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Home / Mobile / Reviews
PowerSkin for Droid X2 Review: More Battery Life, More Bulk
By Lincoln Spector
PCWorld	 Jun 30, 2011 12:15 pm PDT
Expert's Rating
Better phone protection than most cases offer
Significantly extends battery life
Picky about how you charge it
Bulky and heavy
The PowerSkin for Droid X and Droid X2 can nearly double how long you go between charges, but it adds a lot of weight and bulk to your phone.
Battery life is the bane of every smartphone owner. If you charge the phone every night and use it sparingly, you can get through the day. But if you frequently check email, surf the Web, listen to music, and use the GPS function, your handset could run out of juice long before it's time to hit the hay. PowerSkin offers one solution to the problem: a case that charges your phone wirelessly.
By incorporating an extra battery, the PowerSkin case significantly extends your phone's power capabilities–but it also considerably adds to the size and weight of your phone. As a Droid X owner, I tried out the model for the Droid X and Droid X2. As of June 29, 2011, you could buy this particular case for about $60.
The PowerSkin works as promised: My fully charged Droid X in a fully charged PowerSkin lasted considerably longer than it did by itself. I also used the PowerSkin case as a portable charger, turning it on only when the phone was running low. Either way, the case didn't quite double my phone's battery life, but it did come close.
However, it doubled my phone's size–and noticeably added to its weight–as well. Not including the bump near the top of the phone, a Droid X in a conventional silicone case is about half an inch thick. In a PowerSkin, it's nearly 1.25 inches; it's also wider by almost half an inch. In a conventional case, a Droid X weighs 6 ounces. With the PowerSkin, it weighs more than 9 ounces–an increase of more than 50 percent.
As a result, adding the PowerSkin makes the Droid X–already an oversize phone–something of a chore to carry around. Put it in a breast pocket, and you can feel your shirt sag. On the other hand, all that extra padding probably provides more protection than a conventional case does.
Like the Droid X itself, the PowerSkin can charge through any Micro-USB charger. But if you want to leave the phone in the case and charge them both together, you'll have to use the Micro-USB cable that came with the case–and even then, you may have problems. Plug the cable into a computer's USB port, and it should charge both devices fine. Plug it into a USB/AC adapter not made by PowerSkin, though, and it will probably charge only the case. PowerSkin's own USB/AC adapter, which can charge the two together, will set you back an additional $20. Your other option is to remove the phone from the case and charge them separately.
If you value longer battery life more than having a slim, light phone, a PowerSkin is probably worth the price.


