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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of Invention Related Art SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electricity supply system, in particular to a lithium battery having a simplified separator and electrode layers and a lowest amount of the interfaces inside the battery. In the electronic device industry, portability and wireless design are the major trends. Except the lighter, thinner and smaller designs, the flexibility of the electronics is highly focused as well. Hence, an electricity supply system having smaller volume, lighter weight and higher energy density is imperatively required. However, to prolong the life and to increase the energy density of the electricity supply system, the primary electricity supply system obviously cannot satisfy the demands of the current electronics. And this is the reason why the secondary electricity supply systems such as the lithium battery system, fuel cell system, solar cell system become the main stream for their recharge abilities. The lithium battery system is taken as the example for its highly development. FIG. 1A FIG. 1A FIG. 1A illustrates the current cell of the lithium battery system. The main structure is constructed by a separator layer sandwiched by a cathode electrode and an anode electrode. The external electrodes of the whole lithium battery system, which are electrically connected to the peripherals, are welded individually to the tabs located in the current collectors of both cathode and anode electrodes. As shown in , the lithium battery 1 includes a separator layer 11, a first active material layer 12, a second active material layer 13, a first current collector layer 14, a second current collector layer 15 and a package unit 16. The first active material layer 12 is located above the separator layer 11. The first current collector layer 14 is located above the first active material layer 12. The second active material layer 13 is located under the separator layer 11. The second current collector layer 15 is located under the second active material layer 13. The package unit 16 seals the whole stacking structure mentioned above except the two tabs 141 and 151. Accordingly, as the lithium battery 1 provides the electricity to an electronic device 2 (the circuit broad illustrated in is only one embodiment and is not a limitation for the electronic device 2), the tabs 141 and 151 are electrically connected to the electricity input terminals 21 and 22 of the electronic device 2 so that the electricity stored in the lithium battery 1 is transferred to the electronic device 2. After that, the electricity is transferred to the element area 23 of the electronic device 2 by the layouts. The element area 23 mentioned here may be the circuit layouts or the surface mounted elements, that is, typically includes the logical circuit, active elements, and passive elements and so on. FIG. 1A However, the electrical and safety performances of the lithium battery 1 are dramatically influenced by the characteristics of both the interface between the separator layer 11 and the first active material layer 12 and the interface between the separator layer 11 and the second active material layer 13. Please refer to , there have four interfaces of the lithium battery 1, i.e. the interfaces between the separator layer 11 and the first active material layer 12, between the separator layer 11 and the second active material layer 13, between the first current collector layer 14 and the first active material layer 12, and between the second current collector layer 15 and the second active material layer 13. For the current lithium battery system, the characteristics of these interfaces are controlled either by solid stacking method or by high-tension winding method (jelly roll) to ensure the good electrical and safety performances of the lithium battery system. Unfortunately, the lithium battery systems made by solid stacking or high-tension winding method are definitely lack of flexibility and even are impossible to be flexed. If the stacked battery or the winded battery is forced to be flexed it would cause the serious damage to the interfaces between the separator layer 11 and the first active material layer 12 and the separator layer 11 and the second active material layer 13. FIG. 1A Moreover, the active anode material may expand or shrink its volume on charge or discharge to exhibit mechanical stress to both sides of the active anode material. Please refer to , for example, if the second active material layer 13 is the active anode material, the second active material layer 13 is disposed between the separator 11 and the second current collector layer 15. Therefore, the second active material layer 13 exhibits mechanical stress to the separator 11 and the second current collector layer 15 on charge or discharge. After a certain period of time, it is difficult to maintain the same quality of interfaces due to suffer of the repeating volume expansion and shrinkage. Also, the tab 141 is usually made of aluminum. Because the aluminum can not be soldered directly, the tab 141 have to be connected with a nickel sheet by ultrasonic. Furthermore, the tabs 141, 151 have to extend outside of the package unit 16. The thickness of the tabs 141, 151 is 100 to 150 um (micro meter), and the thickness of the package unit 16 including the glues is 60 to 120 um. Therefore, there may have a gap between the tabs 141, 151 and the package unit 16 to make the moisture resistance and the liquid barrier weaker, which may cause the outside moisture to permeate inside, or the inside electrolyte to leak out and damage the circuit. FIG. 1B Please refer to , the stack type battery is provided with a plurality of unit cells (the lithium battery 1) stacked in a stack direction. Due to each lithium battery 1 has four interfaces as above mentioned, the total number of the interfaces would be increased accordingly. Along with the active anode material may expand or shrink on charge or discharge to exhibit mechanical stress, the reliability of the stack type battery may be influenced when one of the interfaces does not contact well. Also, the amount of the interfaces would influence the fluidity and permeability of the electrolyte. When the amount of the interfaces is increased, it costs more time to make the electrolyte permeate uniformly. Moreover, the electrolyte distribution may be not uniform even after long time that will decrease the efficiency of the battery. Also, the leads of each battery 1 have to be connected in parallel before the tabs 141 and 151 are electrically connected to the electricity input terminals 21 and 22 of the electronic device 2. When the number of the leads is increased, the reliability and the yield rate of the welding are decreased. It is an objective of this invention to provide an electricity supply element and its related electricity supply system. The current collector layers are disposed on the substrate. Therefore, the active material layers may be rapidly and precisely formed on the current collector layers to form the electricity supply element. The electricity supply element mentioned in this invention may be produced under higher yield rate and faster production rate. Another objective of this invention is to provide an electricity supply element and its related electricity supply system. The current collector layers can be integrated with the substrate to form the external circuit area and the internal circuit area on the substrate. Therefore, the electricity supply element is able to be directly electrically connected to the external electrical elements or connected to each other so that the amounts of the elements exerted in the electronic may be reduced. The stack type or jelly roll type electricity supply system may be manufactured with a simplified process. Also, the aluminum or nickel tab, which is utilized in conventional battery to connect to the external electrical elements, can be eliminated. The substrate is able to become thinner, and the reliability of the package structure of the electricity supply system is increased. It is also an objective of this invention is to provide an electricity supply element and its related electricity supply system. The package structure may be integrated with the electricity supply element so that the amounts of the total interfaces inside the electricity supply system are reduced to reduce the inner resistance of the electricity supply system and to increase the electrical performance of the electricity supply system as well. In order to implement the abovementioned, this invention discloses an electricity supply element. The electricity supply element includes a substrate, a first current collector layer, a second current collector layer, a first active material layer and a second active material layer. The substrate includes a plurality of holes. The first and the second current collector layers are deposed on the two opposite sides of the substrate and have holes according to the holes of the substrate. The active material layers are disposed on the outer side of the current collector layers respectively. Therefore, the substrate is served as a separator to permit ion migration between the first active material layer and the second active material layer. The electric charge is outputted through the current collector layers which disposed on the substrate. This invention discloses an electricity supply system, including a plurality electricity supply elements to stack. The same substrate may be utilized for all the electricity supply elements. Therefore, the internal circuit area, formed on the substrate, is utilized to electrically connect with each other for parallel or serial connection. Only one of the electricity supply elements has the external circuit area to connect to the external electrical elements for outputting electricity. The complicate process of the conventional electricity supply elements to connect each lead is eliminated. The electricity supply system may be produced under higher yield rate and faster production rate, and the reliability and the electrical performance of the electricity supply system is increased. Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. FIG. 1A illustrates the example of the cell of the prior-art lithium battery system. FIG. 1B illustrates the example of the conventional stack type lithium battery system. FIG. 2 illustrates the cross-sectional view of the electricity supply element of this invention. FIGS. 3A 3B and illustrate embodiments of the external circuit layout of the electricity supply element according to the present invention. FIG. 4 illustrates the cross-section configuration view of the electricity supply element with package structure of this invention. FIGS. 5 6A 6B , and illustrate embodiments of the electricity supply system of the present invention. FIG. 7A illustrates the cross-sectional view of the electricity supply system of this invention. FIG. 7B illustrates the respective view of the electricity supply element of this invention. FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of the electricity supply system with package structure of the present invention. The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: The invention provides an electricity supply element, which is integrated in a flexible circuit board or a rigid circuit board, and an electricity system with low cost, high electric capacity, thermal stability, and extra mechanic characteristic, such as repeat bends. Due to the electricity supply unit is integrated in a circuit substrate, the carrier or the solder pad are not necessary. Also, the circuit substrate is utilized as a separator. The thermal stability temperature of the circuit substrate is over 300 . Therefore, reflow soldering method to continuously proceed SMT process, even a metal-metal eutectic process for IC, for mass-production is possible. FIG. 2 illustrates the cross-sectional view of the electricity supply element of this invention. The electricity supply element 3 of this invention includes a substrate 31, a first current collector layer 32, a second current collector layer 33, a first active material layer 34 and a second active material layer 35. The substrate 31 has a separating area 311 and an external circuit area 312 adjacent thereof. The substrate 31 has a plurality of holes 313 at the separating area 311. The first current collector layer 32 is disposed on one side of the circuit substrate 31, and has a plurality of holes 321 according to the holes 313 of the substrate 31. The second current collector layer 33 is disposed on another side of the circuit substrate 31, and has a plurality of holes 331 according to the holes 313 of the substrate 31. The first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35 are disposed at the outside surfaces of the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 respectively. And the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35 are separated by the first current collector layer 32, the substrate 31 and the second current collector layer 33. The electrolyte impregnated into the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35. The electrolyte is a solid electrolyte, a liquid electrolyte, or a gelled electrolyte. Due to the first current collector layer 32, the substrate 31 and the second current collector layer 33 have the holes 313, 321 and 331, the electrolyte is easier to impregnate into therein. FIG. 2 In this embodiment, the circuit substrate 31 is a flexible circuit board or a rigid circuit board. As refer to , the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 have a first terminal 36 and a second terminal 37 respectively at the external circuit area 312. The substrate 31 may be a multilayer circuit board. The material of the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 is copper (Cu), Aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni) or an alloy comprised of at least one of the foregoing metals. However, to simplify the manufacture process, the material of the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 is the same with the material of the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33, such as copper (Cu), Aluminum (Al), or nickel (Ni), tin (Sn), silver (Ag), gold (Au), or an alloy comprised of at least one of the foregoing metals. Also, the material of the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 may be different with the material of the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33. And the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 are connected to the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 respectively by wiring, electrical lead, or connecting directly. The material of the substrate 31 is insulating materials, includes polyimide (PI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), glass fiber, and liquid crystal polymer, or the combination thereof. 2 2 3 2 The substrate 31 is served as the separator to maintain separation between the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35. The separating area 311 is utilized for insulation electrically and to permit ion migration between the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35. The first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35 are used to perform electrochemistry reaction to convert Electrical energy into Chemical energy or Chemical energy into Electrical energy. The first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 are utilized to output electric charge, produced by the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35, to the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37. The substrate 31 has the holes 313 to permit ion migration. The holes 313 are formed by through holes, ant holes, or porous material, and filled with ceramic insulation materials. The ceramic insulation materials include particulates of TiO, AlO, SiO with nanometer and micrometer scale, or alkylation. The holes 313 may be further filled with a polymer adhesive, which is selected from the group consisting of Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvinylidene fluoride co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP), Polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE), acrylic acid glue, epoxy resin, polyethylene oxide (PEO), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), and polyimide (PI). FIG. 1A Please see the structure of the electricity supply element 3 of this invention, the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 are disposed on the substrate. Therefore, it only has two interfaces for this structure, i.e. the interface between the first current collector layer 32 and the first active material layer 34, and between the second current collector layer 33 and the second active material layer 35. The interface management of this structure is easier to control than the interface management of the conventional structure which has four interfaces, see . Also, for example, if the second active material layer 35 is the active cathode material, the second active material layer 35 has a free side due to the second current collector layer 33 and the substrate 31 are disposed on the same side. When the active anode material, the second active material layer 35, may expand or shrink on charge or discharge, the stress exhibited is released easily. Therefore, the reliability, the stability and the safety performances of the electricity supply element 3 are improved. The substrate 31 has the separating area 311 and the external circuit area 312 adjacent thereof to be with the following main functions. FIG. 3A The separating area 311 is utilized for insulation electrically and to permit ion migration between the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35.The first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35 are used to perform electrochemistry reaction to convert Electrical energy into Chemical energy or Chemical energy into Electrical energy. The first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 are utilized to output electric charge, produced by the first active material layer 34 and the second active material layer 35, to the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37, pleases see . FIG. 3B The external circuit area 312 is utilized to output electricity directly by etched traces connecting to the outside circuit directly without extra pads, see . Also, the tabs of the conventional structure are eliminated. Due to the separating are 311 could be served as a carrier or matrix for other inside electric elements, the outside circuit and electric elements are integrated in the circuit substrate 31 by the external circuit area 312. Besides, the substrate 31 with high thermal stability. Therefore, reflow soldering method to continuously proceed SMT process, even a metal-metal eutectic process for IC, for mass-production is possible. FIG. 4 Please refer to , the first package unit 41 is located outside and around the first active material layer 34. The second package unit 42 is located outside and around the second active material layer 35. The material of the first package unit 41 and the second package unit 42 is polymer, metal, fiberglass, and combinations thereof. To enhance the flexibility of the electricity supply element 3, the first package unit 41 and the second package unit 42 may be made of PI, PET, PS, PP, PEN, PVC, acrylic acid or epoxy. Furthermore, the material of the first package unit 41 and the second package unit 42 may be non-metal with low polarity to enhance the acid or alkali resistance to prevent erosion. FIG. 1A FIG. 3A FIG. 6A Also, the electricity supply element 3 may have package structure as the conventional package structure, refer to and . Due to electricity supply element 3 is connected to the electronic device 2 by the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37, which is extended from the substrate 31. Therefore, the structure is thinner than the conventional structure with the tabs 141, 151 and easier to package without defects. Furthermore, the substrate 31 may be shaped by pressing to reduce the width of the package area, see . The package performance could be improved. FIGS. 5 6A FIG. 6A FIG. 6B FIG. 5 When forming the electricity supply system of this invention, please refer to and , a plurality of the electricity supply elements 3 are formed on the substrate 31. Each electricity supply element 3 includes an internal circuit area 38. The internal circuit area 38 includes a first lead 53 and a second lead 54 thereon. The first lead 53 and the second lead 54 are electrically connected with the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33 of the adjacent electricity supply elements 3 for parallel or serial connection. Please see , the current collector layers 32, 33 with the same polarity of the adjacent electricity supply elements 3 is connected by the leads 53, 54 for parallel connection. Please see , the current collector layers 32, 33 with the different polarity of the adjacent electricity supply elements 3 is connected by the leads 53, 54 for serial connection. Also, the current collector layers 32, 33 may have different polarity on the same side. As the shown, the electricity supply elements 3 have the same substrate 31. The electricity supply elements 3 may have individual substrates 31. FIGS. 7A 7B The substrate 31 is the flexible circuit board and can be bent to a Z-type stack, please refer to and . The active material layers 34, 35 with the same polarity are faced to each other. On the other hand, the first active material layers 34 faces to the first active material layers 34. The second active material layers 35 faces to the second active material layers 35. Due to the first current collector layer 32, the substrate 31 and the second current collector layer 33 have the holes 313, 321 and 331, the electrolyte is easier to impregnate into the whole electricity supply system. Also, only two interfaces are presented, i.e. the interface between the first current collector layer 32 and the first active material layer 34, and between the second current collector layer 33 and the second active material layer 35, for each electricity supply elements 3. And the active material layers 34, 35 with the same polarity are faced to each other for the adjacent electricity supply elements 3. Therefore, the interface management of the electricity supply system is very easy. When the active anode material, the second active material layer 35, may expand or shrink on charge or discharge, the second active material layer 35 will only touch or push the adjacent second active material layer 35. The stress exhibited is released easily, and the structure would be maintained. Therefore, the reliability, the stability and the safety performances of the electricity supply system are improved. FIG. 6A FIG. 1B FIG. 6A FIG. 6B FIG. 8 FIG. 1B Only one of the electricity supply elements 3 has the external circuit area 312, also see , to connect to the external electrical elements for outputting electricity through the terminals 36, 37 by anisotropic conductive adhesive (ACA). The complicate process of the conventional electricity supply elements to connect each lead is eliminated, as shown in . The electricity supply system may be produced under higher yield rate and faster production rate, and the reliability and the electrical performance of the electricity supply system is increased. The first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 may be formed on the same side of the first current collector layer 32 and the second current collector layer 33, as shown in . On the other hand, the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 are located at opposite surface. Also, the first terminal 36 and the second terminal 37 may be located at the same surface by the through hole, as shown in . Furthermore, only one pair of terminals 36, 37 has to be package. Please compare and , the package of the electricity supply system is simplified. The electricity supply system may be produced under higher yield rate. Moreover, the electricity supply system may also be a jelly roll type battery. The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
Regulations governing the protection of human research subjects are based on the ethical principles identified in the 1978 Belmont Report, the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki. Many of these ethical principles relate to patient consent. Informed consent is a written acceptance, directly from the donor, to participate in a research project based on an understanding of the study’s purpose, its risks and benefits and the planned collection of specimens and data. Human biospecimens is a broad term that refers to any biological material obtained from a person including tissue, blood, urine and other body fluids. It also includes any derivative of these, such as cell lines and organoids. Ethical considerations related to laboratory-based research involving human biospecimens vary according to the structure of the ethics approval. Generally, biospecimens collected as part of a biobank are available for use in “other ethically approved projects” whereas the use of biospecimens collected for a specific project may be more restricted. All human biospecimens collected for research purposes require ethical review and approval by a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). The HREC will review participant consent and sample collection, processing, storage and distribution or disposal. There are approximately 200 HRECs in research organisations across Australia. HRECs at most institutes/ universities are constituted and operate in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and relevant state and national legislation, regulations and guidelines. Once appropriate ethics approval has been obtained for a project, biospecimens can be accessed from biobanks or bioresource centres. There are a number of considerations for accessing biospecimens: The consent provided by the patient will determine what their tissue samples can be used for. The availability of a biospecimen – is it readily available or a limited resource. The scope of the research project – biospecimens can only be used for research that has been reviewed and approved by a HREC. Often access to biospecimens will be via a collaborative arrangement that might include clinical and research partners. Phenomics Australia supports the generation of cell lines, induced pluripotent stem cells, organoids and tumoroids. The use of these biospecimens requires Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) between institutes or universities and discussions around collaboration and IP fall within the scope of the MTA. Phenomics Australia does not hold any IP for the work performed by our service nodes. IP remains with the host institute/ university or as specified in the MTA. ” As curators of biobanks and biorepositories we are responsible for the appropriate management of biospecimens. We oversee the processing, storage, and distribution of biospecimens as agreed to by each participant. Mostly tissue is provided to a repository to support the development of new treatments for life-threatening diseases. This means we also have a responsibility to ensure that biospecimens are accessible to the research community.” Additional information 1978 Belmont ReportLink https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/read-the-belmont-report/index.html and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25951677/ The Nuremberg Code : org/library/ethics/nuremberg/ The Declaration of Helsinki: net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566407/ Generating organoids and IPS cells from tissue is a complex process often involving collaborative arrangements with clinical and research colleagues. To facilitate these discussions you should, in the first instance, contact biorepository staff:	https://phenomicsaustralia.org.au/working-with-human-bioespecimens-ethical-considerations/
Advanced Problem Solving & Decision Making Overview: Introduction: Why do some people find problem-solving an exciting challenge, where others find it stressful? How do some managers make quick and productive decisions while others put off crucial decisions until the last minute? Which of the two statements best describes your attitude to problem-solving and decision making? The answer to the first two questions is that the first group of people work through a tried and tested methodology in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency in finding solutions and route maps to get things done. These skills can be learned and this program investigates in detail how you can be a proactive team player in both problem solving and decision making. This highly interactive and fun course takes a step by step journey through the pathways of moving your organization from identifying the route of the problem, creating solutions and turning them into workable decisions. Course Objectives: At the end of this course the participants will be able to: - Select and apply pragmatic methods for effective problem solving and decision making - Appreciate how values, bias and personality can impact solutions we create - Utilize a structured approach to generate productive solutions - Assess personal and organizational creativity and set an agenda for progression - Explore and apply various problem-solving technique that generates creative solutions - Develop the decisive skills that define competent and credible leadership Targeted Audience: - Managers, Supervisors, and Team Leaders - Head of Sections - Also, this course is suitable for all the employees among all departments and levels Course Outlines: Unit 1: The Psychology of Problem Solving and Decision Making: - A synopsis of psychological thought - Values, Problem Solving and Decision Making - Psychological type and Lateral Thinking for Problem Solving - What psychological type reveals about me and my preferences - Using a team approach to encourage lateral thinking: ZIGZAG model - Individual or group decision making: case studies Unit 2: Developing Decision Making Skills: - Using your left brain & right brain to make decisions - Split-brain theory for developing effective problem-solving skills - Developing openness to new ideas in making decisions - Promoting idea mobility in teams - Understanding the creative solving process in individuals and teams - IDEAL problem-solving approach Unit 3: Applying Effective Decision Making Skills in the Workplace: - Encouraging creative problem solving for continuous improvement - Removing blocks to creative problem solving - Convergent versus Divergent Thinking - Divergent Thinking Skills for solving problems - Using SCAMPER techniques to approach problem-solving - Applying SCAMPER techniques to make effective decisions Unit 4: Making Mental Blocks to Decision Making a Thing of the Past: - Challenging self-imposed assumptions - Thinking outside the box - Increasing new ideas - Getting people behind your - Evaluating new ideas - Creative leadership during problem-solving and decision-making sessions Unit 5: Effective Leadership and the Dynamic Problem Solving Team: - Ensuring alignment with corporate mission - Encouraging self-initiated activity - Endorsing Unofficial activity - Enhancing Serendipity - Importance of appreciating diverse stimuli - Practicing within-company communication for problem-solving - Developing a personal action plan Select training course venue Our Programs:	https://www.euro-training.net/training-course/advanced-problem-solving-decision-making/M1051
We have been basing all the dividend return calculations based on the estimated $500 million volume for 2018, which yields roughly 100% annual return given $0.01 / SAFEX. I wanted to look at this over all the possible prices & marketplace volume to get a better idea of growth. Most traditional investors look for an annual return of 10% as good investment. So let’s assume that a 20% return will heavily incentive lots of investors to buy SAFEX. Cost per SAFEX \| Marketplace Revenue \| Annual Return \| SAFEX growth $0.01 $100 million 20% 1x $0.05 $500 million 20% 5x $0.10 $1 billion 20% 10x $0.50 $5 billion 20% 50x Basically SAFEX price will be directly proprotional to the marketplace volume. Does this logic look sound to you guys?	https://forum.safex.org/t/minimum-marketplace-revenue-for-incentive-to-buy-safex/2515
Chicago Lakeshore Hospital is a high quality private behavioral health and dual diagnosis treatment center located on the north side of the city. We specialize in the treatment of adults, children and adolescents with psychiatric and alcohol or drug dependency issues. Recovery is very important to us, and we are committed to a supportive environment and an ongoing plan for improved mental health and long-term sobriety of our patients. We are dedicated to educating the public to the value of identifying and treating behavioral illnesses, addictions, and their impact on people's lives! Chicago Lakeshore Hospital provides treatment services to those struggling with behavioral and co-occurring alcoholism and chemical dependency, as well as including their families and loved-ones as an integral part of our multi-disciplinary team approach. Treatment services include screening, assessment, detox services (where necessary), treatment planning, crisis intervention, consultation, inpatient and outpatient services, education, referrals, and individual and group counseling. Chicago Lakeshore Hospital specializes in the treatment of dual diagnoses—a combination of a behavioral health or a mental health disorder issue along with alcoholism/drug use/chemical dependency. We offer this treatment for children, adolescents, and adults, as well as comprehensive treatment for the LGBTQ community. Services for the members of the LBGTQ community who struggle with depression, anxiety, and alcohol and/or drug abuse are designed around a model of caring and non-judgmental approach. The same psychiatric and mental health programs we offer in the broader patient setting are available to LGBTQ patients with the addition of services directed at identifying and treating issues specific to gender and sexual identity. The Valeo Pride program at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient programs designed to meet the needs of our LGBTQ patients.	https://www.chicagolakeshorehospital.com/about/the-chicago-lakeshore-difference
10 Rooms with indoor trees: where the indoors meet the outdoors Inside a home, whether it’s an apartment or a house, it’s like in a sanctuary. This means that inside you get to feel safe and cozy but you also get to be separated from everything nature has to offer in its raw form. To restore that balance you can try to incorporate some elements usually found in nature in the interior design. For example, a very interesting idea is to have a tree in your home. If you’re having trouble imagining exactly how you can do that, take a look at these beautiful examples. This is a spacious and airy apartment with a contemporary interior décor. In the living room the décor is minimalist and almost entirely white. The exterior wall is almost entirely covered with large windows and this somewhat creates a balance and a connection between the indoor and outdoor areas. To accentuate this connection, two small trees have been incorporated into the living room’s décor. Here the connection between the indoors and outdoors is much stronger. The hall/vestibule of this residence includes a wonderful small garden. It has a large skylight above it that lets in the natural light that the plants need in order to survive. The garden includes a series of small plants as well as a tree placed in the center. This living room also has a similar garden. The room itself is not that bright. It features two relatively small windows that don’t let in much light so to compensate for that a skylight was placed above this garden. It includes a beautiful tall tree and plants around it. There are also additional plants scattered throughout the room and most of them are placed near the windows where they can take advantage of the natural light. If you wish to preserve the minimalism of the décor, maybe something a little more simple would be better for you. This residence, for example, features a minimalist, bright interior with a quite small, rectangular space near the entrance where a single small tree can be seen. The space is decorated with a couple of rocks that create a nice balance. When you’re living in the middle of the forest and you’re surrounded by trees and vegetation, naturally you want to incorporate as much from it as possible into your home’s décor. This residence features large windows and glass walls in all directions and, in addition, there’s also a very tall tree running through the center of the living area. It has been incorporated into the residence’s structure. This is an indoor porch and it features a beautiful modern design. It’s decorated with a variety of plants and also with a series of small trees. Considering that the whole porch is wrapped in a wood structure with lots of windows and skylights, it’s a very friendly environment for them. It’s a way of bringing a piece of nature inside. This tropical residence also aims at blurring the barrier between the indoor and outdoor spaces. The double height living area features large windows and arched doors with access to a terrace and it’s been decorated with tropical trees and a beautiful blue rug that almost looks like the surface of a pool. This stylish master bedroom features an Asian-inspired interior. The theme at the base of the décor is a beach sunset. The warm colors and the soft light reflecting on the walls create a very relaxing atmosphere while the tree brings freshness inside the room. The bedroom is very cozy, stylish and relaxing. The dining room can also benefit from some freshness. This one, for example, is beautiful and inviting. Even though the table and chairs occupy most of the space, the atmosphere is still airy thanks to the tree and the overall color palette. The textures are diverse and so are the colors. This is another exquisite porch. It’s part of a contemporary residence and features a very friendly and cheerful décor. It has a large tree piercing through the center and a variety of fresh plants scattered throughout the room. The large windows and skylights let in lots of natural light and the green accent wall accentuates the beauty of the décor.	http://www.homedit.com/10-rooms-with-indoor-trees-where-the-indoors-meet-the-outdoors/
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is part of the great ocean “conveyor belt” that circulates heat around the globe. Since the early 2000s, ocean sensors have started to monitor the AMOC, but the measurements are still far from accurate and the time window does not permit the separation of short term variability from a longer te... The paper by Peterson and Li (Environ Earth Sci, doi:10.1007/s12665-014-3498-9, 2014) assumes sea level rise induced by global warming is real, and sea levels may rise by 2100 m, and they go on to derive ecological conclusions from this. We show here that sea levels are rising slowly, both worldwide and in North Carolina, based on real tide gauge d... The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) satellite provides the first measured CO2 flux data that can be used to determine if a region is sequestering or emitting CO2. Results differ considerably from the popular accepted view. In the specific case of Australia, the observational data show this country is a top sequestering and not a top em... The global mean sea level (GMSL) changes derived from modelling do not match actual measurements of sea level and should not be trusted. Compilations of individual tide gauges of sufficient quality and length provide much more reliable information. The present work is a contribution towards a better understanding of the observed of sea levels in In... The threat of dangerous climate change from anthropogenic global warming has decreased. Global temperature rose from 1975 to 1998, but since then has levelled off. Sea level is now rising at about 1.5mm per year based on tide gauges, and satellite data suggests it may even be falling. Coral islands once allegedly threatened by drowning have actuall... Graphs of sea level for twelve locations in the southwest Pacific show stable sea level for about ten years over the region. The data are compared with results from elsewhere, all of which suggest that any rise of global sea level is negligible. The Darwin theory of coral formation, and subsidence ideas for guyots would suggest that we should see m... Some huge landslides have occurred in deeply weathered rock, but most geologists and engineers do not appreciate the great depths that weathering can attain. Rocks can be weathered to depths of hundreds of metres, often in a very irregular manner. Fresh rock is converted to weathered rock called saprolite by isometric chemical alteration. Some sapr... The “seven-coloured earth” of Chamarel is a geological curiosity and a major tourist attraction of Mauritius. This is a small (∼7500 m2) area of strikingly bare landscape showing well-developed rills and various shades of red, brown, grey, and purple. Curiously, it is located within a large, dense forest. Prevalent misconceptions are that the lands... An outstanding collection of international case studies that provide insight into and suggest best practice for issues such as conservation, risk management, education, marketing, interpretation and technology of actual and developing geotourism sites. Selected recent findings related to climate change in Hong Kong include: (1) The Hong Kong seafloor has yielded a ~0.5-million year record of climate and sea-level changes. (2) Greenhouse gases produced naturally from sub-aerially exposed continental shelves were a probable forcing mechanism in triggering the termination of past ice ages. (3) An an... In the Deccan region of western India ferricrete duricrusts, usually described as laterites, cap some basalt summits east of the Western Ghats escarpment, basalts of the low-lying Konkan Plain to its west, as well as some sizeable isolated basalt plateaus rising from the Plain. The duricrusts are iron-cemented saprolite with vermiform hollows, but... The thickest development of Carboniferous Limestone in Great Britain (about 1200 m) is in the Pembroke Peninsula of SW Wales. In various places, the regularity of the normally well-stratified limestone is broken by zones of disturbance, which are spectacularly displayed in magnificent near-vertical cliff sections. The zones generally occupy the who... Planation surfaces are an old-fashioned topic in geomorphology, but they are nevertheless important where they make up much of the landscape. Northern Ethiopia is largely a stepped topography, caused by differential erosion. Exhumation of old planation surfaces that were preserved under sedimentary or volcanic cover is an important process in lands... Landscape evolution is on the same time-scale as global tectonics, biological evolution, and major climatic change. Some features of global change reflected in landscape evolution result from the breakup of Pangaea. Others relate to major climatic changes, and yet others to a major change from a dominantly plains landscape of the Mesozoic to an inc... Six years after the special issues No. 2 and 3 (2001) of our Journal were devoted to « volcanic geomorphology »,and two years after the Supplement Band 140 of Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie, this new volume focuses once again on the geomorphology of volcanoes. This special issue contains six of the twelve contributions that were presented during th... Studies in weathering and slope movements—an introduction Weathering can be studied in its own right, but often it is an important component in investigations in other fields. This special issue of Geomorphology contains eight of the 16 contributions presented during the session on "Slope movements in weathered materials: recognition, analysis and... Evidence from geomorphology and mineralogy is presented which indicates that many tropical soils in Uganda are formed on pre-weathered rock. The first cycle of weathering took place before the formation of the African surface, probably in Mid-Tertiary times or earlier. Further weathering and pedological change is taking place in the present cycle.A... The islands of northeast Fiji studied are all the emergent parts of the northern end of the Lau–Colville Ridge, a remnant island arc which has been rising for most of the Quaternary. Within the study area, investigations of coastal landforms (primarily emerged notches and shore platforms) and emerged coral reefs allow rates of tectonic movements to... Landscape evolution of Australia is on the same time scale as global tectonics and biological evolution. In places, actual landforms and deep weathering products are hundreds of millions of years old. Much of Australia has a landscape resulting from stripping of weathered rock after an earlier period of very deep weathering. Other regions have sequ... After a review of previous ideas on the morphogenesis of southern Norway, a description of relief features is presented and a comparison with the suite of landforms occurring at the passive continental margin of eastern Australia is performed. Major landscape features such as high plateaux, a great escarpment, and a coastal plain are similar in the... Analysis of radial, centripetal and gutter drainage in the volcanic region of northern Viti Levu, Fiji, enabled the delineation of several distinct volcanoes, despite the early Pliocene age and considerable later erosion. Three main shields with calderas and several smaller volcanoes are mapped. The results are consistent with some other geological... In Early Miocene times the Cordillera did not exist and the Pacific Ocean reached the Oriente. In the Middle Miocene, the uplift of an elongated swell, consisting of Palaeozoic and older rocks, created the Eastern Cordillera. Decollements were activated diverging away from the Eastern Cordillera. In the eastern trench, located approximately in corr... This paper is part of the special publication No.162, Uplift, erosion and stability : perspectives on long-term landscape development. (eds: B.J. Smith, W.B. Whalley and P.A. Warke). A traverse of Ecuador crosses five planated units including two main horsts which constitute the Andean Cordillera. A single surface once extended across all units, an... Aims to integrate the different views of geomorphologists, hydrologists and chemists. Begins with an introduction to regolith studies and continues with an outline of weathering mechanisms and the weathering of minerals and rocks. Discusses hydrology within the regolith; how climate influences regolith development; landforms and surficial sediments... The palaeoplain is the terrestrial continental surface, little changed from the landsurface that existed before continental breakup. The basal unconformity occurs offshore, separating older continental rocks from younger post-rift sediments. This paper considers the palaeoplain and the basal unconformity to be the same surface. It presents a hypoth... In southeast Australia the history of river development, basin sedimentation and the evolution of major divides can all be correlated. The region has a basement of Palaeozoic rocks eroded to a palaeoplain on which lie two sedimentary basins separated by a system of warp axes. The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is Mesozoic; The Murray Basin is Cenozoic.... Considers some misconceptions related to weathering processes, catenas, vertical or lateral movements, landscape lowering, equilibrium, and the relevance of past and present climates, and stresses the need for care in both pure and applied regolith research. Rivers flowing north and west across southeastern Australia are older than the formation of the eastern continental margin and the Murray Basin. In the Jurassic and most of the Cretaceous, Australia was bound by land to the east (Pacifica), from which rivers carried sediment to the Eromanga-Surat Basin. The Otway-Gippsland Basin, bound to the north... The Clarence River on Australia's east coast has an anomalous drainage pattern. Its right-bank tributaries are markedly barbed, suggesting reversal, whereas Tertiary volcanism has disrupted its left-bank drainage. The southeast-flowing Clarence is closely aligned with the northwest-flowing Condamine River just across the Continental Divide. The Con... In Cape York Peninsula ferricrete is found in a wide variety of locations, including scarp edges, lower valley slopes, around surface depressions, on gently sloping interfluves and on recently eroded surfaces. Ferricretes are not associated with any particular geomorphic surfaces, but rather occur where conditions are suitable for iron accumulation... The laterite profile consists of ferricrete overlying saprolite. Examples from our field observations and from the literature demonstrate that in many, if not all, cases ferricrete consists of detrital material younger than the underlying weathering zone(s) from which it is separated by an unconformity. Heretofore, a detrital origin for ferricretes... The Lake Albert region is described as an example of a rift valley. It is far more complex than the typical graben used by rift valley modellers. The northern section is a complex half graben with en echelon faults and warps on the west. The central section is a graben, but with uplift axes remote from the faults. The southern section is complicate... Australian regolith materials are described, many of which are complex. Much Australian regolith dates back to the Tertiary, Mesozoic or earlier. There is a progressive change in the nature of alluvium through the Tertiary. Aridity, revealed through sand dunes and evaporites, is confined to the Quaternary. Ferricretes and silcretes are formed on lo... Palaeomagnetic dating of Australia's regolith is becoming more refined with advances in techniques and better definition of the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic apparent polar wander path of Australia. The suspected great antiquity of parts of the regolith is being confirmed through the application of palaeomagnetic dating to authigenic iron oxides which... Gabbro at The Crescent, New England, gives an apatite fission track age consistent with K‐Ar ages of basalts on the Dorrigo Plateau, supporting the hypothesis of a Miocene shield volcano centred on The Crescent intrusive complex. Fluvial sediments in paleovaileys cut in the Ashburton surface of the Davenport province of central Australia form terrace remnants that appear to retain their original depositional tops and have probably existed as subaerial landforms since their inception. Marine fossils in sediments conformable with the fluvial sediments near the southeast margi... Altered granites are sometimes attributed to deep weathering, and sometimes to hydrothermal alteration. The nature of the evidence for the latter is discussed, and found inadequate in many instances. The alteration at Bega, Australia, and Dartmoor, England, is considered to result from deep weathering. Burning logs near granodiorite rocks in the Armidale region caused severe disintegration including radial and tangential cracking and rocks broken right through the middle. The prevalence of bushfires suggest the process may be important in rock disintegration in Australia. The mechanism of rock splitting by heat is discussed: the coefficient of ex... The Dorrigo Plateau is covered by basalt, which is a remnant of the 18 Ma old Ebor Volcano. The centre of this volcano is an intrusion in the Bellinger Valley. The volcano was erupted on a palaeoplain of moderate relief. Subsequent uplift and tilting led to erosion of the Nambucca Beds, together with much of the volcano, and creation of a major esc... Potassium-argon ages measured on 11 volcanic rocks, mainly lavas, from Tristan da Cunha range from 0.21 ± 0.01 to 0.01 ± 0.02 Ma, and confirm the youthfulness of this volcano, which lies on the Walvis Ridge just to the east of the crest of the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The landforms on the Omara granodiorite of Fergusson Island consist of finely dissected terrain with V-shaped valleys, generally straight slopes and sharp ridge crests, giving a feral relief. The main processes of landscape development are surface wash, mass movement, and stream incision. Weathering and slope denudation apparently keep pace with bu... Surficial gneiss domes are previously undescribed landforms 2 to 3000m high and tens of kilometres across, consisting of gneiss and with the form of a dissected dome. On geomorphic grounds it is extremely unlikely that the domes could be formed by differential erosion, so it is proposed that they emerged at the ground surface by shouldering aside t... Surficial gneiss domes are previously undescribed landforms two to three thousand metres high and tens of kilometres across, consisting of gneiss; they have the form of a dissected dome. On geomorphic grounds it is unlikely that the domes could be formed by differential erosion, so it is proposed that they emerged at the ground surface by shoulderi... By means of examples it is demonstrated that much of the geomorphology of Australia dates back to early Cenozoic, Mesozoic and even Palaeozoic times. Papua-New Guinea is built of several fragments that had different histories before they collided with the Australian plate, and it is meaningless to construct a geomorphic history on the present map o... Investigations described from three Victorian damsites indicate that weathering of Ordovician bedrock is increased where it is overlain by basalt, even though the basalt is little weathered. Sub‐basaltic weathering may account for the fact that weathered rock beneath a Jurassic lava flow gives a weathering remagnetization age of Mid‐Cainozoic, cons... Spheroidal weathering, in which concentric shells completely surround a corestone, is distinguished from other types of exfoliation. After a brief description of field observations, the many suggested causes of spheroidal weathering are discussed. Hypotheses proposed involve expansion (produced in various ways), unloading, constant volume alteratio... Most research into the geomorphology of mountains since the 1970s accepts the plate tectonic explanation of mountains, that mountains are a result of collision along con-verging plate boundaries. For example, the first paragraph of Chapter 2 in Owens and Slaymaker (2004) states that mountain systems "are major belts of pervasive deforma-tion". But... Global warming alarmists have suggested that the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica may collapse, causing disastrous sea level rise. This idea is based on the concept of an ice sheet sliding down an inclined plane on a base lubricated by meltwater, which is itself increasing because of global warming. In reality the Greenland and Antarctic ice... Graphs of sea level for twelve locations in the southwest Pacific show stable sea level for about ten years over the region. The data are compared with results from elsewhere, all of which suggest that any rise of global sea level is negligible. The Darwin theory of coral formation, and subsidence ideas for guyots would suggest that we should see m... The Buwekula catena occupies a tor landscape which was formed in two stages, as in Linton's two-cycle theory. Weathering under present conditions has been traced from the proportions of minerals. Feldspar and magnetite show weathering trends and among non-opaque heavy minerals there is an order of weatherability in the series biotite, muscovite, an...	https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cliff-Ollier
Carmen Tang discusses the sensitivity of DNA data and specific measures individuals should be aware of in order to protect their privacy rights. From COVID-19 to genetic testing, all individuals should understand the implications that transparency, security and use limitations have on our lives and avoid possible misuse of genetic data. Show Notes 00:41 Why DNA is sensitive data? 01:25 COVID-19 testing and DNA 02:37 Genetic testing kits and privacy concerns 05:17 Way forward TRANSCRIPT Carmen Tang 00:08 DNA and Data Privacy Since the outbreak of COVID-19, this pandemic has escalated into a global crisis and governments around the world have taken a lot of steps to contain this aggressive virus. Other than quarantine measures, mass COVID-19 testing involves collection of biometric data. Biometric data includes the physiological data which individuals are born with and behavioral data developed by an individual after birth. This includes DNA samples, fingerprints and facial images. 00:41 Why DNA is sensitive data? DNA is known to reveal the congenital conditions of an individual, including gender and ethnic origins. Experts believe that DNA data may also uncover one’s mental health conditions and even personality traits. Therefore, any wrongful disclosure of DNA data could lead to unintended or unauthorized identification of individuals, or even discrimination based on the results of analyzing DNA data. Due to the sensitive nature of DNA, precautions must be taken to protect such data. We should make informed decisions when deciding whether we let our DNA data be collected. 01:25 COVID-19 testing and DNA There are various underlying concerns related to the COVID-19 test undertaken by the Hong Kong Government. Participants would undergo a throat swab and their saliva specimen would be sent to laboratories for testing. Studies show that up to 74% of DNA in saliva comes from white blood cells, which are an excellent source of high-quality genomic DNA. This means that a lot of intimate genetic information could be derived from your saliva specimen. Privacy concerns include possibility of hacking if testing laboratories do not have strong data security. It may also be unclear who your DNA data would be transferred to. While many non-profit, research-based institutions may need DNA data for academic purposes, it is also possible that your DNA data might be disclosed to governmental authorities or for law enforcement use. Therefore, it is not surprising that some citizens have reservations about such testing, considering the underlying data privacy risks. 02:37 Genetic testing kits and privacy concerns The business of personal genetic-testing kits is booming at an unprecedented rate. Consumers will be able to take mail-in genetic tests at home, usually in the form of a cheek swab or saliva sample. They will be able to learn about their ancestry and health risks from the results. While there are controversies as to the accuracy and reliability of these test results, the biggest risk involved in taking DNA tests is related to data privacy. As a consumer, you should make sure you have considered the data privacy implications before you sign up for a DNA test. - Transparency 03:32 Companies should inform each data subject on or before their DNA collection, the purpose for which their DNA data is to be used and collected. They should also make clear to you who may access your DNA data and under what circumstances may such access be given. For example, companies may let you choose whether your DNA data can be shared with research partners. The names of the research partners as well as the class of employees allowed to deal with the DNA data should be specified. - Data security 04:03 Please remember to check whether the company has taken practical steps to ensure that DNA data is protected against unauthorized or accidental access, processing or loss. Given the sensitivity of DNA data, it is essential for companies to guard against risk of compromising and thieving of such data. Security measures include regular evaluation of information and communications systems used to store and process the DNA. DNA data should be encrypted in storage and when in transit. Further, access to DNA data should be restricted to authorized persons and only at need to know basis. All access should be recorded and logged. - Use limitation 04:45 Companies must bear in mind that in general they are not allowed to use personal data collected for a new purpose without the express and voluntary consent from you, their data subjects. In particular, DNA contains rich information about an individual’s physical health and even mental conditions. For example, DNA tests carried out as part of a health benefits plan offered by an employer should not be used by the employer to determine the employability of the employee. 05:17 Way forward Globally, genetic testing kits are of growing popularity. Current legislation may not be able to cover loopholes created by new technological development in biometric data collection. It is important for you – as a consumer – to be alert and be aware of your data privacy rights in order to safeguard your genetic information. This video is for informational purposes only. Its contents do not constitute legal or professional advice.	https://www.hugillandip.com/2020/12/dna-and-data-privacy/
You limited your search to: Department: Department of Composition Year: 2002 Degree Discipline: Composition Collection: UNT Theses and Dissertations Breaking Through: A Composition for Symphony Orchestra Date: August 2002 Creator: Dribus, John Alexander Description: Breaking Through is a single-movement composition for symphony orchestra based on a fourteen-note melody. Every harmonic and melodic figure except the bass line is derived from this source melody. The structure of the work is based on a number of musical dichotomies that work on both local and large-scale levels. The local dichotomies contrast consonance with dissonance and ambiguity with clarity (in respect to texture and rhythm). The dichotomy of two-part form versus three-part form and the dichotomy of simplicity versus complexity operate on the large scale. The unity lended by the single source melody coupled with the contrasts furnished by the aforementioned dichotomies allow Breaking Through to be both coherent and interesting. Contributing Partner: UNT Libraries Permallink:digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3186/ Pilgrim Carnival Date: August 2002 Creator: House, Kayli Description: This thesis explores an experimental music approach to writing autobiography. As a composition, Pilgrim Carnival took place as a travelling series of events. The central event was a sound installation for a blindfolded audience. This essay is a description of that series of events as well as a discussion of similar precedents in interdisciplinary art. Beginning with Luigi Russolo and Marcel Duchamp, aspects of autobiography are examined in both noise music and the concept of the ready-made artwork. Body Art of the 1970s, particularly the work of Marina Abramovic, is also tied into the idea of the ready-made artwork as an explicitly autobiographical example. The hybrid form of Pilgrim Carnival and the concept of ready-made autobiographical music create ongoing potential for new work.	http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/UNTETD/browse/?fq=str_degree_discipline%3AComposition&fq=str_degree_department%3ADepartment+of+Composition&fq=str_year%3A2002
The doctrine of proportionality has long been a part of governing the use of force under international law. It is understood to mean that the harm likely to be caused by the proposed action (in the case of drones, a targeted strike which is likely to result in the deaths of one or more people) must be “proportional” to the threat that the intended target poses. The application of the long established doctrine in non-battlefield situations, however, raises many practical questions. In certain situations, the doctrine should not be difficult to apply. For example, if the feared harm is an imminent attack on a large civilian population, then the use of a precision weapon targeted at the leaders actively involved in the attack would seem to meet the proportionality standard. However, other circumstances present difficulties in applying this doctrine. Consider the hypothetical that a confirmed senior Al Qaeda official is spotted by a Predator drone. The official has been difficult to locate, and while he does not pose any immediate threat, U.S. officials cannot be sure that it can find him again before the threat becomes imminent. Therefore, the situation represents a window of last opportunity. This situation seems relatively straightforward as a justified targeting if the U.S. chose to do so. However, add to the hypothetical that the official is on the same compound as a number of women and children who have no known Al Qaeda connections. So consider these questions: - Is the death of the innocents acceptable under the doctrine of proportionality? - Is the level of collateral damage that is acceptable influenced by the either the imminence or scope of the threat posed by the Al Qaeda leader? - Who is qualified to make the decision on proportionality and the acceptable collateral damage in such a situation? - Is the legal equation altered if the number of innocents is greater or lesser?	http://www.gallowayfoundation.org/drone-warfare/proportionality/
Examinations are a fundamental (and often stressful) component of the contemporary college experience. Prospective undergrads can expect to take dozens of tests and quizzes between now and graduation day. The format and style of these exams vary by subject, level, and instructor. The most successful college students learn to adapt their test-taking and studying strategies accordingly. We've broken down the different types of exams found on college-level examinations and assembled a few of our favorite tips for approaching different testing material and improving studying comprehension. The bottom line is simple: there is no substitute for thorough, thoughtful studying. First, we’ll discuss different exam formats you are likely to encounter as a college student. Let's begin by listing some effective strategies and tactics that will help you excel during any exam, regardless of structure. By the same token, it's important to pace yourself, especially if you are given two or three hours to complete the exam. Hyman and Jacobs suggest taking a brief break between completed sections if time allows. Also, try not to feel overly panicked if you encounter a problematic section or set of questions. “Ignore such instantaneous feedback,” they write. Finally, avoid leaving class once the exam is over, even though your professor might allow it; if you finish before time expires, take some extra time to proofread your essays and double-check your answers to multiple-choice and fill-in-the blank questions. 2. Carefully follow all of the directions: Many students are tempted to breeze through their exam instructions in order to capitalize on the time they've been allotted, but an exam tutorial from St. Edward's University urges test-takers to meticulously review all of the directions. Some exams only require students to complete a certain number of the questions or essays (as opposed to all of them), so a quick read-through could potentially save you a lot of time. 3. Don't second-guess yourself…too much: “Trust your instinct” is, according to many academic experts, a tried-and-true exam-taking aphorism. However, there are pros and cons to second-guessing yourself on the day of the big exam. You should only regard your instincts as trustworthy if you have taken the time to thoroughly study the material that appears on your exam. Now that we've discussed some effective strategies for all college exams, let's explore the three most common testing formats. Since multiple-choice questions are found on many high school exams (as well as the SAT, PSAT, and standardized tests in all 50 states), most college students are familiar with this format before enrolling in their first batch of undergraduate courses. These questions are typically accompanied by three to six possible answers; in some cases, more than one answer may be correct. The following example illustrates a standard multiple-choice question. Which of the following individuals DID NOT sign the Declaration of Independence? If the student is instructed to circle only one answer choice, then D would be considered the most correct. However, A, B, C, D, and E are all technically correct, as Group 12 is comprised of elements with each of the three occurrence properties. Tips for multiple-choice questions: According to a study guide from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), multiple-choice questions require students “to be familiar with a much broader range of material than essay exams do” because there are so many different answer possibilities. These questions force students to memorize key dates, formulas, vocabulary terms, and other assorted materials. You might score a few extra points from sheer guesswork, but, by and large, students should not expect to score a high exam grade by “bluffing” their way through multiple-choice questions. First,try to answer the questions before looking at your options. If you are comfortable with the material, you should be able to provide your own answer. Then,if your answer isn’t one of the choices, look for the answer that most closely matches your original guess. Finally, it's important that you not waste too much time on particularly tough questions. Give yourself some time for guesswork/elimination, but if you haven't derived an answer after a minute or so, then your best course of action is to move on. If time allows, return to the problematic question(s) once you've completed the rest of the exam. True or false: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and William Faulkner were all part of the ‘Lost Generation' literary movement. The answer is false. While Fitzgerald and Stein were members of The Lost Generation movement, most literary scholars do not include Faulkner in that grouping. Here's another example of a relatively tricky true/false question. The answer to this question is also false. This formula is part of classical mechanical theory, whereas relativistic mechanical theorists believe this formula is only practical for relatively slow speeds. The Office of Academic Services at Providence College suggests the following approach to true/false questions: assume all of the statements are true, and then analyze each sentence for any word or phrase that makes the statement false. Remember, the entire statement is false if one part of it is false, regardless of whether the rest of the statement is true. Compare and contrast the lives and careers of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. How did the backgrounds of both men influence their individual literary styles? Supporting paragraph #1: The first supporting paragraph should include the strongest arguments, and begin with a “reverse hook” that coincides with the transitional hook at the end of the introduction. Outline the main crux of the paragraph in the first two sentences, and then proceed to back up your claim with evidence of the argument, ending with a transitional hook that leads into the next paragraph. Supporting paragraph #2: Fittingly, the second supporting paragraph should contain the second strongest argument. As with the first supporting paragraph, begin the second with a reverse hook that responds to the previous transitional hook, but also make sure the paragraph ties in with the introductory thesis statement. Supporting paragraph #3: This final supporting paragraph can contain a third argument (the weakest of the three) or a slight rebuttal that you will address before the paragraph is finished. In either case, end the third supporting paragraph with a statement that suggests this is the final main point of the essay. Conclusion: The final paragraph of your essay should echo the thesis statement without repeating it verbatim, and include a brief summary of the three main points without introducing any new information. Using the essay question above, we can now take you through the thought process needed to come up with a sentence-for-sentence flow to each of the major sections of the essay. Supporting paragraph #1: You might begin this paragraph by noting the two authors came from relatively wealthy families. Their affluent upbringings allowed both men to study literature during their formative years, and this exposure inspired both of them to write fiction at a young age. However, only one ― Tolstoy ― had a family that supported his desire to write professionally; Dostoevsky's parents sent him to an engineering academy, a decision he strongly protested. Notably, both men served in the Russian military, and later used their experiences as fodder for their stories. Supporting paragraph #2: In this paragraph, you could discuss the different post-military careers of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The former went on to become a successful author not long after his stint in the Russian army, while the latter was exiled in Siberia for eight years. Perhaps as a result, Tolstoy's novels gravitated toward Russian nobility, while Dostoevsky's novels were more focused on criminal activities and the Russian legal system. Supporting paragraph #3: This final paragraph might be a good place to mention the differing critical responses both authors received, both during their lifetimes and among contemporary scholars. While Tolstoy was immediately revered as a brilliant writer and is, today, widely considered one of the world's greatest authors of all-time, Dostoevsky received negative reviews throughout his career, and his reputation among today's literary theorists is decidedly more mixed. Conclusion: The conclusion should reiterate that Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were very different writers, despite some lingering similarities, but that both men managed to become iconic figures of late 19th-century Russian literature. Please note that exams may call for short and/or long essays. Although there are obvious length differences between these two types, you can use the same five-paragraph template for both. The most effective way to combat test anxiety is academic preparedness. By thoroughly studying all course materials, rewriting notes, creating study guides, and meeting with other students to go over test content, you will be much more confident before and after the exam. Additionally, the ADAA recommends the following strategies for staving off test anxiety. Hone your exam-taking skills: As mentioned above, you're much more likely to earn a good test grade by carefully reading the instructions, budgeting your time wisely, and using different approaches to multiple-choice, true/false, and essay questions. Stay positive: Before taking the exam, make the active decision to be satisfied with any possible outcome. If you receive a high grade, reward yourself with a fancy dinner or recreational pursuit; if your grades are low, resolve to study harder for the next exam and adopt more effective habits without sacrificing your positive attitude. “Remember that your self-worth should not be dependent on or defined by a test grade,” notes the ADAA. Concentrate on the exam: Don't let your attention drift to other students, your professor, your plans that evening, or anything else except the exam itself. Maintain healthy habits: Many factors will influence how you perform on an exam, including those completely unrelated to your studies. These include diet, exercise, unhealthy habits (like smoking or excessive alcohol consumption), and the amount of sleep you receive each night. You can prepare in advance for major exams by eating healthy meals, getting at least seven and a half hours of sleep per night, and getting plenty of exercise in the days leading up to the test date. Meet with your school counselor: If your test anxiety is becoming too much to handle on your own, then a visit to your school's counseling office might be in order. College-level counselors are trained to address common student problems like test anxiety, and these individuals might be able to provide the additional support you need to succeed. Today's students have a wealth of study resources at their fingertips. The following sites are designed to help students improve their study habits, reduce test anxiety, and earn high grades on exams in all subjects. A Guide to Testing Smart on Multiple-Choice Exams: This eight-page tutorial from Michigan State University professor Gillian Bice, Ph.D., discusses several different approaches to multiple-choice exams ― both advantageous and problematic. Dr. Bice also explores ways for students to mitigate the physical, emotional, and mental effects of test anxiety. Writing Essays for Exams: This comprehensive tutorial from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) explores proper essay-writing techniques for different exam formats. Six different “organizational patterns” for exam essays ― definition, analysis, cause and effect, comparison/contrast, process analysis, and thesis-support ― are covered in the tutorial. How to Study: Studying Tips for College Students: This infographic from Rasmussen College discusses some of the most effective and ineffective methods of studying for a university-level exam. Points of discussion include the optimal amount of time you should devote to studying, the pros and cons of cramming vs. long-term studying, and the disadvantages of listening to music while reviewing course materials. Educational Testing Service (the organization that offers GRE exams) provides sample test questions for all three sections of the GRE, as well as detailed guides specific to both the computer- and paper-based formats. In addition to study guides for both English and math, The Princeton Review offers services for students who wish to obtain private tutors for the GRE, enter small study groups, enroll in a classroom tutorial course, and/or undergo a self-paced study course. Kaplan Test Prep provides links for both classroom- and video-based GRE tutorials, as well as sample test questions for first time exam-takers. Platinum GMAT offers detailed guides to all of the math and writing components of the GMAT, as well as a few sets of practice questions. The Princeton Review allows web users to take an online practice GMAT exam; links for brick-and-mortar practice tests are also provided. The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) offers several comprehensive study guides for sale on its official site; most books are relatively inexpensive, priced between $30 and $40 apiece. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) offers “The Official LSAT Preptest,” which is roughly 30 pages in length. In addition to an online practice version of the LSAT, The Princeton Review offers links for those who wish to take a classroom-based practice exam. The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) offers detailed guides to all sections of the MCAT, including the optional trial section. The Princeton Review offers three options for prospective MCAT-takers: links for classroom-based tutorials and practice exams, an online version of the test, and “free access” to online diagnostic exams.	https://www.onlineschools.org/college-test-guide/
How do you write a training agenda? How to Construct a Training Agenda In this manner, How do you write a basic agenda? On the other hand, Is there an agenda template in Word? Explore the wide variety of free agenda templates, including the classic meeting agenda template in Word and the flexible agenda in Excel. You'll find an agenda format that will help you keep your meeting on track and on task. At same time, How do you make an agenda outline? Put together your main topics by order of importance. Decide what topics should go first on the outline based on how important they are, how much time you'll need to discuss them and special considerations, such as the person presenting that portion of the meeting needing to leave early, for instance. What are examples of training methods? The best types of employee training methods for your workforce may include: Related Question for Training Agenda Template What is a training plan template? The Training Plan Template is designed to help guide your team's planning process in developing a training program. This tool can be used to guide discussions around rationale, core components, knowledge, skills, outcomes and assessment. ⇗ What is an example of an agenda? An agenda should include a few basic elements. Agenda items example include: A short meeting agenda lists the ultimate meeting goal. This can be anything from deciding who will take the lead on the next advertising campaign to how collected charity funds will be distributed. ⇗ What is agenda and its format? An agenda, also called a docket or a schedule, is a list of activities in the order they are to be taken up, from the beginning till the adjournment. An agenda helps in preparing for a meeting by providing a list of items and a clear set of topics, objectives, and time frames that are needed to be discussed upon. ⇗ What is the order of an agenda? Create an agenda centered around the meeting goal using order of business to prioritize: first minutes, then reports, followed by time-sensitive situations, unfinished business, general items, and new business. ⇗ How do I create a meeting agenda template in Word? How do I send an email to agenda? How do I number my agenda items? The standard format has the word "Agenda" at the top of the page. Under "agenda," write the company name, date and time of the meeting. Each main item on the agenda is proceeded by a number or roman numeral as follows: "I. Introduction, II. ⇗ What should a good agenda include? In its simplest form, an agenda sets out the list of items to be discussed at a meeting. It should include: The purpose of the meeting; and. The order in which items are to be discussed, so that the meeting achieves its purpose. ⇗ How do you create an effective meeting agenda? What is a good agenda for team meeting? Your staff meeting agenda should include: What are the 7 methods of training? The seven methods of training in sports are: What are the 5 types of training? Some of the commonly used training programs are listed below: What are the three types of training needs? There are three different types of training need: What are the 6 steps in developing a training program? How do you draft a training plan? What should be included in a training template?	https://www.shilbrook.com/training-agenda-template/
Latest Articles: - • Change your diet, change your blood • - • Balance Your Sleep Cycle • - • Foods for the Winter Season • Tag Archives: autoimmune Acupuncture and Autoimmune Diseases Autoimmune diseases are a collective group of disorders that plague nearly 50 million people in the United States today. When a person suffers from an autoimmune disease it means their own immune system is attacking the body and altering or destroying the tissues. Autoimmune diseases include things like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, pernicious anemia, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel disease and Parkinson’s disease.… Read the rest Acupuncture for Immune Deficiency There are more than 80 chronic illnesses that are immune related including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, thyroid disease, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, and celiac disease.	https://www.healingpointonline.com/tag/autoimmune/
- This event has passed. Global Women Inspirational Influencers Summit May 11 - May 13 Global Women Inspirational Influencers summit is an interactive platform that enables industry leaders to exchange views, discuss policies and share experiences for women Inspirational Influencers. It is a forum for likeminded professionals both men and women who feel gender is an important organizational issue which impacts the profitability and overall health of institution and also impacts the social set up of a region. Women Inspirational Influencers Conference brings discussion, thought leadership and sharing of best practices across Health & Wellness, Financial Literacy, Women in Leadership, Women in Entrepreneurship and Mentorship & paying it forward. It is dedicated to the goal of connecting women across various ages, professions and diverse backgrounds to bring the discussion around eliminating gender, pay and socio-economic gaps.	http://nicolemartin.live/event/global-women-inspirational-influencers-summit/
Where significance deals with Type I errors (false positives), power deals with Type II errors (false negatives). In social science, typically the researcher wishes the significance level to be .05 or lower (less than 5% chance a relationship as strong or stronger than that observed would occur just by chance of sampling -that is, less than 5% chance of a Type I error) and the researcher wishes the power to be .80 or higher (less than 20% chance that a relationship found non-significant is actually significant; put another way, at least 80% chance of not making a Type II error)). The larger the sample size, the easier it is for the researcher to achieve the .05 significance and .80 power cut-offs. One form of power analysis is directed at determining in advance of sampling the minimum needed sample size to achieve the needed level of power. Too small a sample will expose research findings to Type II errors due to insufficient power. Too large a sample incurs unnecessary expense for the research project. Just as there are a large number of tests of significance (ex., chi-square significance, significance of a correlation coefficient, significance of a regression weight, etc.), so too power analysis will vary according to the significance test under consideration. In SPSS, the power analysis module is "SamplePower", which supports power analysis for tests of the significance of means and differences in means, proportions and differences in proportions, correlation, oneway and factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), regression and logistic regression, survival analysis, and equivalence tests for means and proportions. Below, the free, widely-used G*Power package for power analysis and sample size estimation is also presented. The full content is now available from Statistical Associates Publishers. Click here. Below is the unformatted table of contents.	https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/PA765/poweranalysis.htm
Q: Relational algebra: if $f^{'}: E/ {\sim} \rightarrow X$ then $f^{'}$ is unique. Let $E$ be a set, and $\sim$ an equivalence relation on $E$, and let $p$ be a projection such that $p : E \rightarrow E/{\sim}$, and $x \sim y$ implies that $f(x)=f(y)$. Then there exists a unique $f' : E/ {\sim} \rightarrow X$ such that $f = f' \circ p$. Now, there is a proof for the fact that $f'$ is unique, which I am unable to understand. It follows from the fact that $p$ is surjective, and by supposing that there are two distinct functions $g,h$ such that $f = g \circ p = h \circ p$, then $g,h$ are identical on $\mathcal{P}(E)$, thus $g=h$, but I am unable to understand how you can come to this conclusion/ A: Let's try fixing your setup. $\sim$ is an equivalence relation on $E$ $p\colon E\to E/{\sim}$ is the projection (mapping $x$ to its equivalence class) $f\colon E\to X$ is a map such that, for all $x,y\in E$, $x\sim y$ implies $f(x)=f(y)$ Under these assumptions you want to show that there exists a unique map $f'\colon E/{\sim}\to X$ such that $f=f'\circ p$. Every element of $E/{\sim}$ is of the form $p(x)$, for some $x\in E$; then $$ f'(p(x))=f'\circ p(x)=f(x) $$ and uniqueness of $f'$ follows. Existence is guaranteed by the fact that $p(x)=p(y)$ if and only if $x\sim y$ and, in this case, $f(x)=f(y)$ by assumption.
