title: Patient perspectives on discontinuing medications

text:
In Asheville, NC, the decision to discontinue medications is a deeply personal one that often involves a range of factors from medical advice to personal values. This article explores various patient perspectives on this critical issue, emphasizing the importance of understanding patient experiences and the considerations they face when making such decisions.
Understanding Patient Perspectives
For many patients in Asheville, discontinuing medication is not simply a clinical choice but a significant life event. Patients may choose to stop taking their medications for various reasons, including side effects, perceived lack of effectiveness, or a desire to explore alternative treatments. These decisions often reflect individual experiences and priorities, making it essential for healthcare providers to engage in open and empathetic conversations with their patients.
Understanding patient perspectives on discontinuing medications in Asheville, NC, requires a holistic approach that considers emotional, physical, financial, cultural, and relational factors. By appreciating these diverse influences, healthcare providers can better support their patients in making informed and personalized decisions about their health. Open dialogue and empathetic care are key to navigating these complex choices, ensuring patients feel heard, respected, and empowered in their health journeys.
Side Effects and Quality of Life
One common reason patients consider discontinuing medications is the side effects that can impact their quality of life. For instance, medications prescribed for chronic conditions like hypertension or diabetes often come with side effects such as weight gain, fatigue, or gastrointestinal issues. Patients in Asheville may weigh these adverse effects against the benefits of the medication and choose to discontinue if they feel the side effects outweigh the positive outcomes.
The impact of medication side effects on quality of life is a significant factor for many patients in Asheville when considering whether to discontinue their medications. By understanding and addressing these concerns, healthcare providers can better support their patients in making decisions that promote both their physical health and overall well-being. Through personalized care and a holistic approach to treatment, patients can find solutions that enhance their quality of life and align with their values and lifestyle.
Perceived Lack of Effectiveness
Patients who do not experience significant improvements in their health despite following their medication regimen may decide to stop taking the medication. In some cases, they may feel that their symptoms are not sufficiently managed or that the medication is not addressing the root cause of their condition. In Asheville, where there is a strong community focus on holistic and integrative health approaches, some patients might seek alternative treatments or lifestyle changes instead.
Perceived lack of effectiveness is a significant factor influencing patients’ decisions to discontinue medications in Asheville, NC. Understanding the underlying reasons for this perception, including unmet expectations, slow progress, and mismatches with personal health goals, can help healthcare providers better support their patients. Through effective communication, education, and a holistic approach to treatment, providers can help patients navigate their health journeys and make informed decisions about their medications.
Desire for Alternative Treatments
Asheville is known for its diverse approach to healthcare, including a robust presence of holistic and integrative medicine. Patients may choose to discontinue conventional medications in favor of alternative therapies, such as herbal supplements, acupuncture, or nutritional interventions. This shift often reflects a personal belief in a more natural approach to health and a desire to avoid the potential long-term effects of pharmaceutical drugs.
The desire for alternative treatments among patients in Asheville, NC, is shaped by a combination of cultural influences, personal beliefs, and experiences with conventional medicine. Understanding these motivations is crucial for healthcare providers to support patients in their healthcare journey. By acknowledging and respecting patients’ preferences for alternative treatments, healthcare professionals can foster a more collaborative and holistic approach to health and well-being.
Patient Empowerment and Informed Decisions
Discontinuing medication is often a decision made by patients who feel empowered to take charge of their health. In Asheville, where patient education and involvement in healthcare decisions are highly valued, patients may take a proactive approach to learning about their conditions and treatment options. This empowerment enables them to make informed choices about discontinuing medications and exploring other avenues for managing their health.
Navigating the Discontinuation Process
For patients considering discontinuing their medications, it is crucial to work closely with healthcare providers to ensure a safe and informed transition. Abruptly stopping medication can lead to withdrawal symptoms or a worsening of the condition being treated. Healthcare providers in Asheville can offer guidance on tapering medications, monitoring for potential side effects, and finding alternative treatments.
Understanding patient perspectives on discontinuing medications is crucial for healthcare providers. Patients often face challenges such as withdrawal symptoms, fear of relapse, and the need for ongoing support. By actively listening to their concerns and providing personalized care plans, healthcare professionals can facilitate smoother transitions and enhance patient outcomes.
At Behavioral Sleep Solutions in Asheville, NC, we prioritize your well-being and are committed to supporting you through every step of your journey. For more information or to schedule a consultation, please contact us at (828) 520-0820. We look forward to helping you achieve better health and restful sleep.


tier: cub

shelf: finance

title: Tax-efficient investment opportunities

text:
Tax-efficient investment opportunities
Paying tax is a bugbear, especially when it comes to the money we save. Ryno Oosthuizen, Business Development Manager at Glacier by Sanlam, discusses the opportunities available to you, to build a tax-efficient investment portfolio with the help of a qualified financial adviser.
“Tax is something you need to consider when looking at investment returns. When you save on a discretionary basis, you could be taxed on interest, dividends and any capital gains. The good news is that there are some tax-efficient investment opportunities where you pay less tax or none at all, depending on how much you invest and how you invest it,” says Ryno.
Tax-Free Savings Accounts
If you are a South African resident with a tax reference number and a local bank account, you qualify to save in a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). The maximum contribution limit is currently R36 000 for any given tax year or R500 000 over the investor’s lifetime.
TFSAs are a smart way to save, as you don’t pay any tax on the interest, dividends or capital gains. However, if you exceed the prescribed annual and lifetime contribution limits the excess amount will be taxed at up to 40%.
The freedom, flexibility and choice to invest in the widest range of funds, all in one place.
With Glacier’s investment platform, you have the freedom, flexibility and choice to invest in the widest range of funds, all in one place. This means, no matter what life stage you are at, you have easy access to leading local and international funds.
Speak to your financial adviser about financial solutions from Glacier by Sanlam.
Glacier Financial Solutions (Pty) Ltd is a Licensed Financial Services Provider.
Sanlam Life Insurance Ltd is a Licensed Life Insurer and Financial Services Provider and a Registered Credit Provider (NCRCP43).
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tier: polar

shelf: education

title: Carolina receives national recognition as a voter friendly campus

text:
UNC-Chapel Hill has earned national recognition as a “voter-friendly campus” by the Voter Friendly Campus initiative. The University also received a Highly Established Action Plan Seal by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for its action plan to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement among students.
Carolina’s Promote Democracy Initiative, an effort to engage the University as diverse citizens working across differences in society to explore how humanity’s potential can be realized through democracy, is fueled by the University’s strategic plan, Carolina Next.
“Our main goals have been to simplify the registration and voting process for students and to provide resources to marginalized communities,” said Gared Wong, a civic engagement coordinator with Student Life and Leadership. Student Life and Leadership aims to increase student democratic participation among the Tar Heel community.
The Voter Friendly Campus aims to create more measurable and manageable guidelines for institutions to follow to create more voter-friendly campuses. The program helps institutions develop action plans that coordinate all members of an institutional community in civic and electoral engagement. It is founded by the Campus Vote Project and NASPA LEAD Initiative.
ALL IN is a group that aims to empower colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic participation. It awards the Highly Established Action Plan Seal of recognition for institutions with strong plans to increase democratic engagement. Carolina was one of the 91 institutions awarded this seal for 2024.
Efforts under the Promote Democracy initiative are spearheaded in part by Natasha Young, the leadership development program coordinator of Student Life and Leadership. Young developed an action plan to increase student voter engagement that considers what student engagement may look like, the landscapes of how students may have previously been involved in voting, and the goals that the campus has.
These goals include both longer – and shorter – term objectives that work within the civic engagement working group and the Promote Democracy coalition to decide what is feasible when it comes to outreach with various campus offices and departments. The longer-term goal of the initiative is to reach 90% voter turnout at UNC-Chapel Hill.
“There’s this institutional alignment where we as staff or faculty are doing our best to make sure that students can engage in civic engagement and democracy as best they can,” Young said. “I’ve tried to be very intentional that the student perspective is well-incorporated in addition to that of faculty and staff,” she said.
In 2020, 90% of Carolina students were registered to vote. Eighty-two percent of eligible student voters turned out to vote that year, a large portion of whom voted early or by mail due to the pandemic. This turnout was well above the 2020 average voting rate for all institutions of 66% and up 25% from the 2016 student voting rate.
“Based on our numbers and our data, students at Carolina are engaged. They care about what happens on campus and off campus as it relates to voting, politics, or anything that might impact their experience as a student,” she said.
Despite these statistics, there is still more to be done as younger voters search for representations of themselves and their values in political candidates, Young said. She said younger students are becoming more involved than ever because of the dissonance between their own values and those represented in a two-candidate system.
“Although we as students have made an impact, I think there are still a lot of barriers that prevent or discourage younger voters from voting,” said Wong. He said that barriers include the complexity of registration forms, address changes, language barriers, and voter fatigue. “If students ever need help with an action plan, a registration form to be mailed or stamped, or are unsure about the registration and electoral process, please reach out.”


