Oil Pipelines Pipelines connect the centers of Canadian production with refining and export centers in eastern provinces, the West Coast, and especially the United States. Pembina, Plains Midstream, Spectra Energy, Access Pipeline, and Inter Pipeline operate some of the largest domestic pipeline systems in Western Canada. Three companies operate the most export pipelines: Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, and TransCanada. In total, members of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association transport 3.2 million bbl/d of oil over almost 25 thousand miles of pipeline. However, an increasing amount of oil is transported by rail to overcome infrastructural constraints in the midcontinent region. Operational export pipelines Enbridge operates the largest export oil pipeline network. In combination, two of its related systems – the Canadian Mainline from Edmonton to Quebecand the U.S. Mainline (Lakehead) to Chicago – transport 2.5 million bbl/d. The Lakehead system includes the Alberta Clipper Pipelineto Superior, Wisconsin that was completed in 2010, which expanded the system capacity by 450 thousand bbl/d with an ultimate capacity of 800 thousand bbl/d available. The Southern Lights Oil Pipelineis parallel with the Alberta Clipper but runs in the opposite direction in order to transport lighter hydrocarbons back to Alberta for use as a diluent in transporting and processing bitumen. Along with its other smaller pipelines on both sides of the border, Enbridge's large pipeline systems transport 65 percent of the oil exported from Western Canada. Kinder Morgan operates the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which is the only pipeline system that transports crude oil and petroleum products to the West Coast of North America. The pipeline originates in Edmonton, Alberta and travels to various marketing and refining stations near Vancouver, British Columbia. Its capacity is rated at 300 thousand bbl/d. Kinder Morgan also operates the cross-border Express Oil Pipeline System(280 thousand bbl/d), which connects with the smaller Platte Crude Oil Pipelinein Casper, Wyoming and then travels to Illinois. TransCanada has established a foothold in Canada's crude export market through its Keystone Pipelinesystem, which includes two operational phases, one in construction, and another awaiting regulatory approval. The first phase of Keystone, which travels from Hardisty, Alberta to Illinois, commenced operation in June 2010 at a capacity of 435 thousand bbl/d. A second phase became operation in February 2011, connected the Keystone system to the Cushing, Oklahoma hub, and increased the system's rated capacity to 591 thousand bbl/d. Proposed export pipelines TransCanada's proposed addition to the Keystone system, Keystone XL, has become a controversial front in broader political debates about energy policy, climate change, and oil sands development. Keystone XL would travel from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, NE, with a capacity of 830 thousand bbl/d. Since it would cross an international border, a presidential permit must be granted stating that the project is in the national interest. In May 2012, TransCanada reapplied for a presidential permit after the U.S. Department of State denied its initial application due to environmental concerns that had not been resolved as of the deadline for a decision. While environmentalists urged the administration to reject the pipeline for a variety of reasons, the controversy ultimately centered on risks that pipeline spills might pose to the Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska's Sand Hills region. TransCanada's new application includes alternative routes through Nebraska, and the Department of State tentatively expects to rule on Keystone XL in the first quarter of 2013. If granted the requisite permits, TransCanada expects to begin construction soon thereafter with a potential in-service date of 2015. While Keystone XL was initially proposed as an integrated pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, a shorter section that is entirely within the United States was pursued as a separate project when the presidential permit for the cross-border segment was rejected. The TransCanada pipeline to connect Cushing, Oklahoma with the Texas refining sector is now known as the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project, and would resolve some of the infrastructural constraints that have led to a glut of oil at the Cushing hub. Construction on the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project commenced in August 2012 following final approval of its permits by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the company aspires to achieve an in-service date of mid-to-late 2013. The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 700 thousand bbl/d with the potential to expand to 830 thousand bbl/d. Enbridge and Kinder Morgan have proposed new or expanded pipelines to the West Coast, which are only in the preliminary stages of planning and regulatory review. Kinder Morgan aims to expand its existing Trans Mountain system by building a second pipeline within the same right-of-way. The expansion would increase Trans Mountain's capacity to 850 thousand bbl/d. The company has yet to file a permit application with the NEB, but construction would begin in 2016 and the pipeline could come online in 2017 if the project proceeds according to the company's timeline. Meanwhile, Enbridge is pursuing the Northern Gateway Oil Pipeline Project, which would have its terminus at a deepwater port in Kitimat, British Columbia. Northern Gateway would include a 525 thousand bbl/d crude oil pipeline and a smaller parallel pipeline to carry condensate back to Alberta. Enbridge has already filed regulatory applications associated with Northern Gateway and is in the midst of public consultations and government review. If approved on time in 2014, Northern Gateway could be commissioned in 2017. The completion of either or both of the competing Kinder Morgan and Enbridge projects would create a new export outlet for the oil sands. Additional pipeline capacity to the West Coast would reduce Canada's overland dependence on the United States market while providing access to growing Asian economies in the Pacific Basin, which could have important implications for trade flows and the prices received by Canadian oil producers. Yet like Keystone XL, the proposed West Coast projects must overcome differing degrees of opposition, particularly due to concerns about the risk of pipeline or tanker spills in British Columbia and among affected aboriginal First Nations groups, in order to be completed. Natural Gas Pipelines Canada's natural gas pipeline system is highly interconnected with the U.S. pipeline system. TransCanada operates the largest network of natural gas pipelines in North America, including thirteen major pipeline systems and approximately 37,000 miles of gas pipelines in operation. Within Canada, TransCanada Pipeline operates a 25,600-mile network that includes the 10.6-Bcf/d Alberta System and the 7.2-Bcf/d Canadian Mainline. Spectra Energy operates a 3,540-mile, 2.2-Bcf/d pipeline system connecting western Canadian gas supply regions with markets in the U.S. and Canada. Spectra Energy also operates the Maritimes and Northeast Gas Pipelinelinking eastern Canadian supplies with consumers in the eastern United States. Finally, the Alliance Gas Pipeline, a 2,311-mile pipeline system, is a significant source of natural gas for the U.S. Midwest that delivers 4.6 Bcf/d to both Canadian and U.S. markets. After six years of regulatory review, the NEB approved the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline Project, part of the MacKenzie Gas Project, in 2011. Imperial Oil would construct and operate the pipeline; other partners are ConocoPhillips, Shell, ExxonMobil, and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. The 1.2-Bcf/d pipeline would travel 745 miles from Canada's Beaufort Sea to Alberta, where it would join existing pipeline networks. However, the outlook for the pipeline is uncertain, as more permits are required, it is competing with the Alaska Gas Pipeline, and natural gas prices and import needs are projected to remain low due to shale gas and other developments.


• Pancreatic complications following cardiopulmonary bypass are infrequent but are associated with high mortality. All cases of pancreatic complications following cardiopulmonary bypass from 1972 to 1987 at a single institution were retrospectively reviewed. Of 5621 patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass, 25 (0.44%) sustained pancreatic complications. There were 15 cases of acute pancreatitis and 10 cases of pancreatic necrosis, with 11 deaths in the group reviewed, a mortality rate of 44%. Factors that were correlated with mortality associated with pancreatic complications in this study include preoperative hypotension, preoperative use of inotropic agents, and renal failure (preoperative and postperative). Factors that have been previously associated with mortality from pancreatic complications in other studies, such as fluid sequestration, respiratory failure, sepsis, tachycardia, hypocalcemia, age greater than 55 years, and abnormal laboratory findings, were not found to be significantly associated with mortality in this study. Of the five patients for whom complete data were available, not one patient received greater than 800 mg of calcium per square meter of body surface area in the perioperative period. While the exact mechanism of pancreatic injury remains unclear, based on experimental studies and clinical correlation, it is likely that pancreatic ischemia remains a significant contributing factor. We conclude that no factor specifically associated with cardiopulmonary bypass was correlated significantly with mortality.
(Arch Surg. 1992;127:1225-1231)
Lefor AT, Vuocolo P, Parker FB, Sillin LF. Pancreatic Complications Following Cardiopulmonary BypassFactors Influencing Mortality. Arch Surg. 1992;127(10):1225-1231. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1992.01420100087015
© 2017


The concept of 'the national interest' is an ever present feature of contemporary diplomatic discourse and has been widely analysed by historians and political scientists. However, there has not been a systematic investigation of the term from the range of theoretical perspectives which comprise the discipline of International Relations. This book fills this gap by explaining how the term is variously understood by realist, Marxist, anarchist, liberal, English School and constructivist theories of International Relations. It is argued that far from having a clear and unambiguous meaning, 'the national interest' is a problematic term which is largely devoid of substantive content. While realists traditionally, and constructivists more recently, claim that 'the national interest' is a key explanatory tool in the analysis and understanding of contemporary foreign policy, Scott Burchill argues that beyond the narrow aspect of security policy, the national interest has little residual value as an insight into the motivations of state policy in the external realm.


