Rails for .NET Web Developers

The impact of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels has been recognized by doctors and the medical community for at least the past 25 years. After a high-glycemic load meal, blood glucose levels increase more steeply, and the demand for insulin will rise greatly. In other words, a high carbohydrate meal puts stress on pancreatic function and increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Fundamentally, there is an inherent relationship between the glycemic index and diabetes.

Women at great risk of correlation between glycemic index and diabetes

According to the Nurses Health Study (NHS), women have a greater correlation between GI and diabetes. Women with the highest glycemic load diets were 37% more likely to develop type 2 Diabetes Mellitus over the next six years than women with low GI load diets. (Source: Oregon State University, Micronutrient Information Center).

In addition to being at risk for Type 2 Diabetes, increased blood glucose and insulin concentrations, diets with high glycemic loads are known to cause elevated triglyceride concentrations and decreased HDL cholesterol levels. As a result of the Nurses Health Study and other major studies over the years, the first line of diabetes control, together with medication, has been to adjust and lower glycemic loads. These efforts combat the relationship between a high GI and diabetes.

Understanding the fundamentals between glycemic index and diabetes

The glycemic index, or GI, is a food ranking system that gives a lower number to foods that result in lower and more gradual blood glucose increases, and a higher number to foods that raise blood glucose levels more drastically and more quickly. In between these numbers, is the medium GI. Foods such as most high fiber vegetables and oats have a low glycemic index, while white bread, certain fruits and potatoes have a high GI. Keep in mind that high glycemic index and diabetes have a detrimental relationship on your health.

In the treatment of diabetes, one must pay attention to both glycemic index and glycemic load. Due to the relationship between the GI and diabetes, there are foods that increase the probability of the onset of diabetes.

While a particular food has a ranking within the glycemic index, the total glycemic load will depend on the serving size, together with the amount of carbohydrate in that serving. For example, dried lentils that are boiled have a glycemic index of 29, about mid-way into the low GI, which goes up to a value of 55. If you consume just one cup of lentils, the carbohydrate per serving will be 18 grams. The total glycemic load per serving, however, is actually 5. In other words, the actual effect of eating a small portion of boiled lentils produces a lower glycemic load than one would think. Therefore, glycemic index and diabetes considerations should include both the quality of the food (glycemic index) and quantity of the carbohydrate contained in the food. (Source: Oregon State University / Micronutrient Information Center).

The health benefits between low glycemic index and diabetes

The physiological effects of high glycemic index foods have been shown to rapidly increase blood glucose levels. When an individual consistently eats high GI foods, it results in rapid increases in blood sugar, prompting high insulin levels. Over the next few hours after a high glycemic load meal, insulin levels are high, resulting in a sharp drop in glucose levels. This rapid rise and fall of blood sugar is what puts the strain on the pancreas and can ultimately lead to diabetes. Consuming a low GI diet results in more gradual and tepid rises in blood sugar, and therefore puts less demand on the pancreas to release a large amount of insulin. Subsequently, in terms of the glycemic index and diabetes, eating a low GI diet reduces your risk of diabetes.

Low glycemic index diets have been shown to improve overall blood sugar control in people with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. In an article released by Oregon State University, an analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials found that low glycemic index diets improved both short-term and long-term blood glucose levels. For those with Type 1 diabetes, where serious hypoglycemia can occur if insulin levels are too high, there were significantly fewer instances of hypoglycemia for those that consumed a low GI diet.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that individuals with diabetes reduce their calorie intake, maintain a healthy weight, and count the carbohydrates they consume. A low GI diet, taking into account food portions that add up to total glycemic load, is a way to attain effective control of blood sugar, along with weight loss. Subsequently, a low glycemic index diet and diabetes have a healthy relationship.

Original Article :http://www.ssware.com/articles/folderbrowserdialog-unmasked-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-folder-browser-component-from-dotnet-framework.htm

Introduction

The FolderBrowserDialog, available as part of the .Net framework, provides a folder browser component for your C# and VB.Net applications. The UI consists of a modal dialog which contains a tree control displaying all the files and folders on the system. The user can then browse and select a folder from the tree. The full path of the selected folder is then returned.

Basic Usage

To display a folder explorer UI to the user, a FolderBrowserDialog instance is created and the ShowDialog method is called. This shows the modal dialog containing the folder browser control (tree) and an OK and Cancel button. If the user selects a folder and clicks the OK button, the ShowDialog method returns DialogResult.OK and the SelectedPath property contains the full path of the selected folder. If the user clicks the Cancel button, the ShowDialog method returns DialogResult.Cancel.

Advanced Usage

The FolderBrowserDialog has some additional features such as limiting the view of the file system that is displayed to the user, pre-selecting a folder when the dialog is first displayed and displaying a button to allow the user to create a new folder.

The RootFolder property can be set to the full path of the folder which is to be displayed as the root of the tree control of the folder browser component. For example, if this property is set to Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal, only folders from the ‘My Documents’ are displayed in the tree, so the user can only select ‘My Documents’ or its sub-folders.