shelf: home-craft

title: Volunteer update and activities march 2024

text:
Thank you to everyone who came along to our volunteer sessions in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during February.
We had our annual weekend of working the pond in Beach Lawn to keep it clear of overgrown reeds and weeds, with 8 workers on the Saturday afternoon and 10 on the Sunday. We removed some of the new growth (amazing how much grows and how big the roots can get in just one year!) and invasive weed, along with lots of bricks and rubble that have been thrown in over the years, and cut back the grass and reeds on the two islands. All the vegetation removed was left on the bank for a couple of weeks so that any wildlife could escape. I even saw my first newt, swimming in the stream leading down to the pond!
At our Sunday volunteer session later in the month, we helped Angela from Green Sefton, to load up the debris from the pond into her van and made three trips to their depot at Cambridge Road. We’ve had many compliments about the work that we’ve done, both on our Facebook page and while we’ve been out and about in the gardens.
We had twelve volunteers at our Saturday session, when we litter picked and did some weeding around the steps in Beach Lawn, five at our Tuesday session when we finished edging around the benches in the centre of Adelaide, and six at our Wednesday session when we completed the edging on the top path in Crescent Garden.
Our volunteer sessions in March will take place on:
Saturday 9th at 10.30am – in Potter’s Barn.
Tuesday 12th at 9.30am – meeting outside Marine Garden near Waterloo Sunset Cafe.
Sunday 17th at 2pm – See below.
Wednesday 27th at 1.00pm – meeting outside Marine Garden near Waterloo Sunset Cafe.
All equipment, and refreshments, will be provided.
We are also pleased to partner with Sefton Hearts at 50 and Britain in Bloom’s 60th anniversary to celebrate the place our gardens have in community and friendship. We are hosting a guided walk of the gardens on Sunday 17th March from 2pm to 4pm. We are keen to hear your stories and record these for future generations – washed down with some tea and cake! Meet at 2pm at the South Road entrance of Marine Garden. If you are unable to join, please feel free to reply with your memories and how these gardens have helped your friendships. Our intention is to collate these memories and include them on our public website.
Hope to see you at one of our events this month.
Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens


shelf: history-culture

title: The girl on the train

text:
A daily commuter witnesses something shockingly concerning from the window of her train.
The Girl on the Train is a thrilling and suspenseful mystery film that tells the story of a troubled woman named Rachel who becomes embroiled in a complex web of secrets and lies after witnessing a shocking event from the window of her train. The movie is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Paula Hawkins, and it features strong performances from its cast, including Emily Blunt as Rachel and Justin Theroux as her ex-husband Tom.
Blunt’s performance as Rachel is truly captivating. She perfectly captures the unraveling of a woman struggling with addiction and depression, and her descent into obsession is both disturbing and enthralling. The supporting cast is equally impressive, with Luke Evans and Haley Bennett delivering standout performances as the couple at the center of Rachel’s obsession.
One of the most impressive aspects of The Girl on the Train is the way it explores the complexities of relationships and the damage that can be done by secrets and lies. The film presents a nuanced look at the different facets of marriage and the often-tenuous nature of trust. It also delves into the idea of self-perception and the roles that we play in our own lives and in the lives of others. One of the heavier themes that this movie explores is addiction and domestic violence, presenting them in a way that is both sensitive and impactful.
The film is expertly crafted, with a twisting and turning plot that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. The cinematography is beautiful, capturing the moody and atmospheric setting of the train and the suburban neighborhood where the couple lives. The use of flashbacks and shifting perspectives adds to the film’s sense of unease and keeps the viewer guessing until the very end.
I’m not much of a book person, but supposedly this is a solid adaptation from the book. The Girl on the Train is a well-written and compelling psychological thriller. It becomes easy to root for Emily’s Blunt character from the beginning, and the twists and turns of the plot keep you engaged thorough the movie.
The 2016 movie The Girl on the Train explores several important themes. One of the central themes is obsession. The film follows the protagonist Rachel as she becomes increasingly fixated on a couple she sees from her train window. Her voyeuristic tendencies and her own personal struggles lead to her becoming deeply invested in their lives, ultimately leading to dangerous and potentially life-threatening consequences.
Another theme explored in the film is the toxic nature of relationships. The movie delves into the relationships between Rachel, her ex-husband Tom, his new wife Anna, and Megan, the woman she becomes obsessed with, and shows how these relationships can be fraught with deceit, manipulation, and emotional abuse.
The film also touches on themes of alcohol abuse, loneliness, and self-destruction. Rachel’s dependence on alcohol serves as a coping mechanism for her feelings of isolation and unhappiness, and ultimately contributes to her downward spiral.
The Girl on the Train raises important questions about the reliability of perspective and the role of memory. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the audience is left to question what is true and what is not, highlighting the subjective nature of our perceptions and the power of recollection.
The cinematography of the 2016 movie The Girl on the Train was handled by Caleb Deschanel. Deschanel’s cinematography style is known for its use of natural lighting and intimate camera work, and this is reflected in the look of The Girl on the Train. The film features a mix of close-ups and sweeping shots of the train and the suburban landscape that Rachel travels through each day.
The camera work helps to convey Rachel’s sense of detachment and loneliness, as well as the tension and mystery surrounding Megan’s disappearance. Deschanel’s use of color and light also helps to set the mood of the film and to build a sense of suspense.
The soundtrack of the 2016 movie The Girl on the Train was composed by Danny Elfman. The soundtrack features a blend of haunting, atmospheric music that reflects the film’s dark and suspenseful tone. The music helps to create a sense of unease and to build tension throughout the film. Elfman’s score also incorporates elements of classical music, such as piano and strings, to add to the film’s atmosphere. The soundtrack of “The Girl on the Train” is an important part of the film’s overall soundscape, adding to the mood and helping to drive the story forward.
However, the film’s trailer used the song “Uninvited” by Alanis Morissette, which generated some buzz and helped to promote the film. You can listen to the soundtrack below.
Rachel Throws Deviled Eggs
The Girl on the Train was primarily filmed in New York City, USA. The film was shot on location in several different neighborhoods in the city, including the suburbs of Westchester County and the Hudson River Valley, to capture the distinctive suburban atmosphere and the scenic beauty of the region.
Some scenes were also filmed in studios in Los Angeles, California, to accommodate the production’s needs for controlled sets and special effects. Overall, the film’s location and cinematography help to create a convincing representation of the suburban landscape and the mood of the story.


shelf: civic-law

title: Terms and conditions of online store

text:
Terms and conditions of online store
These Terms and conditions set out the general terms, conditions and method of sales conducted by wilmax.eu online store (hereinafter referred to as the "online store") and sets out the terms and conditions for the provision of free electronic services by online store wilmax.eu.
1. SCOPE OF THE RULES
The rules apply to all orders submitted by consumers through our online store.
The Owner and Administrator of the online store wilmax.eu available at: http://wilmax.eu is Wilmax Europe SP.z O. O., with its Registered office in Warsaw, at str. Postępu 19 / 103, 02-676 Warsaw, NIP number: 9512521066, REGON: 38916860800000, registered in the KRS under number: 0000905740, represented by Aliaksandr Makratsou, in accordance with the rules of representation revealed in the KRS.
The seller - is a legal entity or individual entrepreneur indicated as the Seller on "Sellers" page - https://wilmax.eu/sellers of the online store which is the owner of the relevant product.
Each seller independently provides the rules for processing, payment, delivery, return and guarantee of orders. Before placing an order, the Consumer can familiarize himself with the rules of each seller and choose the Seller.
The consumer - is any person who, outside the scope of their business activity or outside the scope of independent performance of their profession, enters into a contract or otherwise deals with the online store wilmax.eu. By placing an order, the Customer confirms that they have read these terms and conditions prior to entering into the contract and that they expressly agree with them, as amended and effective at the time of sending the order.
Other or supplementary rules and general terms and conditions applied by Sellers. They are applicable – they will become part of the agreement only when we give an explicit, written consent.
2. CONCLUSION OF THE AGREEMENT
The sales agreement is concluded with the chosen Seller via online store wilmax.eu.
The presentation of products in our online store is an offer to conclude a sales contract. In order to conclude a contract, consumer must add the selected products to shopping cart and place an order.
The shopping cart and the data entered in the forms can be modified before placing an order using the available functionalities and messages that appear during the order submission process.
By clicking on the order summary page in the button confirming and finalizing the order, consumer place a binding order for the products in shopping cart. Upon receipt and registration of the order in the IT system of our online store, a sales contract is concluded. After placing an order, consumer will receive an e-mail from us confirming the order and the conclusion of the contract.
3. DELIVERY OF PRODUCTS
In some cases, shipping costs have to be added to the prices of the products. Ordered products are delivered through courier companies cooperating with us. Detailed information about possible delivery methods and delivery dates and shipping costs are presented during the ordering process and in a special information tab on the website of our store.
The following forms of payment are available for you in our online shop:
Electronic payments (e-payments) via an online payment service.
Payment by traditional bank transfer to the bank account of our store. If you choose this form of payment-after the order we will send you by e-mail the data for the transfer. The execution of the order will begin after the full amount of the required payment for the submitted order has been credited to our account.
Detailed information about possible payment methods, including the online payment services integrated with our store and the available types of e-payments, as well as possible additional costs, is presented during the order submission process and on the website of our store in a special Information tab on payment methods.
5. RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL
The Customer is entitled to withdraw from a purchase agreement at any time prior to delivery of the goods without stating a reason using the Sellers contacts.
The Customer has the right to withdraw from the Contract without stating a reason within 14 days of receipt of the goods.
If the Customer decides to withdraw within this period, the Seller shall refund the purchase price and other payments received from the Customer, including the cost of delivery.
If the Customer withdraws from only a part of the contract, the Seller shall return the purchase price of the returned goods. Further payments are refunded by the Seller only in the amount of the difference if the Customer falls to a lower price level for the price of delivery by withdrawing from part of the contract. In this case, the Seller returns the difference between these price levels.
The Seller shall use the same means of payment for refunds as that used by the Customer to make the initial transaction.
The Seller shall return the paid portion of the purchase price to the Customer only following receipt of the returned goods. The Customer shall return the goods to the Seller without undue delay, and no later than within 14 days from the date of withdrawal from the contract, to the Seller address.
Direct costs associated with the return of the goods upon withdrawal from a purchase agreement shall be borne by the Customer.
The Customer is liable for any reduction in the value of goods as a result of handling the goods in a manner other than that which is necessary to become familiar with the nature and properties of the goods, including their functionality. In this case, the Seller reserves the right to unilaterally offset its claim for damages caused by a reduction in the value of the goods against the Customer's claim for a refund of the purchase price.
6. TRANSPORT DAMAGE
For consumers: for all long distance order our store always bears the risk of accidental damage or loss of things in transport. If the ordered products are delivered with obvious damage caused during transport, we kindly ask you to report such a defect to the Seller as soon as possible and fill in the form on the page https://wilmax.eu/damage-claim.
Consumer has to report about damages in the period of 24 hours of receipt of the goods.
The delay in filing such a claim has no consequences for your statutory claims and their satisfaction. In the case of a longer period for filing a claim about a broken product, these claims are not accepted by the Seller and they are not subject to compensation for damage.
However, a faster notification helps us to resolve our claims against the carrier or the transport insurer.
If the consumer uses his own transport or uses his own transport company, the risk of accidental loss or accidental damage to the product passes to the consumer. We are not responsible for any losses, loss or damage to the goods that occurred from the moment of its acceptance for carriage until its delivery to the consumer, as well as for any delay in delivery caused by the carrier.
7. RETURN POLICY
The Customer is entitled to return goods purchased in the www.wilmax.eu online store in the period of the fourteen days from the receipt of the goods.
The Customer shall bear the costs of returning the goods.
The Customer shall make a return to the Seller from whom he made his order. Goods of suitable quality may be returned if they are:
a. - was not in use,
b. - has retained its appearance and performance,
c. - in original factory packaging (if available),
d. - has an established sample of sales
Product must be returned with proof of purchase.
8. ELECTRONIC SERVICES
We take all necessary measures to ensure the fully correct operation of the service and the interface of our online store to the extent that arises from the current technical knowledge and we undertake to eliminate within a reasonable time any technical errors and problems reported by users. The above also applies to the possibility of subscribing to the newsletter or the optional possibility of creating a customer account-if these services are provided within our store. You may notify Administrator of Online Store of any irregularities or interruptions in the functioning of the website and services of our online store via the contact details
e-mail: [email protected]
tel. +48 793105251 on working days from 09:00 to 17:00.
In the complaint regarding the irregularities related to the technical functioning of the website of the online store, please indicate the type and date of the irregularities.