Utilize este identificador para referenciar este registo:
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/5892
Título: Energy resources management in three distinct time horizons considering a large variation in wind power Autor: Silva, Marco
Morais, Hugo
Sousa, Tiago
Vale, Zita
Palavras-chave: Energy resources management
System management
Integration strategies & policies
Storage
Data: Fev-2013 Editora: The European Wind Energy Association - EWEA Relatório da Série N.º: EWEA;2013 Resumo: The intensive use of distributed generation based on renewable resources increases the complexity of power systems management, particularly the short-term scheduling. Demand response, storage units and electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles also pose new challenges to the short-term scheduling. However, these distributed energy resources can contribute significantly to turn the shortterm scheduling more efficient and effective improving the power system reliability. This paper proposes a short-term scheduling methodology based on two distinct time horizons: hour-ahead scheduling, and real-time scheduling considering the point of view of one aggregator agent. In each scheduling process, it is necessary to update the generation and consumption operation, and the storage and electric vehicles status. Besides the new operation condition, more accurate forecast values of wind generation and consumption are available, for the resulting of short-term and very short-term methods. In this paper, the aggregator has the main goal of maximizing his profits while, fulfilling the established contracts with the aggregated and external players. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/5892 Versão do Editor: http://proceedings.ewea.org/annual2013/proceedings/index2test.php?page=info2&id2=1064&id=167&ordre=5&tr=&presa=&day=&searchtext=vale&day=&learning=&keyword=&fil2=&fil2&ord1=&sess=#top Aparece nas colecções: ISEP – GECAD – Comunicações em eventos científicos
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LMI 101
LMI may seem technical and complex, but many individuals and organizations already use it without realizing that they are doing so.
Strategic planning may address planned growth in an organization, the development of new programs or service delivery techniques, and strategies for ensuring the sustainability of an organization. It involves planning for funding and staffing to meet immediate and future needs.
LMI can be particularly valuable for staffing processes such as creating an employment advertisement, determining a reasonable compensation offer, interviewing candidates, and retaining workers once they have been hired.


A 'secured loan', as the name suggests, is a loan which provides security to the institution lending the same to a client. These loans, by their very nature, are provided only against the security of a tangible property. The property in question could be a car, house, stocks, land etc. The client availing the loan has to surrender the title deeds of the property owned by him, to the bank or other financial institution providing the loan. The title deeds are retained by the bank/financial institution throughout the term of the loan. This provides an assurance to the lending company, with regard to the proper repayment of the loan. In case of default on the part of the borrower, the lending institution is legally entitled to settle the loan amount outstanding, by offsetting it against the sales proceeds of the tangible property. The risk involved in lending a secured loan is therefore minimal or almost a nullity. This provides for greater transparency in dealings involving secured loans by banks. Moreover, owing to the security provided, the borrower too stands to benefit in terms of lower interest rates and convenient repayment schedules. Certain institutions lend secured loans to borrowers against the security of their bank accounts.
One needs to approach the traditional financial institutions for securing a loan. It would be difficult for unemployed people to obtain a loan but is not impossible. If one provides a proper and high value security to the institution, loan processing would be quick. There are unsecured loans and home equity lines of credit as options available for loans for the unemployed but such funding options are not so easy and they have stringent terms compared to a secured loan.


Under the J-Credit Scheme, the government certifies the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (such as CO2) reduced or removed by sinks through efforts to introduce energy-saving devices and manage forests, as "credit.“
This scheme, which was created by expansively integrating the Domestic Credit Scheme and the Offset Credit (J-VER; Japan's verified emissions reduction) Scheme, is administered by the central government.
Credits created under the scheme can be used for various purposes, such as achieving the targets of the Nippon Keidanren's Commitment to a Low Carbon Society, and carbon offset.
*Nippon Keidanren: Japan Federation of Economic Organizations


Abstract
A conceptual argument is presented for the relevance of behavior-analytic research on impulsive choice to issues of occupational safety and health. Impulsive choice is defined in terms of discounting, which is the tendency for the value of a commodity to decrease as a function of various parameters (e.g., having to wait or expend energy to receive the commodity). A high degree of discounting is often considered an index of impulsivity. We argue that for workers, possible negative consequences (e.g., injury or disease) are often disregarded, or discounted, in choices about workplace safety because such consequences are typically delayed and uncertain. Furthermore, some evidence suggests that certain environmental conditions, such as those that lead to stress or sleep deprivation, may increase discounting. Increased discounting, by extension, leads to a further devaluation of safety practices and their benefits. A call is made for research aimed at more clearly delineating the relation between impulsive choice and workplace safety.


In the past few decades, scholars have offered positive, normative, and most recently, interpretive theories of contract law. These theories have proceeded primarily (indeed, necessarily) from deontological and consequentialist premises. In A Theory of Contract Law: Empirical Insights andMoral Psychology, Professor Peter A. Alces confronts the leading interpretive theories of contract and demonstrates their doctrinal failures. Professor Alces presents the leading canonical cases that inform the extant theories of Contract law in both their historical and transactional contexts andargues that moral psychology provides a better explanation for the contract doctrine than do alternative comprehensive interpretive approaches.


44 CFR 80.9 - Eligible and ineligible costs.
(a) Allowable costs. Eligible project costs may include compensation for the value of structures, for their relocation or demolition, for associated land, and associated costs. For land that is already held by an eligible entity, compensation for the land is not an allowable cost, but compensation for development rights may be allowable.
(b) Pre-award costs. FEMA may fund eligible pre-award project costs at its discretion and as funds are available. Grantees and subgrantees may be reimbursed for eligible pre-award costs for activities directly related to the development of the project proposal. These costs can only be incurred during the open application period of the respective grant program. Costs associated with implementation of the project but incurred prior to grant award are not eligible. Therefore, activities where implementation is initiated or completed prior to award are not eligible and will not be reimbursed.
(c) Duplication of benefits. Grant funds may not duplicate benefits received by or available to applicants, subapplicants and other project participants from insurance, other assistance programs, legal awards, or any other source to address the same purpose. Such individual or entity must notify the subapplicant and FEMA of all benefits that it receives, anticipates, or has available from other sources for the same purpose. FEMA will reduce the subgrant award by the amounts available for the same purpose from another source.
(d) Negligence or other tortious conduct. FEMA acquisition funds are not available where an applicant, subapplicant, other project participant, or third party's negligence or intentional actions contributed to the conditions to be mitigated. If the applicant, subapplicant, or project participant suspects negligence or other tortious conduct by a third party for causing such condition, they are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to recover all costs attributable to the tortious conduct of the third party. FEMA generally considers such amounts to be duplicated benefits available for the same purpose, and will treat them consistent with paragraph (c) of this section.
(e) FEMA mitigation grant funds are not available to satisfy or reimburse for legal obligations, such as those imposed by a legal settlement, court order, or State law.


Abstract
Broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies (bNAbs) can recognize carbohydrate-dependent epitopes on gp120. In contrast to previously characterized glycan-dependent bNAbs that recognize high-mannose N-glycans, PGT121 binds complex-type N-glycans in glycan microarrays. We isolated the B-cell clone encoding PGT121, which segregates into PGT121-like and 10-1074–like groups distinguished by sequence, binding affinity, carbohydrate recognition, and neutralizing activity. Group 10-1074 exhibits remarkable potency and breadth but no detectable binding to protein-free glycans. Crystal structures of unliganded PGT121, 10-1074, and their likely germ-line precursor reveal that differential carbohydrate recognition maps to a cleft between complementarity determining region (CDR)H2 and CDRH3. This cleft was occupied by a complex-type N-glycan in a “liganded” PGT121 structure. Swapping glycan contact residues between PGT121 and 10-1074 confirmed their importance for neutralization. Although PGT121 binds complex-type N-glycans, PGT121 recognized high-mannose-only HIV envelopes in isolation and on virions. As HIV envelopes exhibit varying proportions of high-mannose- and complex-type N-glycans, these results suggest promiscuous carbohydrate interactions, an advantageous adaptation ensuring neutralization of all viruses within a given strain.


A large part of personal income is not considered “taxable” income by the IRS. In the graph personal income (as calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis) is around 80% of GDP. This includes all employee compensation + after tax business income + rent + interest + other income but no capital gains.


Welfare, Resources, and Luck-Egalitarianism
Title: Welfare, Resources, and Luck-Egalitarianism
Author: SADURSKI, Wojciech
Date: 2007
Publisher: European University Institute
Series/Number: EUI LAW; 2007/05
ISSN: 1725-6739
Abstract:
The leading discourse about luck egalitarianism has been informed by the distinction between equality of welfare and equality of resources. This paper attempts to illuminate its significance by focusing on the status of individual preferences (in particular, preferences which are particularly costly to satisfy) as regards egalitarian distribution. It then considers another distinction: that between “persons” and “circumstances” to see how it correlates with the central moral intuition which triggers the egalitarian approach, namely that social inequalities should be allowed to reflect the choices people make in the course of their lives. I argue that if we consistently maintain the centrality of choice for the whole theory, and construct the technical concept of “resources” accordingly, we may well realize that the gap between “equality of welfare” and “equality of resources” is not as wide as many theorists of luck egalitarianism would have us believe. Finally, I address head-on the crucial issue lying in the background of this whole discussion: is the aspiration to eliminate systemically the impact of bad luck egalitarian? Against many critics of luck-egalitarianism, I claim that it is, but only contingently rather than inherently and necessarily
Subject: Equality; Non-discrimination; Social justice
Type of Access: openAccess


In our previous issue, we looked at what to do if you're an inadvertent victim of an eye splash. But if what should you do if you're the inadvertent victim of splash onto your clothing or skin?
When your clothes soak up a hazardous splash, forget about modesty. Act quickly to remove anything that holds strong acids, bases, or other hazardous liquids against your skin. Always remove your footwear.
Use a safety shower, if it's available, for at least 15 minutes. If it's not, use water from a faucet even if it's not potable water — it's best if a coworker can administer this. You may end up using a washdown hose or even a pail. If you use a pail, rinse it out first.
Don't make the false assumption that if your skin isn't red you must be OK. And don't put your contaminated clothing back on, even if it's been rinsed out. By now, your supervisor should have arranged for alternate clothing and a trip to the emergency room.


