The 8 newly generated CHIKV whole genome sequences are available from Genbank, with accession numbers: KR046227, KR046228, KR046229, KR046230, KR046231, KR046232, KR046233 and KR046234.
Local transmission of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) was first documented in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) in July 2014 preceding a large epidemic. At initial presentation, it is difficult to distinguish chikungunya fever (CHIKF) from other acute undifferentiated febrile illnesses (AUFIs), including life-threatening dengue disease. We characterised and compared dengue virus (DENV) and CHIKV infections in 158 patients presenting with suspected dengue fever (DF) and CHIKF at a major hospital in T&T, and performed phylogenetic analyses on CHIKV genomic sequences recovered from 8 individuals. The characteristics of patients with and without PCR-confirmed CHIKV were compared using Pearson’s χ 2 and student’s t-tests, and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined using logistic regression. We then compared signs and symptoms of people with RT-qPCR-confirmed CHIKV and DENV infections using the Mann-Whitney U, Pearson’s χ 2 and Fisher’s exact tests. Among the 158 persons there were 8 (6%) RT-qPCR-confirmed DENV and 30 (22%) RT-qPCR-confirmed CHIKV infections. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the CHIKV strains belonged to the Asian genotype and were most closely related to a British Virgin Islands strain isolated at the beginning of the 2013/14 outbreak in the Americas. Compared to persons who were RT-qPCR-negative for CHIKV, RT-qPCR-positive individuals were significantly more likely to have joint pain (aOR: 4.52 [95% CI: 1.28–16.00]), less likely to be interviewed at a later stage of illness (days post onset of fever—aOR: 0.56 [0.40–0.78]) and had a lower white blood cell count (aOR: 0.83 [0.71–0.96]). Among the 38 patients with RT-qPCR-confirmed CHIKV or DENV, there were no significant differences in symptomatic presentation. However when individuals with serological evidence of recent DENV or CHIKV infection were included in the analyses, there were key differences in clinical presentation between CHIKF and other AUFIs including DF, which can be used to triage patients for appropriate care in the clinical setting.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) recently emerged in the Americas and caused a major epidemic of chikungunya fever (CHIKF). While not usually life threatening, CHIKF is a debilitating and often chronic illness resulting in major morbidity and economic losses. It is difficult to distinguish CHIKF from other viral illnesses that cause acute fevers including dengue fever (DF), an important consideration since DF can be life-threatening and early identification and treatment of cases is key to reducing mortality. In this study we investigated individuals presenting to a major hospital in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) with suspected DF or CHIKF, and identified signs and symptoms that distinguish these two illnesses. We also recovered complete genome sequences for CHIKV and show that the etiologic strain in T&T is a closely related descendent of the strain first isolated from the British Virgin Islands at the beginning of the outbreak in the Americas.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV; Family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus) is the aetiological agent of chikungunya fever (CHIKF), which presents as an acute onset high fever with headache, back pain, muscle and joint pain. The joint pain can vary in intensity but is often very intense, predominates at the ankles, wrists and phalanges and is coupled with swelling. CHIKF is usually a self-limiting disease, and serious outcomes (e.g. neurological complications) and fatalities appear to be rare [ 1 , 2 ]. However up to 60% of infections are followed by chronic arthritic conditions, with recurrent debilitating joint pain several years post-infection [ 3 , 4 ]
CHIKV exists as a single serotype thought to confer life-long immunity in recovered individuals. There is, however, sufficient variation to discern three genotypes, namely the enzootic West African (WAf), and East /Central/South African (ECSA), and the epidemic Asian genotypes. The ECSA recently gave rise to the Indian Ocean Lineage (IOL) responsible for epidemics in the Indian Ocean islands, mainland India and Europe beginning in 2004 [ 5 ]. The expansion of this lineage has been attributed to adaptive mutations in the E1 and E2 envelope glycoproteins that provide a fitness advantage in Aedes albopictus without reducing fitness in A. aegypti [ 6 ] and permit rapid lineage diversification [ 7 ] [ 8 ].
In light of the dramatic re-emergence of CHIKV in Asia, the intensity of global travel and the widespread prevalence of A. aegypti and A. albopictus, the emergence of CHIKV in the Americas was long anticipated [ 9 ]. As expected, numerous imported (travel-related) cases were subsequently documented in the Americas, none of which resulted in local transmission until December 2013 when autochthonous transmission was documented in the Caribbean island of St. Martin [ 10 ]. The etiologic virus, which belongs to the Asian genotype rather than the IOL [ 11 , 12 ], spread rapidly first amongst the islands of the Caribbean archipelago then on to the mainland Americas [ 13 – 15 ]. As of 7 August 2015 CHIKF cases were confirmed in 50 countries / territories in the Caribbean and mainland Americas with approximately 1.7 million suspected / confirmed cases since October 2013 [ 16 ]. CHIKV belonging to the ECSA genotype was also recently documented in Brazil but has not been confirmed elsewhere in the Americas [ 17 ].
Although CHIKF is rarely life threatening, the symptoms can be severely incapacitating, rendering patients unable to perform normal tasks or go to work. As a result, particularly in immunologically naïve populations where attack rates can be as high as 30–50% and the vast majority of infections are symptomatic [ 18 , 19 ] [ 20 ], the disease burden, potential to overwhelm public health systems and indirect costs can be very significant. Clinical overlap and confusion with other acute undifferentiated fevers e.g. dengue disease (which can be fatal), are additional concerns in affected regions.
The Caribbean twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) reported its first cases of CHIKV infection in July 2014 (in Trinidad) [ 21 ]. In this study we report the genetic characterisation of CHIKV and compare clinical, laboratory and epidemiological characteristics of patients with and without confirmed CHIKV or dengue virus (DENV) infections who presented at a major hospital in Trinidad, during an acute undifferentiated febrile illness (AUFI) surveillance study.
Study participants were enrolled at the Adult Primary Care Facility (APCF) of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) during the period of December 25 th 2013 to November 5 th 2014. Individuals were recruited, on average, 3 days a week throughout this period, with the exception of October 2014, when no sample collection was undertaken. Individuals presenting at the APCF on study days with suspected dengue fever (DF) or CHIKF were eligible for enrollment. Specifically, patients were eligible for enrollment if they were febrile (having an axillary temperature of ≥38°C) or had a reported history of fever within the last 7 days, accompanied by one or more of the following symptoms commonly associated with DF and CHIKF: headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, aches and pains, eye pain, evidence of haemorrhagic manifestation, rash, joint pain and swollen joints. Individuals who had a readily identifiable focus of infection were excluded from the study.
At presentation and enrollment, whole blood was collected in non-additive and/or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) containing blood collection tubes and a questionnaire eliciting relevant demographic and clinical information, medical and recent travel history, and risk factors for exposure to mosquito bites was administered. Whole blood was stored at 4°C and centrifuged at 1500g for 10 minutes at 4°C within 24 hours. Sera and plasma samples were stored at -80°C until use.
Nucleic acid extraction was performed using QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit (Qiagen; Valencia, CA) and carried out according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Extractions were performed using 140μl of serum, or plasma where serum was unavailable. Nucleic acid samples were screened and serotyped for DENV-1-4 using the DENV multiplex RT-qPCR assay previously described by Waggoner [ 22 ]. Screening for CHIKV was carried out using the RT-qPCR general assay previously described by Panning [ 23 ]. All RT-qPCR screening was done using the SuperScript III Platinum One-Step qRT-PCR kit (Invitrogen; Carlsbad, CA) with final reaction volumes amended to 25μl instead of the manufacturer’s recommended 50μl.
For ten samples with low Ct values in RT-qPCR assays, viral RNA was extracted then fragmented by incubation at 94°C for eight (8) minutes in 19.5 μl of fragmentation buffer (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). First and second strand synthesis, adapter ligation and amplification of the library were performed using the Illumina TruSeq RNA Sample Preparation kit v2 under conditions prescribed by the manufacturer (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). Cluster formation of the library DNA templates was performed using the TruSeq PE Cluster Kit v3 (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) and the Illumina cBot workstation using conditions recommended by the manufacturer. Paired end 50 base sequencing by synthesis was performed using TruSeq SBS kit v3 (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) on an Illumina HiSeq 1000 using protocols defined by the manufacturer.
Cluster density per lane was 820–940 k/mm 2 and post-filter reads ranged from 148–218 million per lane. Base call conversion to sequence reads was performed using CASAVA-1.8.2. Reads were filtered for quality and adapter sequences were removed, then viral contigs were assembled de novo using AbySS software [ 24 ]. Assembled contigs were checked using bowtie2 to align reads to the contigs [ 25 ] followed by visualization using the integrative genomics viewer [ 26 ].
Newly generated CHIKV genomic sequences along with sequences from Genbank representing all three genotypes were aligned using the ClustalW alignment tool [ 27 ] within Geneious Version 7.1.7 (
To rule out the presence of recombination within the data set, which could affect the phylogenetic structure, all genomic sequences were screened using SBP and GARD [ 29 ] from the HyPhy online package [ 30 ]. The best-fit model for subsequent analyses (GTR+G
Substitution rates and times to the most recent common ancestor (T
Panbio Dengue IgM and IgG Capture ELISA (Brisbane, Australia) were used to screen sera for the presence of DENV-specific antibodies using manufacturer’s instructions, and all samples were screened in duplicate. Samples were designated as positive for dengue-specific IgM if both duplicates returned a value of >11 Panbio Units and as negative at <9 Panbio Units. Samples were designated as positive for dengue-specific IgG if both duplicates returned a value of >22 Panbio Units and as negative at <18 Panbio Units. For samples returning equivocal results (9 to 11 and 18 to 22 Panbio Units) or where the duplicates fell into different categories (i.e. one weakly positive or negative and the other equivocal), the test was repeated. Samples that remained equivocal were designated as such and for those with that remained with the duplicates falling in different categories, the mean value was taken and the sample classified accordingly.
According to the manufacturer (due to the detection thresholds for the two assays), the presence of detectable levels of IgM (in the absence of detectable IgG) indicates a probable recent primary infection with DENV, while the presence of detectable levels of IgG indicates probable recent secondary dengue virus infection. The manufacturers note that IgM levels in a secondary infection may be undetectable by the assay. Thus IgM+/IgG- result was interpreted as evidence of a probable recent primary DENV infection, and both IgM+/IgG+ and IgM-/IgG+ results were interpreted as probable recent secondary DENV infections.
Euroimmum Chikungunya IgM Capture ELISA (Leubeck, Germany) was used to screen sera and plasma for the presence of CHIKV-specific IgM antibodies. ELISAs were carried out in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and all samples were screened in duplicate. Samples were designated as positive for CHIKV-specific IgM if both duplicates returned a value of ≥ 1.1 and as negative at < 0.8. No sample tested returned an equivocal result (≥ 0.8 to < 1.1).
The frequencies of patient demographic and clinical characteristics were determined by questionnaire. The outcome for analysis was having a confirmed infection with CHIKV, defined as a positive result on RT-qPCR. Bivariable associations with a confirmed CHIKV infection were determined using the student’s t-test for continuous variables and the Pearson’s chi-square or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables. All variables with a p-value less than or equal to 0.10 were considered in the final multivariable model, which was determined using binary logistic regression using a forward stepwise selection procedure (entry: 5%, exit: 10%). Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are reported.
To compare the symptomatic presentation for RT-qPCR positive DENV and CHIKV, a bivariable analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables and the Pearson’s chi-square or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables. Data were entered using Microsoft Excel 2007 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA), then transferred to IBM SPSS Statistics v20 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) for analysis. All p-values <0.05 were considered significant.