shelf: science-engineering

title: Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

text:
Section: Partnerships and Cooperations
Equipex FIT (Futur Internet of Things) FIt is one of 52 winning projects in the Equipex research grant program. It will set up a competitive and innovative experimental facility that brings France to the forefront of Future Internet research. FIT benefits from 5.8€¨ million grant from the French government Running from 22.02.11 – 31.12.2019. The main ambition is to create a first-class facility to promote experimentally driven research and to facilitate the emergence of the Internet of the future.
As proposed by initiatives in Europe and worldwide, enabling an open, general-purpose, and sustainable large-scale shared experimental facility will foster the emergence of the Future Internet. There is an increasing demand among researchers and production system architects to federate testbed resources from multiple autonomous organisations into a seamless/ubiquitous resource pool, thereby giving users standard interfaces for accessing the widely distributed and diverse collection of resources they need to conduct their experiments. The F-Lab project builds on a leading prototype for such a facility: the OneLab federation of testbeds. OneLab pioneered the concept of testbed federation, providing a federation model that has been proven through a durable interconnection between its flagship testbed PlanetLab Europe (PLE) and the global PlanetLab infrastructure, mutualising over five hundred sites around the world. One key objective of F-Lab is to further develop an understanding of what it means for autonomous organisations operating heterogeneous testbeds to federate their computation, storage and network resources, including defining terminology, establishing universal design principles, and identifying candidate federation strategies. On the operational side, F-Lab will enhance OneLab with the contribution of the unique sensor network testbeds from SensLAB, and LTE based cellular systems. In doing so, F-Lab continues the expansion of OneLab's capabilities through federation with an established set of heterogeneous testbeds with high international visibility and value for users, developing the federation concept in the process, and playing a major role in the federation of national and international testbeds. F-Lab will also develop tools to conduct end-to-end experiments using the OneLab facility enriched with SensLAB and LTE.
F-Lab is a unique opportunity for the French community to play a stronger role in the design of federation systems, a topic of growing interest; for the SensLAB testbed to reach an international visibility and use; and for pioneering testbeds on LTE technology.
ANR RESCUE started in December 2010: Access and metropolitan networks are much more limited in capacity than core networks. While the latter operate in over-provisioning mode, access and metropolitan networks may experience high overload due to evolution of the traffic or failures. In wired networks, some failures (but not all) are handled by rerouting the traffic through a backup network already in place. In developed countries, backup networks are adopted wherever possible (note that this is generally not the case for the links between end users and their local DSLAM). Such a redundant strategy may not be possible in emerging countries because of cost issues. When dedicated backup networks are not available, some operators use their 3G infrastructure to recover some specific failures; although such an alternative helps avoid full network outage, it is a costly solution. Furthermore, availability of 3G coverage is still mainly concentrated in metropolitan zones. When no backup networks are available, it would be interesting to deploy, for a limited time corresponding to the period of the problem (i.e., failure or traffic overload), a substitution network to help the base network keep providing services to users.
In the RESCUE project (2010-2013), we investigate both the underlying mechanisms and the deployment of a substitution network composed of a fleet of dirigible wireless mobile routers. Unlike many projects and other scientific works that consider mobility as a drawback, in RESCUE we use the controlled mobility of the substitution network to help the base network reduce contention or to create an alternative network in case of failure. The advantages of an on-the-fly substitution network are manifold: Reusability and cost reduction; Deployability; Adaptability.
The RESCUE project addresses both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the deployment of a substitution network. From a theoretical point of view, we will propose a two-tiered architecture including the base network and the substitution network. This architecture will describe the deployment procedures of the mobile routing devices, the communication stack, the protocols, and the services. The design of this architecture will take into account some constraints such as quality of service and energy consumption (since mobile devices are autonomous), as we want the substitution network to provide more than a best effort service. From a practical point of view, we will provide a proof of concept, the architecture linked to this concept, and the necessary tools (e.g., traffic monitoring, protocols) to validate the concept and mechanisms of on-the-fly substitution networks. At last but not least, we will validate the proposed system both in laboratory testbeds and in a real-usage scenario.
ANR PETAFLOW (Appel Blanc International) started in march 2010 and ended in october 2013. It is a collaborative project between the GIPSA Lab (Grenoble), MOAIS (Inria Grenoble), DANTE (Inria Grenoble), the University of Osaka (the Cybermedia Center and the Department of Information Networking) and the University of Kyoto (Visualisation Laboratory).
The aim of this collaboration was to propose network solutions to guarantee the Quality of Service (in terms of reliability level and of transfer delay properties) of a high speed, long-distance connection used in an interactive, high performance computing application. Another specificity of this application was the peta-scale volume of the treated data corresponding to the upper airway flow modelling.
ANR CONTINT CODDDE accepted in December 2013: It is a collaborative project between the ComplexNetwork team at LIP6/UPMC; Linkfluence and Inria Dante. The CODDDE project aims at studying critical research issues in the field of real-world complex networks study:
In order to answer these questions, an essential feature of complex networks will be exploited: the existence of a community structure among nodes of these networks. Complex networks are indeed composed of densely connected groups of that are loosely connected between themselves.
These algorithms and methodology will be applied and validated on a real-world online social network consisting of more than 10 000 blogs and French media collected since 2009 on a daily basis (the dataset comprises all published articles and the links between these articles).
ANR FETUSES: The goals of this ANR project consist in the development of statistical signal processing tools dedicated to per partum fetal heat rate characterisation and acidosis detection, and are organised as follows: construction of a large dataset of per partum fetal heart rate recordings, which is well documented and of significant clinical value; Developments of adaptive (e.g. data driven) algorithms to separate data into trend (deceleration induced by contractions) and fluctuation (cardiac variability) components; Developments of algorithms to characterise the non stationary and multifractal properties of per partum fetal heart rate ; Acidosis detection and assessment using the large datasets; Algorithm implementation for performing tests in real clinical situations. ANR is a joint project between DANTE, the Physics Lab of ENS Lyon (SiSyPhe team) and the Hôpital Femme-Mère-Enfant of Bron (Lyon). Fetuses started in january 2012.
ANR INFRA DISCO (DIstributed SDN COntrollers for rich and elastic network services) project: the DANTE team will explore the way SDN (Software Designed Network) can change network monitoring, control, urbanisation and abstract description of network resources for the optimisation of services. More specifically, the team will address the issues regarding the positioning of SDN controllers within the network, and the implementation of an admission control that can manage IP traffic prioritisation.