Prior to displaying the folder browser control, the SelectedPath property can be set to the full path of a folder causing that folder to be pre-selected in the folder browser tree. For example, when this property is set to "c:", the node corresponding to the c: drive is pre-selected in the tree when the dialog is first displayed.

If the ShowNewFolderButton property is set to true, then, in addition to the folder browser tree control, and the OK and Cancel buttons, the folder browser dialog also displays an additional ‘New Folder’ button which when clicked, creates a new folder under the currently selected folder.

Limitations

While the folder browser component is a handy way to allow the users to browse and select folders, it suffers from many limitations, some of them preventing the component from being of practical use in applications.

Modal Functionality

The most visible drawback of the folder browser component is that it displays its UI in the form of a modal dialog. When shown, it blocks the rest of the application until the user has chosen a folder. As long as the dialog is displayed, no input (keyboard or mouse click) can occur except within the dialog box. The user must click the OK or Cancel button before input to the calling program can occur.

This is a very annoying and limiting feature of the FolderBrowserDialog. Users are very likely to be irritated and annoyed when they have to interact with a modal dialog every time they have to explore and select a folder. A non-modal UI control which can be put inside of one of the applications’s own forms or dialogs is a much more user-friendly way of displaying the same UI.

No Virtual (Non-file system) folders

The FolderBrowserDialog does not allow the user to select virtual (Non-file system) folders such as the Control Panel or My Computer. It only allows the user to select a file system path such as "c:" or "c:windows".

No Files

The component does not allow the user to select files. This is a major drawback since there are many circumstances where the user may need to select a file while still using the tree UI to browse to that file.

Limited Choice of RootFolder

The root folder of the folder browser control can be only set to one of the ’special folders’ defined by Windows such as the ‘My Documents’ or ‘My Computer’. This is a major limitation since this means you cannot set the root folder to a path such as the "d:" drive.

No Check Boxes

The folder explorer tree in the FolderBrowserDialog cannot show check boxes next to nodes. Ability to show multi-state check boxes can be a very handle feature for such a control.

No Filtering

The FolderBrowserDialog has no support for filtering. For example, it is not possible to display only network folders or only shared folders or only folders starting with the string "Documents" or files having a particular extension.

No Custom Controls

When using the FolderBrowserDialog, you are only limited to the actual folder explorer tree control, the OK, Cancel and New Folder buttons and the description label. It is not possible to add custom controls to the dialog box. This can be useful in many circumstances such as when you want to show a thumbnail/preview of the selected file/folder or any kind of additional information.

No Appearance Control

The appearance of the FolderBrowserDialog and its constituent controls cannot be changed. Neither can attributes of individual folders show in the folder explorer control be changed. For example, it is not possible to change the background color of the tree control or to set the font and color of individual nodes/folders in the tree.

No Custom items

The FolderBrowserDialog cannot display external/custom items in the folder explorer tree. For example, it may be necessary to display items from an FTP location in addition to the file system items. This is not possible with the FolderBrowserDialog.

No Lockdown

The FolderBrowserDialog allows unhindered operations on folders. The user can rename folders, do drag-drop operations and display the context menu and invoke various operations. In many cases, it may be necessary to limit or altogether prevent such potentially dangerous and irreversible operations, however the FolderBrowserDialog provides no way of doing that.

Beyond The FolderBrowserDialog : The FolderView Control

The FolderView Control brings a Windows Explorer like folder browser component to your applications complete with AutoUpdate, dragdrop, icons, contextmenus, Non-file system items, default key-handling, infotips and renaming. It features powerful behavior control and customization functionality that takes it miles ahead of Windows Explorer by adding features like filtering, checkboxes, custom items, multiple root nodes, dragdrop control and customization of default contextmenus, displaynames, icons and infotips.

The FolderView control is a UI control which can be dropped right inside your own forms and dialogs. A non-modal file & folder browsing/selection experience right inside your own dialogs and forms is something that users will appreciate and find intuitive and simple.

Additionally, FolderView overcomes all the limitations of the FolderBrowserDialog and provides far greater and advanced features and functionality than the FolderBrowserDialog. The following table is a quick comparison of the FolderView Control with the FolderBrowserDialog.

Drop-In Windows Explorer like folder browser functionality.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : Modal UI. The component cannot be dropped in your own form.



Complete Windows Explorer functionality include a file/folder browsing listview (similar to Windows Explorer’s right-side) and a drive selection control (similar to Windows Explorer’s address bar)

FolderView Control : Yes. As part of
Shell MegaPack

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Ability to select virtual (Non-file system) folders

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Ability to specify any and all folders as root.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Ability to show files as well as folders.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Multi-state check boxes

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Filtering capabilities

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Custom controls

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Appearance Control

FolderView Control : Colors and appearance of the control as a whole and of individual folders/files can be changed.

FolderBrowserDialog : No.

Custom Items

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Prevent renaming, drag-drop, context menus

FolderView Control : Yes. For all folders or on a per-folder basis.