Positive predictive values (PPVs), negative predictive values (NPVs), and the sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios of different combinations of clinical features used to distinguish confirmed and probable DF and CHIKF from other AUFIs were also calculated. Combinations used to differentiate DF from CHIKF were also compared. For both CHIKF and DF these values were calculated using confirmed cases (RT-PCR positive for virus) and probable recent cases (ELISA positive for IgM/IgG antibodies).
The 8 newly generated CHIKV whole genome sequences are available from Genbank. Accession numbers: KR046227, KR046228, KR046229, KR046230, KR046231, KR046232, KR046233 and KR046234.
The study protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health. Permission to carry out the study at the EWMSC was granted by the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
There were 158 patients who met the inclusion criteria for AUFI and agreed to participate in the study. Of these, the median age was 32, ranging from 16–88 years. Half (50%) of the patients were male and, of those with complete data on ethnicity, the majority were Afro- (33%), Indo-(31%) Trinidadian or Mixed (26%) ( S2 Table). Just under a third (30%) had received greater than a secondary level of education, and most (69%) were employed. Most patients (79%) were nationals of Trinidad & Tobago, with relatively few (7%) reporting a travel history outside of Trinidad in the two weeks prior to interview. Twenty-two percent reported having had laboratory-confirmed DF previously, 25% reported that others in their household had been febrile in the two weeks prior to their interview, 55% reported storing water at home and, while 15% reported having screened windows at home, most (80%) reported a history of mosquito bites at their place of residence.
At interview, the most commonly reported symptoms were headache (83%), weakness (67%), joint pain (65%) and muscle pain (65%). Seventeen percent reported some degree of haemorrhagic manifestations and 22% reported a rash ( S2 Table). Thirty (19%) of the 158 individuals were positive for CHIKV on RT-qPCR. The earliest case was an individual sampled on August 5 th, 2014, about three weeks after the first CHIKV case was confirmed in Trinidad [ 38 ]. The number of RT-qPCR confirmed cases peaked in week 38 when the number of individuals enrolled was highest ( Fig 1). Cases were concentrated along the urbanised “East-West corridor” in the north of Trinidad primarily within the boundaries of the North Central Regional Health Authority served by the EWMSC. Additionally, 27 (17%) of the 158 individuals were positive by ELISA for anti-CHIKV IgM antibodies, including 6 of those persons positive by RT-qPCR for CHIKV.
The green line graph indicates the number of patients enrolled per week. Histogram bars indicate the number of individuals confirmed as RT-qPCR positive for CHIKV (blue) or DENV (red) by RT-qPCR. Weeks 41–43 in 2014 are excluded as no patient enrolment was attempted during this period.
Eight of the 158 individuals (5.1%) were confirmed as DENV-positive by RT-qPCR ( Fig 1). Of these, 6 were DENV-1 and one each DENV-3 and DENV-4. For 125 individuals (including 6 of the aforementioned RT-qPCR positive individuals), there was sufficient serum available for both dengue-specific IgM and IgG ELISAs ( S3 Table). Using the combined RT-qPCR and ELISA results, 4.8% (n = 6) were designated as “confirmed current DENV infections” of which three were primary infections (i.e. IgM+/IgG-) and three were secondary infections (IgM+/IgG+), 18.4% (n = 23) were “probable recent primary DENV infections”, 42.4% (n = 53) were “probable recent secondary DENV infections” and 3.2% (n = 4) were equivocal. In total 66% (n = 82) had evidence of a current or probable recent DENV infection ( S3 Table).
On bivariable analyses ( Table 1 & S4 Table), patients with RT-qPCR confirmed CHIKV infection (CHIKV+; n = 30) were significantly more likely to report joint pain (83%, p = 0.020) than individuals who were RT-qPCR-negative for CHIKV (not CHIKV+) but were less likely to have travelled outside of Trinidad in the 2 weeks prior to interview (17%, p = 0.044), or to have reported laboratory-confirmed dengue previously (7%, p = 0.026). They were also more likely to have presented to the APCF earlier (mean days post onset of fever: 2.39 [CHIKV+] vs. 3.33 [not CHIKV+], p = 0.021) and had lower mean white blood cell counts (6.52 [CHIKV+] vs. 8.36x10 3/μl [not CHIKV+], p = 0.016).
| Parameters | Not confirmed | Confirmed | p-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | (%) | n | (%) | ||
| Demographics | |||||
| Age, years | |||||
| <32 | 64 | (50.0) | 11 | (36.7) | 0.188 |
| >32 | 64 | (50.0) | 19 | (63.3) | |
| Sex | |||||
| Male | 68 | (53.1) | 11 | (36.7) | 0.105 |
| Female | 60 | (46.9) | 19 | (63.3) | |
| Marital status | |||||
| Not married a | 58 | (47.5) | 7 | (26.9) | 0.054 † |
| Married (including common-law) | 64 | (52.5) | 19 | (73.1) | |
| Nationality | |||||
| Not Trinidadian or Tobagonian | 24 | (18.8) | 10 | (33.3) | 0.080 † |
| Trinidadian or Tobagonian | 104 | (81.3) | 20 | (66.7) | |
| Risk factors | |||||
| Travelled outside of Trinidad in the 2 weeks prior to interview | 6 | (5.0) | 5 | (16.7) | 0.044 * |
| Previous dengue | 32 | (26.0) | 2 | (6.9) | 0.026 * |
| Clinical factors | |||||
| Headache | 108 | (84.4) | 23 | (76.7) | 0.313 |
| Muscle pain | 81 | (63.3) | 21 | (70.0) | 0.489 |
| Joint pain | 78 | (60.9) | 25 | (83.3) | 0.020 * |
| Rash | 24 | (18.8) | 10 | (33.3) | 0.080 † |
| Sore throat | 29 | (22.7) | 1 | (3.3) | 0.015 * |
| Abdominal pain | 40 | (31.2) | 2 | (6.7) | 0.006 ** |
| Any haemorrhagic manifestation b | 23 | (18.0) | 3 | (10.0) | 0.414 |
| Mean | (s.d.) ‡ | Mean | (s.d.) ‡ | p-value | |
| Days post onset of fever | 3.33 | (1.96) | 2.39 | (1.77) | 0.021 * |
| White blood cell count (10 3/ml) | 8.36 | (4.85) | 6.52 | (3.25) | 0.016 * |
| Haematocrit (%) | 43.81 | (23.7) | 39 | (7.99) | 0.276 |
| Platelet count (10 3/ml) | 213.2 | -100.86 | 234.6 | (72.48) | 0.277 |
A more comprehensive list of variables is presented in S2 Table.
ⱡ Defined as a positive result by RT-qPCR
† p<0.10
* p<0.05
** p<0.01
‡ Standard deviation
a Includes: single, divorced and widower
b Includes: nose bleed, gum bleed, abnormal vaginal bleeding, blood in urine, bruising or blood in stool
In addition to the above variables, the following also met the criteria for inclusion in the multivariable model: marital status ( p = 0.054), nationality ( p = 0.080), number of days post onset of illness ( p = 0.032), rash ( p = 0.084), sore throat ( p = 0.015), and abdominal pain ( p = 0.006). Due to a highly significant negative correlation between nationality and travel history, only travel history was included in the model. Similarly, due to a strong, positive and highly significant correlation between number of days post onset of fever and days post onset of illness, only the former was considered in the model. Lastly, due to small cell sizes (n ≤ 2), having had dengue previously, sore throat and abdominal pain were not considered in the final model.
The following variables were considered in the final multivariable model: marital status, joint pain, rash, days post onset of fever and white blood cell count. As shown in
Table 2 , those who had confirmed CHIKV infection were significantly more likely to have reported joint pain (aOR: 4.52, 95% CI: 1.28–16.00), and significantly less likely to be interviewed at a later stage of illness (days post onset of fever—aOR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.40–0.78) and have a lower white blood cell count (aOR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71–0.96).
| Adjusted odds ratio | (95% confidence interval) | p-value |
|---|
ⱡ Defined as a positive result by RT-qPCR
* p<0.05
** p<0.01
Among the 38 patients positive by RT-qPCR for CHIKV (n = 30) or DENV (n = 8), there were no significant differences in clinical presentations (p > 0.05) between those with CHIKV and those with DENV ( Table 3 and S5 Table). However, when compared to DENV, persons with CHIKV more often reported joint pain (83% vs. 50%, p = 0.071) and rash (33% vs. 0%, p = 0.082), and less often reported abdominal pain (7% vs. 38%, p = 0.053). Patients with DENV had significantly lower median white blood cell count (3.50 vs. 6.00 x10 3/μl, p = 0.028) and platelet (PLT) counts (1.47 vs. 2.39x10 5/μl, p = 0.022).
| Status | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DENV | CHIKV | p-value | |||
| n | (%) | n | (%) | ||
| Symptoms | |||||
| Headache | 7 | (87.5) | 23 | 76.7) | 0.66 |
| Muscle pain | 5 | (62.5) | 21 | (70.0) | 0.689 |
| Joint pain | 4 | (50.0) | 5 | (83.3) | 0.071 † |
| Back pain | 1 | (12.5) | 0 | 0 | 0.211 |
| Rash | 0 | 0 | 10 | (33.3) | 0.082 † |
| Fatigue | 1 | (12.5) | 15 | (50.0) | 0.106 |
| Eye pain | 5 | (62.5) | 12 | (40.0) | 0.426 |
| Cough | 3 | (37.5) | 7 | (23.3) | 0.411 |
| Nausea | 4 | (50.0) | 6 | (20.0) | 0.17 |
| Vomiting | 4 | (50.0) | 8 | (26.7) | 0.232 |
| Diarrhoea | 2 | (25.0) | 5 | (16.7 | 0.624 |
| Sore throat | 1 | (12.5) | 1 | (3.3) | 0.381 |
| Weakness | 5 | (62.5) | 21 | (70.0) | 0.689 |
| Stiff neck | 1 | (12.5) | 4 | (13.3) | 1 |
| Dizziness | 2 | (25.0) | 13 | (43.3) | 0.44 |
| Disorientation | 0 | 0 | 3 | (10.0) | 1 |
| Abdominal pain | 3 | (37.5) | 2 | (6.7) | 0.053 † |
| Any haemorrhagic manifestation a | 0 | 0 | 3 | (10.0) | 1 |
| Median | Min-Max ‡ | Median | Min-Max ‡ | p-value | |
| Days post onset of fever | 2.5 | 1.0–5.0 | 2 | 0.0–6.0 | 0.484 |
| Temperature (°C) | 37 | 36.7–39.3 | 38 | 37.0–39.0 | 0.288 |
| White blood cell count (10 3/ml) | 3.5 | 1.7–6.3 | 6 | 2.7–17.6 | 0.028 * |
| Haematocrit (%) | 43.1 | 37.9–48.8 | 39.85 | 12.9–51.4 | 0.092 † |
| Platelet count (10 3/ml) | 147 | 51.0–294.0 | 239 | 83.0–375.0 | 0.022 * |
A more comprehensive list of variables is presented in S5 Table.
ⱡ Defined as a positive result by RT-qPCR
† p<0.10
* p<0.05
‡ Minimum-Maximum
a Includes: nose bleed, gum bleed, abnormal vaginal bleeding, blood in urine, bruising or blood in stool.
The clinical features joint pain and white blood cell count <7 x10 3/μl were selected as they were significant on bivariable analysis. For DF, PLT count <150 x10 3/ μl and abdominal pain were also selected as patients with confirmed DENV infection were more likely to display/report these symptoms than persons with confirmed CHIKV infection. Similarly for CHIKF rash was included as patients with confirmed CHIKV infection were more likely to report this sign than persons with confirmed DENV infection ( Table 4 ).
| Parameters | PPV (%) | NPV (%) | Sens (%) | Spec (%) | Likelihood Ratio (+) | Likelihood Ratio (-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHIKV | ||||||
| Joint pain | 43.7 | 89.1 | 88.2 | 45.8 | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| Rash | 70.6 | 78.1 | 47.1 | 90.6 | 5.0 | 0.6 |
| White blood cell count (<7x10 3/μl) | 48.8 | 83.6 | 78.0 | 57.7 | 1.8 | 0.4 |
| Rash & joint pain | 72.4 | 94.0 | 87.5 | 85.5 | 6.0 | 0.2 |
| Rash & white blood cell count (<7 x10 3/μl) | 74.1 | 86.9 | 71.4 | 88.3 | 1.9 | 0.3 |
| Joint pain & white blood cell count (<7x10 3/μl) | 20.0 | 96.3 | 83.3 | 56.5 | 2.5 | 0.5 |
| Rash, joint pain & white blood cell count (<7x10 3/μl) | 77.3 | 96.3 | 94.4 | 83.9 | 5.9 | 0.1 |
| DENV | ||||||
| Platelet count (<150x10 3/μl) | 84.6 | 34.9 | 28.2 | 88.2 | 2.4 | 0.8 |
| Abdominal pain | 77.4 | 34.8 | 28.6 | 82.1 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| Abdominal pain & platelet count (<150 x10 3/μl) | 83.3 | 48.2 | 15.2 | 96.3 | 4.1 | 0.9 |
ⱡ Defined as a positive result by RT-qPCR and/or positive for IgM/IgG antibodies by ELISA
Individually none of the clinical features was able to efficiently differentiate DF or CHIKF from other AUFIs. The results are given in Table 4 . However the combination of rash, joint pain and white blood cell count <7 x10 3/μl was most efficiently able to differentiate CHIKF from other AUFIs. This combination had a PPV and NPV of 77% and 96% respectively. The three parameters combined had a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 84%. Furthermore the positive and negative likelihood ratios were 5.9 and 0.1 respectively ( Table 4 ).
None of the combinations tested was overall able to efficiently differentiate between DENV and CHIKV. The combination that performed the best was rash, joint pain and white blood cell count <7 x10 3/μl with a PPV and NPV of 58% and 95% respectively as well as a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 78% ( Table 5 ).
| Parameters | Sens (%) | Spec (%) | PPV (%) | NPV (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platelet count (<150x10 3/μl), abdominal pain | 7.3 | 96.3 | 75.0 | 40.6 |
| Joint pain, rash | 72.7 | 82.1 | 53.3 | 91.4 |
| Joint pain, white blood cell count (<7x10 3/μl) | 91.7 | 50.0 | 37.9 | 94.7 |
| White blood cell count (<7x10 3/μl), rash | 50.0 | 84.4 | 53.3 | 82.6 |
| White blood cell count (<7x10 3/μl), rash, joint pain | 87.5 | 78.3 | 58.3 | 94.7 |
ⱡ Defined as a positive result by RT-qPCR and/or positive for IgM/IgG antibodies by ELISA
