high index difference (difference in the refractive indices of core and cladding) waveguide geometries are particularly useful since their free spectral ranges are large. High index difference waveguides, typically have index difference between the core and cladding equal to or larger than 0.3 and can be made in several different geometries, including channel waveguides and rib waveguides. A channel waveguide is a dielectric waveguide whose core is surrounded by a cladding that is composed of a material or materials with refractive indices lower than that of the core, and wherein the peak optical intensity resides in the core. High index difference waveguides can be defined in other waveguide geometries including a rib waveguide. A rib waveguide is a dielectric waveguide whose core is surrounded by a cladding that is composed of materials of which at least one has the same refractive index as that of the core. In waveguide configurations that are difference from a channel waveguide, a high index difference waveguide is defined as one that has a mode-field size similar to that of a high index difference channel waveguide (within 50% difference in cross-sectional area). In these waveguides, cladding is defined as a region where the evanescent field of optical modes exists.
Changing the characteristics of the resonance shape and position of a waveguide micro-resonator is an extremely important issue since the usefulness of such devices is predicated on such technology. One application of the waveguide micro-resonator is narrow band optical filtering in integrated optics. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), an increasingly used technology in optical communications, requires the use of such filters. Therefore, developing an efficient method of modifying the characteristics of such waveguide micro-resonators has been the subject of much research.
There are two approaches to changing the characteristics of the resonance shape. The first is to understand what characteristics of the response may be changed. For example, the resonance Q, or its quality, its position in the wavelength or frequency domain and its shape may all be changed.
The quality or the Q of the resonance can be changed by affecting the amount of time the energy stays in the resonator. One method shown to affect the quality of the resonance includes inducing absorption in a micro-resonator and a method to affect the shape by using cascaded micro-resonators. This first method is difficult to implement, since the amount of absorption that has to be induced is large and the method cannot be easily applied to indirect-band-gap semiconductors and wide band gap dielectric materials. The second method, while useful, does not lend itself well to any dynamic changes in the resonance, which is necessary for switching or modulating or even tuning the resonance of the micro-resonator.
The resonance position, that is, the resonant wavelength or equivalently the resonant frequency of an optical micro-resonator is determined by the physical dimension of the device as well as the index of refraction of the materials that comprise the cavity. Changing the effective and group indices of the cavity mode can therefore change the resonant wavelength. Tuning of micro-ring micro-resonators by using a UV sensitive glass as a cladding material over the core of a low index contrast (typically a difference in index of core and cladding of less than 0.1) ring waveguide has also been shown. By changing the index of refraction of the cladding the effective and group indices of the mode of the ring waveguide changes, resulting in a shift in the resonance line position. While this method is effective for low index contrast waveguides, the method may be less effective for high index contrast (typically difference in index of core and cladding equal to or greater than 0.3) waveguides as the amount of index change required for high index contrast waveguides may be too large. However, small index changes in the cladding of high index contrast waveguides can lead to significant shifts in the line position sufficient for fine tuning applications.
Methods have also been shown to change the resonances of semiconductor micro-resonators by changing the refractive index of the core (guiding layer) of the micro-resonator. However, the methods do not include index changes in the cladding region and non-semiconducting substrates. Another method involves using the specific case of micro-ring filters with input and output waveguides that cross. Such a micro-ring filter configuration is necessarily a low index difference waveguide system because cross talk and losses are otherwise large in high index contrast systems.
Another method, which has been used extensively, is a thermo-optic tuning method in which the thermo-optic effect is used to change the index of the core of the micro-resonator cavity by a change in temperature. Thermal tuning, while simple and easy to implement has the disadvantage of significant cross talk in potential high density applications.
The second approach of analyzing how a resonance shape may be changed is to understand what physical aspects of the micro-resonator may be easily altered to have the desired effect on the characteristics of the resonance shape. For example, the absorption method and local proximity of multiple rings has been used to change the resonance shape of a micro-ring. Various other methods involve the change of the resonator internal rate of decay to change the resonance shape of micro-resonator devices. The internal rate of decay of resonator is determined by absorption and loss in the ring.
Another way to tune the resonance of a micro-resonator is to apply stress to shift its resonance positions. If the applied stress induces a change in the refractive indices of core and/or cladding materials, the resonance condition changes in the micro-resonators and the resonance peak will shift according to such a change.
Tuning of optical resonance by stress has been achieved previously. A method of tuning the resonance of a large optical resonator using a bonded piezo-electric element has been described. A piezo-electric element is bonded on the top surface of an optical resonator to supply stress to the underlying optical resonator when a voltage is applied to it. The stress applied to the resonator induces a change in the refractive index and thus changes the resonance. This method is applicable only for large, discreet optical element, and is not suitable for locally tuning resonance of micro-resonators, which are significantly smaller and typically integrated on-chip with waveguide input and output. Therefore, it is desired to have an ability to locally tune micro-resonators on-chip.
The thermo-optic effect and the use of the UV sensitive oxide, are examples of changing the resonance position by altering the effective and group indices of the modes in a micro-resonator cavity. In the invention, the focus is on other methods to change the position and shape and resonances of high index contrast waveguide micro-resonators, which are easier to implement.
The mechanisms to change the resonance of micro-cavity resonators are split along three lines in the literature according to the desired speed or equivalently, the time frame of their intended use. The fastest applications are in modulation, which usually occurs at the speed at which data is encoded. In communications, the speed is in excess of 1 GHz, which corresponds to times of less than 1 ns. Switching occurs at the speed at which data needs to be routed between lines in communications network. Slow switching is on the order of a ms, while packet switching may be as fast as 1 ns. Finally, tuning refers to permanent or long-term changes in the resonance.
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A1 Wasted lives, Dreamed lives! Dialogical approach: the value of an inclusive school, prospects and opportunities {#Sec1}
==================================================================================================================
Marco Braghero (marco.braghero\@gmail.com) {#Sec2}
------------------------------------------
### Jyväskylä University Psychology Department, Jyväskylä, Finland {#Sec3}
"...you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land...Warsan Shire, Home"
Child and youth migrations are a particularly dramatic and a daily aspect of the more general problem of contemporary migration flows. Behind and within each of the stories of these children - accompanied and unaccompanied migrant children, as UN calls them in a bureaucratic jargon - school becomes a treasure trove of identity splinters through biographies and fragments of a past that can return visibility to what would be irreparably forgotten otherwise.
School has the opportunity to welcome, support, accompany these children and young new citizens towards the inclusion. School has, also, the opportunity to learn an anthropological view of the presence of migrant children from these life stories, thus activating action-research processes. This action-research will develop new teaching strategies, new approaches based on questions, on an open dialogue, on the paradigms of responsibility, commitment and diversity. A unique opportunity to develop diversity education and citizenship skills, too often mentioned but poorly practiced. Above all, thanks to the sharing and revival of significant life stories and emotionally touching, you can develop emotional intelligence skills, so necessary in an often deregulated age of complexity, which always produces more and more "wasted lives", above all, thanks to the sharing and reintroduction of significant and emotionally touching life stories.
Through a generous listening of students' lives, and dialogic practices, school could generate new narrations of migration processes, thus replacing those narrations made up of stereotypical clichés, believes, petty and selfish believes of an overlapping lawlessness, of cruelty and hypocritical welcome. These new narrations tell of possibilities, of mutual discoveries, of processes of successful inclusion, of present-future to build together.
"The dialogical - as Arnkil and Seikkula say - is not a method or a set of techniques but it is an attitude, a way of seeing, which is based on recognizing and respecting the otherness of the other, and on going to meet them." Applying the integrated dialogic approach to coaching as a lifestyle means to mobilize psychological resources of both people who are directly involved and the whole community and local social network, it means being able to stimulate dialogue.
Stories of wanderings and landings, escapes and refuges, of scared identities and unpredictable cultural metamorphosis, of so much suffering, are intertwined and interdependent to the dreamed and realized stories of successful migrations, fully realized integrations. These new identities are founded and built on a plurality of memberships \[1-10\].
**References**
1\. Shire W. Home. In Lumsden R, Stonborough E (Editors) 'The Salt Book of Younger Poets', Noosaville (Australia), Salt, 2011.
2\. Bauman Z. Vite di scarto, Bari (Italy), Laterza editore, 2005.
3\. MIUR. La via Italiana per la scuola interculturale e l'integrazione degli alunni stranieri-ottobre 2007. Accessed at <http://hubmiur.pubblica.istruzione.it/web/istruzione/intercultura-normativa> (04/11/2016).
4\. Arnkil ET, Seikkula J. Metodi dialogici nel lavoro di rete. Gardolo (Trento, Italia), Erickson, 2013.
5\. MIUR. Linee guida per l'accoglienza e l'integrazione degli alunni stranieri- febbraio 2014. Accessed at <http://hubmiur.pubblica.istruzione.it/web/ministero/focus190214> (04/11/2016).
6\. Di Nuzzo A. Fuori di casa. Migrazioni di minori non accompagnati. Roma (Italia), Carocci editore, 2014.
7\. Sistema di Protezione per Richiedenti Asilo e Rifugiati, Atlante SPRAR 2015. Accessed <http://www.sprar.it/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=45:rapporti-annuali-e-compendi-statistici-dello-sprar&Itemid=553> (04/11/2016).
8\. Santagati M, Ongini V. Alunni con cittadinanza non italiana. La scuola multiculturale nei contesti locali, Rapporto nazionale A.s. 2014/2015. Milano, Fondazione ISMU, 2016.
9\. UNICEF. "Uprooted: the growing crisis for refugee and migrants children", New York (US), UNICEF, 2016.
10\. Fondazione ISMU. Sbarchi 2016: aumentano i minori non accompagnati, 21 settembre 2016. Accessed at <http://www.ismu.org/minori-stranieri-non-accompagnati/> (04/11/2016).
A2 Management of acute diarrhoea {#Sec4}
================================
Annamaria Staiano (staiano\@unina.it) {#Sec5}
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### Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Traslazionali, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Napoli, Italy {#Sec6}
Diarrhoea in children still has a major impact on health-related social costs, affecting approximately 2 billion children younger than 5 years every year, and determining 2 million deaths, mostly in Africa and Asia. \[1\]
According to WHO diarrhea consists in ≥*3 passages of softened or liquid stools within 24 hours*. Acute forms (duration 0-7 days) are traditionally defined in distinction with protracted (7-14 days) and chronic (\>14 days) diarrhoea.
ESPGHAN guidelines \[2\] state that acute gastroenteritis (AGE) does not generally require a specific diagnostic work-up. Microbiologic investigations should be limited to subjects with chronic diseases, in severely compromised conditions or with long-lasting symptoms that could be potentially eligible for specific treatments. The assessment of the degree of dehydration still remains the cornerstone of the management. Newborns and children aged less than 2 months, subjects with severe conditions, persistent vomit or massive diarrhoea (\>8 episodes/day) should be always clinically assessed. Hospital admission should be considered in cases of shock, severe dehydration, neurological abnormalities, intractable or bilious vomit, oral rehydration failure, when a surgical condition is suspected or when parental management at home does not represent a safe option.
The distinction between bacterial and non-bacterial etiologies is not relevant to the treatment: the basic therapy is oral rehydration \[3\]. Sometimes oral rehydration is not sufficient and i.v. fluids may be required (shock, altered level of consciousness, severe acidosis, failure of oral/enteral rehydration, persistent vomit, abdominal distension or ileus).
In children, AGE treatment may include the use of several drugs (antiemetics, probiotics, anti-secretory drugs, gelatin tannate).
Antiemetics decrease need for hospitalization, but may entail electrocardiographic alterations (i.e. prolonged QT interval) \[2\].
A recent Cochrane review \[4\] concluded that probiotics may have a role in decreasing duration of diarrhoea of approximately one day, in reducing stool frequency during the second day and the risk of diarrhoea lasting longer than 4 days. Even though some "strong recommendations" support the use of some specific strains (*Lactobacillus GG* and *Saccharomyces boulardii*), quality of evidence in favour of probiotics is generally low \[4, 5\].
Data regarding diosmectite and racecadotril should be carefully interpreted, as most of the available studies present major drawbacks \[6, 7\].
Finally, some evidence supports the use of gelatin tannate, a "mucosal regenerator" that creates a layer adhering to the intestinal wall which can protect against the penetration of aggressive bacteria \[8, 9\].
**References**
1\. Black R, Allen LH, Bhutta ZA, et al. Maternal and child undernutrition: global and regional exposures and health consequences. Lancet 2008; 371:243-260.
2\. Guarino A, Ashkenazi S, Gendrel D, et al. European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition/European Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases evidence-based guidelines for the management of acute gastroenteritis in children in Europe: update 2014. J Ped Gastroenterol Nutr. 2014; 59: 132--152.
3\. Fontaine O, Garner P, Bhan MK. Oral rehydration therapy: the simple solution for saving lives. BMJ. 2007; 334 Suppl 1: s14.
4\. Goldenberg JZ, Lytvyn L, Steurich J, et al. Probiotics for the prevention of pediatric antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;12 CD004827: 1-93.
5\. Szajewska H, Skórka A, Ruszczyński M. Meta-analysis: Lactobacillus GG for treating acute gastroenteritis in children\--updated analysis of randomised controlled trials. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2013;38:467-476.
6\. Szajewska H, Dziechciarz P, Mrukowicz J. Meta-analysis: Smectite in the treatment of acute infectious diarrhoea in children. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2006;23:217-227.
7\. Gordon M, Akobeng A. Racecadotril for acute diarrhoea in children: systematic review and meta-analyses. Arch Dis Child 2016;101:234-240.
8\. Frasca G, Cardile V, Puglia C, et al. Gelatin tannate reduces the proinflammatory effects of lipopolysaccharide in human intestinal epithelial cells. Clin Exp Gastroenterol. 2012;5:61-67.
9\. Lopetuso LR, Scaldaferri F, Bruno G, et al. The therapeutic management of gut barrier leaking: the emerging role for mucosal barrier protectors. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2015;19:1068-1076.
A3 Growth deficit in childhood cancer survivors {#Sec7}
===============================================
Eleonora Biasin^1^, Patrizia Matarazzo^2^, Silvia Einaudi^2^, Rosaria Manicone^1^, Francesco Felicetti^3^, Enrico Brignardello^3^, Franca Fagioli^1^ {#Sec8}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
### ^1^Pediatric Onco-Hematology, Department of Pediatrics, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Torino, Italy; ^2^Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Torino, Italy; ^3^Transition Unit for Childhood Cancer Survivors, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Torino, Italy {#Sec9}
#### **Correspondence:** Eleonora Biasin (eleonora.biasin\@unito.it) {#Sec10}
Survival after childhood cancer has substantially improved during the past decades, and it is now up to 80% at 5 years, considering all diseases. The number of long-term survivors rises every year; these patients show an increase of late morbidity and mortality with negative impact on the quality of life. It is well known that two -thirds of longterm survivors will have at least one chronic illness related to prior treatment and in one-third of the cases, the pathological alteration will be so serious to lead to potentially disabling or life-threatening diseases \[1\].
Both chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy (RT) in the previous treatment can be responsible of longterm diseases. In particular, central nervous system RT can cause a hypothalamic-pituitary axis damage. The secretion of growth hormone (GH) is frequently affected by the negative effects of RT \[2\]. In fact, delay and growth deficit have been evidenced starting from a RT dose of 4 Gy that can be responsible of vascular and/or neuronal damage. Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between total radiation dose and time since treatment and pituitary hormones deficiency \[3\].
Considering the treatment used in the last and more recent years, the patients that need more growth surveillance are the ones affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (when central nervous system RT is administered), brain tumor, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, hypothalamic-pituitary tumor and patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant when total body irradiation is administered as conditioning regimen.
All these patients should undergo a follow up. When the growth velocity is persistently below 10° centile the patient should undergo tests to evaluate GH secretion. If there are two pathologic tests the use of GH replacement is recommended at physiological dose and targeting somatomedin level, starting at least 2 years after the end of oncologic treatment.
The increase of second tumor incidence in childhood cancer survivors after GH treatment is nowadays under discussion while an increase in incidence of relapse has not been confirmed. These data should be evaluated considering that an increase of risk of developing second tumor has also been observed after RT, and this could affect the data obtained in some studies of GH replacement \[4-7\].
**References**
1\. Oeffinger KC, Mertens AC, Sklar CA, Kawashima T, Hudson MM, Meadows AT, et al. Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. Chronic health conditions in adult survivors of childhood cancer. N Engl J Med. 2006; 355: 1572-1582.
2\. Darzy KH, Shalet SM. Hypopituitarism following Radiotherapy Revisited. Endocr Dev. 2009; 15: 1-24.
3\. Follin C, Erfurth EM. Long-Term Effect of Cranial Radiotherapy on Pituitary-Hypothalamus Area in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Survivors. Curr Treat Options Oncol. 2016; 17: 50.
4\. Brignardello E, Felicetti F, Castiglione A, Fortunati N, Matarazzo P, Biasin E, et al. GH replacement therapy and second neoplasms in adult survivors of childhood cancer: a retrospective study from a single institution. J Endocrinol Invest. 2015; 38: 171-176.
5\. Woodmansee WW, Zimmermann AG, Child CJ, Rong Q, Erfurth EM, Beck-Peccoz P, et al. Incidence of second neoplasm in childhood cancer survivors treated with GH: an analysis of GeNeSIS and HypoCCS. Eur J Endocrinol. 2013;168:565-573.
6\. Raman S, Grimberg A, Waguespack SG, Miller BS, Sklar CA, Meacham LR, Patterson BC. Risk of Neoplasia in Pediatric Patients Receiving Growth Hormone Therapy\--A Report From the Pediatric Endocrine Society Drug and Therapeutics Committee. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2015; 100: 2192-2203.
7\. Patterson BC, Chen Y, Sklar CA, Neglia J, Yasui Y, Mertens A, et al. Growth hormone exposure as a risk factor for the development of subsequent neoplasms of the central nervous system: a report from the childhood cancer survivor study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014; 99: 2030-2037.
A4 Transition: a multidisciplinary glance {#Sec11}
=========================================
Elisabetta Bignamini, Elena Nave {#Sec12}
--------------------------------
### Regina Margherita Children's Hospital, Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, 10126, Italy {#Sec13}
#### **Correspondence:** Elisabetta Bignamini (ebignamini\@cittadellasalute.to.it) {#Sec14}
During the last decade, the role of transitional care in subjects affected by chronic complex diseases acquired great relevance and national and international journals published articles about this topic.
The technological and therapeutic evolution, in fact, allowed children who previously died during childhood, to reach adulthood, with the apparition of a different and "new" adult patient, young, but chronically ill, with a long history of illness.
Actually it is not clear if the interest on this theme was born from specific medical reasons, like the difference between competences and knowledge of pediatricians and physicians who take care of adults, or from the health care system organization or, besides, for answering to a social cultural question, including the needs of patients and families.
In order to answer these questions, it is important to focus, in a multidisciplinary glance, on some basic concept like "child", "transition" and "adult". Society itself acquired a structure that took into account the sharp demarcation between children and adults, enhancing activities specifically devoted to the two.
The transition or "passage", from an anthropological point of view, has been studied by the ethnologist Van Gennep \[1\] at the beginning of XX century who reported a characteristic tripartite dimension, with an important intrinsic role in shaping the participants:Separation (pre-liminal phase): the part of the ritual in which the "participant" is separated from the social group which he/she belongs;Transition (liminal phase): the participant is placed in a social "limbo" in which he/she is outside the group he belonged to, but also outside the group he/she is going to place in;Reinstatement (post-liminal phase): the participant is in the new group
"Transition", in bio-medicine, has been defined like "the purposeful, planned movement of adolescents and young adults with chronic physical and medical conditions from child centered to adult -- oriented health care systems" \[2\]
It is clear that we must follow "a ritual practice", that on one side, needs standardized itineraries, on the other must be costumed to that particular patient in his/her socio-cultural context. Some chronic respiratory diseases, for example Cystic fibrosis, have evolved models and standards of care for transition.
There are also ethical implications in an unsatisfactory transition: young people and their family could remain entrapped in an undefined dimension that influences their perception of illness and wellbeing.
**Acknowledgements**
The Authors thank Ilaria Lesmo (anthropologist) for her previous work on this topic.
**References**
1\. Van Gennep A. I riti di passaggio. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2002 \[ed. orig. Les rites de passage. Paris: É. Nourry, 1909\].
2\. Blum RW, Garrell D, Hodgman C. Transition from child-centered to adult-oriented care: systems for adolescents with chronic health conditions. J Adolesc Health. 1993; 14: 570-576.
A5 A cooperation model of the Children Hospital Bambino Gesù (OPBG) in Tanzania {#Sec15}
===============================================================================
F. Callea, C.Concato, E. Fiscarelli, S.Garrone, M. Rossi de Gasperis {#Sec16}
--------------------------------------------------------------------
### Department of Laboratories, Children's Hospital Bambino Gesù, Rome, Italy {#Sec17}
#### **Correspondence:** F. Callea (francesco.callea\@opbg.net) {#Sec18}
In the late 90s epidemic/endemic AIDS had caused million deaths, mostly young adults, and an impressive number of children orphans of both parents. No prevention or educational campaign, no drugs were available in Tanzania at that time.
In 2002 two Italian missionaries founded the Village of Hope to welcome and to accompany diseased bi-orphan children to pass away.
One year later, the missionaries had a fortunate access to antiretroviral drugs and administered them to all seropositive children. Since then no single child died. Later on the antiretroviral treatment was extended to mono-orphans and parent as out-patients and subsequently to pregnant women according to WHO recommendation.
In this scenario OPBG has found a rich soil for an innovative model of cooperation: establish a laboratory for HIV test, CD4 count, viral load and drug resistance, by providing instruments, reagents and personnel who was moving upon rotation from the Central Lab in Rome to the Village of Hope. By doing that, OPBG realized an Institutional Voluntary Service under the motto "to badge at Southern Equator", a P.O.C.T. and Test and Treat Task (T.T.T.) system.
The results (2005-2013) are remarkable: 146/170 children alive, 67 of which treatment-free, 51 with less than 50 viral copies, 130/198 HIV-free neonates at 18 mo follow-up.
Children and adolescents by the time were developing all pediatric diseases requiring medical and surgical specialties (infectivologists, dermatologists, surgeons etc.) mostly provided by OPBG. Presently the Village of Hope behaves as a children's hospital (Policlinics) for in-patient and out-patients, the latter being now more than 2000. So far this is the first example of hospital departments driven by laboratory services.
The results obtained in terms of survival and good health have generated the need for continuity of cure and care and the intuition of providing education. Primary and secondary schools have been activated within the Village and adolescents have remained inside the Village thus preventing them to returning to be "niños de ruas".
For the whole above the OPBG cooperation model is designated "Laboratory for Human Promotion".
Finally the OPBG Laboratory activity has led to scientific publications in International Journals \[1,2\], thus proving that humanitarian interventions can generate also research activities.
**References**
1\. Rossi de Gasperis M. et al "Quantitative recovery of proviral HIV-1 DNA from leukocytes by the Dried Buffy Coat Spot method for real-time PCR determination".J Virol Methods. 2010;170:121-7.
2\. Meini G. et al "Frequent detection of antiretroviral drug resistance in HIV-1-infected orphaned children followed at a donor-funded rural pediatric clinic in Dodoma, Tanzania", AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2015 ;31:448-51.
A6 Participants networks' observations {#Sec19}
======================================
Patrizia Calzi, Grazia Marinelli, Roberto Besana {#Sec20}
------------------------------------------------
### Pediatric Department, Vimercate Hospital, 20871 Vimercate (MB), Italy {#Sec21}
#### **Correspondence:** Patrizia Calzi (patrizia.calzi\@asst-vimercate.it) {#Sec22}
Pediatric network proved to be a good instrument to monitor the clinic management of baby with bronchiolitis, showing strengths and weaknesses to which improvement measures should be addressed \[1, 2\]. The major critical issue, despite the capillarity of information, has been the poor adhesion of the hospitals. One of the main reasons is the lack of staff dedicated to the regular collection of data: to be effective, a network needs a strongly integrated organization. Some important lessons can be discerned from our Network (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}).
**Conclusions**
The project, in order to be helpful for clinical and organizational choices, needs to obtain a larger participation. For greater effectiveness, a national coordination is required, as much as the support given by scientific societies with approved guidelines.
**Acknowledgements**
We thank all the members participating in the project (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}).
**References**
1\. Wasserman R. Pediatric Clinical Research. Networks: optimizing effectiveness through cooperation. Accessed at: <http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R13-EY019972-01A1> (04/11/2016)
2\. Ralston SL, Garber MD, Rice-Conboy E et al. A multicenter collaborative to reduce unnecessary care in inpatient bronchiolitis. Pediatrics. 2016; 137:e20150851Table 1 (abstract A6).Learning from our experienceNeed of a wide number of pediatric departementIntegrated organizationBetter communication platform for partner to improve collaborationProviders have to deliver the best carePeriodic information and feedback is essential to maintain high the level of interest Table 2 (abstract A6).Centers participating in the projectPediatric Departement - HospitalCountryAnna Rizzoli -- Ischia (Na)CampaniaVizzolo Predabissi - Melegnano (MI)LombardiaICP- MilanoLombardiaPonte San Pietro (BG)LombardiaSant'Anna - ComoLombardiaFornaroli - Magenta (MI)LombardiaVimercate (MB)LombardiaSan Bortolo - VicenzaVenetoSaronno (VA)LombardiaLegnano (MI)Lombardia
A7 What's behind editorial office working {#Sec23}
=========================================
Carlo Caffarelli, Antonio Di Peri, Irene Lapetina {#Sec24}
-------------------------------------------------
### Clinica Pediatrica, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy {#Sec25}
#### **Correspondence:** Carlo Caffarelli (carlo.caffarelli\@unipr.it) {#Sec26}
A few key figures are responsible for the quality of a scientific article collaborating closely in the editorial process: authors, publisher, reviewers and technical staff. When a journal receives a paper for potential publication, coworkers of the editorial office check that the authors have diligently followed the instructions on how to style the text and where needed they declare approval of the Ethical Committee, as well as have received the permission to publish material already appeared in other articles. If there is the suspicious of plagiarism, the editorial team uses an IT system to verify it. Subsequently, the editor ensures the content and the process of the publication itself. He is responsible for the quality of the paper as well as for the soundness of the information. For this purpose, he collaborates with reviewers, usually two. Reviewers check the quality of the proposed article, and are precious and anonymous contributors to the authors\' work. Choosing the right reviewers is a step the publisher is responsible for. When doing so, he takes into consideration any previous relevant experience with the topic to be assessed as well as their availability to deliver an accurate and competent review on time. It's also important to have a broad network of reviewers. It should not be limited by the editor's usual collaborators but it should also include expert reviewers whose work can increase the audience of the journal. The reviewers should always maintain a collegial attitude, \"educational\" and \"constructive\". Finally it may be necessary to look for technical reviewers to revise statistical or bioinformatics analysis. After evaluating comments and opinions of the two reviewers the Editor may: 1) accept the job; 2) send it to the authors requesting to amend the corrections by the two reviewers; 3) in the case of disagreement ask for a second opinion or make a decision himself. Subsequently, the editor will review together with the reviewers the second amends made by the authors. If the authors have responded adequately the work is accepted. If not, the authors have a last chance to review it before final rejection. Once the article has been accepted, the correction team will help reviewing the spelling, the vocabulary and the graphic design. In conclusion, for a correct and comprehensive publication it is necessary a close cooperation and collaboration among authors, editor and reviewers in order to ensure the quality of the article.
A8 Giuseppe Mya, Master of Pediatrics in Florence {#Sec27}
=================================================
Patrizia Cincinnati (patnati\@mclink.net) {#Sec28}
-----------------------------------------
### Study Group of the Italian Society of Pediatrics on the History of Pediatrics, Roma, Italy {#Sec29}
**Background**
Almost 160 years after the birth of Giuseppe Mya (1857-1911), the founder of the Florentine pediatric School, we have reviewed his research in order to evaluate its impact on child health care and pediatric knowledge during that period.
**Materials and methods**
We examined five prestigious national medical journals of the time, from 1891- when Giuseppe Mya was called at the Institute of Higher Studies in Florence - until his death: *Lo Sperimentale*, *Il Policlinico*, *La Pediatria*, *Rivista di Clinica pediatrica* and *Rivista di Patologia nervosa e mentale*. We also reviewed the Proceedings of the first six Pediatric Italian Congress. From these sources we obtained information about the author\'s major scientific contributions as well as his approach to the problems of the emerging pediatric community in Italy.
**Results**
With regard to diphtheria - a troubling childhood disease at that time - Mya was one of the first European supporters of the antidiphtherial serum (1894) and opened new challenging pathogenetic perspectives about bronchopneumonia (1895), paralysis (1899) and non-obstructive emphysema (1908) associated to the illness.
Also the term of Congenital Megacolon and its nosographic framing date back to Mya (1894), as well as the first report about a family case of congenital Hydrocephalus (1896). The description of the abnormalities in cerebro-spinal fluid of the children suffering from tuberculous meningitis too dates back to Giuseppe Mya (1897).
Mya's perspectives were constantly anchored to pathological and experimental findings. The Master encouraged his collaborators (Carlo Comba, Dante Pacchioni, Carlo Francioni) to perform further research according to this methodology and his scientific rigor led them to the highest levels of quality. Interestingly, Mya criticized the separation between clinical and laboratory activities (1905), thus anticipating the successful strategy \"From the bedside to the bench and back\".
The Master\'s sensitivity for the disadvantaged social conditions favoring infant diseases is also evident. From this point of view the investigation performed with his staff on the state of childhood in Florence is enlightening (1909).
Founding member and later the President of the Italian Society of Pediatrics, co-editor of *Monatsschrift für Kinderheilkunde* and co-founder of *Rivista di Clinica Pediatrica*, his interventions to the Congress show a constant concern for the promotion of pediatric culture in the country through a qualified mandatory academic teaching favored by institutional and economic measures (1901, 1905, 1907).
**Conclusions**
Giuseppe Mya was a pioneer of the modern Italian pediatrics being a reference for all contemporaries interested in infancy diseases.
A9 Child migration phenomenon in Italy {#Sec30}
======================================
Rosalia Maria Da Riol (rosidariol\@gmail.com) {#Sec31}
---------------------------------------------
### Regional Coordinating Centre for Rare Diseases, Academic Medical Center Hospital of Udine, Udine, Italy {#Sec32}
In recent years, in the context of migratory flows affecting Europe and Italy in particular, the juvenile component is increasingly numerically important, heterogeneous and constantly evolving. Migrant minors (MM) in our country, as of 31.12.2014, were 1,085,274 (21.6% of the foreign resident population); of these, in 2014, 75,067 were born in Italy from two foreign parents (14.9% of total births) \[1\]. In the latest decades, these \"foreign newborns\" have helped reduce the negative demographic trend of the Italian population which is still aging dramatically.
In Italian schools, in 2014/2015, 9.2% of pupils were not Italian citizens (814,187), even if 55.3% were born in Italy \[2\]. In recent years, the increase of adolescents arriving in Italy as a result of family reunification and the increase of born to non-Italians have led to an ever growing importance of foreign students in the second cycle of education, not only in primary and lower secondary levels.
To these MMs other typologies are added, such as children adopted abroad, Roma/Sinti minors living in "nomad camps", the children of refugees and Unaccompanied Migrant Minors (UMMs). The latter, coming from countries affected by war and persecution, have represented over the last three years a constantly evolving dramatic phenomenon (11,921 UMMs as of 31.12.2015, 13.1% more than in 2014; 12,241 UMMs as of 30.06.2016) \[3\].
Each type of MM is characterized by a specific migration history (country of origin and family situation, trip type, reception/permanence conditions) and by the consequent exposure to socioeconomic and environmental risk factors that affect the health framework of the child and its special care needs \[4\]. The situation of vulnerability and fragility of these MMs can be further aggravated by irregularities in the legal status of their parents, which affects their access to dedicated health services and, in particular, the ongoing support of Primary Care Paediatricians (PCPs). Although the State-Regions Agreement n.255/2012 \[5\] has introduced obligatory enrollment in the NHS and PCPs for undocumented MMs, in many Italian regions this is not done denying them the right to health as a state of complete physical, mental, social wellbeing.
In this context, the role of the paediatrician, regardless of the type of MM, cannot be just one of treatment but also of advocacy and supervision in the design and implementation of public health policies that protect the right to health of these children with a view to fairness and inclusion.
**References**
1\. Dossier Statistico Immigrazione UNAR IDOS 2015
2\. Rapporto nazionale MIUR ISMU 2014/2015 Accessed at: <http://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2016/Rapporto-Miur-Ismu-2014_15.pdf> (04/11/2016)
3\. Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali. Report Nazionale Minori stranieri non accompagnati in Italia. Report di monitoraggio dei dati censiti al 30 giugno 2016. Accessed at <http://www.lavoro.gov.it/temi-e-priorita/immigrazione/focus-on/minori-stranieri/Pagine/default.aspx> (04/11/2016)
4\. Nuove indicazioni del GLNBM-SIP per l'accoglienza sanitaria al minore migrante. 2013. Accessed at [http://www.glnbi.org](http://www.glnbi.org/) (04/11/2016)
5\. Accordo Stato-Regioni n. 255 del 12 dicembre 2012. Indicazioni per la corretta applicazione della normativa per l'assistenza sanitaria alla popolazione straniera da parte delle Regioni e Province autonome. Accessed at: <http://www.statoregioni.it/Lista_Documenti.asp?Pag=2&DATA=20/12/2012&CONF=CSR> (04/11/2016)
A10 Extreme therapeutic choices and therapeutic obstinacy: extremely low birth weight infants and late-term abortion survivors {#Sec33}
==============================================================================================================================
Mario De Curtis, Lucia Dito, Chiara Protano {#Sec34}
-------------------------------------------
### Department of Pediatrics and Pediatric Neuropsychiatry, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy {#Sec35}
#### **Correspondence:** Mario De Curtis (mario.decurtis\@uniroma1.it) {#Sec36}
**Background**
The number and survival rates of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants born with a gestational age (GA) \<26 weeks have increased in the last few years. Given their severe immaturity, these infants are inevitably exposed to critical conditions leading to death or to severe disabilities, and this is posing major bioethical concerns in many countries.
An additional problem emerging recently in Italy is the medical care of late-term abortion survivors. When abortion became legal in Italy, in 1978, the survival threshold for premature infants was 24-25 weeks GA. Today, the therapeutic progress has progressively reduced the threshold to 22 GA weeks, leading to new, quite challenging bioethical problems. In Italy, the termination of pregnancy beyond 90 days GA is legal only if the mother\'s life is endangered or in case of severe fetal abnormalities compromising the mother's physical or mental health; it is nevertheless illegal if there are chances of autonomous fetal life. Gestational age is nowhere mentioned.
**Materials and methods**
To define the extent of the problem, we searched the Italian Vermont Oxford Network (VON) to calculate the survival rates of 163 infants born at 22 and 23 weeks GA, cared for in 32 Italian NICUs in 2013. We also analyzed the number of abortions and of infants born from late-term abortions (\>21 weeks) in 2015 in the Lazio Region.
**Results**
Based on VON data, the survival of the 30 infants born at 22 weeks GA was 23% and of the 130 born at 23 weeks GA, 32%. In 2015, in Lazio, 9617 abortions were performed (10% of all abortions in Italy), of which 55 at 22 weeks GA, 19 at 23 weeks and 3 subsequently.
**Conclusions**
Since pre-term infants may survive even at 22-23 weeks GA, our question is whether it is ethically justifiable to provide care for an infant surviving an abortion carried out at 22-23 weeks GA, given the very high risk of severe malformations and disabilities, whose mother has decided to terminate her pregnancy. Some find it cruel, others believe that a viable fetus should always be reanimated. A neonatologist cannot be left alone in deciding what to do, only to be charged with either medical neglect or, vice versa, therapeutic obstinacy.
A11 Influenza and surroundings {#Sec37}
==============================
Susanna Esposito (susanna.esposito\@unimi.it) {#Sec38}
---------------------------------------------
### Pediatric Highly Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy {#Sec39}
Influenza is a common disease. Up to 30% of children, with the highest prevalence among the youngest, are infected by influenza viruses every winter season. Most of the disease cases are mild and spontaneously resolve; however, influenza in children can be severe enough to lead to hospitalization and death. In the last four influenza seasons in the USA, a total of 515 influenza-associated paediatric deaths have occurred. However, it is highly likely that the true impact of influenza infection in paediatrics is significantly higher than what is reported in epidemiological studies and official statistics. This is because a great number of patients who are hospitalized and die from severe respiratory problems because of influenza infection are not tested for influenza viruses. Moreover, influenza infection is often not reported as the contributory cause of hospitalization or death when the main signs and symptoms of disease are strictly related to the worsening of an existing chronic underlying illness. For many years, it was thought that severe influenza cases were only common in children at high risk of influenza-related complications because of a chronic, severe, underlying disease. Consequently, the prevention of influenza through the use of available influenza vaccines was only recommended to these individuals. However, in recent years, several studies have shown that severe cases can occur in otherwise healthy children. This explains why several countries currently recommend universal influenza vaccinations in children. Because the highest risk of hospitalization and death in otherwise healthy children occurs in the first years of life, a number of countries limit vaccination recommendations to infants, toddlers and preschool children. In other cases, such as in the USA, influenza vaccine administration is recommended in all paediatric populations from 6 months to 17 years and also in adults of any age. For years, protection against influenza has been pursued by administering the trivalent inactivated vaccine given intramuscularly. More recently, quadrivalent inactivated and live attenuated vaccines were prepared and licensed. Quadrivalent vaccines appear extremely attractive for the pediatric population due to the relevance of influenza B in children. However, because these preparations cannot be used in younger infants, different immunization methods to protect these subjects have been pursued. Maternal immunization is one of these methods, although presently it is not adequately used. Knowledge on influenza vaccination should be increased in order to adequately protect children against a common disease that may cause severe complications.