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Always Something There to Remind Me – Beth Harbison
January 3, 2014 ChristieLeave a comment
I'm not a book snob. I like a good 'chick lit' book as well as the next gal. I know Beth Harbison is a much-loved, best-selling author of women's fiction…but Always Something There to Remind Me will have the distinction of being both my first and last book by Ms. Harbison. Blech.
Erin Edwards is a beautiful, successful party planner in Washington D.C., where she lives with her precocious sixteen-year-old daughter, Camilla. She and Camilla's father are no longer together…not that we know much about their relationship (and not that it matters anyway). Always Something There to Remind Me is Erin's story to tell and we get the then (in third person) and now (in first person).
Then happened twenty years ago. Sixteen-year-old Erin has her heart set on eighteen-year-old Nate Lawson.
From the first time she'd seen him, his image had been emblazoned on her mind, and when he stepped into view it was as if her mind closed over it like a trap. She didn't want to think about him, but she couldn't stop.
His eyes met hers and something clicked.
Ahh. Young love.
Erin and Nate's teenage romance has all the requisite twists and turns: silly fights, jealousy, sneaking around in the dead of night to have sex on basement floors. But even though Erin really, really, really loves Nate, she still can't help doing childish things and eventually he dumps her, breaking her heart and leaving her to wallow (however secretly) for the next twenty years.
Fast forward twenty-odd years and she is in a relationship with smart and perfect and handsome Rick who has just asked her to marry him. Erin's hesitating though because she can't stop thinking about Nate…even though she hasn't seen him in forever.
Until the day she's visiting her mother in the old neighbourhood and she decides to take a walk which invariably leads her past Nate's parents' house and – as luck (or fate) would have it – there's Nate.
I just watched the shock in his eyes as he took me in, and knew mine probably looked the same. Shocked, glad, scared…it was hard to read both what I saw and what I felt.
But I couldn't look away. And when I saw him try, I realized he couldn't either. He glanced down, a muscle in his jaw tensed, but then he looked back at me, still unspeaking.
People – you can see where this story is going from like a mile away and that would all be fine except that WHO CARES? Seriously. Erin is annoying as a teen and not even remotely self-aware as an adult. Her daughter, Cam, sounds like a therapist and the treacley ending made my teeth ache.
I bought this book because it sounded like it might have something significant to say about regret and love, but if you want a book that looks backwards at what you've left behind, read Losing the Moon instead.
Book Chat2013, Book Review, really disappointing books
Although I devoured Stephen King as a teen and young adult, it's probably been 15 years since I've read a King novel (Bag of Bones, which I loved). I decided to give Joyland a go and it was like settling into a comfortable pair of slippers. (I know, it's ridiculous to compare the Master of Horror to a pair of comfy slippers, but I'm talking more about that feeling of just knowing that you are in really good hands – which you always are with King.)
Joyland is not a horror story really. It's the story of Devin Jones, a college student who takes a job at Joyland, a Disney-style amusement park (I imagined Family Kingdom at Myrtle Beach, S.C., which I visited once as a teen) in North Carolina. Devin tells the story of his summer and autumn at Joyland through the lens of late middle age. He says
That fall was the most beautiful of my life. Even forty years later I can say that. And I was never so unhappy. I can say that, too.
Devin's unhappiness stems from his recent break-up with his first serious girlfriend, Wendy. Devin has an inkling that their relationship has run its course when Wendy doesn't even hesitate to encourage him to take the job at Joyland, even though it means that they will be separated for the summer. "It'll be an adventure" she tells him, without realizing just how much of an adventure it'll actually be.
Devin meets a cast of interesting characters at Joyland and in the little seaside town he calls home while he works there. Characters like Lane Hardy (who shows him the ropes around the park) and Rosalind Gold (the resident fortune teller who makes a couple of astute predictions about Devin's future) and Emmalina Shoplaw (who owns the boarding house where Devin rents a room and who tells him about the murder associated with Joyland's Horror House) add a bit of local character to the story. Other characters, like Mike and his mother, Annie, have a more profound impact on Devin's life.
Devin Jones calls that summer "the last year of my childhood" and he is right. King expertly balances the story's nostalgic look back, and his protagonist's bittersweet reminiscences ("I still want to know why I wasn't good enough for Wendy Keegan"). Joyland is as much a coming-of-age tale as it is a murder-mystery. Both aspects of the novel will keep you turning the pages.
Uncategorized2013, favourite authors, Mother/Daughter Reviews, page turner, popular fiction
Bookish lists – I want yours
December 15, 2013 January 2, 2014 ChristieLeave a comment
I have a love/hate relationship with the end of the year. On one hand it means I have to reflect on all the ways I have flailed and failed, my squandered opportunities, that 10k I didn't quite manage, the times I wasted worrying about things and people I can't change. On the other hand, once 2013 slips into the past, I can start thinking about what I can accomplish in 2014. The places I'll go, the people I'll gather close, the ways I can improve my life, the books I'll read.
And that's another reason I love this time of year – every book lover/organization on the planet shares their best books lists. I love lists. I love reading about the books that have risen to the top of the heap. I love it that there's always disagreement and someone's best book invariably ends up on someone else's worst list.
It's easy enough to find fantastic book lists online. Book Riot has a great selection of the Ten Best Top 100 Book Lists . And, of course, at this time of year everyone wants to weigh in on the best books of 2013. Here's a small sampling.
Seabury Reads
I, too, always offer a top ten list. I'll do that in the next few days because although I did meet my reading challenge of 60 books, I am hoping to read a couple more before year's end and, who knows, perhaps one of those books will be worthy of a place on the list.
In the meantime, I'd love to feature your favourite books of 2013 here at The Ludic Reader. If you've posted a list at your blog, link me up. Otherwise, shoot me an email (ludicreader AT rogers.com) and I'll let you have the floor in an upcoming post. Or leave a comment and tell me about the best or worst book you've read this year.
Book Chat2013, Book Chat, Questions I've asked
You Against Me – Jenny Downham
December 13, 2013 ChristieLeave a comment
I read Jenny Downham's first novel Before I Die a few years ago and I really like it a lot. I liked You Against Me, too. Downham certainly isn't afraid to tackle the big stuff.
Eighteen-year-old Mikey McKenzie's life is far from perfect. His mother is an alcoholic and he has two younger sisters, Karyn, 15, and Holly, 8, for whom he is responsible. He's doing the best he can, but he's all too aware that sometimes it's just not good enough. Especially now. Karyn was recently raped while at a party and she now won't leave the house. Mikey figures he can make everything right again if he beats the crap out of the guy who did it, Tom Parker. He and his best friend, Jacko, come up with a plan but everyone knows nothing ever goes to plan.
Sixteen-year-old Ellie Parker is every bit as anxious as her parents for her older brother Tom's homecoming. He's spent the last couple of weeks detained after having been accused of rape, but now he's coming home to await the trial. Ellie's her brother's star witness; she was home the night Tom brought a bunch of friends back from the pub, Karyn included. She's already told the police that she didn't hear or see anything much and her parents are convinced that Tom will be found not guilty.
And this might have been nothing more than a he said – she said YA novel except that Mikey and Ellie meet and discover…they like each other. Of course it's more complicated than that, but once the wires are uncrossed and trust has been earned, Ellie and Mikey really do genuinely fall in love.
Downham does a good job of balancing the story of Ellie and Mikey with everything else that's going on including Ellie's doubts about her brother's innocence, Mikey's concern for his sisters and frustration with his mother's lack of responsibility. The novel moves pretty quickly, allowing the reader plenty of time with both Ellie and Mikey so we get a real sense of who they are and how they're coping with their complicated circumstances. What started as one thing quickly becomes something else for both of them and as Mikey says to Jacko
When I first saw Ellie, I knew it was her – she was my fantasy. I didn't want it to be true, but every time I met her it was obvious, and the funny thing was that she was better than the fantasy, like I got more stuff than I'd imagined.
You Against Me is about family and friendship and making choices that have far-reaching consequences. Downham offers careful readers lots to think about and has created two young people worth rooting for.
Book Chat2013, Book Review, mature teen, teen, YA
Cemetery Girl – David Bell
December 8, 2013 ChristieLeave a comment
I read the first 192 pages of David Bell's novel Cemetery Girl lickety split. I couldn't put the book down. I wondered – how come I've never heard of this book or this author? How come the only positive promotion is from other authors? Where has this author been all my life?
And then it all went to hell in a hand basket.
Cemetery Girl is the story of college professor Tom Stuart and his wife, Abby, and their daughter, Caitlin, who disappeared four years ago when she was twelve. Now, Abby has decided it's time to say goodbye to Caitlin and has organized a memorial service for her daughter. It's caused something of a rift between Tom and Abby because Tom hasn't given up hope that his daughter will come home to them because her body has never been found. But Tom and Abby's marriage is on the slippery slope anyway. Abby has found religion and is spending more and more time with Pastor Chris her new 'best friend.' Yeah, right.
For the first half of the book I was totally invested in Tom's story and the novel's attempt to make him a somewhat unreliable narrator. For example, he and his half-brother, Buster, have different takes on their childhood. Tom remembers his step-father, Paul, as a mean and abusive drunk; Buster claims it wasn't like that at all.
There are a bunch of minor characters in the novel – Detective Ryan, the one and only cop still assigned to Caitlin's case; Susan Goff, a volunteer with the police department (who is not a therapist or professional counsellor, just someone to talk to); Liann Stipes, a lawyer whose own daughter had been murdered and who has acted as an advisor to Tom; Tracy Fairlawn, a stripper who claims she saw Caitlin. Then there's this mysterious blonde girl who keeps appearing near Caitlin's tombstone or outside the Stuart house in the middle of the night.
Like I said, Bell kept me turning those pages for quite a long time. Then I just didn't believe it anymore. I didn't believe the way characters started to speak to each other. I didn't believe the resolution of the book's central mystery. I didn't believe any of Tom's interactions with anyone – they just all felt artificial. I'm a parent; I wouldn't behave this way.
Cemetery Girl had a lot of potential, but a book like this depends on credibility and at the end of the day – it just didn't have any.
Book Chat2013, Book Review, mystery, really disappointing books
Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell
December 3, 2013 January 4, 2014 ChristieLeave a comment
Eleanor & Park turned up on Kirkus's list of Top Teen Books in 2013, and rightfully so. Rainbow Rowell is a new-to-me author, although I have been wanting to read Fangirl for a while.
Set in Omaha, Nebraska in the 1980s, Eleanor & Park is a novel about two young people who find each other and themselves despite the many obstacles in their way.
When Eleanor moves to a new house and school she's already aware of how different she is. Park notices her right away because she is
…big and awkward. With crazy hair, bright red on top of curly. And she dressed like…like she wanted people to look at her. Or maybe like she didn't get what a mess she was. She had on a plaid shirt, a man's shirt, with half a dozen weird necklaces hanging around her neck and scarves wrapped around her wrists. She reminded Park of a scarecrow or one of the trouble dolls his mom kept on her dresser. Like something that wouldn't survive in the wild.
Park notices something else, too. He notices that she starts to read his comic books out of the corner of her eye.
At first he thought he was imagining it. He kept getting this feeling that she was looking at him, but whenever he looked over at her, her face was down.
He finally realized that she was staring at his lap. Not in a gross way. She was looking at his comics-he could see her eyes moving.
Eleanor notices Park, too. ("Stupid, perfect Asian kid.") And soon, over a shared love of comic books and new wave music, the two teenagers discover a mutual appreciation for each other.
The course of true love doesn't run smoothly, of course. It never does.
Eleanor lives with her mother, four younger siblings and her step-father, Richie, who is not a nice man. At all. In fact, Eleanor has just returned home after living with family friends for a year. She'd been kicked out and the stay was supposed to be temporary. Now Eleanor lives in a home where everyone is always walking on eggshells, especially her.
Park is half Korean and lives with his parents and younger brother, Josh. Everything about his home life is stable and 'normal', but Park still finds it difficult to fit in.
Eleanor is a prickly person and Park is exceedingly patient with her, but that doesn't always prevent hurt feelings and misunderstandings. It's impossible not to love her, though. Park, too. They are not nearly as frustrating as other 'teens in love' might be. I wanted to shake Eleanor's mom though. But then I had to take into consideration the year in which the novel takes place – 1986.
I was a young(er) person in the 1980s and I loved the pop culture references in Eleanor & Park. Setting it then also allows the reader to forgive the lack of outside agencies (school, Child Protective Services, police) involved in Eleanor's dreadful home life. Even Park's dad knows Eleanor's stepfather and offers Eleanor a safe place to be.
If I have any criticism of the book it's that I didn't love the ending. I'm all for ambiguity, but it just seemed a little anti-climactic after everything that happens. It's a small thing, though. Time with Eleanor and Park is time well spent.
Uncategorized2013, Book Review, mature teen, YA
Bellman & Black – Diane Setterfield
November 21, 2013 November 21, 2013 ChristieLeave a comment
We were all pretty excited when Marianne chose Bellman & Black as this month's book club selection. We all loved Diane Setterfield's first novel The Thirteenth Tale when we read it a few years back. Sadly, this novel lacked that book's – well, everything.
As I pointed out when we met last night: "Did you notice that all the praise on the back of the book was for The Thirteenth Tale." And true enough – there isn't a single endorsement for this novel on its cover or inside its pages. Okay, maybe that doesn't mean much in the whole scheme of things and I know I'm making it sound as though Bellman & Black is horrible and I guess I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but it isn't very good, either.
William Bellman is just a kid playing somewhere in the English countryside when he decides to show off in front of his friends and uses a catapult to shoot a rook (similar to a crow) out of a tree.
It took a long time for the stone to fly along its preordained trajectory. Or so it seemed. Time enough for William to hope that the bird, flapping into life, would rise upwards from the branch. The stone would fall harmlessly to earth and the rook's granite laughter would taunt them from the sky.
Instead, William hits and kills the bird and thus leaves innocence and childhood behind him and begins the downward slope towards death. And yes, it's really this heavy-handed.
Will's life is marked with great successes and tremendous tragedies. We watch him turn his uncle's mill into a financial success. We watch him fall in love and have a family. And we watch things start to fall apart. But the thing is – and it is a thing that we talked about last night – none of it mattered all that much because Will was a character we knew or cared little about. He was driven, surely and haunted, certainly, but not by the rooks which made strange appearances (sort of like encyclopedia entries) throughout the book.
When William suffers a tragic personal loss, he makes a deal with a mysterious stranger, Mr. Black, and he suddenly finds himself building a one-stop funeral emporium. We're talking Victorian England here, when people mourned for years and spent money (apparently) on all manner of funereal accoutrements. So, just as we watched him build Bellman Mill, we learn all the nooks and crannies of Bellman & Black, but none of it is interesting enough to sustain a 300 plus page narrative. And trust me, the stuff about the rooks doesn't help.
At the end of the day, Setterfield's book is a less schmaltzy take on, say, a book like Tuesday's With Morrie. We're meant to understand that life must have checks and balances, and that when we care too much about things that don't matter (wealth, success) we miss out on those things that truly do.
Bellman & Black wasn't hard to read, but I won't be recommending it to anyone else.
Book Chat2013, book club pick, Book Review, really disappointing books

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The  is a Japanese transverse fue made of bamboo.  It is used in gagaku, the Shinto classical music associated with Japan's imperial court.  The sound of the ryūteki is said to represent the dragons which ascend the skies between the heavenly lights (represented by the shō) and the people of the earth (represented by the hichiriki). The ryūteki is one of the three flutes used in gagaku, in particular to play songs of Chinese style. The pitch is lower than that of the komabue and higher than that of the kagurabue.

The ryūteki is held horizontally, has seven holes, and has a length of  and an inner diameter of . Unlike the western flute, the holes are not covered by the fingertips, rather, the fleshy part of the finger is used. This allows for better control of "half-holing" techniques and chromatic notes, by simply raising the finger slightly above the holes.

Hans Werner Henze calls for this instrument for his El Cimarrón, and Karlheinz Stockhausen scored for ryūteki in the original Gagaku-ensemble version of Jahreslauf (act 1 of the opera Dienstag aus Licht).