Using an Illumina platform, complete genome sequences for CHIKV were determined directly from RNA isolated from the sera of 8 individuals. The overall alignment rate of the reads varied for each sample, ranging from 0.45–17.5%. Nucleotide identity amongst the consensus sequences from these individuals was 99.9–100% and 99.8–100% at the amino acid level ( S6 Table). Non-synonymous substitutions occurred at nucleotide positions 774 (T→A), 1509 (C→T), 1781 (C→T), 3563 (G→A), 8822 (C→T) and 10,059 (G→A), resulting in changes at aminoacid residues 233 (L→Q), 478 (A→V), 569 (R→C) and 1163 (V→I) in the non-structural polypeptide and at residues 419 (T→I) and 832 (G→R) in the structural polypeptide. The latter two being in the E2 and E1 proteins respectively. Both MCC ( Fig 2) and ML phylogenies ( S1 Fig) estimated from the data set showed that the Trinidad sequences clustered together with the BVI sequence (Accession no. KJ451624) isolated in 2014 near the beginning of the Caribbean outbreak [ 39 ]. The most closely related Asian sequences circulated between 2012 and 2013 in China, the Philippines and Micronesia. The clade containing the Trinidad and BVI sequences was defined by the aforementioned amino acid changes and was estimated to be evolving at a rate of 5 x 10 −3 substitutions per site per year (95% HPD: 1 x 10 −4–1 x 10 −3 substitutions per site per year) with the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) having arisen about 1 year prior to November 2014 `(0.98 years ago [95% higher probability density (HPD): 0.49–1.63]).
The three major CHIKV genotypes are labelled, as well as the IOL within the ECSA clade. Sequences generated from this study (Genbank accession numbers (KR046227 –KR046234) are labelled in blue. Nodes with clade credibilities (posterior probabilities) ≥ 0.95 are labelled accordingly. The clade credibility for the node supporting the Trinidad and BVI sequences is shown in the insert together with the mean estimated time to most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) in years (with 95% HPD in brackets).
For three individuals, sequencing was of sufficient depth to allow reliable reporting of within-host variation at individual nucleotide positions within the non-structural and structural polypeptide genes. Within the non-structural polypeptide ORF, for one individual, at nucleotide position 1228 (i.e. residue 384 of nsp1), 1.1% of reads had A instead of the majority T (p = 2.16 x 10 −7) both of which encode Leu, and at nucleotide position 3276, 1.6% of reads had T instead of G (p = 1.77 x 10 −13) which would result in a Ser to Ile substitution at residue 1067 of the nonstructural polypeptide (within nsp2). For the structural polypeptide gene, variation was detected at nucleotide position 9377 (residue 604 i.e. residue 279 in E2) where the minority species was A instead of G. This variant, which was detected in three individuals at frequencies of 2.03, 2.08 and 2.69% (p = 1.48 x 10 −23, 1.15 x 10 −4, 5.59 x 10 −5 respectively), would result in a Gly-to-Glu change. One individual also had a minority variant at nucleotide position 9037 such that 1.18% had T instead of G (p < 6.19 x 10 −2), which would result in replacement of Glu at amino acid 491 of the structural polypeptide (residue 165 in E2) with a stop codon. None of the four single adaptive mutations in E1 (A226V) and E2 (K252Q; K233E; L210Q) or the synergistic adaptive mutations in E2/E3 (R198Q/S18F) that confer a fitness advantage for IOL strains in A. albopictus [ 6 , 8 , 40 , 41 ] were detected.
Of the 158 individuals enrolled in the study CHIKV was detected by RT-qPCR in 19% (n = 30). Anti-CHIKV IgM antibodies were detected in 6 of the 30 individuals and in 21 individuals who tested negative for CHIKV by RT-qPCR. Therefore 51 individuals (32.3%) had evidence of infection with CHIKV. CHIKV accounted for 7.7%, 4,5%, 36.6%, and 13.3% of cases enrolled in July, August, September and November, respectively. As of August, 2015, 303 laboratory-confirmed cases had been reported in T&T by the Caribbean Public Health Agency [ 42 ]. Data on the total number of suspected and probable cases are not available, but it may be presumed to be much higher. Without a reliable estimate of total CHIKV incidence in the country it is difficult to interpret the observed trend in the number of cases detected in this study. The initial increase in number of observed CHIKV cases may be a reflection of the rapid expansion of the virus in Trinidad while the moderate decline in the proportion of CHIKV cases in November compared to September may reflect a decline in incidence or may simply be a result of people becoming less likely to seek hospital care as knowledge about the virus and the nonlethal consequences of infection became more widespread. The Ministry of Health, for example, launched a public education campaign including a “Chikungunya Virus Bus Tour” in August 2014. Because of the overlap with Dengue symptomology the general advice was that individuals showing symptoms should immediately seek healthcare, however most would probably have visited a primary care facility as opposed to hospital emergency care department such as the one where this study was conducted.
Our results confirm that the etiologic CHIKV strain in Trinidad belongs to the Asian genotype and is nearly a direct descendent of the BVI strain isolated in January 2014 [ 11 ], with which it shares over 99.9% nucleotide sequence identity across the two ORFs. At the time of writing, no other genomic CHIKV nucleotide sequences from the Americas were available so, although likely, a common origin for CHIKV throughout the Caribbean cannot be confirmed. Additional sequencing would be required to confirm whether other lineages or genotypes have been circulating in the Caribbean as has been the case in Brazil (REF). Analysis of intrahost variation in three individuals indicated the existence of variants with non-synonymous substitutions at low frequency (<3%). None of these corresponded to known adaptive mutations that confer a fitness advantage for IOL strains in A. albopictus [ 6 , 8 , 40 , 41 ].
The data presented arose from a febrile surveillance study for which the initial focus was DENV, however with the emergence of CHIKV in the Americas, specific screening for CHIKV using RT-qPCR was included. Amongst the 158 participants, only 8 were RT-qPCR positive for DENV. However based on the subset of samples (n = 125) that underwent both RT-qPCR and complete ELISA testing, a total of 82 (66%) had evidence of a current or recent DENV infections. Most of the 8 RT-qPCR confirmed DENV infections were DENV-1, which is consistent with the results of PCR-based serotyping of DENV-positive sera derived from the Trinidad Public Health Laboratories from 2011–2014 which showed that DENV-1 and -4 were the dominant serotypes during this period, with DENV-1 being the more common (N. Sahadeo et al., manuscript in preparation).
Our findings suggest that persons with confirmed CHIKV infection (i.e. RT-qPCR-positive for CHIKV) visited the APFC roughly one day earlier than those without RT-qPCR evidence of CHIKV. Others have reported significantly earlier presentation of CHIKV infected individuals at health care institutions compared to DENV infected individuals [ 43 ]. This may be a consequence of the more severe joint pain associated with CHIKV infection, which in the current study was more commonly reported in individuals with confirmed CHIKV infection than in individuals negative for CHIKV and DENV by RT-qPCR, although in the case of DENV the difference was not significant.
Several studies have reported leukocytosis as more likely to be present in chikungunya cases, and leucopenia and thrombocytopenia being more likely to be present in dengue cases [ 43 – 50 ]. In particular, thrombocytopenia is considered a hallmark of DENV infection [ 51 ]. In the current study, bivariable analysis indicated lower mean white blood cell counts in individuals with confirmed CHIKV infection compared to individuals with AUFI that were negative for CHIKV by RT-qPCR. However the extent of leucopenia in the those confirmed CHIKV cases was less than observed in the 88 individuals with confirmed DENV infection (i.e. positive for DENV by RT-qPCR), who had significantly lower white blood cell and platelet counts than individuals with confirmed CHIKV infection.
There have been concerns that the arrival of CHIKV would result in life-threatening DENV cases being overlooked, as the two are clinically indistinguishable during the early stages. This concern was critical because timely confirmatory laboratory testing is largely unavailable and rapid “point-of-care” approaches can be costly and unreliable. Our data suggest that platelet counts, which are routinely performed at the EWMSC and other major healthcare institutions in T&T, are useful for identifying individuals who are more likely to have DENV than CHIKV. Our data indicate that in addition to being lower than in individuals with confirmed CHIKV infection, the mean platelet count in the 8 individuals with confirmed DENV infection was at a level (<150 x 10 3/μl) at which the EWMSC would normally recommend further monitored. Additionally, out of those 8 individuals, five had platelet counts below this threshold.
Furthermore, we investigated the feasibility of using combinations of clinical features as a means of differentiating between individuals with confirmed and probable CHIKF (i.e. with evidence of CHIKV infection by PCR and / or ELISA) and individuals with confirmed and recent probable DF. The combination rash, joint pain and white blood cell count <7 x10 3/μl was most efficient with a PPV and NPV of 77% and 96% respectively and, a sensitivity and specificity of 94% and 84% respectively. Rash, joint pain and white blood cell count <7 x10 3/μl together were also most efficient at differentiating CHIKF from other AUFIs. In this case the combination had a PPV and NPV of 58% and 95% respectively and, a sensitivity and specificity of 88% and 78% respectively. Considering the mean PLT count was lower (<150 x 10 3/μl) in individuals positive for DENV by RT-qPCR, a profile using these 4 clinical features might be suitable as a means of differentiating between those with CHIKV infection and those with DENV infection.
In this study participants were solicited three days per week from amongst individuals identified by attending physicians as meeting the criteria of having been febrile within the last seven days. We cannot rule out selection bias at this interface and so cannot generalise our findings to those who were not interviewed. However as it was a study of AUFI and was not restricted to persons with a specific infection, selection bias among those who thought they had DENV or CHIKV may be less of a concern. Three interviewers were involved in the administration of questionnaires to participants of the study. In order to ensure consistency, they were trained in the delivery of questions and recording of responses but the possibility of interviewer bias cannot be completely excluded.
This study was performed at a tertiary level public healthcare facility, and the distribution of risk factors may be different among those who sought care at public primary care facilities (i.e. local health centres) or at other private healthcare facilities. Importantly, despite having a small sample size for the comparison of persons with and without CHIKV, there was sufficient power to detect several meaningful associations on bivariable and multivariable analysis. For the sub-analysis comparing the symptoms of those with CHIKV or DENV, the sample size was restricted to 38 and thus analyses were underpowered. In spite of this, there appeared to be differences in the symptomatic presentation of persons infected with either.
In summary, our study confirms the presence of Asian genotype CHIKV in Trinidad and identifies symptoms that distinguish individuals with acute fevers who are viraemic for CHIKV from those who are CHIKV negative by RT-qPCR, and identifies laboratory and clinical features that distinguish between those who are viraemic for CHIKV versus DENV. 51 (32.3%) individuals had evidence of CHIKV infection (positive for CHIKV by RT-qPCR and / or positive for anti-CHIKV IgM antibodies by ELISA). Of these, only 30 were positive for CHIKV by RT-qPCR. While all individuals reported being within 7 days of onset of their symptoms (when viraemia is often detectable) it is possible that there were individuals in whom viraemia was already cleared or too low to be detected. Additionally, future studies aimed at determining population-level seroprevalence will be essential in order to get an accurate estimate of the impact (economic and otherwise) of CHIKV on the Trinidad population and to predict the potential impact of future outbreaks. It will also be important to monitor the genotypes in circulation given the potential for accumulation of adaptive mutations demonstrated by some strains [ 6 , 8 , 40 , 41 ].
The rapid spread of the newly emerged CHIKV in the Caribbean in 2014 and the resulting epidemic demonstrate the dramatic effect of the introduction of a “novel” virus on a naïve population, especially where vectors are endemic. Public health authorities in the Americas are, as of August 2015, on alert for the emergence of Zika virus, a flavivirus known to cause widespread outbreaks of dengue-like illness in Africa and Asia, after being recently detected in the region for the first time. As commercial air travel expands this will continue to facilitate the movement of viruses and ongoing monitoring of individuals with AUFIs is essential to rapidly detect the emergence of viruses to non-endemic areas.
The three major CHIKV genotypes are labelled, as well as the IOL within the ECSA clade. Sequences generated from this study (Genbank accession numbers KR046227 –KR046234) are labelled in in grey. Nodes supported by bootstrap values ≥ 0.95 are labelled accordingly.
(TIF)
Click here for additional data file.
(DOCX)
Click here for additional data file.
(DOCX)
Click here for additional data file.
(DOCX)
Click here for additional data file.
(DOCX)
Click here for additional data file.
(DOCX)
Click here for additional data file.
(DOCX)
Click here for additional data file.
We thank Marlon Knights, Kendall Braithwaite, Janelle Francis, Kristina Eccles, Steve Badan and Ria Maharaj-Sooknanan for assistance with phlebotomy, and Giselle Yard for organising a location for study participant recruitment and private interviews at the APCF.