A12 Area pediatrica round table: deeds and misdeeds. Extreme food choices and nutritional fads {#Sec40}
==============================================================================================
Dante Ferrara^1,2^ (ferraradnt\@libero.it) {#Sec41}
------------------------------------------
### ^1^Family paediatrician of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; ^2^Primary care teacher School of Specialization in Paediatrics University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy {#Sec42}
Recent reports have pointed out cases of hospitalised paediatric patients, in serious clinical conditions, because of an improper food regime, linked to the spread of diets different to the omnivorous one. The dimensions of the problem and the related ethical implications impose it to scientific attention.
On a terminological point of view, these diets are distinguished in: vegan diet, which is exclusively based on the consumption of vegetable food (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) \[1, 2\]; lacto-ovo-vegetarian (LOV) diet, which is based on the consumption of vegetable food and indirect animal food (eggs, cow's milk and by-products, honey) (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) \[1, 3\]; raw food diet, which is based on the consumption of raw food; macrobiotic diet, suggested by the Japanese doctor Nvioti Sakurawa, which is part of an Eastern-inspired lifestyle based on a balance between Yin (associated with acidic foods) and Yang (associated with alkaline foods).
At a demographic level, Eurispes data point out that about the 8% of the Italian population follows an alternative diet, the 7.1% a vegetarian one and the 0.9% a vegan one \[4, 5\].
In Italian families vegetarian or vegan food choices depend in the 31% of the cases on ethical reasons (animals' defence), in the 46.7% of the cases on reasons linked to health safeguard; in the remaining cases, it depends on religious, philosophical, economic and environmental reasons \[3\].
About the second data, several scientific societies \[6-9\] have actually recommended the Mediterranean diet and a reduced consumption of red meat, to the advantage of cereals, legumes and vegetables. On this basis, however, poorly conscious parents have extended extreme food choices to their young children. In these cases, paediatricians' support is indispensable.
Vegan or vegetarian diets in a fast growing organism such as the child one involve biochemical-preclinical or frankly clinical deficiency conditions \[10-13\], if not properly supported by supplements of proteins (10% -15% more than the recommended consumption), of vitamin B12 (from 5 to 50 mcg/die depending on the age), of iron (1.8 times more than non-vegetarians), of zinc (50% more than the recommended dose), of iodine (3 gr/die of iodized salt after the first year or of possible supplements later), of calcium and ω-3 e ω-6 fatty acids (appropriate dietary adjustments).
It is therefore dangerous for paediatricians to refuse the alternative diets proposed by parents, thus leaving them freedom in the young patient nutrition field; on the contrary, they must be able to provide guidance on the correct supplements in order to ensure the compatibility of these diets with a balanced psycho-physical growing of the child.
**References**
1\) Accessed at: <http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HmgYBlrlah4J:www.leurispes.it/vegetariani-vegani-alimentazione-futuro/+&cd=1&hl=it&ct=clnk&gl=it>.
2\) EURISPES. Accessed at: <http://www.greenstyle.it/> (04/11/2016) htpp://[www.greenstyle.it/alimentazione-un-italiano-su-14-vegetariano-o-vegano-71093.htm](http://www.greenstyle.it/alimentazione-un-italiano-su-14-vegetariano-o-vegano-71093.htm) (04/11/2016)
3\) FAO, Livestock\'s long shadow.
4\) Le LT, Sabaté J. Beyond Meatless , the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings from the Adventis Cohorts. *Nutrients* 2014, 6, 2131-2147.
5\) De Gana L. Vegetariani e vegani- attualità e prospettive scientifiche, Relazione EXPO Milano, 28 giugno 2015. 6) Ferrari ML, Berveglieri M. Alimentazione vegetariana in pediatria. Medico e Bambino. 2015; 34:165-169.
7\) Craig WJ, Mangels AR, American Dietetic Association. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian diets. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109:1266-82.
8\) USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). Dietary guidelines for americans. 2010: chapter 5: building healthy eating patterns. Accessed at <http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/Chapter5.pdf> (04/11/2016).
9\) American Academy of Pediatrics. Committee on Nutrition.Nutritional Aspects of Vegetarianism Health Foods, and Fad Diets. Pediatrics. 1977.59,460
10\) Berveglieri M. La dieta vegan in età pediatrica. Alimentazione salutare per i bambini e le famiglie secondo l\'evidenza scientifica. Vegan Festival 7/8 maggio 2016 Ferrara.
11\) Pinelli L. Bambini e alimentazione vegetariana TERRAE' Ecologia della nutrizione e i 5 colori della salute, Pordenone 12 maggio 2012.
12\) Gallo P, Lambertini A, Landini C, et al. Quando una vitamina fa la differenza. Medico e Bambino. 2016;35:231-236 .
13\) Gastaldi R, Panicucci C, Poggi E, et al. La carenza di iodio in età evolutiva Medico e Bambino. 2015;34:39-43.Fig. 1 (abstract A12).Classification of food styles \[1, 3\]
A13 Forensic aspects and reporting ultrasound criteria {#Sec43}
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Rossella Galiano, Pasquale Novellino {#Sec44}
------------------------------------
### Terapia Intensiva Neonatale, Azienda Ospedaliera Pugliese-Ciaccio, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy {#Sec45}
#### **Correspondence:** Rossella Galiano (ferraradnt\@libero.it) {#Sec46}
Exposure to ultrasound (US), at normal diagnostic level, has no adverse biological effects. Therefore the sonogram, unlike other imaging techniques, is not regulated by specific laws and its use is not limited to imaging specialist, but is allowed for all the physicians. The specific features (non-invasive, painless, repeatable) associated to actual availability of equipment with excellent performance, always smaller (handheld), inexpensive, have led to the great success of this methodology and its rapid spread. The increasing demand for pediatric US has been faster than ability of the institutions to train and accredit medical sonographers and to plan protocols, guidelines or recommendations .The inevitable consequence has been a great heterogeneity of competence, skills and experience of practitioners using ultrasound, which is, by definition, a user-dependent technology. In a cultural environment that emphasizes the performance of diagnostic tools and undervalues their limitations, the inevitable effect is a medico-legal disputes increasing. Since ultrasound is a noninvasive technique, disputes resulting from damage provoked during ultrasound examinations (mostly eco guided interventional maneuvers) are rare; almost always disputes stem from a wrong or missed diagnosis when this was possible (\" not prevent an event that has a legal obligation to prevent is equivalent to causing it\"). During the trial the skill, prudence and diligence of sonographers will be judged according to iconographic documentation and the report (description of what was seen and diagnostic interpretation). Iconographic documentation and report are an integral part of the performance. Both have important legal significance, because while the diagnostic error may fall within the risk inherent in any medical activity, and it not always is a guilt, inadequate iconographic documentation or incomplete report are always marker of negligent professional performance. Different is the case of "Bedside" or "Office" or "Point of care" ultrasound, examination carried out and interpreted directly by clinician, as integration of objective examination. This kind of US respond to a specific diagnostic question or facilitates interventional maneuvers , without pretending to replace a comprehensive imaging carried out by imaging specialists. Currently in Italy there are no laws regulating the use of bedside US. To ensure the quality of pediatric ultrasound is necessary dedicated training, accreditation programs, guidelines and recommendations, and specific rules to distinguish the responsibilities of those who perform ultrasound in outpatient dedicated services and those who practice the bedside US.
A14 Chetogenic diet: evidence of efficacy {#Sec47}
=========================================
Eric Heath Kossoff (ekossoff\@jhmi.edu) {#Sec48}
---------------------------------------
### Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA {#Sec49}
The ketogenic diet has been in continuous use since 1921 and has in the past two decades grown dramatically in popularity. It is used primarily for children with very severe epilepsy not responsive to at least two standard anticonvulsant medications. However, recent years have seen the emergence of use earlier in the course of epilepsy, for adolescents and even adults, and also for neurologic conditions other than epilepsy (including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and traumatic brain injury). Hundreds of studies, including several randomized and controlled trials, have demonstrated efficacy even better than drugs for intractable epilepsy. In general, approximately 50% of children started on the ketogenic diet will have at least a 50% reduction in seizures, with 15% total becoming seizure-free. Many children can reduce or even stop concurrent anticonvulsant drugs after starting the diet.
The ketogenic diet is typically started in the hospital following a brief fasting period, but many centers worldwide have altered this protocol and even "alternative" diets such as the modified Atkins diet have led to flexibility and easier use. These diets can be started at home, without a fast, and sometimes with limited medical supervision. Side effects of the diet do exist but are typically preventable by dietitians and vitamin supplementation. They include constipation, acidosis, hypoglycemia, growth disturbance, elevated serum cholesterol, and kidney stones. Continued use of dietary therapy in Italy and worldwide is expected and will lead to help for children with even the most difficult-to-control seizures.
A15 Osteomyelitis in children {#Sec50}
=============================
Andrzej Krzysztofiak, Elena Bozzola, Laura Lancella, Alessandra Marchesi, Alberto Villani {#Sec51}
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### Pediatric Department University--Hospital, Bambino Gesù Children Hospital, Rome, Italy {#Sec52}
#### **Correspondence:** Andrzej Krzysztofiak (andrzej.krzysztofiak\@opbg.net) {#Sec53}
Osteomyelitis (OM) is a bone marrow infection usually caused by bacterial agents. OM is generally caused by haematogenous spread of the infection. It may be rarely secondary to penetrating trauma, surgery or infection in a contiguous site. OM may be classified as acute, sub-acute or chronic infection. Acute haematogenous osteomyelitis (AHO) typically involves the long tubular bones, generally femur, tibia or humerus. *Staphylococcus Aureus* causes 70--90% of AHO in the paediatric age. Methicillin-resistant *Staphylococcus Aureus* (MRSA) prevalence has increased globally (1). Other frequent etiological agents are *Streptococcus pyogenes*, *Streptococcus pneumoniae*, *Group B streptococci* and *Kingella Kingae* (2). Due to immunization policies, the incidence of OM caused by *Haemophilus influenzae* has been significantly decreased in the industrialized States.
Most children affected by AHO have a prolonged bone pain, increased values of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, of C-reactive protein and of white blood cells. (3) The suggested imaging techniques are: radiographic imaging, bone scintigraphy, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Radiographic studies are necessary to exclude other bone pathologies which can simulate AHO, such as fracture or tumors (1). Generally, 10-12 days after bone pain onset, osteolytic lesions may be detached on radiographic images. MRI is the most sensitive and specific imaging modality and contributes to an early and prompt of OM. Cultures, bone biopsy and molecular diagnosis should be useful to detach the causative agents.
The therapy of acute osteomyelitis is generally empiric, until the identification of the causative agent. The prescribed antibiotic should have both a good absorption and bone penetration. Treatment with antistaphylococcal penicillin or cephalosporin is effective and safe. If more than 10% of MRSA agents are reported, empiric therapy with vancomycin or linezolid should be prescribed. If the causative agent is detached, empiric therapy should be modified according to the resistance pattern of the organism. Therapy for AHO generally last for 3 to 6 weeks. If a septic arthritis complicates OM, a longer course probably is necessary. Studies on AHO management are limited and guidelines on when to change from parenteral to oral therapy are not yet available. Consequently, standardized approved recommendations on OM are not yet available.
References
1\. Harik NS, Smeltzer MS. Management of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis in children. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2010; 8(2): 175--181.
2\. Arnold JC, Bradley JS. Osteoarticular Infections in Children. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2015 Sep;29(3):557-74.
3\. Pääkkönen M, Peltola H. Acute Osteomyelitis in Children. N Engl J Med 2014;370:352-60**.**
A16 Meeting the expert: is it possible to control procedural pain in newborn? {#Sec54}
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Paola Lago^1^, Elisabetta Garetti ^2^, Anna Pirelli ^3^ {#Sec55}
-------------------------------------------------------
### ^1^Paola Lago, NICU, Women's and Children's Health department, Azienda Ospedaliera- University of Padua, Padua Italy; ^2^Elisabetta Garetti, NICU, Women's and Child's Health Department, Azienda Ospedaliera-University of Modena, Modena Italy; ^3^Anna Pirelli, NICU MBBM Foundation, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy {#Sec56}
#### **Correspondence:** Paola Lago (paolalago9\@gmail.com) {#Sec57}
**Background**
As soon as they are born, infants in intensive care or in nursery are exposed to painful procedures \[1\]. There is scientific evidence of this exposure potentially affecting the infants' pain perception later on, and impairing their neurodevelopmental outcomes in terms of cognition, motor function and brain development \[2\]. Pain and stress caused by invasive procedures can be prevented or controlled effectively with non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions, possibly ameliorating the wellbeing of the newborn and their caregivers \[3\].
**Material and methods**
On behalf of the Italian Neonatology Society's pain study group, a panel of experts on neonatal pain management gathered all the latest published evidence on the efficacy of analgesic practices for single invasive procedures and applied the GRADE method to reach a consensus on the level of evidence and grade of recommendation for each effective intervention for acute procedural pain control. The best practices for single invasive procedures were classified as environmental, non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions. The main objective was to update clinicians on the efficacy and safety of proper procedural pain and stress management in the newborn.
**Results**
Strong recommendations with moderate levels of evidence emerged for the use of sweet solutions combined with non-nutritional sucking or other interventions (breastfeeding, skin-to-skin contact, sensorial saturation) during skin-puncturing procedures, which must become standard practice.
Premedication during tracheal intubation is strongly recommended except in emergencies in the delivery room or after acute deterioration. Rapid-onset, short-lived medication is recommended. For mechanical ventilation, there is a strong recommendation and moderate level of evidence for opioid use, not routinely but on an individual basis, in intermittent and/or continuous infusions using the minimal effective dose. Fentanyl seems to be tolerated better than morphine and is recommended in very preterm infants (born under 28 weeks of gestation) at least. For postoperative pain, using paracetamol can spare patients the effects of cumulative doses of opioids for pain control and is recommended. Constant pain monitoring is mandatory to better customize pain treatment.
**Conclusions**
There is evidence of an effective, integrated analgesic approach during invasive and painful procedures in the newborn reducing pain scores and physiological derangements following nociceptive stimuli, and facilitating and expediting the procedure. It is important to customize analgesic treatments, however, and to assess pain routinely with validated pain scales.
**Acknowledgements**
We thank Gina Ancora, Carlo V. Bellieni, Daniele Merazzi, Patrizia Savant Levet, Luisa Pieragostini on behalf of Pain Study Group of Italian Society of Neonatology for their contribution in revising the recently published Guideline on Pain control and prevention during invasive procedure in newborn.
**References**
1\. Carbajal R, Rousset A, Danan C, Coquery S, et al. Epidemiology and treatment of painful procedures in neonates in intensive care units. JAMA. 2008;300:60-70.
2\. Vinall J, Miller SP, Bjornson BH, Fitzpatrick KP, et al. Invasive procedures in preterm children: brain and cognitive development at school age. Pediatrics. 2014;133:412-21.
3\. Lago P, Garetti E, Pirelli A, Merazzi D, Savant Levet P, Bellieni CV, Pieragostini L, Ancora G. Linee Guida per la prevenzione ed il trattamento del dolore nel neonato. Milano:Biomedia;2016.
A17 Topical intranasal bacteriotherapy: experience in acute otitis media {#Sec58}
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Paola Marchisio^1^, Maria Santagati^2^, Stefania Stefani^2^, Susanna Esposito^1^, Nicola Principi^1^ {#Sec59}
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### ^1^Pediatric Highly Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; ^2^Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, MMAR Laboratory, University of Catania, Catania, Italy {#Sec60}
The prevention of acute otitis media (AOM) is currently one of the primary goals of paediatric care. This is mainly true for recurrent episodes, but can also be considered in relation to avoiding a first episode in otherwise healthy children. AOM is a multifactorial disease, favoured by many predisposing factors. It usually follows a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract: therefore prevention relies on reducing risk factors, viral respiratory infections, and nasopharyngeal bacterial colonisation.
Reducing environmental risk factors (e.g. day care attendance, passive smoking, pollution), favoring protective factors (e.g. breastfeeding, hand hygiene), prolonged low-dosage antibiotics, immunoprophylaxis with influenza and conjugate pneumococcal vaccine, vitamin D supplementation, probiotics, adenoidectomy, tubes placement, and alternative medicine have all been proposed as prophylactic measures. However, none has been demonstrated to be able to complete solve the problem of recurrent AOM: recurrence in the treated children is usually reduced in comparison with that of controls, but, even when various preventive treatments are used at the same time, a relevant number of children continue to have AOM. In addition, there are concerns for some of these measures. Antibiotic prophylaxis regimen is associated with an increased risk of side effects and the emergence of resistant bacteria. Moreover, safety and tolerability of most alternative medicine remedies are not precisely defined \[1,2\].
In the '90s it was evidenced that AOM could more easily occur when commensal saprophytic flora of the nasopharynx was reduced, causing a relevant proliferation of the asymptomatically carried otopathogens \[3\]. Topical nasal administration of probiotics was considered as a method to reduce the risk of recurrent AOM in children. The most largely studied microorganism was α-hemolytic *Streptococcus* (AHS). Unfortunately, results were discordant and, after the positive study of Roos et al \[4\], the method was not developed mainly because its safety was questioned. With time, the potential pathogenic role of the bacteria that normally colonize human nasopharynx early in life has been clarified. *Streptococcus salivarius 24SMB* has been identified as an oral probiotic, characterized by good safety, ability to inhibit otopathogens responsible of AOM, and the absence of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes.
In a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study of intranasal administration of *S. salivarius 24SMB* in children with a history of recurrent AOM, the number of patients who did not experience any further episode during the study period as well as the mean number of AOM episodes were significantly lower in patients in whom colonization by *S. salivarius 24SMB* was demonstrated than in those treated with *S. salivarius 24SMB* for whom no colonization was observed \[4\].
The study supports the potential ability of *S. salivarius 24SMB* administered intranasally in reducing the risk of AOM in otitis-prone children. Ongoing studies are in progress to confirm these data in larger populations and identify the factors that in some children do not allow *S. salivarius 24SMB* colonization.
**References**
1\. Marchisio P, Nazzari E, Torretta S, Esposito S, Principi N. Medical prevention of recurrent acute otitis media: an updated overview, Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther 2014; 12: 611-620.
2\. Marom T, Marchisio P, Tamir SO, Torretta S, Gavriel H, Esposito S. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatment Options for Otitis Media: A Systematic Review. Medicine (Baltimore). 2016;95:e2695.
3\. Marchisio P, Claut L, Rognoni A, et al. Differences in nasopharyngeal bacterial flora in children with non-severe recurrent acute otitis media and chronic otitis media with effusion: implications for management. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2003;22:262-268
4\. Roos K, Håkansson EG, Holm S. Effect of recolonisation with "interfering" alpha streptococci on recurrences of acute and secretory otitis media in children: randomised placebo controlled trial. Brit Med J 2001; 322:210--212.
5\. Marchisio P, Santagati M, Scillato M, et al. Streptococcus salivarius 24SMB administered by nasal spray for the prevention of acute otitis media in otitis-prone children. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2015; 34:2377-2383.
A18 Children with rare disease in Emergency Department {#Sec61}
======================================================
Valeria d'Apolito^1^~,~ Luigi Memo^2^, Angelo Selicorni^3^ {#Sec62}
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### ^1^Pediatric Department, Fondazione MBBM, S. Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy; ^2^Pediatric Department, S. Martino Hospital, Belluno, Italy; ^3^Pediatric Department, S. Anna Hospital, Como, Italy {#Sec63}
#### **Correspondence:** Luigi Memo (luigi.memo\@tin.it) {#Sec64}
**Background**
Children With Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) represent an important population from health and economic policy prospective. They are at heightened risk for having acute illness, related to chronic health conditions or not, and frequently attend the Emergency Department (ED). Acute emergency situations of CSHCN are an important challenge for pediatrician.
**Objective**
The primary objective of this study was to describe what happens when these children go to ED, we described features of their admissions to ED (why, where and when) to estimate the intensity of care they need and receive there.
**Methods**
We described 2897 Emergency department admissions of CSHCN occurred in 60 hospitals of different levels in Italy since 1 December 2015 until 31 may 2016. For each admission we described time it occurred, level of hospital, children condition, the reason for accessing ED, triage code, the medical case management (examinations, consultations, treatments) and the outcome.
**Results**
55% of the 2897 children had a genetic syndrome, 21% of our population used some device, 25% of them has almost two devices. 57% of the admissions occurred in a tertiary hospital. The most common reason was respiratory symptoms, the second one was fever. 4% of children needed ED because of device malfunctioning. We compared the rates of red and yellow triage codes in our population with data of general Italian pediatric population of the Italian Society of emergency medicine and pediatric urgency. We observed that in our population red and yellow triage tag were respectively ten *times* and five times higher than in *general Italian pediatric population*. Tertiary hospital accepted the highest number of patients with severe symptoms. Concerning to cases management data showed that 72% of our patients underwent almost one examination. About the outcome of patients our data revealed that 42% of them wasn't discharged. We compared this number with the hospitalization rate of general pediatric Italian population during year 2011, and we observed that percent of hospitalization we observed is about six times higher than in *general Italian pediatric population*.
**Conclusion**
CSHCN present often symptoms more severe than general pediatric population. These patients frequently require higher level care and have higher percentage of hospitalization \[1\]. Because about 40% of them arrives to ED of a not specialized hospital, all physicians have to be aware of these diseases because if you know them you can take care of them better.
**References**
1\. Minasi D, Pitrolo E, Paravati F. L'appropriatezza dei ricoveri ospedalieri in età pediatrica in Italia. Area Pediatrica. 2014; 15:13-16.
A19 Role for probiotics in intestinal dysbiosis of the infant {#Sec65}
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Vito Leonardo Miniello, Lucia Diaferio {#Sec66}
--------------------------------------
### Department of Pediatrics, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Giovanni XXIII Hospital, Bari 70126, Italy {#Sec67}
#### **Correspondence:** Vito Leonardo Miniello (vito.miniello\@libero.it) {#Sec68}
The digestive tract is a complex ecosystem in which microbial communities (gut microbiota) interact with each other and with their host. Infancy is a critical stage for the foundation and development of the intestinal microbiota. During vaginal delivery bacterial exposure from the birth canal is a pivotal precursor for the colonisation of the infant gut in the first few days of life \[1\]. The initial microbial colonization is a stepwise process and interactions between the colonizing bacteria and the human host ultimately have a key influence on health and disease \[2\]. From birth, the normal gut microbiota contributes to the development of gut functions, provides protection against infections, contributes to the regulation and maintenance of intestinal barrier function, establishes immune and metabolic homeostasis later in life, and promotes tolerance of foods. The neonatal colonization pattern is markedly influenced by several perinatal environmental factors such as the mode (vaginal *vs* caesarean) and the place (home-born *vs* hospital-born) of delivery, the maternal microbiome, the number of siblings, infant feeding (breast milk *vs* infant formula), perinatal drug-based therapies (antibiotics), timing and composition of weaning, and maternal infections \[3\]. Despite the fact that most of the causality is not yet fully understood, shift in the commensal gut microbial communities with implication to disease is often referred to as dysbiosis. Various short- and long term chronic inflammatory disorders can be explained in part by disturbed immune and metabolic functions induced by the aberrant microbial colonization \[4\]. It has been suggested that early infancy gut microbial alteration could influence metabolic health of children and adolescents. Increased interest in the effects of the intestinal microbiota on human health has resulted in attempts to optimize the microbial ecosystem by the so called 'gut microbiota biomodulators' \[5\], such as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics or postbiotics. Probiotics are "live micro-organisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a specific health benefit on the host" \[6\]. In infants with inadequate or abnormal early intestinal colonization (dysbiosis), whether induced by Caesarean section, premature delivery or excessive use of perinatal antibiotics, probiotics might prevent metabolic and immuno-dysregulation by exerting anti-inflammatory effects, improving intestinal function barrier and modulating immune responses. In-vitro and animal studies have generated most of the mechanistic rationale for the use of probiotics that act through a number of different pathways \[7-10\]. Noteworthy, the ability of probiotics to influence immune and metabolic pathways differs greatly depending on the strain in question.
**References**
1\. Dominguez-Bello MG, Costello EK, Contreras M, et al. Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2010; 107: 11971--5.
2\. Rautava S, Luoto R, Salminen S, et al. Microbial contact during pregnancy, intestinal colonization and human disease. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2012; 9: 565-7.
3 .Penders J, Thijs C, Vink C, et al. Factors influencing the composition of the intestinal microbiota in early infancy. Pediatrics. 2006; 118: 511--21.
4\. Carding S, Verbeke K, Vipond DT, et al. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in disease. Microb Ecol Health Dis. 2015; 26: 26191.
5\. Miniello VL Colasanto A, Diaferio L, et al. Gut microbiota biomodulators: when the stork comes by the scalpel. Clin Chim Acta. 2015; 451: 88-96.
6\. Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization. Joint FAO/WHO expert consultation on evaluation of health and nutritional properties of probiotics in food including powder milk with live lactic acid bacteria.
7\. Prescott SL, Björkstén B. Probiotics for the prevention or treatment of allergic diseases. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007; 120: 255--62.
8\. Gill HS, Rutherfurd KJ, Cross ML, et al. Enhancement of immunity in the elderly by dietary supplementation with the probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis HN019. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001; 74: 833--83.
9\. Yang F, Wang A, Zeng X, et al. Lactobacillus reuteri I5007 modulates tight junction protein expression in IPEC-J2 cells with LPS stimulation and in newborn piglets under normal conditions. BMC Microbiol. 2015;15:32.
10\. Patel RM, Myers LS, Kurundkar AR, et al. Probiotic bacteria induce maturation of intestinal claudin 3 expression and barrier function. Am J Pathol. 2012; 180: 626--35.
A20 Apparent life threatening events (ALTE) in daily clinical practice {#Sec69}
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Antonella Palmieri (antonellapalmieri\@gaslini.org) {#Sec70}
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### Chief of SIDS/ALTE Liguria Center, Pediatric Emergency Department, Giannina Gaslini Children's Hospital, Genoa, Italy {#Sec71}
**Background**
What is ALTE? Apparent life threatening events (ALTE) is an acronym to indicate the presence of a series of alarming symptoms in newborn and infants (such as apnea, change in color or muscle tone, coughing, gagging, transient impairment of consciousness) that are recounted or experienced by parents or relatives. Rarely the doctor, trusted by parents for patient management, is a witness of the facts. Symptoms often occur during sleep, and the anxiously parents can alter the report of events. This fact makes difficult and ethically complex the management of young patients.
It's estimated that the percentage of ALTE's cases is about 2% of the total number of accesses to the Emergency room (ER): there are few cases that require a multidisciplinary approach and specific guidelines.
**Materials and methods**
In one year, our Ligurian Center performs about 600 follow-up visits and about 60-70 hospitalizations for cases of ALTE. The 98% of cases that come to the paediatric emergency departments is subjected to hospitalization.
The remaining cases with minimal events, which do not include all the clinical criteria but which have generated anxiety in parents, are admitted to "Short-stay Observation\".
All patients are subjected to first-level exams, culture tests and ECG; 98% also perform EEG and transfontanellar ultrasound. During hospitalization or later in the follow-up, second-level exams are programmed according to the specialists. For about a year, with the collaboration with the Clinical Genetics Centre, in selected patients, and in cases of idiopathic ALTE we have launched investigations directed to the search of PHOX2B. A very select part of the patients undergoes home cardiac monitoring.
**Results**
The Follow-up is completed by 95% of patients while in 5% it's interrupted for family rejection or due to the fact that the child comes from other regions, and he's sent to nearest reference centers.
For the management of ALTE events is not only important the clinical approach but also the communication with parents, the CPR training and the use of cardio-monitor.
**Conclusion**
The compilation of guidelines is important for the creation of shared criteria for patient management both in acute and during hospitalization, by programming first and second level examinations; it helps to understand the need for a regional network of reference in close collaboration with regional reference center to optimize the management of patients with ALTE \[1\].
**References**
1\. Mittal MK, Sun G, Baren JM. A clinical decision rule to identify infants with apparent life-threatening event who can be safely discharged from the emergency department. Pediatr Emer Care. 2012;28:1-7.
A21 How are we treating infants with bronchiolitis? {#Sec72}
===================================================
Luciana Parola (luciana.parola\@asst-ovestmi.it) {#Sec73}
------------------------------------------------
### Department of Pediatrics, Neonatology and Neonatal Pathology, Hospital "G.Fornaroli", ASST Ovest Milanese, via Al Donatore di Sangue 50, 20013 Magenta (Milan), Italy {#Sec74}
**Background**
Bronchiolitis is a common and potentially severe disease in infants. Many guidelines are available about its management. Since there is a great variability on diagnosis and treatment, a systematic data collection is necessary. The "Network for Bronchiolitis" was created by the "Accreditation and Quality Improvement Working Group" of the Italian Society of Pediatrics to evaluate the level of implementation of local guidelines \[1, 2\]. Other objectives of the network were: scientific research, surveillance of rare events, supervising of complex phenomenon, standardization of diagnostic criteria and therapeutic processes, generation of an hospital network able to allow a fast and profitable data exchanges. The subscriptions on the network permitted also to all the participants to monitor their own results related with national and regional data.
**Materials and methods**
In this study all patients less than two years old admitted to acute bronchiolitis were included. Each data was recorded after discharge from a single operator of each hospital participant and loaded into an anonymous electronic report form, created in collaboration with the Subspecialty Scientific Societies and available in a specific website.
**Results**
Data were collected between the 1st of October 2014 until the 30th of July 2016. Ten centers participated in the study and a total of 761 cases of bronchiolitis were collected (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}).
62% of the patients arrived spontaneously to the hospital, and 26% was referred from the general practitioner; 83% of all were born at term. The examinations done during admission are listed in Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"} and the treatments in Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}.
The risk factors revealed with more frequency were hospital discharge in epidemic period (8%) and older siblings (14%). The more important discordances from local guidelines were: chest x ray (done in 45% of the cases), administration of antibiotics (50%) and steroids (49%). However, the use of chest x ray progressively decreased during years of survey (33% on 2016).
**Conclusions**
The use of networks is very useful and practice to verify the applications of guidelines in clinical practice. Despite many expert recommendations and guidelines, we found lot of inappropriate diagnostic tests and treatments in patients admitted with bronchiolitis. As reported in the literature \[3\], the participation in a network contributed to an important reduction of inappropriate therapy and diagnostic tests in bronchiolitis. Educational approaches could also lead to more improvements.
**Acknowledgements**
Parisi Giuseppe Presidio Ospedaliero \"Anna Rizzoli\" Ospedale ASL
Bruni Paola A.O. di Circolo di Melegnano - P.O. Vizzolo Predabissi Azienda Ospedaliera
Esposito Susanna, Tagliabue Claudia Fondazione IRCCS Ca\' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Flores d\'Arcais Alberto Ospedale Civile di Legnano
Kantar Ahmad Policlinico San Pietro Struttura Privata Accreditata
Longhi Riccardo, Ortisi Maria Teresa Ospedale Sant\'Anna Como
Montrasio Giovanni Ospedale di Circolo Busto Arsizio-Presidio di Saronno
Parola Luciana, Racchi Elisabetta Ospedale \"G.Fornaroli\" Magenta
Rondanini Gian Filippo, Calzi Patrizia AO Desio e Vimercate (poc Vimercate)
Bellettato Massimo Azienda Ospedaliera San Bortolo
**References**
1\. Baraldi,E. Lanari M., Manzoni P. et al. Inter-society consensus document on treatment and prevention of bronchiolitis in newborns and infants. Ital J Pediat. 2014, 40:65.
2\. Ralston S.L., Lieberthal A.S., Meissner H.C. et al. Clinical practice guideline: the diagnosis, management, and prevention of bronchiolitis. Pediatrics. 2014; 134: e1474-e1572.
3\. Ralston S.L., Garber M.D., Rice-Conboy E. et al. A multicenter collaborative to reduce unnecessary care in inpatient bronchiolitis. Pediatrics. 2016; 137: e20150851.Table 3 (abstract A21).Characteristics of patients admitted to bronchiolitisGenderMale441 (57.9%)Female320 (42.1%)Age at admission\< 1 month100 (13.1%)\> 1 to ≤ 3 months301 (39.5%)\> 3 to ≤ 6 months210 (27.6%)\> 6 to ≤ 12 months139 (18.3%)\> 12 months11 (1.5%)Month of admissionOctober22 (2.9%)November66 (8.7%)December255 (33.5%)January195 (25.6%)February108 (14.2%)March57 (7.5%)April30 (3.9%)Other Months28 (3.7%) Table 4 (abstract A21).Examinations done during admissionsChest X Ray339 (44.5%)Blood Gas Analysis459 (60.3%)Blood Test: White Cells Count/C Reactive Protein726 (95.4%)Blood Saturation Monitoring706 (92.7%)Positive RSV433 (56.9%)Negative RSV313 (41.1%)Search For Other Etiological Causes224 (29.4%) Table 5 (abstract A21).Treatment administered during admissionsInhalatorial AdrenalineYes157 (20.6%)No589 (77.4%)Data not available15 (2.0%)AntibioticsYes381 (50.1%)No366 (48.1%)Data not available14 (1.8%)Inalhatory Beta AgonistsYes \> 24 hours447 (58.7%)Yes ≤ 24 hours29 (3.8%)No270 (35.5%)Data not available15 (2.0%)Intravenous HydratationYes259 (34.0%)No490 (64.4%)Data not available12 (1.6%)Oxygen AdministrationYes465 (61.1%)No289 (38.0%)Data not available7 (0.9%)Inalhatorial HypertonicYes total387 (50.8%)YES (not known the percentage)192 (25.2%)Yes at 3%195 (25.6%)Yes at 5%0 (0.0%)No369 (48.5%)Data not available5 (0.7%)SteroidsYes375 (49.3%)No370 (48.6%)Data not available16 (2.1%)
A22 Benign Familial Macrocephaly/Megalencephaly, does it really exist? {#Sec75}
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Ettore Piro (ettore.piro\@unipa.it) {#Sec76}
-----------------------------------
### Department of Science for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D\'Alessandro" University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy {#Sec77}
Macrocephaly is defined as an occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) greater than two standard deviations (SD) above the mean for a given age, sex, and gestational age (i.e., ≥97th percentile), and can be related to an increased volume of one of the four components; brain parenchyma or megalencephaly, cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and thickening of cranial bones.
Megalencephaly can be due to anatomic or metabolic conditions. Anatomic megalencephaly is caused by an increase in the size or number of brain cells \[1\].
The most common type of anatomic megalencephaly is Benign Familial Megalencephaly (BFM).
In BFM, increased OFC, usually present at birth, is clearly evident in the first months of life, increasing to greater than the 90th percentile, typically 2 to 4 cm above, but parallel to, the 98th percentile. OFC may increase by 0.6 to 1 cm per week (compared with the normal 0.4 cm/week) \[2\]. Head growth velocity slows to a normal rate by approximately six months of age.
BFM condition in OMIM is termed Benign Familial Macrocephaly (\# 153470), strong family history of isolated macrocephaly is frequent, mainly in male. The genetic basis for this nonsyndromic macrocephaly is multifactorial with a polymorphic genetic basis, the risk of recurrence appears to be much lower than it would be on the assumption of autosomal dominant inheritance, as previously supposed. The benignity of BFM is related to the normal long term outcome of global psychomotor development.
Recently progresses in molecular genetic studies of brain development, focusing on rare congenital conditions associated with megalencephaly, have identified an important role of genes and relatives products as MLC1 (OMIM 605908), that encodes a transmembrane protein that associates with the Na,K-ATPase beta-1 subunit and the hepatic and glial cell adhesion molecule HEPACAM/GLIALCAM (OMIM \# 611642).
MLC1 is related to the majority of cases of Megalencephalic Leukoencephalopathy with Subcortical Cysts (MLC, OMIM \# 604004). MLC1 is an oligomeric membrane protein that is expressed almost exclusively in the brain. GlialCAM acts as a MLC1 beta subunit needed for its correct trafficking to cell junctions. The HEPACAM mutations are either recessive or dominant with different pathogenic effects depending on the cellular region involved. Recessive mutations are identified in MLC patients without MLC1 mutations, while in 60% of the families with dominant HEPACAM mutations, the affected persons display BFM \[3\].