–Seth Briars upon finding his "treasure" Let the Dead Bury Their Dead is the fifteenth mission in Red Dead Redemption. To view the mission tree, see: - Main article: Missions in Redemption/Tree Story Marston accompanies Seth to Gaptooth Ridge, where he helps Seth find his "treasure" after first dealing with some armed thugs in and around the mansion and nearby town of Tumbleweed. Walkthrough Mission Prerequisites Before this mission becomes available, the player must complete: Mission Objectives To complete this mission, the player must: - Fight to reach the old mansion in Tumbleweed. - Get inside through the basement doors. - Fight up to the second floor. - Find Seth's treasure. Mission Description Follow Seth through waves of gang members until reaching the mansion. Here there will be close quarter shootouts where the player can easily be killed by the enemies' shotguns. Continue up the stairs and into the next room, take a right and a new cut scene will come on. Mission Dialogues - Main article: Let the Dead Bury Their Dead/dialogues Mission Failure The mission will fail if the player: - Assaults, kills or abandons Seth. - Dies. Gold Medal Objectives - Fastest Time: 2:10 - Shot Accuracy: 80% - Number of Headshots: 14 Tips - Shotguns are very effective when clearing out the basement in the mansion. Trivia - The title of this mission, "Let the Dead Bury Their Dead", is a quote from Jesus in the book of Matthew (8:22) when talking with an unnamed disciple about following Him. - People at camp sites occasionally talk about a family that was eaten by a ghost in Tumbleweed and that all that was left was a glass eye. The eye Seth found may be related to the camp fire story. - Ironically, in the basement, Seth walks past the real treasure for Treasure Hunter Rank 4. - As of June 2014, multiple players have confirmed that after the last cutscene of the mission , they can hear a Zombie Marston growl made by Marston. - In Undead Nightmare the glass eye is one of the rumored sources of the plague. - Additionally, in the DLC, after John clears out the graveyards and returns to Seth, the latter swallows the glass eye. Gallery Video Walkthroughs Achievement Completing this mission contributes toward the following Trophy/Achievement: \| \|\| \| 100 gamerscore Gold gold Attain 100% List in the singleplayer game completion list.	https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/Let_the_Dead_Bury_Their_Dead
The interest rate of 4% per mont... - By oioili - On 18/11/2021 How does a 4 cent interest rate become 8 cents? This is the time cost of capital. Note that we are calculating compound interest, not simple interest. The model formula for calculating the actual APR is = (actual monthly loan interest rate + 1)^12-1 How do you calculate the APR without excel? Simple! For example, cut off the interest, direct interest rate or interest rate * 2 you see the data above,月平息 is not very similar? The second is the equal principal and interest repayment, that is, the monthly principal and interest are repaid a fixed amount. $10,000, calculated at a monthly interest rate of 4% (0.4% * 12 = 4.8% per annum), equal monthly repayments for 12 months, a total of $10,480, but the actual annual interest rate of 9.10%. The 建行業績 difference in the actual APR is so great that it is unbelievable! The first interest rate after repayment in this way. 10,000, interest rate of 4% per month (0.4%, 4.8% p.a.), interest first, then principal in a timely manner each month for 12 months, repaying the interest on the funds at the end of the month + the principal of the entire asset, the total repayment capacity is still $10,480, but the actual interest rate used is 4.91% p.a. The actual interest rate is compounded, and then we do the loan, you can calculate the actual cost of capital. However, just to be able to calculate. Without a good investment, you should not easily borrow money, and even if you borrow money, you should calculate all the costs before you decide. The actual cost of capital will be doubled if a link is not taken care of. Recommended reading: How do you calculate the APR on a bank loan? Die Zinsen für Bankkredite werden in der Regel nach dem Zinseszinsprinzip monatlich berechnet. Es gibt zwei Arten von Ra... ローン成功の秘訣は何ですか？これを見てくださいリメンバー最近はローンを組むのが簡単になりましたが、中にはローンが組めなくて困っている人もいます。1、製品を理解するローンを申し込む前に、まずローン商品を理解し、主要な銀行や金融機関の商品を比較し、月平息個々の状況に応じて最適な商品を選択する必要があ... 年率7.2％の金利とは？信じられないかもしれませんが、計算してみましょうローンマネジメント・プラットフォームでお金を借りると、貸出市場の金利水準に応じて決まる法人金利がかかります。ローン契約でよく使われる金利の形態には、日割り、月割り、年割りの3種類があります。式の適用は、相互に開発された情報間でデータを変換... Menu Contact Available languages Évènements à venir No items to display Agenda Derniers billets - IoT Stability: IoT Needn’t Be the online market place of Threats - What fitness equipment? What fit... - What is the misunderstanding of ... - Can Huoxiang Zhengqi Water cure ... - The interest rate of 4% per mont... - The chicken wing tips, read the ... - What to eat in the afternoon tea...	http://oioi.e-monsite.com/blog/the-interest-rate-of-4-per-mont.html
# Multiple gamma function In mathematics, the multiple gamma function Γ N {\displaystyle \Gamma _{N}} is a generalization of the Euler gamma function and the Barnes G-function. The double gamma function was studied by Barnes (1901). At the end of this paper he mentioned the existence of multiple gamma functions generalizing it, and studied these further in Barnes (1904). Double gamma functions Γ 2 {\displaystyle \Gamma _{2}} are closely related to the q-gamma function, and triple gamma functions Γ 3 {\displaystyle \Gamma _{3}} are related to the elliptic gamma function. ## Definition For ℜ a i > 0 {\displaystyle \Re a_{i}>0} , let where ζ N {\displaystyle \zeta _{N}} is the Barnes zeta function. (This differs by a constant from Barnes's original definition.) ## Properties Considered as a meromorphic function of w {\displaystyle w} , Γ N ( w ∣ a 1 , … , a N ) {\displaystyle \Gamma _{N}(w\mid a_{1},\ldots ,a_{N})} has no zeros. It has poles at w = − ∑ i = 1 N n i a i {\displaystyle w=-\sum _{i=1}^{N}n_{i}a_{i}} for non-negative integers n i {\displaystyle n_{i}} . These poles are simple unless some of them coincide. Up to multiplication by the exponential of a polynomial, Γ N ( w ∣ a 1 , … , a N ) {\displaystyle \Gamma _{N}(w\mid a_{1},\ldots ,a_{N})} is the unique meromorphic function of finite order with these zeros and poles. Γ 0 ( w ∣ ) = 1 w , {\displaystyle \Gamma _{0}(w\mid )={\frac {1}{w}}\ ,} Γ 1 ( w ∣ a ) = a a − 1 w − 1 2 2 π Γ ( a − 1 w ) , {\displaystyle \Gamma _{1}(w\mid a)={\frac {a^{a^{-1}w-{\frac {1}{2}}}}{\sqrt {2\pi }}}\Gamma \left(a^{-1}w\right)\ ,} Γ N ( w ∣ a 1 , … , a N ) = Γ N − 1 ( w ∣ a 1 , … , a N − 1 ) Γ N ( w + a N ∣ a 1 , … , a N ) . {\displaystyle \Gamma _{N}(w\mid a_{1},\ldots ,a_{N})=\Gamma _{N-1}(w\mid a_{1},\ldots ,a_{N-1})\Gamma _{N}(w+a_{N}\mid a_{1},\ldots ,a_{N})\ .} ## Infinite product representation The multiple gamma function has an infinite product representation that makes it manifest that it is meromorphic, and that also makes the positions of its poles manifest. In the case of the double gamma function, this representation is where we define the w {\displaystyle w} -independent coefficients where Res n s = s 0 f ( s ) = 1 2 π i ∮ s 0 ( s − s 0 ) n − 1 f ( s ) d s {\displaystyle {\underset {s=s_{0}}{\operatorname {Res} _{n}}}f(s)={\frac {1}{2\pi i}}\oint _{s_{0}}(s-s_{0})^{n-1}f(s)\,ds} is an n {\displaystyle n} -th order residue at s 0 {\displaystyle s_{0}} . ## Reduction to the Barnes G-function The double gamma function with parameters 1 , 1 {\displaystyle 1,1} obeys the relations It is related to the Barnes G-function by ## The double gamma function and conformal field theory For ℜ b > 0 {\displaystyle \Re b>0} and Q = b + b − 1 {\displaystyle Q=b+b^{-1}} , the function is invariant under b → b − 1 {\displaystyle b\to b^{-1}} , and obeys the relations For ℜ w > 0 {\displaystyle \Re w>0} , it has the integral representation From the function Γ b ( w ) {\displaystyle \Gamma _{b}(w)} , we define the double Sine function S b ( w ) {\displaystyle S_{b}(w)} and the Upsilon function Υ b ( w ) {\displaystyle \Upsilon _{b}(w)} by These functions obey the relations plus the relations that are obtained by b → b − 1 {\displaystyle b\to b^{-1}} . For 0 < ℜ w < ℜ Q {\displaystyle 0<\Re w<\Re Q} they have the integral representations The functions Γ b , S b {\displaystyle \Gamma _{b},S_{b}} and Υ b {\displaystyle \Upsilon _{b}} appear in correlation functions of two-dimensional conformal field theory, with the parameter b {\displaystyle b} being related to the central charge of the underlying Virasoro algebra. In particular, the three-point function of Liouville theory is written in terms of the function Υ b {\displaystyle \Upsilon _{b}} .	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_multiple_gamma_function
1. What's your fondest childhood memory? I had a pretty blessed childhood, so I have a lot of good memories from it and I don't think I could pick out just one as my fondest memory. I especially remember the spring break trips my family took to southern Utah or California for camping, hiking, climbing -- those were always really fun, and it has helped me to feel like most of the Western US is "home" and I learned a lot about landscapes and nature and being on the Earth. I also have some great memories of big parties thrown by my parents or their friends -- lots of dancing and fun stuff to do, huge capture the flag games, good music. 2. Did you have an invisible/imagineary friend when younger? Tell me about them. I always WANTED to have an imaginary friend, but I could never maintain it. So I would spend a lot of time creating this image of my imaginary friend, and then have, like, one conversation with her, and then I'd forget about her for so long that the next time, I'd totally have to reinvent her again. Needless to say, that didn't last long :) 3. Do you still have that imaginary freind now? I'm sure it would be the same pattern now! I just don't seem to have a mind that holds onto that. I think pets serve the purpose of always-accepting "people" in my life that I always thought imaginary friends would serve. Of course, I don't have a pet right now, either, but that'll change eventually... 4. Tell me about your most vivid memory about a household pet if any. I think the most vivid single memory is when I came back from 3 weeks in Jamaica with my parents and saw my cat, Sophie. All the cats in Jamaica were tiny tiny, and they had these cute little mewling voices, and somehow during the time I was there, my template image of "cat" shifted to look like them. So when I got back home, Sophie looked about 3 times bigger than he had been and his voice sounded like a monster cat voice -- I was SURE it couldn't possibly be Sophie, but instead a monster cat who LOOKED like Sophie. By the next day, my "cat" template had reset itself, but I was totally freaked out that first evening. 5. Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin. Whom would you like to meet, what would you ask them and why? Thomas Jefferson. I'd like to ask him how he justifies keeping people as "slaves" and how he feels about having fathered children who he would "own".	https://aroraborealis.livejournal.com/68630.html
By Ina\|2019-04-01T16:05:49+02:00March 21st, 2017\|Categories: Automation, Chatbots & AI\|Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, automated customer communication, Automation, Bot, bots, chatbot, Chatbots, Customized Chatbots, Facebook Messenger, how do chatbots work, Instant Messaging, machine learning, onlim, rules, what are chatbots\|Comments Off on How Do Chatbots Work? Smart chatbots rely on artificial intelligence when they communicate with users. Instead of pre-prepared answers, the robot responds with adequate suggestions on the topic. In addition, all the words said by the customers are recorded for later processing. However, the Forrester report “The State of Chatbots” points out that artificial intelligence is not a magic and is not yet ready to produce marvelous experiences for users on its own. On the contrary, it requires a huge work: Designing for conversational interfaces represents a big shift in the way we are used to thinking about interaction. Chatbots have less signifiers and affordances than websites and apps – which means words have to work harder to deliver clarity, cohesion and utility for the user. It is a change of paradigm that requires designers to re-wire their brain, their deliverables and their design process to create successful bot experiences. Feine, J., Morana, S., and Maedche, A. (2019). “Leveraging Machine-Executable Descriptive Knowledge in Design Science Research ‐ The Case of Designing Socially-Adaptive Chatbots”. In: Extending the Boundaries of Design Science Theory and Practice. Ed. by B. Tulu, S. Djamasbi, G. Leroy. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 76–91. Download Publication ETL. The bot relies on information and knowledge extracted from the raw data by an ETL process in the backend. This data might be structured (SQL database), semi-structured (CRM system, FAQs), or unstructured (Word documents, PDFs, web logs). An ETL subsystem extracts the data on a fixed schedule. The content is transformed and enriched, then loaded into an intermediary data store, such as Cosmos DB or Azure Blob Storage. Using chatbot builder platforms. You can create a chatbot with the help of services providing all the necessary features and integrations. It can be a good choice for an in-house chatbot serving your team. This option is associated with some disadvantages, including the limited configuration and the dependence on the service. Some popular platforms for building chatbots are: The most advanced bots are powered by artificial intelligence, helping it to understand complex requests, personalize responses, and improve interactions over time. This technology is still in its infancy, so most bots follow a set of rules programmed by a human via a bot-building platform. It's as simple as ordering a list of if-then statements and writing canned responses, often without needing to know a line of code. When you have a desperate need for a java fix with minimal human interaction and effort, this bot has you covered. According to a demo led by Gerri Martin-Flickinger, the coffee chain's chief technology officer, the bot even understands complex orders with special requests, like "double upside down macchiato half decaf with room and a splash of cream in a grande cup." All of these conversational technologies employ natural-language-recognition capabilities to discern what the user is saying, and other sophisticated intelligence tools to determine what he or she truly needs to know. These technologies are beginning to use machine learning to learn from interactions and improve the resulting recommendations and responses. Open domain chatbots tends to talk about general topics and give appropriate responses. In other words, the knowledge domain is receptive to a wider pool of knowledge. However, these bots are difficult to perfect because language is so versatile. Conversations on social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit are typically considered open domain — they can go in virtually any direction. Furthermore, the whole context around a query requires common sense to understand many new topics properly, which is even harder for computers to grasp. What began as a televised ad campaign eventually became a fully interactive chatbot developed for PG Tips’ parent company, Unilever (which also happens to own an alarming number of the most commonly known household brands) by London-based agency Ubisend, which specializes in developing bespoke chatbot applications for brands. The aim of the bot was to not only raise brand awareness for PG Tips tea, but also to raise funds for Red Nose Day through the 1 Million Laughs campaign. Cheyer explains Viv like this. Imagine you need to pick up a bottle of wine that goes well with lasagna on the way to your brother's house. If you wanted to do that yourself, you'd need to determine which wine goes well with lasagna (search #1) then find a wine store that carries it (search #2) that is on the way to your brother's house (search #3). Once you have that figured out, you have to calculate what time you need to leave to stop at the wine store on the way (search #4) and still make it to his house on time. For each kind of question, a unique pattern must be available in the database to provide a suitable response. With lots of combination on patterns, it creates a hierarchical structure. We use algorithms to reduce the classifiers and generate the more manageable structure. Computer scientists call it a “Reductionist” approach- in order to give a simplified solution, it reduces the problem. 24/7 digital support. An instant and always accessible assistant is assumed by the more and more digital consumer of the new era. Unlike humans, chatbots once developed and installed don't have a limited workdays, holidays or weekends and are ready to attend queries at any hour of the day. It helps to the customer to avoid waiting of a company's agent to be available. Thus, the customer doesn't have to wait for the company executive to help them. This also lets companies keep an eye on the traffic during the non-working hours and reach out to them later. Chatbots are gaining popularity. Numerous chatbots are being developed and launched on different chat platforms. There are multiple chatbot development platforms like Dialogflow, Chatfuel, Manychat, IBM Watson, Amazon Lex, Mircrosft Bot framework, etc are available using which you can easily create your chatbots. If you are new to chatbot development field and want to jump… Because chatbots are predominantly found on social media messaging platforms, they're able to reach a virtually limitless audience. They can reach a new customer base for your brand by tapping into new demographics, and they can be integrated across multiple messaging applications, thus making you more readily available to help your customers. This, in turn, opens new opportunities for you to increase sales. There was a time when even some of the most prominent minds believed that a machine could not be as intelligent as humans but in 1991, the start of the Loebner Prize competitions began to prove otherwise. The competition awards the best performing chatbot that convinces the judges that it is some form of intelligence. But despite the tremendous development of chatbots and their ability to execute intelligent behavior not displayed by humans, chatbots still do not have the accuracy to understand the context of questions in every situation each time. You can structure these modules to flow in any way you like, ranging from free form to sequential. The Bot Framework SDK provides several libraries that allows you to construct any conversational flow your bot needs. For example, the prompts library allows you to ask users for input, the waterfall library allows you to define a sequence of question/answer pair, the dialog control library allows you to modularized your conversational flow logic, etc. All of these libraries are tied together through a dialogs object. Let's take a closer look at how modules are implemented as dialogs to design and manage conversation flows and see how that flow is similar to the traditional application flow. Foreseeing immense potential, businesses are starting to invest heavily in the burgeoning bot economy. A number of brands and publishers have already deployed bots on messaging and collaboration channels, including HP, 1-800-Flowers, and CNN. While the bot revolution is still in the early phase, many believe 2016 will be the year these conversational interactions take off. Telegram launched its bot API in 2015, and launched version 2.0 of its platform in April 2016, adding support for bots to send rich media and access geolocation services. As with Kik, Telegram’s bots feel spartan and lack compelling features at this point, but that could change over time. Telegram has also yet to add payment features, so there are not yet any shopping-related bots on the platform. In a traditional application, the user interface (UI) is a series of screens. A single app or website can use one or more screens as needed to exchange information with the user. Most applications start with a main screen where users initially land and provide navigation that leads to other screens for various functions like starting a new order, browsing products, or looking for help. “The chat space is sort of the last unpolluted space [on your phone],” said Sam Mandel, who works at the startup studio Betaworks and is also building a weather bot for Slack called Poncho. “It’s like the National Park of people’s online experience. Right now, the way people use chat services, it’s really a good private space that you control.” (That, of course, could quickly go sour if early implementations are too spammy or useless.) These are hardly ideas of Hollywood’s science fiction. Even when the Starbucks bot can sound like Scarlett Johansson’s Samantha, the public will be unimpressed — we would prefer a real human interaction. Yet the public won’t have a choice; efficient task-oriented dialog agents will be the automatic vending machines and airport check-in kiosks of the near future. ELIZA's key method of operation (copied by chatbot designers ever since) involves the recognition of cue words or phrases in the input, and the output of corresponding pre-prepared or pre-programmed responses that can move the conversation forward in an apparently meaningful way (e.g. by responding to any input that contains the word 'MOTHER' with 'TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY'). Thus an illusion of understanding is generated, even though the processing involved has been merely superficial. ELIZA showed that such an illusion is surprisingly easy to generate, because human judges are so ready to give the benefit of the doubt when conversational responses are capable of being interpreted as "intelligent". The front-end app you develop will interact with an AI application. That AI application—usually a hosted service—is the component that interprets user data, directs the flow of the conversation and gathers the information needed for responses. You can then implement the business logic and any other components needed to enable conversations and deliver results. Canadian and US insurers have a lot on their plates this year. They’re not just grappling with extreme weather, substantial underwriting losses from all those motor vehicle claims, but also rising customer expectations and an onslaught of fintech disruptors. These disruptors are spurring lots of activity in insurance digital labs, insurance venture capital arms, and […] How: this is a relatively simple flow to manage, and it could be one part of a much larger bot if you prefer. All you'll need to do is set up the initial flow within Chatfuel to ask the user if they'd like to subscribe to receive content, and if so, how frequently they would like to be updated. Then you can store their answer as a variable that you use for automation. Unfortunately the old adage of trash in, trash out came back to bite Microsoft. Tay was soon being fed racist, sexist and genocidal language by the Twitter user-base, leading her to regurgitate these views. Microsoft eventually took Tay down for some re-tooling, but when it returned the AI was significantly weaker, simply repeating itself before being taken offline indefinitely. “Major shifts on large platforms should be seen as an opportunities for distribution. That said, we need to be careful not to judge the very early prototypes too harshly as the platforms are far from complete. I believe Facebook’s recent launch is the beginning of a new application platform for micro application experiences. The fundamental idea is that customers will interact with just enough UI, whether conversational and/or widgets, to be delighted by a service/brand with immediate access to a rich profile and without the complexities of installing a native app, all fueled by mature advertising products. It’s potentially a massive opportunity.” — Aaron Batalion, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners Open domain chatbots tends to talk about general topics and give appropriate responses. In other words, the knowledge domain is receptive to a wider pool of knowledge. However, these bots are difficult to perfect because language is so versatile. Conversations on social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit are typically considered open domain — they can go in virtually any direction. Furthermore, the whole context around a query requires common sense to understand many new topics properly, which is even harder for computers to grasp. If the success of WeChat in China is any sign, these utility bots are the future. Without ever leaving the messaging app, users can hail a taxi, video chat a friend, order food at a restaurant, and book their next vacation. In fact, WeChat has become so ingrained in society that a business would be considered obsolete without an integration. People who divide their time between China and the West complain that leaving this world behind is akin to stepping back in time. Like most of the Applications, the Chatbot is also connected to the Database. The knowledge base or the database of information is used to feed the chatbot with the information needed to give a suitable response to the user. Data of user’s activities and whether or not your chatbot was able to match their questions, is captured in the data store. NLP translates human language into information with a combination of patterns and text that can be mapped in the real time to find applicable responses. Companies use internet bots to increase online engagement and streamline communication. Companies often use bots to cut down on cost, instead of employing people to communicate with consumers, companies have developed new ways to be efficient. These chatbots are used to answer customers' questions. For example, Domino's has developed a chatbot that can take orders via Facebook Messenger. Chatbots allow companies to allocate their employees' time to more important things. Over the past year, Forrester clients have been brimming with questions about chatbots and their role in customer service. In fact, in that time, more than half of the client inquiries I have received have touched on chatbots, artificial intelligence, natural language understanding, machine learning, and conversational self-service. Many of those inquiries were of the […] However, if you’re trying to develop a sophisticated bot that can understand more than a couple of basic commands, you’re heading down a potentially complicated path. More elaborately coded bots respond to various forms of user questions and responses. The bots have typically been “trained” on databases of thousands of words, queries, or sentences so that they can learn to detect lexical similarity. A good e-commerce bot “knows” that trousers are a kind of pants (if you are in the US), though this is beyond the comprehension of a simple, untrained bot. Facebook has jumped fully on the conversational commerce bandwagon and is betting big that it can turn its popular Messenger app into a business messaging powerhouse. The company first integrated peer-to-peer payments into Messenger in 2015, and then launched a full chatbot API so businesses can create interactions for customers to occur within the Facebook Messenger app. You can order flowers from 1–800-Flowers, browse the latest fashion and make purchases from Spring, and order an Uber, all from within a Messenger chat. It's fair to say that I'm pretty obsessed with chatbots right now. There are some great applications popping up from brands that genuinely add value to the end consumer, and early signs are showing that consumers are actually responding really well to them. For those of you who aren't quite sure what I'm talking about, here's a quick overview of what a chatbot is: Today, consumers are more aware of technology than ever. While some marketers may be worried about overusing automation and chat tools because their tech-savvy audience might notice. Others are embracing the bots and using them to improve the user journey by providing a more personalized experience. Ironically, sometimes bots are the key to adding a human touch to your marketing communications. Next, identify the data sources that will enable the bot to interact intelligently with users. As mentioned earlier, these data sources could contain structured, semi-structured, or unstructured data sets. When you're getting started, a good approach is to make a one-off copy of the data to a central store, such as Cosmos DB or Azure Storage. As you progress, you should create an automated data ingestion pipeline to keep this data current. Options for an automated ingestion pipeline include Data Factory, Functions, and Logic Apps. Depending on the data stores and the schemas, you might use a combination of these approaches. The progressive advance of technology has seen an increase in businesses moving from traditional to digital platforms to transact with consumers. Convenience through technology is being carried out by businesses by implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques on their digital platforms. One AI technique that is growing in its application and use is chatbots. Some examples of chatbot technology are virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant, and messaging apps, such as WeChat and Facebook messenger.	https://chatbotsagency.website/stpetersburg/chatbots-que-significa-st-petersburg-click-here-for-more-details.html
1、Some people prefer to solve a challenge all by themselves. Others prefer to depend on other people's help. Which do you prefer and why? Include details and examples in your explanation. 2、Do you agree or disagree? It is important to live close to your families. Please use examples and explanations to support your position. 3、Some people prefer to listen to or watch news every day, while others prefer to listen to or watch news occasionally. Which way do you prefer and why? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. 4、Some people prefer to plan for future, some people prefer to concentrate on the present and not plan at all. 5、题目：If you have a misunderstanding with your friend, do you prefer talking it out in a public place or in a private place? 6、题目：When on a trip, some people like to keep a journal and take pictures. Others just look. Which do you prefer and why? 7、题目：Some students prefer to make going to gyms a priority, other student prefer to go to gyms whenever they are free. Which do you prefer? Explain why. 8、题目：Which do you prefer: working for others’ company or set up your own business? 9、题目：Some people prefer to finish work as soon as possible. Others prefer to wait until the due time or deadline. Which do you prefer and why? 10、题目：Some people prefer to wash dishes by a washing machine. Others prefer to wash dishes by hands. Which way do you prefer and why? 11、题目： Some people prefer to watch entertainment TV programs while others prefer to watch educational programs, which do you prefer? why? 12、题目：Some people prefer to collect old things; others prefer to throw things away after they're done with them. Which do you prefer to do? 1、题目：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement. Parents should allow their children to make mistakes and let them learn from their own mistakes. 2、题目：At some universities, students take part in making decisions about the issues that affect daily life of everyone on campus, such as how many hours that the libraries should be open each day or what kinds of food should be served in the cafeteria. But at some universities, experts are hired to make decisions, students almost never involved. Which approach do you prefer and why. 3、题目： Students aged 13-18 are taught different subjects by different teachers while younger students are taught by only one teacher all day long. Some people suggest it would benefit young students to be taught by different teachers. Do you agree with this view? Why or why not? 4、题目：Our friends have the opportunity to choose either one of two types of majors (fields of study), which one of the following two majors do you think is a better choice, and why? A major that would allow him to finish years of study and get a degree sooner (so that he would begin to work full-time quickly). A major that requires many years of study that would provide him with more employment opportunities and offers in the future. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Be sure to use your own words. Don't memorize some certain examples. 5、题目：All university students should take basic science courses, regardless of their field of concentration. 6、题目：Do you agree or disagree: Nowadays students like using their phone, listening to music and surfing the Internet when they are studying. However, some people think that has bad effects on learning. 7、题目：Some young people are free in the evenings or have days off at school, which way can bring them the most benefit? 8、题目：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Universities should require every graduation students to take public speaking courses. Give specific examples and details to support your answer. 9、题目：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: People who try to acquire more than one skill are more likely to become successful than people who just focus on one skill. 10、题目：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Young people should take several different kinds of jobs before they decide which career to take in the long term. 11、题目：Do you agree that it is better to work for business owned by someone else than to work for the business of one's own family. 12、题目：Some people like to buy and eat their meals at restaurants frequently, while others like to do this at home. Which do you prefer? Why?	http://www.sohu.com/a/253412273_100045097
EXCHANGE 2007 STOREDRIVER DRIVER DETAILS: \|Type:\|\|Driver\| \|File Name:\|\|exchange_2007_90546.zip\| \|File Size:\|\|38.8 MB\| \|Rating:\|\| \| 3.44 89 (3.44) \|Downloads:\|\|57\| \|Supported systems:\|\|Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, 2008, Vista, 2003, XP, Other\| \|Price:\|\|Free* (*Free Registration Required)\| \| \| Download Now EXCHANGE 2007 STOREDRIVER DRIVER Part I explains the vocabulary and the architecture to help you understand exchange 2007 storedriver Exchange is designed and how it works, Part II will show how to configure it on Exchange Server using the GUI administration tools and Powershell. We should have a gateway server implemented which can be an Edge Transport server role or Hub Transport server role. On the old system we have SMTP forwarding setup to forward mail to the new system. Exchange 2007 storedriver the new system we have transport rules setup to check and see if mail has been delivered to the old address, if not then it forwards the email. I should also note the new system is an entirely new Windows domain as well. So when I said exchange 2007 storedriver were migrated thats a bit inaccurate, they were essentially recreated I suppose. Actually, I think I figured it out. Exchange 2007 storedriver other suggestions right now. In which case that log parser tip you already found is how I tend to investigate that. The ex Test has smtp Relay has two IPs to it. The secondary ip i have moved to the live environment on a new smtp relay. It is the categorizer that is responsible for calculating the best routing path, for converting content format, and applying any organizational message policies. I am investigating to exchange 2007 storedriver if there is a way you can see which transport rules is applying to a certain message. Message tracking Microsoft Docs The delivery report does not show it and I have not found exchange 2007 storedriver cmdlet that helps nor TechNet information about it. Prior to this update, these replication messages were being dropped silently by the Exchange server. Exclaimer 3, Followers - Follow 43 Mentions 12 Products. For more information, see Delivery reports for administrators. The different log file names are described in the following table. Searching Exchange Server Message Tracking Logs with PowerShell Information is written to the log file until the file reaches its maximum size. Exchange 2007 storedriver, a new log file that has an incremented instance number is opened the first log file is -1, the next is -2, and so on. Circular logging deletes the oldest log files for a service when either of the following conditions are true:. The maximum size of the message tracking log folder is calculated as the total size of all log files that have the same name prefix. \|micro innoventions ic50c\|\|Mailbox Transport service Routing\| \|asus p4p800-vm chipset\|\|Front End Transport service Routing\| Other files that do not follow the name prefix convention are not counted in the total folder size calculation. Renaming old log files or copying other files into the message tracking log folder could cause the folder to exceed its specified maximum size. I wear a lot of hats LVL Based on the number and exchange 2007 storedriver of recipients, the Front End Transport service performs one of the following actions:. The Mailbox Transport service is stateless, and does not queue any messages locally. Your email address will not be published. Learn about the latest security exchange 2007 storedriver, system optimization tricks, and the hottest new technologies in the industry. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Message rerouted and delayed by store driver If there are multiple Hub Transport server roles on one Active Directory site, the Message Exchange Mail Submission service attempts to evenly distribute notifications between each transport role exchange 2007 storedriver static load balancing. It allows you to take a properly formatted text file and have the Hub Transport server role process and deliver it. Create a temporary sub folder to the affected folder and set the replica to both E2K3 and E2K10 server. From E2K10 server, move the exchange 2007 storedriver content of the main folder to the sub folder. Verify your account to enable IT peers to see that you are a professional.what is the use of store driver? will it takes the mail from users out box? exchange 2007 storedriver Subscribe to RSS Exchange uses AD Sites and Services site links to get a. You are here: Home / Exchange Server / How to Tell Which Transport Rule RECEIVE STOREDRIVER This is an email from Alan . I tried this in Exchange exchange 2007 storedriver, But I could not find the 'AGENTINFO' Event id.	https://dolcevacanza.info/driver/exchange-storedriver-windows-35.html
We maintain a set of standardised names of people and organisations relating to the catalogue descriptions. It is not a general personal names index. Most entries are very basic and will point to biographies held elsewhere where known. The names included relate to creators, collectors, managers and administrators of records now held by the Norfolk Record Office. These can be people such as individuals, partnerships, families; or organisations such as businesses, charities, political parties, churches, chapels, manors, protest groups, sport and leisure clubs, amenity groups, and more. Using these standardised names is a good way of linking descriptions of records from the same source, especially uncatalogued collections. A large result list can be filtered using the 'Narrow your results by:' menu on the left hand side. The options are: - Entity type, i.e., limit the list to people, organisations or families - Maintained by, i.e., limit the list to only those standardised names created and maintained by a repository - Occupation, i.e., limit the list to a single occupation, function or role - Place, i.e., limit the list to a single place Please note only the top ten options are displayed for Occupation and Place. Use the up and down arrows to open and close the menu options. TIPS - Search words can be upper or lower case. - Phrases must be in double quotation marks, e.g., "Great Yarmouth Borough". - For families, search by family name followed by the word family, e.g., "Hobart family". - Hyphenated names are in their given form, e.g., "Beauchamp-Proctor"; so for the family, "Beauchamp-Proctor family". - When using the filter, your web browser back button will return you to the original result list.	https://nrocatalogue.norfolk.gov.uk/nro/helpPages/nro-help-4.html
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention (2) Description of Related Art SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Modification) (Second Modification) (Third Modification) The present invention relates to a brake shoe abrasion detection unit that is attached to a brake shoe of a railway vehicle and detects abrasion of the brake shoe, and a brake shoe abrasion detection unit set. Conventionally, there has been proposed an abrasion detection device in which transponders are attached at abrasion limit positions of brake shoes of a railway vehicle (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-250383). According to the abrasion detection device, transponders are destroyed when the brake shoes are abraded to an abrasion limit. Consequently, when a transceiver cannot receive an identification signal from the transponder, it is possible to determine that the abrasion of the brake shoe reaches the abrasion limit. However, the brake shoes perform braking by using abrasion against wheels, and therefore, every time the brake shoes perform braking, a temperature rises, and a heat load is applied to the transponders over and over again. That is, even when the transceiver cannot receive an identification number from the transponder, there is a probability that only the transponder is heat-injured, and the brake shoe is not abraded to the abrasion limit. Furthermore, collision against a pebble is likely to destroy the transponder, and the transponder is likely to drop from the brake shoe. Thus, there is a problem that various disturbances are likely to occur during abrasion detection of the brake shoe, and therefore abrasion detection precision is insufficient. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a configuration which can precisely detect abrasion of brake shoes of a railway vehicle. A brake shoe abrasion detection unit of a railway vehicle according to one aspect of the present invention is a brake shoe abrasion detection unit that is attached to a brake shoe of a railway vehicle tread brake and detects abrasion of the brake shoe. The brake shoe abrasion detection unit includes: at least one abrasion detection RF tag that is attached at a position of an abrasion limit of the brake shoe or a position closer to a braking surface than the abrasion limit; and a reference RF tag that is attached at a position beyond the abrasion limit of the brake shoe. According to this configuration, when a reader normally reads a signal from the reference RF tag and misses reading data of a signal from the abrasion detection RF tag, it is possible to determine that predetermined abrasion occurs in the brake shoe to which the abrasion detection RF tag is attached. When the reader misses reading signals from both of the reference RF tag and the abrasion detection RF tag, it is possible to determine that an error has occurred in the abrasion detection RF tag. Consequently, it is possible to determine whether a missing factor of the signal read by the reader from the abrasion detection RF tag is due to a progress of the abrasion of the brake shoe or the error of the abrasion detection RF tag, and precisely detect the abrasion of the brake shoe of the railway vehicle. The present invention can provide a configuration which can precisely detect abrasion of brake shoes of a railway vehicle. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, a direction in which a railway vehicle travels and a vehicle body extends is a vehicle longitudinal direction (forward and backward directions), and a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vehicle longitudinal direction is a vehicle width direction (left and right directions). FIG. 1 FIG. 1 1 10 11 12 12 20 16 1 20 10 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 is a schematic view of a brake shoe abrasion detection system of a railway vehicle according to an embodiment. As shown in , a railway vehicle is a set vehicle formed by coupling a plurality of vehicles, and each vehicle includes a vehicle body and a railway bogie . The railway bogie includes a tread brake device which actuates a brake by abrasion caused by pressing brake shoes against treads of wheels . The brake shoe abrasion detection system is a system which automatically detects the abrasion of the brake shoes of the railway vehicle by using a radio frequency identifier (RFID), and reduces a maintenance load of the brake shoes. The brake shoe abrasion detection system includes multiple brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D, a vehicle body RF tag , four readers A to D, a data processing device , a server and a database . 2 2 20 10 3 11 10 4 4 2 2 4 4 8 8 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 The brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D include a plurality of RF tags and are attached to the brake shoes of the railway vehicle , and a detailed configuration will be described below. The vehicle body RF tag is attached to the vehicle body of the railway vehicle , and is applied to a floor lower surface, for example. The readers A to D read a signal including identification information of each RF tag of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D without contacting each RF tag. The readers A to D are installed near rails A and B, and are disposed at an entrance of a train shed, for example. In addition, the readers A to D may be installed not only at the entrance of the train shed but also on a commercial line, and an installation place is not particularly limited. One (e.g., reader B) of the readers A to D also reads a signal including the identification information of the vehicle body RF tag without contacting the vehicle body RF tag . In addition, a dedicated reader which reads the signal including the identification information of the vehicle body RF tag may be provided in addition to the readers A to D. 4 8 4 8 8 8 4 8 8 8 4 8 4 4 8 8 4 4 4 4 2 2 More specifically, the reader A is installed outside the rail A in the vehicle width direction. The reader B is installed closer to the rail A between a pair of rails A and B. The reader C is installed closer to the rail B between the pair of rails A and B. The reader D is installed outside the rail B in the vehicle width direction. In addition, instead of the readers B and C, one reader may be installed at a center between the rails A and B. The readers A to D are installed inclining with respect to a horizontal plane such that normal lines of communication surfaces of the readers A to D face the corresponding brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D. 5 4 4 6 5 6 6 5 20 6 7 The data processing device processes the signals read by of the readers A to D, and transmits the signals to the server via a network (e.g., Internet). That is, according to the present embodiment, a computer is dispersed to the data processing device and the server via the network. In addition, the network is not limited to the Internet, and may be various other communication networks such as a LAN, a WAN, a satellite communication line and a mobile telephone network. The server analyzes signal data received from the data processing device , creates a maintenance plan of the brake shoes based on this analyzed data, and transmits the analyzed data to a maintenance management center (not shown). The analyzed data of the server is accumulated and stored as past information in the database . 5 4 4 2 2 4 3 4 4 5 4 4 The data processing device determines vehicle specifying information corresponding to the signals read by the readers A to D from the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D based on the signal data read by the reader B from the vehicle body RF tag . In this regard, the vehicle specifying information is information such as a vehicle number, a set number or a railway bogie which can be associated with the brake shoes. An installation test RF tag (not shown) is set to communication areas of the readers A to D. When a signal cannot be correctly received from the test RF tag, the data processing device determines that abnormalities have occurred in the readers A to D. FIG. 2 FIG. 1 FIG. 2 12 10 12 14 11 13 15 14 16 15 17 15 17 14 18 19 14 17 20 16 20 16 is a side view showing the railway bogie of the railway vehicle shown in seen from the vehicle width direction. As shown in , the railway bogie includes a railway bogie frame which supports the vehicle body via a secondary suspension (e.g., air suspension). Vehicle axles extending along the vehicle width direction are disposed on both sides of the railway bogie frame in a vehicle longitudinal direction. The wheels are fixed to portions on both sides of the vehicle axle in the vehicle width direction, respectively. Axle boxes house both end portions of the vehicle axles in the vehicle width direction via bearings (not shown). The axle boxes are coupled to the railway bogie frame via an axle arm . A primary suspension (e.g., coil spring) is interposed between the railway bogie frame and the axle box . The brake shoe is disposed at a position facing the tread of the wheel . The brake shoe is driven by an actuator (not shown) to come into contact with and move away from the tread of the wheel . FIG. 3 FIG. 2 FIG. 4 FIG. 3 FIG. 5 FIG. 3 FIGS. 3 to 5 20 2 2 12 2 20 21 22 21 23 22 21 21 16 a is a side view showing the brake shoes to which the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D are attached in the railway bogie shown in seen from the vehicle width direction. is a plan view showing the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A shown in seen from the vehicle width direction. is a sectional view along V-V line in . As shown in , the brake shoe includes a brake shoe main body which is formed by an abrasion material made of a metal or a resin, a base metal which is fixed to a back surface of the brake shoe main body , and a mounting plate which is provided on the back surface, of the base metal . A braking surface of the brake shoe main body has an arc shape along the tread of the wheel seen from the vehicle width direction. 2 20 20 2 20 20 20 20 18 20 12 2 20 20 2 2 20 2 a b a a FIG. 1 The brake shoe abrasion detection unit A (first brake shoe abrasion detection unit) is attached to a lower portion of an outer surface facing the outside of the brake shoe in the vehicle width direction. The brake shoe abrasion detection unit B (second brake shoe abrasion detection unit) is attached to an upper portion of an inner surface facing the inside of the brake shoe in the vehicle width direction. That is, an upper portion of the outer surface of the brake shoe is covered by a railway bogie part (axle arm ) other than the brake shoe seen from the outside of the railway bogie in the vehicle width direction (see ). The brake shoe abrasion detection unit A is attached to a lower portion of the outer surface of the brake shoe exposed toward the outside in the vehicle width direction. A configuration of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D attached to each brake shoe is basically the same, and therefore the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A will be described as a representative. 2 31 32 33 34 31 33 31 33 31 33 20 31 21 24 20 31 a The brake shoe abrasion detection unit A includes an initial abrasion detection RF tag (first abrasion detection RF tag), a limit abrasion detection RF tag (second abrasion detection RF tag), a reference RF tag , and a base sheet . Each of the RF tags to includes, for example, a base material, an antenna and an IC chip, and the antenna may be located apart from the RF tag. Each of the RF tags to is disposed such that a longitudinal direction of the RF tags to is perpendicular to a thickness direction of the brake shoe . The initial abrasion detection RF tag is attached at a position closer to the braking surface than an abrasion limit of the brake shoe . When the initial abrasion detection RF tag is destroyed, it is possible to detect a progress of abrasion of the brake shoe. 32 24 20 32 31 33 24 20 21 24 31 32 33 33 1 33 a The limit abrasion detection RF tag is attached at a position of the abrasion limit of the brake shoe . When the limit abrasion detection RF tag is destroyed similar to the initial abrasion detection RF tag , it is possible to detect a progress of abrasion of the brake shoe. The reference RF tag is attached at a position beyond the abrasion limit of the brake shoe , i.e., at a position apart toward the back surface side (a side opposite to the braking surface ) from the abrasion limit . Unlike the RF tags and , the reference RF tag does not detect a progress of abrasion of the brake shoe when the reference RF tag is destroyed, and indicates that the brake shoe abrasion detection system is normally operating when the reference RF tag is not destroyed. 4 32 33 4 31 5 20 31 4 33 4 31 32 5 24 20 According to this configuration, when the reader A normally reads the signals from the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag , and the reader A misses reading signal data from the initial abrasion detection RF tag , the data processing device can determine that abrasions progresses to a portion of the brake shoe to which the initial abrasion detection RF tag has been attached. In this regard, the miss includes not only damage of the IC chip but also signal interruption due to damage of the antenna. Furthermore, when the reader A normally reads a signal from the reference RF tag and the reader A misses reading each signal from the first and second abrasion detection RF tags and , the data processing device can determine that abrasion reaching the abrasion limit of the brake shoe has occurred. 4 31 32 33 5 31 32 4 31 32 20 31 32 20 On the other hand, when the reader A misses reading not only the signals from the first and/or second abrasion detection RF tags and but also the signal from the reference RF tag , the data processing device can determine that an error has occurred in the first and second abrasion detection RF tags and . Consequently, it is possible to determine whether a missing factor of the signals read by the reader A from the abrasion detection RF tags and is due to the progress of the abrasion of the brake shoe or errors of the abrasion detection RF tags and , and precisely detect the abrasion of the brake shoe . 31 21 24 20 32 24 20 6 20 20 a Furthermore, the initial abrasion detection RF tag is attached at a position closer to the braking surface than the abrasion limit of the brake shoe , and the limit abrasion detection RF tag is attached at the position of the abrasion limit , so that it is possible to learn the degree of the progress of abrasion of the brake shoe stepwise. Consequently, the server can learn tendency of the abrasion progress of the brake shoe , and make a maintenance plan of the brake shoe in advance and in a timely manner. 31 32 33 16 34 31 33 34 34 31 33 34 34 31 33 20 34 34 2 20 34 34 a a b b The initial abrasion detection RF tag , the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag are disposed in a row at predetermined intervals in a radial direction (the radial direction of the wheel ) on the base sheet , and, for example, the base sheet is formed in one seal shape. Each of the RF tags to is provided on a top surface of the base sheet . That is, a back surface of each of the RF tags to is fixed to the top surface of the base sheet , and a top surface (a surface opposite to a back surface) of each of the RF tags to is a communication surface. An adhesive layer to be applied to the brake shoe is formed on a back surface of the base sheet . During maintenance before the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A is applied to the brake shoe , the adhesive layer of the back surface of the base sheet is protected by a release paper (not shown). 31 32 33 31 33 34 20 34 20 34 31 33 34 31 33 20 20 31 33 31 33 34 31 33 34 31 33 According to this configuration, the initial abrasion detection RF tag , the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag can be handled easily. Furthermore, the intervals between the RF tags and on the base sheet match with an attachment interval on the brake shoe , and the base sheet is attached to the brake shoe , so that the base sheet and each of the RF tags to can be attached to the brake shoe by one touch and attachment operability improves. Furthermore, the base sheet is interposed between each of the RF tags to and the brake shoe , so that heat from the brake shoe does not directly transmit to each of the RF tags to and it is possible to reduce a heat load on each of the RF tags to . Furthermore, the area of the base sheet in a plan view is larger than a total area of each of the RF tags to , so that the base sheet enhances heat dissipation and reduces the heat load on each of the RF tags to . 34 34 20 31 33 A heat resistant sheet for which a heat resistant material is used is preferably used for the base sheet . For example, a fluorine resin or a polyimide resin can be used for this heat resistant material. With this configuration, the base sheet suppresses heat transmission from the brake shoe to each of the RF tags to , so that it is possible to prevent heat injury of the RF tags without using costly heat resistant RF tags. 34 35 31 32 36 32 33 35 36 34 35 36 34 35 36 34 The base sheet includes a first breakable portion (a first fracture scheduled portion) formed between the initial abrasion detection RF tag and the limit abrasion detection RF tag , and a second breakable portion (a second fracture scheduled portion) formed between the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag . The first and second breakable portions and are formed to be easily fractured compared to other portions of the base sheet . For example, the first and second breakable portions and employ a configuration where a plurality of holes is formed similar to perforations in one row on the base sheet at intervals from each other. Furthermore, the first and second breakable portions and may be formed thinner than the other portions of the base sheet . 20 31 34 35 32 33 20 32 34 36 33 According to this configuration, when abrasion of the brake shoe destroys the initial abrasion detection RF tag , a load during this destruction fractures the base sheet from the first breakable portion . Consequently, it is possible to prevent the load from transmitting to the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag . Furthermore, similarly, when abrasion of the brake shoe destroys the limit abrasion detection RF tag , too, a load during this destruction fractures the base sheet from the second breakable portion . Consequently, it is possible to prevent the load from transmitting to the reference RF tag . 35 36 34 31 32 34 32 33 32 33 In addition, there may be employed a configuration where perforations are further formed adjacent to the first and second breakable portions and , and the base sheet between the initial abrasion detection RF tag and the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the base sheet between the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag are removed. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the load during destruction from transmitting to the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag . 37 20 34 34 37 32 24 20 37 33 33 24 20 34 20 37 20 32 24 20 FIG. 4 Scale marks aligned in a thickness direction of the brake shoe (the radial direction of the wheel) are marked on the base sheet . According to the present embodiment, on the base sheet , a zero point of the scale division is marked at a position meeting the limit abrasion detection RF tag disposed at the position, of the abrasion limit of the brake shoe , and the scale marks are marked to a position beyond the reference RF tag in ascending order from the zero point to the reference RF tag . When, for example, the position of the abrasion limit is defined by a distance from an end rim on the back surface side of the brake shoe , if the base sheet is applied to the brake shoe in a state where the position on the scale division indicating the same value as the distance matches with the end rim on the back surface side of the brake shoe , the limit abrasion detection RF tag matches with the position of the abrasion limit . In addition, when there is a portion (a diagonal line portion in ) which projects from the brake shoe , the projection portion may be removed by scissors. 31 33 20 37 34 2 37 24 20 2 24 2 2 37 According to this configuration, each of the RF tags to can be attached at a predetermined position on the brake shoe by seeing the scale marks of the base sheet . Consequently, it is not necessary to use a ruler in addition to the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A, and attachment operability and attachment precision improve. Furthermore, the zero point of the scale division is marked at the position meeting the abrasion limit of the brake shoe . Consequently, it is possible to commonly use the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A for the brake shoe whose position of the abrasion limit is different, too, and reduce a type of the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A. In addition, when the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A is prepared per brake shoe type, the scale marks may not be formed. 33 32 31 33 32 31 An identification number of the reference RF tag is determined according to a first rule. An identification number of the limit abrasion detection RF tag is determined according to a second rule different from the first rule. An identification number of the initial abrasion detection RF tag is determined according to a third rule different from the first and second rules. For example, the identification number of the reference RF tag is “3n” (n is a natural number). The identification number of the limit abrasion detection RF tag is “3n−1”. The identification number of the initial abrasion detection RF tag is “3n−2”. 4 31 32 33 31 32 33 7 Thus, by seeing which one of the first to third rules the identification number read by the reader A belongs, it is possible to easily determine whether the identification number belongs to the initial abrasion detection RF tag , the limit abrasion detection RF tag or the reference RF tag . Consequently, it is not necessary to register each identification number of the first and second abrasion detection RF tags and and the reference RF tag in advance in the database , and it is possible to simplify a system implementation operation. FIG. 6 FIG. 1 FIG. 7 FIG. 1 FIG. 8 FIG. 1 FIG. 9 FIG. 8 FIGS. 6 and 7 FIG. 6 2 2 2 2 4 4 10 4 4 5 2 2 10 10 3 10 3 is an arrangement view of the vehicle body RF tag and the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D of the railway vehicle shown in . is a schematic view showing a relationship between the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D and the readers A to D when the railway vehicle shown in passes the readers A to D. is a data obtaining flowchart of the data processing device shown in . is a diagram showing an example of a reading time table shown in . In this regard, in , a number “1” of a subscript assigned to a reference numeral of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A to D means a brake shoe located at a head in a traveling direction of the railway vehicle . Larger numbers mean brake shoes located rearward in the traveling direction. Furthermore, in , vehicle body RF tags provided at both end portions (i.e., near a railway bogie) of a first vehicle A (ID=5001) in the vehicle longitudinal direction are indicated by A. Vehicle body RF tags provided at both end portions (i.e., near the railway bogie) of a second vehicle B (ID=5002) in the vehicle longitudinal direction are indicated by B. FIG. 8 FIGS. 6, 7 and 9 FIG. 9 10 4 4 4 4 2 2 20 10 1 31 33 2 2 2 4 3 3 4 5 31 33 2 2 50 6 4 5 6 n n n n n n A data obtaining flow will be described according to a flow of with reference to as appropriate. When the railway vehicle passes the readers A to D, each of the readers A to D sequentially reads respective signals from each of multiple brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato Drespectively attached to the multiple brake shoes of the railway vehicle , at time intervals (step S). More specifically, first, when the signal (ID) from each of the RF tags to of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato D(n is a natural number) is read (step S: YES), the reader B reads the signal (vehicle body ID) from the vehicle body RF tag A (step S). Furthermore, when the vehicle body ID of the signal changes (step S: YES), the data processing device stores this vehicle ID and the ID of each of the RF tags to of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato D, and creates a reading time table shown in (step S). When the vehicle ID of the signal does not change (step S: NO), the vehicle ID is updated (step S), and processing proceeds to step S. 5 20 50 4 4 31 33 2 2 20 5 4 31 33 2 n n 1 Thus, the data processing device determines an association between each signal and each brake shoe and creates the reading time table based on an order of times at which each of the readers A to D reads signals from the respective RF tags to of each of a plurality of brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato D(n is a natural number) attached to a plurality of brake shoes , respectively. That is, the data processing device determines three signals read first by the reader A as the signals from the respective RF tags to of a brake shoe abrasion detection unit Aof a first wheel axle (first axle) from the head. 5 4 31 33 2 5 2 31 33 2 2 20 2 n n n Furthermore, the data processing device determines three signals read by the reader A some time after the previous determination as the signals from the respective RF tags to of a second brake shoe abrasion detection unit Afrom the head. Subsequently, the data processing device determines what order of a signal from the brake shoe abrasion detection unit Afrom the head a received signal is. By so doing, it is not necessary to learn in advance the association between each of the RF tags to of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato Dand a location of each brake shoe , and it is possible to substantially simplify system implementation and management. 5 4 4 31 33 2 2 50 4 3 3 31 33 2 2 n n n n Furthermore, the data processing device determines a set number or a vehicle number associated with each signal read by each of the readers A to D from each of the RF tags to of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato Dand creates the reading time table , based on signal data read by the reader B from the vehicle body RF tags A and B. By so doing, it is not necessary to learn in advance the association between each of the RF tags to of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units Ato Dand a set number or the vehicle number, and it is possible to further simplify system implementation and management. 33 7 5 2 8 1 4 FIG. 9 Furthermore, when the signal from the reference RF tag misses as indicated by an Xportion in (step S: YES), the data processing device determines that this brake shoe abrasion detection unit Ahas an abnormality (e.g., unintended damage), and actives an alarm for an error (step S). 32 2 9 5 24 10 8 2 FIG. 9 Furthermore, when the signal from the limit abrasion detection RF tag of a brake shoe abrasion detection unit Amisses as indicated by an Xportion in (step S: YES), the data processing device determines that abrasion of this brake shoe reaches the abrasion limit and activates an alarm for brake shoe exchange (step S). FIG. 10 FIG. 1 FIG. 10 FIGS. 1 and 3 6 20 6 6 11 6 31 33 2 2 20 50 12 is an abrasion characteristics analyzing flowchart of the server shown in . Hereinafter, abrasion characteristics analysis of the brake shoe performed by the server will be described according to a flow in with reference to as appropriate. First, the server designates a vehicle body ID, left and right positions and an axle position related to an analysis target brake shoe (step S). Furthermore, the server extracts obtained data of each of the RF tags to of each of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B of the designated brake shoe from the reading time table (step S). 6 1 31 33 2 2 20 13 6 2 31 2 2 20 14 Furthermore, the server extracts a time t at which a combination of IDs of the respective RF tags to of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B of the designated brake shoe has been detected first (step S). Next, the server extracts a time t at which signals (IDs) of the initial abrasion detection RF tags of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B of this designated brake shoe have missed first (step S). 6 1 2 1 1 31 33 2 2 20 2 31 2 2 20 1 21 20 31 1 1 15 a Furthermore, the server calculates a time difference Δt (=t−t) between the time t at which the combination of the IDs of the respective RF tags to of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B of the designated brake shoe has been detected first, and the time t at which the signals (IDs) from the initial abrasion detection RF tags of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B of this designated brake shoe have missed first after this time t, and divides a distance (reference abrasion amount L) from the initial braking surface of the brake shoe to a position of the initial abrasion detection RF tag by the time difference Δt to calculate an abrasion velocity V (=L/Δt) (step S). 6 2 31 24 2 20 24 15 6 20 24 rem Furthermore, the server divides by the abrasion velocity V a distance L from the position of the initial abrasion detection RF tag to the position of the abrasion limit to calculate a remaining operational time T(=L/V) taken by abrasion of the brake shoe to reach the abrasion limit (step S). Consequently, the server can create an operation plan of brake shoe exchange in advance before the abrasion of the brake shoe reaches the abrasion limit , and transmit the operation plan to a maintenance manager of the brake shoe, so that maintenance operation efficiency improves. 2 20 20 2 20 20 2 20 2 20 a b Furthermore, the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A is attached to the outer surface facing the outside of the brake shoe in the vehicle width direction. The brake shoe abrasion detection unit B is attached to the inner surface facing the inside of the brake shoe in the vehicle width direction. Furthermore, the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A is attached at a position on one side in a circumferential direction (lower side) of the brake shoe . The brake shoe abrasion detection unit B is attached at a position on the other side in the circumferential direction (upper side) of the brake shoe . 6 1 2 20 1 1 2 3 2 2 4 4 31 2 2 3 4 4 31 2 2 16 The server calculates an uneven abrasion amount Δh (=V·Δt) of the brake shoe in the vehicle width direction and the circumferential direction and calculates an uneven abrasion velocity ΔV (=Δh/L), based on a time difference Δt (=t−t) between the time t which is an earlier one of respective times at which respective signals read by the readers A and B from the respective initial abrasion detection RF tags of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B have missed first, and a time t which is later one of respective times at which the respective signals read by the readers A and B from the respective initial abrasion detection RF tags of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B have missed first (step S). 2 2 2 2 20 20 20 20 32 2 32 2 2 2 By attaching the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A and the brake shoe abrasion detection unit B at the above positions, it is possible to suppress an increase in the number of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B per brake shoe , and learn tendency of uneven abrasion of the brake shoe in the vehicle width direction and the circumferential direction. Furthermore, when abrasion of the brake shoe reaches the abrasion limit, in a similar manner to the above, the uneven abrasion amount and the uneven abrasion velocity of the brake shoe can be calculated from a destruction period of the limit abrasion detection RF tag of the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A and a destruction period of the limit abrasion detection RF tag of the brake shoe abrasion detection unit B. In addition, a brake shoe abrasion detection unit which is provided at a position on an opposite side in the circumferential direction on the same plane with respect to the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A, and a brake shoe abrasion detection unit which is provided at the same position in the circumferential direction on an opposite plane in the vehicle width direction with respect to the brake shoe abrasion detection unit A may be used to separately detect uneven abrasion in the vehicle width direction and uneven abrasion in the circumferential direction. 6 3 1 4 4 31 2 2 4 4 4 32 2 2 3 20 7 17 total Furthermore, the server calculates a time difference Δt between the time t at which the readers A and B have first read the signals from the initial abrasion detection RF tags of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B, and a time t at which signals read by the readers A and B from one of the limit abrasion detection RF tags of the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B have missed first, and stores this time difference Δt as a total operational time Tof the brake shoe in the database (step S). 6 4 4 7 6 7 rem rem rem rem Furthermore, the server stores each data received from the readers A to D, and the above past information of calculation results based on each data in the database . Furthermore, when calculating the above remaining operational time T, the server corrects the remaining operational time Tbased on the past information stored in the database . According to one example, when tendency is learned, from the past information, that abrasion progress is faster than that in a normal case due to characteristics of a vehicle type, the remaining operational time Tis corrected to be shortened. According to another example, when tendency is learned, from the past information, that abrasion progress is slower in winter than in summer, the remaining operational time Tis corrected to be longer in winter than in summer. By performing correction using a past record which reflects individual factors in this way, it is possible to precisely estimate an operational life. 4 31 32 2 31 32 6 31 32 31 32 6 31 32 Furthermore, when a signal read by the reader A from the initial abrasion detection RF tag (or the limit abrasion detection RF tag ) of the one brake shoe abrasion detection unit A misses, and then a signal is normally read from the same initial abrasion detection RF tag (or the limit abrasion detection RF tag ), the server determines that a reading miss of the signal from this initial abrasion detection RF tag (or the limit abrasion detection RF tag ) is an error. Consequently, when the miss of the signal from the initial abrasion detection RF tag (or the limit abrasion detection RF tag ) is due to a temporary factor (e.g., rain), the server can correct information about the miss of the signal, and learn that the initial abrasion detection RF tag (or the limit abrasion detection RF tag ) is not yet destroyed. 5 6 5 6 In addition, according to the above embodiment, the data processing device creates the reading time table and the server analyzes abrasion characteristics to disperse the creation of the reading time table and the analysis of the abrasion characteristics to different locations. However, one of the data processing device and the server may create the reading time table and analyze the abrasion characteristics. That is, a computer that creates the reading time table and analyzes abrasion characteristics is sufficient. FIG. 11 FIG. 5 FIG. 11 102 102 20 31 32 33 20 31 33 134 102 20 31 33 is a view showing the brake shoe abrasion detection unit according to a first modification and corresponding to . As shown in , in the brake shoe abrasion detection unit , adhesive layers to be applied to the brake shoe are formed on back surfaces of the initial abrasion detection RF tag , the limit abrasion detection RF tag and the reference RF tag facing the brake shoe . Pressure-sensitive adhesive layers to be detachably applied to top surfaces of the respective RF tags to are formed on a back surface of a base sheet . During storage before the brake shoe abrasion detection unit is applied to the brake shoe , the adhesive layer of the back surface of each of the RF tags to is protected by a release paper (not shown). 134 31 33 20 134 31 33 20 31 32 33 134 According to this configuration, after the base sheet and the back surface of each of the RF tags to are applied to the brake shoe , the base sheet can be peeled and removed from each of the RF tags to . Consequently, it is possible to prevent a load produced when abrasion of the brake shoe destroys the first abrasion detection RF tag or the second abrasion detection RF tag from transmitting to the reference RF tag via the base sheet . FIG. 12 FIG. 12 202 202 31 33 34 31 33 20 31 33 20 31 33 20 202 is a plan view showing a brake shoe abrasion detection unit according to a second modification. As shown in , in the brake shoe abrasion detection unit , each of the RF tags to is disposed on the base sheet such that a longitudinal direction of the RF tags to is oriented in a thickness direction of the brake shoe . Consequently, it is possible to shift positions of the respective RF tags to in a circumferential direction of the brake shoe from each other, and overlay and dispose the respective RF tags to in the thickness direction of the brake shoe . Therefore, the brake shoe abrasion detection unit is easily applied to a brake shoe having a small thickness direction dimension. FIG. 13 FIG. 13 302 302 20 302 302 20 31 33 31 33 34 4 4 31 33 20 is a front view showing a state where brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B according to a third modification are attached to the brake shoe seen from a vehicle longitudinal direction. As shown in , in the state where the brake shoe abrasion detection units A and B are attached to the brake shoe , a normal line of a communication surface of each of the RF tags to includes a vertical direction downward component. For example, each of the RF tags to is fixed to form a predetermined angle (e.g., 90°) with respect to the base sheet . According to this configuration, when the readers A and B which read signals from each of the RF tags to are installed at positions lower than the brake shoe , it is possible to read signals with good sensitivity. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a brake shoe abrasion detection system of a railway vehicle according to an embodiment; FIG. 2 FIG. 1 is a side view showing a railway bogie of the railway vehicle shown in seen from a vehicle width direction; FIG. 3 FIG. 2 is a side view showing brake shoes to which the brake shoe abrasion detection units are attached in the railway bogie shown in seen from the vehicle width direction; FIG. 4 FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the brake shoe abrasion detection unit shown in seen from the vehicle width direction; FIG. 5 FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along V-V line in ; FIG. 6 FIG. 1 is an arrangement view of a vehicle body RF tag and brake shoe abrasion detection units of the railway vehicle shown in ; FIG. 7 FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a relationship between the brake shoe abrasion detection units and readers when the railway vehicle shown in passes the readers; FIG. 8 FIG. 1 is a data obtaining flowchart of a data processing device shown in ; FIG. 9 FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a reading time table shown in ; FIG. 10 FIG. 1 is an abrasion characteristics analyzing flowchart of a server shown in ; FIG. 11 FIG. 5 is a view showing the brake shoe abrasion detection unit according to a first modification and corresponding to ; FIG. 12 is a plan view showing the brake shoe abrasion detection unit according to a second modification; and FIG. 13 is a front view showing a state where the brake shoe abrasion detection units according to a third modification are attached to the brake shoe seen from a vehicle longitudinal direction.
