text: The position of the transition from spinel lherzolite to garnet lherzolite in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (CMAS) has been determined experimentally at near-solidus temperatures. In reversed experiments, the transition occurs between 18 and 20 kbar at 1200 °C and between 26 and 27 kbar at 1500 °C, corresponding to higher pressures than previously envisaged. A position for the transition deeper within the Earth further complicates the explanation of the so-called garnet signatures in the trace element and isotope patterns of mid-ocean ridge basalts. If melting during adiabatic upwelling beneath a mid-ocean ridge begins at the depth required for the stability of garnet in peridotitic compositions, simple melting models predict that the amount of melt produced should be much greater than the observed thickness of the oceanic crust. A partial solution to the apparent conflict might be that (1) the rather simplistic melting models are in error, (2) that melting begins in garnet pyroxenite veins that are believed to be stable at lower pressures than garnet lherzolite or (3) that melting does not involve garnet at all, but it is clinopyroxene causing the trace element patterns observed in basalts erupted at mid-ocean ridges. A second set of reversal experiments were conducted to investigate the solubility of alumina in both orthopyroxenes and clinopyroxenes at the high temperatures near the solidus in the system CMAS. The results are compatible with most previous studies, and may be used as a starting point to calibrate thermodynamic models for pyroxenes in chemical systems, approximating upper mantle chemistry.


The three artifact fragments
"The xel'naga have given us the keys to our future"
Artifact fragments are pieces of xel'naga relics scattered around the Koprulu sector. They have great power and technology to those who can acquire in assemble them.
In the alternate timeline where Zeratul survived the opening stages of the End War, he hunted these artifacts across the battlefields of the conflict, using them against Amon's Forces and to enhance his forces. He stored these fragments in an artifact reserve.[1]
Game Effect[edit | edit source]
Artifact fragments serve as the central mechanic for Zeratul in Co-op Missions. They give his units a level of weapons, armor and shield upgrades, unlock abilities for his units, and grant another top bar ability.
Artifacts spawn at a set rate, with two or three (depending on Zeratul's level) on the battlefield, though invisible. Zeratul can use prophetic vision to give him the location where the artifact is. When Zeratul is nearby and uses prophetic vision again, the artifact is revealed, and Zeratul can pick it up. After a set number of minutes, a circle will appear on the minimap around the area of the artifact, growing smaller as the game progresses.[1]
References[edit | edit source]


text:
Texture is a term typically used to describe the overall size of the leaves of any plant. Fine texture describes a more hair-like or needle-like foliage with a softer appearance. Generally fine-textured plants have a more natural, somewhat unkept/ relaxed appearance. They may recede visually and can draw attention to the form and color of other surrounding plants. In mass, small areas of fine textured plants may appear a bit larger.
Heavy or Coarse texture would categorize plants with larger, broader leaves that tend to dominate a planting bed and grab attention when used singularly. Many tropical type planting schemes will highlight plants with heavier textures.
An easy way to create dramatic visual interest in planting beds is to mass plants in layers with a mixture of textures. Since most plants tend to fall into the 'medium' texture range, here are some ideas for both fine and heavy textured plants including some trees/shrubs/perennials that work well in Northern California.
|Achillea 'Moonshine'||Agave parryi|
|Coleonema 'Sunset Gold'||Fatsia japonica|
|Erigeron karvinskianus||Heuchera 'Stormy Seas'|
|Leptospermum 'Ruby Glow'||Hydrangea quercifolia|
|Pennisetum alopercuroides 'Hamelin'||Magnolia soulangiana|
|Thuja occidentalis 'Smarag'd'||Stachys byzantina 'Helen von Stein'|

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
As our government transitions to a new administration, the following question has become increasingly common:
Would amendments to or repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affect medical assistants' scope of practice?
The answer? Almost certainly not. The scope of practice of medical assistants is determined primarily by state law. An exception is the meaningful use order entry requirements of the Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program. The Medicaid Incentive Program was not created by the ACA and would not be impacted by any amendments to or repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Consequently, it is highly unlikely that the scope of practice for medical assistants will be impacted by congressional action on the ACA.


Effects on VLSI Yield of Doubly-Stochastic Impurity Distributions
Paul R. Prucnal, Howard C. Card
Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review
2 Scopus citations
An expression is derived for the doublystochastic distribution of the number of impurities in the base region of a bipolar transistor; the distribution results from uncertainty in ion implantation parameters. Expressions are derived for device yield, and VLSI (very large scale integration) chip yield with an N-bit parity check. These derivations can be extended to other devices in a straightforward manner. As an example, calculations have been performed using specific parameters, which have led to the following observations: 1. The doubly stochastic effect is most sensitive to uncertainty in the straggle (standard deviation) of the emitter impurity distribution. 2. Uncertainty of the order of 5% in an implantation parameter causes substantial broadening of the distribution of impurities, for the case considered. 3. Device yield decreases rapidly for dimensions less than a welldefined threshold (≈ 0.75 μm for the case considered). 4. Chip yield, without a parity check, exhibits a threshold effect at device yield = 1-1/N chip. (N chip ≡number of devices per chip.) The device yield must exceed this threshold to produce large chip yields. 5. The use of a parity check reduces the device yield threshold to 1-10/N Chip. Use of fewer bits per parity check reduces the threshold further. 6. For the example considered, the minimum device dimensions for large chip yields is of the order of 1 to 1.5 μm, using a 16-bit parity check. The minimum device size for reliable system performance for other cases will depend upon specific device parameters. However, it is apparent that chip yield is extremely sensitive to individual device yield, and that it decreases with increasing uncertainty in device parameters, smaller device dimensions, greater number of devices per chip, larger number of bits per parity check, and with smaller allowed ranges of tolerable device behavior.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)185-190
Number of pages6
JournalIEEE Transactions on Reliability
Issue number2
StatePublished - Jun 1982
Externally publishedYes
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
 - Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering
 - Chip yield
 - Impurity distribution
 - VLSI
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Effects on VLSI Yield of Doubly-Stochastic Impurity Distributions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
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you specified in the Install folder in HDFS field, for example, /tmp/usr/tez.
 If you have set the tez.lib.uris property in the properties table, this directory overrides the value of that property at runtime. But the other properties set in the properties table are still effective.
 - Use exist: the Job accesses the Tez libraries already deployed in the Hadoop cluster to be used. You need to enter the path pointing to those libraries in the Lib path (folder or file) field.
 - Lib jar: this table appears when you have selected Auto install from the Tez lib list and the distribution you are using is Custom. In this table, you need to add the Tez libraries to be uploaded.

Temporary path
If you do not want to set the Jobtracker and the NameNode when you execute the query select * from your_table_name, you need to set this temporary path. For example, /C:/select_all in Windows.

Hadoop properties
Talend Studio uses a default configuration for its engine to perform operations in a Hadoop distribution. If you need to use a custom configuration in a specific situation, complete this table with the property or properties to be customized. Then at runtime, the customized property or properties will override those default ones.
 - Note that if you are using the centrally stored metadata from the Repository, this table automatically inherits the properties defined in that metadata and becomes uneditable unless you change the Property type from Repository to Built-in.
For further information about the properties required by Hadoop and its related systems such as HDFS and Hive, see the documentation of the Hadoop distribution you are using or see Apache's Hadoop documentation on _URL_ and then select the version of the documentation you want. For demonstration purposes, the links to some properties are listed below:

Hive properties
Talend Studio uses a default configuration for its engine to perform operations in a Hive database. If you need to use a custom configuration in a specific situation, complete this table with the property or properties to be customized. Then at runtime, the customized property or properties will override those default ones. For further information for Hive dedicated properties, see _URL_
 - Note that if you are using the centrally stored metadata from the Repository, this table automatically inherits the properties defined in that metadata and becomes uneditable unless you change the Property type from Repository to Built-in.

Mapred job map memory mb and Mapred job reduce memory mb
If the Hadoop distribution to be used is Hortonworks Data Platform V1.2 or Hortonworks Data Platform V1.3, you need to set proper memory allocations for the map and reduce computations to be performed by the Hadoop system.
In that situation, you need to enter the values you need in the Mapred job map memory mb and the Mapred job reduce memory mb fields, respectively. By default, the values are both 1000 which are normally appropriate for running the computations.
If the distribution is YARN, then the memory parameters to be set become Map (in Mb), Reduce (in Mb) and ApplicationMaster (in Mb), accordingly. These fields allow you to dynamically allocate memory to the map and the reduce computations and the ApplicationMaster of YARN.

