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Total TimePrep/Total Time: 20 min.
-
Makes8 servings (2 quarts)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, cubed
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup minced fresh chives
- 1 carton (32 ounces) chicken broth
- 2-1/2 cups mashed potatoes (with added milk and butter)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream or half-and-half cream
- Oyster crackers, optional
Directions
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion; cook and stir until crisp-tender. Add chives; cook 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat; stir in broth and potatoes.
- In a blender or food processor, process mixture in batches until smooth. Return to the pan; stir in cream. Heat through (do not boil). Serve with crackers if desired. | https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/potato-chive-soup/ |
Analysis and Measurement the Affecting Factors in Public Expenditures in Iraq for the Period 2003-2017
TANMIYAT AL-RAFIDAIN,
Volume 38, Issue 122, Pages 121-138
10.33899/tanra.2019.163045
AbstractThe study aims to study the developments in the government expenditure in Iraq during the period 2003-2017, through analyzing the structure of government expenditures according to the economic division, the changes that have occurred and trying to identify the causes thereof, as well as determining the interaction factors among them in determining the amount of public expenditure (The approved variable). In order to access the research methodology, statistical programs (Minitab, E-views) were used. The statistical results showed that the data are stable at the level as is the case with the growth of government spending and the rate of economic growth and population growth rate, while other variables such as inflation rate and the level of corruption and world prices of oil has become static or stable after taking the first difference. In order to reach the goal of the research, a standard model was estimated to include independent variables (oil prices, GDP growth rate, population growth rate, inflation rate, corruption). The research found a number of results, the most important of which is that the rate of economic growth has had a significant effect on the rate of growth in public spending in Iraq and is in direct relationship with him. The rate of inflation in the Iraqi economy was inversely proportional to the rate of growth in the volume of public spending, and identical to economic logic.
Main Subjects: | https://tanmiyat.mosuljournals.com/article_163045.html |
Harris has seldom been seen since being felled by a stroke in May 2001. She will induct into the Hall of Fame her longtime friend and fellow actress Estelle Parsons.
Jerry Orbach will be the master of ceremonies.
Other presenters include George C. Wolfe, Marian Seldes, Lynn Meadow and agent Gilbert Parker.
As previously announced, actors Len Cariou, Gregory Hines, Ian McKellen, Brian Murray and Parsons, playwright A.R. Gurney, designer Santo Loquasto and producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann will be inducted into The Theater Hall of Fame on that day.
The ceremony will take place in the North Rotunda of the Gershwin Theatre. The winners were chosen by 350 voting members of the Theater Hall or Fame and the American Theater Critics Association. Though he is best known for television's "Law & Order," Orbach has starred in the original productions of more major musicals than any other living male actor. His illustrious credits include The Fantasticks, Carnival, Promises, Promises, Chicago and 42nd Street.
Cariou was the original Sweeney Todd in the Sondheim musical by the same name. His other Broadway credits include A Little Night Music, The Speed of Darkness and Proof. He won a Tony Award for Sweeney Todd.
Hines, who died in 2003, starred in the Broadway musicals Sophisticated Ladies, Eubie! and Jelly's Last Jam, for which he won a Tony.
The English McKellen has starred in the Broadway productions of Amadeus, Wild Honey and The Dance of Death. He received a Tony Award for the first.
Murray's many credits include The Crucible, The Little Foxes, A Little Family Business, Racing Demon, Uncle Vanya, Noises Off and The Circle.
Parsons recently starred in the Broadway revival of Morning's at Seven. Other shows include Seven Descents of Myrtyle, Miss Reardon Drinks a Little and the one-person play Miss Margarida's Way.
McCann, a producer of three decades' standing, has backed such works as Dracula; The Elephant Man; The Goat; Dance of Death; Copenhagen; 'night, Mother; Good; The Dresser; Crimes of the Heart; and Mass Appeal. Seven of her productions have netted a Best Play or Best Revival Tony Award.
Gurney is the author of dozens of plays, including The Dining Room, Later Life, Labor Day, The Cocktail Party, Love Letters, The Perfect Party and Mrs. Farnsworth.
Loquasto's countless credits include Grand Hotel, Ragtime, Fosse, Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Cafe Crown, Bent, That Championship Season and Long Day's Journey Into Night. He won Tonys for both his set and costume design for Grand Hotel and for his costume design for the 1977 Broadway revival of The Cherry Orchard. | http://www.playbill.com/article/julie-harris-to-be-presenter-at-hall-of-fame-ceremony-jan-24-com-123108 |
Multi SMILES to Chemdraw files
A recent tweet https://twitter.com/janhjensen/status/1145639870318174208 got me interested.
You could of course just and paste as SMILES but this would be very tedious, this is an ideal task for Applescript. The first part of the script simply defines the location of the folder where the resulting ChemDraw files will be stored. In this case in the home folder, you can change this to desktop by editing the script
set target_path to (path to desktop) as string
We then allow the user to choose the file containing the SMILES strings and read them in, and calculate how many lines there are. The next part loops through each line and copies the SMILES string to the clipboard, we then create a unique file name for each structure. Then scripting ChemDraw menus, to paste as smiles, and then save as ChemDraw with the unique filename, finally clearing the document to allow pasting of the next SMILES string. | https://www.macinchem.org/applescript/smi2cd.php |
PRIORITY INFORMATION
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present application claims priority from the Indian patent application numbered 202121023188 filed on May 24, 2021 in India.
The present subject matter described herein, in general, relates to a system and a method for predicting a lung cancer risk. More particularly, to predicting the lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray.
BACKGROUND
Techniques such as a Computed Topography (CT) scan and an X-ray imaging are known well and widely in a medical field. These techniques are primarily used for a diagnosis of an abnormality in a body part of a patient. It is to be noted that the CT scan provides an accurate diagnosis compared to the X-ray imaging. Typically, doctors also prefer the CT scan for a confirmation of any abnormality. As a general practice, whenever any abnormality is detected in the X-ray imaging of the patient, the doctors suggest the patient to go through few CT scans. However, it is to be noted that high intensity radiations are used in the CT scan. Hence, the CT scan radiations may be dangerous for the patient's health. Also, the CT scan is a costly technique. In addition, once the CT scan is received, the doctors analyze the CT scan manually, and advise the patient accordingly. It is to be noted that the manual analysis of the CT scan is a time-consuming task.
SUMMARY
Before the present system(s) and method(s), are described, it is to be understood that this application is not limited to the particular system(s), and methodologies described, as there can be multiple possible embodiments which are not expressly illustrated in the present disclosures. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular implementations or versions or embodiments only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application. This summary is provided to introduce aspects related to a system and a method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray. This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended for use in determining or limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In one implementation, a method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray is disclosed. Initially, a chest X-ray of a patient may be received. Further, a nodule may be detected in the chest X-ray. In one aspect, the nodule may be detected using an image processing technique. The nodule may be an opacity present in a chest. Furthermore, a region of interest associated with the nodule may be identified using the image processing technique. The region of interest may be an area surrounding the nodule. Upon identification of the region of interest, a plurality of characteristics associated with the nodule may be determined based on an analysis of the region of interest. In one aspect, the plurality of characteristics may be determined using deep learning. The plurality of characteristics may comprise a size of the nodule, a calcification in the nodule, a homogeneity of the nodule and a speculation of the nodule. Further, the plurality of characteristics may be compared with a trained data model using deep learning. In one aspect, the trained data model may comprise historical data related to different sizes of nodules, concentration of calcification in nodules, information associated with homogeneity of nodules, and spiculations for the different nodules. Furthermore, a risk score for the nodule may be generated in real time based on the comparison of the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model. Finally, a lung cancer risk may be predicted when the risk score for the nodule exceeds a predefined threshold value. In one aspect, the aforementioned method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray may be performed by a processor using programmed instructions stored in a memory.
In another implementation, a non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray is disclosed. The program may comprise a program code for receiving a chest X-ray of a patient. Further, the program may comprise a program code for detecting a nodule in the chest X-ray. In one aspect, the nodule may be detected using an image processing technique. The nodule may be an opacity present in a chest. Furthermore, the program may comprise a program code for identifying a region of interest associated with the nodule using the image processing technique. In one aspect, the region of interest may be an area surrounding the nodule. The program may comprise a program code for determining a plurality of characteristics associated with the nodule based on an analysis of the region of interest. In one aspect, the plurality of characteristics may be determined using deep learning. The plurality of characteristics may comprise a size of the nodule, a calcification in the nodule, a homogeneity of the nodule and a spiculation of the nodule. Further, the program may comprise a program code for comparing the plurality of characteristics with a trained data model using deep learning. In one aspect, the trained data model may comprise historical data related to different sizes of nodules, concentration of calcification in nodules, information associated with homogeneity of nodules, and spiculations for the different nodules. Furthermore, the program may comprise a program code for generating a risk score for the nodule in real time based on the comparison of the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model. Finally, the program may comprise a program code for predicting a lung cancer risk when the risk score for the nodule exceeds a predefined threshold value.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing detailed description of embodiments is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating of the present subject matter, an example of construction of the present subject matter is provided as figures, however, the invention is not limited to the specific method and system for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray disclosed in the document and the figures.
The present subject matter is described in detail with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer various features of the present subject matter.
FIG. 1
illustrates a network implementation of a system for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
FIG. 2
illustrates a chest X-ray of a patient, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
FIG. 3
FIG. 4
and illustrate exemplary embodiments of the system for predicting the lung cancer risk, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
FIG. 5
illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the system for monitoring a change in size of a nodule, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
FIG. 6
illustrates a method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
The figures depict an embodiment of the present disclosure for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the disclosure described herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Some embodiments of this disclosure, illustrating all its features, will now be discussed in detail. The words “receiving”, “detecting,” “identifying,” “determining,” “comparing,” “generating,” “predicting,” and other forms thereof, are intended to be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Although any system and methods similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments of the present disclosure, the exemplary, system and methods are now described.
The disclosed embodiments are merely examples of the disclosure, which may be embodied in various forms. Various modifications to the embodiment will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the generic principles herein may be applied to other embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments described, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.
The present subject matter discloses a system and a method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-Ray. Typically, a medical professional recommends performing a CT scan of the chest to ascertain the lung cancer risk. It is important to note that the CT scan exposes the patient to harmful radiations which are dangerous for the body. In addition, the CT scans are costly as compared to the chest X-ray. More importantly, the present invention discloses a cost effective and an automatic process for analyzing the chest X ray to determine the lung cancer risk. Initially, the chest X-ray of a patient is analyzed to detect a nodule in the chest X-ray. Further, the nodule may be analyzed to determine a plurality of characteristics associated with the nodule. It may be noted that the plurality of characteristics may be determined using deep learning. Furthermore, the plurality of characteristics may be analyzed to predict the lung cancer risk.
While aspects of described system and method predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray may be implemented in any number of different computing systems, environments, and/or configurations, the embodiments are described in the context of the following exemplary system.
FIG. 1
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Referring now to , a network implementation of a system for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray is disclosed. It may be noted that one or more users may access the system through one or more user devices -, - . . . -N, collectively referred to as user devices , hereinafter, or applications residing on the user devices . In one aspect, the one or more users may comprise a doctor, a lab assistance and the like.
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Although the present disclosure is explained considering that the system is implemented on a server, it may be understood that the system may be implemented in a variety of computing systems, such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a notebook, a workstation, a virtual environment, a mainframe computer, a server, a network server, a cloud-based computing environment. It will be understood that the system may be accessed by multiple users through one or more user devices -, - . . . -N. In one implementation, the system may comprise the cloud-based computing environment in which the user may operate individual computing systems configured to execute remotely located applications. Examples of the user devices may include, but are not limited to, a portable computer, a personal digital assistant, a handheld device, and a workstation. The user devices are communicatively coupled to the system through a network .
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In one implementation, the network may be a wireless network, a wired network, or a combination thereof. The network can be implemented as one of the different types of networks, such as intranet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the internet, and the like. The network may either be a dedicated network or a shared network. The shared network represents an association of the different types of networks that use a variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and the like, to communicate with one another. Further, the network may include a variety of network devices, including routers, bridges, servers, computing devices, storage devices, and the like.
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In one embodiment, the system may include at least one processor , an input/output (I/O) interface , and a memory . The at least one processor may be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, Central Processing Units (CPUs), state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions. Among other capabilities, the at least one processor is configured to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory .
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The I/O interface may include a variety of software and hardware interfaces, for example, a web interface, a graphical user interface, and the like. The I/O interface may allow the system to interact with the user directly or through the client devices . Further, the I/O interface may enable the system to communicate with other computing devices, such as web servers and external data servers (not shown). The I/O interface can facilitate multiple communications within a wide variety of networks and protocol types, including wired networks, for example, LAN, cable, etc., and wireless networks, such as WLAN, cellular, or satellite. The I/O interface may include one or more ports for connecting a number of devices to one another or to another server.
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The memory may include any computer-readable medium or computer program product known in the art including, for example, volatile memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/or nonvolatile memory, such as read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM, flash memories, hard disks, Solid State Disks (SSD), optical disks, and magnetic tapes. The memory may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., which perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The memory may include programs or coded instructions that supplement applications and functions of the system . In one embodiment, the memory , amongst other things, serves as a repository for storing data processed, received, and generated by one or more of the programs or the coded instructions.
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As there are various challenges observed in the existing art, the challenges necessitate the need to build the system for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray. At first, a user may use the user device to access the system via the I/O interface . The user may register the user devices using the I/O interface in order to use the system . In one aspect, the user may access the I/O interface of the system . The detail functioning of the system is described below with the help of figures.
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The present subject matter describes the system for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray. The system may predict the lung cancer risk in real time without any human intervention. The lung cancer risk may be predicted automatically using deep learning. In order to predict the lung cancer risk, initially, the system may receive the chest X-ray of a patient. In one aspect, the chest X-ray may produce images of heart, lungs, airways, blood vessels and the bones of the spine and the chest.
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Further, the system may analyze the chest X-ray using an image processing technique. Based on the analysis, the system may detect an information corresponding to the lung's parameters including an opacity, a consolidation, a fibrosis, a nodule, a emphysema and a cavity, pleura including a blunted costophrenic angle, pleural effusion and pneumothorax, mediastinum including tracheal shift and hilar prominence, a cardiomegaly corresponding to the heart, a diaphragm including raised or tented diaphragm and pneumoperitoneum, placement of tubes including a gastric tube, and bones including scoliosis and rib fracture.
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In an embodiment, the system may detect the nodule in the chest X-ray using the image processing technique. The nodule may be an opacity or a node present in a chest of the patient. In an example, multiple nodules may be detected in the chest X-ray of the patient. Upon detecting the nodule, the system may identify a region of interest in the chest X-ray. The region of interest may be associated with the nodule. The region of interest may be identified using the image processing technique. In an aspect, the region of interest may be an area surrounding the nodule. In an example, the region of interest may comprise one or more nodules.
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FIG. 2
Further to identifying the region of interest, the system may determine a plurality of characteristics associated with the nodule. The plurality of characteristics may be determined by analyzing the region of interest using deep learning. The plurality of characteristics may comprise a size of the nodule, a calcification in the nodule, a homogeneity of the nodule and a spiculation of the nodule. In one embodiment, deep learning (may also be called as deep learning techniques) may be a part of a machine learning family. The deep learning techniques may comprise multiple layers in a network. The deep learning techniques may comprise a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) technique. The deep learning techniques may use a trained data model for an operation. The trained data model comprises historical information, chest X-rays of a set of patients, medical history of the set of patients, the information associated to the nodules for the set of patients. It may be noted that the trained data model may be trained using a continuous learning approach like Reinforcement Learning techniques. The trained data model may correspond to data learned by the system to operate efficiently. The trained data model may enable an accurate operation of the deep learning techniques. In one aspect, the system may use the deep learning techniques to determine the plurality of characteristics as shown in .
FIG. 2
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Referring now to , a chest X-ray () of a patient is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter. In one embodiment, the chest X-ray may show a plurality of characteristics comprising a size of the nodule, a calcification in the nodule, a homogeneity of the nodule and a spiculation of the nodule.
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In one aspect, the size of the nodule may be 2 mm, 10 mm, 7 mm and the like. Further, the calcification in the nodule may indicate an amount of calcium present in the nodule. In one example, if the amount of calcium exceeds a predefined amount of calcium, then the nodule may be referred as a calcified nodule. Furthermore, the homogeneity of the nodule may indicate a texture of the nodule. The spiculation of the nodule may indicate a border of the nodule. In one embodiment, the system may detect multiple nodules in the chest X-ray. In the embodiment, a count of nodules may also be determined. The count of nodules corresponds to a number of nodules detected in the chest X-ray.
FIG. 1
102
Referring again to , the system may compare the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model. The plurality of characteristics and the trained data model may be compared using the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) technique. In one embodiment, the trained data model may comprise historical data related to different sizes of nodules, concentration of calcification in nodules, information associated with homogeneity of nodules, and spiculations for the different nodules. In one aspect, the trained data model may be generated based on continuously learning data associated with a set of patients using deep learning. The trained data model may enable an accurate analysis.
In one aspect, the historical data may comprise historical clinical reports and historical chest X-rays associated with the set of patients. In an example, the set of patients may comprise patients suffering from a lung cancer. In another aspect, the historical data may comprise a previous clinical report and a previous chest X-ray of the patient.
102
In one exemplary embodiment, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) technique may be a part of the deep learning. Further, the CNN technique may comprise an input layer, an output layer, and multiple hidden layers. It may be understood that, the hidden layers may comprise convolutional layers, pooling layers, fully connected layers, and normalization layers. It may be noted that the convolutional layers may apply a convolution operation to the input, passing the result to the next layer. The local or global pooling layers may combine the outputs of neuron clusters at one layer into a single neuron in the next layer. The fully connected layers may connect every neuron in one layer to every neuron in another layer. An advantage of the CNN technique may be that the CNN network may learn the filters that may require to behand-engineered in the traditional algorithms. In one aspect, the system may use the CNN technique to compare the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model.
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In one embodiment, the system may compare the size of the nodule with the different sizes of nodules. Further, the system may compare the calcification in the nodule with the different concentration of calcification in nodules. Furthermore, the system may compare the homogeneity of the nodule with the information associated with homogeneity of nodules. The system may further compare the spiculation of the nodule with the spiculations for the different nodules. It may be noted that the comparison may be a one-to-one comparison of each characteristic from the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model using the CNN technique.
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Subsequently, the system may generate a risk score associated with the nodule. The risk score may be generated in real time. In one embodiment, the system may compare the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model. Based on the comparison, a score for each characteristic may be determined. Further, a weightage may be predefined for each characteristic. In one example, the score associated with each characteristic and the weightage may be used to generate the risk score. In one aspect, the risk score may be generated using the deep learning techniques.