tier: kodiak

shelf: software-docs

title: Fueling high performance computing with full stack innovation

text:
High-performance computing (HPC) has become the essential instrument of scientific discovery.
Whether it is discovering new, life-saving drugs, battling climate change, or creating accurate simulations of our world, these solutions demand an enormous—and rapidly growing—amount of processing power. They are increasingly out of reach of traditional computing approaches.
That is why industry has embraced NVIDIA GPU-accelerated computing. Combined with AI, it is bringing millionfold leaps in performance for scientific advancement. Today, 2,700 applications can benefit from NVIDIA GPU acceleration, and that number continues to rise, backed by a growing community of three million developers.
Delivering the many-fold speedups across the entire breadth of HPC applications takes relentless innovation at every level of the stack. This starts with chips and systems and goes through to the application frameworks themselves.
The NVIDIA platform continues to deliver significant performance improvements each year, with relentless advancements in architecture and across the NVIDIA software stack. Compared to the P100 released just six years ago, the H100 Tensor Core GPU is expected to deliver an estimated 26x higher performance, more than 3x faster than Moore’s Law.
Core to the NVIDIA platform is a feature-rich and high-performance software stack. To facilitate GPU acceleration for the widest range of HPC applications, the platform includes the NVIDIA HPC SDK. The SDK provides unmatched developer flexibility, enabling the creation and porting of GPU-accelerated applications using standard languages, directives, and CUDA.
The power of the NVIDIA HPC SDK lies in a vast suite of highly optimized GPU-accelerated math libraries, enabling you to harness the full performance potential of NVIDIA GPUs. For the best multi-GPU and multi-node performance, the NVIDIA HPC SDK also provides powerful communications libraries:
- NVSHMEM creates a global address space for data that spans the memory of multiple GPUs.
- NVIDIA Collective Communications Library (NCCL) optimizes inter-GPU communication.
Altogether, this platform provides the highest performance and flexibility to support the large and growing universe of GPU-accelerated HPC applications.
To showcase how the NVIDIA full-stack innovation translates into the highest performance for accelerated HPC, we compared the performance of a server from HPE with four NVIDIA GPUs with that of a similarly configured server based on an equal number of accelerator modules from another vendor.
We tested a set of five widely used HPC applications using a wide variety of datasets. While the NVIDIA platform accelerates 2,700 applications spanning every industry, the applications we could use in this comparison were limited by the selection of software and application versions that are available for the other vendor’s accelerators.
For all workloads except for NAMD, which is software for molecular dynamics simulation, our results are calculated using the geomean of results across multiple datasets to minimize the influence of outliers and to be representative of customer experiences.
We also tested these applications in multi-GPU and single-GPU scenarios.
In the multi-GPU scenario, with all accelerators in the tested systems being used to run a single simulation, the A100 Tensor Core GPU-based server delivered up to 2.1x higher performance than the alternative offering.
Fueled by continued advances in compute performance, the field of molecular dynamics is moving towards simulating ever-larger systems of atoms for longer periods of simulated time. These advances enable researchers to simulate an increasing set of biochemical mechanisms, such as photosynthetic electron transport and vision signal transduction. These and other processes have long been the subject of scientific debate because they have been beyond the reach of simulation, which is the primary tool for validation. This was due to the prohibitively long amount of time needed to complete the simulations.
However, we recognize that not all users of these applications run them with multiple GPUs per simulation. For optimal throughput, the best execution method is often to assign one GPU per simulation.
When running these same applications on a single accelerator module—a full GPU on the NVIDIA A100 and both compute dies on the alternative product—the NVIDIA A100-based system delivered up to 1.9x faster performance.
Energy costs represent a significant portion of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of data centers and supercomputing centers alike, underscoring the importance of power-efficient computing platforms. Our testing showed that the NVIDIA platform provided up to 2.8x higher throughput-per-watt than the alternative offering.
Efficiency ratio of A100 to MI250 shown – higher is better for NVIDIA. Geomean over multiple datasets (varies) per application. Efficiency is Performance / Power consumption (Watts) as measured for the GPUs using measured using NVIDIA SMI and equivalent functionality in ROCm |
AMD MI250 measured on a MI250 System with (2) AMD EPYC 7763 with 4x AMD Instinct™ MI250 OAM (128 GB HBM2e) 500W GPUs with AMD Infinity Fabric™ technology. NVIDIA runs on HGX A100 4-GPU server using dual EPYC 7713 CPUs and 4x A100 (80 GB) SXM4
LAMMPS develop_db00b49(AMD) develop_2a35ec2(NVIDIA) datasets ReaxFF/c, Tersoff, Leonard-Jones, SNAP | NAMD 3.0alpha9 dataset STMV_NVE | OpenMM 7.7.0 Ensemble runs for datasets: amber20-stmv, amber20-cellulose, apoa1pme, pme|
GROMACS 2021.1(AMD) 2022(NVIDIA) datasets ADH-Dodec (h-bond), STMV (h-bond) | AMBER 20.xx_rocm_mr_202108(AMD) and 20.12-AT_21.12 (NVIDIA) datasets Cellulose_NVE, STMV_NVE | 1x MI250 has 2x GCD
The excellent performance and power efficiency of the NVIDIA A100 GPU is the result of many years of relentless software-hardware co-optimization to maximize application performance and efficiency. For more information about the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, see the NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU whitepaper.
A100 also presents as a single processor to the operating system, requiring that only one MPI rank be launched to take full advantage of its performance. And, A100 delivers excellent performance at scale thanks to the 600-GB/s NVLink connections between all GPUs in a node.
Just as accelerated computing is bringing many-fold speedups to modeling and simulation applications, the combination of AI and HPC will deliver the next step-function increase in performance to unlock the next wave of scientific discovery.
In the three years between our first MLPerf training submissions and the most recent results, the NVIDIA platform has delivered 20x more deep learning training performance on this industry-standard, peer-reviewed suite of benchmarks. The gains come from a combination of chip, software, and at-scale improvements.
Scientists and researchers are already using the power of AI to deliver dramatic improvements in performance, turbocharging scientific discovery:
- Enabling a 105 reduction in the time required for identifying gravitational waves.
- Providing a 1,000x speed-up for simulating the Delta SARS-CoV-2 virus in a respiratory droplet with more than a billion atoms.
- Accelerating the development of clean fusion energy.
- Creating predictive digital twins for heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) plants.
Supercomputing centers around the world are continuing to adopt accelerated AI supercomputers.
- The Polaris supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), Perlmutter at NERSC, and Leonardo at CINECA are all powered by A100 Tensor Core GPUs.
- The upcoming Alps supercomputer based on our upcoming Grace Hopper Superchip will come online in 2023.
- The upcoming Venado system at Los Alamos National Laboratory, scheduled for delivery in 2023, will include both the Grace Hopper Superchip as well as Grace CPU Superchip nodes.
For more information about the latest performance data, see HPC Application Performance.


shelf: health

title: Allergy elimination naet

text:
NAET stands for Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques. It is a non-invasive, drug-free, and natural solution to alleviate allergies and sensitivities of all types and severities. This unique treatment works to drastically reduce the symptoms of and eliminate food, environmental, and chemical allergies. With NAET you can finally start living your life with tangible solutions for your allergies and say goodbye to dependence on pharmaceutical allergy medications.
Read here from some of our patients who have had real life success with stubborn allergies.
An allergy is an immune response that occurs when the body comes into contact with a substance that is perceived as a threat to its well-being. The body’s immune system prepares to fight off the allergen by releasing histamine and antibodies. The result is an adverse allergic reaction and symptoms such as respiratory problems and skin conditions. The purpose of NAET is to stop the allergic reaction by having the body no longer perceive the substance as a threat.
The way to most successfully accomplish this is by treating allergens one at a time each visit. Basic essential nutrients are treated first, to improve digestion and absorption of the food we consume on a daily basis. During the treatment, acupressure is used on the back to lightly stimulate the nervous system while in the presence of the allergen in the form of a homeopathic vial. This process is a way of reintroducing the body to a particular allergen and changing the body’s perception of the allergen as a threat. The substance must then be avoided for 25 hours to process the treatment. Typically only one treatment is needed per substance, however moderate to severe allergies may require multiple treatments.
NAET has been successfully performed on patients of all ages in our clinic, from infants to the elderly. Children will receive NAET alone, while adults will receive acupuncture subsequent to the NAET treatment. Combining acupuncture with NAET has demonstrated to be a more effective approach since specific immune-related acupuncture points are directly activated during treatment.
With over 20 years of experience as an NAET practitioner, Dr. Nikzad has treated a very wide range of conditions. While allergies have been the primary focus of NAET, it has also proved to be successful in treating digestive disorders, varied autoimmune issues, skin conditions, hormonal imbalances, sleeping problems, and other conditions that have been resistant to typical medical approaches. NAET has also been effective in the treatment of children with autism and several studies have been performed to further confirm its use as a powerful tool in that field.
Many people with complex and “mysterious” health problems do not realize that the underlying cause of their affliction may have immune origins, namely a sensitivity. While an allergy will trigger an immediate reaction, a sensitivity will cause a delayed reaction that may not show up for hours or days. This delayed reaction makes it difficult to realize that a sensitivity is present and the person will typically continue coming into contact with the substance. Unfortunately, this repeated exposure causes inflammation in the body and weakens the immune system, making the person sicker and more susceptible to further illness and disease.
Sensitivities can be detected through blood tests or muscle response testing and then eliminated with NAET treatment. NAET brings the immune system back into balance and helps it recover from a chronically inflamed state.
For scientific research papers and studies on the efficacy of NAET, please visit: https://www.naet.com/about/studies
If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of allergy elimination and our NAET clinic in San Diego, contact our friendly staff today at (858) 202-0322.