Path separator in server
Leave the default value of the Path separator in server as it is, unless you have changed the separator used by your Hadoop distribution's host machine for its PATH variable or in other words, that separator is not a colon (:). In that situation, you must change this value to the one you are using in that host.

tStatCatcher Statistics
Select this check box to collect log data at the component level.
Dynamic settings
Click the [+] button to add a row in the table and fill the Code field with a context variable to choose your database connection dynamically from multiple connections planned in your Job. This feature is useful when you need to access database tables having the same data structure but in different databases, especially when you are working in an environment where you cannot change your Job settings, for example, when your Job has to be deployed and executed independent of Talend Studio.
The Dynamic settings table is available only when the Use an existing connection check box is selected in the Basic settings view. Once a dynamic parameter is defined, the Component List box in the Basic settings view becomes unusable.
For examples on using dynamic parameters, see Scenario 3: Reading data from MySQL databases through context-based dynamic connections and Scenario: Reading data from different MySQL databases using dynamically loaded connection parameters. For more information on Dynamic settings and context variables, see Talend Studio User Guide.
Global Variables
QUERY: the SQL query statement being processed. This is a Flow variable and it returns a string.
ERROR_MESSAGE: the error message generated by the component when an error occurs. This is an After variable and it returns a string. This variable functions only if the Die on error check box is cleared, if the component has this check box.
A Flow variable functions during the execution of a component while an After variable functions after the execution of the component.
To fill up a field or expression with a variable, press Ctrl + Space to access the variable list and choose the variable to use from it.
For further information about variables, see Talend Studio User Guide.
Usage
This component works standalone and supports writing a wide range of data formats such as RC, ORC or AVRO.
If the Studio used to connect to a Hive database is operated on Windows, you must manually create a folder called tmp in the root of the disk where this Studio is installed.
Prerequisites
The Hadoop distribution must be properly installed, so as to guarantee the interaction with Talend Studio. The following list presents MapR related information for example.
 - Ensure that you have installed the MapR client in the machine where the Studio is, and added the MapR client library to the PATH variable of that machine. According to MapR's documentation, the library or libraries of a MapR client corresponding to each OS version can be found under MAPR_INSTALL\ hadoop\hadoop-VERSION\lib\native. For example, the library for Windows is \lib\native\MapRClient.dll in the MapR client jar file. For further information, see the following link from MapR: _URL_
 Without adding the specified library or libraries, you may encounter the following error: no MapRClient in java.library.path.
 - Set the -Djava.library.path argument, for example, in the Job Run VM arguments area of the Run/Debug view in the [Preferences] dialog box. This argument provides to the Studio the path to the native library of that MapR client. This allows the subscription-based users to make full use of the Data viewer to view locally in the Studio the data stored in MapR. For further information about how to set this argument, see the section describing how to view data of Talend Open Studio for Big Data Getting Started Guide.
For further information about how to install a Hadoop distribution, see the manuals corresponding to the Hadoop distribution you are using.
Log4j
If you are using a subscription-based version of the Studio, the activity of this component can be logged using the log4j feature. For more information on this feature, see Talend Studio User Guide.
For more information on the log4j logging levels, see the Apache documentation at _URL_


text:
We propose a novel nonlinear control method for solving the problem of stabilization with guaranteed safety for nonlinear systems. The design is based on the merging of the well-known Control Lyapunov Function (CLF) and the recent concept of Control Barrier Function (CBF). The proposed control method allows us to combine the design of a stabilizing feedback law based on CLF and the design of safety control based on CBF(s); both of which can be designed independently. Our proposed approach can also accommodate the case of multiple CBFs which correspond to multiple different sets of unsafe states. Lastly, the efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated in the simulation results on the stabilization of a nonlinear mechanical system and on the navigation of a mobile robot.
- Stabilisation with guaranteed safety
- Control Lyapunov Function
- Control Barrier Function

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


You can now easily send Gravity Forms entry data from one form to another without adding any code! Introducing Easy Passthrough for Gravity Forms.
An often used Gravity Forms workflow is populating a form off the values of another a form. A user visits your site, fills out a form and, upon submission, they are brought to a page with another form that contains fields that they filled out on the previous page. Having the user fill out those form fields again is a very inconvenient experience.
The easiest way to do this out of the box with Gravity Forms is to add query parameters to the confirmation URL so they can be populated in the second form. However, this can sometimes be a clumsy solution as you have to manually update the confirmation each time you add a new field whose value you want brought over to the second form. It can also get out of hand if you have more than a handful of fields that need to be copied.
Luckily, there's a simpler way to do this.
Step 1: Prepare fields for dynamic population
First, we need to prepare the fields we want to copy the values to and from to be dynamically populated.
In the form editor for both forms, select each field you want to dynamically populate and go to the Advanced tab. Within the Advanced tab, click the checkbox labeled Allow field to be populated dynamically and enter in a parameter name. The parameter name needs to be the same on both forms. For example, if you have an Email Address field on both forms whose values should be the same, set the parameter name on each field to email_address.
Step 2: Setup your confirmation
Next, we need to add a reference point to the confirmation URL to be able to retrieve the entry data.
Visit the confirmation page for your first form. Click the Pass Field Data Via Query String checkbox. In the text box below the checkbox, set the Entry ID to be passed as entry_id:
entry_id={entry_id}
Step 3: Install the Easy Form Population code snippet
Finally, insert the following snippet either into your functions.php file or as a new file that is included in your functions.php.
Before a Gravity Form is rendered, this snippet checks to see if an entry ID query parameter exists. If it does, it retrieves the entry and pass in any values whose field parameter names match.
Need to transfer entry data between forms with fields that have multiple inputs (Name field, Address field, List field)? Check out Easy Passthrough for Gravity Forms.


text:
Confused about your exam or college applications?
Be the First to Know
Get Access to Latest Updates
Ela Foundation's Center for Ornithological Study and Research will commence a basic course in ornithology. It is a certificate course that will focus on topics such as bird identification, feeding habits and migration. The course will be offered in Pune from 10th December 2018.
Ornithology Course Areas of Study
Check out the main study areas that will be included in the ornithology certificate course here:
- Bird identification
- Bird architects
- Technology for conservation
- Evolution, the ecological role of birds, birds as bio-indicators
- Applied ornithological aspects
- Bird photography, bird call recording, avian diseases, first aid
Apart from this, the course will also cover topics such as bird flu, wind-farms, seabirds and others. It will also include field visits so that participants can study the bird habitats closely and observe birds from a scientific perspective.
Till now, more than 1,000 alumni of the certificate course in ornithology have contributed towards the birds' habitat and their conservation under the mentorship of Ela Foundation.
Ela Foundation makes sure that the courses offered to participants are interactive and the certificate course in ornithology will be conducted by eminent ornithologists of the country. Many students, farmers, doctors, lawyers, educationists, defence service personnel, journalists and others.
Ela Foundation has also conducted the same course in the states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.


text:
Etched stainless steel decorative sheet
is an innovative color stainless steel series product. It is mainly used in elevator decoration and wall art decoration. It has a combination of gold, rose gold, bronze, mirror surface, wire drawing, and sandblasting.
The etched stainless steel decorative sheet
uses the strong oxidizing properties of ferric chloride to corrode the surface of the stainless steel, and the trivalent iron element becomes a relatively stable divalent iron element; the specific production process is: first coat the stainless steel surface with an anti-corrosion layer, and Protect the part that needs to be protected, put it on the assembly line spraying ferric chloride, wash off the anti-corrosion layer after the corrosion is completed, and form a pattern;
The decorative effect of the etched stainless steel decorative sheet, modern people's pursuit of life, the requirements for indoor wall decoration are also constantly improving, so the styles of wall decoration materials are also constantly developing, and there are more and more materials that can be used as wall decoration. , Such as paint, wallpaper, color stainless steel etching sheet
and so on.
Different materials have different properties, so the decorative effects and precautions are also very different. For example, wallpaper, the biggest problem is its mildew. The occurrence of mildew is usually due to the long-term retention of excessive moisture in the air, which leads to mildew on the wallpaper. Especially the two spaces in the living room, the kitchen and bathroom, are the easiest to make the wallpaper mildew. At this time, you might as well use the colorful stainless steel pattern etching board instead of the wallpaper to decorate the wall, which can be made into a variety of patterns and colors. It is difficult to change its characteristics by other factors. The only drawback is that it is more expensive than wallpaper, but in the long run, it is still worth the money.


text:
The determination of atmospheric structure and molecular abundances of planetary atmospheres via spectroscopy involves direct comparisons between models and data. While varying in sophistication, most model spectra comparisons fundamentally assume one-dimensional (1D) model physics. However, knowledge from general circulation models and of solar system planets suggests that planetary atmospheres are inherently three-dimensional in their structure and composition. We explore the potential biases resulting from standard "1D" assumptions within a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval framework. Specifically, we show how the assumption of a single 1D thermal profile can bias our interpretation of the thermal emission spectrum of a hot Jupiter atmosphere that is composed of two thermal profiles. We retrieve spectra of unresolved model planets as observed with a combination of the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)+Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) as well as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) under varying differences in the two thermal profiles. For WFC3+IRAC, there is a significantly biased estimate of CH4 abundance using a 1D model when the contrast is 80%. For JWST, two thermal profiles are required to adequately interpret the data and estimate the abundances when contrast is greater than 40%. We also apply this preliminary concept to the recent WFC3+IRAC phase curve data of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b. We see similar behavior as present in our simulated data: while the abundance determination is robust, CH4 is artificially well-constrained to incorrect values under the 1D assumption. Our work demonstrates the need to evaluate model assumptions in order to extract meaningful constraints from atmospheric spectra and motivates exploration of optimal observational setups.
- planets and satellites: atmospheres
- planets and satellites: composition
- stars: individual (WASP-43)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science