102
Upon generating the risk score, the system may predict the lung cancer risk. The lung cancer risk may be predicted based on a comparison of the risk score with a predefined threshold value. The lung cancer risk may be categorized as a low risk, a high risk and a moderate risk. In one embodiment, if the risk score exceeds the predefined threshold value, the lung cancer risk may be the high risk. The high risk may indicate that the nodule is cancerous. In another embodiment, if the risk score is less than the predefined threshold value, the lung cancer risk may be the low risk. In yet another embodiment, if the risk score is equal to the predefined threshold value, the lung cancer risk may be the moderate risk.
102
In one embodiment, the system may predict a type of the nodule. The type of the nodule may be a cancerous nodule or a noncancerous nodule. In one example, the noncancerous nodule may be a calcified granuloma. The cancerous nodule may be a neoplastic lesion.
102
In one aspect, the system may monitor a change in the size of the nodule over a period. The change in the size of the nodule may be monitored based on the previous chest X-ray of the patient. The change in the size of the nodule may be an increase in size or a decrease in size. The increase in size may indicate the high risk of a lung cancer. The decrease in size may indicate the low risk of the lung cancer. In one embodiment, an amount of the change in the size of the nodule may indicate the lung cancer risk.
In one example, the size of the nodule in the previous chest X-ray of the patient may be 4 mm. Further, the size of the nodule in the chest X-ray may be 8 mm. It may indicate that the size of the nodule is increased and hence the high risk of the lung cancer. In another example, the size of the nodule in the previous chest X-ray of the patient may be 4 mm. Further, the size of the nodule in the chest X-ray May be 2 mm. It may indicate that the size of the nodule is decreased and hence the low risk of the lung cancer.
FIG. 3
FIG. 4
FIG. 3
FIG. 4
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Referring now to and , exemplary embodiments of the system for predicting the lung cancer risk is disclosed, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter. In one embodiment, the may show a low risk scenario () of the lung cancer risk. In one embodiment, the may show a high risk scenario () of the lung cancer risk.
FIG. 3
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Referring to the , a chest X-ray and a region of interest may be shown. In an embodiment, construe detection of a nodule in the chest X-ray of a patient. Further, a size of the nodule may be 8 mm, a calcification in the nodule may be determined as YES i.e., the calcium is present in the nodule, a homogeneity of the nodule may be determined as YES, and a spiculation of the nodule may be determined as NO.
In one aspect, the size of the nodule may be compared with different sizes of the nodules present in a trained data model. The different sizes of the nodules may be 2.5 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm, 7 mm, 10 mm and the like. In one example, the size of the nodule may vary from 0.2 mm to 10 mm. Upon comparing, it may be noted that the size of the nodule is less than a threshold size. In one aspect, the threshold size stored in the trained data model may be 10 mm. Similarly, the calcification in the nodule may be compared with different concentration of calcification in nodules. The homogeneity of the nodule may be compared with information associated with homogeneity of nodules. The spiculation of the nodule may be compared with spiculations for the different nodules.
Subsequently, a score for each characteristic may be determined based on the comparison. In an example, the score for the size of the nodule may be 2, the score for the calcification in the nodule may be 6, the score for the homogeneity of the nodule as 0, the score for the spiculation of the nodule as 1. Further, a weightage of each characteristic may be 2.5. Furthermore, the score for each characteristic and the weightage may be used to determine a risk score. The risk sore may be determined as 5.6. The risk score may be further compared with a predefined threshold value. In one embodiment, the predefined threshold value may be 8. It may be noted that the risk score is less than the predefined threshold value. Thus, the lung cancer risk may be predicted to be a low risk. In an example, the nodule may be referred as a calcified granuloma.
FIG. 4
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Referring to the , a chest X-ray and a region of interest may be shown. In an embodiment, construe detection of a nodule in the chest X-ray of a patient. Further, a size of the nodule may be 12 mm, the calcification in the nodule may be determined as NO i.e., the calcium is not present in the nodule, the homogeneity of the nodule may be determined as YES, and the spiculation of the nodule may be determined as YES.
In one aspect, the size of the nodule may be compared with different sizes of the nodules present in a trained data model. The different sizes of the nodules may be 2.5 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm, 7 mm, 10 mm and the like. Upon comparing, it may be noted that the size of the nodule exceeds a threshold size. In one aspect, the threshold size stored in the trained data model may be 10 mm. Similarly, the calcification in the nodule may be compared with different concentration of calcification in nodules. The homogeneity of the nodule may be compared with information associated with homogeneity of nodules. The spiculation of the nodule may be compared with spiculations for the different nodules.
Subsequently, a score for each characteristic may be determined based on the comparison. In an example, the score for the size of the nodule may be 9, the score for the calcification in the nodule may be 0, the score for the homogeneity of the nodule as 1, the score for the spiculation of the nodule as 5. Further, a weightage of each characteristic may be 2.5. Furthermore, the score of each characteristic and the weightage may be used to compute a risk score. The risk score may be computed as 9.3. In one embodiment, the predefined threshold value may be 8. It may be noted that the risk score exceeds the predefined threshold value. Thus, the lung cancer risk may be predicted to be a high risk. In an example, the nodule may be refereed as a neoplastic lesion. It may indicate that the nodule is abnormal and contains cancerous cells.
FIG. 5
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Referring now to , an exemplary embodiment () of a system for monitoring a change in size of a nodule, is illustrated in an accordance with the present subject matter. In order to illustrate further, construe a graphical representation of a size of nodule Vs. a date and time of a chest X-ray. Two nodules may be detected in the chest X-ray of a patient. One nodule may be present in a left lung and referred as a left nodule. Another node may be present in a right lung and may be referred as a right nodule. In one embodiment, the graphical representation may correspond to the left nodule and the graphical representation may correspond to the right nodule.
In one example, a first chest X-ray is received on date Sep. 5, 2019 at time 9:42, a second chest X-ray is received on date Jan. 20, 2020 at time 14:36 and a third X-ray is received on date May 25, 2020 at time 11:27. In the first chest X-ray, a size of the left nodule is 6 mm and a size of the right nodule is 6 mm In the second chest X-ray, the size of the left nodule is 6 mm and the size of the right nodule is 9 mm In the third chest X-ray, the size of the left nodule is 8 mm and the size of the right nodule is 12 mm.
Further, the first chest X-ray, the second chest X-ray and the third chest X-ray may be analyzed to monitor the change in size. It may be noted that the size of the left nodule is increased by 2 mm and the size of the right nodule is increased by 6 mm. Thus, the change in size of the left nodule is less and the change in size of the right nodule is more. It may be noted that the change in size of the right nodule indicates a high risk of a lung cancer.
FIG. 6
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Referring now to , a method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray is shown, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter. The method may be described in the general context of computer executable instructions. Generally, computer executable instructions can include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, functions, etc., that perform particular functions or implement particular abstract data types.
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The order in which the method is described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks can be combined in any order to implement the method or alternate methods for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from the method without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, the method for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray can be implemented in any suitable hardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof. However, for ease of explanation, in the embodiments described below, the method may be considered to be implemented in the above described system .
602
At block , a chest X-ray of a patient may be received.
604
At block , a nodule may be detected in the chest X-ray. In an aspect, the nodule may be detected using an image processing technique. The nodule may be an opacity present in a chest.
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At block , a region of interest associated with the nodule may be identified. In one aspect, the region of interest may be identified using the image processing technique. The region of interest may be an area surrounding the nodule.
608
At block , a plurality of characteristics associated with the nodule may be determined. In one aspect, the plurality of characteristics may be determined based on an analysis of the region of interest. The plurality of characteristics may be determined using deep learning. The plurality of characteristics may comprise a size of the nodule, a calcification in the nodule, a homogeneity of the nodule and a spiculation of the nodule.
610
At block , the plurality of characteristics may be compared with a trained data model using deep learning. In one aspect, the trained data model may comprise historical data related to different sizes of nodules, concentration of calcification in nodules, information associated with homogeneity of nodules, and spiculations for the different nodules.
612
At block , a risk score for the nodule may be generated in real time. In one aspect, the risk score may be generated based on the comparison of the plurality of characteristics with the trained data model.
614
At block , a lung cancer risk may be predicted. In one aspect, the lung cancer risk may be predicted when the risk score for the nodule exceeds a predefined threshold value.
Exemplary embodiments discussed above may provide certain advantages. Though not required to practice aspects of the disclosure, these advantages may include those provided by the following features.
Some embodiments of the system and the method enable predicting a lung cancer risk automatically using deep learning techniques.
Some embodiments of the system and the method enable predicting the lung cancer risk in real time without any human intervention.
Some embodiments of the system and the method enable predicting the lung cancer risk accurately based on a chest X-ray.
Some embodiments of the system and the method enable determining multiple parameters from the chest X-ray using the deep learning techniques.
Some embodiments of the system and the method enable monitoring a change in size of a nodule detected in the chest X-ray.
Some embodiments of the system and the method provide a cost effective method for determining the lung cancer risk in real time.
Although implementations for methods and system for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray have been described in language specific to structural features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the appended claims are not necessarily limited to the specific features or methods described. Rather, the specific features and methods are disclosed as examples of implementations for predicting a lung cancer risk based on a chest X-ray. | |
Since the opening of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea on Friday, January 20th at the Pacific Theater with a preview showing on Thursday, January 19th, the reviews have been pouring in and it looks like the emotional roller coaster ride of Danny (Aleks Paunovic) and Roberta (Lori Triolo) is winning fans and critics over.
The show runs from January 20, 2012 to February 4, 2012 at the Pacific Theatre. Tickets are still available. Purchase now online! | http://alekspaunovic.info/official/2012/01/24/the-reviews-are-in-danny-and-the-deep-blue-sea/ |
December 24 2011: Mobile phones which saw a slowdown in India sales earlier in 2011, are picking up momentum in the last quarter -- and while smart phones are doing well, their number is still a small fraction of basic or feature phones.
Dual-SIM and multi-SIM handsets were 55.8% of total mobile handset shipments in India. The number of mobile phones sold touched nearly 135 million units in the first 9 months of calendar year 2011 with higher than usual shipments by vendors in the July – September period. Nokia retained leadership position with 30% share in terms of sales (unit shipments), followed by Samsung at second position with 11.6%, during the month of September 2011, according to data released this week by Indian analysts CyberMedia Research. The overall India mobile handsets market recorded aggregated shipments of 47 million units during the July-August-September 2011 quarter, thereby registering a 12.5% sequential growth on account of large number of new launches.
Smartphone shipments touched 7.9 million units in first nine months of calendar year 2011. During the month of September alone smart phones shipments crossed 1 million units.
“In the coming months the India smartphones market is expected to become even more crowded as more vendors, particularly those from India and China, look to add these devices to their portfolio”, says Tarun Pathak, Analyst, Monthly Mobile Phones Market Review Programme, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice. | https://www.indiatechonline.com/it-happened-in-india.php?id=636 |
Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019
Pittsburgh, Pa--Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner will miss a third straight game because of a lingering shoulder injury. Conner ruled himself out of Sunday's visit to Arizona. Conner has been dealing with a shoulder problem much of the season.
He initially injured the shoulder late in a win over Miami on Oct. 28. He sat out two weeks and returned briefly against Cleveland on Nov. 14 before aggravating the injury. Rookie Benny Snell figures to get a heavy workload in Conner's absence. Snell has rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown over the past two games for Pittsburgh. | https://www.wrdw.com/content/sports/Steelers-RB-James-Conner-to-miss-3rd-straight-game-565850852.html |
PURPOSE: To provide a cylinder control method, a stopping starting speed adjusting cylinder and a valve, by which the speed is automatically adjusted, so that stopping with slow speed may be performed after the speed is smoothly reduced from the maximum speed in speed reduction stopping of a cylinder wherein a piston is repeatedly reciprocated, and the speed may reach the maximum speed after the speed is smoothly increased from starting with slow speed in starting or turning.
CONSTITUTION: Packing parts 6 are respectively provided on both inflow/outflow passages 5 for reciprocating a piston 4 provided in a cylinder 3, and rod-like flow control valves 11 on which flow holes 10 facing the packing parts 6, having a plurality of longitudinally aligned longitudinal holes 9 formed into large diameters on the tip 8 side and into the small diameters on the root side on the peripheral side surface 7, communicated with all longitudinal holes 9, and having the diameter equal to or larger than the maximum diameter of the longitudinal hole 9 are arranged to the peripheral side surface 7 on the tip 8 are respectively provided. These rod-like flow control valves are interlocked with the movement of both ends of a reciprocating piston 4, and so formed as to be slidably inserted into and separated from respective packing parts 6.
COPYRIGHT: (C)1996,JPO | |
Mystics beat Sky in OT
Washington, DC – Matee Ajavon poured in a game-high 22 points to lead the Washington Mystics to a thrilling 75-71 overtime victory over the Chicago Sky on Sunday.
The Mystics trailed by one with 26.7 seconds left but Jasmine Thomas knocked down a three to put Washington up two.
A delay of game violation forced the Sky to foul Shannon Bobbitt, who knocked down two free throws to put the Mystics up 75-71 with 7.7 seconds to play. Chicago was unable to get a shot off in the final seconds, and the Mystics won for the first time since July 13.
Trailing by three with 57.5 seconds remaining in regulation, Ajavon made a runner to pull the Mystics within one. After missing two jumpers and a pair of free throws to give Washington the lead Chicago was forced to foul Prince, who knocked down both shots from the charity stripe to put the Sky up three with 10.2 seconds to play.
Following a 20-second time out Ajavon nailed a step back three with 1.9 seconds left to force overtime.
Crystal Langhorne scored 18 points and pulled down eight rebounds and Thomas chipped in with eight points and eight assists for the Mystics.
Epiphanny Prince led all Sky scorers with 18 points and Sylvia Fowles dropped 13 and grabbed 16 rebounds for Chicago, losers in nine of its last 10. | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/mystics-beat-sky-in-ot |
In early July of 2000 I returned to Bylot Island with Mike Beedell. (see Bylot Island '99)The plan was to continue from Tay Bay, where we left off in the fall of 1999, paddling our solo kayaks clockwise around the island. By air plane, we dropped caches of food and supplies in bear proof barrels in two locations along the island' s north shore.
After being dropped off we watched scores of polar bears hunting seals on the sea ice in front of our camp, before a two day gale from Bears of Bylot #1, mixed mediathe east took out the winter's ice.(a month earlier than usual) We then began our long journey east along Lancaster Sound. The early dispersion of ice enabled us to proceed, however without some ice coverage large waves can build unabated making paddling, landing and embarking difficult, and also without sea ice the polar bears all come to land.
At the massive headlands of Cape Hay we paddled for three kms. under a 1000 ft. vertical rock wall covered with a nesting colony of Thick-billed Murres, estimated at close to a million birds. The north shore is even more spectacular than the south coast; long spines of snow capped mountains, multitudes of flowing glaciers and deeply carved shore cliffs, sculpted in a labyrinth of turrets and tunnels. One massive glacial face extended for 5 kms., periodically releasing icebergs into the swells of the North West Passage. We were travelling the entrance of the same passage that had stymied explores and captured the publics imagination for 4 centuries. In Pierre Berton' s words, it was The Arctic Grail.
Air Traffic. etching We discovered a den of Arctic foxes, a rare Gyrfalcon nest with 3 adolescent young, a clutch of snowy owl chicks and countless ptarmigan, geese, duck, and other water fowl. Along the shore were remains of Paleo-Eskimo sites littered with hundreds of ancient bones of bowhead, narwhal, caribou, polar bear, and walrus. Off shore hundreds of beluga whales were moving west. At a place called Maud Bight we found the wreck of a whaling ship from the 1800' s.
As we proceeded the polar bears became more numerous, sometimes we saw a dozen a day. Ursa Major...Most bear were wary of us, likely having had experiences with Inuit hunters at some point in their past. However these ice giants are also fearless, curious and cunning by nature, and if hungry, humans can become their prey. We felt our biggest risk was when we slept. We had a number of bears enter our camp, but Mike would usually hear them, and on getting up, the bears would move off.
Northwest Passage, etching However after 10 days, the lack of sleep was catching up with us. At about 1:00 in the morning, Mike and I were woken from a deep sleep by a thunderous slam on the roof of our tent. We both bolted upright in our sleeping bags, looked at each other, silently hoping it wasn' t what we knew it was. The silence was broken seconds later by another blow, this one stronger. The polar bear slashed through the outer fly and inner nylon tent, breaking two of the tent poles, causing further ripping. The tent was a 2 person North Face expedition tent with double doors. Mike grabbed the 12 gauge shotgun and pumped a plastic bullet in the firing chamber, as I unzipped my door to see where Nanook was standing. He was still right beside my tent door, as Mike fired the shotgun through the tent in line to where he was standing. After the blast, we cautiously peered out. The polar bear was confused but seemingly unhurt, slowly backing away from our camp. The rest of the night we repaired the broken poles and sewed up the torn tent. We thus added acute sleep deprivation to the list of trials endured on this wild, incredible island.
:: BACK TO GALLERY
| |
The utility model discloses an interior hypotenuse PCB circuit board, include the circuit board and be located circuit intralamellar part hypotenuse, interior hypotenuse is located circuit intralamellar part and closed intercommunication, interior hypotenuse includes one or more in golden finger, blank hypotenuse and the draw -in groove. PCB circuit board uses milling cutter processing, and the milling cutter rotational speed is set for and is 30, 000 rotation per minute clocks to 15 the sword with the speed feed of 20 millimeters per seconds, is moved back with the speed of 20 millimeters per seconds to the speed roll setting of millimeter per second. The defect that the traditional circuit board can only carry out hypotenuse processing at circuit board outward flange has been overcome to this PCB circuit board, has increased the range of application of circuit board. | |
Digital forensic investigators are dealing with ever growing numbers of evidence sources with greater data volumes and in an increasing variety of formats. The traditional linear approach of imaging and analyzing each device separately and manually piecing together the results leads to cost blowouts and case backlogs. An emerging solution to this challenge is to analyze all evidence sources within a single application.
However, no single application can handle the variety and complexity of analysis that some cases require. Many investigators have their preferred specialist tools to handle specific evidence types such as mobile devices, voice recordings, or large numbers of images
This paper will explain how you can build an investigative lab around Nuix software and integrate our technology with third-party tools into an efficient workflow. Nuix software and the investigative lab methodology make it possible for you to parcel out evidence to specialist analysts or reviewers, then bring everything back together to analyze, cross-reference, and report on. This scalable, collaborative approach to investigation ensures you make the most efficient use of scarce resources and goes a long way toward reducing costs and backlogs. | https://www.dlt.com/resources/one-window-evidence |
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on Nov 25, 2011 3:36 PM by snmdla
Beehive enhancement of the day: TWS permissions in subdirs
snmdla
Nov 25, 2011 3:36 PM
Today we still go somewhat deeper into the permissions issue:
Currently, it is not possible to have a team workspace with certain membership, and define a subdirectory that has restricted access.