title: Weaker dollar keeps bitcoin above 30k as analysts target 60 btc dominance

text:
Bitcoin (BTC) hit 48-hour highs overnight into May 20 as the US dollar weakness gave the bulls some much-required respite. Macro conditions flip to mitigate pressure on risk assets, as one view gives BTC bears $14,000 capitulation “hopium.”
Dollar Strength Drops After 20-Year Record
Data acquired from TradingView recorded highs of $30,725 for BTC/USD on Bitstamp. Still striving to flip $30,000 to become reliable support, the pair nevertheless avoided a bigger retracement, helping calm the fears of the past week’s $23,800 capitulation event did not mark the bottom.
The U.S. dollar index (DXY) offered the background to Bitcoin’s relatively strong performance, coming off 20-year highs to lose 2% in one week. That seemed to relieve some pressure on the stock markets, with the S&P 500 finishing May 19 down by 0.58% compared to the past week, the NASDAQ 100 less.
While trading over 50% below its all-time highs, the biggest crypto managed to punish many latecomers to the market, according to one analyst.
Ki Young Ju, CEO of analytics platform CryptoQuant, wrote in a series of tweets on that day:
“Today, newbies who joined last year are in -34% loss.”
Ki referred to a chart of bands of the unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) indicating the age of investments. The investors who had only experienced one ‘bear cycle’ before were now down 39%, he stated, while the older coins were still in profit.
“So here’s hopium for bears. If $BTC crashed so hard due to the macro crisis and all Bitcoiner institutions go underwater, it could go $14k based on historical MDD.”
Based on previous reports, many predictions of a major Bitcoin price retracement, some of them under $14,000 continue to circulate.
Altcoins Are Rolling Over As Bitcoin Rises
In the meantime, attention focused on Bitcoin’s growing market presence over altcoins. After the Terra LUNA saga last week, the mood turned cold outside Bitcoin, and now, it seems like the altcoins are ceding dominance quickly.
At 44.8%, BTC’s of the general crypto market cap reached its highest point since October 2021 at the time of publication. One popular Twitter account IncomeSharks forecast:
“We could see dominance rally all the way back to 60%. This is why you need to be cautious on alts and trade them with tight stops. There’s a good chance we could see money leave alts and start going back to BTC.”
60% Bitcoin market dominance would represent a level not seen since March 2021. A popular analyst Pierre warned:
“Most alts I’ve been watching haven’t been able to break their H4 trends despite yesterday’s move on BTC. Would still expect most of them to die twice harder if BTC was to remain stuck within this same range, or resolve to the downside.”


title: See you all!

text:
See you all!
To all our dear artists and invited guests, see you all tomorrow, April 30, at the art exhibit at the ground floor hallway of our studio at 500 Shaw Zentrum. This art exhibit is our culminating activity for Summer Art Classes 2016! While tomorrow will be a closed-door event exclusive primarily to our artists and select guests, our art exhibit will eventually be opened to the public starting May 1 until May 7. We hope you can drop by and see the masterpieces up on display!
See you all! We're so happy to finally welcome our second batch of students for our Summer Art Classes 2016. Classes just started yesterday, April 25, and we're thankful that more and more students are still coming in to join us. There were definitely new faces, but mostly hands, hearts and minds eager to learn the exciting world of art. From Art Smart, we'd like to thank the parents for trusting us with your kids' summer! Below are some snapshots from our art classes yesterday, April 25 and today, April 26. Enjoy!
While summer is the perfect time to rest and take a break from school books, it's also a great opportunity for kids to learn new things, discover new interests and hobbies and enhance their skills. But one thing's for sure - summer time should always be fun and memorable so that when kids look back, all they can think of doing is smile, think about their happy summer memories and just move forward to the brand new school year.
Let these suggestions fill up your kids' summer days with fun and excitement! And if you have other ideas, please do share them with us in the comments section below! Hi everyone! :) It's been a fun two weeks since we started our Summer Art Classes at our Marikina and Shaw studios last March 28. To celebrate Friday (yay!), the upcoming weekend, and the wonderful artworks, friendships, and giggles we've so far created, we'd like to share with you some of our fun highlights from our classes! We hope you enjoy them! Pictures from last week, March 28 to April 1!
In case you missed the memo, we are now accepting students for our Second Batch of Summer Art Classes 2016, which will start this coming April 25! How exciting!


title: Together since anniversary wooden keyring

text:
A simply beautiful wooden keyring to celebrate your time together. These personalised gifts are heartfelt love tokens that make perfect gifts for Valentine's Day or your anniversary.
For your person, these beautiful tokens of love are perfect for looking after their keys, and reminding them how many amazing days you've had together.
Made in our Cheltenham studios, the anniversary keyrings are laser cut from sustainably sourced cherry wood and hand-finished by us (probably Katie tbf) just for you.
Choose to have just the year, or an important full date, and you can even select if you want the words "together since" or not. It's all down to personal preference.
Our wooden keyring is laser engraved into 6mm cherry veneer wood sourced in the UK. The mill that makes the veneer is amazing! The veneers are all FSC and PEFC certified and they require anyone they work with to sign up to a Pure Wood Charter for sustainable practices. They generate 30% of their own electricity from their own solar panels and get the remaining 70% from green energy providers. Any waste wood offcuts are used to heat the premises in the winter! This kind of information is important to us so we thought you might like to know about it too.
Our Couples Together Since wooden keyring measures approx 75mm x 40mm x 6mm
the Betsy Benn team:
Betsy Benn is a small team of creatives based in the gorgeous Cotswolds. We spend our days making meaningful, thoughtful gifts and home decor - and enjoying quite a lot of cake while we do it. You won’t find run-of-the-mill designs here: we’re all about unusual gifts and wow-factor design.


title: New music discoveries 4th november girl scout yorke darcy lane and more

text:
For our first New Music Discoveries of November we have added nine new tracks to our Discovery playlist on Spotify and Apple Music; including three exclusive premieres. Our Track of the Week for this week is “All The Time And Everywhere”, the new single from Stockholm garage-pop newcomers Girl Scout.
“All The Time And Everywhere” is the second single from the Swedish group and cements them as ones to watch. Chockfull of melodies and relatable lyrics, the track is all about trying to make peace with life’s anxieties. Expect to hear plenty more from Girl Scout in the future.
“Hypnagogic Hydrosphere” comes from Norwegian audiovisual artist Glassmanet’s forthcoming album Glassplanet – out 11th November. At just shy of two minutes, the track is a wonderful, short, sharp injection of dream pop for the soul. With some lovely shoegaze vibes to the vocals and psych-inspired guitars, we can’t wait to hear the rest of the album later in the month.
Yorke has released “when the honeymoon is over” from her upcoming EP, ten feet tall which will be released on the 2nd of December. This is a track that searches for light in the darkness, showcasing strength and resilience and is catchy as.
Sydney’s Darcy Lane has released the fabulous “2022 Without You”. It’s a ripping takedown of an ex-lover, reflecting on how the split is for the best. If you are newly single and need a lift, then this is for you.
“Cherry Blue Intention” is from New Orleans no-wave punks Special Interest. A heady mix of dance music and punk, crank this one up loud. It’s the final single off their album Endure which was also released today.
“Big Foot” sees British multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Tutankhamun (a.k.a. Olly Toomey) continues to tease his forthcoming debut album – out November 25th on Nice Guy Records. According to Olly the track “is a song about feeling out of control and the abandonment that comes with that”. Musically though you have this nice juxtaposition with this stylish and captivating 60’s cinematic soundscape. Keep an eye out for the album when it drops later this month.
Catch the new music updated every Friday on Apple Music:
and on Spotify:
Here’s the complete list of additions this week:
Girl Scout “All The Time And Everywhere”
Glassmanet “Hypnagogic Hydrosphere”
Yorke “When the Honeymoon is Over”
Darcy Lane “2022 Without You”
Nameless Ghost “Silent”
Tutankhamun “Big Foot”
Special Interest “Cherry Blue Intention”
Ainsley Farrell “So Small” [Exclusive Single Premiere]
NTH RD “I Watched You Fade Away” [Exclusive Video Premiere]
Header Photo: Martyna Bannister


title: foSave time and make money

text:
foSave time and make money
Saving time and making money is something we all want to do when running a business. Having full-time employees costs more money than outsourcing. While you have a quiet month or, so you are still paying someone full time for work that isn’t coming in and paying for office space when you don’t really need it!
When it comes to saving time, all these tedious admin tasks aren’t something you want to be doing when you want to focus on your business development and just do what you do best.
Getting projects done
Unexpected projects can pop up. These things could be; important business meetings, conferences, being on-site and completing other important work tasks. If you or your team are already struggling to get things done, then this can put your business and clients on the line. Outsourcing the administrative support to free up some precious time will help you get all these other things done.
The company you use to outsource your admin tasks may have larger teams with the individuals covering a large range of expertise and their experience allows them to build those teams around more streamlined and integrated processes. The advantages of this are vast. You are paying for a team full of people who can cover many sides of what the business needs without having to look elsewhere for these services or hire other people. You have it all in one place.
Give your business a professional image
You want people to choose you. Clients want reassurance and having a professional image definitely helps with that. Having an office landline will give your business a lot more credibility and you won’t have calls coming to your personal phone. This will also increase the customer service quality and will never miss them when you have a team to pick the call up. Outsourcing your administration tasks will also help things to be done in a proper, professional manner as the people are trained to do things a certain way when handling business queries.
Compliance and liability
Legality and regulations are constantly changing, and it can be difficult for companies to keep up. Compliances also become more complicated companies are widening their benefits coverage into areas that require better insights on both compliance and liability. Outsourced providers can offer you support in all these areas.
Outsourcing your admin tasks means that you then have time to focus on the core of the business and eliminate monotonous tasks and spend more time implementing strategies to further grow your business. Outsourcing your admirative services to our team will have you never having to worry about hiring an admin team and paying a lot less than you normally would for your staff.
Click here for more information about the benefits of outsourcing!
Running a business has never been so easy when you have the support from SBF Consultancy.
Click here to check out our other blogs for more business tips and advice!
Contact our team today to see how we can help you.