References

Gagaku
Japanese musical instruments
Side-blown flutes
Seven tone hole wind instruments
Sacred musical instruments

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ApplicationModels;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Controllers;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Text;

namespace Ku.Core.MvcPlugin
{
    public class ActionDescriptorProvider : IActionDescriptorProvider
    {
        private readonly IApplicationModelProvider[] _applicationModelProviders;
        private readonly IEnumerable<IApplicationModelConvention> _conventions;
        public static Dictionary<string, List<TypeInfo>> PluginControllers { get; } = new Dictionary<string, List<TypeInfo>>();

        public ActionDescriptorProvider(IEnumerable<IApplicationModelProvider> applicationModelProviders, IEnumerable<IApplicationModelConvention>
            conventions)
        {
            _applicationModelProviders = applicationModelProviders.OrderBy(p => p.Order).ToArray(); ;
            _conventions = conventions;
        }

        public int Order
        {
            get
            {
                return 0;
            }
        }

        public void OnProvidersExecuted(ActionDescriptorProviderContext context)
        {

        }

        public void OnProvidersExecuting(ActionDescriptorProviderContext context)
        {
            foreach (var descriptor in GetDescriptors())
            {
                context.Results.Add(descriptor);
            }
        }

        internal protected IEnumerable<ControllerActionDescriptor> GetDescriptors()
        {
            var applicationModel = BuildModel();
            ApplicationModelConventions.ApplyConventions(applicationModel, _conventions);
            return ControllerActionDescriptorBuilder.Build(applicationModel);
        }

        internal protected ApplicationModel BuildModel()
        {
            var controllerTypes = PluginControllers.SelectMany(m => m.Value);
            var context = new ApplicationModelProviderContext(controllerTypes);

            for (var i = 0; i < _applicationModelProviders.Length; i++)
            {
                _applicationModelProviders[i].OnProvidersExecuting(context);
            }

            for (var i = _applicationModelProviders.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            {
                _applicationModelProviders[i].OnProvidersExecuted(context);
            }

            return context.Result;
        }

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Definition - What does Blowout Preventer Equipment (BOP) mean?
Blowout preventer equipment is a group of mechanical devices that are used to prevent an underground oil blowout from a reservoir. The equipment is made up of large safety valves that are utilized to control, seal and monitor the oil and gas well. A blowout preventer, abbreviated as B-O-P, is used on the surface wells such as subsea or land well. It is the safety equipment that is necessary to cope with extreme underground pressure of an oil well and is helpful in avoiding a blowout.
Since an oil and gas well's health can fluctuate at anytime due to an increase or decrease in temperature or heat, it is crucial to install safety device(s) that could control the intense pressure and counter any major blowouts that can lead to a catastrophic event. Blowout preventer equipment is a group of mechanical equipment and techniques that are meant for the safe use of a bore well, that allow engineers to seal the well and curb any uncontrolled flow before it turns into a blowout that can lead to a fire.


April 1st – April 7th is Archives Awareness Week at Norfolk County Archives! Join us in celebrating our local archives and the importance of our documentary heritage! More information about the events happening this week will be posted soon.