In the first 2-3 years developmental surveillance and brain imaging of a macrocephalic child are of great importance for making a definitive diagnosis.
**References**
1\. Menkes HJ, Sarnat HB. Child Neurology. 6th ed, Lippincot Williams & Wilkins Philadelphia 2000. 354-357.
2\. DeMyer W. Megalencephaly: types, clinical syndromes, and management. Pediatr Neurol. 1986; 2: 321-8
3\. López-Hernández T, Ridder MC, Montolio M, Capdevila-Nortes X, Polder E, Sirisi S, Duarri A, Schulte U, Fakler B, Nunes V, Scheper GC, Martínez A, Estévez R, van der Knaap MS. Mutant GlialCAM causes megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts, benign familial macrocephaly, and macrocephaly with retardation and autism. Am J Hum Genet. 2011.88:422-32.
A23 Feeding and nutritional issues in children with neurodisability {#Sec78}
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Claudio Romano, Maria Ausilia Catena, Sabrina Cardile {#Sec79}
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### Unit of Pediatrics, Department of Human Pathology in Adulthood and Childhood "G. Barresi" - University of Messina, Messina, Italy {#Sec80}
#### **Correspondence:** Claudio Romano (romanoc\@unime.it) {#Sec81}
**Background**
Undernutrition, growth failure, overweight, micronutrient deficiencies are common conditions among children with neurological impairment (NI). Nutritional support may restore linear growth, normalize weight, improve quality of life and decrease the frequency of aspiration. The role of a multidisciplinary team is crucial.
**Feeding and nutritional issues**
Feeding difficulties (FD) in children with neurological impairments (NI) are due to an organic cause. Cerebral Palsy (CP) patients constitute the most frequently found group of NI children with dysphagia or feeding difficulties \[1\]. Inadequate caloric intake is correlated with oral motor dysfunction, inability to self feed, and gastrointestinal disease, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and constipation , as well as respiratory problems \[2-3-4-5\].
Physical examination can underline signs of malnutrition or micronutrient deficiencies. In the feeding history, type of meal, meal times, child's position during the meal, child\'s autonomy and the role of the caregiver, recurrence of specific symptoms during the meal should be taken into account. \[6\]. Triceps skinfold thickness is the best anthropometric index to assess the nutritional status of these children \[7-8\]. High incidence of anemia has been found and attributed to secondary iron deficiency \[9\]. Even non-nutritional factors play a significant role, such as type and severity of neurological disease and antiepileptic drugs use \[9\]. Nutritional support is essential for the care and quality of life of NI children (indications for artificial nutrition in Table [6](#Tab6){ref-type="table"}). Enteral tube feedings are indicated in children who cannot meet their energy and nutrients needs by oral feeding alone or in children with swallowing dysfunction and risk of aspiration \[10\]. There are many methods to determine dietary energy needs in NI children (Table [7](#Tab7){ref-type="table"}). Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) placement is indicated in the case of long-term enteral nutrition (\>3 months) as it is more comfortable than a nasogastric tube \[11\]. In children who do not tolerate gastric feeds, with severe gastroesophageal reflux, risk of aspiration, are poor candidates for fundoplication, can be considered the possibility of using gastrojejunostomy or jejunostomy. There are various methods of feed administration: bolus feeding, intermittent or continuous infusion of formula. Many varieties of commercial enteral formulas are available, with various energy densities. \[12\].
**Conclusions**
Nutritional care of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities has improved with the advent of various enteral access methods and better tolerated enteral formulas. Nutritional assessment and support must be an integral part of the care of these children with close monitoring and early nutritional intervention.
**References**
1\. Dahl M, Thommessen M, Rasmussen M et al. Feeding and nutritional characteristics in children with moderate or severe cerebral palsy. Acta Pediatr. 1996;85:697--701.
2\. Benfer KA, Weir KA, Bell KL, et al. Oropharyngeal dysphagia and gross motor skills in children with cerebral palsy. Pediatrics. 2013;131: e1553.
3\. Catto-Smith AG, Jimenez S. Morbidity and mortality after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in children with neurological disability. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2006;21:734-8.
4\. Del Giudice E, Staiano A, Capano G, et al. Gastrointestinal manifestations in children with cerebral palsy. Brain Dev. 1999 ;21:307-11.
5\. Veugelers , Benninga MA, Calis EA, et al. Prevalence and clinical presentation of constipation in children with severe generalized cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2010;52:e216-21.
6\. Stevenson RD. Use of segmental measures to estimate stature in children with cerebral palsy. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1995;149:658-662.
7\. Gurka MJ, Kuperminc MN, Busby MG et al. Assessment and correction of skinfold thickness equations in estimating body fat in children with cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2010;52;e35-41.
8\. Kuperminc MN, Gurka MJ, Bennis JA, et al. Anthropometric measures: poor predictors of body fat in children with moderate to severe cerebral palsy Dev Med Child Neurol. 2010;52:824-30.
9\. Kilpinen-Loisa P, Pihko H, Vesander U et al. Insufficient energy and nutrient intake in children with motor disability. Acta Paediatr. 2009, 98, 1329--1333.
10\. Sangermano M, D'Aniello R, Massa G et al. Nutritional problems in children with neuromotor disabilities: An Italian case series. Ital. J. Pediatr. 2014;40:61--65.
11\. Papadopoulos A, Ntaios G, Kaifa G et al. Increased incidence of iron deficiency anemia secondary to inadequate iron intake in institutionalized, young patients with cerebral palsy. Int. J. Hematol. 2008;88:495--497.
12\. Sánchez-Lastres J, Eiris-Punal J, Otero-Cepeda JL et al. Nutritional status of mentally retarded children in north-west Spain. I.Anthropometric indicators. Acta Paediatr. 2003;92:747--753.Table 6 (abstract A23).Indication for artificial nutrition for NI childrenEvidence of oral motor feeding difficultiesUndernutrition (weight for height \< 80% of expected, BMI \< 5° percentile)Growth failure (height for age \< 90% of expected)Overweight (BMI \> 95° percentile)Individual nutrient deficiencies Table 7 (abstract A23).Calculating energy needs of neurologically impaired children1. Krick method\
Kcal/day = (BMR x muscle tone factor x activity factor) + growth factor\
BMR basal metabolic rate (kcal/day) = body surface area (m^2^) x standard metabolic rate (kcal/m^2^/h) x 24 h\
Muscle tone factor: 0.9 if decreased, 1.0 if normal, 1.1 if increased\
Activity factor : 1.15 if bedridden, 1.2 if dependant, 1.25 if crawling, 1.3 if ambulatory\
Growth factor : 5 kcal/g of desired weight gain*2. Height-based method*\
14.7 cal/cm in children with motor dysfunction\
13.9 cal/cm in ambulatory patients with motor dysfunction\
11.1 cal/cm in non-ambulatory patients3. Resting energy expenditure-based method\
1.1 x measured resting energy expenditure
A24 The preterm infants and predisposition to post-infectious respiratory diseases {#Sec82}
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Oliviero Sacco, Donata Girosi, Roberta Olcese, Mariangela Tosca, Giovanni Arturo Rossi {#Sec83}
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### Pediatric Respiratory and Allergy Units, Giannina Gaslini Hospital and Research Institute, Genoa, Italy {#Sec84}
#### **Correspondence:** Giovanni Arturo Rossi (giovannirossi\@ospedale-gaslini.ge.it) {#Sec85}
A growing body of literature has documented that, as compared with term infants, preterm infants are at greater risk to develop a variety of medical complications. With regard to the respiratory system all forms of morbidity, including respiratory distress syndrome, transient tachypnea of the newborn and pulmonary hypertension, affect preterm infants at a higher rate than infants of more advanced gestational age (GA). In addition, low GA represents in the first months of life a major risk factor for hospitalization for bronchiolitis, the first viral lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). Results of a recent review suggested that many adverse respiratory consequences of the first viral infection in preterm infants are likely the result of persistent modifications of the pulmonary structures. However, as demonstrated for severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-induced bronchiolitis, functional abnormalities of the airway reactivity and of the immune system function, can also play a significant role. The adaptive immune response to RSV infection is greatly attenuated in preterm infants, with delayed virus clearance, increased damage to the airway structures, induction of a detrimental Th2 response and of a Th2 immune memory. In addition to promote lung injury, a non effective immune response facilitates the recurrence of severe symptoms with subsequent exposure to RSV, but also to other pathogens or to pollutants. Early-life severe RSV-induced LRTI also induces an abnormal neural control of the bronchial structures, resulting in airway hyperreactivity and in amplification of the local inflammatory reaction. The "RSV-induced neurogenic inflammation" appears to potentiate the cholinergic and excitatory noncholinergic, nonadrenergic neural pathways that favors bronchoconstriction, but also enhances mucus production and increases vascular permeability. These changes in the inflammatory and immune response and in the sensory and motor nerve reactivity are deemed to play a short- and long-term significant role in the increased predisposition to post-infectious respiratory diseases. Indeed, after hospitalizations for RSV-induced LRTI, preterm infants experience higher re-hospitalization rates, longer hospital stays, and more frequent outpatient visits as compared with infants of similar GA who were not hospitalized for RSV. In addition, RSV-induced LRTI has been also associated with an increased risk of reduced lung function and irreversible airway obstruction up to the age of 18-31 years. An effective prevention and/or treatment strategies are needed to protect premature infants from severe respiratory infections in early life but also to reduce the predisposition to post-infectious respiratory diseases in childhood and adulthood.
A25 Radiation protection in pediatric age: current laws and patients and relatives information {#Sec86}
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Sergio Salerno, Maria Chiara Terranova {#Sec87}
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### Dipartimento di Biopatologia e biotecnologie mediche, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy {#Sec88}
#### **Correspondence:** Sergio Salerno (sergio.salerno\@unipa.it) {#Sec89}
Patients communication of radiation risk is mandatory, as underlined by the new European Community directives (COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2013/59/EURATOM of 5 December 2013 laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionizing radiation, repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom, 2003/122/Euratom)\[1\]. They emphasize the need for justification of medical exposure, and should strengthen the requirements concerning information to be provided to patients, the recording/reporting of doses from medical procedures- "dose bill"- the use of diagnostic reference levels and the availability of dose-indicating devices, considering that information about patients exposure becomes now a part of medical records \[1\].
The Directives define also practitioner's "clinical responsibility" for individual medical exposure: justification; optimization; clinical evaluation of outcomes; cooperation with other specialists and staff regarding practical aspects of medical radiological procedures.
All these points become critical in pediatric care as children are more sensitive to ionizing radiations and have longer life expectation than adults \[2\].
So relatives' or legal guardians' informed consent - mandatory for any radiological procedure - becomes crucial and delicate.
Keyword is communication:
Even if the risks of exposure to ionizing radiations are widely known, the great effect variability due to dose, sex, age, type of exam and different irradiated body parts make univocal risk settlement and comprehension complicated.
WHAT to communicate: in daily routine we use Quantitative Index (CTDI-vol, DLP) -but they are poorly understood by parents - or Equivalent Doses (number of Chest X-Rays; time to receive the same dose from natural background radiations)- that may vary widely or may be perceived as number of months/years of life that would be lost undergoing radiological exam.
HOW to communicate: we can report the cancer-developing risk as possible collateral damage from radiological approach, expressed as increased percentage compared with population. Practitioners should avoid catastrophic data ("The risk for your newborn of having a radiation-induced cancer due to pelvic CT is DOUBLE: 0.3% plus 0.3%"), preferring less mistakable information ("the probability for your child of having a normal infancy is 96.4%, almost the same of non-exposed children: 96.7%") \[3\].
Informed consent in pediatric radiology has a deeper impact, not only because of the increased susceptibility to ionizing radiation in childhood, but also because of parents' emotional implications.
That's the reason why all practitioners, especially those who care children, should have an adequate education in Radiation Protection, in order to be able to assess and communicate risks/benefits of radiological procedures.
**References**
1\. COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2013/59/EURATOM - 5 December 2013
2\. Salerno S and Geraci C. Radiation Protection in pediatrics age. Italian Journal of Pediatrics 2014;40 (Suppl 1): A62
3\. Wagner LK. Toward a holistic approach in the presentation of benefits and risks of medical radiation. Locke PA, ed. 46th annual meeting of the National Council on Radiation Protection. Bethesda, MD: National Council on Radiation Protection, 2010:22--23
A26 How to reply to revisors: advice and something else {#Sec90}
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Francesca Santamaria (santamar\@unina.it) {#Sec91}
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### Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Traslazionali, Università Federico II Napoli, Naples, Italy {#Sec92}
"Peer reviewers" or "referees" are experts who are requested to assess critically a manuscript that has been submitted for publication. An essential recommendation, even to the most expert authors, is take the role of the referee to try to be as impartial as possible towards their own paper.
Once acquired the concept that for good writing you need "edit, edit, and edit" your manuscript, few, additional simple advices before the first submission are:Do not apology for not doing investigation correctly: *reviewers know that this is not a good excuse.*Consider that non significant results cannot misquoted as trends: r*eviewers are fully aware of this.*Ensure that the manuscript communicates information clearly: *a reviewer is also a reader.*Do not lengthen the discussion: this will hardly distract the reviewer's attention.Do not disregard to get your manuscript checked by an English-speaking author. Referees pay much attention to typos or poor spelling or grammar.
While preparing the revised paper, first of all keep in mind that criticisms should be read and discussed by all authors for being sure that you all fully understood the meaning of the observations. While preparing the point-by-point response, do not forget to specify all the changes you made, including the lines and pages of the revised version of the manuscript that contain them. Sometimes, reviewers' questions are unclear: if this is the case, do not hesitate to ask for further clarification. Provide an updated list of references: new studies might have been published since your original drawing up. Finally, pay attention to the tone of your reply: be courteous and pleasant, and do not omit to thank both editors and referees for their help in improving your paper.
Should you follow all these suggestions, you would also contribute to make the reviewers life easy. Now, it's time to resubmit a revised version of the paper and expect that it will be hopefully selected for publication.
A27 Children affected with rare diseases without a diagnosis {#Sec93}
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Angelo Selicorni^1,2^, Giorgia Mancano^1,2^, Silvia Maitz^2^ {#Sec94}
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### ^1^UOC di Pediatria, ASST Lariana, Como, Italy; ^2^UOS Genetica Clinica Pediatrica, Clinica Pediatrica, Fondazione MBBM, Monza, Italy {#Sec95}
#### **Correspondence:** Angelo Selicorni (angelo.selicorni61\@gmail.com) {#Sec96}
Even though our ability to recognize very rare phenotypes is improving, thousands of patients are still undiagnosed despite multiple proper diagnostic evaluations and testing. From a patient's point of view, living without a diagnosis means living without a name, without genetic tests in order to perform a proper genetic counseling, without prognosis, without hope for an active research program and future treatment.
Diagnostic use of microarray technology in recent years succeeded in improving the possibility of defining genetic basis of very complex but unclassified phenotypes. Moreover the new utilization of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology showed its high potentiality in discovering new disease-related genes and/or mutations in an already known gene with a very atypical phenotype. This is what happened, for example, in the Canadian national project (FORGE) in which 362 families have been studied with a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) approach showing a detection rate of 51,7% (188 families characterized). In the same program, a mutation in a possible pathogenetic gene has been identified in 28 families, even though data were not enough to be conclusive yet \[1\]. A large and increasing number of reports have been published in the last years with different detection rates, based on the population which underwent the molecular study. This new approach seems to be also cost effective as showed by Valencia et al \[2\] who calculated the high number of tests performed by each of their patients before having a WES test. For this reason, Shashi et al \[3\] suggested to adopt WES as a test to be used as first/second line approach when phenotype is not so typical and the gestalt fails to guide the diagnostic process.
In this direction, since April 2016, Telethon Foundation is funding the Telethon Undiagnosed Diseases Program (TUDP), an intramural research project in which TIGEM lab, in cooperation with OPBG (Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù) lab, will test 300-350 families coming from a very deep clinical selection performed by three clinical centers. All pediatricians and all specialists can submit their patients to TUDP by filling a quite simple web form on the institutional Telethon web site (Malattie Senza Diagnosi, <http://www.telethon.it/cosa-facciamo/malattie-senza-diagnosi>), through which each patient will be carefully evaluated for WES testing.
**References**
1\. Sawyer SL, Hartley T, Dyment DA et al. Utility of whole-exome sequencing for those near the end of the diagnostic odyssey: time to address gaps in care. Clin Genet. 2016;89:275-84.
2\. Valencia CA, Husami A, Holle J et al. Clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of whole-exome sequencing as a diagnostic tool: a pediatric center's experience. Front Pediatr. 2015;3:67.
3\. Shashi V, McConckie-Rosell A, Rosell B et al. The utility of the traditional medical genetics diagnostic evaluation in the context of next-generation sequencing for undiagnosed genetic disorders. Genet Med. 2014;16:176-82.
A28 Ivacaftor treatment in cystic fibrosis and improvement in resting energy expenditure, gut inflammation, and fat absorption {#Sec97}
==============================================================================================================================
Virginia A Stallings^1,2^, Chiara Berlolaso^3^, Carolyn McAnlis^1^, Joan I Schall^1^ {#Sec98}
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### ^1^Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; ^2^ Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Pediatrics, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; ^3^ Department of Pediatrics, Sapienza University, 00161 Rome, Italy {#Sec99}
#### **Correspondence:** Virginia A Stallings (stallingsv\@email.chop.edu) {#Sec100}
**Background**
Ivacaftor is a therapy for people with cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gating mutations, which results in weight gain and improved pulmonary function. The mechanisms of the weight gain have not been determined.
**Materials and methods**
This was an observational study of children and adults (≥5 yrs old) from North America and Italy with one or more CFTR gating mutations before and after 3-month Ivacaftor treatment. Height, weight, and BMI were measured. Fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM) were assessed by whole body dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Forced expiratory volume at one second percent predicted (FEV1%) was assessed by spirometry, total energy expenditure (TEE) by doubly labeled water method, resting energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry (expressed % predicted using Schofield \[REE%\]), and coefficient of fat absorption (CFA) from 72-hour stool and 3-day weighed food records. Fecal calprotectin (μg/g stool) was assessed for gut inflammation and fecal elastase (μg/g stool) for pancreatic status. All study visits were conducted at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
**Results**
Twenty-three subjects (5 to 61 yr, mean age 17.3±13.0 yr) from the USA, Canada and Italy completed the study: 74% were pancreatic insufficient (PI) and receiving pancreatic enzyme medication. After 3-months of Ivacaftor treatment, weight gain of 2.5±2.2 kg (44.1±16.0 to 46.6±16.2 kgs) and improvement in FEV1% of 10±12% (86±21 to 95±20%) were significant (p\<0.001). Both FFM (0.9±1.9 kg) and FM (1.6±1.5 kg) components increased (p\<0.05). REE% declined 5.5±12.0% (95.6±11.2 to 90.1±10.3%, p\<0.05) as did fecal calprotectin 30±40 μg/g stool (78±116 to 47±108 μg/g/stool, p\<0.01). TEE remained stable with final results pending. Changes were greater in subjects with PI, and CFA improved 3.1±3.0% in this group. The change (∆) in weight was positively correlated with ∆FEV1% (r=0.46, p=0.028) and ∆CFA (r=0.47, p=0.032) and negatively with ∆REE% (r=-0.50, p=0.017). ∆FEV1% was negatively correlated with ∆REE% (r=-0.64, p=0.001), and ∆calprotectin (r=-0.49, p=0.022).
**Conclusion**
3-month Ivacaftor treatment resulted in gain of FM and FFM and improved pulmonary function in people with CFTR gating mutations. This improvement was associated with decline in REE and reduced gut inflammation and fat malabsorption, and was greater for those with CF and PI.
**Trial registration.** ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02141464)
**Funding**
Supported by Vertex Pharmaceutical Inc., Clinical Translational Research Center (UL1RR024134 & UL1TR000003), Nutrition Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
A29 Prolonged acute convulsive seizure/status epilecticus: a proposal of agreed treatment plan {#Sec101}
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Pasquale Striano (pasqualestriano\@ospedale-gaslini.ge.it) {#Sec102}
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### Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Genoa, Italy {#Sec103}
Status Epilepticus (SE) is the most common neurological emergency of childhood, with an incidence between 17 and 23 per 100000 children per year. \[1\] The management of children at risk of prolonged, acute convulsive seizures outside of the hospital is a poorly-researched subject in the field of epilepsy. In Italy and elsewhere, clinical guidelines offer little guidance on how these seizures should be managed outside of the hospital. Comprehensive protocols, which provide a clear framework for action and a seamless pathway of care for children from the time they are prescribed rescue medication to all potential situations where this medication may need to be administered, are needed. Clinically, SE is divided into four subsequent stages: early, established, refractory, and super-refractory. \[2\] During the prodromal or incipient stage (\<5 minutes) it is unknown whether the seizure will self-terminate or evolve into SE. Persisting SE has been divided into early SE (5 to 10 minutes), established SE (10 to 30 minutes), refractory SE (RSE) (30 to 60 minutes or seizures that persist despite treatment with adequate doses of two or three anticonvulsants) or super-refractory SE (\>24 hours or seizures that continue despite treatment with anaesthetics). \[3\] To provide guidance for the acute treatment of SE, we propose an expert practice guideline. The need for early pharmacologic intervention stresses the need for action in the prehospital setting, generally using benzodiazepines. When first-line drugs fail, levetiracetam or sodium phenytoin should be generally used. In cases of refractory SE, pharmacologic options can be continuous intravenous infusion drugs to suppress electroencephalographic bursts and convulsive activity.
**References**
1\. Abend N, Loddenkemper T. Pediatric Status Epilepticus management. Current Opinion Pediatrics. 2014;26:668-674.
2\. Trinka E, Höfler J, Leitinger M. Pharmacotherapy for Status Epilepticus. Drugs. 2015; 75:1499--1521.
3\. Brophy GM, Bell R, Claassen J et al. Guidelines for the evaluation and management of status epilepticus, Neurocrit Care. 2012;17:3-23.
A30 The obese teenager and compliance to diets {#Sec104}
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Rita Tanas^1^, Giulia De Iaco^2^, Maria Marsella^3^, Guido Caggese^4^ {#Sec105}
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### ^1^UO Pediatria Az Ospedaliero Universitaria, Cona, Ferrara, Italy; ^2^Centro per il trattamento dei Disturbi del Comportamento Alimentare, Todi, Perugia, Italy; ^3^UOC di Pediatria, Az. Ospedaliera di Rilievo Nazionale "San G.Moscati", Avellino, Italy; ^4^Formazione Professionale, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria, Ferrara, Italy {#Sec106}
#### **Correspondence:** Rita Tanas (tanas.rita\@tin.it) {#Sec107}
In adolescence compliance for pharmacological therapies in chronic diseases turns out to be only 45%, for dietary lifestyle 33%; only 5% of families adhere to the mediterranean diet \[1-3\]. Compliance to dietotherapy is more demanding: it takes 24 hours a day and the results are disappointing \[4-6\].
Obese teenagers suffer for weight stigma and bullism which is continuously increasing in all fields \[7\], so they have difficulty complying with projects of cure \[8\].
The "compliance with diet" is a challenge. Very few paediatricians and other caregivers feel courageous enough to accept it and many refuse to still hear about obesity, especially in adolescence.
However, everywhere teenagers ask to be helped with these problems \[9-10\]. So what then?
If we want to be helpful we have to listen to teenagers, finding a successful course focused on them, searching for the causes of their failure and new ways of improvement \[11\].
Twenty years ago I started a project of therapeutic family education: "Perle e Delfini" \[12-14\] obtaining good results also with adolescents with severe obesity after 2,5 years of follow-up (Figs. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Because of the risk of developing eating disorders, I gave up on the prescription of "strict diets" \[15\]. I realized that only avoiding diets and food diaries, I could convey a message of trust. The program replaces the prescribed diet with a family education on the importance of a healthy life style, without prohibitions, explaining the importance of portions and caloric density, and supporting self-efficacy (i.e. belief in success) with the therapeutic narration. Other authors supported successfully similar programs \[16\] and nowadays reduction and adaptation of objectives are promoted \[17-18\]. A therapeutic project has to focus on behaviors and not on kilograms to be lost, and it has to reward the achievements of psycho-physical health. The long-lasting change of behaviors can be supported only with self-efficacy, while prescribing a diet, also slightly low calories and rich of alternatives, is a message of mistrust: like "breaking someones leg and then asking him/her to run". We have to heal the legs that derision in family, school and health setting \[19-21\] has broken. We have to become aware of our professional weight stigma and start working with them, to have teenagers less obese and more healthy, without dangerous adherence to diets.
**References**
1\. Advisory Board sull'Aderenza, Bartolini F, Caputi AP, et al. Manifesto per l'Aderenza alla terapia farmacologica sul territorio italiano. Gennaio 2013. Accessed at <http://www.diabeteitalia.it/download.aspx?sfn=3d4c0679-2a9f-4114-85f8-06cf16fcd6a9>.
2\. Speri L, Brunelli M. Genitori più Prendiamoci più cura della loro vita 7 azioni per la vita del tuo bambino. Materiale informativo per operatori. Edizione Cierre Grafica. Verona 2009. Accessed at <http://www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_opuscoliPoster_126_allegato.pdf>
3\. Censi L, D'Addesa D, Galeone D, Andreozzi S, Spinelli A (Ed.). Studio ZOOM8: l'alimentazione e l'attività fisica dei bambini della scuola primaria. Roma: Istituto Superiore di Sanità; 2012.
4\. Clifton PM. Dietary treatment for obesity. Nat Clin Pract Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2008;5:672-81.
5\. Mann T, Tomiyama AJ, Westling E et al. Medicare\'s search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer. Am Psychol. 2007;62:220-33.
6\. Wadden TA, Stunkard AJ (Ed.). Handbook of obesity treatment. New York: The Guilford Press; 2002.
7\. Andreyeva T, Puhl RM, Brownell KD. Changes in perceived weight discrimination among Americans 1995-1996 through 2004-2006. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008;16:1129-34.
8\. Puhl RM, Peterson JL, Luedicke J. Weight-based victimization: bullying experiences of weight loss treatment-seeking youth. Pediatrics. 2013;131:e1-9.
9\. Viner RM. Adolescents\' health needs: the same the world over. Arch Dis Child. 2013;98:2.
10\. Rees RW, Caird J, Dickson K et al. \'It\'s on your conscience all the time\': a systematic review of qualitative studies examining views on obesity among young people aged 12-18 years in the UK. BMJ Open. 2014;4:e004404.
11\. Dietz WH, Baur LA, Hall K et al. Management of obesity: improvement of health-care training and systems for prevention and care. Lancet. 2015;385:2521-33.
12\. Tanas R, Marcolongo R, Pedretti S et al. A family-based education program for obesity: a three-year study. BMC Pediatr. 2007;7:33.
13\. Tanas R, Marcolongo R. Una cura senza dieta per l'adolescente soprappeso: l'educazione terapeutica. Rivista Italiana di Medicina dell'Adolescenza. 2007;5:17-24.
14\. Tanas R, Pedretti S, Greggio MS. L'obesità in età adolescenziale: problemi aperti. La comunicazione della diagnosi e la motivazione alla cura. Rivista Italiana di Medicina dell'Adolescenza. 2005;3 (Suppl.2):116.
15\. Vartanian LR, Porter AM. Weight stigma and eating behavior: A review of the literature. Appetite. 2016;102:3-14.
16\. Savoye M, Shaw M, Dziura J et al. Effects of a weight management program on body composition and metabolic parameters in overweight children: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2007; 24: 2697-2704.
17\. Holm JC, Nowicka P, Farpour-Lambert NJ et al. The ethics of childhood obesity treatment - from the Childhood Obesity Task Force (COTF) of European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO). Obes Facts. 2014;7:274-81.
18\. Ross R, Blair S, de Lannoy L et al. Changing the endpoints for determining effective obesity management. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2015;57:330-6.
19\. Ruffman T, O\'Brien KS, Taumoepeau M et al. Toddlers\' bias to look at average versus obese figures relates to maternal anti-fat prejudice. J Exp Child Psychol. 2016;142:195-202.
20\. Musher-Eizenman DR, Holub SC, Hauser JC et al. The relationship between parents\' anti-fat attitudes and restrictive feeding. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2007;15:2095-102.
21\. Jendrzyca A, Warschburger P. Weight stigma and eating behaviours in elementary school children: A prospective population-based study. Appetite. 2016;1;102:51-9.Fig. 2 (abstract A30).Study on 88 adolescents with severe obesity (BMI \>99°pc WHO), median age 12 ± 2 yrs, F 45%, of which 57 treated with Therapeutic Education and 31 with Dietotherapy. At T0: BMI 30.2 ± 5, BMI z score 2.98 ± 0,4. Grade of excess weight after 2.5 ± 1.3 years in the two groups. \[Tanas R Congresso Nazionale Società Italiana di Medicina dell'Adolescenza, Palermo 2012\] Fig. 3 (abstract A30).Study on 88 adolescents with severe obesity (BMI \>99°pc WHO), median age 12 ± 2 yrs, F 45%, of which 57 treated with Education Therapy and 31 with Dietotherapy. At T0: BMI 30.2 ± 5, BMI z score 2.98 ± 0,4. Change in BMI z score after 2.5 ± 1.3 years in the two groups. \[Tanas R Congresso Nazionale SIMA Palermo 2012. ET Education Therapy, DT Dietotherapy\]
A31 Therapeutic Diagnostic appropriateness: imaging {#Sec108}
===================================================
Paolo Toma (paolo.toma\@opbg.net) {#Sec109}
---------------------------------
### Department of imaging, Bambino Gesù Hospital IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy {#Sec110}
Rules of evidence-based medicine were adopted by radiology later than by clinical specialties. While interventions efficacy is typically proved by randomized trials, the practice of imaging is often founded on lower levels of evidence. Only recently, authors of systematic reviews began to assess accuracy of imaging modalities \[1\].
Moreover it was proven that only 38% (330 of 867) of systematic reviews on radiology published from January 2001 to December 2010 included imaging specialists as authors (first author in 176 (20%)). Only 26% were published in imaging journals \[2\].
Very often the biases are in the first steps of the study: Was the equipment adequately updated? Were technical factors, sections, mathematical reconstructions methods correct? Was the knowledge of those who decoded the data adequate?" \[3\].
Unfortunately there is another source of bias: is the experience of peer reviewers of clinical journals sufficient?
The other problem is that interests of medical industries increasingly setting the research agenda can mislead the evidence of diagnostic efficacy \[4\].
Practically, in \"Screening Radiology\" appropriateness is closely linked to political and economic choices. These affect less the \"Clinical Radiology\". However, the two fields are closely related and the equilibrium is difficult to be mantained.
As a rule, in the study of symptomatic patients (Clinical Radiology) we'll try to use high-sensitivity investigations and we'll accept a low specificity that can be balanced by further diagnostic procedures.
Conversely, in the study of asymptomatic subjects (screening Radiology) we'll try to use investigations with high specificity, accepting also the price of a lower sensitivity.
We know that accuracy measures can be correlated: in a setting where sensitivity is higher, specificity tends to be lower, and vice versa.
**References**
1\. McInnes MD, Bossuyt PM. Pitfalls of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses in Imaging Research. Radiology. 2015;277:13-21.
2\. Sardanelli F, Bashir H, Berzaczy D, et al. The role of imaging specialists as authors of systematic reviews on diagnostic and interventional imaging and its impact on scientific quality: report from the EuroAIM Evidence-based Radiology Working Group. Radiology. 2014;272:533-40.
3\. Di Leo G, Sardanelli F. Pitfalls of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Radiology. 2016;279(2):652.
4\. Greenhalgh T, Howick J, Maskrey N; Evidence Based Medicine Renaissance Group. Evidence based medicine: a movement in crisis? BMJ. 2014;348:g3725.
A32 Migrant children in Italy: migratory history and health profile, infective aspects {#Sec111}
======================================================================================
Piero Valentini^1^, Danilo Buonsenso^2^, David Pata^1^, Manuela Ceccarelli^3^ {#Sec112}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
### ^1^Department of Health Sciences of the Woman and Child, Pediatrics, \"A. Gemelli \" Foundation University Hospital, Rome, Italy; ^2^DEA, Pediatric Emergency, Pediatric Hospital "Bambino Gesù", I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy; ^3^Department of Specialistic Medicine, Infectious Diseases Specialization School, University of Messina, Messina, Italy {#Sec113}
#### **Correspondence:** Piero Valentini (piero.valentini\@policlinicogemelli.it) {#Sec114}
Despite what you might think, the migrant status does not systematically associate with infectious diseases \[1\], nor particularly rare diseases. Infectious diseases, however, although can indiscriminately strike individuals from all social categories, are indeed an issue directly linked to poverty and this aspect most commonly affects people forced to emigrate by economic necessity or by wars. The migrant children are divided in different categories: recently immigrated, with families or alone, refugees, adopted, born in our country from immigrated parents. The probability to have infectious diseases and the approach for their detection have different aspects and problems. Immigrants and refugees are most directly at risk of infectious diseases because of migration process, often long and in extremely difficult conditions, which expose them to all those conditions (crowding, poor hygiene, lack of medical care) that can easily lead to epidemic situations, characterized primarily by respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases. Special consideration has to be given to infections transmitted by arthropods, which may occur even a long time after the arrival of the child in Italy: in a cohort of children newly arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo many cases of malaria were observed, and biomolecular techniques proved helpful in order to identify the forms of P. ovale, cause of relapses. Children internationally adopted are at lower risk of acute illness, but may show infectious diseases related to epidemiologic situation of their countries, the care they had in the pre-adoption period and a vaccination immunity often uncertain, in spite of the accompanying documentation: 408 out of 902 (45,23%) children evaluated at December 31, 2015, had infectious diseases of various kinds and / or vaccination coverage deficit (personal data). Children born in our country from immigrated parents have a particular risk associated with adults diseases: tuberculosis, that is not endemic in Italy, is currently observed in immigrants with a higher prevalence than natives and this epidemiological data persists in children belonging to these families \[2\]. In a recent multicenter work \[3\], out of 2339 immigrated or adopted children, 60.4% was found to be suffering from latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and 5.6% from active tuberculosis. Therefore, beyond special situations, as reception or sorting centers, where it is good to implement control systems to identify quickly potential risk of epidemic, hospital and family pediatricians meeting migrant children must be aware of the migration trajectory, the country of origin, recent trips to the native land and family economic and logistic situation, to speculate and detect quickly and appropriately diseases that can affect preferentially these categories of children.
**References**
1\. WHO. Migration and health: key issues. Accessed at: <http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-determinants/migration-and-health/migrant-health-in-the-european-region/migration-and-health-key-issues> (04/11/2016)
2\. Buonsenso D, Lancella L, Delogu G, et al. A twenty-year retrospective study of pediatric tuberculosis in two tertiary hospitals in Rome. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2012;31:1022-26.
3 Galli L, Lancella L, Tersigni C, et al. Pediatric tuberculosis in italian children: epidemiological and clinical data from the italian register of pediatric tuberculosis. Int J Mol Sci. 2016, 17, 960.
A33 Nutritional challenges in adolescence {#Sec115}
=========================================
Elvira Verduci, Marta Brambilla, Benedetta Mariani, Carlotta Lassandro, Alice Re Dionigi, Sara Vizzuso, Giuseppe Banderali {#Sec116}
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### Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital, University of Milan, Milan, Italy {#Sec117}
#### **Correspondence:** Elvira Verduci (elvira.verduci\@unimi.it) {#Sec118}
Improving nutrition is a key opportunity to improve health. Adolescence is a critical period: many important physical and psychologic changes occur in a very short period. Adolescence has to be considered an especially nutritionally vulnerable period: first, there is a greater demand for nutrients because of the dramatic growth and development, second there are many changes in lifestyle and food habits \[1\]. While the energy intake is higher during adolescence, due to the intense needs for growth (4-5% of total daily energy needs), the macronutrient intake is unchanged (carbohydrates: 45-60%; lipids: 20-35%; proteins: 12-15%) \[2\]. Adolescence is characterized by undesiderable changes in eating behaviours: increased consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, calorie-dense, nutrient poor snacks and a decline in the consumption of milk, fruits and vegetables. Meals patterns tend to change: teenagers are more likely to skip breakfast, less likely to participate in family dinners and frequently eat away from home (e.g. fast foods) \[3\].
Changes in dietary habits towards an unbalanced diet could induce nutrition-related disorders, both qualitative (e.g. micronutrient deficiencies) and quantitative (e.g. obesity and its comorbidities) \[4\]. Since nutritional habits established during adolescence are likely to track into adulthood, specific action are needed to improve the quality of the diet of adolescences \[5\]. The HELENA study identified deficient concentrations for plasma folate, vitamin D, vitamin B-6, β-carotene and vitamin E. Vitamin D and folate are the vitamins most at risk \[4\]. Vitamin B6, folate, and vitamin B12 deficiencies are considered as a risk factor in cardiovascular diseases, neural tube defects and some types of cancers. They are involved in optimal cognitive function and bone health. Sub-clinical deficiencies of vitamin B6, folate, and vitamin B12 status are not uncommon during adolescence \[6\]. Vitamin D status is a key determinant of bone health during childhood and adolescence. Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency may negatively affect bone mineralization: adequate muscle mass accrual is essential for the attainment of peak bone mass \[7\]. Iron has a role in prefrontal dopamine signalling and could be involved in impaired executive functioning, which includes planning, working memory, self-monitoring and regulation, inhibition and volition. Mild iron deficiency, which is common in menstruating adolescent girls, has implications in well-being and so should be recognised and treated \[8\].