Frequently Asked Questions During COVID-19: Can I host a dinner indoors with my “pod?” No. As cases continue to rise throughout the country, we are not currently supporting indoor dinners with folks who live outside of your household, including people you may consider part of your “pod.“. You can still gather virtually, host individual household dinners, or gather outdoor socially-distant when weather permits. How long will OneTable be supporting virtual Shabbats? As there is a lot of news coming out each day, we don’t know yet how long we’ll be recommending social distancing, or how long shelter-in-place will be active in many of our cities. We are following the guidelines of local health authorities and will be in touch regularly with any changes or new resources for connecting virtually. I still want to gather, it's just a few people (10 or fewer)/essentially the only people I see. We are now supporting the following dinner types: - Solo Shabbat: Post your dinner to be in community with other solo Shabbat hosts and qualify for Nourishment for one. - Shelter-in-Place Shabbat (with roommates) - Virtual Shabbats (including OneTable Live) - In-person dinners outdoors, in accordance with Social Distancing Requirements. Here are some of our favorite items you can get with Nourishment for an epic Shabbat dinner picnic. Can I bring my virtual guests homemade food? Hospitality (hachnasat orchim) is one of our core values, so we understand the desire to cook for others. However, we cannot allow OneTable hosts and guests to share food unless they all live together. Please read all of the guidelines here. I'm canceling my event, how do I send my Nourishment back? Totally understand. We’re not asking for nourishment back due to cancellations right now. However, if you’d like to pay it forward, you can donate it back to us. Also – no need to cancel if you’d like to make your irl event into a virtual Shabbat. Check out our resources to make it happen, or reach out to a Field Manager for 1-on-1 help. More questions? Get in touch with your Field Manager who can connect 1-on-1 with you about all of this. The following answers were specific to in-person dinners, previous to shelter-in-place. All of these answers are modified by our current circumstances and virtual dinners. Reach out to your Field Manager or [email protected] with any other questions. General: Who is OneTable for? - Different communities have different needs. The OneTable host and guest community is primarily made up of folks who are in their 20s and 30s. We have tailored our support to work best for those who are between 21-39ish and not in undergraduate programs. - No one under 21 can attend OneTable dinners. - OneTable is uber-inclusive. At OneTable, we want you to spend Friday night with the people who YOU want to spend your Friday night with – guests of any and all religions and cultures are welcome. - If you don’t identify in our demographic, please contact your city’s Field Manager or Rabbi Jessica Minnen, and we can help you find organizations and initiatives with resources that are right for you. I have specific accommodation needs, can I attend/host a dinner? Every single person has something they need to make them feel welcome, supported, and capable of engaging in Shabbat dinner. We encourage hosts to give their guests all the information they might need about accessibility at their tables before the meal. If you have specific needs or wants that would make it possible for you to host – please get in touch with us: [email protected] Can organizations use the OneTable platform? - We invite your organization to become a OneTable partner. Partnerships allow young adults to learn about different opportunities for Jewish involvement. Organizations who have a formal partnership with OneTable may use their name and/or logo in the dinner title or in the banner image. For all other organizations who do not yet have a partnership, you may include the organization name in the dinner description and access the searchable “tag” function . Please note, organizations without formal partnerships will be asked to change dinner titles in accordance with this policy. For more information on organizational partnerships, please contact Sarit Wishnevski at [email protected] Does OneTable only support Friday night dinner? Yes, only Friday night Shabbat dinners. How often can I host? Host, or co-host, a OneTable Shabbat dinner each week (one dinner a month is eligible for Nourishment Credits)! For super active hosts we encourage you to make your dinners “Host Approval” instead of “Private” so you can bring more guests into the OneTable community. We’ve also launched a potluck feature on our platform to make hosting regularly even more possible. What is OneTable's Statement of Welcoming/Non-Discrimination Policy? Inclusive Community (Kvod Ha’briot) – At OneTable, we foster a climate of purposeful inclusion, an environment where all can feel safe, valued, and given an opportunity to form meaningful connections with each other. We cherish the diversity of humanity, which includes all styles of Jewish practice as equally valid and honored, and all are welcome regardless of ability, religion, ethnicity, race, social or economic status, sexual or gender identity. While Shabbat offers quiet meditative moments, Shabbat dinner is an essential social gathering. We cherish the differences among the Jewish people, and OneTable provides support that allows for the practice of ritual according to varying interpretations and understandings. Every Jewish person and Shabbat dinner attendee is unique; we all celebrate Shabbat differently. Can I host a political dinner? OneTable supports civic engagement and encourages you to bring the joy of Shabbat dinner to educate your friends and family about the causes you care about. However as a 501c3 charity, OneTable resources cannot be used for any political activity for the purpose of influencing the outcome of a public election or to support or oppose a political party or candidate running for public office. Can I host a fundraiser for another organization on OneTable? - OneTable ticket sales cannot be used to fundraise for other organizations – because of our own limitations as a 501 (c) 3, dinner titles and descriptions on the platform cannot openly discuss fundraising for another charity or nonprofit, and we cannot provide Nourishment toward dinners of this nature. Can multiple hosts residing in the same organizationally sponsored living space receive nourishment more than once per month? - If multiple hosts reside in organizationally sponsored living (i.e.: rent is fully or partially subsidized by another organization), then OneTable will provide nourishment to the house/apartment at a maximum of once a month. If the once-a-month nourishment has already been allocated, we welcome these hosts to utilize the potluck feature for other Shabbat dinners during that month. Can I host a Shabbat lunch? Though we love that you are having Shabbat lunch, we are in the Friday night Shabbat dinner business. We can only support Shabbat dinners. Will you share my data? We use your Personal Information to provide the our support, complete your transactions, and administer your inquiries. We may ask for your credit card number and other Billing Information in order to process some of your transactions through the Platform. We may use your information to improve the quality and value of the Platform and to analyze and understand how the Platform is used. We also use your Personal Information to contact you with OneTable news, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such communications from us, you may unsubscribe by replying “Unsubscribe” to those emails. Please note that we may also use your Personal Information to contact you with information related to your use of the Service; you may not opt out of these notifications. We may also share your Personal Information for pedagogical purposes with third parties (including partner organizations), and you may be contacted by such third parties for additional information; if you do not want your personal information shared with such third parties, please contact us at help @OneTable.org or your local Field Manager. We reserve the right to require address confirmation for Dinners included in Listings. Where can I read the Codes of Conduct? For hosts: Code of Conduct For guests: Code of Conduct Using the OneTable Dinner Platform: Should I register to host even though I'm not ready to "Create a Dinner" on the platform? YES! If you know that you’d like to host Shabbat at some point with OneTable, register now! The more you plan ahead, the more helpful OneTable can be. You can log back into the platform whenever you’re ready to host a dinner! When should I post my dinner? - While you can always post as far in advance as you like, we recommend that you post your dinner at least one (1) week in advance. - At the latest, you will need to post your dinner by Tuesday at midnight local time in order to receive OneTable Nourishment for the same week. - If you want to use your Nourishment for places like Etsy, ModernTribe, or other options that have longer shipping windows, you must post your dinner and request these Nourishment options at least two (2) weeks in advance. How many guests do I need to have at my dinner? A OneTable dinner is for a minimum of five (5) people, you and four (4) guests. If you’re having 20 or more people, you may qualify for a separate grant. Email Marina Rostein for more information: [email protected]. Do my guests need to register through the platform? Yes, all guests must RSVP on the OneTable platform for many reasons. For one, this allows us to generate numbers and determine OneTable’s growth. This helps us when raising money, as well as to show our funders. They will not be spammed and their emails will not be sold, we just do this so we can continue to grow and provide the best support possible. How do I invite guests? You can invite your guests by going to manage dinners→ actions→ manage guests. There, you can either email your guests through the platform, add guests from previous events, or copy and paste the link to send to your guests via a personal email, Facebook, whatever works best for the host. How do privacy settings work? What is the difference between an open, host approval, and private dinner? - - An open dinner means anyone in the OneTable community can sign up to attend. The location is public. Everyone is an automatic “yes.” - Host approval means that you manage your dinner’s RSVPs. While the description of the Shabbat dinner is public, only guests that you approve will be given the full details about your dinner (time, address, other guests, etc). You will receive the name and email of everybody who requests a seat so you can communicate with them to determine if the Shabbat dinner you’ve planned is the right fit. If you feel you need to decline a guest, you can do so through our platform (there’s even a space to send them a message). Your Field Manager is available if you need guidance with this. - A private dinner is for when you are hosting a specific group of people and do not have room for others to join. This might be a Shabbat-birthday party, a Shabbat-reunion, or the like. Only guests you invite can see you post and attend your dinner. No information about your dinner is available on the platform to guests who have not been invited. How do I host a potluck? - - Potlucks are the best way to make sure there’s enough food while keeping cost low! Check out this page for all the details on how to use our potluck organizing feature. OneTable Nourishment Options: How often can I host? During the COVID-19 pandemic, you are welcome to host, or co-host, a OneTable Shabbat dinner every Friday night and be eligible for Nourishment Credit! Pro-tip: If you’re hosting a virtual dinner, consider making it “Host Approval” instead of “Private” so you can safely welcome more guests into the OneTable community. What do you mean by Nourishment? How do I get it? - - It’s a resource OneTable is able to offer to those hosts who need a little extra help to elevate their dinners. It is not meant to cover the full cost of the dinner. It comes in the form of digital gift cards. Our options are businesses that give us discounts on their services. If you do not need this assistance, you can choose to “pay it forward” and it will help another host bring more Shabbat into their life! - Nourishment Credit is a pre-imbursement. You’ll receive an online gift card or coupon code to use at any of the vendors we partner with. - When you create your dinner on the platform, you can select where you would like to use your Nourishment (for example: Instacart, Whole Foods, Seamless, etc.). - Our Nourishment team will confirm your choice and email you your Nourishment Credit (e-gift card/code) the week of your dinner. - NOTE: If you want to use your Nourishment for places like ModernTribe, or other options that have longer shipping windows, you must post your dinner and request these Nourishment Options at least two (2) weeks in advance. - It’s a resource OneTable is able to offer to those hosts who need a little extra help to elevate their dinners. It is not meant to cover the full cost of the dinner. It comes in the form of digital gift cards. Our options are businesses that give us discounts on their services. If you do not need this assistance, you can choose to “pay it forward” and it will help another host bring more Shabbat into their life! When do I have to select Nourishment? When do I need RSVPs? - Have your dinner posted and your Nourishment selected by Tuesday at 11:59pm local time the week of your dinner. You must select your Nourishment by Tuesday evening at midnight local time to be Nourished for that week. - Make sure your RSVPs are in by Wednesday at 11:59pm local time. We send Nourishment for each person (up to 10) that has RSVPed through OneTable by Wednesday at 11:59pm, not based on your expected guest count. - Your Nourishment Gift will be sent to your email by the end of the day on Thursday! Don’t see it? Check your spam, then email your Field Manager. - Enjoy! Note: some Nourishment is sent on Fridays if we’re waiting to hear back from you. As a OneTable host, how much Nourishment will I receive per dinner? - - We provide nourishment credit of $10 or $15 per person up to $100 or $150 total. You are encouraged to invite more than 10 people if you’d like. - Private dinners are eligible for $10/person, up to $100. “Host Approval” or “Open” dinners are eligible for $15/person, up to $150. - Nourishment is meant to assist in creating your dinner. We understand it might not cover all expenses for the night, but we believe OneTable can help elevate your meal. Consider asking friends to help out by bringing wine, flowers, challah, etc. - In order to receive Nourishment, your dinner must be posted no later than the Tuesday night before your dinner. You must also select your Nourishment by Tuesday evening at midnight local time. You will be Nourished for the number of guests who are RSVPed by Wednesday at 11:59 local time. - If you don’t use all of the Nourishment you’re sent, we ask that you send the remainder back to OneTable so we can pay-it-forward for another Shabbat dinner. - We provide nourishment credit of $10 or $15 per person up to $100 or $150 total. You are encouraged to invite more than 10 people if you’d like. OneTable’s Nourishment options look cool but I want to order from a restaurant. - - Nourishment Credits are available to restaurants in some Hubs, please contact your Field Manager. Can I get Nourishment Credits to anywhere I want? Nourishment Credits come in the form of either a digital gift card, or of goods emailed directly to you. Nourishment is a form of “preimbursement” rather than reimbursement. We ask the host how many guests they plan to have, and set them up with a gift code to one of our Nourishment Partners for $10-15 per person up to $100-150. Nourishment Partners work with us to keep costs low, as we are a nonprofit and rely on community support. How does my business become a Nourishment Partner? OneTable’s Nourishment Partners feature their services to our network of over 110,000 millennials in the United States in exchange for a discount to their business. Interested in reaching thousands of hosts and guests every Friday night? Reach out to OneTable’s Director of Marketing Al Rosenberg to set up a call. Can I get a reimbursement instead of Nourishment? OneTable does not reimburse. Our pre-imbursement through Nourishment gift cards means that you can skip saving receipts. Instead, providing online gift cards to you before Shabbat allows you to shop stress free, as well as maintain a budget and plan ahead. Then, once your Shabbat dinner is over, you only have to worry about doing the dishes (unless you chose take-out!) I was told you sent my Nourishment but I can’t find it. Sometimes, the Nourishment goes straight to spam. Make sure you check your Spam folder before contacting OneTable. I am having trouble redeeming my online gift card. We’re sorry to hear that! Please contact the gift card company’s customer service. What do I do with my extra Nourishment? We ask that hosts donate it back (onetable.org/extranourishment) to pay it forward to support another OneTable meal. Dinner Conversations and Next Steps: Do I need to do anything special at the dinner? Shabbat dinner is special, and we hope that you’ll consider ways to set a specific intention for the space you are creating. Rituals (like candle lighting, a blessing over the wine, and having challah) are some meaningful ways to elevate Friday night. Your Field Manager is the best person to talk with about ritual, and ways you can create intention whether traditional or unique to you. What do I do after my dinner? Let us know how it went and/or send photos if you have them. If you choose to post about your dinner, tag us on social media (#myonetable). We love hearing about all of your awesome dinners! Plus you get to #humblebrag. Does OneTable have any programs outside of Shabbat dinners? Yes! Stay tuned on our Facebook page, newsletters (aka the “SideDish”), and platform to hear about our partner and Nosh:pitality events! What's a Nosh:pitality? A Nosh:pitality is a OneTable in-person gathering in our major cities (Atlanta, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Denver, D.C. Metro Area, Los Angeles, Metro Detroit & Ann Arbor, NYC, Pittsburgh, Portland). Field Managers create events that focus on the art of hospitality such as cocktail mixology, challah baking, and cooking, and Jewish learning. These events are a chance to meet other hosts and coaches in your city, and learn rockstar hosting skills to bring to your next dinner. Have a Nosh:pitality event you might want to see? Let your Field Manager know! When should I prepare? We suggest prepping as much as possible the day or days before. Check out our resources for recipe ideas and get in touch with your Field Manager for more ideas and support! Do I need to send in photos/receipts/etc after my dinner? No, but we love to see photos and hear details! Your Field Manager will follow up on Monday to ask how the meal went and will ask for details and photos. We will also send you a survey in the weeks after your meal to get valuable feedback on how we can improve our systems!	https://onetable.org/faq/
This SUN TIGER GC220 rough grit sharpening stone is ideal for quickly bringing the edge back to dull knives and can also be used to repair blade nicks or damaged tips. Works well before moving on to a medium and fine grit sharpening stone. Rough stones are intended for experienced sharpeners, their abrasiveness makes them ideal for repairing damaged knives but can easily ruin a knife edge if used improperly. - Sun Tiger 220 Grit Rough Grain Whetstone - Dimensions: 8″L x 2.5″ W x 1.25″ H - Soak in water for 5 minutes before use and allow stone to completely dry before storing. Made in Japan \|Weight\|\|2 lbs\| \|Dimensions\|\|8 × 2.75 × 1.75 in\| Reviews There are no reviews yet.	https://mangvanusa.com/product/gc220-rough-grain-whetstones-220-grit/
What is Respiration? - Definition : breathing, the bodily process of inhalation and exhalation; the process of taking in oxygen from inhaled air and releasing carbon dioxide by exhalation - In scientific terms, it is the process of breaking down glucose to release energy, which goes on in every cell It is used to things like : -break down larger molecules like protiens - contract muscles - maintain a steady body temperature Types of Respiration There are two types of Respiration. Aerobic (with air) and Anaerobic (without air) The word equation for aerobic respiration is : Glucose + Oxygen---> Carbon Dioxide + Water (+Energy) Aerobic respiration is the simple an efficient way of releasing energy from glucose. Anaerobic respiration happens without oxygen. It happens when not enough oxygen is available. It does not release as much energy as aerobic, and is useful for emergencies only. You tend to use it when you exercise because when you exercise you respire more. More on Types of Respiration When you do really vigorous exercise like sprinting, your body can't supply oxygen to your muscles quickly enough, so they start to respire anaerobically. However, you cannot use anaerobic respiration for too long as it produces a build up of lactic acid in your muscles, which is painful and can cause a cramp. An advantage is that at least you can keep using your muscles for a while longer. After the use of anaerobic respiration, when you have stopped exercising you have an oxygen debt. An oxygen debt is just a lack of oxygen that you didn't manage to get to your muscles in time. To repay the debt you have to breathe hard for a while, then you stop to get oxygen into your muscles to convert the painful lactic acid to harmless CO2 and Water. These can be displayed on graphs. Units for interpreting data : breaths/min or beats/min Diffusion -The circulatory system carries glucose, oxygen and co2 around the body in the blood. -Glucose needed for respiration comes from breaking down food in the digestive system. -The oxygen comes from air breathed into the lungs. CO2 is breathed out -The smallest blood vessels in the body are the capillaries. All the cells in body have capillaries nearby to supply them with glucose and oxygen, and to take away the waste CO2 - All these substances move between the cells and the capillaries by a process known as diffusion Diffusion Continued Diffusion in scientific terms, is the movement of particles from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. It's the gradual movement of particles to where there are lots of them to where there are fewer. Its the natural tendency of stuff to spread out When cells respire they use up oxygen and glucose, so the concentration of these inside the cells is low . The concentrations of these substances in the blood is higher, so they diffuse fro the capillaries into the cells When cells respire they produce lots of co2 so the concentration of this in the cells is high. This means carbon dioxide diffuses from the cells into the blood, where the concentration is lower. Osmosis Osmosis - It is the diffusion of molecules through a semipermeable membrane from a place of higher concentration to a place of lower concentration until the concentration on both sides is equal - Osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a partially-permeable membrane down a water potential gradient. Heart and Breath Rate Monitoring - Professional athletes measure their heart and breathing rate, as well as temperature by training - You can measure heart rate during exercise by taking your pulse, by putting 2 fingers on the inside of your wrist or neck, and counting the number of pulses in one minute.	https://getrevising.co.uk/revision-cards/gcse_edexcel_additional_biology_respiration
Connecting Flights Vs Direct Flights From Springfield Missouri To Chicago Flights between some cities may be significantly cheaper if you choose a multi-stop airline ticket. Although these connecting flights sacrifice some convenience, on average, travelers save 20%-60% when they choose to fly multi-stop versus a direct flight. The average price for connecting flights from Springfield, Missouri to Chicago is $378. The average price for direct flights from Springfield, Missouri to Chicago is $320. The chart below shows up to date information regarding non-stop flights from Springfield, Missouri to Chicago. \|Carrier\| \|13:16\| Average Timeline Timeline Chart The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it’s journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it’s gate. The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it’s stated departure time. \|Leaves Chicago\| Faqs About Flights From Springfield Can I catch a flight from Springfield, MO Airport to Chicago, IL Airport right now? For any current Chicago, IL Airport travel advice and quarantine requirements, go to our Covid-19 Travel Advisor. Check before you book your flight, so you don’t get caught out. Are there direct flights from Springfield-Branson National Airport to Chicago, IL Airport ? Your next amazing adventure is on the other side of just one flight. You can jet direct from SGF to ORD with multiple airlines, including American Airlines and United Airlines. If I am not able to travel due to COVID-19, can I change my booking to a later date? For more info about changing your flight to Chicago, IL Airport , please visit our Customer Service Portal. How long is the flight from Springfield-Branson National Airport to O’Hare Intl. Airport ? You’ll have just enough time to read a few chapters in your latest novel as the journey from Springfield-Branson National Airport to Chicago, IL Airport is a mere 1 hour and 44 minutes. You may just find yourself left on a cliffhanger! What is the flight distance from Springfield-Branson National Airport to O’Hare Airport? There’s a flight distance of 441 mi between Springfield-Branson National Airport and O’Hare Intl. Airport . Make the most of your short journey to jot down all the places you plan to visit and how you’re going to get there. A detailed itinerary is key to having a stress-free vacation. What is the best day to buy a plane ticket? You May Like: Diagnostic Medical Sonography Programs Chicago Flights From Springfield To Chicago Springfield-Branson National Airport Whenever you need to book flights from Springfield, Missouri, visit Orbitz.com to find the best deals available. Springfield-Branson National Airport is located five miles northwest of the city’s central business district and is the only airport in the city. American Airlines, Delta Connection, United and Allegiant are the major airlines that service this airport, and these airlines offer direct flights from Springfield to various cities in the United States. Ground Transportation and Parking There are no public buses that travel directly to Springfield-Branson National Airport however, you can get to the airport by taxi or car. All Around Cab Co., Springfield Yellow Cab and Springfield Car Service & Shuttle are some of the cab services that provide transportation to the airport. If you prefer to drive, long- or short-term parking is available. Lot B offers short-term parking, which is free for the first 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, you are charged $1.50 each half-hour until you reach the daily maximum of $15. Lot C offers long-term parking for $10 per day or $50 per week. Dining Facilities at Springfield-Branson National Airport Airports in Chicago Transportation from the Airport Weather in Chicago Highlights and Attractions Orbitz.com not only helps you find cheap flights to Chicago, but can also help you purchase tickets to the Sears Tower or make reservations for guided city tours. What Airport Do You Fly Into For Flights To Springfield From Chicago O’hare Intl If you book a flight to Springfield from Chicago O’Hare Intl, you will be flying to Springfield-Branson, which is the citys only airport. Springfield Springfield-Branson is located 5.3 mi from the center of Springfield. There are 4 flights from Chicago O’Hare Intl to Springfield-Branson per day from 3 different airlines. Don’t Miss: Chicago Toll Pay Online Flying Time From Springfield Mo To Chicago Il The total flight duration from Springfield, MO to Chicago, IL is 1 hour, 8 minutes. This is the average in-air flight time based onactual flights taken over the past year, including routes like SGF to ORD.It covers the entire time on a typical commercial flight includingtake-off and landing. If you’re planning a trip, you should also factorin extra time for the plane to pull back from the gate and taxi tothe runway, as well as reaching the destination gate after landing.If you include this extra time on the tarmac, the average totalelapsed time from gate to gate flying from Springfield, MO to Chicago, IL is 1 hour, 31 minutes. Finally, pilots might want to estimate the flight timeusing an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph,which is equivalent to 805 km/h or 434 knots. If you don’t add anyextra time to increase or decrease speed for take-off and landing,then at constant speed your flight time would be 53 minutes. If you’re booking a flight, make sure you check thescheduled departure and arrival times. You should also factor inairport wait times and possible equipment or weather delays.If you’re trying to figure out what time you’ll arriveat the destination, you may want to see if there’s atime difference between Springfield, MO and Chicago, IL. The calculation of flight time is based on thestraight line distance from Springfield, MO to Chicago, IL , which is about 442 miles or 711 kilometers. Travel Time From Springfield To Chicago How long does it really take to fly from Springfield to Chicago? Here’s a sample itinerary for a commercialflight plan. If you want to know the total travel time to reach Chicago, you need to include time at the airports.Eventually, you’ll be able to customize this itinerary to selectother nearby airports and choose your preferred airline. Wednesday, 4:22 pm: start in Springfield drive for about 18 minutesmost airlines recommend you get to the airport at least 60 minutes before your flight, so arrive by 5:05 pm at the latest 4:40 pm: Springfield-Branson National if you need to check luggage, make sure you do it at least 30-60 minutes before departure, or in this case, by 5:35 pm 4:55 pm: get your boarding pass and go through TSA securityallow enough time for long security lines during busy travel seasons or holidays, and prepare for the wait time 5:25 pm: arrive at the gateonce you’re ready to board, you can get something to eat in the airport or just relax near the gate 5:40 pm: prepare for boardingcheck your boarding pass for your group number or listen to the gate agent as they announce boarding, some airlines require you to be in the boarding area 10-15 minutes before departure or risk losing your seat 5:55 pm: board ExpressJet Airlines Inc. flightyou can scroll down to view other airlines that fly this route 6:05 pm: this is your scheduled departure timebut this flight is usually delayed by an average of 11 minutes Don’t Miss: Pay Tolls Chicago Search For Flights From Springfieldmo To Chicago Find cheap flights from Springfield,MO to Chicago with the Opodo search engine. Whether its on business, for a relaxing holiday or to visit loved ones, you will find all the best deals on flights from Springfield,MO with Opodo, featuring cheap flights by all the top low cost and standard airlines. By simply entering your preferences in our speedy search engine, a large selection of options will be returned from which you just need to select the best deal that works for you. Well do the rest! Alternatively, if you are flexible on dates or an early bird, discover the cheapest day to fly from Springfield,MO to Chicago to ensure you get the best price. Find exclusive discounts by downloading the Opodo App and subscribing to our newsletter to stay in touch with the best offers on flights, hotels and more. Finally, dont forget to book a hotel or car hire to complete your journey, all of which you will find on Opodo, your one-stop travel shop. Then just sit back and relax and enjoy your holidays! Springfield To Chicago Airports And Flights In the quick calculation above, we assumed you had a privateplane and just wanted to know the time in the air from city to city.But for most of us, we’re going to be flying on a commercial airline. So that means we really needto account for all the extra travel time getting to the airport,waiting for our flight, and making it to the destination. To give you a better estimate of real-life travel, we’veput together a flight itinerary with actual airports. Eventuallyyou’ll be able to customize this plan, choosing your own airportsand flights. But for now, here’s an example we’ve selected togive you an idea of how traveling might work between airports. Departure airport: Branson Airport Arrival airport: Chicago O’Hare International Airport With the airports selected, we can estimate the travel time to andfrom the airport, based on how far the airport is from downtown. Getting to the airport: 142 minutes Getting to your destination: 47 minutes Now finally, let’s look at an actual flight from BKG to ORD and figure out how long it would take to fly includingtake-off and landing, and time to taxi on the runway. Commercial flight time: 1 hour, 31 minutes So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time fromSpringfield to Chicago including time spent getting to/fromthe airports, an estimated wait time of 2 hours at the airport for TSAsecurity lines and waiting at the gate, and the actual flight itself. Total travel time: 7 hours Don’t Miss: Ultrasound Technician Programs In Chicago Plan A Trip To Chicago Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Chicago, Illinois. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Chicago, or find out how many days in Chicago to visit. If you’re looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out The James Chicago Hotel. A great place to eat might be Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Chicago like Millennium Park. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Chicago like What is your favorite restaurant in Chicago?. Click the button below to explore Chicago in detail. See Flight Deals From Springfield Il And Chicago The eDreams flights search engine will provide you with the cheapest options available while you book your flight, once you select your flight dates, number of passengers and other details, our search results will show you the best options. If you are flexible when it comes to dates, we also help you find the cheapest day to go to Chicago. In addition, if it’s a last-minute trip, we help you find the flight from Springfield, IL that best suits your travel needs. In addition, eDreams US will give you all your flight details Springfield, IL – Chicago before departure, even more closely if you have the eDreams APP. You can continue your reservation by indicating the dates you wish to travel and even add a hotel or car rental, by doing this you will be offered exclusive promotions. Also Check: Chicago Unpaid Toll Pay Online Cheap Flights From Chicago To Springfield Airports in Chicago The city of Chicago is primarily served by two international airports. Travelers looking for low-fare flights from Chicago can use Orbitz.com to find flights from both O’Hare and Midway. O’Hare International Airport is located approximately 17 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. Midway International Airport is located on the city’s southwest side, approximately eight miles from Chicago’s Loop. O’Hare serves as a hub for American Airlines and United Airlines, and Midway is a hub for Southwest Airlines. Chicago Airport Parking Daily, hourly, and valet parking are available at O’Hare. Rates vary from $2.00 to $10.00 per hour. An economy parking lot is also available at a rate of $2.00 per hour. Similar parking options and rates apply at Midway. Chicago Airport Transportation There are numerous transportation options for getting to and from both O’Hare and Midway. O’Hare can be accessed via regional trains, buses, and local mass transit lines. The CTA Blue Line offers a fast and convenient transportation option to and from this airport. Midway is served by the CTA Orange Line. Car rental services are available at both airports, and travelers can quickly book car rental services at either airport using Orbitz.com. Chicago Airport Restaurants Flying Into Springfield-Branson National Airport Transportation to and From Springfield Weather in Springfield Springfield Tourist Spots Flights From Springfield Airport Sgf To Chicago Airport Ord Flights are offered by 7 airline companies if you are flying to O’Hare International Airport to Springfield-Branson Rg. The journey time flying from Springfield-Branson Rg to O’Hare International Airport United States is around 1 Hour 38 Minutes. With the distance covered being 704 Km . The airport code for Springfield-Branson Rg is SGF and for O’Hare International Airport it is ORD. The cost of ticket prices to O’Hare International Airport United States can vary quite considerably if you travel at certain times of the week especially at weekends. O’Hare International Airport United States flights may be normally booked months in advance and this may be the best option if you intend to get the best prices from Springfield-Branson Rg. Our recommendation is to book well in advance if you are looking to get the best possible prices. If you had a rental car at O’Hare International Airport and need to return it, find the nearest fuel station on your route to O’Hare International Airport and avoid excess fees. Organise and book your choice of transport at O’Hare International Airport: Find hotels close to O’Hare International Airport many hotels offer airport transfers directly from the airport to your hotel. The table below displays the numbers of daily flights from Springfield-Branson Rg to O’Hare International Airport and the relevant airlines that fly.	https://www.chicagoreporter.net/flights-from-springfield-mo-to-chicago/
Members of the telemetry technician profession are specialists in the remote monitoring of the heart's electrical activity and have experienced tremendous job growth over the past several years due to the growing prevalence of cardiac illness secondary to poor dietary and lifestyle behaviors being practiced by many people around the World. The widespread presence of diseases such as diabetes and obesity has made cardiac illness a pressing public health issue and has resulted in the hiring of a number of new cardiovascular care professionals including the telemetry technician. As demand for technicians continues to grow, it is expected that the amount that they get compensated will continue to rise. It has been the norm in the health sector that its professionals get above average compensation. There has arised a number of chronic diseases that require continuous treatment as well as increased number of people who seek specialized healthcare throughout the year. As more and more people enter the medical system, facilities are forced to hire additional employees in order to keep pace with the demand. There is greater diversity in career solutions as well as competitive pay in this field. According to federal statistics, the average technician was paid approximately $55,000 within the cardiac care department in 2014. A technicians salary is influenced by a variety of factors. Instead of only making assumptions of how ones salary is going to increase, it is very important that a telemetry professional attempts to make some projections based on evidence. It is not possible to compensate someone who has been working in this sector for a long time in the same way who has just been employed. New technicians will typically need to complete some form of training and certification to be able to offer medical services to the patient population and will likely start out at a lower salary level in the beginning as they acquire the knowledge and skills needed to work in an efficient manner. While education, experience, and certification are three of the best strategies for improving earnings as a telemetry technician, one must take into consideration the region where they work and the number of healthcare facilities who are hiring. Low population areas that have few healthcare companies are less likely to offer as much compensation to employees because there are fewer competitors who are attempting to attract and retain click employees from the same hiring pool. Individuals who live in urban or suburban areas where there are many different medical facilities all competing against each other to get the attention of potential applicants often find that it is easier to secure higher earnings than it is in a less populated regions. Those who live and work in rural or sparsely populated site might want to consider moving in order to maximize the telemetry technician salary. Another aspect that may cause difference in pay differentials may be the position one holds in the organization. The technicians with administrative roles is likely to earn more than that professional who only have just have clinical roles alone.	https://edwardtroopyucwf.wixsite.com/thejobblog
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Home Point Arithmetic Operations with Numerical Fractions Multiplying a Polynomial by a Monomial Solving Linear Equation Solving Linear Equations Solving Inequalities Solving Compound Inequalities Solving Systems of Equations Using Substitution Simplifying Fractions 3 Factoring quadratics Special Products Writing Fractions as Percents Using Patterns to Multiply Two Binomials Adding and Subtracting Fractions Solving Linear Inequalities Adding Fractions Solving Systems of Equations - Exponential Functions Integer Exponents Example 6 Dividing Monomials Multiplication can Increase or Decrease a Number Graphing Horizontal Lines Simplification of Expressions Containing only Monomials Decimal Numbers Negative Numbers Factoring Subtracting Polynomials Adding and Subtracting Fractions Powers of i Multiplying and Dividing Fractions Simplifying Complex Fractions Finding the Coordinates of a Point Fractions and Decimals Rational Expressions Solving Equations by Factoring Slope of a Line Percent Introduced Reducing Rational Expressions to Lowest Terms The Hyperbola Standard Form for the Equation of a Line Multiplication by 75 Solving Quadratic Equations Using the Quadratic Formula Raising a Product to a Power Solving Equations with Log Terms on Each Side Monomial Factors Solving Inequalities with Fractions and Parentheses Division Property of Square and Cube Roots Multiplying Two Numbers Close to but less than 100 Solving Absolute Value Inequalities Equations of Circles Percents and Decimals Integral Exponents Linear Equations - Positive and Negative Slopes Multiplying Radicals Factoring Special Quadratic Polynomials Simplifying Rational Expressions Adding and Subtracting Unlike Fractions Graphuing Linear Inequalities Linear Functions Solving Quadratic Equations by Using the Quadratic Formula Adding and Subtracting Polynomials Adding and Subtracting Functions Basic Algebraic Operations and Simplification Simplifying Complex Fractions Axis of Symmetry and Vertices Factoring Polynomials with Four Terms Evaluation of Simple Formulas Graphing Systems of Equations Scientific Notation Lines and Equations Horizontal and Vertical Lines Solving Equations by Factoring Solving Systems of Linear Inequalities Adding and Subtracting Rational Expressions with Different Denominators Adding and Subtracting Fractions Solving Linear Equations Simple Trinomials as Products of Binomials Solving Nonlinear Equations by Factoring Solving System of Equations Exponential Functions Computing the Area of Circles The Standard Form of a Quadratic Equation The Discriminant Dividing Monomials Using the Quotient Rule Squaring a Difference Changing the Sign of an Exponent Adding Fractions Powers of Radical Expressions Steps for Solving Linear Equations Quadratic Expressions Complete Squares Fractions 1 Properties of Negative Exponents Factoring Perfect Square Trinomials Algebra Solving Quadratic Equations Using the Square Root Property Dividing Rational Expressions Quadratic Equations with Imaginary Solutions Factoring Trinomials Using Patterns Try the Free Math Solver or Scroll down to Tutorials! Expression Equation Inequality Contact us Simplify Factor Expand GCF LCM Enter expression, e.g. (x^2-y^2)/(x-y) Sample Problem Simplify Enter expression, e.g. x^2+5x+6 Sample Problem Factor Enter expression, e.g. (x+1)^3 Sample Problem Expand Enter a set of expressions, e.g. ab^2,a^2b Sample Problem Find GCF Enter a set of expressions, e.g. ab^2,a^2b Sample Problem Find LCM Solve Graph System Enter equation to solve, e.g. 2x+3=4 Sample Problem Solve Enter equation to graph, e.g. y=3x^2-1 Sample Problem Depdendent Variable Draw Number of equations to solve: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sample Problem Equ. #1: Equ. #2: Equ. #3: Equ. #4: Equ. #5: Equ. #6: Equ. #7: Equ. #8: Equ. #9: Solve for: Auto Fill Solve Solve Graph System Enter inequality to solve, e.g. 2x+3>4 Sample Problem Solve Enter inequality to graph, e.g. y<3x^2-1 Sample Problem Dependent Variable Draw Number of inequalities to solve: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sample Problem Ineq. #1: Ineq. #2: Ineq. #3: Ineq. #4: Ineq. #5: Ineq. #6: Ineq. #7: Ineq. #8: Ineq. #9: Solve for: Auto Fill Solve Math solver on your site Please use this form if you would like to have this math solver on your website, free of charge. Name: Email: Your Website: Msg: Send math answers for free Related topics: method least common multiple \| difference equation matlab \| divisible by 5 and 6 "java" \| online factorization \| aptitude questions with explanation of solutions \| algebra homework \| investigatory project in math \| factoring solver \| fifth grade decimal worksheets \| graph an algebra equation \| simplify polynomial expressions with exponents Author Message banhilspr Registered: 01.01.2005 From: Posted: Thursday 28th of Dec 08:59 I have this test coming and I would really be grateful if anyone can guide math answers for free on which I’m stuck and don’t know how to start from. Can you give me guidance with exponent rules, factoring and subtracting exponents. I would rather get help from you than hire a algebra tutor who are very pricey. Any guidance will be highly appreciated very much. Back to top Jahm Xjardx Registered: 07.08.2005 From: Odense, Denmark, EU Posted: Friday 29th of Dec 20:01 Hey. I think I can help you out. Can you elucidate some more on what your problems are? What specifically are your problems with math answers for free? Getting a good quality teacher would have been the finest thing. But do not be troubled . I think there is a way out . I have come across a number of algebra programs. I have tried them out myself. They are pretty smart and good . These might just be what you need. They also do not cost a lot. I believe that what you require is Algebrator. Why not try this out? It could be just be the answer for your problems . Back to top MoonBuggy Registered: 23.11.2001 From: Leeds, UK Posted: Saturday 30th of Dec 11:30 Algebrator is one handy tool. I don’t have much interest in math and have found it to be complicated all my life. Yet one cannot always leave math because it sometimes becomes a compulsory part of one’s course work. My younger brother is a math wiz and I found this program in his laptop. 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So you have nothing to lose. Go ahead and Good Luck!	https://algebra1help.com/www-algebra1-com/roots/math-answers-for-free.html
WE ARE TEMPORARILY CLOSED We are temporarily closed for dine-in and take-out. Please visit our sister restaurant, Cru Cafe. Thank you for the continued support and we’ll see you soon. A welcoming neighborhood bistro and eatery Purlieu pulls inspiration from both traditional European cooking and from the culinary traditions of the Lowcountry. Situated on the edge of Charleston’s Westside neighborhood, the name “Purlieu” pays homage to both the French definition – “a piece of land on the edge of a forest,” as well as the Lowcountry dish, pilau, pronounced “per-loo” in Gullah culture. The rotating menus highlight seasonally dishes and flavors and are paired with a curated list of French wines. order takeout ○ wine ○ contact Purlieu (noun) - A piece of land on the edge of a forest. - A person’s usual haunts. Perloo (noun) - A steamed rice dish often with meat, shellfish, or vegetables in a seasoned broth.	http://purlieucharleston.com/
The Effects of Water Temperature in Aquaponics Today we’re going to expand on the idea of water temperature in your aquaponics system, and describe how temperature affects water quality and its relation to fish and plant growth. Temperature - Temperature is a measure of how fast the molecules in a substance are moving; the faster they move, the higher the temperature. Fish and invertebrates are poikilothermic or “cold-blooded” animals; this means that they are unable to regulate their body temperatures like humans or other mammals. Instead, cold-blooded animals must rely on their external environment to regulate their body temperature. - Typically, fish are classified into three categories: cold-water, cool-water, and warm-water. Cold-water species prefer temperatures <60, cool-water 60-68, and warm-water >68. This is a general classification. Temperature and Oxygen Saturation - Temperature and oxygen saturation levels have an inverse relationship; as the temperature rises, the dissolved oxygen concentration decreases, as the temperature decreases the dissolved oxygen concentration increases. - As water temperatures increase the vapor pressure of gases inside the liquid increase; this is a result of molecules inside the liquid starting to move faster; the faster they move, the easier it is for gases to escape, and become equalized with their respective atmospheric pressures. Thus, fewer concentrations of gases are held in the water before being released into the atmosphere. - As water temperatures decrease, the molecules move slower, the partial vapor pressure of oxygen decreases, and fewer gases are released into the atmosphere. This results in a higher dissolved oxygen potential because more oxygen has to be trapped in the water before its gases off at a rate of equilibrium. Temperature and Metabolic Rate - Metabolic rate is a measure of total energy consumed by an animal over a given time. For poikilotherms, temperature is often the controlling factor in metabolic rate. As temperature increases, so does the organism’s metabolic rate. As the organism consumes more energy, there is a relative increase in oxygen demand. To meet these increased demands, more feed and more oxygen must be supplied to the fish. A general rule is that for every 10 degrees Celsius increase in body temperature; the metabolic rate increases by 2-3 times. (When temperature is outside of the optimal range, increased temperature can inhibit growth) Temperature and Ammonia Toxicity - The Total Ammonia-Nitrogen (TAN) of the system is comprised of unionized ammonia (NH3) and ionized ammonia or ammonium (NH4+). NH3 is more toxic to fish than NH4+. The form in which the ammonia exists is based on three factors; temperature, pH, and salinity. In a future post we will discuss this relationship in full detail, but today we will focus on temperatures effect on the toxicity of ammonia. As the temperature rises, the pKa (which is a measure of a compounds ability to gain or lose protons) decreases. Therefore as temperature increases, ammonium’s ability to hold on to its extra hydrogen atom decreases, making more of the TAN become unionized and thus more toxic. This relationship is represented in the graph below. How does this affect me? - This relationship between metabolic rate and temperature can be exploited to increase the growth of poikilotherms. As more feed is given to meet the increased energy requirements, faster growth is achieved. Unfortunately, the exploitation of this relationship is limited by increased oxygen demand and decreased oxygen saturation, resulting in reduced growth after a certain point. DON’T compromise your fish to increase growth. Know your species tolerance ranges and stick with them. To help with this, we have created the following chart: What about plants? - Temperature can significantly affect the growth and development of plants; the ideal water temperature is dependent on the species of plant and its stage of life. Suboptimal temperatures can result in decreased growth nutrient uptake, bolting, or delayed fruit/flower onset. For this reason, it is essential to look up and know your ideal temperature ranges for your plants. What is optimal? The optimal temperature rates for these species are based on aquaculture standards, not aquaponic standards. In aquaponic systems, we often have to compromise between the needs of the plants, bacteria, and fish to create a well-functioning ecosystem. For instance, Tilapia prefer a temperature between 82-88 F; however, many leafy greens like lettuce prefer cooler temperatures (65-72 F). For this reason, we often try to maintain our temperatures between 72-76 F. Koi, however, prefer a range of 65-75 F, which is also more ideal for plants, therefore in this system, we would try to maintain our temperatures between 66-70 F. There are several types of heaters that are either put in-line or directly into the culture water. In the future, we will discuss how to size your water heater as well as differences between electric, natural gas, and propane heaters. Till next time, happy farming!	https://www.theaquaponicsource.com/blog/effects-water-temperature-aquaponics/
BRATTLEBORO — A law firm representing the court-appointed receiver of Koffee Kup Bakery and its affiliated companies called pay issues reported by former employees and news outlets “a misconception.” “No funds were removed from any employee accounts,” the Albany, N.Y. based law firm of Nolan Heller Kauffman LLP, which is representing receiver Ronald Teplitsky, said in a news release issued Tuesday. Instead, the firm says employees received less in their accounts or in their paychecks than the company initially said would be paid. Justin Heller wrote in the news release that American Industrial Acquisition Corp., which purchased Koffee Kup on April 1, reneged on its promise to provide as much as $2.5 million in financial support to the company. Heller also noted that AIAC was aware of there being “a significant amount of the employees’ accrued and unused [paid time off].” “When AIAC decided a few weeks later not to fund Company operations and abruptly closed operations and terminated employees, it was aware that the accrued PTO would become due and payable to employees,” the release states. “AIAC has refused to fund these amounts, and is now attempting to foist that obligation onto the Receiver. However, the Receiver has no obligation to fund the Company’s pre-receivership obligations.” The law firm said Koffee Kup employees were notified by the company’s owners that April 26 would be their last day of employment, then the company reported the final week’s wages with paid time off (PTO) to its payroll company for processing. “The payroll company then notified direct deposit employees that their payroll deposits would include both wages and PTO, and issued paychecks that also included these amounts,” states a news release from the firm. While Koffee Kup “had previously been advised that funds would be released for wages incurred by employees through the date the Company closed operations, the Company was also informed that PTO would not be paid from funds under the Receiver’s control, and would have to be paid by the Company or its owners. To compound matters, the payroll processing cycle required that the original payroll (including both wages and PTO), whether in the form of direct deposits or paychecks, had to be stopped and a new payroll (including only the wages due through termination) issued. This took over the weekend and added an extra day or two to amounts hitting former employee bank accounts.” Overdrafts occurred, the firm said, “because the initial payroll notices and paychecks that included PTO were issued in error and had, in fact, not been funded, and employees received less in their accounts or in their paychecks than they were initially and incorrectly told by the Company would be paid.” Most employees received their pay by direct deposit, according to the release. About 25 received paychecks. Mike Griswold, former plant manager in Brattleboro, called the news release “clear as mud.” “If the money was never in anyone’s account,” he said, “how were they able to spend it and be overdrawn when it left?” He was one of more than 90 employees who found out they no longer had jobs at Koffee Kup in Brattleboro on April 26 after the facility closed. They received notice that Koffee Kup has been operating at a loss for some time and has been in default “of certain terms and conditions of its outstanding loans with its lenders.” On May 5, Teplitsky was appointed receiver in a lawsuit against Koffee Kup filed by KeyBank, the primary lien holder, in Vermont. His task is to “preserve and maximize the value of the Company’s assets,” according to the release. “Under the court order, the Receiver is required to pay expenses incurred during the course of the receivership, but not expenses incurred by the Company prior to the receivership, such as Company payroll obligations,” the release states. “Nevertheless, recognizing the impact of the closure on employees, the Receiver, with KeyBank’s consent, agreed to fund the Company’s final payroll for wages and salaries in an amount in excess of $200,000. KeyBank had previously consented to funding the prior payroll period in an amount in excess of $400,000.” The receiver plans to file opposition to a motion made by the company in court May 10 asking the court to require the receiver to pay the PTO. Citing the pending motion, Justin A. Heller of Nolan Heller Kauffman declined to comment.
LIVERMORE FALLS — An ordinance that governs medical marijuana establishments licensing has once again been revised, adding fees and operation hours among other changes. The ordinance was approved by voters in November 2021 and will go before voters again in either April or June 2023. The revised proposal has been sent back to a town attorney for review. Selectmen held a public hearing on the revision on Oct. 18. Chairman Jim Long proposed new fee amounts. It doubles the initial $250 application fee to a $500 fee. There is also a nonrefundable $500 annual license fees and costs, which is the same as it was, but will be applied to the initial license fee for the town. The fees are proposed below: • Medical marijuana retail store permit/license fee: $500; • Medical marijuana product manufacturing facility permit/license fee: $1,250; • Medical marijuana cultivation facility, indoors and outdoors: -Tier one up to 30 mature plants or up to 500 square feet of plant cultivation area permit/license fee: $250; -Tier two up to 501 to 2,000 square feet of plant cultivation area permit/license fee: $3,000; -Tier three 2,001 to 7,000 square feet of plant cultivation area permit/license fee: $5,000; -Tier four 7,001 to 30,000 square feet of plant cultivation area permit/license fee: $15,000. -For each approved increase of 10,000 square feet, there is an additional fee of $5,000; • Nursery cultivation area for cultivation of not more than 1,000 square feet of plant cultivation area in compliance with the law permit/license fee: $500. Plant cultivation area of individual nursery is permanently capped at 1,000 square feet. Select board Chairman Jim Long said he looked at other towns’ ordinances to come up with a fee schedule for Livermore Falls. He asked Brandon Hobbs, code enforcement officer, to research and add language to determine if different fees should be added for medical marijuana manufacturing production for inherently hazardous substances if using manual processing and for those that do not have hazardous processes. The revised ordinance also changes the hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. It provides for three retail stores in the Village area. Currently there are six retail stores approved in the area and two cultivation facilities. No new retail stores will be permitted in that area if the ordinance is approved. Those currently existing are grandfathered. Under the revision, there would also be no more cultivation or product manufacturing facilities in the Village area. There is no limit proposed on the number that can be approved outside the Village area for either retail, cultivation or product manufacturing. Also, added is that no medical marijuana establishment will be located at a distance of less than 500 feet of lot lines of pre-existing facilities licensed medical marijuana establishments. Applicants for marijuana cultivation permits/licenses may not hold more than three such permits/licenses or a total combined plant cultivation of in excess of 30,000 square feet. Selectmen voted 3-1 to accept the changes and send them to the town’s attorney for review. Selectman William Kenniston opposed the vote because he did not favor putting a cap on the number of facilities in town. Long said he went by density of population. The village is densely populated while outside of it is not. The Village area is the area defined by the Jay town line on the north, the Androscoggin River on the west, the Central Maine Power Co. right-of-way on the east and on the south by an east-west line from the river to the power lines and encompassing all properties abutting Gilbert Street, the south loop. Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page. Enter your email and password to access comments. Invalid username/password. Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration. Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.	https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/10/24/livermore-falls-adds-fees-changes-items-in-medical-marijuana-establishment-ordinance/
SERIAL NUMBERS and APPROXIMATE PRODUCTION DATES 1950's to 1964 In early 1965, Fender was sold to the CBS. The old Fender serial number scheme did not change immediately as CBS to use up existing parts and use existing tooling however a large F logo was added to the neck plate shortly after the accquisition. Please note that fender serial numbers tend to overlap by at least a year, and thereby the date of your guitar can only be approximated. Fender began producing instruments in its Ensenada, Mexico, factory in 1990. It therefore appears as though the the S in ICS is only an indication as to whether it is a Factory Special Run or FSR guitar (manufactured by Cor-Tek in Indonesia). The reason they need to do this is because FMIC and the international Fender/Squier distributors have different warranties and totally separate support systems including service centers.A new serial-numbering scheme was adopted toward the end of 2009 using the number “10” as a prefix, followed by a space, followed by seven digits.The “10” prefix was designed to identify the first year of the second decade of the new millennium, and while it appears on the instrument decals, it was not captured in Fender’s operating system.SERIAL NUMBERS and APPROXIMATE PRODUCTION DATES 1965 to 1976 In 1982 the Vintage Series of guitars was introduced.The vintage series used a "V" prefix in serial numbers. “My prayers, thoughts, meditations & strength has been focused on those families and victims affected by the horrific.. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband. Melania has a younger sister and older half brother, whom her father had from a previous relationship.	https://sosnovkashipyard.ru/dating-a-fender-bass-by-serial-number-370.html
Quartz var. Argentine Vein, Idarado Mine, Telluride, San Miguel County, Colorado, 72 x 13 x 13mm A wonderful, doubly-terminated crystal of colorless / white Quartz associated with purple Amethyst on one end from the famous Idarado Mine. Rarely does one encounter true Amethyst from this mine, especially in crystals this size. If you collect Quartz from Colorado, don’t miss out on this attractive d/t crystal from this classic Gold mine near Telluride. From:Mineral Classics Reference:CO712B141 minID: NUY-V8G Share COPYRIGHT © Mineral Classics See Also: USD 279.00 Gold Quartz Quartz Colorado Quartz Mine,	https://www.minfind.com/mineral-524902.html
Mangalore is located in India at the longitude of 74.86 and latitude of 12.91. Mookambika is located in India at the longitude of 74.81 and latitude of 13.86 . Driving Distance : 129 KM and 9 meters / 80.2 miles. Straight Line Distance : 105 KM and 700 meters / 65.7 miles. The total straight line distance between Mangalore and Mookambika is 105 KM (kilometers) and 700 meters. The miles based distance from Mangalore to Mookambika is 65.7 miles. This is a straight line distance and so most of the time the actual travel distance between Mangalore and Mookambika may be higher or vary due to curvature of the road . The driving distance or the travel distance between Mangalore to Mookambika is 129 KM and 9 meters. The mile based, road distance between these two travel point is 80.2 miles. The sun rise time difference or the actual time difference between Mangalore and Mookambika is 0 hours , 0 minutes and 10 seconds. Note: Mangalore and Mookambika time calculation is based on UTC time of the particular city. It may vary from country standard time , local time etc. Mangalore is located around 105 KM away from Mookambika so if you travel at the consistent speed of 50 KM per hour you can reach Mookambika in 2 hours and 29 minutes. Your Mookambika travel time may vary due to your bus speed, train speed or depending upon the vehicle you use. Bus timings from Mangalore to Mookambika is around 2 hours and 29 minutes when your bus maintains an average speed of sixty kilometer per hour over the course of your journey. The estimated travel time from Mangalore to Mookambika by bus may vary or it will take more time than the above mentioned time due to the road condition and different travel route. Travel time has been calculated based on crow fly distance so there may not be any road or bus connectivity also. Mid way point or halfway place is a center point between source and destination location. The mid way point between Mangalore and Mookambika is situated at the latitude of 13.388768506517 and the longitude of 74.835111758359. If you need refreshment you can stop around this midway place, after checking the safety,feasibility, etc. Mookambika is located nearly North side to Mangalore. The bearing degree from Mangalore To Mookambika is 357 ° degree. The given North direction from Mangalore is only approximate. The given google map shows the direction in which the blue color line indicates road connectivity to Mookambika . In the travel map towards Mookambika you may find en route hotels, tourist spots, picnic spots, petrol pumps and various religious places. The given google map is not comfortable to view all the places as per your expectation then to view street maps, local places see our detailed map here. The following diriving direction guides you to reach Mookambika from Mangalore. Our straight line distance may vary from google distance. Travelers and visitors are welcome to write more travel information about Mangalore and Mookambika. It can be your previous travel experience between Mangalore and Mookambika. Tourist places or any other important places on the routes between Mangalore and Mookambika. Photos related to Mangalore and Mookambika or en route.	http://distancebetween2.com/mangalore/mookambika
Many people have skateboards, but not everyone knows how to properly wrap a deck. If you are someone who has just obtained a new board and want to protect it from dents and cracks as much as possible, then this post is for you! In order to learn how to do so, follow the instructions below. What you’ll need To properly wrap a skateboard, you will need: - A Skateboard Deck - A Sheet of Paper - Scissors - Clear Tape or Masking Tape - Ruler or Measuring Tape - Inward Incline (optional) Heavier weights may require an inward incline. Procedure - First, you’ll need to put your sheet of paper on the floor and place your skateboard deck over it (the sheet should be long enough to cover the board and about 1/2″ taller than the board). Then, find a point where both ends of the board meeting. - Next, use your ruler or measuring tape to find the center of the deck and mark it with a pen. Then, look at where each end of the board meets. There should be two “jets” that stick out of these ends (where the wheels are attached). Find where they meet on opposite sides of the deck. - Once you have those points marked with a pen, use your measuring tape or ruler to measure from the center point of the board out to either side. Write down both numbers as they will be needed in step 4. - Now, take your scissors and cut a square on each side of where you wrote down the numbers that you measured in step 3. Then, cut a triangle out of the corners to make them slightly pointy. This will create a flap that will be used to wrap the board with the paper. Repeat steps 1-4 for each side of the deck so you have two flaps on each side. - Next, place one of the flaps onto the top of your board so it covers half of the top. Then, use an Exacto knife to cut a hole in the flap that is just big enough for your trucks to fit through. Repeat on the other side so you have two holes on each side. - Now, take some clear tape or masking tape and wrap it around the deck (you may need to cut a slit in the paper first) until you get back to where you started. Repeat this step twice more so there are three layers of tape. Now, put one small piece of clear tape on each hole that you made earlier. - If needed, use your Exacto knife to cut a small hole in the paper where your grip tape is. If there isn’t any grip tape, you may skip this step. - Last, put a piece of scotch tape over each slit that you made earlier, and be very careful not to let it touch the clear tape as it will make it hard to remove later! Tips - Try to go slow and steady with your scissors/Exacto knife as it can be quite difficult to cut through the thick deck. Make sure you have a hard surface underneath to protect both your board and floor from getting scratched or dinged up. - If you are having trouble keeping the paper straight while cutting, try placing a ruler underneath the paper to keep it straight. - An inward incline may be helpful to ensure that the heavier weights are evenly distributed across the board while you are rolling your skateboard. Conclusion Wrap your skateboard with this easy method for better weight distribution! I hope you enjoyed reading this article, thank you for reading!	https://skatetownguide.com/how-to-wrap-a-skateboard/
According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, Population growth is the rate of natural increase combined with the effects of migration. Factors that lead to population growth include; high birth rate, migration, low infant mortality, improved lifestyle, Education, government policy, economic growth, improved health systems and so forth.According to a report released by United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UN DESA) report, World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, the current world population is over 7.7 billion and its predicted to increase to about 8. 6 billion by 2030, 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100 respectively.Linking to the report, the increase in the world’s population growth can be observed in the high-fertility countries, mainly Africa and others countries such as India and China which are already highly populated.From 2017 to 2050, according to the report, it is expected that half of the world’s population growth will be mainly concentrated in nine countries namely India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of America, Uganda and Indonesia (ordered by their expected contribution to total growth). Currently China and India are the two most populous countries in the world making up 19% and 18% of the global population. Countries with the highest population globally include; China having a population of about 1.4 billion and India 1.3 billion, USA having over 328 million, Indonesia 269 million ,Brazil, 212 million, Pakistan 204 million, Nigeria 201 million, Bangladesh167 million, Russia 143 million and Mexico 132 million amongst others. It is predicted that around 2024, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China and Nigeria to surpass that of the United States by 2050.Africa currently continues to experience high rates of population growth. It predicted by world meters that by 2050, the population of 26 African countries would have double their current size while would have increased by at least a factor of five; these include Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.Nigeria currently has the seventh largest population in the world which will subsequently surpass that of the United States by about 2050 and will become the country with the third largest population in the world.The population growth in Nigeria has been on the increase and about 198 million, with the urban population growing at the rate of 6.5% every year according to The National Population Commission 2017 report. Which as of 2016, the World Bank estimated the population to be around 186 million.However, currently according to new report released by the he United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) 2019 State of the World Population Report, Nigeria now has a estimated population of about 201 million.The report also revealed that Nigeria’s population grew by about 5 million people from a population of about 195.9 million in 2018.The concentration of global population growth in developing countries presents a considerable challenge to governments in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which seeks to end poverty and hunger, expand and update health and education systems, achieve gender equality, women’s empowerment and reduce inequality.The quality of health care services in most developing societies of the world is largely determined by the quality of its population. Health according to the World Health Organization (WHO 1947,1948) is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, but also a state of complete physical, psychological and social well-being.Health is wealth so goes the popular maxima, this means that good health care delivery in a society is part of the foundation on which it builds its wealth. The health system presently in Nigeria has a tree tier structure to provide health services to its people; the primary, secondary and tertiary health care (Osas,1992). The first tier known as the Primary Health Care (PHC) has been developed to provide health care services to the majority of rural people. The provision of care at the primary tier is mostly the responsibility of Local Governments with support of the State Ministry of Health in accordance with the National Health Policy (Nigerian Constitution 1999). The primary level comprises of three types of health institutions which include The Sub-Centre (SC), The Primary Health Centre (PHC) and The Community Health Centre. The rural health care infrastructure has been developed to provide primary health care services through a network of integrated health and family welfare delivery systems. The second tier known as the secondary health care provides specialized services to patients referred from the primary health care level services through outpatient and in-patient departments of hospitals. It provides general medical, surgical, pediatric and community health services and the state government is responsible for the care and functionality of this level of health care .Lastly the tertiary health care which consists of very highly specialized services which are usually provided by teaching hospitals which usually most of the time, provide care for specific diseases mostly which the other health care can’t adequately provide. The provision and care at this level is the sole responsibility of the federal government.The Primary Health Care System Development (PHCSD) Agency is responsible for making the availability of health services and its accessibility in Nigeria thus ensuring that the health facilities and services are within reach ensuring that Nigerians are protected against poor health, building the capacity of its human resource and providing essential logistics support for the implementation of Primary Health Care.	https://grandpaperwriters.com/according-to-the-britannica-encyclopedia-population-growth-is-the-rate-of-natural-essay/
The Mid-Atlantic Region preview, presented by LaxRecords.com features a four-part series. Part one takes a look at some coaches and players on the cusp of milestones. Mid-Atlantic Region Preview: Pt. 1: Milestones \| Pt. 2: The Big Picture \| Pt. 3: Random Region Notes \| Pt. 4: Top 10 Coaches Approaching Milestones Bishop Shanahan (Pa.) is coming off a 22 win season and if Head Coach Jon Heisman can repeat that, he’ll also earn win No. 500. Calvert Hall (Md.) Head Coach Bryan Kelly has plenty to be excited about this season. The Cardinals have already made history with three-straight MIAA A Conference championships and are a favorite to win No. 4. Kelly needs 12 wins to reach 300 for his career. John Nostrant needs eight wins to reach 500 for his career. Gilman (Md.) does not have an easy schedule to start. They open with Florida defending champion Ponte Vedra (Fla.), followed by IMG Academy (Fla.). Games against Norfolk Academy (Va.), Oxbridge Academy (Fla.) and Jupiter (Fla.) are all against traditional tough opponents. Sean Cunningham can earn win No. 100 with Manasquan (N.J.) this season. He needs five to reach that mark. Manheim Township (Pa.) regularly reaches double digits in wins and with 15 this year, Head Coach Dan Lyons will earn the 100th of his career since 2016. Glen Ridge (N.J.) Head Coach Carl Houser needs two wins to reach 200. Moorestown (N.J.) needs 11 wins to each Baron Walenhurst his 200th. Andy Hilgartner is another MIAA A Conference coach who is on the verge of a milestone season. The McDonogh (Md.) leader enters the year with 193 career wins. John Begier from Radnor (Pa.) needs seven victories to reach 200 this season. The Red Raiders are coming off an 18-7 season. Patrick McDonogh has been the Head Coach at Penn Charter (Pa.) since 2002 and needs eight wins to reach 200. St. Christopher’s (Va.) Head Coach John Burke needs just six victories to reach 350 for his career. He should be able to secure those wins by the end of March. If Jef Hewlings can get Strath Haven (Pa.) to 17 wins then the long-time Panthers Head Coach will earn win 350 this season. Jim Davidson has won 391 games and can reach 400 this season. The Hilltoppers are coming off a 17-3 season. Davidson has gone 383-70 as Summit's coach, which includes leading the Hilltoppers to the longest winning streak in state history. Summit won 68 consecutive games from 2009 to 2011. Davidson also has eight wins from two years he was at Chatham (N.J.) in 1987 and 1988. Upper Merion (Pa.) Head Coach Brady McCormick can earn the 100th win of his career with No. 3 this season. Woodson (Va.) Head Coach Ryan Hilliard enters his sixth season and needs five wins to reach 100. Players Approaching Milestones Anthony Caporuscio from Crestwood (Pa.) already took over as Pennsylvania’s all-time leading goal scorer after his junior year, now the LeMoyne commit needs 119 points to tie Michael Sowers as the state’s all-time scoring leader. Caporuscio scored 154 points last season and 195 as a sophomore. Caporuscio was only the second player in state history to score more than 300 goals and he enters the season as the No. 18 player in history. It’s within his reach to become the nation’s all-time goal leader, needing 124 to tie Zed Williams from Silver Creek (N.Y.) with 444. Caporuscio scored 115 goals last season and 126 as a sophomore. Wyatt Malia from Crestwood is chasing his own milestone this season. Malia and Caporuscio have been a dynamic duo the last three seasons and Malia enters the season with 224 career assists. While Sowers’ record for assists is likely safe this season, Malia looks to become just the second player in state history and the seventh player nationally to surpass 300 career assists. The last players to achieve that milestone were Nicky Solomon (Centennial) and Kyle Long (Springfield-Delco). Sticking in Pennsylvania, Dominic Corto from York Suburban (Pa.) surpassed 400 career points last season and needs 81 to reach 500. The Tampa commit scored 132 points last season. He has yet to score less than 93 points in any of his three high school seasons. Brendan Grimes needs one goal to reach 100 for his career for Boys’ Latin. If he repeats his sophomore performance of 74 points, he’ll reach 200 for his career. This is after missing most of his junior season due to injury. Daniel Kelly from Calvert Hall needs eight points to reach 200 for his career. Kelly has been a consistent scoring threat for the Cardinals, scoring 34 goals as a freshman, 47 as a sophomore and 42 as a junior. Will Coletti from Linganore (Md.) needs 121 face-off wins to supplant Stephen Kelly as Maryland’s leader for most wins in a career. The senior has won 79.65 percent of his opportunities through three seasons and has 646 career wins. Coletti is committed to Army. Michael Harmeyer is coming off an 107-point season for Severna Park (Md.) and needs 49 to reach 200 for his career. The Virginia commit was among the Top 10 goal scorers in the nation last season after scoring 99 for the Falcons. A pair of New Jersey goalies look to reach 600 career saves this season. Colin Consoli from Glen Rock (N.J.) and Evan Barr from Somerville (N.J.) are 34 and 35 saves away from 600 respectively. Consoli enters the year with 566 career saves. Barr has 565. Gil Goldsmith from Shore (N.J.) needs 60 points to reach 400. The senior needs eight assists to reach 200 for his career.	https://laxrecords.com/2020/02/23/2020-mid-atlantic-region-preview-player-and-coach-milestones/
Man sets himself on fire at Ellipse in Washington A man set himself on fire at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Source: MGN) By Gray Digital Staff&nbsp\|&nbsp Posted: Wed 12:36 PM, May 29, 2019&nbsp\|&nbsp Updated: Wed 12:44 PM, May 29, 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gray News) - A man has ignited himself at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Secret Service said the man set himself on fire at about 12:20 p.m. Tuesday near 15th and Constitution avenues, and Secret Service said they were helping the National Park Service and U.S. Park Police in rendering aid. The Ellipse is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and is where the National Christmas Tree is displayed. Emergency responders took the man to a hospital. Copyright 2019 Gray Television Group, Inc. All rights reserved. At approximately 12:20 p.m. a man lit himself on fire on the Ellipse near 15th and Constitution Ave., Secret Service personnel are on scene assisting @NatlParkService and @usparkpolicepio in rendering first aid. Online Public Information File Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or [email protected].