1) Show respect for Chinese foreign policy, strictly obey the laws and regulations of the Chinese government andZhengzhouUniversity, remain positive attitudes and perceptions about learning, achieve academic excellence, and promote the friendly relations and cooperation betweenChinaand other countries.
2) Demonstrate general and integrated understanding in their main field of study, including the molecular, cellular and organ biology processes and the relationship with disease in humans.
3) Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of relevant experimental methods within the field of biomedicine and show a good ability to independently carry out research and practice within the field of biomedicine and medicine.
4) Demonstrate a good ability, both orally and in writing, to account for a biomedical problem/project in English.
Master program includes two parts, course study (around six months) and Clinical Practice /Scientific Research (two and half years). Generally, program lasts for 3 years. However, in certain instances, schooling length could be extended to 4 years.
Complete at least five basic degree courses (more than 8 credits) and pass the exams at the end of the 1st semester. Contact the supervisor and make a study plan under the professor's guidance. Pass the qualified exam.
Note: For the students who pass all exams of basic degree courses but do not pass qualified exam or do not have a tutor in the hospital, only can obtain master course-completion certificate fromZhengzhouUniversity.
Note: In certain instances, program duration could be extended for one more year, which means students are allowed to complete postgraduate study within four years.
The total credits for each international student of the master program: a minimum of 15 credits.
1. Basic degree courses: Master students are required to take at least 5 basic degree courses (at least 8 credits) in the 1st semester.
l Classical literature review– Master students submit TWO reports to the supervisor group (1 credit for each report) before deadline.
l Lecture – The lectures will generally be provided by supervisors or specialists in the field. Taking the exams can be seen as an assessment method.
l Seminar – Assessment methods also can be selected by supervisors.
3. Lecture & Presentation (3 credits): Master students shall attend lectures of their major fields and give presentations at least 3 times, which should be marked by supervisors.
4. Clinical Practice (1 credit) (For students majored in clinical medicine): Clinical rotations enable students to experience and practice within a hospital. The clinical rotations should be arranged under the supervisor of students' tutor. Master students are required to complete at least 6 months' clinical rotation and need to rotate through various departments. Clinical assessment is made by Department directors or supervisor. Unqualified candidates cannot attend dissertation defense and apply for graduation on time.
Usually, the mid-term assessment is arranged in the 3rd semester. Students should report their progress both in the research project and studies. The qualification will be evaluated by supervisors and the specialists in different aspects such as daily performance, research ability, dissertation proposal and preliminary data. Qualified candidates are allowed to continue their studies, while unqualified candidates cannot get their master degree. The assessment and relevant records should be kept or reference.
Research Duration:In order to complete the dissertation, master students are required to do the research and investigation for at least one and half years.
Before starting the proposal, master students must complete the literature review of no less than 30 relevant papers, which will be evaluated, marked and recorded by supervisor group (at least 3 group members). The topic of dissertation proposal has to refer to students' major fields or other related areas. The evaluation group will be established by a director/supervisor and 3 to 5 specialists.
Dissertation proposal should be completed in the second semester. The following contents should be included in dissertation proposal: Objective or aims of the project, Background and preliminary data, Research design & research contents, Methods, Possible problems and solutions, Feasibility & Novelty, Scheduling, budget and so forth. The completed proposal must be fully evaluated and qualified by the evaluation committee before the research topic could be determined. The dissertation proposal and relevant records should be kept for reference.
In order to ensure that the project keeps going in the right direction, master students are required to report their research process at least 2 times before completing the dissertation. The supervisor and committee members are in charge of providing suggestions and directions about student's work. These reports need to be recorded and kept for reference.
One month before the submission of dissertation and application for defense, a public pre-defense will be organized by the school degree evaluation committee. The procedure and time requirement are exactly the same with formal defense. Besides, other arrangements about pre-defense are carried out according to relevant provisions ofGraduateSchool.
Notes: ALL SHOULD BE REPORTED DURING THE WHOLE PROJECT, IF THE PROJECT OR THE TOPIC OF DISSERTATION IS CHANGED, IT SHOULD BE FORMAL DOCUMENTED.
Degree dissertation shall be data reliable, analysis reasonable and appropriate, meet the requirements of writing standards, and have high academic value. Master students are required to complete their dissertation on the basis of clinical practice and scientific research training.
Publish a paper on a formal journal or the SCI journal (The published paper must be related to your dissertation research). Student must be the first-primary author (ZhengzhouUniversityas primary institution of primary author). The students will not get their degree until they get the formal published paper.
• Acute cardiovascular disease researching all kinds of acute cardiovascular diseases' diagnostic methods and treatment, our focus is the acute coronary syndrome's pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and prognosis. Study of various acute cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment, our focus is the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment of acute coronary syndrome, prevention and prognosis judgment.
• Sudden death and recovery: Research etiology, pathogenesis, prevention and treatment of sudden death, and research overall relevant issues of sudden death. Critical illness salvage: Focus on acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and prevention.
• Acute poisoning: Focus on the epidemiology of acute poisoning, new diagnosis and prevention of acute poisoning from medicines and poisons.
• Trauma emergency: Discuss critically ill trauma and multiple complications and recovery after ischemia-reperfusion injury mechanism and method of prevention and cure.
Candidate should be a Non-Chinese citizen, under 40 years old, the Bachelor Degree holder in the similar field, healthy, with non-criminal record.
English language requirements: for candidates from non-English spoken countries applying for EMI (English Mediated Instruction) programs, their minimum IELTS score should reach 6.0 or TOEFL score reach83(IBT) (553 in written version or 217 in computer version), or equivalent.
Chinese Language requirements: Applicants who apply for CMI (Chinese Mediated Instruction) programs should pass the level5 HSK or above. Applicants with lower level HSK can first apply for Chinese Language Programs for a full year or half year in ZZU before their major studies.
All applications are advised to contact persons and admissions advisors in each Department and/or Faculty for details of major research areas.
All applications and supporting documents have to be submitted via the on-line application system by the appropriate closing date as mentioned above. To submit an on-line application, please visit our website: http://apply.zzu.edu.cn.
Applicants who wish to apply for admission to more than one department should submit one complete set of the on-line application form and supporting documents for each proposed department of study.
The University views any act of cheating and plagiarism as of the utmost seriousness and it is a form of academic misdemeanor that the University will not tolerate. To discourage plagiarism, the University will: 1. Inspect all original documents at the time of registration; 2. Conduct a plagiarism check on the application materials submitted by the applicants, including the research proposal, research plan and vision statements, before offer of admission.
(b) On-line submission of certificates and complete transcripts of undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
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Purpose: Notophthalmus viridescens, the red-spotted newt, possesses tremendous regenerative capabilities. Among the tissues and organs newts can regenerate, the lens is regenerated via transdifferentiation of the pigment epithelial cells of the dorsal iris, following complete removal (lentectomy). Under normal conditions, the same cells from the ventral iris are not capable of regenerating. This study aims to further understand the initial signals of lens regeneration.
Methods: We performed microarray analysis using RNA from a dorsal or ventral iris isolated 1, 3, and 5 days after lentectomy and compared to RNA isolated from an intact iris. This analysis was supported with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) of selected genes.
Results: Microarrays showed 804 spots were differentially regulated 1, 3, and 5 days post-lentectomy in the dorsal and ventral iris. Functional annotation using Gene Ontology revealed interesting terms. Among them, factors related to cell cycle and DNA repair were mostly upregulated, in the microarray, 3 and 5 days post-lentectomy. qRT-PCR for rad1 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 showed upregulation for the dorsal iris 3 and 5 days post- lentectomy and for the ventral iris 5 days post-lentectomy. Rad1 was also upregulated twofold more in the dorsal iris than in the ventral iris 5 days post-lentectomy (p<0.001). Factors related to redox homeostasis were mostly upregulated in the microarray in all time points and samples. qRT-PCR for glutathione peroxidase 1 also showed upregulation in all time points for the ventral and dorsal iris. For the most part, mitochondrial enzymes were downregulated with the notable exception of cytochrome c–related oxidases that were mostly upregulated at all time points. qRT-PCR for cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 showed upregulation especially 3 days post-lentectomy for the dorsal and ventral iris (p<0.001). Factors related to extracellular matrix and tissue remodeling showed mostly upregulation (except collagen I) for all time points and samples. qRT-PCR for stromelysin 1/2 alpha and avidin showed upregulation in all the time points for the dorsal and ventral iris.
Conclusions: The results show that the dorsal iris and the ventral iris follow the same general pattern with some distinct differences especially 5 days after lentectomy. In addition, while the expression of genes involved in DNA repair, redox homeostasis, and tissue remodeling in preparation for proliferation and transdifferentiation is altered in the entire iris, the response is more prominent in the dorsal iris following lentectomy.
Whole organ regeneration is promising for medical applications. Many organ systems and models are being used for their ability to regenerate certain tissues and organs . The red-spotted newt, Notophthalmus viridescens, has the ability to regenerate, after partial removal, many organs and tissues, including the heart , brain , tail, and limbs . Newts also have the unique ability to regenerate whole organs such as the retina and lens of the eye even as adults. The lens is regenerated by transdifferentiation of pigmented epithelial cells (PECs) of the iris. Dorsal PECs are the only ones involved in lens regeneration while ventral PECs do not participate in the process. Dorsal and ventral PECs reenter the cell cycle at day 4 post-lentectomy, and by days 8–10, a dedifferentiated vesicle is formed in the dorsal iris. Thus, analysis of global gene expression in the dorsal and ventral iris could provide versatile answers why cells from one side can regenerate a lens and why the same cells from another side cannot. In addition, when individual genes were studied, important regulatory genes were expressed on the dorsal and ventral iris . A small-scale microarray analysis using 373 genes showed similar expression pattern when examined at day 8 after lentectomy, which demarcates the stage of dedifferentiation and vesicle formation . Congruent results were achieved by achieving microRNA expression data [7,8] and proteome analysis . Consequently, our hypothesis is that the ventral iris initiates the process but is then inhibited. This is also implied by studies in which the ventral iris was induced to transdifferentiate by exogenous factors  or by studies in which gene expression-suppressive histone modifications were found specifically in the ventral iris .
To obtain a better idea of and new insights into this regulation, we examined gene expression patterns during the early phases of lens regeneration (1 day post-lentectomy to cell cycle reentry). We compared gene expression at day 0 (intact iris) with expression at days 1, 3, and 5 post-lentectomy. In the current study, we use custom-made microarrays generated from expressed sequence tags during heart regeneration . Our data clearly indicate that the expression patterns between the dorsal and ventral iris are quite similar; however, there are distinct differences in the later stages (dorsal 5 days compared to ventral 5 days after lentectomy). Further, functional annotation and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that PECs prepare the ground for the main events of cell cycle reentry and for transdifferentiation even at the early stages.
Red-spotted newts, Notophthalmus viridescens, were obtained from Charles Sullivan Inc. Newt Farm (Nashville, TN). Procedures involving animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the University of Dayton. Newts were anesthetized in 0.1% ethyl 3-aminobenzoate, methanesulfonic acid salt (MS222; Signa-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) in phosphate buffer saline (PBS; 37 mM NaH2PO4 monohydrate, 58 mM Na2HPO4 anhydrous, pH 7.0) and then euthanized by decapitation.
Corneas were split between the dorsal and ventral area with a scalpel. Tweezers were used to pull the lens out. Both lenses were removed from each newt. Newts were then placed in appropriate humidified containers for 1, 3, or 5 days. At the desired time points, whole eyeballs were removed and placed in RNAlater Solution (Life technologies, Grand Island, NY). Subsequently the eyeballs were dissected to obtain the dorsal and the ventral irises, which were separated in different RNase-free microtubes (Fisher Scientific, Pittsburgh, PA) with RNAlater Solution.
RNA pools from the samples were reverse transcribed to double-stranded cDNA using the SMART™ cDNA Library Construction Kit (Clontech, Mountain View, CA). This method allows amplification of double stranded full length cDNA by anchoring the 5' end of the isolated mRNA with a specific oligonucleotide . Normalization of cDNA was performed based on DSN technology (Evrogen, Moscow, Russia). Cloned cDNAs were amplified to generate a library of more than 100,000 independent clones.
After plating, 100,000 individual clones were picked, and the inserts were amplified with PCR. After purification, inserts were resuspended in an appropriate spotting buffer (200 ng/µl PCR product in 3X SSC/1.5 M betaine) and spotted onto two sets of glass microarrays (Nexterion slides E, Schott). For each sample, 25 ventral or dorsal irises were pooled, and RNA was extracted with TRIzol (Life technologies). RNA was amplified with MessageAmp II aRNA Kit (Life technologies). For two-color microarray hybridization, cDNA labeling was performed with the SuperScript Plus Direct Labeling Kit (Life technologies), using Alexa 555 and Alexa 647 dye coupled nucleotides (Life technologies). Undamaged ventral or dorsal irises were compared with ventral or dorsal irises 1, 3, and 5 days after lentectomy. Two samples per time point were technically replicated by dye swap to reach n=4 per experiment. Scanning of microarrays was performed on a GenePix 4000B Microarray Scanner Molecular Devices LLC, Sunnyvale, CA) with GenePix Pro 6.0 Software, and data were statistically analyzed with Acuity 4.0 Software (Molecular Devices LLC). A complete list of all expressed expressed sequence tags (ESTs) during lens regeneration is available as a downloadable tab-delimited file. The links to these lists can be found at the bottom of each dorsal and ventral expression page (Expression search). Sequencing of the cDNA library and the sequence assembly are described in .
Sequences corresponding to 804 significantly regulated spots were assembled with SeqMan, version 8.0.2, with a minimum match percentage of 80% and a minimum sequence length of 100 bp, receiving 467 contigs with an average sequence length of 657 bp. For hierarchical clustering and heat map visualization, we used the Perseus software package. The expression values of the replicates were combined by mean. For visualization, we filtered the rows to have at least two valid values.
Assembled contig sequences were assigned to Gene Ontology (GO) terms by the BLAST2GO tool. For similarity searches, we used the NCBI NR database (blastx) with an e-value cutoff e−10 [14,15]. Contigs that were consistently up- or downregulated in all time points were obtained with perl scripts. A Venn diagram was created using VENNY.
RNA extraction was performed following the TRIzol Reagent protocol (Life technologies). The tubes were centrifuged briefly, and RNAlater Solution was removed. For 20 iris pieces (10 newts; 20 irises), 500 µl of TRIzol Reagent were added, and using a pestle, the samples were homogenized and incubated at room temperature for 5 min. To eliminate pigments released to the solution, the samples were centrifuged for 10 min at 12,000 ×g at 4 °C. Briefly, chloroform was added, as the manufacturer suggests. From the aqueous phase, 200 µl were removed to limit the amount of DNA contamination. RNA precipitation was performed with 100% isopropanol, and RNA was washed with 75% ethanol. RNA resuspension was performed with RNase-free water. RNA quality and quantity were checked with a NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA). A clear peak in the 260 nm and an A260/A280 ratio >2 indicated high-quality RNA for qRT-PCR. RNA used for this experiment was from different animals than the one used to probe the microarrays.
Reverse transcription (RT) reactions were performed with the First-strand cDNA Synthesis kit (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ) following the recommended protocol for 1 µg total RNA and oligo(dT) primers for positive RT reactions and half the volumes for the negative RT reactions. For the negative RT reaction, no primers were added, and the samples were incubated for 5 min at 98 °C for enzyme inactivation before RNA was added. The success of the RT reaction was checked with polymerase chain reaction using TaKaRa Ex Taq (TaKaRa, Otsu, Shiga, Japan) and primers against rpl27 and gapdh genes.
qRT-PCR was performed in a Bio-Rad iCycler (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). qRT-PCR reactions were performed using iQ SYBR Green Supermix (Bio-Rad) and following the manufacturer's protocol for a total volume of 25 µl. Melt curve analysis was performed for primer specificity. For each qRT-PCR run, a concentration gradient of the target gene cloned cDNAs was used. The concentration of the target genes in the samples was calculated using the standard curve made from the known concentration gradient (R2 >0.98) and the number of cycles (Ct). The concentration of the target gene in the samples was normalized against the housekeeping gene rpl27 (6), and the relative expression level compared to the intact dorsal iris was calculated (day 0). All samples were run in triplicate. Statistical significance was calculated using the Student t test. Table 1 shows the primers that were used. All primers were tested for specificity in known newt sequences using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool . Annealing temperatures were checked by locating only the appropriate size band using polymerase chain reaction followed by agarose gel electrophoresis.
Microarray analysis obtained 804 spots with differential expression 1, 3, or 5 days post-lentectomy in the dorsal or ventral iris. Combining the expression values of the replicates yielded 467 different sequences, which we refer to as contigs. Appendix 1 contains the list of all assembled contigs, their annotation, expression in the microarrays, and an identifier that can be used to retrieve more information from the newtomics database. Differentially regulated contigs were clustered and visualized with a heat map (Figure 1). A general pattern that emerges from a visual inspection of the heat map is that there is common up- or downregulation, when compared with the intact iris (0 day) in the dorsal and ventral iris (see clusters A and B and part of Cluster C, Figure 1). In other words, genes that show upregulation during 1, 3, and 5 days post-lentectomy in the dorsal iris show the same differential expression in the ventral iris (Cluster B, Figure 1). Reversely, this is the case for several downregulated contigs, too (Cluster A, Figure 1). In addition, Figure 2 presents a direct comparison of dorsal and ventral genes that are consistently up- or downregulated without regarding single time points. Forty-six contigs out of 72 (63.9%) and 46 out of 57 (80.7%) are commonly upregulated in the dorsal and ventral iris, respectively. Fifty-two contigs out of 126 (41.3%) and 52 out of 68 (76.5%) are commonly downregulated in the dorsal and ventral iris, respectively. These results strengthen the hypothesis that dorsal and ventral irises initiate the same first steps of lens regeneration. In a different comparison, we examined which genes are regulated at dorsal day 5 compared with day 1 (D day 1, V day 1 downregulation versus D day 5 upregulation and opposite). This analysis could potentially reveal genes related to transdifferentiation. Interestingly, among regulated genes we found cytoskeletal organization-related proteins (stathmin 1 , svil protein ) and cell pluripotency-maintenance factor (rtf1 ; Figure 2B).
In addition to the clusters, we identified another remarkable pattern. This pattern is defined by an inversely regulated time point (five days; Cluster D; Figure 1). Other time points are not regulated. This cluster consists of 94 non-redundant members. When we examined this cluster for potential enrichment of assigned function, we found only 14 candidates with a similarity to public available sequences. However, most of the candidates lack counterparts in higher vertebrates, even as the corresponding sequences have a sufficient sequence length (see Table 2). Within the annotated contigs, we found an isoform of suppression of tumorigenicity 7, known to play a crucial role in tumor suppression through regulating genes involved in maintaining the cellular structure  or remodeling the extracellular matrix . Altogether this indicates that Cluster D might represent newt specific genes that are inversely regulated in the dorsal and ventral iris 5 days after lentectomy.
Of the 467 contigs, 265 have a significant sequence similarity to public available proteins, whereas 192 have assigned GO terms. We further investigated these contigs and identified that the most interesting functional annotation, in concordance with other regeneration model systems, is related to cell cycle, proliferation, extracellular region, redox homeostasis, mitochondrion, DNA repair, and parental GO terms. The list of GO annotated contigs is shown in Appendix 2.
Previous studies revealed that by day 4 post-lentectomy the dorsal and ventral irises reenter the cell cycle . We found that bccip homolog and myeloid leukemia factor 1, two proteins that cause cell cycle arrest, were slightly downregulated 3 days after lentectomy and then were upregulated 5 days after lentectomy in the dorsal iris. In the ventral and dorsal iris in all time points, peroxiredoxin 1, a protein that has been shown to play a role in proliferation and to be expressed in melanosomes, was upregulated (Table 3) [23,24]. In addition, tmsb4, also known as thymosin beta 4, was upregulated in all time points in the ventral and dorsal iris. This protein is known for actin organization and the S phase entry of the cell cycle. Among the DNA repair and proliferation factors, we found expression of rad1 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1). Rad1 is a protein that plays a role in DNA repair of double-strand breaks and is part of the 9.1.1 complex with Rad9 and Hus1 . VEGFR1 is a receptor that is important in the proliferation of endothelial cells, angiogenesis, and cancer. qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated Rad1 was upregulated in the dorsal iris 3 days (p<0.001) and 5 days (p<0.001) compared to 0 day post-lentectomy. Further, rad1 was upregulated in the ventral iris only 5 days (p<0.05) compared to 0 day after lentectomy. In addition, the dorsal iris showed upregulation of rad1 compared to the ventral iris 3 days (p<0.05) and 5 days (p<0.001) post-lentectomy (Figure 3). The other candidate, VEGFR1, was upregulated in the ventral and dorsal iris 1 day (p<0.001) and 5 days (p<0.05) compared to 0 day post-lentectomy. Overall, during regeneration, the dorsal iris has a higher VEGFR1 expression level compared to the ventral iris. These results are consistent with the onset of proliferation during the early phases of lens regeneration and are in context with the robustness in DNA repair inferred during regenerative activities. For example, Eguchi et al. showed that lens regeneration is not affected after repeated lentectomies (18 times over 16 years) in the Japanese newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster .
We think that these patterns reflect the preparation of the iris day 1 post-lentectomy to initiate reentry in the cell cycle to proliferate. This was accompanied by DNA repair factors that will most likely be activated to maintain the integrity of DNA especially in the dorsal iris (twofold upregulation of rad1 in dorsal versus ventral, Figure 3). These findings support the thesis that the dorsal iris prepares more rigorously for regenerating the lens.
As shown in Table 4, enzymes related to redox homeostasis are upregulated in all time points of the ventral and the dorsal iris. Glutathione peroxidase 1, peroxiredoxin mitochondrial-like (peroxiredoxin 3), sh3 domain-binding glutamic acid-rich-like protein 3 (SH3BGRL3), and thioredoxin are proteins responsible for reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) to protect the cells from ROS-related stress and apoptosis. We confirmed these findings derived from the microarray data with qRT-PCR of glutathione peroxidase 1 (Gpx1). Gpx1 was upregulated 1, 3, and 5 days after lentectomy in the dorsal (p<0.001 for all days) and ventral iris (p<0.001 for 1 and 5 days, p<0.05 for 3 days) compared to the intact iris. Gpx1 was upregulated in the dorsal iris 1 day (p<0.05) and 3 days (p<0.001) compared to the ventral iris (Figure 3). Peroxiredoxin 6, which was downregulated, seems to be linked with the redox system the cells chose to reduce ROS.
Another obvious pattern was formed by mitochondrial enzymes related to ketone metabolism, ATP synthesis, and purine biosynthesis that are downregulated in the dorsal and ventral iris in all investigated time points. However, the cytochrome c oxidases were mostly upregulated. Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 is a mitochondrial component involved in oxidative phosphorylation. Dysregulation of this gene is mostly due to mitochondrial-related stress . Since lentectomy is a surgical procedure, it naturally creates stress. Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 was upregulated in the ventral iris 1 day (p<0.05) and 3 days (p<0.001) compared to 0 day post-lentectomy (qRT-PCR validation, Figure 3). Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 was also upregulated in the dorsal iris 3 days (p<0.001) and 5 days (p<0.05) compared to 0 day post-lentectomy. In addition to these common regulations, there was an inverse differential expression between the dorsal and ventral iris at day 1 (p<0.05) and 3 (p<0.05) with increased expression levels in the ventral iris.
Additionally, glutathione peroxidase 1 and cytochrome oxidase subunit 2 had opposite differential expression between the dorsal and ventral irises 1 and 3 days post-lentectomy. Gpx1 was upregulated in the dorsal iris after 1 day (p<0.05) and 3 days (p<0.001) post-lentectomy compared to the ventral iris. Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 was upregulated in the ventral iris 1 day (p<0.05) and 3 days (p<0.05) post-lentectomy compared to the dorsal iris. Both genes returned to the same expression levels 5 days post-lentectomy (p>0.05; Figure 3). These two genes are connected via ROS. Stress caused by ROS can affect mitochondria in which Gpx1 can reduce ROS . The high expression level of gpx1 in the dorsal iris has a potential role in reducing ROS faster than the ventral iris, affecting the rate of cell activation and responsiveness in early stages of regeneration.
To sum up, these results indicate that stress caused by ROS is answered through upregulating of enzymes that reduce ROS in the iris, thus protecting the cells. ROS might cause mitochondrial stress, which is reflected by downregulation of certain mitochondrial enzymes. It is not yet clear whether ROS is a signal of regeneration or ROS is produced by the surgical operation through cutting the cornea. However, these patterns provide an impetus for further investigation.
Another group of annotated proteins can be described as extracellular matrix–related proteins (Table 5). Most of these proteins are upregulated in the dorsal and ventral iris in all time points. For example, clusterin is known to play a role in extracellular matrix organization by acting as a stress-induced secreted chaperone protein and having the ability to inhibit stress-induced protein precipitation . Mmp18 and stromelysin 1/2 alpha are matrix metalloproteinases that degrade certain types of matrix, including collagen III, IV, IX, and X. Their role is critical for transdifferentiation since extracellular matrix and remodeling proteins are needed for cell fate change. qRT-PCR validation of stromelysin 1/2 alpha confirmed upregulation in the dorsal and ventral irises 1 day (p<0.001 for both), 3 days (p<0.05 for both), and 5 days (p<0.001 for both) compared to 0 day after lentectomy. There was a slight upregulation of stromelysin 1/2 alpha in the dorsal iris compared to the ventral iris at day 1 post-lentectomy (p<0.05). The high expression of stromelysin 1/2 alpha is consistent with other studies in which it was upregulated in the dorsal iris and the ventral iris 8 days post-lentectomy compared to the intact iris . The results allow us to assume that the process of tissue remodeling starts immediately after lentectomy since the matrix metalloproteinases were upregulated 1,200-fold at 1 day post-lentectomy in the ventral and dorsal irises (p<0.001). In the context of highly increased expression levels of matrix metalloproteinases, collagen I was downregulated, a result consistent with the fact that the cells degraded the collagen around them for later proliferation. Another protein known to be located in the extracellular matrix is avidin. qRT-PCR confirmed the expression data of our microarrays and showed upregulation in all investigated days after lentectomy for the ventral and dorsal irises compared to the intact iris. Avidin is thought to have an impact as a defense protein against microbial infections that could be caused through the surgery process .
With this report, we further expand our knowledge of gene expression during early lens regeneration in Notophthalmus viridescens. Our results clearly indicate that during early stages there are not many qualitative differences between the dorsal iris and the ventral iris. Rather, quantitative differences might be critical for the dorsal and ventral iris's contribution in lens regeneration. The lack of gene annotation for a group of potential newt/amphibian specific genes points toward the hypothesis that some regeneration-related proteins might be evolutionarily conserved only in amphibians. However, certain signatures for regeneration have been verified. Cell proliferation was combined with a robust quality check mechanism to keep the DNA intact and to be passed to new cells without mutations. We also report that the iris employs enzymes to reduce ROS. Both homeostasis mechanisms were upregulated on the site where the regeneration process occurs, the dorsal iris. In addition, as soon as 1 day after lentectomy, cells started to prepare for the transdifferentiation by upregulation of certain matrix metalloproteinases and regulation of their extracellular matrix, a step crucial to the upcoming differentiation to lens cells. As more studies on global gene expression become available, certain differences might lead to elucidating the much-coveted mechanisms of regenerative processes.
Appendix 1. Array expression data.
This work was supported by NIH grant EY10540 to PAT. KS has been supported in part by the University of Dayton, Office of Graduate, Professional & Continuing Education through the Graduate Student Summer Fellowship Program. Author contributions: KS, CSM, ML and PAT co-wrote the paper. NM performed experiments for the preparation of tissues and probes. KS and CSM performed the microarray analysis. KS, MB and ML contributed to the bioinformatical analysis. MB administrated the database. TBo hybridized the microarrays. TB, ML and PAT gave technical advice and contributed to the study design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Dr. Mario Looso (Mario.Looso@mpi-bn.mpg.de) and Panagiotis A. Tsonis (ptsonis1@udayton.edu) contributed equally to this work thus they both should be considered as corresponding authors.
Tsonis PA. Limb Regeneration. Cambridge University Press1996.
Jones SE, Jomary C. Clusterin. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2002; 34:427-31.


