US gold futures were up 0.1 per cent at $1,728.10.

The tender was floated by BSNL in March under the new management for setting up 4G network. This was the first tender issued by the telecom PSU after the government announced Rs 68,751 crore relief package for BSNL and MTNL in October 2019.

This week, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice held a hearing on juvenile justice over three days via teleconference. Each teleconference featured expert witnesses who provided testimony and, subsequently, answered questions from the Commissioners.

A Miami, Florida, business owner was sentenced to 24 months in prison today for failing to pay over employment taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a precedential opinion on Friday, April 24, 2020, affirming a district court decision that a transaction designed to generate massive foreign tax credits (referred to as the STARS tax shelter) lacked economic substance and business purpose and was subject to the accuracy-related penalty for negligence, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

On April 24, 2020, a federal appellate court upheld an order enforcing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) summons directed to the Taylor Lohmeyer Law Firm PLLC, the Department of Justice announced. The summons directed the law firm to provide information about clients who used the law firm’s services to create and maintain foreign bank accounts and entities. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the trial court’s enforcement of the summons and rejected the law firm’s “blanket” claim that all responsive materials were protected by the attorney-client privilege. It explained that revealing the fact that the clients participated in specific types of transactions would not necessarily reveal any confidential communication of legal advice protected by the attorney-client privilege.

Casey O'Brien captured national attention this past season, featured on ESPN College GameDay for his years-long battle with osteosarcoma.

The National Park Service (NPS) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will hold a meeting on Tuesday, July 28 to update an advisory panel on the agencies’ efforts to restore natural quiet in Grand Canyon National Park. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/national-park-service-and-federal-aviation-administration-to-hold-meeting-on-grand-canyon-overflights.htm

Under clear blue skies the National Park Service and Havasupai tribal members held a ribbon cutting ceremony today for newly constructed housing in Supai Camp located within Grand Canyon National Park. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/5aug10-2_news.htm

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/news-5may2011.htm

Firefighters were successful today in holding the Galahad Fire to the west of the W-4 Road, even though they were faced with higher temperatures, lower relative humidity and gusty winds. Yesterday, these same conditions caused three spot fires across the W-4 road to the east, but firefighters were able to quickly contain them. The fire is estimated at 1,975 acres https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/firefighters-hold-the-line-on-the-galahad-fire.htm

The National Park Service (NPS) and its partners invite the public to a re-dedication ceremony at the Desert View Watchtower on Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 10:30 am. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/desert-view-ceremony.htm

Yesterday, crews continued to patrol and hold the northern boundary and improve line. Firefighters on the southern boundary lit debris piles constructed in the early phases of line preparation. This tactic deprives the fire of excess fuel as it spreads to the west. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/ikes-fire-holding-well-within-perimeter.htm

Over the past two days, firefighters made progress with firing operations along Forest Road 223. This tactic is conducted to strengthen and improve the northern boundary of the planning area. The North Rim Village and businesses are open. However, road and trail closures remain in effect for the Ikes Fire planning area for Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/ikes-fire-holding-after-tested-by-winds-20190823.htm

AMP has been forced to defend its plans for executive pay after frustrated shareholders moved to block the company’s 2019 renumeration report. The Finance Giant’s report has been voted down by a 67 percent majority at the company’s annual general meeting. The report stated the AMP’s Chief executive officer had been paid approximately four million dollars in 2019, despite the bank recording a four year net loss of 2.5 billion dollars in February.

The HCR (Harvest Cost-Revenue) Estimator is engineering and financial analysis software used to evaluate stand-level financial thresholds for harvesting smalldiameter ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) in the Southwest United States. The Windows-based program helps contractors and planners to identify costs associated with tree selection, residual handling, transportation of raw materials, and equipment used. Costs are compared against total financial return for regionally based market opportunities to arrive at potential net profit. Information is used to identify per-acre cost thresholds, for contract appraisal, and for prioritizing project planning for wildfire fuel reduction treatments and forest restoration efforts.

