Lorenzo Lotto was an Italian painter and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other North Italian cities. He painted altarpieces, religious subjects and portraits, he was active during the High Renaissance and the first half of the Mannerist period, but his work maintained a similar High Renaissance style throughout his career, although his nervous and eccentric posings and distortions represented a transitional stage to the Florentine and Roman Mannerists. During his lifetime Lotto was a well-respected painter and popular in Northern Italy, he was not as regarded in Venice as in the other towns where he worked, for he had a stylistic individuality an idiosyncratic style, after his death, he became neglected and almost forgotten. This oblivion could be attributed to the fact that his works now remain in lesser known churches or in provincial museums. Born in Venice, he worked in Treviso. Little is known of his training; as a Venetian he was influenced by Giovanni Bellini as he had a good knowledge of contemporary Venetian painting.

Though Bellini was doubtless not his teacher, the influence is clear in his early painting Virgin and Child with St. Jerome. However, in his portraits and in his early painting Allegory of Virtue and Vice, he shows the influence of Giorgione's Naturalism; as he grew older his style changed evolving, from a detached Giorgionesque classicism, to a more vibrant dramatic setpiece, more reminiscent of his contemporary from Parma, Correggio. Lotto soon left Venice, because there the competition for a young painter would have been too great, with established names such as Giorgione, Palma the Elder and with Titian. Giorgio Vasari mentions in the third part of his book Vite that Lotto was a friend of Palma the Elder. In Treviso, a prospering town within the domain of the republic of Venice, he came under the patronage of bishop Bernardo de' Rossi; the mentioned painting Allegory of Virtue and Vice was intended as an allegorical cover of his portrait of the bishop, who had survived an assassination attempt.

The painting St. Jerome in the Desert shows his youthful inexperience as a draughtsman, however the dramatic rocky landscape is accentuated by the red garment of the saint, while at the same time giving an early impression of his skill as a miniaturist, he painted his first altarpieces for the parish church San Cristina al Tiverone and the baptistery of the Cathedral of Asolo, both still on display in those churches. In 1508 he began the Recanati Polyptych altarpiece for the church of San Domenico, his portrait Young Man against a White Curtain in the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Adoration of the Child in the National Museum in Kraków with Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus portraited as Saint Catherine, are paintings from this period. As he became a respected painter, he came to the attention of Bramante, the papal architect, passing through Loreto. Lotto was invited to Rome to decorate the papal apartments, but nothing survives of this work, as it was destroyed a few years later; this was because he had imitated the style of Raphael, a rising star in the Papal court.

In 1511 he was at work for the confraternity of the Buon Gesù in Jesi, painting an Entombment. His work in Bergamo, the westernmost town of the Venetian republic, was to prove his best and most productive artistic period, when he received many commissions from wealthy merchants, well educated professionals and local aristocrats, he had become a rich colourist and an experienced draughtsman, who developed the concept of the psychological portrait that revealed the thoughts and emotions of his subjects. In this he was continuing the tradition begun by Antonello da Messina and a good example would be his Portrait of a Young Man with a Book, he began 1513 with a monumental altarpiece: the "Martinengo Altarpiece" in the Dominican church of the Santi Bartolomeo e Stefano in Bergamo. This altarpiece was commissioned by Count Alessandro Martinengo-Colleoni, grandson of the famous condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni, which would be finished in 1516 and shows us the influence of Bramante and Giorgione, his next assignment was the decoration of the churches of S Bernardino and of Sant'Alessandro in Colonna, with frescoes and distemper paintings.

He would finish five more altarpieces between 1521 and 1523. In 1523 he went for a brief stay in the Marches, obtaining there several commissions for altarpieces, which he would paint during his stay in Venice, his next works are wall paintings: in 1524 he painted a series of frescoes with the lives of saints in the Suardi chapel in Trescore. In the details he de

Samu Manoa is an American rugby union player who plays for the Seattle Seawolves. Manoa was described in 2014 by ESPNscrum as "perhaps the finest No. 8 playing the game in the northern hemisphere." He retired from international rugby in 2019 with 22 caps. Manoa was born in California, he started playing rugby at 13 years old with his family. His coaches through his early years were his uncle, Va'inga Manoa and Hu'ufifale. Manoa played for San Francisco Golden Gate RFC from 2003-2011, he helped SFGG win the U. S. Rugby Super League in 2009 and 2011 crossing four times in the process. In his final game for the Golden Gate, Manoa again showed his nose for the tryline, opening the scoring as his side claimed the title once more. San Francisco Golden Gate were national runners up in 2010. In April 2011 Manoa signed for English Premiership side Northampton Saints for the 2011–12 season. Northampton were impressed with his ball skills and physicality. In autumn 2011 Manoa hit the ground running for the Saints with a series of powerful performances in the early rounds of Aviva Premiership Rugby and worked himself into Northampton's starting rotation.