Candle Lit Energy
3.6 based on 18 ratings
Updated on Feb 05, 2012
Grade Level: 7th - 9th; Type: Chemistry
During the burning process, potential energy in a candle is converted to heat energy. This science project measures the amount of heat energy released by a burning candle.
Research Questions:
 - How much energy does a candle release when it burns?
 - How much potential energy does a candle have?
In order to start a chemical reaction, you need to use some activation energy, such as a burning flame. The activation energy consists of potential energy being converted to a different type of energy, such as kinetic or heat energy. In this project, you can calculate the amount of calories of heat energy that a given amount of candle produces.
 - Hole puncher
 - Juice can
 - Stick or glass rod
 - Water
 - Large can
 - Can opener
 - Candle stub
 - Scale
 - Tin foil
 - Thermometer
 - Match
Experimental Procedure
 1. Punch two holes, one in either side of the juice can, near the top. Thread a stick or glass rod through the holes. This will hold the juice can above the larger can.
 2. Add 100 ml of tap water to the juice can. Leave the water for a few minutes so that it reaches room temperature.
 3. Remove the bottom of the larger can, so that it is shaped like a metal tube.
 4. Cut five triangular holes in the bottom of the tube, spaced as equally as possible around the tube. These holes will let air circulate to the candle so that it will continue to burn.
 5. Weigh the candle stub, and record its weight in grams.
 6. Stand the tube up, and place a candle on a piece of foil in the center of the tube.
 7. Use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water in the juice can. Write down this temperature.
 8. Light the candle, and immediately place the juice can into the larger can. The juice can should by suspended by the stick or glass rod.
 9. Stir the water in the juice can with a thermometer until it reads ten degrees higher than the original water temperature. Then blow out the candle.
 10. Weigh the candle and record the measurement.
 11. Calculate how many calories of heat were delivered to the water. To do this multiply the mass of the water (100) by the number of degrees the temperature was raised (25). Then divide the product by the number of grams the candle lost during the burning process. This will show you how many calories each gram of candle released, and therefore how much potential energy each gram of candle has.
Terms/Concepts: Potential energy; Calories of heat; Law of conservation of energy
 - Easy Genius Science Projects with Chemistry, by Robert Gardener. Pp 65-67.


text:
A conversation about the upcoming Rakia mission.
Ran has been the director-general of the Ramon Foundation since June 2015. The foundation has 101 employees and is one of Israel's most prominent non-profits. In recent years, the foundation's educational activities, established by Rona Ramon, have spread to all parts of Israel (80 local municipalities) and became global- with operations in Singapore, Ghana, Chile, and Slovenia. At the same time, the foundation became a key player in the Spacetech scene in Israel as it facilitates the Israeli space agency's innovation workshops, international conferences, meetups, and accelerators.
Before the Ramon Foundation, Ran served for four years as head of business development at the strategic consulting firm TARA. He consulted leading public bodies in Israel: local authorities, higher education institutions, hospitals, and nonprofit organizations. Livne was also the chairman of the biggest student bodyboard in Israel (Tel Aviv University). Ran is a graduate of the International Space University. He holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and literature from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from the global strategy track at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
In this webtalk, we will discuss the upcoming Rakia mission. In 2020, the Ramon Foundation became the first nonprofit in the world to manage a human-crewed space mission. The foundation facilitated all science, education, and outreach activities of Mr. Eytan Stibbe, the second Israeli in space who takes part in the Axiom1 mission. The Rakia mission (The Israeli part of Ax1) consists of over 30 experiments and technology demonstrations from various fields of the Israeli startup scene. Its education program plans to touch over 1,200,000 children across the country.
The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions in dialogue with Ran Livne.
SpaceWatch.Global is a Switzerland-based digital magazine and portal for those interested in space and the far-reaching impact of the space sector.
This Space Café WebTalk will be conducted in English on 15 February 2022 at 4 pm CET.
Reserve your place today.


Thumb b Bruno Bušić Saturday, September 3, 2016
Looking to learn some advanced Sass functionalities, such as lists, nested lists, maps, and Sass methods? Jump in, you'll learn all of the above and then we'll have fun drawing CSS Pokemon in part two.
Who would've thought, just a few years back, that "front-end" developers would soon get an "engineer" right beside it? And engineers they are becoming. In a sea of trivial and complex javascript frameworks, task runners, package managers, pre and post processors, along with increased need for abstraction, optimization, efficiency, and modularity - an average front-end developer needs to know a lot to stay afloat.
In this blog post, we'll focus on our favorite CSS preprocessor - Sass, and more specifically - its list and map functionalities. Because - engineering.
Sass Lists
Alas, "arrays" in CSS! One of the first things to-be-programmers learn is data structures. The principle is always the same - arrays are a kind of data structure that can store a fixed-size sequential collection of elements of the same type. Sass being a modern "language" does not require you to code things strictly, so we can kick out the "fixed-size" and "same type" out of the definition.
How Do I Define a List?
Easy peasy.
$pokemons: jigglypuff slowpoke gengar;
$pokemons: jigglypuff, slowpoke, gengar;
$pokemons: "jigglypuff", "slowpoke", "gengar";
Reasonable for non-developers, batshit crazy for developers - indexing starts at 1 instead of 0 like in all other languages. The important thing to remember is that everything in Sass is, in fact, a list. This means we can use list functions on strings, for example.
$ash: "Gottha catch them all!"
length($ash) # Length is 1
What happens if we drop the quotes?
$ash: Gottha catch them all!
length($ash) # Length is 4
Sass List Functions
Sass is inherently providing us with a nice set of functions to access and manipulate items from data type structures. These are the list functions, as sourced from the SassScript documentation:
length($list) : Returns the length of a list.
nth($list, $n) : Returns a specific item in a list at the nth value.
set-nth($list, $n, $value) : Replaces the nth item in a list.
join($list1, $list2) : Joins together two lists into one.
append($list1, $val) : Appends a value onto the end of a list.
zip($lists…) : Combines lists into a single multidimensional list.
index($list, $value) : Returns the position of a value within a list. (You can also use this to determine if a value exists within a list)
list-separator(_TAG_) : Returns the separator of a list.
Let's try out some of them on our Pokemon list.
nth($pokemon-types, 1)
// Results in jigglypuff
nth($pokemon-types, -1)
// Results in gengar
Let's do a for loop using length method.
_USER_ $i from 1 through length($pokemons) {
 .pokemon-#{$i} {
 &:after {
 content: "#{$i}. #{nth($pokemons, $i)}";
css output.pokemon-1:after {
 content: "1. jigglypuff";
.pokemon-2:after {
 content: "2. slowpoke";
.pokemon-3:after {
 content: "3. gengar";
Each loop is much better for sass lists since they don't require the length information.
_USER_ $monster in $pokemons {
.pokemon-#{$monster} {
background: image-url("img/pokemons/#{$monster}.png") no-repeat;
css output.pokemon-jigglypuff {
background: url('/images/img/pokemons/jigglypuff.png') no-repeat;
.pokemon-slowpoke {
background: url('/images/img/pokemons/slowpoke.png') no-repeat;
.pokemon-gengar {
background: url('/images/img/pokemons/gengar.png') no-repeat;
You can also append other Pokemon to the Pokemon list.
// Pokemon to append
$one-more-pokemon: onyx;
// Appending $pokemons:
append($pokemons, one-more-pokemon, space);
// Outputs: jigglypuff slowpoke gengar onyx
Enter the Matrix
Nesting, baby.
Just as arrays can contain other arrays, lists can contain other lists. Every time you separate items with a comma (in a list), you're actually building a nested list. Let's take a look at a list of two lists.
$team-rocket: jessie ekans, james koffin;
An easier way to write and read a list is to use multiple lines.
$list: item-1 item-2 item-3,
item-4 item-5 item-6,
item-7 item-8 item-9;
or using parenthesis:
$list: ((item-1 item-2 item-3),
(item-4 item-5 item-6),
(item-7 item-8 item-9));
This is also called a 3 by 3 matrix.
Accessing Nested Lists
Our $team-rocket list has a person - Pokemon pairs, in a way it looks a bit like an associative array, but it's not, it's a nested list. The best way for accessing such a list is an each loop where we iterate through the list, and interpolate the variable using nth() list function. Here's an example.
_USER_ $pair in $team-rocket {
.team-rocket--#{nth($pair, 1)} {
background-image: url('img/#{nth($pair, 2)}.png') no-repeat;
css output
.team-rocket--jessie {
background-image: url("img/ekans.png") no-repeat;
.team-rocket--james {
background-image: url("img/koffin.png") no-repeat;
List Use Cases
Rounded Corners
We can easily pass a list to a mixing to create a more flexible one.
_USER_ round-corner ($corners: 0 0 0 0) {
$top-left: nth($corners, 1);
$top-right: nth($corners, 2);
$bottom-right: nth($corners, 3);
$bottom-left: nth($corners, 4);
border-top-left-radius: $top-left;
border-top-right-radius: $top-right;
border-bottom-right-radius: $bottom-right;
border-bottom-left-radius: $bottom-left;
.rounded {
_USER_ round-corner(1rem 2rem 3rem 4rem);
css output
.rounded {
border-top-left-radius: 1rem;
border-top-right-radius: 2rem;
border-bottom-right-radius: 3rem;
border-bottom-left-radius: 4rem;
Background Photos
If you would like to have a special class that links to the appropriate background photo in your project directory, you can just add the filename to the $photos list, and create an each loop that outputs classes.
$photos: jigglypuff slowpoke gengar;
_USER_ $photo in $photos {
 .background--#{$photo} {
 background-image: url('photos/#{$photo}.jpg');
css output.background--jigglypuff {
background-image: url("photos/jigglypuff.jpg");
.background--slowpoke {
background-image: url("photos/slowpoke.jpg");
.background--gengar {
background-image: url("photos/gengar.jpg");
Generating Classes
If, for whatever reason, you would like to generate classes like so:
css output.home.home--navigation,
.about.about--navigation,
.contact.contact--navigation {
display: flex;
You could achieve it with a class list and an empty list where you would append the generated classes:
$pages: home about contact;
$selector: ();
_USER_ $item in $pages {
$selector: append($selector, unquote('.#{$item}.#{$item}--navigation'), 'comma');
#{$selector} {
display: flex;
Sass Maps
Dictionary, hash, associative arrays, it is known by many names. We can look at a Sass map as a list of key/value pairs.
How Do I Define a Map?
Sass map uses parentheses as external delimiters, colons to map keys and values, and commas to separate key/value pairs. Here's an example of a valid map:
$team-rocket-map: (
jessie: ekans,
james: koffin
Having stored multiple key/value pairs at some point you'll need to retrieve that information. If you need to find the value of a key use the function map-get(). We're going to pass two parameters to it: the name of the map and then the key.
.rocket:after {
content: map-get($team-rocket-map, james);
css output.rocket:after {
content: koffin;
Sass also provides the function map-has-key(). This helper method checks whether a given key exists, and it outputs a warning to the developer if not. Let's add a warning to the Sass code above:
.rocket:after {
_USER_ map-has-key($team-rocket-map, brock) {