A typical scenario is a team workspace for a department, and you would like to define a subdirectory restricted to a managerial group.
If you think you could also need this, please join in to suggest the following enhancment:
ER 9414428: ALLOW SUBGROUP DENY IN TEAMWORKSPACES PERMISSIONS
We are currently implementing laborious workarounds to implement this.
"Beehive administrators can easily set-up access control policies and apply them as needed to individual users, workspaces, user groups, departments, or enterprise wide" (cited from "Oracle Beehive: A Flexible Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise") - currently it's not so easy if you need to define advanced ACLs.
Thanks, Tom
I have the same question
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This content has been marked as final. | https://community.oracle.com/message/10004639 |
TECHNICAL FIELD
BACKGROUND ART
CITATION LIST
Non-Patent Literature
NPL 1
NPL 2
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Technical Problem
Solution to Problem
Advantageous Effects of Invention
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
Embodiment 1
Embodiment 2
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
The present invention relates to a radio communication terminal apparatus, a radio communication base station apparatus and a cluster arrangement setting method.
In 3GPP LTE (3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution), studies are being actively carried out on the standardization of mobile communication standards in order to realize low-delay and high-speed transmission.
To realize low-delay and high-speed transmission, OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) is adopted as a downlink (DL) multiple access scheme, while SC-FDMA (Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) using DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) precoding is adopted as an uplink (UL) multiple access scheme. SC-FDMA using DFT precoding forms an SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) by spreading and code-multiplexing a symbol sequence using a DFT matrix (precoding matrix or DFT sequence).
Furthermore, standardization of LTE-Advanced (or IMT (International Mobile Telecommunication)-Advanced) that realizes still higher speed communication than LTE has been started. LTE-Advanced is expected to introduce a radio communication base station apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “base station”) and a radio communication terminal apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “terminal”) capable of communicating at wideband frequencies to realize higher speed communication.
In order to maintain single carrier characteristics (e.g. low PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio) characteristics) of a transmission signal for realizing high coverage on an LTE uplink, allocation of frequency resources on the uplink is limited to allocation whereby an SC-FDMA signal is mapped in a localized manner to continuous frequency bands.
However, when allocation of frequency resources is limited as described above, vacant resources are produced in uplink shared frequency resources (e.g. PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared CHannel)) and the efficiency of use of frequency resources in the system band deteriorates, resulting in deterioration of system throughput. Thus, clustered SC-FDMA (C-SC-FDMA) is proposed as a prior art for improving system throughput whereby an SC-FDMA signal is divided into a plurality of clusters and the plurality of clusters are mapped to discontinuous frequency resources (e.g. see Non-Patent Literature 1).
According to C-SC-FDMA, a base station compares the states of availability of frequency resources (subcarriers or resources blocks (RB)) of a plurality of uplinks or channel quality information (e.g. CQI: Channel Quality Indicator) between a plurality of terminals and the base station. The base station divides an SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) of each terminal by an arbitrary bandwidth according to the level of CQI between each terminal and the base station and thereby generates a plurality of clusters. The base station then allocates the plurality of clusters generated to frequency resources of a plurality of uplinks and reports information indicating the allocation results to the terminals. The terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) by an arbitrary bandwidth, maps the plurality of clusters to the frequency resources of the plurality of uplinks allocated by the base station and thereby generates a C-SC-FDMA signal. The base station applies frequency domain equalization (FDE) processing to the received C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) and combines the plurality of clusters after the equalization processing. The base station then applies IDFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform) processing to the combined signal to obtain a time domain signal.
C-SC-FDMA maps a plurality of clusters to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources, and can thereby perform frequency resource allocation among a plurality of terminals more flexibly than SC-FDMA. Thus, C-SC-FDMA can improve the multiuser diversity effect and can improve the system throughput in consequence (e.g. see Non-Patent Literature 2).
R1-081842, “LTE-A Proposals for evolution,” 3GPP RAN WG1 #53, Kansas City, Mo., USA, May 5-9, 2008
R1-083011, “Uplink Access Scheme for LTE-Advanced in BW=<20 MHz,” 3GPP RAN WG1 #54, Jeju, Korea, Aug. 18-22, 2008
To realize higher speed communication than LTE, it is necessary to improve not only system throughput but also user throughput per terminal on an LTE-Advanced uplink more than user throughput per terminal on an LTE uplink.
However, an uplink wide radio frequency band (wideband radio channel) has frequency selectivity, and this reduces the frequency correlation between channels through which a plurality of clusters which are mapped to different discontinuous frequency bands propagate. Thus, even when the base station equalizes a C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) through equalization processing, the equalized channel gain per a plurality of clusters (that is, the frequency channel gain multiplied by an FDE weight) may possibly differ significantly. Thus, the equalized channel gain may drastically change at combining points of the plurality of clusters (that is, division points at which the terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal). That is, discontinuous points are produced in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at the combining points of the plurality of clusters (that is, envelope of reception spectrum).
Here, maintaining the loss of orthogonality of the DFT matrix minimal in all frequency bands (that is, the sum of frequency bands to which the plurality of clusters are mapped) to which the C-SC-FDMA signal is mapped requires the fluctuation of the equalized channel gain to be moderate in all frequency bands to which the plurality of clusters are mapped. Therefore, as descried above, when discontinuous points are produced in the fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at the combining points of the plurality of clusters, the loss of orthogonality of the DFT matrix increases in frequency bands to which the C-SC-FDMA signal is mapped. Thus, the C-SC-FDMA signal is more susceptible to the influence of interference between codes (Inter-Symbol Interference: ISI) caused by the loss of orthogonality of the DFT matrix. Furthermore, as the number of clusters (the number of divisions of the SC-FDMA signal) increases, the number of combining points of the plurality of clusters (discontinuous points) increases, and therefore ISI caused by the loss of orthogonality of the DFT matrix increases. That is, as the number of clusters (the number of divisions of the SC-FDMA signal) increases, transmission characteristics deteriorate more significantly.
Furthermore, an MCS (Modulation and channel Coding Scheme) set (coding rate and modulation level) corresponding to channel quality of the uplink of each terminal or transmission parameters such as coding size are set in the SC-FDMA signal transmitted by each terminal. However, the robustness against ISI caused by the loss of orthogonality of the DFT matrix (reception sensitivity), that is, the magnitude of allowable ISI differs from one transmission parameter to another set in the SC-FDMA signal. For example, when attention is focused on a modulation level indicated in the MCS set as a transmission parameter, a modulation scheme of a higher modulation level such as the modulation scheme of 64 QAM having a very small Euclidean distance between signal points is more susceptible to the influence of ISI. That is, even when ISI of the same magnitude occurs, whether the ISI is allowable or not (that is, whether the ISI is within a range of allowable ISI or not) differs depending on the modulation level set in the SC-FDMA signal (that is, transmission parameter such as MCS set or coding size). In the case where ISI greater than the allowable ISI of a transmission parameter (MCS set or coding size) set in the SC-FDMA signal is produced, transmission characteristics deteriorate and the user throughput of the terminal in which the transmission parameter is set deteriorates.
Thus, when the SC-FDMA signal is divided by an arbitrary bandwidth only according to a CQI between the base station and each terminal as with the above described prior art and a plurality of clusters are mapped to discontinuous frequency bands, although the system throughput is improved, influences of ISI on the transmission characteristics vary depending on the differences in transmission parameters (MCS set or coding size) set in the SC-FDMA signal and the user throughput is not improved.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a radio communication terminal apparatus, a radio communication base station apparatus and a cluster arrangement setting method capable of improving user throughput while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput when an SC-FDMA signal is divided into a plurality of clusters and the plurality of clusters are mapped to discontinuous frequency bands, that is, even when C-SC-FDMA is used.
A radio communication terminal apparatus of the present invention adopts a configuration including a transformation section that applies DFT processing to a time domain symbol sequence and generates a frequency domain signal and a setting section that divides the signal into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern corresponding to an MCS set that is set in the signal, a coding size that is set in the signal or a rank index during MIMO transmission, maps the plurality of clusters to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources and thereby determines an arrangement of the plurality of clusters in a frequency domain.
A radio communication base station apparatus of the present invention adopts a configuration including a control section that determines a cluster pattern of a signal from a radio communication terminal apparatus according to an MCS set that is set in the signal, a coding size that is set in the signal or a rank index during MIMO transmission, and a reporting section that reports the cluster pattern to the radio communication terminal apparatus.
A cluster arrangement setting method of the present invention divides a frequency domain signal generated by applying DFT processing to a time domain symbol sequence into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern corresponding to an MCS set that is set in the signal, a coding size that is set in the signal or a rank index during MIMO transmission, maps the plurality of clusters to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources and thereby determines an arrangement of the plurality of clusters.
According to the present invention, even when an SC-FDMA signal is divided into a plurality of clusters and the plurality of clusters are mapped to discontinuous frequency bands (when C-SC-FDMA is used), it is possible to improve user throughput while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1
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shows a configuration of base station according to the present embodiment.
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In base station , radio receiving section receives a C-SC-FDMA signal transmitted from each terminal via antenna and applies reception processing such as down-conversion and A/D conversion to the C-SC-FDMA signal. Radio receiving section then outputs the C-SC-FDMA signal subjected to the reception processing to CP (Cyclic Prefix) removing section .
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CP removing section removes a CP added to the head of the C-SC-FDMA signal inputted from radio receiving section .
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FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) section performs FFT to the C-SC-FDMA signal inputted from CP removing section to transform the signal into frequency domain C-SC-FDMA signals (subcarrier components). FFT section then outputs the frequency domain C-SC-FDMA signals (subcarrier components) to demapping section . Furthermore, FFT section outputs the subcarrier components including a pilot signal to measuring section .
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Demapping section extracts C-SC-FDMA signals corresponding to frequency resources (subcarriers or RBs) used by the respective terminals from the C-SC-FDMA signals inputted from FFT section based on mapping information inputted from control section . Demapping section then outputs the extracted C-SC-FDMA signal to FDE section .
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FDE section equalizes the C-SC-FDMA signals inputted from demapping section using FDE weights calculated based on estimate values of frequency fluctuations in channels between the base station and the respective terminals estimated by an estimation section (not shown). FDE section then outputs the equalized signal to combining section .
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Combining section combines a plurality of clusters making up the C-SC-FDMA signals inputted from FDE section in a frequency domain based on the number of clusters (a plurality of clusters obtained by dividing the C-SC-FDMA signal), bandwidth per cluster (hereinafter referred to as “cluster size”) and frequency spacing between clusters inputted from control section . Combining section then outputs the combined C-SC-FDMA signal to IDFT section .
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IDFT section generates a time domain signal by applying IDFT processing to the C-SC-FDMA signals inputted from combining section . IDFT section then outputs the generated time domain signal to demodulation section .
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Demodulation section demodulates the signal inputted from IDFT section based on MCS information (modulation level) inputted from scheduler and outputs the demodulated signal to decoding section .
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Decoding section decodes the signal inputted from demodulation section based on the MCS information (coding rate) and coding size inputted from scheduler and outputs the decoded signal as a received bit sequence.
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On the other hand, measuring section measures an SINR (Signal-to-Interference plus Noise power Ratio) per frequency band (subcarrier) between each terminal and the base station using a pilot signal (pilot signal transmitted from each terminal) included in subcarrier components inputted from FFT section and thereby generates channel quality information (e.g. CQI) of each terminal. Measuring section then outputs a CQI of each terminal to scheduler .
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FIG. 2
Scheduler receives as input, an MCS set (modulation level (modulation scheme) and coding rate) set in the signal of each terminal, coding size (code block size) set in the signal of each terminal and DFT size (the number of DFT points) used in DFT section () of terminal which will be described later. First, scheduler calculates priority in allocation of uplink frequency resources (PUSCH) corresponding to each terminal. Scheduler schedules allocation of uplink frequency resources (PUSCH) of each terminal using priority of each terminal and a CQI of each terminal inputted from measuring section .
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To be more specific, scheduler determines a cluster pattern of the signal (C-SC-FDMA signal) from each terminal according to an MCS set (modulation level and coding rate) set in the signal (C-SC-FDMA signal) from each terminal or coding size set in the signal (C-SC-FDMA signal) from each terminal. Here, the cluster pattern is represented by the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing. That is, scheduler functions as a determining section that determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing) according to the MCS set or coding size.
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Scheduler then outputs frequency resource information indicating the result of allocation of uplink frequency resources of each terminal (that is, the scheduling result of frequency resource allocation based on the determined cluster spacing) and spectrum division information indicating the number of clusters and cluster size of clusters making up the C-SC-FDMA signal transmitted by each terminal to control section and generation section . This causes a cluster pattern indicating the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing to be reported to each terminal. Furthermore, scheduler outputs control information including MCS information indicating the MCS set (modulation scheme and coding rate) set in each terminal and the coding size set in each terminal to demodulation section , decoding section and generation section .
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Control section calculates the number of clusters, cluster size and cluster spacing based on the spectrum division information and frequency resource information inputted from scheduler . Furthermore, control section calculates frequency resources to which the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) of each terminal is mapped based on the calculated number of clusters, cluster size and cluster spacing. Control section then inputs the calculated number of clusters, cluster size and cluster spacing to combining section and outputs mapping information indicating the frequency resources to which the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) of each terminal is mapped to demapping section .
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Generation section generates a control signal by converting the spectrum division information, frequency resource information and control information inputted from scheduler to a binary control bit sequence to be reported to each terminal. Generation section outputs the control signal generated to coding section .
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Coding section encodes the control signal inputted from generation section and outputs the encoded control signal to modulation section .
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Modulation section modulates the control signal inputted from coding section and outputs the modulated control signal to radio transmitting section .
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Radio transmitting section applies transmission processing such as D/A conversion, amplification and up-conversion to the control signal inputted from modulation section and transmits the signal subjected to the transmission processing to each terminal via antenna .
FIG. 2
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Next, shows a configuration of terminal according to the present embodiment.
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FIG. 1
In terminal , radio receiving section receives a control signal transmitted from base station () via antenna and applies reception processing such as down-conversion and A/D conversion to the control signal. Radio receiving section then outputs the control signal subjected to the reception processing to demodulation section . This control signal includes spectrum division information indicating the number of divisions of a signal transmitted by each terminal (that is, the number of clusters) and cluster size, frequency resource information indicating uplink frequency resources allocated to each terminal and control information indicating MCS information and coding size or the like.
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Demodulation section demodulates the control signal and outputs the demodulated control signal to decoding section .
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Decoding section decodes the control signal and outputs the decoded control signal to extraction section .
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Extraction section extracts the spectrum division information and frequency resource information directed to the terminal included in the control signal inputted from decoding section and outputs the extracted spectrum division information and frequency resource information to control section . Furthermore, extraction section outputs the MCS information directed to the terminal and coding size indicated in the control information included in the control signal inputted from decoding section to coding section and modulation section .
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Control section calculates the number of clusters of an C-SC-FDMA signal generated by dividing the SC-FDMA signal (that is, output of DFT section ) and cluster size based on the spectrum division information and frequency resource information inputted from extraction section . Furthermore, control section calculates frequency resources to which the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) is mapped based on frequency resource information and the calculated number of clusters and cluster size, and thereby identifies the cluster spacing of clusters making up the C-SC-FDMA signal. That is, control section calculates the cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size and cluster spacing) reported from base station . Control section then outputs the calculated cluster pattern to setting section . To be more specific, control section outputs the calculated number of clusters and cluster size to division section of setting section and outputs mapping information indicating frequency resources to which the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) of the terminal is mapped (that is, information indicating the cluster spacing) to mapping section of setting section .
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When the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) is divided into a plurality of clusters, suppose it is predetermined between the base station and the terminal that the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) will be divided in order from a lower frequency part of the spectrum (from a lower output number of DFT section ) or from a higher frequency part of the spectrum (from a higher output number of DFT section ). For example, of a plurality of clusters generated through the division, control section calculates frequency resources to which the clusters are mapped in order from a cluster of a lower frequency (cluster of a lower output number of DFT section ) or from a cluster of a higher frequency (cluster of a higher output number of DFT section ).
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Coding section encodes a transmission bit sequence based on the MCS information (coding rate) and coding size inputted from extraction section and outputs the encoded transmission bit sequence to modulation section .
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Modulation section generates a symbol sequence by modulating the transmission bit sequence inputted from coding section based on the MCS information (modulation level) inputted from extraction section and outputs the generated symbol sequence to multiplexing section .
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FIG. 2
Multiplexing section multiplexes a pilot signal and the symbol sequence inputted from modulation section . Multiplexing section outputs the symbol sequence with which a pilot signal is multiplexed to DFT section . For example, a CAZAC (Constant Amplitude Zero Auto Correlation) sequence may also be used as the pilot signal. Furthermore, shows a configuration in which a pilot signal and a symbol sequence are multiplexed before DFT processing, but a configuration may also be adopted in which a pilot signal is multiplexed with a symbol sequence after the DFT processing.
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DFT section applies DFT processing to the time domain symbol sequence inputted from multiplexing section and generates a frequency domain signal (SC-FDMA signal). DFT section then outputs the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) generated to division section of setting section .
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Setting section is provided with division section and mapping section . Setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) inputted from DFT section into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern inputted from control section , maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources respectively and thereby determines an arrangement of the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) in the frequency domain. Setting section outputs the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) generated to IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) section . Hereinafter, an internal configuration of setting section will be described.
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Division section of setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) inputted from DFT section into a plurality of clusters according to the number of clusters and cluster size indicated in the cluster information inputted from control section . Division section then outputs the C-SC-FDMA signal made up of the plurality of clusters generated to mapping section .
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Mapping section of setting section maps the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) inputted from division section to frequency resources (subcarriers or RBs) based on mapping information (information indicating the cluster spacing) inputted from control section . Mapping section then outputs the C-SC-FDMA signal mapped to the frequency resources to IFFT section .
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IFFT section performs IFFT on the plurality of frequency bands (subcarriers) to which the C-SC-FDMA signal inputted from mapping section is mapped and generates a time domain C-SC-FDMA signal. Here, IFFT section inserts Os into frequency bands (subcarriers) other than the plurality of frequency bands (subcarriers) to which the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) is mapped. IFFT section then outputs the time domain C-SC-FDMA signal to CP insertion section .
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CP insertion section adds the same signal as the rear portion of the C-SC-FDMA signal inputted from IFFT section to the head of the C-SC-FDMA signal as a CP.