Premier League clubs will also hold a videoconference on Monday to discuss Project Restart

iHEARTMEDIA's Board of Directors has approved its own poison-pill provision in the form of a "short-term stockholder rights plan" that would deter a third party from taking … more

NIELSEN HOLDINGS has filed an initial Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION in connection with the Company's proposed separation of the NIELSEN … more

Iowa State University graduates who celebrated commencement Friday saw lots of caps and gowns, red-and-gold confetti and arenas packed with friends and family. But none of those images were from...

DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will not be holding a news briefing Friday on the coronavirus outbreak in Iowa due to scheduling conflicts created by Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Iowa, according to the governor’s office.

The vice president was slated to travel to Des Moines Friday morning with plans to participate in a discussion with faith leaders about how they are using federal and state guidelines to open their houses of worship in a safe and responsible manner.

Also, Friday afternoon the vice president was scheduled to visit Hy-Vee headquarters in West Des Moines for a roundtable discussion with agriculture and food supply leaders to discuss steps being taken to ensure the food supply remains secure. Pence will return to Washington, D.C., later Friday evening.

Along with the governor, Iowa’s Republican U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley are slated to join Pence at Friday’s events in Iowa.

According to the governor’s staff, Reynolds plans to resume her regular schedule of 11 a.m. press conferences next week.

Iowa State University graduates who celebrated commencement Friday saw lots of caps and gowns, red-and-gold confetti and arenas packed with friends and family.

But none of those images were from this year — which now is defined by the novel coronavirus that has forced education online and put an end to large gatherings like graduation ceremonies.

Appearing in front of a red ISU screen Friday, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Daniel J. Robison addressed graduates like he usually would at commencement — but this time in a recorded message acknowledging the unprecedented circumstances keeping them apart.

“This year, because of the COVID crisis, we are unfortunately not all together for this happy occasion,” he said, pushing forward in a motivational tone by quoting famed ISU alumnus George Washington Carver.

“When you can do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world,” Robison said, citing Carver.

About 12,000 graduates across Iowa’s public universities this month are doing exactly that — capping their collegiate careers with never-before-attempted online-only commencement ceremonies, with each campus and their respective colleges attempting a variety of virtual celebration methods.

ISU and the University of Iowa are attempting some form of socially-distanced livestreamed convocation with countdown clocks and virtual confetti. All three campuses including the University of Northern Iowa have posted online recorded messages, videos and slides acknowledging individual graduates.

Some slides include photos, thank-yous, quotes and student plans for after graduation.

UNI, which didn’t try any form of a live virtual ceremony, instead created a graduation website that went live Thursday. That site hosts an array of recorded video messages — including one from UNI President Mark Nook who, standing alone behind a podium on campus clad in traditional academic regalia, recognized his campus’ 1,500-some spring graduates and their unusual challenges.

“We know the loss you feel in not being able to be on campus to celebrate this time with your friends, faculty and staff,” Nook said. “To walk around campus in your robe and to take those pictures with friends and family members … The loss is felt by many of us as well.”

He reminded those listening that this spring’s UNI graduates — like those at the UI and ISU — can participate in an upcoming in-person commencement ceremony.

And although students were allowed to return caps and gowns they ordered for their canceled walks across the stage, some kept them as keepsakes. The campuses offered other tokens of remembrance as well, including “CYlebration” gift packages ISU sent to graduates in April stuffed with a souvenir tassel, diploma cover, and streamer tube — to make up for the confetti that won’t be falling on graduation caps from the Hilton Coliseum rafters.

In addition to the recorded messages from 17 UI leaders — including President Bruce Harreld — the campus solicited parent messages, which will be included in the live virtual ceremonies.

To date, about 3,100 of the more than 5,400 UI graduates have RSVP’d to participate in the ceremony, which spokeswoman Anne Bassett said is a required affirmation from the students to have their names read.

“Students do not have to sign up to watch,” she said. “So there’s no way at this time to predict how many will do so.”

Despite the historic nature of the first online-only commencement ceremonies — forever bonding distanced graduates through the shared experience — UI graduate Omar Khodor, 22, said it’s a club he would have liked to avoid.

“I’d definitely prefer not to be part of that group,” the environmental science major said, sharing disappointment over the education, experiences and celebrations he lost to the pandemic.