text:
Studio 3T Crack + Activation Key Download [Latest]
Studio 3T Crack is a GUI and IDE available for data engineers and developers who use MongoDB. With the generation of Polyglot requests code, data management functions like direct editing and simple connections to databases are synchronized. An extended shell that allows for automatic completion, SQL import/export, and authentication at the enterprise level with LDAP or Kerberos. Studio 3T was designed to help professional teams grow.
This tool allows for rapid team development. It provides trees, tables, and JSON views of your data. There are also a variety of query options including advanced aggregations, native Mongo JSON extension, SQL queries, and a builder to drag and drop requests. Studio 3T allows you to view your data in a spreadsheet format. Studio 3T also offers features such as: displaying embedded fields; entering columns with table values and hiding columns.
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- Studio 3T Serial Key Creating requests by drag and drop is not available in the JSON view. For quick modification on the spot, however, select the target value and Cmd-J opens the JSON editor window. Learn more about the JSON view here.
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Studio 3T Crack System Requirements:
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- The new aggregation editor now displays the results in the respective "Pipeline" and "Stage" tabs in order to obtain a clearer and more intuitive aggregation experience, in particular when checking stage inputs and outputs.
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text:
University of Otago researcher Dr Paul Tankard has sparked international media attention after tracking down a series of lost illustrations for The Lord of the Rings, which were highly praised by author J.R.R. Tolkien but never published.
The illustrations, by a previously little-known English artist, Mary Fairburn, now aged 78, widowed and living in Victoria, Australia, and Dr Tankard's research have just been highlighted by a front page story in the Times Literary Supplement.
Dr Tankard is an Australian-born senior lecturer in the Otago English department.
In May 1968, Tolkien was sent some samples of illustrations for The Lord of the Rings by Miss Fairburn, 35-year-old London-born artist and art teacher, writing from Winchester.
At that stage, Tolkien, a former Oxford University professor, was aged 76 and living in retirement in Oxford.
He initially wrote back to her saying her works were "splendid".
But a few weeks later, Tolkien's "life and affairs were thrown into chaos" when he was hospitalised, Dr Tankard said.
Miss Fairburn later explained to Tolkien she had been "sleeping on the floor of a condemned basement", and faced significant hardship and debts.
But her hopes of being able to illustrate The Lord of the Rings were to be dashed.
She later emigrated to Australia, where she has lived for more than 40 years, and the academic world knew nothing about Tolkien's praise for her or about the pictures she had produced.
All that quickly started to change after Dr Tankard travelled to Castlemaine, a small city in Victoria, Australia, about 120km north of Melbourne, in late 2010 to visit family members.
Told an artist living there had apparently had links with Tolkien, Dr Tankard went to see her, and was shown letters from Tolkien, and knew he was "on to something".By John Gibb

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
THE washout summer wasn't much and now it's going to cause a belt-tightening winter.
Higher food prices are set to hit Irish consumers in the run-up to Christmas.
The effects of global weather conditions, including a drought in the United States, and a dramatic increase in the cost of animal feed, will push up food prices here.
Everything from the cost of a fry-up to everyday vegetables are set to be hit.
The rain and lack of summer sun has led to reduced potato, parsnip and carrot crops. Even the humble apple has been badly affected.
It comes at a time when 81pc of consumers here are shopping in more than one store a week to avail of bargains. The EU statistics body Eurostat found that food and drinks here are 18pc more expensive than average in the EU.
The increase in food prices will be carried through to the Christmas table.
There have been record rises in the price of wheat and soya meaning that the cost of bird feed has gone through the roof in recent months. Given that the cost of feed makes up two thirds of the overall price of rearing a turkey, it is likely that this will have to be passed onto the consumer.
Dave Lang, development manager at Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland told the Herald that "It is likely that turkeys will be a little bit dearer this Christmas."
Jimmy Burke, UCD's professor of crop science, said that higher food prices could be because of problems with the grain harvest at home and abroad.
He pointed out that the grain market has been shaken in the past few months worldwide.
"Obviously the feed cost for the pig and poultry industry are very significant," he said.
"In Ireland, our grain output is down 500,000 tonnes.
"Ireland is a grain deficit country. We rely on imports to balance our demand," he said.


Image folder contains no images
Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (Pepin) - Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Apprentice:
1. What personal and professional qualities does it take to become a top chef? How difficult is the road to earn the title "chef"? What would you say has made Jacques Pepin so successful?
2. Why does Pepin turn down a job as White House chef to stay with Howard Johnson? What does it say about the kind of person Pepin is? And what does the experience working at HoJo's gain him—what does he learn?
3. Why does Pepin turn to teaching and writing? What does he hope to achieve in the classroom or through books?
4. What has The Apprentice taught you about the different approaches to cooking? Have you learned any new culinary techniques that could be useful in your own kitchen?
5. Pepin shares part of the insider's world of cooking personalities. Talk about some of those culinary figures and some of the anecdotes.
6. For book clubs, have members cook and serve some of the recipes found in the book. Talk about which ones you like best.
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Prison Registers in Institutes & Organizations
Discovering your ancestor in prison records doesn't necessarily make them a hardened criminal, nineteenth century law was harsh and children as well as adults were imprisoned for minor misdemeanors. These records are often very detailed and can include physical descriptions of height, weight and eye colour.
All fields are optional
Record set
Optional keywords
Clear search


text:
Soil conservation practices among Arable Crop Farmers In Enugu – North Agricultural Zone, Nigeria: Implications for Climate Change
The study examined soil conservation practices used by arable crop farmers in Enugu – North agricultural zone of Enugu State. One hundred and twenty randomly selected arable crop farmers were interviewed. Data were analysed by use of percentage and mean score. The study revealed that respondents used organic manure (87.5%), planting of cover crops (87.5%), crop rotation (86.7%), mulching (85.8%), inorganic manure (76.7%), contour bonds(75.8%), liming (61.7%), and terracing (60.8%) for soil conservation in the zone. However, organic manure (M= 3.32), use of inorganic manure (M= 3.08), crop rotation(M=2.86), and mulching ( M=2.82) were most preferred by the respondents The major reasons indicated for use of most soil conservation practices included enhanced productivity, high quality products, long term nutrient value and others. While most of the preferred conservation practices hold great potential for increased production, income for farmers and enhanced food security for the nation, some are implicated as causes of climate change. The more environment friendly and climate change sensitive practices are less popular among the farmers. The paper recommends concerted efforts to promote among farmers the conservation practices that aid mitigation and adaptation to climate change and at the same time enhance production. Researches and a corresponding creation of awareness on the most efficient and environmentally safe way of using practices that contribute to climate change should be intensified, since the pressure on ensuring food security remains a formidable challenge in the nation.
Key words: soil conservation, climate change, farmer, potential, threat.