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FIG. 1
Radio transmitting section applies transmission processing such as D/A conversion, amplification and up-conversion to the C-SC-FDMA signal and transmits the signal subjected to the transmission processing to base station () via antenna .
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Next, details of cluster pattern determining processing by base station and cluster arrangement setting processing (that is, division processing of the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) and mapping processing on the plurality of clusters) by terminal will be described.
FIG. 3A
FIG. 3B
FIG. 3A
FIG. 3B
FIG. 3A
FIG. 3B
FIG. 3A
FIG. 3B
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A cluster pattern that maximizes user throughput differs from one transmission parameter to another. As an example of transmission parameter, a case will be described using and where the modulation level (QPSK, 16 QAM, 64 QAM) is used. (when SNR (Signal-to-Noise power Ratio) is high) and (when SNR (Signal-to-Noise power Ratio) is low) illustrate a relationship between a cluster pattern of a C-SC-FDMA signal (here, the number of clusters or cluster spacing) and user throughput. As shown in and , the cluster pattern that maximizes user throughput (here, the number of clusters or cluster spacing) differs from one modulation level to another. Here, that the cluster pattern that maximizes user throughput differs from one modulation level to another may be attributable to the difference in robustness against ISI among different modulation levels (allowable ISI). That is, base station and terminal can improve the user throughput by setting an arrangement of the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) in the frequency domain based on a cluster pattern with allowable ISI among different transmission parameters taken into consideration. A case has been described in and where the modulation level is taken as an example, but the same applies to other transmission parameters (coding size and coding rate).
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Thus, scheduler of base station determines a cluster pattern of the C-SC-FDMA signal according to the transmission parameter (MCS set or coding size) set in the C-SC-FDMA signal from terminal . Furthermore, setting section of terminal sets the arrangement of the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) in the frequency domain according to the cluster pattern corresponding to the transmission parameter (MCS set or coding size) set in the C-SC-FDMA signal transmitted by the terminal. Hereinafter, methods of setting a cluster arrangement 1-1 to 1-6 will be described.
<Setting Method 1-1>
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According to the present setting method, setting section divides an SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (the number of divisions) corresponding to the modulation level (modulation scheme) indicated in an MCS set that is set in the C-SC-FDMA signal.
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As the modulation level increases, the Euclidean distance between signal points becomes shorter and susceptibility to the influence of ISI increases. That is, the higher the modulation level, the lower is the robustness against ISI (allowable ISI). Thus, setting section preferably sets the arrangement of the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) in the frequency domain so that ISI decreases as the modulation level set in the C-SC-FDMA signal transmitted by the terminal increases (as the robustness against ISI decreases).
Here, as the number of clusters of a C-SC-FDMA signal (the number of divisions of an SC-FDMA signal) increases, the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at combining points of a plurality of clusters increases, and therefore ISI increases. Thus, ISI increases as the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal increases
In other words, ISI decreases as the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal decreases.
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Thus, according to the present setting method, setting section divides a signal (SC-FDMA signal) in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (the number of clusters per certain unit bandwidth) for a higher modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern indicating a smaller number of clusters as the modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by terminal increases.
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Among SC-FDMA signals having the same bandwidth (certain unit bandwidth), the smaller (greater) the number of clusters obtained through division, the wider (narrower) is the bandwidth per cluster, that is, the cluster size per cluster. That is, among SC-FDMA signals having the same bandwidth, reducing (increasing) the number of clusters obtained by dividing the SC-FDMA signal is equivalent to widening (narrowing) the cluster size per a plurality of clusters obtained by dividing the SC-FDMA signal. Thus, setting section may also divide the signal (SC-FDMA signal) in accordance with a cluster pattern with a wider cluster size for a higher modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal. That is, scheduler may determine a cluster pattern indicating a wider cluster size for a higher modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by terminal .
FIG. 4
FIG. 5A
FIG. 5B
FIG. 5A
FIG. 5B
This will be described more specifically below. Here, as shown in , cases using, as a modulation scheme, QPSK (modulation level: low) where two bits are transmitted with one symbol, 16 QAM (modulation level: medium) where four bits are transmitted with one symbol, and 64 QAM (modulation level: high) where six bits are transmitted with one symbol will be described. Furthermore, the bandwidth of the C-SC-FDMA signal in and , that is, the total cluster size of clusters #0 to #3 shown in is equal to the total cluster size of clusters #0 and #1 shown in .
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FIG. 4
FIG. 4
Scheduler of base station decreases the number of clusters (widens the cluster size) as the modulation level increases. To be more specific, as shown in , scheduler increases the number of clusters (narrows the cluster size) for QPSK of a low modulation level. On the other hand, as shown in , scheduler decreases the number of clusters (widens the cluster size) for 64 QAM of a high modulation level. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern that matches the number of clusters (high, medium, low) or cluster size (narrow, medium, wide) in accordance with the modulation level (low, medium, high). Base station then reports spectrum division information including the determined cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) and frequency resource information to terminal .
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Division section of setting section of terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) inputted from DFT section into a plurality of clusters according to the cluster pattern determined by scheduler (the number of clusters or cluster size). That is, division section divides the SC-FDMA signal in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (or the wider cluster size) for a higher modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in a signal transmitted by the terminal. Mapping section of setting section then maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources based on frequency resource information.
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FIG. 5A
FIG. 5A
FIG. 5A
FIG. 5A
When, for example, the modulation scheme is QPSK (modulation level: low), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) so that the number of clusters increases as shown in (four clusters #0 to #3 in ), that is, the cluster size per cluster becomes narrower. As shown in , division section divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into four clusters of clusters #0 to #3 and mapping section maps four clusters #0 to #3 to discontinuous frequency resources. As shown in , a C-SC-FDMA signal with a high number of clusters (narrow cluster size) is thus generated.
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FIG. 5B
FIG. 5B
FIG. 5B
FIG. 5B
On the other hand, when the modulation scheme is 64 QAM (modulation level: high), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) as shown in so that the number of clusters decreases (two clusters #0 and #1 in ), that is, the cluster size becomes wider. As shown in , division section divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into two clusters of cluster #0 and cluster #1 and mapping section maps cluster #0 and cluster #1 to discontinuous frequency resources. Thus, as shown in , a C-SC-FDMA signal with a low number of clusters (wide cluster size) is generated.
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FIG. 5A
FIG. 5B
FIG. 6A
FIG. 6B
Terminal then transmits the C-SC-FDMA signal shown in (modulation scheme: QPSK) or (modulation scheme: 64 QAM) to base station and base station applies equalization processing to the received C-SC-FDMA signal and combines the C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) after the equalization processing. This allows base station to obtain a signal after the cluster combination as shown in (modulation scheme: QPSK) or (modulation scheme: 64 QAM).
FIG. 6A
FIG. 6B
FIG. 6A
FIG. 6B
As shown in , when the modulation level is low (modulation scheme: QPSK), the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in the combined signal is 3. On the other hand, as shown in , when the modulation level is high (modulation scheme: 64 QAM), the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in the combined signal is 1. That is, as shown in and , as the modulation level increases, the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in the combined signal decreases. That is, the higher the modulation level, the less is ISI generated at combining points (discontinuous points) of a plurality of clusters.
Thus, when the modulation level is high, that is, when the Euclidean distance between signal points is short and robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is low, the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal is reduced (or the cluster size is widened). This lessens ISI against the C-SC-FDMA signal.
FIG. 6A
On the other hand, when the modulation level is low, that is, when the Euclidean distance between signal points is long and robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is great, the number of clusters of C-SC-FDMA signal is increased (the cluster size is narrowed). This causes more clusters to be mapped to a plurality of frequency resources having different channel fluctuations, and can thereby improve the frequency diversity effect. However, as shown in , when the modulation level is lower, the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in the combined signal increases (that is, ISI increases). However, since the robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) becomes greater as the modulation level decreases, the influence of ISI on transmission characteristics is less.
Thus, according to the present setting method, the terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (or cluster size) according to the modulation level indicated in the MCS set. Thus, for a higher modulation level (lower allowable ISI), the terminal reduces the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal (reduces the number of combining points (discontinuous points) of clusters), and can thereby reduce ISI. Furthermore, for a lower modulation level (greater allowable ISI), the terminal increases the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal, and can thereby improve the frequency diversity effect. Thus, the present setting method can improve transmission characteristics according to the modulation level, and can thereby improve user throughput for each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA (by clustering an SC-FDMA signal) no matter what the modulation level is.
Furthermore, the present setting method determines the number of clusters (cluster size) according to the modulation level, and can thereby control ISI. Thus, when, for example, adaptive modulation/channel coding (Adaptive Modulation and channel Coding: AMC) control is used, the base station determines the number of clusters (cluster size) according to the modulation level, controls ISI, and can thereby estimate instantaneous ISI beforehand. Thus, the base station is more likely to be able to select an accurate MCS set in accordance with instantaneous receiving quality (e.g. instantaneous SINR) with the influence of instantaneous ISI taken into account. Thus, the present setting method selects an accurate MCS set, and can thereby reduce the number of retransmissions due to transmission errors, and can thereby further improve user throughput.
<Setting Method 1-2>
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Although a case has been described in setting method 1 whereby setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters corresponding to the modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the C-SC-FDMA signal, according to the present setting method, setting section maps a plurality of clusters to frequency resources at a cluster spacing corresponding to the modulation level set in the C-SC-FDMA signal.
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The wider the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal, the lower is the frequency correlation between channels through which each cluster propagates. Thus, when base station applies equalization processing based on a minimum mean square error (MMSE) approach or the like whereby a reception spectrum received after propagating through a frequency selective channel is not completely reconstructed, a difference in equalized channel gain (power difference and amplitude difference, and phase difference when there is a channel estimation error) at combining points (discontinuous points) of a plurality of clusters making up a C-SC-FDMA signal increases and ISI therefore increases. That is, the wider the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal, the greater is ISI. In other words, ISI becomes less as the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal becomes narrower.
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Thus, according to the present setting method, for a higher modulation level indicated in an MCS set that is set in a signal transmitted by the terminal, setting section maps a signal (SC-FDMA signal) to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern indicating a narrower cluster spacing for a higher modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by terminal .
FIG. 8A
FIG. 8B
FIG. 7
FIG. 8A
FIG. 8B
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, suppose the number of clusters is 2 (cluster #0 and cluster #1 shown in and ). Furthermore, as with setting method 1-1, a case will be described where QPSK (modulation level: low), 16 QAM (modulation level: medium) and 64 QAM (modulation level: high) as shown in are used as the modulation scheme. Furthermore, as with setting method 1-1, the bandwidths of the respective C-SC-FDMA signals in and are the same.
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FIG. 7
FIG. 7
Scheduler of base station narrows the cluster spacing for a higher modulation level. To be more specific, as shown in , scheduler widens the cluster spacing for QPSK of a low modulation level. Furthermore, as shown in , scheduler narrows the cluster spacing for 64 QAM of a high modulation level. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern that matches the cluster spacing (wide, medium, narrow) according to the modulation level (low, medium, high). Base station reports frequency resource information including spectrum division information (e.g. the number of clusters: 2) and the determined cluster pattern (cluster spacing) to terminal .
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Division section of setting section of terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) inputted from DFT section into two clusters according to the spectrum division information (here, the number of clusters: 2). Furthermore, mapping section of setting section maps the two clusters to discontinuous frequency resources according to the cluster pattern (cluster spacing) determined by scheduler . That is, mapping section maps the plurality of clusters to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a higher modulation level indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal.
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FIG. 8A
FIG. 8A
FIG. 8A
When, for example, the modulation scheme is QPSK (modulation level: low), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) so that the cluster spacing becomes wider as shown in . Mapping section then maps the two clusters of cluster #0 and cluster #1 generated by dividing the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) by division section as shown in to discontinuous frequency resources separated apart by the frequency spacing shown in the cluster pattern. As shown in , a C-SC-FDMA signal having a wide frequency spacing between cluster #0 and cluster #1 is generated.
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FIG. 8B
FIG. 8B
FIG. 8B
On the other hand, when the modulation scheme is 64 QAM (modulation level: high), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) so that the cluster spacing becomes narrower as shown in . As shown in , mapping section then maps two clusters of cluster #0 and cluster #1 generated by dividing the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) by division section to discontinuous frequency resources separated away by the frequency spacing shown in the cluster pattern. As shown in , a C-SC-FDMA signal having a wide frequency spacing between cluster #0 and cluster #1 is thereby generated.
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FIG. 8A
FIG. 8B
FIG. 9A
FIG. 9B
Terminal then transmits the C-SC-FDMA signal shown in (modulation scheme: QPSK) or (modulation scheme: 64 QAM) to base station . Thus, base station obtains a signal after the cluster combination as shown in (modulation scheme: QPSK) or (modulation scheme: 64 QAM).
FIG. 9A
FIG. 8A
FIG. 8B
FIG. 9B
FIG. 9A
FIG. 9B
When the modulation level is low (modulation scheme: QPSK) as shown in , the frequency spacing between cluster #0 and cluster #1 is wide and the frequency correlation between clusters is low. Thus, as shown in , the difference in equalized channel gain is large at the combining point (discontinuous point) of the clusters. On the other hand, when the modulation level is high as shown in (modulation scheme: 64 QAM), the frequency spacing between cluster #0 and cluster #1 is narrow and the frequency correlation between the clusters is high. Thus, as shown in , the difference in equalized channel gain is small at the combining point (discontinuous point) of the clusters. That is, as shown in and , the higher the modulation level, the lower is the difference in equalized channel gain at the combining point (discontinuous point) of the clusters. Thus, the higher the modulation level, the less is ISI generated due to discontinuity at the combining points among a plurality of clusters.
Thus, when the modulation level is higher, that is, robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is lower, the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal is narrowed. As with setting method 1-1 (when the number of clusters is reduced), this makes it possible to reduce ISI with the C-SC-FDMA signal.
FIG. 9A
On the other hand, when the modulation level is lower, that is, robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is greater, the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal is widened. This makes it possible to improve the frequency diversity effect resulting from mapping a plurality of clusters to frequency resources separated further from each other. However, when the modulation level is lower, the spacing between clusters making up the C-SC-FDMA signal is widened, and therefore, as shown in, , the difference in equalized channel gain at the combining point (discontinuous point) of the clusters becomes greater (that is, ISI increases). However, since the lower the modulation level, the greater is robustness against ISI (allowable ISI), the influence of ISI on transmission characteristics is less.
Thus, according to the present setting method, the terminal maps a plurality of clusters to frequency resources at a cluster spacing according to the modulation level indicated in the MCS set. Thus, by narrowing the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal (by increasing the channel frequency correlation among a plurality of clusters) for a higher modulation level (lower allowable ISI), the terminal can reduce ISI. Furthermore, by widening the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal for a low modulation level (greater allowable ISI), the terminal can improve the frequency diversity effect. Thus, according to the present setting method, as with setting method 1-1, it is possible to improve user throughput at each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA (that is, by clustering the SC-FDMA signal) no matter what the modulation level is.
Furthermore, the present setting method determines the cluster spacing according to the modulation level, and can thereby reduce ISI. Thus, as with setting method 1-1, when AMC control is used, the base station determines a cluster spacing according to the modulation level and controls ISI, and can thereby estimate instantaneous ISI beforehand. For this reason, the base station selects an accurate MCS set according to instantaneous receiving quality (e.g. instantaneous SINR) with the influence of instantaneous ISI taken into account, and can thereby reduce the number of retransmissions caused by transmission errors and further improve user throughput.
<Setting Method 1-3>
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According to the present setting method, setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (the number of divisions) according to a coding size (code block size) set in a C-SC-FDMA signal.
Since the greater the coding size, the higher is the coding gain (or error correcting capacity), robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) increases. In other words, since the smaller the coding size, the lower is the coding gain (or error correcting capacity), robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) becomes smaller.
Furthermore, assuming that the coding rate and modulation level with respect to a signal are fixed, the smaller the coding size, the narrower is the bandwidth allocated to the signal in the frequency domain, that is, the number of allocated RBs decreases.
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Therefore, setting section preferably sets an arrangement of a C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters) in the frequency domain such that the smaller the coding size set in the C-SC-FDMA signal transmitted by the terminal (or the smaller the number of allocated RBs), the less is ISI.
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Thus, according to the present setting method, setting section divides the signal (SC-FDMA signal) in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (the number of clusters per certain unit bandwidth) for a smaller coding size (for a smaller number of allocated RBs) set in the signal transmitted by the terminal. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern indicating a smaller number of clusters for a smaller coding size set in the signal transmitted by terminal . As in the case of allocation method 1-1, setting section may also divide the signal (SC-FDMA signal) in accordance with a cluster pattern with a wider cluster size for a smaller coding size set in the signal transmitted by the terminal (or for a smaller number of allocated RBs).
FIG. 10
FIG. 11A
FIG. 11B
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, as shown in , a case will be described where a coding size (large, medium, small) (or the number of allocated RBs (high, medium, low)) is used. Furthermore, in and , suppose an MCS set (coding rate and modulation level) set in a C-SC-FDMA signal is fixed.
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FIG. 10
Scheduler reduces the number of clusters (widens the cluster size) as the coding size decreases (as the number of allocated RBs becomes smaller). To be more specific, as shown in , scheduler determines a cluster pattern that matches the number of clusters (high, medium, low) (or cluster size (narrow, medium, wide)) according to the coding size (large, medium, small) (or the number of allocated RBs (high, medium, low)). Base station then reports spectrum division information including the determined cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) and frequency resource information to terminal .
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FIG. 11A
FIG. 11A
FIG. 5A
FIG. 11B
FIG. 11B
FIG. 5B
When, for example, the coding size is large (the number of allocated RBs is high), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) as shown in such that the number of clusters increases (six clusters #0 to #5 in ), that is, the cluster size per cluster becomes narrower as with setting method 1-1 (). On the other hand, when the coding size is small (when the number of allocated RBs is low), scheduler determines the cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) such that the number of clusters decreases (two clusters #0 and #1 in ), that is, the cluster size becomes wider as shown in as with setting method 1-1 ().
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FIG. 11A
FIG. 11B
Division section of setting section divides an SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into a plurality of clusters based on the number of clusters (or cluster size) indicated in the cluster pattern shown in or . That is, division section divides the signal in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (or wider cluster size) for a smaller coding size set in the signal transmitted by the terminal (for a smaller number of allocated RBs). Mapping section maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources based on frequency resource information.
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Thus, when the coding size is smaller (when the number of allocated RBs is smaller), that is, when robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is lower, the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal is reduced (or the cluster size is widened) as with setting method 1-1. This reduces the number of discontinuous points of a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in the combined signal in base station , and can thereby reduce ISI with the C-SC-FDMA signal.