title: by Merry & Elio

text:
by Merry & Elio
We are proud of our adaptive immune system, and rightfully so. Splendid is its ability to recognize and respond to foreign molecules – even ones never previously encountered in our evolutionary history. Central to this is our talent for generating antibodies and T-cell antigen receptors with many, many different specificities. We do it by keeping part of those proteins constant while reshuffling the nucleotide sequences that encode the ligand-binding sites. Theoretically, this reshuffling enables us to recognize more than 1014 different ligand sequences. This strategy (immunologists call it GOD for Generation of Diversity) is not, we have come to learn, unique to vertebrates. Not even to eukaryotes!
Enter bacteria and their phages. Bordetella is a genus of β-proteobacteria that includes pathogens responsible for respiratory infections such as whooping cough in humans. When Bordetella bronchiseptica is infecting a host, it makes various virulence factors including pertactin, a surface protein used in attaching to the tracheal epithelial cells. When living outside a host, it doesn't make pertactin. These Bordetella are hosts for a temperate phage that recognizes and attaches to pertactin via a tail fiber protein called Mtd.
Since pertactin comes and goes depending on the state of the Bordetella, this creates a bit of a problem for the phage. As you would expect, when the bacteria are in their non-infectious phase, phage infection is greatly reduced. Greatly reduced, but not eliminated. Approximately one phage in a million can infect Bordetella lacking pertactin. They do so by virtue of having an altered Mtd protein with a different binding specificity. Remarkably, Mtd is exceedingly variable, and therein lies the tale.
How does such variability arise? The answer involves a special mechanism first described in these phage.
The variation among the mdt genes is restricted to 22 hotspots that are located within a 134 bp region at one end of the gene. Close to the mtd gene is a "template" copy of that 134 bp sequence. This template is identical in all the phages and has an adenine at each of the 22 hotspots. Furthermore, lurking nearby is a gene for a reverse transcriptase. Putting all this together, researchers in J. F. Miller's lab found that sequence information is transferred unidirectionally from the template copy to the mtd gene by a process that involves the reverse transcriptase. During this transfer, mutations are introduced at some of the adenine hotspots in the mtd gene. The mutated mtd gene is then used to make the mRNA for the tail fiber proteins for the progeny phage, hence possibly conferring on them an altered host specificity.
Given that there are 22 hotspots in the mtd gene, any or all of which can be mutated, this phage is theoretically capable of producing almost 1013 different Mtd proteins. This is approaching the level of diversity seen in our own immune system. Recently, a close look at the folded Mtd protein showed that mutations at those hotspots altered the amino acids that are located in the host receptor-binding site – again reminiscent of our immune system's strategy for varying binding specificity without disrupting the protein scaffold.
This mechanism for generating diversity has been awarded a name of its own: diversity-generating retroelement, or DGR. As of 2007, DGRs had been found in nearly 30 diverse bacterial and phage genomes. The list of eukaryote-specific talents grows ever shorter. Makes you wonder if eukaryotes invented anything.


title: How to install optimizely cms 12 and configure a development environment

text:
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install and set up Optimizely CMS 12. This guide will list all the steps required to install the CMS and configure your PC so that you can start building cool websites. The thing that makes me really happy about Optimizely CMS 12 (formally known as Episerver CMS for the old skool) is that it fully runs on .NET core. Finally, the days of ASP.NET framework are gone 😲. Long live modern CMS development!
Obviously, you can head on over to the official Optimizely developer documents to find some instructions on how to install Optimizely CMS, so why read this guide? This guide is written for developers. In it, you will not only learn how to install the CMS and learn about all the hidden gotchas. You will also learn how to configure your PC so you can code websites efficiently. As Optimizely CMS 12 fully supports .NET Core, it is now possible to use a MAC for .NET development. I'm assuming most people who are reading this are Microsoft users at heart, so this tutorial is Windows only (If you want a MAC-based tutorial leave me a comment!)
The steps to set up a development environment can be broken into these six steps:
- Install and configure SQL server
- Create and configure a hostname
- Set up IIS and the required modules
- Create a website in IIS and make sure the application pool is set to use the correct CLI version
- Install the CMS and its database via the terminal
- Write some code to create an admin account
If you follow the steps in this guide, within about 20 minutes you will have a working blank CMS 12 website up and running. Sound good, then read on 🔥🔥🔥
It is possible for the CMS to use a database stored as a file on your PC, however, this isn't ideal. A database stored and accessed as a file rather than from within SQL server will be slower, harder to make back-ups, and harder to query. When building sites with Cms 12 I recommend you use SQL Server or SQL Express with Management Studio.
When setting up SQL from scratch, you need to configure a few things as Microsoft locks a lot of the settings down by default.
- First, you need to enable SQL and Windows authentication mode
- Second, you need to create a database account. This account will be used in the websites connection string to access the CMS database. I recommend using the default
account to ensure minimal installation hassle. Security-wise this is not ideal, however, you can always change it after you have successfully got the CMS up and running. - Finally, for any database account that you create you enabled remote access as well as ensuring the account is enabled
Setting Up A Hostname
It is possible to run an Optimiziely CMS 12 site completely via the terminal using the dotnet run
command. It's very quick and easy to launch the site using dotnet run
, however, having to open a terminal and run this command each time you want to view the site is a bit of a pain in the bum. Using the terminal alone to access your site will mean that your workflow will not be as efficient as it can be. Like most .NET development, in order to be really productive, you will want to access your site from a local web server, e.g. in IIS. This means you will need to configure IIS and you will need to set up a hostname. The hostname will be the URL that you access the site from within a browser.
Typically when you type a URL into a web browser, the request will be forwarded onto the internet. When you want to run a site on a local web server, you want the browsers request to map to your local webserver instead. This magic is achieved by creating an entry within your PCs host
s file. Creating a mapping within your hosts
file will prevent your browser from talking to the internet and instead redirect the request to your local webserver. On Windows, the host file is located here:
C ➡ Windows ➡ System32 ➡ etc ➡ drivers
You will only be able to modify the host file in a text editor, or, IDE that has been opened with administrator privileges. Without admin privileges, you will get an error when you try to save the file 😞.
Within the host file, you need to create a map between your chosen hostname to the localhost IP address which is 127.0.0.1. Creating this mapping will mean that when someone types in the hostname in a browser, the request will be redirected to the local web server, instead of the internet. The hostname will be used to route the request to the correct website in IIS. To create this mapping is simple, add the IP address 127.0.0.1 first, add a tab and then add your chosen hostname, like this:
With the mapping created, when you type http://myWebsiteUrl
into a browser, the request should load your local Optimizely 12 website (after we create it!). As you have yet to install Optimizely you will know it has worked if you see the IIS error page. If this process has not worked, you will be redirected to Google (assuming you use Chrome).
Setting Up IIS
At this point, I like to make sure IIS is working and configured correctly. Doing this set-up task now means when I get to the CMS installation t is quick and easy to hook everything up after I have installed the website. As we haven't installed the CMS you will;l not be able to fully test this part until;l the end., however, yet you can not amae You can check IIS is installed from the Windows Turn On or Off
In order to run a .NET core site, you will also need to install a .NET core IIS module. This can be found from the .NET 5 website, under the hosting bundle link (see here)
Within IIS you will need to create a new website. In order to create a new website, you need three things, a name, a folder location and a hostname. Call the website in IIS anything you want as you will be the only person viewing it. Use the hostname you created above. Finally, point the folder location to the area on your PC where you will install the CMS files shortly. At this stage in the installation process, you should be able to type the hostname into a browser and you should see a 403 error.
After creating the website, you need to make sure the application pool can process .NET core code instead of ASP.NET framework code.
To do this, open application pool
, find the entry that matches your website name and click on Advanced Settings
. Within here, make sure .NET Cli version
is set to No Managed Code
. If you do not see this option, you need to install the .NET 5 hosting bundle and then reset IIS., e.g. reboot your PC or tun this command in a browser:
When trying to view your website, it is also possible that you will bump into a Windows file access permission error. The reason for this error is that IIS can not read or write files within this folder. To fix the permission error you need to set the correct folder permissions on your web folder. The easy way to set permissions is within IIS. Right-click on the website entry and select permissions. The permissions I recommend you add are:
- NETWORK SERVICE
Or any account that looks like this:
- IIS AppPool\ApplicationPoolName
The good news is that all the boring set-up tasks have now been completed, its time to install the CMS 💥
Installing the CMS
The great thing about Optimizely CMS 12 is that you can install it from the terminal without having to rely on Visual Studio. In order to create a new Optimizely CMS site, you need the Episerver installation templates and the Episerver CLI tool. Yes I have just referenced Episerver and that is not a typo. A lot of the tools and assemblies have not been rebranded, so expect some Episerver references from time to time! installing the installation template and the CLI tools is done using two commands. Open a terminal and type:
To make sure that the template installed correctly, you can run this command:
This command will show all the templates installed on your PC. Make sure that you can see an entry called epicmsempty
. To install the CLI tool, you can use this command:
You are now ready to install an Optimizely CMS site, using the template and the CLI tool 🤩🤩🤩. To install the CMS you can use this command:
In the snippet above, change Cms12
for a project name of your choice. This command will install some files in a folder named after the project. The next step is to install the database. This is also done using a terminal command, however, this command will only work after you switched your terminal locations to the new folder. In this example, I would run this command:
You are now ready to install the database. Assuming you followed the steps above like the good little reader that you are, you should have SQL Authentication enabled in your SQL server and you should have a valid SQL account to connect with. You can install the database using this command:
When using the CLI database command you have several flags that you need to set:
: Set the name of the SQL server, on your PC, e.g.,.\sqlexpress
: The SQL accounts username, e.g.sa
: The SQL accounts password, e.g.password
After running this command, you should have a CMS database lock, cocked and ready to rumble 🎬. It time to fire up the website and test that it works. The first step is to test that the site runs via the terminal. We can worry about IIS in a minute. You can fire up the website using dotnet run
. By default, you can normally access the site using http://localhsot:8000
(look in the terminal to double-check). When the site fires up, you should see a 404 page. As we have installed the blank template, your new website will not have any page types or pages so this is expected behaviour. To test that the CMS is working, you should try to access the CMS log-in screen.
In CMS 11, the log-in screen was accessible by adding episerver
to the end of the URL. In CMS 12, this URL will now throw a 404. Instead, you access the CMS using this URL util/Login
. If things have gone smoothly, you should see this screen:
If you see this, great! Your next thought might be "how do I log into the CMS?". Good question. Currently, there is no CMS admin/editor account, so you will not be able to log in to the CMS until you create one!
Creating A CMS User
The CMS 12 blank sample site will not install with any CMS editors or admins. This means you will not be able to access the CMS yet. In CMS 11, you could use a local Windows administrator account to bypass security and log-in. This is not possible in CMS 12. In order to log into the CMS, you will need to create a CMS user. As of writing, the best way to create a new CMS user is via code. The good news is that you can copy the code required to create a new CMS user from Optimizelys Github. You can use the UsersInstaller
class available here. Create a new class file in your website and copy this code into it. Next, within start.cs
, copy this line within the ConfigureServices()
Now build the site. If the site compiles OK, go back to your terminal and run a dotnet run
. The CMS should load, type in [email protected]
as the username and Episerver123!
as the password. If everything has worked you will be logged into the CMS. If you get some strange re-direct, you can get to the CMS directly using this URL episerver/cms
Finishing The IIS Configuration
The final step is to finish the IIS configuration so we can access the site 24/7 via a web browser from our PC without having to reply on the terminal. The way in which you access a site in .NET core is different compared to ASP.NET Framework. In .NET Core, you need to point IIS to the published files rather than the webroot. To get this location, in your terminal type dotnet build
. This will give you the location of the publish directory:
Take this value and update the folder location within your IIS website:
With this done, when you type the hostname into a browser, e.g. http://MyHostname
, you should be able to access the site 😺
That's it. You now have a website up and ready 💥💥💥. You can now start building some epic and amazing things using Optimizely CMS 12. Happy Coding 🤘