In conclusion, public authorities should raise awareness of the importance of nutrition in critical periods of life, such as adolescence.
**References**
1\. Spear BA. Adolescent growth and development. J Am Diet Assoc. 2002;102:S23-29.
2\. SINU (Italian Society for Human Nutrition). LARN- Intake Levels of Reference for Nutrients and Energy). IV Revision. SINU-INRAN. Milano: SICS, 2014.
3\. Birch L, Savage JS, Ventura A. Influences on the development of children's eating behaviours: from infancy to adolescence. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2007;68:s1-s56.
4\. Moreno LA, Gottrand F, Huybrechts I, et al. Nutrition and lifestyle in European adolescents: the HELENA (Health Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) Study. Adv. Nutr. 2014;5:615S-623S.
5\. Branca F, Piwoz E, Schultink W, Sullivan LM. Nutrition and health in women, children, and adolescent girls. BMJ. 2015; 351:h4173.
6\. Iglesia I, Mouratidou T, González-Gross M, et al. Foods contributing to vitamin B6, folate, and vitamin B12 intakes and biomarkers status in European adolescents: the HELENA study. Eur J Nutr. 2016. Epub ahead of print.
7\. Saggese G, Vierucci F, Boot AM, et al. Vitamin D in childhood and adolescence: an expert position paper. Eur J Pediatr. 2015; 174:565-576.
8\. Scott SP, Murray-Kolb LE. Iron status is associated with performance on executive functioning tasks in nonanemic young women. J Nutr. 2016; 146: 30-37.
A34 Neurological complications in thyroid diseases: neurological profile {#Sec119}
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Gianvito Panzarino, Claudia Di Paolantonio, Alberto Verrotti {#Sec120}
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### Department of Pediatrics, University of L'Aquila, L\'Aquila, Italy {#Sec121}
Thyroid hormones exert critical roles for brain development, in particular influencing various aspects of the neuronal development.
In prenatal and postnatal life, deficiency of thyroid hormones can have a detrimental effect on cerebral maturation with subsequent neuromotor impairment. Hypothyroidism (both in mother and/or newborn) associated or not to iodine deficiency is the main cause of this situation \[1\]. Moreover mother's hypothyroidism can determine an high probabilities of developing autism spectrum disorders \[2\].
Among the most frequent treatable conditions of psychomotor impairment, we must always consider congenital hypothyroidism (CH). The situation can be permanent (abnormality gland development or defect hormonogenesis), less commonly is transient.
The clinical manifestations of CH are subclinical, therefore some newborns can be underdiagnosed and the retarded diagnosis can cause severe consequences \[3\]. Substitutive therapy must be started early in order to reach euthyroidism as soon as possible. A possible inverse correlation between mental development and the beginning of therapy has been suggested. Thyroid hormone treatment is recommended as T4: 10-15 μgm/kg/day, in order to obtain T4 and TSH normal values \[3\]. Wheeler et al described adolescents with CH and abnormal hippocampal functioning \[4\].
The introduction of neonatal screening is an important tool to prevent severe cognitive consequences.
Hashimoto thyroiditis and Graves\' disease can be associated with many neurological disturbances \[5\]. Patients with Hashimoto encephalopathy (HE) can display neuromuscular disturbance and epilepsy with abnormalities of white matter (found in brain magnetic resonance imaging). In the majority of cases the diagnosis is based on the presence of elevated thyroid antibodies. In HE patients high protein concentrations are often present in the cerebrospinal fluid. The first-line therapy is based on the use of steroids, alternative therapy include IV immunoglobulin and plasmapheresis \[6\].
References
1\. Bernal J. Thyroid Hormones in Brain Development and Function. De Groot LJ, Beck-Peccoz P, Chrousos G, et al., editors. Endotext. 2000.
2\. Berbel P, Navarro D, Roman GC. An Evo-Devo Approach to Thyroid Hormones in Cerebral and Cerebellar Cortical Development: Etiological Implications for Autism. Front Endocrinol. 2014; 5: 146.
3\. Rose SR, Brown RS. Update of Newborn Screening and Therapy for congenital Hypothyroidism. Pediatrics. 2006; 117:2290-2303.
4\. Wheeler SM, McLelland VC, Sheard E, McAndrews MP, Rovet JF. Hippocampal Functioning and Verbal Associative Memory in Adolescents with Congenital Hypothyroidism. Front Endocrinol. 2015; 6:163.
5\. Nandi-Munshi D, Taplin CE. Thyroid-related neurological disorders and complications in children. Pediatr Neurol. 2015; 52:373-382.
6\. Zhou JY, Xu B, Lopes J, Li L. Hashimoto encephalopathy: literature review. Acta Neurol Scand. 2016 In press.
A35 Anti-meningococcal prevention in pediatrics {#Sec122}
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Alberto Villani, Elena Bozzola, Laura Cursi, Annalisa Grandin, Andrzej Krzysztofiak, Laura Lancella {#Sec123}
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### General Pediatrics and Infectious Disease -- Bambino Gesù Children Hospital -- Rome - Italy {#Sec124}
Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a severe problem all over the world. The individuation of children with IMD is important to promptly prescribe systemic antibiotic treatment and to try avoiding death and/or invalidating sequelae.
Nevertheless, vaccination remains the best strategy to prevent meningococcal disease. ^1^ In fact, in order to eliminate an infectious disease, the first essential requirement is undoubtedly the availability of both safe and effective vaccines and a strategic planning of immunization.^2^
There are 12 known serogroups of Neisseria meningitidis, as determinated by antigens of the Neisseria meningitidis polysaccharide capsule. A, B, C, W, X, and Y are the serogroups which may cause invasive human disease.
Serogroups A, C, Y, and W may be prevented with immunization by a quadrivalent capsular polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccine. Conjugate vaccines against Neisseria Meningitidis C has dramatically reduced cases of bacterial meningitis in the industrialized nations, also in Italy. Meningitis type B continues to be a threat to children and adolescents in Italy and worldwide. Serogroup B is actually known as the most common cause of IMD. The immunization is recently available through a recombinant protein vaccine. ^3^ In order to eliminate an infectious disease, the first essential requirement is undoubtedly the availability of safe and effective vaccines. However, strategic planning of the application of the vaccines which have become available is equally important.
References
1\. Bosis S., Mayer A., Esposito S. Meningococcal disease in childhood: epidemiology, clinical features and prevention. J Prev Med Hyg 2015; 56: E121-E124.
2\. Gasparini R., Amicizia D., Lai P.L., Panatto D. Meningococcal B vaccination strategies and their practical application in Italy. J Prev Med Hyg 2015; 56: E133-E139.
3\. Baker C. J. Prevention of Meningococcal Infection in the United States: Current Recommendations and Future Considerations. J Adol Health 2016; 59: S29-S37.
A36 Unaccompanied foreigner children (minors) in Italy: holistic multidisciplinary protocol for age assessment {#Sec125}
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Raffaele Virdis^1,2,4^, Patrizia Carletti^1,3^ {#Sec126}
----------------------------------------------
### ^1^Board "Immigrants and Health Services" of the Health Commission of The Italian Regions Conference, Rome, Italy; ^2^Consultant, GLNBM, Florence, Italy; ^3^Coordinator of the National Board. Observatory on Health Inequalities, Health Department, Marche Region, Ancona, Italy; ^4^Formerly of Parma University, Parma, Italy {#Sec127}
#### **Correspondence:** Raffaele Virdis (raffaele.virdis\@unipr.it) {#Sec128}
**Background**
Between 2012 and 2016, the Technical Interregional Board "Immigrants and Health Services" of the Health Commission of The Italian Regions Conference, together with the contribution of various Ministries, Scientific Societies, and stakeholders (UNHCR, Save the Children), set up a "Protocol for the identification and the holistic multidisciplinary age assessment of foreigner, unaccompanied children". The purposes were to create a protocol coherent with the European directives \[1\] and obtain clear and feasible indications for age assessment (AA) in these minors, passing the criticalities due to diverse methods, procedures and judgment parameters adopted in the different Italian Regions, which were often based on a single assessment using invasive tests (mainly radiological determination of bone or dental age). These procedures were considered affecting human rights (according to International law courts' opinions) when used for lawful purposes, while the scientific literature underlined the frequent inaccuracy \[2, 3\] .
**Methods**
The experts of the "Board" have underlined the central role of the pediatrician of the "National Health Service" in this AA procedure, but they have, also, pointed out that the physical examination (pediatric and auxological examination, eventual instrumental tests) used as the only tool, is aleatory because relative to the degree of body and pubertal maturation and not always to the chronological age.
The AA performed through medical methods could not give an exact response and, if in the 95% of the cases the possible error is ± 2 years, in the remaining 5% could be also ± 3-4 years. This range of variability is not acceptable, especially in ages near the legal limit of 18 years.
This proposed holistic and multidisciplinary procedure takes into account not only the body but also the psychological and behavioral maturation (child neuropsychiatrist and/or psychologist) and the social and cultural situation (social worker and cultural mediator). Moreover, this method guarantees to the alleged minor the respect for his person and his legal protection, and it seems to be the best system, even if the result could be not completely correct because any form of AA is not an "exact science".
**Conclusions**
The protocol in comparison with other international ones and with what was done before, confirms its scientific nature and the respect for human rights, providing recourse to invasive tests only in extreme situations and always with the informed consent of the subject. All these aspects and procedures involve economic costs, time, training and continuous updating of the professional figures.
**References**
1\. Directive 2013/32/ of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 and Directive 2013/33 of 26 June 2013
2\. Aynsley-Green A., Cole T.J., Crawley H., Lessof N., Boag L.R., Wallace R.M.: Medical, statistical, ethical and human rights considerations in the assessment of age in children and young people subject to immigration control. Br Med Bulletin. 2012;102:17-42
3\. Benso L., Milani S. Alcune considerazioni sull'uso forense dell'età biologica, 12 giugno 2013. Accessed at <http://www.asgi.it/wp-content/uploads/public/1_2013_accertamento_eta_materiali.pdf> (04/11/2016)
A37 Neurological complications during thyroid diseases, thyroid dysfunctions: clinical scenarios in children {#Sec129}
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Giovanna Weber, Silvana Caiulo, Maria Cristina Vigone {#Sec130}
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### Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Department of Pediatrics, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy {#Sec131}
#### **Correspondence:** Giovanna Weber (weber.giovanna\@hsr.it) {#Sec132}
Thyroid hormones are crucial for an adequate neuropsychological development in the first years of life. During pregnancy, the fetus is susceptible to not treated maternal hypothyroidism. A study published on NEJM \[1\] showed that the full-scale intellective quotient scores of children born from mothers with thyroid deficiency averaged 7 points lower than those of the matched control children. Subsequent studies \[2,3\] have confirmed that subclinical hypothyroidism and hypothyroxinemia during pregnancy might led to altered neuropsychological development in the child. Therefore, in pregnancies with risk factors for thyroid dysfunction international guidelines have been delineated in order to evaluate maternal thyroid function precociously and to keep TSH and FT4 values in the correct reference ranges for pregnancies \[4\].
Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a frequent preventable cause of mental retardation. The eradication of mental retardation caused by CH has been possible thanks to the realization of neonatal screening programmes for CH, a precocious diagnosis (before 15 days of life) and an optimised initial therapeutic dosage of levothyroxine (10-15 mcg/kg/day). Studies published in the last 10 years have shown an average intellective quotient 20 points higher compared to pre-screening era. However, in a minority of patients, there might be minimal neurological deficits (minor deficits in psychomotricity, concentration, attention, and a delayed acquisition of language), despite normal intellective quotient. Risk factors for intellectual disability that should be taken into consideration are CH severity, the adequacy of treatment, and the socio-educational status of the parents \[5\]. Even an excessive dose of levothyroxine should be avoided for possible attention deficits \[6\].
With early and adequate treatment, intellectual disability caused by CH has largely become a thing of the past. However, there are exceptional cases of hypothyroidism due to genetic mutations that are associated to severe neurological impairment, such as the Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome and the brain-lung-thyroid syndrome. Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome is caused by mutations in the SLC16A2 gene, also known as MCT8. It is a rare disorder of brain development that occurs exclusively in males and causes moderate to severe intellectual disability, hypotonia, spasticity, distonia and epilepsy. Brain-lung-thyroid syndrome is characterized by CH or subclinical hypothyroidism, infant respiratory distress syndrome and benign hereditary chorea.
**References**
1\. Haddow JE, Palomaki GE, Allan WC, et al. Maternal thyroid deficiency during pregnancy and subsequent neuropsychological development of the child. N Engl J Med. 1999;341:549-55.
2\. Henrichs J, Bongers-Schokking JJ, Schenk JJ, et al. Maternal thyroid function during early pregnancy and cognitive functioning in early childhood: the generation R study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010;95:4227-4234.
3\. Li Y, Shan Z, Teng W, . et al. Abnormalities of maternal thyroid function during pregnancy affect neuropsychological development of their children at 25-30 months. Clinical Endocrinol. 2010; 72, 825--829.
4\. Stagnaro-Green A, Abalovich M, Alexander E,. et al. American Thyroid Association Taskforce on Thyroid Disease During Pregnancy and Postpartum.Guidelines of the American Thyroid Association for the diagnosis and management of thyroid disease during pregnancy and postpartum. Thyroid. 2011;21:1081-125.
5\. Léger J. Congenital hypothyroidism: a clinical update of long-term outcome in young adults. Eur J Endocrinol. 2015;172, R67--R77.
6\. Rovet J, Alvarez M. Thyroid hormone and attention in school-age children with congenital hypothyroidism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1996;37:579--585
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Background
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Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the US. In 2007, an estimated 153,760 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and it is estimated that 52,180 will die of the disease \[[@B1]\]. Despite the availability of effective screening tests \[[@B2]-[@B6]\] a large proportion of Americans are still not being screened for colorectal cancer \[[@B7]-[@B9]\]. Patients at greatest risk of not being screened include racial and ethnic minorities \[[@B9],[@B10]\], patients with Medicaid or no health insurance \[[@B7],[@B11],[@B12]\], the foreign born \[[@B11],[@B13]\], and patients with low socioeconomic status \[[@B14]\] -- groups that are commonly served by community health centers \[[@B7],[@B15]\].
Researchers have identified and explored numerous barriers to colorectal cancer screening \[[@B7],[@B16]\]. Quantitative studies have found the following to be barriers specific to poor and underserved populations: demographic factors (insurance, social class, and race/ethnicity) \[[@B12],[@B17]-[@B21]\], language, embarrassment, lack of knowledge about colorectal cancer screening \[[@B22]\] culture-specific beliefs \[[@B10]\], and level of acculturation \[[@B23]\]. Qualitative studies have characterized such barriers in more detail, and have sought to answer the question of why poor and minority patients are not being screened. Such studies have included white, African-American \[[@B24]\], Latino and Chinese patients \[[@B25]\], and have found fear (of both pain and of discovering cancer), shame of being seen as sick or weak, feelings of violation, mistrust, and fatalism to be barriers to screening. Patients also reported that they did not know where to obtain screening, and had difficulty in obtaining an appointment for screening \[[@B25]\]. Yet prior qualitative studies have not included patients from Brazil, Portugal, the Azores, Cape Verde or Haiti, large immigrant groups in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the US, and none have simultaneously interviewed each patient\'s primary care provider.
Our study had two primary objectives: 1) to identify and describe barriers to and facilitators of screening in an ethnically diverse population of patients served by community health centers and 2) to compare patients\' and physicians\' views regarding the reasons why patients did not receive screening. We used qualitative methods to obtain in-depth information from patients and their physicians.
Methods
=======
Setting and participants
------------------------
Cambridge Health Alliance is a regional healthcare system with three hospitals and more than twenty primary-care centers in Cambridge, Somerville, and Everett, MA. Cambridge Health Alliance also includes the Cambridge Public Health Department and Network Health, a managed Medicaid plan. Designated by the Agency for Health Care Quality and Research (AHRQ) as a Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network, the health centers predominantly serve a multi-cultural, low-income population.
At the time of the study, January 2005--December 2006, most of the health centers used a limited electronic clinical data system (Meditech) that included patient demographics, medical visit information, and diagnostic test results. There was no organized screening program in place at the time of the study; patients were offered screening on an ad-hoc basis during primary care visits. Among patients receiving care at 8 different community health centers, we identified patients aged 52--80 who appeared to be unscreened for colorectal cancer. Since the database did not capture diagnostic tests performed outside of the health center network, we anticipated that some patients who appeared unscreened would in fact have received colorectal cancer screening. We included these patients in our study as we sought both to understand barriers to screening as well as factors that facilitated screening. We based eligibility for colorectal cancer screening on a modified version of the most recent HEDIS measure \[[@B26]\]. The denominator of the measure included any patient aged 52--80 who had one visit to a primary care physician in a community health center in each of the 2 previous years. The numerator of the measure included any patient who received colonoscopy in the past 10 years, sigmoidoscopy or barium enema in the past 5 years, or fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) during each measurement year.
We limited our sample to patients who spoke English, Portuguese, Portuguese Creole, Spanish and Haitian Creole, and whose primary care physicians had the most patients in the age range of interest (52--80). This sample included 301 patients. We then e-mailed the 13 primary care physicians of these patients and invited them to participate in the study; all agreed to participate. All patients in the study were cared for by one or more of the primary care physicians in the study. We thus interviewed a convenience sample of patients and primary care physicians, excluding patients with active substance abuse (where, according to the physician, the patient would not be able to participate in the interview in a meaningful way), a history of colorectal cancer, or mental retardation. The Institutional Review Board at the Cambridge Health Alliance approved the study protocol. All participating patients and physicians provided written informed consent.
Data collection
---------------
We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with patients to obtain in-depth information about why patients who were eligible for colorectal cancer screening had or had not been screened, respectively. For unscreened patients, we also interviewed each patient\'s physician to gain their perspective regarding the reason their patient had not been screened. Since our goal was to obtain a broad range of information to understand patients\' screening decisions, we included both screened and unscreened patients. Known as \"maximum variation sampling,\" this sampling approach is used in qualitative research to encompass a broader variety of perspectives \[[@B27]\].
A primary care physician (KEL) and a medical sociologist with expertise in qualitative research (MG) developed an open-ended, semi-structured interview instrument to explore subjects\' experiences with colorectal cancer screening. The investigators piloted the interview instrument with patients, and revised the instrument accordingly. In developing the instrument, we reviewed the extensive ethnographic colorectal cancer screening literature to ensure that our instrument encompassed barriers and facilitators encountered by other researchers working with comparable underserved and deprived patient populations \[[@B24],[@B28]\]. Our interview instrument is available as Additional file [1](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}.
We delivered probes in an order that was based on how the interview unfolded. The initial portion of the instrument elicited pertinent aspects of the subject\'s cultural, family, and educational history. We also assessed specific cognitive knowledge of colorectal cancer and the role of colorectal cancer screening. In the second portion of the interview, we asked participants to recall and to describe in detail their experience discussing colorectal cancer screening with the person they identified as their primary care physician. We probed participants about logistical barriers to obtaining screening (lack of transportation, inability to take time off from work, child care responsibilities), health beliefs (that colorectal cancer screening is harmful, unhelpful, painful), psychological symptoms or conditions that may relate to completing screening (fears of cancer, fear of leaving one\'s home or riding on public transportation, inability to keep appointments due to depression, PTSD symptoms related to prior sexual abuse), distrust of the medical system (paranoia, feeling of being used as a \"guinea pig\"), fatalism, social stressors (financial and housing instability), and comorbid health problems. At the conclusion of the interview, we asked participants demographic questions.
We mailed a letter (translated into the non-English languages) signed by each patient\'s primary care physician inviting the patient to participate in a voluntary 45-minute interview with one of the investigators (KEL), and with an interpreter for the non-English speaking patients, about the patient\'s experiences obtaining services to prevent colorectal cancer. We offered a \$25 cash incentive to participate. Patient interviews lasted one-half to one hour. We conducted the interviews either in the patient\'s home or in a research office, according to each patient\'s preference. To interview patients in their primary language, we trained two medical interpreters to assist with the non-English interviews. One interpreter was bilingual in English and in Haitian Creole, and the other interpreter was trilingual in English, Spanish, and Portuguese (including Portuguese Creole).
We also developed an open-ended, semi-structured interview instrument to explore physicians\' experiences discussing colorectal cancer screening with their patients. During the interview, we asked each physician the following question: \"I recently met with your patient \_\_\_\_\_\_. What sorts of things do you think prevented him/her from getting screened?\" Prior to each interview, we asked physicians to confirm that they were in fact the patient\'s primary care physician, and to review the medical record of their patients who had not been screened. The physician interviewer also reviewed each patient\'s medical record to validate the patient\'s report of their screening status, and to document any efforts made by the physician to screen the patient. Physicians also completed a brief questionnaire about their demographic characteristics. We offered physicians a \$50 cash incentive to participate; interviews lasted one-half to one hour.
Data analysis
-------------
We audiotaped the interviews, with the exception of one patient who declined audiotaping. For that patient, we took detailed notes of the interview. We submitted the audiotapes to an experienced qualitative transcriptionist who transcribed them verbatim. For the non-English language interviews, only the English-language portions (which the interpreter had translated into English) were transcribed. One investigator (KEL) checked the transcripts for accuracy, listening to portions of the audiotape while reading the typed transcription. Two investigators, a primary care physician (KEL) and a medical sociologist (MG) coded and analyzed all of the transcripts. We created codes that reflected patient and physician responses regarding the reasons the patient had not been screened for colorectal cancer. During frequent meetings, we discussed discrepancies in coding and resolved them by consensus. Using the constant comparative method \[[@B29]\], we revised original themes after we compared them with newer themes that emerged in the coding process. We compared themes across cases to ensure that they were both representative and inclusive of all cases. We also compared individual patient and physician perspectives regarding the reasons each patient was not screened. Due to the small sample size, we did not calculate reliability statistics.
Results
=======
Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"} shows the demographic characteristics of the 23 patients who were interviewed. Sixteen patients had not received colorectal cancer screening; the remaining 7 patients had either been screened (n = 3) or had received a diagnostic colonoscopy (n = 4) for workup of gastrointestinal symptoms. Most patients were female, non-white, had a low level of education, and had an annual income of less than \$15,000. The mean age of participants was 60.9, and nearly all had some form of health insurance. Of the three patients who had undergone colorectal cancer screening, one had a colonoscopy, and 2 were screened by FOBT cards. We also interviewed the 10 primary care physicians of the 16 patients who had not been screened. Half of the physicians were female, most were white (n = 8), and their mean age was 46.
######
Patient characteristics (n = 23)
------------------------------------ ---------------
**Characteristics**
Female (%) 60.9
Mean Age (range) 62.3 (52--74)
Race (%)
White 34.8
Black 39.1
Other 26.1
Hispanic or Latino origin (%) 26.1
Health Insurance (%)
Private 4.3
Medicare 21.7
Medicaid 39.1
Free Care^1^ 30.4
Uninsured 4.3
Primary Language (%)
English 34.8
Portuguese/Portuguese Creole 26.1
Spanish 8.7
Haitian Creole 30.4
Education (%)
Less than high school 47.8
High School only/Vocational/Trade 26.1
College or higher 26.1
Annual Income (%)
\< \$5,000 17.4
\$5,000--\$9,999 34.8
\$10,000--\$14,999 21.7
≥ \$15,000 17.4
Don\'t know/refused 8.7
Employment (%)
Employed full or part-time 69.6
Retired 13.0
Unemployed 17.4
Screened for Colorectal Cancer (%)
Yes 30.4
No 69.6
------------------------------------ ---------------
^1^After being determined ineligible for other payment options, Massachusetts residents can apply for help paying for health center bills from the Massachusetts uncompensated (free) care pool.
Four consistent themes emerged from our analyses of patient interviews: 1) Unscreened patients cited lack of trust in doctors as a major barrier to screening whereas few physicians identified this barrier in their patients; 2) Unscreened patients identified lack of symptoms as the reason they had not been screened; 3) A doctor\'s recommendation, or lack thereof, significantly influenced patients\' decisions to be screened; 4) Patients, but not their physicians, cited fatalistic views about cancer as a barrier. Most patients and physicians cited more than one barrier to screening. Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"} lists barriers cited most frequently by patients and physicians, respectively. Below we discuss each theme in detail with illustrative verbatim quotations.
######
Most frequently cited barriers to colorectal cancer screening identified by patients and by their primary care physicians
[Barriers identified by patients]{.ul} [Barriers identified by Physicians]{.ul}
------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------
1\. Lack of trust (n = 5) 1\. Psychosocial issues (n = 6)
2\. Lack of symptoms (n = 5) 2\. Comorbid medical illness (n = 4)
3\. No doctor\'s recommendation (n = 5) 3\. Screening is lower priority (n = 3)
4\. Fatalistic views about cancer (n = 3) 4\. Patient does not seek preventive care (n = 5)
Lack of trust
-------------
Five of 16 unscreened patients (3 white US-born patients, 1 African-American patient, and one white Portuguese patient from the Azores) cited a lack of trust in doctors as one of the major reasons they had not been screened for colorectal cancer. For example, a white woman from the Azores related that her husband had suffered from oral cancer: \"I really don\'t trust doctors\... I really believe that \...all the treatment just helped to kill him faster. So I always tell my daughters if, God forbid\...if anything happens to me, I don\'t want any of that \[treatment\].\" Her physician, a native speaker of Portuguese, recognized that a lack of trust was affecting her patient\'s decision not to be screened:
\"It\'s a trust issue\...She\'s from the Azores \[part of Portugal\]\... going to the doctor was really a last resort when nothing else, when the local remedies\...would not help\...Also, we had a dictatorship in Portugal at the time, and there was a secret police as well\...people grew up not knowing who to trust\...they knew that they were safe within the home, but anything outside of the home was different.\"
A US-born white man also cited lack of trust in doctors as one of the reasons he had not been screened:
\"I have issues around trust, and whether or not things will be done in my best interests\...Maybe they want more operations to do. Gee we want to find out if there\'s more cancer because our surgeons aren\'t working enough. We can\'t give enough radiation. We want more business, so we want to look for more cancer.\"
While this patient\'s physician did not identify lack of trust as a reason why the patient was unscreened, he did correctly identify psychosocial stressors as another reason the patient had not been screened: \"\...all I know is he was an \[older\] guy who was in love with a \... \[younger\] woman, and was dealing with all those kinds of issues, and had recently left his wife, and it was just sort of a social mess\...\"
Trust in doctors was a facilitator of screening for 2 of 7 of the screened patients (1 white US-born patient and 1 Spanish-speaking patient from El Salvador). The Salvadoran woman related that she had had a good experience seeing a doctor in El Salvador for a gynecologic complaint. She said of her current primary care doctor: \"I\'m not planning on stopping seeing her until either I die or something happens to her that she cannot see me again.\"
Lack of symptoms
----------------
Five of the 16 unscreened patients (2 white US-born patients, 2 African-American patients, and one Portuguese patient from the Azores) cited a lack of symptoms as one of the reasons why they had not been screened, while 4 of the 7 patients who appeared to have been screened had in fact had diagnostic colonoscopies to work up the etiology of gastrointestinal symptoms (2 Portuguese-speaking patients from Brazil, 1 Spanish-speaking patient from El Salvador, and 1 Portuguese-Creole speaking patient from Cape Verde). An unscreened English-speaking white woman told us: \"You guys want me to have an examination; I\'ll tell you something, I have the world\'s best digestive system\...\" At the same time, her physician cited comorbid medical illnesses as one reason she had not been screened: \"She has really poorly controlled cholesterol and blood pressure, so I imagine it hasn\'t come up because she\'s so resistant to taking her blood pressure medicine\...\" Her physician also said, \"I just know her personally, she doesn\'t want anything done\...\" A second patient, also an English-speaking white woman, related: \"I only go to the doctor if something is hanging off my body or I\'m bleeding\...\" Her physician recalled that she refused to complete FOBT cards, and added:
\"I think she was sent to me because she\'s a psych patient and they sent her down for a primary care physician\...I don\'t recall her having a strong motivation to see a primary care physician and get medical care\... I have this vague picture of her as not highly motivated to participate in this medical intervention that was going on and in a hurry to get out and \... I think I felt that I had made a major accomplishment by telling her to go to the dentist.\"
A doctor\'s recommendation
--------------------------
Two of 7 screened patients (both Haitian-Creole speaking patients from Haiti) cited a doctor\'s recommendation as a facilitator of screening, while 5 out of 16 unscreened patients (1 white US-born patient, 3 Haitian-Creole speaking patients from Haiti, and 1 Spanish-speaking patient from El Salvador) said their doctor had not recommended screening. The importance of a doctor\'s recommendation, while cited by patients speaking Spanish, English, and Haitian Creole, was especially prominent among Haitian patients. Of the 5 Haitian patients who had not been screened, 3 said they had not been screened because their doctor had not recommended screening. When queried about colorectal cancer screening, one patient replied \"I don\'t know anything about it\...the doctor never asked me to do it.\" Both of the Haitian patients who had been screened reported that they had completed the tests based on their doctor\'s recommendation.
When we reviewed the medical records of the 5 patients who stated that their doctor had never recommended screening, it appeared that in 2 instances (including one in which the physician was a native speaker of Haitian Creole), a discussion about colorectal cancer screening had indeed taken place, as each physician had referred the patient for a colonoscopy. Most Haitian patients reported that if their doctor recommended screening then they would be screened. One man explained: \"Doctor come \[sic\] after God. After God, it\'s doctors.\"
Some physicians were aware that they had not recommended screening, often because of competing priorities -- their own priorities or those of the patient. For example, one physician gave the following explanation for why she had not discussed colorectal screening with her patient:
\"I think she is a psychologically fragile, a very anxious lady who has been taking care of a disabled husband\...And she has been quite overwhelmed. And she\'s also been dealing with her pulmonary condition which I think has been much more acute. So I think it\'s a combination of doing a lot of acute stuff and personal issues\...\"
Fatalism
--------
Three of 16 unscreened patients expressed fatalistic views about cancer as one of the reasons they had not been screened; two of these patients were African-American men, and the third was a woman of Portuguese descent from the Azores. In each case, the physician was not aware that the patient held fatalistic views about cancer. One African-American man told us: \"\...Well, I don\'t want to \[get screened for colon cancer\] because, hey, you know, I mean, if you got it you got it, but they can\'t do anything to cure me\...\" His physician, when asked why the patient was not screened, replied:
\"\...My impression was that a lot of things got in the way of him getting screened. It seemed like in every progress note, almost every one\... the colonoscopy was scheduled, but not done and rescheduled and not done\... I know at one point his wife had died. He has a history of substance use, so that interfered. But to what extent his views about colon cancer screening interfered with that, I don\'t really have a good sense of that\...\"
Another African-American man, who reported that his father had died from colorectal cancer, related: \"I figure if it\'s \[cancer\] going to be there it\'s going to be there. That\'s the outlook I have.\" This patient also reported that he was afraid of finding out that he has cancer if he gets the tests done. His physician listed several other reasons why this patient had not been screened. The physician noted a lack of connection between him and the patient, as the patient often consulted other providers at the health center. He also felt that colorectal cancer screening was a lower priority for this patient:
\"\...There\'s been the substance abuse issue, there\'s been a significant musculoskeletal problem\... \[which\] kept him out of work for a long time. Precarious financial, social and home life situation, so all of those things we\'ve been aware of and we\'ve addressed\...\"
The physician also reported that the patient does not seek preventive care: \"He\'s always come for intermittent complaints or for minor crises in his personal or his medical life. He\'s never been somebody who seems to have engaged in regular routine health maintenance\...\" The physician then added, \"I don\'t believe\... that anybody actually asked the question about colon cancer.\"
Discussion
==========
In this qualitative study of ethnically and linguistically diverse patients receiving care at 8 community health centers in the Boston area, we observed that the 4 following principal factors may prevent patients from being screened for colorectal cancer: distrust of doctors, lack of symptoms, lack of a physician recommendation for screening, and fatalistic beliefs about cancer. Patients of differing race, ethnicity, and language mentioned these factors. It is possible that what these patients have in common -- poverty and limited educational attainment -- may underlie these barriers to screening.
Why might patients be distrustful of colorectal cancer screening? For African Americans, the legacy of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the persistence of health disparities have been shown to decrease their trust in doctors or health care \[[@B30]\]. Others have implicated physicians\' interpersonal skills \[[@B31]\] and a lack of continuity in care \[[@B32]\] as contributors to a lack of trust. In our study, several patients trusted their own physician and had regular ongoing care at a community health center. Yet these patients feared that other physicians (such as gastroenterologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons) would not act in their best interests. It is also possible that fatalistic views about cancer underpin a lack of trust. If a patient believes that a cancer diagnosis will inevitably lead to death, yet their doctor or health care system is promoting an invasive procedure to detect the cancer, the patient may begin to distrust his or her doctor\'s motives. Why would their doctor promote a test to detect an incurable disease? Perhaps an in-depth discussion with a physician about colorectal cancer screening would help to educate and reassure patients about their concerns. Yet for some patients, physicians cited a preponderance of other medical and psychosocial issues they felt compelled to address, thereby precluding them from conducting even a brief discussion of colorectal screening.
The other barriers to screening we identified, lack of symptoms or of a doctor\'s recommendation, have been found in a prior study of the U.S. population \[[@B9]\], and our study suggests that these factors may also apply to specific groups that have not been analyzed previously, including Portuguese, Brazilian and Haitian patients. We found that Haitian patients, in particular, cited the lack of a physician recommendation as the main reason they were not screened, and they reported a willingness to comply with any recommendation made by their physicians. Yet when we reviewed these patients\' charts, we found that in some cases the physician had in fact recommended colorectal cancer screening. This finding suggests a communication problem during the visit -- even when there was no language barrier between a patient and his or her physician. In contrast to prior studies \[[@B33]\], we observed that systems issues, such as long wait times for colonoscopy did not appear to be a major barrier to colorectal cancer screening. It is possible that the barriers we encountered (such as lack of a physician recommendation and lack of trust) lie \"upstream\" to potential systems issues. If patients are not pursuing screening they are not encountering these systems barriers.
Conclusion
==========
Our study provides insight into potential barriers to colorectal cancer screening facing disadvantaged patients served by community health centers. A strength of our research is that we included groups in which colorectal cancer screening has not been widely studied, including patients from Haiti, Brazil, the Azores, and Cape Verde. Our study has several limitations. The findings from our sample of poor, ethnically, and linguistically diverse patients who receive care at urban community health centers may not be generalizable to other patient populations. Yet our findings may be generalizable to enclaves of similar patients elsewhere. Our sample was limited to small numbers of patients in each language group, and to a small number of screened patients. Thus, it is unlikely that saturation was reached in our study. We did not back-translate the non-English language translations. However, our physician interviewer spoke fluent Spanish, Portuguese, and French and could assess the validity of the interpreting for most of the non-English language interviews. Our use of qualitative methods precludes us from estimating the prevalence of the barriers we identified among all patients receiving care at community health centers. Finally, interview coding may be subjective.
Disparities in colorectal cancer screening rates according to the race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status of patients have been well documented \[[@B9],[@B10],[@B13],[@B17]-[@B19],[@B34],[@B35]\]. Because community health centers provide care to many disadvantaged patients, these centers are an ideal setting in which to design and implement interventions to improve screening rates. One such intervention might include a community health worker component, where such workers would provide telephone-based outreach to patients identified in the administrative database as not having received screening. Our preliminary findings suggest that it is possible that such interventions could be applied broadly, without substantial tailoring related to the ethnic or linguistic background of patients. Addressing lack of trust in doctors and fatalistic beliefs about cancer -- barriers that have not been typically addressed in previous interventions and may occur in all ethnic groups -- may improve the success of efforts to promote screening in community health centers. Unburdening primary care physicians of the entire responsibility of addressing all preventive services, perhaps by enlisting the assistance of other members of the health care team, may also increase screening rates.
Competing interests
===================
The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors\' contributions
=======================
KEL and MJG conceived the initial study. KEL carried out the interviews and identified themes. All authors helped to refine the analysis, contributed to the final version of the paper and approved the final manuscript.
Pre-publication history
=======================
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:
<http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/9/15/prepub>
Supplementary Material
======================
###### Additional File 1
**Semi-structured Interview Schedule: Patient interview.**
######
Click here for file
Acknowledgements
================
We would like to acknowledge Maxim D. Shrayer Ph.D. for his constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper; and Melbeth G. Marlang, BA, for her assistance with manuscript preparation. We would also like to thank all the primary care providers and patients who participated in the study.
**Support**: This study was supported by Mentored Research Scholar Grant MRSGT-05-007-01-CPPB from the American Cancer Society.