lculate prob of picking 1 j and 1 g when two letters picked without replacement from {j: 3, g: 2, k: 4, f: 1}. 2/15 Calculate prob of picking 1 n, 2 f, and 1 u when four letters picked without replacement from {k: 1, u: 1, n: 5, f: 5, o: 3}. 10/273 Three letters picked without replacement from {w: 1, u: 9, h: 4, b: 4, k: 1}. Give prob of picking 2 u and 1 w. 12/323 Calculate prob of picking 1 e and 2 y when three letters picked without replacement from {e: 9, y: 10}. 135/323 What is prob of picking 2 f when two letters picked without replacement from ftyfmzzktymztz? 1/91 Two letters picked without replacement from {c: 3, e: 2, w: 4}. Give prob of picking 2 c. 1/12 What is prob of picking 1 j, 2 s, and 1 v when four letters picked without replacement from {s: 2, j: 3, v: 8, a: 3}? 6/455 Four letters picked without replacement from dqqdmqqqqqqpsqqqpqd. Give prob of picking 4 q. 165/1292 What is prob of picking 3 v when three letters picked without replacement from lvvvvlc? 4/35 Two letters picked without replacement from lnb. Give prob of picking 1 l and 1 b. 1/3 Calculate prob of picking 1 s and 1 z when two letters picked without replacement from {s: 1, c: 2, z: 9, x: 4, a: 4}. 9/190 What is prob of picking 1 j, 1 b, 1 e, and 1 f when four letters picked without replacement from fbehjbf? 4/35 What is prob of picking 2 p when two letters picked without replacement from ppppcttcctp? 2/11 What is prob of picking 1 m and 1 u when two letters picked without replacement from {l: 3, c: 1, m: 3, e: 1, u: 1, q: 5}? 3/91 Calculate prob of picking 2 l and 1 f when three letters picked without replacement from {q: 5, l: 3, f: 9, c: 2}. 9/323 What is prob of picking 1 a and 1 v when two letters picked without replacement from aamamajjvjmcaaaammjm? 4/95 Two letters picked without replacement from xwwxxxxxxwxxxwxxxxw. Give prob of picking 2 x. 91/171 Calculate prob of picking 1 w and 1 k when two letters picked without replacement from {w: 9, l: 1, k: 9}. 9/19 Two letters picked without replacement from cyjyyaacfyaajcyaa. Give prob of picking 1 j and 1 c. 3/68 Calculate prob of picking 2 t when two letters picked without replacement from tttttttttt. 1 Two letters picked without replacement from cccejeeecce. What is prob of picking 1 j and 1 e? 1/11 Two letters picked without replacement from sssssssssssspspsps. Give prob of picking 2 p. 1/51 Three letters picked without replacement from {c: 1, e: 5, n: 2, o: 4, u: 1, i: 7}. Give prob of picking 1 i and 2 e. 7/114 What is prob of picking 1 h and 2 j when three letters picked without replacement from hhjjjhjjhwj? 4/11 What is prob of picking 3 t when three letters picked without replacement from {f: 3, t: 3, m: 3, l: 1}? 1/120 Three letters picked without replacement from {r: 2, y: 6, k: 1, w: 9, m: 1}. What is prob of picking 2 y and 1 w? 45/323 What is prob of picking 3 c when three letters picked without replacement from {m: 7, j: 5, x: 1, c: 5}? 5/408 Calculate prob of picking 2 i and 2 c when four letters picked without replacement from {c: 3, i: 3}. 3/5 Three letters picked without replacement from gssgsssgsssdsssssgsg. What is prob of picking 3 s? 91/285 Calculate prob of picking 1 r and 1 m when two letters picked without replacement from {r: 5, m: 9}. 45/91 What is prob of picking 1 u and 1 e when two letters picked without replacement from {u: 12, e: 5, h: 2}? 20/57 What is prob of picking 1 z and 2 m when three letters picked without replacement from {z: 4, m: 3, y: 1}? 3/14 Three letters picked without replacement from pqppoopopopqq. Give prob of picking 1 p and 2 q. 9/143 Three letters picked without replacement from hhhhhhhhhhhhhhmhhmh. Give prob of picking 2 h and 1 m. 16/57 Four letters picked without replacement from {h: 4, r: 9, i: 4}. What is prob of picking 3 i and 1 h? 4/595 Three letters picked without replacement from tmsmsstsstt. Give prob of picking 1 m and 2 s. 4/33 Two letters picked without replacement from byqiqdb. Give prob of picking 1 y and 1 b. 2/21 Three letters picked without replacement from jpjpmpeoepmj. What is prob of picking 1 p and 2 m? 1/55 Two letters picked without replacement from mmammeeu. Give prob of picking 1 m and 1 e. 2/7 Three letters picked without replacement from mycjtyfj. Give prob of picking 1 c, 1 y, and 1 f. 1/28 Four letters picked without replacement from {o: 3, u: 10, d: 3, m: 1, j: 2}. What is prob of picking 1 d and 3 u? 30/323 Two letters picked without replacement from aidjbxx. What is prob of picking 1 d and 1 j? 1/21 Three letters picked without replacement from {w: 6, k: 6, a: 3}. Give prob of picking 1 k and 2 w. 18/91 Calculate prob of picking 1 o and 2 p when three letters picked without replacement from {q: 4, p: 3, r: 2, o: 1}. 1/40 Calculate prob of picking 2 t when two letters picked without replacement from {z: 1, m: 4, w: 1, o: 2, t: 4, d: 2}. 6/91 What is prob of picking 1 q, 1 g, and 1 u when three letters picked without replacement from {u: 2, g: 2, q: 1, n: 1}? 1/5 What is prob of picking 4 k when four letters picked without replacement from pkpppppkppppppkpkppp? 1/4845 What is prob of picking 2 t and 1 u when three letters picked without replacement from {i: 2, u: 2, g: 4, m: 4, o: 1, t: 6}? 10/323 Three letters picked without replacement from {m: 1, q: 1, g: 2, d: 2, a: 1, t: 1}. Give prob of picking 1 a and 2 d. 1/56 What is prob of picking 4 x when four letters picked without replacement from {a: 2, h: 1, x: 4}? 1/35 Two letters picked without replacement from {d: 1, e: 7, t: 1}. Give prob of picking 1 e and 1 d. 7/36 Calculate prob of picking 3 e when three letters picked without replacement from {j: 2, i: 1, f: 1, e: 4, u: 7}. 4/455 Four letters picked without replacement from wiiia. Give prob of picking 3 i and 1 w. 1/5 Three letters picked without replacement from {v: 4, g: 4, l: 8}. What is prob of picking 1 g and 2 l? 1/5 Calculate prob of picking 2 y and 2 u when four letters picked without replacement from yuuuuuy. 2/7 What is prob of picking 1 t and 1 o when two letters picked without replacement from outpyto? 4/21 Two letters picked without replacement from vullluqvvlmq. Give prob of picking 1 m and 1 l. 2/33 Calculate prob of picking 1 w, 1 n, and 1 t when three letters picked without replacement from bnnbtkw. 2/35 What is prob of picking 1 o and 1 e when two letters picked without replacement from eefafeoe? 1/7 Four letters picked without replacement from {i: 9}. Give prob of picking 4 i. 1 What is prob of picking 2 g and 1 j when three letters picked without replacement from {p: 2, w: 1, i: 1, v: 2, g: 7, j: 1}? 3/52 Three letters picked without replacement from pppppttptttttttp. Give prob of picking 2 t and 1 p. 9/20 Calculate prob of picking 2 w and 2 f when four letters picked without replacement from {z: 2, w: 2, f: 4, d: 4}. 2/165 Three letters picked without replacement from {s: 1, d: 4, x: 4, f: 1, u: 7}. Give prob of picking 1 u, 1 s, and 1 x. 7/170 Calculate prob of picking 3 r when three letters picked without replacement from rrrururrruu. 7/33 Calculate prob of picking 1 a and 1 d when two letters picked without replacement from {d: 11, r: 2, a: 2}. 22/105 What is prob of picking 3 d when three letters picked without replacement from bdbbdbbdbdbbdbbbbb? 5/408 What is prob of picking 3 e and 1 z when four letters picked without replacement from {f: 7, e: 5, m: 1, h: 2, z: 3}? 1/102 Four letters picked without replacement from ccohhccccoci. What is prob of picking 1 i, 1 o, and 2 c? 14/165 What is prob of picking 1 e, 2 j, and 1 p when four letters picked without replacement from ejjjjjepjejpjejeeejj? 154/969 Calculate prob of picking 1 r, 1 e, and 1 g when three letters picked without replacement from {x: 2, h: 2, g: 1, e: 1, o: 1, r: 1}. 1/56 Calculate prob of picking 1 i and 3 z when four letters picked without replacement from {i: 2, t: 3, d: 1, z: 5, b: 1, l: 1}. 4/143 Calculate prob of picking 1 d and 2 o when three letters picked without replacement from {j: 4, o: 2, d: 3, h: 9}. 1/272 What is prob of picking 1 b and 1 n when two letters picked without replacement from {f: 1, b: 2, n: 1, d: 1}? 1/5 What is prob of picking 2 g and 1 m when three letters picked without replacement from wmvmwgwg
Last night a friend and mentor told me a story that I can’t get out of my head. A group of tourists were walking out in the open plains of Africa when darkness began to set in. The tour guide smiled as a roar in the distance startled them. Instinctively they began to move away from the source of the sound. “Let me tell you something about the roar.” The tourists stopped, flinching every time another roar broke the silence of the wind blowing through the high grass. “That roar is coming from the male lion. Most likely he is old and toothless from years of fighting and protecting his territory.” He paused a second, as another roar echoed through the plains. “What you don’t hear, is what will get you killed. You see, the lionesses hunt in packs. They wait for the old toothless lion to make a lot of noise to scare prey to them.” The tourists began to fidget, freezing where they were. “My advice to you if you hear that sound and I’m not here to guide you?” The tourists were holding their breath. “Go for the roar.” So often the noise in my brain is like that roar. I don’t want to deal with hard decisions. Don’t want to face bad news. Don’t want to have a confrontation because I’m standing up for something I believe in and other people don’t agree. Or in some cases, don’t want to see the looks on the faces of people who flat out hate me for my convictions. There is a perception of safety that if I stay away from the roar, I will avoid having to deal with the source of that sound. But out in the grasses of that false sense of security are the real predators. I remember not wanting to face the roar of our infertility diagnosis. My image of the monster making that noise meant I would have to come face to face with needing IVF at a clinic away from home. I ran away from it, and we got attacked by one failed cycle after another. Ran away from the idea that we needed the help of clinics with the highest SART rankings, and watched Lisa’s soul torn apart by four failed IVFs. Then I ran towards the roar. As it turns out, that sound was coming from a harmless figment of my worst fears and imaginations. It had no teeth when I finally met it face to face. That’s because the source of that roar was all in my head. The real dangers always existed in avoiding that confrontation. Compromising what I knew needed to be done. Or going against my own instinct. Don’t make the same mistake I made, no matter how frightening that sound may be. Go for the roar.	https://almostafather2.com/go-for-the-roar/
Oct 29, 2014 Social and Environmental Responsibility Essay Corporate Social Responsibility 552 Words is an important consideration in operations management: Corporate social responsibility is the responsibility for businesses actions to be based on respect for people, the community and the broader environment. Good awareness helps our generations to keep the eyes open of our environment. We, as the young generations are too young to deal with the nature, but we still have right to manage it. The younger generations inherit the world as we have the responsibility to take care of this planet. The Earth Essay on our Responsibility towards the environment Free 790 words essay on Our Environment, Our Responsibility for school and college students. Sooner or later, we will have to recognise that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. It is our responsibility to repair the negative effects our actions have on the environment and on other species. I mean repair in the sense that we must be fully aware of the effects of our actions and not be greedy to the point where nature itself cannot rejuvenate itself. Jan 16, 2016 Saving the Environment is Our Responsibility; make our modern lifestyle coexist with the environment. Our life and morals are ruled by money. i liked it it helped me in completing my essay The environment and our responsibility to our children and youth: A message for adults Donald Spady, MD MSc Departments of Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine& Dentistry and School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta Thus, for the sustainability of our planet, I promise to fulfill my responsibilities towards Mother Nature as a global citizen so as to protect my living planet from deterioration& to handover clean& green planet to our future generations. Individual Social Responsibility is a moral belief where we as individuals, have a responsibility toward society. Being" socially responsible" is about all individuals behaving ethically and sensitively towards social, economic, and environmental issues. HOME Free Essays My environment MY responsibility. My environment MY responsibility Essay Thank you for Mr. Principal for giving me a chance to present our speach on My environment MY responsibility. we come up with three categories of environment, where it includes the natural environment, built environment which Informative Essay on Environmental Responsibility Environmental Responsibility Environmental responsibility is one of such aspects of our life that most people are aware of, but tend to ignore at some level of consciousness.	http://greyhoundscansit.com/o9gx4r0e7.html
Vulnerability Assessment I A Complete Guide Are you wondering about vulnerability assessments? We give a full explanation of what vulnerability assessments are, how they work, and how they help prevent cyberattacks. What Is Vulnerability Assessment? Vulnerability assessments systematically evaluate your system, looking for security weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The assessment provides information to the security team to classify, prioritize, and remediate weaknesses. Assessments go beyond what you’d find in a typical vulnerability scan, usually involving a dedicated team or a group of outsourced, ethical hackers to perform the evaluation. What Kinds of Threats Do Vulnerability Assessments Find? A vulnerability assessment can uncover vulnerabilities with varying degrees of severity. It can also confirm that your IT environment complies with industry and government standards. Below are a few common vulnerabilities found during a typical assessment. - Easily guessed or brute-forced weak passwords - Code injection vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit via SQL injection or XSS attacks - Unpatched applications or operating systems - Misconfigurations, such as unchanged default settings or vulnerable, open ports The Four Steps of a Vulnerability Assessment Define the Scope Before an assessment can begin, the network’s owner must set the scope to determine what networks, systems, and applications to test. The scope is usually further defined and separated by different domains or subdomains. The scope can also include exactly how to test vulnerabilities and may specify other parameters. For example, some organizations may state that testing email vulnerabilities cannot include phishing attacks against their staff and must use a specific email address. Review System Functions Before running the vulnerability assessment, the security team will review different scope systems and applications. The review phase helps determine how an exploited vulnerability would impact business functions. Perform the Vulnerability Scan Hackers can use various tools and techniques to test a system’s integrity. Testers often start with automated scans that first look for the most common vulnerabilities, including applications, network infrastructure, and host machines. Testers move forward with a manual testing approach that uses custom code to identify vulnerabilities. Manual coding can be time-consuming, but it is critical in identifying application-specific bugs and zero-day vulnerabilities. Create the Vulnerability Assessment Report The assessment report outlines identified scan vulnerabilities and highlights remediation steps. These recommendations are paired with a severity rating, allowing the security team to determine which vulnerabilities they will patch first. Most vulnerability disclosure reports include the following: - Name of the vulnerability and time of discovery - The vulnerabilities’ risk score based on CVE databases - What systems the vulnerability impacts - Proof of concept exploits or a demonstration of how a bad actor could use the vulnerabilities - Remediation steps Types of Vulnerability Assessments Security teams can target assessments to particular systems or the entire organization. There are four different types of tests: Network Assessments Network assessments target network resources on the public or private network and test the security policies on the network level. Application Assessments Application assessments test for vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting attacks and unsecure cryptographic storage. Database Assessments During a database assessment, hackers test for vulnerabilities like SQL injections or misconfigurations. These tests can identify issues such as unsecure testing environments and improper storage of database files. Host Assessments Host assessments examine servers on the network for vulnerabilities and exploits, including LDAP injections, privilege escalation, or accounts with weak default credentials. Vulnerability Assessment Tools Hackers use a variety of tools to find vulnerabilities in different systems and parts of a network. OpenVAS OpenVAS is a vulnerability scanner that tests internet protocols and includes its internal programming language, allowing testers to customize their assessments further. Nmap Nmap is a widely used network mapping tool that discovers open ports, vulnerable services, and the layout of internal networks. Nmap works well in conjunction with other probing tools early in vulnerability assessments. Burp Suite Burp Suite provides hackers with automated vulnerability scanning tools for internal and external testing. It is popular among new and veteran hackers because of its comprehensive toolkits. Nessus Nessus is open-source software that offers in-depth vulnerability scanning through a subscription-based service. Hackers use Nessus to identify misconfigurations, quickly uncover default passwords, and perform vulnerability assessments. Vulnerability Assessment vs. Penetration Testing Vulnerability assessments identify vulnerabilities but do not exploit these flaws. Many vulnerability assessments use a scanning tool that ranks the vulnerabilities allowing security professionals to prioritize the vulnerabilities for remediation. Penetration testing is a different security testing option starting with a vulnerability scan that uses human testers to exploit vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized system access. Organizations use penetration testing to simulate how much damage an attacker could do if they comprehensively exploited vulnerabilities. Vulnerability assessments, typically automated, can complement penetration testing by providing frequent insights between penetration tests. Bug Bounty vs. Vulnerability Assessment Bug bounty programs use human testers to hunt for bugs, discover vulnerabilities, and rank their severity. Bug bounties incentivize hackers for successfully discovering and reporting vulnerabilities or bugs and are a way for companies to leverage the hacker community to improve their systems’ security posture over time. If your goal is more comprehensive vulnerability disclosure and security testing, bug bounty programs are a better choice but don’t rule out vulnerability assessments. The two types of testing complement each other. While bug bounties harness hacker-powered security to discover more complex vulnerabilities, vulnerability assessments deliver consistency and convenience allowing security teams to get ahead of focused, time-constrained security testing for major initiatives such as product and feature releases. A combination of these approaches allows security teams to better address all vulnerabilities, improve their security profiles, and minimize exploits. How HackerOne Can Help HackerOne Assessments provides on-demand, continuous security testing for your organization. The platform allows you to track progress through the kickoff, discovery, testing, retesting, and remediation phases of an engagement. Whether you’re looking to meet regulatory standards, launch a product, or prove compliance, we’ll help your security teams find and close flaws before cybercriminals exploit them. HackerOne delivers access to the world’s largest and most diverse community of hackers in the world. Contact us to learn how you can start leveraging hacker-powered security today.	https://www.hackerone.com/vulnerability-management/vulnerability-assessment-i-complete-guide
A few days ago, I was working with a MSP customer that had the same issue on multiple Exchange servers hosted by his own customers. Specifically, in that particular setup, due to the memory-hog behavior of Exchange, other applications including our own Rapid Recovery agent were not performing properly. I suggested that we may attempt reducing the Exchange memory consumption and he offered me his own company environment (which was set up similarly with the ones of his own customers) to make it happen. Being confronted with such a degree of confidence, motivated me. To make a long story short, I was able to put together a PowerShell script to do that on multiple environments quickly and on a consistent manner. My research showed that Exchange behavior (including memory usage) may be controlled via Active Directory. Since I am not super knowledgeable in the deep entrails of Active Directory (despite many years of systems administration) and since “Do No Harm” is or should be the logo of any support engineer, I took small, safe steps in approaching this issue. This blog post will walk you through my own discovery journey and I invite you to work with me. I know now that I could have been more direct in my coding approach but this would skip some of the logical steps that allow better understanding how to deal with navigating through ActiveDirectory and modifying attributes using PowerShell. I would like to take the opportunity to thank to my colleague Wayne Heyer for giving me the opportunity to use his very elaborate lab environment to illustrate this post. First step is to figure out if there are attributes allowing putting a cap on Exchange memory Usage. To do it we need to navigate the Active Directory Schema. In layman’s terms the Schema is a collection of blueprints that show what properties may (or may not) be present on an object. In this case it is one or more Exchange Servers. Each Exchange server in the organization has (or may receive values for) these properties. One needs to differentiate between the properties that have values and the ones that do not. Giving a value to a specific property, attaches that property to the object. If the value is removed, the object does not feature that property anymore. To make an analogy, all cars are designed to have wipers (schema). You add wipers to a car (set attribute value) – you can turn them on. You remove them well… you are “wiper-less” until you add them back. But I digress. To find out what are the attributes that may allow changing the Exchange memory settings I used the Active Directory Schema snap-in. It is not available by default. I had to register a .dll first. This is how you do it. Open an elevated Cmd or Powershell console and run the command below. Next, type mmc in the same window, and hit Enter. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in . Under Available snap-ins , click Active Directory Schema , click Add , and then click OK. The mmc shows two folders: Classes and Attributes. We need to navigate the Classes folder. Please note that it may take some time to have it fully populated. There is no way I know of to search through these classes. However, an educated guess told me that the attributes I am looking for must be related to the Information Store as it is the Exchange Component that uses the most amount of memory. After a few tries I was able to identify the information store. It’s active directory name is “ms-Exch-Information-Store“ and the category (which is listed in the Classes folder) is “msExchInformationStore” . The right pane is NOT sorted alphabetically. After sorting it by clicking the name column header, it is easy to identify 3 attributes: msExchESEParamCacheSize, msExchESEParamCacheSizeMin and msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax. The first attribute seems to set the Exchange Memory usage to a fixed size. If it is indeed the case, it makes more sense to use the other two values to allow variations in the memory usage. Later, I have found out that I could have identified the same values in a logical manner using ADSIEdit.mmc. However, when I tried using it the first time I did not find any useful information for the task at hand. That was due to EDSIEdit using LDAP by default when, for our task, GlobalCatalog is needed. Additionally, the “Show only attributes that have values” needs to be UNCHECKED in the properties of the domain. To summarize the current findings, we have two Active Directory attributes that set the limits of the memory cached by the information store and we need to find a way changing them. Moreover, some tedious research shows that the values held by these attributes are not (multiple of) bytes but database pages. The size of the pages is 4KB for Exchange 2007 and 8KB for any Exchange version since. Time to begin doing some PowerShell stuff. The script I intend to design together with you should have the following functionality determined by a few parameters. 1. I want to be able to set the minimal and the maximum amount of memory used by Exchange. 2. I want to be able to list the current Exchange memory settings. The switch –ListValues parameter circumscribed by the List Parameter set would do. 3. I want to be able to reset the values attributed to the msExchESEParamCacheSizeMin and msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax attributes. The switch –Reset parameter circumscribed by the ResetExec Parameter set would take care of this. 4. At last but not at least I want to be able to log all activity so I know when and with what effect I used the script. To do this, I introduced a new parameter called –LogPath that allows entering a path for the log and, if not specified creates a default log in my Downloads folder. Please note that I do not want to enter manually the name of the Exchange server to process. I will pick it up from Active Directory. If more Exchange Servers are present, I want to be able to choose one or more to process at the same time. To continue, I want to clear the screen, begin logging and set a title. To have everything neatly displayed, I wrote a function that receives a –headline as a string parameter and an –ul parameter to specify the underline character and returns a string that when displayed shows the underlined headline. We will need it later in the script as well. Since everything from this point on relies on Active Directory functionality, thus the ActiveDirectory PowerShell module will be intensively used, it makes sense to write a new auxiliary function that handles this module. This function does not require any parameters. It checks if the ActiveDirectory module is available, checks if it is loaded and if not it loads it and returns $true.; otherwise it returns $false. Based on the returned value, the script continues to run or it is stopped. This is achieved by a line in the main body of the script. Time to start organizing the main body of the script to make sure that whatever I have already done works. For clarity, I will write everything inside a region called “Application” that I will organize in multiple sub-regions. Please check the Start-Transcript line. It shows that, if the log names are NOT calculated (as I do in the default value of the log path) and the same log name is used every time, all results are appended to the same file. This may prove to be handy in some situations as allows keeping in the same place the information related to multiple runs of the script. Now, I will launch the script from an elevated PowerShell console, with the –ListValues parameter, start logging, clear the screen, write the title and list the parameter I used. Then we will take a look at the log. At this point the “bones” of the script have been laid out. We need to get into the business of adding some flesh on them. However, this will be done in my next blog post.	https://www.quest.com/community/quest/data-protection/b/data-protection-blog/posts/how-to-limit-the-amount-of-cache-memory-used-by-exchange-servers-using-powershell-with-applications-to-rapid-recovery-post-1-of-3-44962775
Amidst the growing coronavirus pandemic, about 20 countries are yet to report a case of the virus. Despite not having a single case, preventive measures have been put in place by these to ensure the virus does not spread to them. There are seven continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, North America, South America, and Antarctica. Antarctica is least inhabited with a population of between 1,000 and 5,000 depending on season. There is no reported case of the virus there so far. Africa According to worldometer, which gives real time statistics on the outbreak, in Africa, as Friday afternoon, eight countries have not recorded a single case while 46 have confirmed cases. There are more than 2700 confirmed cases in Africa, 75 deaths, and 208 recoveries. The eight countries are Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. Notwithstanding their zero cases, they have put in place safety precautions to ensure their preparedness in fighting the virus. Asia In Asia, North Korea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Yemen are yet to report cases although preventive measures have been put in place. Yemen, where conflicts continue to brew, has been warned by the UN chief to put in place adequate contingency measures. “This is an evolving situation, one that requires cautions and level headedness regarding the health and well-being of staff, partners and Yemeni communities,” the resident representative said. Oceania There are 10 countries and 7 territories that are yet to confirm cases. Australia has the highest number in the continent with a total of 3166 confirmed cases. The countries are Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samao, Kribati, Micronesia, Tonga, Marshall Islands, Palau, Tovalu, and Naura, while the territories are Guam, Northern Marianna Islands, American Samao, Cook Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Niue, and Tokelau.	https://runhuayo.club/2020/03/27/20-countries-yet-to-record-coronavirus-case/
The conversion factor from ounces to pounds is 0.0625, which means that 1 ounce is equal to 0.0625 pounds: 1 oz = 0.0625 lb To convert 169 ounces into pounds we have to multiply 169 by the conversion factor in order to get the mass amount from ounces to pounds. We can also form a simple proportion to calculate the result: 1 oz → 0.0625 lb 169 oz → M(lb) Solve the above proportion to obtain the mass M in pounds: M(lb) = 169 oz × 0.0625 lb M(lb) = 10.5625 lb The final result is: 169 oz → 10.5625 lb We conclude that 169 ounces is equivalent to 10.5625 pounds: 169 ounces = 10.5625 pounds Alternative conversion We can also convert by utilizing the inverse value of the conversion factor. In this case 1 pound is equal to 0.094674556213018 × 169 ounces. Another way is saying that 169 ounces is equal to 1 ÷ 0.094674556213018 pounds. Approximate result For practical purposes we can round our final result to an approximate numerical value. We can say that one hundred sixty-nine ounces is approximately ten point five six three pounds: 169 oz ≅ 10.563 lb An alternative is also that one pound is approximately zero point zero nine five times one hundred sixty-nine ounces.	https://convertoctopus.com/169-ounces-to-pounds
The present invention relates to a method for providing real-time simulation for controller development, the real-time simulation comprising co-simulation of real-time partial simulation and non-real-time partial simulation, the real-time partial simulation having a first simulation time corresponding to real-time and the non-real-time part simulation has a virtual second simulation time. The method comprises the steps of: when the non-real-time partial simulation has completed the calculated simulation data for the upcoming macro simulation step and provides for the real-time partial simulation, in the real-time partial simulation, the calculated simulation data is used for the incoming macro simulation step; when the non-real-time partial simulation does not complete the calculated simulation data for the upcoming macro simulation step and provides for the real-time partial simulation, estimated simulation data is generated for the upcoming macro simulation step; after completing thecalculation of the simulation data that is not provided in time, the second simulation time is adjusted to the first simulation time.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a three way faucet which can be directly used to control water flow to either a frontal faucet or a shower connection, and which in normal (central) position is OFF between the two above-stated positions. Previous faucets controlled the flow of water to either a frontal faucet or a shower connection, but not to both; a separate knob or rod was usually necessary to control flow direction. Also, previous faucets did not "snap" into the OFF position so as to let the user know that the handle is in optimum position. Also, previous handles could not lock into OFF position so that the handle could not be inadvertantly knocked out of position. FIGS. 9A-C show one type of prior art which has a threadably adjustable knob on the end thereof. FIGS. 9A- B in particular show the threadably adjustable parts which control the turning of the knob. It is the purpose of this present invention, therefore, to mitigate and/or obviate the above-mentioned drawbacks in the manner set forth in the detailed description of the preferred embodiment. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary objective of this invention is to provide an easy to use handle which can be used lifted up or pushed down so as to allow water flow to a frontal faucet or shower connection, respectively. Another objective of this invention is to provide a faucet handle which "snaps" into place in OFF position so that the user knows that such handle is in optimum position. A further objective of this invention is to provide a handle which can be locked in OFF position. Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a partially cut away top view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, shown in OFF position; FIG. 3-A is a partially cut away top view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in position A, wherein water is flowing to the shower connection. FIG. 3-B is another partially cut away side view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in position A, illustrating the direction of flow of the water; FIG. 4 is a partially cut away view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in position B, wherein water is flowing to the shower connection; FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the second embodiment in OFF position; FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the second embodiment in A (faucet ON) position; FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the second embodiment in B (shower ON) position; and FIGS. 9-A-9-C are various views of the prior art. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, it can be seen that the present invention comprises a cold water inlet 12A, a hot water inlet 12B, and a control head 6. The control head 6 controls the flow of the water, whether to the shower (upper pipe) or to the bath faucet (lower pipe), as will be explained in more detail below. Further referring to FIG. 2, it can be seen that the control knob 6 is threadedly fixed to the neck 56 of the stem 5. The stem 5 fits slidably in the chamber of the water housing. In FIG. 2, the 3-way faucet of the present invention is seen in closed or OFF position. In this position, no water can flow in any direction. Note that in this position the stem 5 is locked in place by a protruberance 25 in a horizontal slot in the stem 5. In FIG. 3-A, the 3-way faucet of the present invention is in the `B` or shower ON position. Water flows from both the hot water inlet 12B and the cold water inlet 12A in proportion to the amount that the corresponding knobs, 8B and 8A, are turned. The hot water enters the shower chamber 14 through inner water passage 54A and cold water enters the chamber through inner water chamber 54B. FIG. 3-B shows more clearly the direction of flow of the water in a side cross-sectional view. FIG. 4 shows the frontal faucet ON or `A` position of the present invention. In this case water flows from through the outer water passages 55A and 55B, respectively, to the frontal faucet. The operation of the stem 5, stem slot 51, and protruberance 25 is identical in both the preferred and the second embodiment and as such will be described in detail below, in the description of the second embodiment. Referring to FIG. 5, a second embodiment can be seen in which like reference numbers designate like parts in the first (preferred) and second embodiments. The second embodiment comprises a water housing 1, a sleeve 2 and a handle 6. The handle 6 is vertically adjustable, and does not require turning, except to be locked into OFF position. There are three positions for the present invention, namely positions A, B, and OFF. Position A, the frontal faucet ON position, is shown in FIG. 7. Position B, the shower connection ON position, is shown in FIG. 8. The OFF position is shown in FIG. 6. These three positions will be explained more rigorously below. Now referring to FIG. 6, the OFF position of the second embodiment can be seen. The inside of the water housing 1 comprises a water inlet cavity 12, a faucet cavity 13, and a threadably engagable (screw-in) shower connection 11. The handle 6 is connected by means of a stem 5 which in turn has a stem control head 53 slideably adjustable between the shower connection, the water inlet cavity 12 and the frontal faucet cavity 13. The upper portion of the stem 5 is slideably retained in a sleeve 2. There is a concavity 52 (see FIGS. 7 and 3-A) on the stem 5. This concavity 52 is engageable with the spring-loaded steel ball 22. The spring 21 therein is loaded against the sleeve cover 24. The sleeve cover 24 also serves to guide and align the handle 6 as it is urged upwards and downwards. The user can feel the steel ball 22 snap into the concavity 52. At this point, the handle 6 may be rotated counterclockwise (CCW) so as to lock the stem 5 in place on the protruberance 25. The protruberance 25 is stationary, as is the rest of the sleeve cover 24 (and sleeve 2). Since the vertical position of the horizontal stem slot is already properly fixed by the steel ball 22 and the concavity 52, there is no line-up problem to worry about. To unlock, simply turn the handle 6 back in the clockwise (CW) direction until the ball 22 and the concavity 52 reengage. Note they the ball 22 and concavity 52 disengage when the handle 6 is first put in locked position. Therefore, the concavity cannot be seen in FIG. 6, whereas it can be seen in FIG. 7 (front faucet ON position) and FIG. 8 (shower connection ON position). While in the preferred embodiment two concavities 52 and spring-loaded steel balls 22 are shown and in the second embodiment one concavity 52 and steel ball 22 are shown, it will be understood that any number of spring-loaded steel balls and convavities could be used. It should be noted that the water inlet could be separated into two compartments (left and right, as could apply to FIG. 6). This would be useful when controlling (i.e. presetting) the temperature of the water is desired. For example, the hot water knob could control input into the right side and the cold water knob could control input into the left side. The first time the user uses this method, he would have to first put the handle 6 in position A or B. Then he could adjust the hot and cold knobs as desired. One improvement of the present invention over the prior art lies in the fact that to turn off the flow of water, the handle need only be put into OFF position. It is not necessary to turn the individual knobs off again. Also, another inherent advantage is the next time the user wants to use the faucet, he does not have to readjust the faucet. In other words, the next time the user wants to use water of the same temperature, he simply pulls up or pushes down on the handle 6, which is convenient since in that case all adjustment of knobs has been predetermined. Even the flow rate can be previously adjusted. These convenient features could be summarized and labeled as presetable one- step temperature and flow adjustment means. Referring now to FIG. 7, the second embodiment can be seen in front faucet ON position. In this position, the handle 6 has been pushed down from OFF position by the user. Accordingly, the stem control head 53 is pushed down so that water flows from the water inlet cavity 12 through the upper water passages 55A and 55B to the faucet cavity 13. Obviously, no water can flow through the shower connection 11 in this position. In FIG. 8, the handle is shown in the shower connection ON position. In this position, water can flow freely from the water inlet cavity 12 through the lower water passages 54A and 54B to the shower connection 11. The passage to the faucet cavity is, of course, cut off completely under these circumstances. It is significant to note that the stem 5 slides up and down and is kept in line by protruberance 25, which guides the stem slot 51. Only when the present invention is in OFF position (see FIG. 6) can the handle 6 be rotated so as to be locked into place vertically. In all other situations, the movement of the handle 6 and stem is vertical. If, for example, the handle 6 and stem 5 are moved down from the position shown in FIG. 8, then the concavity 52 will eventually engage with steel ball 22. This in turn lets the user known that he is in OFF position (since he can feel the engagement of the steel ball) and that he may elect to lock the handle 6 by turning it CCW (to the position seen in FIG. 6). This in the only position in which the handle can be rotated because it is the only position in which the horizontal stem slot 56 and the protruberance 52 line up so as to allow rotation. As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention without departing from the scope of the invention, it is to be understood that all matter herein described or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. Thus it will be appreciated that the drawings are exemplary of a preferred embodiment of the invention.
Typical models in the Operations Research field for supply chain This is a paper that focuses on the typical models in the Operations Research field for supply chain. The paper also provides a list of models to select for the assignment. Typical models in the Operations Research field for supply chain There are a number of typical models in the Operations Research field which can be applied to a wide range of supply chain problems. In other words, by learning a typical model various problems in supply chain optimisation domain can be addressed. Please note that the basis of all proposed problems is the methods that you have learned in this course; however, none of them has been directly taught. The reason behind the design of this assignment is that there are hundreds of problem variations with the same structure in the real business world. Therefore, by learning the linear programming, students should be able to formulate a solution for problems which have similar structure to a typical problem. Students are required to research one of the proposed topics and address the assignment requirements accordingly. Step 1: Identify and Solve a Typical Problem Select one of the following typical models: Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) Machine Scheduling Problem Job Shop Scheduling Flow Shop Scheduling Pickup and Delivery Christmas Lunch Problem Knapsack Problem Newsvendor Problem Travelling Thief Problem Eight Queens Problem • Hamiltonian Path Problem 1.1. Background: • Firstly, provide a detailed explanation of the selected problem. 1.2. Model • Secondly, provide typical mathematical model of the selected problem and clearly explain different aspects of the model (e.g. decision variable, objective function, constraints, etc.) 1.3. Solving an Example • Thirdly, develop a mathematical model for a workable and reasonable size of the problem. – For many typical problems, when size of the problem increases, it becomes NP-Hard. In other words, your computer will not be able to solve it mathematically. Therefore, ‘workable and reasonable size’ here means that size of the selected problem should not be too small or too large. • Solve the problem in Excel and transfer your solution to Word. • Interpret the findings and discuss.	https://essayquip.com/2021/03/31/typical-models-in-the-operations-research-field-for-supply-chain/
I currently don't have an organized way of organizing my tape in an organized fashion. But with the amount of painting that I've been doing recently, and with the amount of painters tape that I've been purchasing, I figured it would be a good time to get organized - or at least get my tape organized. So I came up with the idea to make some Lego-inspired bricks to store my tape in, and make them stack-able and connect-able, just like their smaller counterparts. Step 1: Materials For materials, I used: 1/2 birch plywood (although you can use any type of wood and thickness, depending on how big you want the bricks to be) Neodymium magnets (I used .315 discs) Wood glue Small saw blade (optional) Clamps A saw (table or miter) Sander Step 2: Designing the Box Before jumping in and building the Lego brick, I went into Sketchup and designed out what I wanted the dispenser to look like. I fit it to be just slightly bigger than a new roll of tape, with a center disc to fit the roll of tape around, as well as the discs that go on the lid. The bottom of the box will sit 1/2" about the outer walls to allow for the dots from one box to fit into the base of another (This distance will vary depending on what thickness of wood you use to make the box) Step 3: Making the Box The tape I'm using is 1" thick, so I cut strips of the plywood to 2" (1" for the tape, 1/2" for the bottom, and 1/2" for the dots of another Lego brick to fit inside the base of the box) I then cut 4 - 5 1/2" pieces, and cut each end to 45 degrees. I took one side on one of the pieces, and cut it slightly shorter, to allow the tape to feed through to the outside of the box. I set my saw to 1/4" depth, and set my track to 1/2" to start cutting a track in each piece for the bottom. I then cut a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece for the base, and made sure it fit in the grooves that I cut on the side pieces. I used the roll of tape and traced out 2 circles to fit in the center of the base for the roll of tape to fit around. I cut the circles out, and sanded them just slightly smaller than the cutouts to allow room for the roll of tape to move inside the brick. I then glued it all together. At this point, you can cut a piece of the small saw blade into the length of the opening of the box, and glue it on. Once set, put the tape in, feed it through the opening, and tear it off on the teeth of the saw blade, or the edge of the wood if you don't have a small saw blade Step 4: Making the Lid I cut a 6" x 6" piece of plywood out, and then cut 4 - 1 1/2" diameter circles for the dots. I measured and marked the lid to make sure to place the dots in the right spots to allow the lid to fit into the base of another brick, and then glued and clamped the dots onto my marks on the lid. Step 5: Magnetizing the Lid After calculating the center marks for each hole that needed drilled (4 on the base and 4 on the lid), I drilled shallow holes at my marks and glued in my magnets to the lid. MAKE SURE to get the positive/negative placement right on each of the matching magnets, otherwise your lid won't close! Depending on the thickness of your walls, and the size of your magnet, you can either drill holes directly in the walls, like I did, and glue your magnets in, or you can add some pieces to the corners of the box to allow you more room to glue in some magnets. Step 6: Paint or Stain or Oil Depending on what kind of look you're going for, you can now paint the brick to look like a real (big) Lego, or you can stain the box, or just oil the box. Whichever way you choose, it will add character to each of the Lego bricks you make Step 7: Repeat and Enjoy Depending on how many rolls of tape you have, you can repeat the process and create several boxes. And depending on what size tape you have, you can create different size Lego bricks to house each of your rolls of tape.	https://mobile.instructables.com/id/Lego-Brick-Tape-Dispenser/
--- abstract: 'We investigate the effect of incomplete information on the growth process of scale-free networks - a situation that occurs frequently e.g. in real existing citation networks. Two models are proposed and solved analytically for the scaling behavior of the connectivity distribution. These models show a varying scaling exponent with respect to the model parameters but no break-down of scaling thus introducing the first models of scale-free networks in an environment of incomplete information. We compare to results from computer simulations which show a very good agreement.' author: - \| K. Hamacher\ Center for Theoretical Biological Physics\ University of California, San Diego\ La Jolla, CA 92093-0374, USA title: 'Incomplete information in scale-free networks' --- [Keywords: ]{} Random graphs, networks, Socio-economic networks, Stochastic processes, Growth processes Introduction ============ Since the work on complex networks by Strogatz, Watts, Barab[à]{}si and Albert (see [@Strogatz2001; @Albert1999; @Watts1998; @Barabasi1999; @Newman2003; @sb; @Albert2002; @Dorogovtsev2002]) many researchers from such distinct fields as statistical mechanics [@dorogovtsev:027104; @costa:066127; @ramasco:036106; @klemm2004; @nr_b1], molecular biology [@jeong2000; @jeong2001; @nr_b3; @Alm2003; @Wagner2003; @Amoutzias2004_2], ecology [@Mendoza1998], physical chemistry [@Doye2002_2; @Doye2002; @Cancho2003], genetics e.g. [@babu2004; @Amoutzias2004; @nr_b2; @nr_b4; @Conant2003] or social science [@bagrow2004; @Ravid2004; @newman:066133] have studied the emerging complex structure and the behavior of networks in their respective field of research. A special subset of scale-free non-equilibrium networks can emerge from a construction procedure in which at each time step $t$ one vertex is added and connected to $m$ existing vertices with preferential linking. This preference is proportional to the number of already existing connections of that particular vertex. By definition the average number of connections remains constant $\bar{k}=2m$. The distribution of the degree of connections $P(k)$ is of particular interest as it provides for the possibility to distinguish different classes. One observes in scale-free-networks a behavior $P(k) \sim k^{-\gamma}$ that was first discussed by Simon [@simon1953] and in the context of citations networks by Price [@price1976]. Extensions to a more complex linking procedure [@PPredner2004] or more general linkage properties [@PPredner2004_2] were recently discussed in detail. To study the evolution of the distribution the continuum approximation is often used. At time $t$ the average number of connections ${\bar{k}(s,t)}$ of a vertex created at time $s$ is in an undirected network [@Dorogovtsev2002; @ph_do2] $$\label{eq::approx} \frac{\partial{\bar{k}(s,t)}}{\partial t} = m\cdot \frac{{\bar{k}(s,t)}}{\int\limits_{0}^{t} {d}u\;{\bar{k}(u,t)}}$$ Bianconi and Barab[à]{}si [@Bianconi2001] pointed to the effects of distributions of fitness of individuals to attract new connections. This can be already regarded as one prototypical example of incomplete information by interpreting the fitness in their model as an incomplete knowledge of all newer vertices about the [individual]{} properties or existence of the [present]{} vertices. Mossa et al.[@mossa2002] showed that the power-law behavior might be truncated due to information filtering. In their case a newly attached vertex is only aware of a certain subset of the existing vertices. This subset is however chosen randomly for each vertex individually. Therefore the incomplete information has no global properties but is instead a local property. Here we want however to follow another route with two distinct models to deal with the more interesting case that the incomplete information is attached to the new vertices individually and still global with respect to the whole network. One model will mimic a generic and global effect that is present in all real citation networks while the other describes the influence of individual information unawareness. Growing nets and latency ======================== For a newly created vertex the only relevant information is a list of existing vertices to connect to and their respective degrees. Incomplete information results in the ignorance of some of those vertices. This effect is here mediated via an ’awareness’ function ${\phi(s,t)}$ that makes the newly connected vertex $t$ aware of the existing vertex $s$. $$\label{eq::phi2} {\phi(s,t)}:= \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} 1 & s\mbox{ is known to } t \\ 0 & \mbox{else} \end{array} \right.$$ Eq. (\[eq::approx\]) becomes then $$\label{eq::phi} \frac{\partial{\bar{k}(s,t)}}{\partial t} = m \cdot \frac{{\bar{k}(s,t)}{\phi(s,t)}}{\int\limits_{0}^{t} {d}u\;{\bar{k}(u,t)}{\phi(u,t)}}$$ While there are many choices for ${\phi(s,t)}$ we will propose one particular structure to resemble actual effects in citation networks. We will further set $m=1$ as this network property has no influence on the scaling exponent $\gamma$ in the models. A newly created link might not be aware of the most recent created entities in the network. One encounters this situation actually very often: the author of a new WWW-page cannot be aware of other recently created pages that he would like to link to. Search engines do not provide for instantaneous listing of just created pages and therefore authors can find new pages just by chance. This incomplete information about the vertices of the network results in a selection of ’older’ vertices for linking. We model this by the setting ${\phi_{<}(s,t)}:= \Theta\left(c\cdot t - s \right)$ with some constant $0<c\le 1$ and $\Theta(x)$ the Heaviside-step-function. Therefore a newly created vertex is only aware of the oldest $c$ fraction of the existing vertices. While this seems to be at a first glance to strong of an assumption, this is realized in exponentially growing systems like the WWW: suppose from the current real-time $\tau$ we can not know new pages younger than some period $\tau_c$. Then all existing pages that are capable of attracting a link are taken from the interval $\left[0;\tau-\tau_c\right]$. As the number of pages obeys however $\sim\exp\left(\alpha\cdot \tau\right)$ this translates in the $N$-notion to $\left[0;c\cdot N\left(\tau\right)\right]$. Here we have set $c:=\exp\left(-\alpha \tau_c\right)$. Recall that the time $t$ of eq. (\[eq::approx\]) is actually the number of vertices so that we actually draw a vertex from $\left[0;c\cdot t\right]$. Rewriting the definition of ${\phi_{<}(s,t)}$ we get ${\phi_{<}(s,t)}= \Theta\left( c - s/t\right)$ and see that this function scales with respect to $s/t$. We can then set $x=s/t$ and rewrite equation (\[eq::phi\]) to (with ${\bar{k}(s,t)}= {\kappa(x)}$) $$- x \frac{d{\kappa(x)}}{d x} = \frac{{\kappa(x)}{\phi_{<}(x)}}{\int\limits_{0}^{1} {d}x \;{\kappa(x)}{\phi_{<}(x)}} = \frac{{\kappa(x)}{\phi_{<}(x)}}{\int\limits_{0}^{c} {d}x \;{\kappa(x)}} = \beta \cdot {{\kappa(x)}{\phi_{<}(x)}} \quad\mbox{with}\quad \kappa(1) = 1$$ $\beta^{-1}$ is the integral in the denominator [@ph_do2]. The boundary condition $\kappa(1) = 1$ reflects the fact, that upon creation a new node $s=t$ has only one connection. The solution of this differential equation is $${\kappa(x)}= \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} \tilde{c}\cdot x^{-\beta} & 0<t\le c \\ \mbox{const}=1 & t > c \end{array} \right.$$ As the function has to be continuous we must have $\kappa(1) {=} \kappa(c)$. We can derive the value for $\tilde{c}$ and arrive at $${\kappa(x)}= \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} \left(\frac{x}{c}\right)^{-\beta} & 0<t\le c \\ 1 & t > c \end{array} \right.$$ The equation for $\beta$ is then $$\frac{1}{\beta} = \int\limits_{0}^{c} {\kappa(x)}\;{d}x = \frac{c}{1-\beta} \quad \Longleftrightarrow \quad\beta = \frac{1}{1+c}$$ By scaling arguments one can prove that in general the relation $\gamma=1+1/\beta$ holds [@ph_do2; @Dorogovtsev2000_2; @Dorogovtsev2000]. Using this we conclude that here $\gamma = 2+c$. This is depicted in figure \[fig::C1\] which compares this result with computer simulations. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- a\) ![a) For $c=0.4$ with N=$10^6$ and sampled over $100$ replica we obtain a good fit to $N(k)=N\cdot p(k) \sim k^{-\gamma}$ with $\gamma_{fit}\approx 2.37$ in the interval $\log(k)\in\left[2.2;5.5\right]$. The fitted curve was shifted for clarity. b) The exponent in the scaling law $P(k) \sim k^{-\gamma}$ as a function of the information awareness $c$ in simulated networks. The straight line is the function $\gamma=2+c$. For each point $600$ independent networks of $10,000$ vertices each were sampled and the best fit was used. The error bars stem from the fitting procedure of the cumulative distribution [@ph_do2]. []{data-label="fig::C1"}](OneReplica "fig:") b) ![a) For $c=0.4$ with N=$10^6$ and sampled over $100$ replica we obtain a good fit to $N(k)=N\cdot p(k) \sim k^{-\gamma}$ with $\gamma_{fit}\approx 2.37$ in the interval $\log(k)\in\left[2.2;5.5\right]$. The fitted curve was shifted for clarity. b) The exponent in the scaling law $P(k) \sim k^{-\gamma}$ as a function of the information awareness $c$ in simulated networks. The straight line is the function $\gamma=2+c$. For each point $600$ independent networks of $10,000$ vertices each were sampled and the best fit was used. The error bars stem from the fitting procedure of the cumulative distribution [@ph_do2]. []{data-label="fig::C1"}](C1 "fig:") ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- We can further analyze the emerging networks by investigating the shortest-paths in these networks. Figure \[fig::SP\] shows the increase of both the average $l_{avg}$ and the maximum $l_{max}$ of the shortest path lengths [@nr_pajek] in independently created networks with increasing $c$ above $c\approx 0.2$. A smaller $c\in \left[0.2;1.0\right]$ reduces the number of available vertices in the growth process and the network gets more dense: the shortest path lengths get smaller and the probability of vertices with larger number of connections bigger - as can be seen from the previous result $\gamma=2+c$. For very small $c<0.2$ we see however an increase in $l_{avg}$ and $l_{max}$. This is an artifact due to our initial setting of the first $1/c$ vertices to form a chain. While the chain guarantees that none of the first vertices is preferred to another initial vertex, the path lengths are largely influenced now. For the smallest $c=0.025$ used here we get an $l_{max}=40.99\approx 1/c$. Here the chain length dominates the path lengths. ![The average and the maximum of the minimal path lengths in the network grown with an information awareness of $c$. For every point we sampled over $100$ independent networks. The first $1/c$ vertices where initialized to form a chain, so giving no preferences to any of them.[]{data-label="fig::SP"}](ShortestPathes) Suppose that WWW-pages are the vertices in this scenario and links are the edges of the network. This model then takes into account the time that e.g. search engines need to encounter new web-pages and make the general public aware of those sites. The anonymity of a vertex $s$ is healed over time by sliding into the focus of new vertices as soon as $s<c\cdot t$. Here the incomplete information refers to the knowledge of [every]{} new vertex uniformly. There is also the opposite scenario in which some vertices are aware of the full information (that is the number of connections all the existing vertices possess) and others are just ignorant and connect with equal probability to any of the existing ones. Here the incompleteness of information is restricted to a subset of individuals: Growing nets and partial ignorance ================================== Suppose that a newly added vertex is with some probability $p$ aware of all the connectivities of the other vertices. In this case it is attached with preferential linking described above. With probability $1-p$ it is connected without preference. We want to deduce the effect on the connectivity distribution from the master equation for the average number of connections of degree $k$ at time $t$ $$\begin{aligned} \label{eq::p} N(k,t+1) &=& p \cdot \left[ N(k,t) + \frac{k-1}{t\bar{k}} N(k-1,t) - \frac{k}{t\bar{k}}N(k,t)\right] \nonumber\\ && + (1-p)\cdot \left[ N(k,t) + \frac{1}{t} N(k-1,t) - \frac{1}{t}N(k,t)\right] + \delta_{k,1} \end{aligned}$$ Here $\bar{k}=2$ is the average degree of each vertex. The first term describes the preferential linking with its in- and outflow while the second term provides for the additional connections or loss thereof with equal probability. Notice that there are currently $t$ vertices in the network, so $1/t$ is the probability of hitting any one of those. The third term is finally responsible for the newly added ’guy’. By changing to continuous time we get from eq. (\[eq::p\]) $$\frac{\partial}{\partial t} (t\cdot P(k,t)) = \left[ p\frac{k-1}{\bar{k}}+1-p\right]P(k-1,t) - \left[ p\frac{k}{\bar{k}}+1-p\right]P(k-1,t) + \delta_{k,1}$$ where $P(k,t) = N(k,t)/t$ is the density of vertices with degree $k$ at time $t$. We can now solve for the stationary distribution for $t\rightarrow\infty$. We arrive at the recursion $$P(k) = \frac{pk-p+\bar{k}-p\bar{k}}{pk+2\bar{k}-p\bar{k}} P(k-1) + \frac{\bar{k}}{pk+2\bar{k}-p\bar{k}} \delta_{k,1}$$ This is further written as $$\label{eq::p2} P(k) = \frac{2}{4-p} \cdot \frac{\Gamma\left(\frac{4}{p}\right)\Gamma\left(\frac{2}{p}-2+k\right) }{ \Gamma\left(\frac{2}{p}-1\right)\Gamma\left(\frac{4}{p}-1+k\right) }$$ Using the relationship $$\frac{\Gamma \left(k+a\right)}{\Gamma\left(k+b\right)} = k^{a-b} \left[ 1 + O\left(k^{-1}\right) \right]$$ for large $k$ [@abramowitz6147] we conclude that $\gamma = 1 + \frac{2}{p}$ for large $k$ with a divergence for the exponent when approaching $p=0$ as in this case we have no preferential linking at all. In this case the starting master equation (\[eq::p\]) leads correctly to the Poisson-distribution $P_{p=0}(k) = 2^{-k}$. The diverging behavior of the exponent was for instance also found by Krapivsky and Redner [@krapivsky2001] in their treatment of growing networks with redirection. Figure \[fig::Np\] shows the results from computer experiments for this model. The smaller the $p$ the more difficult it is to see any indication of the power-law. ![The cumulative number of connections $N_{{}{cum}}(k)=\sum\limits_{k'=k}^{\infty} N(k')$ of degree $k$ in networks of size $L$ averaged over $500$ independent runs. The data was shifted for a better overview. The straight line through the data of $L=10,000$ is the derived result of eq. (\[eq::p2\]) with $p=0.4$ while the broken line indicates an asymptotic power-law for the cumulative number of a distribution with $\gamma = 1+2/p = 6$.[]{data-label="fig::Np"}](P) Conclusion ========== In this paper we developed two distinct models to describe the effect of 1) global incomplete information caused by penetration rates while constructing a citation network and 2) local incomplete information of individual vertices that are attached with a probability of ’non-knowledge’. We derived the scaling behavior of the degree distribution for large degrees in both cases and compared this to computer experiments. Both models approach the analytic value [@Barabasi1999] of $\gamma=3$ when reaching full information. The incomplete information in the two models does not destroy the scale-free-behavior of the systems while Mossa et al.[@mossa2002] found a cross-over from scale-free-behavior to an exponential in another model which takes information into account. By comparison one can see the influence incomplete information may have on the global structure of growing networks. We will work out particulars on real-world-networks and the influence of incomplete information in a forthcoming study. Acknowledgments {#acknowledgments .unnumbered} =============== KH is supported through a Liebig-Fellowship of the Fonds der chemischen Industrie. Computational resources were provided under a grant of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and by the NSF-sponsored Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (grant numbers PHY-0216576 and 0225630).\ I thank S. Redner and S. Mossa for bringing ref. [@krapivsky2001] and [@mossa2002] respectively to my attention. Stimulating discussions with and comments from C. Gros, J.A. McCammon, and T. Hwa are gratefully acknowledged. 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What are optical illusions? With the help of colors, specific patterns, and light, images are created in a way such that the brain perceives them as different from what they… How Does Radioactive Decay Work? One of the most interesting scientific phenomena, radioactivity has always attracted people for undertaking research on it and also for unraveling the scientific truths regarding its aspects. This ScienceStruck article explains in detail how radioactive decay works. The process by which unstable atomic nuclei release subatomic particles is known as radioactivity. In this phenomenon, electrons are released from the atomic nucleus of an element, which leads to the radiation of energy. This loss of energy results in the transformation of the parent nuclide to a different type of atom called the daughter nuclide. Such elements (for example: uranium, thorium, plutonium, tritium, etc.) are termed as radioactive, and the process of their disintegration is termed as radioactive decay. A French scientist called Henri Becquerel discovered this phenomenon. The SI unit Becquerel was named in the honor of this scientist. He experimented by placing uranium salts with a photographic plate in front, in a dark space. The plate turned dark, and hence, he theorized that a specific type of energy must be emitted by these salts to blacken the plate. This phenomenon was confirmed later by numerous experiments. An important term called “half-life” is used in association with this phenomenon. It is basically used to calculate the rate of decay, which a radioactive element would undergo by continuous emission of energy. An estimate of the half-life of an element provides us with valuable information like the mean time, decay constant, intensity of radiation, quantity of the formation of daughter elements, etc. This term is very crucial in case of radioactive dating techniques like carbon-14, potassium-argon, uranium-lead, etc. These techniques are used in the fields of anthropology, geology, and archeology. There are several modes of radioactive decay, which have been elucidated below. Main Modes Alpha Decay In this mode, an alpha particle is emitted from the nucleus of an element, which leads to the formation of a daughter element, with decrease in the mass number and atomic number by 4 and 2, respectively. For example, Uranium-238 decays by emission of an alpha particle to form thorium-234. The atomic number of the former is 92 while that of the latter is 90. Beta Decay A nucleus emits a beta particle during the decaying process. There are two types: (i) positive beta decay―emission of an electron and neutrino (positron); and (ii) negative beta decay―emission of an electron and an anti-neutrino. When the nucleus emits two electrons and two anti-neutrinos, the mode is called Double Beta Decay. Gamma Decay An atomic nucleus emits gamma rays during the decaying process, and such rays are the most biologically hazardous ones. They have a very short frequency and hence, the highest amplitude or intensity. Secondary Modes Proton Emission In this process, a proton is emitted by the nucleus, especially in a high-excitation state. This emission usually takes place after a beta decay process. This process helps us to gain knowledge about the mass and structure of atoms, and the nuclear deformation process. When two protons are simultaneously ejected from a nucleus, the process is known as Double Proton Emission. Neutron Emission When an atomic nucleus has excess neutrons, it reaches an excitation state. In this scenario, the nuclide emits a neutron in a spontaneous manner, and this mode of radioactive decay is called neutron emission. Spontaneous Fission Very heavy chemical elements show this property, wherein the nucleus disintegrates into two/more than two nuclei of elements having smaller atomic numbers. This takes place only with those atoms, which have mass numbers greater than 58 atomic mass units. Cluster Decay In this mode, the atomic nucleus emits a cluster of a specific type of smaller nuclides, which are larger than an alpha particle, but smaller than a binary fission product. The parent atoms having mass numbers greater than 40 can show this mode of decay. For example, Ra223 emits a cluster of C14 and Pb209. Positron Emission In this process, a nucleus emits a single positron and a neutrino, and the entire action is dominated by a weak force. This mode is seen in nuclides, which have proton-rich atoms, and it causes nuclear transmutation, wherein the daughter elemental atomic number decreases by 1. When a nucleus emits two positrons and two neutrons each, the process is known as Double Positron Emission. Electron Capture In this mode, a parent proton-rich nucleus captures an inner orbital electron, causing the emission of a neutrino, and simultaneous transformation of a proton to neutron. In this process, when a nucleus absorbs one orbital electron, and emits one positron and two neutrinos, the process of decay is known as Electron Capture with Positron Emission. Isomeric Transition In this mode, a nucleus emits a gamma photon in an excited metastable state. At the same time, the original constituents of the parent atomic nucleus do not change. After this process, the nucleus again reverts to its normal ground state. Internal Conversion In this radioactive decay process, an electron from one of the inner orbitals reacts with an atomic nucleus in an excited state under the influence of electromagnetic forces. This causes ejection of that electron from the nucleus, and the atom gets converted into an ion. Also, this process is devoid of neutrino emissions. The phenomenon of radioactivity has benefited humankind in so many aspects, like medicines, machines, industrial applications, weapons, healthcare sector, etc. Though it is a boon for us, radioactive processes have to be handled with care to prevent any major incident.	https://sciencestruck.com/how-does-radioactive-decay-work
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1) Field of the Invention 2) Description of the Related Art SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) (Second Embodiment) (Third Embodiment) The present invention relates to a gas concentration detecting apparatus designed to detect a specific component concentration in a gas to be detected (which will hereinafter be referred to equally as a "detection gas"). For example, so far, there has been known a limit-current type air-fuel ratio sensor (so-called an A/F sensor) made to detect an oxygen concentration (air-fuel ratio) in an exhaust gas emitted as a detection gas from a vehicle engine. That is, the A/F sensor includes a sensor element composed of a solid electrolyte and a pair of electrodes provided on the solid electrolyte, and it is made to generate a flow of an element current corresponding to an oxygen concentration whenever a voltage is applied to the sensor element. FIG. 3 is an illustration of an output characteristic of this A/F sensor. As seen from FIG. 3, a flat region parallel with a voltage axis, i.e., a limiting current region in which an element current Ip (limiting current) becomes constant, appears and this limiting current region shifts generally to a high-voltage side as the oxygen concentration increases. 2 In this case, for a precise detection of the air-fuel ratio, there is a need to correctly control a voltage Vp to be applied to the sensor element in the limiting current region, and in general, an applied voltage line (RG in FIG. 3) forming a linear line is set and the applied voltage Vp is determined on the applied voltage line RG on the basis of an element current Ip in each case. In this connection, in a case in which a voltage is applied to the sensor element beyond the limiting current region, there is a possibility that, if it strays toward the low-voltage side, the air-fuel ratio is recognized as a small value in error while, if straying toward the high-voltage side, damage to the solid electrolyte (zirconia ZrO) occurs. On the other hand, in the case of the control of the applied voltage Vp in an applied voltage control circuit, if the gain on the circuit arrangement exceeds "1", the oscillation of the applied voltage Vp occurs, which can lead to adversely affecting the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy. That is, the oscillation of the applied voltage Vp occurs, for example, due to the facts that the applied voltage characteristic provides a positive feedback so that the applied voltage Vp increases with an increase in the element current Ip and that, if a radio-frequency component such as noise is introduced into the sensor, an impedance characteristic peculiar to the sensor varies the impedance value to increase the gain of the sensor element. In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a gas concentration detecting apparatus disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-81413. In this gas concentration detecting apparatus, there have been proposed the techniques of the inclination of the applied voltage line RG being set to be greater than the inclination defined by an alternating-current impedance (that is, the applied voltage line is placed into a standing condition) or this applied voltage line RG being set to be parallel with the inclination stemming from an direct-current internal resistance Ri (so-called an inclination of a resistance governing region). This enables the gain to be below 1 in the entire feedback system including the applied voltage control circuit and the sensor, thus preventing the occurrence of the oscillation of the applied voltage. Incidentally, in general, the direct-current internal resistance and alternating-current impedance of the sensor element are in the relationship of "direct-current internal resistance > element impedance". In recent years, for example, the enhancement of the exhaust gas regulations or abnormality detection regulations (OBD and others) on vehicles requires the expansion of the lean side of the air-fuel ratio detection range up to the atmospheric state. Moreover, the importance is on the increase in that, in terms of an NOx occlusion reduction type catalyst provided in an exhaust system, the rich combustion control is implemented with high accuracy to achieve the restoration of the NOx occlusion ability, the sulfur poisoning regeneration and others, and for the purpose of improving the fuel consumption, the rich combustion control at a high engine load is executed with high accuracy. In such situations, a strong request exists in that the air-fuel ratio detection range is enlarged to enable the air-fuel ratio detection over a wide range and the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy is increased in this detection range. However, for enlarging the air-fuel ratio detection range as mentioned above, there is a problem in that the detection accuracy drops in the vicinity of the upper limit and lower limit of this detection range. In particular, in a region, such as atmospheric state and A/F 10, remote extremely from the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, difficulty can be encountered in accurately detecting the air-fuel ratio through the use of the control of the applied voltage mentioned above. That is, the present inventors have lately confirmed that the width of the limiting current region is not always constant in a wide air-fuel ratio detection range, and it is considered that this causes a drop of the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy. The present invention has been developed in consideration of these situations, and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a gas concentration detecting apparatus capable of implementing the applied voltage control with high accuracy to improve the gas concentration detection accuracy over a wide range. For this purpose, a gas concentration detecting apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is for use in a limit-current type gas concentration sensor. In this gas concentration sensor, an element current (limiting current) corresponding to a specific component concentration flows whenever a voltage is applied to a sensor element. Moreover, the applied voltage is controlled on the basis of an applied voltage characteristic defined linearly, and the specific component concentration in a gas to be detected over a wide range on the basis of a limiting current output of the gas concentration sensor. Still moreover, in particular, in a gas concentration detection range, the applied voltage characteristic is set on the basis of a width of a limiting current region for each concentration level. In short, when the gas concentration varies in a wide gas concentration detection range, an applied voltage can be set in the exterior of a limiting current region in controlling the applied voltage on the basis of the applied voltage characteristic (applied voltage characteristic defining the relationship between a sensor applied voltage and an element current) defined linearly (primary-linearly). Coping with such a situation, the inventors have confirmed that the width of a limiting current region (width on a voltage axis) stands at a different value according to a concentration level and, hence, set an applied voltage characteristic on the basis of the width of a limiting current region on each concentration level. Accordingly, even if the gas concentration varies in a wide gas concentration detection range, the applied voltage is not set in a state deviated from the limiting current region. In consequence, the applied voltage control can be implemented with high accuracy, thus achieving the improvement of the gas concentration detection accuracy over a wide range. In addition, in this gas concentration detecting apparatus, an applied voltage control unit and an element current detection unit are connected to an electrode of the sensor element, and the applied voltage control unit controls the applied voltage on the basis of the applied voltage characteristic defined linearly, and the element current detection unit detects an element current output corresponding to the specific component concentration of a gas to be detected in the gas concentration detection range set widely. Moreover, in particular, in the applied voltage control unit, the applied voltage characteristic is set on the basis of the width of the limiting current region on each concentration level in the gas concentration detection range. Also in this case, even if the gas concentration varies in a wide gas concentration detection range, the applied voltage is not set out of the limiting current region. In consequence, the applied voltage control can be implemented with high accuracy, thus achieving the improvement of the gas concentration detection accuracy over a wide range. In a case in which an applied voltage line is set as an applied voltage characteristic, the following arrangement is employable. According to a further aspect of the present invention, an upper limit or one point on the limiting current region in the vicinity of the upper limit in the gas concentration detection range is specified and a lower limit or one point on the limiting current region in the vicinity of the lower limit in the gas concentration detection range is specified, with an applied voltage line serving as the applied voltage characteristic being set to pass through (cross) these points specified. Moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the gas concentration detection range is divided into a plurality of portions, and an upper limit or one point on the limiting current region in the vicinity of the upper limit in each detection range portion is specified and a lower limit or one point on the limiting current region in the vicinity of the lower limit in each detection range portion is specified, with the applied voltage line serving as the applied voltage characteristic being set to pass through these points specified. In these cases, the applied voltage lines can be set so as to surely pass through the limiting current region in a wide gas concentration detection range. It is considered that, when a component other than a specific component undergoes a decomposition or the like, the element current varies due to this. Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the current variation quantity is regulated to determine the limiting current region, and the applied voltage characteristic is set to pass through an intermediate point of this limiting current region. This can remove the influence of the reaction of components other than the specific component, thereby implementing the applied voltage control appropriately. When the sensor output characteristic (V-I characteristic) is analyzed in detail, there exist a point at which the element current starts to become constant with a rise of the applied voltage in a state where a balance is made between the applied voltage and the electromotive force of the sensor element while the gas diffusion is restricted and a point at which, in addition to a specific component, water in the gas is decomposed and the element current starts to increase due to the water decomposition. Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention, when the applied voltage to the sensor element is increased, a limiting current region is set between a first voltage point at which the output of an electromotive force accomplishing a balance with the applied voltage starts and a second voltage point at which the decomposition of water contained in a gas to be detected starts. Still moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the limiting current region is set between a first voltage point at which, when the applied voltage to the sensor element is increased, the output of the electromotive force accomplishing a balance with the applied voltage starts and a second voltage point at which the element current increases due to the residue of a reaction-hard component of unburned components contained in the gas to be detected. The unburned components contain various components different in composition from each other, and the reaction (decomposition) easiness stands at a different degree for each component. Therefore, the element current increases in the vicinity of an end point (on the high voltage side) of the limiting current region. According to a further aspect of the present invention, in these arrangement, an intermediate point between the first and second voltage points is specified to set an applied voltage line as the applied voltage characteristic. In this case, the applied voltage line is set to pass between the first and second voltage points and, as a result, the applied voltage is certainly controllable in the limiting current region. In addition, although the increase in the element current due to the water decomposition depends upon the quantity of water or the like, when the element current including the water decomposition current is detected, a detection error occurs accordingly. Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention, in a voltage range in which the element current becomes appropriately constant with respect to the applied voltage on a sensor output characteristic, a voltage range except a voltage range in which water contained in the gas to be detected is decomposed is set as the limiting current region. On the V-I coordinates representing the output characteristic of the sensor element, the inclination (I/V) of the resistance governing region is determined in accordance with the direct-current internal resistance of the sensor element, and so far, in general, the applied voltage line is set to agree with the inclination of the resistance governing region. On the other hand, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the inclination (I/V) of the applied voltage line serving as the applied voltage characteristic is made smaller than the inclination (I/V) of the resistance governing region. That is, in the V-I coordinates in which the horizontal axis represents a voltage and the vertical axis denotes a current, the applied voltage line is set in a more lying state than the resistance governing region. Since there is a tendency that, in a region where the element current output (I) is large, the width of the limiting current region becomes wide and, in a region where the element current output (I) is small, the width of the limiting current region becomes narrow, when the inclination of the applied voltage line is made small as mentioned above, the applied voltage line can be set to surely pass through the limiting current region. It is considered that a range in which the widths of the limiting current regions become approximately equal to each other and a range in which they become different from each other exist in the gas concentration detection range. Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention, different applied voltage characteristics are set in a gas concentration detection range in which the widths of the limiting current regions are approximately equal to each other and in a gas concentration detection range in which the widths of the limiting current regions are different from each other. Still additionally, according to a further aspect of the present invention, in a plurality of sensor output characteristics whose temperature conditions of the sensor element differ from each other, the applied voltage line is set to pass through a region in which the limiting current regions overlap. That is, when the temperature condition varies because it is heated or cooled in a temperature environment or the like, the sensor output characteristic on the V-I coordinates falls into a standing state or a lying state, and the limiting current region is shifted along the voltage axis. In such a situation, according to the present invention, the applied voltage line can be set through the limiting current regions common to any element temperature, and the applied voltage is controllable without getting out of the limiting current region at all times irrespective of the element temperature variation. Yet additionally, since it is possible to cope with the variation of the element temperature by setting one applied voltage line, the simplification of the circuit arrangement and the like become feasible, as compared with a case in which prepared are a plurality of applied voltage lines corresponding to the element temperatures. In this case, preferably, an output characteristic at a minimum temperature in a temperature range actually attainable in a using environment of the sensor element and an output characteristic at a maximum temperature therein are employed so that the applied voltage line is set to pass through a region in which the limiting currents thereof overlap. Since the sensor element characteristic varies with use and with time, it is appropriate that the applied voltage characteristic is defined in advance in consideration of this variation with time. Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention, an initial output characteristic of the sensor element and an estimated output characteristic thereof after the variation with time are used so that the applied voltage line is set to pass through a region in which the limiting current regions thereof overlap. This enables the applied voltage control to be appropriately implemented even after the variation with time, thus maintaining the gas concentration detection accuracy for a long term. In this case, preferably, the estimated output characteristic after the variation with time is a characteristic at a deterioration tolerance limit permitting the use of an element current output. Moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the sensor characteristic line and the applied voltage line are set so as not to intersect with each other in a region outside the gas concentration detection range defined in advance. This prevents a mistaken gas concentration detection or damages to the solid electrolyte (zirconia). Still moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, excess current detecting means is provided to detect that the element current is outside a range defined in advance, and the applied voltage characteristic is changed when the excess current detecting means detects an element current outside the defined range. This can suppress the occurrence of an excess voltage application to the sensor element when the element current gets out of the range defined in advance due to the noise, temporary short-circuiting, grounding or the like, thereby achieving the sensor protection. This defined range may be set to correspond to the gas concentration detection range. In a case in which an element current outside the defined range is detected, in terms of the sensor protection, it is preferable that the applied voltage characteristic is changed to a voltage limiting applied voltage characteristic for suppressing the excess voltage application to the sensor element. However, if the applied voltage characteristics is thoughtlessly changed when the element current varies temporarily due to the noise, short-circuiting, grounding or the like, there is a possibility that the gas concentration detection accuracy lowers due to the rapid variation of the applied voltage or the like. Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention, preferably, the timing of the change of the applied voltage characteristic is delayed at the detection of an element current outside the defined range. Accordingly, the applied voltage characteristic is not changed by an instantaneous (extremely short time) element current variation, thus consequently maintaining the gas concentration detection accuracy. Yet moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, in an applied voltage control circuit, the applied voltage is feedback-controlled on the basis of the element current. In this case, in particular, since the applied voltage is controlled on the basis of the aforesaid set applied voltage characteristic, even if the conditions such as gas concentration and element temperature vary, the applied voltage is not set in the exterior of the limiting current region, thus implementing the applied voltage control with high accuracy over a side gas concentration detection range. When the applied voltage characteristic (applied voltage line) is set as mentioned above, according to circumstances, since the applied voltage line falls into a more lying state than the inclination defined by the direct-current internal resistance of the sensor element, it is considered that the feedback gain in the applied voltage control circuit exceeds 1 so that the applied voltage falls into an oscillation state. For this reason, according to a further aspect of the present invention, preferably, voltage change regulating means is provided in order to regulate the change of the applied voltage for preventing the oscillation of the applied voltage. In this case, in short, the gain of the applied voltage control circuit is set below 1, and a low-pass filter (LPF) can be used as a means therefor. On the other hand, according to another feature of the present invention, in a predetermined concentration range, a low-voltage side characteristic connecting low-voltage side end points of limiting current regions on the respective levels and a high-voltage side characteristic connecting high-voltage side end points of the same limiting current regions thereon are defined so that the applied voltage characteristic is set on the basis of an intermediate inclination between the inclinations of the characteristics. Also in this case, even if the gas concentration varies in a wide gas concentration detection range, the applied voltage is not set in a state deviated from the limiting current region. In consequence, the applied voltage control can be implemented with high accuracy and, hence, the improvement of the gas concentration detection accuracy is achievable over a wide range. According to a further feature of the present invention, the low-voltage side characteristic is defined by a voltage point at which the output of an electromotive force coming into balance with respect to the applied voltage when the applied voltage to the sensor element is increased starts, while the high-voltage side characteristic is defined by a voltage point at which the decomposition of water contained in the gas to be detected starts. In this case, the element current can be detected in a region excluding the water decomposition region, thereby enhancing the detection accuracy. In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a gas concentration detecting apparatus which is made to detect a specific component concentration of an exhaust gas emitted from a combustion engine, wherein the aforesaid low-voltage side characteristic is defined by a voltage point at which, when the applied voltage to the sensor element is increased, the output of an electromotive force coming into balance with respect to the applied voltage starts, while the high-voltage side characteristic is defined by a voltage point at which the element current increases due to the residue of a reaction-hard component of unburned components contained in a gas to be detected. In this case, the element current can be detected in a region excluding the decomposition region of the unburned components left without reacting, thus enhancing the detection accuracy. Still additionally, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the applied voltage to the sensor element is controlled between a voltage point at which, when the applied voltage to the sensor element is increased, the output of an electromotive force coming into balance with respect to the applied voltage starts and a voltage point at which the decomposition of water contained in the gas to be detected starts. Also in this case, the element current can be detected in a region excluding the decomposition region of water, thus enhancing the detection accuracy. Yet additionally, of a voltage range in which the element current becomes approximately constant with respect to the applied voltage on a sensor output characteristic, a voltage range excluding a voltage range in which water contained in the gas to be detected is decomposed is set as a limiting current region, and the applied voltage is controlled in this limiting current region. The element current can be detected in the region which does not include the water decomposition region, thus enhancing the detection accuracy. Moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the applied voltage is controlled in a region in which the limiting current regions overlap in a plurality of sensor output characteristics different in temperature condition of the sensor element from each other. That is, when the temperature condition varies because the sensor element is heated or cooled in a temperature environment or the like, the sensor output characteristic on the V-I coordinates falls into a standing state or a lying state, and the limiting current region is shifted along the voltage axis. In such a situation, according to the present invention, the applied voltage control can be implemented through the use of the limiting current regions common to any element temperature, and the applied voltage is controllable without getting out of the limiting current region at all times irrespective of the element temperature variation. Still moreover, according to a further aspect of the present invention, an output characteristic at a minimum temperature in a temperature range actually attainable in a using environment of the sensor element and an output characteristic at a maximum temperature therein are employed so that the applied voltage is controlled in a region in which the limiting currents thereof overlap. In addition, according to a further aspect of the present invention, an initial output characteristic of the sensor element and an estimated output characteristic thereof after the variation with time are used so that the applied voltage is controlled in a region in which the limiting current regions thereof overlap. This enables the applied voltage control to be appropriately implemented even after the variation with time, thus maintaining the gas concentration detection accuracy for a long term. In this case, preferably, the estimated output characteristic after the variation with time is an estimated output characteristic at a deterioration tolerance limit permitting the use of an element current output. In a gas concentration detecting apparatus made to detecting an air-fuel ratio on the basis of an oxygen concentration in an exhaust gas emitted as an object of detection from a combustion engine, the air-fuel ratio detection range is expanded in the following regions. According to a further feature of the present invention, the lean side limit of the air-fuel ratio detection range is set at A/F20 or more, and according to a further feature of the present invention, the lean side limit of the air-fuel ratio detection range is set at the atmosphere. Moreover, according to a further feature of the present invention, the rich side limit of the air-fuel ratio detection range is set at A/F11 or less. That is, in a lean combustion engine, there is a need to detect the air-fuel ratio in a region showing A/F20 or more, while there is a need to detect the air-fuel ratio in the atmospheric state under the regulations such as OBD. Still moreover, during a high-load operation or rich spike, the air-fuel ratio detection below A/F11 (in the vicinity of A/F10) becomes necessary. Although, from these, the air-fuel ratio detection in a wide range becomes necessary, according to the present invention, a proper air-fuel ration detection becomes feasible in a desired air-fuel ratio region. In supplementary explanation, in a stoichiometric combustion engine in which the air-fuel ratio control is implemented in the vicinity of the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, the needed range for the air-fuel ratio detection is approximately A/F12 to A/F18, and in this range, even if the applied voltage line is set to coincide with the inclination of the resistance governing region in the sensor output characteristic (V-I characteristic), the air-fuel ration detection accuracy is securable. However, in a case in which the air-fuel ratio detection range is expanded to the lean side and rich side as mentioned above, if the applied voltage line is set to coincide with the inclination of the resistance governing region in the sensor output characteristic, for example, at the atmosphere or A/F10, there is a possibility that the applied voltage line gets out of the limiting current region to lower the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy. On the other hand, according to the present invention described above, the applied voltage control is executed to a limiting current region at each air-fuel ratio and, hence, an appropriate air-fuel ratio detection is realizable even in any air-fuel ratio region. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an arrangement of a n air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a construction of a sensor element; FIG. 3 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 4A is an illustration of an equivalent circuit of a sensor element; FIG. 4B is an illustration of an electromotive force characteristic; FIG. 5 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 6 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 7 is an illustration useful for explaining a procedure for determining a limiting current region; FIG. 8 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 9 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 10 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 11 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 12 is a circuit diagram showing an arrangement of an air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus; FIG. 13 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor; FIG. 14 is a circuit diagram showing an arrangement of an air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus; FIG. 15 is a circuit diagram showing an arrangement of an air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus; and FIG. 16 is an illustration of an output characteristic of an A/F sensor. Other objects and features of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: Referring to the drawings, a description will be given hereinbelow of a gas concentration detecting apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment relates to an air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus made to detect an oxygen concentration (air-fuel ratio, which will hereinafter be referred to equally to an "A/F") in a detection gas which is an exhaust gas emitted from an engine mounted on a vehicle, and an air-fuel ratio detection result from the air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus is used for an air-fuel ratio control system comprising an engine ECU and others. The air-fuel ratio control system realizes properly, for example, stoichiometric combustion control for feedback-controlling an air-fuel ratio in the vicinity of the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio and lean combustion control for feedback-controlling the air-fuel ratio in a predetermined lean region. Moreover, this embodiment enables a wide-range air-fuel ratio detection coping with the exhaust gas regulations and the abnormality detection regulations (OBD) in the recent years or in the future and an air-fuel ratio detection in a wide range from a rich region (for example, A/F11) for implementing the control on the occlusion NOx emission of an NOx occlusion reduction type catalyst installed in an exhaust system, the sulfur poisoning regeneration and others. First of all, referring to FIG. 2, a description will be given hereinbelow of a construction of an A/F sensor functioning as a gas concentration sensor. This A/F sensor comprises a sensor element 10 having a multilayer construction, and FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional construction of the sensor element 10. In fact, this sensor element 10 has an elongated configuration extending in a direction perpendicular to the FIG. 2 paper surface, and the entire element is accommodated in a housing or an element cover. The sensor element 10 is composed of a solid electrolyte 11, a diffusion resistance layer 12, a shielding layer 13 and an insulating layer 14 which are stacked vertically as shown in the illustration. A protective layer (not shown) is placed around this element. The rectangular-plate solid electrolyte (solid electrolyte member) 11 is made in the form of a partial stabilization zirconia sheet, and a pair of electrodes 15 and 16 are provided in opposed relation to each other in a state where the solid electrolyte 11 is interposed therebetween. Each of the electrodes 15 and 16 is made of a platinum Pt or the like. The diffusion resistance layer 12 (gas diffusion rate-determining portion) is designed in the form of a porous sheet made to introduce the exhaust gas to the electrode 15, and the shielding layer 13 is made from a dense layer made to suppress the transmission of the exhaust gas. Each of these layers 12 and 13 is made of ceramics such as alumina or zirconia according to a sheet formation method, and its gas permeability depends upon the average pore size and the porosity. The insulating layer 14 is made of ceramics such as alumina, zirconia or the like, and an atmosphere duct 17 is formed in a portion confronting the electrode 16. Moreover, a heater 18 made of platinum Pt or the like is buried in this insulating layer 14. The heater 18 comprises a linear heating device which generates heat when energized by a battery power supply, and the heat generation heats the entire element. Incidentally, in the following description, depending upon circumstances, the electrode 15 is equally referred to as a "diffusive layer side electrode", and the electrode 16 is equally referred to as an "atmosphere side electrode". In this embodiment, as terminal connected to the atmosphere side electrode 16 is set as a positive side terminal (+ terminal), while a terminal connected to the diffusive layer side electrode 15 is set as a negative side terminal (-terminal). In the aforesaid sensor element 10, an exhaust gas existing around it is introduced through side portions of the diffusion resistance layer 12 to reach the diffusive layer side electrode 15. When the exhaust gas is in a lean condition, the oxygen in the exhaust gas is decomposed at the diffusive layer side electrode 15 in a manner such that a voltage applied between the electrodes 15 and 16 and, after passing through the solid electrolyte 11 in a state ionized, is discharged through the atmosphere side electrode 16 into the atmosphere duct 17. At this time, a current (positive current) flows in a direction of the atmosphere side electrode 16 → the diffusive layer side electrode 15. On the other hand, when the exhaust gas is in a rich condition, the oxygen in the atmosphere duct 7 is decomposed at the atmosphere side electrode 16 and, after passing through the solid electrolyte 11 in a state ionized, is discharged through the diffusive layer side electrode 15. Moreover, a catalytic reaction occurs between it and unburned components such as HC and CO in the exhaust gas. At this time, a current (negative current) flows in a direction of the diffusive layer side electrode 15 → the atmosphere side electrode 16. FIG. 3 is an illustration of a basic voltage-current characteristic (V-I characteristic) of an A/F sensor. In FIG. 3, a flat portion parallel with the voltage axis (horizontal axis) forms a limiting current region specifying an element current Ip (limiting current) of the sensor element 10, and an increase/decrease in this element current Ip corresponds to an increase/decrease in air-fuel ratio (that is, the degree of lean/rich condition). That is, the element current Ip increases as the air-fuel ratio shifts toward the lean side while the element current Ip decreases as the air-fuel ratio shifts toward the rich side. In this embodiment, as one example, a wide air-fuel ratio detection range is defined in a range from A/F10 to the atmosphere (oxygen concentration : 20.9%). In this V-I characteristic, a lower voltage side than the limiting current region establishes a resistance governing region, and the inclination of a linear line (primary straight line) portion in the resistance governing region is specified by a direct-current internal resistance Ri of the sensor element 10. The direct-current internal resistance Ri varies with the element temperature and the direct-current internal resistance Ri increases with a drop of the element temperature. That is, at this time, the inclination of the linear portion in the resistance governing region is made smaller (the linear portion changes to a laying-down state). Moreover, the direct-current internal resistance Ri decreases as the element temperature rises. That is, at this time, the inclination of the linear portion in the resistance governing region is made larger (the linear portion changes to a standing state). In the illustration, RG represents an applied voltage line (applied voltage characteristic) for determining an applied voltage Vp to the sensor element 10. FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram showing an arrangement of an applied voltage control system for the sensor element 10. In FIG. 1, a reference power supply 23 is connected through an operational amplifier 21 and a current detection resistor 22 (resistance value = R1) to the + terminal (atmosphere side electrode 16) of the sensor element 10, and an applied voltage control circuit 30 is connected to the -terminal (diffusive layer side electrode 15) of the sensor element 10. In this case, a point A at one end of the current detection resistor 22 is maintained at a voltage equal to a reference voltage Ref1. The element current Ip flows through the current detection resistor 22 and the voltage at a point B varies in accordance with the element current Ip. This voltage at the point B is outputted as an A/F output forming an air-fuel ration output to a microcomputer (not shown) and others. Since the element current does not flow at the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (Ip = 0 mA), the voltage at the point B becomes equal to the reference voltage Ref1. Moreover, if the exhaust gas is in a lean condition, a current flows from the + terminal to the - terminal in the sensor element 10 and, hence, the voltage at the point B rises. On the other hand, in the case of a rich condition, a current flows from the - terminal to + terminal in the sensor element 10 and, hence, the voltage at the point B drops. The applied voltage control circuit 30 monitors the point-B voltage (A/F output) for determining a voltage to be applied to the sensor element 10 on the basis of the monitored voltage value, and basically implements the applied voltage control so that the applied voltage increases when the element current Ip increases (that is, when the point-B voltage rises). Concretely, the applied voltage control circuit 30 is composed of an inverting amplification circuit comprising an operational amplifier 31 and resistors 32, 33 (resistance values = R2, R3), an inverting amplification circuit comprising an operational amplifier 34 and resistors 35, 36 (resistance values = R4, R5), a reference power supply 37 for generating a reference voltage Ref2, and an LPF 38 located at an output portion of the operational amplifier 31. In this arrangement, the applied voltage control circuit 30 defines an applied voltage characteristic, and the inclination of the applied voltage line RG representing the applied voltage characteristic is determined by "R1 × R3/R2 × 2". Moreover, R4 = R5. The LPF 38 is composed of a resistor 38a and capacitor 38b. By passing through this LPF 38, the variation of the applied voltage output to the sensor element 10 is controlled. In addition, this air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus detects an alternating-current impedance Zac of the sensor element 10 through the use of the so-called sweep method and controls the element temperature at a constant value on the basis of this alternating-current impedance Zac. That is, on the basis of a command from a microcomputer (not shown), the applied voltage control circuit 30 temporarily produces an alternating-current-like variation of the sensor applied voltage to, at this time, detect the alternating-current impedance Zac on the basis of a variation of the applied voltage and a variation of the element current. Moreover, the energizing of the heater 18 is controlled to keep the alternating-current impedance Zac at a predetermined target value. This enables the sensor element 10 to be maintained at a constant target temperature (for example, 750 °C). Meanwhile, the inventors has confirmed that, in the actual sensor output characteristic, the width of the limiting current region (the absolute width of a voltage) varies in accordance with a gas atmosphere. In general, the width of the limiting current region is wide in the lean region while the width of the limiting current region is narrow in the rich region. A detailed description will be given hereinbelow of the fact that the width of the limiting current region stands at a different value according to a gas atmosphere. FIG. 4A is an illustration of an equivalent circuit showing the sensor element 10 and an applied voltage Vp and, in the illustration, the sensor element 10 is shown in the form of a direct-current internal resistance Ri and an electromotive force Vk being connected in series to each other. Moreover, FIG. 4B is an illustration of an electromotive force characteristic of the sensor element 10. As shown in FIG. 4A, the electromotive force Vk is 0.45V at λ = 1 (A/F14.5), and with respect to this, the electromotive force Vk rapidly drops in the lean side, i.e., in the case of λ > 1 while it rapidly rises in the rich side, i.e., in the case of λ < 1. 1) an electromotive force Vk the sensor element 10 provides; 2 2) decomposition of water (HO) contained in an exhaust gas; and 3) difference between the degrees of decomposition easiness of unburned components contained in an exhaust gas. FIG. 5 is an illustration of a sensor output characteristic (V-I characteristic) indicating the fact that the width of the limiting current region becomes a different value according to a gas atmosphere. It is considered that the width of the limiting current region is determined by the following factors: that is, A detailed description will be given hereinbelow of each of the aforesaid factors. With respect to the V-I characteristic shown in FIG. 5, first, in the case of gradually increasing the applied voltage Vp in the resistance governing region (lower voltage side than the limiting current region), the element current Ip increases while being bound by the direct-current internal resistance Ri. At this time, if the exhaust gas is in a lean condition, since oxygen is not sufficiently decomposed on the diffusive layer side electrode 15 and it is not discharged, a lean condition occurs in the vicinity of the diffusive layer side electrode 15. Moreover, if the exhaust gas is in a rich condition (or stoichiometric air-fuel ratio state), a negative current flows when a negative voltage Vp is applied thereto, and oxygen shifts from the atmosphere side electrode to the diffusive layer side electrode. Therefore, oxygen becomes excessive in the vicinity of the diffusive layer side electrode 15 and, likewise, a lean state appears in the vicinity of the diffusive layer side electrode 15. Accordingly, at any air-fuel ratio in the resistance governing region, the electromotive force Vk of the sensor element 10 becomes approximately 0V. With a further rise of the applied voltage Vp, the gas diffusion is bound by the diffusion resistance layer 12. At this time, even if the exhaust gas is in a lean state, oxygen runs low in the vicinity of the diffusive layer side electrode 15. Therefore, the electromotive force Vk rises, and the applied voltage Vp and the electromotive force Vk increase in a state balanced (Vp - Vk = constant) and a limiting current region is established to make the element current Ip constant. In the case of the stoichiometric state (stoichiometric air-fuel ratio state), Vp and Vk rise under the condition of Vp = Vk and a limiting current region is established to make the element current Ip = 0 mA. Moreover, also in the case of a rich state, both the applied voltage Vp and electromotive force Vk rise while balanced (Vp - Vk = constant) and, hence, a limiting current region is established to make the element current Ip constant. However, since the element current becomes negative in the rich state, the relationship of Vp < Vk takes place in the limiting current region. 2 2 In a case in which the Applied voltage Vp further rises to cross the limiting current region, the components other than oxygen contained in the exhaust gas greatly affect the variation of the element current Ip. Concretely, because the deposition voltage of water (HO) contained in the exhaust gas varies according to the air-fuel ratio and the degrees of decomposition easiness of the unburned components (HC, CO, H, and others) differ from each other, they have influence on the variation of the element current Ip. Therefore, the voltage point at the end of the limiting current region varies according to air-fuel ratio and, consequently, the width of the limiting current region stands at a different value for each air-fuel ratio. First, a description will be given hereinbelow of a case of a stoichiometric state to an extremely lean (atmosphere) state. In a case in which the applied voltage Vp rises to cross the limiting current region, due to the electric energy, water in the exhaust gas starts to undergo the decomposition at the diffusive layer side electrode 15 and the element current Ip increases. In this case, since the quantity of water contained in the exhaust gas is different according to air-fuel ratio, the voltage point (water decomposition voltage), at which the decomposition of water starts, varies. Since water in the exhaust gas gets less in a gas atmosphere equivalent to the atmosphere due to the difference in combustion situation and the like and the water increases in quantity as approaching the stoichiometric state, the water decomposition voltage is relatively high in the atmosphere while it is relatively low in the stoichiometric state. Therefore, the width of the limiting current region becomes larger as the degree of the lean state increases. 3 8 On the other hand, in the case of a rich state, since a catalytic reaction of the unburned components in the exhaust gas advances in the vicinity of the diffusive layer side electrode 15, unlike the oxygen reaction, for example, in the atmospheric environment, the width of the limiting current region becomes a different value due to a difference in reaction easiness for each gas component. That is, the oxygen quantity to be drawn from the atmosphere side electrode 16 into the diffusive layer side electrode 15 runs short with a rise of the applied voltage Vp. At this time, the reaction-easy gases such as CO in the exhaust gas are decomposed in the diffusive layer side electrode 15, but the reaction-hard gases such as CH (propane) of HC are left without being decomposed. Thereafter, with a rise of the applied voltage Vp, the reaction-hard components are gradually decomposed so that the element current Ip increases. If the quantity of the unburned component varies according to the depth of the rich gas, the voltage point (end point of the limiting current region) at which the element current Ip starts to increase varies accordingly and, hence, the width of the limiting current region varies. In this connection, if the applied voltage Vp further rises to cross the restriction of the gas reaction in the limiting current region, the element current Ip approaches 0 mA, and if the voltage further rises, as in the case of the stoichiometric condition, water in the exhaust gas is decomposed by the electric energy in the diffusive layer side electrode 15, thus increasing the element current Ip. Meanwhile, in a case in which the applied voltage Vp is excessively increased to cross the water decomposition region, the solid electrolyte (zirconia) is decomposed by the electric energy, which can cause the damages to the sensor element 10. For this reason, in this excessive voltage region, it is considered that oxygen is discharged into the atmosphere duct 17 to increase the element current Ip. As described above, the limiting current region is established under the influence of the electromotive force of the sensor element 10 or the reaction of water of unburned components and, in consequence, the width of the limiting current region stands at a different value for each air-fuel ratio. Therefore, in this embodiment, from the fact that the width of the limiting current stands at a different value according to air-fuel ratio, the applied voltage characteristic is set in consideration of the width of the limiting current region. This will be described hereinbelow with reference to FIG. 6. The characteristic itself shown in FIG. 6 is similar to the aforesaid characteristic shown in FIG. 5. In the sensor output characteristic shown in FIG. 6, the width of the limiting current region stands at the smallest value at the rich limit (A/F10) forming the lower limit of the air-fuel ratio detection range, while the width of the limiting current region stands at the largest value at the lean limit (atmosphere state) forming the upper limit. Therefore, the applied voltage characteristic (applied voltage line RG) is set on the basis of the widths of the limiting current region at the rich limit and at the lean limit. Concretely, an intermediate point a3 is obtained from the end points a1 and a2 on the low voltage side and the high voltage side in the limiting current region at the rich limit (A/F10) and an intermediate point b3 is obtained from the end points b1 and b2 on the low voltage side and the high voltage side in the limiting current region at the lean limit (atmosphere state), with the intermediate point a3 between the end points a1 and a2 and the intermediate point b3 between the end points b1 and b2 being connected to each other to linearly draw an applied voltage line RG. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the end points (a1, a2 in FIG. 7) of the limiting current region are determined on the condition that they are wining a detection error allowed from the air-fuel ratio requirement accuracy, in other words, that the variation of the element current Ip is below a predetermined quantity, and the applied voltage line RG is set to pass through the intermediate point a3 between a1 and a2. The fact that the variation of the element current Ip is below the predetermined quantity also corresponds to the fact that the components other than a specific component (in this case, oxygen) do not undergo the decomposition or the like. The low-voltage side end point (for example, a1, b1 in FIG. 6) of the limiting current regions is a voltage point at which, when the applied voltage Vp is increased, the output of an electromotive force balanced with respect to the applied voltage Vp starts, and corresponds to a first voltage point. Moreover, the high-voltage side end point (for example, a2, b2 in FIG. 6) is a voltage point at which the decomposition of water contained in an exhaust gas starts or a voltage point at which the element current Ip increases due to the residue of reaction-hard components of the unburned components contained in the exhaust gas, and corresponds to a second voltage point. In the circuit arrangement shown in FIG. 1, the resistance values R1 to R3 are adjusted so that the inclination of the applied voltage line RG is set as mentioned above. Moreover, when the applied voltage Vp is controlled on this applied voltage line RG, the voltage is applied so as not to get out of the limiting current region irrespective of a variation of the air-fuel ratio, thereby enabling an accurate air-fuel ratio detection. In a case in which the applied voltage characteristic is set as mentioned above, the applied voltage line RG takes a lying state as compared with the inclination of the resistance governing region depending upon the direct-current internal resistance Ri and, hence, the feedback gain exceeds 1 in the applied voltage control circuit 30 so that the oscillation of the applied voltage Vp tends to occur. For preventing the oscillation, there is a need to slow the changing speed of the applied voltage Vp. For this reason, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the LPF 38 functioning as a voltage change regulating means is provided in the applied voltage control circuit 30. However, if the time constant of the LPF 38 is too high, the variation of the applied voltage Vp deviates largely from the applied voltage line RG and a voltage outside the limiting current region is temporarily applied to the sensor element 10. In this case, the impairment of the air-fuel ratio or the damage to the sensor element (zirconia) 10 can occur. In particular, if the air-fuel ratio varies rapidly, the variation of the applied voltage Vp excessively delays and, hence, such a situation occurs. Therefore, it is desirable that the time constant of the LPF 38 is determined in consideration of the transitional variation of the air-fuel ratio. With this embodiment described above in detail, the following outstanding effects are obtainable. Since the applied voltage line RG is set on the basis of the width of the limiting current region, even if the air-fuel ratio varies in a wide air-fuel ratio detection range, the applied voltage Vp is not set out of the limiting current region. As a result, the applied voltage control can be implemented with high accuracy and, hence, the improvement of the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy is achievable over a wide range. In particular, since the limiting current region is determined from the first voltage point (for example, a1, b1 in FIG. 6) based on the electromotive force of the sensor element 10 and the second voltage point a2, b2 in FIG. 6) based on the reaction of water or unburned components and the intermediate point therebetween is specified to set the applied voltage line RG, the element current I is detectable in a region excluding the water decomposition region or the decomposition region of the unburned components left without reacting. This enables the applied voltage Vp to be surely controlled in the limiting current region and improves the detection accuracy on the element current Ip. Although the applied voltage line RG enters a lying state as compared with the inclination of the resistance governing region depending on the direct-current internal resistance Ri, since the LPF 38 is provided in the applied voltage control circuit 30 to regulate the variation of the applied voltage Vp, the oscillation of the applied voltage Vp is preventable. In FIG. 6, it is also appropriate that the low-voltage side characteristic forming the connection of the low-voltage side end points (a1, b1 and others in FIG. 6) of the limiting current region and the high-voltage side characteristic forming the connection of the high-voltage side end points (a2, b2 and others in FIG. 6) of the same limiting current region are prescribed so that the applied voltage characteristic is set on the basis of an intermediate inclination between the inclinations of these characteristics. Also in this case, the applied voltage control can be implemented with high accuracy and, in consequence, the improvement of the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy is achievable over a wide range. In this air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus, although the heater control is implemented so that the temperature (element temperature) of the sensor element 10 is maintained at a constant value, the element temperature can vary thoughtlessly due to external factors. For example, it is considered that the temperature of the exhaust gas rises due to the variation of the engine operating condition to increase the element temperature or the fuel cutting is made to decrease the element temperature. The variation of the element temperature causes a variation of the direct-current internal resistance Ri so that a variation of the sensor output characteristic occurs and, in consequence, the limiting current region shifts along the voltage axis directions. A description will be given hereinbelow of a procedure of setting the applied voltage characteristic in consideration of the variation of the element temperature. In short, the applied voltage characteristic is set in a region where limiting current regions overlap in a plurality of sensor output characteristics different in the temperature condition of the sensor element 10, and the applied voltage control is implemented. For example, let it be assumed that the target value of the element temperature is 750 °C and the element temperature rises up to approximately 1000 °C due to the exhaust gas heating or the like and lowers to a minimum of approximately 700 °C. FIG. 8 shows sensor output characteristics when the element temperature = 700 °C, 750 °C and 1000 °C, and in this illustration, with respect to the characteristic line L1 at the element temperature of 750 °C indicated by a solid line, the characteristic line L2 at the element temperature of 700 °C indicated by a dotted line is in a lying state while the characteristic line L3 at the element temperature of 1000 °C indicated by an alternate long and two short dashes line is in a standing state. In this case, for always implementing the applied voltage control with high accuracy within a temperature range to be actually available, the basis from which the applied voltage characteristic (applied voltage line RG) is set becomes an issue. In this embodiment, the applied voltage line RG is set to pass through a region in which the limiting current regions overlap in a plurality of sensor output characteristics (output characteristics at a minimum temperature and output characteristics at a maximum temperature within a temperature range of use) different in element temperature condition from each other. FIG. 9 shows, of the characteristic lines L1 to L3, the most-lying characteristic line L2 at the element temperature of 700 °C and the most-standing characteristic line L3 at the element temperature of 1000 °C. As shown in FIG. 9, the low-voltage side end points a1 and b1 (a1 denotes an end point in the case of A/F10, and b1 denotes an end point in the case of the atmosphere) in the limiting current regions are extracted from the characteristic line L2 at the element temperature of 700 °C, and the high-voltage side end points a2 and b2 (a2 denotes an end point for A/F10, and b2 denotes an end point for the atmosphere) in the limiting current regions are extracted from the characteristic line L3 at the element temperature of 1000 °C. Moreover, as in the case of the above-described first embodiment, the intermediate point a3 is obtained from the end points a1 and a2 in the limiting current regions for A/F10 and the intermediate point b3 is obtained from the end points b1 and b2 in the limiting current regions for the atmosphere, with the applied voltage line RG being drawn so as to make a connection between the intermediate points a3 and b3. The applied voltage line RG is set in this way. As described above, according to the second embodiment, since the applied voltage line RG is set to pass through limiting current regions common among all the element temperatures, the applied voltage control can be implemented so as to be always in the limiting current region irrespective of the variation of the element temperature. Moreover, since the setting of one applied voltage line RG can cope with the element temperature variation, the simplification of the circuit arrangement and others are realizable as compared with a case in which a plurality of applied voltage lines are prepared in conjunction with the element temperatures. In this air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus, since the applied voltage line RG consequently becomes a more lying state than the inclination defined by the direct-current internal resistance Ri, it is considered that the following disadvantage develops. As FIG. 10 shows, in a case in which a voltage is applied at a point A1 on an applied voltage line RG in the atmosphere, if the element current Ip increases due to the disturbance such as noise, the applied voltage Vp rises temporarily. Assuming that the applied voltage Vp rises to cross a point A2, as with the point A1, the point A2 also provides a sensor output characteristic in the atmospheric condition and, hence, the state at the point A2 is fixed so that it does not return to the point A1 in the limiting current region. Accordingly, an excessive current is applied to the sensor element 10 so that there is a possibility that sensor breakdown, mistaken air-fuel ratio detection and the like occur due to damages to the solid electrolyte. FIG. 10 shows a relatively standing state of the sensor characteristic stemming from a rise of the element temperature or the like, and in this state, the aforesaid disadvantage can develop. Also in an extremely rich atmosphere, the applied voltage varies due to noise or the like and the shifting from a point B 1 to a point B2 takes place so that the sensor breakdown can occur. For this reason, the inclination of the applied voltage line RG is increased (stood) in order to avoid the intersection with the sensor output characteristic in a region outside the air-fuel ratio detection range, i.e., on a lean side relative to the atmosphere or a rich side relative to A/F10. For example, the applied voltage line RG is set as shown in FIG. 11. In FIG. 11, the inclination of the applied voltage line RG is changed in the air-fuel ratio detection range (A/F10 to atmosphere) and in a region existing out of this detection range and, outside the air-fuel ratio detection range, the applied voltage line is placed into a more standing state than that in the detection range. FIG. 12 shows a circuit arrangement for setting the applied voltage line RG shown in FIG. 11. In FIG. 12, the difference from the FIG. 1 arrangement is that an over-current monitoring circuit 40 is provided to monitor an excess current through a voltage at a point B (that is, an A/F output) in the illustration and a switch 45 and a resistor 46 are connected in parallel with a feedback resistor 33 constituting an inverting amplifier of an applied voltage control circuit 30. In detail, the over-current monitoring circuit 40 is composed of two comparators 41, 42 and a logical circuit (NAND circuit) 43, and a reference voltage Ref1 + Ref3 is inputted to the + terminal of the comparator 41 and the voltage at the point B is inputted to the - terminal thereof. Moreover, a reference voltage Ref1 - Ref4 is inputted to the - terminal of the comparator 42 and the voltage at the point B is inputted to the + terminal thereof. The logical circuit 43 issues an H (high) output when the output of any one of the comparators 41 and 42 is in an L (low) state. The inclination of the applied voltage line RG is switched in a manner such that the switch 45 is turned on/off according to the output of the logical circuit 43 (output of the over-current monitoring circuit 40). In this case, when the voltage at the point B is in a range of Ref1 - Ref4 to Ref1 + Ref3, both the outputs of the comparators 41 and 42 become H and, in consequence, the output of the logical circuit 43 becomes L. Therefore, the switch 45 falls into the off state and the value of the feedback resistance becomes the resistance value R3 of the resistor 33. That is, this is a state in the air-fuel ratio detection range (A/F10 to atmosphere). On the other hand, when the voltage at the point B becomes higher than Ref1 + Ref3 in a lean atmosphere, the output of the comparator 41 becomes L and the output of the logical circuit 43 becomes H. Therefore, the switch 45 is turned on and the value of the feedback resistor becomes a value of a combined resistance of the resistors 33 and 46. Moreover, when the voltage at the point B drops below Ref1 - Ref4 in a rich atmosphere, the output of the comparator 42 becomes L and the output of the logical circuit 43 becomes H. Therefore, the switch 45 is turned on and the value of the feedback resistor becomes a value of a combined resistance of the resistors 33 and 34. From the above, in a case in which the region becomes out of the air-fuel ratio detection range and an excess current flows in the sensor element 10, the applied voltage line RG is set in a standing state to prevent the sensor characteristic line and the applied voltage line from intersecting with each other. That is, the applied voltage characteristic is changed at the detection of an excess current to suppress an excess voltage application stemming from noise. Moreover, an excess current is detected also at other than the noise occurrence, for example, in the case of the occurrence of temporary short-circuit (+ B short) and grounded short-circuit (GND short) in the sensor circuit, and the applied voltage characteristic is changed accordingly to suppress the excess voltage application stemming from noise. Therefore, the mistaken air-fuel ratio detection or the damage to the solid electrolyte (zirconia) are preventable. In addition, in a case in which a contact failure develops temporarily in a connector and the like connected to the sensor element 10, when the sensor element 10 becomes an open state (0V) and then returns to a closed state, the applied voltage varies rapidly and the element current also varies. At this time, because of the rapid voltage variation, an element current corresponding to the alternating-current characteristic of the sensor element 10 flows. Since this element current corresponding to the sensor alternating-current characteristic becomes larger than the limiting current corresponding to the air-fuel ratio at that time, if the applied voltage control is implemented on the basis of this element current, there is a possibility that an excess voltage application occurs. Also in this situation, the excess current is detected as mentioned above and, hence, the excess voltage application is suppressible. This also applies to the power-on for the re-start of the engine, and in a case in which the engine of a vehicle is re-started immediately after the operation is stopped, the power supply is made in a state where the element temperature is high and the rapid voltage variation occurs so that a similar situation appears. In this case, the excess current is detected as mentioned above, thus suppressing the excess voltage application. In this connection, since the LPF 38 is provided in the applied voltage control circuit 30, also when the over-current monitoring circuit 40 is released from operation (that is, the switch 45 is changed over), the rapid applied voltage variation is suppressible. In FIG. 13, the applied voltage is fixed in a region outside the air-fuel ratio detection range (A/F10 to atmosphere). In this case, even if an excess current flows in the sensor element 10, the voltage is merely applied in the resistance governing region, and the voltage is applied in the safe side region. FIG. 14 shows a circuit arrangement for setting the applied voltage line RG shown in FIG. 13. In FIG. 14, an over-current monitoring circuit 40 is for monitoring an excess current through the use of a voltage (that is, A/F output) at the point B in the illustration as mentioned above with reference to FIG. 12, and a switch 51 is turned on/off in accordance with the output of the over-current monitoring circuit 40. Thus, in a case in which an excess current flows outside the air-fuel ratio detection range (A/F10 to atmosphere), the applied voltage is fixed at 2 × (Ref1 - Ref2) (in the case of R9 = R10, the applied voltage is calculated according to the aforesaid equation). In the case of the detection of an excess current, this corresponds to that the applied voltage characteristic is changed to a voltage limiting applied voltage characteristic for suppressing an excess voltage application to the sensor element 10. As mentioned above, although the applied voltage characteristic is changed through the switching operation of the switch 51 at the detection of an excess current, if the applied voltage characteristic is thoughtlessly changed when the element current varies instantaneously due to noise, temporary short-circuit, grounding or the like, because of the rapid change from the limiting current region to the resistance governing region or the like, the applied voltage rapidly varies so that there is a possibility that the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy lowers. For this reason, the timing of the change of the applied voltage characteristic is delayed at the detection of an excess current. Concretely, for example, as shown in FIG. 15, an LPF 60 is provided in an signal outputting portion of the over-current monitoring circuit 40. Owing to this, the applied voltage characteristic is not changed by an instantaneous (extremely short time) element current variation, and as a result, the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy is maintainable. When a timer (delay circuit) is used in place of the LPF 60, it is also possible to inhibit the switch 51 from turning on for a given time. The inhibition of the turning-on of the switch 51 for a given time suppresses the rapid applied voltage variation against instantaneous noise. In this connection, the applied voltage line RG shown in FIG. 13 is also realizable by setting the resistance value R6 of the resistor 46 at 0Ω in the circuit shown in FIG. 12. In addition to setting the applied voltage characteristic as shown in FIGs. 11 and 13, it is also possible to employ an arrangement whereby the inclination of the applied voltage line RG is directly increased from an end point of the applied voltage line RG in the exterior of the air-fuel ration detection range or it is made to stand upright. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the embodiments of the invention herein which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, since the characteristic of the sensor element 10 varies with time, it is appropriate that the applied voltage characteristic is defined in advance in consideration of this variation with time. That is, according to the deterioration of the sensor element 10, the direct-current internal resistance Ri increases while the inclination of the resistance governing region becomes smaller. Moreover, the frequency characteristic of the sensor element 10 varies (the frequency characteristic varies, for example, due to the fact that the capacitor portion decreases in the interior of the sensor). In this case, the initial output characteristic of the sensor element 10 and an estimated output characteristic after the variation with time are used and the applied voltage line RG is set to pass through a region in which the limiting current regions thereof overlap. the estimated output characteristic after the variation with time is estimated in consideration of a variation of the direct-current internal resistance Ri or frequency characteristic at the deterioration tolerance limits permitting the use of the element current output. In this arrangement, proper applied voltage control is feasible even after the variation with time, and the air-fuel ration detection accuracy is maintainable over a long period of time. Naturally, since there is a difference among the sensors themselves, it is preferable to consider this fact. In setting the applied voltage line in consideration of the initial characteristic and the deterioration characteristic, an important thing is that a suppressing means is appropriately set to prevent the oscillation of the applied voltage. Moreover, because the sensor frequency characteristic also varies, there is a need to consider this fact sufficiently. It is also considered that a region in which limiting current region widths are approximately equal to each other and a region in which limiting current regions are different from each other exist in the air-fuel ratio detection range. For example, it is considered that, in a region from rich to vicinity of a stoichiometoric air-fuel ratio, the widths of the limiting current regions are approximately equal to each other and in a region from the vicinity of the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio to extreme lean (atmosphere), the limiting current region width increases gradually. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 16, the inclination (applied voltage characteristic) of the applied voltage line RG changes partially according to air-fuel ratio region. In FIG. 16, with respect to A/F18, in the rich side, the applied voltage line RG is set in parallel with the inclination (inclination of the resistance governing region) according to the direct-current internal resistance Ri of the sensor element 10 and, in a lean side, it is set in a lying state. In addition, it is also possible that the air-fuel ratio detection range is divided into a plurality of portions and the inclination of the applied voltage line RG is individually set in each of the divided detection range portions. In this case, the upper limit or one point in the vicinity of the upper limit on the limiting current region is specified for each detection range portion, and the lower limit or one point in the vicinity of the lower limit on the limiting current region is specified for each detection range portion, with the applied voltage line RG being set to pass through the specified points. The method of setting the applied voltage line RG in each detection range portion is, for example, as described above with reference to FIG. 6. In a case in which the entire air-fuel ratio detection range from A/F10 to the atmosphere is divided into three regions, it is divided into three regions of A/F10 to stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, stoichiometric air-fuel ratio to A/F18 and A/F18 to atmosphere, and the applied voltage line only for each of the respective regions are set and they are connected to establish one applied voltage line RG. Alternatively, it is divided into three regions of A/F10 to A/F12, A/F12 to A/F18 and A/F18 to atmosphere, and the applied voltage line only for each of the respective regions are set and they are connected to establish one applied voltage line RG. Since the region (A/F12 to A/F18) in the vicinity of the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio is divided to set the ranges, in particular, the stoichiometric combustion is securable. Naturally, the division method can arbitrarily be determined. According to this method, the applied voltage control accuracy is further improvable. (1) The applied voltage to the sensor element is controlled between a voltage point at which an electromotive force output striking a balance with an applied voltage in the case of increasing the applied voltage starts and a voltage point at which the decomposition of water contained in a detection gas starts. In this case, of a voltage range in which the element current becomes approximately constant with respect to the applied voltage in the sensor output characteristic, a voltage range except a voltage range in which the water contained in a detection gas is decomposed may be set as a limiting current region. In this arrangement, the element current is detectable in a region which does not include a water decomposition region, thereby improving the detection accuracy. (2) The applied voltage is controlled in a region in which limiting current regions overlap in a plurality of sensor output characteristics different in temperature condition of the sensor element 10 from each other. In this case, a minimum-temperature output characteristic and a maximum-temperature output characteristic within a temperature range actually available in the using environment of the sensor element 10 are employed, and the applied voltage is controlled in a region in which the limiting current regions thereof overlap. According to this arrangement, the applied voltage is always controllable without getting out of the limiting current region irrespective of the variation of the element temperature. In the above-described embodiment, although the applied voltage control circuit 30 is made to feedback-control the applied voltage, it is also appropriate that an applied voltage command value is outputted from a microcomputer or the like so that the applied voltage control is implemented in accordance with the command value. Also in this case, the applied voltage value may be determined in each case in consideration of the width of the limiting current region. For example, a microcomputer implements the following applied voltage control (1) and (2). In addition, when the applied voltage line RG to be set on the V-I coordinates is one in number, an advantage is obtainable in cost. However, the present invention is not limited to this, but it is also possible to set a plurality of applied voltage lines. A configuration other than the LPF 38 is also usable as the voltage change regulating means. In short, it is appropriate that the gain of the applied voltage control circuit 30 is set to be below 1. In the above description, although the embodiments employ the A/F sensor having the sensor element construction shown in FIG. 2, it is also possible to employ an A/F sensor having another sensor element construction. For example, without being limited to the construction having a one-layer solid electrolyte member, the present invention is also applicable to an A/F sensor having two-layer or three-layer solid electrolyte construction, and without being limited to the A/F sensor having a multilayer construction, the present invention is also applicable to an A/F sensor having a cup-like construction. For example, as a two-cell type A/F sensor, there has been known a sensor having an oxygen pump cell and an oxygen sensing cell. In this A/F sensor, an exhaust gas is introduced through a gas passage into a measured gas chamber and the oxygen pump cell outputs a current corresponding to an oxygen concentration in the measured gas chamber, thus detecting the oxygen concentration of the exhaust gas. Moreover, the oxygen sensing cell generates an electromotive force corresponding to the oxygen concentration of the exhaust gas introduced into the measured gas chamber, and the applied voltage to the oxygen pump cell is controlled so that the electromotive force becomes constant. In the A/F sensor having the aforesaid construction, in general, the pump cell current is controlled so as to maintain the electromotive force of the oxygen sensing cell at 0.45V. However, since the widths of the limiting current regions (flat regions) stand at different values according to A/F as mentioned above, the electromotive force of the oxygen sensing cell may be changed according to A/F region. Concretely, the electromotive force of the oxygen sensing cell serving as a control voltage is changed within a range of approximately 0.45V ± 0.1V. This achieves the improvement of the air-fuel ratio detection accuracy. Moreover, the present invention is also applicable to other than the A/F sensors for detecting the oxygen concentration, i.e., a gas concentration sensor for detecting other gas concentrations. For example, a compound gas concentration sensor includes a plurality of cells made from a solid electrolyte, and of these cells, a first cell (pump cell) discharges or pumps out oxygen in a detection gas and detects the oxygen concentration and a second cell (sensor cell) detects a gas concentration of a specific component in the gas after the oxygen discharge. This gas concentration sensor is actually used, for example, as an NOx sensor for detecting an NOx concentration in an exhaust gas, and when the present invention is applied thereto, the NOx concentration detection accuracy is improvable. Moreover, the present invention is also applicable to a gas concentration sensor having a plurality of cells including, in addition to the aforesaid first and second cells, a third cell (monitor cell, or second pump cell) for detecting a residual oxygen concentration after the oxygen discharge. In this case, the applied voltage characteristic of the pump cell may be set as mentioned above to implement the applied voltage control through the use of this applied voltage characteristic. In addition to the NOx concentration detectable gas concentration sensor, the present invention is also applicable to a gas concentration sensor which can detect an HC concentration or a CO concentration as a gas concentration of a specific component. In this case, the excess oxygen of a detection gas is discharged by a pump cell and HC or CO in the gas after the excess oxygen discharge is decomposed by a sensor cell to detect an HC concentration or a CO concentration. Moreover, when the present invention is used for a gas concentration detecting apparatus other than for vehicles, a gas other than the exhaust gas becomes a detection gas. The present invention relates to a gas concentration detecting apparatus capable of implementing applied voltage to a gas sensor element with high accuracy to improve the gas concentration detection accuracy over a wide range. The sensor element of the gas concentration detecting apparatus acting as an air-fuel ratio sensor is composed of a gas diffusion rate-determining portion, a solid electrolyte and a pair of electrodes, and an element current corresponding to a specific component concentration flows whenever a voltage is applied to the sensor element. An applied voltage control circuit controls the applied voltage to the sensor element on the basis of an applied voltage characteristic defined linearly. The applied voltage characteristic is set on the basis of a width of a limiting current region at each air-fuel ratio in a wide air-fuel ratio detection range.
Tweek Vs Tweak: What’s the Difference? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t understand the difference between tweak and tweek. In this article, we’ll explain the key differences and why you need to know them if you’re trying to improve your PC performance. What is Tweeking? Tweaking is a term used to describe the practice of modifying a computer system, typically by adjusting settings in the operating system or applications. Tweaking can range from simply changing a setting to completely overhauling an operating system or application. Tweeking is a more specific term that refers to the modification of individual files within a computer system. This type of tweaking is often done in order to improve performance or customize the look and feel of a system. There is some confusion over the terminology used when it comes to computer systems and software. Many people use the terms tweak and tweaky interchangeably, but there is a distinction to be made between the two terms. Tweak refers to any change that you make to your computer system, while tweaky refers only to changes made to files within the system. So what’s the difference between tweaking and tweeking? The main distinction is that tweaking changes all of the settings in your computer, while tweeking specifically refers to changes made to files within your computer. What is Tweaking? Tweaking is a term used to describe the act of modifying a computer or video game to improve its performance. Tweaking can involve anything from changing the settings in your operating system to tweaking specific game settings. Tweaking typically refers to small adjustments that can have a big impact on how your computer or video game performs. There is no one right way to tweak your computer or video game, and the goal is usually to find what works best for you. When to Tweak or Tweek? There are a few key differences between the two terms “tweak” and “tweek.” The most important distinction is that tweak generally refers to small changes, while tweak typically means making more significant changes. So, what’s the difference? Tweak: Small changes or adjustments that don’t require a full re-write of your code or application. For example, improving alignment of text in a textarea, fixing an error in an event handler, or adjusting spacing between elements on a page. Tweaks can be made in any part of your application or codebase. Tweek: Making more significant changes, such as completely reworking an existing component, restructuring your codebase, or changing the architecture of your app. A tweak might require a little work to get set up (e.g., setting up new dependencies), but a tweek will usually result in more substantial changes that will require additional time and effort to maintain and evolve. Tweeking is a Term Used for Hacking Your Body Tweaking is a Term Used for Fixing or Improving Your Vehicle Tweeking is a term used for hacking your body. Tweaking is a term used for fixing or improving your vehicle. Tweaking can be done on anything from your car’s suspension to its engine. It’s all about making small adjustments that can have big impacts. There are countless ways to tweak your vehicle and even more ways to tweak your body. With so many options available, there’s sure to be something that will fit your needs. So whether you’re looking to fine-tune the performance of your car or just make minor tweaks to improve your physique, tweaking is definitely the way to go! Tweaking is a Term Used for Adjusting Your Training When you’re working out, it’s important to adjust your training so that you achieve your fitness goals. You might tweak your routine by adding or subtracting exercises, altering the intensity of your workout, or changing the duration of your session. But what’s the difference between tweaking and tweeking? Tweaking is a term used for adjusting your training. It means making small changes that don’t drastically alter your routine. Tweaking can help you improve your workout while keeping it consistent. For example, if you’re doing a leg exercise and you find that you’re struggling to complete the repetitions, you could try adding extra reps or trying a different variation of the exercise. Tweaking won’t change the overall goal of the workout—you will still be working out to Tone Your Legs—but it could help you reach that goal more efficiently. Tweaking is sometimes referred to as “fine-tuning.” Training expert and author Brett Jones says that “the key to effective tweaking is specificity: Tweaks should only be made for exercises that are directly responsible for producing results in the gym.” This means that if an exercise isn’t resulting in muscle growth or weight loss, don’t try to tweak it; there The Differences Between Tweeking and Tweaking Tweeking and tweaking are two different terms that are used to describe the same activity: modifying or adjusting a computer system. Tweeking is often seen as a more casual term, while tweaking is more technically accurate. The main difference between the two is that tweeking typically involves more invasive changes, such as removing or changing drivers or BIOS settings. Tweeking is commonly used when something needs just a little adjustment, while tweaking is reserved for more serious problems. Despite the name differences, the goal of both techniques is to make the system work better. Tweaking can sometimes fix minor problems that tweeking can’t, but it’s generally recommended to start with tweeking if you just want to make quick adjustments. If you’re dealing with a serious issue, however, then you should definitely tweak your computer instead of trying to fix everything at once with tweeking. Which Method is Better for You? Tweeking or tweaking may seem like the same thing, but there is a big difference between the two methods. Tweaking is just a quick fix to an issue while tweeking is a long-term solution. Here’s how to tell the difference: Tweaking is a one-time event that addresses an immediate need. For example, you might tweak your computer’s settings to make it faster. Tweeking, on the other hand, is a continuous process that lasts until the issue is solved. You might tweak your computer’s settings every day to make sure it runs smoothly. If you only need to tweak your computer’s settings once, then Tweaking is the better approach. But if you want to keep your computer running smoothly and avoid issues in the future, then tacking on some tweaks every day is the way to go. The Difference between Tweaking and Tweeking Tweaking is like a light dusting of the surface of your computer. It’s a way to improve performance without completely overhauling your system. Tweeking, on the other hand, is a more involved process that can completely revamp your computer’s performance. Here’s a breakdown of the difference: Tweaking: This is a way to improve performance without completely overhauling your system. It involves making small adjustments to your computer’s settings. Tweeking: This is a more involved process that can completely revamp your computer’s performance. It involves making large changes to your system’s settings and possibly even replacing components. When to Tweak Your Computer There is a lot of debate over the difference between “tweaking” and “tuning.” In short, tweaking is altering system settings that don’t require a complete reinstallation of your OS. This is typically done for people who aren’t confident in their ability to properly restore a machine from a backup or who are just curious about what tweaks can be made. Tuning, on the other hand, is taking your computer from its default settings and customizing them to your specific needs. In general, most people would say that tweaking is generally safer than tuning – if you mess something up while tinkering, you can usually fix it without completely tearing your system down. However, there are times when tuning is necessary – for example, if you experience frequent BSODs or if your computer just doesn’t feel as fast or responsive as it used to. The important thing to remember is that there’s no one right way to tweak or tune your computer – what works for one person might not work for another. So try out different tweaks and see what makes your computer run smoother. When to Tweak Your Phone There are two main types of phone users: tweakers and tweakers. Tweakers are people who love to tinker with their phones, adjusting settings and changing things up to see what makes them work better. On the other hand, tweakers are the ones who can’t stand not having their phone working exactly the way they want it to. It’s no wonder there is a lot of confusion about these terms – they sound a little bit like opposites. But in reality, they’re two sides of the same coin. Tweaking your phone is a great way to make it work the way you want it to. You can find all sorts of tips and tricks online, but some of the most common tweaks include adjusting the brightness, changing the wallpaper, and installing new apps. There’s nothing wrong with tweaking your phone if you like to play around with settings, but be aware that this can also cause your phone to malfunction or even get damaged. If you’re not sure whether or not a tweak is safe for your phone, consult your manufacturer’s support site or ask a friend for advice. If you’re just looking for a few basic tips to help your phone work Conclusion When it comes to personal style, not everyone is on the same page. In fact, sometimes different people prefer to go about their lives in different ways. This can lead to confusion and conflict, as two people might see things differently and have a difficult time communicating with each other. If this sounds like something you struggle with on a regular basis, then you might be interested in learning more about tweak vs tweeking. Tweak basically refers to tweaking or changing small elements of your look — whether that means fixing an outfit so it looks better or adding a new accessory for an updated look. Tweakery can be done quickly and easily at home without any special equipment, and it’s perfect for when you want to make minor adjustments to your look but don’t have time for a full overhaul.	https://differencess.com/tweek-vs-tweak-whats-the-difference/
Consider the unit triangular lattice in the plane with origin $O$, drawn so that one of the sets of lattice lines is vertical. Let $l$ and $l'$ denote respectively the vertical and horizontal lines that intersect $O$. Suppose the plane contains a pair of triangular holes of side length two, distributed symmetrically with respect to $l$ and $l'$ and oriented so that both holes point toward the origin. In the following article rhombus tilings of three different regions of the plane are considered, namely: tilings of the entire plane; tilings of the half plane that lies to the left of $l$ (where $l$ is considered a free boundary, so unit rhombi are allowed to protrude halfway across it); and tilings of the half plane that lies just below the fixed boundary $l'$. Asymptotic expressions for the interactions of the triangular holes in these three different regions are obtained thus providing further evidence for Ciucu's ongoing program that seeks to draw parallels between gaps in dimer systems on the hexagonal lattice and certain electrostatic phenomena.	http://www.combinatorics.org/ojs/index.php/eljc/article/view/v24i2p17
--- abstract: \| In this paper, we propose a new method for Salt-and-Pepper noise removal from images. Whereas most of the existing methods are based on Ordered Statistics filters, our method is based on the growing theory of Sparse Signal Processing. In other words, we convert the problem of denoising into a sparse signal reconstruction problem which can be dealt with the corresponding techniques. As a result, the output image of our method is preserved from the undesirable opacity which is a disadvantage of most of the other methods. We also introduce an efficient reconstruction algorithm which will be used in our method. Simulation results indicate that our method outperforms the other best-known methods both in term of PSNR and visual criterion. Furthormore, our method can be easily used for reconstruction of missing samples in erasure channels.\ Index TermsSparse Signal Reconstruction, Compressed Sensing, Iterative Method with Adaptive Thresholding, Salt-and-Pepper Noise Removal, Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet. author: - 'Abbas Kazerooni, Azarang Golmohammadi, Farokh Marvasti' bibliography: - 'CS\_REMOVAL\_S.bib' title: 'Salt-and-Pepper Noise Removal Based on Sparse Signal Processing' --- Introduction {#sec:intro} ============= During the last years, sparse signal processing has recieved a growing attention. In fact, many natural phenomena result in signals which are sparse in some domain, i.e., most of their components are zero. Generally, let $x$ be an $n\times 1$ sparse signal i.e., it has only $k$ non-zero elements where $k\ll n$. As an extension to Niquist/Shanon sampling theorem, one can think of unique reconstruction of $x$ from only 2$k$ equations. In other words, $x$ can be uniquely determined by the knowledge of location and amplitude of its nonzero elements (which are totally 2$k$ unknowns). As an example, let $x$ be a $k$-sparse signal in time domain and $\Phi$ be an $m\times n$ matrix ($k\textless m\textless n$) which may be achieved by selecting m rows of a DFT matrix. Considering $y$ as $$\begin{aligned} \label{Eq:Alphabet1} y=\Phi\mathbf x\end{aligned}$$ it contains m samples of signal $x$ in the frequency domain. Sparse signal processing is concerned with the conditions and methods of determining $x$ out of $\Phi$ and $y$. Generally, $\Phi$ can be any arbitrary transformation submatrix and sparsity of $x$ can be in other domains such as frequency, space and etc. In a close relationship with the Compressed Sensing (CS) theory [@A; @B; @C], signal $x$ is the answer of the following non-convex optimization: $$\begin{aligned} \label{Eq:Alphabet3} min\|\|x\|\|_0~~~~~s.t.~~~~~\Phi\mathbf x = y. \end{aligned}$$ Since the above problem is difficult to handle, the $ \ell_0 $ norm is usually replaced by $ \ell_1 $ norm which under some conditions yields the same result. There are several approaches to solve the $ \ell_1 $-minimization problem such as Spectral Projected Gradient for L1 minimization (SPGL1) [@D], Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) [@E]. Due to the high complexity of these methods, they are not practically used and most attentions are focused on designing fast and stable reconstruction algorithms. These algorithms - known as Greedy algorithms - provide the best estimation of $x$ by processing on $\Phi$ and $y$ in (\[Eq:Alphabet1\]). The best-known greedy algorithms in the literature are Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) [@F], Compressive Sampling Matching Pursuit (CoSaMP) [@G], and Iterative Hard Thresholding (IHT) [@H]. Consequently, by using sparse signal processing techniques, a sparse signal can be reconstructed from a number of its samples in another domain. This fact is the basic idea of using sparse processing in different applications. Unfortunately, most of the mentioned reconstruction algorithms are designed for 1-D signals. However, reconstruction of sparse signals can be addressed for 2-D signals as well, but here the problem cannot be expressed as in (\[Eq:Alphabet1\]). In this paper, we use sparse processing techniques to remove Salt-and-Pepper noise from images, thus we will face the problem of reconstruction of a 2-D signal using its samples in another basis. Since the existing algorithms are not always suitable for 2-D problems, we have employed a novel algorithm capable of reconstruction of 2-D signals. Images often get corrupted by impulsive noise during the acquisition or transmission. Salt-and-Pepper noise is a usual kind of impulsive noise which changes the value of a percentage of pixels into maximum or minimum allowed value. Removal of Salt-and-Pepper noise is an important pre-processing step because it can influence the subsequent phases in image processing such as segmentation, edge detection and recognition. Several methods have been proposed to remove Salt-and-Pepper noise. Of all the filters reported in image restoration domain, the Ordered Statistics (OS) filters such as median filter and its variants are the most prominent due to their computetional efficiency and simplicity. Amoung these methods are Adaptive Median Filter (AMF) [@I] which with adaptive window size tries to grasp more detail information for removing the noisy pixels. In [@J], Progressive Switching Median Filter (PSMF) is proposed for highly corrupted environments. A Detail-Preserving Median Filter (DPMF) is proposed in [@K] which removes Salt-and-Pepper noise while keeping the fine details of the image. Some of the other best existing methods are Decision-Based Algorithm (DBA) [@L] which replaces the corrupted pixels by the median of the neighbouring pixel value, Edge-Preserving Algorithm (EPA) [@M] which adopts a directional correlation-dependent filtering technique, Switching-based Adaptive Weighted Mean filter (SAWM) [@N] which replaces each noisy pixel with the weighted mean of its noise-free neighbours, and Adaptive Iterative Mean filter (AIM) [@O] which is adaptive in term of the number of iteration for each noisy pixel. In [@T], Recursive Detection-Estimation (RDE) method is introduced which iteratively remove the noise. In this paper, we will propose a new method based on sparse processing and compare it with the above techniques. This paper is organized as follows: In Section \[sec:P\_R\_A\], we introduce the reconstruction algorithm used in our method. In Section \[sec:P\_D\], we will address the problem of Salt-and-Pepper noise removal and provide basics of our method. Section \[sec:P\_D\_M\] contains in details the discription of our method, and simulation results are discussed in Section \[sec:SIM\_RES\]. Finally, we conclude the paper in Section \[sec:SIM\_con\] with future work. Proposed Reconstruction Algorithm {#sec:P_R_A} ================================= As mentioned in Section \[sec:intro\], most of the existing reconstruction algorithms are designed to estimate 1-D sparse signals from their samples in another domain. However, for 2-D signals, these algorithms are incapable of performing this task efficiently. In fact, they need to convert 2-D problems into 1-D problems which makes it computationally complex. In the following, we introduce a newly designed reconstruction algorithm which can be directly used for problems in higher dimensions. ![Block Diagram representation of IMAT.[]{data-label="fig:IMAT_diagram"}](IMAT.eps){width="8.8cm"} The reconstruction algorithm used in our method is called Iterative Method with Adaptive Thresholding (IMAT) [@P; @S] which is depicted in Fig. \[fig:IMAT\_diagram\]. In this figure, the DT and IDT blocks represent a Discrete Transform and Inverse of that transform, respectively. Let $x$ be a sparse signal in an arbitrary domain ($B1$) which we have some of its samples in another domain ($B2$). To reconstruct $x$ using the IMAT, the DT block here is the operator which transforms signals from B1 to B2. To initialize in the IMAT method, the signal is estimated as an all-zero signal. Next, the estimated signal is converted into the information domain (B2), which replaces the specified samples. Then, after transforming the signal into the sparsity domain ($B1$), it is necessary to make the signal sparse. This task is performed by a thresholding block which converts all the components below a specific threshold to zero. The algorithm goes on iteratively. As the algorithm proceedes, the estimated signal is more similar to the original one; Thus, it is necessary to reduce the threshold as the iteration number increases. In IMAT, the threshold decays exponentionally as in Fig. \[fig:IMAT\_diagram\]. The steps of the IMAT method are also listed in Table \[tab:IMAT\_results\]. The important virtue of this method among the MP methods is application to 2-D signals. We will utilize this algorithm in our denoising method. [\|p[8.5cm]{}\|]{}\ 1) Use an all-zero vector as the initial value for the sparse domain signal. ( iteration 0)\ \ 2) Convert the current estimate of the signal in the sparse domain into the information domain using the known Discrete Transform.\ \ 3) Replace the inexact values of the estimated signal with the exact, but still noisy, samples in the information domain.\ \ 4) Use IDT to return to the sparse domain.\ \ 5) Hard-threshold the signal with an adaptive exponential threshold as mentioned in Fig. 1.\ \ 6) Continue steps 2-5 until the stop criterion. (e.g. maximum iteration number or minimum error between estimations) has been met.\ \ \[tab:IMAT\_results\] Problem Definition {#sec:P_D} ================== In this section, we will introduce a model of Salt-and-Pepper noise and provide the details of our denoising method. As mentioned previously, most of the existing denoising methods in the literature are based on Ordered Statistics filters in which undesired opacity is inevitable. Our proposed method is based on sparse processing techniques which results in an vivid image. Let $Y$ be an $n\times n$ matrix representing the noise-free image. The image corrupted by Salt-and-Pepper noise can be modelled as: $$\begin{aligned} \label{Eq:Alphabet4} Z = Y + N \end{aligned}$$ where $Z$ indicates the noisy image and $N$ is the noise matrix which changes the value of a percentage of the image pixels into maximum or minimum allowed value. The problem here is to find $Y$ from $Z$. As a fact, image signals can be represented as sparse 2-D signals for some well-known transforms such as $Discrete$ $Cosine$ $Transform$ (DCT) and various kinds of $wavelets$. In other words, when DCT or wavelet transform is applied on an image, a sparse matrix is resulted, i.e., a matrix that most of its entries are nearly zero. Therefore, one can think of a sparse representation of $Y$ (the noise-free image) in some domain. In this paper, we will consider a newly designed wavelet transform called as $Dual$-$Tree$ $Complex$ ($DTC$) wavelet [@Q; @R] which has been widely used in image and video processing applications recently. The main virtue of this type of wavelet is that image signals have a more sparse representation in this domain in comparison to that of Daubechies wavelet or DCT. To be more clear, there exist a sparse matrix like $X$ such that: $$\begin{aligned} \label{Eq:Alphabet5} X = wavelet (Y).\end{aligned}$$ Obviously, if we can obtain $X$, the original image can be achieved by applying the inverse wavelet transform on $X$. The method is explained in details in the following section. Proposed Denoising Method {#sec:P_D_M} ========================= As mentioned in the previous section, the problem of image denoising is equivalent to a sparse signal signal reconstruction problem. In other words, our approach is to estimate a 2-D sparse signal ($X$) using sparse signal processing. To obtain the noise-free image ($Y$) out of the noisy image ($Z$), our approach is to determine the DTC wavelet transform of the image (i.e., $X$). As metioned previously, $X$ is a 2-D sparse signal (in the wavelet domain). Consequently, by using sparse signal processing techniques, $X$ can be reconstructed from a number of its samples in another domain. As a fact, the pixels of $Y$ are all the samples of $X$ in the space domain. On the other hand, the noise-free pixels of the noisy image (i.e., $Z$) can be identified using noise detection algorithms. According to (\[Eq:Alphabet4\]), the noise-free entries of $Z$ are amoung the entries of $Y$ (because $N$ is zero in these positions). Consequently, finding the noise-free pixels of $Z$, we have obtained a number of $Y$ pixels which are in fact the samples of $X$ in the space domain. Thus, $X$ can be determined via sparse signal reconstruction techniques using these samples. To find the noise-free pixels of $Z$ in our method, we simply find those pixels with the value unequal to the maximum or minimum allowed value. Of course, some of the noise-free pixels may be regarded as noisy pixels in this procedure, but it does not affect the performance of our method significantly. We use the IMAT method to reconstruct $X$ out of its samples and finally the noise-free image is obtained by applying the inverse wavelet transform on $X$. Simulation Results {#sec:SIM_RES} ================== [\| m[1.5cm]{} \|\| m[1.5cm]{} \|\| m[1.5cm]{} \|\| m[1.5cm]{} \|\| m[1.5cm]{} \|\| m[1.5cm]{} \|\|m[1.5cm]{}\|\|m[1.5cm]{}\|\|m[1.5cm]{}\|]{} &&&&&&&&\ Noise Ratio &EPA &DBA &SAWM &AIM &AMF &PSMF &DPMF & our Method\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 10 % &42.5537 &41.0363 &43.2251 &43.3576 &38.1756 &35.7154 &35.7671 & 44.5412\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 20 % &38.8488 &37.0136 &39.7376 &39.6616 &35.9044 &31.5767 &36.2589 & 41.2143\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 30 % &36.6843 &34.0029 &37.3747 &37.3064 &33.8722 &27.9894 &35.7035 & 39.2923\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 40 % &34.3982 &31.4783 &35.4690 &35.5484 &31.9158 &24.6979 &34.2164 & 37.5230\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 50 % &33.1593 &29.4906 &33.8417 &34.0615 &30.3444 &21.5247 &32.9932 & 35.7547\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 60 % &31.4457 &27.3464 &32.3867 &32.8013 &28.5645 &23.2599 &31.4285 & 34.2997\ &&&&&&&&\ &&&&&&&&\ 70 % &29.7428& 25.1534 &30.6842 &31.4891 &26.7704 &18.9913 &29.7656 & 32.4291\ &&&&&&&&\ \[tab:LENA\_tab\] In this section, we implement our proposed method for Salt-and-Pepper noise removal and compare it against the other well-known algorithms in the literature. Generally, there are two scenarios under which an image can be corrupted by Salt-and-Pepper noise. In the first one, an existing image may be corrupted by Salt-and-Pepper noise due to physical phenomena over time. In such a scenario, the image which is corrupted by the noise is the original image without any pre-adaptation. This scenario is widely considered in the literature. However, we consider a second scenario as well. As mentioned in section \[sec:P\_D\], images are not really sparse in the DCT or wavelet transforms. In fact, most of their coefficients are very close to zero but not exactly zero. In comunication systems, these nearly zero coefficients are set to zero in the transmitter, and then sparsed version of the original image is transmitted. As a result, the noisy version of the sparsed image (not the original one) is recieved. Hence, in the second scenario, the problem is denoising of a sparsed image. For the first scenario, The simulations are performed for different standard images and for different noise densities. In Fig. \[fig:IMAGE\_RES2\], the performance of our method is tested for Lena (80% Salt-and-Pepper noise) and Baboon (70% Salt-and-Pepper noise). In Table \[tab:LENA\_tab\], we have compared the proposed method against other methods for the image Lena with different noise densities (10% to 70%). It depicts that our method outperforms the other ones in all cases. The criterion here is Pick Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). In addition to the PSNR criterion, our method seems to be better than the other methods in visual criterion. Figure \[fig:IMAGE\_RES3\] contains the output images of our method and three of the other best-known methods in 60% Salt-and-Pepper noise of the image Boat. As depicted in this figure, our method preserves the image from opacity while all the other methods suffer from some kind of distortion. This distortion is more recognizable along the edges. According to the socond scenario, we compared our method with other methods to denoise a sparsed image. Table \[tab:tab3\] represents the comparison results for our method and three of the best-known methods in PSNR. Here, we have assumed that 80% of image samples in the wavelet domain are set to zero at the transmitter (i.e., the image is 20% sparsified). As depicted in Table \[tab:tab3\], sparsifing the image in tha transmitter improves the performance of our method. [\| m[1.25cm]{}\|\| m[1.25cm]{}\|\| m[1.25cm]{}\|\|m[1.25cm]{}\|\| m[1.25cm]{}\|]{} &&&&\ Noise Ratio &EPA &SAWM &AIM & our Met.\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 10 % &39.5301 &39.7418 &44.7401 & 49.5318\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 20 % &37.4529 &37.9983 &40.8498 & 45.6537\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 30 % &36.0217 &36.4273 &38.3235 & 42.6723\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 40 % &34.2842 &35.0963 &36.4584 & 40.1646\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 50 % &32.8376 &33.8025 &34.9292 & 37.8776\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 60 % &31.4505 &32.3142 &33.5804 & 35.8904\ &&&&\ &&&&\ 70 % &29.9763 &30.7672 &32.0970 & 33.5349\ &&&&\ \[tab:tab3\] It is worth mentioning that our proposed method can be directly used to reconstruct the images which some of their samples are lost due to an erasure channel. In the IMAT method, we have selected $\alpha$ (defined in Fig. 1) as 0.1, and $\beta$ is set to be a little greater than the maximum absolute value of the image signal. Conclusion {#sec:SIM_con} ========== In this paper, we proposed a new nonlinear method for removing Salt-and-Pepper noise from images. Our method is based on sparse signal processing. In fact, we convert the denoising proplem into a sparse reconstruction problem. In addition, since most of the existing reconstruction algorithms are incapable of being used in our method, we have introduced a novel reconstruction algorithm as well. As a result of this approach, our method preserves the image from the distortion which is occuring in most of the existing denoising methods based on spatial OS filters. Simulation results confirms the prominence of the proposed method against the best-known existing methods. In the future, we will use the idea of our method for removing block noises from images.