International benchmarking with Progress Test Series
The Progress Test Series (PT Series)® for English, maths and science are standardised against the UK school population. Many international schools have asked for an international school standardisation of these assessments. However, we feel that:
 - A single representative international standardisation is difficult due to the diversity of international schools – for example curriculum, geography, number of students with English as Additional Language (EAL) differ between schools.
 - And, more importantly:•Our UK standardisations, based on a diverse student population, have proven to be relevant and reliable for many international schools.
Standard Age Score
The Standard Age Score (SAS) is based on the student's raw score, which is then adjusted for age and scaled to a mean of 100. When comparing SAS scores, a difference of less than 3 points is not usually seen as statistically significant.
In 2018 we carried out benchmarking exercises to compare the scores achieved by thousands of international students globally against the standardisations for CAT4.
We have now also analysed PT Series scores from all our international school customers to provide useful benchmarking for your schools.
Table 1 shows the mean Standardised Age Scores (SAS) for different levels of the PT Series of assessments for English, maths and science.
The distribution of international scores for the PT Series is higher overall for international schools when compared with the UK standardisation profile. Results show that typically international school students tend to score more highly across English, Maths and, in particular, in Science.
Differences highlighted in green are significantly higher for the international sample compared with the UK. The increased size of the differential might be attributed to several factors such as value added by the teaching in these schools or higher aspirational levels.
Table 1: PT Series international benchmarks
 Mean SAS
Progress Test International UK Difference UK v International
English PTE07 105.1 100 +5.1
PTE08 105.7 100 +5.7
PTE09 103.6 100 +3.6
PTE10 101.3 100 +1.3
PTE11 105.6 100 +5.6
PTE12 98.8 100 -1.2
PTE13 101.7 100 +1.7
PTE14 100.6 100 +0.6
Maths PTM07 105.4 100 +5.4
PTM08 103.1 100 +3.1
PTM09 103.8 100 +3.8
PTM10 104.6 100 +4.6
PTM11 101.1 100 +1.1
PTM12 105.6 100 +5.6
PTM13 105.5 100 +5.5
PTM14 109.8 100 +9.8
Science PTS08 111.1 100 +11.1
PTS09 105.1 100 +5.1
PTS10 107.5 100 +7.5
PTS11 104.3 100 +4.3
PTS13 103.9 100 +3.9
PTS14 115.1 100 +15.1
How can schools use the data?
Plan resourcing at a cohort level
Does one year group appear to be significantly below average or less able than your other year groups? Can you provide additional teaching support for this cohort?
Take advantage of the combination reports
Quickly identify students who are under performing by using the automatic combination reports for the PT Series and CAT4 together.
Set realistic but challenging targets
PT Series reports provide a useful range of likely outcomes for each student. Some schools use these as a basis for a discussion with students helping them take ownership of their targets.
Your point of reference
The original UK standardisation is a reliable and valid benchmark for international students. Schools may additionally wish to compare their own data to the findings of this benchmarking exercise to see how their own school results compare those internationally.


text:
Serve up drinks at a Halloween party with these spooky spiderweb coasters!
- Two colors crafts felt (we used green and purple)
- Black and green embroidery floss
- Tissue paper
Assemble the Coaster:
1. Download the coaster pattern below. Lay the tissue paper over your pattern. Use a pen or marker to trace the spiderweb pattern onto the tissue paper. Cut out the tissue paper circle and set aside.
2. Pin the coaster pattern to one piece of your crafts felt. Cut the circle shape out. (See tips for pinning and cutting patterns here.) Repeat with your second piece of crafts felt. You will now have two circles.
3. Pin the tissue paper circle to the felt circle you want on top of your coaster (we used green felt). Pin in place.
4. With black embroidery floss, start sewing the spiderweb through both the felt and tissue paper from the center using a backstitch. See how to backstitch here. Continue until all drawn lines are covered with stitches. Tie a knot on the back when done to hold stitches in place.
5. Tear the tissue paper off. The stitches should perferate the tissue paper so it comes off easily in pieces.
6. Stack the two felt circles on top of each other with the embroidered side facing up. Pin in place.
7. Use coordinating embroidery floss to sew a running stitch around the outside of the two felt circles. See how to do a running stitch here.


text:
Working Principles of Upstream Regulators
Performance : We can plot the performance of an ideal upstream regulator such that no matter how the accumulation / relief Flow requirement changes, regulator will match that relief Flow required (within it's capacity limits) with no change in the upstream controlled pressure (p1). This straight line performance becomes the ideal against which one can measure the performance of an actual - real upstream regulator.
Set Point : The constant pressure desired is represented by the set point. But no regulator is ideal. The set point is determined by the initial compression of the regulator spring.
Built Up : The regulator maintains the pressure of the fluid at its inlet. They do not allow the fluid to pass through when the pressure is equal to or less than required pressure. It will open when upstream pressure crosses the 'set point' and flow through it is proportional to the rise in pressure above set point. The percentage rise in pressure for rated flow to take place is termed as built-up.
Reset Point : When the inlet pressure reduces, the flow through the regulator drops and the regulator closes tight shut-off when pressure is below the set point. The percentage drop in pressure below set point can be termed as blow down accuracy.
For more details visit: _URL_


text:
Today members of the EA and NCAS project teams met to discuss the analysis of the data streaming in from the radar. Over the next year, whilst we continue the operations of the radar, both teams will be working hard to use the data to help improve our understanding of precipitation over Cumbria and potential degree of improvement in our flood forecasting service from deploying a small radar in Cumbria.
Below is a picture of the team that met in Leeds today.
The NCAS X-band mobile radar is now collecting data operationally in Cumbria. The images above show data collected by X-band radar at 1:33AM on 1st November 2018. In Figure (a) we are showing radar reflectivity which is one of the basic variables that a radar observes. Radar reflectivity is proportional to the amount of rainfall so higher values equate to areas that are experiencing more rain. In Figure (b) we show the rain rate observed from the reflectivity in Figure a. You can see that the areas of highest reflectivity in western Cumbria (near the radar marked with a black dot) were experiencing rain rates of over 10mm per hour. The circles are drawn with radii increasing in 25km steps. The furthest circle is 150km from the radar.
The lasts steps of the radar deployment include lifting the platform and radar into place. This is always a nervous time for us but all went well and the radar was placed in its final position successfully. The picture and video were shot by University of Leeds PhD student Joshua Hampton.


text:
Challenging Negative Thinking Activities for Positive Self Talk
Counseling resources to change negative thoughts and replacing them with positive self talk. Use this in small group counseling or individual counseling to help students with automatic negative thoughts identify them, find strategies to challenge them, and create positive replacement thoughts.
Resources available in print and digital Google Slides for distance learning.
This resource is packed with materials so you can continue to practice and reinforce the concept til students feel comfortable.
What You Get
- Small Group or Individual Plan. This counseling plan is meant to be flexible so that you can respond to the needs and skills of your student(s).
- Change Your Thinking Poster. Simple poster to help students change their negative thoughts.
- Sort the Thoughts Activity. Students sort 36 thoughts that are either too negative, too positive, or just right.
- Challenging Negative Thinking Materials. 12 suggested strategies to challenge negative thinking. Students can apply these to provided negative thoughts or their own negative thinking. Six strategy cards are included.
- Bright Light Thoughts Activity. Students create a positive thought they can use to counter negative thoughts. Example statements are included.
- 10 Keep It Positive Worksheets. 10 worksheets with thirty different examples. Each example gives a typical student problem and a corresponding negative thought. Below the scenario and negative thought is space for the student to write a positive thought they could think instead.
- Blank Worksheet: This provides the template that a counselor and student could fill in together by letting the student generate a personal scenario and negative thought. This will help the student make a stronger connection. A counselor could also use this sheet to come up with more examples of their own.
- 2 Reflection Sheets: Two sheets are provided with reflection questions that students can answer in the process of analyzing their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors after a triggering event.
- Negative Automatic Thoughts Poster and List: Thinking error poster and list of more specific errors.
- Student Skills Data Sheet. Track how your student is doing with these skills.
This resource is ideal for individual counseling or within small CBT-based groups. Many parts can be used by special education and general education teachers in their work with individual students. Parents may also find this very helpful.
The resource is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and is perfect for students in 3rd-6th grade. It can easily be modified for second grade as well.