text:
Firing of civil servant is ruled unlawful
By Sam Strangeways
Published Apr 25, 2009 at 12:01 am (Updated Feb 10, 2011 at 6:39 pm)
Civil servant LeYoni Junos was unlawfully sacked but not because she was a whistle-blower or the victim of political interference by Premier Ewart Brown, a judge ruled yesterday.
Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley said the 47-year-old was fired without cause as administrator of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail (ADHT) Foundation, simply because her employers appeared to wrongly believe her temporary contract allowed them to do that.
The dismissal last April breached the Public Service Commission Regulations and Code of Conduct governing the employment of civil servants.
The judge said the Government's "straw-clutching submission" that they did not apply to a temporary employee like Ms Junos, who had worked there continuously for about eight months, was "plainly untenable".
He agreed with Ms Junos's claim that she had a legitimate expectation to be employed in the $89,000-a-year post at least until a permanent appointment was made, meaning she is entitled to backdated pay and other benefits from May last year to February 19 this year. She was also awarded costs.
Ms Junos, representing herself, argued during a two-day judicial review earlier this month that she was made a scapegoat because she raised the alarm about the activities of a Department of Tourism contractor with whom she claimed Tourism Minister Dr. Brown had close ties.
Supreme Court heard that US company Henderson Associates Inc. — which is contracted as event planner for ADHT conferences — was believed by her and her bosses to have published "false and fraudulent information" about the foundation, claiming in an e-mail and on a website that it had US charitable status.
She said the Premier verbally threatened her with dismissal after she flagged up concerns and she was fired days after by acting tourism director Ian MacIntyre.
But Mr. Justice Kawaley concluded in his judgement: "The applicant's suggestions that she was the victim of political interference by the Minister or terminated on covert but unjustified disciplinary or other punitive grounds because she was, in effect, a whistle-blower, are not made out."
He said: "In fairness to Henderson, the service-provider which has been much mentioned, there is no basis for any suggestion that the website inaccuracies they were criticised for were motivated by anything more than excessive enthusiasm to start raising funds for the foundation."
Mr. Justice Kawaley dismissed the plaintiff's claim for reinstatement and did not agree that she had a legitimate expectation to have been employed until the legal proceedings began, only until a permanent director was appointed.
He allowed her unlawful sacking claim on the basis that her contract did not entitle premature dismissal and, even if it had, the decision would need to have come from the head of the civil service, not the acting tourism director.
Ms Junos, whom the judge described as having a clean disciplinary record when she left her post, said she was pleased with the unlawful dismissal ruling.
"The light has been shone on the legal regulations that govern employment in the civil service," she said. "I think it will definitely have an impact."
The self-employed historical researcher, of Warwick, said she had "no regrets whatsoever" about the way she dealt with the Henderson matter, which included sending a letter to the ADHT board the day before she was fired describing how the company used "false information" to solicit funds from US donors.
"My instincts were that what was happening was improper. I'm the kind of person that can't sleep at night if I don't give voice to those instincts. That's the kind of person I am, to my detriment sometimes.
"The important thing is having peace of mind and doing the right thing and also paving the way for other persons who may be treated unlawfully as well."
Stuart Hayward, of the Voters' Rights Association, attended the hearings to provide moral support to Ms Junos. He said after the judgement: "I think she's a very brave person. She was courageous to take on what has become dictator-like in terms of people's jobs and carrying out their jobs.
"I'm hoping that it will be a catalyst for other people who have been wronged in their employment... or wrongfully dismissed. I'm very proud of Ms Junos. We would like to encourage others to follow her lead."
Dr. Brown's spokesman said last night: "The Premier has not had an opportunity to read the judgement yet but is pleased the applicant got her day in court, as is the expectation in any thriving democracy.
"It appears, according to media reports, that Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley affirmed much of the Government's case in this matter."