**Prior presentation**: This study was presented as a poster at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine; Toronto, Canada.
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Synthesis of new 4-[2-(alkylamino) ethylthio]pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline and 5-[2-(alkylamino) ethylthio]pyrrolo[1,2-a]thieno[3,2-e]pyrazine derivatives, as potential bacterial multidrug resistance pump inhibitors.
The synthesis of new 4-[2-(alkylamino)ethylthio]pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline derivatives la-1 is described in five or six steps starting from various substituted nitroanilines 2a-e. The bioisostere 5-[2-(alkylamino)ethylthio]pyrrolo[1,2- a]thieno[3,2-e]pyrazine 1m was also prepared. The new derivatives were evaluated as efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) in a model targeting the NorA system of Staphylococcus aureus. The antibiotic susceptibility of two strains overproducing NorA, SA-1199B and SA-1, was determined alone and in combination with the neo-synthesised compounds by the agar diffusion method and MIC determination, in comparison with reserpine and omeprazole taken as reference EPIs. A preliminary structure-activity relationship study firstly allowed to clarify the influence of the substituents at positions 7 and/or 8 of the pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline nucleus. Methoxy substituted compounds, 1b and 1g, were more potent EPIs than the unsubstituted compounds (1a and 1f), followed by chlorinated derivatives (1c-d and 1h). Moreover, the replacement of the N,N-diethylamino group (compounds 1a-e) by a bioisostere such as pyrrolidine (compounds 1f-h) enhanced the EPI activity, in contrast with the replacement by a piperidine moiety (compounds 1i-k). Finally, the pyrrolo[1,2-a]thieno[3,2-e]pyrazine compound 1m exhibited a higher EPI activity than its pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline analogue la, opening the way to further pharmacomodulation.
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Meet PuiPui, the self-proclaimed most stylish bunny in the world from Tokyo, Japan. PuiPui is so dapper he even has his own personal photographer and stylist - his owner - who handmakes all of his neat outfits.
From businessman to Sherlock Holmes, the unbearably cute Holland Lop rabbit looks flawless in all of his costumes. And he's so natural in front of a camera! PuiPui has a following of over 23k (and counting) on Instagram, and for good reason! He really does force other rabbits to up their game!
More info: Instagram (h/t: dailydot)
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East Barron, Queensland
East Barron is a locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia.
History
East Barron State School opened on 28 April 2015 and closed on 1964.
References
Category:Tablelands Region
Category:Localities in Queensland
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KABUL (Reuters) - Insurgents attacked a village in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e Pul, killing as many as 50 people, including women and children, officials said on Sunday.
Zabihullah Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the fighters, who included foreign militants, attacked a security outpost in the Mirza Olang area of Sayaad district overnight, torching 30 houses.
He said fighting was still going on but as many as 50 people, including children, women and elderly men, most of them members of the largely Shi’ite Hazara community, may have been killed, according to local village elders.
“They were killed in a brutal, inhumane way,” he said. Seven members of the Afghan security forces were also killed as well as a number of insurgents.
Many details of the attack, including the identity of the insurgents, were not immediately clear. Amani said they were a mixed group of Taliban and Islamic State fighters but the Taliban itself denied any involvement, dismissing the claim as propaganda.
Although the Taliban and Islamic State are usually enemies, the allegiance of their forces is sometimes fluid, with fighters from both groups sometimes changing sides or cooperating with militants from other groups.
A senior government official in Kabul said that security forces, including Afghan Air Force attack aircraft, were being sent to the scene.
Fighting has intensified this year across Afghanistan, with dozens of security incidents recorded every day. In the first half of the year 1,662 civilians were killed and 3,581 injured, according to United Nations figures.
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Q:
How should I free memory allocated in a typemap for an argout array of structures?
I am using SWIG to wrap a C library for Python. One of the C methods takes
a pointer-to-struct buffer and number of elements to populate and fills in
the pointed-to structures. For the Python API I want to provide just the
number of elements and the return value to be a tuple of populated structures.
C : int fill_widgets(widget_t *buffer, int num_widgets);
Python: fill_widgets(num_widgets) -> (widget, widget,...)
I have written typemaps that have that working as I want - the typemaps allocate
a buffer based on the Python input argument, pass the buffer to the C method,
convert it to a Python tuple, then return the tuple of widgets. But I can't figure out
if/when/how I need to free memory that is allocated in my typemap.
I originally included a freearg typemap to free the buffer when the wrapper
function exits, but I believe the structures returned to Python are still using
the physical memory (i.e. the memory isn't copied, I just get a proxy pointer
that is using the same buffer). I also tried setting the SWIG_POINTER_OWN flag
when creating the proxy objects (via SWIG_NewPointerObj), but since I'm creating
a proxy pointer to each element in the buffer it doesn't make sense to free them
all. In both of these cases Python eventually ends up segfaulting on a later
free() call.
So without using freearg in the typemap or SWIG_POINTER_OWN when creating the proxy,
how do I free the memory when the Python tuple-of-structs goes out of scope?
Here is a bare-bones SWIG interface that demonstrates what I have:
%module "test"
%typemap (in, numinputs=1) (BUF, NUM){
$2 = PyInt_AsLong($input);
$1 = ($1_type)calloc($2, sizeof($*1_type));
}
%typemap (argout) (BUF, NUM){
PyObject *tpl = PyTuple_New($2);
for ($2_ltype i=0; i<$2; i++)
{
PyTuple_SET_ITEM(tpl, i, SWIG_NewPointerObj(&$1[i], $1_descriptor, 0));
}
$result = SWIG_Python_AppendOutput($result, tpl);
}
%typemap (freearg) (BUF, NUM){
//free($1);
}
%apply (BUF, NUM) {(widget_t *buf, int num_widgets)};
%inline {
typedef struct {int a; int b;} widget_t;
int fill_widgets(widget_t *buf, int num_widgets)
{
for(int i=0; i<num_widgets; i++)
{
buf[i].a = i;
buf[i].b = 2*i;
}
return num_widgets;
}
}
And an example to build/run:
$ swig -python test.i
$ gcc -I/path/to/python2.7 -shared -lpython2.7 test_wrap.c -o _test.so
$ python
>>> import test
>>> _,widgets = test.fill_widgets(4)
>>> for w in widgets: print w.a, w.b
...
0 0
1 2
2 4
3 6
>>>
Example usage of fill_widgets from C:
int main()
{
widget_t widgets[10]; // or widget_t *widgets = calloc(10, sizeof(widget_t))
fill_widgets(widgets, 10);
}
A:
The thing that makes this interesting is that you've got 1 buffer, but created N Python proxy objects, all of which live in that single buffer.
Assuming you're not willing to entertain copying objects out of that buffer so you get 1:1 allocation to Python proxy object mapping and then disposing of the original buffer we've got basically one solution to work towards. The aim here is to make sure that each of the Python objects also hold a reference to the object that owns the memory. In so doing we can keep the reference count high and only release the memory once it's certain that nobody can possibly still be pointing to it.
The simplest solution to do that is to set SWIG_POINTER_OWN for the first object in the buffer (i.e. the one who's pointer really references the memory you get back from calloc) and then have every other proxy object not own the memory, but hold a reference to the one that does.
To do implement this we make two changes to your argout typemap. Firstly we set SWIG_POINTER_OWN only for the first element of the tuple. Secondly we call PyObject_SetAttrString for all but the first item to keep a reference around. So it ends up looking like this:
%typemap (argout) (BUF, NUM){
PyObject *tpl = PyTuple_New($2);
for ($2_ltype i=0; i<$2; i++)
{
PyObject *item = SWIG_NewPointerObj(&$1[i], $1_descriptor, 0==i?SWIG_POINTER_OWN:0);
if (i) {
PyObject_SetAttrString(item,"_buffer",PyTuple_GET_ITEM(tpl, 0));
}
PyTuple_SET_ITEM(tpl, i, item);
}
$result = SWIG_Python_AppendOutput($result, tpl);
}
We can check the reference counts are as expected interactively:
In [1]: import test
In [2]: import sys
In [3]: a,b=test.fill_widgets(20)
In [4]: sys.getrefcount(b[0])
Out[4]: 21
In [5]: sys.getrefcount(b[1])
Out[5]: 2
In [6]: b[1]._buffer
Out[6]: <test.widget_t; proxy of <Swig Object of type 'widget_t *' at 0xb2118d10> >
In [7]: b[1]._buffer == b[0]
Out[7]: True
In [8]: x,y,z = b[0:3]
In [9]: del a
In [10]: del b
In [11]: sys.getrefcount(x)
Out[11]: 4
In [12]: sys.getrefcount(y)
Out[12]: 2
In [13]: sys.getrefcount(z)
Out[13]: 2
In [14]: del x
In [15]: sys.getrefcount(y._buffer)
Out[15]: 3
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Set between 1933 and 1943, "Public Enemies" follows the government's attempts to stop some of the most infamous criminals of the 20th Century, including John Dillinger (Depp), Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd (Tatum). Bale is playing FBI heavyweight Melvin Purvis.
The trade paper says Cotillard would play Billie, Dillinger's singer girlfriend. Ribisi ("My Name Is Earl"), Dorff ("Blade") and Clarke ("Brotherhood") would play members of Dillinger's gang.
Mann adapted Brian Burrough's book with Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman. Production will begin for Universal film later this winter.
Tatum, whose credits also include "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," has "Battle in Seattle" and "Stop Loss" in the can for 2008 release.
Cotillard's awards haul for "La Vi En Rose" has included nominations for SAG, Golden Globes and the Oscars. Her previous English-language credits include "Big Fish" and "A Good Year."
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Anderson makes deans list at Messiah College
Published: July 16, 2005 8:00 PM
Anderson makes deans list at Messiah CollegeGRANTHAM, Pa. New Concord, Ohio, resident Michael Anderson was named to the deans list for the 2005 spring semester at Messiah College. Anderson is a sophomore majoring in philosophy. Deans list is earned by receiving a 3.6 GPA or higher on a 4.0 scale.Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,900 undergraduate students in 50 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.
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Q:
Example of $ψ$ such that $\Gamma \vdash ¬∀x ψ$ and $\Gamma \nvdash ¬ψ^x_t$
On page 121, A Mathematical Introduction to Logic, Herbert B. Enderton（2ed),
3c. The remaining case is where $ϕ$ is $¬∀x ψ$. (In order to show $\Gamma \vdash ¬∀x ψ$)It would suffice to
show that $ \Gamma \vdash¬ψ^x_t$
, where $t$ is some term substitutable for $x$ in $ψ$.
(Why?) Unfortunately this is not always possible. There are cases in
which $$\Gamma \vdash ¬∀x ψ$$,
and yet for every term $t$,$$\Gamma \nvdash ¬ψ^x_t$$
(One such example is $\Gamma= ∅$,$ψ = ¬(Px→∀y Py)$.) Contraposition
is handy here; $$\Gamma;α \vdash ¬∀x ψ$$
iff $$\Gamma; ∀ x ψ \vdash ¬α$$
Notations: $\Gamma$ represents a set of axioms; $P$ is a unitary relation: $\Gamma \vdash \phi$ means $\phi$ is deducible from $\Gamma$, or $\phi$ is a theorem of $\Gamma$.
The part from "Contraposition is handy here" to the end eludes me, especially I don't know what $\alpha$ represents.
Here's my attempt to understand it: The example is equivalent to: $$\vdash \exists x (Px→∀y Py)$$ for any term $t$, $$\nvdash Pt→∀y Py$$
The former can be shown to be true by discussing situation $\forall x Px$ and its negation(By contrast, in a previous question, Hurkyl argues that whether the formula is well-formed, is, at best, ambiguous). But I got stuck on how to show the latter "for any term $t$, $\nvdash Pt→∀y Py$"
A:
We work in a language which has a binary symbol relation $<$ and a constant symbol $0$. Consider the axioms which say that $<$ is an irreflexive dense linear order without endpoints.
Now $\Gamma$ proves that $\lnot(\forall x.0<x)$. Simply because there are no endpoints so there is someone smaller than $0$.
But there is no term $t$ such that $\Gamma\vdash t<0$. Simply because there are no function symbols so terms are either $0$ itself or free variables.
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Gilbert G. Collier
Gilbert Georgie Collier (December 30, 1930 – July 20, 1953) was a soldier in the United States Army during the Korean War. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions on 19-20 July 1953.
Collier joined the Army from Tichnor, Arkansas in 1951.
Awards and decorations
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Sergeant (then Cpl.), U.S. Army, Company F, 223rd Infantry Regiment, 40th Infantry Division
Place and date: Near Tutayon, Korea, 19-July 20, 1953
Entered service at: Tichnor Ark. Born: December 30, 1930, Hunter, Ark.
G.O. No.: 3, January 12, 1955
Citation:
Sgt. Collier, a member of Company F, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. Sgt. Collier was pointman and assistant leader of a combat patrol committed to make contact with the enemy. As the patrol moved forward through the darkness, he and his commanding officer slipped and fell from a steep, 60-foot cliff and were injured. Incapacitated by a badly sprained ankle which prevented immediate movement, the officer ordered the patrol to return to the safety of friendly lines. Although suffering from a painful back injury, Sgt. Collier elected to remain with his leader, and before daylight they managed to crawl back up and over the mountainous terrain to the opposite valley where they concealed themselves in the brush until nightfall, then edged toward their company positions. Shortly after leaving the daylight retreat they were ambushed and, in the ensuing fire fight, Sgt. Collier killed 2 hostile soldiers, received painful wounds, and was separated from his companion. Then, ammunition expended, he closed in hand-to-hand combat with 4 attacking hostile infantrymen, killing, wounding, and routing the foe with his bayonet. He was mortally wounded during this action, but made a valiant attempt to reach and assist his leader in a desperate effort to save his comrade's life without regard for his own personal safety. Sgt. Collier's unflinching courage, consummate devotion to duty, and gallant self-sacrifice reflect lasting glory upon himself and uphold the noble traditions of the military service.
See also
List of Medal of Honor recipients
List of Korean War Medal of Honor recipients
Notes
References
Category:1930 births
Category:1953 deaths
Category:United States Army Medal of Honor recipients
Category:American military personnel killed in the Korean War
Category:United States Army soldiers
Category:People from Woodruff County, Arkansas
Category:Korean War recipients of the Medal of Honor
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During the fragmenting of the Second Party System of JacksonDemocrats and ClayWhigs, the Democratic efforts to expand slavery into western territories, particularly Kansas, led to organized political opposition, which coalesced in Congress as the "Opposition Party." As the Whig Party disintegrated, many local and regional parties grew up, some ideological, some geographic. When they realized their numbers in Congress, they began to caucus in the same way US political parties had arisen before the Jacksonian national party conventions. Scholars such as Kenneth C. Martis have adopted a convention to explain the Congressional coordination of anti-Pierce and anti-Buchanan factions as the "Opposition Party".
U.S. House of Representatives chamber before 1858, when it moved to the New House Chamber currently in use, shown in the 1823 Samuel F.B. Morse's painting House of Representatives.
In the Congressional election of 1854 for the 34th United States Congress, the new Republican Party was not fully formed, and significant numbers of politicians, mostly former Whigs, ran for office under the Opposition label. The administration of Democratic President Franklin Pierce had been marred by Bleeding Kansas. Northerners began to coalesce around resistance to Kansas entering the Union as a slave state. The ongoing violence made any election results from that territory suspect by standards of democracy.
The Opposition Party was the name adopted by several former Whig politicians in the period 1854–1858. In 1860, the party was encouraged by the remaining Whig leadership to effectively merge with the Constitutional Union Party.[1]
It represented a brief but significant transitional period in American politics from approximately 1854 to 1858. For the preceding 80 years, one of the major political issues had been the battle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States, which had been fought more on the basis of regional and class affiliations than strictly along party lines. However, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 fractured the Whig Party along pro- and anti-slavery lines, and led ultimately to the formation of the Republican Party, which strongly attracted anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats. For many, the Opposition Party served as a successor to, or a continuation of, the Whig Party.
The party was seen as offering a compromise position between the Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans.[2]
The Whig name had been discredited and abandoned, but former Whigs still needed to advertise that they were opposed to the Democrats. The Know Nothings had found that their appeals to anti-immigrant prejudice were faltering and their secrecy was made suspect, so they sought more open and more inclusive appeals to broaden a candidate's chances at the polls.[3]
The "confounding party labels among all those who opposed the Democrats" have led to scholars of U.S. political parties in Congress to adopt the convention "Opposition Party" for the 34th and 35th Congresses. This term encompasses Independent, Anti-know-nothing, Fusion, Anti-Nebraska, Anti-Administration, Whig, Free Soil and Unionist.[4]
Following the 1854 election, the Opposition Party actually was the largest party in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the resulting 34th United States Congress, the U.S. House's 234 Representatives were made up of 100 Oppositionists, 83 Democrats, and 51 Americans (Know Nothing).[5] That was a very dramatic shift from the makeup of the 33rd United States Congress (157 Democrats, 71 Whigs, 4 Free Soilers, 1 Independent, 1 Independent Democrat). Being the largest party did not lead to control of Congress; the new Speaker of the House was Nathaniel Prentice Banks, a former Democrat from Massachusetts who campaigned as a Know Nothing in 1854 and as a Republican in 1856.
By the 1856 elections, the Republican Party had formally organized itself, and the makeup of the 35th United States Congress was 132 Democrats, 90 Republicans, 14 Americans, 1 Independent Democrat.[6]
1.
Republican Party (United States)
–
The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
2.
Abolitionism in the United States
–
Abolitionism in the United States was the movement before and during the American Civil War to end slavery in the United States. In the Americas and western Europe, abolitionism was a movement to end the Atlantic slave trade, in the 17th century, English Quakers and Evangelicals condemned slavery as un-Christian. At that time, most slaves were Africans, but thousands of Native Americans were also enslaved, in the 18th century, as many as six million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, at least a third of them on British ships to North America. Abolition was part of the message of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s in the Thirteen Colonies, in the same period, rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized slavery for violating human rights. A member of the British Parliament, James Edward Oglethorpe, was among the first to articulate the Enlightenment case against slavery, founder of the Province of Georgia, Oglethorpe banned slavery on humanistic grounds. He argued against it in Parliament and eventually encouraged his friends Granville Sharp, soon after his death in 1785, Sharp and More joined with William Wilberforce and others in forming the Clapham Sect. Although anti-slavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, colonies and emerging nations, notably in the southern United States, continued to use and uphold traditions of slavery. Massachusetts ratified a constitution that declared all men equal, freedom suits challenging slavery based on this principle brought an end to slavery in the state, in other states, such as Virginia, similar declarations of rights were interpreted by the courts as not applicable to Africans. During the ensuing decades, the abolitionist movement grew in Northern states, britain banned the importation of African slaves in its colonies in 1807 and abolished slavery in the British Empire in 1833. The United States criminalized the international trade in 1808 and made slavery unconstitutional in 1865 as a result of the American Civil War. Historian James M. McPherson defines an abolitionist as one who before the Civil War had agitated for the immediate, unconditional and total abolition of slavery in the United States. He does not include antislavery activists such as Abraham Lincoln, U. S. President during the Civil War, or the Republican Party, the first Americans who made a public protest against slavery were the Mennonites of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Soon after, in April 1688, Quakers in the town wrote a two-page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church. The Quaker establishment never took action, the Quaker Quarterly Meeting of Chester, Pennsylvania, made its first protest in 1711. Within a few decades the entire slave trade was under attack, being opposed by leaders as William Burling, Benjamin Lay, Ralph Sandiford, William Southby. Slavery was banned in the Province of Georgia soon after its founding in 1733, the colonys founder, James Edward Oglethorpe, fended off repeated attempts by South Carolina merchants and land speculators to introduce slavery to the colony. In 1739, he wrote to the Georgia Trustees urging them to hold firm, If we allow slaves we act against the principles by which we associated together. Whereas, now we should occasion the misery of thousands in Africa, by setting men upon using arts to buy, the struggle between Georgia and South Carolina led to the first debates in Parliament over the issue of slavery, occurring between 1740 and 1742
3.
Democratic Party (United States)
–
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
4.
Origins of the American Civil War
–
While most historians agree that conflicts over slavery caused the war, they disagree sharply regarding which kinds of conflict—ideological, economic, political, or social—were most important. Another explanation for secession, and the subsequent formation of the Confederacy, was white Southern nationalism, the primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism. Most of the debate is about the first question, as to why some southern states decided to secede, Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election without being on the ballot in ten of the Southern states. His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven states of the Deep South. They formed the Confederate States of America after Lincoln was elected, nationalists refused to recognize the declarations of secession. No foreign countrys government ever recognized the Confederacy, the U. S. government under President James Buchanan refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by the Confederacy. The war itself began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter, as a panel of historians emphasized in 2011, while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war. Thus they were committed to values that could not logically be reconciled, other important factors were partisan politics, abolitionism, Southern nationalism, Northern nationalism, expansionism, economics and modernization in the Antebellum period. The United States had become a nation of two distinct regions and their growth was fed by a high birth rate and large numbers of European immigrants, especially British, Irish and Germans. The heavily rural South had few cities of any size, Slave owners controlled politics and the economy, although about 75% of white Southern families owned no slaves and usually were engaged in subsistence agriculture. Overall, the Northern population was growing more quickly than the Southern population. By the time the 1860 election occurred, the heavily agricultural southern states as a group had fewer Electoral College votes than the rapidly industrializing northern states, Abraham Lincoln was able to win the 1860 Presidential election without even being on the ballot in ten Southern states. Southerners felt a loss of federal concern for Southern pro-slavery political demands, after the Mexican–American War of 1846 to 1848, the issue of slavery in the new territories led to the Compromise of 1850. While the compromise averted an immediate crisis, it did not permanently resolve the issue of the Slave Power. Part of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, requiring that Northerners assist Southerners in reclaiming fugitive slaves, which many Northerners found to be extremely offensive. The compromise that was reached outraged many Northerners, and led to the formation of the Republican Party, the industrializing North and agrarian Midwest became committed to the economic ethos of free-labor industrial capitalism. Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, after 1840, abolitionists denounced slavery as not only a social evil but a moral wrong. Activists in the new Republican Party, usually Northerners, had another view, Southern defenders of slavery, for their part, increasingly came to contend that black people benefited from slavery
5.
Henry Clay
–
Henry Clay, Sr. was an American lawyer and planter, statesman, and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He served three terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives and served as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams from 1825 to 1829. Clay ran for the presidency in 1824,1832 and 1844, however, he was unsuccessful in all of his attempts to reach his nations highest office. Despite his presidential losses, Clay remained a dominant figure in the Whig Party, Clay was a dominant figure in both the First and Second Party systems. After serving two stints in the Senate, Clay won election to the House of Representatives in 1810 and was elected Speaker of the House in 1811. Clay would remain a prominent public figure until his death 41 years later in 1852, a leading war hawk, Speaker Clay favored war with Britain and played a significant role in leading the nation into the War of 1812. In 1814, Clays tenure as Speaker was interrupted when Clay traveled to Europe, Clay ran for president in 1824 and lost, finishing fourth in a four-man contest. No candidate received a majority, and so the election was decided in the House of Representatives. Clay maneuvered House voting in favor of John Quincy Adams, who appointed him as Secretary of State. Opposing candidate Andrew Jackson denounced the actions of Clay and Adams as part of a corrupt bargain, Clay returned to the Senate in 1831. He continued to advocate his American System, and become a leader of the opposition to President Andrew Jackson, President Jackson opposed federally-subsidized internal improvements and a national bank as a threat to states rights, and the president used his veto power to defeat many of Clays proposals. In 1832, Clay ran for president as a candidate of the National Republican Party, following the election, the National Republicans united with other opponents of Jackson to form the Whig Party, which remained one of the two major American political parties until after Clays death. In 1844, Clay won the Whig Partys presidential nomination, Clays opposition to the annexation of Texas, partly over fears that such an annexation would inflame the slavery issue, hurt his campaign, and Democrat James K. Polk won the election. Clay later opposed the Mexican–American War, which resulted in part from the Texas annexation, Clay returned to the Senate for a final term, where he helped broker a compromise over the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession. Known as The Great Compromiser, Clay brokered important agreements during the Nullification Crisis, as part of the Great Triumvirate or Immortal Trio, along with his colleagues Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, he was instrumental in formulating the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise Tariff of 1833, and he was viewed as the primary representative of Western interests in this group, and was given the names Harry of the West and The Western Star. As a plantation owner, Clay held slaves during his lifetime, Henry Clay was born on April 12,1777, at the Clay homestead in Hanover County, Virginia, in a story-and-a-half frame house. It was a home for a common Virginia planter of that time
6.
Slavery in the United States
–
Slavery had been practiced in British North America from early colonial days, and was legal in all Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. By the time of the American Revolution, the status of slave had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry, when the United States Constitution was ratified, a relatively small number of free people of color were among the voting citizens. During and immediately following the Revolutionary War, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states, most of these states had a higher proportion of free labor than in the South and economies based on different industries. They abolished slavery by the end of the 18th century, some with gradual systems that kept adults as slaves for two decades. But the rapid expansion of the industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor. Congress during the Jefferson administration prohibited the importation of slaves, effective in 1808, domestic slave trading, however, continued at a rapid pace, driven by labor demands from the development of cotton plantations in the Deep South. More than one million slaves were sold from the Upper South, which had a surplus of labor, New communities of African-American culture were developed in the Deep South, and the total slave population in the South eventually reached 4 million before liberation. As the West was developed for settlement, the Southern state governments wanted to keep a balance between the number of slave and free states to maintain a balance of power in Congress. The new territories acquired from Britain, France, and Mexico were the subject of major political compromises, by 1850, the newly rich cotton-growing South was threatening to secede from the Union, and tensions continued to rise. When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, the first six states to secede held the greatest number of slaves in the South. Shortly after, the Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked the US Armys Fort Sumter, four additional slave states then seceded. In the early years of the Chesapeake Bay settlements, colonial officials found it difficult to attract and retain laborers under the frontier conditions. Most laborers came from Britain as indentured servants, having signed contracts of indenture to pay with work for their passage, their upkeep and training and these indentured servants were young people who intended to become permanent residents. In some cases, convicted criminals were transported to the colonies as indentured servants, the indentured servants were not slaves, but were required to work for four to seven years in Virginia to pay the cost of their passage and maintenance. Historians estimate that more than half of all immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries came as indentured servants. The number of indentured servants among immigrants was particularly high in the South, many Germans, Scots-Irish, and Irish came to the colonies in the 18th century, settling in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and further south. The planters in the South found that the problem with indentured servants was that many left after several years, just when they had become skilled. In addition, an economy in England in the late 17th
7.
Territories of the United States
–
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions directly overseen by the United States federal government. These territories are classified by whether they are incorporated and whether they have a government through an Organic Act passed by the U. S. Congress. Currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U. S. Virgin Islands. They are classified as unincorporated territories and they are organized, self-governing territories with locally elected governors and territorial legislatures. Each also elects a member to the U. S. House of Representatives. Eleven territories are small islands, atolls and reefs, spread across the Caribbean and Pacific, the status of some are disputed by Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and the Marshall Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the territory currently incorporated. Historically, territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United States were still evolving, other territories administered by the United States went on to become independent countries, such as the Philippines, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau. Many organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1959, currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are permanently inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The 11 uninhabited territories administered by the Interior Department are Palmyra Atoll, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, while claimed by the US, Navassa Island, Wake Island, Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank are disputed. Territories have always been a part of the United States, by Act of Congress, the term United States, when used in a geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Since political union with the Northern Mariana Islands in 1986, they too are treated as a part of the U. S, an Executive Order in 2007 includes American Samoa as U. S. geographical extent duly reflected in U. S. State Department documents. Approximately 4 million islanders are U. S. citizens, about 32,000 U. S. non-citizen nationals live in American Samoa, under current law among the territories, only persons born in American Samoa and Swains Island are non-citizen U. S. nationals. American Samoans are under the protection of the U. S. with freedom of U. S. travel without visas. The five inhabited U. S. territories have local voting rights and protections under U. S. courts, pay some U. S. taxes, depending on the congress, they may also vote on the floor in the House Committee of the Whole. S. Every four years, the Democratic and Republican political parties nominate their candidates at conventions which include delegates from the five major territories. The citizens there, however, do not vote in the election for U. S. President. S. Incorporated territories are considered a part of the United States
8.
Franklin Pierce
–
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States. Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the unity of the nation. Historians and other scholars generally rank Pierce as among the worst of US Presidents, born in New Hampshire, Pierce served in the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate until he resigned from the latter in 1842. His private law practice in his state was a success. Pierce took part in the Mexican–American War as a general in the Army. In the 1852 presidential election, Pierce and his running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham. While Pierce was popular and outgoing, his life was a grim affair, with his wife Jane suffering from illness. All of their children died young, their last son being killed in a train accident while the family was traveling shortly before Pierces inauguration. Pierce was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and his popularity in the Northern states declined sharply after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise, while many whites in the South continued to support him. Passage of the act led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West, Pierces administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document which was roundly criticized. Although Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, he was abandoned by his party and his reputation in the North suffered further during the Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln. Pierce, who had been a heavy drinker for much of his life, Franklin Pierce was born on November 23,1804, in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, Norfolk, England. Pierces father Benjamin, a Revolutionary War lieutenant, moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick. Benjamin was by then a prominent Democratic-Republican state legislator, farmer, Pierces father, who sought to ensure that his sons were educated, placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school at Hancock at the age of 12. The boy was not fond of schooling, growing homesick at Hancock, he walked 12 miles back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the back to school before kicking him out of the carriage. Pierce later cited this moment as the turning-point in my life, later that year he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college
9.
James Buchanan
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James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States, serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He is the president from Pennsylvania, the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. Beginning in the 1820s, he represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election, on a ticket with former Kentucky Representative John C. He defeated both the incumbent President Pierce and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas to win the nomination and his subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race against Republican John C. Shortly after taking office, Buchanan lobbied the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford. He allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas to the Union as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. In the process, he alienated both Republican abolitionists and Northern Democrats, most of whom supported the principle of sovereignty in determining a new states slaveholding status. He was often called a doughface, a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and he fought with Douglas, in the midst of the growing sectional crisis, the Panic of 1857 struck the nation. Buchanan indicated in his 1857 inaugural address that he would not seek a second term, he kept his word, Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election. In response, seven Southern states declared their secession from the Union, Buchanans view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal, and so didnt confront the new polity militarily. Buchanan, an attorney, was noted for his mantra, I acknowledge no master, Buchanan supported the United States during the Civil War, and publicly defended himself against charges that he was responsible for the Civil War. Shortly after the Union victory, he published his memoirs, Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of Rebellion and he died in 1868 at age 77. Buchanan aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, historians who participated in a 2006 survey voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made. His parents were both of Ulster Scots descent, the father having emigrated from Milford, County Donegal, Ireland, one of eleven siblings, Buchanan was the oldest child in the family to survive infancy. Shortly after Buchanans birth the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Buchanans father became the wealthiest person in town, becoming a prosperous merchant and investing in real estate. The family home in Mercersburg was later turned into the James Buchanan Hotel, Buchanan attended the village academy and, starting in 1807, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Though he was expelled at one point for poor behavior, he pleaded for a second chance. Later that year, he moved to Lancaster, which, at the time, was the capital of Pennsylvania, James Hopkins, the most prominent lawyer in Lancaster, accepted Buchanan as a student, and in 1812 Buchanan was admitted to the bar after an oral exam
10.
Samuel Morse
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Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American painter and inventor. After having established his reputation as a painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of the Morse code and helped to develop the use of telegraphy. Samuel F. B. Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the first child of the pastor Jedidiah Morse, who was also a geographer and his father was a great preacher of the Calvinist faith and supporter of the American Federalist party. He thought it helped preserve Puritan traditions, and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain, Morse strongly believed in education within a Federalist framework, alongside the instillation of Calvinist virtues, morals, and prayers for his first son. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to receive instruction in the subjects of philosophy, mathematics. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman, in 1810, he graduated from Yale with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Morse expressed some of his Calvinist beliefs in his painting, Landing of the Pilgrims and his image captured the psychology of the Federalists, Calvinists from England brought to North America ideas of religion and government, thus linking the two countries. This work attracted the attention of the notable artist, Washington Allston, Allston wanted Morse to accompany him to England to meet the artist Benjamin West. Allston arranged — with Morses father — a three-year stay for painting study in England, the two men set sail aboard the Lybia on July 15,1811. In England, Morse perfected his painting techniques under Allstons watchful eye, by the end of 1811, at the Academy, he was moved by the art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist produced his masterpiece, to some, the Dying Hercules seemed to represent a political statement against the British and also the American Federalists. The muscles symbolized the strength of the young and vibrant United States versus the British, during Morses time in Britain, the Americans and British were engaged in the War of 1812. Both societies were conflicted over loyalties, anti-Federalist Americans aligned themselves with the French, abhorred the British, and believed a strong central government to be inherently dangerous to democracy. As the war raged on, Morses letters to his parents became more anti-Federalist in tone, in one such letter, Morse wrote, I assert that the Federalists in the Northern States have done more injury to their country by their violent opposition measures than a French alliance could. Their proceedings are copied into the English papers, read before Parliament, and circulated through their country and they call them cowards, a base set, say they are traitors to their country and ought to be hanged like traitors. Although Jedidiah Morse did not change Samuels political views, he continued as an influence, critics believe that the elder Morses Calvinist ideas are integral to Morses Judgment of Jupiter, another significant work completed in England. Jupiter is shown in a cloud, accompanied by his eagle, with his hand spread above the parties, Marpessa, with an expression of compunction and shame, is throwing herself into the arms of her husband
11.
34th United States Congress
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It met in Washington, D. C. from March 4,1855 to March 4,1857, during the last two years of Franklin Pierces presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Seventh Census of the United States in 1850. The Whig Party, one of the two parties of the era, had largely collapsed, although many former Whigs ran as Republicans or as members of the Opposition Party. The Senate had a Democratic majority, and the House was controlled by a coalition of Representatives led by Nathaniel P. Banks, March 30,1855, Elections were held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourians crossed the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body, july 2,1855, The Kansas territorial legislature convened in Pawnee and began enacting proslavery laws. November 21,1855, Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence began with leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces. No party had controlled a majority of the seats, and more than 21 members vied for the post of Speaker, the election took 133 ballots and two months with Nathaniel P. Banks winning over William Aiken, Jr. by 103 to 100 votes, Banks, a member of both the nativist American Party and the Free Soil Party, served a term as Speaker before Democrats won control of the chamber in the 35th Congress. January 24,1856, President Franklin Pierce declared the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion, January 26,1856, First Battle of Seattle, Marines from the USS Decatur drove off Indian attackers after an all-day battle with settlers. February,1856, Tintic War broke out in Utah February 18,1856, The American Party nominated their first Presidential candidate, may 21,1856, Lawrence, Kansas captured and burned by pro-slavery forces. Sumner was unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered, frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, to become the 15th President of the United States. November 17,1856, On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, January 9,1857, The 7.9 Mw Fort Tejon earthquake affects Central and Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX. August 18,1856, Guano Islands Act, ch,164,11 Stat.119 January 26,1855, Point No Point Treaty signed in the Washington Territory. July 1,1855, Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute ceded their land to the United States, the count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of this Congress. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the Changes in membership section, during the elections for this Congress, opponents to the Democrats used the Whig party label inconsistently and not at all in some states. Hence in this Congress, and in accordance with the practice of the Senate and House and this is the first example in U. S. history of a form of coalition government in either house of Congress. The parties that opposed the Democrats joined a coalition and formed the majority, the Know-nothings caucused with the Opposition coalition. Banks Democratic Caucus Chairman, George Washington Jones This list is arranged by chamber, senators are listed in order of seniority, and Representatives are listed by district
Historians debating the origins of the American Civil War focus on the reasons why seven Southern states declared their …
The Battle of Fort Sumter was a Confederate attack on a U.S. fort in South Carolina in April 1861. It was the opening battle of the war.
President Andrew Jackson viewed South Carolina's attempts to nullify the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 as being tantamount to treason. The issue of states' rights would play a large role leading up to the Civil War near to 30 years later.
Violent repression of slaves was a common theme in abolitionist literature in the North. Above, this famous 1863 photo of a slave, Gordon, deeply scarred from whipping by an overseer, was distributed by abolitionists to illustrate what they saw as the barbarism of Southern society.
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By the Numbers: Civilian Tree Care Accidents in 2012
TCIA reviewed 47 civilian tree care accidents reported by the media in 2012. Twenty-five of these accidents were fatal. The average age of the victims was only 61.
These sobering statistics are a stark reminder of the inherent dangers for one attempting tree care or tree removal and highlights the need for tree owners to seek out tree care companies with the proper qualifications and equipment to handle the work safely.
Tree care is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. Pruning large limbs, felling trees and especially climbing into trees are hazardous activities even for trained professionals. Untrained consumers should think twice before trying to duplicate the work of professionals, as evidenced by the graphic at left:
Investigating the major causes of accidents in the graphic:
Felling trees with a chainsaw may look easy on reality TV, but it's very easy to get it wrong. Two-thirds of the time, the victim was struck by the tree when it fell in an unexpected direction. Directional tree felling with a chain saw requires a high level of competency and plenty of experience.