A series of outstanding performances earned him man of the match awards in wins over Castres and Harlequins, the big second row fast became an integral part of the Saints squad. Over the course of the 2011-12 season, Manoa played in 18 Premiership games for the Saints, with 14 starts. Manoa was named by ESPN to the 2011-12 Premiership "Dream Team."On February 15, 2012 Manoa signed a three-year contract extension with Northampton Saints. He was honoured with the Northampton Saints Supporters' Player of the Year for the 2012-13 Premiership season. During the 2013-14 season Manoa replicated his success and subsequently was short-listed for the RPA Player's Player of the Year award and the Premiership Player of the Year. Furthermore, for the second year in succession Manoa was voted the Saints Supporters' Player of the Season. In 2014 Manoa started, he achieved his first English Premiership hat trick on October 11, 2014 as Northampton dominated Sale Sharks 43-10. Just two months he achieved another hat trick in a substitute appearance in which Saints drubbed Benetton Treviso 67-0 in the European Rugby Champions Cup.

On the back of several strong performances in the Premiership and Champions Cup, Manoa won the Aviva Premiership Player of the Month for December 2014. On December 21, 2014, Toulon owner, Mourad Boudjellal confirmed that Manoa signed with Toulon on a four-year contract, the first type of contract to be offered by the club. One week after making his debut for Toloun, Manoa scored his first try for the club in their 52-8 win over Montpellier in November 2015. Manoa played six matches with the U. S. Select XV and the USA A sides from 2009 to 2010, including playing in the Americas Rugby Championship, he was called up to the U. S. national team for the 2010 end of year tests. He earned his US international debut with a start against Georgia in November 2010, started matches against Scotland A and Saracens, his 2011 contract with Northampton meant that he did not play for the US in the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Manoa retired from international rugby prior to the 2019 World Cup with intention of continuing his club career playing for the Seattle Seawolves.

On 1 June 2013 Manoa gained his first cap for the Barbarians playing against the Lions in Hong Kong. As of match played 19 October 2016. Manoa is married to Mary-Lorraine Masi'ata Lavaka-Manoa, they have five children. Samu Manoa's full name is Samuela Va'inga Manoa, he is of Tongan descent, is the eldest son of Va`inga-`i-Moana Manoa and Patricia Dixon Mataele. Manoa's father was a star athlete at Santa Ana High School. Manoa's paternal grandfather and namesake, Samuela Mafana Ikani Manoa, was a star rugby player from the village of Nukunuku in Tonga, his paternal grandmother, Kalolaine Tupou Veiongo Manoa reared Manoa and took him as a toddler to Tonga, so his mother could continue with school. Manoa's father remarried, his stepmother, Ialaloa Simulata Manoa of Vava`u, took Manoa in as her own. Manoa has two siblings on his father's side, a brother Wesley, a sister, Lilio Daphne. Manoa's grandfather captained the South Seas Islanders during the 60s, his father was an international. Manoa has nine siblings on his mother's side: three sisters.

One is Luke O' Tutulupeatau Kaumatule, a football star at Punahou School, now attending Stanford University on a football scholarship. Another is Canton Kaumatule a football star at Punahou School, now attending the University of Oregon on a football scholarship. Two of his cousins have found success in the public eye: Dinah Jane from the girl group Fifth Harmony and Jabari Parker who plays in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks, his uncle Sione Havea Vailahi is a professional wrestler known as The Barbarian, tag team Powers of Pain. USA Rugby Profile at the Wayback Machine Samu Manoa at ESPNscrum Archived 2011-12-13 at the Wayback Machine

The dexamethasone suppression test is used to assess adrenal gland function by measuring how cortisol levels change in response to an injection of dexamethasone. It is used to diagnose Cushing's syndrome; the DST was used for diagnosing depression, but by 1988 it was considered to be "at best limited in its clinical ability" for this purpose. Dexamethasone is an exogenous steroid that provides negative feedback to the pituitary gland to suppress the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone. Dexamethasone binds to glucocorticoid receptors in the anterior pituitary gland, which lie outside the blood-brain barrier, resulting in regulatory modulation. Low-dose and high-dose variations of the test exist; the test is given at low and high doses of dexamethasone, the levels of cortisol are measured to obtain the results. A low dose of dexamethasone suppresses cortisol in individuals with no pathology in endogenous cortisol production. A high dose of dexamethasone exerts negative feedback on pituitary neoplastic ACTH-producing cells, but not on ectopic ACTH-producing cells or adrenal adenoma.

A normal result is a decrease in cortisol levels upon administration of low-dose dexamethasone. Results indicative of Cushing's disease involve no change in cortisol on low-dose dexamethasone, but inhibition of cortisol on high-dose dexamethasone. If the cortisol levels are unchanged by low- and high-dose dexamethasone other causes of Cushing's syndrome must be considered with further work-up necessary. After the high-dose dexamethasone, it may be possible to make further interpretations. †ACTH as measured prior to dosing of dexamethasoneEquivocal results should be followed by a corticotropin-releasing hormone stimulation test, with inferior petrosal sinus sampling. Theodore C. Friedman, M. D. Ph. D. Professor of Medicine-UCLA Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine Charles R. Drew University. Http://www.goodhormonehealth.com/talks/cushings-MAGIC-13.ppt