On July 24, Nathan Turner (30) and his partner were in the second rappel of "Jill's Thrill," a common descent route for the area. The first rappel placed the two climbers onto a small ledge without incident. They lowered safely onto the ledge and setup their second rappel by threading the rope through the second set of chain anchors. Setup took longer than expected. Turner mentioned to his partner that it felt like he'd been "pulling rope a long time." After this was said, they saw black markings on the rope signaling what they believed was the middle of their rope. Turner threw the side of the rope he'd been pulling up over the ledge and then setup his ATC to rappel. Last checks were made and he began his descent.
It started well enough. No failure occurred when the climber first took himself off his personal anchor. The failure occurred after a few seconds of lowering. Turner's partner heard a loud "snap!" and then watched the rope rapidly unravel through the chains. He and two witnesses climbing an adjacent route then watched Turner free-fall, strike "Snag Ledge" below, and disappear from sight ultimately falling to the floor.
It is believed that the rope wasn't set with half the rope equally on each side of the anchor chains. What likely occurred is that when they initially missed the halfway markings, Turner kept pulling and centered the rope on the end warning marks. The rope they used was a 70 meter (9.4mm diameter) Petzl Fuze, which has markings both at the middle of the rope and at six meters (~20ft) from the ends. The markings in the middle are a solid black line. The ones on the ends are dashed black lines. The rope itself was blackened over a season of use but was in excellent condition. The rope with these markings is no longer in production. The surviving partner made contact with the manufacturer-Petzl-a few months after the accident and he was told they had decided-actually prior to this accident-that they had weren't going to produce future ropes with any end markings on their ropes until the CE-European Committee for Standardization- established a unifying standard for all manufacturers to follow. The process for this standard is ongoing.
It is unsure exactly when he started his free fall. If he had been only rappelling on six meters of rope, the start of his fall would have been in-line with what they observed when he fell around 6–12 meters to his first contact point on Snag Ledge. This makes their account consistent enough to support the misbalanced rope hypothesis. The "snap" his partner heard at the start of the fall was likely the end of the rope whipping through the ATC. It's not clear how the two mistook the markings aside from attributing it to end of day fatigue.
Nathan Turner was experienced having mountaineered for seven-plus years and had done technical rock climbing for two years. His partner was in his 4th year of technical rock climbing. Rappelling was not new to them.
For this scenario to be plausible, how could such a misbalanced and fast-pulling rope not slip free if it was so misbalanced? The proposed answer is that it wasn't likely an issue of six meters of freestanding rope balancing 64 meters of freestanding rope. It was more likely six meters of rope balancing the distance from the anchor to Snag Ledge (~10m) where the thrown end of the rope had snagged (hence the name Snag Ledge). That unfortunate rope accumulation on the ledge left Turner in a situation where he wouldn't have noticed the weight imbalance unless he or others around him looked at the ends and noticed something wrong.
Only one rope-end was confirmed to have had a Figure-8 knot. The other side could not be confirmed to have had a knot. It is unclear why. The most likely explanation is the knot did not get re-tied when the rope was re-threaded through the next set of chains. There was an irregularity in procedure that could have been the cause of the misstep. Turner's partner recalls it was he, not Turner, who actually did the re-threading through the chains. After that there was an exchange like: "Hey, do you need to do anything with this?" "Nah, we're good." Turner's partner did not re-tie a knot. (He wasn't instructed to). If that rope was allowed to just freely lower and hadn't ever gone back to Turner to tie the standard Figure 8 knot, it would explain how the knot didn't get put back onto the rope. So, sometime when the two partners were shifting around to setup the rappel and fighting end-of-day fatigue, it's likely that tying a back-up Figure 8 just didn't happen and went unnoticed by both of them - as with the rope markings.
Using ropes with extra markings.
Rappelling done at the end of the day.
Stopper knots weren't used (or verifiably used).
The longer end of the rope stuck to something so the weight misbalance wasn't noticed.