Three homeowners were killed due to a phenomenon known as "barber chair" - when forces acting on the tree cause it to split and kick back violently before it can be completely cut.
Three DIY-ers were killed when trees near the one they were cutting fell on them, likely due to the movement of the tree being cut.
The thought of cutting with a chain saw from a ladder makes even a professional cringe. It's easy to lose one's balance, and the cut branch typically falls straight down, hitting the ladder with great force.
Tree care without proper training or equipment is asking for trouble. Consumers contemplating tree work should assess the risk for attempting the work. Indicators of high risk include:
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NSAC's Blog
Four months after the last iteration of the Child Nutrition Act expired, the Senate Agriculture Committee today, January 20, took a critical step forward by unanimously voting their new version out of committee. Titled “Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016”, the Senate committee bill expands summer feeding programs by dramatically improving access, increases the ability for tribal schools and feeding programs to serve culturally significant foods, and compromises on the long-running battle over nutrition standards.
Most important from our vantage point, the bill includes strong support for the Farm to School grant program. The program received an increase of $5 million in annual grant funding (from $5 to $10 million per year) from the bipartisan bill, which will help school meal programs to increase local food purchases and expands educational food and agriculture activities. The $10 million a year is permanent funding (no expiration date) and mandatory, meaning it is not subject to the vagaries of the annual appropriations process.
With the committee markup completed, Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will now send the bill to the Senate floor for final debate. The exact timing for Senate floor debate is not yet known, but the bill is widely expected to pass without major difficulty in the Senate.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and our partners at the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) applaud Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow on their bipartisan effort to move this legislation forward. We also congratulate Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), the lead Senate co-sponsors of the Farm to School Act of 2015, for successfully championing the inclusion of farm to school improvements and funding increases in the bill. The Farm to School Act was introduced in the Senate in March 2015 and has now been incorporated into the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access bill approved by the full Committee.
The bill doubles support for farm to school activities through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm to School Grant Program. The grant program wasfirst funded in the 2010 Child Nutrition Act reauthorization, also known as the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” (HHFKA). The 2010 Act provided $5 million in annual, mandatory funding for the grant program to help schools source local, nutritious foods, help children develop healthy eating habits, and increase local farmers’ access to this important emerging market.
“I am pleased the bill includes the Farm to School Act,” said Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). “I’ve gone to a lot of schools in my state of Vermont and I enjoy getting to see these farm to school lunch programs. Usually when I go visit around the state [these visits are] the only time I get a decent meal!”
Since the Farm to School Grant program was launched in 2012, funded projects have provided significant economic opportunities for farmers and local agriculture-related businesses, including processors and distributors. As a result of the high volume of interest in and need for farm to school programs, demand for the grants has dramatically exceeded available funding–only 20 percent of applicants were able to receive grant funding from 2012-2015.
Section 110 of Title I of the new bill includes the following changes:
Doubles Funding for Farm to School Grant Program – The bill doubles mandatory, annual funding (from $5 to $10 million) for the grant program. This increase will make it possible for nearly 3 million additional students nationwide to access farm to school programs each year.
Expands Access for Eligible Applicants – In addition to local school districts, the bill provides flexibility for preschools, summer food service program sites, and after school programs to participate in the Farm to School Grant Program.
Increased Opportunities for All Producers – The bill includes increased outreach to beginning, veteran, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. It also enhances access to farm-fresh and culturally significant foods for tribal schools and feeding programs, a change warmly welcomed during committee markup by Senator John Thune (R-SD).
Reduces Regulatory Barriers– In order promote increased farmer participation in farm to school, the bill calls on USDA to explore ways to reduce regulatory barriers to farm to school sales.
Support “From the Field” for Farm to School
As Co-State Farm to School leaders for the state of Mississippi, Sunny Young Baker and Dorothy Grady-Scarborough help local farmers and schools connect kids to real food. They travel throughout Mississippi and work with communities to kickstart farm to school programs wherever they can. Following Senate Agriculture Committee action, Young Baker and Grady-Scarborough reached out to NSAC to share how the bill would support communities in their state once passed.
Sunny Young Baker
Funding for the Farm to School Grant Program is huge because we have historically had way more applicants than we have had awardees. I can definitely foresee many more school districts in Mississippi applying thanks to this increased funding. There is just so much schools can do with this kind of support from Congress. For example, that grant funding is what started our program in Oxford, which is now strong going into its fourth year. Good Food for Oxford Schools (GFOS) is an initiative of the Oxford School District in Oxford, Mississippi to improve cafeteria menus and simultaneously educate students and their families. The initiative fosters school gardens, salad bars, food clubs, more from-scratch cooking in the schools, and increased local food sourcing.
Many of our schools are really interested in teaching kids how to grow food and cook food now. When we can combine that interest with purchasing partnerships with local farmers it becomes a great win-win opportunity. When local procurement and food education happen at the same time, that’s when you have the biggest impact on the students. If they grow it, if they cook it, they’ll eat it.
Dorothy Grady-Scarborough
Farm to school is gaining momentum here statewide. Sunny and I host monthly farm to school calls, and every month there are more and more newcomers. Farmers, food service directors, educators – you name it, they are on the call. We’re really proud to be able to create this opportunity for all of them to network, troubleshoot, share advice, work together to increase and improve farm to school activities across the state.
I actually met with a group of local farmers at Alcorn State University about this just this week. They are really eager to partner with our schools and to start a partnership with a local processing facility so that they can aggregate their products with other farmers’ for school purchases. This increase in funding is going to mean so many more opportunities for nutrition education, school gardens, and local purchasing. Our farmers are eager and they are ready. They can grow it!
Nutrition Standards Compromise Brings Everyone to the Table
By far the most contentious issue in this year’s CNR is the debate over school nutrition standards. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 included the most extensive changes to child nutrition programs since the 1970s, including enhanced nutrition standards for school meals. Since that time, however, portions of the new standards have come under attack from a variety of quarters, some based in substance and some based in partisan attacks over First Lady Michelle Obama’s commitment to reversing childhood obesity.
The Senate Agriculture Committee was able to strike a compromise that has gained support from nutrition advocates concerned with the health and quality of school meals as well as from school and school food industry groups that wanted to alleviate operational challenges some schools faced in implementing the new standards. The bill largely protects the school meal nutrition standards won in HHFKA, with revisions made to the whole grain and sodium standards. USDA is directed to revise whole grain and sodium standards to require 80 percent of grains served (instead of 100 percent) to be whole grain rich, and to delay the implementation of a second round of sodium reduction targets by two years (until 2019). Nutrition and farm to school advocates applauded the decision to maintain existing standards for increased fruits and vegetables in school meals without revision.
The bill gives USDA 90 days to write the new rules for whole grains and sodium. If the Senate and House act quickly enough, those rules would be in place for the school year starting this September.
What’s Next?
While the Committee’s passage of this bill is a crucial first step toward reauthorizing and expanding child nutrition programs, there is still a long road ahead before these changes can be signed into law. Attention now turns to the full floor of the Senate and as well as the House Education and Work Force Committee.
For “The Improving Child Nutrition and Integrity Access Act of 2016” to become law it must next muster enough support to pass the full Senate. The full Senate is likely to schedule floor time in late February or March. While passage is not guaranteed, the bipartisan comprises reached on nutrition standards and other contentious aspects of the legislation bodes well for its prospects.
The House Education and Work Force Committee, the committee with jurisdiction over child nutrition programs in the House, must also draft, release and markup their own version of the bill. The House has yet to make any firm commitments or set clear timelines for moving forward, but we are hopeful that the Senate’s bipartisan action will encourage those in the House to move forward.
There has also been some discussion about the possibility that the House might support the Senate’s version of the bill instead of writing their own. Such a development seems possible given the bipartisan support of the Senate committee bill, but what direction House leadership will take on the bill remains to be seen.
Lawmakers have limited time to pass a joint Child Nutrition Act reauthorization. If a bill cannot be agreed upon in the current legislative cycle, the higher funding levels and improvements to farm to school and the summer food program, the other big winner in the new bill, will remain stagnant, and the nutrition standard debate will be left unresolved.
While there are several critical steps to take before the “Improving Child Nutrition and Integrity Access Act of 2016” can make it to President Obama’s desk, the Senate Agriculture’s Committee’s passage of a bipartisan bill with support from major stakeholder groups and the White House is a very good sign. The leadership of the Senate Committee on this effort has illuminated a path forward to successfully delivering a new, stronger Child Nutrition Act in 2016.
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Deportes Ovalle
Club Deportes Ovalle is a Chilean football club who currently play in the fourth level of Chilean football, the Tercera División. The club's stadium is the Estadio Municipal de Ovalle.
Their main rivals are Deportes La Serena and Coquimbo Unido.
Honours
Domestic Honours
'Copa ChileSemi-finalists (1): 2008–09
Tercera Division
'''Winners (1): 1993
Players
Current Roster 2015–16
External links
Official Site (in Spanish)
Ovalle
Category:Association football clubs established in 1963
Category:1963 establishments in Chile
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Copenhagen, Dec. 14 (Reuters): The European Union has thrown open its doors to 10 mostly former Communist east European countries, ending years of tortuous negotiations and redefining the continent’s boundaries.
Even as EU leaders agreed to the largest expansion in the bloc’s 45-year history, further radical upheaval lay over the horizon, with mainly Muslim Turkey promising that it would be ready to start formal entry talks by 2004.
The decision to add 10 new members to the present 15 came at the end of an intense two-day summit and means that the EU’s population will grow by 20 per cent to 450 million people, creating an economic colossus to rival the US.
“Europe is spreading its wings in freedom, in prosperity and in peace. This is a truly proud moment for the European Union,” Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the summit host, said in an emotional final speech yesterday.
The Big Bang is scheduled for May 2004, giving the newcomers little over a year to secure public backing for their EU entry in a series of referendums and ready their economies for the shock of hooking up to the wealthy western powerhouse.
Yesterday’s deal ended months of haggling over terms, with Poland, the biggest and most demanding candidate, battling until the last minute to win a slightly improved financial package.
Champagne flowed to celebrate the accord, but Turkey did not share the general delight, having failed to get a fixed date for kicking off its membership talks, despite energetic lobbying by US President George W. Bush on its behalf.
Instead, Ankara was told that the long-awaited talks could start only if it was deemed to have met the bloc’s strict standards on human rights and democracy by the end of 2004.
After an initial frisson of anger, Turkish leaders said they would plough ahead with their reform programme and would be ready for negotiations within two years.
The countries that were invited to join in May 2004 were Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta. A summit draft statement backed Bulgaria and Romania’s aim of entry in 2007.
Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who irked many EU member states by his uncompromising brinkmanship, waxed lyrical when the deal was finally done.
“Poland has made a great historic step forward. We shake off the burden of Yalta,” he said, referring to the 1945 division of Europe into Soviet and Western spheres of influence after World War II.
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This invention relates to a process for dynamically partially gelling fluoroelastomers and to compositions comprising the partially gelled fluoroelastomers with ungelled fluoroelastomers.
Fluoroelastomer compositions are difficult to process efficiently. When uncured fluoroelastomers are extruded through a die opening to make a shaped article the fluoroelastomers have a strong tendency to swell after passing through the die orifice resulting in a shaped article which is much larger than the size of the die opening. Large die swell makes it very difficult to extrude articles with intricate cross-sections. The amount of pressure required to extrude fluoroelastomer compositions through a die orifice can be substantial, especially when a die with a small opening must be used due to the large amount of die swell that occurs. Furthermore, when uncured fluoroelastomers are extruded, frequently, the surface of the extruded article has a rough appearance unless special measures are taken, such as the addition of a wax-type extrusion aid and selection of extrusion equipment that can provide high extrudate temperatures of the order of 120.degree. C.
The present invention provides a process for making partially gelled fluoroelastomers dynamically, said fluoroelastomers having improved processing characteristics. The fluoroelastomers of this invention when extruded through a die orifice show a substantial reduction in die swell normally associated with fluoroelastomers. Further, the fluoroelastomers of the present invention when extruded have smoother surface characteristics than like fluoroelastomers.
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About FoodMayhem
In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
Recipes that include glucose
Friday, April 24, 2009
Chef Michael Klug
Having fallen head over heels in love with the chocolates from L.A. Burdick, we were dying to know more about Pastry and Chocolate Chef Michael Klug. Amidst the busy Mother’s Day crunch, he was still kind enough to share some great insights about himself and chocolate.
FoodMayhem (FM): You have worked at some fancy restaurants (Lespinasse and Chanterelle to name a few), some of the biggest names in the world. What drove your decision to switch from big city Pastry Chef to chocolatier of a smaller company?
Chef Michael Klug (MK): Before I came to Burdick chocolate I was working my entire career in restaurant and hotel business establishments; and yes some of these where among the finest in the industry during this time. During my years at Lespinasse with Chef Gray Kunz we were always on the search on the best ingredients and products. In the summer of ’93 Kunz approached me if I would consider to actually purchase chocolates for our petit four assortments. Not that we didn’t like what we were making at Lespinasse, but Kunz thought a chocolate company had the better set up and efficiency to make a superior confection than a restaurant. And to his opinion L.A. Burdick was the highest standard of chocolate quality that he could find. After I tasted the chocolate for the first time I had to agree with him. From that time on we received Burdick chocolates every week fresh from Walpole, New Hampshire.
When Larry Burdick approached me in the summer of 2002 to become the head chocolatier of his company I felt honored and excited. In addition, my son was just three months old and a move to the country from the big city seemed like a good idea.
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Philosophy doesn't have to be daunting. Thanks to the Continuing Education program at Oxford University, you can ease into philosophical thinking by listening to five lectures collectively called Philosophy for Beginners. (Find them above. They're also on iTunesU in audio and video, plus on YouTube.). Taught by Marianne Talbot, Lecture 1 starts with a "Romp Through the History of Philosophy" and moves in a brief hour from Ancient Greece to the present. Subsequent lectures (usually running about 90 minutes) cover the following topics: logic, ethics, politics, metaphysics, epistemology, and language. For those hankering for more philosophy, see our collection of Free Online Philosophy Courses, a subset of our collection, 1,500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.
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Also consider following Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and sharing intelligent media with your friends. Or sign up for our daily email and get a daily dose of Open Culture in your inbox.
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After a disappointing start to the 2009 season at Concord Speedway last weekend, Seuss hopes his luck will turn around when he gets to Caraway Speedway.
Seuss suffered mechanical problems with a broken rocker arm and was forced to call it a night after completing just four laps. Seuss realizes mechanical problems can occur at any time but he feels his car will be ready for Caraway this Saturday.
Seuss has ran well at the track ever since he began racing in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and he put his car in Victory Lane last October in the season-ending race at Caraway.
“We put a lot of emphasis in getting our car right for Caraway just like a lot of other teams do since we run there so much,” said Seuss. “If you can get your car to work well at Caraway, then you should have a chance to contend for the title. I think Brian Loftin showed everyone last year when he won the title how important it is to run well there.”
Loftin finished no lower than third at Caraway last season en route to winning the title and Seuss knows finishing up front there is key to having a chance to win the title.
“Caraway is a unique track with Turns 1 and 2 much different than three and four so you have to have your car setup just right,” said Seuss.
Seuss, who commutes with his family from New Hampshire for every race, should feel confident heading to Caraway.
Last season, Seuss was collected in a first-lap accident at Ace and his team basically built a backup car overnight and took it to Caraway where he led laps and almost won the race in a car that hadn’t been on the race track in almost two years. Seuss would finish second in that race.
“A win this weekend would help us turn our season around pretty quickly,” said Seuss. “Hopefully we can be there at the end and get a chance for the win.”
News & Notes
The Race … Caraway Speedway 150 will be the third of 16 races on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour schedule, and first of seven trips to the Asheboro, N.C., oval.
The Procedure … Starting Positions 1-24 will be determined from time trials. The remaining two spots will be filled through the provisional process. The race is 150 laps (68.25 miles).
The Track … Caraway Speedway is a 455-mile paved oval. The track has hosted 23 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour events, dating back to March 2005.
Race Winners … Brian Loftin and L.W. Miller lead all drivers at Caraway with six victories apiece.
Pole Winners … Burt Myers has eight of his record 18 Coors Light Pole Awards at Caraway, while Tim Brown is second with five poles at Caraway.
Brinkley Takes Season-Opening Win
Caraway Speedway began its NASCAR Whelen All-American Series season last weekend with the Custom Fabricators Season Opener. Rockingham, N.C., driver Randy Benson is chasing history as he looks to match Dennis Setzer’s record run. Benson has captured the last two Late Model championships at the historic .455-mile oval in Asheboro, N.C. Setzer won three straight from 1988-90.
Benson didn’t get the win in the season-opening 200-lap event, though, as he finished sixth. Brad Brinkley outdistanced Jason York to get the win.
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a memory device and a method for manufacturing thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a memory card and a method for manufacturing thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, the technology and material for forming the electronic integrated circuit is highly developed. The size of the electronic integrated circuit is getting decrease but the functionality of it is getting powerful. The electronic integrated circuit is commercially used in everywhere and the trend of producing the electronic integrated circuit product is to produce much more small and slim products, such as electronic dictionary, digital camera and other digital products. Moreover, since the chip package technology is getting mature, a single chip or multiple chips can be packaged into a very thin card. By utilizing the property of storing mass of digital data in a chip, a removable memory with a size much less than the currently used magnetic recording media can be produced. This kind of electronic media is so called memory card.
FIG. 1 is a cross-section view of a conventional memory card. According to the Taiwan Patent Number 556908, a memory card 100 as shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed. This memory card 100 is constructed from a substrate 110, a plurality of electronic package devices 120 and a molding compound 130. The substrate 110 possesses at least a plurality of outer contacts 112 and a plurality of inner contacts 114, wherein the outer contacts 112 electrically connect to the inner contacts 114 through through-holes 118, respectively. Each through-hole 118 is filled with a stuffing material 116 to prevent moisture intruding from the through-hole 118. Moreover, the electronic package devices 120 are disposed on the substrate 110 and are electrically connected to the inner contacts 114, respectively. Additionally, molding compound 130 covers the substrate 110 to protect electronic package devices 120 and the inner contacts 114 corresponding to the electronic package devices 120.
As shown in FIG. 1, the molding compound 130 of the conventional memory card 100 covers the entire substrate 110. Because the cost of the molding compound 130 is high, the cost of the memory card is increased. Besides, there is stuffing material 116 filled in each through-hole 118 so that the complexity of the process is increased and the cost is increase as well.
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Emily Boyd
Emily Boyd (born July 25, 1996) is an American professional soccer player who currently plays for the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
Early years
Emily Boyd was born to Dana and Doug Boyd and grew up in Seattle, Washington. She was born into a sports family, her father having been a hockey player at Ohio State, her grandfather Robert Wilkinson a professional American football player, her aunt Theresa Carey a volleyball and track and field athlete at Cal, her uncle Kent Carey a member of the crew team at Cal and her sister Molly a soccer player at the University of Washington. Growing up she played basketball, softball, volleyball and soccer and settled on soccer while attending Nathan Hale High School.
College career
Emily Boyd played four years for the University of California-Berkeley Golden Bears. During her time at Cal she made 85 appearances and finished with 36 career shutouts, twice setting the Cal single season shutout record. Her freshman year she was named the First Team Freshman All-American and Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. She followed this with All-Pac-12 Second Team honors in her sophomore and junior years. Her senior year she was named to the All-American Second team and All-Pac-12 First team and became the first Cal Bear to win the Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year award. While at the University of California-Berkeley Boyd majored in Sports Business and Marketing.
Professional career
Chicago Red Stars, 2018–
Emily Boyd was drafted in round 2, 15th overall, of the 2018 NWSL College Draft by the Chicago Red Stars. She was signed by the team in March 2019. During her first season, 2018, Boyd made 2 starts with 2 shutouts for the Red Stars. Boyd's 2019 season also started off very well, seeing her nominated for the NWSL Save of the Week in two of her first three starts.
International career
Emily Boyd has been called up to camps by the United States at the U-15, U-18, U-20 and U-23 levels.
Career statistics
As of May 20, 2019
Social Media
Instagram
Twitter
References
External links
NWSL
Chicago Red Stars
Category:Living people
Category:1996 births
Category:American women's soccer players
Category:California Golden Bears women's soccer players
Category:National Women's Soccer League players
Category:Chicago Red Stars (NWSL) draft picks
Category:Sportspeople from Seattle
Category:Soccer players from Washington (state)
Category:Chicago Red Stars (NWSL) players
Category:Women's association football goalkeepers
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Product Description
Smooth finish mini roller set
4" mini roller kit by Hamilton Performance is designed for emulsion paints but can also be used with gloss paint. Comprising of a one mini roller and a mini frame with a plastic grip handle for extra comfort and control whilst on the job. The roller fabric on the foam roller is also designed to give a consistent, durable finish on any decorating job with no fibre loss.
Set includes: 1 medium pile mini roller and a long mini frame
High density knitted fabric for fast even coverage
1.75" core for maximum paint pick-up
Thermobonded to prevent fabric from unwinding even when soaked in water or solvent
Prices, specifications, and images are subject to change without notice. BUILT/ are not responsible for typographical or illustrative errors. Manufacturer rebates, terms, conditions, and expiration dates are subject to manufacturers printed forms.
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"Why not?” Ovechkin replied earlier in the day when asked why he would agree to two hours of sign and smile. “It’s good stuff for me. People are going to recognize me and shake my hand. It’s easy.”
Matt Sekeres doesn't just call him a hockey player, he calls him a rock star. It's easy to forget that he's only 24 years old, since he works the media so well sometimes. In addition to signing a few autographs, he was promoting the NHL parcipating in the 2014 Olympics in Russia to the media.
You get a recap! I don't always recap games, so please do enjoy them when they appear on this blog.
The Canucks came out to this game looking terrible.
Bobby Ryan's goal comes from a bad turnover made by Shane O'Brien. There was no shots on goal until they went on the powerplay 13 minutes into the first, which was Getzlaf's 1st tripping penalty of the night (he got more later). Luongo bailed them out multiple times during this game on shots from Perry and Bobby Ryan.
The Henrik scores on their 1st even strength shot at 17: 07, which was their second shot of the night.
The Canucks then go back to the 2nd period sucking. Getzlaf scores to make it 2-1 midway through the period. Bullsh-t chant errupts from GM Place.
Shane O'Brien decides to take matters in his own hands, literally. Fight! The helmet comes off, the girls in Vancouver swoon, it energizes the crowd and the team so it's all around pretty effective. Darcy Hordichuk attempts to fight Parros later in the period, but ultimately fails at fightning. Hordichuck proves he's useless. Would you like a ticket to the press box?
2 minutes in to the 3rd period Bernier wrists a goal in on Hiller. TSN announces that the goal is Bernier's 9th of the year. I ask myself: 9th? Seriously? Must have gotten most of them at the beginning of the year because those hands of stone haven't scored recently. The crowd is "Woo!"-ing. I don't think the fans at GM Place realize that the Woo is a Hurricane thing (Ric Flair). Then became a Penguin thing from The Pensblog. I don't mind we if adopt the Woo, but you have to give credit where credit is due.
The Canucks play the 3rd period with jump. Finally there is exciting hockey, can we sustain the 2-2 tie to go to overtime? My flatmate K sits besides me and says it's too bad that we don't have Wellwood for the shootout, then Bieksa picks a terrible time to take a penalty with 5 minutes left in the game.
A quick pass from Calder to Koivu and the Ducks are up 3-2. The Canucks try to tie it up but Hiller makes some ridiculous saves.
The Canucks have now just lost to the worst teams in both the East and the West. Next up is the Caps, who according to TSN are in Vancouver and had their rookie dinner tonight, should be an exciting one.
The Province reported today that Wellwood would be back to a healthy scratch again tomorrow night against the Ducks. An exerpt: "At this rate, Wellwood will be joining ex-Canuck Byron Ritchie in Switzerland faster than you'd think." Apparently they can get away this type of journalism if they post it under their White Towel section. After coming back from being a healthy scratch, Wellwood did not inspire last night against the Kings.
Instead Hordichuck will draw in for Wellwood, which is a better move as the Ducks are a more physical team than the Kings are. Though when has Hordichuck really been physical?
Surprised? I was a little too as they just kinda crept up into 1st place in the West there. Sure, that Calgary hasn't played as many games yet, but The Royal Half is pretty pleased with it.
So the Canucks are on an 8 game homestand and have now won two games in a row. The game against Atlanta, the Canucks just crushed the Thrashers.The game against Minny on Saturday, well they did have really good offense and luckily had the pleasure of a the Wild's backup goalie Harding, to play against.
And although we may all be happy about the win, there were two things wrong about the game. The first is the faceoff's, which the Canucks came out winning only 20 out of 68 draws equalling a 29% success rate. That sh-t needs to improve. The other was that Luongo, although he stopped a ton of shots, he looked shaky at times. Like when I was watching, I didn't have that feeling of full confidence that he was going to always make the save. The Wild also outshot the Canucks 41 to 29, but I think that stat is tied into the faceoff win rate, so hopefully we'll see them both improve tomorrow night.
On a positive note about our team, Henrik is now only 3 points back from Joe Thornton in points, tied with Marian Gaborik at 41 points. Henrik also notched his 500th career point on Saturday night, all of which for the Canucks
The Canucks have already beat the Kings twice this season, once in LA winning 2-1 in a shootout and the other at home winning 4-1. We won't see them again still April 1st where teams will be struggling to get those last points heading in to the playoffs. The Canucks are just sitting 4 games above .500, but are in 10th spot in the Western Conference. These days just to move up 3 points in the race it feels like it takes 10 games to do it.
The Canucks need to come out strong again tonight, and be as offensive as we've seem them in the past two games. This LA team is gonna look good compared to a couple of season ago, and what's scary is that they are gonna look good for the next few seasons.
So after watching last night's win over Minnesota, I have come to some conclusions about what the Canucks use as 'their song'. You can see the whole playlist for every song being played at GM Place whether it be during the warmup, during the game or the intermissions here at DJ Dave's blog on Canucks.com.
Now the Canucks actually have been trying to make the music at GM Place better. Of course not everyone will love every song they play, but after many complaints the Canucks began to make the requests more fan interactive. So if you go the Canucks website, you can suggest the 'type of music' you prefer to be played at games or request specific songs that you want to hear. How many Canuck fans who attend games will actually use these channels to voice their opinion on music seems pretty low to me, but hey it's there.
The player intro song that the players skate out to currently is U2's 'Where The Streets Have No Name' which has been brought back after many many requests by fans. This I like. This song has such a history with fans who attend games. The feeling you get, especially if you have attended a playoff game and heard it, it sends shivers down your spine.
But what really chaps me these days is the goal song and song that they play at the end of the game if the team wins.
The current goal song is Green Day's 'Holiday' which is terrible. This needs to change. It's worse than last year's Crowd Chant by Joe Satriani. Now I watch a lot of hockey and I'm not saying that there aren't worse ones out there, example Chicago's choice: Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis. But maybe this song may only elicit a feeling of anger out of opposing teams, ie any Canucks fan who watched last year playoffs, so perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if you were a Hawks fan? The problem with the Green Day song is that I don't feel like I have that connection with it. Like when the Canucks score a goal, it really just doesn't embody the same feeling that a goal elicits.
The other problem I have with the music is that after a Canucks win at GM Place, DJ Dave playe the Star Wars Theme when the players spill off of the bench onto the ice. As with the goal song, this song just doesn't have the right feel. It is not peppy enough, not enough emotion, and doesn't really make the crowd at GM Place want to cheer for the win that the team just had.
I'm not good with suggestions on what to replace the songs with, but I do think that whoever is in charge of choosing the appropriate goal song or exit song should rethink the songs that we are currently using. Perhaps look to what other teams use and then poll Canucks fans to choose one? Or maybe like in Chicago before Chelsea Dagger was chosen as their goal song, they tried a few different ones out as a player goal song until they decided on Chelsea Dagger.
So last night I was out with a few friends catching the Vancouver/Nashville game and the Canucks video for the BC Children's Hospital came up in discussion. If you haven't seen the video of it, it's on Canucks.com here. Each player has a card that has a word or a part of a message that they hold up. It's cute, there's no denying that.
But someone I was with had an interesting opinion on the video. The video was made for the BC Children's hospital, whose majority of patients are made up of kids. KIDS. Kids who may or may not be able to read (the really young ones), so a lot of the intention of the video will be lost on them. Would a quick trip to visit the patients in hospital not have been more effective? The visits from the players is what the kids look forward to, a video is not quite the same. Perhaps this was done just because they didn't want to go because of H1N1 at this time (complete speculation) and maybe they will also make a visit to the hospital in addition to the video later in the season.
What do you think? If you were at BC Children's would the video be good enough or would you have preferred a visit from the players?
Canuck Blogs
Syndication
BenchedWhale.com is a Vancouver Canucks fan web site and is in no way affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks, The National Hockey League, or its Properties. This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only. BenchedWhale.com is not an official web site for the TEAM.
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india
Updated: Apr 25, 2019 01:34 IST
Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested the widow of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, son of late politician ND Tiwari, for murdering her husband by allegedly smothering him with a pillow and throttling him to death while he was in an inebriated state at their South Delhi home in the early hours of April 16 .
Police said the immediate trigger for the murder was Shekhar, 39, taunting Apoorva Shukla Tiwari, 35, with a story of how he and a woman relative of his had travelled in the same car and drank alcohol from the same glass, hours before, on the drive to Delhi from Uttarakhand, where he had gone to vote.
“But tension was also brewing between the couple since the beginning of their 11-month-long marriage and they were on the verge of divorce,” said Rajiv Ranjan, additional commissioner of police (crime branch).
Last week, after news reports that there was trouble in the marriage that may have triggered the murder of Shekhar, Apoorva’s father denied the reports to a news agency and said the couple was happy.
“When Apoorva married Shekhar, she had a lot of hopes and ambitions. But it was a turbulent and unhappy marriage for which she held the other woman responsible,” said Ranjan.
Around 3.30 pm on April 16, Shekhar was found unresponsive and bleeding from his nose in a first floor room at his Defence Colony bungalow by a domestic help, 17 hours after he returned from Uttarakhand. Ranjan said nobody in the family disturbed him until late afternoon because he suffered from insomnia.
When Shekhar was brought dead to Max Hospital in South Delhi’s Saket on April 16, the local police did not suspect murder until the autopsy report revealed that he had been smothered and strangulated.
For a week, the crime branch interrogated several suspects, including Apoorva, Shekhar’s half-brother Siddharth and four domestic help, before Apoorva “confessed” to the murder on Tuesday night, said Ranjan.
“During the drive from Uttarakhand to Delhi, Apoorva made a video call to Shekhar during which she realised that there was a woman in his car,” said an investigator, who declined to be named.
“When he got back, the couple had an altercation when Apoorva asked Shekhar about the woman. When he told her the woman’s name and taunted her about the two of them drinking from the same glass, Apoorva pounced on him and killed him,” the investigator added.
Police said it was a murder committed on the “spur of the moment” and they were yet to find evidence of any other person’s involvement in the crime.
Ranjan said the police had enough “scientific and circumstantial” evidence against Apoorva, but refused to elaborate. “Evidence can’t be discussed with the media as the probe continues,” said Ranjan.
On Wednesday, Apoorva was sent to two days in police custody. Her counsel, advocate Bharat Singh, opposed the remand on grounds that she was not required for investigation, had been interrogated for more than a week and “fully cooperated” with investigators.
Shekhar’s father ND Tiwari, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, had not married Rohit’s mother Ujjwala before his birth.Shekhar filed a paternity suit claiming ND Tiwari to be his biological father in 2012. A DNA test confirmed his claim. In 2014, ND Tiwari married Ujjwala.
Last May, Shekhar married Apoorva, a Supreme Court lawyer from Indore, after a year-long courtship.
“Apoorva has told us that she had been the president of the youth wing of a national trade union. When she had met Shekhar, she expected the marriage to fuel her political ambitions and that she would be the heir to her father-in-law’s properties. But Shekhar himself couldn’t get a foothold in politics and the family did not have much property,” said a senior police officer.
The family’s three-storey bungalow in Defence Colony is estimated to be worth tens of crores of rupees, but Shekhar’s mother, in her will, had divided the property between Shekhar and Siddharth in a 60:40 ratio, the investigator said. The property, according to the will, would accrue to the surviving brother.
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A Home Based Business Lesson
A Home Based Business Lesson
A while back I wrote about the show “King Of Queens.”
Remember that?
It told the story about the episode where the main characters got swindled by a water filter company MLM type deal. And the lesson was actually quite valuable to anyone who is looking for a home based business.
Well, guess what?
There is ANOTHER episode with a great business lesson. Although not quite as obvious as the other one.
Basically, Doug (the main character) and Carrie (his wife) get into a weird predicament. Their friend is evicted from her apartment and comes and stays with them. To help out, she makes Doug all kinds of great meals for him and his friends. Basically cooking him whatever he wants. Carrie, on the other hand, is stuck upstairs each day working on a report for her boss, and Doug starts to think of them as two wives:
His “upstairs wife” (his real wife) who does her, uhm, wifely duties, and his “downstairs wife” who makes all his favorite foods, etc.
He has sort of the best of both worlds….
…and does everything he can to keep this arrangement going as long as possible (including sabotaging Carrie, his “upstairs wife”, so her report takes longer to complete).
A Home Based Business Lesson
Anyway, here’s the point:
When you first start off in business, it’s almost the same way. You have your “upstairs” income, and your “downstairs” income. Your upstairs income is your business. It’s the one you should be “married” to, so to speak.
Your “downstairs” income would be your job (whatever pays the bills while you give whatever attention you can spare to your upstairs income).
But unlike Doug, you want to kick the downstairs income out.
It should be temporary.
In fact, it’s almost a BAD thing if you get a raise at your job or if it’s too comfortable. As it will make you less motivated to build your business.
This happens all the time, too.
And is something to watch out for.
To build a solid “upstairs” income fast (even if you don’t have a lot of time),
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***To the Editor***
We read with interest the article by Qureshi et al.[@ref1] In their report, the authors presented a case of adult onset Still's disease (AOSD) associated with the rather atypical manifestation of dermatopathic lymphadenopathy. We would like to emphasise on the point that AOSD may, indeed, sometimes be associated with unusual features that are not traditionally included in the usual classification criteria. The diagnosis of AOSD relies on the fulfilment of a set of criteria; once infectious, autoimmune rheumatic, and neoplastic causes had been ruled out. The Yamaguchi criteria are the most commonly applied by clinicians and have a sensitivity of 96.2% and a specificity of 92.1%. These criteria are divided into major criteria (fever, arthralgia / arthritis, typical salmon pink rash, and neutrophil leukocytosis) and minor criteria (sore throat, lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly and/or splenomegaly, abnormal liver function tests and negative rheumatoid factor and antinuclear antibody). Diagnosis requires 5 criteria with at least 2 major criteria. Indeed there are reports of other forms of lymph node involvement in addition to dermatopathic lymphadenopathy reported in this case report. In most cases of AOSD, the usual lymph node histology demonstrates reactive hyperplasia. Assimakopoulos et al[@ref2] reported a case of suppurative necrotizing granulomatous lymphadenitis, and Koeller et al[@ref3] reported a case of destructive lymphadenopathy in patients with AOSD.
Other manifestations not included in the Yamaguchi criteria are also increasingly reported. In a recent retrospective review of 71 patients with AOSD, 5 patients were reported to have interstitial lung disease, 2 patients had acute respiratory distress syndrome, 3 patients had pericarditis, 6 patients had pleuritis, 5 patients had haemophagocytic syndrome, four patients had disseminated intravascular coagulation, one patient had thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and one patient had secondary amyloidosis.[@ref4] Other rare manifestations also include myocarditis, aseptic meningitis,[@ref5] pulmonary hypertension, and diffuse alveolar haemorrhage.[@ref6] Recently, small vessel vasculitis was also reported in association with AOSD.[@ref7]
It is not unusual for the experienced clinician to come across a case with symptoms suggestive of AOSD and not find any other diagnostic alternative through the usual screening (infection, malignancy and systemic autoimmune diseases). There are some rare, sometimes even life threatening, syndromes that may present with multisystem symptoms identical to autoimmune rheumatic diseases and may get labelled as AOSD, yet be missed through the usual screening tests. We therefore would like to stress the importance of keeping these uncommon syndromes in mind.
Many rheumatic diseases are rare by nature and the time of presentation to diagnosis may take years in some situations. Additionally, rheumatology is becoming an expanding discipline and rheumatologists are increasingly being asked to see patients with even rarer disorders of multisystem nature that do not fit a particular rheumatic diagnosis or any recognisable pattern. Lack of awareness of such multisystem disorders may result in many unnecessary and expensive tests that may or may not reveal the underlying diagnosis. Thus, awareness and consideration of such entities is both detrimental to the effective use of healthcare resources and optimal patient management and patient safety.