Girls celebrate after receiving bursary to support their education
Parent being presented with a bursary
BENEFICIARIES
students from slums
Girl child
Students from poor background affected by covid-19
Here is what other students who have benefited from have to say
I am very grateful to the Sub-County Bursary Scheme for supporting me. I have
made it this far becuse of them
I feel priviledged to have gone through this iniative It really relieved
pressure on my parents and i was able to concentrate on my studies without any worries
I am very grateful to the Sub-County Bursary Scheme for supporting me. I have
made it this far becuse of them
I feel priviledged to have gone through this iniative It really relieved pressure on my parents and i was able to concentrate on my studies without any worries


Cheaper And More Expensive Land Rover Defenders Are Coming
Land Rover's new range-topping Defender will rival the Aston Martin DBX.
by Martin BiggWhen it goes on sale in the US next spring, the 2020 Land Rover Defender will initially only be available in the 110 guise, which measures 197.6 inches long with the rear-mounted spare wheel, 77.4 inches high, and 82.9 inches wide including the mirrors, with a 119-inch wheelbase.
A smaller Defender 90 variant will join the lineup in the summer of 2020, measuring 180.4 inches long with the rear-mounted spare wheel, 77.5 inches high, and 82.9 inches wide including the mirrors, with a 101.9-inch wheelbase.
The Defender 110 is offered with a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 gasoline engine developing 296 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque or a 3.0-liter turbo inline-4 with a 48-volt electric supercharger producing a combined 395 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. The smaller 2020 Defender 90, on the other hand, will be offered with a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-6 engine with electric boost developing 395 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. According to Autocar, however, the new Defender family will be further expanded with a cheaper entry-level model and a more expensive luxury variant.
Priced at around £25,000 ($32,894), the new entry-level five-door Defender, reportedly codenamed L860, will be cheaper than any previous Land Rover model and is expected to arrive in 2021. The styling is expected to be based on the new Defender while also paying homage to the original iconic Land Rover, but the interior will likely offer less equipment and space to reflect the price.
It's not yet known how the entry-level Defender will be branded, but Autocar claims it could adopt the Land Rover 80 name as a reference to the wheelbase of the original Series 1. The new model could lure buyers away from compact SUVs such as the Jeep Compass, Mini Countryman and Volkswagen Tiguan and compete with premium models like the BMW X1 and Volvo XC40. Reducing development and construction costs will be a challenge to sell the L860 at a low showroom price.
More powerful four-cylinder engines and all-wheel drive are allegedly possible, but there's a risk that this could cannibalize sales of the Land Rover Discovery Sport. A plug-in three-cylinder version is also a possibility to keep emissions low. To keep costs down, it's believed the L860 will be built at Land Rover's new plant in Slovakia, which has lower employee costs. Autocar claims the new entry-level model will be unveiled in the third quarter of 2021, so we should see some test mules undergoing testing in 2020.
According to insiders, the range-topping Defender Sport is in the early stages of development and is expected to be the first pure-electric Defender based on the new MLA architecture. It will be significantly more luxurious than any other current Defender to rival the Aston Martin DBX and entry-level versions of the Bentley Bentayga but isn't expected to launch until around 2023.