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PARIS - France's foreign minister said on Sunday that questions needed to be asked on whether Turkey was a viable partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
"There are questions that are being asked and we will ask them. It (Turkey) is partly viable, but there are suspicions as well. Let's be honest about this," Jean-Marc Ayrault told France 3 television.
He said he would raise the issue at meeting of the anti-Islamic state coalition in Washington next week.


text:
the Russian ship "Admiral-Gorchkov" left its military base to "train in the deployment of hypersonic weapons"
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under pressure to deliver tanks to Ukraine
After France's announcement of the delivery of AMX-10 RCs to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is pressed by members of his coalition to give the green light to sending tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine. kyiv is notably asking Berlin to send Leopard 2 tanks.
« The argument constantly advanced by the Chancellery that Germany should not go it alone is absolutely over »told Agence France-Presse the President of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), a member of the German Chancellor's coalition. "Once again, France assumes the role that was expected of Germany and takes the lead itself"laments M.me Strack-Zimmermann, for whom « the ball is now in Berlin's court ». Ukraine must "winning to also defend our freedom and our values – and that can only be done with the support of the tanks", she recalls. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a diplomat, also a member of the FDP and possible next German ambassador to Moscow, said he expected the subject to be discussed within the coalition.
The German government has so far always refused to deliver tanks, on the pretext that such a measure should be decided in consultation with the Western allies and that Germany and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should not be directly involved in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Chancellor Scholz's Social Democratic Party SPD is opposed to such deliveries, unlike its liberal and ecologist partners. "We, the German government and the German Chancellor, are always in close consultation with our partners and friends, especially with the Americans"explained Thursday morning on the NTV channel Saskia Esken, one of the leaders of the SPD, recalling that Berlin had "supported Ukraine from the start by supplying it with weapons". "We will continue to do so as long as necessary, depending on military developments and needs"she assured.
This debate comes at a time when the Minister of Defense, Christine Lambrecht (SPD), is weakened by a video of greetings deemed failed, in which she says in particular thank you for all the » met « that the conflict in Ukraine has allowed him to do.
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This public art program, at the scale of the looming transportation infrastructure, elevates the pedestrian experience of the transit village. A line of blue "dancing" street lights, crooked like musical notes, recalls 7th Street as a hub of once Jazz/Blues culture. A gateway structure, designed in response to community requests, conceived of in the style of a freeway exit sign, is emblazoned with the faces of local and national African American leaders. The gateway and dancing lights aim to create a destination that instills a sense of ownership among the West Oakland neighborhood, mediating adverse impacts of transportation infrastructure and building upon a rich historical/cultural context.


What's Included in Furnace Service from Levy & Son in Plano?
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Of course, efficiency and savings aren't the only perks of annual furnace service; it also touts our industry-leading 23 point furnace Precision Tune-up.
We'll take a look at the heat exchanger surface, looking for cracks or signs of wear that could be inhibiting efficiency.
During furnace service, we will look at your system's fuel operation for proper pressure to make certain it is being sent to the furnace acceptably, safely and efficiently.
A variety of the electrical parts of your system need to be checked every year to make sure they aren't damaged, corroded, and are operating safely.
There are also a variety of furnace service and tune-up plans you can select from so both your comfort and budget needs are handled. Whether this is your first time or your tenth time scheduling furnace service, the team at Levy & Son are here to make scheduling easy for you. If you have any questions regarding our service, feel free to give us a call at 469-249-1971 or schedule an appointment with us online to learn more about furnace service and its bonuses.


text:
Q: Show that $h(Q(\sqrt{10})) = 2$ Show that $h(Q(\sqrt{10})) = 2$
use this theorem
Theorem: Let $K = Q(\sqrt{d})$ where $d$ not in $(0; 1)$ is a square free integer. If $W:=\{\sqrt{d} \text{ whenever } d \equiv 2\text{ or }3 \bmod{4};\}$
or $W:=\{1+ \sqrt{d}/2\text{ whenever }d \equiv 1 \bmod{4} \}$
then $OK = Z[W]$.
I am trying to work it out and this is my solution could you please help with using the theorem:
Note that this has discriminant $4 * 10 = 40$.
The degree of this over $Q$ is $n = 2$, and there are $s = 2$ real embeddings and $t = 0$ imaginary pairs of embeddings.
So, every class of ideals contains one with norm at most
$(4/\pi)^0 * (2!/2^2) * \sqrt{40} = \sqrt{10}$
(which is just above 3).

Hence, we need to factorize the primes at most 3.
Since $10 \not\equiv 1 \bmod{4}$, we know that the number ring is $Z[\sqrt{10}]$,
and $t^2 - 10$ is the minimal polynomial for $\sqrt{10}$ over $Q$.
(i) Working mod $3$, $t^2 - 10 = t^2 - 1 = (t + 1)(t - 1)$ (mod 3).
$\Rightarrow \rm<3\rm> = \rm< 3, \sqrt{10} + 1 \rm> * \rm< 3, \sqrt{10} - 1 \rm >$
(ii) Working mod 2, we have $t^2 - 10 \equiv t^2$ (mod 2).
$\Rightarrow \rm<2 \rm> = \rm <2, \sqrt{10} \rm >^2 $
Suppose that $\rm<2, \sqrt{10}\rm>$ were principal; that is, $\rm< 2, \sqrt{10} \rm> = \rm <a + b\sqrt{10}\rm >$ for some $a, b$ in $\mathbb{Z}$.
So, $N(\rm <a + b\sqrt{10} \rm>^2) = N( \rm <2 \rm>) = 4$.
$==> N(\rm <a + b\sqrt{10} \rm>) = 2$
$==> a^2 - 10b^2 = 2 or -2$, neither of which have solutions (try reducing mod 10).
So, we have a contradiction, and $p := \rm <2, √10 \rm>$ is not principal.

Next, check that $\rm <2, √10 \rm> * \rm <3, \sqrt{10} + 1 \rm> = \rm <-2 + \sqrt{10} \rm>$, and so $[\rm <-2 + \sqrt{10} \rm >] = [p]^{-1}$.
(We have a similar result for the other prime ideal above 3.)
That means that every class of fractional ideals either contains a principal ideal or $p$;
thus the class group equals $\{[O], [p]\}$. So, $h = 2$, as required.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Stealth: The Secret Contest To Invent Invisible Aircraft
by Peter Westwick
Oxford Univ. Feb. 2020. 272p. ISBN 9780190677442. $27.95. HIST
Westwick (Blue Sky Metropolis) meticulously probes two highly competitive and contentious U.S. corporations, Northrop and Lockheed, from 1976 to 1988. Located in California, these companies developed and produced the first generation of radar-proof aircraft: the Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk fighter and the Northrop B-2 Stealth bomber. The Nighthawk was presented to the Air Force in 1982 so pilots could acquaint themselves with the craft's flight characteristics, including late-stage stealth. By contrast, the B-2 was awarded a design philosophy completely different from the Nighthawk, opting for a smooth surface that would act to nullify the enemy's incoming radar energy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Westwick explains, defense specialists and economists argued there was no longer a need for two radar-invisible aircraft, and resultant U.S. military cutbacks threatened the B-2 program in the early 1990s. Westwick describes how during the Iraqi Desert Storm campaign, Nighthawk aviators questioned these reductions by destroying almost half of their strategic targets in Baghdad with minimal losses.
VERDICT This authoritative contribution to the history of aviation will be welcomed by academics and general readers of flight, military theory, and aeronautical engineering.
Reviewed by John Carver Edwards, formerly with Univ. of Georgia Libs , Dec 06, 2019
Chanel's Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930–1944
by De Courcy, Anne
River of Blood: American Slavery from the People Who Lived It
Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe
by Peiss, Kathy
Race of Aces: WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle To Become the Masters of the Sky
by Bruning, John R
American Political Humor
Every Drop of Blood: Hatred and Healing at Lincoln's Second Inauguration
by Achorn, Edward