ISPs, particularly those with a large business customer-base can gain competitive advantage by addressing their customers increasing concerns with online security. They are certainly at a disadvantage by not addressing them!
DNSSEC protects against Man in the Middle and cache poisoning attacks, which can result in your customers being misdirected to malicious websites and/or disrupt their services that rely on DNS such as email and VOIP. Business customers are particularly concerned about the threat of data loss and may pay a premium for improved security.
DNSSEC uses strong public key cryptography to sign DNS data which can then be validated by a requesting server. The root DNS zone and a growing number of Top Level Domains now sign their DNS records using DNSSEC, which creates a ‘chain of trust’ to validate answers down to an individual record. Many ISPs and public DNS services, like Google DNS, can also now carry out this validation process and some governments have required their public sector agencies to implement DNSSEC – for example in the USA.
But… implementing and managing DNSSEC can be complicated, costly and time-consuming:
All your zones need to be signed for DNSSEC to be effective – a big task for large networks DNSSEC keys need to be stored securely so that they cannot be changed maliciously Keys also need to be periodically updated – known as ‘key rollover’. Additional DNSSEC steps in DNS resolution may introduce unwanted latency Automate DNSSEC Key Rollover
Key rollover is particularly complex and requires very careful administration. If you get key rollover wrong, keys which are no longer valid remain cached in other DNS servers around the world or are not synchronised with your own upstream servers. In such cases, clients using DNSSEC would be unable to resolve your records.
To avoid this, you need to manage at least two sets of two types of key – a Zone Signing Key (ZSK) and a Key Signing Key (KSK), one of each live and one marked as in ‘rollover state’ – for each zone. The rollover keys need to exist for 2x their Time to Live value. With lots to know and manage, manual key rollover is incredibly error-prone.
You need a solution that, like
DNSBOX: Automates DNSSEC key management and rollover Automates zone signing for rapid implementation Makes it easy to store DNSSEC keys securely Uses a high performance resolver to mitigate the extra latency of DNSSEC requests


Don't buy if you can't stay put.
If you can't commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner - even in a rising market. When prices are falling, it's an even worse proposition.


Kenya is a country that relies heavily on its land, from its vast savannahs rich with wildlife, to its mighty snow-capped mountains, lush forests or pristine beaches, the land’s prosperity is vital to the natives’ daily lives.
To ensure these lands thrive for generations to come, The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was formed in 1977 to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who were struggling with dry streams, limited food supply, and having to trek great distances for basics such as firewood for fuel and fencing. GBM encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil; store rainwater and firewood; and provide food for themselves, in return GBM provided them with a small monetary token to incentivise them.
To commemorate this, annually on World Earth Day, GBM plants seven trees to honour the women who spearhead Kenya’s environmentalism efforts. This year, with the support of Kenyan women across the country, GBM will have planted more than forty million trees!


The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) has launched a checklist for its sustainable infrastructure rating system. The Envision Checklist helps users become more familiar with aspects of sustainability in the design of infrastructure projects.
The Checklist can be used as an assessment tool for comparing different sustainability options, or to prepare for more detailed assessment under the Envision Rating system. It includes a series of yes/no questions based on the Envision rating system. The questions are organized into five categories: quality of life, leadership, resource allocation, natural world, and climate and risk.
Checklist results are not verified by the institute, and are not eligible for ISI awards. However, the American Public Works Association and its Center for Sustainability were instrumental in designing the Envision Checklist to ensure its usability for public works professionals and departments.
To download the Checklist, go here.


A practical, accessible, and well-grounded exploration of organizational learning as the key to continued organizational success and survival.Well-anchored in theory and practice.Practical approach. It offers concrete advice to managers who wish to improve their organization's performance by increasing the breadth, depth, and speed of learning.Wealth of in-depth examples that can be easily adapted and applied. Breadth of material covered and synthesized. Garvin describes and integrates a vast literature on organizational learning, drawing on evidence from diverse fields. The findings in these fields have critical implications for managers, but they have never before been assembled together or translated into accessible, non-technical prose.


American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine vol:194 issue:11 pages:1137-1348
Abstract:
Typical for critical illnesses are substantial alterations within the hypothalamic-anterior-pituitary-peripheral-hormonal axes that are proportionate to the risk of poor outcome. These neuroendocrine responses to critical illness follow a biphasic pattern. The acute phase (first hours to days) is characterized by an increased release of anterior pituitary hormones while altered target-organ sensitivity and hormone metabolism result in low levels of the anabolic peripheral effector hormones and contribute to the substantailly elevated levels of the catabolic hormone cortisol. The prolonged phase of critical illness is hallmarked by a uniform suppression of the neuroendocrine axes, predominantly of central/hypothalamic origin, which contributes to the low (or insufficiently high in the case of cortisol) circulating levels of the target-organ hormones. Several of the acute phase adaptations to critical illness are due to or accentuated by the concomitant fasting. Accepting the lack of macronutrients as well as the neuroendorine responses to such fasting in the acute phase of critical illness has shown to beneficially affect outcome. In contrast, the neuroendocrine alterations that occur in the chronic phase of illness while patients are fully fed contribute to bone and skeletal muscle wasting and impose risk of adrenocortical atrophy. The combined administration of those hypothalamic releasing factors, that have been identified as suppressed or deficient during prolonged critical illness, may be a promising strategy to enhance recovery. The potential impact of treatment with such hypothalamic releasing factors on recovery from critical illness as well as on long-term rehabilitation should be investigated in future randomized controlled clinical trials.


I am not graduating this semester, thankfully, because I really do need as much more time as I can get to decide where I want to apply the incredible skills I’ve learned at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications. Plus, I have a couple more graduation requirements to meet, but that’s besides the point.
The point is, my experience at UF has been more than I could have ever dreamed of. I started out as a reporter for spot-news segments for WUFT-FM‘s local news cut-ins, and went on to anchor live coverage of the 2012 Presidential Election for WUFT-TV. The Center for Media Innovation and Research has provided me with advanced resources to produce professional, multi-platform work. These lessons have prepared me for working in the “real world,” and I am now facing the ultimate dreaded question: what do I want to do? This question arises not because I am not confident in my preparation for “the real world,” but because I want to ensure that the invaluable skills I’ve acquired through CMIR will be applied in the most meaningful context for me.
I have acquired journalistic skills, such as timeliness, research, and ethical practices, along with more practical skills, such as leadership, networking, and open-mindedness. I have witnessed the great transitions at the J-school through my four years here, particularly the development of the Integrated News Facility. Here, is where the goals put out by CMIR–to produce cross-platform productions— were really put to the test, with the production of material for radio, television, and internet broadcast.
I have performed the role of anchor, producer, news operations manager, multimedia journalist, and various other behind-the-scene production roles at the INF. It has been truly invigorating to contribute to the success of this program and its broadcasts, particularly in a few specific experiences I had, such as Election Night 2012.
In November, I anchored and co-produced live cut-in segments on local election returns which aired during PBS’s national coverage of the presidential election. This was by far one of the most challenging undertakings of my college career, as time flew by way faster than I expected during the night, material such as return numbers and reporter packages came in one right after the other, and I had to work amidst varying levels of stress, egos, and excitement among my colleagues. Yet, the result was a nationally recognized successful and important production. To me, this is the ultimate portrayal of the outstanding opportunities that CMIR at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications provides for its students.
In particular, CMIR has provided me with the skills to tackle projects across various platforms, perform overlapping roles in a production, and understand the value of teamwork and communication. While election night was the most significant depiction of all these skills at work, I have unwavering thoughts that these experiences will remain invaluable to me for the rest of my working life, and I know I’m not the only who who thinks so.


Protecting Fish and Fish Farmers from Infectious Disease,which discusses UV disinfection systems for aquaculture biosecurity. Aquaculture is the most rapidly growing sector of food production worldwide. Higher fish density can lead to pathogen increase which is a significant threat to aquaculture operations. Disinfection by UV or ozone can reduce the risk of disease in aquaculture systems and results in less need for vaccination, as well as higher growth rates and decreased fish mortality.