title: What is the difference between a psychologist and a counselor

text:
Dallas Whole Life Counseling employs both licensed psychologists (LPs) and licensed professional counselors (LPCs). Both are trained to offer specialized counseling in a number of areas for individuals, couples, and families. While both professions are trained to deal with mental health issues, a clinical psychologist pursues a different academic path than a counselor.
Clinical psychologists receive a doctorate degree, which generally requires about six to seven years of education following a four-year bachelor’s undergraduate degree. They are designated as a “doctor,” and are typically trained in research and testing as well as offering therapy. Psychologists study behavior, cognitive and emotional processes, while evaluating, diagnosing, and treating various mental health issues and concerns.
Licensed Professional Counselors (or LPCs) receive a master’s degree, which generally requires three to four years of education following a four-year bachelor’s undergraduate degree. Unlike clinical psychologists, the training for these licensed mental health professionals focuses more specifically on counseling, rather than research and testing. Like psychologists, counselors also provide psychotherapy, as well as diagnose and treat a wide range of issues.
Neither psychologists nor counselors prescribe medication. However, all of our therapists at Dallas Whole Life Counseling are trained to closely coordinate treatment with specialized psychiatrists when appropriate, providing a comprehensive, multi-layered team approach.
The “Whole Life” Approach
In most cases, it is less important that you meet specifically with a psychologist versus a counselor. Instead, it’s more essential that you are matched with a therapist specializing in treating your specific issues and circumstances. This is why we offer a “whole life” approach to treatment, offering therapy and coaching customized to the individual needs and wants of our clients.


title: Trump admin kills free irs tax filing

text:
The Trump administration is reportedly ending the IRS’s Direct File program, a free tax filing service. This decision comes despite the program’s initial success and potential to simplify tax filing for millions.
Launched as a pilot in 2024, Direct File was available in 12 states and expanded to 25 in 2025. However, IRS staff were allegedly instructed in March to halt development for the 2026 tax season. Massive IRS staff cuts further complicate the program’s future.
The program faced opposition from Intuit, maker of TurboTax, which argued Direct File was an unnecessary use of taxpayer money. They have lobbied against the program.
Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized this move, stating it protects tax preparation companies from losing revenue. She emphasized that Americans deserve a free and easy way to file taxes.
While TurboTax offers free filing for simple returns, it has faced lawsuits regarding misleading advertising. In 2022, Intuit paid $141 million in restitution over these claims.
Direct File, though limited to simple returns, showed promise. In 2024, it processed returns for over 140,000 taxpayers. The IRS had aimed to expand the program to cover more complex tax situations.
House Republicans had previously urged President Trump to eliminate Direct File, calling it unauthorized and wasteful.
The Treasury Department estimated over 30 million taxpayers were eligible for Direct File this year. The termination of this service raises questions about the future of accessible tax filing options.
- Direct File Shutdown: Trump administration ends the IRS’s free tax filing service.
- Intuit’s Role: TurboTax maker lobbied against Direct File, citing unnecessary costs.
- Accessibility Concerns: Critics argue this move limits access to free and easy tax filing.
Related Terms: IRS, Direct File, TurboTax, Tax Filing, Free Tax Services, Intuit, Elizabeth Warren, Trump Administration


title: Byu philharmonic will premiere former faculty member s work

text:
Whether it's a professional orchestra or a student ensemble, new music usually meets with some stiff resistance whenever it's programmed.
But as BYU's Kory Katseanes pointed out recently in an interview with the Deseret News, university orchestras have an obligation to play contemporary works.
"Universities have a responsibility to do new music. It offers a great deal of value for young players and helps them, and audiences, to appreciate it."
And so Katseanes, who is the director of BYU's school of music and head of its orchestra department, didn't hesitate when he had the opportunity of programming a new work by David Sargent.
And while Katseanes knows students are quick to criticize something new, that didn't seem to be the case with the members of the BYU Philharmonic.
"They've withheld judgment and in typical Phiharmonic fashion launched themselves into it."
Sargent was a longtime member of the BYU faculty who recently retired.
"He told me he wanted to write a piece for me and the orchestra," Katseanes said. The 15-minute-long work will receive its premiere at the Philharmonic's first major concert of the season on Nov. 17 in de Jong Concert Hall on the BYU campus.
"It's a fast, big, bustling, aggressive piece with big gestures," Katseanes said, adding that it's not atonal but does employ contemporary idioms.
"It's very listenable and it's not in a vocabulary that people won't understand. It's a very ambitious piece and what strikes me most about it is its energy."
Finding a companion piece to the Sargent wasn't too difficult, Katseanes said. "We're doing Gustav Holst's 'Planets.' It's always fun to do and it's perfectly suited for this concert, and also for us."
"The Planets" requires an enormous ensemble, and Katseanes has that in the Philharmonic. "This is one time where size matters," he said. "You need a huge orchestra, and we're big. We're at about 110 players right now."
Joining them will be members of BYU's Women's Chorus for "Neptune." "The audience will get a thrill out of that," Katseanes promised.
Rounding out the program will be Claude Debussy's "Iberia," a work that isn't done all that often in concert. "It's a great piece and we're excited to play it." It's not an easy piece to do well, Katseanes said, but it's well worth the effort. "It's rhythmically demanding, like Bach, but it's such a great treat for everyone."
If you go ...
What: BYU Philharmonic, Kory Katseanes, conductor
Where: de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU
When: Nov. 17 , 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $10 reserved seating, $6 students
Details: 801-422-4322 or byuarts.com


text:
Personalised Wooden Hexagons – A Stylish and Simple Way to Elevate Your Walls
The perfect pop of colour or wood to compliment our range of map and photograph hexagons.
Minimalist, modern, and effortlessly chic—our personalised wooden hexagons bring warmth and style to your space. Choose from the natural beauty of cherry wood or add a pop of colour. Whether you're creating a sleek Scandi-inspired display or a bold geometric statement wall, these tiles fit right in.
Want a specific colour to match your décor? No problem! Just drop us an email after ordering, and we’ll do our best to make it happen.
Lightweight yet sturdy, these hexagons can be arranged in endless combinations to suit your style. Keep it monochrome, mix and match, or alternate plain and coloured tiles for a truly unique look.
Perfect for Mother’s Day, wedding anniversaries, milestone birthdays, or a unique housewarming present.
Build in more maps, photos, and block colours to create an excellent artwork installation. See our other products for details.
Crafted from sustainably sourced 4mm cherry veneer wood, each tile is either UV printed for a colourfast, wipeable finish that lasts a lifetime, or left plain.
No nails or frames required! You can mix and match multiple tiles to create an effortlessly stylish photo gallery wall. Use whichever commercially available wall adhesive works for your walls.
These wooden hexagon tiles measure approximately 172 x 150 x 4mm
"WAIT - I can see photos and map tiles too, where can I get those?"
Ah, good spot! Yes, we make those too and they have their own listings. Browse wooden wall art here.
the Betsy Benn team:
Here at Betsy Benn, we love turning your stories into artwork, stationery, and unusual gifts to share with family and friends. Based in Gloucestershire, our small team is passionate about good design, making things you won’t find elsewhere - oh, and cake.