“A lot of students like myself, we’re upset, but we’re not really allowed to be upset given the circumstances,” Khodor said. “You have this sense that something is unfair, that something has been taken from you. But you can’t be mad about it at all.”

Life is too short to dwell on what could have been or what should have been — which sort of captures graduate Dawn Hales’ motivation to get an ISU degree.

The 63-year-old Ames grandmother calls herself the “oldest BSN Iowa State grad ever.”

“It’s the truth, because we’re only the second cohort to graduate,” Hales said. “I’ll probably be the oldest for a while.”

ISU began offering a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree in fall 2018 for registered nurses hoping to advance their careers — like Hales, who spent years in nursing before becoming director of nursing at Accura Healthcare, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center in Ames.

In addition to wanting more education, Hales said, she felt like the “odd man out” in her red-and-gold family — with her husband, three sons and their wives all earning ISU degrees. She earned an associate degree and became a registered nurse with community college training.

“I was director of nursing at different facilities, but I did not have a four-year degree,” she said. “I always wanted to get my BSN.”

So in January 2019, she started full-time toward her three-semester pursuit of a BSN — even as she continued working. And her education took a relevant and important turn when COVID-19 arrived.

“My capstone project was infection control,” she said, noting her focus later sharpened to “infection control and crisis management” — perfect timing to fight the coronavirus, which has hit long-term care facilities particularly hard.

“We were hyper vigilant,” Hales said of her facility, which has yet to report a case of COVID-19. “I think we were probably one of the first facilities that pretty much shut down and started assessing our staff when they would come in.”

Hales said she was eager to walk in her first university graduation and was planning antics for it with her 10-year-old granddaughter.

“We were trying to think, should I dance across the stage?” Hales said. “Or would I grab a walker and act like an old lady going across the stage?

“She was trying to teach me to do this ‘dab’ move,” Hales said. “I said, ‘Honey, I cannot figure that out.’”

In the end, Hales watched the celebration online instead. She did, however, get a personalized license plate that reads, “RN2BSN.”

Coming from a family-run dairy farm in Jerome, Idaho, EllieMae Millenkamp, 22, is the first in her family to graduate college.

Although music is her passion, Millenkamp long expected to study at an agriculture school — but Colorado State was her original choice.

Then, while visiting family in Iowa during a cousin’s visit to ISU, she fell in love with the Ames campus and recalibrated her academic path.

While at ISU, the musical Millenkamp began writing more songs and performing more online, which led to in-person shows and a local band.

And then, during her junior year, a talent scout reached out to invite her to participate in an audition for NBC’s “The Voice.” That went well and Millenkamp, in the summer before her senior year, moved to Los Angeles and made it onto the show.

She achieved second-round status before being bumped, but the experience offered her lifelong friendships and connections and invigorated her musical pursuits — which have been slowed by COVID-19. Shows have been canceled in now idled bars.

Millenkamp went back to Idaho to be with her family, like thousands of her peers also did with their families, when the ISU campus shut down.

After graduation she plans on returning and working the family farm again until her musical career has the chance to regain momentum.

But she recently returned to Ames for finals. And she and some friends, also in town, plan to celebrate graduation, even if not with an official cap and gown.

“We’ll probably have a bonfire and all hang out,” she said. “We’ll celebrate in our own way.”

Most college seniors nearing graduation get to spend their academic hours focusing on their major and interests, wrapping their four or sometimes five years with passion projects and capstone experiences.

That was Omar Khodor’s plan — with lab-based DNA sequencing on tap, along with a geology trip and policy proposal he planned to present to the Iowa Legislature. But all that got canceled — and even some requirements were waived since COVID-19 made them impossible.

“There were still a lot of a lot of things to wrap up,” he said. “A lot of things I was looking forward to.”

He’s ending the year with just three classes to finish and “absolutely” would have preferred to have a fuller plate.

But Khodor’s academic career isn’t over. He’s planning to attend law school in the fall at the University of Pennsylvania, where he’ll pursue environmental law. But this spring has diminished his enthusiasm, with the question lingering of whether in-person courses will return to campus soon.