Somehow I've been 24 years old my entire college career. Guys always guess 24/25 to be my age. And I still feel 24. I'm afraid as soon as I graduate, 28 will catch up to me all too swiftly.
Because I started college at 24, already the average age for dateable boys on campus was a bit on the low side. But the real problem was how as time went by, the boys kept getting younger, and I aged without really getting any older. They would always think I was 23–25, but those numbers didn't always stay. So because it happened so often that guys sort of reeled away and grimaced once they heard the number of years I'd been on Earth, I just made a habit of separating school and dating. Like church and state, dating and schooling just didn't seem able to co-govern in my mind. I expected the church setting to be my reliable dating source (ha), and the school to be my skills and education source.
This final semester, as a last-ditch effort, I decided I'd make an attempt at repentance and take the Dating and Courtship class. Might as well get some good prophetic advice before I leave the university environment and its ripe breeding ground for dates and marriages, which environment I neglect as often as I trudge straight through it. I've been learning a lot of good things in this class, and putting them into practice in life. Such learn+apply behavior has been making my dating life less pathetic, though my date quota hasn't increased one bit. So that's a nice side effect already.
Today, though, the dating class offered a lesson I never would have expected and still may not fully understand. We were talking about tips for selecting a good mate. At one point the teacher settled down in a chair and said he would need a female volunteer. No immediate hand rose. He said, a girl who likes money. I kicked my hand to the sky, joking about enthusiasm for the money part, but ready to climb on stage for the magic trick.
As I approached, he briefly told me that if I wanted more than I was given, I would need to give up what I had to get it. Those were the rules, that was the system. I sat down in the sideways-facing chair he pulled out for me. I faced him, the class faced us. When he reached into his pocket, we heard chattering coins. He lifted out a quarter and placed it on the table between us.
"Do you like that?"
"A nice quarter."
"What could you get with that?"
"I could use it at one of those bubble gum machines."
"Would you like something better?"
"Sure."
"What's the system?"
He holds out his hand.
"Have to give it up if I want something better," I say, placing quarter-George face-up in his palm.
He whips out a dollar.
"How's that?"
"Better."
"How much better?"
"Uh...four times?" I doubt my math. Four times or three times better than a quarter? Four quarters, one dollar. . .
"Oooh FOUR TIMES! Who told you that that bill is worth more than this coin?"
I reach way back into the memory of elementary school days searching for a name. Was I really supposed to remember who told me—ohhh wait:
"Society says this paper is valued at four times that coin. It has the value we say it has."
"There you have it, class, it's the value we GIVE the money." He turns again to me. "Would you like something better?"
"Yes."
Hand out, bill in.
Then from his other hand, Jackson's wavy hair and suave grin slide across the table.
"What do you think of that? Is that green paper better than this green paper?" He sets the $1 and $20 side by side.
"Yes."
"But why?"
"Same answer."
"Not because this face is better than that face?"
"Jackson's got better hair." No offense, George.
"Would you like something better?"
"If you've got something better than a twenty, yeah."
"Oh, so now there are stipulations to this agreement?"
"I'm just saying, so far you've been pretty reliable."
"Ah, you're beginning to trust me. So would you like something better?"
"Uh, sure."
Hand out, bill in.
He slaps a penny on the table.
actual penny :)
"Oh," I say.
"Tell me how you feel right now?"
"Shortchanged." I smile. Class laughs.
"How else, other words."
"Cheated. Betrayed."
"Good. Why?"
"Because you said—" No he didn't say he would give me something better. He asked if I wanted something better. "Because it's not worth more than the $20," I finish.
As I repeatedly flip the penny and catch it, he explains to the class how he believes a lot of us are dating loose change, not expecting more for ourselves; or how we're dating $20 bills, but always looking for the possible better, greater mate. (It's not a wholly lucid analogy, but we get what he's getting at, right?)
"Do you want to keep the penny?"
"No, actually, I don't." It's dirty and pennies are practically useless.
"Aren't you worried that you'll get something worse than a penny? Is there something less than a penny?"
"Yeah, nothing," someone in the class says.
"Has anyone been to the Philippines? I've been to the Philippines. They have what are called
centavos/sentimos(something like that). One penny is worth one hundred centavos."
I just stare at him. So he might hand me a
centavo.
Hand out, penny in.
A $100 dollar bill slips onto the table.
"Here you go. Have a seat."
Wait, huh?
"What? Seriously?"
"What, would you like something more?"
I'm just thinking, no way I'm going to actually take my religion teacher's money.
"It's yours if you want it," he says.
I stand up and take a couple steps.
"Are you for real? I mean—" I feel quite awkward.
"You can trade it in, but what's the system? If you want something more, you're going to sacrifice what you have."
"I'm good." I go to sit in my seat. I'm not sure if he was hoping I would keep playing.
I'm almost back to my seat and he says again, "You sure you wouldn't want something more?"
"I'm just—I don't know. Confused. You said take a seat. I thought the game was over."
"It's up to you. You can keep it, or you can wait for something more."
"What do you mean, wait for more? This sounds like gambling, Brother Sackett; we aren't supposed to gamble." The class laughs.
I'm approaching the front of the room again, so unsure what's expected of me. I'm a true from-the-crowd volunteer. I'm not "in" on any of what he's getting at, but I'm trying to play along as best as I'm grasping his analogy. I like analogies. I'm not about to spoil a good object lesson by being a lousy subject.
"You can keep the hundred dollars, or you can trade it for something more. How far would you be able to make that $100 go?"
I recognize that the larger the amount I have, the easier it is to consider investment to see results. I say, "Actually, I could save it, invest it maybe."
"Ah ha, I like this girl! Invest the money. But you could do that with all these amounts, right? The $20, the $1, the quarter—though that would take a long time. What matters is if you invest, you get more out of your money than just money."
He then goes on to explain how if we value relationships, we invest in them. If we constantly think something better will come along, we'll never invest, we'll never get anything. If we do choose a $100 but one day down the line see $1000 walk by, will we be committed to our investment?
I've been trying to understand this object lesson better, but I don't know if I'm wholly grasping it. But when I think about a quarter earning a bubble gum, $1 buying a Redbox movie, $20 securing some groceries, it took the $100 amount for me to finally realize I could invest and save that money, get more out of it than "things," and I realize, I've probably had a fair too many "thing" relationships, where I'm not looking at the possibility with quite the right intent. I know I'm a loyal person, a giving person, and I will invest fully in my husband. Am I willing to sacrifice what I have now to get something better? Will I be willing to sacrifice things to build investments and interest in the future, when I've already selected my mate? I think so. Do I see the value of a person as God sees it? Can I recognize the potential of investing together, helping each other polish up and become more valuable? These are the nuggets I take from this lesson, I guess.
So as I sit there, $100 bill face down on the table in front of me, the teacher wraps up his lesson. He mentions how, in the thirty years he's taught classes and used that object lesson, only three girls kept the $100 bill. Apparently these girls all eventually felt shallow and the other people who knew she kept the money perceived her as shallow too; either the guys didn't want to ask her out or she personally felt like none of the guys wanted to date her once word got around that she kept the $100. At this point I'm thinking there may have been something missing from our version of the object lesson. If you give a girl $100 and tell her to keep it or trade it for something better, is she stingy for not trading it for something better? How is she suddenly an undesirable because she volunteered and played along and got a sweet payout for it? She's the victim here! See, I'm confused.
Class ends, people pack up their stuff and leave. I already decided minutes ago that I wasn't keeping the money. Just not right. Why not right? I don't know. It's his money, I'm not leaving with it.
As I walk up to the front of the class he says, "So, Emily, are you still thinking about it?"
"No, I'm not keeping this," I say, smiling.
"You can keep it if you want, or you can take this penny as a reminder."
I don't remember if he said as a reminder for something specific, but he holds out the penny and I reach for it. He pinches it tightly; I had to pull it from his fingers. He says, "If you take this, as soon as you find your million dollar man, you have to come back and tell me."
"I will." I put it in my left front pants pocket and walk back to collect my things.
"Well, a penny isn't too much, it's too bad." He's saying something like this with a farewell tone, a goodbye lilt.
"I came to class without any money, so I can leave with a penny and be better off."
But this strange thing was happening in my throat and behind my eyes as I walked away toward my job on campus. Something inside me, something rational and greedy, said, "Wow, you just forfeited $100 for a penny." I replied silently, "No, I never had $100 to forfeit." But I felt a loss and tears threatened to go in search after it. (Sometimes I'm a real wimp against tears.) I felt sacrifice within me, felt a recognition that I'd done this before, but the parallel sacrifice of an actual relationship.
I'd had $100 boyfriend once. Really didn't want to give him up, thought I had what I wanted. When I felt it wasn't right anymore, that I couldn't invest in him and get an eternal return, I gave him up. And what did I get in return? Well, I'm not involved in a lousy investment for one. Beyond that, I don't know. I just felt like it's better to have a penny that can become something than $100 that'll run dry in no time.
So basically I traded $100 for a year-2000 penny today. Am I April's choicest fool? Meh. I'll keep that penny. And you know what? I think I'll start keeping pennies in general, as many as I find, as many as make up the change from paying with cash, and I'll collect them until I find that man. And my wedding day present to him will be a $100 bill.
In God I trust. I'm willing to see my investment climb penny by penny, because isn't that how life goes anyway? Some moments are $20-good; some are $100-amazing, but mostly it's pennies feeding that porcelain pig, keeping it fed day to day, and taking us safely through the rainy days.


.Obama’s America, where a private insurance company can’t charge you more for being a smoker (because loving to inhale a mixture of tobacco and chemicals directly into your lungs is a pre-existing condition, obviously), but where the government can add a nearly dollar per pack to cigarette taxes to fund pre-K education.
Among President Obama’s half trillion dollars in tax hikes is a 94 cent tax on cigarettes expected to raise $78 billion over ten years. The president wants to spend it on early education.
Meanwhile, healthcare exchanges created by Obamacare are starting to classify cigarette smoking as a pre-existing condition, prohibiting insurance companies for charging more to customers who take a higher risk by smoking.
As Kevin Williamson notes at
National Review, we should expect more of this as ObamaCare ramps up in the near future.