text:
Venture capital funds total to Rs 15,600 crore into Indian startups this year
Venture capital investors funnelled Rs 15,600 crore, or $2.46 billion, into Indian startups this year till June 26, compared with Rs 14,850 crore, or $2.34 billion, in 2014.
Madhav Chanchani
June 29, 2015, 07:27 IST
Cipla's new initiative comes at a time when the company is making bold moves in expanding its international business.
MUMBAI: Risk capital investments in India in the first half of this year have surpassed the money inflow in all of 2014, setting the stage for another record funding year as global interest in domestic technology startups peaks.
But the frenetic pace of dealmaking, on the back of increasing smartphone adoption and Internet penetration, is also dragging down funding benchmarks as investors jostle to place bets on the next potential Unicorn — industry jargon for a billion-dollar valuation firm.
Venture capital investors funnelled Rs 15,600 crore, or $2.46 billion, into Indian startups this year till June 26, compared with Rs 14,850 crore, or $2.34 billion, in 2014. They closed 197 deals between January and now, as against 297 last year, at significantly higher average deal sizes, show data from financial research firm VCCEdge.
"We have just seen a cycle where people are very excited to invest in India Internet, especially mobile, which has unprecedented availability of capital," said Shailendra Singh, managing director at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India.
"Even for most parts of the world, so much capital has never been available, where a $50-million round is impressive but not surprising. Five years ago, it was a rare event."The expanding deal sizes are driven by the increasing competition in emerging high-demand segments such as local services, online budget stays, food technology and express delivery, where at least half-a-dozen startups are getting venture funded in hopes of becoming market leaders.
"The biggest hope is that you raise so much money that the competition goes out of business, but then you need to grow at a higher pace of over 100% to raise these rounds," said a venture capital investor on condition of anonymity. Entrepreneurs say their aggressive capital raise is a function of the scale they are chasing. For online food delivery application Swiggy, its number of orders has grown 25 times between January and May, reaching more than 2,000 orders a day earlier this month. It plans to expand to 12 cities by the end of this year.
"Hyper-local deliveries are largely a city-centric concept and no one has expanded beyond 5-10 neighbourhoods or a city, let alone go across double-digit number of cities in one year. In order not to slow down and continue to scale, fundraising continues to be necessary," said Swiggy's CEO Sriharsha Majety. The Bengaluru-based company raised two successive funding rounds in less than seven months, Rs 12 crore and then Rs 105 crore earlier this month.
Entry valuations have surged
Overall, 60 technology startups have raised VC funds twice or more in the past 12 months, according to startup research firm Tracxn. With these segments becoming essential components of an investor's checklist, the entry valuations of early-stage consumer Internet and mobile companies have surged 2-4 times in the past two years. Companies offering software-as-a-service solutions have seen relatively moderate valuation increases of 30-50%.At later stages, this is being driven by the rising valuation of US and Chinese companies such as Uber ($41 billion — online cabs), Instacart ($2 billion — grocery delivery) and Blue Apron ($2 billion — ready-to-cook meals).
"What has changed is that the valuation of global comparables of Indian startups have increased significantly over the last year," said Mohan Kumar, executive director of Norwest Venture Partners India. As a result, the size of the first major institutional investment in a startup, a series-A deal, has increased from $2-3 million to $5-10 million, even as revenue and growth targets a startup needs to achieve to reach this stage have dropped. "Even companies which have 15,000 (mobile application) downloads are getting series A, and 100,000 downloads are getting series B. Earlier, 100,000 was the bare minimum benchmark for a series A," said a venture capitalist with a seed-stage investment firm.
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text:
The O.S. Map Fan Club
I love to look at Ordnance Survey maps: the iconic plans of the British countryside, which have served as faithful guides to generations of walkers. It's a form of geekdom I'm proud to admit to, and the nicest thing about this warm-and-fuzzy show was that it proved I'm not the only one. On the night I attended, the Dukebox was full of navigators of all ages – united by our readiness to laugh at jokes involving contours, and cheer at a shelf stacked with Landranger sheets.
Helen Wood's solo act has a beguilingly simple structure, and that's really all that it needs. Sometime last year, she went for a walk – joined by her apparently long-suffering husband and, needless to say, her dog. She plotted her route on (of course!) an OS Explorer map, and took entertaining selfies at key points along the way. Resisting all things digital, she displays the photos on a stack of old-fashioned flash-cards – and each stop also acts as a kind-of imaginary viewpoint, a paper-thin justification for a cartographic anecdote or two.
There's a lightweight moral waiting at the end of the journey, just enough to satisfy that part of your brain that wants there to be a purpose to it all. But really, this is a shameless miscellany, as varied and changeable as countryside Wood was walking through. Here, there's a poem, hilariously name-checking the features from an OS map's key; there, it's a series of comic character vignettes, delivering a surprisingly informative history of the Ordnance Survey itself. Some of my favourite stories were personal ones, explaining why Wood's so drawn to these pieces of folded paper… and although her memories are completely different to my own, they somehow still reminded me of my childhood.
Along the way there's plenty of good humour, and Wood quickly builds up an enviable rapport with her audience. Her chat is liberally sprinkled with OS-themed questions; there's no pressure to get involved, but there was never any shortage of people ready to shout out replies. There's a subtly conspiratorial feel to it all, the sense that we're all sharing a harmless but secret pleasure, and the best thing about it is that it has to be real. You wouldn't do a show this niche if you were making it up; the only explanation is that Wood realy is as lovably enthusiastic as she claims.
The humour's aimed squarely at a particular type of connoisseur and, if you don't know your Church With Tower from your Church With Spire Or Dome, it might not be the show for you. But if you think you might enjoy it, you're almost certainly right – so turn off that sat-nav and find your way down to the Dukebox. Rendezvous at 6:15pm; grid ref TQ299043.
This review of a show at the Brighton Fringe 2018 was published on Friday 18 May.
14-20 May, 6:15pm-7:15pm
Sweet Dukebox


text:
The Romance of Rosy Ridge is a 1947 American Western film directed by Roy Rowland, about a rural community bitterly divided during the aftermath of the American Civil War. It stars Van Johnson, Thomas Mitchell, and Janet Leigh in her film debut. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by MacKinlay Kantor.

Plot
Henry Carson, a schoolteacher before the Civil War, shows up in a rural region of the Missouri hills. He spends the night with a family consisting of Gill MacBean, his wife Sairy, and two of their children, young woman Lissy Anne and youngster Andrew. Another son, Ben, had run off to fight in the war; the family's hope that he will someday return is gradually waning.

Gill does not welcome the stranger, unsure of his allegiance, but the others like the good-natured young man, especially Lissy Anne. Henry offers to help with the farming; the MacBeans desperately need more hands, but Gill remains very suspicious of his motives. A band had been burning the barns of those still loyal to the defeated Confederacy; the MacBeans had been the latest victims. Henry, however, proves to be a hard worker.

When storekeeper and unofficial banker Cal Baggett visits the family to ask about repayment of a loan, Henry talks him into hosting a "play party", inviting everyone, regardless of affiliation, to help heal the rift in the community. Gill is strongly opposed to it, but Henry tricks him into bringing his family.

At first, the two groups do not mix, but Sairy talks Northern sympathizer Dan Yeary into dancing with her, breaking the ice. Soon, everyone is having a very good time. However, an argument breaks out about the playing of a tune associated with the North. To forestall a fight, Cal calls for a vote. Unfortunately, it is a tie. Gill calls upon Henry to cast the deciding vote. Henry is finally forced to reveal that he fought for the Union. After that, the party quickly breaks up, much to the secret delight of John Dessark and his son Badge.

Henry is no longer welcome at the MacBeans. He does not leave the area though; he starts building a schoolhouse.

Eventually, Lissy Anne can no longer bear to be apart from Henry. She walks away into the night with him, without her father's knowledge but with her mother's approval. Gill tracks them down with a bloodhound, intending to shoot his would-be son-in-law. When five masked nightriders approach, Henry strikes Gill unconscious and seizes his rifle. The horsemen start shooting to kill. Taking cover Henry kills four and captures the fifth after a lengthy footchase and fistfight at a burnt-out dwelling. It is Badge Dessark. He confesses that his father is behind the raids, not out of loyalty to the South, but simply for financial profit. With the Dessarks hanged, the community starts to heal.

Finally, Henry reveals why he sought out the MacBeans. In a flashback, it is revealed that he first met Ben as they were walking across the hills to enlist in the war. As they traveled together singing and laughing, they became good friends. Approaching the turn-off signpost they decided in jest on a foot race to see who could be the first to reach it. Henry ended up on the north branch, with Ben on the south. They were stunned by their differing allegiances. Henry ultimately persuaded Ben into coming with him. Two days before the war's end, Ben was killed suddenly. Before dying, he made Henry promise to help the family with the harvest. After hearing this, a teary-eyed Gill gives Henry and Lissy Anne his blessing to get married.

Cast
 Van Johnson as Henry Carson
 Thomas Mitchell as Gill MacBean
 Janet Leigh as Lissy Anne MacBean
 Marshall Thompson as Ben MacBean
 Selena Royle as Sairy MacBean
 Charles Dingle as John Dessark
 Dean Stockwell as Andrew MacBean
 Guy Kibbee as Cal Baggett
 Elisabeth Risdon as Emily Baggett
 Jim Davis as Badge Dessark
 Russell Simpson as Dan Yeary
 O.Z. Whitehead as Ninny Nat
 James Bell as John Willhart
 Joyce Arling as Mrs. Willhart
 William Bishop as Ad Buchanan
 Paul Langton as Tom Veary

Reception
According to MGM records, the film earned $1,820,000 in the US and Canada and $625,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $533,000.

See also
 List of American films of 1947

References

External links
 The Romance of Rosy Ridge at IMDB

1947 films
American black-and-white films
Films based on American novels
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
1947 romantic drama films
American Western (genre) films
1947 Western (genre) films
Films directed by Roy Rowland
American romantic drama films
Films based on works by MacKinlay Kantor
1940s American films


WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today led a top-secret classified briefing to provide Senators with an intelligence update on Russian threats to undersea cables carrying global Internet communications. Wicker serves as Chairman of the Senate Seapower Subcommittee and Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet.
Last month, Wicker requested that the Director of National Intelligence provide Congress with information on this issue in light of a recent New York Times article detailing the potential aim of Russian submarines and spy ships to sever the fiber-optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations. Such an action would halt the instant communications upon which many Western governments, economies, and citizens depend.
The Senators were briefed by officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, Department of Homeland Security, and Joint Operations Division for U.S. European Command.