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Furthermore, when the coding size is larger (when the number of allocated RBs is higher), that is, when robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is higher, the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal is increased (the cluster size is narrowed) as with setting method 1-1. This causes the number of discontinuous points of a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain to increase in the combined signal, but base station performs error correcting decoding with a large coding size, and can thereby improve the frequency diversity effect and obtain a greater coding gain while suppressing the influence of allowable ISI.
Thus, according to the present setting method, even when the terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (the number of divisions) according to the coding size (or the number of allocated RBs), it is possible to improve user throughput at each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA (that is, by clustering the SC-FDMA signal) no matter what the coding size is as with setting method 1-1.
<Setting Method 1-4>
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According to the present setting method, setting section maps a plurality of clusters making up a C-SC-FDMA signal to frequency resources with a cluster spacing corresponding to a coding size (the number of allocated RBs) set in a C-SC-FDMA signal.
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That is, according to the present setting method, setting section maps a signal (SC-FDMA signal) to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a smaller coding size (for a smaller number of allocated RBs) set in a signal transmitted by the terminal. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern indicating a narrower cluster spacing for a smaller coding size (or for a smaller number of allocated RBs) set in the signal transmitted by terminal .
FIG. 10
FIG. 12
FIG. 13A
FIG. 13B
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, suppose the number of clusters is 2 (cluster #0 and cluster #1) as with setting method 1-2. Furthermore, as with setting method 1-3 (), a case will be described as shown in where the coding size (large, medium, small) (or the number of allocated RBs (high, medium, low)) is used. Furthermore, in and , suppose the MCS set (coding rate and modulation level) set in a C-SC-FDMA signal is fixed.
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FIG. 12
Scheduler narrows a cluster spacing for a smaller coding size (for a smaller number of allocated RBs). To be more specific, as shown in , scheduler determines a cluster pattern that matches the cluster spacing (wide, medium, narrow) according to the coding size (large, medium, small) (or the number of allocated RBs (high, medium, low)). Base station then reports frequency resource information including spectrum division information (e.g. the number of clusters: 2) and the determined cluster pattern (cluster spacing) to terminal .
112
112
FIG. 13A
FIG. 8A
FIG. 13B
FIG. 8B
When, for example, the coding size is large (the number of allocated RBs is high), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) such that the cluster spacing becomes wider as shown in as with setting method 1-2 (). On the other hand, when the coding size is small (when the number of allocated RBs is small), scheduler determines a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) such that the cluster spacing becomes narrower as shown in as with setting method 1-2 ().
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FIG. 13A
FIG. 13B
FIG. 13A
FIG. 13B
Division section of setting section then divides an SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into two clusters of cluster #0 and cluster #1 as shown in or based on spectrum division information (here, the number of clusters: 2). Furthermore, mapping section of setting section maps the two clusters of cluster #0 and cluster #1 to discontinuous frequency resources based on a cluster spacing indicated in the cluster pattern as shown in or . That is, mapping section maps the plurality of clusters to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a smaller coding size (a smaller number of allocated RBs) set in a signal transmitted by the terminal.
Thus, when the coding size is smaller (the number of allocated RBs is smaller), that is, when robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is lower, the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal is narrowed as with setting method 1-2. Thus, the frequency correlation between clusters (here, between cluster #0 and cluster #1) becomes higher. Since a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at combining points (discontinuous points) of clusters become moderate (that is, the difference in equalized channel gain becomes smaller), ISI with the C-SC-FDMA signal can be reduced.
Furthermore, when the coding size is larger (the number of allocated RBs is higher), that is, robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) is higher, the spacing of clusters making up a C-SC-FDMA signal is widened as with setting method 1-2. Although this causes the frequency correlation between clusters (here, between cluster #0 and cluster #1) to become lower (fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at combining points (discontinuous points) of clusters becomes drastic), by performing error correcting decoding with a large coding size, it is possible to improve the frequency diversity effect and thereby obtain a large coding gain while suppressing the influence of allowable ISI.
Thus, according to the present setting method, even when the terminal maps a plurality of clusters to frequency resources with a cluster spacing that matches the coding size (or the number of allocated RBs), it is possible to improve user throughput for each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA (by clustering an SC-FDMA signal) no matter what the coding size is as with setting method 1-2.
<Setting Method 1-5>
211
According to the present setting method, setting section divides an SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (the number of divisions) according to a coding rate indicated in an MCS set that is set in a C-SC-FDMA signal.
With data of the same coding size, longer encoded data is generated as the coding rate decreases. That is, the lower the coding rate, the higher is the coding gain (or error correcting capacity), and robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) thereby increases. In other words, since the higher the coding rate, the lower is the coding gain (or error correcting capacity), and robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) thereby decreases.
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211
Thus, according to the present setting method, setting section divides a signal (SC-FDMA signal) in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (the number of clusters per certain unit bandwidth) for a higher coding rate indicated in an MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern indicating a smaller number of clusters for a higher coding rate indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by terminal . Setting section may also divide a signal (SC-FDMA signal) in accordance with a cluster pattern with a wider cluster size for a higher coding rate indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal as with allocation method 1.
FIG. 14
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, as shown in , a case will be described where the coding rate (low, medium, high) is used. Furthermore, suppose the coding size and modulation level (modulation scheme) are fixed here.
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FIG. 14
Scheduler reduces the number of clusters (widens the cluster size) for a higher coding rate. To be more specific, as shown in , scheduler determines a cluster pattern that matches the number of clusters (high, medium, low) (or cluster size (narrow, medium, wide)) according to the coding rate (low, medium, high). Base station then reports spectrum division information and frequency resource information including the determined cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) to terminal .
112
112
FIG. 11A
FIG. 11B
When, for example, the coding rate is low, scheduler determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) such that the number of clusters increases, that is, the cluster size per cluster becomes narrower as with setting method 1-3 (). On the other hand, when the coding rate is high, scheduler determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) such that the number of clusters decreases, that is, the cluster size becomes wider as with setting method 1-3 ().
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Division section of setting section divides an SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into a plurality of clusters based on the number of clusters (or cluster size) indicated in the cluster pattern. That is, division section divides the signal in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (or a wider cluster size) for a higher coding rate indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal. Mapping section of setting section then maps a plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources based on frequency resource information.
Thus, by reducing the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal (or widening the cluster size) for a higher coding rate, that is, smaller robustness against ISI (allowable ISI), it is possible to reduce ISI with the C-SC-FDMA signal as with setting method 1-1.
Furthermore, by increasing the number of clusters of the C-SC-FDMA signal (narrowing the cluster size) for a lower coding rate, that is, high robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) and by performing error correcting decoding with a low coding rate as with setting method 1-1, it is possible to improve the frequency diversity effect while suppressing the influence of allowable ISI.
Thus, according to the present setting method, even when the terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (the number of divisions) that matches the coding rate, it is possible to improve user throughput for each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA (by clustering an SC-FDMA signal) no matter what the coding rate is as with setting method 1-1.
Furthermore, the present setting method determines the number of clusters (size) according to the coding rate, and can thereby control ISI. Thus, when AMC control is used as with setting method 1-1, the base station determines the number of clusters (size) according to the coding rate and controls ISI, and can thereby estimate instantaneous ISI beforehand. For this reason, the base station selects an accurate MCS set corresponding to instantaneous receiving quality (e.g. instantaneous SINR) with the influence of instantaneous ISI taken into account, and can thereby reduce the number of retransmissions caused by transmission errors and further improve user throughput.
<Setting Method 1-6>
211
According to the present setting method, setting section maps a plurality of clusters making up a C-SC-FDMA signal to frequency resources with a cluster spacing that matches a coding rate indicated in an MCS set that is set in the C-SC-FDMA signal.
211
112
200
That is, according to the present setting method, setting section maps the signal (SC-FDMA signal) to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a higher coding rate indicated in an MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by the terminal. That is, scheduler determines a cluster pattern indicating a narrower cluster spacing for a higher coding rate indicated in the MCS set that is set in the signal transmitted by terminal .
FIG. 14
FIG. 15
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, suppose the number of clusters is 2 as with setting method 1-2. Furthermore, as with setting method 1-5 (), a case will be described as shown in where the coding rate (low, medium, high) is used. Furthermore, suppose the coding size and modulation level are fixed here.
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FIG. 15
Scheduler narrows the cluster spacing for a higher coding rate. To be more specific, as shown in , scheduler determines a cluster pattern with a cluster spacing (wide, medium, narrow) that matches the coding rate (low, medium, high). Base station then reports spectrum division information (e.g. the number of clusters: 2) and frequency resource information including the determined cluster pattern (cluster spacing) to terminal .
112
112
FIG. 13A
FIG. 13B
When, for example, the coding rate is low, scheduler determines a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) such that the cluster spacing becomes wider as with setting method 1-4 (). On the other hand, when the coding rate is high, scheduler determines a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) so that the cluster spacing becomes narrower as with setting method 1-4 ().
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Division section of setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into a plurality of clusters based on spectrum division information. Furthermore, mapping section of setting section maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources based on a cluster spacing indicated in the cluster pattern. That is, mapping section maps the plurality of clusters to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a higher coding rate set in the signal transmitted by the terminal.
Thus, the cluster spacing of the C-SC-FDMA signal is narrowed for a higher coding rate, that is, smaller robustness against ISI (allowable ISI), and it is thereby possible to reduce ISI with the C-SC-FDMA signal as with setting method 1-2.
Furthermore, by widening the spacing of clusters making up the C-SC-FDMA signal for a lower coding rate, that is, greater robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) and performing error correcting decoding at a lower coding rate as with setting method 1-2, it is possible to improve the frequency diversity effect while suppressing the influence of allowable ISI.
Thus, according to the present setting method, even when the terminal maps a plurality of clusters to frequency resources at a cluster spacing that matches the coding rate, it is possible to improve user throughput for each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA (by clustering an SC-FDMA signal) no matter what the coding rate is as with setting method 1-2.
Furthermore, the present setting method determines a cluster spacing according to the coding rate, and can thereby control ISI. Thus, as with setting method 1-2, when AMC control is used, the base station determines a cluster spacing according to the coding rate, controls ISI, and can thereby estimate instantaneous ISI beforehand. Thus, the base station selects an accurate MCS set corresponding to instantaneous receiving quality (e.g. instantaneous SINR) with the influence of instantaneous ISI taken into account, and can thereby reduce the number of retransmissions caused by transmission errors and further improve user throughput.
Methods of setting a cluster arrangement 1-1 to 1-6 have been described so far.
Thus, according to the present embodiment, the terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern that matches the MCS set (modulation level, coding rate) or coding size and maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources. This allows the terminal to set an arrangement of the plurality of clusters in the frequency domain according to the difference in robustness against ISI (allowable ISI) per transmission parameter. Thus, according to the present embodiment, when dividing the SC-FDMA signal into a plurality of clusters and mapping the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency bands, that is, even when using C-SC-FDMA, it is possible to improve transmission characteristics for different terminals in which different transmission parameters are set and improve user throughput while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput.
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FIG. 16
FIG. 19
FIG. 16
FIG. 19
i
i
i+1
i
i
i+1
In the present embodiment, base station may set a threshold to determine a cluster pattern. Thus, base station compares a transmission parameter (modulation level, coding rate or coding size) set in each terminal with the threshold, and can thereby determine a cluster pattern. Furthermore, each terminal can easily perform division processing on an SC-FDMA signal (spectrum) and mapping processing on a C-SC-FDMA signal (a plurality of clusters). Hereinafter, an example where base station sets a threshold and determines a cluster pattern will be described using to . In to , B(i=0, 1, . . . ) is a bandwidth (cluster size) per cluster and shows, for example, a minimum bandwidth (minimum cluster size) defined per transmission parameter in a range separated by a threshold and holds the relationship B≤B. Furthermore, B′(i=0, 1, . . . ) shows a maximum cluster spacing defined per transmission parameter in a range separated by a threshold and holds the relationship B′≥B′.
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FIG. 16A
FIG. 16A
FIG. 16A
For example, base station may set a threshold in the modulation level and thereby determine a cluster pattern. For example, as shown in , base station may set a threshold so as to separate between a plurality of modulation levels by a certain range of modulation level, compare modulation level (A) set in each terminal with the threshold and determine the number of clusters (X). To be more specific, in , base station determines the number of clusters X to be 4 when modulation level (A) is BPSK to QPSK, determines the number of clusters X to be 3 when modulation level (A) is 8 PSK to 16 QAM, determines the number of clusters X to be 2 when modulation level (A) is 32QAM to 64 QAM and determines the number of clusters X to be 1 when modulation level (A) is 128QAM to 256QAM. That is, in , a fixed number of clusters is determined for a certain range of modulation level.
FIG. 16B
FIG. 16B
FIG. 16B
FIG. 16B
FIG. 3A
FIG. 3B
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100
Furthermore, as shown in method 1 in , base station may also set a threshold per modulation level and set an upper limit of the number of clusters X per modulation level. For example, as shown in method 1 in , base station determines the number of clusters whose upper limit is the number of clusters X=4 when modulation level (A) is BPSK and determines the number of clusters whose upper limit is the number of clusters X=2 when modulation level (A) is 16 QAM. The same applies to QPSK and 64 QAM as well. This allows setting section of each terminal to set the number of clusters so as to prevent ISI greater than allowable ISI per modulation level from occurring. Furthermore, as shown in method 2 in , base station may also set a lower limit and upper limit to the number of clusters X per modulation level. For example, as shown in method 2 in , base station determines the number of clusters within a range of 2≤X≤4 when modulation level (A) is BPSK and determines the number of clusters within a range of 1≤X≤2 when modulation level (A) is 16 QAM. This allows setting section of each terminal to only set the number of clusters X corresponding to user throughput of a certain value or greater including a maximum value as shown in or . Furthermore, base station limits the range of the number of clusters X per modulation level, and can thereby reduce the number of reporting bits to report the number of clusters X.
FIG. 16C
FIG. 16C
FIG. 16B
FIG. 16C
FIG. 16C
FIG. 16C
FIG. 16B
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1
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3
Furthermore, as shown in , base station may set a threshold so as to separate between a plurality of modulation levels for every certain range of modulation level and set cluster size (Y) for every range of modulation level. According to method 1 in , as with method 1 in , base station determines one cluster size Y whose lower limit corresponds to a minimum cluster size (B, B, B, Bshown in method 1 in ) defined for every range of modulation level. As shown in method 1 in , for BPSK to QPSK which is a range having a minimum modulation level (that is, when allowable ISI is maximum), base station may determine an arbitrary value for cluster size Y. Furthermore, according to method 2 in as with method 2 in , an upper limit and a lower limit of cluster size Y are set for every range of modulation level.
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FIG. 16D
FIG. 16D
a
a
a
a
Furthermore, when base station calculates cluster size (Y) using the number of clusters (X), as shown in , base station may set a threshold per modulation level, set the number of clusters Xper modulation level and calculate cluster size Y. Here, X(a=0, 1, 2, . . . , a is a number assigned for every range of modulation level separated by a threshold) represents the number of clusters set for every range (a) of modulation level. Furthermore, B represents a total bandwidth used for a C-SC-FDMA signal (that is, the sum of respective cluster sizes). To be more specific, in , base station uses the number of clusters Xset per modulation level (a=0, 1, 2, . . . ) to calculate cluster size Y=B/Xset in the modulation level.
FIG. 16E
FIG. 16E
FIG. 16E
FIG. 16E
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1
2
3
Furthermore, as shown in , base station may also set a threshold so as to separate between a plurality of modulation levels for every certain range of modulation level and set cluster spacing (Z) for every range of modulation level. In , base station determines cluster spacing Z whose upper limit is a maximum cluster spacing (B′, B′, B′, B′shown in ) for every range of modulation level. As shown in , for BPSK to QPSK which is a range having a minimum modulation level, base station may set an arbitrary value for cluster spacing Z.
FIG. 16A
FIG. 16E
FIG. 17A
FIG. 17A
100
100
100
Furthermore, as with to , base station may set a threshold for a coding size and determine a cluster pattern. For example, as shown in , base station may set a threshold so as to separate between coding sizes for every certain range of coding size, compare coding size (N) set in each terminal with the threshold and determine the number of clusters (X). To be more specific, in , base station determines the number of clusters X to be 1 when coding size N is 100 bits or less and determines the number of clusters X to be 2 when coding size N is 101 bits or more and 500 bits or less. The same applies to a case where coding size N is 501 bits or more and 1000 bits or less and a case where coding size N is 1001 bits or more.
FIG. 17B
FIG. 17B
FIG. 16C
FIG. 17B
FIG. 17B
FIG. 17B
FIG. 16C
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1
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3
Furthermore, as shown in , base station may set cluster size (Y) for every range of coding size. According to method 1 in , as with method 1 in , base station determines one cluster size Y whose lower limit corresponds to a minimum cluster size (B, B, B, Bshown in method 1 in ) defined for every range of coding size. According to method 1 in , when coding size N is 1001 bits or more, base station may determine an arbitrary value for cluster size Y. Furthermore, as shown in method 2 in , base station may set a lower limit and upper limit of cluster size Y for every range of coding size as with method 2 in .
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FIG. 16D
FIG. 17C
FIG. 17C
FIG. 16D
FIG. 17C
n
n
n
n
Furthermore, when base station calculates cluster size (Y) using the number of clusters (X), as with , base station may set the number of clusters Xfor every range of coding size as shown in and calculate cluster size Y. Here, X(n=0, 1, 2, . . . , n is a number assigned for every range of coding size separated by a threshold) represents the number of clusters set for every range (n) of coding size. To be more specific, in , as with , using the number of clusters Xset for every range of coding size (n=0, 1, 2, . . . ), cluster size Y=B/Xset for the coding size is calculated. As shown in , in a range in which coding size N is 1001 bits or more, base station may determine an arbitrary value for cluster size Y.
FIG. 17D
FIG. 17D
FIG. 16E
FIG. 17D
FIG. 17D
100
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0
1
2
3
Furthermore, as shown in , base station may set cluster spacing (Z) for every range of coding size. In , as with , base station determines a cluster spacing whose upper limit corresponds to a maximum cluster spacing (B′, B′, B′, B′shown in ) for every range of coding size. As shown in , for a range in which coding size (N) is 1001 bits or more, base station may set an arbitrary value for cluster spacing (Z).