Insulinoma, a small and malignant neuroendocrine tumor of dogs, has proven difficult to detect reliably with imaging tests. The literature suggests that ultrasound detects a primary pancreatic lesion in approximately 50% of cases and detects metastases in only 20% of cases. CT has a reported success rate of detecting a primary lesion in 70% of cases, but is of limited value in the detection of metastases. Continue reading


What does my style of parenting look like? Let’s say your nine-year-old refuses to comply with a simple request, like “Please pick up your toys.” Don’t repeat your request. Don’t yell or threaten a time-out. Instead, respond with action—firm, calm, quiet, and dramatic.
For instance, you might begin placing the toys into a container. If the child asks what you’re doing, you can say that the toys will remain in your possession until she pays you a small sum or performs certain chores. Your floor will be free of clutter — and your child will be more likely to comply next time.


The Enterprise Of The Future: Implications For Midsize Organizations
IBM
2-19-2009
IBM conducted 1,130 interviews with chief executives, general managers, business leaders and public-sector heads in the course of completing the research for its third biennial Global CEO Study, which aims to identify the key characteristics of the Enterprise of the Future. This paper focuses on the responses of the 136 "midmarket CEOs" who head midsize organizations (defined as companies that employ fewer than 1,000 people). As part of its research, IBM sought to understand the differences between the responses of financial outperformers and those of underperformers. It compared the revenue and profit track records of those companies with publicly available financial information against the averages for their industries within its sample. It labeled companies that performed above the average on a particular financial benchmark outperformers, and those below the average underperformers. Throughout its analyses, IBM looked for insights based on these top- and bottom-half groupings.


Q:
Is it safe to use the microwave when I’m pregnant?
A:
Microwave ovens use a form of radiation that heats food by causing water molecules within the food to vibrate. If the microwave door has a good seal, only items within the oven are affected by the radiation. If you think your microwave could be leaking, either because the door is warped or the oven appears to function when the door is open, it’s unwise to use it. It’s also advisable to stand several feet away from the microwave when it’s in use.
When you microwave food, transfer it to containers made of ceramic or glass rather than plastic. Some plastic containers and plastic wraps contain chemicals (dioxins) that can seep into your food during the microwave process. These chemicals should not be consumed during or after pregnancy. Also, remember that a microwave can heat foods unevenly. Avoid overheating beverages, stir foods before consumption and carefully test the temperature before eating.
Our parenting advice is given as suggestions only. We recommend you also consult your healthcare provider, and urge you to contact them immediately if your question is urgent or about a medical condition.


With rising fuel costs, traffic, and limited parking spaces in urban areas, Dump The Pump Day is all about finding alternatives to driving and breaking the habit of using fuel for the day. Save on fuel costs by taking public transportation, cycling, walking, or carpooling to work. The latest APTA Transit Savings Report shows that a two-person household that downsizes to one car can save – on the average – more than $10,174 a year.
Federal and State fuel taxes can burn a hole in your budget too. States like Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. have suffered hikes in fuel taxes over the last year. According to the American Petroleum Institute, the states with the highest gas tax (combined federal and state taxes, rounded to the nearest hundredth) are as follows:
California
$.71 cents per gallon
New York
$.68 cents per gallon
Connecticut
$.68 cents per gallon
Pennsylvania
$.60 cents per gallon
Michigan
$.60 cents per gallon
Indiana
$.59 cents per gallon
Illinois
$.58 cents per gallon
North Carolina
$.56 cents per gallon
Washington State
$.56 cents per gallon
Florida
$.54 cents per gallon


If you feel the need to interrupt a woman to explain how you as a man aren't sexist, you're probably not convincing your audience as much as you think.
The more you know. (I'm sure this also works if I as a white woman were to interrupt a person of color to explain how totally non-racist I am: I would not be convincing. I'm sure I have done some things equally egregious. I'm not proud of myself.) It's not an oppression olympics, folks. There's no competition about which culture or country is most oppressive. Who cares, really? You recognize oppression; you analyze it so you understand how it works, and then you work to end it. If you start with feminism as a way to analyze gender oppression, that's a starting point. Then you have to work on doing something about gender oppression. And then, you need to use what you've learned to start analyzing other systemic oppression with a purpose to end oppression. When we start congratulating ourselves about our own superiority in being non-sexist or non-racist or non-oppressive, then we're taking a couple big steps back in our work.


“Towards Better Usability, Security and Privacy of Information Technology” is a great survey of the state of usable security and privacy:
Usability has emerged as a significant issue in ensuring the security and privacy of computer systems. More-usable security can help avoid the inadvertent (or even deliberate) undermining of security by users. Indeed, without sufficient usability to accomplish tasks efficiently and with less effort, users will often tend to bypass security features. A small but growing community of researchers, with roots in such fields as human-computer interaction, psychology, and computer security, has been conducting research in this area.
Regardless of how familiar you are with usable security, this report is a worthwhile read.


I have heard that you should not wet concrete units before laying them in the wall. But concrete bricks and concrete blocks often are wet-cut, which adds considerable moisture to the units. Is this a problem? Yes, it can be. If many cut units are being used, cracking may be excessive in these areas. I recommend dry-cutting concrete units whenever possible. If some units are wet-cut, let them dry thoroughly before using them.


This stability in the Market’s commercial activity was also seen in the sale of fresh and frozen products, which maintained their tonnage with respect to the previous year. What did change were the prices.
In the case of the fresh products, prices rose 2%, a moderate increase explained by the upsurge of certain products such as tuna, salmon, hake and sardine. Frozen fish and seafood prices on the other hand fell almost 6%, particularly on account of the lower price of species such as Spanish squid, king prawn and red prawn.
Product Origin Stability Half the fresh fish sold at the Market in 2008 was Spanish. This means product origin was similar to recent years. In contrast, changes were seen in the origins of fresh seafood, where imported species fell 5% with regard to the year before. While 48% of fresh seafood was imported in 2007, the figure was 43% in 2008, a trend explained by a drop in imports of mussels, farmed clams and baby clams.


Treatment of thymomas remains a challenge for oncologists as no clear evidence-based guidelines can be provided due to the lack of randomized trials. Whenever possible, surgical removal of all gross tumour remains the mainstay of every therapeutic concept. Nevertheless, despite optimal surgery, there remains a clinically relevant risk for recurrence, inevitably posing the question concerning the value of adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment-interventions. The following short review aims to provide concise information on the available data on neoadjuvant and adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in patients with thymoma, thus supporting the treating physician in advising their patients and finally reaching an informed consent.


Quantum and chaos, key concepts in contemporary science, are incompatible by nature. This volume presents an investigation into quantum transport in mesoscopic or nanoscale systems which are classically chaotic and shows the success and failure of quantal, semiclassical, and random matrix theories in dealing with questions emerging from the mesoscopic cosmos. These traditional theories are critically analysed, and this leads to a new direction. To reconcile quantum with chaos and to restore genuine temporal chaos in quantum systems, a time-discrete variant of quantum dynamics is proposed. Audience:This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in physics, chemistry and mathematics, whose work involves fundamental questions of quantum mechanics in chaotic systems.


National Hockey League players' experiences with career-ending concussions Abstract Objective This study investigated the experiences of National Hockey League (NHL) players who retired due to medically diagnosed concussions they incurred during their playing careers. Design An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith et al, 2009) was used to examine the interview data. IPA is a qualitative research methodology used to understand and explore how people make sense of important life experiences and has been commonly used in health research (Smith, 2011). Setting Interviews were conducted in various cities in North America. Participants Five former NHL players whose professional careers spanned more than 10 seasons were interviewed for this project. Results Participants in this study articulated the type and intensity of the physical (eg, headaches, visual impairments) and psychological (eg, isolation, depression, suicidal ideation) concussion symptoms they endured during their careers, including how these symptoms impacted their professional careers, quality of lives, and relationships with family members and medical professionals. Participants said they continued to experience physical symptoms such as headaches, sensitivity to bright lights, and concentration problems after their careers, which has affected their post-athletic lives and has disturbed their daily functioning. Conclusions These are the first results to empirically document the experiences of professional athletes who suffered career-ending concussions. Findings from this study concur with McCrory et al's (2009) call for longitudinal research to better understand the implications of concussive injury. Additionally, our results indicate a need for psychological counselling in conjunction with medical guidance during rehabilitation from concussion and transition to post-athletic lives. Competing interests None.


Based in London, Geoff heads our leadership team and, as a member of the Board, has primary accountability for delivering our forward strategy.
Geoff has worked extensively with a wide range of multinationals in over 30 years of consulting.
Through the 1980s he was Group Managing Director of a leading European communications consultancy, advising particularly on the management of reputation. He was a member of the RSA’s influential Tomorrow’s Company Inquiry team and advised the BBC on environmental and communications issues in the lead-up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. With SustainAbility, he has led strategic sustainability reviews with a wide range of global companies including BT, Coca-Cola, Ford, KPMG, Nestlé and Shell.
Geoff was the lead author of SustainAbility’s groundbreaking report,
The Changing Landscape of Liability, which assesses how new forms of social, environmental and economic liability demand a new approach to strategic risk management. He co-authored Taxing Issues, which explores the issue of responsible tax policies and practice within the broader corporate responsibility agenda. His latest research explores how corporate economic responsibility is set to shift whole sectors of industry to new business models requiring companies to develop and deliver active responses to the major challenges of the 21st century – from climate change to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Geoff holds a Research Fellowship at Green College, Oxford and teaches postgraduates at the Environmental Change Institute.