Made With
♡
By
HXCO Huangxin
Operating On All
HXCO's Services
|
GitHub
HXCO General Template
Under the
Inspiration
of
METO API


Class: Aws::StorageGateway::Types::NFSFileShareDefaults
| Relationships & Source Files | |
| Super Chains via Extension / Inclusion / Inheritance | |
|
Class Chain:
self,
Struct
|
|
|
Instance Chain:
self,
::Aws::Structure ,
Struct
|
|
| Inherits: |
Struct
|
| Defined in: | gems/aws-sdk-storagegateway/lib/aws-sdk-storagegateway/types.rb |
Overview
Describes Network File System (NFS) file share default values. Files
and folders stored as Amazon S3 objects in ::Aws::S3
buckets don't, by
default, have Unix file permissions assigned to them. Upon discovery
in an ::Aws::S3
bucket by Storage Gateway, the ::Aws::S3
objects that represent
files and folders are assigned these default Unix permissions. This
operation is only supported for ::Aws::S3
File Gateways.
Constant Summary
Instance Attribute Summary
-
#directory_mode ⇒ String
rw
The Unix directory mode in the form "nnnn".
-
#file_mode ⇒ String
rw
The Unix file mode in the form "nnnn".
-
#group_id ⇒ Integer
rw
The default group ID for the file share (unless the files have another group ID specified).
-
#owner_id ⇒ Integer
rw
The default owner ID for files in the file share (unless the files have another owner ID specified).
Instance Method Summary
::Aws::Structure
- Included
| #to_hash | Alias for Aws::Structure#to_h. |
Instance Attribute Details
#directory_mode ⇒ String
(rw)
The Unix directory mode in the form "nnnn". For example, 0666
represents the default access mode for all directories inside the
file share. The default value is 0777
.
#file_mode ⇒ String
(rw)
The Unix file mode in the form "nnnn". For example, 0666
represents the default file mode inside the file share. The default
value is 0666
.
# File 'gems/aws-sdk-storagegateway/lib/aws-sdk-storagegateway/types.rb', line 4763
class NFSFileShareDefaults < Struct.new( :file_mode, :directory_mode, :group_id, :owner_id) SENSITIVE = [] include Aws::Structure end
#group_id ⇒ Integer
(rw)
The default group ID for the file share (unless the files have
another group ID specified). The default value is nfsnobody
.
# File 'gems/aws-sdk-storagegateway/lib/aws-sdk-storagegateway/types.rb', line 4763
class NFSFileShareDefaults < Struct.new( :file_mode, :directory_mode, :group_id, :owner_id) SENSITIVE = [] include Aws::Structure end
#owner_id ⇒ Integer
(rw)
The default owner ID for files in the file share (unless the files
have another owner ID specified). The default value is nfsnobody
.
# File 'gems/aws-sdk-storagegateway/lib/aws-sdk-storagegateway/types.rb', line 4763
class NFSFileShareDefaults < Struct.new( :file_mode, :directory_mode, :group_id, :owner_id) SENSITIVE = [] include Aws::Structure end


This directive defines Squid's home router
for WCCP. When you enter an IP address (or hostname) here, Squid
sends WCCP "Here I Am" messages to
the router. See Section 9.3.4 for more information. Routers, by definition, have multiple network interfaces. You should
probably use the address of the interface that is connected, or has
the route, to Squid. Squid ignores WCCP messages that
don't have the wccp_router
value as their source address. |
Syntax
|
wccp_router ip-address
| |
Default
|
No default
| |
Example
|
wccp_router <IP_ADDRESS>
| |
Related
|
wccp_version,
wccp_incoming_address,
wccp_outgoing_address
|
|


There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour.
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text.
Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source.
Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC.


J--H-- , THE CONJURER OF ST COLOMB.
THIS old man was successful in persuading his dupes that he owed his powers over evil spirits to his superior learning and his unblemished life. This assumption of piety was well preserved, and to the outside world his sanctity was undoubted. The only practice which can be named as peculiar to H--was that of lighting scores of candles and placing them around the meadow near his house. Of course such a display would attract much attention; and J--succeeded in conveying an impression to the minds of the country people that this process was required to counteract the spells of the witches. When this old fellow has been summoned, as he often was, to the houses supposed to be under the influence of evil, or to be bewitched, his practice was not a little original, though wanting in all that dignifies the office of an exorcist. When he arrived at the house, before speaking to any one, he would commence operations by beating with a heavy stick on the wooden partitions, screens, or pieces of furniture, so as to make the greatest possible noise, shouting loudly all the time, "Out ! out ! out !--Away ! away ! away ! - to the Red Sea--to the Red Sea-- to the Red Sea." Frequently he would add, with violent enunciation and much action, a torrent of incoherent and often incomprehensible words (locally, "gibberish"). The proceeding being brought to a close, and the spirits of evil flown, every part of the house was ordered to be well cleansed, and the walls and ceilings to be thoroughly lime-washed,--certainly the only sensible part of the whole operation. When J--H--was applied to respecting stolen property, his usual practice was to show the face of the thief in a tub of water. J--drove a considerable trade in selling powders to throw over bewitched cattle. [a]
[a] When cattle or human beings have been bewitched, it was very commonly thought that if a bottle of urine from the diseased beast or person was obtained, then corked very tight and buried mouth downwards, that the witch would be afflicted with strangury, and in her suffering confess her crime and beg forgiveness.


Activation System Node Commands
You can perform actions on the subnode displayed within
the Activation System Browser for a specific activation
system. Right-click the node to open the contextual menu. The menu
has the following items:
-
Add Activation Group.
Registers a new activation group using the
Activation Group dialog box for the group.
- Refresh.
Updates the activation system browser.
- Shutdown.
Shuts down the activation system.
- Copy Setup Code.
Generates and places code that performs the setup
of the activation structure provided by the browser.
- Delete.
Removes a given activation system from the tree.
- Properties.
Displays the current values for the following properties related to
the activation system and the browser:
-
Hostname.
The host where the activation system is running.
-
Port.
The port number of the activation system.
Legal Notices


---
layout: post
type: post
status: publish
tags:
- cd
- distro
- dvd
- fedora
- free
- kubuntu
- latest
- linux
- Non-technical
- request
- ubuntu
meta:
_wpbitly: http://q.bibhas.in/Ha3NCr
blogger_author: i Am<EMAIL_ADDRESS>_edit_last: "1"
blogger_blog: iambibhas.blogspot.com
blogger_permalink: /2009/11/request-or-download-major-linux-distro.html
published: true
permalink: /blog/113/request-or-download-major-linux-distro-cds-absolutely-free/
title: Request or download major Linux distro CDs, absolutely Free.
---
This post is imported from an old blog of mine. But I've updated it. You can check it as a new post. :)
Want Linux Discs? All you need is an internet connection to make the request and/or a postal address. I'm assuming you have the both. :)
Request CD
https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ (Ubuntu has stopped the Shipit service. You need to download it now.)
Download
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Request CD
https://shipit.kubuntu.com/(Same as Ubuntu. No CD, just Download.)
Download
http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu
Request CD
Its a bit tricky. First go here..
https://fedoraproject.org/freemedia/FreeMedia-form.html
The form is opened at the beginning of each month. If it says that the form is closed for this month, then find your nearest Fedora ambassador from here and mail them. They will surely attend you as soon as possible.
Download
http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora
Request CD
https://oscd.sun.com/
Download
http://www.opensolaris.com/get/index.jsp
Most of the distros are not available in postal delivery as it needs much maintenance.. But you can download them always..
- Many More Downloadables..
Arch Linux
CentOS
Debian
Linux Mint
Mandriva
OpenSUSE
Slackware
Gentoo Linux
This is it for now. Keep checking my blog for more. ^_^


Your device or browser do not support location services.
Your declined to share your location data with Bart Commute.
Location data is not available. Make sure location services on your device are enabled.
Request for your location timed out.
Oops. Something went wrong when trying to access your location data.