If they don’t, he’s still leaning toward enrolling — in part — because of all the work that goes into applying and getting accepted, which he’s already done.

“But online classes are definitely less fulfilling, less motivating. You feel like you learn less,” he said. “So it will kind of be a tossup. There’ll be some trade-offs involved in what I would gain versus what I would be paying for such an expensive endeavor like law school.”

As for missing a traditional college commencement, Khodor said he will, even though he plans to participate in the virtual alternative.

“Before it got canceled, I didn’t think that I was looking forward to it as much as I actually was,” he said.

Not so much for the pomp and circumstance, but for the closure, which none of the seniors got this year. When the universities announced no one would return to campus this semester, students were away on spring break.

They had already experienced their last in-person class, their last after-class drink, their last cram session, their last study group, their last lecture, their last Iowa Memorial Union lunch — and they didn’t even know it.

“So many of us, we won’t have closure, and that can kind of be a difficult thing,” he said.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

For a list of commencement times and virtual celebrations, visit:

The University of Iowa’s commencement site at https://commencement.uiowa.edu/

Iowa State University’s commencement site at https://virtual.graduation.iastate.edu/

University of Northern Iowa’s commencement site at https://vgrad.z19.web.core.windows.net/uni/index.html

International students who have been in Australia for longer than 12 months who find themselves in financial hardship will be able to access their Australian superannuation. The Government will undertake further engagement with the international education sector who already provide some financial support for international students facing hardship. International students working in supermarkets will have […]

The post Student visa holders and New Zealand citizens in Australia and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis? appeared first on Visa Australia - Immigration Lawyers & Registered Migration Agents.

The notoriously independent-minded federal judge who once said he was disgusted by the conduct of Michael Flynn could block the administration's bid to drop criminal charges against the former adviser to President Donald Trump, legal experts said.

We investigate the Boundary Harnack Principle in H"older domains of exponent $alpha>0$ by the analytical method developed in our previous work "A short proof of Boundary Harnack Principle".

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are considered as a potential candidate to overcome current challenges such as the high-power consumption encountered by artificial neural networks (ANNs), however there is still a gap between them with respect to the recognition accuracy on practical tasks. A conversion strategy was thus introduced recently to bridge this gap by mapping a trained ANN to an SNN. However, it is still unclear that to what extent this obtained SNN can benefit both the accuracy advantage from ANN and high efficiency from the spike-based paradigm of computation. In this paper, we propose two new conversion methods, namely TerMapping and AugMapping. The TerMapping is a straightforward extension of a typical threshold-balancing method with a double-threshold scheme, while the AugMapping additionally incorporates a new scheme of augmented spike that employs a spike coefficient to carry the number of typical all-or-nothing spikes occurring at a time step. We examine the performance of our methods based on MNIST, Fashion-MNIST and CIFAR10 datasets. The results show that the proposed double-threshold scheme can effectively improve accuracies of the converted SNNs. More importantly, the proposed AugMapping is more advantageous for constructing accurate, fast and efficient deep SNNs as compared to other state-of-the-art approaches. Our study therefore provides new approaches for further integration of advanced techniques in ANNs to improve the performance of SNNs, which could be of great merit to applied developments with spike-based neuromorphic computing.

By Sci Dev Net Advances in printed solar cell technology promise clean renewable energy, opening possibilities for 1.3 billion people still without electric power in developing countries. The technology, which only requires the use of existing industrial-size printers, can produce … Continue reading →

On any other week, you can rely on the Inlander for information on live shows happening in Spokane and North Idaho, and to read about the artists and music festivals that we think are worth your time.…

Methods and systems for managing data loads on a cluster of processors that implement an iterative procedure through parallel processing of data for the procedure are disclosed. One method includes monitoring, for at least one iteration of the procedure, completion times of a plurality of different processing phases that are undergone by each of the processors in a given iteration. The method further includes determining whether a load imbalance factor threshold is exceeded in the given iteration based on the completion times for the given iteration. In addition, the data is repartitioned by reassigning the data to the processors based on predicted dependencies between assigned data units of the data and completion times of a plurality of the processers for at least two of the phases. Further, the parallel processing is implemented on the cluster of processors in accordance with the reassignment.