A team of researchers from the Tsinghua University and Rice University has demonstrated that a combination of carbon nanotube forests and a sulfide-based electrolyte can be used to fabricate high-efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) at a cost lower than that of conventional silicon-based solar cells.
According to the research team, vertically aligned single-wall carbon nanotube forests developed at the Rice laboratory of Robert Hauge are an efficient replacement to platinum electrodes, a commonly used catalyst in DSC technology. Jun Lou, one of the researchers, informed that these nanotube carpets are also more electroactive than the platinum electrodes. DSCs can be produced more easily than silicon-based solid-state solar cells. However, their efficiency is lower than that of silicon-based solar cells.
In DSCs, photons are absorbed from sunlight by dyes to produce a charge as electrons. A semiconducting titanium oxide layer applied over a current collector captures these electrons before they reach the counter electrode via another current collector. The introduction of iodine-based electrolytes has advanced the DSC production. However, corrosion of metallic current collectors caused by these electrolytes has raised question about the reliability of DSCs, Lou said. Moreover, these electrolytes tend to absorb visible light wavelengths, only fewer photons can be used.
To overcome these issues of iodine-based electrolytes, the Tsinghua researchers developed a sulfide-based electrolyte that is noncorrosive, absorbs little visible light, and is highly compatible with the nanotubes developed by the Rice researchers. Both universities had fabricated working DSCs, with similar results. The power conversion efficiency of these DSCs was 5.25%, a value lower than the DSC record value of 11% achieved using a platinum electrode and iodine electrolytes. However, their conversion efficiency was considerably greater than the value of a control test on the combination of the conventional platinum counter electrode and the new electrolyte.
Lou stated that more research needs to be done because the contact resistance of the carbon nanotube-to-current collector is high and the impact of carbon nanotube structural defects on its catalytic performance is not completely understood.
Source: http://www.rice.edu


The aim of the study was to establish the nutritional practices and activity patterns of elite female soccer players. The nutritional intake of 16 female England Soccer players was self-reported over a seven-day period. Participants were provided with written and verbal guidelines for the completion of the diaries. Training details were also recorded, and used in combination with BMR predictions to calculate daily energy expenditure. Energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes were determined using DietMaster 4.0 software. Results suggest that energy intake was low (1904 ± 366.3 kcal) in relation to previous recommendations for soccer players. Energy expenditure (2153.5 ± 596.2 kcal) was not significantly different (p > 0.05) from intake, suggesting energy balance was achieved. Carbohydrate (53.8 ± 6.8%), protein (16.8 ± 2.1%) and fat (28.8 ± 6.6%) intakes were in line with recommendations. Fluid intake (2466 ± 1350.5ml·day -1) was sufficient to meet baseline recommendations, but would need to be higher to meet the additional requirement of training and competition. With the exception of vitamin A and iron, all micronutrient intakes were higher than the DRI. In conclusion, recommendations for female soccer players are to encourage consumption of carbohydrate-electrolyte beverages to enhance carbohydrate intake and increase fluid intake, and ensure sufficient iron rich foods are included in the diet to meet the DRI.
KEY WORDS: Energy, intake, expenditure, carbohydrate, fluid, micronutrient.


Qatar issues Personal Data Privacy Law
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Thursday (November 13) issued Law No 13 of 2016 on protecting personal data.
The law includes provisions related to the rights of individuals to protect the privacy of their personal data.
According to Article 2, the legislation refers only to personal data that is electronically processed, or obtained, gathered or extracted in preparation for electronic processing, or when a combination of electronic and traditional processing is used.
It does not apply to personal data processed by individuals privately or within a family context, or to any personal data gathered for official surveys and statistics.
According the law, businesses are now banned from sending direct marketing messages electronically without obtaining an individual’s prior consent.
According to the law, organizations must adhere to basic data protection responsibilities. This includes ensuring data handlers are properly trained and that necessary precautions are made to “protect personal data from loss, damage, modification, disclosure or being illegally accessed.”
It also includes articles that require consent from individuals before their personal information can be used by an organization.
According to Article 17, the owner or operator of any website related to children must put up a policy about how it manages the information of minors. These website operators must also get the consent of the child’s parent when processing their information.
The law is effective starting from its date of publication in the official gazette.


Flash flooding can occur in or near mountainous areas, on small streams and even in large cities. Water levels can suddenly rise in heavy rainstorms, leaving little time before small streams and drainage ditches become raging rivers. Sometimes a flash flood can unleash its deadly force in just a few minutes.
Flood Waters
Police and fire department barricades are there for your protection. DO NOT drive around them. Flood waters covering roads or bridges have more force and power than you might think.
Your local Emergency Manager can assist you with creating your disaster plan and answer your questions about disaster preparedness in your area. Feel free to contact the Nelson County Department of Emergency Services to assist with any questions you may have on disaster preparedness.


You might associate couponing with 60s housewives or a certain TLC show, but couponing is set to get big in 2013.
The emergence of mobile couponing combined with a widespread economic crisis in Europe, has led many to rely on the once-paper tickets to help with their monthly budget.
A new study by Juniper Research has found that The number of discount coupons redeemed through mobile and tablet devices is expected to reach 10 billion this year, up by more than 50% on last year. According to the report, innovative retailers are increasingly seeking to offer mobile as a delivery channel, both as a means of driving retail footfall and to enhance consumer engagement and retention.
Additionally, the report observed that mobile couponing offered retailers the opportunity to connect their digital and physical assets. As report author Dr Windsor Holden pointed out, “While we’ve heard that online retail is killing the High Street – witness United Retail filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US and the recent administrations of Jessop’s and Blockbuster in the UK – mobile offers a means of engaging with the consumer at every point in the retail lifecycle, from product discovery to product purchase.”
Companies like Shopitize have taken the hint and have partnered with brands directly to offer British consumers discounts and cashback deals. Technology giant Apple has also embraced the trend, through the company’s Passbook service.


Changing stakeholder expectations are compelling CEOs to innovate, finds Frost & Sullivan’s Visionary Innovation Team
Digitisation of products, services and solutions is leading to disruption, collapse, and transformation of several industries and business ecosystems. The breakneck speed of technology change, in particular, is knocking down traditional product-based business models and compelling a more agile, service-based approach. How are organisations responding to this ongoing churn? Which approaches will lead them to long-term, sustainable growth?
Over 300 CEOs and business leaders across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and Africa participated in Frost & Sullivan’s Annual Survey
CEOs’ Perspectives on Growth, Innovation and Leadership .
“As global economic ecosystems experience intense transformation driven by digitisation and resulting change of focus from products to services, new opportunities for growth and innovation are emerging. However, leveraging these opportunities requires visionary leadership that can realise growth strategies and vision congruence,” says Frost & Sullivan Chairman
David Frigstad.
Click
here for complimentary access to more information on this research and to register for a Growth Strategy Dialogue, a free interactive briefing with our industry thought leaders.
Companies that do not embrace disruption or fail to focus on innovation and growth, integrate new business models, and align with customer needs will find themselves increasingly marginalised. Companies are encountering challenges from both external and internal factors, as these findings demonstrate:
53% of CEOs cite an intensifying competitive environment as the biggest external threat to growth. However, most organisations are unable to adequately involve competitive intelligence/corporate strategy teams for mitigating this challenge. Digital transformation is acknowledged as a dominant growth, innovation, and leadership catalyst over the next five years. However, nearly 34% of CEOs indicate that the speed of technology change represents a real and immediate challenge. Technology strategies, along with strategic partnerships, are perceived as central to growth over the next three years. However, over 50% of CEOs indicate their inability to successfully execute either technology and IP strategies or strategic partnerships . The transition from product to services, personalisation and customisation, and value for many (as opposed to value for money) rank among the top three disruptive business models. However, over 50% of CEOs state that they have been unable to integrate these new business models into their organisations.
“Digital transformation, including intelligent data analytics, convergence, connectivity and digital consumers, is compelling CEOs to develop innovative tools and strategies in order to deliver on dynamic stakeholder expectations,” says
Sandeep Kar, Frost & Sullivan Global Head, Content Transformation. “One key takeaway from this survey is that implementation has to start early and consistently.”
In the survey,
Apple, Amazon, Tesla and GE were cited as the most disruptive companies. “Their unique stories testify to the unprecedented gains to be had from converting disruption into growth, focusing on innovation, and displaying visionary leadership,” concludes Kar.
To attend Frost & Sullivan’s flagship Growth, Innovation and Leadership events, or to partner with Frost & Sullivan, avail our Growth Partnership Services, and accelerate growth, please contact Ravinder Kaur, Corporate Communications,
ravinder.kaur@frost.com