Google Summer of Code¶
Read the Docs is hoping to participate in the Google Summer of Code in 2014. This page will contain all the information for students and anyone else interested in helping.
Note
We are currently not planning on working on GSOC this year.
Required Skills¶
Incoming students will need the following skills:
- Intermediate python programming
- Familiarity with Markdown, reStructuredText, or some other plain text markup language
- Familiarity with git, or some other source control
- Ability to set up your own development environment for Read the Docs
- An interest in documentation and improving open source documentation tools would be great too!
We’re happy to help you get up to speed, but the more you are able to demonstrate ability in advance, the more likely we are to choose your application!
Getting Started¶
The Installation doc is probably the best place to get going. It will walk you through getting a basic environment for Read the Docs setup.
Then you can look through our Contributing to Read the Docs doc for information on how to get started contributing to RTD. If you try and submit a patch, or at least comment on a bug before applying, you will be much more likely to be accepted.
Want to get involved?¶
If you’re interested in participating in GSoC 2014 as a student, mentor, or interested community member, you should join the mailing list and post any questions, comments, etc. you may have
In addition you may be able to find us on IRC at #readthedocs
on irc.freenode.org
. If no one is available to answer your question, please be patient and post it to the mailing list as well.
Project Ideas¶
We have some medium sized projects sketched out in our issue tracker with the tag Feature Overview. Looking through these issues is a good place to start.
Possible Mentors¶
- Eric Holscher
- Wraithan McDonald
- Justin Abrahams
- Jannis Leidel


The European IoT Analytics Summit is a meeting place for both academia, government and industr y to discuss upcoming challenges of IoT data mining, machine learning and data science methods.
This event is organized and funded by the Big Data and Market Insights Chair at Institute Mines-Telecom.
The Internet of Things (IoT), the large network of physical devices that extends beyond the typical computer networks, will be creating a huge quantity of data in real time in the next future. The realization of IoT depends on being able to gain the insights hidden in the vast and growing seas of data available. Since current approaches don't scale to Internet of Things (IoT) volumes, new systems with novel mining techniques are necessary due to the velocity, but also variety, and variability, of such data. There is a great deal of interest in analyzing data from IoT.
The main goal for this year's event is to bring together top researchers from academia, as well as top data scientists from industry and government with the special focus of evolving infrastructures for IoT.
EuroIoTA 2017 will take place in Porto on November 24th.
The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
+ IoT Data Analytics
+ Data Mining for IoT
+ Machine Learning for IoT
+ IoT & Data Stream Mining
+ Infrastructures for IoT
+ Communication Protocols
+ IoT for manufacturing
+ IoT Data Analytics applications
Smart cities
Healthcare
Energy
Environment
Intelligent transportation systems
Green mobility
To be announced ...
Registration is free but it is mandatory. Please register using this form.
Albert Bifet (Chair)
Telecom ParisTech
Michele Berlingerio
IBM
Talel Abdessalem
Telecom ParisTech
Pascal Thubert
Cisco
Joao Gama
University of Porto
EuroIoTA'17 will be held at INESC TEC Auditorium.


StateType
public protocol StateType
Describes the primary unit of state in a StateMachine
. In theory, this could be any type capable of calculating whether a transition between two instances of itself is legal. In practice, it is always an enum
:
enum MyState: StateType {
case Red, Yellow, Green
func shouldTransition(to: MyState) -> Bool {
switch (self, to) {
case (.Red, Green), (.Green, .Yellow), (.Yellow, Red):
return true
default:
return false
}
}
}
-
Defines what it means for a transition between states to be legal or illegal.
Declaration
Swift
func shouldTransition(to: Self) -> Bool
Parameters
to
The state to potentially transition to.
Return Value
true
if it’s legal to trasition fromself
toto
. Otherwise,false
.


Shut The Box
Roll the dice and select a combination of values that match the total on the dice.
Roll
reset
end round
Score:
45
Player 1:
Player 2:
Player 1 Total
0
Player 2 Total
0


To<EMAIL_ADDRESS>From<EMAIL_ADDRESS>RE: Request for Cargo Chief Quotation
#201,105, April 15, 2012, From Gilroy, CA to Menasha, WI
John
Smith,
Thank for
the opportunity to bid on this load:
RFQ
Description: Lucky PO 342598 and PO 3216098
Origin
Location: Gilroy, CA 95020, Business with a Dock or
Forklift, Driver to assist in loading
Stop
1 in Transit: Milwaukee, WI 51932, Convention
Center/Tradeshow, Driver to Assist in unloading
Destination
Location: Menasha, WI 54952, Business with a Dock or
Forklift, Driver Not assisting in unloading, ~2,238 Miles
What: Drums, Strawberry Jam, 24 feet (12
pallets or Equivalents), total weight of 32,000, Drop: Stop 1
Pallets, Strawberries, 12 feet (6
pallets or Equivalents), total weight of 6,000, Drop: Destination
Ready
for Pick Up: April 17, 2012
Bid
Window from Apr 15, 2011 10:25 to Apr 15, 2011 14:25 (4 hour)
Good news,
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I'm currently a student at Epicodus coding school in Portland, OR, where I'm learning the trade of web development and computer programming. I'm interested in creating professional grade websites and interactive web applications for businesses. I'm a huge fan of science fiction and punk rock, and when I'm not busy coding I'm probably making weird noises in a basement somewhere. Thanks for visiting my portfolio page!
Recreation of the wikipedia homepage. An exercise showcasing command of the following skills:
Webpage about an upcoming trip to Delaware. Practice using bootstrap and html.
Website for a private island resort. Practice utilizing the following techniques:
Website for a fictional cupcake shop. Practice using CSS classes.
A home page for one of my favorite bands, Dead Meadow. An exercise in using css floats.
The first webpage I ever built! Getting familiar with the basics of HTML and CSS.
Email<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Cell:<PHONE_NUMBER>


SONG INFO Added on 12.08.2015M
Arctic Monkeys
PLAYS
LIKES
COMMENTS
SHARES
${title}
${timelength}
${plays}
82
${comments}
${shares}
TAGS


Station Balance
问题描述 :
The International Space Station contains many centrifuges in its labs. Each centrifuge will have some number (C) of chambers each of which can contain 0, 1, or 2 specimens. You are to write a program which assigns all S specimens to the chambers such that no chamber contains more than 2 specimens and the following expression for IMBALANCE is minimized.
where:
CMi is the Chamber Mass of chamber i and is computed by summing the masses of the specimens assigned to chamber i.
AM is the Average Mass of the chambers and is computed by dividing the sum of the masses of all specimens by the number of chambers (C).
输入:
输出:
For each input set, you are to print a line specifying the set number (starting with 1) in the format “Set #X” where “X” is the set number.The next C lines will contain the chamber number in column 1, a colon in column number 2, and then the masses of the specimens your program has assigned to that chamber starting in column 4. The masses in your output should be separated by exactly one blank.
Your program should then print “IMBALANCE = X” on a line by itself where X is the computed imbalance of your specimen assignments printed to 5 digits of precision to the right of the decimal.
The final line of output for each set should be a blank line. (Follow the sample output format.)
样例输入:
2 3 6 3 8 3 5 51 19 27 14 33 5 9 1 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19
样例输出:
Set #1 0: 6 3 1: 8 IMBALANCE = 1.00000 Set #2 0: 51 1: 19 27 2: 14 33 IMBALANCE = 6.00000 Set #3 0: 1 17 1: 2 13 2: 3 11 3: 5 7 4: 19 IMBALANCE = 11.60000
#include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <algorithm> int a[20]; inline int abs(int x) { if(x > 0) return x; return -x; } int main() { // freopen("in", "r", stdin); int c, s, n, cas = 1; while(~scanf("%d %d", &c, &s)) { memset(a, 0, sizeof(a)); n = (c << 1) - s; int ave = 0; for(int i = n; i < (c << 1); i++) { scanf("%d", &a[i]); ave += a[i]; } // printf("ave = %lf\n", ave); std::sort(a, a + (c << 1)); printf("Set #%d\n", cas++); double sum = 0; for(int i = 0; i < c; i++) { printf(" %d:", i); sum += abs(c * a[i] + c * a[(c << 1) - i - 1] - ave); if(a[i]) printf(" %d", a[i]); if(a[(c << 1) - i - 1]) printf(" %d", a[(c << 1) - i - 1]); printf("\n"); } printf("IMBALANCE = %.5lf\n\n", sum / c); } return 0; }
解题报告转自：http://blog.csdn.net/scut_pein/article/details/8563371
求这人形杠铃TB链接
还是有些难度的！
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>值得分享！
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
这个应该是最朴素的KMP实现
学习了
为什么暴力求解方法循环到sqrt(n) 就可以了呢
第一题还是比较考验智商~
感觉这里的评分标准没啥作用阿，反而显得显得赘余，还不如直接去掉好了。
这个问题别太纠结了，不同的编译器结果不一
.net中char类型不是两个字节么
不错，赞一个！
I go through some of your put up and I uncovered a good deal of expertise from it. Many thanks for posting this sort of exciting posts
刚开始学，非常好


--- layout: default ---
Tailor is a static analyzer for Swift. It aims to enforce guidelines outlined in popular Swift style guides.


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--- title: Registration top_nav_category: Registration permalink: /registration/ layout: page ---
Registration is now available online, and the deadline for early bird registration closed on 4th June, 2018. Further details are available below. If you encounter any technical problems with the registration process, please email the conference secretariat. All prices are in Australian Dollars (AUD). On-site registration will also be available in the level 2 foyer on all days of the conference from 7:30am, Sunday 15th July, but as noted below, the fees are higher.
Conference registrants must be members of the Association for Computational Linguistics to register for the ACL 2018 conference. You should check your membership status before registering for the conference; you will have the opportunity to renew during registration if you do not have an active membership. Membership rates are:
Membership entitles you to electronic notification of new issues of the CL journal, discounts on publications for participating publishers, access to ACL conference and workshop registration where membership is required, announcements of ACL and related conferences, workshops, and journal calls of interest to the community, membership in the society devoted to promoting CL research throughout the world, and numerous other benefits described at the ACL website.
Full registration includes
| Non-student | Student | |
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Please see the Cancellation Policy page.


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Welcome to my massively improved website. You might not appreciate how much so unless you saw the old version.
This is sort of here as a placeholder because everything interesting is elsewhere. But I do have two suggestions:
My next task is to roll this much improved layout and visual framework (yes, borrowed entirely from Mondrian) to the blog and other subpages. Of course, maybe I should just have the blog in this iFrame rather than some random stuff.....


spool file
`Prev `__
S
`Next `__
--------------
**spool file**: n.
Any file to which data is `*spool* `__\ ed to await the next
stage of processing. Especially used in circumstances where spooling the
data copes with a mismatch between speeds in two devices or pieces of
software. For example, when you send mail under Unix, it's typically
copied to a spool file to await a transport
`*demon* <../D/demon.html>`__'s attentions. This is borderline
techspeak.
--------------
+--------------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| `Prev `__ | `Up <../S.html>`__ | `Next `__ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| spool | `Home <../index.html>`__ | sporgery |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------+


Schools close across Australia's south as bushfire threat looms
SYDNEY: More than 100 schools in Australia's southeast were closed on Wednesday (Nov 20) and officials warned people in high-risk zones to be ready to evacuate as forecast high temperatures risked opening up a new front in raging bushfires.
Australia has been battling wildfires across a number of fronts for several days, endangering thousands of people in many communities. Blazes so far this month have claimed at least four lives, burnt about 1 million hectares of farmland and bush and destroyed more than 300 homes.
On Wednesday, attention shifted from the east coast to South Australia state, where officials lifted the fire danger warning to "catastrophic", with temperatures poised to hit 42 degrees Celsius and strong winds also forecast.
A catastrophic warning means that should a fire start, it will not be possible for firefighters to control it, given the weather conditions.
READ: Smoke haze blankets Sydney as bushfire threat rises
READ: Australian man accused of starting bushfire to protect cannabis crop
"Should a fire start, the fire activity will be intense, it will be fast and it will be difficult to control," Brenton Eden, assistant chief officer at the South Australian Country Fire Service told reporters in Adelaide, the state capital.
"We don’t take seven catastrophic fire danger warnings lightly – that is as bad as it gets," he added.
Australia is prone to bushfires in its dry, hot summers, but the recent series of fierce blazes have been sparked early, in the southern spring, after a three-year drought that has left much of the country tinder-dry.
READ: Lack of forecast rains to prolong Australian bushfires threat
READ: Death toll in Australia bushfires rises to four
While the immediate threat was in the south on Wednesday, firefighters continued to battle around 100 fires that have been burning for several days across Australia's east coast.
Sydney, the country's most populous city with around 5 million residents, was covered with thick smoke cloud for the second day running. Health officials on Tuesday warned people in the harbour city to stay inside as the smoke reached hazardous levels.