Among these diagnoses is Schnitzler syndrome, which has many features of AOSD and may easily be misdiagnosed as AOSD if not specifically considered. Gaucher's disease is another condition that has many clinical features of AOSD including splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, elevated transaminases, fever, and joint pain that could sometimes be mislabelled as AOSD. Furthermore, Gaucher's disease is associated with a high ferritin level, thus adding to the diagnostic confusion. Finally, multicentric Castleman's disease also manifests several of AOSD manifestations and may be misdiagnosed as AOSD. These potential diagnoses should be kept in mind if there is any doubt regarding the diagnosis of AOSD.
***Reply from the Author***
Dr. Adwan and Dr. Bakri have provided some interesting supplemental information, which is not emphasized much in the literature. The presence of lymphadenopathy in AOSD prompts the inclusion of malignancy in differential diagnosis; however, less attention is given to similar pathologies including Schnitzler syndrome or Gaucher's disease in clinical practice, both of which are also associated with lymphadenopathy.[@ref8],[@ref9],[@ref10] Our case report is distinct due to the presence of dermatopathic lymphadenopathy, which is not reported in Schnitzler or Gaucher's disease.[@ref1] The case report was intended to discuss AOSD in setting of dermatopathic lymphadenopathy. It is interesting to know that there are manifestations outside the Yamaguchi criteria, which can facilitate the diagnosis of AOSD as pointed out by Dr. Adwan and Dr. Bakri in their correspondence.
Ahmad Z. Qureshi
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
{#sec1-2}
###### Case Reports
Case reports will only be considered for unusual topics that add something new to the literature. All Case Reports should include at least one figure. Written informed consent for publication must accompany any photograph in which the subject can be identified. Figures should be submitted with a 300 dpi resolution when submitting electronically. The abstract should be unstructured, and the introductory section should always include the objective and reason why the author is presenting this particular case. References should be up to date, preferably not exceeding 15.
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Introduction {#s0005}
============
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults. Treatment options for AML are limited, with standard first-line therapy consisting of a chemotherapy combination including cytarabine and an anthracycline (daunorubicin most commonly used). Despite favorable complete remission rates in young and old patients, early relapsed disease is common, and the prognosis of relapsed AML patients is poor as 5-year survival rates are low (30% in patients \<60 years, 5%-10% in patients ≥60 years).
Gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) is a CD33-antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) composed of a humanized monoclonal antibody linked to the potent cytotoxic agent calicheamicin via a hydrazone linker. GO binds the AML antigen CD33 and, upon internalization, releases its DNA-damaging warhead to kill the target AML cells [@bb0005]. CD33 is ubiquitously expressed on AML myeloblasts including those responsible for relapsed disease [@bb0010]. Mylotarg received FDA approval in 2000 for CD33-positive AML patients but was voluntary withdrawn in 2010 due to safety concerns. However, four other large trials were pursued simultaneously evaluating the combination of lower-dose GO with induction chemotherapy [@bb0015]. In a collective meta-analysis of individual patient data from these trials, the addition of GO to induction chemotherapy did not affect complete remission rates; however, it significantly reduced the risk of relapse and improved the relapse-free survival and overall survival of adult AML patients with favorable cytogenetics [@bb0015]. These data suggest that the inclusion of GO to induction chemotherapy results in more durable remissions in AML patients treated with the combination.
The poor long-term prognosis of standard induction (DA) therapy correlated with the levels of minimal residual disease (MRD) [@bb0020]. A high level of MRD was found to correlate with a higher percentage of chemoresistant leukemic stem cells, which are characterized by their inherent ability for self-renewal, in the bone marrow (BM) of AML patients treated with induction therapy [@bb0025], [@bb0030]. The resistance to standard of care chemotherapy and the ability of leukemic-initiating cells (LICs) to initiate AML have been extensively studied. LICs were found to be a significant predictor of clinical outcome and patient survival in AML [@bb0035], [@bb0040].
Herein, we hypothesize that the combination of low-dose GO and induction chemotherapy achieves more durable remissions by more effectively clearing minimal residual disease, including LICs, than either component separately. We utilize *in vivo* cell-line xenograft and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) AML models to demonstrate the impact on overall efficacy and duration of response that the combination of low-dose GO and induction chemotherapy provides. In so doing, we provide evidence that this combination can target cells responsible for chemorefractory disease.
Materials and Methods {#s0010}
=====================
GO (Mylotarg, Pfizer, New York, NY) was diluted in deionized water, and cytarabine (Pfizer, New York, NY) and daunorubicin (Teva Parenteral Medicines) were diluted with phosphate-buffered saline and stored at 4°C before usage. 8.8 ADC is a nonbinding antibody conjugated to N-Ac-γ-calicheamicin DMH (Pfizer, New York, NY). AC220 was purchased from Selleck Chemicals (Houston, TX) and prepared as previously described [@bb0045].
Flow Cytometry {#s0015}
--------------
Cell surface marker staining procedures were performed according to the antibody manufacturer\'s instructions. Freshly prepared cells were analyzed on a BD FACSCalibur Flow Cytometer equipped with BD CellQuest Pro (BD Bioscience, San Jose, CA). Quadrant markers were set relative to negative immunoglobulin isotype controls. The percent of human AML engraftment was defined as the percentage of the human CD33+/CD45+ cells relative to the total number of BM cells. AML engraftment was also monitored by quantifying the population of human CD33+/CD45+ cells in peripheral blood (PB). Individual subpopulations were gated on live human CD45+ cells. The antibodies used were anti--hCD33-APC and anti--hCD117-APC (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Diego, CA), anti--hCD45-FITC and anti--hCD38-FITC (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA), anti--hCD34-PE (Miltenyi Biotec Inc., San Diego, CA), and anti--hCLL1-PE (Biolegend, San Diego, CA).
AML Models {#s0020}
----------
Female NSG (NOD/SCID IL2Rγ^−/−^, Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, ME) mice (7-8 weeks old) were used in all studies in this report. All experimental animal procedures complied with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Institute for Laboratory Animal Research, 2011) and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
MV4-11 cells were purchased from ATCC (Manassas, VA) and stably transfected with luciferase (Luc) before implantation to generate the MV4-11-Luc cell line. For the MV4-11-Luc model, 1 × 10^6^ cells were implanted intravenously (IV) into the tail vein of nonirradiated mice. Leukemic disease progression was monitored as previously described [@bb0050] on an IVIS200 system (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA). Treatment was initiated when the mean value of bioluminescence intensity (BLI) in each group reached approximately 5 × 10^7^ photons/sec.
To establish the BM0407 (BM120407L) and BM2407 (BM012407L) PDX models, the xenografted AML mice with P1 passage were purchased from Jackson Laboratory (Farmington, CT) and served as donors for PDX expansion. BM0407 and BM2407 were derived from FLT3-ITD--positive patients with the FAB-M2 subtype. BM0407 also harbors *NPM1* mutation (exon 12 insertion). Once engrafted in mice, BM AML blasts were deep sequenced with a cancer gene panel using multiplex amplicon technologies [@bb0055] to confirm the molecular profiles. One to 2 × 10^6^ viable AML cells were collected from the BM of donor mice and were injected via the tail vein after the NSG mice were sublethally irradiated (150 cGy) using the X-Rad 225Cx (Precision X-Ray Inc., North Branford, CT). Engraftment was tracked periodically by quantifying the population of human CD45+ AML cells in the PB with flow cytometry. When the mean engraftment levels reached 1% to 5% CD33+/CD45^+^ cells in the PB, leukemic mice were randomly assigned to receive treatments.
*In Vivo* Treatment and Antileukemic Efficacy Assessment {#s0025}
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The maximum tolerated dose of GO in AML mice is 0.3 mg/kg (IV). The plasma level in this dose is within the range of the clinical exposure of high-GO dosing regimen (9 mg/m^2^). To mimic the clinical strategy of fractionated GO regimen, we used low dose levels of GO (0.01 mg or 0.06 mg) for combination studies. The exact dose level for each model was preoptimized to avoid the nonspecific activity by control ADC. For each treatment cycle of the daunorubicin and cytarabine (DA) doublet arm, mice received daunorubicin intravenously on days 1, 3, and 5 and cytarabine subcutaneously on days 1 to 5. MV4-11-Luc and other models received one DA treatment cycle. BM2407 and BM0407 received two cycles of DA treatment in the combination test. AC220 was orally administered daily for 12 days at 10 mg/kg, which is a biologically effective dose for inhibiting the target (phospho-FLT3) [@bb0045]. The antileukemic efficacy was evaluated in the BM for the presence of human CD33+/CD45+ cells 5 days after the last treatment.
Assessment of Self-Renewal Ability of the Residual Cells After Induction Therapy {#s0030}
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Bone marrow cells were collected from engrafted BM2407-diseased mice, sorted into CD34+ and CD34− subpopulations, and injected intravenously into sublethally irradiated recipient mice (*n* = 5). Similar methods were used for the self-renewal analysis of CLL1+CD117+ and CLL1+CD117− subpopulations from the BM0407 model. The mice were monitored for disease development in PB followed by BM collection.
Data Analysis {#s0035}
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Statistical analyses were conducted using GraphPad Prism (La Jolla, CA) with one-way analysis of variance followed by a log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test.
Results {#s0040}
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Characterization of *In Vivo* AML Models and Their Response to Induction Chemotherapy and FLT3-Targeted Agent AC220 {#s0045}
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We evaluated the antileukemic efficacy of daunorubicin and cytarabine chemotherapy (DA) and a selective FLT3 inhibitor, AC220 [@bb0060], [@bb0065], in three disseminated AML models including MV4-11-luc, BM2407, and BM0407 that harbor *FLT3* mutations ([Figure 1](#f0005){ref-type="fig"}, *A* and *B*). The DA doublet dosing regimen was the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). AML burden was evaluated as the percentage of CD45+/CD33+ cells in the BM compartments following drug treatment. In MV4-11-Luc leukemic mice, DA treatment significantly (*P* \< .05) reduced the percentage of AML blasts in BM compared to vehicle-treated mice (27% CD45+/CD33+ DA vs 76% CD45+/CD33+ vehicle). AC220 treatment completely eliminated MV4-11-Luc blasts in BM (0% CD45+/CD33+). We also similarly evaluated two AML PDX models (BM2407 and BM0407) from patients with FLT3-ITD--positive disease. DA treatment reduced BM CD45+/CD33+ blasts in both PDX models, albeit at different magnitudes (56% DA vs 99% vehicle in BM2407 and 11% DA vs 89% vehicle in BM0407). AC220 treatment also reduced BM CD45/CD33+ blasts in the PDX models but not to the degree demonstrated in the MV4-11-Luc model (52% AC220 vs 99% in BM2407 and 52% AC220 vs 89% in BM0407). In the BM2407 model, we monitored AML blasts in PB and observed near-complete elimination of AML blasts in PB in both DA and AC220 treatment regimens.Figure 1Antileukemic efficacy of DA chemotherapy and a selective FLT3 inhibitor AC220 in FLT3-ITD^mut^ AML xenografts.Leukemic mice were randomly assigned to three groups and treated with 1) vehicle; 2) AC220, 10 mg/kg, po daily for 12 days; or 3) DA doublet therapy at the MTD (daunorubicin, 1.5 mg/kg, IV on days 1, 3, and 5; cytarabine, 15 mg/kg, SC on day 1-5). On day 26 to 28 after the first dosing, flow cytometry was performed to assess the AML engraftment or percentage of hCD33+/CD45+ cells in the PB and BM. *n* = 5 per group. To set gates for flow cytometry analysis, more than 98% of the cells stained with isotype control antibody fell within the bottom left quadrant. (A) Representative images depict the engraftment of human CD33+/CD45+ leukemic cells in the PB and BM in the different AML models following drug treatment. (B) Quantitative measurement of the mean BM AML disease burden (hCD33+/CD45+ cells relative to the total cells) posttreatment. The bar graph shows the mean relative values of the controls (100%). Values = mean ± S.E.M. \**P* \< .05.Figure 1
In all three models that harbor the FLT3-ITD mutation, only MV4-11-Luc showed complete BM depletion after AC220 monotherapy. DA chemotherapy at the MTD showed only partial reduction in the BM blast counts of all tested AML xenografts. Of note, the plasma exposures of DA doublet were within the range of clinical exposures.
Assessing the Combinatorial Benefits of GO and DA Induction Chemotherapy in MV4-11-Luc AML Mice {#s0050}
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Since the chemorefractory disease following DA doublet therapy was CD33+, we hypothesized that the addition of the anti-CD33 ADC (GO) to DA doublet therapy would improve the antileukemic response in the MV4-11-Luc model. We longitudinally monitored MV4-11-Luc leukemic mice with bioluminescent imaging following treatment with the DA and GO therapies as single agents and in combination ([Figure 2](#f0010){ref-type="fig"}*A*). On day 25 following the initial dose of the compounds, DA (32%) and GO (22%) alone reduced leukemic burden via bioluminescence imaging ([Figure 2](#f0010){ref-type="fig"}*B*) compared to vehicle (100%) or control ADC (100%) treatments. Importantly, only the DA and GO combination group had no detectable disease (0%). Similarly, DA (29%) and GO (32%) alone reduced the amount of CD45/CD33+ blasts in the BM of these mice compared to vehicle (76%) or control ADC (77%) treatments (day 26), but only the DA and GO combination group (0.13%) resulted in the near-complete elimination of BM CD45/CD33+ blasts ([Figure 2](#f0010){ref-type="fig"}, *B* and *C*).Figure 2GO in combination with DA chemotherapy exhibits a synergistic antileukemic effect and improves survival in MV4-11-Luc xenografts. In the MV4-11-Luc model, the dose of GO was preoptimized to 0.01 mg/kg to assess target-specific killing of leukemic cells because higher doses lead to AML cell killing by the nonbinding negative control ADC. When leukemic burdens were established or the mean BLI equaled 5 × 10^7^ photons/sec in each group, mice were randomly assigned to five groups and treated with 1) vehicle; 2) negative control ADC; 3) GO; 4) DA chemotherapy (cytarabine dosed at 15 mg/kg SC daily on days 1-5 and daunorubicin dosed at 1.5 mg/kg IV on days 1, 3 and 5); or 5) GO plus DA. ADC and GO were each dosed at 0.01 mg/kg on days 1 and 8. (A) Representative images of mice longitudinally monitored for assessment of MV4-11-Luc AML burden on study days 1, 18, and 25. *n* = 10 mice per group. Quantification of BLI signal shown in C. (B) On day 26 after dosing initiation, the BM AML burden was assessed by flow cytometry analysis of CD33+/CD45+ cells (B, C). *n* = 5 mice per group. Quantification of AML blasts relative to total cells in BM following treatment shown in C. (C) Quantification of mean leukemic burden as measured by BLI (A) and residual AML blasts (B). Values = mean ± S.E.M. \**P* \< .05 for BLI and residual AML blasts, respectively. (D) In a separate cohort of animals, mice were monitored for development of hind-limb paralysis as a surrogate for survival with AML leukemic burden. Mice were monitored for 73 study days. *n* = 5 mice per group.Figure 2
To evaluate the duration of this enhanced response, we performed a similar study with the same dosing paradigm utilizing hind-limb paralysis as a survival readout ([Figure 2](#f0010){ref-type="fig"}, *D*). In this model, vehicle-treated mice have a median survival of 23 days. DA and GO monotherapy groups increased the median survival to 34 and 31 days, respectively. Mice from these groups eventually developed hind-limb paralysis. However, the DA and GO combination group revealed an extraordinary survival benefit as the median survival was not reached with four out of the five animals alive until the end of the study (day 73). By testing treatment effects on BM AML clearance and hind-limb paralysis survival, we demonstrate the remarkable combination benefit of GO and DA compared to either single agent in the MV4-11-luc model.
Antileukemic Efficacy and Survival Benefits of GO and DA Combination Observed in AML PDX Models {#s0055}
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We employed similar study designs in the two AML PDX models to determine if the benefits observed with addition of GO to induction chemotherapy could be extended into the more chemorefractory PDX models. Mice bearing BM0407 AML were dosed with the monotherapy and combination regimen for one or two treatment cycle ([Figure 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}, *A*). On day 21 (after one cycle of treatment), CD45+/CD33+ blasts were measured via flow cytometry from BM harvests. Control ADC showed no effect with 83% CD45+/CD33+ blasts in the BM compared to vehicle (82%). GO and DA monotherapy (concurrent dosing) partially inhibited leukemic growth with 34% and 53% CD45+/CD33+ blasts remaining, respectively ([Figure 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}, *C*). Intriguingly, the combination of GO and DA resulted in near-complete elimination of CD45+/CD33+ blasts in the BM with 0.1% blasts remaining. In a second cohort of animals that received two cycles of treatment, GO treatment resulted in a similar reduction of CD45+/CD33+ blasts as the first cycle (30%), whereas the DA treatment further reduced the CD45/CD33+ (16%) blasts compared to the first cycle ([Figure 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}, *B* and *C*). Strikingly, the combination of GO and DA completely eliminated all CD45/CD33+ AML PDX blasts from the BM.Figure 3GO in combination with DA chemotherapy exhibits a synergistic antileukemic effect and improves survival in BM0407 AML PDX models. BM0407 leukemic mice were randomly assigned before treatment when the mean engraftment levels reached 1% to 5% CD33+/CD45+ cells in the PB. Mice were treated with 1) vehicle; 2) negative control ADC; 3) GO; 4) DA chemotherapy (cytarabine at 10 mg/kg SC on days 1-5 and 22-26 and daunorubicin at 1 mg/kg IV on days 1, 3, 5, 22, 2,4 and 26); 5) GO and DA concurrently with DA therapy; or 6) GO following DA therapy. GO or negative control ADC was injected IV at 0.06 mg/kg on days 1 and 22. On days 21 and 30 after the initial dosing, two sets of BM0407 PDX mice were euthanized to evaluate the BM disease burdens by flow cytometry analysis of CD33+/CD45+ cells (B, C). (A) Schematic of study design and dosing regimens. (B) Representative evaluation of CD33+/CD45+ disease burden in BM following drug treatment on day 21. (C) Quantification of AML blast burden across all treatment groups. Values = mean ± S.E.M. \**P* \< .05. (D) In a separate cohort of animals, mice were monitored for development of hind-limb paralysis as a surrogate for survival with AML disease. Mice were monitored for 180 study days. *n* = 5 mice per group. Concurrent or sequential treatment of DA and GO significantly (*P* \< .05) improved survival by either GO or DA monotherapy. (E) GO in combination with DA chemotherapy exhibits a synergistic antileukemic effect and improves survival in BM2407 AML PDX model. BM2407 leukemic mice were randomly assigned before treatment when the mean engraftment levels reached 1% to 5% CD33+/CD45+ cells in the PB. Mice were treated with 1) vehicle; 2) negative control ADC; 3) GO; 4) DA chemotherapy (cytarabine at 15 mg/kg SC on days 1-5 and days 19-23; daunorubicin at 1.5 mg/kg IV on days 1, 3, 5 and days 19, 21, 23); or 5) GO or negative control ADC injected IV at 0.06 mg/kg on days 1 and 19. On day 28 after the initial dosing, mice were euthanized to evaluate the BM disease burdens by flow cytometry analysis of CD33+/CD45+ cells (A, B). (A) Representative evaluation of CD33+/CD45+ disease burden in BM following drug treatment on day 28. (B) Quantification of AML blast burden across all treatment groups. Values = mean ± S.E.M. *n* = 5 mice per group. \**P* \< .05.Figure 3
To further determine the enhanced response with the combination, we assessed if concurrent or sequential addition of GO to the DA therapy impacted the survival. In the BM0407 PDX model, the median survival in vehicle-treated mice was 48 days ([Figure 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}*D*). GO and DA monotherapy regimens prolonged survival of mice with median survival time as 67 and 92 days, respectively; however, mice in these groups eventually succumbed to disease burden or hind-limb paralysis. Impressively, the addition of GO to DA therapy, both concurrently and sequentially, completely prevented any mice from developing AML-driven hind-limb paralysis for the duration of the study (\~6 months). These data suggest that the addition of GO to DA, either concurrently or sequentially, enhances the antileukemic activity of either monotherapy in AML with poor prognostic genes.
Similar results were observed in the BM2407 PDX model ([Figure 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}, *E* and *F*). We observed complete elimination of BM CD45+/CD33+ blasts, whereas the DA or GO treatment only showed partial inhibition against leukemic growth.
Molecular Characterization of AML PDX Models Highlights the Phenotypic Diversity of the Disease {#s0060}
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The genetic heterogeneity of AML had been well established since the development of karyotyping techniques in the late 1970s [@bb0070], [@bb0075]. As mentioned earlier, BM0407 and BM2407 both were confirmed for FLT3-ITD positivity. Additionally, BM0407 harbors AML-relevant mutations in the *DNMT3A* and *NPM1* genes which were conserved compared to the primary patient samples.
In AML, disease remission and relapse following induction chemotherapy are thought to be mediated via the presence of chemorefractory LICs. There are several putative cell surface markers of AML LICs including CD33, CD123, CD34, CLL1, and CD117. We performed immunophenotyping of the three AML models used in this report to screen for differences in the expression profiles of these cell surface markers. The MV4-11-Luc model was positive for CD33 and CD123 surface expression with moderate expression of CLL1 and CD117 ([Figure 4](#f0020){ref-type="fig"}). The PDX BM0407 and BM2407 models were CD33+, CD123+, CD117+, and CLL1+ ([Figure 4](#f0020){ref-type="fig"}). The PDX BM2407 model showed a CD34+ subpopulation ([Figure 4](#f0020){ref-type="fig"}).Figure 4Immunophenotyping of the BM engrafted AML cells from CLX and PDX xenografts. Representative images depict the fractions of CLL1, CLL1+/CD117−, CD34+, CD34+/CD38− subpopulations in three AML xenografts. To set gates for the flow cytometry analysis, more than 98% of the cells stained with isotype control antibody fell within the bottom left quadrant. Values = mean ± S.E.M.Figure 4
Despite the genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity, all tested AML models express high levels of CD33 on the surface. CD33 expression may be the primary determinant for receiving the additional benefit of GO with induction chemotherapy in these AML models.
DA Induction Therapy Enriches for a CLL1+/CD117− Subpopulation in Residual Disease {#s0065}
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Following the molecular characterization of our AML models, we hypothesized that the residual disease following DA induction therapy enriched the AML models for CD45/CD33+ cells expressing putative markers of LICs. In BM0407, DA chemotherapy reduced the CD45/CD33+ blast population in BM to 20% as compared with 80.1% in vehicle-treated mice ([Figure 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}*A*, *top*). However, the CD45+/CD33+ blasts were significantly (*P* \< .05) enriched by 137% for a CLL1+/CD117− subpopulation following DA induction chemotherapy (49.7%) as compared to vehicle-treated mice (37.6%) ([Figure 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}*A*, *bottom*). Other AML models demonstrated even greater enrichment for CLL1+/CD117− blasts following DA induction chemotherapy (222% in AML124 and 157% in MV4-11-luc) ([Figure 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}*B*).Figure 5DA chemotherapy enriches a CLL1+/CD117− subpopulation in BM0407 residual disease. (A) BM0407 leukemic mice were treated with vehicle or DA doublet therapy (daunorubicin at 1.5 mg/kg IV on days 1, 3, and 5; cytarabine at 15 mg/kg SC on days 1-5). On day 28, flow cytometry analysis was performed to measure the CD33+/CD45+ cells in the BM of the leukemic mice (top). The fraction of CLL1+/CD117− cells was enriched in the AML-gated cells (bottom). (B) Two additional models, AML124 and MV4-11-Luc, were also tested for the effect of DA treatment on the CLL1+/CD117− subpopulation. Values for all three models were normalized to the corresponding control. *n* = 5 mice per group. \**P* \< .05. (C) Study design for the isolation and reimplantation of CLL1+/CD117− and CLL1+/CD117+ cells using freshly collected BM cells from the BM0407 model. D) Representative image of CD33+/CD45+ blasts from the BM of mice engrafted with CLL1+/CD117− or CLL1+/CD117+ cells. (E) BM collection and analysis were performed at 113 days after AML transplantation into immunocompromised mice injected with 1 × 10^4^ (1e4) or 1 × 10^5^ (1e5) sorted CLL1+/CD117− or CLL1+/CD117+ cells. Values = mean ± S.E.M. *n* = 5 mice per group.Figure 5
To assess the self-renewal capability of the different populations of CD45+/CD33+ AML blasts, we sorted purified CLL1+/CD117− and CLL+/CD117+ AML blasts from mice engrafted with BM0407 and reimplanted these two subpopulations of cells into naïve recipient mice and monitored for BM engraftment of AML cells ([Figure 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}*C*). We implanted 10,000 (1e4) or 100,000 (1e5) of each cell subpopulation into five mice and collected BM from the implanted mice after 113 days to measure the amount of CD45+/CD33+ blast engraftment in the BM ([Figure 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}*D*). All mice (5/5) implanted with 1e5 CLL1+/CD117− cells had BM leukemic engraftment, but very low engraftment was observed in mice implanted with 1e5 CLL1+/CD117+ cells ([Figures 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}*D* and [1](#f0005){ref-type="fig"}*E*). Mice implanted with 1e4 CLL1+/CD117− or CLL1+/CD117+ cell displayed similar trend of BM engraftment (0.1% vs 0%). These observations suggest that CLL1+/CD117− subpopulation is more chemorefractory and leukemogenic in the BM0407 AML PDX model.
DA Induction Therapy Enriches for a CD34+/CD38+ LIC Subpopulation in Residual Disease {#s0070}
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In a similar set of experiments as described earlier, we assessed the capability of DA induction chemotherapy to enrich for a CD34+ subpopulation in residual disease in AML models. In BM2407, DA induction chemotherapy significantly (*P* \< .05) reduced the CD45+/CD33+ blast population in BM to 7% as compared with 97% in vehicle-treated mice ([Figure 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}*A*, *top*). The CD45+/CD33+ blasts were enriched by 164% for a CD34+ subpopulation following DA chemotherapy (56%) as compared to vehicle-treated mice (33%) ([Figure 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}, *A* and *B*). Other AML models demonstrated similar or greater enrichment for CD34+ blasts following DA induction chemotherapy ([Figure 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}*B*).Figure 6DA chemotherapy enriches a CD34+ subpopulation in BM2407 residual disease. (A) Representative images from flow cytometry analysis of BM2407 cells from BM post-DA treatment. BM2407 leukemic mice were treated with vehicle or DA doublet therapy (daunorubicin at 1.5 mg/kg IV on days 1, 3, and 5; cytarabine at 15 mg/kg SC on days 1-5). On day 28 after the initial dose, BM cells were collected from the leukemic mice for flow cytometry analysis. DA treatment significantly reduced leukemic burden in the BM (top), and CD34+ cells were enriched in the AML-gated cells (bottom). (B) Two additional models, AML146 and the AML 124, also showed enrichment of CD34+ cells in DA residual disease. Values for all three models were normalized to the corresponding control. *n* = 5 mice per group. \**P* \< .05. (C) Study design for the isolation and reimplantation of CD34+ and CD34− cells using freshly collected BM cells from the BM2407 model. Cells were stained and sorted into CD34+ and CD34− subpopulations prior to being reimplanted into the irradiated recipient mice. (D) Representative image of CD33+/CD45+ blasts from the BM of mice engrafted with CD34+ or CD34− cells. (E) BM collection and analysis were performed at day 172 for the mice that received the 1 × 10^4^ transplanted cells and at day 97 for remaining transplanted mice. Bar graphs show the leukemic repopulation of CD34− or CD34+ subpopulations when different doses of cell were reimplanted. Values = mean ± S.E.M. *n* = 5 mice per group.Figure 6
To assess the self-renewal capability of these two different CD33+ AML subpopulations, we sorted CD34+ and CD34− AML blasts from mice engrafted with BM2407 and reimplanted these two subpopulations of cells into mice and monitored for BM engraftment of AML cells ([Figure 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}*C*). We implanted 10,000 (1e4), 200,000 (2e5), or 600,000 (6e5) of each cell subpopulation into five mice and collected BM from the implanted mice after 172 days for the mice implanted with 1e4 cells and 97 days for other transplanted mice (2e5 and 6e5) to measure the amount of CD45/CD33+ blast engraftment in the BM ([Figure 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}*D*). In this setting, all mice (5/5) implanted with 6e5 or 2e5 and two of five mice implanted with 1e4 CD34+ cells had BM leukemic engraftment, but no engraftment (0/5) was observed with implantation of 1e4, 2e5, or 6e5 CD34− AML blasts ([Figure 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}*E*). In this model, both CD34+ and CD34− cells express CD38. Thus, CD34+/CD38+ cells appear to be a marker of LICs from the BM2407 AML PDX model, and the CD34+/CD38+ LICs are enriched in residual disease following DA induction therapy.
Discussion {#s0075}
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Although most AML patients achieve complete remission after induction therapy, the overall survival rate remains poor [@bb0080]. In this report, the combination of GO and DA chemotherapy exhibited synergistic effects in AML xenografts. Importantly, GO was tested at levels that were five-fold lower than the MTD for chemocombination to determine a correlation with the clinical dosing strategy. Over the past decade, GO has been shown to be most effective in AML patients at lower doses with more frequent administration [@bb0085]. In addition, a PK/PD-guided dosing schedule that is optimized in patients [@bb0090] further supports a new dosing regimen strategy based on saturable receptor occupancy at a lower dose of GO [@bb0095]. With the newly developed dosing regimen, GO demonstrated benefits in AML patients either as monotherapy or in combination with other agents [@bb0100]. Our data further support this clinical strategy. Low-dose GO treatment combined with DA therapy, via either concurrent or sequential administration, significantly improved the survival rate compared to DA chemotherapy at the MTD. In addition, AML patients with FLT3-ITD have been reported to have poor cure rates [@bb0105]. Although FLT3 inhibitors have had some positive effect, drug resistance and dose limiting toxicity have caused challenges for clinical development [@bb0110]. Here, combined GO and DA treatment provided significant benefits over the FLT3 inhibitor AC220 in all three xenograft models with FLT3-ITD mutations, suggesting a possible broader application in AML patients.
LICs are believed to be one of the leading causes for AML treatment failure and relapse after chemotherapy [@bb0115]. Abundant research has suggested that LICs express heterogeneous surface markers. Previous reports have shown that AML LICs primarily exist as a CD34+/CD38− subpopulation. In recent years, studies have demonstrated that LICs also reside in the CD34+/CD38+ or even in the CD34− state [@bb0040], [@bb0120], [@bb0125]. Consistent with these findings, we observed the self-renewal potential of the CD34+ subpopulation in the PDX model BM2407 that fully expresses CD38; i.e., CD34+/CD38+ was able to initiate AML in NSG mice. In another PDX model, BM0407, which lacks CD34 expression and highly expresses CD38 (98%) of the AML cells, we demonstrated the AML repopulating ability of the CLL1+/CD117− subpopulation in NSG mice. Interestingly, PDX BM0407 lost CD34 expression after xenotransplantation, although it was partially expressed in the patient sample, which suggests that the LIC subpopulation may vary among individuals [@bb0130]. We also noticed that the CD34+ LIC subpopulation from BM2407 PDX fully expresses CLL1. Multiple studies have demonstrated that, in AML patient specimens, CLL1+ cells are present in the LIC fraction [@bb0135], [@bb0140] but are absent from normal or regenerating BM cells. In addition, CLL1+ cells were associated with rapid disease relapse [@bb0140]. However, how CLL1+ cells function as LICs has not been reported. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show the self-renewal ability of CLL1+/CD117− cells isolated from AML PDX models.
Chemoresistance has been the leading cause of AML treatment failure despite the high initial response rate. In the subset of AML models we tested, human AML cells in the PB showed significantly higher sensitivity to DA chemotherapy than did those in the BM. However, despite a modest decrease in BM disease burden, DA-treated AML mice showed no overall survival benefit because the disease eventually relapsed in all three models. Clearly, the residual AML cells in the BM became cell cycle quiescent and failed to respond to chemotherapy due to the protection provided by the BM niche [@bb0035], [@bb0145]. We hypothesize that recurrence of the disease may arise from self-renewal of LICs present in the chemoresistant residual disease. This notion is supported by the assessment of biomarkers of BM residual AML cells from DA-treated PDX. DA-resistant PDX cells showed a higher fraction of leukemic LIC subpopulations, thus demonstrating a significant survival advantage relative to the bulk AML, consistent with previous reports [@bb0130], [@bb0145]. Additionally, it has been shown that the CD34+ population derived from AML patients is less sensitive to cytarabine [@bb0150]. Our study expanded on the previous findings from multiple AML PDX models, including BM2407, AML146, and AML124, that the CD34+ LIC subpopulation was more resistant to DA compared to the CD34− counterpart. Similarly, the LIC subpopulation CLL1+/CD117− was enriched in the residual disease after DA treatment compared to the control subpopulation, CLL1+/CD117+, in multiple AML models. These results suggest that these chemoresistant LIC subpopulations reside in the BM, where they are protected from chemotherapy-induced apoptosis [@bb0035]. Because both the CD34+ and CLL1+/CD117− subpopulations demonstrated self-renewal capacity in NSG mice, these results support the notion that LICs contribute to AML disease relapse.
Although CD33 expression was found on the cell surface of approximately 90% of the AML patients [@bb0105], the AML PDX models with successful engraftments in this report presented 100% CD33+ leukemic cells. In addition to the CD34+ LIC subpopulation, almost 100% of the CLL1+/CD17− LICs expressed CD33. These results may suggest that CD33+ cells are preferentially selected through *in vivo* passage; i.e., the CD33+ AML cells contained in the self-renewing LIC subpopulation are more successfully propagated in mice. This notion is also supported by clinical observations [@bb0110], [@bb0155]. It is noteworthy that the FLT3-ITD mutation, which is a well-known marker of poor prognosis in AML patients [@bb0115], was maintained at a high rate via the xenotransplantation of BM0407 and BM2407. A marker connoting an even worse prognosis, *DNMT3A/FLT3/NPM1* [@bb0120], was also highly maintained in the BM0407 model compared to the initial patient profile. These observations further support the correlation between *FLT3-ITD* mutations and LICs, as recently reported in AML patient samples [@bb0160].
One of the key strategies to improve the overall outcomes in AML is to eradicate the chemoresistant LICs upon reduction of the fast proliferating AML blasts by chemotherapy. Research to date has been unclear about the extent to which the GO-associated antileukemic effect is derived from killing the AML LICs other than its cytotoxicity to bulk AML blasts [@bb0165]. In the tested AML models, DA doublet reduced bulk AML cells through apoptosis induction and antiproliferation (data not shown). In mice that received GO treatment but not the control ADC, BM AML blasts showed double-strand DNA breaks and subsequently apoptosis (data not shown), as expected from the treatment of a calicheamicin drug conjugate. These results highly suggest that CD33 target mediated cell killing. Importantly, GO can completely eradicate the DA-resistant residual disease that contains a higher percentage of LIC subpopulations, as confirmed by using an *in vivo* limiting dilution analysis. These results demonstrate the anti-LIC function of GO against CD33+ AML LICs, when combined with induction chemotherapy, in addition to its antileukemic effect against bulk CD33+ AML. This notion is also supported by a report from Ehninger and colleagues [@bb0155]. In a large cohort of AML patient samples, both the CD33 and CD123 markers were highly expressed in the CD34+ fraction of AML, which is presumably the LIC-enriched population. In contrast, the expression levels of CD33 and CD123 in myeloid progenitors of healthy donors were relatively low compared to the AML blasts. The finding that IMGN779, a CD33-ADC, preferentially inhibits LIC colony formation while sparing normal HSCs [@bb0170] further supports CD33 as a valid target for AML.
One of the limitations for clinical translation is that all leukemic blasts express CD33 in tested PDXs, whereas clinically about 10% of AML patients are missing CD33 antigen. Higher fraction of CD33+ blasts could enable better response rate to GO/DA therapy in the AML models than in patients. Future translation work should include a large panel of diverse AML PDX models that reflects the nature of AML heterogeneity.
Despite some limitations, these research outcomes provide insight into the clinical benefits seen in AML patients when GO is added to the existing induction therapy [@bb0015], [@bb0165]. Hence, there is a strong rationale to use GO as a companion agent to target the CD33+ LICs and enhance the existing induction therapy for AML treatment.
Authorship Contributions {#s0080}
========================
C. C. Z., A. J. F., S. H., and P. S. provided guidance for overall concepts; C. C. Z., Z. Y., B. P., and A. J. F. designed the experiment; Z. Y., B. P., Q. Z., M. E., C. F., J. L., and N. H. performed experiments; C. C. Z., Z. Y., B. P., S. H., and M. S. performed data analysis and interpretation; C. C. Z. and M. S. wrote the manuscript; C. C. Z., M. S., and P. S. revised the manuscript.
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest {#s0085}
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All authors are current Pfizer employees. No other potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Acknowledgements {#s0090}
================
We would like to thank Timothy Fisher for generating the MV4-11-Luc cell line and Jennifer Kahler for coordinating the collaboration. We also would like to acknowledge Dr. Hans Peter Gerber and Dr. Manfred Kraus for providing valuable feedback to this report.