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Multiple root folders

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Change default display names, icons, overlay icons, infotip, etc

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Simply and easy to use API

FolderView Control : Yes

Clumsy, inflexible API

Access complete information of a file/folder including its displayname, fullpath, checkstate, selection state and attributes like whether it is a shortcut, shared, hidden, readonly, file and folder.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Prevent display of contextmenus for all folders using a simple property or on a per-folder basis using an event.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Prevent dragdrop for all folders using a simple property or on a per-folder basis using an event.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Allow/disallow renaming for all folders using a simple property or on a per-folder basis using an event.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Allow/disallow selection for all folders using a simple property or on a per-folder basis using an event.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Allow/disallow expanding/collapsing on a per-folder basis using an event.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Change default drag actions during dragdrop (e.g. from Copy To Move)

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Control checking/unchecking on a per-folder basis.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Prevent execution of default shell commands ( e.g. Open, Cut, Properties, etc. in response to keystrokes or through the context menu) for all folders using a simple property or on a per-folder basis using an event.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Show/hide hidden folders using a simple property.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Show/hide virtual folders ( e.g. Control Panel ) using a simple property.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Enumerate all folders shown in FolderView.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Enumerate all folders according to folder hierarchy structure.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Execute shell commands ( e.g. Cut, Delete, etc ) on folders.

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No

Associate developer defined data with each folder

FolderView Control : Yes

FolderBrowserDialog : No



The FolderView control (and Shell MegaPack ) is available in two editions :

.Net Edition : For use in .Net development using Windows Forms, WPF and ASP.Net

ActiveX Edition : For use in applications developed using Visual C++/MFC/ATL, Visual Basic 6, VBA (Access, Word, Excel, AutoCAD,etc), Borland Delphi and Borland Builder, and HTML/ASP pages.

If you decide to spend some time fishing for Pike (Esox Lucius) it’s important to get the fundamentals right. Getting the preparation right means you’re more likely to catch the fish, and once you’ve landed it, cause the minimum amount of distress to the fish. Pike are not as robust as their reputation would suggest and they can easily be damaged when handled by humans, so extreme care by you, the angler, is essential.

You do need some specialized tackle, but most of the other equipment you might already have in your existing tackle.

Wire Traces and Main Line

Without a wire trace, it’s highly likely, the pike will succeed in biting through your line – I’m sure you’ve seen the awesome teeth on one of these fish in magazines and books already. There’s no need to go below a breaking strain of 30lb for your trace, with the advent of modern, ultra-thin wires.

For the safety of the pike, should it swallow your bait a little too deeply, your trace should be at least 15 inches (40cm) in length whether you are bait or lure fishing. For the sake of the fish, you want to remove the hook quickly, cleanly and easily with the minimum of distress for the pike itself.

I’ve found that on balance, it’s better to pick a stronger line and trace over something lighter, if you’re going to successfully land a pike. My favourite is a 15lb main line.

Cheap swivels can break and a wire loop might cut through your line, so always use traces that have a good quality swivel for your line to be tied to.

These days most tackle shops stock ready-made reliable traces constructed with top quality components that have been designed by experienced pike anglers, though there is information on the internet about how to make your own, if you prefer. .

Double or Treble Hooks

As for hooks, I used double or treble hooks, and I make sure I file off or crimp down the barb so I can remove the hook speedily and without a lot of fuss. Pike can swallow the hook a long way down into their gullet, so I tend to act as soon as I get a bite, rather than let the hook get too far in, to reduce the distress for the fish. In some instances, a hook that is ingested too far can be fatal for the pike.

Pike Rods

Pike rods usually have a test curve of 2.5lb or more for bait fishing, and for lure fishing choose one designed to cast 56g (2oz) or so.

Floats/Bite Indicators and Reels

Floats and/or bite indicators will also be needed. A reliable reel is a must, as these fish are very powerful and can get very big. (Pike can grow to a maximum recorded length of6ft (1.83metres), reaching a maximum recorded weight of 77lb (35kilograms.)

Landing Nets and Slings

You’ll need a large landing net with a diameter of 30 inches if it’s round or 38 inch arms if it is triangular. A sufficiently large weigh sling and unhooking mat, or a sling/mat combo, completes the basics. You can now land a pike with the minimum of discomfort for the pike

Pliers for Unhooking

For unhooking pike you will need one pair (better still two pairs) of strong, long-handled forceps.

Baits for Pike Fishing

Effective methods for catching this hard-fighting fish include dead baits, live baits and lure fishing. The color of lure can be influenced by water clarity and weather conditions.

Live Baits

Whilst a live fish is the natural food of pike you might think it makes sense that it will also make a good bait, but some fisheries, in order to preserve their fish stocks,don’t allow live baiting. Always check. Something else to remember is that you can only use live bait that was caught in the water you are fishing for pike, to obey environmental laws designed to protect the ecosystem.

Dead Baits

Pike sometimes show a preference for particular dead baits so it pays to take a selection of sea and freshwater fish with you. Freshwater fish can be used as bait, either frozen or caught fresh, and sea fish also attract pike. Both the head and tail ends used of large dead baits can be used if you simply cut it in two.

Happy Fishing,

John