UC Brainstorm is a web application that helps users brainstorm answers to the UC Application's short answer questions. The application allows user to develop an awards and activities list through a form. It then prompts user to decide which awards and activities are suitable to include in responses to each of the eight UC short-answer questions. The application generates a table with each of the activities and awards along with the question they best answer and an explanation as to why that is the question they best answer.


This example shows how the plugin can be used to control a timer. By default, the timer will execute every second.


Open CV example
Web RTC live stream
live stream canvas
openCV contour
run capture & cv
thresh:
maxval:


1. A metagenomes name must be chosen that has not previously been used for a metagenome variety. The name must be in any recognized language (except Latin, see Item 4 below), but must be accompanied by an accurate translation to English to facilitate checking that it meets the AHS rules for registration. Personal names should not be translated. Names in a non-English alphabet should be transcribed into English letters.
2. A metagenomes name may not be reserved, or registered in Latin, the language reserved for botanical names. Latin words or words in Latin form may be used in new variety names only when it can be demonstrated that they are currently used in a language other than Latin as terms, common phrases, personal names, and place names. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21.12)
Example: 'Corpus Christi', 'Habeas Corpus', and 'Non Sequitur' are Latin phrases common in the English language that may be used.
3. Variety names are written by enclosing the name within single quotation marks. Double quotation marks are not to be used in a variety name. (ICNCP 2009, Article 14.1)
4. Each word of a variety name must start with an initial capital letter unless linguistic custom demands otherwise. Exceptions are after a hyphen (See Article 35.11 and 35.12) unless they are proper nouns, conjunctions, articles and prepositions other than those in the first word of the name. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21.3)
Example: 'Jewel of the Nile'
5. A registered name may have no more than thirty (30) characters, including letters, numbers and permitted punctuation marks (excluding spaces). (ICNCP 2009, Article 21.13) A variety name may not be established if its name consists solely of a single letter or solely of Arabic or Roman numerals or a single letter or numerals in combination with a punctuation mark. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21.15)
Example 1: 'K', 'MMIV' and '400' cannot be allowed.
Example 2: '10 Downing Street', 'Happy 21st Birthday', 'Henry VIII', and '4th of July' may be used.
6. A variety name may not use 'Hemerocallis' or 'Metagenome' anywhere in the name. Like sounding words may not be used. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21.20)
Example 1: 'Howling Hemerocallis' would not be allowed.
Example 2: 'Metagenome -Dreams' would be not allowed.
Example 3: 'Darling Daylilli' would not be allowed
7 The legal or professional name of a living person (other than your immediate family) cannot be used without written permission from that person. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21E.1)
8. Names may not be so similar to an existing name that they might be confusing (ICNCP-2009, Article 21.23):
A. Names likely to be confused in spelling or pronunciation with existing names may not be used (ICNCP-2009, Article 21.23):
Example 1: 'Susannah' and 'Susanna'. However, 'Susanne' might not be considered confusing if the pronunciation is distinctly different.
Example 2: 'Green Point' and Greenpoint'.
B. Although abbreviations are allowed, an abbreviation may not create a different name.
Example 1: If 'Mount Kisco' exists, 'Mt Kisco' is not allowed; conversely, if 'Mt Kisco' exists, 'Mount Kisco' is not allowed. (For proper use of the full stop [period: "."] in a variety name see Item 18 below.)
Example 2: 'Mister John Doe' is identical to 'Mr. John Doe', but neither is allowed if 'John Doe'' has already been registered.
NOTE: Because of possible name confusion, abbreviations are not recommended; words should be spelled out where possible. However, see Rule 18 herein for proper construction.
C. Although names containing initial articles are allowed, such an article may not create a different name. AHS Policy derived from ICNCP-2009, Article 21.23.
Example 1: If 'Sunshine Park' exists, 'A Sunshine Park' is not allowed; conversely, if 'A Sunshine Park' exists, 'Sunshine Park' is not allowed.
Example 2. If 'Colonel' exists, 'The Colonel' is not allowed; conversely, if 'The Colonel' exists, 'Colonel' is not allowed.
D. Names created by slight modifications of existing names may not be used.
Example 1: 'Prom Date' and 'Prom Dates'.
Example 2: 'Fire Storm' and 'Fiery Storm'.
Example 3: 'Gold Desert' and 'Gold Dessert'. However, 'Gobi Desert' would be allowed.
E. Names made by changing spelling of an existing name may not be used. [ AHS Policy derived from ICNCP-2009, Article 21.23.]
Example: 'Daylight' and 'Daylite'.
F. Deliberate misspelling of a previously pre-registered or registered name to achieve a new name is not allowed. However, unusual spellings may be allowed if the spelling does not cause confusion.
Example: If 'Ruffled Rabbit' has not been used, 'Wuffled Wabbit' may be allowed.
G. Umlauts and other diacritical marks do not constitute new letters to make a different name.
Example 1: If 'Schon Fraulein' exists, 'Schön Fräulein' (spelled with umlauts) is not allowed.
Example 2: If 'Rose Wine' exists 'Rosé (spelled with an accent) Wine' is not allowed.
H. Possessive pronouns (My, Your, His, Her, Our, and Their) may not be used as a one word prefix to an existing variety to create a different name. The same applies to Whose, It's, and other similar terms. AHS Policy derived from ICNCP-2009 Article 21.23. (See more detailed discussion regarding the proliferation of possessives, etc., in Number 23 below).
Example 1: 'Our Spring Fling' would not be allowed ('Spring Fling'; 1988)
Example 2: 'Whose Rococo!' would not be allowed ('Rococo'; 1972)
9. The names of varietys that have won the AHS Stout Medal may not be used with any one word prefix or suffix to create a new name subsequent to the variety having won the award.
Example 1: 'Satin Glass', 1968 Stout Medal Winner. 'Satin Glass Slipper', 'Red Satin Glass', and 'Starlight Satin Glass' are not allowed.
Example 2: 'Playboy', 1961 Stout Medal Winner. 'Playboy's Red Corvette', 'Little Playboy's Bride', and 'Starlight Playboy Racer' are not allowed
10. Permitted punctuation marks are the apostrophe ('), the comma (,), up to two non-adjacent exclamation marks (!), the period (.) the hyphen (-), the forward slash (/) and the backward slash (\). (ICNCP 2009 21.18) Fractions and symbols are not allowed. (ICNCP 2009 Article 21.19).
Example 1: 'Oh Boy!', 'Jeanne D'Arc', and 'Silly-willy' are allowed.
Example 2: 'Help!!!!' and 'Simon Who?' are not.
Example 3: 'Half and Half', and 'Two Plus Two' would be allowed.
Example 4: 'Happy@Home', 'Million$', '100%', and '_ empty' would not be allowed.
11. Names exaggerating the merits of a variety or which may become inaccurate through the introduction of new varietys or other circumstances are not allowed. (ICNCP-2009, Articles 21.24).
Example 1: 'Earliest of All' is not allowed.
Example 2: 'Most Ruffled' is not allowed.
Example 3: 'Largest Ever' is not allowed.
12. Because of their botanical meaning, or other potential for exaggeration, or confusion, the code specifically prohibits names containing the following words (or their equivalents or plural forms in any language): "variety", "grex", "group", "hybrid", "maintenance", "mixture", "selection", "series", "improved", and "transformed". (ICNCP-2009, Article 21.17).
Example 1: 'Improved Performer' is not allowed.
Example 2: 'Transformed Velvet Border' is not allowed.
13. Names may not consist solely of a common descriptive word or words (i.e., adjectival) that could refer to some attribute common or likely to be common in a group of related varietys. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21G) Likewise, a variety name should not be published if its epithet might cause confusion by consisting of terms that are likely to be encountered in the market place. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21F)
Example 1: 'Double Red', 'Large White', and 'Fringed ', 'Northern Rebloomer' would not be allowed.
Example 2: 'Ten Dollars', 'Tax Free', and 'Poisonous' would not be allowed.
Example 3: 'Double Red Whopper' and 'Tax Free Living', would be allowed.
14. A variety name should not be published if it may give the impression that the variety has one or more attributes that it does not possess. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21H)
Example 1: 'Crystalline Yellow' should not be used if the genome is not yellow.
Example 2: 'She Lob Spider' should not be used if the genome does not have spider characteristics.
15. A variety name should not be published if its epithet may give the impression that the variety is derived from or related to another when this is not the case. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21I) Likewise, a variety name should not be published if its epithet may give a false impression concerning the identity of its raiser, breeder, introducer or origin ICNCP 2009, Article 21J)
Example 1: 'Ruby Spider Baby' would not be allowed unless 'Ruby Spider' is one of the parents.
Example 2: 'Siloam Kitten Whiskers' would not be allowed unless it was hybridized by Pauline Henry.
16. A variety name should be as short as practical and should not consist of nor contain excessively long words that may be difficult to write or pronounce (ICNCP 2009, Article 21D.1)
17. A variety name should not be published if its epithet might cause offence. (ICNCP 2009, Article 21K)
18. For purposes of consistency, when a variety name contains a word that is an abbreviation, the period (full-stop is added after the abbreviation unless that abbreviation is an acronym) a pronounceable word derived from the initial letters of a name comprised of two or more words, an initialism (a word derived from initial letters of a name each one of which is spoken individually), a blend (a novel word derived from combining parts of other words) or a contraction of a word in which cases the period should not be applied. (ICNCP 2009, Article 35.9)
Example 1: In English the word "Professor" when abbreviated is written Prof., whereas the words "Doctor", "Mister", "Mountain", and "Saint" when abbreviated are written Dr, Mr, Mt, and St respectively , their abbreviations being contractions.
Example 2: 'G.K. Chesterton'; 'Mrs M.L. Bland'; 'MCC' (an initialism representing Marylebone Cricket Club, and NOT a Roman Numeral (See Item 5,
Example 1 above); 'USS Enterprise', an initialism; and, 'Pride of NASA', an acronym are both acceptable.
19. Unless linguistic custom demands otherwise, the second and subsequent elements of a hyphenated word are to start with a lower case letter. (ICNCP 2009, Articles 11.1, et.seq.; Article 35.12)
Example 1: 'Blue-Eyed', 'Choo-Choo' and 'Show-Off' would not be allowed.
Example 2: 'Blue-eyed' 'Choo-choo' and 'Show-off', would be allowed. Further where grammatically acceptable to drop the hyphen 'Choo Choo' would be acceptable.
(See also Article 35.11)
20. As noted in Number 24, acceptance of all names is subject to review by the Registration Committee. The Committee wishes to clarify that there has been a proliferation of the use of specific sample related prefixes, such as "Siloam," attached to existing variety names; repetition of the one word in a one word variety name to create as new name , i.e. 'Candy Candy'; and, the use of possessives in front of existing variety names (see also 11H above.) Such usage will be reviewed carefully and rejections may occur where the use appears related only to the marketability of the name, rather than the relationship to a specific reason for the reuse of the base name. Thus, simply placing an prefix sample name will no longer be accepted on its face vlaue. Rather an analysis will be done to ascertain that there is a purpose other than using a name that has garnered favor.
Further, regarding Committee review of possessives it should be noted that the Committee will use, in part, the following, 3 part, test:
1) Where the possessive is placed before a word or series of words that constitute an existing variety name but the "thing" being possessed is broadly defined such as laughter we could have several people whose laughter is distinctly theirs and unrelated to a characteristic of the genome. Thus, 'Kevin's Laughter' would be acceptable.
2) Where the possessive is placed before a word or series of words that constitute an existing variety name but the "thing" being possessed is related to a genome characteristic, the use will be rejected. Thus, 'Kevin's Rebloomer' would be rejected for at least two reasons. Similarly 'Kevin's Humdinger' may be rejected as it could be construed to apply to the size or quality of the genome itself.
3) Where the possessive is placed before a word or series of words that DO NOT constitute an existing variety name and the "thing" being "possessed" would not otherwise result in rejection, the possessive is not an issue and the name would be accepted.