The Fangirly Diary of a Geek Girl: Weekly comics on your TV. Part II! Greetings, my fellow geeks! Yes, there wasn’t much creativity with the title but the comicbook TV series are still pumping info! Besides that we have lots of rumors, and comicbook movie news! Also some stuff about Star Wars and Harry Potter, kinda. Here’s how the week started: SATURDAY Here’s the first poster of the new Marvel TV series on ABC, Agent Carter! And here’s a synopsis: It’s 1946, and peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad. Working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake of losing the love of her life–Steve Rogers. Remember how Sigourney Weaver died in Avatar? Yeah, she will be back for the sequels. Don’t ask me how, I don’t know and she won’t tell! This is what she did say: It will be challenging for me. I can’t talk about it, but my part is a little different in each one. I’ll transform somewhat. […] It’s going to be an adventure! It will be awesome. I can’t even imagine what I am taking on — and what James Cameron is taking on — with filming three Avatars at once, but …Peter Jackson did it with the Hobbit films, so we have that to look to. Apparently, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak‘s principal photography is over and done with, or at least over enough for the cast and crew to throw a wrap party! It even had mariachis! Harry Potter is going to the West End as I mentioned some time ago. Now, we know more details about the stage production. According to The Daily Mail, it will be about Harry Potter’s early years as a orphan and an outcast. Yay, fun times with the Dursleys! Also, it will explore the lives of Harry Potter’s parents before they were killed by Voldemort. With luck, English and other lucky people will get to watch it in a London theatre by late next year. Remember The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? Yes, the web series of Pride and Prejudice, that is basically Elizabeth Bennet’s YouTube Channel~ Hence the title. Well, the guys at Pemberley Digital has joined forces with PBS Digital Studios to create Frankenstein M.D., a web series adaptation of Frankenstein. But we will get Victoria Frankenstein, “an obsessive, eccentric prodigy determined to prove herself in the male-dominated fields of science and medicine”. F*ck yeah, Rule 63! SUNDAY Here’s the first official trailer for Constantine in NBC. My veredict? It doesn’t suck! Like at all! Also, we get Cory Michael Smith, Victoria Cartagena and Andrew Stewart-Jones as regulars in Gotham! Who are they, you ask? I have no idea but they are playing important/awesome characters of the Batman universe like Edward Nygma (a.k.a. The Riddler!), and Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya (from comic series Gotham Central!) On sucky (or maybe good?) news, X-Men and Fantastic Four are totally not part of a shared Marvel Fox universe, says X-Men: Days of Future Past screenwriter Simon Kinberg, who will also work on the Fantastic Four reboot.	https://www.yam-mag.com/blog/the-fangirly-diary-of-a-geek-girl-weekly-comics-on-your-tv-part-ii/
We calibrate soil test results to a specific sampling depth, so it's important to get this right. Immobile plant nutrients tend to accumulate near the soil surface, so shallow sample depths can inflate results. For immobile nutrients and soil pH, sample at zero to six inches. For fall nitrate, sample at zero to 24 inches. There is no one-size-fits-all soil sampling strategy which works across all fields. The decision to grid or zone sample fields depends on how variable soil tests are within a field. If soil tests are very high then a single composite soil sample may be enough within a field. When sampling in the same field for many years, try to collect individual cores for a composite sample from as close to the same spots as possible. With banded immobile nutrients, collect two to three cores outside the fertilizer band for each core collected from the fertilizer band to ensure your soil test values represent the true fertility of the field. Fertilizer granules are highly water soluble and can contaminate a sample and inflate the results. Allow time for the fertilizer to react with the soil before taking a sample. Don't sample too soon after application, wait a few months after fertilizer application. If soil test values are inflated due to recent fertilizer application, it can result in an overestimation in available nutrients. The time of sampling after harvest matters for a small number of nutrients. Phosphorus and soil pH are relatively stable over time so the time of sampling is not as important. Soil test potassium values exhibit more seasonal variability, caused by dry soil conditions, crop uptake and the release of potassium from residue in the fall. Soil nitrate values can also change in the fall depending on environmental factors in various regions of Minnesota. Due to time constraints, we understand that samples will get taken soon after the combine goes through the field. It is important to try to sample fields at the same time of year so your test values are comparable when looking at long term trends within a field. The power of having soil test data is the knowledge of where fertilizer will make the most sense economically in a field. With variable rate fertilizer applications, you can achieve greater profitability by ensuring that low-testing areas are not under-fertilized and high testing areas are not over-fertilized. In high or very high testing soils, the probability of fertilizer increasing yield drops dramatically. Applying fertilizer based on current crop removal can also be expensive in these situations.	https://blog-nwcrops.extension.umn.edu/2017/10/five-tips-for-getting-most-out-of-fall.html
New report on retail price of Sardine in saitama According to the Retail Sardine Statistics Survey of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications statistics (announced on May 18,2018). The retail price of one bag of Sardine (0.22lb) in saitama is 74(JPY). retail price of Sardine 0.22lb in saitama is 74(JPY). This is the Mar,2018 ratio +1(JPY) UP, the change rate is +1.37% and the price is UP, which is (It is 36 th highest price.) within the recording period (1) Japan average and compared to Sardine retail price of saitama is 0.75 (JPY) low price retail price from Japan average. The highest time in the recording period ( 1) is 、Nov,2015, per 0.22lb, 124 (JPY). Conversely, the cheapest period is 、Apr,2017, 71 (JPY) per 0.22lb. (*1) Includes retail price of saitama, period 2015年1月 to Apr,2018 Sardine.	http://iwashi-en.jpmarket-conditions.com/?city_id=11100
- Level: - AS, A Level, IB, BTEC National, BTEC Tech Award - Board: - AQA, Edexcel, OCR, IB, Eduqas, WJEC Last updated 25 Oct 2019 Here is an example of how to build a chain of reasoning and add some evaluation into your answer. This question relates to the changing price of diesel fuel in the UK fuel market. Point 1 Between January 2016 and October 2018, the retail price of diesel fuel increased by 36 percent – a substantial rise. One reason might be that the government decided to raise the excise duty on fuel which is an example of an indirect tax. Duty on fuel is charged to fuel supply businesses such as Esso, Texaco & Shell. Following a higher tax, they decide whether to pass on the higher fuel duty to consumers via a hike in the retail price. Or they might absorb the duty and cut their profits. Assuming that demand for diesel fuel is price inelastic (i.e. the coefficient of Ped is <1) then an increase in fuel duty is likely to lead to higher prices. However, strong price competition at retail level might cause some suppliers to hold back from raising prices even if taxes rise. Petrol retailing is an oligopoly and often, there is intense localised price competition between fuel suppliers as they battle to gain and then protect market share. Point 2 A second factor that might explain an increase in the price of diesel could be a depreciation of the exchange rate. This is because a lot of refined petroleum is imported into the UK and, since oil is priced in US dollars, a a fall in the exchange rate will increase the UK price of imported diesel. As a result petrol retailers will be under pressure to increase their retail prices in order to protect their operating profits. A fall in the exchange rate is likely to affect all petrol retailers in a similar way especially if they get most of their fuel supplies from the wholesale market. However, the impact of this depends on how far the exchange rate has fallen and whether it is regarded as a temporary change. Taxation of fuel (made up of duty and VAT) forms the biggest percentage of the retail price, so a lower currency can not explain all of the 36% rise we saw between 2016-18.	https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/chains-of-reasoning-and-evaluation-fuel-prices-in-the-uk
3D Dragon Maze Game is a funny arcade game which is similar to the old classic game “Snake”, but it is much more advanced as it has many difficulty levels, and instead of a snake a human head opens its mouth to eat dots. It has three game modes: easy, normal and hard and 40 levels in each one, the trial version offers only the first ten levels of an easy mode. At the first level you should only pick up dotes in the maze. At the next you should collect bags with money to get extra points, then you should enter the gates to get to the opposite side of the maze and eat everything there to get bonuses. Next you get a key to open the gold keys and collect extra bonuses. So each level gets more difficult, and the ordinary task to eat the dots gets more difficult, as then appear different objects, like apples and creatures that you should avoid by jumping over them to pass the level. Some objects give you extra life in case you couldn't avoid a creature. On the whole, the game is quite thrilling, but, as for me, it gets boring, as the main task remains the same – to eat all the dots, in spite of multiple difficulty levels. You can’t wait to pick up all the dotes to get to the next level and see what will change to make the task more challenging. More reviews Comments Please add a comment explaining the reasoning behind your vote.	https://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Windows-PC/3D-Dragon-Maze.html
This chapter discusses the main research findings and is focused on explaining the election news coverage’s main features. It addresses the main actors and issues highlighted by the media coverage in the six countries included in the sample (Portugal, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Croatia, and Poland), as well as the results of the empirical analysis on news framing, negativity, interpretative journalism, and populism. A comparative overview of the main findings points to the prevalence of some noteworthy singularities in the way in which journalists from these countries treat the election campaign and the political candidates, which hinders the identification of regional (or other) patterns of election news coverage. It is suggested that whenever possible those singularities should be acknowledged, as they can provide relevant information not only about national media and political systems but also about the impact of specific changes in the media and in political environments on the election news coverage. This concluding chapter provides an overview of the main features of election news coverage in these six European countries. It intends to address questions such as how is the media coverage of elections done in different countries today? Is there a heavy coverage of elections everywhere? When and why do issues change and how are they covered by the news media? In what ways is news election coverage similar and different in these countries? Are there discernible patterns of election news coverage in these six countries? This research project was aimed at investigating how the news coverage of national elections looks like in different European countries—in a specific moment in time, when the background international context is similar, much like a snapshot in time—and at identifying the main issues and actors covered by the different types of news media outlets considered in the content analysis (television, newspapers, and papers published only online). This approach allows a characterization and an informed discussion of what election news coverage is in these countries, which could lead to the identification of potential patterns of news coverage. For example, are there discernible trends of election coverage regarding the prevalence of negativity, interpretive journalism, or populist features of political discourse in the news? Finally, this concluding chapter also addresses the implications of the news coverage of elections, as they are made nowadays, on the results of the elections. All these different elements gain particular relevance when we bear in mind that elections are very important moments in the political life of any country, and in these cases this importance was reflected, for example, in the amount of news coverage devoted to the election campaign. Even though it was slightly greater in some of the countries in the sample (Greece, Portugal, and Spain), which is likely explained by the news outlets’ internal editorial criteria, the amount of journalistic attention and of news coverage dedicated to these elections during the official campaign period was considerable in the six countries. The first significant conclusions are related to personalization and to the political actors that were perceived as the most newsworthy by journalists in Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. There are important differences regarding the way similar types of news media in these six countries cover what they consider to be the most newsworthy and the most important political actors in the election. The data analysis shows that, in general, journalists pay more attention to the campaign initiatives and messages of the main parties and their leaders (i.e. the most voted for party in the last election and the parties with more voting intentions in election polls), which therefore receive more news coverage during (at least) the official period of electoral campaign. This was confirmed in all countries included in the sample. However, there are some cases in which the novelty of some parties and candidates is particularly appealing to journalists as it happened in Spain in this election. Although the incumbent Popular Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy, had the most media exposure, a considerable degree of attention was also given to the two new parties, Ciudadanos and Podemos and to their leaders, Albert Rivera and Pablo Iglesias, almost the same media coverage that the second largest political party, the Socialist PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, Partido Socialista Obrero Español) and its leader Pedro Sánchez have received. The uncertainty about the result that these two new parties would be able to achieve in their first parliamentary election, especially after the impressive result of Podemos in the 2014 European Parliamentary election, and speculations about potential future post-election government coalitions motivated a great deal of journalistic coverage (for further details, please see Luengo and Fernández-García in this book). The journalists’ reaction to the uncertainty of the election results and of the political situation that would follow can also be explained by Galtung and Ruge’s (1965) news values theory. In short, news values are characteristics of events that determine whether these events become news and trigger audience reactions (Gehrau 2017). News values therefore influence the relative attention and prominence that specific issues, events, and people receive from the news media. Unexpectedness, conflict, and dramatization are among those firstly identified by Galtung and Ruge (1965) and provide background explanation to further understand the reasons why both Podemos and Pablo Iglesias, and Ciudadanos and Albert Rivera received more news media coverage than a larger party, PSOE and its leader Pedro Sánchez, in Spain. Another potentially important reason for the salience attributed to Ciudadanos and Podemos in the news media has to do with these parties’ rapid rise in voting intentions, and with the expectation that they could achieve even more prominent positions in Spanish politics. In fact, in May 2018, opinion polls placed Ciudadanos in first and Podemos in second in the voters’ preferences, while the incumbent PP and PSOE (the parties that form the Spanish bipartisanship since 1982) were only in third and fourth place, respectively (for further details, please see Nieto 2018). According to opinion polls carried out in May 2018, the political parties that are openly critical of the system, Ciudadanos and Podemos, represented almost half of the electorate, while PP and PSOE represented less than 40 per cent. It is also important to note that although we are analysing parliamentary elections—in which political parties are the main players—the focus of most news items, in practically all the countries that were included in the analysis, was on the party leader and not on the political party as a whole. The exception to this trend is Ireland where although there is an overall stated trend towards personalization in election news coverage (for further information, please see Culloty and Suiter in this book), the Irish news media outlets focused less on the party leaders (16 per cent on average) than on parties as a whole in this election in particular. Potential explanations for this exception could be related with the organization of the parties’ campaigns, the specific personal characteristics of these party leaders, or even with choices made by the journalists when covering the election; however, an additional and different type of research would be necessary to further investigate and explain all underlying reasons behind this result. In the remaining countries, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Poland, and Spain, the percentage of news items that focused on the party leaders was always higher than the percentage of journalistic coverage that focused on political parties as the main actor in the news story. For example, the figures range from 66, 54, and 50 per cent in Portugal, Greece, and Croatia, respectively (for further details, please see Salgado; Papathanassopoulos and Giannouli; Mustapić et al. in this book). Political party leaders were also the preferred source of information for journalists in Croatia, Portugal, and Spain, but not so much in Poland and Ireland where journalists resorted more often to their own professional class as source of information about the election, thus mostly covering the parties’ campaign with reports of facts and events rather than giving more space to political party leaders and to their direct quotes on the election campaign actions, policy proposals, ideological stances, and so on (for further details, please see Stępińska et al. and Culloty and Suiter in this book). The increasing concentration of election news media coverage on a limited number of political actors and the preference to report the political leaders’ actions and statements instead of the political parties as a whole is well documented in research and has been referred to with different concepts, including personalization of politics (McAllister 2007; Kriesi 2012), or as presidentialization of (parliamentary) politics (Mughan 2000; Poguntke and Webb 2005). The high visibility of personalities in the news media can also be tied to leadership focused strategies and potentially to some specific forms of populism. In fact, populism has been linked in research to media logic and personalization (Kriesi 2015) and to strong leadership strategies (Weyland 2001). However, despite these indications, the present study did not point to any direct connection between strong personalization of politics in the media and populism. Except in Ireland, the levels of personalization of politics in the election news coverage were high in all countries, but this was observed in countries where populist actors were successful in elections (e.g. Poland and Greece) and in countries where the exact opposite has happened (e.g. Portugal). The variables intended to study the issues discussed during the election campaign were focused on the journalistic report of the campaign and were designed to identify and code the dominant issue in each news item. Therefore, this also means that other issues could also have been present both in the political parties’ messages and in the news items, but the content analysis only coded the ones that received greater prominence in the news story and that were thus highlighted more often in the news coverage . Election campaigns are usually pivotal moments for candidates to explain their ideological stances and their policy proposals to tackle the existing problems, so it would make sense that this would be somehow reflected in the journalistic coverage of the election campaign. However, in many cases the space attributed to specific policy issues is marginal when compared to the attention dedicated to campaign strategy and events, to the candidates’ performance in electoral debates, or to opinion polls, for example. In fact, topics related to “party politics and campaigning” were by far the most prevalent in the news media coverage of the Croatian, Irish, Polish and Spanish elections. Portugal and Greece were interesting exceptions, as issues had more preponderance and the issue frame overcame the strategy frame in these two countries’ election news coverages. Greece and Portugal were severely affected by the Euro Crisis and this challenging conjuncture had a huge impact on both their societies and politics. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Euro Crisis as an issue was particularly salient in the Portuguese and Greek election campaigns. More surprising, however, was the fact that the Euro Crisis was not important in Ireland and Spain, which is possibly explained by the different framing (and management) that the Euro Crisis issue had in Spain and to the fact that Ireland had exited the financial assistance programme more than three years before the 2016 election, in 2013. Although the differences between the two types of news framing were not substantial both in Portugal and in Greece, they are still noteworthy because they run counter the trend, often presented as transnational, of politics in general and elections in particular being mostly reported by journalists through a strategy news frame. In Greece, the percentage of news items in which the issue frame was considered by coders to be the dominant news frame was 54.4 per cent, and in Portugal it was slightly higher, 57.4 per cent. In Portugal, the results should be partly related to the 2011 bailout, the recent economic reforms and the austerity measures that the country underwent, and the overall impact that the Euro Crisis had on Portuguese society and politics. In this country, public finances, the state of the economy, social affairs, as well as the Euro Crisis itself (e.g. the effects of austerity and the way to move forward) had a special prominence in the news coverage of the 2015 election campaign and preceded in salience news items that were mainly focused on party politics and on campaign strategy. Although the state of the economy and the slow economic growth have been a prevalent issue in most recent elections in Portugal (Salgado 2007, 2009), the context of a serious economic crisis seems to have further emphasized the prevalence of both these topics and of actual policy discussion in the 2015 election campaign, thus confirming their major importance both for politicians and for journalists. As Culloty and Suiter (this book) and Luengo and Fernández-García (this book) have explained in their chapters, something similar occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Euro Crisis in Ireland and Spain. In Ireland, for example, almost 60 per cent of the newspaper coverage of the 2011 election campaign was devoted to policy, economy, and issues in general; but the interest in these topics dropped substantially in the general election that followed in 2016. In Portugal, given the lingering economic stagnation and hardship, the economic affairs have maintained their importance in political and public debates over the last few years, and have emerged as particularly significant during election campaigns. Situations of crisis thus seem to impact on the type of news media coverage that is made of election campaigns. As economic crises drive the political debate and the news coverage towards economy and finance-related issues and policies; a major defence challenge, such as terrorism, should inflect attentions towards international relations, foreign policy, and defence issues; and political crises should instead boost debates and coverage focused on party politics, party conflicts, the functioning of democracy and political system reforms, government and parliamentary coalitions, and democratic governance in general. When there is no specific and pressing social or political problem, substantiated in a major crisis, the news coverage of the election should end up being less focused on issues and policy and more on the political candidates’ competition and each one of them chances of winning, in other words, based on strategy and game news framing (i.e. “horse race” news coverage). As noted, the most common news framing used in the journalistic coverage of elections in the majority of the countries included in this study (Croatia, Ireland, Poland, and Spain) was the strategic news frame. This type of news coverage focuses specifically on the logic of competition, namely the election “horse race”, the winning versus losing dynamics; on the candidates and political parties’ strategies and tactics to win the election or to gain advantages over their opponents; and on the overall support that political candidates and parties have managed to gather among public opinion, including their standing in opinion polls (for further details on the strategic news framing, see Aalberg et al. 2012). The figures have shown that the prevalence of the strategic news frame ranged from 75 per cent in Croatia and 73 per cent in Ireland to 46 per cent in Greece and 44 per cent in Portugal. The percentages in Spain and Poland were 62 and 59 per cent, respectively. This means that in four of the six countries under analysis, election news stories were mostly framed through the logic of strategy in politics. An explication for the Portuguese and Greek exceptions was already put forward, but it should also be explained that the study coded the dominant news frame, which basically means that when the issue frame was dominant, the strategic frame could also be present, and vice versa. In other words, in some cases, news items could contain both types of news frames, but only the dominant (the one included in the lead of the news story and/or taking more space or time overall) was coded. Another interesting finding is related with the type of media that seems to be less prone to cover elections and electoral campaigns focusing on strategy: the prevalence of the strategic news frame was overall lower in online news outlets. The fact that the online news media outlets have fewer limits in terms of space allows them to publish not only longer news stories but also more news pieces about specific issues, as well as on topics and political actors that are not usually covered by mainstream newspapers and television channels. For example, it was not unusual to find news items published in the online news media containing all (or at least most of) the political parties’ main positions on specific issues and their policy proposals. This allows us to conclude that the online news media have broadened the space dedicated to issues and policy discussions, at least during election campaigns, which is the time frame of this study. Moreover, during the official campaign period, both mainstream newspapers and television channels typically prepare daily summaries of the campaign that tend to favour the focus on the winning and losing logic, which is believed to attract the interest of a wider audience. The online news media outlets do not have these limitations and can publish all the news items they want around the clock (of course within the limits of their human resources). All of these reasons contribute to explain the greater focus of online news media on issues and their greater use of issue news frame. The differences between strategic and issue frame vary according to countries, but are far more substantial in some cases, for example, Greece, where the difference is between 29 per cent of news items focusing mainly on issues in newspapers and 68 per cent in online news media outlets. Also included in the logic of the strategy news framing, the publication of opinion polls during the election campaign was analysed separately in the study in order to check its own specific salience in the news coverage of elections in the different countries. This variable in particular was designed to capture any potential self-reflection of journalists regarding the impact of opinion polls in the election campaign (on meta-communication about media manipulation in general see e.g. Esser et al. 2001). The coding of this variable in particular was thus intended to assess the prevalence of opinion polls as an issue in the news media coverage, and refers, for example, to discussions about the release of opinion polls during the campaign and/or to discussions on the effects of opinion polls on the election campaign (e.g. on the relations between political opponents or on the overall campaign momentum), and even on the potential outcome of the election. The impact that political opinion polls may have on elections has been raising concerns in democracies throughout the world over the last few decades. Alongside the opinion polls’ immediate purpose of measuring the voters’ opinions lays also its controversial potential to influence opinions (see e.g. Bogart 1988; Price and Stroud 2006). In addition, as opinion polls might also include some degree of bias (the polling companies or news media’s political bias, but not only), the release of their results can, on some occasions, be aligned with specific political agendas that have interests in influencing the voting behaviour and/or the voters’ political perceptions. News items discussing the opinion polls results and effects (e.g. contextualization and interpretation) had a relatively important presence in the election news coverage in some of these countries. These specific elements were prevalent, for example, in 10 per cent of the news coverage in Portugal; in 6 per cent of the news items in Ireland (interestingly, almost as much as news items that focused on macro-economics and social affairs, which were 7 per cent); and in 5 per cent of the Greek news stories, which, in this case, was more than the news items that were focused on discussing the much needed national unity and the potential government coalitions that could result from the election results (3.2 per cent). The time frame of this study coincided opportunely with some significant populism-related events in Europe. In 2015, political parties and party leaders considered populist were re-elected in Greece (the left-wing political party Syriza and its leader Alexis Tsipras) and elected in Poland (the right-wing political party Law and Justice, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS). In the Polish case, the victory of the right-wing Populist Party Law and Justice in the 2015 parliamentary election was also the first parliamentary majority in the country’s democratic history since 1989. Greece has not been strange to populism and long before Alexis Tsipras and Syriza’s election, Greek politics had already a long record of populist political parties and of populist political leaders (see e.g. Vasilopoulou et al. 2014; Vasilopoulou and Halikiopoulou 2015; Papathanassopoulos et al. 2017; Stavrakakis and Katsambekis 2018). In addition to Syriza and Alexis Tsipras, other examples of Greek populist political actors include the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn, the conservative right-wing ANEL (Independent Greeks), or Andreas Papandreou’s PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) in the 1970s. In Poland, extant literature has identified populist political actors and waves of populism almost since the beginning of its democracy (see e.g. van Kessel 2015; Stępińska et al. 2017). Polish examples include Self Defence (Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, SO) since 2001, Law and Justice (PiS) since 2005, as well as the most recent (2015) political movement Kukiz’15 (led by Paweł Kukiz). The far-right The League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) is often considered to be a populist political actor as well. Also noteworthy and particularly interesting for research is the fact that the 2015 election was the first parliamentary election in Croatia after the country joined the European Union in 2013. The election happened while Croatia was simultaneously facing the two crises that have been mostly associated to the recent surge of populism in Europe: the country was experiencing economic hardship and the challenge of the migration or refugee crisis in its own territory (the Croatian government allowed refugees to cross the country in their journey to Western Europe). The decisions of the Croatian government regarding the migration crisis ended up having less impact on the election than on the country’s relations with the neighbouring countries, Hungary, Slovenia, and Serbia. In fact, this crisis and the government policy did not seem to favour the right-wing arguments and position: the right-wing populist Croatian Civic Party lost the two-seats parliamentary representation that it had secured in the previous election (2011) as part of the pre-election coalition with the Croatian Democratic Union. Whereas some countries in the sample seem to have been somehow immune to Europe’s recent populist wave (e.g. Ireland and Portugal)—at least considering the electoral success and the actual election of populist political parties and leaders—and to the destabilization of their party systems (Hernández and Kriesi 2016); other countries have often been presented as prime examples of Europe’s turn towards populism (Greece and Poland), even if they illustrate very different types and different degrees of populism (for further discussion about the manifestation of different types and degrees of populism, see e.g. Jagers and Walgrave 2007; Salgado and Stavrakakis 2018; Salgado 2018). The fact that citizens in some countries do not vote for populist parties and populist political leaders to rule the country does not mean, however, that we cannot find elements of populism in the election campaign and in the news coverage of the election. It is thus very relevant to compare the type and degree of populist messages in the coverage of election campaigns in countries where populist parties were elected with the countries where populist parties did not have any electoral success. This approach assessed the prevalence of populism in the election news coverage through a content analysis that comprised different elements of populist rhetoric. The analysis included the most common features of populism: references to the people (expressing closeness and belonging to the people; speaking on behalf of the people); a divide between the “us and them”; references to anti-elitism, anti-establishment, and anti-system; and exclusion of out-groups. In order to get a more complete picture of the different dimensions of populist rhetoric, the analysis has also included other typical elements of populist political discourse, such as the over-simplification of issues, which involves for example the resort to Manichaeism (e.g. good vs. bad, right vs. wrong) and scapegoating and blame shifting discourse strategies. The content analysis results did not point to any discernible common trends in these six countries regarding the populist elements that were most used by political actors in their campaign messages and that were covered by the news media. The exclusionary discourse, substantiated in the division between “us” and “them”, was overall the most common feature of populism in the election news coverage; it was used by the majority of politicians in Poland, Spain, Croatia, and Greece. A superficial analysis might suggest an overall greater success of this type of representation of society as populist political actors that have resorted to the “us versus them” rhetoric have experienced some degree of electoral success, while in the countries in which this strategy was less prevalent, populist political actors had less or no electoral success at all (e.g. Portugal and Ireland). Typically, news media outlets reproduce the political discourses, but they also contribute to construct ideas and perceptions when certain assumptions about reality (and in this case about exclusion and the otherness) are reaffirmed discursively through the news coverage. This basically means that even in the cases when the news media outlets are simply reproducing the politicians’ political messages, they can still be, in part, (indirectly) responsible for the deterioration of election debates. This certainly raises important ethical challenges to journalism’s duty to report. The use of the word “people” by political candidates to express closeness and belonging to the people, and as a rhetorical tool to emphasize their differences compared to other candidates, for example, was the most common feature of the populist discourse in Portugal. In Ireland the main populist feature was anti-elitism; although it was not often used (it was found in only in 2 per cent of the news items). The anti-establishment view was a strong component of electoral discourse in Greece, and it was a strategy used mainly by new political actors to distinguish themselves from the political leaders who had ruled the country before the crisis. In Poland, the exclusion of out-groups was the most prevalent feature, and ostracization was mainly directed towards immigrants. Finally, the notion of an idealized nation had greater prominence in Spain (5 per cent), which is explained by the ongoing debate on the independence of Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country, and is directly linked to the contrasting identification of nationalists and separatists as political out-groups menacing Spain’s stability and unity. It is also worth noting that newer political parties in general tend to frame their political communication and political strategies around the use of anti-establishment rhetoric (these cases were found in Spain, Croatia, Greece, and Poland). This is not surprising if we consider that although these political parties are running for elections (and therefore implicitly accepting the system or attempting to change the system from the inside), it is easier for them to maintain an anti-establishment stance because they have no government experience and therefore they are not viewed as part of the establishment. If and when they are elected, these political actors have to adjust their discourse or at least redefine what the establishment is, in their view. The other specific features of populist communication and rhetoric that were included in the study, such as the over-simplification of issues, and blame shifting and scapegoating were also more prevalent in the newer political parties. One possible explanation for this is the fact that these parties were attempting to deliver a different approach to politics, but one that could also be understandable by all those who do not feel represented by mainstream politics and who are distrustful of political elites. Presenting the issues and the corresponding solutions as simpler than they are in fact might well be a means of seeking an advantage over the opponents through the use of straightforward communication, as an attempt to engage and convince more voters. The news coverage of these national elections in Portugal and Ireland reflects the low prevalence of populism not only in these countries’ political systems but also in their news media outlets. In Portugal, for example, most of the news items coded as containing any of the features of populism resulted from the news coverage of statements by politicians. Although the sample only included a limited amount of news media outlets per country (nine in most cases, including centre-left and centre-right political leaning and reference and tabloid newspapers, public and private television channels, and newspapers that are only published online), it is diversified and complete enough to allow an overall picture of the news media coverage in each of these countries. Ireland and Portugal challenge some generally accepted theses that sustain that the commercialization in the media sector tends to boost populism in the media (e.g. Mazzoleni 2008; Meyer apud Krämer 2014). Populism in the media is seen as a consequence of news media outlets that pursue higher circulation and ratings above all else. Even though over-simplification of reality and sensationalism are intrinsic characteristics of media grammar, which have been further enhanced by the commercialization trend in the media sector, they are not necessarily synonym with populism, or at least with the features of populism addressed in this research. Portugal and Ireland also challenge the premise that situations of crisis lead to the success of populist political actors and ideas (e.g. Kriesi 2014, among others). Portugal and Ireland were among the countries that have suffered the most with the Euro Crisis; however, both the levels of electoral success of populist political parties and the prevalence of populist discourses in politics and in the news media in these two countries were in general very low when compared with the other countries in the sample. These two cases confirm McDonnell’s (2008) interpretation in regard to the Irish case and Salgado and Stavrakakis’s (2018) analysis, as well as the “fuzzy relationship” between crisis and populism that Tappas and Kriesi (2015) have suggested; but most importantly this also draws attention to the fact that Southern Europe should not be treated as an unique entity, as Southern European countries (the ones that were included in our sample: Portugal, Greece, and Spain) display many important differences among them. Regarding the type of media that seems to be more prone to disseminate populism, the content analysis has shown that online news media were more likely to include news containing populist features. Different factors might enhance specific characteristics of journalism, such as over-simplification or over-personalization of politics, which are more conducive to the diffusion of populism, among them, for example, the following: news are produced and consumed much faster now when compared with just a few years ago; online news stories are often written to be clicked, “liked” and “shared” as much as possible; journalistic content is aimed at gaining a fast and wide distribution to reach more audience, including outside national borders, which often means the use of simple, appealing language and more visuals; and finally news items are often linked to other news stories and especially to comments sections to be used by the general public (the people) that is presumably populist by nature. It is also important to stress that in addition to the type of media, the prevalence of populist features in the news coverage is, in some cases, also related with the ownership of news media outlets. Although our sample does not illustrate these examples sufficiently, Italy (e.g. with Berlusconi) and the Czech Republic (with Andrej Babiš) are cases of media ownership being determinant in the definition of a populist style of news coverage of politics (regarding the Italian case, see, e.g. Mancini 2011; and for the Czech case see, e.g. Císař and Štětka 2017). The Croatian case presents a different but interesting singularity regarding the links between media and politics in populism. From the six countries analysed in the study, Croatia was the only one illustrating a situation in which the media elite was clearly identified in anti-elitism rhetoric, which points to a clear divergence between some politicians and journalists. This type of open dispute between a few politicians and some journalists has potential to cause the enhancement of some specific features in the media coverage of politics, namely it might increase negativity in the political news, as well as the prevalence of journalistic interpretation in the news reports, for example. The journalistic coverage of these six parliamentary elections was mainly neutral and negative. However, there are important cross-country variations regarding the prevalence and the source of negativity. For example, it can originate in journalists through opinion and analysis pieces for example, or in negative and confrontational attitudes of the political candidates in the election campaign, which journalists merely report in their news coverage. For example, in Croatia, where nearly 30 per cent of the news items had a predominantly negative tone, most negativity came from the news media outlets themselves that expressed criticism towards the campaigning political candidates and towards the political system in general (Mustapić et al. this book). Similarly, Stępińska et al. (this book) observed in Poland that nearly one-third of the election news coverage had mainly a negative tonality, which the authors explain with the highly critical approach of journalists to the election campaign and politics in general. Focusing on Ireland, Culloty and Suiter (this book) explain the overall absence of political news coverage with a positive tone in a similar manner, because of the widespread anti-politics bias and of the enduring non-partisan role of the Irish news media. But in Portugal, for example, although an important share of negativity comes from opinion and analysis (Salgado this book), which suggests that the sources are either journalists or columnists; the overall higher prevalence of negativity in plain news stories points to the confrontational nature of the political campaign as a relevant factor in intensifying negativity in the news, which is a type of negativity that journalists are merely reporting and that is not initiated by them personally. As to the type of news media outlets that have covered the election campaign in a more positive or in a more negative manner, the data analysis did not show any clear similarities in these countries. In some countries, it is mainly the online news media outlets that cover politics with a positive tone (e.g. Poland), while in others it is exactly the opposite (e.g. Portugal). In addition, whereas Greek and Spanish newspapers were the most negative in their countries, in Portugal, both mainstream newspapers and television channels covered the political campaign mainly with a neutral tone. The prevalent tone in the news coverage thus seems to be more linked to the media outlets’ ownership and to their political leaning than to the type of media (online, printed press, television). Negativity is often related to the presence of journalistic interpretation in the news: the journalists’ more prominent role in the news coverage of politics often results in more negativity (for a summary of research specifically focused on this topic, see Salgado and Strömbäck 2012). The prevalence of journalistic interpretations in the media coverage of the election campaigns in these six countries ranged from 15 per cent (the lowest percentage) in Poland to 53 per cent (the highest percentage) in Ireland (some intermediate values were e.g. Spain 47 per cent, Portugal 31 per cent, and Greece 22 per cent). The content analysis did not show any clear trend regarding the type of media that tends to include more interpretive journalism in the election news coverage. While in Portugal and Ireland the media with the highest percentage of interpretive journalism was television, in Greece and Spain, newspapers had overall the most prevalence of journalist interpretations in the election news coverage. There are, however, some important similarities in all of these countries. One is the fact that journalistic interpretation is also present in plain news stories. Another similarity is related to the type of journalistic interpretation, that is, journalistic explanations, journalistic speculations, or overt commentaries. In the six countries, the most common type of journalistic interpretation was, according to this data analysis, journalistic explanations or interpretations of the reasons behind events or actions. Although it is not possible to argue that interpretive journalism is growing or decreasing in the news coverage of elections on the basis of this study, as it is not longitudinal, it is still possible to conclude that even though in differing degrees, interpretive journalism is present in election news coverage in all these countries. Quite probably it is present, to a lesser or greater extent, in election news coverage in most European countries, as previous research has shown in the news coverage of politics during routine periods (Salgado et al. 2017). This research approach was designed to investigate how elections are covered by journalists in different European countries, in a similar time span, by testing specific concepts and trends that were previously put forward in relevant, existing literature. News values that are used in the selection and framing of political news have been pointed out as features of political news coverage by some authors. These are for instance some of the concepts that have guided this approach. The construction of political news as conflict and drama (Bennett 1996), an overall emphasis on the idea of competition (e.g. horse race, see Broh 1980; Mutz 1995) rather than on substantive issues, negativity (e.g. Patterson 1993; Cappella and Jamieson 1997), over-personalization of politics (even though contested by some authors as, e.g. Karvonen 2010; Kriesi 2012), and an increasing interest in the political candidates’ image and in their personal characteristics (Nimmo and Savage 1976; Hacker 1995) put the emphasis on political leaders rather than on institutions and parties, and shift the manner in which political candidates are evaluated by journalists and voters. It is thus not uncommon to read and hear that local political and journalistic cultures have been replaced by transnational trends. There are, in fact, important global trends and features influencing national political and media systems and thus impacting on the news coverage of politics and elections (e.g. Swanson and Mancini 1996; Swanson 2004). However, as the present data analysis has shown, significant local specificities remain relevant and should also be given proper attention, to avoid ignoring potentially enlightening information that could contribute to the further understanding of the links between politics and media in the coverage of election campaigns. The attempt to infer general knowledge and generate a greater level of generalization based on this data analysis was often hampered by the singularity of these countries in many respects, as we have seen. It was not possible to identify clear regional (or other) patterns on the concepts that were tested empirically. The research results were often mixed, did not point to clear regional patterns, but they have illustrated relevant country specificities (see e.g. the results of the data analysis on personalization of politics, populism, or the dominant news framing, just to mention a few cases). However, this does not mean that the research results cannot inform knowledge on election news coverage in Europe. In fact, this draws attention to the continuing need to rethink concepts and to adjust our theoretical models to constantly changing media and political environments. Although the salience of some transnational trends in today’s news media coverage of politics and elections has emerged in the analysis (e.g. personalization of politics, negativity), there was always an outlier or exceptions that pointed to the importance of the countries’ specific political, social and cultural context. These often conflict with the transnational trends of news coverage that are presented as global (e.g. the Portuguese and Greek exceptions in the dominant news framing). This suggests relevant varying gradations and, in some situations, even important exceptions that should be identified and explained whenever possible. Singularities should therefore be acknowledged in order to complement our understandings of how and why different news media cover election campaigns the way they do. This is a field of studies that although has already seen important contributions, it is still lacking systematic empirical research to test the many theoretical assumptions that underpin most current knowledge on the links between media and politics. But within this effort to further advance empirical research, the presence and relevance of singularities should also be assessed, as it can contribute to a better understanding of these issues. Gehrau, V. (2017). News values: Audience effects. In P. Rössler, C. A. Hoffner, & L. Zoonen (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783764.wbieme0054. Mazzoleni, G. (2008). Mediated populism. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405186407.wbiecm057. Nieto, A. (2018, May 14). Caída histórica de PP y PSOE debido al auge de los nuevos partidos [Historic fall of PP and PSOE due to the surge of the new parties]. In newspaper El País. Retrieved from https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2018/05/13/actualidad/1526222522_428410.html. Salgado, S., & Stavrakakis, Y. (2018). Introduction: Populist discourses and political communication in Southern Europe. European Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-017-0139-2. Stavrakakis, Y., & Katsambekis, G. (2018). The populism/anti-populism frontier and its mediation in crisis-ridden Greece: From discursive divide to emerging cleavage? In S. Salgado & Y. Stavrakakis (Eds.), Populist Discourses and Political Communication in Southern Europe, European Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-017-0138-3. Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.	https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-98563-3_8
Discover how to use the Connected Reliability Project Scorecard to review an actual connected device and service. Welcome back to Noria’s new web series called “The Internet of Reliability.” I’m your host, Jeremy Drury of IoT Diagnostics. We’re here for the final episode on getting you ready for a data-driven, internet-connected reliability operation. We’ve had 11 episodes, and we’ve covered everything you need to know to get started. In our last episode, I described what we call the Connected Reliability Project Scorecard. This is a way to compare the potential return on investment (ROI) for projects to determine the best place to start when taking a step into the connected environment. As promised in the last episode, I’m going to get specific and plug real data into the scorecard. Before we get into that, let’s quickly review what’s on the scorecard. There are application and investment. On the application side, we will look at the complexity and the consistency of the data we're trying to generate, as well as the complexity of the installation environment. On the other side, we have the investment. How much control do you want in this project and how much is it going to cost? Continuing the narrative from an earlier episode, I’m going to talk about a hydraulic pump on which you could put an internet-connected monitoring device. So, let’s start there. It’s a great place to plug and play the scorecard. Think about a pump-monitoring device. Let’s say this device is set up to measure pressure, temperature, flow and the pump’s efficiency on the case drain of the hydraulic pump. Also, let’s assume we’re having pump inefficiencies in our reliability operation. So, this is something we want to explore to hopefully improve that side of our business. Now, let’s start to fill out the scorecard. When we think about the complexity of the device’s installation, let’s run a couple of scenarios. If the device requires downtime in order to install it, you would have to plan for that. You will need some downtime, but it’s a Wi-Fi type of device with a simple installation. This eliminates Bluetooth, cellular, etc. So, with a Wi-Fi device, you will need access to a Wi-Fi network in order to install it. If any of your pumps are inside a Faraday cage, then you will need to discuss this with your IT department and an IoT provider to figure out how to get this data out of the cage. There are a couple of different ways to do that, but they are not relevant to this episode. It’s just something you want to keep in mind as you’re thinking about the complexity of the build-out for this type of IoT device. Now, let’s move onto consistency. For most people, pump uptime is very critical. As a result, this will be a high data-crunching type of device. Because of these uptime-critical operations, you probably will want to know about things like flow, temperature, pressure and efficiency. So, you’ll want to plug in a figure for how much data is being sent out every time this device pings the local network. Let’s say the device pings the network once every minute. You would need to calculate your average uptime and run time and then plug in the megabyte or kilobyte type of data that will be happening every minute during the operation. Remember, you will be calculating four values: pressure, temperature, flow and efficiency. There may also be some added multiplication when it comes to understanding just how consistently this device will need to ping your network. Now, let’s think about the investment side. It’s important to ensure that the device is top-level encrypted. This means it’s much harder for breaches to occur inside the environment. As data packages are moving in and out of your environment, they are happening via an encrypted methodology. This will give your IT department some peace of mind. For this scenario, let’s say the device requires data to both leave and enter your building. This is a predictive type of device, which is a buzzword in the Internet of Reliability industry. What I mean by that is that the longer it continues inside your operations, the smarter the device will become. But just like with our cellphones and other smart devices, this technology needs to stay up to date with things called over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates. This will require a network path into your organization in order to push those firmware updates to the device. So, you will certainly need to get IT buy-in to allow incoming data into your organization. Typically, this is where organizations have trouble, because the information gets hacked and hijacked on its way back into your organization. Again, this is where the encryption comes in, but it’s certainly something of which you should be mindful. Now, how much of this will fall on you versus a third-party IoT platform provider? In this scenario, the device would be fairly easy to use. Everything has LEDs on the front, and there would be a simple web application that goes along with it. So, this is something you could have more control over and wouldn't need a lot of outside investment to help you hit the ground running. What about the cost? This is a bit trickier because it involves the level of build-out. Some of you may be responsible for hundreds of pumps inside your operation. Others may only have five. This makes a big difference with the upfront capital expenditure. Let’s say the device is less than $1,000. If you wanted to have five devices, that may not seem like a large purchase for you. However, say you have 200, 500 or 1,000 pumps in your operations. Suddenly there could be a significant upfront capital expenditure, depending on how many pumps you wanted to include in this pilot project. Even though analytics and a web application/data visualization package are needed with this type of device, let’s say it actually comes as part of the upfront capital purchase. This way you wouldn’t have to budget additional ongoing service money. However, if you are thinking about different methods of data management, that may be something you need to be mindful of when it comes to purchasing the data that goes along with it. Now we have all the information, but let’s take it a step further and get into the low, moderate and high types of applications. Let’s look back at the complexity. I would argue that this seems like a low-complexity type of device to install. Sure, there is a timing element with the downtime, but realistically it’s not that big of a deal. For the data side, we will put high because this seems like an uptime-critical type of measurement. There will be a steady churn of data that this device will need to collect and then push in and out of your organization. As far as control, it seems low at this point, as this device is relatively plug-and-play for you to be able to install, get everything set up and start using. Next, we’ll put moderate on the cost side because it depends on where you are. It could have a substantial upfront cost, or it might not. When you add all these things together, you’ll want to put as much quantitative figuring into this as possible. Ultimately, let’s say this device build-out falls into a low to moderate category. Again, with this application, you now have a solid vision for how you could achieve solid ROI in your pump-monitoring capabilities. This type of device could be a good place to start when it comes to thinking about how you want to jump into an internet-connected reliability operation. This is also a great place to end this video series. Thank you so much for your time, and thanks to Noria for the opportunity to build this thing called the Internet of Reliability. I hope I’ve done a good job to make this seem less scary, because it’s not really that scary. It just takes a little effort, some research and courage to jump in and sit down with your IT department and decision-makers to get the funding you need to get started. I look forward to talking with you again soon. My name is Jeremy Drury with IoT Diagnostics. It has been an absolute pleasure being with you.	https://www.reliableplant.com/View/31392/internet-of-reliability-together-part-two
Is there a registry or similar for ROS2 which can support robots registering their presence and getting a namespace? This would seem to be a logical progression from setting each robot up with a different namespace, the difference being the nth jetbot or pibot would tell the registry something about itself and get an auto generated namespace in return. It would also make sense to me some form of keep alive, either the registry would check that namespace has a topic still publishing or the robot could just send a token to the registry. It could also make a big difference in mapping, e.g. robotx registers and starts outputting it’s sensor details and it’s local map which could be merged / converged. Is there such a thing?	https://get-help.robotigniteacademy.com/t/ros2-robot-registry/17449
Children give libraries the thumbs up in survey This news article was published more than a year ago. Some of the information may no longer be accurate. Published: 02/05/2014 Over 1,300 children and young people responded to the survey which was carried out in January. The results found that 89 per cent of the children and young people surveyed rated the overall service as good. The most positively rated aspect of the service for parents with 0 to 4-year-olds was the range of activities, with 95 per cent of them considering story time and rhymetime for their little ones to be good. Nadika Lokuge is mum to Vianne aged 32 months and Thej aged 8 months, who both enjoy coming to Staple Hill Library every week. Nadika said: “My daughter loves coming to rhymetime and story time at the library. It gives both of my children an opportunity to meet and interact with others in a safe and friendly environment, and the librarians are brilliant, they always make rhymetime and story time fun for the children.” For 88 per cent of 5 to 11-year-olds, the library is a safe place to visit, and most consider the choice of books to be good. Downend mum Shelley Kent appreciates the holiday activities for her children, Libby aged 11 and Ted aged 3. Shelley said: “Our local library is a fantastic resource for so many people. The summer holiday reading scheme is particularly good for encouraging children to read during the long summer holidays. It’s also a brilliant place for my children to bump in to friends.” Libraries bring many benefits to our local schools too. Ashley Yates, headteacher at The Tynings School in Kingswood, said: “Our frequent links with our local library are essential to promoting the importance of reading to our children. Our regular visits are vital for children to provide a wealth of books for them to borrow especially for those children who have a limited number of or sometimes no books at all. “Most importantly, the library offers our pupils the chance to borrow books for free, books that will take them to new places, different times and help them problem solve. Libraries open new doors for our children to futures they may never have considered, thus raising aspirations.” By the time children turn 12 and attend secondary school, the library is still important as a safe place, but they also appreciate being able to find their way around easily. 84 per cent of children who took part in the survey told us that using their local library has helped them enjoy reading more. Martin Burton, South Gloucestershire Council’s Community Cultural Services Manager, said: “It is essential that we listen to the views of children and young people using our library services and take action as a result of the issues they raise. Not only are they the users of today but we want them to continue to use libraries and read throughout their lives. “All of the age groups reported that the library had helped them enjoy reading. Parents of young children told us that the library had helped their children with speaking and listening skills plus learning to read, and young people have said that libraries helped them do better at school.” For more information contact the library service on 01454 868006 or visit www.southglos.gov.uk/libraries Is there anything wrong with this page? Website feedback This form is for feedback about our website, not questions or comments about our services. Follow this link to make a compliment or complaint. For anything else you can contact us here.	https://www.southglos.gov.uk/news/children-give-libraries-the-thumbs-up-in-survey/
FIELD One embodiment is directed generally to an artificial intelligence based computer system, and in particular to an artificial intelligence based computer system used to configure cloud computing resources and services. BACKGROUND INFORMATION “Cloud computing” is generally used to describe a computing model which enables on-demand access/availability to a shared pool of computing resources, such as computer networks, servers, software applications, storage and services, and which allows for rapid provisioning and release of resources with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing provides services generally without direct active management by the user. Cloud computing systems generally describe data centers available to many users over the Internet. Large clouds, predominant today, often have functions distributed over multiple locations from central servers. However, individual users/clients frequently have a need to have customized policies and procedures that are specific to their requirements. Because the cloud system and infrastructure is typically in control of the cloud provider, it is difficult for clients to customize the cloud to meet their needs without requiring extensive assistance from the cloud provider. SUMMARY Embodiments configure a cloud system that includes a plurality of cloud services. Embodiments receive a user utterance that includes a natural language and extract at least a first entity from the utterance. Embodiments translate the first entity into a cloud intent definition language entity and receive user feedback in response to presenting the cloud intent definition language entity. Embodiments generate an intent based on the cloud intent definition language entity and the feedback and compile the intent into a cloud services policy to be deployed by the cloud system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an overview diagram of elements of an AI-based cloud computing configurator system that can implement embodiments of the invention. FIG. 2 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the AI-based cloud configurator system of in the form of a computer server/system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 FIG. 1 is a block diagram the illustrates functional elements of the AI-based cloud configurator of in accordance to embodiments. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a neural sequence-to-sequence learning model that implements an intent translator in accordance to embodiments. FIG. 5 FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of the functionality of the AI-based cloud configurator system of when configuring a cloud system in response to an utterance of a user in accordance with one embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an artificial neural network that implements the intent translator in accordance to embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Entities Extraction Intent Refinement Process Intent Translation Intent Deployment One embodiment is an artificial intelligence based system that translates a user's utterance into intents that are used to configure a cloud system. Embodiments include an intent-refinement process that uses machine learning and feedback from the users to translate the user's utterances into cloud configurations. The refinement process uses a sequence-to-sequence learning model to extract intents from natural language and the feedback from the user to improve learning. Embodiments include an intermediate representation that resembles natural language that is suitable to collect feedback from the user but is structured enough to facilitate precise translations. Embodiments interact with a cloud user using natural language and translates the operator input to the intermediate representation before translating to cloud rules/policies. A “self-driving” cloud is an autonomous cloud configuration that can predict changes and adapt to user behaviors without the intervention of a cloud user. Successfully implementing an autonomous cloud would not only ease cloud management but also reduce operational costs. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (“AI”) offer an opportunity for the adoption of self-driving clouds, as machine learning models can identify patterns and learn how to respond to changes in the cloud. However, known cloud implementations generally fail to provide the correct tools to cloud users to exploit these new developments in AI, since they generally rely on low-level languages to specify cloud policies and complex interfaces to ensure that the specified policies are deployed correctly. Further, enterprise or personal cloud users generally do not have the skills to program their cloud and can benefit from a user-friendly management system. In contrast, embodiments provide an infrastructure to allow users to specify high-level policies that dictate how the cloud should behave, such as defining goals related to cloud network quality of service, cloud security, and performance, without needing to know or understand the low-level details that are necessary to program the cloud to achieve these goals. Embodiments extract intent information from pure natural language, and do not require cloud users to learn a new intent definition language and avoid hindering interoperability, deployment, and management of clouds. Highly complex and, sometimes, conflicting policies in cloud resources may cause cloud intents to derail from the desired behavior of the users. Further, the adoption of programmable cloud technologies introduce a new level of dynamism that results in constant changes in cloud conditions. Therefore, monitoring the cloud after deploying policies and requesting feedback from the user is needed for avoiding misconfigurations. Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments. Wherever possible, like reference numbers will be used for like elements. FIG. 1 FIG. 1 150 150 110 101 101 110 is an overview diagram of elements of an AI-based cloud computing configurator system that can implement embodiments of the invention. As shown in , system includes a multi-tenant “cloud” computer system that is formed of multiple customer instances or systems (each also referred to as a “pod”). Each cloud instance/pod can be considered a self-contained set of functionality—sometimes just an application server and database, sometimes a complete infrastructure with identity management, load balancing, firewalls and so on. Typically, however, the infrastructure services of cloud are shared across multiple applications and database pods. 101 101 110 Pods that serve smaller customers may be one-to-many, multi-tenant instances. Others are dedicated to one-to-one to a single customer. Some are many-to-one, for example a cluster of pods each serving the separate businesses of a large multi-national corporation. In one embodiment, cloud system is the “Cloud Infrastructure” from Oracle Corp. 150 10 110 110 10 75 110 System further includes an AI-based cloud configurator system that is externally coupled to cloud , or may be internally part of cloud . AI-based cloud configurator system receives utterances from a user, and in response configures cloud and all related cloud services such as networks, servers, load balancers, domain name system, databases, etc. FIG. 2 FIG. 1 10 10 10 10 is a block diagram of AI-based cloud configurator system of in the form of a computer server/system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Although shown as a single system, the functionality of system can be implemented as a distributed system. Further, the functionality disclosed herein can be implemented on separate servers or devices that may be coupled together over a network. Further, one or more components of system may not be included. 10 12 22 12 22 10 14 22 14 10 20 10 System includes a bus or other communication mechanism for communicating information, and a processor coupled to bus for processing information. Processor may be any type of general or specific purpose processor. System further includes a memory for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor . Memory can be comprised of any combination of random access memory (“RAM”), read only memory (“ROM”), static storage such as a magnetic or optical disk, or any other type of computer readable media. System further includes a communication device , such as a network interface card, to provide access to a network. Therefore, a user may interface with system directly, or remotely through a network, or any other method. 22 Computer readable media may be any available media that can be accessed by processor and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media, and communication media. Communication media may include computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. 22 12 24 26 28 12 10 Processor is further coupled via bus to a display , such as a Liquid Crystal Display (“LCD”) and includes a microphone for receiving user utterances. A keyboard and a cursor control device , such as a computer mouse, are further coupled to bus to enable a user to interface with system . 14 22 15 10 16 10 10 18 17 12 16 18 101 17 In one embodiment, memory stores software modules that provide functionality when executed by processor . The modules include an operating system that provides operating system functionality for system . The modules further include an AI-based cloud configurator module that uses AI to configure a cloud system in response to an utterance of a user, and all other functionality disclosed herein. System can be part of a larger system. Therefore, system can include one or more additional functional modules to include the additional functionality, such as the “Cloud Service” from Oracle Corp. A file storage device or database is coupled to bus to provide centralized storage for modules and , including data regarding any type of issues generated by each of instances/pods . In one embodiment, database is a relational database management system (“RDBMS”) that can use Structured Query Language (“SQL”) to manage the stored data. 17 In one embodiment, particularly when there are a large number of distributed files at a single device, database is implemented as an in-memory database (“IMDB”). An IMDB is a database management system that primarily relies on main memory for computer data storage. It is contrasted with database management systems that employ a disk storage mechanism. Main memory databases are faster than disk-optimized databases because disk access is slower than memory access, the internal optimization algorithms are simpler and execute fewer CPU instructions. Accessing data in memory eliminates seek time when querying the data, which provides faster and more predictable performance than disk. 17 In one embodiment, database , when implemented as an IMDB, is implemented based on a distributed data grid. A distributed data grid is a system in which a collection of computer servers work together in one or more clusters to manage information and related operations, such as computations, within a distributed or clustered environment. A distributed data grid can be used to manage application objects and data that are shared across the servers. A distributed data grid provides low response time, high throughput, predictable scalability, continuous availability, and information reliability. In particular examples, distributed data grids, such as, e.g., the “Oracle Coherence” data grid from Oracle Corp., store information in-memory to achieve higher performance, and employ redundancy in keeping copies of that information synchronized across multiple servers, thus ensuring resiliency of the system and continued availability of the data in the event of failure of a server. 10 10 In one embodiment, system is a computing/data processing system including an application or collection of distributed applications for enterprise organizations, and may also implement logistics, manufacturing, and inventory management functionality. The applications and computing system may be configured to operate with or be implemented as a cloud-based system, a software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) architecture, or other type of computing solution. As disclosed, a “self-driving” cloud in accordance to embodiments has a reduced management complexity due to intelligent and seamless planning. A cloud user can specify cloud policies without worrying how they would be achieved when interacting with embodiments. Further, the cloud user can use natural language to define the cloud behavior. The cloud behavior may include customer expectations to comply with Service Level Agreements (“SLA”s), cloud functions for security, temporal behavior for accommodating large flows during peak hours (e.g., load balancing), or cloud-wide goals such as minimizing cost or reducing traffic costs by relying on cheaper paths in the network. FIG. 3 FIG. 1 FIG. 3 10 10 75 240 242 244 is a block diagram the illustrates functional elements of AI-based cloud configurator of in accordance to embodiments. The functionality of provides a refinement process for intent specification that can learn and adapt itself to achieve the cloud behavior expressed by the user while providing a user-friendly interface for interactions with the user. System includes three stages of the refinement process functionality that interacts with user utterance : entities extractor (which includes a chatbot), intent translator , and intent deployer . 240 75 75 10 In embodiments, the first step in the intent refinement process at entities extractor is to extract the actions and targets of the cloud behavior expressed in natural language by the user as utterance . In embodiments, a chatbot is used to implement human-computer interactions based on natural language conversations. In one embodiment, “Digital Assistant” from Oracle Corp. is used to implement the chatbot and build a conversational AI interface between utterance and AI-based cloud configurator . 240 Entities extractor uses machine learning to generalize example cases, referred to as “entities”, and facilitates the extraction of features in the dialog. Entities extraction is a subtask of information extraction that seeks to locate and classify named entities mentioned in unstructured text into pre-defined categories, such as person names, organizations, locations, medical codes, time expressions, quantities, monetary values, percentages, etc. In the chatbot in embodiments, the entities include security, compliance, cost, monitoring metrics, alerting, site reliability engineering (“SRE”), service level agreement (“SLA”) requirements, temporal restrictions, and endpoints targeted by the user's intent. Digital Assistant provides the ability to deploy the chatbot across multiple platforms, including Amazon's Alexa, or messaging apps, such as Slack and Facebook's Messenger. Therefore, embodiments can allow a personal cloud user to configure their network using voice-activated assistants such as Amazon's Alexa. For example, they could request parental control for their kids' devices. 240 In embodiments, entities extractor is implemented as an Oracle Digital Assistant chat interface. The chat interface includes a list of entities, which are the key features to be parsed from natural language, and language intents (not related to network intents). Language intents represent possible user interactions that the chatbot creator provides for machine learning training so that Digital Assistant can generalize and learn how to extract the necessary entities from future user interactions. Despite being extremely useful for user interactions, simply using a chatbot does not fulfill all the requirements for cloud resources planning. In embodiments, the entities extracted from natural languages result in key-value pairs representing the user utterances. However, these pairs do not reflect the cloud configuration commands. For instance, if a cloud operator asks a chatbot “Please add additional storage”, a possible extraction result, depending on how the chatbot is built and trained, would be the following entities: “storage”. Therefore, after the chatbot interaction, embodiments still need to translate the entities into a structured intent that can be implemented in a destination cloud resources. With embodiments using Digital Assistant and other implementations, after the chatbot interface extracts all the required entities from the user utterances, the framework calls a representational state transfer (“REST”) application programming interface (“API”) in a backend service designated by a webhook. Webhooks are user-defined Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) callbacks. They are usually triggered by some event, such as pushing code to a repository or a comment being posted to a blog. When that event occurs, the source site makes an HTTP request to the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) configured for the webhook. Users can configure them to cause events on one site to invoke behavior on another. In embodiments, the webhook allows the heavy processing for translations to be performed. 240 242 Embodiments include a configured webhook from chatbot/entities extractor to intent translator to receive all the extracted entities. These entities are fed to a previously trained sequence-to-sequence learning model, which translates entities to structured intents written in an intent definition language. An intent definition language transforms natural language into device configurations. The intent definition language provides a simple, yet comprehensive, abstraction layer between lower-level policies and the natural language used by operators and home users. While low-level policy enforcers require operators with extensive expertise and management experience to program the intended behavior of a cloud resource/service, natural language is hard to parse and interpret correctly and often inaccurate, creating a huge gap between the intended behavior and the cloud resource/service configurations. Further, translating natural language intent directly to cloud resource/service rules decreases portability and reusability, since each possible destination cloud resource/service has specific features and configuration requirements. In contrast, the intent definition language in accordance to embodiments of the invention provide an intermediate intent representation that is close to natural language. However, the intent definition language has enough structure that works well as the target for the learning algorithm and allows translation to different target cloud resources. The use of the intent definition language as an intermediate representation in the refinement process decouples the policy extraction from the policy deployment and enforcement. The decoupling, with an intermediate representation that resembles natural language and is easy to understand, allows embodiments to use the feedback from the user/operator before deploying the extracted behavior. Further, the intent definition language in accordance to embodiments acts as an abstraction layer for other policy mechanisms, reducing the need for operators to learn multiple policy languages for each different type of cloud resource. The design requirements for the intent language grammar in accordance to embodiments include: (i) high legibility, as operators unfamiliar to the language must be able to understand and assert the correctness of the intent; (ii) high expressiveness, to faithfully represent the operator's intention; and (iii) high writability, to allow operators to make adjustments to the generated intents quickly and easily. An example of the intent definition language is as follows: define intent storage Intent : from endpoint ( ‘ FSS’ ) to endpoint ( ‘ storage ’ ) client ( for ‘ VM ’ ) add middlebox ( ‘ readwrite’ ) , middlebox ( ‘ rate ) with iodepth ( ‘ less ’ , ‘ 5 ’ ), rate ( ‘ more or equal ’ , ‘ 98kb ), filesize ( ‘ less or equal ’ , ‘ 100MB ) allow fsync ( ‘ on_close’ ) FIG. 4 FIG. 4 400 242 400 402 404 402 240 420 404 420 425 404 430 is a block diagram of a neural sequence-to-sequence learning model that implements intent translator in accordance to embodiments. Model is a Recurrent Neural Network (“RNN”s) with Long Short-Term Memory (“LSTM”) hidden units that form an encoder and a decoder . An RNN is a class of artificial neural networks where connections between nodes form a directed graph along a temporal sequence. This allows it to exhibit temporal dynamic behavior. LSTM is an artificial RNN architecture used in the field of deep learning that includes feedback connections. In this model, RNN encoder processes the sequence of words in the form of extracted entities from extractor and generates a thought vector , which is a numerical representation of the input sequence. Example entities shown in include “storage”, “files”, “band” and domain name system (“DNS”). RNN decoder receives thought vector as input and generates a sequence of words in the intent definition language at output . In embodiments, decoder includes multiple RNNs . Multiple RNNs are used in embodiments to improve the learning rates and prediction accuracy of linguistic models, as it can capture and represent the meaning of each word. 402 In general, a problem for known neural networks that can used for text-to-text translations is the enormous vocabulary that each language has, which requires large datasets and substantial time to train the models. In contrast, embodiments use previously extracted entities as input and a limited and well-defined language as output. Embodiments pre-process the extracted entities by replacing each extracted entity with a token representing it and using the token representation as input for RNN encoder . 402 422 240 424 This pre-processing includes of replacing each extracted entity with a token representing it and using the token representation as input for RNN encoder (input entities ). For example, if entities extractor outputs “storage” (at ), it would use anonymization to convert them to the tokens ‘@middlebox’ and ‘@target’ before starting the intent translation stage. After the translation, a deanonymization is run on the resulting intent program to replace the tokens with the originally extracted entities. By using anonymization, embodiments can reduce the number of training cases needed for the model considerably, since it does not have to consider every possible entity value for network intents. “Define”, “Intent” “Add (rules)” are examples of keywords as shown in the above example of the intent definition language. Because embodiments do not use words directly as input for the sequence-to-sequence model, each input word of the model is converted to a unique numerical representation. The numerical representation of the anonymized entities are the numeric indices in a pre-built dictionary that contains all words in the model. Therefore, embodiments perform a conversion using a vocabulary with just the words that include the words middlebox and target. 402 420 410 420 404 420 In addition to indexing the words of the input sequences, embodiments perform Word Embedding vectorization in the first layer of RNN encoder to concisely represent the indexed words as arrays of real values as thought vector . The word vectorization improves the learning rates and prediction accuracy of linguistic models, as it can capture and represent the meaning of each word. The array of real values, which represents the sequence of anonymized entities given as input to the sequence-to-sequence model, is then processed one by one by RNN encoder to generate thought vector . RNN decoder then uses encoded thought vector to predict a sequence of statements in the output language. 404 75 75 75 The structured intent definition generated by decoder is then presented to cloud user for confirmation on the extracted desired behavior through the chatbot interface. User may either confirm the correctness of the intent program or make adjustments if necessary. After the user's response, the intent program and the input entities are included in the training database of the sequence-to-sequence model, and a new training round is initiated. In this interaction, the user's feedback during the translation is explicitly considered, thus ensuring that the results improve every time user requests an action. 242 Intent translator in one embodiment is implemented as a Python Restful API service that is called by the Digital Assistant chat interface right after it extracts the entities. The service can interact with the chatbot interface to ask for additional information if necessary. Besides this interaction, the API provides a sequence-to-sequence model developed using Keras that is used to train this model. The weights of this model are trained and computed with an automatically generated dataset of input entries containing examples of anonymized entities and the corresponding natural language program, which is also anonymized. After generating the Navi intent and confirming it with the user feedback, the model is retrained by adding the intent to the training dataset. 244 242 Intent deployer in one embodiment is implemented as a separate Python Restful API service that is called by intent translator when it finishes the translation process. 75 244 110 After having a structured intent program verified by user , intent deployer can compile and deploy it into destination cloud resources in cloud system . In this stage, embodiments make assertions to verify any conflicts between the extracted intent and the cloud resource/service configuration and warn the user through the chatbot interface (e.g., an intent asking for more storage than is available on the required path). Embodiments then translate the intent programs into configuration commands. Embodiments can optionally include an intent behavior monitor module that ensures that the deployed policies respect the intents extracted by the refinement process. The intent behavior monitor module uses a neural network to predict which parameters should be monitored, and then monitors the parameters and notifies the operator in case of disparities between the behavior and the intent. FIG. 5 FIG. 1 FIG. 5 10 101 is a flow diagram of the functionality of AI-based cloud configurator system of when configuring any services of cloud system in response to an utterance of a user in accordance with one embodiment. In one embodiment, the functionality of the flow diagram of is implemented by software stored in memory or other computer readable or tangible medium, and executed by a processor. In other embodiments, the functionality may be performed by hardware (e.g., through the use of an application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”), a programmable gate array (“PGA”), a field programmable gate array (“FPGA”), etc.), or any combination of hardware and software. 502 75 110 At , the user utterances for configuring cloud system and related services are received. For example, an input utterance may be “Add storage from FSS to backend for client VM, with Rate less than 5 and 95 kb of file size, and allow FSS only”. 504 At , entities are extracted from the utterances. An intelligent chatbot interface is used to extract the main actions and targets (i.e., entities of a user intent from natural language). One embodiment implements the chatbot interface using the Oracle Digital Assistant, which uses machine learning to identify key aspects in the user's utterances without the need for extensively covering every possible entity value. In this chatbot, examples of entities are the cloud computing, analytics, cost management, compute, containers, database, Internet of Things (“IoT”), identity, storage, content delivery, security compliances, network endpoints, monitoring, logging, and temporal configurations for the policy. A natural language interface enables the deployment of this solution in distinct scenarios. For example, a personal cloud user can use embodiments to prioritize streaming traffic in their network during specific hours of the day. Another example is as follows: “Add security policy on VM and intrusion detection from security center to backend for client Load Balancer security group, with deny 0.0.0.0/0 and deny port 22”. 506 At , the entities are translated into high level language based entities. Embodiments use a neural sequence-to-sequence learning model to translate the extracted entities into a high-level structured cloud definition program. The program closely resembles natural language and is an intent definition language as disclosed above. 508 At , the high-level language is presented to the cloud users for confirmation on the extracted behavior. For personal cloud users with no technical knowledge, the confirmation can come from a voice assistant or a graphical interface. 510 At , the intent is generated and compiled into a cloud services policy. The cloud services policy is according to the destination cloud resources such as computing, network, security, analytics, logging and monitoring, etc. Embodiments also make assertions to verify any conflicts between the extracted intent and the cloud configuration. For example, an intent asking for more virtual machine (“VM”) storage than is available on the required storage generates an assertion to warns the user through the chatbot interface. 512 At , the cloud services are deployed and changes are made to the cloud system based on the user specified cloud service policies. One embodiment can be implemented as a software module for performing a neural network based cloud resources configuration using cloud intent definition language in an electronic data processing system. The software module includes a model setup block operable to receive client verbal input including information specifying a cloud resource configuration details, extract at least one entity from the utterance, and generate parameters for the cloud resource setup based on the received information. The software module further includes a modeling algorithm block operable to select and initialize a neural network modeling algorithm based on the generated cloud resource setup and a model building block operable to receive training data and build a neural network model using the training data and the selected neural network modeling algorithm. FIG. 6 FIG. 4 FIG. 4 600 242 600 400 400 600 602 602 604 606 608 610 is a block diagram of an artificial neural network that implements intent translator in accordance to embodiments. Artificial neural network can be used instead of neural network of in certain embodiments and is an example of an artificial neural network of a type that may be used as neural network of . Neural networks, such as network , are typically organized in layers. Layers are made up of a number of interconnected nodes, such as nodes A and B, each of which contains an activation function. Patterns are presented to the network via the input layer , which communicates to one or more hidden layers where the actual processing is done via a system of weighted connections . The hidden layers then link to an output layer where the answer is output. Most artificial neural networks contain some form of learning rule, which modifies the weights of the connections according to the input patterns that are presented. In a sense, artificial neural networks learn by example as do their biological counterparts. There are many different kinds of learning rules used by neural networks. A typical well-known learning rule is the delta rule. The delta rule is often utilized by the most common class of artificial neural networks, which are called backpropagational neural networks (“BPNN”s). Backpropagation refers to the backwards propagation of error in the neural network. 600 In embodiments, neural network is implemented as a plurality of recurrent neural networks that work together to transform one sequence to another. An encoder network condenses an input sequence into a vector, and a decoder network unfolds that vector into a new sequence. As disclosed, embodiments utilize an intent-refinement process for intelligent extraction of intents from natural language that uses feedbacks from cloud users to improve learning. Embodiments facilitate the compilation of intents into cloud services policies and deployment of intents in heterogeneous cloud resources. Embodiments implement a high-level, comprehensive intent definition language that resembles the English language and acts as an abstraction layer for other policy mechanisms, reducing the need for users to learn a new policy language for each different type of network. Several embodiments are specifically illustrated and/or described herein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the disclosed embodiments are covered by the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.