Abstract 103: Cardiac Grk2 Blockade Augments β2-Adrenergic Receptor-Dependent Contractility and Survival Post Myocardial Infarction Abstract
ß
1- and ß 2-adrenergic receptors (ßARs) are G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that play clearly distinct roles in cardiac physiology/pathology: cardiomyocyte contraction is readily stimulated by ß 1AR but not ß 2AR signaling, and ß 1AR signaling is largely pro-apoptotic in the heart, in contrast to the cardioprotective ß 2AR signaling. These differences might be due to assembly of different macromolecular complexes containing phosphodiesterases (PDEs), which constrain pro-contractile 3'-5'-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling. Additionally, ß 2AR is readily phosphorylated by GPCR kinase (GRK)-2, which then recruits ß-arrestin (ßarr), a universal GPCR adapter/scaffolding molecule, to the receptor. ßarrs reduce ß 2AR pro-contractile signaling by desensitizing the receptor and can either increase or decrease apoptosis via interactions with several downstream effectors. Herein, we sought to investigate the effect of ßarr recruitment blockade on ß 2AR-dependent contractility and survival in vivo. To this end, we crossed ß 1AR knockout (B1KO) mice, lacking the ß 1AR, with M27 mice, which overexpress, specifically in cardiac myocytes, the GRK2 inhibitor GRK2ct (or ßARKct). By blocking GRK2-mediated phosphorylation, ßarr binding to ß 2AR is prevented. We studied the offspring both under normal conditions and after surgically induced myocardial infarction (MI). Contractility was significantly augmented in M27/B1KO mice compared to control B1KO's, both in healthy mice (ejection fraction (EF): 69+1.8% vs. 57+1.7%, respectively, p<0.05, n=8) and at 4 weeks post-MI (EF: 42.6+0.1% vs. 25+3.9%, respectively, p<0.05, n=8). In addition, M27/B1KO mice exhibited less cardiac dilatation, increased survival and decreased cardiac apoptosis and infarct size, compared to B1KO's, at 4 weeks post-MI. At the molecular level, M27/B1KO hearts displayed significantly less membrane recruitment of PDEs, upregulation of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and a more favorable inflammatory cytokine profile vs. B1KO hearts. Thus, cardiac GRK2 inhibition by GRK2ct increases both ß 2AR-dependent contractility and survival in post-MI heart failure and could be pursued in situations where ß 2AR agonism is beneficial, e.g. in patients awaiting cardiac transplantation. © 2012 by American Heart Association, Inc.


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The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is your ability or capacity to manage your emotions, tune into others’ emotions, and maintain trust in yourself and others. When your emotional intelligence is more developed, you can recognize when you are triggered and exercise self-management so that emotions are not getting in the way of decision making.
While watching presidential debates, did you notice who reacted when emotions were triggered and who exercised better self-control? This is not about right or wrong. The reality is that we all have emotions, and our emotions get triggered all the time. Managing emotional triggers takes intentionality and skills that can be developed through EI work. Without the tools and practice of consciously cultivating emotional intelligence, one is more likely to fall into the trap of a victimhood mindset.
Emotional Quotient (EQ) is used to measure emotional intelligence. There are many tests on the market that can serve as benchmarks in determining your EQ and many programs available to develop it. These can be useful tools, and some may be more effective for you than others. However, the common denominator in developing EQ
Noticing Your Own Emotions
The EQ Profile identifies the following as essential human emotions: joy, love, anger, fear, anxiety, sadness, and shame. Interestingly enough, we often don’t allow ourselves to feel certain emotions because of our negative associations and perceptions with an experience from our past. For example, if someone was raised in a household with an angry father, the negativity associated with anger might be so strong that they have unintentionally learned to block themselves from experiencing that emotion entirely. However, avoiding essential feelings like anger will only stifle or channel the emotion, leading it to ultimately be released in an unexpected or unpleasant way. The best way to manage your own emotions is to acknowledge them by naming them. This simple acknowledgment gives you power over your reaction to the experience.
Noticing Other’s Emotions
When you learn to notice your emotions, you will have a better ability to detect the emotions of others. Remember, we all have essential feelings, and it’s healthy to be in touch with them. Allowing others the same liberty to experience their emotions without attempting to manage them is a practice of awareness and acceptance that can strength your own EQ. If their emotions do spill over to yours, you can always set boundaries so that you are not negatively impacted.
Noticing Your Relationship Strategies
In relationships, there are different strategies we take based on the situation. Relationship strategies are rooted in self-regulation of emotion intelligence. Most of the time, we want to collaborate with others. Collaboration requires a strategy of high trust in both ourselves and others. When that strategy doesn’t work, we either take the lead by concentrating trust solely in ourselves, fall back and follow the lead of others by concentrating trust in someone else, or simply resign by withdrawing trust entirely. All four strategies have their value depending on the situation. However, without self-awareness of when and how often you apply each of the strategies, it can be easy to fall into a pattern based on comfort instead of growth. Noticing your strategies for approaching trust can furnish new opportunities and prevent stagnation.
Emotional intelligence can be an intimidating concept, but by simply applying these three practices of self-awareness, you are well on your way to developing a stronger, healthier EQ. For those interested in taking the next step with EI development coaching, I welcome your questions and look forward to helping guide your inquiry.
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After years of awaiting clarity from the Supreme Court of Texas regarding spoliation under Texas law, the Supreme Court issued a significant decision that will shift how Texas state courts handle civil jury instructions regarding “spoliation” of evidence – the withholding, alteration, or destruction of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Allegations of spoliation have increased as litigating parties and courts increasingly deal with massive electronic data requests during the course of discovery. A spoliation jury instruction typically informs the jury that it may consider that missing evidence was unfavorable to the spoliating party, an act that can often tilt the case—if not harm the spoliating party—in favor of the opposing party, regardless of whether or not there was an intent to destroy evidence. In
Brookshire Brothers, Ltd. v. Aldridge, No. 10-0846, __ S.W. 3d ___ (2014), the Court addressed this issue by holding that:
A party must intentionally spoliate evidence in order for a spoliation instruction to constitute an appropriate remedy.
A party’s negligent spoliation of evidence is no longer sufficient grounds for a jury instruction on spoliation except in the limited situation where the non-spoliating party has been irreparably deprived of any meaningful ability to present a claim or defense.
Factual Background
Jerry Aldridge slipped and fell on grease that had leaked out of a container at a Brookshire Brothers grocery store but did not inform Brookshire Brothers of his injury until several days later. In response, a Brookshire Brothers' executive retained a copy of approximately eight minutes of surveillance video footage that began before Aldridge entered the store and ended after his fall. The remainder of the video from the day of the accident was deleted and reused after thirty days, which was the company’s practice at the time. Almost a year later, Aldridge’s attorney requested two-and-a-half-hours of additional footage from store cameras, but the video footage had already been recorded over. No footage, therefore, existed that might show whether Brookshire Brothers was aware of the spilled grease, a critical issue in the case.
The Trial Court: Spoliating Instruction Leads to Jury Verdict Against Spoliating Party
At trial, a Brookshire Brothers’ executive testified that he had saved a portion of the video showing Aldridge’s fall only to verify that he had actually fallen, but did not save additional footage because he did not believe it was relevant, and because he did not know there would be litigation based on the incident. The trial court submitted the following spoliation instruction to the jury that included the following language:
If you find that Brookshire Brothers knew or reasonably should have known that such portions of the store video not preserved contained relevant evidence to the issues in this case, and its non-preservation has not been satisfactorily explained, then you are instructed that you may consider such evidence would have been unfavorable to Brookshire Brothers.
The jury awarded Aldridge $1.06 million in damages.
The Aldridge Holding: the Texas Supreme Court Clarifies Spoliation Under Texas Law
Later on appeal, noting the lack of clarity on spoliation standards in Texas, the Supreme Court began by formalizing a two-step process for handling an allegation of spoliation by the trial court. First, a court – not a jury – must determine whether a party spoliated evidence, and, second, the court must assess an appropriate remedy if spoliation occurred. Regarding the former point, the Court further clarified that to support a finding of spoliation, a court must find that: (1) the party had a duty to reasonably preserve evidence, and (2) the party intentionally or negligently breached the duty by failing to do so. This process does not risk unfairly prejudicing a jury because it is handled entirely by the judge.
Stressing that the remedy for spoliation must be proportionate, the Court focused on two factors – the level of culpability of the spoliating party and the degree of prejudice suffered by the nonspoliating party. Because instructing the jury that the missing evidence would have been unfavorable is “among the harshest sanctions a trial court may utilize” and can itself tilt a trial in favor of the nonspoliating party, the Court determined that it should only be used where the spoliation was an intentional act. This approach takes into account that a party that spoliated evidence through negligence only does not have the state of mind of a “wrongdoer” and, therefore, it does not follow that the missing evidence would likely by unfavorable to that party’s case. The “narrow caveat” to this rule carved out by the Court is that even where spoliation occurred as a result of negligence, if the destruction of the evidence irreparably prevents the nonspoliating party from having a meaningful chance to present a claim or defense, the spoliation instruction is appropriate. This satisfies the proportionality requirement because, even though no culpability is present, the effect of the spoliation is extraordinary, thus requiring an extraordinary remedy.
Implications for Discovery After Aldridge
In considering implications for businesses, a primary concern of Aldridge is the rampant rise in electronic discovery. The Court specifically mentioned that the responsibility to preserve and produce electronic data has become more difficult and expensive, resulting in an all-time high in spoliation instructions. Noting that many federal courts take a more measured approach with regard to spoliation and electronic discovery, the Court reached a result that makes the culpability (or lack thereof) of the spoliating party of paramount importance in determining a remedy. Therefore, companies can breathe easier in knowing that diligent efforts to retain information will likely negate the need for a spoliation instruction to the jury – without evidence of intentional or deliberate destruction of evidence. But remember, the Court noted that in rare situations, a party’s negligent breach of its duty to reasonably preserve evidence will irreparably prevent the nonspoliating party from having any meaningful opportunity.
Therefore to be clear,
Aldridge does not prevent the need for reasonable document retention policies that are effectively communicated to personnel in a position to implement and enforce those policies. Additionally, Aldridge only implicates civil cases under Texas law; the destruction of documents and evidence can lead to a criminal conviction. Additionally, if a case is in federal court, the standards for spoliation would be governed by federal rules and not under Texas law. But Aldridge signals a measured approach by the Court, acknowledging the inherent issues with handling voluminous electronic records retention and attempts to make remedies for failure to keep those records proportionate to any mistakes made with the preservation.