UCSB Science Line
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Hi! Do birds excrete urine? I really don't know if they do and me and my friend were pondering this the other day!! Thanks so much, have a great day!! :)
Question Date: 2005-04-02
Answer 1:
Birds excrete that white pasty stuff instead of separately urinating and defecating like mammals do. So they don't exactly urinate, but they do something like it. All animals have to get rid of the nitrogen that is left over after breaking down proteins. Mammals turn it into urea and urinate it out. Birds and reptiles turn it into uric acid. Birds have a chamber called a cloaca where digestive wastes, uric acid, and eggs or sperm go before leaving the body. While the uric acid is in the cloaca, birds can absorb some of the water back. This helps them to conserve water. Some sea birds can even drink sea water and excrete the extra salt out of glands near their eyes.
Why do you think birds need to avoid having a full bladder? Think about the costs of flight.
Answer 2:
Birds, like all animals, have to get rid of their nitrogenous wastes somehow. When animals digest proteins and other nitrogen-containing compounds, one of the waste products is ammonia, which is toxic. Ammonia is so toxic, in fact, that it has to be kept pretty dilute in order to protect the animal. So the simplest solution is to excrete lots and lots of very dilute urine with ammonia in it. This is what lots of aquatic animals do, since they don't have to conserve water.
Mammals, for the most part, don't have access to an unlimited supply of water, so don't want to have to urinate gallons and gallons of ammonia every day.Instead, we convert the ammonia to the slightly less toxic compound urea. We can concentrate urea more than ammonia, so we can urinate less and conserve water.
Reptiles and birds, on the other hand, convert ammonia to uric acid, which is even less toxic than urea. In fact, uric acid doesn't need any water at all -- they can excrete it as a solid and conserve as much water as possible. If you've ever had the good fortune to take a good look at bird droppings, you've probably noticed that they tend to have black chunks (the feces) in a white pasty substance. This white stuff is mostly the uric acid. If you want some bonus vocabulary to impress your friends, here goes:
ammonia-excreting animals are 'ammonotelic', mammals and anything else that uses urea are 'ureotelic', and the birds and reptiles are 'uricotelic.'
Answer 3:
Birds crystallize their urine and excrete it, along with feces, out their cloacas (a hole that has been turned inside-out in mammals, including the urinary excretory orifice, the anus, and, in females, the vaginal opening).
Answer 4:
Yes, birds excrete urine. Birds have only one pathway to excrete any substance called a cloaca, so all the fluids and materials they excrete pass through the cloaca, usually in a mixed form.
Click Here to return to the search form.
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All Rights Reserved.
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Rectal cancer history
 Ann Ital Chir ; The purpose of our study was to analyse the immediate and remote results obtained after MOR and to identify rectal cancer history factors that might influence the outcome.
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 We excluded patients with hepatic metastatic tumors and those who needed pelvic exenteration. Between andin our service, have been treated with MOR patients, being included in our study.
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 We analysed morbidity, mortality and survival after MOR and the factors that could have influenced the postoperative course. RESULTS: Identified risk factors that negatively influenced the postoperative outcome were: diabetes, personal neoplastic pathologies, associated cardiovascular disease, history of major surgeries, intraoperative blood loss, number of resected organs.
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 Survival was negatively influenced by positive resection margins, the presence of lymph node metastases and the presence of complications in the postoperative period. All mentioned above underline the importance of the experience that the surgical team has in this type of surgeries, in order to achieve optimum results.
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 This experience must concern the preoperative management, surgical technique and postoperative rectal cancer history.


text:
LAND O'LAKES — Pasco County school officials didn't know what to expect of their FCAT results this year, considering all the changes made to the scoring and standards in recent months.
News that the statewide FCAT writing results had plunged did little to inspire much hope.
So they were pleasantly surprised Friday morning to learn that Pasco's ninth- and 10th-grade reading results rose in every high school, with overall district performance above the state level. And they took heart in the fact that although writing scores dropped in line with the state decline, some schools shone.
"We are extremely proud of our high schools," superintendent Heather Fiorentino said. If the state had not increased the passing score for FCAT reading, she added, "can you imagine what our scores would have looked like?"
Pasco ninth-graders scoring a 3.0 in reading rose from 48 percent a year ago to 54 percent in 2012. Tenth-graders at that same proficiency level rose from 38 percent to 51 percent.
The district's top performing high school was Land O'Lakes, where 69 percent of freshmen and 70 percent of sophomores passed the reading exam. The 10th-grade performance included a 19 percentage point increase over last year's sophomores.
Principal Ric Mellin traveled the school Friday morning high-fiving freshmen and sophomores for their strong results. He attributed the outcome to the school's teachers collaborating to analyze student academic data, determine how to alter instruction, implement the changes and then continually reassess to see where further modifications are needed.
"They have a will-do attitude and believed in themselves," Mellin said of the school's teachers and students.
He acknowledged that comments out of Tallahassee that schools would see fairly significant drops in FCAT scores had him uncertain about what to expect.
"Most of us thought we would probably maintain," he said. "This was a pleasant surprise."
Already, the staff has begun talking about how it can help the 30 percent of students who need additional reading instruction. At the same time, though, Mellin said he looked forward to reviewing his staff needs as Land O'Lakes might be able to have many more students taking elective courses such as drama or culinary.
Several other high schools saw strong improvement in their reading results, with double-digit percentage point increases.
The biggest gainer was Mitchell High's 10th-grade class, which saw 66 percent passing, up 24 points from last year's sophomores.
Assistant principal Angie Murphy said she had expected a much smaller gain. She said a key to the strong performance was the decision to give students more specific information about their performance data throughout the year, and to have them understand what it means.
"The teachers also have really focused on higher-order thinking and questioning," Murphy said.
Others with large jumps included ninth-graders at Anclote High; and 10th-graders at Hudson, Wiregrass Ranch and Gulf highs.
The lowest performers were Anclote High's 10th-graders, and Ridgewood High's ninth- and 10th-graders. Those were the only groups where fewer than 40 percent of students passed the reading test. Ridgewood has been on the state's list of low performing schools and is in the midst of a federal school improvement grant program to boost its results.
Writing scores mixed
District leaders had low expectations for writing after the state announced its concerns over the scores. The Department of Education changed the scoring criteria last summer, and many teachers and principals statewide said they didn't have enough time to prepare.
So few students met the proficiency level of 4.0 or better that the State Board of Education reduced the passing score to 3.0. At that lower score, most schools had adequate passing rates, even though Pasco came in under the state average.
Still, some schools far outpaced the state. Their leaders said they understood the changing rules and, despite a short time frame, implemented the needed changes.
Cox Elementary in Dade City has one of Pasco's largest percentages of low-income students, many of whom do not speak English as their first language. It also remained among the district leaders in writing. Forty percent of its fourth-graders scored a 4.0 or better on the test, compared to 27 percent statewide, and its average student score was 3.6.
That's not as good as a year ago, when 98 percent of Cox students made a 4.0 or better, but principal Yvonne Reins wasn't complaining in light of the drastic drops seen across Florida.
"Teachers just refocused and made sure that all of their writing instruction was comprehensive," Reins said.
The school offers writing camp for struggling students, and makes sure that children in all grade levels work on writing so it's not just taught during the fourth-grade testing year, she said.
Wesley Chapel Elementary School had 54 percent of its students scoring 4.0 or better, with an average student score of 3.8. Like Cox, its results were low, but they still showed that additional scoring requirements did not have to break the results, even with an increasingly diverse population.
More than half of Wesley Chapel students receive free and reduced-price meals, and about 41 percent are minorities.
"The teachers have really worked hard," principal John Abernathy said. "Writing has turned out to be the vehicle of a lot of our learning."
Students in all grade levels use writing in all curriculum areas, he said, and teachers aim to use similar writing instruction methods.
"Next year we're really going to focus in on some of the grammar and spelling issues," Abernathy said.
Meanwhile, Fiorentino said, the district will urge state leaders to give students more time on the test if they continue to expect more polished essays rather than first drafts that might include grammatical and other mistakes.
District officials didn't want to speculate on what the next round of FCAT results might bring. They've heard enough doom and gloom that the scores will drop as the state incorporates higher passing scores.
They've made their predictions, based on loads of testing data they've already collected. But they said they'll wait and see before chiming in.
"I'm not going to think about that right now," Reins said. "I'm taking it one step at a time."
Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at [email protected], _PHONE_ or on Twitter @jeffsolochek. For more education news, visit the Gradebook at tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook.


text:
Smoke from a summer wildfire is more than just an eye-stinging plume of nuisance. It's a poison to the lungs and hearts of the people who breathe it in and a dense blanket that hampers firefighting operations.
There's an atmospheric feedback loop, says University of Utah atmospheric scientist Adam Kochanski, that can lock smoke in valleys in much the same way that temperature inversions lock the smog and gunk in the Salt Lake Valley each winter. But understanding this loop, Kochanski says, can help scientists predict how smoke will impact air quality in valleys, hopefully helping both residents and firefighters alike.
Kochanski and colleagues' study appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. The work was funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and from NASA.
Watch a video of a smoke simulation here.
In 2015, firefighters battling wildfires in northern California noticed that smoke accumulating in valleys wasn't going away. The smoke got so bad that air support had to cancel flights, slowing down the firefighting effort. "That raised the question," Kochanski says, "Why is that? Why all of a sudden, is the smoke so persistent and what keeps this very thick layer of smoke in those valleys for such a long period of time?"
Kochanski and his colleagues, including researchers from the Desert Research Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder and Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics set out to answer those questions. Their first clue came from measurements of temperature both below and above the smoke layer. The air, they found, was warmer above the smoke than below.
Residents of the Salt Lake Valley and other bowl-shaped valleys will recognize the pattern of warmer air above colder valley air as an inversion—a reversal of the normal cooling of air with altitude. The atmospheric chemistry of Salt Lake's wintertime inversions is a little different than that of a fire inversion, but the physics are the same: Warm air rises, cold air sinks and the inversion puts a warm lid over a valley, trapping all the valley air below.
The main difference is that in case of the smoke inversions the smoke layer makes the inversion even stronger.
The feedback loop
Kochanski and his colleagues modeled the dynamics of air and smoke in valley terrain and found a feedback loop that reinforces the atmospheric inversion conditions.
"A key to this situation is the moment when the smoke appears in the atmosphere and it just does enough to block incoming solar radiation," Kochanski says. With the sun's energy blocked, the air at the ground begins to cool. "The near-surface cooling limits the mixing, enhances local inversions and leads to even higher smoke concentrations, that in turn block more solar radiation and make smoke even more persistent."
The cooling also weakens winds in the smoke-filled valley and stabilizes the atmosphere, impeding wind from breaking through and clearing out the stagnant air.
Kochanski says there are three ways out of a fire inversion. One is the settling of smoke once the fire is extinguished, allowing more light and heat to reach the ground. Another is a sufficiently large wind that can push through and mix the layers of air. A third is precipitation, as falling rain can scrub the air clean of aerosols.
"If it's business as usual and day by day you have nice sunny weather without any wind or precipitation events, well, this positive feedback loop leads to more smoke in the valleys than could be expected just based on the fire behavior alone," Kochanski says.
A new kind of forecast
Understanding the conditions that create the feedback loop help researchers predict how and when it might form or dissipate. Fire inversions will still remain a problem for firefighters, but Kochanski says that now researchers will be able to put together more accurate smoke forecasts.
"We can better tell where, how dense and how persistent the smoke is going to be," he says. "That's something that wasn't available before." Weather models will also be able to forecast air quality effects from smoke in ways they couldn't before, he adds.
The results of this study are already being integrated into the National Predictive Services Program. "When I'm talking about applications," Kochanski says. "It's not 10 years from now. It's something that we will start working on within the next couple of months."
Find the full study here.
Banner image: California Air National guardsmen from the 129th Rescue Wing perform precision water bucket drops Aug. 26, 2013, in support of the Rim Fire suppression operation at Tuolumne County near Yosemite, California. Credit: Staff Sgt. Ed Drew/USAF (_URL_