A cleansing composition for cosmetic or household use may include an ampholytic polymer; a crosslinked cationic polymer; a surfactant component selected from the group consisting of anionic surfactants, amphoteric surfactants, cationic surfactants, nonionic surfactants, and zwitterionic surfactants; and an aqueous and/or organic carrier.

In a gas turbine engine that includes a compressor and a combustor, wherein the combustor includes a primary fuel injector within a fuel nozzle and a secondary fuel injector that is upstream of the fuel nozzle and configured to inject fuel into a flow annulus of the combustor, a method for detecting a flame holding condition about a fuel injector. The method may include the steps of: detecting an upstream pressure upstream of the secondary fuel injector; detecting a downstream pressure downstream of the secondary fuel injector; determining a measured pressure difference between the upstream pressure and the downstream pressure; and comparing the measured pressure difference to an expected pressure difference.

A microphone holder for mounting a microphone on a drum includes a vertical plate having an inner side surface which is adapted to face the drum, and a microphone connecting device, a clip member, and a positioning plate connected fixedly to the vertical plate. The microphone connecting device is adapted to hold the microphone thereon. The clip member clamps a vertical bolt that interconnects a drum body and a drum skin frame. The positioning plate is disposed above the clip member, and has a horizontal top plate section with a bottom surface that is adapted to abut against an upper end of the vertical bolt, and two vertical side plate sections which extend respectively and integrally from two opposite sides of the top plate section, and which are adapted to flank a projection on the drum skin frame through which the vertical bolt extends so as to prevent rotation of the clip member on the vertical bolt.

A holding body includes a fastening layer which has a fastening surface configured to fasten a flexible grinding device. The fastening layer includes an air- and dust-permeable material and is substantially full-surface. The fastening layer includes a textile material. The holding body also includes a supporting body which has a supporting surface configured to support a holding surface of the fastening layer. The supporting body is air- and dust-permeable and includes an open-cell foam. A grinding system includes such a holding body and such a flexible grinding device.

Flat-surfaced workpieces such as semiconductor wafers or sapphire disks are attached to a rotatable floating workpiece holder carrier that is supported by a pressurized-air flexible elastomer sealed air-chamber device and is rotationally driven by a lug-pin device. The rotating wafer carrier rotor is restrained by a set of idlers that are attached to a stationary housing to provide rigid support against abrading forces. The abrading system can be operated at the very high abrading speeds used in high speed flat lapping with raised-island abrasive disks. The range of abrading pressures is large and the device can provide a wide range of torque to rotate the workholder. Vacuum can also be applied to the elastomer chamber to quickly move the wafer away from the abrading surface. Internal constraints limit the axial, lateral and circumferential motion of the workholder. Wafers can be quickly attached to the workpiece carrier with vacuum.

A machine tool having a turning function and a milling function includes a spindle, a spindle housing supporting the spindle in a rotatable manner, a main clamp provided at the spindle, an auxiliary clamp provided at the spindle housing, and a double arm with a first gripper and a second gripper. The auxiliary clamp clamps a tool holder together with the main clamp during fixing a fixed tool. The double arm exchanges a tool holder grasped at the first gripper for another tool holder grasped at the second gripper by rotating and sliding movements. The auxiliary clamp is arranged at a position not interfering with the double arm that moves during exchanging tool holders. By such a configuration, a machine tool achieving a clamping force sufficient to withstand the load during a turning process, and that allows tool exchange in a short period of time, and a tool holder employed in such a machine tool, can be provided.

There is provided a tool holding and conveying chain adapted to securely lock and position a tool pot, i.e., a connecting pin, to a pin hole of either an outer or inner link plate so that the tool pot does not to turn and to achieve steady and smooth attachment and removal of a tool in and out of the tool pot with a simple attachment structure. The tool pot has a pair of positioning flat portions formed by cutting a link plate attaching outer circumferential region of the tool pot and the outer link plate has a pair of positioning cooperative flat portions formed so as to bulge out of an inner circumference to a center of a pin hole. The positioning flat portions of the tool pot is fitted into and locked by the positioning cooperative flat portions when the tool pot is attached in the link plate.