Primary Scientific Category: Myeloid Neoplasia.
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Myc up-regulates formation of the mRNA methyl cap.
The Myc proteins c-Myc and N-Myc are essential for development and tissue homoeostasis. They are up-regulated by growth factors and transmit the signal for cell growth and proliferation. Myc proteins are also prominent oncogenes in many human tumour types. Myc proteins regulate the transcription of protein-encoding mRNAs and the tRNAs and rRNA which mediate mRNA translation into protein. Myc proteins also up-regulate translation by increasing addition of the 7-methylguanosine cap (methyl cap) to the 5' end of pre-mRNA. Addition of the methyl cap increases the rate at which transcripts are translated by directing RNA modifications and translation initiation. Myc induces methyl cap formation by promoting RNA polymerase II phosphorylation which recruits the capping enzymes to RNA, and by up-regulating the enzyme SAHH (S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase), which neutralizes the inhibitory by-product of methylation reactions. Myc-induced cap methylation is a major effect of Myc function, being necessary for activated protein synthesis, cell proliferation and cell transformation. Inhibition of cap methylation is synthetic lethal with elevated Myc protein expression, which indicates the potential for cap methylation to be a therapeutic target.
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Kei Kamara notched the first hat trick of his MLS career on Saturday night, scoring the first three goals in the New England Revolution’s dominant 4-0 home win against Orlando City SC.
On Tuesday, he received a little love for the performance, when it was announced that the 33-year-old striker was voted Alcatel MLS Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for Week 26 of the 2017 season.
Kamara got things started early for New England on Saturday, volleying home from close-range in the 26th minute after a nice give-and-go on the right wing between Lee Nguyen and Scott Caldwell.
He doubled the Revs’ advantage in the 75th, picking out Nguyen at the top of the box and running onto the midfielder’s deflected return pass in the center of the area before slotting past Joe Bendik.
Kamara completed his hat trick in the 89th. He took advantage of some sloppy play by Orlando defender Leo Pereira to get behind the Lions’ backline, then raced into the right side of box and buried his 1-v-1 opportunity with Bendik.
The three-goal performance was the first of Kamara’s 11-year MLS career. He now has 11 goals and four assists in 24 games this season, and has 97 goals and 37 assists in 279 career regular season appearances.
Their win on Saturday moved Kamara and the Revs past Orlando and Philadelphia and into eighth-place in the East. They’re four points behind sixth-place Atlanta and seventh-place Montreal, who they’ll host on Saturday at Gillette Stadium (7:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE in the US, TVA Sports in Canada).
The Alcatel MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.
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What are ticks? What do ticks look like?
Ticks are small arachnids. Ticks require blood meals to complete their complex life cycles. Ticks are scientifically classified as Arachnida (a classification that includes spiders). The fossil record suggests ticks have been around at least 90 million years. There are over 800 species of ticks throughout the world, but only two families of ticks, Ixodidae (hard ticks) and Argasidae (soft ticks), are known to transmit diseases or illness to humans. Hard ticks have a scutum, or hard plate, on their back while soft ticks do not. Tickborne diseases occur worldwide.
Ticks have a complex life cycle that includes eggs, larvae, nymphs, and adult male and female ticks. The larvae, nymphs (also termed seed ticks), and adults all need blood meals. Usually, the female adult (hard tick) is the one causing the most bites as males usually die after mating. Ticks do not jump, fly, or drop. They simply reach out with their legs and grab or crawl onto a host. Although some larvae have preferred hosts, most ticks in the nymph or adult phase will attach a get a blood meal from several different kinds of animals, including humans. Except for a few species of larval ticks, the immature phases (larvae, nymphs) usually are even less selective about where they get a blood meal and are known to bite snakes, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Larvae are very small (about 1/32 of an inch with six legs), while nymphs are about 1/16-1/8 inch with eight legs and adults about 3/16-1/4 inch with eight legs. The complex life cycles are described in the last web citation below, and all of the web citations include pictures of various tick species. Although ticks will die eventually if they do not get a blood meal, many species can survive a year or more without a blood meal. The hard ticks tend to attach and feed for hours to days. Disease transmission usually occurs near the end of a meal, as the tick becomes full of blood. It may take hours before a hard tick transmits pathogens. Soft ticks usually feed for less than one hour. Disease transmission can occur in less than a minute with soft ticks. The bite of some of these soft ticks produces intensely painful reactions.
Ticks are transmitters (vectors) of diseases for humans and animals. Ticks can transmit disease to many hosts; some cause economic harm such as Texas fever (bovine babesiosis) in cattle that can kill up to 90% of yearling cows. Ticks act as vectors when microbes in their saliva and mouth secretions get into the host's skin and blood. Ticks were understood to be vectors of disease in the mid-1800s, and as investigative methods improved (microscopes, culture techniques, tissue staining), more information showed the wide variety of diseases that could be transmitted by ticks.
There are many common names for various ticks (for example, dog tick, deer tick, and African tick), and these names appear in the scientific literature, too. Most common names represent a genus of ticks. However, the common name "red" may be used by people to describe almost any tick that has had a blood meal (engorge with blood).
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Article Title
Authors
Abstract
The global crisis demands global answers; answers that cannot come from those who provoked, accepted or took advantage of its causes.
The world architecture built upon the ashes of the World War II is collapsing. The great foundations that granted America its hegemony, shared in part with all the other winners, 64 years later can no longer answer the necessities of a world undergoing dee p transformations of various kinds. Neither Bretton Woods (America's pillar in the economic-financial network in the IMF and the WB) nor the UN (political pillar in the Security Council) or the atom bomb (military pillar), which sealed the financial and political hegemony are acceptable any longer, and deep modifications must be considered.
The global crisis is also a global opportunity to reconsider the questions and give voice to new answers. If one of the determining elements of the crisis has been the carelessness of politicians towards their responsibilities based on the belief that markets would regulate the necessities of common good, it cannot be that these same politicians will now manage the deep modifications that must be undertaken.
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1. The parts from us are sure to have quality warranty,and they are double tested before shipping.2. The items can be sent within 2 working day after the payment reaches us,except for mass process, we will confirm the delivery in advance.3. We can send your order by UPS/DHL/TNT/EMS/FedEx. Pls contact us directly and we will use your preferred ways.4. Any import fees or charges are the buyer's responsibility. But we can help you reduce and avoid import taxes by declaring prices low, declaring the contents as "electronic accessories" or other items and shipping in simple packaging.
REFUND&REPLACEMENT
1. We can guarantee the product quality within 3 months.2. If parts cannot work ,we will return payment or replacement to you.3. Any items must be returned in their original condition to qualify for a refund or replacement.4. The buyer is responsible for all the shipping cost incurred.
Quality is essential to both of us, we believe that High quality, Low price,Mutual benefit will be good basis of our cooperation.
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Involvement of ERK1/2/NF-κB signal transduction pathway in TF/FVIIa/PAR2-induced proliferation and migration of colon cancer cell SW620.
Our previous study has demonstrated that TF/FVIIa and protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) are closely related to the proliferation and migration of colon cancer cell line SW620. However, the detailed signaling cascades and underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study has investigated whether extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-κB) signaling pathways are involved in the events. The results revealed that PAR2-activating peptide (PAR2-AP) or FVIIa elicited time-dependent upregulation of ERK1/2 phosphorylation in SW620 cells, and the effect of FVIIa was significantly attenuated by anti-TF antibody. PAR2-AP or FVIIa also increased NF-κB (p65/RelA) levels among cell nuclear proteins and simultaneously decreased IκB-α levels in the cytoplasmic proteins. Such effects of FVIIa can be inhibited with anti-PAR2 or anti-TF antibodies. While ERK1/2 inhibitor (U0126) intervened with the regulatory effects of PAR2-AP and FVIIa on IκB-α/NF-κB (p65/Rel) expression in the cells, NF-κB inhibitor (PDTC) partially blocked the enhancing effects of PAR2-AP and FVIIa on the proliferating and migratory ability of SW620 cells. Furthermore, the regulatory effects of PAR2-AP and FVIIa on expressions of certain proteins (IL-8, caspase-7, and TF) were also significantly abolished by PDTC. Collectively, the data in this study suggest that the interaction between FVIIa and TF induces PAR2 activation, thereby triggers the ERK1/2 and IκB-α/NF-κB signal transduction pathway to regulate the gene expression of IL-8, TF, and caspase-7, and ultimately promotes SW620 cell proliferation and migration.
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Increase in primary and secondary syphilis cases in older adults in Louisiana.
Sexually active young adults and adolescents experience a majority of the burden of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States and public health resources are appropriately directed at these age groups. However, sexual health of older adults is often ignored. An analysis of sexually transmitted disease surveillance data from the Louisiana Office of Public Health show that both the numbers and rates of primary and secondary syphilis cases have increased in older age groups over the past 10 years. Clinicians must be aware of increased use of erectile dysfunction drugs in older persons as a possible risk factor for sexually transmitted diseases. Clinicians must also realize that a significant number of older persons display sexually risky behavior and safe sexual health counseling is often overlooked in this population.
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The plot has thickened around the disappearance of the oil tanker MT Riah, towed to Iranian shores last week, with Panama saying it is revoking the ship’s registration over violation of international rules.
Panama's Maritime Authority on Saturday announced that it initiated the process of withdrawing its flag from the Emirati-based tanker Riah, which vanished south of Iran’s Larak Island.
In a statement cited by Reuters, the authority said that its own investigation into the tanker’s disappearance had found that it “deliberately violated international regulations” by failing to report an unusual situation, presumably its seizure by the Iranian Navy. The authority also condemned the use of Panama-registered vessels for “illicit activities” without ascribing any such specific activity to the Riah.
The tanker went missing from radar screens shortly before midnight last Saturday, when its tracking signal abruptly blinked out. On Tuesday, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported, citing the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that the Iranian forces came to a foreign tanker’s rescue after it sent a distress signal. While the name of the tanker was not revealed at the time, the vessel was presumed to be the Riah.
Also on rt.com Tehran: Oil tanker broke down in Persian Gulf, towed by Iran forces for repairs
However, two days later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released footage showing the seizure of the ship with ‘Riah’ and “PANAMA” written on its hull, while accusing the vessel of smuggling fuel.
Read more
Semi-official news agency Fars reported at the time that the Iranian Navy had towed the tanker to the shore upon receiving a distress signal and discovered a haul of petroleum products, allegedly smuggled from Iran, after boarding the ship.
Despite airing the footage, Tehran has never acknowledged that the seized vessel was the Emirati-based Riah.
Other murky circumstances in the story have still not been clarified. While it has been widely reported that the Riah made frequent trips between different emirates of the UAE, that country has distanced itself from the ship.
"The tanker in question is neither UAE owned nor operated,” a UAE official told Emirates News Agency earlier this week.
There is also uncertainty over whether the ship asked for help, with the same official saying it “did not emit a distress call.”
At the moment, it’s still unclear who owns and operates the tanker. The Equasis maritime database shows the Riah’s last known owner as UAE-registered RIAH Shipping & Trading Inc., which appears to be based in Singapore.
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1. Field of the Invention
The structure, kit and method of use of this invention reside in the area of containers and more particularly relate to a container employing a five gallon bucket having a plurality of interlocking panel inserts engaged with one another therein, provided in the form of a kit, creating a plurality of upward facing openings for receipt of objects such as fishing tackle.
2. History of the Prior Art
Fishing tackle storage boxes are well known in the prior art. Some containers for fishing tackle are very large and expensive, incorporating complex arrangements for the storage of fishing tackle. To reduce costs, fisherman often will reuse 5-gallon buckets which are generally obtainable without cost after their contents have been used for other purposes. Some inventions have been made relating to providing pluralities of trays stacked within such 5-gallon buckets such as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,154,303 and 5,547,098 to Jordan. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,651 to Torkilsen et al it is taught that such a fishing bucket made from a converted utility bucket can have a lid for utilization as a seat.
It is an object of this invention to provide a structure in a kit form for use of within a typical empty 5-gallon bucket or bucket to create therein a plurality of upwardly facing openings for the receipt therein of larger types of fishing tackle at a very low cost, especially in comparison to the cost of fishing tackle boxes marketed for holding large fishing lures and the like.
It is a further object of this invention that the conversion of a 5-gallon bucket can be accomplished by constructing the panel members as provided in a kit form and inserted into the bucket in a speedy and convenient manner.
It is yet a further object of this invention that such kit can be made of inexpensive materials and sold to fishermen to allow for the reuse and conversion of preexisting 5-gallon containers once their original contents have been used. Such 5-gallon buckets are well known, such as originally containing paint, plaster, oil, food stuffs and the like and are frequently obtainable without charge since they would otherwise be disposed of. However, any type of bucket or pail, even a new, unused one will suffice for the purposes of this invention.
It is a still further object of this invention to disclose a method of use of such structure and kit.
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Q:
SharePoint Designer: Error when connecting to my customer production server
Every time I try to connect to any SharePoint site running on my customer server I get the following error.
An error occurred accessing your Microsoft SharePoint Foundation site
files. Authors - if authoring against a Web server, please contact the
Webmaster for this server's Web site. WebMasters - please see the
server's application event log for more details.
I already checked the sharepoint options in CA and in every site in the mentioned server. Everything seens correct but the error persists.
It looks like there is no direct relation to SharePoint and something else in the server but I was not able to determine what could cause such behaviour.
Hope someone here has something to say.
A:
Well... After a very long and painful headache we were able to find out what was causing this malfunction.
It was a .net agent from New Relic. This agent is used to analyse traffic, page load time and some other cool things. It basicly add some javascript to the head session of every response our IIS make and this code send some data to New Relic servers that will be processed to build some reports about the applications running in the IIS.
In the end, I just disabled it and SPD turned back to life.
Thanks.
PS: Boland was in the right path. I were able to find out the solution using Fiddler to analyse the responses from IIS. Thanks.
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Q:
Dagger and ButterKnife - Can i inject Android AudioManager instance
How do i inject an AudioManager instance ? I need a context and i dont have one ?
Here is my class that uses a Dagger injection:
public abstract class ListPageActivity extends BaseActivity {
private SoundPool mSoundPool;
private int mSoundID;
boolean plays = false, loaded = false;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//ButterKnife.inject(this);
}
public void loadBrandSound(){
mSoundPool = new SoundPool(10, AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC, 0);
mSoundPool.setOnLoadCompleteListener(new SoundPool.OnLoadCompleteListener() {
@Override
public void onLoadComplete(SoundPool soundPool, int sampleId, int status) {
loaded = true;
}
});
mSoundID = mSoundPool.load(this, R.raw.ducksound, 1);
}
@Inject AudioManager am; //i want to inject this
public void playBrandSound() {
/*AudioManager am = (AudioManager) getSystemService(AUDIO_SERVICE); commented out as i want to
inject it*/
int volume_level= am.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
// Is the sound loaded already ?
if (loaded && !plays) {
mSoundPool.play(mSoundID, volume_level, volume_level, 1, 0, 1f);
plays = true;
}
}
public void stopBrandSound() {
if (mSoundPool != null && plays) {
mSoundPool.stop(mSoundID);
mSoundPool.release();
plays = false;
}
}
}
and here is my failing module called ActivityModule.java which i want to declare an audioManager instance that can be injected into my ListPageActivity:
@Module(
library = true,
injects= {
ListPageActivity.class,
MainActivity.class
}
) public class ActivityModule {
@Provides
AudioManager provideAudioManager(){return (AudioManager) getSystemService(AUDIO_SERVICE);
//the above fails to compile as i need a context, how can i get one ?
}
}
My dagger modules are already working so i have that set up right. Also is there a easier way to inject System Services since there so common instead of this way ? ButterKnife i was thinking might have something that i could simply inject a systemService just like i can inject a view.
A:
Assuming that BaseActivity handles the Activity injection for you, you should be able to:
Pass context as a parameter to your "provideAudioManager" method, and then have a provideContext() method that provides context from either the activity, or from the application.
Something like this
private Activity mActivity;
public ActivityModule(Activity activity){
mActivity = activity;
}
Context provideContext(){
return mActivity;
}
AudioManager provideAudioManager(Context context){
return (AudioManager) context.getSystemService(AUDIO_SERVICE);
}
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Q:
Loop a selected part of a Powerpoint presentation
I want to create a stream of slide and then loop some of them in order to have a dynamic background when there are some breaks during the presentation.
Any idea how can I do that?
Thank you very much!
A:
Instead of making it all one big show, put the loop slides into another presentation, then add a link to it from the main presentation. It needn't be visible ... a 99% transparent rectangle with an action setting would do the job, you just need to know where to click something you can't see in order to launch the loop.
When you're done watching the loop, press ESC to close it and you'll be back in the main presentation.
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Genetic analysis of hepatitis A virus isolates from Brazil.
A limited number of hepatitis A virus (HAV) isolates from South America have been characterised at the genomic level. IgM anti-HAV positive serum samples collected from patients with hepatitis A living in the five geographical regions of Brazil (North, Northeast, Central, South, and Southeast) were used to obtain HAV isolates and determine their genetic relatedness. Of the 232 case isolates, sequence data were obtained from the VP1/2A junction region of the HAV genome. All isolates were classified in genotype I; 231 belonged to subgenotype IA, and one to subgenotype IB. HAV isolates from four States formed distinct clusters of highly related sequences. However, isolates from other states did not cluster and the sequences from those states were intermingled with sequences found in the other states. The amino acid sequences of all but two isolates showed a Leu --> Ile substitution at position 42 in the 2A protein. This substitution appeared to be a characteristic geographic fingerprint of HAV sequences within Brazil.
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It’s been impossible to ignore the stats doing the rounds about how much Alexis Sanchez has given the ball away in recent games, and while he is naturally a player who wants to make things happen and tries risky passes, his last couple of performances have been well below par from that point of view.
It’s something that Arsene Wenger is mindful of, and he wants the Chilean to try and find a better balance in his game, and stay further forward.
The lack of goals this season is put down, in part, to the fact he’s not playing as a striker like he did last season, but the manager will be urging him to stay higher up the pitch when we face West Ham tomorrow night.
“I think he struggles a bit at the moment to score as much as last year but last year he played much more at centre-forward,” said the Frenchman.
“This year I believe in games like Southampton he came a bit too deep. We play against teams that play very, very deep and I feel he loves to touch the ball so when he doesn’t get it as much as he wants he comes deep, but when you come deep you can’t score.
“It is as simple as that so maybe he has to find a better balance in his positional play.”
The manager has to decide how to cope with the absence of Aaron Ramsey, a key component of his midfield who will miss out because of a hamstring strain, and what to do with his defence.
A shift to a back four is a possibility, with Shkodran Mustafi still injured and Per Mertesacker unconvincing against Southampton.
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Printable Rulers (all to scale): templates in both cm ruler templates and inch ruler templates. The inch rulers come in sets of half inch, quarter inch, one eighth inch, and one sixteenth inch increments. The metric rulers are available in mm and cm increments. Each page has five rulers and they are
Ruler Measurement Tools: Printable Rulers Whole Inch and Centimeter Increments - U.S. Customary and Metric System - King Virtue's Classroom
Never run out of rulers again! Use this item to print rulers (inches and centimeters) for your students. These are great for math, science, and other classroom
Do you need a set of rulers for your entire class today? You can print these true to size inch rulers right now! Isn't TpT magical?
Included in PowerPoint File:
-12 inch ruler in black and white (fourths marked)
-12 inch ruer in black and white (halves marked)
-12 inch ruler in black and white (inc
Ruler Measurement Tools: Printable Rulers Quarter Inch and Half Centimeter Increments - U.S. Customary and Metric System - King Virtue's Classroom
Never run out of rulers again! Use this item to print rulers (inches and centimeters) for your students. These are great for math, science, and other cl
Ruler Measurement Tools: Printable Rulers (9 Inches and 22 Centimeters) - U.S. Customary and Metric System - King Virtue's Classroom
Never run out of rulers again! Use this item to print rulers (inches and centimeters) for your students. These are great for math, science, and other classroom activi
Ruler Measurement Tools: Printable Rulers Half Inch and Centimeter Increments - U.S. Customary and Metric System - King Virtue's Classroom
Never run out of rulers again! Use this item to print rulers (inches and centimeters) for your students. These are great for math, science, and other classroom
This product is Included in a Fractions Bundle
This is a better learning tool for beginners than a traditional ruler. Traditional rulers have no labels on any of the marks, and are supposed to be measured with 4 different denominators (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16th of an inch). The printable ruler in
The first and last set of rulers you will EVER need! Printable rulers (all to scale) in both inch and cm measurements. In FULL COLOR and Black and White! The inch rulers include half inch, quarter inch, and one eighth inch increments and the metric rulers measure both mm and cm increments. Each pag
This is a set of materials for teaching how to measure to the quarter inch. Includes step-by-step Powerpoint mini lesson, task cards, and worksheets/assessments.• Powerpoint - This lesson walks students through the steps of measuring an object using the "box" method. This helps students easily see q
Are you ready to create a classroom full of eager scientists? With the assistance of this unit you will introduce science, science tools, and the scientific method to your students. Sit back and watch as your students fall in love with science through the use of labs, printables and interactive an
Measurement task Cards! Use these measurement task cards to introduce the cm and mm. The set includes a free tutorial about measuring with a ruler. There are a total of 24 task cards with pictures of everyday objects and a brief statement about the length or height of the object to be expressed in c
Measure It! is also available in a SPRING EDITION! Same great skills for a different time of the year!
Measure It! is themed for the holidays and winter themed when indicated. It includes activities, printables and a booklet to help teach measurement (non-standard and standard) and time (to the ho
Measure It! is also available in a WINTER EDITION! Same great skills for a different time of the year!
Measure It is themed for spring! It includes activities, printables, and a booklet to help teach measurement (non-standard and standard) and time (to the hour, half hour, 5 minutes and elapsed t
Do your students need to practice measuring length? Make it fun with fun hands-on activity! Students practice estimating and measuring miscellaneous items around the classroom and record their answers on a record sheet.
Skills Used: Measurement, estimation.
=======================================
FREE FOR LIMITED TIME ONLY!!! STARTING SEPT 2
This resource includes 4 centers:
3 centers are based on non-standard measuring and 1 center is based on standard measuring ( there are 2 of this center: one in centimeters and one in inches!)
*There is also printable rulers to design and use (They a
This pack includes:
• Gingerbread Man themed number sequence to 30 – one with benchmarks and one without to allow for adaptations.
• Roll a gingerbread, a following directions activity.
• One or Two More than or Less than gingerbread man activity
• Pictorial expression activity with writing number
Do your students need to practice measurement using inches and feet? This fun matching game makes a great center, workstation, whole-class, or one-on-one activity! Save your valuable time and print this ready-to-use measurement game!
Objective: Practice estimating height and width of common objec
PLAY DOH MATS!!! What is not fun about Play Doh!! This product has TWO fun Math Center MAT Games. Students will have lots of fun practicing measuring pictures of items and blocks. It is aligned to the Common Core Standards and the Florida MAFS. See the list of standards below.
This file includes
Why do you need THIS set of ruler graphics?
☑ They are true to scale and come in two sizes (6" and 12") - great for making printable tools! (Make sure you use the included guide for making printable rulers that are correctly sized).
☑ They have no extra space at the beginning or end of the ruler
Do your students need to practice measuring inches? Make it FUN with this measurement game! Students practice recognizing lengths to 6 inches. It makes a great center or workstation!
================================================
*THIS PRODUCT INCLUDES:
-Teacher Directions
-Student Directions
-
Ruler
Rulers - Measurement
This set includes 25 high quality, 300 DPI, .png images - 2 sets of 12 double-sided rulers in a rainbow of colors, and 3D in appearance. One set is solid color. The other is translucent. One image as black/white line art is included.
Colors included are: pink, red, oran
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780 So.2d 216 (2001)
Donald Eugene WRIGHT, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 5D00-3501.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
February 9, 2001.
Rehearing Denied March 8, 2001.
Donald Eugene Wright, Daytona Beach, pro se.
No Appearance for Appellee.
PLEUS, J.
Donald Eugene Wright appeals the summary denial of his Rule 3.800(a) motion in which he claimed that the habitual felony offender statute, section 775.084, Florida Statutes (1993), is unconstitutional because it allows a defendant's punishment to be increased based on findings of fact made by a judge, rather than by a jury. We affirm.
Defendant relies on Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), in which the United States Supreme Court held that other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact which increases a defendant's punishment must be submitted to a jury and proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant argues that under the habitual felony offender statute, the trial judge must not only make a finding of fact that a prior conviction exists, but also must find that the conviction was for a qualified offense committed within five years, was not for a violation of section 893.13, Florida Statutes (1993), and had not been vacated, or the defendant pardoned. Therefore, he concludes that under Apprendi, the statute is unconstitutional.
The United States Supreme Court expressly acknowledged in Apprendi that recidivism is a traditional basis for increasing a sentence and is a fact which does not relate to the commission of the offense before the court. See also State v. Rucker, *217 613 So.2d 460 (Fla.1993) (legislature enacted habitual felony offender statute to allow enhanced penalties for defendants who meet objective requirements indicating recidivism). Nothing in Apprendi overrules the Florida Supreme Court's holding in Eutsey v. State, 383 So.2d 219 (Fla.1980) that the determination that a defendant could be sentenced as an habitual felony offender was independent of the question of guilt in the underlying substantive offense and did not require the full panoply of rights afforded a defendant in the trial of the offense.
This court has previously affirmed orders denying the same claim. See Harris v. State, 775 So.2d 302 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000); Coleman v. State, 773 So.2d 1164 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000).
AFFIRMED.
SHARP, W. and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a speed change gear.
2. Discussion of Background
A speed change gear is used as a speed reducing gear or a speed increasing gear that changes the speed of rotation input from a motor, or the like. As such a speed change gear, there is a known speed reducing gear that uses a planet gear mechanism in order to obtain a high change gear ratio, which is, for example, described in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 60-127150 (JP-U-60-127150). The speed reducing gear described in JP-U-60-127150 oscillatingly rotates a pair of planet gears in the same phase with the rotation of an input shaft and then outputs the differences in rotational speed between external gears of the respective planet gears and internal gears meshed respectively with the external gears as a speed reducing ratio. A speed reducing gear described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-266955 (JP-A-2002-266955) oscillatingly rotates a planet gear with the rotation of an input shaft and then transmits and outputs only the axial rotation component of the planet gear. The thus configured speed reducing gears are able to obtain a high change gear ratio with the use of a single-stage planet gear mechanism.
However, as the change gear ratio of the speed change gear is increased, the transmission efficiency of driving force decreases. Therefore, the size of the speed change gear is increased in order to obtain a higher change gear ratio. In addition, in the case of a speed increasing gear that requires particularly high transmission efficiency, there is a possibility that self-lock may occur. Accordingly, a speed increasing ratio obtained from a single-stage gear is limited. Then, as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-019286 (JP-A-2010-019286), there is a known configuration where speed reducing gear units having the same configuration are arranged in tandem. The speed reducing gear described in JP-A-2010-019286 includes speed reducing gear units in multiple stages to increase the overall change gear ratio.
However, in the speed reducing gear described in JP-A-2010-019286, although driving forces transmitted by the respective speed reducing gear units coupled to each other are different from each other, the speed reducing gear units have the same configuration. Therefore, transmittable driving force of the speed reducing gear is limited as a whole. Furthermore, because a member, or the like, that couples the speed reducing gear units is required, the size of the speed reducing gear increases in the direction along the input/output axis.
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1-Chloroethyl chloroformate [CAS 50893-53-3] and 2-chloroethyl chloroformate [CAS 627-11-2] are known compounds which are useful as intermediates for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and herbicides. Although these compounds can be produced by the chlorination of ethyl chloroformate [CAS 541-41-3] in the liquid phase or in the vapor phase, the reaction products are heavily contaminated with one or more dichloroethyl chloroformates as by-products. The formation of higher chlorinated by-products is undesirable since the by-products are of lesser value economically and since they often result in disposal problems.
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Past Life Regression Sessions are
conducted In-Person and are a $100 per hour donation, in Cassadaga Florida. The best way to
schedule an appointment is to call 407-417-1679.
What is
a Past Life Regression?
A
past life regression is a technique that will help you to realize your
past lives.This technique
of regression will unlock your mind so you can experience these
memories. A session will
typically last for approximately one hour and you can experience many
lives during one session.
In your session you will be aware of all that is around you, and you
will remember this experience. The advantage of knowing your past is to
better understand; who you were, why and what you are here to learn and
do.It’s like seeing a
movie of your past through your mind, you are the observer.We all have memories of these past lives stored in our minds,
scientist’s say we only use 10 percent of our brain; past life Regressionists believe somewhere in the other 90 percent are where such
memories reside.Some of
these unrealized memories will expose themselves during your session.
Let’s face it
we are born with different talents, and personalities.It makes sense that we have a past where these talents and traits
stem from. We can’t possibly learn everything in one lifetime therefore
we come back, to settle Karma and learn more.This is called soul growth or evolution.
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How to Build Muscle With Body Weight Training
I don’t talk too much about building mass since it really isn’t the main focus of this site.
That being said, I know there are quite a few readers who do want to add a bit of mass.
"Visual Impact Kettlebells" - Home Workout Course
A kettlebell course we filmed on the beach in Costa Rica, aimed at helping you get slim and lean without adding bulk.
I am going to talk about how to put on mass with nothing but body weight exercises.
I don’t care if you can do 80 push-ups or 30 pull ups, here is a way gain size and make body weight exercises challenging again.
Let Me Give Credit to Nick Nilsson…
Nick Nilsson is the guy who outlined this body weight workout.
I haven’t mentioned either of these guys on my site before because the subject matter here is more focused on building strength and muscle definition without adding size to get that slim “Hollywood” look.
As far as mass building goes, these are the guys I recommend.
The Common Problem With Body Weight Training
As soon as I read this outline, I knew Nick had come up with a solution to a common problem.
You see, the problem with something like push-ups is that you quickly get too strong for them to be challenging.
A set of 50 reps of push-ups is high rep “endurance training”.
The problem is that even if you go to failure, isn’t really hitting the muscle fibers with the most growth potential.
High Volume With Compressed Rest Intervals
A key to gaining mass is to aim for a high volume of work while lifting weight that is heavy enough to challenge the muscles.
You also want to keep the rest somewhat brief in between sets to get the full pump in the muscles this is the optimum condition to put on size quickly.
Here is the solution that Nick came up with to get this done with body weight exercises.
As Many Sets of 3 Reps As Possible in 15 Minutes
This is done in a strategic way, which I will explain in a second.
The reason he suggests 3 reps at a time is to limit fatigue in order to maximize training volume (sets and total reps).
Both Charles and Nick believe that you should train muscles for output and not fatigue which is why their programs build strength and mass, not just muscle mass.
Too much fatigue is bad for building strength.
They believe in a high volume of quality reps without hitting failure, which is a unique approach in the bodybuilding world (and why I dig their approach).
How the Workout is Structured
1) Pick one body weight exercise – Push Ups (as an example)
2) Do 3 reps and rest 10 seconds then 3 more reps…repeat
3) When it becomes tough to do 3 reps, extend the rest time to 20 seconds
4) When it becomes too tough to get 3 reps, extend rest time to 30 seconds
5) Keep doing this exercise for 15 minutes straight. As soon as it gets tough to complete 3 reps add another 10 seconds to the rest time in between sets.
Tips: Make sure to avoid failure on all of your sets, but push yourself. By avoiding failure, you are limiting fatigue and you will get in more sets and reps in the 15 minute period.
Other Tips for This Mass Building Routine
Nick recommends 15 minutes for back, chest, and quads…and 10 minutes for hamstrings, shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, and abs.
He recommends a 2-day split doing a total of 4 workouts per week.
Day One back, chest, biceps, abs, and calves. Day Two quads, hamstrings, shoulders, and triceps.
"Visual Impact Kettlebells" - Home Workout Course
A kettlebell course we filmed on the beach in Costa Rica, aimed at helping you get slim and lean without adding bulk.
Note: You could certainly use this same method with weights as well. I’m imagining there are probably a few people who have a weight set at home that they are too strong for. Consider using this lifting method with those weights to get some good use out of them again.
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Tag Archives: gift of the holy spirit
“Ascencial” Truth – Sermon
This weekend was the 24th of May Weekend – celebrating Queen Victoria’s birthday in Canada. Our minister, Harry, spoke about kingship, and ascension to the throne. In the secular world there is much pomp given to the ascension of a king/queen. Gifts are given and received.
The Ascension of Jesus is the crowning of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In Acts 1 we get a different picture of His royalty. He lived as a carpenter, had no armies and spent his ministry in servanthood. He died for all of us. He rose from the grave. Then He returned to earth to reveal Himself for 40 days. Then He ascended. Then at Pentecost, He gave his disciples a gift – the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had said, while on earth:
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:20 NIV).
Then He withdrew His visible presence. He went back to where He had started – with a view of humanity that connected us to God.
“Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with Godsomething to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureof a servant,being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to deatheven death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8 NIV)!
In His ascension He took back what He originally had. And He went back with more.
That was the theological part – which I hope I got right.
Here are the real implications of the Ascension:
Jesus is now not limited to time or space.
While on earth He did have limits of time and space.
Jesus receives our prayers.
On Ascension, He took back the prerogative of God. He IS God! But now we can pray to Him.
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13 NIV).
Here is the Ascencial Truth (Harry made up the word ascencial) – Jesus opened the gates of Heaven – so we might enter in. (I love the song by Robin Mark. See it at the end of this post)
“But to each one of usgracehas been givenas Christ apportioned it. This is why itsays: “When he ascended on high, he took many captivesand gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascendedhigher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe” (Ephesians 4:7-10 NIV).
We were captives of Satan but Jesus freed us to be captivated by Him. We are His. We need to know Him and love Him. And He even took us to Heaven with Him.
“And God raised us up with Christand seated us with him in the heavenly realmsin Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6 NIV).
How cool is that! Wow! We are seated with Jesus. We are yet to see the whole fullness of this but we do get glimpses, don’t we?
Jesus Gave Gifts to Men
Just as in the temporal world when a new king is crowned there are new jobs opened to those who know the king. So, too, Jesus apportioned jobs to each of us. Paul lists some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians. We are to serve the body of Christ by using the gifts given to each of us.
Here is a list of the ones from Ephesians:
Apostles – those who have vision and entrepreneurial spirit for God.
Prophets – those who call us to account and are the balancers. They ask questions like, “are we right doing this?”
Evangelists – those whose love for Jesus makes them want to spread the Good News.
Pastors – shepherds who show concern and comfort for others. They are the encouragers.
Teachers – those who explain what is said in the Bible.
All of these only operate under the Holy Spirit. We cannot be followers of Christ without the Holy Spirit in us. It is impossible.
And that is the “Ascencial” Truth – Jesus’ Ascension is important. Video Podcasts – Part 1 and Part 2
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Watch a US-led airstrike on an ISIS unit near the Iraqi capital
Nearly three months into the fight to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS militants, the terror group still has a presence in other parts of Iraq.
In recent weeks, ISIS fighters have attack police checkpoints in the southern part of the country and orchestrated deadly bombings in the capital, Baghdad.
On January 2, the US-led coalition struck an ISIS tactical vehicle in Bayji, a town about 130 miles north of Baghdad and about halfway between the capital city and Mosul.
In Bayji on January 2, coalition warplanes destroyed three ISIS vehicles, an armoured front-end loader, and an ISIS-held building.
Despite ISIS’ presence elsewhere in the country, the tide in Mosul seems to have turned against the terror group. In recent days, Iraqi government forces have advanced farther into northeast Mosul and toward the Tigris River, which divides the eastern and western halves of the city. ISIS still controls the western half.
Before the operation to liberate Mosul began on October 17, officials suggested the city could be retaken by the end of the year.
In December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said it could take another three months to drive the militants out. Fighting bogged down at the end of that month, Iraqi forces paused for an “operational refit,” but another Iraqi commander said on Tuesday “it’s possible” the city could be recaptured in three months or less.
US advisers are now also in the city supporting Iraqi forces, though US personnel “remain behind the forward line of [Iraqi] troops.”
There were about a million Iraqi civilians still in Mosul when the operation began in October, and about 135,000 are thought to have fled since, moving to areas where the Iraqi government and international aid groups have set up aid centres.
But many who remain in liberated areas in the eastern half of the city are still being targeted by ISIS artillery and bombs.
Many of those civilians are still in their homes or have moved in with friends and family in the city. They go about their daily activities — gathering food, working, visiting friends and loved ones — as Iraqi forces rush toward the shifting front lines, sometimes on the same roads.
“We’ve haven’t stayed in our homes and endured all this bombardment and everything just to live in tents,” Abu Ahmed, visiting his family in the Zuhur district of eastern Mosul over the weekend, told the Associated Press.
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The Flash and Dr. Flura are seeming found dead in the streets, but later are discovered to be in a state of suspended animation. Suddenly, Star Sapphire appears to challenge the Flash [in a dream state] to a battle royale, with the preservation of the Earth as the stakes. Unfortunately for the Fastest Man Alive, he has only two minutes to beat her before he dies!
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