title: The phoenix album

text:
“Of the vocal tracks, the album highlight ‘Tension Remains’ lives up to its title, owing as much to spiritual jazz as to the space opera of The Fifth Element, Pia Ercole’s rich, suspenseful melisma a perfect counterpoint to the slowly building rhythm and buzzing synths. Her soulful vocal also features on ‘It’s All About’, one of the more understated tracks, and the percussive workout of ‘Letters of the Past’.”
King Britt draws from The Fifth Element, Blade Runner and more on his first Hyperdub album.
Science fiction and electronic music have long been bedfellows, from Detroit techno deploying its mythological tropes as conduits for themes of racial oppression and civil rights, to more recent works by Kode9, u-Ziq and Kuedo. King Britt’s debut LP as Fhloston Paradigm fits rather elegantly into this model. In interview, he’s described The Phoenix, his debut album under this alias, itself a corruption of The Fifth Element’s Fhloston Paradise, as a “re-scoring” of soundtracks from such sci-fi classics as Blade Runner and The Fifth Element.
In fact, the most immediate contemporary touchstone for The Phoenix isn’t Kuedo, whose debt to Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack is equally hard to overstate, but Nicolas Jaar. Britt has a similar knack for folding disparate threads into his own design, here drawing on sci-fi film soundtracks, Afrofuturism, techno, ambient and soul. Like Space Is Only Noise, The Phoenix never quite settles on one style, but even as it takes in all manner of genres it rarely loses focus, thanks not only to its conceptual core but also to Britt’s command of melody and sequencing.
The album is split fairly evenly between vocal tracks and sprawling, slow-burning instrumentals. Clattering snares and a heavy bassline are ballast for the dazzling synth arcs of ‘Race to the Moon’, and when they lift the noodling they leave behind is cut off at just the right moment, cosmic without being indulgent. ‘Chasing Rainbows’ pivots on a dubby bassline, swooning synth chords and drum machine hits that slap hard, while ‘Never Forget’ is all broken rhythms paired with heady chords and vocal snippets plastered in echo.
The Phoenix’s dramatic apex, its nine-minute title track, is dub techno as seen through the prism of the album’s conceptual underpinning, its percussive skeleton overlaid with gurgling melodic passages, bleeps and echo, their push and pull the stuff of pure narrative drama. ‘Portal 4’ and ‘Portal 3’ are interludes that wouldn’t be out of place on a genuine soundtrack, perhaps to a fault; although they flesh The Phoenix out, the voiceovers feel a little too obvious and their emphasis on sound design threatens to dwarf the musicality of the rest of the album. The same can’t be said for the opener ‘Portal 1’, which successfully pairs thrumming rhythms with ominous melodic touches and potent low end.
Of the vocal tracks, the album highlight ‘Tension Remains’ lives up to its title, owing as much to spiritual jazz as to the space opera of The Fifth Element, Pia Ercole’s rich, suspenseful melisma a perfect counterpoint to the slowly building rhythm and buzzing synths. Her soulful vocal also features on ‘It’s All About’, one of the more understated tracks, and the percussive workout of ‘Letters of the Past’. Only on ‘Never Defeated’ does The Phoenix feel overloaded, Rachel Claudio’s breathy refrain threatening to dwarf the bassline and fizzing rhythms. In contrast, the closer ‘Light On Edge’ is more pared down, featuring Natasha Kmeto singing over a contemplative, swirling instrumental. The Phoenix’s title alone hints at its ambitiousness, but even given the sheer wealth of variety and detail Fhloston Paradigm crams in, it’s never lofty or inaccessible; instead, it both upholds an electronic music convention even as it carves its own singular niche.
23 Jun 2014


title: Choosing the right qualified intermediary for a 1031 exchange

text:
If you are planning on going through with a 1031 exchange you are going to need a qualified intermediary to help carry out your like-kind exchange. But what makes a qualified intermediary qualified?
The law is only specific in that it must be an unrelated third party. Someone that you have no ties to. This disqualifies anyone that you have a familial or business relationship with. Your realtor, hairdresser, and accountant cannot be your 1031 exchange accommodator. But just because someone is not disqualified from being your intermediary does not mean that they necessarily qualify. This is why it is important to vet intermediaries that you might be looking to hire. You should ensure that they have the proper experience and demonstrable results to show.
It is also vital that you find a qualified intermediary before you begin the exchange process. If you close the sale of your property without an intermediary in place, three things will prevent you from doing an exchange. First, the QI was not involved per the IRS code. Second, the exchange was not documented properly on the closing documents and statements. Third, you received the money. The IRS will not allow you to have control of your money when you are doing a 1031 exchange. Whether you have the actual money or whether the money is sitting in your attorney’s escrow account or your title company’s account, waiting for your direction, it isn’t allowed.
Experiences, references, and results are everything, investigate thoroughly to ensure that you get the best possible service from your QI.


title: Aixun t320 smart precision soldering station with t245 210 handle

text:
JCID Aixun T320 Smart Integrated Precision Soldering Station With T245 T210 Handle C210 C245 Soldering Iron Tips For Mobile Phone Tablet Electronic BGA Motherboard SMD Chip Welding Repair. JC-ID Aixun T320 is an intelligent safe stable precise soldering station.
JC-ID Aixun, integration, intelligence, networking, new ultimate/Technology Innovation Keep Improving.
Please note: T320 T210 set can't use T245 handle, and T320 T245 handle can't use T210 handle, they are not compatible.
2.4inch HD display screen
Rapid heating in 2S, no need to wait!
Adapt to 100-240VAC supply voltage input
Meet the standard requirements of different countries and regions, and can work stably in various environments
The device can be used and controlled through the T210 or T245 handle, making it more convenient to operate
Smart temp control, real-time curve display of temp and power, get the soldering status in real time!
High temp protection, short circuit protection, real time standby Prolong the service life of soldering tip effectivelv!
Connect the soldering station to AiXun platform
upgrade the software automatically giving you a more practical and satisfying experience!
Original interactive button-free operation Touch and play lnitiate soldering tip touch control technology, more convenient than wire control. No buttons required, only need touching to realize the interactive revolution!
How to use T320 touch-control soldering tip?
Touch the metal sensor twicewith tip to switch to memorychannel M1-M3
Quickly touch the metal sensor first and then touch it for more than 1 second with the tipthe temperature wil drop gradually
Touch the metal sensor with solderingtip for more than 1 second, thetemperature will increase
Quickly touch the metal sensor withthe tip at first to stop heating, andthen touch again to start heating.


title: Upgrading system preference pane

text:
The System Preferences application provides a convenient way to install a preference pane. Double-clicking the preference pane will prompt the user if he wants to install it for the current user only or for all users of the computer. Then System Preferences will copy the preference pane to ~/Library/PreferencePanes or /Library/PreferencePanes according to what was chosen asking for administrator password if necessary. Finally the preference pane will be loaded and presented to the user.
Now, let's see what happens when a preference pane is upgraded. Again, System Preferences is smart: it is able to detect if an older version of the same preference pane is installed and proposes to replace it . Everything seems alright, but it is actually not! Things are more complicated if the preference pane to upgrade has already been loaded. That is, if the user already clicked the preference pane.
Indeed, preference panes are just a special kind of bundle which is loaded into System Preferences with the -(BOOL)[NSBundle load] method (cf. -(BOOL)[NSPrefPaneBundle instantiatePrefPaneObject] method of the PreferencePanes framework). The problem is that on Tiger, a NSBundle can not be unloaded. So when upgrading an opened preference pane, the old code is not unloaded and as a consequence the new code is not loaded. This is because System Preferences calls the -(BOOL)[NSBundle load] method which returns YES, meaning that the bundle was successfully loaded or that the code has already been loaded. In the case of an already opened preference pane, that's how the result of the load method should have been interpreted. Unfortunately, it is interpreted as if the bundle was successfully loaded and System Preferences thinks it has loaded the new bundle, but it has not.
This is very problematic because at this point, the resources (nib files, pictures etc.) of the new bundle have already been copied. So we have the old code which is accessing the new resources. I let you imagine the numerous problems this situation can cause. At best, exceptions will raise and your preference pane will be half working. At worst, your preference pane will simply crash.
So, how do we fix this problem?
First, the preference pane must detect itself when it's upgrading over an older already loaded version as System Preferences does not detect it . This must be done as early as possible, i.e. at the very beginning of the - (id)initWithBundle:(NSBundle *) bundle method. It is possible to detect this situation with the help of the version of your NSPreferencePane subclass. See my detection snippet to understand how detection works.
Once this is detected, we must properly reload the new preference pane. This must be achieved by quitting System Preferences and relaunching System Preferences. This is the not that elegant solution to unload the old preference pane. The elegant solution would be to unload the bundle. This is left as an exercise to the Apple engineers for a future version of System Preferences.
Relaunching System Preferences and selecting the preference pane is quite tricky. A second executable must be responsible for relaunching the System Preferences application. Also, it is nicer for the user if the preference pane he just upgraded is automatically selected. Automatic selection of the pref pane is achieved through Apple Script. Please refer to my reload snippet for implementation details. Note that once you have compiled the reload executable, you have to place it inside the resources directory of your preference pane. Do not place it inside the executable directory (Contents/MacOS) if you do not want to see the reload application popping up in the Dock.
With this reload code in place, if the user ever happens to upgrade a preference pane while the older one was loaded, he will experience a System Preferences flicker as it will quit and reopen right away. While this might be surprising to him, this is still better than a half working preference pane or a crash.
If anything is unclear, just say it so in the comments and I will try to elaborate. If everything is clear, just pick up my code snippets and implement them in your preference pane as soon as possible ;-)
1. System Preferences uses the CFBundleGetVersionNumber function to retrieve the version numbers of the new and old bundles as an UInt32 in order to compare them. The documentation says If the bundle’s version number is a number, it is interpreted as the unsigned long integer format defined by the vers resource on Mac OS 9. What every developer understands is that if your Info.plist CFBundleVersion key represents a number (e.g. "519"), the value returned by CFBundleGetVersionNumber will be 519. This is not what actually happens. If you want CFBundleGetVersionNumber to return 519, you have to add an undocumented key in your Info.plist file: CFBundleNumericVersion. Make sure you define it as <integer>519</integer> and not <string>519</string>.↩
2. Note that on Leopard, this situation is actually detected and a dialog is presented to the user telling he must quit System Preferences and then open it again. Unfortunately, no automatic action is taken to circumvent this annoying behavior. System Preferences could restart itself or unload the bundle (this is possible since Leopard) but as of Mac OS X 10.5.2, none of this action is performed.↩