A carriage is moved in a direction including a Y axis component in order to move a turning process tool that is attached to a tool spindle along a horizontal line that is perpendicular to a Z axis, and thus, a turning process is carried out on a workpiece which is attached to a workpiece spindle.

A toolholder assembly includes a toolholder body having a coolant passage and a cutting insert seated within a recess of the body. The cutting insert includes an insert orifice extending between a top face and a bottom face that aligns with the coolant passage. A lock pin includes a lock pin orifice that aligns with and is in fluid communication with the coolant passage of the body. The lock pin orifice has an outlet port to allow the fluid to flow through the lock pin orifice and exit through the outlet port. A lock pin ring includes a coolant port in fluid communication with the outlet port of the lock pin to effectively discharge cooling fluid in the direction of a cutting area of the cutting insert.

A cutting tool used for grooving and turning operations where a cutting insert is resiliently securable in a holder blade. The cutting insert includes an insert central lower surface located between, and recessed with respect to, two insert lower component surfaces, each having an insert lower abutment surface. At least one of the two insert lower component surfaces includes an insert inner curved ramp extending from its insert lower abutment surface to the adjacent insert lower intermediate surface and at least the other of the two insert lower component surfaces includes an insert outer curved ramp extending from its insert lower abutment surface to an adjacent end surface.

A sheet holder for holding a sheet of paper and exposing an edge of the sheet, has a press for holding the paper sheet and exposing the edge, and a lever for operating the press. The lever is movable between a released position for placing of the edge of the paper sheet in the press and a holding position for operating the press. There is also an abutment for abutment by the edge of the paper sheet to position the edge relative to the press while the lever is in the released position. The abutment is associated with the lever for moving away from the edge of the paper sheet when the lever moves towards the holding position, thereby exposing the edge of the paper sheet.

The flexible glove holder (1) includes a flat structure (13) with three branches (2, 3 and 4) forming an S-shape on which the glove is wound. The holder (1) is then pushed into the opening of the glove box. This rapid action method makes it possible to avoid knotting the gloves when they must be drawn toward the outside for an operation within the box and also allows the implementation of biological protection on the opening of the glove box as well as a protection of the agents against radiation.

An optical disc device according to the present invention performs, in parallel, a first control to convey a first tray in the first optical disc drive group from the disc replacing position to the recording and reproducing position, and a second control to convey a second tray in the second optical disc drive group 40R from the recording and reproducing position to the disc replacing position. The second tray is opposed to the first tray.

A holding portion includes at least three pressing members which are operable to press an inner peripheral of a hole formed on the medium. The pressing members are movable between first positions where the pressing members do not come in contact with the inner peripheral and second positions where the pressing members come in contact with and press the inner peripheral. Each of the pressing members is adapted to interlockingly move with each other when moving toward the first positions and to press the inner peripheral independently from the other members when positioning the second positions.

Provided is an objective lens driving unit that prevents an electrical short circuit between very closely spaced second terminals in the objective lens driving unit. The objective lens driving unit is capable of being used in a slim-type optical disc drive.

A transportable note pad holder that includes a main body having a note pad well for carrying a note pad. The main body is adapted to be removably carried within a sheath. The sheath includes a means for attachment to an article, illustrated as a pair of resilient arm clips that may be used to attach the sheath to a back pack strap or the like. To remind the user that a note carried within the main body is to be reviewed, the main body is provided with an alarm. Preferably, the alarm is connected to a lamp that will draw the attention of the user to the note pad holder. The lamp may also be arranged to illuminate the interior of the main body in order to allow a user to read any notes carried thereby.

A disk drive is disclosed including a disk having a plurality of sectors, and a head actuated over the disk. A defect threshold is initialized, and a first sector is read to generate a first read signal. The first read signal is processed to detect a defect in the first sector relative to the defect threshold. After detecting the defect, the defect threshold is adjusted and the first sector is reread to generate a second read signal. The second read signal is processed to detect the defect in the first sector relative to the adjusted defect threshold.