Consider the following diagram representing seats in a movie theater where each seat is specified by a row number ranging from 1 to 7 (inclusive) and a column number ranging from 1 to 10 (inclusive). The theater's ticketing system has already allocated Andrew ("A"), Sally ("S") and Rufus ("R") seats for an upcoming screening. The ticketing system stores ticketing information in a collection called TICKETS. TICKETS is composed of nodes where values alternate between integers and strings - each integer has encoded seating information for the customer whose name is held as a string in the next node. The first two digits and the last two digits of each integer specify the row number and column number of a seat respectively. For example, Rufus has a ticket for the third seat across in the second row. TICKETS contains only those customers with a ticket and all ticket holders have exactly one allocated seat each. (a). Write in pseudocode a procedure that outputs all ticket holder names held in TICKETS. (b). Identify one problem with storing ticketing information in this way and explain why a 2D array would be more appropriate. (c).	https://www.n7.education/questions/40c5cb17-8895-4e91-b6f4-695eaf43e5b2
Why the red flashing LED indicator light sudden flash? In daily life, indicators play a role of information interaction, generally through a variety of light color to express different signals. Flashing lights are flashing in the same color to convey information, complete information interaction. Like some stage lights, strobe lights, sound equipment and so on. The blinking time of the device can be set. At the same interval, the LED keeps blinking, which can also be called breath light, which is a common way of information interaction. The reasons of sudden flashing can be classified into four categories. 1、Voltage instability Normally, the light don’t flash when it is turned off. If it flickers, it could be due to an unstable voltage situation. In the use of lights, if the indoor capacity is relatively low, such as more electrical appliances, then it will cause voltage instability, may be turned off when the CFL flashing. 2、Power source If the socket is loose, so you need to take it off, and then plug it back in, so that will avoid flashing. In many cases, it’s all flickering due to loosing. After reprocessing again, it can be used directly, there will be no flashing situation. 3、The switch used to control lamp with indicator light Because this “capacitive character” indicator light is constantly charged and discharged, bring about fluorescent lamp flashing, when it comes to this kind of situation, please remove switch and indicator light, it will be ok. 4、The switch is set on the zero line, caused by electrification of lamp body Switch is set on zero line, the lamp body, switch and zero line become”capacitor”. Because this kind “capacitor” charge-discharge phenomenon, keep the fluorescent lamp flashing at night. In this case, change the zero and fire lines, just use the switch to control the live wire. For different equipment, flashing LED indicator light means different things. 1、Normally, the red light of the device is constantly flashing, which is likely to be the fault of the device. As the indicator light of information interaction, it is constantly flashing to convey the fault signal. 2、For some devices, flashing LED indicator light means that the device is running normally, and flashing red light means that the device is working. 3、When the power of some charging device is low, the device will constantly flash red to remind us that it is time to charge the device. Flashing LED indicator light is used on different equipment, which expresses different meanings. Therefore, before use it, you can read the instructions for the operation of the equipment carefully. When you have questions , please call to consult and solve the problem in time. The 8mm red flashing LED indicator light had passed the certifications of UL, VDE, CE, ISO90001, which can ensure the product’s quality. Filn also produces more than 1000 kinds of indicator light. If you have any questions or you want to customize indicator light, please contact with us at [email protected]. Comments More articles from Yulin ElectronicView blog Custom indicator light Filn was founded in 1998, has 20 years of experien ... Two-color LED indicator light What is the red-green two-color LED indicator ligh ... How does the LED indicator emit mixed color light? Light emitting diodes are called LED for short. It ...	https://cn.bebee.com/producer/why-the-red-flashing-led-opO4sTkjhWmK
The Cookie Problem February 1, 2014: Topic: Sequences, Series & Patterns Team: Cookie Monsters Views - Jude fails her math exam, so she eats cookies to grieve. Find out how many cookies she eats on the fifth day in our video. Common Core Standards: F-LE.1 Problem #:	https://videochallenge.mathcounts.org/videos/cookie-problem
This page includes contact information about the Nottingham Village like street address and directions, phone number, inspections, penalties and other useful information. This facility address is: 58 Neitz Road, Northumberland, PA, 17857. Nottingham Village is ranked 1 out of 1 total Nursing Home Facilities in the city of Northumberland, 28 out of 68 facilities within 20 mile radius and 400 out of 702 facilities within the state of Pennsylvania. They have 113.0 Residents in Beds and 121.0 Medicaid Beds. About Nursing home and Assisted living - 121 certified beds - Participates in : Medicare and Medicaid - Automatic sprinkler systems in all required areas :Yes - Within a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) - Not in a hospital - Resident council only Cost and Pricing Information \|Facility\|\|Private Room Monthly Cost\|\|Non-private Room Monthly Cost\| \|Nottingham Village*\|\|$8,364\|\|$6,387\| \|State Average Cost\|\|$9,733\|\|$9,071\| \|On Medicaid it may be possible to to have the full cost of care covered, less the income of the individual receiving care.\| Online services Inspection Results Each year, an inspection is carried out by the Regional Liaison Officers to ensure that the services offered by a nursing home meet the official requirements. The Department of Social Development brings in the inspecting officers. The examinations are usually a surprise, and their completion can take a couple of days. Besides yearly evaluations from the Department of Social Development, they can also make an extra visit if there are contentions about the well-being of nursing home residents. For evaluating the situation and taking suitable action, a follow-up visit can be made. Moreover, yearly inspections are performed by the Department of Health Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (Public Health) and the Department of Public Safety inspection services, including the Office of the Fire Marshal as well. As the checks take place annually, they should always be updated before the issuance or renewal of licenses of nursing homes. Overall rating: 3 (Average). - Quality of resident care: 5 (Much Above Average). - Long-stay quality of resident care: 5 (Much Above Average). Health inspections The health examinations page of Nursing Home Compare has the following information: - Info on a nursing home’s health inspections - Complaints filed - Resulting citations Nursing homes, which are certified by Medicare and Medicaid, are investigated annually. Health care specialists thoroughly examine a nursing home for any present health and safety citations. The rating on a health examination page is rewarded according to a nursing home’s most recent and the last two health assessments. Results of the preceding three years of complaint files and inspection revisits are also accounted for in the star rating. - Health Inspection rating: 2 (Below Average). - Total number of health citations: 10 - Average number of health citations in Pennsylvania: 8.8 - Average number of health citations in the U.S.: 8.3 Fire safety inspections Medicare or Medicaid-certified nursing homes should always meet the official safety standards set by government authoritiesto guarantee the safety of the residents. Fire safety experts check the nursing homes for the LSC (Life Safety Code) bar,fire safety, and emergency readiness set of CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). These are intended for preventingfires and protecting residents in unfortunate cases of emergency like a fire, tornado, flood, hurricane, gas leak, or power failure. - Automatic Sprinkler Systems in All Required Areas: Yes - Total number of fire safety citations: 5 - Average number of fire safety citations in PA: 4.8 - Average number of fire safety citations in the U.S.: 3.0 Staffing rating Data in the Staffing Rating section mentions any present licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPN/LVN), registered nurses (RN),nurse aides, and physical therapists (PT). Note that physical therapists are not counted in the “all staffing” rating. Additionally,the staff-resident health ratio is also considered in the “staffing” star rating. A nursing home that houses residents of lower and averagehealth might need more staff as compared to a nursing home where the average health condition of the residents is better. - Staffing rating: 2 (Below Average). - Average number of residents per day: 103.9 (the state of 109.4 and a National average of 86.1). - Total number of licensed nurse staff hours per resident per day: 1 hour and 36 minutes (the state of 1 hour and 40 minutes and a National average of 1 hour and 34 minutes). - RN hours per resident per day: 28 minutes (the state of 48 minutes and a National average of 41 minutes). - LPN/LVN hours per resident per day: 1 hour and 8 minutes (the state of 51 minutes and a National average of 52 minutes). - Nurse aide hours per resident per day: 2 hours and 1 minute (the state of 2 hours and 9 minutes and a National average of 2 hours and 18 minutes). - Physical therapist staff hours per resident per day: 7 minutes (the state of 5 minutes and a National average of 5 minutes). Registered Nurse staffing rating These are certified healthcare workers responsible for coordination, management, and general delivery of care to the residentsof a nursing home. The rating of RN staffing depends on the staff-sick resident ratio. Some residents of a nursing home are not ashealthy as other residents might need more care, so nursing homes with more RN staff will be better equipped to fulfill the caring needs of such residents. - Registered Nurse staffing rating: 2 (Below Average). - Average number of residents per day: 103.9 (the state of 109.4 and a National average of 86.1). - RN hours per resident per day: 28 minutes (the state of 48 minutes and a National average of 41 minutes). Penalties If a nursing home receives a severe citation and is unable to improve on it for long, a penalty may be imposed. This penalty can be either a fine or a canceled payment from Medicare. - Federal fines in the last 3 years: 1 - Amount(s) and date(s): $6,893 on 08/29/2017 - Payment denials by Medicare in the last 3 years: 0 Popular questions at Nottingham Village What is a nursing home? A nursing home is a facility for old adults that provides medical services as well as help with important daily tasks, such as eating and bathing. Patients in nursing homes are supervised by a team of physicians and nurses to ensure that care is always available. Nursing homes provide visitation options so that patients can maintain their relationships with their loved ones. How to file a complaint against a nursing home? If you encounter a problem at a nursing home, the first step is to talk to the staff about reporting procedures. Many facilities have social workers or other professionals on hand specifically to deal with problems that may arise. The facility should also have a procedure in place to report problems internally. If the problem isn’t solved, you can report the nursing home to a state office or advocacy group. Your state’s department of health should have information available about how to report a nursing home. How can I prevent a nursing home from taking my home? There are a few different things you can do with your property to avoid having it seized by Medicaid. One option is to put your home into an irrevocable trust, which legally protects your property from Medicaid. You may also be able to protect your property by forming a life estate or gifting it to someone. However, there can be complicated tax ramifications to these actions, so it’s best to talk to a lawyer before doing so. How much does it cost to live in a nursing home? There are many factors that determine the cost of a nursing home, such as location and specific services. The average yearly cost for a semi-private room in a nursing home is $89,297, while a private room is $100,375. The costs for assisted living and retirement communities tend to be much more affordable as they do not provide extensive medical services. The average cost of an assisted living facility is $43,200 per year. How to transfer a patient from one nursing home to another? Moving a patient to a new nursing home can be difficult, particularly if you are using Medicaid to pay for your care. If you are staying in the same state, you will just need to make sure that the new nursing home has Medicaid beds available. However, if you are moving to a different state, you will need to apply for Medicaid separately in that state. Every state has different Medicaid rules, so this process can take some time.	https://allnursinghomes.info/org/nottingham-village/
(Camden, NJ) – Camden County is one of nine communities to receive a $100,000 grant aimed at advancing plans to strengthen local innovation ecosystems. Governor Phil Murphy announced that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) will provide the funding through the pilot round of the Innovation Challenge. “In order to continue the historic economic growth we are experiencing in Camden City, we will utilize the funding to develop a holistic, integrated approach to improving downtown Camden’s surface transportation performance and integrate this plan with other best practices involving public safety,” said Freeholder Susan Shin Angulo, liaison to the Camden County Department of Public Works. “Joined by our partners in the public and private sector, Camden County intends to address how emerging transportation data, technologies and applications can be integrated with existing systems to address Camden’s current and future transportation challenges.” The growth in employment and investments by the public and private sectors in Camden City has reached nearly $2 billion. Over 2,000 new jobs have been created in the past few years and this number will increase by an additional 3,000 new jobs in the next three years. This economic renaissance coincides with the growing success of the waterfront attractions and related seasonal special events, along with educational and medical institutions, to create a diverse foundation for a strong downtown. “Today’s cities demand state-of-the-art solutions to accommodate their growing populations, employment and investments. We must study ways to optimize existing infrastructure, and to leverage citizen participation to create better land-use decisions, that will stimulate a creative, entrepreneurial economy. In short, smart cities are innovative cities,” Shin Angulo said. “The challenge that we are currently faced with is that the existing downtown street grid of Camden City is antiquated and ill-prepared to handle this influx of economic growth.” Over the past decade, cities of all sizes have determined that efficient transportation systems are a key ingredient to economic growth with local, county and state governments across the country developing smarter mobility solutions to address the complex traffic issues that cities face. Smarter transportation systems recognize that there is a shift from transport operators reacting to situations, to anticipating and avoiding them. Intelligent transport systems attempt to integrate and interconnect information from multiple governmental departments and public agencies to enhance safety and reduce congestion. Camden County will work with Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, Rowan University’s School of Engineering and Verizon to outline a five-year plan and implementation strategy. The first component of this plan being an intelligent traffic system network. “Cooper’s Ferry Partnership is excited to work with the city, county and its partners to develop a plan for a smart city, a plan that incorporates intelligent transportation systems with adaptive signal controls,” said Kris Kolluri, CEO for Cooper’s Ferry Partnership. In July, the EDA launched the Innovation Challenge giving government entities an opportunity to submit proposals and compete for planning awards of up to $100,000 each. The other communities receiving awards for their planning proposals are: the City of Bridgeton, the City of New Brunswick, Passaic County, the City of Trenton, Atlantic County, the City of Atlantic City, Union Township and Monmouth County.	https://www.camdencounty.com/camden-county-awarded-state-innovation-challenge-grant-to-improve-city-infrastructure/
Creamy Fresh Lemon Ice Cream This bright and sunny, smooth and creamy, fresh lemon ice cream has the perfect balance of surprisingly tart and pleasantly sweet. This “American-Style” or “Philadelphia-Style” ice cream is made with no eggs or egg yolks so that the bright, sunny, lemon flavor can really shine. A little corn syrup is added, too, so that this ice cream will be extra creamy and scoop-able, and will stay that way to the last scoop. For some helpful tips before you begin, click here. Makes about 1.5 quarts. INGREDIENTS: - 2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream - 1 cup (240 ml) half & half - 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar - Zest of 4 lemons (about 1/3 cup or 24 g) - Juice of 4 lemons (about 1 cup or 240 ml) - 1 can (397 g or 14-ounce) sweetened condensed milk - 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla - 1/3 cup (80 ml) corn syrup - 1/8 teaspoon (.75 g) sea salt INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Do ahead: – Freeze the ice cream maker canister and the ice cream container at least 24 hours before preparing the creamy lemon ice cream base. 2. Heat the heavy cream and half & half with the sugar and zest. – Combine the heavy cream, half & half, sugar and lemon zest in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. – Heat over medium heat until just beginning to simmer and the sugar is completely dissolved. – Remove from the heat and let steep until it cools to room temperature. - Letting the mixture steep will help release the essential oils from the lemon zest, adding flavor, aroma and color. 3. Combine with the remaining ingredients. – In a large bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, vanilla, corn syrup and salt until smooth and combined. – Pour the cooled cream mixture through a sieve (to remove the zest) into the bowl and stir until combined. (Press out as much flavor as you can from the zest.) - The mixture will thicken like custard as you stir. 4. Chill the ice cream base. – Chill in the refrigerator at least overnight and up to 2 days. 5. Churn the ice cream. – Give the ice cream base a stir and then pour into the ice cream maker. – Churn for 25 to 30 minutes. (Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.) - This creamy lemon ice cream will be soft (like very soft “soft-serve”). It will firm up nicely in the freezer. So don’t be tempted to over-churn the ice cream or it will become butter. 6. Freeze the ice cream until firm. – Remove the churned ice cream into pre-chilled ice cream containers. – Cover with plastic wrap making full contact with the surface of the ice cream. – Freeze until firm to your liking, 4 to 8 hours. *** About this recipe Bright, tart lemon, mellowed with creamy sweetness and a touch of vanilla. This “American-style” or “Philadelphia-style” ice cream has no eggs or egg yolks, allowing the sunny lemon flavor to really shine through unmuted. And a touch of corn syrup will keep this ice cream from becoming rock hard or icy. TIPS: Here are 4 helpful tips: 1) Fresh lemons only. – There is no substitute for the bright zing of fresh lemon juice. Plus, lemon zest cannot come from a bottle. - Lemon zest is the outermost yellow part of the rind. The zest holds essential oils, which add citrusy flavor and aroma. 2) Everything must be cold, cold, cold! – Keeping everything at its coldest will ensure your lemon ice cream is as fluffy as it can be. - Freeze the ice cream maker’s canister at least 24 hours. Your ice cream will never churn to its fluffiest unless the canister is absolutely frozen through. - Chill your ice cream base at least overnight. (Although 24 hours is best.) This not only ensures your ice cream base is at its coldest, it also allows the flavors to meld and develop. - Freeze the container where you will be keeping your lemon ice cream at least the night before. That way your fluffy, just-churned ice cream won’t melt and liquify from being placed in a room temperature container. 3) Why sweetened condensed milk? – Sweetened condensed milk is often seen as a “shortcut” in ice cream as a replacement for the egg yolks. But it’s more than that. I often choose to use sweetened condensed milk when I want the flavors of the ice cream to shine on their own, unmuted by the richness of egg yolks, but without losing the creaminess. 4) Why the corn syrup? – Using a little corn syrup in your ice cream base will prevent the formation of ice crystals and will help keep your creamy lemon ice cream smooth, creamy and scoop-able. *** Related Recipes Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bars Brown Butter “Crack” Pie Ice Cream Click here for more Ice Cream recipes!	https://aeslinbakes.com/2021/06/05/creamy-fresh-lemon-ice-cream-eggless/
RE: log_buffer Value setting NOT effective ? Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 13:21:19 +0530 Message-ID: <69E1360E54B50C4A828A136C158E474203AA950FFB@BLRKECMBX02.ad.infosys.com> Folks Even though log_buffer is set to 1M, on Database Startup it is automatically getting reset to 14MB (shown below) Qs 1 - Is there a Patch for this Bug? Qs 2 - Alternatively, Can _ksmg_granule_size be manually set to a small Value e.g. 1M? Is it safe to do so? Oracle 10.2.0.3 HP-UX 11.31 Cheers & Thanks indeed P.S. Metalink Note:351857.1 posting:- This is already explained in bug 4592994.<https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_id=4592994&p_database_id=BUG> In 10.2 the log buffer is rounded up to use the rest of the granule. The granule size can be found from the hidden parameter "_ksmg_granule_size" and in your case is probably 16Mb. The calculation for the granule size is a little convoluted but it depends on the number of datafiles etc..	http://www.orafaq.com/maillist/oracle-l/2008/05/22/0573.htm
Q: Viscosity of a fluid with TikZ or PStricks or other packages for students of a high school The viscosity is a physical quantity indicated with the Greek letter η which refers to fluids and gases and represents the resistance of a fluid to flow. In the net there are different images where the concept of viscosity is explained. I could create the images with Mathcha but according to your creativity in LaTeX, I would like to show my students, even with an animation, the viscosity in relation to the figures below. Thank you very much everyone. I add my MWE, %% Compile and read me! \documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article} \usepackage{tikz} \begin{document} \tikzset{every picture/.style={line width=0.75pt}} %set default line width to 0.75pt \begin{tikzpicture}[x=0.75pt,y=0.75pt,yscale=-1,xscale=1] %uncomment if require: \path (0,300); %set diagram left start at 0, and has height of 300 %Shape: Cube [id:dp8492544147077676] \draw [fill={rgb, 255:red, 245; green, 166; blue, 35 } ,fill opacity=1 ] (102,188) -- (174,116) -- (291.5,116) -- (291.5,127) -- (219.5,199) -- (102,199) -- cycle ; \draw (291.5,116) -- (219.5,188) -- (102,188) ; \draw (219.5,188) -- (219.5,199) ; %Shape: Cube [id:dp3646686385101303] \draw [fill={rgb, 255:red, 184; green, 233; blue, 134 } ,fill opacity=1 ] (111.5,178.46) -- (173.96,116) -- (291.5,116) -- (291.5,125.54) -- (229.04,188) -- (111.5,188) -- cycle ; \draw (291.5,116) -- (229.04,178.46) -- (111.5,178.46) ; \draw (229.04,178.46) -- (229.04,188) ; %Shape: Cube [id:dp8548923286577379] \draw [fill={rgb, 255:red, 126; green, 211; blue, 33 } ,fill opacity=1 ] (128.5,168.46) -- (190.96,106) -- (308.5,106) -- (308.5,115.54) -- (246.04,178) -- (128.5,178) -- cycle ; \draw (308.5,106) -- (246.04,168.46) -- (128.5,168.46) ; \draw (246.04,168.46) -- (246.04,178) ; %Shape: Cube [id:dp9271648006556463] \draw [fill={rgb, 255:red, 184; green, 233; blue, 134 } ,fill opacity=1 ] (144.5,158.46) -- (206.96,96) -- (324.5,96) -- (324.5,105.54) -- (262.04,168) -- (144.5,168) -- cycle ; \draw (324.5,96) -- (262.04,158.46) -- (144.5,158.46) ; \draw (262.04,158.46) -- (262.04,168) ; %Shape: Cube [id:dp7317737198627721] \draw [fill={rgb, 255:red, 184; green, 233; blue, 134 } ,fill opacity=1 ] (162.5,148.46) -- (224.96,86) -- (342.5,86) -- (342.5,95.54) -- (280.04,158) -- (162.5,158) -- cycle ; \draw (342.5,86) -- (280.04,148.46) -- (162.5,148.46) ; \draw (280.04,148.46) -- (280.04,158) ; %Straight Lines [id:da544553702567177] \draw (89,165) -- (89.45,135) ; \draw [shift={(89.5,132)}, rotate = 450.87] [fill={rgb, 255:red, 0; green, 0; blue, 0 } ][line width=0.08] [draw opacity=0] (10.72,-5.15) -- (0,0) -- (10.72,5.15) -- (7.12,0) -- cycle ; %Straight Lines [id:da5553452645980281] \draw (89,165) -- (88.54,202) ; \draw [shift={(88.5,205)}, rotate = 270.72] [fill={rgb, 255:red, 0; green, 0; blue, 0 } ][line width=0.08] [draw opacity=0] (10.72,-5.15) -- (0,0) -- (10.72,5.15) -- (7.12,0) -- cycle ; %Straight Lines [id:da4092251015809141] \draw [color={rgb, 255:red, 208; green, 2; blue, 27 } ,draw opacity=1 ][line width=3] (165.21,106) -- (210.71,106) ; \draw [shift={(216.71,106)}, rotate = 180] [fill={rgb, 255:red, 208; green, 2; blue, 27 } ,fill opacity=1 ][line width=0.08] [draw opacity=0] (18.75,-9.01) -- (0,0) -- (18.75,9.01) -- (12.45,0) -- cycle ; %Straight Lines [id:da20993884080259373] \draw (89.5,132) -- (185.5,132.46) ; %Shape: Cube [id:dp19016897937864674] \draw [fill={rgb, 255:red, 184; green, 233; blue, 134 } ,fill opacity=1 ] (185.5,138.46) -- (247.96,76) -- (365.5,76) -- (365.5,85.54) -- (303.04,148) -- (185.5,148) -- cycle ; \draw (365.5,76) -- (303.04,138.46) -- (185.5,138.46) ; \draw (303.04,138.46) -- (303.04,148) ; %Straight Lines [id:da5986734259342672] \draw [color={rgb, 255:red, 139; green, 87; blue, 42 } ,draw opacity=1 ][line width=3] (303.04,138.46) -- (413.5,138.97) ; \draw [shift={(419.5,139)}, rotate = 180.27] [fill={rgb, 255:red, 139; green, 87; blue, 42 } ,fill opacity=1 ][line width=0.08] [draw opacity=0] (18.75,-9.01) -- (0,0) -- (18.75,9.01) -- (12.45,0) -- cycle ; %Straight Lines [id:da9278072671355249] \draw [color={rgb, 255:red, 155; green, 155; blue, 155 } ,draw opacity=1 ][line width=3] (280.04,158) -- (361.5,158) ; \draw [shift={(367.5,158)}, rotate = 180] [fill={rgb, 255:red, 155; green, 155; blue, 155 } ,fill opacity=1 ][line width=0.08] [draw opacity=0] (18.75,-9.01) -- (0,0) -- (18.75,9.01) -- (12.45,0) -- cycle ; %Straight Lines [id:da24576074460285446] \draw [color={rgb, 255:red, 189; green, 16; blue, 224 } ,draw opacity=1 ][line width=3] (246.04,178) -- (306.5,178.91) ; \draw [shift={(312.5,179)}, rotate = 180.86] [fill={rgb, 255:red, 189; green, 16; blue, 224 } ,fill opacity=1 ][line width=0.08] [draw opacity=0] (18.75,-9.01) -- (0,0) -- (18.75,9.01) -- (12.45,0) -- cycle ; % Text Node \draw (91.25,151.9) node [anchor=north west][inner sep=0.75pt] [font=\large] {$h$}; % Text Node \draw (173,84.4) node [anchor=north west][inner sep=0.75pt] [font=\large] {$\mathbf{F}$}; % Text Node \draw (267.25,89.9) node [anchor=north west][inner sep=0.75pt] [font=\large] {$S$}; % Text Node \draw (385,113.4) node [anchor=north west][inner sep=0.75pt] [font=\large] {$\mathbf{v}$}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{document} A: This is a primitive example of an animation, which shows what happens if you increase the viscosity. The various parameters are stored in pgf keys (except for the number of layers because the parse=true option of foreach doesn't work well with integers). The bounding box gets recorded in the aux file. \documentclass[tikz,border=3mm]{standalone} \usetikzlibrary{perspective} \makeatletter \tikzset{recycle bounding box/.style={% execute at end picture={% \immediate\write\@mainaux{\xdef\string\tikz@bbox@figbb@#1{% {\the\pgf@picminx,\the\pgf@picminy,\the\pgf@picmaxx,\the\pgf@picmaxy}}\relax}}, execute at begin picture={% \ifcsname tikz@bbox@figbb@#1\endcsname \edef\figbb{\csname tikz@bbox@figbb@#1\endcsname}% \path ({\figbb[0]},{\figbb[1]}) ({\figbb[2]},{\figbb[3]}); \fi}}} \makeatother \tikzset{pics/3d layer/.style={code={ \def\pv##1{\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/3d layer/##1}} \tikzset{/tikz/3d layer/.cd,#1} \path[3d layer/all,3d layer/fore] (-\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,-\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,-\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- (-\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- cycle; \path[3d layer/all,3d layer/side] (\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,-\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,\pv{y}/2,-\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- cycle; \path[3d layer/all,3d layer/top] (-\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,-\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- (\pv{x}/2,\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- (-\pv{x}/2,\pv{y}/2,\pv{z}/2) -- cycle; }}, 3d layer/.cd,x/.initial=2,y/.initial=2,z/.initial=0.2, fore/.style={}, side/.style={}, top/.style={}, all/.style={draw,fill=blue!20}, } \begin{document} \foreach \Z in {1,...,40} {\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,recycle bounding box=A] \begin{scope}[3d view={30}{10},declare function={mu=1+\Z/20; zboundary=0.1;zfluid=0.2;}] \def\Nlayer{6} \path pic{3d layer={all/.append style={fill=gray!60},z=zboundary}} foreach \Y in {0,...,\Nlayer} {(0.1\Y/mu,0,zboundary+\Yzfluid) pic{3d layer={z=zfluid}}} (0.1\Nlayer/mu,0,\Nlayerzfluid+zfluid) pic{3d layer={all/.append style={fill=gray!60},z=zboundary}} ; \end{scope} \end{tikzpicture}} \end{document}
My understanding is that light can not escape from within a black hole (within the event horizon). I've also heard that information cannot propagate faster than the speed of light. It would seem to ... The title says it all. If I was on a bus at 60 km/h, and I started walking on the bus at a steady pace of 5 km/h, then I'd technically be moving at 65 km/h, right? So my son posed me an interesting ... Now this might be a silly question but it's actually bugging me, this one might be easier to understand if you have kids that watch (or used to watch) Peppa Pig. In one of the episodes, about shadows, ... So light travels slower in glass (for example) than in a vacuum. What causes light to slow down? Or: How does it slow down? If light passes through the medium, is it not essentially traveling in the ... As I learned today in School, my teacher told me that when light enters a Glass Slab it slows down due to the change in density and it speeds up as it goes out of the Glass Slab. This causes a lateral ... I was told that the Galilean relative velocity rule does not apply to the speed of light. No matter how fast two objects are moving, the speed of light will remain same for both of them. How and why ... Wikipedia has this page on gravity assists using planets. In some cases this effect was used to accelerate the spacecraft to a higher velocity. This diagram shows this in a very oversimplified manner. ... There is currently a debate ongoing on leading maths blog Gödel’s Lost Letter, between Gil Kalai and Aram Harrow, with the former arguing that building a quantum computer may not be possible due to ... I am referring to this video, on YouTube, by minutephysics, which has quite a lot of views. In the video it states that if you flick your wrist while pointing a laser that reaches the moon, that the ... I read with interest about Einstein's Theory of Relativity and his proposition about the speed of light being the universal speed limit. So, if I were to travel in a spacecraft at (practically) the ... If time is treated as a fourth dimension of spacetime, what is relation between length and time units? Or in other words, how can I convert time units to length units, for instance seconds to meters? ... What shape does the viewer in a reference frame with $v=0$ perceive? I suppose that since the sphere moves in one direction only (oX only, not oY) its section would change into an ellipse, where the ... I will try to be as explanatory as possible with my question. Please also note that I have done my share of googling and I am looking for simple language preferable with some example so that I can get ... Quite a few of the questions given on this site mention a photon in vacuum having a rest frame such as it having a zero mass in its rest frame. I find this contradictory since photons must travel at ... Let's say we have $2$ particles facing each other and traveling at speed of light Let's say I'm sitting on #$1$ particle so in my point of view #$2$ particle's speed is $c+c=2c$, double light speed? ... Cavendish measured the gravitation constant $G$, but actually he measured that constant on the Earth. What’s the proof that the value of the gravitation constant if measured on Neptune would remain ... Why does light have the speed it does? why is it not considerably faster or slower than it is? I can't imagine science, being what it is, not pursuing a rational scientific explanation for the speed ... I understand that information cannot be transmitted at a velocity greater than speed of light. I think of this in terms of the radio broadcast: the station sends out carrier frequencies $\omega_c$ but ... Photons are massless, but if $m = 0$ and $E=mc^2$, then $E = 0c^2 = 0$. This would say that photons have no energy, which is not true. However, given the formula $E = ℎf$, a photon does have energy ... I've been told that, from Maxwell's equations, one can find that the propagation of change in the Electromagnetic Field travels at a speed $\frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu_0 \epsilon_0}}$ (the values of which can ... To an an external observer it appears that time has stopped for photon. But this relation is reflexive, so for an observer travelling with the photon it appears the universe has stopped everywhere. ...
Nobody asks any questions in Casablanca. It had been easy for the three men to find someone to buy the dinghy for enough money to get a room, eat dinner, and now sit down to relax and talk in a small bar. Ignatius noticed framed pictures on the wall behind them. They all contained the likeness of a petite woman with short dark hair. He was curious because in every picture she was posing with a trophy deer, elk, or holding a very large rifle. “Hmmm, Annie Oakley, I presume,” he mused pointing to the photos. “Nope. Ruth Smith. That’s me.” The female voice came from behind them. All three men turned to see that the woman who had spoken was the same as the woman in the photos. The men were too surprised to say anything, so Ruth continued. “I can see the questions on your faces. Yes, I am a noted game hunter. I’m not hunting now because I own this bar. And… what’ll you gents have?” “How about something special, a surprise.” DeForest made the request. Ruth returned to the bar and the three men began discussing their next step. “Ve need to get over two thousand miles south,“ Wilhelm shook his head in disbelief. “Over the Atlas Mountains, through the Sahara Desert, and into the jungles of French Vest Africa.” The other men nodded. “And then try to find the cave with the gold.” DeForest sounded doubtful. “Unless, we could…“ Ignatius looked briefly hopeful… “but we don’t have enough money.” “We could what?” DeForest prodded. “There is a rail line that runs from Casablanca to Timbuktu. We could take the train. But we don’t have the money for the fare, let along money to buy food or provisions for that long a journey.” Ruth brought the drinks to the table, then, stood back to see their reactions as they sampled her ‘surprise.’ “Ach, mein Gott, das ist gut,” exclaimed Wilhelm. Ignatius and DeForest agreed. “That is fantastic. What’s in it? Asked Ignatius. “Sorry. Family secret.” Ruth shook her head and smiled. She started to walk away but she paused, looked around, and then turned back to the three men. “You know, I’m a little tired of this place and I miss a challenging hunt. Voices carry in this bar and I believe I might be a valuable partner in your mission.” Ignatius looked at the other men then said, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Oh,” Ruth said. “Little jaunt through half of Africa, cave with gold? How about no money to get there? As a full partner, I can finance the expedition.” Ignatius looked at Wilhelm and DeForest. Wilhelm shrugged approval, DeForest nodded. “Okay.” Ignatius agreed. “On one condition.” “What’s that?” asked Ruth. “That you tell us how to make this incredible drink.” Ignatius held up his glass. “To get to go on this adventure? Well worth it.” 2 tablespoons black tea 20 cardamom pods, crushed 3 tablespoons sugar 3/4 cup packed spearmint leaves, plus extra for garnish 2-3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 5 ounces white rum 1 ounce white rum 1 1/2 teaspoons rosewater Soda water Ice Instructions make the cardamom tea concentrate: Place the tea and crushed cardamom pods in a heatproof measuring cup, and add boiling water to bring the mixture to the 3/4 cup mark. Let steep 10-20 minutes. Strain the tea mixture into a jar, squeezing the liquid out of the tea and cardamom pods to extract all the liquid and chill. Muddle the mint leaves and sugar together in another measuring cup to bruise the mint. Add the lime and lemon juices, starting with the smaller amounts; stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour chilled tea into the mint mixture and then strain the mint/tea mixture into a pitcher, squeezing the leaves to extract all the liquid. Stir in the white and dark rums and the rosewater. Fill large tumbler with ice and several mint leaves. Pour mixture over ice, leaving room for soda water. Top with a bit of soda water, stir, and garnish with a mint leaf.	https://gamesmensociety.com/casablanca/
This is a continuation from yesterday. We are focusing on the future and the world we would like to live in. This is my version; however, I am more than open to your version. Of course you can live in any world you would like, it simply takes being open to the possibilities while focusing on your desires. What I am attempting to do here is to present my version of a perfect society and get you to envision your perfect society as well, because what we focus on grows and the more you focus on your dreams the closer you are to experiencing them. The future is in your hands! First of all basic human needs and rights are to be considered in any discussion of a perfect society and include things as personal security, love, self-esteem, personal fulfillment, cultural security, and participation, plus a right to life, liberty, freedom of thought, expression and identity, and equal treatment before the law. Each of these elements effects society on both an individual basis as well as on the organizational level. To me it is pretty straight forward and common sense. It is also something that deserves attention because what you focus on grows. We all desire a better world and my outlook is simple. The simpler we make our lives the easier it is to meet those above mentioned needs and rights. So here is my vision of a perfect society. Society is based on unity in diversity, where individuals are as important as organizations and where everyone’s needs are met. We need not be so concerned with the how’s and why’s but on the what’s, when’s and where’s. What would a perfect society look like? When and where is this possible? War is obsolete in the perfect society because each person understands that no one individual or organization is better or above another. It is a world where we each as individuals respect and love one another seeing the oneness in each person they meet. Despite the apparent differences we all know that we are connected through the One. We are extensions of Great Spirit who is here to bring Peace and Love to every being, place and thing in our earthly world. Since we realize that thought creates, we use the power of imagination to teleport our bodies anywhere we want to go simply by thinking of the place and giving it a Loving Thought. Everyone who lives here is healthy and productive each playing an important role in the operation and events of life here. The environment is a comfortable temperature at all times and if one desires something different, then there are different climates all around the world to teleport to and enjoy. We all realize that there is infinite abundance, so no one wants or has more than they need at that time. If something is desired it is easily available thru the object library replicator. Material “things” are no longer valued because each person has whatever it is they desire in that moment…. The story continues tomorrow and in the meantime consider the life you would like to live.	https://onenessministry.info/2010/07/28/vision-for-tomorrow/
The 90th Academy Awards on Sunday were full of women’s empowerment, political jabs and history-making moments. From Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue to Jordan Peele winning big with Get Out, take a look at the highlights from the 2018 Oscars. Related Content Great Actors Who Still Haven’t Won An Oscar Jimmy Kimmel’s Time’s Up moment #Oscars host @JimmyKimmel doesn’t waste time addressing Harvey Weinstein and envelopegate in his opening monologue https://t.co/Il0tZXcT7C pic.twitter.com/KOijZxLLho — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 5, 2018 In his opening monologue, host Jimmy Kimmel was all about supporting women. He brought attention to the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements saying, “what happened with Harvey, and what’s happening all over, was long overdue. We can’t let bad behavior slide anymore.” Kimmel also noted the nominees making history, including Rachel Morrison who was the first ever woman nominee for cinematography. Kobe Bryant wins an Oscar .@kobebryant wins the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, “Dear Basketball”: “As basketball players, we’re really supposed to shut up and dribble. But I’m glad we do a little bit more than that.” https://t.co/0XOCU74jbV #Oscars pic.twitter.com/ZJvqm7zELI — The View (@TheView) March 5, 2018 Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant is now also an Oscar winner. The former Los Angeles Laker, who retired in 2016, won best animated short film for Dear Basketball along with animator Glen Keane. The film is based on a letter Bryant wrote for The Players’ Tribune announcing his retirement in 2015. Keane said the win is “a message for all of us—whatever form your dream may take, it’s through passion and perseverance, that the impossible is possible.” Daniela Vega makes history Daniela Vega is the first openly transgender person to ever present at the #Oscars. https://t.co/DNWArXgVva pic.twitter.com/x4TEBKLYTt — ABC News (@ABC) March 5, 2018 The star of the Oscar-winning film A Fantastic Woman became the first openly transgender presenter at the Academy Awards. “Thank you so much for this moment,” Daniela Vega said. “I want to invite you to open your hearts and your feelings to feel the reality, to feel love. Can you feel it?” Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph bring the laughs Watch Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph’s very funny #Oscars intro. pic.twitter.com/8VlvxK5l7N — The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) March 5, 2018 From the minute they got onstage to present awards, Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph had the crowd laughing. “We are so happy to be here but a little nervous too because a few years ago people were saying that Oscars were so white and since then, some real progress has been made,” said Rudolph. Haddish added, “But when we came out together, we know some of you were thinking, ‘Are the Oscars too black now?'” Common and Andra Day stand up #Andra Day and #Common perform “Stand Up For Something” from #MARSHALL. #HBOAsiaOscars18 pic.twitter.com/wTJUnoE9RY — HBOAsia (@HBOAsia) March 5, 2018 Common and Andra Day passionately performed their collaboration “Stand Up For Something” from Marshall, the 2017 biopic about the first African-American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. They had the whole crowd applauding. Jordan Peele wins big Jordan Peele gave the perfect acceptance speech at the #Oscars https://t.co/mRylFbPFIU pic.twitter.com/dTqKr1zjKf — GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 5, 2018 Jordan Peele won the award for best original screenplay for his highly buzzed-about film Get Out. He became the first African-American to win this award. “I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible,” he said. “I thought it wasn’t gonna work, I thought no one would ever make this movie, but I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, that people would hear it and people would see it.” Gary Oldman finally wins an Oscar Best Actor Gary Oldman thanks his 99-year-old mother: “Put the kettle on. I’m bringing Oscar home.” https://t.co/WEehgSZAgR #Oscars pic.twitter.com/NOa4fFO5HQ — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 5, 2018 Starting his career in the 80s, Gary Oldman finally won the Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. He ended his speech by thanking his 99-year-old mother, who he said was watching the show from her sofa. “Thank you for your love and support. Put the kettle on. I’m bringing Oscar home,” he said. Frances McDormand acknowledges the females #Oscars Best Actress winner Frances McDormand has every female nominee stand up in recognition https://t.co/gGUxhynOtY pic.twitter.com/ktnbG3effh — Variety (@Variety) March 5, 2018 When accepting the award for best actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand asked all the female nominees to stand up. “Look around ladies and gentlemen because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed,” she said.	http://lipulse.com/2018/03/05/oscars-2018-best-moments/
The present invention relates to an acceleration shock reduction apparatus for vehicles that may be driven by power transmitted from a prime mover such (e.g., an internal combustion engine, etc.) to wheels via a transmission and particularly, but not exclusively, for vehicles wherein an output of the prime mover may be varied (e.g., dampened, modulated, etc.) from a requested demand input. Aspects of the invention relate to a system, to a method and to a vehicle. With market demands for high performance vehicles, prime movers (e.g., internal combustion engines, electric motors, hybrid drives, etc.) having improved torque response to accelerator pedal manipulation are desirable. Thus, a variety of power trains capable of meeting demands for improved torque response have been proposed. The applicants of the present invention have also proposed an internal combustion engine including a variable valve mechanism capable of regulating engine intake by controlling an operation angle and a lift amount of an intake valve to achieve improved torque response characteristics. When a transmission system, (i.e., a series of mechanisms for transmitting power from the prime mover to the wheels) is in a non-rigid coupling state, the transmission system operates as follows upon manipulating the prime mover from an unloaded state provided by releasing an accelerator pedal to a loaded state provided by depressing the accelerator pedal. When torque transfer characteristics of the engaging element (e.g., torque transfer capacities of the engaging element) are abruptly changed during an engagement process of the engaging element, acceleration shock may occur in connection with acceleration resulting from depressing the accelerator pedal. In a vehicle having a prime mover exhibiting excellent torque response characteristics as described above, the acceleration shock may be substantial due to the high torque response of the prime mover. Here, the term "non-rigid coupling state" refers to a state wherein the engaging element such as a clutch or a brake, is not completely engaged. "Non-rigid coupling state" may also refer to a state when the engaging element is completely engaged, but another engaging element, such as a one-way clutch, a lock-up clutch of a torque converter, or a friction clutch of a manual transmission is not completely engaged. 2004-150388 In order to reduce the acceleration shock, an inverse filter as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. proposes an inverse filtering (flattening treatment) of an engine demand torque provided by manipulation of the accelerator pedal to perform phase delay correction of the engine demand torque, thus relieving the rapid torque variation. As the rapid variation of the engine demand torque is decreased, the variation in actual engine output torque is also decreased and the increase in engine RPM is suppressed by such an amount during completion of the engagement process of the engaging element in the transmission system disposed in the non-rigid coupling state between the engine and the wheels upon acceleration, thereby reducing the acceleration shock. EP 1 124 049 A2 EP 1 647 741 A1 EP 1 124 049 A2 Other examples of engine torque control devices are described in and . discloses an output torque control system for a vehicle, comprising an internal combustion engine 1, an output shaft and a torque converter for transmitting torque between the engine and at least one wheel, an on-off type solenoid valve for selectively engaging and disengaging a lock-up clutch of the torque converter, and an electronic control unit for setting and holding a desired engine output torque in response to a standing start condition, wherein the accelerator pedal is suddenly or largely stepped on. Conventional techniques merely decreases the variation of the engine demand torque by inverse filtering (i.e., a flattening treatment) of the engine demand torque. However, when inverse filtering is performed exceedingly, torque response characteristics (i.e., acceleration response) deteriorate until the engaging element is completely engaged, thereby resulting in reduced acceleration performance. In contrast, when inverse filtering (flattening treatment) is performed insufficiently, the amount of acceleration shock reduction is insufficient upon completion of the engagement process of the engaging element. Therefore, conventional techniques have difficulty achieving an optimal balance between acceleration shock reduction and a desired amount of acceleration response. It is an aim of the present invention to address this issue and to improve upon known technology. Other aims and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, claims and drawings. Aspects of the invention therefore provide a system, a method and a vehicle as claimed in the appended claims. According to another aspect of the invention for which protection is sought, there is provided a vehicle control system wherein, in a non-rigid coupling state of an engaging element, when an accelerator is switched from off to on the engine torque is limited to a desired value lower than a demand output torque until torque transfer characteristics are varied, for example abruptly varied, by the engagement process of the end-contact element, for example until the engagement process of the clutch of the automatic transmission system is completed. According to another aspect of the invention for which protection is sought there is provided a vehicle control system, comprising a prime mover, a power transmission apparatus disposed between the prime mover and at least one wheel, an engaging element configured to selectively engage and disengage the prime mover from the at least one wheel and a torque limiter configured to restrict an output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage in response to a transition of the prime mover between an unloaded state and a loaded state, the torque limiter configured to restrict the output torque of the prime mover in response to a transition of the engaging element between non-rigid and rigid coupling states between the prime mover and the power transmission apparatus. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to restrict the output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage when in transition from an unloaded state to a loaded state. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to increase the selected percentage as the prime mover transitions from the unloaded state to the loaded state. The system may comprise a control unit to control the output torque of the prime mover to match a demanded output torque. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to restrict the output torque over a selected time interval. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to restrict the output torque of the prime mover as a gear ratio of the power transmission apparatus is varied to a lower shift position. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to increase the selected percentage as RPM of the prime mover increases. In an embodiment, the selected percentage increases to 100% according to a predetermined time-variation gradient after torque transfer characteristics are varied as the engaging element transitions between engaged and disengaged positions. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to increase a slope of the predetermined time variation gradient with an increase in a demanded output torque of the prime mover. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to increase a slope of the predetermined time variation gradient with an increase in RPM of the prime mover. In an embodiment, the torque limiter is configured to decrease a slope of the predetermined time variation gradient as a gear ratio of the power transmission apparatus is varied to a lower shift position. In an embodiment, the power transmission apparatus comprises at least one of an automatic transmission, a torque converter, and a manual transmission. The engaging element may comprise at least one of a one-way clutch, a lock-up clutch, and a friction clutch. In an embodiment, a variation of torque transfer characteristics by an engagement process of the engaging element is detected based on at least one of a coupling of the one-way clutch, a complete engagement of the lock-up clutch, and a complete engagement of the friction clutch. In an embodiment, determining the complete engagement of the lock-up clutch is performed by at least one of a reversion of a slip direction of a torque converter and a variation of torque amplification characteristics of the torque converter. According to a further aspect of the invention for which protection is sought, there si provided a vehicle control system, comprising a prime mover, a means for transmitting torque between the prime mover and at least one wheel, a means for selectively engaging and disengaging the prime mover from the at least one wheel and a means for restricting an output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage in response to a transition between an unloaded state and a loaded state, the means for restricting configured to restrict the output torque of the prime mover in response to the means for selectively engaging being disengaged between the prime mover and the means for transmitting torque. In an embodiment, the means for restricting is configured to increase the selected percentage when prime mover is in transition between the unloaded state and the loaded state. In an embodiment, the selected percentage increases to 100% according to a predetermined time-variation gradient after torque transfer characteristics are varied as the means for selectively engaging transitions between engaged and disengaged positions. According to a still further aspect of the invention for which protection is sought, there is provided a method to reduce acceleration shock in a vehicle power train, the method comprising determining whether an engaging element between a prime mover and a power transmission apparatus is in transition between a fully engaged state and a fully disengaged state, limiting an output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage when the engaging element is in transition between the fully engaged and the fully disengaged states and returning the output torque to a demanded output torque at a return change rate when the engaging element is in a fully engaged state. In an embodiment, the return change rate is varied as a function of at least one of the RPM of the prime mover, a gear ratio of the power transmission apparatus, the amount of demanded output torque and a percentage of engagement of the engaging member. In an embodiment, the selected percentage is varied as a function of at least one of RPM of the prime mover, a gear ratio of the power transmission apparatus, the amount of demanded output torque and a percentage engagement of the engaging element. For example, in an embodiment a vehicle control system includes a prime mover, a power transmission apparatus disposed between the prime mover and at least one wheel, an engaging element configured to selectively engage and disengage the prime mover from the at least one wheel, and a torque limiter to restrict an output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage in response to a transition of the prime mover between an unloaded state and a loaded state, wherein the torque limiter configured to restrict the output torque of the prime mover in response to a transition of the engaging element between non-rigid and rigid coupling states between the prime mover and the power transmission apparatus. In another embodiment, a vehicle control system includes a prime mover, a means for transmitting torque between the prime mover and at least one wheel, a means for selectively engaging and disengaging the prime mover from the at least one wheel, and a means for restricting an output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage in response to a transition between an unloaded state and a loaded state, wherein the means for restricting configured to restrict the output torque of the prime mover in response to the means for selectively engaging is disengaged between the prime mover and the means for transmitting torque. In a further embodiment, a method to reduce acceleration shock in a vehicle power train includes determining whether an engaging element between a prime mover and a power transmission apparatus is in transition between a fully engaged state and a fully disengaged state, limiting an output torque of the prime mover to a selected percentage when the engaging element is in transition between the fully engaged and the fully disengaged states, and returning the output torque to a demanded output torque at a return change rate when the engaging element is in a fully engaged state. Within the scope of this application it is envisaged that the various aspects, embodiments, examples, features and alternatives set out in the preceding paragraphs, in the claims and/or in the following description and drawings may be taken individually or in any combination thereof. Figure 1 is a system diagram illustrating a power train and a control system of a front engine rear wheel drive vehicle including an acceleration shock reduction apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 Figure 1 is a logic diagram illustrating the relationship between engagement and releasing of a frictional engaging element and a selected shift stage in an automatic transmission mounted in the vehicle of ; Figure 3 Figure 1 is a flowchart of a main routine of an engine torque-down process for acceleration shock reduction performed by a controller in ; Figure 4 Figure 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a process for determining a rigid coupling state in the main routine of ; Figure 5 Figure 4 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a process for determining the rigid coupling state in the main routine for a vehicle including a manual transmission instead of the automatic transmission as shown in ; Figure 6 Figure 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a process for determining an engine limit torque maintaining period in the rigid coupling state in the main routine of ; Figure 7 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of a forward drive-shift determination timer value used for the process of determining the engine limit torque maintaining period in the rigid coupling state; Figure 8 Figure 7 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of a correction coefficient for the forward drive-shift determination timer value shown in ; Figure 9 Figure 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a process for determining an engine limit torque maintaining period in a non-rigid coupling state in the main routine of ; Figure 10 Figure 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a process for calculating an engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction in the main routine of ; Figure 11 Figure 10 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of the engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction calculated by the process of ; Figure 12 Figure 11 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of a correction coefficient for the engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction shown in ; Figure 13 Figure 11 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of another correction coefficient for the engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction shown in ; Figure 14 Figure 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine for a process of calculating an engine torque return change rate in the main routine of ; Figure 15 Figure 14 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of the engine torque return change rate obtained by the process of ; Figure 16 Figure 15 is a graph depicting variation characteristics of a correct coefficient for the engine torque return change rate shown in ; Figure 17 Figure 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a process of calculating an engine torque command value in the main routine of ; Figures 18A-D Figures 1 to 17 are time charts of an acceleration shock reducing operation performed by the embodiment shown in , with a transmission system from an engine to wheels in a rigid coupling state; and Figures 19A-D Figures 1 to 17 are time charts of an acceleration shock reducing operation performed by the embodiment shown in , with the transmission system from the engine to the wheels in a non-rigid coupling state. The present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a system diagram illustrating a power train and a control system of a front engine rear wheel drive vehicle including an acceleration shock reduction apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 indicates an engine as a prime mover, reference numeral 2 indicates a step-type automatic transmission and reference numeral 3 indicates a torque converter. Figure 1 Referring to , the power train of the vehicle includes the engine 1 and the automatic transmission 2 disposed in tandem at the rear side of the engine 1 in a forward-rearward direction, as in a typical rear-wheel drive vehicle. Rotating power from the engine 1 may generally be transferred to an input shaft 4 of the automatic transmission 2 via the torque converter 3, which may serve to increase an output torque of the engine 1. Then, the automatic transmission 2 may shift the rotating power of the input shaft 4 in response to a selected shift stage and transfers the shifted rotating power to wheels (not shown) through an output shaft 5, thereby driving the vehicle. Herein, the torque converter 3 may be a lock-up torque converter that sets a lock-up state between an input element 3a coupled to the engine 1 and an output element 3b coupled to the input shaft 4 of the transmission by means of a lock-up clutch (not shown) in a high rotation-low load driving state, which may not require the aforementioned torque increase. Skyline New Car (CV35-type car) Service Manual," which was published by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. in January 2003 The automatic transmission 2 may be the same as that disclosed in pages C-9 to C-22 of ". The automatic transmission 2 may determine a transmission path (a selected shift stage) through engaging and releasing combinations of a plurality of frictional engaging elements (clutches or brakes) by selectively engaging and releasing the frictional engaging elements. The input and output shafts 4 and 5 may be coaxially disposed to face each other. Between the shafts, there may be provided a front planetary gear set Gf, a middle planetary gear set Gm and a rear planetary gear set Gr, which are sequentially disposed from the torque converter 3 side to constitute main components of a planetary gear shift mechanism in the automatic transmission 2. The front planetary gear set Gf, which is closer to the torque converter 3 than any other planetary gear sets, may be a simple planetary gear set that comprises a front sun gear Sf, a front ring gear Rf, a front pinion Pf engaging with the front sun and ring gears, and a front carrier Cf rotatably supporting the front pinion Pf. The middle planetary gear set Gm, which is second closest to the torque converter 3, may be a simple planetary gear set that comprises a middle sun gear Sm, a middle ring gear Rm, a middle pinion Rm engaging with the middle sun and ring gears, and a middle carrier Cm rotatably supporting the middle pinion Pm. The rear planetary gear set Gr, which is farther from the torque converter 3 than any other planetary gear sets, may be a simple planetary gear set that comprises a rear sun gear Sr, a rear ring gear Rr, a rear pinion Rr engaging with the rear sun and ring gears, and a rear carrier Cr rotatably supporting the rear pinion Pr. The frictional engaging elements determining the transmission path (the selected shift stage) of the planetary gear shift mechanism may include a front brake Fr/B, an input clutch I/C, a high-and-low reverse clutch H&LR/C, a direct clutch D/C, a reverse brake R/B, a low-coast brake LC/B, a forward brake FWD/B and three one-way clutches (e.g., a third one-way clutch 3rd/OWC, a first one-way clutch 1st/OWC and a forward one-way clutch FWD/OWC), which may be connected to the components of the planetary gear sets Gf, Gm and Gr, thereby constituting the planetary gear shift mechanism of the automatic transmission 2. The front ring gear Rf may be coupled to the input shaft 4. Further, the middle ring gear Rm may be suitably coupled to the input shaft 4 via the input clutch I/C. The front sun gear Sf may be generally prevented by the third one-way clutch 3rd/OWC from rotating in an opposite direction to the rotating direction of the engine 1 and may be suitably secured by the front brake Fr/B disposed in parallel to the third one-way clutch 3rd/OWC. The rear ring Rr may be coupled to a front carrier Cf and the middle ring gear Rm is coupled to a rear carrier Cr. A middle carrier Cm may be coupled to the output shaft 5. Further, the middle sun gear Sm may be coupled to the rear sun gear Sr via the high-and-low reverse clutch H&LR/C while being prevented from rotating with respect to the rear sun gear Sr in an opposite direction to the rotating direction of the engine 1 via the first one-way clutch /OWC. The rear sun gear Sr may be coupled to the rear carrier Cr via the direct clutch D/C, while the rear carrier Cr may be suitably secured by the reverse brake R/B. The middle sun gear Sm may also be prevented by the forward brake FWD/B and the forward one-way clutch FWD/OWC from rotating in an opposite direction to the rotating direction of the engine 1 in an engaged state of the forward brake FWD/B. It may be suitably secured by the low coast brake LC/B, which is disposed in parallel to the forward brake FWD/B and the forward one-way clutch FWD/OWC. Figure 2 Referring to , forward shift stages of a forward first shift position (1st shift), a forward second shift position (2nd shift), a forward third shift position (3rd shift), a forward fourth shift position (4th shift), a forward fifth shift position (5th shift) and a reverse shift stage (Reverse) are shown. The shift stages may be obtained by selective engagement and coupling of the seven frictional engaging elements (Fr/B, I/C, H&LR/C, D/C, R/B, LC/B, FWD/B) and the three one-way clutches (3rd/OWC, 1 st/OWC, FWD/OWC), as indicated by open circle marks (○) and closed circle marks (•) in the respective power transmission modes of the planetary gear shift mechanism. Whereas the open circle mark (○) corresponds to engagement of the respective clutch or brake, the closed circle mark (•) corresponds to engagement of the clutch or brake only during use of the engine brake. For example, if the vehicle is accelerating, only open circle (○) marked elements (FWD/B, 1 st/OWC, 3rd/OWC and FWD/OWC) are engaged. However if the vehicle is coasting with use of the engine brake, both open (○) and closed (•) circle marked and elements (H&LR/C, Fr/B, LC/B, FWD/B, 1 st/OWC, 3rd/OWC and FWD/OWC) are engaged. While automatic transmission 2 is described as a step-type automatic transmission in this embodiment, it should be understood that embodiments in accordance with the present invention may be applied to continuously variable transmissions, manual transmissions, or various other types of transmission. However, for example, in the case of a manual transmission, a friction clutch may be provided instead of the torque converter 3. Furthermore, for a manual transmission, it may also be possible to employ the automatic shift type manual transmission, whereby an automatic clutch is used instead of the torque converter 3, and which may perform an automatic shift operation of selective engagement mechanisms in the manual transmission. Figure 2 Figure 1 Figure 2 Engagement logics of the frictional engaging elements (Fr/B, I/C, H&LR/C, D/C, R/B, LC/B, FWD/B) shown in may be realized by means of a controller 10 shown in via a control valve body 6. Further, the automatic transmission 2 may select a target shift stage commanded from the controller 10 with the engagement logics of the frictional engaging elements and coupling logics of the one-way clutches (3rd/OWC, 1st/OWC, FWD/OWC) as shown in . The controller 10 may additionally perform lock-up control of the torque converter 3 through the control valve body 6. In selected embodiments, controller 10 may be an integrated controller commonly used for both shift control and engine control. Thus, controller 10 may perform not only control relating to the automatic transmission 2, but also fuel injection control (including fuel cutting control when coast traveling), ignition time control, and/or intake amount control (i.e., engine output control) of the engine 1. Further, the controller 10 may control engine output independent of the input requesting a demand torque corresponding to a driver's manipulation of an accelerator pedal during engine control. For the shift control and the engine control, the controller 10 may be adapted to receive a signal from a transmission output rotation sensor 11 that detects an output shaft RPM (No) corresponding to an output RPM of the output shaft 5 of the automatic transmission 2, a signal from an accelerator pedal opening degree sensor 12 that detects an accelerator pedal opening degree (APO) (i.e., depression amount of the accelerator pedal), a signal from a turbine rotation sensor 13 that detects a turbine RPM (Nt) corresponding to an output RPM (transmission input RPM) of the torque converter 3, a signal from an engine rotation sensor 14 that detects an engine RPM (Ne) of engine 1, a signal from an inhibitor switch 15 that detects shift modes (selection ranges such as P, R, N, D and L ranges or the like) of the automatic transmission 2 selected by a driver, and a signal from a transmission output torque calculation unit 16 that calculates a transmission output torque (To). Based on the above input information, the controller 10 may perform the shift control of the automatic transmission 2, the fuel injection control (including the fuel cutting control) of the engine 1, the ignition time control or the intake amount control (including an engine torque-down control for acceleration shock reduction as an object of the present invention described hereinafter in addition to the typical engine output control). Figures 3 to 6 9, 10, 14 and 17 Figure 3 Figures 4 to 6 9, 10, 14 and 17 Figure 3 Next, the engine torque-down control for acceleration shock reduction as an object of the present invention will be described. In this control, the controller 10 may proceed with control programs shown in , . depicts a main routine for this control, while , depict subroutines of main routine . Figure 3 Referring to , in step S1, the controller 10 determines whether a transmission system disposed between the engine 1 and wheels (not shown) is in a rigid coupling state, wherein power transmission is performed without passing through the one-way clutch after an engaging element (torque converter 3 or a frictional engaging element such as a clutch or a brake in the automatic transmission 2) is completely engaged. If the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state, then a rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is set to 1. If the transmission system is not in the rigid coupling state (that is, it is in a non-rigid coupling state), then the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is set to 0. Figure 4 Specifically, referring to which shows a subroutine of rigid coupling determination for an automatic transmission A/T and a continuously various transmission CVT, in step S11, it is determined whether the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state by determining whether the torque converter 3 is in a lock-up state, whether the automatic transmission 2 is in a non-shifting state wherein the frictional engaging element is completely engaged under a current selection shift stage, and whether the current selection shift stage is a shift stage in which the power transmission is performed without passing through the one-way clutch. If the torque converter 3 is in the lock-up state and the automatic transmission 2 is in the non-shifting state wherein the shift stage is maintained not to pass through the one-way clutch, then the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state and the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is then set to 1 in step S12. If the torque converter 3 is not in the lock-up state and the automatic transmission 2 is in a shifting state, then the transmission system is not in the rigid coupling state (non-rigid coupling state) and the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is thus set to 0 in step S13. Figure 5 When the manual transmission (including the automatic shift type manual transmission) is used instead of the automatic transmission 2, rigid coupling determination for the manual transmission M/T may be performed as shown in . That is, in step S14, it may be determined whether the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state according to whether a friction clutch used instead of the torque converter 3 is completely engaged (i.e., non-shifting state). Even if the friction clutch is completely engaged (in the non-shifting state), there may also be a case wherein the manual transmission does not have a shift stage where power transmission through the one-way clutch is performed. In this case, it may be determined that the transmission system is in the rigid-coupling state. Thus, the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is set to 1 in step S15. If the friction clutch is not completely engaged (not in the non-shifting state), then the transmission system is not in the rigid-coupling state. That is, the transmission system is in the non-rigid coupling state and the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is thus set to 0 in step S16. Figure 3 Figure 6 In step S2 in the main routine of , it is checked whether the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is 1 or 0. If Rigid FLAG is 1, then the transmission system is determined to be in the rigid coupling state for acceleration shock reduction. Thus, the controller may proceed to step S3 where a control program as shown in is performed to determine an engine limit torque maintaining period by setting a flag as follows. Figure 6 First, in step S31 of , it is determined whether the fuel cutting operation of the engine 1 is performed. The fuel cutting operation is performed for the purpose of increasing fuel economy when coast traveling by releasing the accelerator pedal. This means that the engine is driven in an unloaded state by the driver and the transmission system is in a coast drive state (in an engine brake state wherein the engine 1 is driven by the wheels). If it is determined in step S31 that the fuel cutting operation is not being performed, then it is determined in step S32 whether the engine 1 has started a torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal, depending on whether at least one of an engine output torque (Te) and an engine output estimation torque is less than a torque increase start determination torque. Here, the engine output torque Te may be obtained based on a demanded load of the engine 1 commanded by the driver via the accelerator pedal opening degree APO. Further, the engine output estimation torque may be estimated from an engine operation state such as engine intake, ignition time, fuel injection amount or the like. Figure 7 If it is determined in step S31 that the engine 1 is under the fuel cutting operation (in a coast traveling state) or if it is determined in step S32 that the engine output torque Te is less than the torque increase start determination torque (that is, the engine 1 has not started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal), then a forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer may be retrieved based on a gear ratio (selected shift stage) of the automatic transmission 2 using a map of in step S33. The forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer may be used to determine that shifting from the coast drive state to the forward drive state is performed, based on an elapsed time since determination in step S32 that the engine output torque Te is greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (that is, the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal). Figure 7 Further, as shown in , as the gear ratio (i.e., the selected shift stage) of the automatic transmission 2 is varied to a lower shift position, the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer may be increased. This is because a lower gear ratio may require a longer time for switching from the coast drive state to the forward drive state under acceleration. Figure 8 Next, in step S34, the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer may be corrected according to the engine RPM Ne. For this correction, a timer value correction coefficient Kne (wherein, 0 < Kne < 1) is obtained based on the engine RPM Ne using a map of and is multiplied by the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer. Figure 8 Further, as shown in , the correction coefficient Kne may be set to decrease to a value less than 1 with increases of engine RPM Ne. Thus, the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer may be corrected to decrease with increases in engine RPM Ne. This is because a higher engine RPM may require a shorter time to shift from the coast drive state to the forward drive state under acceleration. If it is determined in step S32 that the engine output torque Te is greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (i.e., the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal), then the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer may be decreased by 1 in step S35. The elapsed time since determination in step S32 that the engine output torque Te may be greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (that is, the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal) is estimated based on the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer. After step S34 or S35, it is determined in step S36 whether the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer is 0. In other words, it is determined whether the elapsed time since determination in step S32 that the engine output torque Te is greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (i.e., the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal) has reached a prescribed time determined based on the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer. Figure 18 Before determination in step S36 that the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer is 0 (i.e., before a time point t3 when the prescribed time determined based on the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer has elapsed from a time point t2 when the engine output torque Te becomes greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque-that is, the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal) as shown in , an engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG is set to 1 in step S37. With this value, it is commanded that the current period is an engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction. Figure 18 After determination in step S36 that the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer is 0, i.e., after the time point t3 (after determining shift from the coast drive state to the forward drive state) when the prescribed time based on the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer has elapsed from the time point t2 when the engine output torque Te becomes greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (that is, the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal) as shown in , the engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG is set to 0 in step S38. With this value, it may be commanded that the current period is not the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction. Figure 3 Figure 9 In step S2 of the main routine of , if it is determined that the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is 0, then the transmission system is not in the rigid coupling state but in the non-rigid coupling state. Thus, the process proceeds to step S4 where a control program as shown in may be performed to determine an engine limit torque maintaining period upon the non-rigid coupling for the acceleration shock reduction by setting a flag as follows. Figure 9 Figure 2 Figure 2 In , two cases are illustrated for convenience of description. In the first case, the automatic transmission 2 is in the non-rigid coupling state upon a downshift from the 3rd shift position to the 2nd shift position through coupling of the forward one-way clutch FWD/OWC by manipulating the frictional engaging elements to engage with the forward brake FWD/B while releasing the high-and-low reverse clutch H&LR/C as indicated by arrows of . In the second case, the automatic transmission 2 may be put into the third shift position before the downshift from the 3rd shift position to the 2nd shift position and is thus in the non-rigid coupling state where power transmission is performed through coupling of the third one-way clutch 3rd/OWC, as shown in . Figure 9 In step S41 of , it is determined whether this downshift operation is being performed. If this downshift operation is not being performed, then a one-way clutch coupling determination gear ratio RTOowc relating to the third one-way clutch 3rd/OWC that is in the third shift position may be set to a current gear ratio (third shift position). If the downshift operation is being performed, then the one-way clutch coupling determination gear ratio RTOowc relating to the forward one-way clutch FWD/OWC that is after the downshift from the 3rd shift position to the 2nd shift position may be set to a respective downshift gear ratio (i.e., second shift position) after the downshift. In step S44, a one-way clutch coupling determination input RPM Ntowc is calculated by multiplying a transmission output RPM "No" by the one-way clutch coupling determination gear ratio RTOowc set in step S42 or step S43. In step S45, it is determined whether a turbine RPM Nt as a transmission input RPM reaches the one-way clutch coupling determination input RPM Ntowc to determine whether coupling of the one-way clutch caused by manipulation of the accelerator pedal upon coast traveling is performed. If it is determined in step S45 that Nt < Ntowc, that is, if it is determined that the one-way clutch is not coupled even by an increase in engine RPM via the manipulation of the accelerator pedal upon coast traveling, then the engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG is set to 1 in step S46. With this value, it may be determined that the current period is the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction during which the engine output torque will be limited. If it is determined in step S45 that Nt ≥ Ntowc, that is, if it is determined that the one-way clutch is coupled, and torque transmitting characteristics are abruptly changed by the increase of the engine RPM via the manipulation of the accelerator pedal upon coast traveling, then the engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG is set to 0 in step S47. With this value, it may be determined that the current period is not the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction so the engine output torque will not be limited. Figure 3 Figure 10 After determining the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction by setting the flag in step S3 or S4 of the main routine of , In step S5 an engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction, which may be maintained during this period, is calculated. For this calculation, a control program of may be performed to obtain the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction. First, in step S50, it is determined whether the vehicle is in an unloaded state (coast drive state) depending on whether the accelerator pedal opening degree APO is 0 wherein the accelerator pedal is released, or in a loaded state (forward drive state) depending on whether the accelerator pedal opening degree APO is greater than 0 wherein the accelerator pedal is depressed. If the vehicle is determined to be in the loaded state (forward drive state), it is then determined at S51 whether it is in the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction depending on whether the engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG is 1. If it is determined in step S50 that the accelerator pedal opening degree APO is 0 (that is, in the unloaded state), then it may be determined in step S52 whether the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state or in the non-rigid coupling state, depending on whether the rigid coupling flag Rigid FLAG is 0 or 1. Here, even when the accelerator pedal opening degree APO > 0 (that is, in the loaded state), if it is determined in step S51 that Telim FLAG = 1 (that is, in the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction), then step S52 is performed as mentioned above. Figure 11 If the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state, then the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state may be retrieved based on the gear ratio of the automatic transmission 2 using a map depicted by a solid line of in step S53. Figure 11 If the transmission system is in the non-rigid coupling state, then the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state may be obtained based on the gear ratio of the automatic transmission 2 using a map depicted by a dotted line of in step S54. Figure 11 As shown in , the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state may be set to be higher than the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state in the overall range of gear ratio Ratio. Here, acceleration shock in the rigid coupling state is greater than in the non-rigid coupling state. Hence, in order to ensure the acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state, it may be necessary that the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state be set lower than in the non-rigid coupling state. Because acceleration shock decreases with an increase of gear ratio Ratio to a higher shift ratio, it may be possible to increase both engine limit torques for acceleration shock reduction Telim in the rigid coupling state and in the non-rigid coupling state with the increase of gear ratio Ratio to the higher shift ratio. This trend may be more apparent in the non-rigid coupling state than in the rigid coupling state. Figure 11 As shown in , as the gear ratio Ratio increases to a higher shift ratio, both engine limit torques for acceleration shock reduction Telim in the rigid coupling state and in the non-rigid coupling state are increased. Additionally, a variation ratio of the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state to the gear ratio Ratio may be set to be greater than a variation ratio of the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state to the gear ratio Ratio Figure 12 In step S55, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state obtained in step S54 may be corrected according to the engine RPM Ne. For this correction, a correction coefficient Ke obtained based on the engine RPM Ne using a map depicted by a solid line of may be multiplied by the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state. Figure 13 In step S56, the corrected engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state may further be corrected according to the accelerator pedal opening degree APO. For this correction, a correction coefficient Kp obtained based on the accelerator pedal opening degree APO using a map depicted by a solid line of may be multiplied by the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state, which is corrected in step S55. Figures 12 13 Because the decrease of the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO may cause an increase of acceleration shock, it may be desired to decrease the engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction as the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO are reduced. As depicted by the solid lines of and , both correction coefficients (Ke, Kp) may decrease to (positive) values less than 1 with reductions in engine RPM Ne and accelerator pedal opening degree APO. Thus, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state may be corrected to decrease with decreases of the engine RPM Ne and accelerator pedal opening degree APO. Figure 12 In step S57, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state obtained in step S54 may be corrected according to the engine RPM Ne. For this correction, a correction coefficient Ke obtained based on the engine RPM Ne using a map depicted by a dotted line of may be multiplied by the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state. Figure 13 In step S58, the corrected engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state may further be corrected according to the accelerator pedal opening degree APO. For this correction, a correction coefficient Kp is obtained based on the accelerator pedal opening degree APO using a map depicted by a dotted line of and may be multiplied by the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state corrected in step S57. Figures 12 13 Because the decrease of the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO may cause an increase of acceleration shock, it may be desired to decrease the engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction as the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO are reduced. As indicated by the dotted lines and solid lines of and , both correction coefficients (Ke, Kp) used in the non-rigid coupling state may be the same as those of the rigid coupling state and decrease to positive values less than 1 with reductions in engine RPM Ne and accelerator pedal opening degree APO. Thus, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state may also be corrected to decrease with the decrease of the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO. If it is determined in step S51 that Telim FLAG is not 1 (i.e., not in the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction), in step S59, the engine limit torque for acceleration shock reduction may be set to a maximum value that the engine 1 may output, thereby substantially preventing limitation of the engine torque for acceleration shock reduction (engine torque-down) from being performed. Figure 3 Figure 18 Figure 14 Figure 15 In step S6 of the main routine of , an engine torque return change rate Trmp may be calculated as a change rate when returning the engine output torque Te from the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction to an engine demand torque Tdri (see ) corresponding to driver's manipulation of the accelerator pedal. For this calculation, as shown in , the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the non-rigid coupling state may first be retrieved based on the accelerator pedal opening degree APO and the engine RPM Ne using a map depicted by the dotted line of in step S61. Figure 16 Then, in step S62, the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the non-rigid coupling state may be corrected according to the gear ratio Ratio. For this correction, a correction coefficient Kr obtained based on the gear ratio Ratio using a map of and may be multiplied by the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the non-rigid coupling state. Figure 15 In step S63, the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the rigid coupling state may obtained as depicted by a solid line of by multiplying an engine torque return change rate conversion parameter in the rigid coupling state by the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the non-rigid coupling state. Figure 3 At step S7 in the main route of , an engine torque command value tTe is calculated and applied to the engine. Further, output of the engine 1 may be controlled such that an output torque Te of the engine 1 is identical to the command value tTe. Calculation is performed based on the engine limit torques Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid and non-rigid coupling states, the engine torque return change rates Trmp in the rigid and non-rigid coupling states, and the engine demand torque Tdri corresponding to driver's manipulation of the accelerator pedal. Figure 17 In step S7, a control program of is performed to calculate the engine torque command value tTe. Figure 17 In step S71 of , a final engine limit torque tTelim may be calculated as follows. When the transmission system is in the non-rigid coupling state, the final engine limit torque tTelim in the non-rigid coupling state may be set to the lowest value between the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the non-rigid coupling state and a value obtained by adding an increased Trmp amount relating to the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the non-rigid coupling state to the previous Telim Telim (previous) (i.e., min{Telim, Telim (previous) + increased Trmp amount}). When the transmission system is in the rigid coupling state, the final engine limit torque tTelim in the rigid coupling state may be set to the lowest value between the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction in the rigid coupling state and a value obtained by adding an increased Trmp amount relating to the engine torque return change rate Trmp in the rigid coupling state to the previous Telim Telim (previous) (i.e., min{Telim, Telim (previous) + increased Trmp amount}). Next, in step S72, the engine demand torque Tdri corresponding to the driver's manipulation of the accelerator pedal, the final engine limit torque tTelim in the non-rigid coupling state and the final engine limit torque tTelim in the rigid coupling state may be compared to each other. In the non-rigid coupling state, a lower value (i.e., min{Tdri, tTelim}) between the engine demand torque Tdri by the driver and the final engine limit torque tTelim in the non-rigid coupling state may be applied as the engine torque command value tTe to the engine 1. In the rigid coupling state, a lower value (i.e., min(Tdri, tTelim) between the engine demand torque Tdri by the driver and the final engine limit torque tTelim in the rigid coupling state may be applied as the engine torque command value tTe to the engine 1. Figure 18 Figure 18 According to the above embodiment, if the transmission system disposed between the engine 1 and the wheels is in the rigid coupling state, (even in the case of acceleration with the engine demand torque Tdri increasing as depicted by a dotted line of ), the engine torque command value tTe may be maintained at the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction. Such a Telim would be less than the engine demand torque Tdri, (e.g., depicted by a solid line of ), during shift from the coast drive state to the forward drive state from the time point t2 when the engine output torque Te becomes greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (i.e., the engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation in response to manipulation of the accelerator pedal) to the forward drive determining time point t3 when the prescribed time based on the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer has elapsed since the time point t2. As a result, even with an engine exhibiting excellent torque response, the engine RPM Ne during shift from the coast drive state to the forward drive state by acceleration may not steeply increase as depicted by the dash dotted line, but instead may slightly increase in a gentle slope as depicted by the solid line. Thus, rattling caused by gear backlash in the transmission system disposed in the rigid coupling state between the engine and the wheels may be reduced. Accordingly, as should be appreciated from comparison between time-series variation of vehicle acceleration (α) of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention indicated by the solid line and a former vehicle indicated by the dash dotted line, the acceleration shock may be reduced upon completion of rattling reduction in the transmission system in the rigid coupling state. Figure 18 Further, as shown in , during shift from the coast drive state to the forward drive state from the time point t2 to the forward drive determining time point t3 when the prescribed time determined by the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer has elapsed from the time point t2, the engine limit torque maintaining period may be applied by setting the engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG to 1 as described in step S37. Additionally, engine torque-down control may be performed to maintain the engine torque command value tTe at the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction less than the engine demand torque Tdri. As a result, the torque-down time may be determined independent of the torque-down amount. Specifically, the torque-down time relating to rattling reduction response and the torque-down amount relating to acceleration shock reduction upon completion of rattling reduction may be independently controlled, thereby ensuring an optimal balance between acceleration shock reduction and rattling reduction response. Figure 11 Figures 11 and 12 Furthermore, according to selected embodiments of the present invention, as the gear ratio is varied to a lower shift position, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction may be lowered as indicated by the solid line of . At the same time, as the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO (i.e., the demand load) are lowered, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction may be lowered by the correction coefficients (Ke, Kp) depicted by the solid lines of . Hence, even in the case where the gear ratio Ratio remains higher because the engine RPM Ne and the acceleration pedal open degree APO are in different conditions, it may be possible to realize acceleration shock reduction as needed at any given time. Figure 18 Further, as shown in , after the forward drive determining time point t3 when the prescribed time determined by the forward drive-shift determination timer value Timer has elapsed from the time point t2 where the engine output torque Te becomes greater than or equal to the torque increase start determination torque (i.e., engine 1 has started the torque increasing operation relating to manipulation of the accelerator pedal), the engine torque command value tTe may be increased at a predetermined time change rate Trmp from the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction toward the engine demand torque Tdri. As a result, acceleration shock may not occur even when the engine output torque Te is returned from the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction toward the engine demand torque Tdri after the forward drive determining time point t3. Figure 15 Figure 16 Further, as the accelerator pedal opening degree APO (demand load) and the engine RPM Ne are increased, the engine torque return change rate Trmp slope may become more steep (i.e., the slope may increase) as depicted by the solid lines of . Additionally, as the gear ratio is varied to a lower shift position, the engine torque return change rate Trmp slope may become more gentle (i.e., the slope may decrease) by the correction coefficient Kr of . Hence, in any condition of gear ratio Ratio, engine RPM Ne and acceleration pedal open degree APO, it may be possible to ensure acceleration shock reduction when returning the engine torque. Figure 19 Hereinafter, the advantageous effects of this embodiment in the case where the transmission system from the engine 1 to the wheels is in the non-rigid coupling state will be described with reference to . Figure 19 Figure 18 shows operation time charts when depressing the accelerator pedal such that the accelerator pedal opening degree APO is increased with time-series variation from a time point t1 similar to . In response to an increase in accelerator pedal opening degree APO, a command value of the engine output torque Te (i.e., engine demand torque Tdri) may increase as depicted by a dotted line from a time point t2 after a slight response lag from manipulation of the accelerator pedal, while an actual value of the engine output torque Te may increase to follow the command value, as depicted by a dash dotted line. Meanwhile, in an engine exhibiting excellent torque response characteristics, the engine torque may steeply increase as indicated by the dash dotted line when the one-way clutch of the transmission system from the engine to the wheels in the non-rigid coupling state makes a short coupling stroke or when the frictional engaging element (including the lock-up clutch of the torque converter or the friction clutch for the manual transmission) is progressed from an unengaged or a slip state to a completely engaged state. When the one-way clutch of the transmission system in the non-rigid coupling state is coupled or when the frictional engaging element (including the lock-up clutch or the friction clutch) is completely engaged, the rapid increase of the engine RPM Ne as indicated by the dash dotted line may cause substantial acceleration shock, as is clear from the time-series variation of the vehicle acceleration (α) indicated by the dash dotted line. Figure 19 Figure 19 Further, according to the embodiment, even in the case of acceleration with the engine demand torque Tdri increasing as depicted by a dotted line of , the engine torque command value tTe may be maintained at the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction, which may be less than the engine demand torque Tdri, as depicted by a solid line of , during drive state shifting before the time point t3 of determining rapid change in torque transfer characteristics by determining that the one-way clutch is coupled (step S45). As a result, even for the engine 1 exhibiting excellent torque response, the engine RPM Ne may not steeply increase as depicted by the dash dotted line. Rather, it may gently increase as indicated by the solid line during the drive state shift by acceleration, that is, when the one-way clutch of the transmission system disposed in the non-rigid coupling state between the engine and the wheels may make a short coupling stroke or when the frictional engaging element (including the lock-up clutch of the torque converter or the friction clutch for the manual transmission) is proceeded from an unengaged state or the slip state to the complete engagement state. Accordingly, as may be appreciated from comparison between the time-series variation of vehicle acceleration α of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention indicated by the solid line and the conventional time-series variation of vehicle acceleration α of a former vehicle indicated by the dash dotted line, acceleration shock may be reduced when the one-way clutch of the transmission system in the non-rigid coupling state may make a short coupling stroke by acceleration or when the frictional engaging element (including the lock-up clutch of the torque converter or the friction clutch for the manual transmission) is proceeded from an unengaged state or the slip state to the complete engagement state. Figure 19 Further, as shown in , during the drive state shift before the time point t3 of determining rapid change in torque transfer characteristics based on determination that the one-way clutch is coupled (step S45), the engine limit torque maintaining period for acceleration shock reduction is applied by setting the engine limit torque maintaining flag Telim FLAG to 1 in step S46. Additionally, as described above, the engine torque-down control may be performed to maintain the engine torque command value tTe at the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction less than the engine demand torque Tdri. As a result, the torque-down time may be determined independent of the torque-down amount. Specifically, the torque-down time relating to one-way clutch coupling (acceleration response) (in the case of performing shift operation, shift response) and the torque-down amount relating to acceleration shock reduction upon the one-way clutch coupling may be independently controlled. This enables an optimal balance between acceleration shock reduction and one-way clutch coupling response. Figure 11 Figures 11 and 12 Furthermore, according to selected embodiments, as the gear ratio is varied to a lower shift position, the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction may be lowered as depicted by the solid line of . At the same time, as the engine RPM Ne and the accelerator pedal opening degree APO (i.e., demand load) are lowered, the engine limit torque Telim may also be lowered by the correction coefficients (Ke, Kp) as indicated by the solid lines of . Hence, even in the case where the gear ratio Ratio, the engine RPM Ne and the acceleration pedal open degree APO are at different conditions, it may be possible to reduce acceleration shock as needed at any time. Figure 19 Further, as shown in , after the time point t3 of determining the shift from the coast drive state to the forward drive state based on determination that the one-way clutch is coupled (step S45), the engine torque command value tTe may be increased at a predetermined time change rate Trmp from the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction toward the engine demand torque Tdri. As a result, acceleration shock may not occur when the engine output torque Te is returned from the engine limit torque Telim for acceleration shock reduction toward the engine demand torque Tdri after the forward drive determining time point t3. Figure 15 Figure 16 Further, as the accelerator pedal opening degree APO (i.e., the demand load) and the engine RPM are increased, the engine torque return change rate Trmp slope may become steeper (i.e., the slope may increase) as depicted by the solid lines of . Additionally, as the gear ratio is varied to a lower shift position, the engine torque return change rate Trmp slope may becomes more gentle (i.e., the slope may decrease) by the correction coefficient Kr of . Hence, even in any condition of gear ratio Ratio, engine RPM Ne and acceleration pedal open degree APO, it may be possible to ensure the acceleration shock reduction when returning the engine torque. Figure 9 In the above embodiments, the one-way clutch is provided as an example of the engaging element of the transmission system in the non-rigid coupling state. Further, a steep change in torque transfer characteristics of the one-way clutch may be determined based on determination as to coupling of the one-way clutch in step S45 of . However, in a case where the lock-up clutch of the torque converter 3 is provided as the engaging element, a steep change in torque transfer characteristics by the engagement process of the lock-up clutch (engaging element) may be determined based on determination as to complete coupling of the lock-up clutch (engaging element). Here, the determination as to complete coupling of the lock-up clutch (i.e., engaging element) may be made based on determination whether a difference value between the engine RPM Ne as the torque converter input RPM and the turbine RPM Nt as the torque converter output RPM is 0. Additionally, complete coupling of the lock-up clutch may be determined by detecting reversion of a slip direction of the torque converter 3 or by detecting abrupt change of torque amplification characteristics of the torque converter 3. In a case where the transmission is not the automatic transmission 2 but a manual transmission coupled to the engine via the frictional clutch and where the engaging element is the frictional clutch, a steep change in torque transfer characteristics by engagement progress of the frictional clutch (engaging element) may be determined based on determination as to complete engagement of the frictional clutch (difference in RPM before and after the engagement = 0). Further, as described above, although the present invention has been described with reference to the automatic transmission 2, the transmission system (apparatus) may be the torque converter or the manual transmission. Advantageously, selected embodiments of the present invention provide an acceleration shock reduction apparatus for vehicles that may separately control a torque-down amount relating to acceleration shock reduction and a torque-down time relating to acceleration response upon completion of the engagement process of the engaging element, thereby achieving an optimal balance between acceleration shock reduction and acceleration response. Advantageously there may be provided an acceleration shock reduction apparatus for vehicles that may be driven by power transmitted from a prime mover to wheels via a transmission, wherein the prime mover may control output torque independent of a demand torque requested by an input corresponding to manipulation of an accelerator pedal by a driver. The apparatus may include an output torque limiter for maintaining an output torque of the prime mover at a predetermined value less than the demand torque until torque transfer characteristics of an engaging element, which is responsible for transmission and disconnection of power between the prime mover and the wheels, are abruptly varied by completion of an engagement process of the engaging element. The input requesting the amount of demand torque corresponds to the driver's manipulation of an accelerator pedal performed to shift the prime mover from an unloaded state to a loaded state, with a transmission system between the prime mover and the wheels being in a non-rigid coupling state in which the engaging element is not completely engaged. Advantageously, torque-down time relating to acceleration response may correspond to the period of time when the engagement process of the engaging element in a non-rigid coupling state begins, until an abrupt change of the torque transfer characteristics would occur upon completion of the engagement process. Further, the torque-down amount relating to acceleration shock reduction may correspond to controlling the output torque of the prime mover to be maintained at a predetermined value which is less than the demand torque. The acceleration shock reduction apparatus disclosed herein may separately control the torque-down amount relating to the acceleration shock reduction and the torque-down time relating to the acceleration response. As a result, the acceleration shock reduction apparatus may achieve an optimal balance between acceleration shock reduction and acceleration response, thereby solving the problems of the conventional techniques. Advantageously, embodiments the present invention include a control system configured to limit output torque of a prime mover as it is transitioned from an unloaded state to a loaded state. However, it should be understood that embodiments disclosed herein may also be applied to limiting output torque of a prime mover as it transitions from a loaded state to an unloaded state without departing from the scope of the claimed subject matter. Thus, the present invention includes a control system capable of limiting output torque of a prime mover as the prime mover changes between loaded and unloaded states, regardless of a direction of the change. Similarly, the present invention also includes control systems configured to limit output torque of a prime mover in response to a transition of an engaging element between rigid and non-rigid coupling states, regardless of a direction of the transition. While the invention has been presented with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments may be devised which do not depart from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.