In the case of a holiday placement dispute, the holiday schedule set forth in the court order will always take precedence over the normal placement schedule (unless the parties agree otherwise). If the parties agree to deviate from the court ordered holiday placement schedule, make sure that this is reduced to writing to avoid any future (s)he said/(s)he said" problems.
Unfortunately, even if a court order sets out a specific schedule for holiday placement, that does not necessarily prevent issues from popping up between the parents. One parent may decide to act contrary to the holiday schedule and keep the child from the other parent. In this case, there are a few different options the other parent may have here. Option one would be for the parent being denied placement to keep a journal highlighting each time a dispute or not agreed upon deviation from the schedule arises. This journal should contain detailed notes about what happened on specific dates. This is helpful to provide to your attorney should you decide to take the issue into court. Option two would be to involve law enforcement. The parent being denied placement will need to provide authorities with a copy of the placement schedule proving that the other parent is withholding placement and the schedule should be followed. In most cases, contacting law enforcement should be a last resort unless there is a legitimate threat to the safety of the child.
In most cases, the court order will feature a specific holiday placement schedule; however, what happens when the original court order does not specify a holiday placement schedule? It is understood that courts typically like to see an alternating placement schedule. For example, if mom were to have placement on Christmas day this year, dad would get Christmas day placement next year and the pattern would continue this way. From the perspective of the Court, Christmas Eve is generally seen as a separate holiday from Christmas day. To allude to the previous example, during a year where mom might have Christmas Day placement, dad would likely have placement on Christmas Eve. It is important for both parents to put equal effort into exercising placement schedules that will be most beneficial for their children.
The most important thing to remember is that the children should always come first. The children are most affected in placement disputes so parents should be mindful to keep a positive atmosphere for the children. That being said, all of us at Nelson, Krueger & Millenbach would like to wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season.
Divorce Mediation: What is it and is it right for you?
The idea of mediation in a divorce context can be confusing. In a divorce case, there are two types of mediation. The first type of mediation is when parties have exhausted all forms of negotiation and hire a neutral mediator to assist with reaching an agreement to resolve issues in a divorce case. The second type of mediation is when parties hire a mediator to assist them with the entire process of the divorce by being involved from the very beginning including assisting them in filing, negotiating a settlement, and drafting documents to be filed with the court on behalf of both parties. This is commonly referred to as a "mediated divorce."
It is important that people understand the difference between the two types of mediation when contemplating divorce and whether or not involving a divorce mediator is appropriate in a given case. For purposes of this article we will focus on the second type of mediation which is mediated divorce.
Recently, many family law firms are trying to capitalize on the 2017 law change which allows attorney mediators to draft and file documents with the courts on behalf of a divorcing couple. Prior to the law passing in 2017, a mediator could work with couples in a neutral capacity to help them reach an agreement, but a mediator could not draft documents or file documents with the court for them. Since the law changed, couples can now hire one lawyer to draft necessary pleadings, file them with the court and work with them in a neutral capacity to reach an agreement resolving issues in their divorce case. The idea of wrapping your divorce up in a neat package where only one attorney is needed sounds immensely appealing. And, in many cases, a mediated divorce can work for couples. However, we have seen a substantial upswing in clients who start the process of mediation too early resulting in a failure of that process. They are uninformed because the mediator failed to require full financial disclosure or failed to draft Financial Disclosure Statements prior to starting the process of trying to reach an agreement. So, how do you know if divorce mediation is right for you?
Understand what mediation is and what a mediator can and cannot do for you.
A divorce mediator is neutral and does not take a position for or against either party or give legal advice to either party. As a neutral, a mediator can inform you of the law and provide calculations for support, property division, and other divorce related issues. A mediator can draft legal pleadings and file those forms with the court. As a neutral, the mediator works with the couple to help them reach an agreement. With the new mediation rules in family cases, a divorce mediator can also draft and file the legal pleadings with the court making it easier for a divorcing couple to navigate the court procedures.
But what happens if you have questions about whether the settlement agreement is a good agreement for you and your situation? What if you have questions about how the law applies to you alone and not the couple?
A divorce mediator cannot give you legal advice. Therefore, all those questions will remain unanswered because if the mediator were to answer them, he or she would be providing legal advice.
What if the agreement is not fair? How will you know?
Simply speaking, you won't. The mediator is not able to advocate for either party. Therefore, absent having your own attorney, you will never know whether the agreement is fair to you or, quite frankly, could be better. Any suggestion by the mediator in this regard would be considered advocating and is forbidden.
Consider whether mediation is appropriate for you.
The goal of mediation is to facilitate a resolution of issues and a stipulated agreement, but how do you know if you can reach an agreement before you know what all the potential options are? Many times we see a client who thinks they have an agreement but as the mediator discusses different aspects of the process (i.e. placement schedules, custodial decisions, child support, tax deduction, maintenance and property divisions), more and more questions arise. Without the benefit of legal counsel to advise you, it is truly impossible to know if you have a fair and equitable agreement. If you have any questions, hesitations or concerns, it is imperative to speak to a lawyer before embarking on the mediation process or making any final decision in mediation. Even if you decide to hire a divorce mediator, you are still free to hire your own attorney to review your divorce agreement and discuss settlement ideas. Your divorce mediator should always support a party's legal right to consult with or hire an attorney.
Research your mediator.
When the law changed in 2017, many law firms saw this as an opportunity to simply generate additional revenue for their firm. The tag line of an "easy" and "flat rate" divorce or mediation sounds appealing and draws the attention of many savvy consumers. However, mediators need to be experienced and properly trained. Simply because a law firm advertises "mediation" does not mean that the attorneys have the experience or training to successfully help you. The process to become a mediator requires hours of training and years of experience. Commencing the mediation process with the wrong mediator will all but guarantee that your experience will only be more stressful and expensive. When interviewing mediators, you should ask if they have taken the requisite 40 hour training program. Inquire as to the number of mediations they have conducted. Inquire about a mediator's experience and years in practice.
Beware of motivations.
Very frequently, we hear that one spouse is pushing the other spouse heavily towards mediation. We have heard clients tell us that their spouse has threatened them that if they don't do mediation and/or if they do hire attorney, they will not agree to certain things, it will cost them thousands of extra dollars or "it will be war." This is typically because that spouse has the most to lose – for example, by having to pay child support or maintenance. Threats and bullying are never a good start to a divorce, no matter what process you decide to use. Keep in mind that your soon to be ex-spouse is not looking out for you. And, a mediator cannot protect you in that situation like an attorney can by giving you sound advice. At a minimum, you should consult with an experienced divorce attorney prior to entering into the mediation process so you have realistic expectations and knowledge of what you could be entitled to under the law. This will help you reach the best agreement for you and your children in addition to feeling comfortable when making that final decision.
Mediation with the right mediator can work!
When it comes to mediation to resolve an issue when there is an impasse in a case, mediation as first described above is an excellent option too.
In the right circumstances and for the right reasons, mediation is an effective tool to avoid litigation and ensure that both parties are satisfied with the result. There are very good attorneys and retired judges who are mediating that are experienced and charge reasonable rates. In these situations, you will likely be completely comfortable and satisfied with the process and the results. If you have any reservations, however, make sure you at least consult with an attorney as stated above.
Further, mediation is the preferred method of resolving disputes even when attorneys are involved. Experienced divorce lawyers will often reach out to mediators to help resolve a case prior to engaging in litigation. These mediators are