Validating the Kinematic Wave for Rapid Soil Erosion Assessment
Based on the concept of accumulating overland flow energy, an erosion potential model was developed forFort Riley,Kansas as part of a project funded by the Strategic Enviromental Research and Development Program (SERDP). By integrating data from digital elevation models (DEMs) and landuse/landcover classifications in a geographic information system (GIS) environment, the model determined where surface water runoff transitions from overland sheet flow to concentrated flow and, as a result, where the potential for soil erosion and gully formation increases. The first objective of this project, funded by the Environmental Science Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) is to run this erosion potential model for additional military installations selected from regions with different precipitation regimes, landcover conditions, topographic characteristics, and soil types. A second objective is to operate the model in a predictive mode to better assess the impact of military training activities on future gully formation.
Determining the overland flowpath of surface water runoff is a key process in erosion modeling because the concentration of overland flow is a primary cause of soil erosion. However, the ability to classify varying flow regimes is problematic because it is difficult to quantify the energy content of runoff water. The erosion potential model developed for Fort Riley is capable of determining areas of high erosion potential and, therefore, the optimal locations for siting erosion-preventing BMPs. Because it requires few inputs, for which easily accessed datasets are available nationwide, data acquisition and preparation times are minimal compared to existing erosion models such as AGNPS and RUSLE. While the erosion potential model has been shown effective in identifying the location of existing gullies, it can also be operated in a predictive mode to forecast the impact of military training exercises on the formation of new gullies. By incorporating vehicle tracking data, from field training or simulator-based exercises, anticipated environmental damage such as vegetation loss and vehicle rutting can be simulated and used as the basis to modify representations of current installation terrain. The validated model can then be run using modified vegetation and topographic input to identify likely sites of gully initiation.
Military installations will gain the capability to quickly evaluate gully formation potential across their training lands, saving significant time normally spent on ground and air surveys, while making training safer for soldiers and less damaging to equipment. This modeling approach will assist installation ITAM staff in siting BMPs designed to reduce soil erosion and meet state-enforced TMDLs for streams leaving federal lands. The ability to predict future erosion potential with the
nLS model offers several significant advantages to military installations including providing a sound scientific basis to estimate LRAM costs to repair and prevent gully erosion and the ability to estimate and compare environmental impacts associated with realignment and mission change.


COLUMBUS—State Senator Joe Uecker )introduced legislation aimed at addressing an appalling practice by Planned Parenthood of sending the remains of aborted babies to public landfills for disposal.
“Planned Parenthood continues to demonstrate utter disregard for the sanctity of human life, even in death,” said Uecker. “My proposed legislation seeks to ensure the dignity of babies whose lives ended too soon at the hands of abortionists.”
Uecker’s bill would limit the options for disposing of fetal remains to humane burial and cremation; increase informed consent by requiring full disclosure to women pursuing abortions; and set a penalty for any violation of the statute as a first degree misdemeanor.
On Friday, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the findings from an investigation which revealed Planned Parenthood’s practice of sending the remains of aborted babies to public landfills, despite the state’s requirement that aborted fetal remains be disposed of humanely.
A similar discovery was made in South Carolina where abortionists now face major fines for unlawfully disposing of fetal remains in public landfills.


Today, businesses contend with growing volumes of information in various formats such as snail mail, emails, PDFs, and scanned images. This information comes in various layouts either structured such as tweets or posts, or unstructured formats such as data sheets or documents.
TCS' Information Extraction solution makes it easy to update an enterprise’s systems with data coming in various formats. Its ‘thinking brain’ understands various formats and layouts to identify relevant information. Its ‘executing arm’ captures and updates this data in an enterprise’s system.


Despite the increasing number of data breaches and more than
3.9 billion data records worldwide being lost or stolen since 2013, organizations continue to believe perimeter security technologies are effective against data breaches.
This is one of the many findings of Gemalto’s third-annual Data Security Confidence Index. Other key findings include:


Due to a convenient alignment between the A-Train orbital trajectory and the path of Hurricane Bill along the eastern coastline of North America, the CloudSat radar and AMSR-E radiometer was able to take a second look at the structure of the cyclone and passed very near to, or perhaps directly across, the cyclone center. This overpass occurred around 18 UTC on August 22, 2009 when Hurricane Bill was classified as a Category 1 storm, with tropical storm warnings issued for Nova Scotia and Bermuda by their respective meteorological agencies.
Passive microwave brightness temperatures depict the convective towers associated with the eye wall, as well as the cyclonic shape of the symmetric rain bands located to the north and south of the storm. The most intense activity appears to be in the southeast quadrant, while northwest of the storm, activity may have been deterred as the cyclone was impacted by wind shear associated with an upper level shortwave departing the northeastern United States.
The CloudSat radar follows a similar track to the Aqua satellite, the platform supporting the AMSR-E instrument. Therefore, once again their observations are nearly coincident in time. It is unclear whether CloudSat directly sampled across the eye, however, with the center located near the 36th parallel, it is likely that CloudSat is depicting the structure of convection to the north and south of the storm. The relative lack of convection near 36 degrees may be associated with the eye of the storm, with some shallow convection present. The outermost rain bands, approaching the coastlines of New Jersey, New York and Massachussetts, are present in the cross section near the 40th parallel. Numerous, isolated convective towers are evident in the CloudSat cross section, which is again attenuated severely just below the melting level due to the large amount of liquid precipitation.
Assuming that CloudSat sampled the eye, it is interesting to note that it depicts a layer of relatively thick, high altitude cloud which may have obscured the location of the center in visible or infrared satellite imagery. CloudSat indicates that some shallower convection may be occurring near the eye center, while AMSR-E is able to use passive microwave brightness temperatures to see through these nonprecipitating ice clouds for a clearer shot at the cyclone center.
Finally, the CALIPSO instrument provides imagery of high altitude ice clouds associated with the tropical cyclone. The highest cloud tops are located near the cyclone center at 36 degrees, and maintain a cloud top altitude of 15 km as in the previous sampling. Meanwhile, the outer band approaching the United States appears weaker with tops ranging from 8 to 12 km.


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As of 2015, comprehensive lists of American-made products are available on websites such as AmericansWorking.com, MadeInUSAChallenge.com and MadeInUSA.org. These sites conduct thorough investigations of companies and products submitted to their sites to ensure they are made in America. They are updated consistently to maintain accurate product listings.
A product must consist of 51 percent or more of American-made parts or labor for MadeInUSA.org to classify it as made in America, regardless of the origin of the company's owner. The Federal Trade Commission states that a product must be entirely made in America to qualify for the label "Made in USA" and to use the claim on labeling and packaging.Learn more about Manufacturing


Leadership and Student Learning: Examining the Cause and Effect of Privilege- and Learning-centric Assignment Practices within Florida Schools Working Paper No. 2015-07
Peter T. Goff and Gwendolyn S. Baxley
October 2015, 30 pp.
ABSTRACT: The strategies and norms used to assign students to teachers have garnered national attention as these assignment practices can exacerbate inequality. School leaders have substantial authority and influence over this assignment process, yet our knowledge of their role is limited. This paper examines trends in school-level assignment using statewide data over a 9-year span and cross-sectional survey data from a state-representative sample of 234 schools. Among our findings is evidence that substantial variation in assignment practices exists across schools, yet variation within schools over time is minimal. We find no evidence that leadership changes result in changes to assignment practices. This suggests that assignment practices are largely dictated by prior practices and norms in a school and the forces acting to preserve this system are formidable. Principals need to make equitable staffing practices a priority within their vision of leadership and cultivate the political capital required to enact change. keywords: strategic staffing, school leadership, teacher assignment, data-driven leadership


Minnesota's 11,842 lakes offer more shoreline than Florida, California, and Hawaii combined. One out of every six people in Minnesota owns a boat, the highest ratio in the country. Minnesota also ranks as number one in the per-capita rate of fishing-license purchases. And fishing isn't just a warm-weather activity, either. Every winter, little heated shacks pop up on thousands of lakes. Inside, you'll find anglers huddling over holes in the ice, hoping to hook a lunker.
While the state's outdoor attractions lure boaters, hikers, cross-country skiers, and snowmobilers, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul feature a variety of entertainment opportunities, including theater, music, shopping, and spectator sports.
If you travel all of Minnesota’s 406 miles, from Canada to Iowa, you'll see three distinct kinds of terrain. To the west and south you'll find grassland plains and prairies. Much of this land has been converted to agricultural use, but some still remains in its native state. The eastern part of the state, once known as the "Big Woods," is the natural home of hardwood forests.