Should retired investors have exposure to equity? Mr. Arora retired yesterday from a construction company after 35 years of working. At the time of retirement, he received retirement benefits from his company and has some savings accumulated for the purpose of retirement. The big question he is facing is “Where should I invest my money which allows monthly withdrawal and some amount of appreciation?” By nature, he is a risk averse investor and favors investing in a deposit. One of his friends suggested him to invest in a Monthly Income Plan (MIP), a hybrid mutual fund which invests in Debt (70-85%) and Equity (15-30%). Mr. Arora’s thought is, should I invest in equity? The perception is retired investors should stay away from investing in risky assets and should always look at investment options that generate regular income only. This perception holds good to a certain extent. But the bigger challenge is inflation; while inflation is robbing away your purchasing power, the monthly expenses spent by the retired investor increases as years pass by. Imagine a scenario, where an individual has limited corpus, increasing expenses (including medical expenses) and no addition to the existing corpus during retirement period. In such case, the bigger challenge could be depleting retirement corpus and outliving it. “What would happen if the corpus gets over and I live longer?” Let’s take the example from the leaping frog story where a frog while leaping around keeps falling into a well. While trying to get out of the well, he starts climbing the slippery wall. The frog jumps 3 feet and slips 2 feet, so effectively it has climbed 1 foot. Instead of slipping 2 feet, if it falls back into the water it would have lost the entire climb it had gained. Same applies to the corpus meant for retirement. On one side the investor would gain through investment returns and on the other side he would start withdrawing from the corpus. When withdrawals become higher than the investment gains, there can be 2 scenarios: Scenario 1: Let’s look at a scenario when an investor retires with a corpus for Rs. 35 Lakhs and invests his entire retirement corpus in a bank deposit. He starts withdrawingRs. 240,000/- p.a. to meet his expenditure and to manage the inflation and his withdrawal increases by 6% every year. When one starts withdrawing from the corpus and the interest earning is lower, he starts eating in to the principal amount and it starts depleting from the very beginning. As the expenses/withdrawal increases over years, the depletion increases at an accelerated rate and by the time investor turns 77 the corpus is in negative zone. The challenge is what if the investor lives beyond 77years? Scenario 2: Same investor with Rs. 35 Lakhs of retirement corpus and Rs.240,000/- annual withdrawal to begin with (increasing at 6% p.a. because of inflation) chooses to invest in a combination of Debt (70-85%) and Equity (15-30%) for the first 15 years of retirement and balance 5 years in complete Debt (100%) portfolio. Since we are looking at a time horizon of 15 years (i.e. from the age of 60 – 75 years of retirement phase), investing in equity would have sufficient time to accumulate the wealth. In such case, the retirement corpus would last till the investor turns 80 years. So a small exposure to equity in the retirement corpus would help in building the buffer. One option an investor could look at is investing in Debt funds/deposits and Equity mutual funds separately. Ideally the equity mutual fund should be either Index funds or Large Cap funds, where the risk is lowest amongst all the equity mutual funds. The other option is to invest in hybrid mutual fund products like Monthly Income Plan (MIP). There are 2 variants in MIP, an aggressive MIP which has 30% exposure to Equity and conservative MIP which has 15% exposure Equity and the rest in Debt. The basic thumb rule for Asset allocation is 100 minus Age (100-Age). For an individual who is just retired at the age of 60, he still could invest upto 40% in Equity and keep reducing the exposure to equity over time. So Equity exposure between 15-30% would help in building retirement corpus. Created by Knowise Learning Academy India Pvt. Ltd.	https://knowise.co.in/uncategorized/should-retired-investors-have-exposure-to-equity/
A mysterious object from somewhere in the galaxy is moving incredibly fast through our solar system, and NASA scientists don’t know what it is or where it came from. It could end up being the first “interstellar object” observed by scientists, but NASA scientists said telescopes all over the world are being pointed towards the the small asteroid or comet, designated A/2017 U1. Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, first spotted the object Oct. 19. “Its motion could not be explained using either a normal solar system asteroid or comet orbit,” Wryk said in a NASA news release. “This object came from outside our solar system.” The object came from the direction of the constellation Lyra, according to NASA. The comet or asteroid did not come close to hitting any of the eight major planets as it hurtled towards the sun. It “made a hairpin turn under our solar system, passing under Earth’s orbit on Oct. 14 at a distance of about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) — about 60 times the distance to the Moon,” NASA said. “It has now shot back up above the plane of the planets and, travelling at 27 miles per second (44 kilometers per second) with respect to the Sun, the object is speeding toward the constellation Pegasus,” NASA said in its release. If scientists confirm U1 is in fact an “interstellar object,” it will be the first time scientists have observed an object they’ve long theorized existed. “We have been waiting for this day for decades,” Paul Chodas, the manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said in the release. “It’s long been theorized that such objects exist — asteroids or comets moving around between the stars and occasionally passing through our solar system — but this is the first such detection. So far, everything indicates this is likely an interstellar object, but more data would help to confirm it.” Follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].	https://dailycaller.com/2017/10/27/an-object-passed-through-our-solar-system-and-nasa-doesnt-know-what-it-is/
\|Search PNC News for stories of people and churches in our UCC Conference: \| Fire at Ballard church causes smoke damage and more Tim Devine, pastor of St. Paul’s UCC in Ballard, received a call from the fire department at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 29, to say that the building had caught fire. \| \| Members of St. Paul UCC put on face masks for protection from asbestos released by the fire. Photos courtesy of Tim Devine Neighbors called 911 when they saw smoke coming out of the church. No one was hurt, said Tim, but there was significant smoke damage that will take time to repair. The fire started in the front furnace room by accident, he said, “and an investigation as to the exact cause is still underway.” The fire was contained to a basement area, but traveled through the air and heating ducts to create hot spots throughout the building. There was damage in the downstairs lobby, nursery, library and sanctuary near the entrance. “In those areas parts of ceilings, walls, and floors were removed by the fire department to take care of them. There is also some water damage and extensive smoke damage,” he said. \| \| Interior damage to the church. With no access to the building, Tim invited the congregation to gather at 11 a.m., Sunday, April 3, in the church parking lot for prayers. They they processed walking 10 minutes or carpooling to Ballard First Lutheran Church, where they will worship in Haavic Hall for several weeks. The estimate is that the building will be closed for three months. An asbestos abatement process in underway. “The church is far more than a building,” said Tim, expressing his gratitude to friends and colleagues in the Pacific Northwest Conference for their “outpouring of prayers, concern and offers to help. “We’re a small but mighty congregation,” he said, “and we will continue to be faithful and to serve in the weeks and months ahead,” he said. For information on church matters, email [email protected]. For information on 12-step meetings, contact Seattle intergroup at www.seattleaa.org.	http://www.thefigtree.org/pncnews/april16pnc/040116stpaulsfire.html
Matt Vincent Lattanzi who is better known by his stage name Matt Lattanzi is an American actor and dancer. Besides, Matt rose to stardom for being the first husband of singer and actress Olivia Netwon-John. Matt played the role Young Danny in 1980’s film Xanadu. With a more than ten films credits, Lattanzi has earned an excellent amount. If so then, Ho much is Matt Lattanzi’s net worth? Who is Matt’s current wife? Let’s dig deep into the article to know more about Lattanzi. Who is Matt Lattanzi? Know his Bio & Wiki Matt Lattanzi was born as Matthew Vincent Lattanzi on February 1, 1959, in Portland, Oregon, the United States of America. Lattanzi holds an American nationality and belongs to white ethnicity. Similarly, Matt is the son of Jeanette Lattanzi and Charles Paul Lattanzi. His father is a maintenance foreman of Italian descent while his mother is Polish ancestry. Matt graduated from Benson Polytechnic High School in 1977. Soon after graduation, he stepped into acting. His first feature film debut was in 1980 in the movie Xanadu. His other films credits include Rich and Famous, Graese 2, That’s Life!, Roxanne, Catch Me If You Can and Driving In. Matt Lattanzi’ Relationship with wife Olivia Newton-John Matt Lattanzi married his longterm girlfriend turned wife Olivia Newton-John in December 1984. The couple dated several years before they walked down the aisle. The duo met four years earlier while filming Xanadu. Soon after their wedding, the couple moved to their farm Australia, so that he could audition for the new soap opera, Paradise Beach. Matt won a six-month contract for the show. After eleven years of togetherness, Matt and Newton-John ended their relationship into divorce. Their divorce was finalized in 1995. With his spouse, Lattanzi shares a daughter Chloe Rose, who was born in January 1986. Later he tied the knot with Cindy Jessup. Unfortunately, Matt’s second marriage also ended up in a divorce in 2007. In the case of Olivia, she dated gaffer/cameraman Partick McDermott a year after her divorce. The two dated on and off relationship for nine years. In addition, she married John Easterling, founder, and president of the Amazon Herb Company, on June 21, 2008. Their wedding ceromany was held in an Incan spiritual ceromany in Peru. See More: Maggie Sajak Bio, Age, Net Worth, Husband, & Parents How much is Matt Lattanzi’s Net Worth & Salary? Being an actor, Matt has worked on several hit movies and television series. So, he has earned good revenue throughout his successful profession. As of 2019, Lattanzi has a net worth of $1 million. Besides, Matt’s net worth is also aided by his modeling career. On the other hand, his ex-wife Olivia Newtown-John has a net worth of $40 million as of 2019. She collects this fortune through her dual profession, as an actress and singer. In 2015, Olivia bought $4.69 million worth, a 12-acre horse ranch in Santa Inez, California. The house was listed for sale in May 2019 for $5.4 million. Olivia listed her Australian country estate for $5.5 million as well. She purchased the 187-acre Australia estate in the early 1980s. She also owns a number of properties in Florida. In June 20199, Olivia purchased a $4.1 million home in Jupiter Inlet, Florida. See More: Cindy Hayden Bio, Age, Net Worth, Family, Married & Children Matt Lattanzi’s Age, Height Talking about Matt Lattanzi’s age, he is 70 years old as of 2019. In the same way, the rising star has a height of 5 feet 11 inch or 1.8 m tall. He has brown hair and a pair of grey eyes. The other details about his body measurements are unavailable at the moment.	https://allstarbio.com/matt-lattanzi-bio-wiki-net-worth-age-height-salary-married-wife/
"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:31 Click Below to Download your Image: Apple Devices: iphones and ipod touch ipads Android Phones: Galaxy S Series, Edge, Nexus 5X, 6P, Google Pixel, Pixel XL, LG G5, Windows Phones Tablets: Amazon Fire Microsoft Surface Social Media: Facebook Header (Top Banner) Facebook and Blog Posts Twitter Instagram G+ Computer Monitors: 1024 x 768 1280 x 800 1280 x 1024 1366 x 768 1440 x 900 1600 x 900 1920 x 1080 *List based on the top devices used on our website via our analytics.	https://blog.truthforlife.org/wallpaper-renew
The 19th annual Hell on Wheels mountain bike ride is in Grafton on Monday raising money for the Westpac Rescue... 10th Oct. 2016 12:10 PM The Many Peaks Charity Bike Ride is on again this year. 04th May 2017 4:05 PM Oregon resident Brent Bundy is on a 5000km journey from Sydney to Cairns and back to raise awareness of cancer. 11th March 2020 11:03 AM A group of tired but happy riders arrived in Toowoomba as the Bike 4 Burns charity ride continues. 21st May 2018 6:05 AM NATURALISTS from Queensland joined up to 160 cyclists who took part in Byron’s Nude Bike Ride on Sunday afternoon. 14th March 2016 3:03 AM AUSTRALIA’S largest cycling advocacy group is calling on bike riders statewide to protest against new cycling laws. 23rd Jan. 2016 4:01 AM Of all the rites of passage I was hoping to avoid with my kids, cycling was it. How do you teach someone to ride a bike... 16th June 2020 8:06 AM WELCOME to conservation and cost–conscious Australian city life in the 21st century. 21st Oct. 2011 6:10 PM STUDENTS will use pedal power to carry on a proud charity tradition, with seniors preparing to ride to raise money for... 23rd Oct. 2011 6:10 AM CITY Square was cyclist central with people riding to work, enjoying the hive of activity and taking advantage of a free... 13th Oct. 2011 2:10 AM TWO inspirational men on a heroic mission to conquer motor neurone disease will arrive in Coffs Harbour tomorrow. 08th May 2013 1:05 PM FATHER and son Tony and Finn Canning have completed an incredible feat, riding pushbikes more than 580km from Sydney to... 20th Jan. 2018 4:01 AM YOU can still join the estimated 800 riders who will take part in this Sunday's Cycle For Life, raising awareness for an... 25th July 2019 9:07 AM The Fraser Coast Regional Council's Frocks on Bikes - Blokes on Spokes event encourages residents to get active. 24th March 2014 10:03 AM Riders took on one of 5 challenges for the 2019 Tour de Bay ranging from a 5km walk to a 100km ride. 22nd Sept. 2019 4:09 PM The annual Tour de Chaplain bike ride was held in the Boyne Valley at the weekend. 21st July 2014 6:07 AM The 2014 Cycle Queensland tour kicked off in Agnes Water on Saturday. 08th Sept. 2014 6:09 AM JUST over a year ago, Rockhampton-born athlete David Nicholas was battling a life-threatening bout of pneumonia 31st May 2016 5:05 AM The annual Chinchilla State School Trail Bike Ride was held last weekend, with organisers happy with how it went 09th Aug. 2017 3:08 PM Hundred of motorcycles drove through Dalby, raising money for care and research 13th Sept. 2017 7:09 AM Solo bike ride along east coast to raise awareness of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) 19th Sept. 2018 1:09 PM COLD starts in Lismore are nothing compared to those riding in the Arctic Tour of Norway. 19th Aug. 2019 8:08 AM She's biking it from Brisbane to Townsville for a good cause 24th Aug. 2018 12:08 PM MURWILLUMBAH-raised athlete Paul Mathews is a long way from home but continues to dominate the United States triathlon... 14th June 2011 2:06 AM WHEN they rode out of Istanbul, Turkey, on quad bikes over a year ago they were three friends on the Quad Squad. 17th Oct. 2011 2:10 PM Fewer students ride their bikes to school, despite the obvious benefits. 22nd March 2018 10:03 AM MORE than 150 riders took advantage of Sunday's glorious weather to jump on their bikes and take part in the Tour de... 03rd May 2011 2:05 AM TWENTY-six cyclists have embarked on a 600km ride on which they aim to earn $500 a kilometre to help sick children. 28th Aug. 2012 10:08 AM BATTLING a stiff southerly breeze has given Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker a good workout on his annual charity bike... 25th Sept. 2015 5:09 AM ENCOURAGING regional tourism and business growth via the rail trail is the aim of an e-petition currently before... 15th Oct. 2020 1:10 PM GREAT weather and eager riders combined to make the second annual chaplaincy bike ride an outstanding success. 28th April 2011 3:04 PM THE Fraser Coast could be gearing up for its own Tour de France-style cycling event, with nearly 100 cyclists testing a... 16th Aug. 2011 2:08 AM IF YOU have an old bike from days gone by sitting somewhere in a back shed, now is the time to dust it off and get it oiled... 27th Sept. 2013 11:09 AM PEDAL power ruled the Bay on Sunday, when the fifth annual Hervey Bay Community Bank Tour de Bay Charity Bike Ride pushed... 07th Oct. 2013 8:10 AM FRASER Coast Independent Riders are revved up for this weekend's Community Parade. 20th Aug. 2019 6:08 PM SHOWERS did not deter the hundreds of keen pedal pushers in yesterday's Coral to Coast bike ride. 23rd May 2011 2:05 AM UPDATE 5.15PM: A BUNDABERG man is fighting for his life in a Brisbane hospital after his push bike... 26th July 2012 10:07 AM WHEN Julian Thompson’s son was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 2006, he vowed that he would do everything to... 08th Sept. 2015 5:09 PM IT IS the first anniversary of the fatal accident involving a cyclist on Johnston St yet all the council has done is patch... 10th June 2016 5:06 AM THE Bundaberg and North Burnett region is providing the perfect backdrop for more than 700 riders participating in this... 09th Sept. 2014 5:09 AM THE MAD Cycologists might not have the most enticing name but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of people registering for the... 12th May 2014 8:05 AM IT doesn't get much better then cruising along with the wind in your helmet and your legs pumping the pedals. 19th Dec. 2011 2:12 AM STUDENTS from all over the Gladstone region in grades 4-7 are gearing up for the annual Chaplaincy Junior Bike... 22nd Feb. 2013 11:02 AM SOCIAL activist Michael Traffard is looking to halve world poverty one bike ride at a time. He plans to travel via BMX and... 17th June 2013 5:06 AM HELPING kids any way they can has become more of a lifestyle than a job, two local chaplains say. 29th July 2013 5:07 AM THE biggest fundraiser for chaplains will be held this weekend, and the Gladstone community has been invited to come along... 13th July 2015 6:07 AM BRETT and Win Marsh set themselves a new challenge each year, and in 2015 it’s the Ride to Conquer Cancer. 04th July 2015 5:07 AM THEY are two men from Gladstone, drawn together by their love of exercise, particularly triathlons. Now, they're riding to... 28th Sept. 2013 5:09 AM JUST KIDDING: Each day brings new surprises here in Gladstone. On Saturday it was one of those days as I...	https://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/search/?sort=relevance&all-sites=on&tag=bike+ride&perpage=50
DOWNTOWN WEST — The University of Minnesota’s Bee Squad aims to raise awareness this fall about a tiny parasite that is one of the biggest threats to Minnesota honey bee colonies. Varroa mites are “enemy no. 1” for honey bees, said Bee Squad Associate Program Director Becky Masterman, who on Monday used the two beehives atop Minneapolis City Hall to demonstrate a fast and easy way to test for an infestation. Both beehives showed signs of a “heavy infestation” that could spread to nearby hives, Masterman said. She’ll return later in the week when cooler weather will allow her to treat the infestation with oxalic acid, a method common in Canada and Europe but only recently approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her goal is to encourage Minneapolis’ dozens of backyard beekeepers to take the same steps over the next few weeks. Masterman described varroa mites as “a major cause of bee death,” but they’re just one in a complex of factors that is contributing to widespread honey bee losses, a phenomenon often referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder. Poor nutrition, exposure to pesticides, diseases and pests like the varroa mite are all contributing to colony die-offs. “In Minnesota, we have some of the highest winter losses and summer losses in the country,” Masterman said. Surveys have shown about one-third of honey bees in managed colonies dying across the U.S. annually since 2006. Recently in Minnesota, it’s been closer to 50 percent, Masterman said. As awareness of honey bee health and the crucial role of insect pollinators has spread, so too has interest in keeping hives. An ordinance allowing for backyard beekeeping passed in Minneapolis in 2009. Beehives were placed atop Minneapolis City Hall in 2013. Minneapolis Sustainability Director Gayle Prest said the city plans to survey backyard beekeepers this winter to get a clearer picture of the number of hives and their locations. Backyard beekeepers are only required to get a permit once, in their first year, and many don’t keep up with what can be a demanding hobby. Prest said over 80 permits for beehives were pulled this spring, one measure of the activity’s popularity. Masterman said the Bee Squad’s class for beginner beekeepers enrolled 750 people this year. Good hive management is crucial, in part because health issues like a varroa mite infestation can spread from hive to hive. Bees range up to three miles when searching for food sources in an urban environment. Mite infestations spread when bees rob honey from nearby hives or through “drone drift,” which is when male bees fly off and join a different colony, Masterman explained. After opening the wooden beehives on City Hall’s grass-covered green roof, Masterman collected several hundred bees in a small glass jar. She then dusted the insects with powdered sugar, explaining that the small amount of cornstarch in the sugar would help the bees rub off the mites. Masterman then turned the jar over and shook it, and dozens of tiny mites fell like black pepper through holes in the jar’s lid. It was too warm Monday to apply the oxalic acid, but later in the week Masterman plans to drizzle a solution of the acid mixed with simple sugar onto the bees. Kits can be purchased online but are currently available from only one supplier, she said. For more information on honey bees and varroa mites, got to the Bee Squad’s website, beelab.umn.edu. The site’s “Free-bee information” page includes step-by-step instructions to check colonies for varroa mites. Masterman pointed to a varroa mite clinging to the back of a mature honey bee. The mite is a reddish dot on the bee’s thorax. Bees are collected into a jar and covered in powdered sugar. The sugar doesn’t harm the bees, and the cornstarch added to the sugar helps the bees remove the mites. Masterman shook the tiny parasites into a plastic jug. Varroa mites are a major threat to honey bees and can spread from hive to hive.	https://www.southwestjournal.com/news/2015/10/going-after-enemy-no-1-for-honey-bees/
People wait in line to enter a store to purchase food Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Houston. A frigid blast of winter weather across the U.S. plunged Texas into an unusually icy emergency Monday that knocked out power to more than 2 million people and shut down grocery stores and dangerously snowy roads. People wait in line to enter a store to purchase food Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Houston. A frigid blast of winter weather across the U.S. plunged Texas into an unusually icy emergency Monday that knocked out power to more than 2 million people and shut down grocery stores and dangerously snowy roads. (The Center Square) – After statewide power outages in February that lasted weeks in some areas, leaving millions of Texans in the cold and dark without water, the state Legislature was tasked with reforming the state’s electric grid. Unlike 47 other states that operate on either the East or West Coast electric grids, Texas operates on its own grid. It is managed by the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is regulated by the state legislature and the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC). While the reform measures passed revamp ERCOT and PUC, they also allow ERCOT to increase rates for consumers, create another fee to be added to electric bills, and authorize electric companies to pass on the costs of billions of dollars in loans they took out onto consumers. Costs being passed onto consumers add a triple blow to residents, critics argue, who were already hit with high electric bills after having lost power for weeks during Winter Storm Uri. On Valentine’s Day, sub-zero temperatures caused a wide range of property damage that, coupled with decisions made by ERCOT executives and the PUC, left millions of Texans without heat, water and electricity for weeks. The 100-year winter storm forced the legislature to pass several bills to strengthen the states’ electric grid, although several lawmakers had called for the legislature to secure the grid for years to no avail. Grid reform was also listed as an emergency legislative item by Gov. Greg Abbott, which by law requires the legislature to take up the measure. On late Sunday, the Senate approved SB 2 to reform ERCOT, and SB 3, the Power Grid Stability Act, which revamp the organizational oversight of the state's electric grid and require weatherization of critical energy facilities. SB 3 also increases costs to consumers. It creates a new fee to cover costs to dispatch electric generation capacity in an emergency, permanently increasing electric bills. Texans’ electric bills will also increase if Abbott signs a bill into law filed by Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall. The bill, HB 4492, passed both chambers on Monday, the last day of the 87th legislative session. HB 4492 would increase electric rates for consumers in order to cover the costs of loans taken out by electric companies. Increased costs will vary by company depending on the amount and length of the loan, among other factors. Senate Bill 2 makes changes to the operations of ERCOT and the PUC by expanding their boards and requiring their board members to be Texas residents. It also streamlines emergency responses inside the PUC. Changing ERCOT’s board from one comprised of “industry insiders with conflicts of interest to one that is wholly independent of the state electric market” was a key priority, its author, Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, said. The change is "radical from what Texas is used to, but you know what it's not radical from - every other grid in the United States," he said. "Every other grid in the United States has an independent board and Texas will now have that model." In February and March, after ERCOT’s shortcomings were exposed, several ERCOT board members who lived outside of Texas resigned. The bill requires the ERCOT board to be comprised of eight unaffiliated members with executive level experience in finance, business, engineering and electric markets, approved by a commission appointed by state leadership. It also prohibits members from holding a financial interest in any company that operates in the ERCOT market. It also requires that any major proposals offered by ERCOT be approved by the PUC. Filed by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, SB 3 requires all critical electric, transmission and natural gas facilities to be prepared to operate in extreme weather conditions. It provides for inspection of winterization efforts and imposes fines of up to $1 million for companies that don't comply. It also establishes requirements for the PUC, ERCOT, the Texas Railroad Commission, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, including a mapping of Texas’ electricity supply chain and inspection of weather emergency preparedness efforts now required to be implemented by natural gas, electric and water service entities. In order to improve coordination among all sectors of the state energy market, the bill creates the Texas Energy Disaster Reliability Council and the State Energy Plan Advisory Committee to be comprised of state regulators and market participants and creates a new statewide power outage emergency alert system. SB 3 also creates a new fee passed on to consumers to cover costs to dispatch electric generation capacity in an emergency. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick claimed the Senate was standing up for ratepayers. “We began this session by immediately calling for a correction of the energy pricing that occurred during the February storm, which created millions of dollars in windfalls for some companies,” Patrick said in a statement. “The Texas Senate continued to stand up for ratepayers throughout this session” by passing the bills. Perhaps the biggest cost to consumers could come from HB 4492, filed by Paddie, which would allow retail electric providers and other companies to access low-interest loans to cover costs, which they would then pass on to consumers through rate increases over a period of several years, instead of hiking bills all at once. “Many wholesale market participants incurred extraordinary costs in attempting to restore service during the winter storm, and the current short-pay amount would not allow the ERCOT organization to uplift the costs to the market in a reasonable amount of time due to the limitation on monthly uplift,” a bill analysis states. Opponents of the bill argue it is a bailout for companies and simply reallocates debt to customers already struggling to pay their bills and could lead to unintended consequences. Patrick said the Senate proposed a framework for a $3 billion fund to help consumers pay for electric rates that go up as electric companies pay off interest on $2.1 billion worth of loans they already took out, but the proposal didn't make it through the House before the session ended. The House was in session 76 out of 140 possible days. Patrick has asked Abbott to add ratepayer relief to the special session agenda. "The next time we're going to spend billions of dollars concerning the storm, it's going to be to help the people of Texas and ratepayers, or I won't call that bill up," Patrick said. "We can help ERCOT, we can help businesses, but we have to help the people of Texas and their electric bills." All three bills were sent to Abbott for consideration. Once signed into law, they would be effective Sept. 1.
We present a simple continuity type component and circuit tester that uses a common LED as an indicator. When the resistance of the component or circuit under test is below 50 k ohms approximately, the LED lights up. If the resistance is above 1 M ohms (open circuit or insulation) the LED does not light up. For intermediate values the LED lights up with reduced brightness. In a demonstration or work for science fair this circuit can serve to show the difference between conductors and insulators in a very practical way. The important thing is that by the brightness of the LED in the test we can also evaluate the state of components such as resistors, Capacitors, coils, lamps, winding coils and transformers, switches, fuses and many others. The circuit can be powered by two or four small batteries and their consumption is very low. In fact, if the probes are kept separate then it is not necessary to use S1 that the drained current will be practically zero. HOW IT WORKS An LED is connected to the collector of a transistor so that it turns on when the transistor conducts the current. In order to conduct the current it is necessary that its base is polarized and this is done through two probes. When the probes are separated or when some device having a very high resistance, i.e. an insulation, is connected, no current can flow and the transistor does not conduct. Under these conditions the LED remains off. However, when the device or circuit connected between the probes leads to current the transistor is polarized and with that the LED lights up. For the transistor to conduct, however, the circulating current through the base must have a certain value. Below this value the transistor reduces its conduction and the LED does not light up with all its force. Thus, if the circuit tested has a somewhat high resistance, in the range of 47 k ohm to 1 M ohm, the LED will light but with reduced brightness. ASSEMBLY In Figure 1 we have the complete tester diagram. In Figure 2 we have the arrangement of the components on a terminal bridge. The assembly can easily be installed in a small plastic box. For Q1 we can use any general purpose NPN transistor. The LED can be red or any other color and in its assembly it is necessary to observe its polarity because if it is inverted it does not light, the same thing happens with respect to the transistor and the battery holder. The resistors are 1/8W or larger and the probes can either be of the type purchased in specialist houses (such as those used in multimeters) as can be improvised with two large nails. TEST AND USE To test the unit, simply plug it in after placing the batteries in the holder and touching one probe in the other: the LED should light up at its normal brightness. If the LED lights up with the tips separated or the transistor is turned on or wrong it is burned out. To use, just touch the probes on the component you want to test. If the component is in any appliance it must be removed or the appliance must be switched off. If the LED lights up in this test the circuit or component has continuity, otherwise it will not. Remember that there are components that are just right when the LED does not light up, such as the Capacitors. It will be interesting to check in the specialized books how the components should behave to know how the tests should be done. To prove diodes, for example, we have continuity in the sense but not in another; for fuses if there is continuity it is because it is good; for a capacitor if there is continuity (LED lit) it is because it is bad. WHAT TO EXPLAIN Take several common materials such as coins, paper clips, graphite, paper, glass, metal objects, etc. Test each of them to demonstrate which are conductors and insulation. Explain the difference between conductors and insulators and differentiate the various materials after testing. Explain that in the conductors the current flows and so when the test is performed the LED lights up. Have resistors of several values ??in hand to test them with this device showing that the higher the resistance the lower the brightness of the LED. SUGGESTIONS The LED can be replaced by a lamp with rated voltage according to the batteries used as long as its current is less than 100 mA. If a Darlington transistor is used the gain of the tester will be much higher and it will serve as the insulation test because the LED will come on with resistances of many megohm. Semiconductors: Q1 - BC548 or equivalent - NPN general purpose transistor LED - common red LED Resistors: (1/8W, 5%) R1 - 10 k ohm - brown, black, orange R2 - 470 ohm - yellow, violet, brown Several: S1 – On/Off switch PP1, PP2 - Probes - see text B1 - 3 V or 6 V - 2 or 4 small batteries Terminal strip, battery holder, mounting box, wires, solder, etc.	http://incbtech.com/index.php/articles/9-projects/3560-micro-tester-art463e
Introduction {#S0001} ============ Obesity is a complex condition with multifactorial origin and is highly prevalent in developed nations \[[@CIT0001]\]. There are studies stressing that body mass index (BMI) as one of the obesity parameters is to a certain degree heritable \[[@CIT0002]\]. On the other hand, observations from authors of several studies imply that a decline in physical activity in the group of adolescents leads to the development of obesity, as well as any disruption in the equilibrium of energy intake and energy expenditure \[[@CIT0003], [@CIT0004]\]. Certain receptor polymorphisms \[[@CIT0005]\], lifestyle \[[@CIT0006], [@CIT0007]\] and hypothalamic factors \[[@CIT0008]\] reflect the complexity of overweight and obesity in the human population. Since there are studies that address the possible role of heredity in the predisposition to overweight and obesity, we proposed the hypothesis that generally increased genetic homozygosity levels in samples of overweight and obese individuals could be population-genetic parameters for the prediction of such states. It is very sensitive to estimate genetic homozygosity in human individuals, because only a small number of loci determining a specific morpho-physiological character have been described so far. The recessive phenotype traits that are expressed under the influence of recessive genes constitute markers of the chromosomes for observed genes and markers of surrounding genes that could have some impact on susceptibility to obesity \[[@CIT0009]\]. Increased genetic homozygosity has previously been described in several pathological conditions, indicating increased genetic loads in these groups of evaluated patients \[[@CIT0009], [@CIT0010]\]. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate the degree of genetic homozygosity and genetic variability in overweight individuals and obese individuals. Material and methods {#S0002} ==================== Study group {#S20003} ----------- In our study we evaluated 140 children and adolescents with increased body mass index. The evaluated population included individuals aged 10-18 years (mean: 14.53 ±2.85 years). Participants were grouped into 3 groups: a group with normal body weight, an overweight group and an obese group. According to the recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO), for children age 6-18 years, normal weight was described as BMI values between the 15^th^ and 85^th^ percentile for age and gender, overweight as BMI values between the 85^th^ and 95^th^ percentile, and obesity as BMI values above the 95^th^ percentile for age and gender \[[@CIT0011]\]. Additionally, 300 individuals with normal weight were analysed as the control group. Prior to inclusion in the study, all individuals (normal weight, overweight and obese) were completely assessed by a board certified paediatrician, physiatrist and paediatric surgeon in order to exclude other conditions that could influence BMI. All 3 groups of tested individuals (normal weight, overweight and obese) belong to the same ethnic group (Serbian population). Study material {#S20004} -------------- To establish BMI, participants' weight was measured in the morning before a meal in light clothes and height was measured as well. The degree of genetic homozygosity was assessed through the presence of 15 homozygous recessive characteristics (HRC) by the standardized HRC test that has been established for estimation of the proportion of homozygously recessive clearly expressed characteristics in every individual as markers of chromosomal homozygosities \[[@CIT0012]\]. The presence of the studied genetically controlled recessive characteristics was used as a parameter for homozygosity of the corresponding genes and chromosomes. Different frequencies of homozygously recessive characteristics in individuals of different groups being evaluated would be a manifestation of a kind of genetic load present in the selected samples of the studied population \[[@CIT0013]--[@CIT0016]\]. There were 10 HRC in the region of the human head that were evaluated: unattached ear lobe (OMIM number 128900), continuous frontal hair line (OMIM number 194000), blue eyes (gene location 19p13.1-q13.11, OMIM number 227240), straight, soft and blond hair (OMIM numbers 139450 and 210750), double hair whorl, opposite hair whorl orientation (OMIM number 139400), colour blindness (gene location Xq28, OMIM number 303800) and ear without Darwinian notch. Further, an additional 5 HRC on human arms were evaluated as well: distal or proximal hyperextensibility of the thumb, index finger longer than the ring finger (OMIM number 136100), left-handedness (gene location 2p12-q22, OMIM number 139900), right thumb over left thumb (hand clasping) (OMIM number 139800) and top joint of the thumb \> 45° (OMIM) \[[@CIT0017]\]. Statistical analysis {#S20005} -------------------- To present the frequency of evaluated HRC in the groups of individuals with normal weight, overweight and obese individuals we used whole numbers and percentages. The degree of genetic homozygosity for each group was presented as the mean value (MV) with standard deviation (SD). Chi squared test (χ^2^) was used to compare frequencies of HRC between evaluated groups. Comparison of mean values of HRC between two groups was done by Student\'s t-test, while unifactorial ANOVA (f values) was used to compare mean values of HRC between 3 groups of individuals. Statistical significance was set at p \< 0.05. Results {#S0006} ======= From 440 individuals, 300 (68.2%) had normal weight, 100 (22.7%) were overweight and 40 (9.1%) were obese. Comparing mean values of HRC between groups of participants, it was found that there is no significant difference in the presence of HRC between groups of individuals with normal weight and those who were overweight (normal weight: 3.61 ±1.48; overweight: 3.93 ±1.51; t~normal\ weight/overweight~ = 1.86; p \> 0.05) and groups of individuals who were overweight and obese (overweight: 3.93 ±1.51; obese: 4.13 ±1.47; t~overweight/obese~ = 0.71; p \> 0.05), while there was a significant difference between groups of individuals with normal weight and those who were obese (normal weight: 3.61 ±1.48; obese: 4.13 ±1.47; t~normal\ weight/obese~ = 2.09; p \< 0.05) ([Figure 1](#F0001){ref-type="fig"}, [Table I](#T0001){ref-type="table"}). The distribution of homozygous recessive characteristics (HRC) in evaluated groups of individuals is presented in [Table I](#T0001){ref-type="table"}. ![Frequencies of homozygous recessive characteristics (HRC) in normal weight, overweight and obese group](AMS-8-19911-g001){#F0001} ###### Statistical presentation of homozygous recessive characteristics (HRC) mean values in normal weight, overweight and obese groups Parameter Values of t Values of f -------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Normal weight/overweight/obese 3.33[\](#TF0001){ref-type="table-fn"} Normal weight/overweight 1.86 Normal weight/obese 2.09[\](#TF0001){ref-type="table-fn"} Overweight/obese 0.71 p \< 0.05 Statistical analysis of HRC in normal weight and overweight individuals is presented in [Table II](#T0002){ref-type="table"}. Our results indicate that there are differences in the distribution of individual HRC between these two groups. It was noted that 2 recessive traits were significantly more frequent in the group of overweight participants and 2 other recessive traits were significantly more frequent in the group with normal weight ([Tables II](#T0002){ref-type="table"} and [III](#T0003){ref-type="table"}). The type of individual variation in the two studied groups significantly differed (Σχ^2^ = 55.8, df = 14, p \< 0.01). ###### Distribution of homozygous recessive characteristics (HRC) in normal weight, overweight and obese groups HRC Normal weight N = 300, n (%) Overweight N = 100, n (%) Obese N = 40, n (%) ------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- ------------------------- Blond hair 51 (17.0) 39 (39.0) 15 (37.5) Straight hair 148 (49.3) 56 (56.0) 20 (50.0) Two hair whorls 29 (9.7) 8 (8.0) 3 (7.5) Opposite hair whorl orientation 43 (14.3) 10 (10.0) 5 (12.5) Soft hair 118 (39.3) 46 (46.0) 18 (45.0) Continuous hairline 105 (35.0) 40 (40.0) 16 (40.0) Attached ear lobe 67 (22.3) 11 (11.0) 5 (12.5) Ear without Darwinian notch 23 (7.7) 1 (1.0) 2 (5.0) Blue eyes 68 (22.7) 30 (30.0) 12 (30.0) Colour blindness 11 (3.7) 2 (2.0) 1 (2.5) Right thumb over left thumb 134 (44.7) 38 (38.0) 16 (40.0) Top joint of the thumb \> 45° 94 (31.3) 37 (37.0) 14 (35.0) Proximal thumb extensibility 40 (13.3) 22 (22.0) 12 (30.3) Left-handedness 41 (13.7) 18 (18.0) 12 (30.0) Index finger longer than the ring finger 110 (36.7) 35 (35.0) 14 (35.0) Regarding the participants with normal weight and those who were obese, the results of the HRC test indicate that there are differences in the distribution of individual HRC between these two groups. It was noted that 3 recessive traits were significantly more frequent in the group of obese participants ([Tables II](#T0002){ref-type="table"} and [III](#T0003){ref-type="table"}) while one recessive trait was significantly more frequent in the group with normal weight. The type of individual variation in the two studied groups significantly differed (Σχ^2^ = 76.9, df = 14, p \< 0.01). ###### Statistical presentation of homozygous recessive characteristics (HRC) distribution in normal weight, overweight and obese groups HRC (χ^2^) Normal weight/overweight Normal weight/obese Overweight/obese ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Blond hair 28.5[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} 24.7[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.1 Straight hair 0.9 0.0 0.7 Two hair whorls 0.3 0.5 0.0 Opposite hair whorl orientation 1.3 0.2 0.6 Soft hair 1.1 0.8 0.0 Continuous hairline 0.7 0.7 0.0 Attached ear lobe 5.7[\](#TF0002){ref-type="table-fn"} 4.3[\](#TF0002){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.2 Ear without Darwinian notch 5.8[\](#TF0002){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.9 9.6[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} Blue eyes 2.3 2.3 0.0 Colour blindness 0.1 0.4 0.1 Right thumb over left thumb 1.0 0.5 0.1 Top joint of the thumb \> 45° 1.0 0.4 0.1 Proximal thumb extensibility 5.7[\](#TF0002){ref-type="table-fn"} 21.7[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} 2.7 Left-handedness 1.3 19.4[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} 6.4[\](#TF0002){ref-type="table-fn"} Index finger longer than the ring finger 0.1 0.1 0.0 Σχ^2^ 55.8[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} 76.9[\\](#TF0003){ref-type="table-fn"} 20.6 p \< 0.05 p \< 0.01 When comparing the group with overweight participants and the group with obese participants, the results of the HRC test indicate that there are differences in the distribution of individual HRC between these two groups. It was noted that 2 recessive traits were significantly more frequent in the group of obese participants ([Tables II](#T0002){ref-type="table"} and [III](#T0003){ref-type="table"}). The type of individual variation in the two studied groups did not significantly differ (Σχ^2^ = 20.6, df* = 14, p \> 0.05). Discussion {#S0007} ========== The findings of our study on the population genetic approach for the first time clearly show that there is morpho-physiological difference between samples of individuals for the predisposition regarding obesity. We have demonstrated that increased BMI and therefore overweight or obesity is in correlation with increased genetic homozygosity, indicating increased genetic loads for individuals with higher BMI values. The present statistically significant increase of recessive homozygosity for obese participants versus those with normal weight could give us an impression that such increase of genetic loads could bring the organism into a more specific physiological condition for susceptibility to fat mass increase and therefore being obese \[[@CIT0018], [@CIT0019]\]. Although we found an increase in genetic homozygosity for overweight individuals versus normal weight individuals and for obese participants versus overweight participants, such elevation in genetic homozygosity was not statistically significant. A possible explanation for this observation could be that obesity versus overweight has increased genetic predisposition and that some preferential phenotypes exist. Significantly increased genetic homozygosity in obese individuals could bring the organism into a specific state of genetic-physiological homeostasis, enabling easier expression of a predisposition to obesity. Furthermore, higher genetic homozygosity could result in pleiotropic effects of specific genes responsible for expressing a predisposition to obesity. The evaluated phenotype traits, at a population genetic level, indicate the intrinsic changes in samples of individuals with normal weight, those with overweight and those who are obese. The presence of variability in the proportion of certain observed recessive phenotype traits between different samples of individuals has been studied previously (e.g., between genders, between ill and healthy individuals, between sportsmen and non-sportsmen) \[[@CIT0014], [@CIT0019]--[@CIT0021]\]. In our study, we observed that different traits significantly differed between evaluated groups, as well as a different proportion of traits, giving us the assumption of different predisposition to overweight and obesity states. It should also be stressed that analysis of individual traits distribution implies the presence of different presentation of characteristic groups of traits between evaluated samples of individuals, pointing to the possibility of a correlation with different combinations of polygenes that could be involved in regulatory processes that are responsible for fat metabolism, resulting in the increase of BMI. However, absence of statistical significance between overweight and obese samples of individuals regarding the degree of genetic homozygosity and individual variation of evaluated traits indicates that these individuals are more similar in the population genetic approach versus those with normal weight. In this study there were a few limitations. The first one applies to the variations of normal genotype in the human population, since we cannot establish it with exact confidence. Also, the evaluated phenotype characteristics should be improved further with other morphophysiological characteristics. From the results of our study it can be concluded that overweight and obese individuals have a genetic predisposition, and that different expression of genetic loads could be one of the possible explanations for different susceptibility to the increase of fat mass and BMI. Such evaluation of homozygously recessive characteristics in a population with increased body mass could be of some benefit as a potential screening method along with other diagnostic approaches that might identify the population at risk, enabling timely introduction of prophylactic measures.
Ecosystem services have rapidly changed at the global and regional scales in recent years. Exploring the driving mechanisms of ecosystem services change and projecting future change are of increasing importance to inform policy and decision-making options for ecosystem conservation and sustainable use. Although some research has analyzed the influences of land use or climate changes on ecosystem services, a systematic review on the mechanisms of ecosystem services change has not been carried out so far. This work elaborated on the mechanisms of ecosystem services change based on a literature review, and reached four main conclusions. (1) Climate change and land use jointly determine the ecosystem services change through complex and interacting pathways. (2) Whereas the present research progresses mainly focus on the identification of a single influencing factor, they fail in the determination of multiple influencing factors. (3) Although multi-scenario simulations based on remote sensing and climate models are the main means used to predict future changes in ecosystem services, clarifying the interactive mechanisms of multiple factors is the precondition for future projection of ecosystem services change; (4) Therefore, future research should strengthen the analysis and simulation of the effects of human activities on ecosystem services, especially the development of technology to detect the dynamic responses of ecosystem services to major ecological projects, which is crucial to the selection of restoration measures and the regional arrangement of ecosystem conservation projects. Ecological compensation is an important part of ecological civilization which has gained widespread attention in academia in recent years. This study uses the knowledge graph tool CiteSpace to identify and analyze the literature related to ecological compensation research published in academic journals in the CNKI database, in order to provide an objective and scientific reference for the research in this field. The results show that the domestic research on ecological compensation began to appear around 2000, and the first research boom was ushered in starting in 2009. Most studies have explored ecological compensation from the connotation of ecological compensation, compensation subjects and objects, compensation standards, compensation methods, compensation supervision and evaluation of compensation effects, etc., and the articles on ecological compensation standards are relatively more abundant. At the same time, ecological compensation research is often linked to the realization of ecosystem service value and ecological product value. In the future, researchers should focus on establishing and improving the ecological compensation standard accounting system, exploring the market-based ecological compensation mechanism, attaching importance to the ecological compensation fund distribution mechanism, and strengthening research related to ecological compensation effect assessment. Ecological compensation theory should be developed in the direction of deepening and providing new research perspectives for helping China to deal with the relationship between conservation and development. Agricultural production is considered one of the most important sources of water quality deterioration in the Taihu Lake Basin, China. Crop farming, livestock & poultry breeding and aquaculture are primary agricultural non-point sources and their impacts on the water environment are, in most cases, evaluated separately. Therefore, it is a challenge for current research to consider all of the different agricultural non-point sources as a whole and assess their combined influence on the water environment. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the conjoint impact that agricultural non-point sources such as crop farming, livestock & poultry breeding and aquaculture have had on the local water environment in the Taihu Lake Basin by taking Huzhou City of Zhejiang Province as a case study. To achieve this, a new, innovative approach named the “Waste Absorption Footprint” (WAF) is applied. The results show that nitrogen and phosphorus pollution generated by agricultural production are more serious than that of organic substances, while aquaculture and crop farming are more critical pollution sources compared with livestock and poultry breeding, and so they should be the focus of environmental management and pollution control initiatives. There is a regional discrepancy in the spatial distribution of agricultural non-point source pollution across counties and districts, which provides information for determining the key regions for the treatment of agricultural pollution. This study demonstrates that the WAF method can make a comprehensive assessment of the influence of agricultural production on the water environment and provide references for the control and management of agricultural non-point source pollution, which is of great importance for management of the water environment.	http://www.jorae.cn/EN/article/showChannelArticle.do?id=2428
Distributed And Parallel Com... » more EUROPAR 2005 » GRUBER: A Grid Resource Usage SLA Broker 9 years 11 months ago Download people.cs.uchicago.edu Resource sharing within grid collaborations usually implies specific sharing mechanisms at participating sites. Challenging policy issues can arise in such scenarios that integrate participants and resources spanning multiple physical institutions. Resource owners may wish to grant to one or more virtual organizations (VOs) the right to use certain resources subject to local usage policies and service level agreements, and each VO may then wish to use those resources subject to its usage policies. This paper describes GRUBER, an architecture and toolkit for resource usage service level agreement (SLA) specification and enforcement in a grid environment, and a series of experiments on a real grid, Grid3. The proposed mechanism allows resources at individual sites to be shared among multiple user communities. Catalin Dumitrescu, Ian T. Foster Real-time Traffic EUROPAR 2005 \| Resources \| Service Level Agreement \| Usage Policies \| claim paper Related Content » DIGRUBER A Distributed Approach to Grid Resource Brokering » Experiences in Running Workloads over Grid3 » SLABased Coordinated Superscheduling Scheme for Computational Grids » Economic models for resource management and scheduling in Grid computing » Message Protocols for Provisioning and Usage of Computing Services » An Integrated Framework for Performance Analysis and Tuning in Grid Environment » Customized Plugin Modules in Metascheduler CSF4 for Life Sciences Applications » A modeling approach for estimating execution time of longrunning scientific applications » BioSimGrid Gridenabled biomolecular simulation data storage and analysis more » Post Info More Details (n/a) Added 27 Jun 2010 Updated 27 Jun 2010 Type Conference Year 2005 Where EUROPAR Authors Catalin Dumitrescu, Ian T. Foster Comments (0) Researcher Info Distributed And Parallel Computing Study Group Computer Vision Join Our Newsletter receive notifications of our new tools Explore & Download Proceedings Preprints Top 5 Ranked Papers Publications Books Software Tutorials Presentations Lectures Notes Datasets Explore Subject Areas Life Sciences Algorithms Applied Computing Artificial Intelligence Augmented Reality Automated Reasoning Bioinformatics Biomedical Imaging Biomedical Simulation Biometrics Business Chemistry Cognitive Science Combinatorics Communications Computational Biology Computational Geometry Computational Linguistics Computer Animation Computer Architecture Computer Graphics Computer Networks Computer Science Computer Vision Control Systems Cryptology Data Mining Database Digital Library Discrete Geometry Distributed And Parallel Computing Document Analysis ECommerce Economy Education Electrical and Computer Engineering Electronic Publishing Embedded Systems Emerging Technology Finance Forensic Engineering Formal Methods FPGA Fuzzy Logic Game Theory GIS Graph Theory Hardware Healthcare Human Computer Interaction Image Analysis Image Processing Information Technology Intelligent Agents Internet Technology Knowledge Management Languages Latex Logical Reasoning Machine Learning Management Mathematics Medical Imaging Modeling and Simulation Multimedia Music Natural Language Processing Neural Networks Numerical Methods Operating System Operations Research Optimization Pattern Recognition Physics Programming Languages Remote Sensing Robotics Security Privacy Sensor Networks Signal Processing Social Networks Social Sciences Software Engineering Solid Modeling System Software Theoretical Computer Science User Interface VHDL Virtual Reality Virtualization Visual Languages Visualization VLSI Wireless Networks Productivity Tools International On-screen Keyboard Graphical Social Symbols OCR Text Recognition CSS3 Style Generator Web Page to PDF Web Page to Image PDF Split PDF Merge Latex Equation Editor Sci2ools Document Tools PDF to Text PDF to Postscript PDF to Thumbnails Excel to PDF Word to PDF Postscript to PDF PowerPoint to PDF Latex to Word Repair Corrupted PDF Image Tools JPG to PS JPG to PDF Extract Images from PDF Image Converter Sciweavers About Community Report Bug Request Feature Cookies Contact Copyright © 2009-2011 Sciweavers LLC. All rights reserved.	http://www.sciweavers.org/publications/gruber-grid-resource-usage-sla-broker
SYNOPSIS: Steven finds a mysterious hand mirror, but the Crystal Gems are apprehensive about it. image Steven wants to hang out with Connie, but she has tennis practice. Summer is around the corner though, which means she’ll be out of school and will have the free time to spend the days with her best friend. Steven has no concept of summer vacation let alone a school, so Connie has to explain it to him. It’s a pretty casual way of explaining how Steven has the time to go on all these missions and why we never see any school scenes. Steven is likely homeschooled to the best of both Greg and the Crystal Gem’s abilities; methinks they chose this method simply because a half-gem kid was likely begging for trouble amongst a sea of full human kids. Wouldn’t want the boy to suddenly pop a shield out and have it ricochet all over the classroom now, do we? Pearl assists Steven in creating a classroom, but neither has any clue how school functions. When Pearl finds out Steven just wants to be taught, she excitedly produces a mirror with a cracked blue gem. She found this mirror at a Galaxy Warp a while back and discovered that it has the ability to produce any Gem history it has witnessed. Pearl tries to get it to work, but nothing happens. Welp, that’s the end of school, time for summer vacation! Steven runs out, mirror in hand until he bumps into a table just outside the Big Donut. Lars tells him to watch where he’s going, but Steven’s just so excited for summer, especially now that he has a mirror that can tell him things. He moonwalks away as Mayor Dewey drives in his direction. The mirror warns Steven in time by replaying Lars’ warning from earlier, preventing the kid from turning into street pizza. Steven is happy to see the mirror is working, more so when it communicates back to him using events its seen earlier to form sentences. Looks like Steven made yet another new friend! image Steven and the mirror hang out all day. He wants to tell the Crystal Gems, but the mirror protests for some reason. Steven tells the object that the Gems are cool, then rushes home to inform the trio that he fixed the mirror. He further adds the mirror is like a person which greatly shocks the three. None of the Crystal Gems knew about this specific detail. Garnet urgently request that Steven relinquish the mirror, but he refuses when it repeatedly shouts “no.” The mirror is not fond of the Crystal Gems, it seems. Garnet tries to swipe it from Steven, but in a fit of panic and refusal to lose a new friend, he smacks her hand away, knocking out her sunglasses in the process. Then Garnet makes this face, something she’s never pulled on Steven before. Things just escalated to a whole ‘nother level. Steven runs off, hiding when the Gems pursue him. He desperately begs the mirror to do something. The mirror asks to be freed by removing the gem on its back. Steven does so and the gem reforms into a Gem. Lapis Lazuli. image For the past twenty-four episodes, we’ve gotten to known a lot about the Gem’s biological structure and their relationship with Earth. We’ve gotten only a sneak peek of their culture because the latter reminded an elusive curiosity. All we knew was that the Gem species were widely different than people and only consisted of four: Rose Quartz, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst. It was safe to assume that was all there was to them with only minimum hints of something more. Then Lapis arrives and suddenly we’re sucker punched with a big answer and a million more questions. All the monsters of the week and mystical items the Crystal Gems have been gathering and bubbling prior weren’t Gem-related menaces, they were Gems. As shown in “Monster Buddies”, all of them are too corrupted to retain their original form. Lapis succeeded in breaking that trap, albeit with a cracked gem on her back. I’m not sure why the Crystal Gems seem adamant on swiping the mirror away from Steven though. They knew he bonded with Centipeedle two episodes back and that Steven now has healing powers. Of everyone in the team, Steven has the best shot of restoring the mirror. Garnet’s first instinct would be to believe in Steven, so the intense moment here is downplayed by a sense of arbitrarily fear. I’m also confused on why the Crystal Gems didn’t think to assume the mirror wasn’t another corrupted Gem. I mean, it has a gem attached to the mirror. The last one is something Lapis at least addresses, claiming the Crystal Gems knew she was in there and did nothing. All evidence seem to suggest otherwise though. Either way, Lapis is not a fan of the Crystal Gems. Having a mastery of water, Lapis gathers nearby liquid from the ocean and shapes it into a fist, attacking Garnet. She then creates a path through the ocean so she and Steven can escape since he’s the only one she trusts, but Steven is confused and terrified to do anything. He’s not budging, forcing Lapis to head off alone, but she leaves him with a final warning, “don’t trust them [Crystal Gems], Steven.” image You know “Mirror Gem” is special when it’s a two-parter. As par the course, part one serves to build up the plot and leave behind an enticing cliffhanger that opens up a giant can of worms. I’ll explain the rest of my feelings when I get to “Ocean Gem”, for now, Steven gets the first real test of something beyond his comfort zone. The world of Steven Universe has suddenly gotten bigger with the introduction of a new Gem and not a friendly one at that and some of the context of the corrupted Gems come into light. We get a better idea of why the Crystal Gems are collecting the ones all over Earth, even if we’re still not sure how the Gems ended up corrupted to begin with. Lapis invites some tantalizing questions to the show’s lore and on the Crystal Gems’ motivation. Is what our protagonists doing as heroic as we’ve been lead to believe? Most importantly, what did Lapis mean when she said she wanted to go home? Where is home?	https://fansites.animesuperhero.com/steven-universe-episode-25-mirror-gem/
The course shall be divided into the following sections. First 6-Weeks- Living a Healthy Life, Building Character Second 6-Week Managing Weight , Prenatal Development, Third 6-Weeks STD’s, Group Project, and First Aid and Emergencies. Parents we will have guest speakers to talk about human development ,reproduction and protection.* III. Grading Policy The following is a breakdown of how the grades are calculated for each six weeks. Please note that the Portfolio (notebooks) shall count as a major grade each 6 week. · Major Exams/Assessments/Portfolio-minimum of 2 and preferably 3 per 6 weeks-40% · Daily- 40% · Quizzes-10% · Homework-10% IV. Materials A. Notebook- It is used to organize and keeps track of the student’s progress. The materials inside represent what he/she has done during the 6 week period. After each 6 week is complete the notebook is cleaned out. (1 inch) B. Writing instruments- pen (Blue or Black ink Only) and pencils. C. Textbook-are to be brought to the classroom everyday. V. Acknowledgment I have read the above and understand these rules shall be enforced on all students I also understand that the guidelines for the class may be adjusted based on the assignment along with the consequence.	https://www.houstonisd.org/Page/39424
A south Pacific shorebird with a very unusual migration pattern, the Double-banded Plover faces different threats whichever route it chooses. The Double-banded Plover Charadrius bicinctus, which was uplisted from Least Concern to Near Threatened in this year’s Red List update, is one of the more unusual migratory shorebirds of the south Pacific. Instead of migrating to Australia for their summer, flying south each year from breeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere, it is unique in that it breeds in New Zealand during the southern summer and then flies west across the Tasman Sea to visit Australian shores in the autumn and winter months. At least, part of the population does that – those birds that breed in the upland rivers of New Zealand’s South Island – while those that breed elsewhere in the Shaky Isles make local movements, and do not cross the Tasman. Like most shorebirds, Double-banded Plovers nest on the ground, laying their eggs in a scrape in the sand on coastal beaches or, further inland, among pebbles on shingle banks in braided streams. Birds which breed in either habitat each face their own set of threats. Those plovers which nest on coastal beaches face the threats faced by so many beach-nesting birds, with disturbance near the top of the list. Incubating birds are readily disturbed by beachgoers or their dogs walking too close by; the eggs are often inadvertently crushed by being stepped on or run over by recreational vehicles, and even if they’re not crushed, the eggs or chicks may be left unattended for too long, and left to the mercy of the elements or predators, such as gulls and domestic cats. Upland-nesting plovers are subject to lower levels of disturbance, but experience more predation, mainly from introduced mammalian predators, including hedgehogs, stoats and cats. In addition, their breeding areas may become overgrown with invasive weeds, such as marram grass on beaches and lupins on river banks, making these sites unsuitable for breeding. The bird is a target species in the Australian Migratory Shorebird Action Plan, which promotes the protection of wetland habitats. To keep up with all the news coming out of this year’s Red List update, visit our hub page.	https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/double-trouble-double-banded-plover
Hand made wool felt scarf in Australian Merino wool in a pretty apricot colourway. Approx size - Length 155 cm - Width 25 cm - Hand dyed pure Australian Merino wool 18.5 micron - Next to skin softness. To care for you lovely scarf - Gentle hand wash in cool water with mild wool wash. - Do not agitate, Rinse carefully - Squeeze out excess water and roll in a towel - Lay out flat to dry. - May be lightly ironed with a cool iron. - Hang inside to dry. - For more Scarves like this one For the wool fibres I use for this item This is not a long bulky scarf, it is a pretty little scarf or wrap to pop under a jacket to add warmth but not as much bulk as some have. At 155 cm it wraps comfortable around the neck, this unique scarf hand crafted in a mix of pretty apricot, orange and pink with soft warm hand dyed 18.5 micron Australian Merino wool was dyed first then created in these beautiful colours to give the stunning colour combination. I love these gorgeous softer colours which are a popular combination and find these scarves very warm in the chilly months to wrap yourself up in this one and keep the cold at bay.	https://sallyridgway.com/products/wool-felt-scarf-australian-merino-wool-apricot-mix-12256
Rating: - Serves: 4 - Cook Time: 25 minutes - Prep Time: 10 minutes plus overnight chilling - Effort: medium Ingredients - 50 g cashel blue cheese, or another Irish blue cheese - 50 g unsalted butter - 1 tbsp snipped fresh chives - 675 g minced beef - 12 baby tomatoes, on the vine - 3 tbsp light olive oil - ' lemons, juice only - 2 tsp sweet chilli sauce - Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley - 1 small red onion, cut into wafer-thin slices - 2 muffins, halved Tips and Suggestions A really good beef burger has to be made from really good quality minced beef. If you can, ask your butcher to mince some rib-eye and make sure that it has at least 20 per cent fat content as this will in effect make the burgers self-basting and prevent them from drying out during cooking. Method 1. Mash together the blue cheese and butter in a small bowl. Season with pepper and stir in the chives. Shape into a short cylinder, no more than 5cm in length, and wrap in cling film. Chill for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours to firm up. 2. Divide the beef into four portions, then, using wet hands, shape into patties that are 2.5cm thick. Remove the blue cheese butter from the fridge and cut into four even-sized pieces. Make a deep indentation in the middle of each patty and push in a piece of the Roquefort butter, pushing the beef back around the mixture so that it is well sealed. Chill for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours until ready to cook. 3. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and preheat the grill or if using a charcoal barbecue, light it 30 minutes before you want to start cooking. If using a gas barbecue, light it 10 minutes beforehand. Snip the baby vine tomatoes into four portions of three and arrange in a small roasting tin. Drizzle over one tablespoon of the olive oil and season to taste. Roast for 12-15 minutes until lightly charred and just beginning to soften. 4. Sprinkle a teaspoon of pepper all over the chilled burgers. Add to the grill rack and cook for 4 minutes on each side for rare, 6 minutes each side for medium and 8'9 minutes for well done. 5. To make the dressing, mix together the remaining two tablespoons of the olive oil with the lemon juice and sweet chilli sauce. Place the parsley and red onion in a separate bowl and then fold in two-thirds of the dressing. 6. To serve, toast the cut sides of the muffins on the grill rack and place on warmed plates. Cover with a burger and then add a bunch of roasted tomatoes. Pile the red onion salad on top and drizzle over the remaining dressing.	https://goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/inverted-blue-cheeseburger-with-roasted-tomatoes-and-red-onion-salad/
- In large bowl, beat egg. Mix in sugars and peanut butter and combine well. - Fold in chocolate chips. - Form dough into balls and place 2-inches apart on 2 ungreased baking sheets. - Flatten each ball 2x with fork in a crisscross pattern. - Bake for10 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool.	http://www.50andbeyond.com/crispy-choco-chip-peanut-butter-cookies/

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