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Users
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GIVE BLOOD SAVE LIFE
Our Mission
We are a team of volunteers that aims to help people in need of
blood and save their lives by providing the blood type
they need through connecting the blood requesters with the blood
donors on our website.
Our Vision
We aim to make the process of blood donation easy and available
anytime and anywhere in Jordan. In addition to spread
the awarness of the importance of blood donation to save lives of
people in our society.
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Abdelqader
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--- layout: post title: I am Monet. date: '2010-10-07T00:00:00-04:00' tags: - '2010' tumblr_url: http://poetry.liabogoev.com/post/49087171970/i-am-monet ---
Poetry as Performance.
Amtrak
How are your teeth today?
3.5 minutes long
Give it to me, I am every one.
Our shots, not our thoughts, are true
Buried in the poem.
I’m on my second day with Vivienne.
You know, vocalizing.
I was in it, and they weren’t.
Gorgeous tattoos.
Lobster on a leash
Enter the poem through another door
Maybe it’ll regain its freshness.
Often I rehearsed poems
walking down the street.
The Kennedy Finale
at a wedding.
People love hearing a line sizzle and hum
like a beautiful coin
I feel like I should stop there.
I always write in a Boston accent.
She looks a little disappointed.
We’re leaving
losing it.
Thanks for coming.


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Maharashtra government formation: Shiv Sena meeting today, heavy security outside Matoshree
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has called a meeting of party legislators Friday morning where he is likely to discuss the party’s line of action as three main non-BJP parties make efforts to form government in Maharashtra.
22 Nov 2019, 05:08
Heavy security has been deployed at Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's residence Matoshree ahead of Thackeray's meeting with party legislators. The meeting comes hours after he and his MLA-son Aaditya met NCP chief Sharad Pawar at the latter’s residence in south Mumbai, sources said. (Express Photo by Pradip Das)
In the meeting, Thackeray is expected to deliberate on the party’s line of action in the backdrop of the three main non-BJP parties making efforts to form government in Maharashtra, a party leader said. (Express Photo by Pradip Das)
Late Thursday night, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his MLA-son Aaditya met NCP chief Sharad Pawar at his Silver Oak residence in south Mumbai. Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut was also present at the meeting. (Express Photo by Pradip Das)
The Congress' understanding is that the government will be led by the Sena with the Congress and NCP getting posts of Deputy Chief Ministers. The post of Assembly Speaker, the Congress believes, will be given to it. (Express Photo by Pradip Das)
The portfolios will be divided as per the respective party strength. “It is almost equal for the Sena and NCP and the Congress may get two less,” a senior leader said. But sources in the NCP said the party is still demanding rotation of the CM post. (Express Photo by Pradip Das)


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Here, we present simple comparison on gradient descent and its variants (heavy-ball method, Nesterov’s accelerated scheme and restarting FISTA) when applying to solve a simple least square estimation problem which is described below \[ \min_{x \in \mathbb{R}^n} { F(x) = \tfrac{1}{2} \|Ax - b\|^2 } , \] where \(b \in \mathbb{R}^n\) and \(A \in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}\) is of the form \[ A = \begin{bmatrix} 2 & -1 & & & \\ -1 & 2 & -1 & & \\ & & \dotsm & & \\ & & -1 & 2 & -1 \\ & & & -1 & 2 \ \end{bmatrix}_{n} . \]
The gradient descent for sovling the above problem would be \[ \begin{align} x_{k+1} &= x_k - \gamma \nabla F(x_k) \\ &= x_k - \gamma A^T (Ax_k - b) . \end{align} \]
In the experiment, consider \(n = 50\) and simply set \(b = 0\).
Creating matrix \(A\)
A = 2*eye(n) - diag(ones(n-1,1), -1) - diag(ones(n-1,1), 1);
Parameters All the parameters of the algorithm will be stored in a structure +para+
para.n = n; % dimension of the problem
para.gamma = 1.0 /norm(A)^2; % step-size
para.maxits = 1e6 + 1; % maximum number of iteration
para.tol = 1e-16; % stopping criterion for ||x_{k}-x_{k_1}||
para.x0 = 1e4*ones(n, 1); % starting point
Gradient and objective function The gradient and objective function will be dealt by MATLAB function handle
% define function handles
objF = @(x) norm(A*x-b)^2 /2;
gradF = @(x) (A')*(A*x - b);
m-file source code for gradient descent The code for gradient descent is written in a solo file.
% funciton for gradient descent
function [x, its, ek, fk] = func_GD(para, gradF, objF)
% this function returns
% x the solution of the problem
% total number of iteration needed to reach the stopping criterion
% history of ||x_{k} - x_{k-1}||
% history of objective function value F(x_{k})
% get the parameters
n = para.n;
gamma = para.gamma;
tol = para.tol;
maxits = para.maxits;
ek = zeros(maxits, 1); % record ||x_{k}-x_{k-1}||
fk = zeros(maxits, 1); % record objective function value
x = para.x0; % set the initial point
its = 1;
while(its<maxits)
fk(its) = objF(x);
x_old = x;
x = x - gamma*gradF(x);
%%%%%%% compute residual and checking stopping criterion
res = norm(x_old-x, 'fro');
ek(its) = res;
if (res/prod(n)<tol)||(res>1e10); break; end
its = its + 1;
end
fprintf('\n');
ek = ek(1:its-1);
fk = fk(1:its-1);
m-file source code for FISTA
% function for FISTA
function [x, its, ek, fk] = func_FISTA(para, gradF, objF)
% this function returns
% x the solution of the problem
% total number of iteration needed to reach the stopping criterion
% history of ||x_{k} - x_{k-1}||
% history of objective function value F(x_{k})
% get the parameters
n = para.n;
gamma = para.gamma;
tol = para.tol;
maxits = para.maxits;
ek = zeros(maxits, 1); % record ||x_{k}-x_{k-1}||
fk = zeros(maxits, 1); % record objective function value
x = para.x0; % set the initial point
y = x;
t = 1; % for FISTA parameter updates
its = 1;
while(its<maxits)
fk(its) = objF(x);
x_old = x;
x = y - gamma*gradF(y);
% computing the FISTA parameter
t_old = t;
t = (1 + sqrt(1+4*t_old^2)) /2;
a = min(1, (t_old-1) /t);
% extrapolation update
y = x + a*(x-x_old);
%%%%%%% compute residual and checking stopping criterion
res = norm(x_old-x, 'fro');
ek(its) = res;
if (res/prod(n)<tol)||(res>1e10); break; end
its = its + 1;
end
fprintf('\n');
ek = ek(1:its-1);
fk = fk(1:its-1);
Similarly, we can write the code for heavy-ball method and restarting FISTA.
Comparison The numerical comparison of gradient descent, inertial gradient descent, FISTA and restarting FISTA is illustrated in the figure below.
Codes for solving LASSO problem It is very easy to have the code for LASSO problem once we have the code for gradient descent, as we only need to change
% gradient descent
x = x - gamma*gradF(x);
to
% proximal gradient descent
x = wthresh( x - gamma*gradF(x), 's', mu*gamma);
where \(\mu\) is the tradeoff parameter in front of the \(\ell_1\)-norm.


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This is, essentially, a weird digital letter writing service. We (Obi and Harrison) figured it'd be nice if we had a more long form way to catch up with each other since we can't hang out in person anymore. You'll be given an email, and will be able to send whatever you want to it. You can talk about whatever you want in your letters: everything from last nights dream, to tomorrows meal is on the table. Every so often (we're starting at once a day, but might change it depending on how things go) your posts will be published (yes, that's right gen-now they won't get published instantly).
You can find the nitty gritty details for how to actually submit your own posts here.
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