FIG. 16A
FIG. 16E
FIG. 18A
FIG. 18A
100
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100
Furthermore, as with to , base station may set a threshold for a coding rate and determine a cluster pattern. For example, as shown in , base station sets a threshold so as to separate between coding rates for every certain range of coding rate, compare coding rate (R) set in each terminal with the threshold and determine the number of clusters (X). To be more specific, in , base station determines the number of clusters X to be 4 when coding rate R is 1/3 or below and determines the number of clusters X to be 3 when coding rate R is greater than 1/3 and 1/2 or below. The same will apply to a case where coding rate R is greater than 1/2 and 2/3 or below and a case where coding rate R is greater than 2/3.
FIG. 18B
FIG. 18B
FIG. 16C
FIG. 18B
FIG. 18B
FIG. 18B
FIG. 16C
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1
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3
Furthermore, as shown in , base station may set cluster size (Y) for every range of coding rate. According to method 1 in as with method 1 in , base station determines one cluster size Y whose lower limit corresponds to a minimum cluster size (B, B, B, Bshown in method 1 in ) defined for every range of coding rate. In , when coding rate R is 1/3 or below, base station may set an arbitrary value for cluster size Y. Furthermore, according to method 2 in , as with method 2 in , an upper limit and a lower limit of cluster size Y are set for every range of coding rate.
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FIG. 18C
FIG. 16D
FIG. 18C
FIG. 16D
FIG. 18C
r
r
r
r
When base station calculates cluster size (Y) using the number of clusters (X), as shown in , as with , base station may set the number of clusters Xfor every range of coding rate and calculate cluster size (Y). Here, X(r=0, 1, 2, . . . , r is a number assigned to each range of coding rate separated by a threshold) represents the number of clusters set for every range (r) of coding rate. To be more specific, in as with , cluster size Y=B/Xset in the coding rate is calculated using the number of clusters Xset for every range of coding rate (r=0, 1, 2, . . . ). As shown in , for a range where coding rate R is 100 bits or less, base station may set an arbitrary value for cluster size Y.
FIG. 18D
FIG. 18D
FIG. 16E
FIG. 18D
FIG. 18D
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0
1
2
3
Furthermore, as shown in , base station may also set cluster spacing (Z) for every range of coding rate. In , as with , base station determines cluster spacing (Z) whose upper limit is a maximum cluster spacing (B′, B′, B′, B′shown in ) for every range of coding rate. As shown in , in a range where coding rate (R) is 1/3 or below, base station may set an arbitrary value for cluster spacing (Z).
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FIG. 19A
FIG. 19B
FIG. 19C
Furthermore, a case has been described in the present embodiment where base station determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing) according to the modulation level, coding rate or coding size. However, in the present invention, base station may also determine a cluster pattern by combining a plurality of transmission parameters (modulation level, coding rate and coding size). For example, base station may also determine a cluster pattern by combining the modulation level and coding rate, that is, according to an MCS set. When, for example, AMC control is used whereby the modulation level and coding rate are simultaneously controlled, base station can simultaneously control robustness against ISI caused by both the modulation level and coding rate. For example, as shown in , base station may determine the number of clusters (X) for each MCS set expressed by the modulation level and coding rate, determine cluster size (Y) for each MCS set as shown in or determine cluster spacing (Z) for each MCS set as shown in .
FIG. 16
FIG. 19
FIG. 16
FIG. 19
Furthermore, although a case has been described in to where a cluster pattern is determined without taking the SINR (or average SNR) into account, the present invention may change the associations in to according to a fluctuation of the SINR (or average SNR).
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FIG. 20
FIG. 20
Furthermore, in the present embodiment when terminal multiplexes a plurality of codewords (coding unit, codeword: CW) in the frequency domain as shown in and transmits the codewords to base station , base station may determine a cluster pattern for each CW transmitted from terminal . Here, when CW #1 to CW #(M−1) are multiplexed in the frequency domain and transmitted as shown in , terminal divides the CW into a plurality of clusters through the division section provided for each CW and frequency-multiplexes clusters per CW through the mapping section.
200
Furthermore, when different transmission rates are used among a plurality of CWs, terminal may decrease the number of clusters (widen the cluster size) or narrow the cluster spacing for a CW having a higher transmission rate and thereby set an arrangement of a plurality of clusters making up the CW in the frequency domain. For a higher transmission rate, robustness against ISI needs to be increased. Thus, it is possible to reduce ISI by increasing the number of clusters (widening the cluster size) for CWs with high transmission rates or narrowing the cluster spacing, and increase robustness against ISI in consequence. This makes it possible to further improve transmission characteristics for each CW according to the transmission rate and further improve transmission rates of all CWs that is, throughput per terminal (user throughput).
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Furthermore, a case has been described in the present embodiment where base station determines a cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing) and reports the cluster pattern to terminal . However, in the present invention, base station may report only frequency resource information to terminal every time base station communicates with terminal and terminal may determine a cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing) according to transmission parameters of a signal transmitted by the terminal.
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Furthermore, for example, base station may report frequency resource information indicating a frequency band allocated with the number of clusters, cluster size and cluster spacing taken into account to terminal . To be more specific, base station (scheduler of base station ) may perform scheduling and thereby perform allocation processing of allocating a frequency band to terminal showing a maximum SINR in a certain frequency band (subcarrier). Base station repeatedly performs the above allocation processing in different frequency bands and thereby performs frequency resource allocation of a C-SC-FDMA signal made up of a plurality of clusters. Base station then reports frequency resource information indicating the frequency resource allocation result of the C-SC-FDMA signal of terminal to terminal . Base station also performs the above described frequency resource allocation processing on terminals other than terminal . This allows base station to schedule allocation of frequency resources for all terminals located in the cell of base station . Furthermore, terminal may map an SC-FDMA signal according to the frequency band indicated in the frequency resource information reported from base station . Thus, terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern corresponding to transmission parameters of a signal transmitted by the terminal and maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources, and can thereby obtain effects similar to those of the present embodiment.
The present embodiment will describe a case where MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) transmission which is one of transmission techniques for realizing high-speed, large-volume data transmission is used. The MIMO transmission technique can increase throughput by providing a plurality of antennas for both a base station and a terminal, providing a plurality of propagation paths (streams) in a space between radio transmission and reception on the same time and the same frequency resources and spatially multiplexing the respective streams (a plurality of different data signal sequences are transmitted using a plurality of streams).
When a rank index indicating a spatial multiplexing number (or the number of signals separated on the receiving side) increases in MIMO transmission, the number of signal sequences (layers) that can be multiplexed (parallel transmission) in the space domain increases. That is, when the rank index increases, the number of layers in the space domain that needs to be separated increases at the base station which is the receiving side, and therefore ISI from a certain layer to a different layer, that is, ISI between layers increases.
Furthermore, when a channel through which each layer propagates has frequency selectivity, ISI for each layer is also generated in C-SC-FDMA as described in Embodiment 1.
Therefore, when the rank index increases in a channel having frequency selectivity, this causes ISI between layers that may affect signal separation in the space domain to increase. To reduce ISI between layers, the terminal preferably reduces ISI per layer as the rank index increases during MIMO transmission as with Embodiment 1. Thus, the terminal according to the present embodiment divides a CW (codeword) which is an SC-FDMA signal into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern corresponding to the rank index during MIMO transmission and maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency domains.
FIG. 21
300
300
201
1
201
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. shows a configuration of terminal according to the present embodiment. Terminal is provided with M antennas (antennas - to -M) that transmit CWs (a plurality of clusters) using M streams.
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Furthermore, terminal is provided with C-SC-FDMA processing sections - to -N corresponding in number to rank index N, made up of coding section , modulation section , multiplexing section , DFT section and division section . Furthermore, terminal is provided with transmission processing sections - to -M corresponding in number to antennas - to -M, made up of mapping section , IFFT section , CP insertion section and radio transmitting section . Thus, terminal is provided with setting section made up of N division sections and M mapping sections . Furthermore, N and M satisfy a relationship of N≤M.
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C-SC-FDMA processing sections - to -N apply processing similar to that of coding section to division section of Embodiment 1 to their respective inputted transmission bit sequences (CW) and thereby generate C-SC-FDMA signals (a plurality of clusters). C-SC-FDMA processing sections - to -N output the C-SC-FDMA signals generated to precoding section .
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Precoding section receives a precoding matrix (or precoding weight) from control section . Here, precoding information indicating the precoding matrix is reported from a base station (not shown) to terminal . For example, the precoding information may show a number indicating each precoding matrix and control section may calculate each precoding matrix based on the number indicated in the precoding information.
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Precoding section multiplies the C-SC-FDMA signals inputted from C-SC-FDMA processing sections - to -N by a single precoding matrix. Precoding section then outputs the precoded C-SC-FDMA signals to transmission processing sections - to -M stream by stream.
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1
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Transmission processing sections - to -M apply processing similar to that of mapping section to radio transmitting section of Embodiment 1 to the respectively inputted precoded C-SC-FDMA signals and transmit the C-SC-FDMA signals after the transmission processing to the base station via antennas - to -M.
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Here, setting section divides an SC-FDMA signal of each layer (here, layer #1 to layer #N) into a plurality of clusters in accordance with a cluster pattern inputted from control section , that is, a cluster pattern corresponding to an MCS set that is set in a signal transmitted by the terminal, coding size or the rank index during MIMO transmission and maps the plurality of clusters to discontinuous frequency resources.
On the other hand, a scheduler (not shown) of the base station according to the present embodiment determines a cluster pattern of a C-SC-FDMA signal from each terminal according to an MCS set (modulation level and coding rate) set in the C-SC-FDMA signal from each terminal, coding size or the rank index during MIMO transmission of each terminal. The base station reports the determined cluster pattern to each terminal.
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Next, methods of setting a cluster arrangement 2-1 to 2-6 by setting section (division sections and mapping sections ) of terminal will be described in detail.
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4
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FIG. 21
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23B
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23B
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23B
FIG. 23B
FIG. 21
In the following descriptions, the number of antennas (the number of streams) is assumed to be 4 and terminal is provided with antennas - to -. Furthermore, suppose the number of CWs simultaneously transmitted by terminal is 2. For simplicity of explanation, of the components of terminal shown in , only DFT section , setting section (division section and mapping section ), precoding section , IFFT section and antenna are illustrated as shown in and , for example. For example, in and , terminal is provided with four mapping sections and IFFT sections corresponding in number to the number of antennas of 4 and is also provided with DFT sections and division sections corresponding in number to the rank index (e.g. the rank index: 2 in , the rank index: 4 in ). Here, when the number of CWs simultaneously transmitted by terminal is smaller than the rank index and the number of CWs is smaller than the number of streams as shown in , terminal is provided with (the rank index/the number of CWs) S/P (serial parallel conversion) sections between modulation section and multiplexing section of terminal shown in . The S/P section converts each serially inputted CW to parallel, divides the converted CWs into a plurality of layers ((the rank index/the number of CWs) layers), whereby a plurality of CWs are mapped to as many layers as ranks. When the number of CWs, the rank index and the number of streams are the same, terminal may apply DFT processing and division processing to each CW and then map each CW to each layer.
<Setting Method 2-1>
211
In the present setting method, setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (or a wider cluster size) for a higher rank index during MIMO transmission.
FIG. 22
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, a case will be described as shown in where the rank index (low, medium, high)) is used. Furthermore, suppose the MCS set (coding rate and modulation level) set in a CW and coding size are fixed.
FIG. 22
For a higher rank index, the scheduler of the base station reduces the number of clusters (widens the cluster size). To be more specific, the scheduler of the base station determines a cluster pattern that matches the number of clusters (high, medium, low) (or, cluster size (narrow, medium, wide)) according to the rank index (low, medium, high) as shown in .
212
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212
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23B
FIG. 23A
FIG. 23B
Division section of setting section divides the CW in accordance with a cluster pattern with a smaller number of clusters (or a wider cluster size) for a higher rank index. To be more specific, when the rank index is small (the rank index: 2 in ), division section divides the CW of each layer (the number of layers: 2 in ) such that the number of clusters increases (four clusters #0 to #3 in ), that is, the cluster size per cluster becomes narrower. On the other hand, when the rank index is large (the rank index: 4 in ), division section divides the CW of each layer (the number of layers: 4 in ) such that the number of clusters decreases (two clusters #0 and #1 in ), that is, the cluster size becomes wider.
As described above, the higher the rank index, that is, the greater the interference between layers, the lower is the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in a combined signal in each layer as in the case of setting method 1-1 of Embodiment 1. That is, since ISI occurring at combining points (discontinuous points) of clusters can be reduced as the rank index increases in each layer, ISI per layer can be reduced. That is, since ISI per layer is reduced as the rank index increases, it is possible to reduce ISI caused by a certain layer with another layer (ISI between layers).
Thus, the present setting method reduces ISI per layer, and can thereby reduce ISI between different layers, and therefore the base station which is the receiving side can improve transmission characteristics of each terminal without deteriorating signal separation capacity in the space domain. Even when the terminal divides the SC-FDMA signal by the number of clusters (the number of divisions) corresponding to the rank index during MIMO transmission, the present setting method can improve user throughput for each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA no matter what the rank index is, as with setting method 1-1 of Embodiment 1.
<Setting Method 2-2>
211
According to the present setting method, setting section maps a plurality of clusters to frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a higher rank index during MIMO transmission.
FIG. 24
FIG. 25A
FIG. 25B
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, a case will be described as shown in where the rank index (low, medium, high)) is used. Furthermore, as shown in and , suppose the number of clusters of a C-SC-FDMA signal is 2. Furthermore, suppose the MCS set (coding rate and modulation level) set in a CW and coding size are fixed.
FIG. 24
The scheduler of the base station narrows the cluster spacing for a higher rank index. To be more specific, as shown in , the base station determines a cluster pattern with a cluster spacing (wide, medium, narrow) according to the rank index (low, medium, high).
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FIG. 25A
FIG. 25A
FIG. 25B
FIG. 25A
Mapping section of setting section maps a plurality of clusters making up a CW mapped to each layer to a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources in accordance with a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for a higher rank index. To be more specific, when the rank index is small (the rank index: 2 in ), mapping section maps a plurality of clusters mapped to each layer (the number of layers: 2 in ) to frequency resources so that the cluster spacing becomes wider. On the other hand, when the rank index is large (the rank index: 4 in ), mapping section maps a plurality of clusters mapped to each layer (the number of layers: 4 in ) to frequency resources so that the cluster spacing becomes narrower.
Thus, the higher the rank index, that is, the greater the interference between layers, the higher is the frequency correlation between a plurality of clusters making up CWs transmitted in each layer as with setting method 1-2 of Embodiment 1. It is possible to make a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at combining points (discontinuous points) of a plurality of clusters more moderate for a higher rank index in each layer (that is, difference in equalized channel gain can be reduced), and thereby reduce ISI per layer. That is, as with setting method 2-1, ISI per layer is reduced for a higher rank index and it is thereby possible to reduce ISI (ISI between layers) caused by a certain layer with different layers.
According to the present setting method as with setting method 2-1, the base station which is the receiving side can improve transmission characteristics of each terminal without deteriorating signal separation capacity in the space domain. Thus, according to the present setting method, even when the terminal maps a plurality of clusters to frequency resources at a cluster spacing in accordance with the rank index during MIMO transmission, it is possible, as with setting method 2-1, to improve user throughput in each terminal while maintaining the effect of improving system throughput by C-SC-FDMA no matter what the rank index is.
<Setting Method 2-3>
211
According to the present setting method, setting section uses the same cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing) for CWs (SC-FDMA signal) mapped to different layers during MIMO transmission.
FIG. 26A
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, suppose the rank index is 2. As shown in , of two CWs (CW #1 and CW #2), CW #1 is mapped to layer #0 and CW #2 is mapped to layer #1.
FIG. 26A
FIG. 26A
300
The scheduler of the base station determines the same cluster pattern for CWs (CW #1 and CW #2 shown in ) mapped to different layers (layer #0 and layer #1 shown in ) in terminal .
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FIG. 26B
Division section of setting section divides CWs mapped to different layers by the same number of clusters (or the same cluster size) to generate a plurality of clusters according to the cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) reported from the base station. For example, division section divides both CW #1 mapped to layer #0 and CW #2 mapped to layer #1 into four clusters #0 to #3 as shown in .
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FIG. 26B
Furthermore, mapping section of setting section maps CWs (a plurality of clusters divided by division section ) mapped to the different layers to frequency resources with the same cluster spacing in accordance with a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) reported from the base station. For example, mapping section maps clusters #0 to #3 of CW #1 mapped to layer #0 and clusters #0 to #3 of CW #2 mapped to layer #1 to the same frequency resources with the same cluster spacing as shown in .
300
Thus, according to the present setting method, terminal uses the same cluster pattern for CWs (SC-FDMA signal) mapped to different layers, which causes statistical characteristics of ISI in the frequency domain to become substantially the same between layers. That is, substantially the same ISI occurs between different layers. This reduces the distribution of ISI power between layers and prevents the occurrence of ISI between layers whereby a layer having high ISI interferes with a layer having small ISI.
According to the present setting method, the base station can further improve transmission characteristics when a signal separation technique such as PIC (Parallel Interference Canceller) is used whereby signal separation capacity in the space domain is improved as the difference in receiving quality between layers decreases. According to the present setting method, the statistical characteristics of ISI become substantially the same between layers, which reduces the probability that layers in which receiving quality considerably deteriorates will occur. The base station can improve average reception characteristics of all layers and thereby further improve error rate (block error rate) characteristics of CWs.
<Setting Method 2-4>
211
According to the present setting method, setting section uses the same cluster pattern (the number of clusters, cluster size or cluster spacing) for an SC-FDMA signal in the same CWs mapped to different layers during MIMO transmission.
FIG. 27A
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, suppose the rank index is 4. As shown in , of two CWs (CW #1 and CW #2), CW #1 is mapped to two layers of layer #0 and layer #1, and CW #2 is mapped to two layers of layer #2 and layer #3.
FIG. 27A
FIG. 27A
FIG. 27A
300
1
2
The scheduler of the base station determines the same cluster pattern for the SC-FDMA signal in the same CW mapped to different layers (layers #0 to #3 shown in ) in terminal . To be more specific, the scheduler determines the same cluster pattern for CW mapped to layer #0 and layer #1 shown in and determines the same cluster pattern for CW mapped to layer #2 and layer #3 shown in .
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FIG. 27B
FIG. 27B
Division section of setting section divides the SC-FDMA signal in the same CW mapped to different layers by the same number of clusters (or the same cluster size) in accordance with a cluster pattern (the number of clusters or cluster size) reported from the base station. For example, division section of setting section divides CW #1 mapped to layer #0 and layer #1 as shown in into two clusters (cluster #0, cluster #1) in each layer. Likewise, division section divides CW #2 mapped to layer #2 and layer #3 as shown in into four clusters (clusters #0 to #3) in each layer.