text:
This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only
The overarching aim of this study was to provide an information base on the transition from preschool to formal schooling in Ireland, and to improve understanding about how best to support children's learning during this time. The theoretical framework for the project was based on the ecological systems model of development proposed by Bronfenbrenner. As there was no previous Irish research in this area, the study took an exploratory approach, and drew on a variety of sources to present the perspectives of preschool practitioners, primary school teachers, parents and children themselves. Phase 1 involved a questionnaire being completed by a nationwide sample of preschool practitioners and teachers of junior infants classes. Both groups agreed that children with the ability to negotiate classroom life independently, equipped with good social skills and the ability to concentrate and listen for short periods of time, are more likely to be successful at primary level. Phase II took a more qualitative approach to the subject, following a case study sample of seven children through their first year in the primary school systems. This phase investigated the perspectives of the children themselves, their parents, teachers and classmates, using observation data, semi-structured interviews, and child discussion groups to gather information about the process. Differences were noted by the children between the more formal "work" based pedagogy of the junior infants classroom as compared to their preschool experiences. The issue of cultural capital being transferred across the home-school environments was also apparent. The findings from the study concur with the notion that transition to school is an adaptive process for children and their families, and that all stakeholders should be involved in communication about the process (Pianta et al, 1999). The study also confirmed the value of involving multiple stakeholders, particularly the children themselves, in the research process.
O'Kane, M.: The Potential Use of Slow-down Technology to Improve Pronounciation of English for International Communication. Dublin : Dublin Institute of Technology, 2007


dissect.target.filesystems.dir#
Module Contents#
Classes#
DirectoryFilesystem
Base class for filesystems.
DirectoryFilesystemEntry
Base class for filesystem entries.
class dissect.target.filesystems.dir.DirectoryFilesystem(path: pathlib.Path, *args, **kwargs)#
Bases: dissect.target.filesystem.Filesystem
Base class for filesystems.
__fstype__ = 'dir'#
static detect(fh)#
Detect whether the fh file-handle contains a Filesystem implementation.
Parameters:
fh – A file-like object, usually an image of a disk.
Returns:
True if fh contains the filesystem, False otherwise.
get(path)#
Retrieve a FilesystemEntry from the filesystem.
Parameters:
path – the path which we want retrieve.
Returns:
A FilesystemEntry(path) kind of object.
__repr__()#
Return repr(self).
class dissect.target.filesystems.dir.DirectoryFilesystemEntry(fs: Filesystem, path: str, entry: FilesystemEntry)#
Bases: dissect.target.filesystem.FilesystemEntry
Base class for filesystem entries.
get(path)#
Retrieve a FilesystemEntry relative to this entry.
Parameters:
path – The path relative to this filesystem entry.
Returns:
A relative FilesystemEntry.
open()#
Open this filesystem entry.
Returns:
A file-like object. Resolves symlinks when possible
iterdir()#
Iterate over the contents of a directory, return them as strings.
Returns:
An iterator of directory entries as path strings.
scandir()#
Iterate over the contents of a directory, return them as FilesystemEntry's.
Returns:
An iterator of directory entries as FilesystemEntry's.
exists()#
Determines whether a path, relative to this entry, exists.
If the path is a symbolic link, it will attempt to resolve it to find the FilesystemEntry it points to.
Parameters:
path – The path relative to this entry.
Returns:
True if the path exists, False otherwise.
is_dir()#
Determine if this entry is a directory, resolving symlinks when possible.
Returns:
True if the entry is a directory, False otherwise.
is_file()#
Determine if this entry is a file, resolving symlinks when possible.
Returns:
True if the entry is a file, False otherwise.
Determine wether this entry is a symlink.
Returns:
True if the entry is a symbolic link, False otherwise.
Read the link where this entry points to, return the resulting path as string.
If it is a symlink and returns the entry that corresponds to that path. This means it follows the path a link points to, it tries to do it recursively.
Returns:
The path the link points to.
stat()#
Determine the stat information of this entry, resolving any symlinks.
If the entry is a symlink, it gets resolved, attempting to stat the path where to points to.
Returns:
The stat information of this entry.
lstat()#
Determine the stat information of this entry, without resolving the symlinks.
When it detects a symlink, it will stat the information of the symlink, not the path it points to.
Returns:
The stat information of this entry.
attr()#
The attributes related to this entry, resolving any symlinks.
If the entry is a symbolic link, it will attempt to resolve it first. Resulting in the attr information of the entry it points to.
Returns:
The attributes of this entry.
lattr()#
The attributes related to this current entry, without resolving links.
Returns:
The attributes of this entry.


text:
Risks of their coal terminal
reports on opposition to Washington's planned Gateway Pacific Terminal--which activists say will harm both the environment and local residents' health.
MORE THAN 100 opponents of a proposed coal terminal to be located just north of Bellingham, Wash., at Cherry Point rallied at the federal courthouse on August 31.
The rally is part of an ongoing campaign that has enlisted workers, students, the unemployed and environmentalists in opposition to the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT). The campaign has won support across the region. People attended from Seattle, Everett and other parts of Western Washington. There was also a contingent from Occupy Spokane, more than 300 miles away.
After rallying at the courthouse, the demonstration marched to City Hall for another rally, after which many protestors briefly blocked the nearby train tracks while being photographed by railroad police. Over a dozen port opponents were arrested for a previous action blocking the tracks, but there were no arrests at this rally.
People around the region are concerned because of the potential impact that GPT would have on their health and the environment. Coal is the world's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. The transport of coal will be a health hazard, releasing tons of coal dust across an area stretching from Montana to the Washington coast. If the terminal is built, 54 million metric tons of coal are expected to be exported yearly.
Proponents of the terminal are spending thousands on TV ads touting its environmental safeguards. They claim that the coal dust will be controlled by wetting it. Yet studies show that 80 percent of coal dust from trains drops out of the bottom of cars, and there is little if any way to limit this. The terminal developer, Carrix/SSA Marine, was caught in the summer of 2011--before environmental impact statements were completed--destroying wetlands to begin construction before getting required permits.
According to the environmental fact sheet "Facts about the proposed coal export from Cherry Point," the potential impact of the GPT include:
Threats to our health, clean air and water: Coal dust escaping from open coal trains and storage piles, and diesel exhaust from coal trains and cargo ships, would threaten human health, Whatcom County's clean air, and water quality in Puget Sound.
The wide-ranging health dangers of coal dust include exposure to toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and mercury. Coal dust leads to increased asthma, wheezing and coughing in children. Toxic pollution from diesel exhaust is linked to stunted lung development, increased probability of heart attacks, lung cancer, worsening asthma and infant mortality.
A comprehensive 2001 study of coal dust emissions in Canada found that the Westshore Terminal near Tsawassen, B.C., emits roughly 715 metric tons of coal dust a year. The report states that "coal terminals by their nature are active sources of fugitive dust." According to the rail operator, BNSF, every coal car can lose as much as 500 pounds of coal dust en route...
Exporting coal means more global warming pollution: Current plans call for as much as 50 million tons of coal to be shipped through Whatcom County annually to be burned in Asian coal plants. Burning that much more coal every year would produce more global warming pollution than all the cars in Oregon and Washington combined in one year.
Other potential effects of the GPT include disrupting an aquatic reserve at Cherry Point, snarling traffic at train crossings throughout the area, creating noise pollution from trains, and increased public expenditure on overpasses, bridges and other infrastructure needed just for this project. The public would be heavily subsidizing several profitable corporations by paying for this otherwise unneeded infrastructure.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE COAL terminal is being pushed by both corporations and politicians. Besides Carrix/SSA Marine, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railways (BNSF) would carry the coal. Peabody Energy is the world's largest private coal company and would make millions off of the Bellingham terminal.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway just bought BNSF. Goldman Sachs is partnering with Carrix on the project (apparently destroying the economy was not enough--now it wants to wreck the environment as well).
The terminal project is also heavily supported by politicians. Rob Murray, husband of Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, is employed by Carrix/SSA Marine. Other politicians endorsing the project include Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and Democratic Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, along with Republicans and local officials.
Unfortunately, labor is divided on the issue. A number of unions and labor groups, including the Maritime Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the Washington State Labor Council, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union–Puget Sound District Council, among others, have endorsed the GPT, according to the project's website.
Their rationale is the 200 permanent union jobs the project is expected to create. Proponents claim that the construction of the terminal will create 2,000 temporary jobs as well. However, a study by an independent nonprofit agency, Community Wise Bellingham, claims that the negative impact on businesses in Bellingham, in the shortand long-term, would destroy as many jobs as the terminal creates.
It's understandable why labor would support any project that seems to offer jobs in the current economic climate. But unions can't ignore the warnings that this project represents a real threat to the health of our community and the environment--including their members. These things can't be sacrificed for corporate profits in return for the promise of jobs.
It's important for unions to work with the community--and vice versa--as part of a movement to demand not only environmental protections, but the creation of permanent "green jobs."
The organizing will continue after this rally. Activists intend to continuing rallying, educating the public and doing everything they can to stop the terminal--including joining forces with other grassroots groups near the rail lines that are scheduled to bring the coal to the port.
From the movement against hydraulic fracking to the opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline, opposition is mounting against those who wish to destroy our environment for the sake of profits.