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FIG. 27B
FIG. 27B
Furthermore, mapping section of setting section maps the SC-FDMA signal in the same CWs mapped to different layers to frequency resources with the same cluster spacing in accordance with a cluster pattern (cluster spacing) reported from the base station. For example, mapping section maps clusters #0 and #1 of CW #1 mapped to layer #0 and layer #1 as shown in to the same frequency resources with the same cluster spacing. Likewise, mapping section maps clusters #0 to #3 of CW #2 mapped to layer #2 and layer #3 as shown in to the same frequency resources with the same cluster spacing.
300
Thus, according to the present setting method, terminal uses the same cluster pattern for the SC-FDMA signal in the same CW mapped to different layers and thereby causes statistical characteristics of ISI in the frequency domain to be substantially the same between layers for the same CW. That is, substantially the same ISI occurs in different layers to which the same CW is mapped. That is, in different layers to which the same CW is mapped, the magnitude of ISI generated per layer and ISI between layers are substantially the same. Thus, the magnitude of ISI becomes uniform in the same CW.
According to the present setting method, since the difference in receiving quality between layers can be reduced for the same CW, it is possible to improve coding gains for coding and improve reception characteristics. That is, according to the present setting method, it is possible to make the distribution of ISI received by each bit (or each symbol) in the same CW substantially uniform, that is, suppress the distribution of LLR (Log Likelihood Ratio) per bit (or symbol) in CW to a small level. This makes it possible to improve reception characteristics for each CW.
<Setting Method 2-5>
211
According to the present setting method, of CWs (SC-FDMA signal) mapped to different layers during MIMO transmission, setting section decreases the number of clusters (or widens the cluster size) for CWs (SC-FDMA signal) having a higher transmission rate (MCS set).
300
FIG. 28
FIG. 29
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, terminal applies coding processing and modulation processing to CWs using different MCS sets for the respective CWs, performs link adaptation in the space domain, and thereby transmit a plurality of CWs having different transmission rates in parallel in the space domain. For example, a case as shown in will be described where a transmission rate (MCS set) (low, medium, high) is used. A high MCS set (coding rate: high, modulation level: high) is set in CW #1 and a low MCS set (coding rate: low, modulation level: low) is set in CW #2 shown in . Furthermore, CW #1 is mapped to layer #0 and CW #2 is mapped to layer #1.
300
FIG. 28
Of a plurality of CWs mapped to different layers and transmitted by terminal , the scheduler of the base station determines a cluster pattern having a smaller number of clusters (wider cluster size) for CWs having a higher transmission rate (MCS set). To be more specific, as shown in , the base station determines a cluster pattern that matches the number of clusters (high, medium, low) (or cluster size (narrow, medium, wide)) according to the MCS set (low, medium, high).
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FIG. 29
FIG. 29
FIG. 29
Of the plurality of CWs mapped to different layers, setting section decreases the number of clusters (widens the cluster size) for CWs of a higher MCS set. To be more specific, setting section decreases the number of clusters for CW #1 having a higher MCS set as shown in (two clusters #0 and #1 in ), that is, widens the cluster size per cluster. On the other hand, setting section increases the number of clusters for CW #2 having a lower MCS set (four clusters #0 to #3 in ), that is, narrows the cluster size per cluster.
Thus, for CWs having a higher transmission rate (MCS set), that is, CWs more susceptible to the influence of ISI (CWs having lower allowable ISI), the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain of a combined signal decreases as with setting method 1-1 of Embodiment 1. It is thereby possible to reduce ISI occurring at combining points (discontinuous points) in a plurality of clusters for CWs having a higher transmission rate (MCS set).
211
Furthermore, setting section increases the number of clusters (narrows the cluster size) for CWs having a lower transmission rate (MCS set), that is, CWs less susceptible to the influence of ISI (CWs having greater allowable ISI). This increases the number of discontinuous points in a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain in a combined signal as with setting method 1-1 of Embodiment 1 in the base station, but since robustness against ISI is high, it is possible to improve the frequency diversity effect in the range of allowable ISI.
Thus, the present setting method sets the number of clusters (cluster size) for CWs of different transmission rates (MCS sets), and can thereby improve throughput per CW. That is, overall throughput (user throughput) of a plurality of CWs can be improved as a consequence.
<Setting Method 2-6>
211
According to the present setting method, of CWs (SC-FDMA signal) mapped to different layers during MIMO transmission, setting section narrows a cluster spacing for CWs (SC-FDMA signal) having a higher transmission rate (MCS set).
300
FIG. 30
FIG. 31
Hereinafter, this will be described more specifically. Here, as with setting method 2-5, terminal performs link adaptation in the space domain using different MCS sets for respective CWs. A case will be described as an example where a transmission rate (MCS set) (low, medium, high) is used as shown in . Furthermore, as with setting method 2-5, a high MCS set (coding rate: high, modulation level: high) is set in CW #1 shown in and a low MCS set (coding rate: low, modulation level: low) is set in CW #2. Furthermore, CW #1 is mapped to layer #0 and CW #2 is mapped to layer #1.
300
FIG. 30
Of a plurality of CWs mapped to different layers and transmitted by terminal , the scheduler of the base station determines a cluster pattern with a narrower cluster spacing for CWs having a higher transmission rate (MCS set). To be more specific, as shown in , the base station determines a cluster pattern with a cluster spacing (wide, medium, narrow) according to the MCS set (low, medium, high).
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FIG. 31
Of the plurality of CWs mapped to different layers, setting section narrows the cluster spacing for CWs having a higher MCS set. To be more specific, setting section narrows the cluster spacing for CW #1 having a higher MCS set as shown in . On the other hand, setting section widens the cluster spacing for CW #2 having a lower MCS set.
Thus, for CWs having a higher transmission rate (MCS set), that is, for CWs more susceptible to the influence of ISI (CWs having lower allowable ISI), the frequency correlation among a plurality of clusters making up a CW is increased as with setting method 1-2 of Embodiment 1. This makes it possible to make more moderate a fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at combining points (discontinuous points) of a plurality of clusters for CWs having a higher transmission rate (MCS set) (that is, the difference in equalized channel gain can be reduced), and thereby reduce ISI in a CW.
211
Furthermore, setting section widens the cluster spacing for CWs having a lower transmission rate (MCS set), that is, for CWs less susceptible to the influence of ISI (CWs having greater allowable ISI). Although this makes the fluctuation of the equalized channel gain at combining points (discontinuous points) of the combined signal more abrupt (that is, the difference in equalized channel gain increases) as with setting method 1-2 of Embodiment 1, the base station can improve the frequency diversity effect in the range of allowable ISI because robustness against ISI is sufficiently high.
Thus, the present setting method sets the cluster spacing according to CWs having different transmission rates (MCS sets), and can thereby improve throughput per CW as with setting method 2-5. That is, it is possible to improve overall throughput (user throughput) of a plurality of CWs as a consequence.
Setting methods 2-1 to 2-6 have been described so far.
Thus, the present embodiment can obtain effects similar to those in Embodiment 1 even when MIMO transmission is used.
FIG. 16A
FIG. 19C
FIGS. 32A to 32E
FIGS. 32A to 32E
i
i
i+1
i
i
i+1
In the present embodiment, the base station may also set a threshold of the rank index to determine a cluster pattern in the same way as in Embodiment 1 ( to ). Hereinafter, an example where the base station sets a threshold and determines a cluster pattern will be described using . In , B(i=0, 1, . . . ) is a bandwidth (cluster size) per cluster and indicates, for example, a minimum bandwidth (minimum cluster size) defined for every range separated by a threshold and holds the relationship B≤B. Furthermore, B′(i=0, 1, . . . ) represents a maximum cluster spacing defined for every range separated by a threshold and holds the relationship B′≥B′.
FIG. 32A
FIG. 32A
For example, as shown in , the base station may also set a threshold for each rank index, compare the rank index (RI) of each terminal with the threshold and determine the number of clusters (X). To be more specific, the base station determines the number of clusters X to be 4 when the rank index RI is 1 and determines the number of clusters X to be 3 when the rank index RI is 2. The same applies to a case where the rank index RI is 3 or 4. That is, in , a fixed number of clusters is set for the rank index.
FIG. 32B
FIG. 32B
FIG. 32B
FIG. 32B
FIG. 3A
FIG. 3B
211
211
Furthermore, as shown in method 1 in , the base station may set a threshold for each rank index and set an upper limit of the number of clusters X for each rank index. For example, as shown in method 1 of , the base station determines one number of clusters whose upper limit is the number of clusters X=4 when the rank index RI is 1 and determines one number of clusters whose upper limit is the number of clusters X=3 when the rank index RI is 2. The same applies to a case where the rank index is 3 or 4. Setting section of each terminal sets the number of clusters according to the rank index in this way, and can thereby limit the maximum value of ISI per layer so as to prevent ISI from a different layer from exceeding allowable ISI. Thus, the base station can correctly select an MCS set of each layer in each terminal. Furthermore, as shown in method 2 in , the base station may also set a lower limit and an upper limit of the number of clusters for each rank index. For example, as shown in method 2 in , the base station determines one number of clusters in a range of 2≤X≤4 when the rank index RI is 1 and determines one number of clusters in a range of 2≤X≤3 when the rank index RI is 2. As shown in or , this allows the setting section of each terminal to set only such a number of clusters X that matches the user throughput of a certain value or above including the maximum value. Furthermore, the base station can reduce the number of reporting bits to report the number of clusters X per layer.
FIG. 32C
FIG. 32C
FIG. 32B
FIG. 32C
FIG. 32C
FIG. 32C
FIG. 32B
0
1
2
3
Furthermore, as shown in , the base station may also set a threshold so as to separate between a plurality of rank indexes for every certain range of rank index and set a cluster size (Y) for every range of rank index. According to method 1 in , as with method 1 in , the base station determines one cluster size Y whose lower limit is a minimum cluster size (B, B, B, Bshown in method 1 in ) defined for every range of rank index. As shown in method 1 in , when the rank index RI is 1 to 2 which is a range having the lowest rank index (that is, allowable ISI is maximum), the base station may arbitrarily set cluster size Y. Furthermore, according to method 2 in , as with method 2 in , an upper limit and a lower limit of the cluster size are set for every range of rank index.
FIG. 32D
FIG. 32D
ri
ri
ri
ri
Furthermore, when the base station calculates cluster size (Y) using the number of clusters (X), as shown in , the base station may set a threshold for each rank index, set the number of clusters Xfor each rank index and calculate cluster size Y. Here, X(ri=0, 1, 2, . . . , ri is a number assigned for every range of the rank index separated by a threshold) represents the number of clusters set for each rank index in each range (ri). Furthermore, B represents the total bandwidth (that is, the sum of cluster sizes) used for a C-SC-FDMA signal. To be more specific, in , the base station calculates cluster size Y=B/Xset in the rank index using the number of clusters Xset for each rank index (ri=0, 1, 2, . . . ).
FIG. 32E
FIG. 32E
FIG. 32E
FIG. 32E
0
1
2
3
Furthermore, as shown in , the base station may also set cluster spacing (Z) for each rank index by setting a threshold for each rank index. In , the base station determines cluster spacing Z whose upper limit corresponds to a maximum cluster spacing (B′, B′, B′, B′shown in ) for each rank index. As shown in , when the rank index RI is 1, the base station may set an arbitrary value for cluster spacing Z.
FIG. 23B
FIG. 25B
FIG. 27A
FIG. 23B
FIG. 25B
FIG. 27A
300
300
A case has been described in the present embodiment in , and where the S/P section in terminal converts CW from serial to parallel and the DFT section performs DFT processing. However, in terminal of the present invention, the DFT section may perform DFT processing on a CW and then the S/P section may convert the CW from serial to parallel as shown in , and .
Furthermore, the present embodiment is applicable to both single user (SU)-MIMO transmission (that is, MIMO transmission between a plurality of antennas of one base station and a plurality of antennas of one terminal) and multiuser (MU)-MIMO transmission (that is, MIMO transmission between a plurality of antennas of one base station and a plurality of antennas of a plurality of terminals).
Furthermore, a case has been described with setting methods 2-1 and 2-2 of the present embodiment where a cluster pattern is determined according to the rank index. However, the present invention can determine a cluster pattern according to the number of spatially multiplexed CWs. This makes it possible to control the magnitude of ISI between different CWs according to the number of CWs and improve transmission characteristics per CW. This increases the probability of being able to select an MCS set with higher efficiency of use of frequency resources, and can thereby further improve user throughput.
Furthermore, MIMO transmission using precoding has been described in the present embodiment, but the present invention is also applicable to MIMO transmission without precoding (that is, when a precoding matrix is assumed as a unit matrix).
The embodiments of the present invention have been described so far.
A case has been described in the above embodiments where a cluster pattern is controlled according to an MCS set, coding size or rank index. However, as the number of frequency resources allocated to a signal transmitted by the terminal, the number of resource elements (RE) or the number of RBs bundling a plurality of REs decreases, the present invention may reduce the number of clusters (widen the cluster size) or narrow the cluster spacing. This allows effects similar to those in the above embodiments to be thereby obtained.
Furthermore, the present invention may combine Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2.
Furthermore, the terminal may also be called “UE (User Equipment)” and the base station may also be called “Node B or BS (Base Station).”
Moreover, although cases have been described with the embodiments above where the present invention is configured by hardware, the present invention may be implemented by software.
Each function block employed in the description of the aforementioned embodiment may typically be implemented as an LSI constituted by an integrated circuit. These may be individual chips or partially or totally contained on a single chip. “LSI” is adopted here but this may also be referred to as “IC,” “system LSI,” “super LSI” or “ultra LSI” depending on differing extents of integration.
Further, the method of circuit integration is not limited to LSI's, and implementation using dedicated circuitry or general purpose processors is also possible. After LSI manufacture, utilization of an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or a reconfigurable processor where connections and settings of circuit cells within an LSI can be reconfigured is also possible.
Further, if integrated circuit technology comes out to replace LSI's as a result of the advancement of semiconductor technology or a derivative other technology, it is naturally also possible to carry out function block integration using this technology. Application of biotechnology is also possible.
The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-292653, filed on Nov. 14, 2008, including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention is applicable to a mobile communication system or the like.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a block configuration diagram of a base station according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 2
is a block configuration diagram of a terminal according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 3A
is a diagram illustrating a relationship between the number of clusters (cluster spacing) and user throughput according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when SNR is high);
FIG. 3B
is a diagram illustrating a relationship between the number of clusters (cluster spacing) and user throughput according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when SNR is low);
FIG. 4
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and the number of clusters or cluster size according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 5A
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is low);
FIG. 5B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is high);
FIG. 6A
is a diagram illustrating a combined signal according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is low);
FIG. 6B
is a diagram illustrating a combined signal according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is high);
FIG. 7
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and a cluster spacing according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 8A
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is low);
FIG. 8B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is high);
FIG. 9A
is a diagram illustrating a combined signal according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is low);
FIG. 9B
is a diagram illustrating a combined signal according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when modulation level is high);
FIG. 10
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and the number of clusters or cluster size according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 11A
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when coding size is large);
FIG. 11B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when coding size is small);
FIG. 12
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster spacing according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 13A
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when coding size is large);
FIG. 13B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention (when coding size is small);
FIG. 14
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding rate and the number of clusters or cluster size according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 15
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster spacing according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 16A
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 16B
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 16C
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 16D
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 16E
is a diagram illustrating an association between a modulation level and a cluster spacing according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 17A
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 17B
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 17C
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 17D
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster spacing according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 18A
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding rate and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 18B
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 18C
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 18D
is a diagram illustrating an association between a coding size and a cluster spacing according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 19A
is a diagram illustrating an association between an MCS set and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 19B
is a diagram illustrating an association between an MCS set and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 19C
is a diagram illustrating an association between an MCS set and a cluster spacing according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 20
is a block configuration diagram of a terminal according to a variation of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 21
is a block configuration diagram of a terminal according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 22
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and the number of clusters or cluster size according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 23A
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is small);
FIG. 23B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is large);
FIG. 24
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and a cluster spacing according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 25A
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is small);
FIG. 25B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is large);
FIG. 26A
is a block configuration diagram of a terminal according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is 2);
FIG. 26B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is 2);
FIG. 27A
is a block configuration diagram of the terminal according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is 4);
FIG. 27B
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention (when the rank index is 2);
FIG. 28
is a diagram illustrating an association between a transmission rate (MCS set) and the number of clusters or cluster size according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 29
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 30
is a diagram illustrating an association between a transmission rate (MCS set) and a cluster spacing according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 31
is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a cluster arrangement according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 32A
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 32B
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and the number of clusters according to a variation of Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 32C
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 32D
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and a cluster size according to a variation of Embodiment 2 of the present invention; and
FIG. 32E
is a diagram illustrating an association between a rank index and a cluster spacing according to a variation of Embodiment 2 of the present invention. | |
divide 325303251?
True
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False
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False
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True
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True
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True
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False
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True
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True
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False
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True
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False
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| |
I am frequently asked to price a property when it is about to be listed for sale, or sometimes to help owners evaluate their portfolio and assist them in making longer-term retirement plans. When I am asked to give a price, I admit that I am not very happy to come up with "off the top of my head" figures. That might make me seem clever, but it is not sensible. What I can provide is different from an appraisal, which requires a qualified appraiser, and which is often done for other purposes, such as insurance.
However, since I have access to (and keep myself educated about) MLS listed properties in Central Toronto, I feel I can give a pretty good idea of what many property might sell for "in the current market". I have at my disposal the MLS system, Land Registry, and the opportunity to view properties before they sell, so it is reasonable to assume that a hardworking, educated Agent can provide a good "Opinion of Current Market Value" to sellers, and even sometimes to the appraisers. (As recently as this week, I had an appraiser calling me for information about a property a client of mine had purchased last year, to which he wanted to compare another property nearby!)
I have been asked to “price” several properties recently, and for me there is more study and math to it than simple “gut feel”. There are several types of valuations, and not all are applicable to all properties. These are the three main valuations I might employ in my day to day work:
Market Value: The open market value, defined frequently as the estimated amount for which an asset or liability should exchange on the valuation date between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm's length transaction, after proper marketing and where the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently and without compulsion. This is the most common valuation in my work.
Value-in-use: The present net value of a cash flow that an asset generates for a specific owner under a specific use. This is particular to one user, and would be used to evaluate a rental property, for example. I use formulas to help buyers of investment properties determine what they should pay, and what income they need to carry the costs of purchases and operations.
Investment Value: This is the value to the owner or prospective owner for individual investment or operational objectives. This applies to many properties, but also for someone who may want to develop a property in the future, such as a buyer assembling several street-front properties for a future condo development.
Approaches to Value
It is important to note that value and price may not be the same.
A property may sell below or above market price for several reasons. Some reasons for this may be lack of market exposure, the rarity of the type of property or its allowable uses, a pre-existing special relationship between the buyer and seller, or if the buyer intends to change the use of a property and believes that the property is worth more if it has a different use in the future.
In simple terms, these are the three ways I use to determine value:
Cost Approach: This approach takes into account the land value plus the depreciated value of any improvements. This method estimates the current land value plus the cost to replace the improvements (buildings, out buildings, landscaping, pools, etc.,) to the condition they are in at the time. This is more reliable for newer properties because the cost and standards of the construction are more easily evaluated – and depreciation is subjective.
For example: How do you value a less-than-brand-new year-old kitchen? Some buyers would live with the kitchen as it is, and therefor will consider it of some monetary value, while other buyers would pay to remove the cabinets and renovate the kitchen and therefore consider the kitchen a liability.
An older property with historic or architectural significance might have some intrinsic value to some buyers, and to others it might be a liability because the use or style of the property could not be changed to their intended use. "The eye of the beholder" really does matter. There may be a lot of demand for a particular price point or property feature, and buyers might pay a bit of a premium for location, amenities, transportation, and other property features not easily replicated, or because there is competition for a property.
Sales Comparison Approach: This is based on the principle of “substitution”. This assumes a reasonable buyer wouldn't pay more to purchase the subject property than they would for a comparable property. This is why, when I value a property, I look at other properties which have sold, were listed and not sold, or are presently on the market, all within a certain period of time, and which are comparable in size, location, condition, etc. to the subject property. Buyers do the same thing when they offer to purchase a home.
Income Approach: This is used to value income-producing commercial or investment properties. In this case we capitalize the income stream and come up with figures for buyers to help them determine if a property will carry itself to their satisfaction, based on the cost of the property and the income it generates.
Working with Clients
The Cost Approach and the Sales Comparison Approach are the methods I mostly use, because I can gather sales data through MLS and Land Registry and costs for structures can be estimated with readily available industry data and experts. I spend lots of time looking at other properties and I have done several major renovations myself – acting as the general contractor and having taken college-level building and construction courses – so I have first-hand knowledge about what is involved and what it costs, although professionally I cannot not claim to be an expert.
I also look at what the seller paid, adjust for improvements and depreciation, and then look at what the inflationary value would be based on the general market trends in that specific area of Toronto. That is also quite useful because the market, in general, is very efficient.
Of course, a property should always be evaluated based on its Highest and Best Use. For example, a tiny, dated home on a large downtown property might be of most interest to a developer, who would therefore pay the most for the land and its potential to develop and improve it, and attribute nothing to the value of the house itself. Zoning changes have made former industrial buildings in downtown Toronto because their new highest and best use became residential.
This is not an exact science, but these are the methods I use to give my seller-clients an educated Opinion of Market Value.
I provide a detailed report to sellers with lots of comparable listings and dates, to assist them in pricing their property to sell for the most amount of money in the quickest period of time.
A dose of common sense, local knowledge, and education helps, too. If you are given this kind of data, I feel it is worthwhile paying attention to it, because many buyers’ agents will also go through the same rigorous process for their buyer-clients on your property. Buyers are not generally inclined to overpay for a property.
If I can assist you in valuating your property, please let me know. | https://trishbongard.com/Resources/Insight/2013/05/14/How-to-Price-A-Property |
Krist Novoselic is the former bass guitarist of Nirvana. They achieved success in the 90s and they are still considered one of the greatest bands to have ever come out of the US. Outside of his music career, Krist Novoselic has been involved in political activities and work on electoral reform projects for many years. As a result, Krist Novoselic net worth reaches $80 million US dollars.
|Summary table|
|Stage Name||Krist Novoselic|
|Legal name||Krist Anthony Novoselic|
|Date of Birth||May 16, 1965|
|Gender||Male|
|Height||6′ 7″|
|Net worth||$80 millions|
|Salary / earning / income per year||–|
|Profession||Musician, Politician|
|Nationality||American|
Table of Contents
Detail Information About Krist Novoselic
- Legal name & stage name: Krist Novoselic’s real name is Krist Anthony Novoselic.
- Date of Birth: Born on May 16, 1965 or 56 years old.
- Gender & Height: This man has a height of 6’ 7”.
- Nationality: American.
- What is Krist Novoselic Best Known for? Musician, Writer, Politician, Song Writer, Film director, Bassist.
Earliest Years of Krist Novoselic
Born in Compton, California, Krist Novoselic was raised by his parents with his two siblings. After that, Krist moved with his family to San Pedro, Los Angeles which is known for having the highest number of Croats. In 1971, he moved again with his family to Aberdeen, Washington.
Nine years later when Novoselic was 14, he was sent to live with his relatives in Zadar, Croatia. That part of the mission took a whole year and then he returned to Aberdeen. At a young age, Krist was very interested in punk rock. This eventually led him to explore other unique genres of music.
- Education: Krist studied at Aberdeen High School and continued his studies at Washington State University.
- Personal life: Novoselic married his high school girlfriend Shelli Hyrkas in 1989 and it ended a few years later in 1999. Later, he remarried artist Darbury Ayn Stenderu in 2004. From their marriage, they have two children.
Novoselic was one of the earliest activists who fought against a bill called the Erotic Music Law. Krist eventually formed JAMPAC (Joint Committee for Political Action for Artists and Musicians). Currently, Novoselic is involved in a number of political movements, including electoral reform work.
Krist Novoselic’s Career
Awards & Nominations
In the music world, this talented musician has received many nominations from various artists and festivals, such as the Grammy Awards. His award show reel includes prestigious prizes such as MTV and other music events.
Krist Novoselic Net worth
Novoselic was a rock guitarist for funk band Dave, who early on rose to fame. The popularity of his career was due to the success of Nirvana, which is why he’s considered one of the most iconic members. Then, he’s been collaborating a lot with bands for many years. Not only does his involvement in politics have a positive impact on Krist Novoselic net worth, it also has significant implications for the country and for progressive change in general. Here are the details.
Businesses Details
After his contract with Nirvana ended, he formed other bands namely Sweet 75 and Eyes Adrift, which released one album each. Then, he went on to play in the punk band Flipper, from 2006 to 2009. Chris has also contributed bass and accordion to one of the songs from the Foo Fighters studio album, Wasting Light.
From his work in the music world, Krist Novoselic has made 80 million dollars. The value of this was obtained by analyzing the album’s sales, which reached about 350,000 copies. Krist Novoselic net worth is also achieved from single sales which reached $900,000. From here, he made a salary of nearly $4.4 million at that time.
Novoselic has been politically active, both through his business and musical endeavors. Novoselic became one of the founders of JAMPAC (Joint Artists and Musicians Political Action Committee) political action committee. Krist Novoselic is also involved in other careers that help increase Krist Novoselic net worth.
Meanwhile from November 2007 to September 2010, Novoselic had the role of writing weekly columns on music and politics for the Seattle Weekly website. Though he has a Krist Novoselic net worth when calculated as a whole, he became chairman of the board of the electoral reform organization FairVote.
House and Vehicle
Krist Novoselic was the bassist for Nirvana, who had a major success known as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – one of their many popular songs. The Krist lives in a house with his wife, Darbury. However, most reports say they have their main residence on Anderson Road. More precisely, it is in the remote community of Deep River, in rural Wahlikum County.
For vehicles, Krist Novoselic likes old vehicles. He was caught on camera by the privately owned video camera of a neighbor. A single grainy video reveals an old VW car parked outside in his driveway. The style of this car is a representation of his dad and it’s the only car that he likes. After doing research, he found out that the father-son bonding experience is something worth remembering.
How and How much does Krist Novoselic Earn per year
Krist Novoselic net worth is indeed quite large, but this might not have been possible even if he was a “rock band musician”. But it can not be separated from the business and album sales are so successful. This is where Krist Novoselic net worth reaches 80 million US dollars. You can be sure that the revenue generated each year is a fantastic number.
Many musicians are still receiving honorariums after their former job even years later. This also applies to Krist Novoselic net worth which reaches millions of US dollars. He’s earnings consist of album sales, 12.5% song usage royalties and the rest from other music contracts.
Apart from royalties, Krist Novoselic may have amassed Krist Novoselic net worth US$4.4 million from album sales and single releases over his musical career. Copyright trends are on the rise, bringing a sizable amount of revenue with them. Later, he got into politics because of his interest in that world.
Some media have reported that Krist Novoselic has a Krist Novoselic net worth other than from the music world. He has an impressive portfolio of properties which have been funded through his own private sources. He also owns multiple houses that he inhabits with his family.
What is Krist Novoselic’s Focus at now?
Novoselic retired from music because of the cases that ensnared several musicians. Disappointed with them, he chose to leave the industry altogether. Later, he soon found a new passion by participating through electoral reform and becoming an advocate for local musicians. He founded a company called JAMPAC that fights for the rights of young music fans.
Since mid-2017, Krist Novoselic has focused on playing bass and accordion for the band Giants in the Trees. Outside of his music career, Novoselic is also politically active and was involved in the formation of a PAC committee called JAMPAC (Joint Artists and Musicians Political Action Committee).
He writes about the difficult electoral issues of popular rock bands and builds a blog for the Seattle Weekly which is read by hundreds. After Novoselic announced that he was quitting writing to return to college, he still hasn’t quit the music business.
Overall, Krist Novoselic net worth comes from music band activities when he was their bass guitarist. Even without public recognition, his involvement in a number of royalties and sales of best-selling albums also contributed to Krist Novoselic net worth. He also made a lot of money from investments in the property business and so on. | https://nuordertech.com/krist-novoselic-net-worth/ |
for a long time, the reason for this was a mystery. In the waning years of the 19th century,
astrophotography was becoming an important scientific tool. Being able to hook a camera
up to a telescope and take long exposures meant being able to see fainter objects,
revealing previously hidden details. It also meant that spectroscopy became a force,
say it with me now, for science. A spectrum is the result when you divide the
incoming light from an object into individual colors, or wavelengths. This reveals a vast
amount of physical data about the object. But in the late 1800s, we were only just starting
to figure that out. Interpreting stellar spectra was a tough problem.
The spectrum we measure from a star is a combination of two different kinds of spectra. Stars are
hot, dense balls of gas, so they give off a continuous spectrum; that is, they emit
light at all wavelengths. However, stars also have atmospheres, thinner
layers of gas above the denser inner layers. These gases absorb light at specific wavelengths
from the light below depending on the elements in them. The result is that the continuous
spectrum of a star has gaps in it, darker bands where different elements absorb different
colors. At first, stars were classified by the strengths
of their hydrogen lines. The strongest were called A stars, the next strongest B, then
C, and so on. But in 1901, a new system was introduced by spectroscopist Annie Jump Cannon,
who dropped or merged a few of the old classifications, and then rearranged them into one that classified
stars by the strengths and appearances of many different absorption lines in their spectra. A few years later, physicist Max Planck solved
a thorny problem in physics, showing how objects like stars give off light of different colors based
on their temperature. Hotter stars put out more light at the blue end of the spectrum, while cooler
ones peaked in the red. Around the same time, Bengali physicist Meghnad Saha solved another tough problem:
how atoms give off light at different temperatures. Two decades later, the brilliant astronomer
Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin put all these pieces together. She showed that the spectra of stars
depended on the temperature and elements in their atmospheres. This unlocked the secrets
of the stars, allowing astronomers to understand not just their composition but also many other
physical traits. For example, at the time, it was thought that stars
had roughly the same composition as the Earth, but Payne-Gaposchkin showed that stars were
overwhelmingly composed of hydrogen, with helium as the second most abundant element. The classification scheme proposed by Cannon
and decoded by Payne-Gaposchkin is still used today, and arranges stars by their temperature,
assigning each a letter. Because they were rearranged from an older system the letters
aren’t alphabetical: So the hottest are O-type stars, slightly cooler are B, followed
by A, F, G, K, and M. It’s a little weird, but many people use the mnemonic, “Oh Be
A Fine Guy, Kiss Me,” or “Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me,” to remember it — which
was dreamed up by Annie Jump Cannon herself! Each letter grouping is divided into 10 subgroups,
again according to temperature. We’ve also discovered even cooler stars in the past few decades,
and these are assigned the letters L, T, and Y. The Sun has a surface temperature of about
5500° Celsius, and is a G2 star. A slightly hotter star would be a G1, and a slightly cooler
star a G3. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is much hotter than the Sun, and is classified as an
A0. Betelgeuse, which is red and cool, is an M2. Stars come in almost every color of the rainbow.
Hot stars are blue, cool stars red. In between there are orange and even some yellow stars. But there are no green stars. Look as much as you want, and you won’t
find any. It’s because of the way our eyes see color. A star can put out lots of green
light, but if it does it’ll also emit red, blue, and orange. And our eyes mix those together
to form other colors. A star can actually emit more green light than any other color,
but we’ll wind up seeing it as white! How do I know? Because if you look at the
sun’s spectrum, it actually peaks in the green! Isn’t that weird? The Sun puts out more
green light than any other color, but our eyes see all the mixed colors together as
white. Wait, what? White? You may be thinking the
Sun is actually yellow. Not really. The light from the Sun is white,
but some of the shorter wavelengths like purple and blue and some green get scattered away
by molecules of nitrogen in our air. Those appear to be coming from every direction but
the Sun, which is why the sky looks blue. The Sun doesn’t emit much purple, so the sky doesn’t
look purple, and the green doesn’t scatter as well as blue. That gives the Sun a yellowish tint to our
eyes, and looking at the Sun is painful anyway, so it’s hard to accurately gauge what color
it appears. That’s also why sunsets look orange or red: You’re looking through more
air on the horizon to see the Sun, so all the bluer light is scattered away. So we can use spectra to determine a lot about
a star. But if you combine that with knowing a star’s distance, things get amazing. You can measure how bright the star appears
to be in your telescope, and by using the distance you can calculate how much energy it’s actually
giving off — what astronomers call its luminosity. An intrinsically faint light looks bright
if it’s nearby, but so does a very luminous light far away. By knowing the distance, you can
correct for that, and figure out how luminous the objects actually are. This was, no exaggeration,
the key to understanding stars. A lot of a star’s physical characteristics are related:
Its luminosity depends on its size and temperature. If two stars are the same size, but one is
hotter, the hotter one will be more luminous. If two stars are the same temperature, but one
is bigger, the bigger one will be more luminous. Knowing the temperature and distance means
knowing the stars themselves. Still, it’s a lot of data. A century ago,
spectra were taken of hundreds of thousands of stars! How do you even start looking at
all that? The best way to understand a large group of
objects is to look for trends. Is there a relationship between color and distance? How
about temperature and size? You compare and contrast them in as many ways possible and
see what pops up. I’ll spare you the work. A century ago astronomers
Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell made a graph, in which they plotted a star’s
luminosity versus its temperature. When they did, they got a surprise: a VERY strong trend. This is called an HR Diagram, after Hertzsprung
and Russell. It’s not an exaggeration to call it the single most important graph in
all of astronomy! In this graph, really bright stars are near
the top, fainter ones near the bottom. Hot, blue stars are on the left, and cool, red
stars on the right. The groups are pretty obvious! There’s that thick line running diagonally
down the middle, the clump to the upper right, and the smaller clump to the lower left.
This took a long time to fully understand, but now we know this diagram is showing
us how stars live their lives. Most stars fall into that thick line, and
that’s why astronomers call it the Main Sequence. The term is a little misleading;
it’s not really a sequence per se, but as usual in astronomy it’s an old term and
we got stuck with it. The reason the main sequence is a broad, long
line has to do with how stars make energy. Like the Sun, stars generate energy by fusing
hydrogen into helium in their cores. A star that fuses hydrogen faster will be
hotter, because it’s making more energy. The rate of fusion depends on the pressure
in a star’s core. More massive stars can squeeze their cores harder, so they fuse
faster and get hotter than low mass stars. It’s pretty much that simple. And that explains the main sequence! Stars spend most of their lives fusing hydrogen
into helium, which is why the main sequence has most of the stars on it; those are the ones merrily
going about their starry business of making energy. Massive stars are hotter and more luminous,
so they fall on the upper left of the main sequence. Stars with lower mass are cooler
and redder, so they fall a little lower to the right, and so on. The Sun is there, too,
more or less in the middle. What about the other groups? Well, the stars
on the lower left are hot, blue-white, but very faint. That means they must be small
and we call them white dwarfs. They’re the result of a star like the Sun eventually
running out of hydrogen fuel. We’ll get back to them in a future episode. The stars on the upper right are luminous
but cool. They must therefore be huge. These are red giants, also part of the dying process
of stars like the Sun. Above them are red SUPERgiants, massive stars beginning their
death stage. You can see some stars that are also that luminous but at the upper left;
those are blue supergiants. They’re more rare, but they too are the end stage for some
stars, and again we’ll get to them soon enough in a future episode. But I’ll just say here that it, um, doesn’t
end well for them. But, on a brighter note, we literally owe
our existence to them. And this implies something very nifty about
the HR diagram: Stars can change position on it. Not only that, but massive stars versus
low mass stars age differently, and go to different parts of the HR diagram as they
die. In many ways, the diagram allows us to tell at a glance just what a star is doing
with itself. This difference between the way low mass stars
like the Sun and higher mass stars age is actually critical to understanding a lot more
about what we see in the sky… so much so that they’ll be handled separately in later
episodes. I’m sorry to tease so much about what’s to come, but this aspect of stars
— finally understanding them physically — was a MAJOR step in astronomy, leading
to understanding so much more. And don’t you worry: we’ll get to all
that. Today you learned that stars can be categorized
using their spectra. Together with their distance, this provides a wealth of information about
them including their luminosity, size, and temperature. The HR diagram plots stars’
luminosity versus temperature, and most stars fall along the main sequence, where they live
most of their lives. Crash Course Astronomy is produced in association
with PBS Digital Studios. Head over to their YouTube channel and catch even more awesome
videos. This episode was written by me, Phil Plait. The script was edited by Blake de Pastino,
and our consultant is Dr. Michelle Thaller. It was directed by Nicholas Jenkins, edited
by Nicole Sweeney, the sound designer is Michael Aranda, and the graphics team is Thought Café. | https://thetyrannyofnice.com/stars-crash-course-astronomy-26/ |
All posts tagged "farm facts"
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Where Were Illinois’ First Soybeans Planted?
Learn about the fascinating history of how one Illinois town became the original spot where soybeans (originally brought... | https://www.ilfbpartners.com/tag/farm-facts/ |
Keep reading to know more of 50 music symbols that help you understand written music.
26. Grace Note
A grace note is a short note that we should play quickly and quietly right before the main note on the downbeat.
27. Hemiola
A hemiola in music defines a rhythmic ratio of 3:2. It’s notated with a bracket and the number three if the music is in duple meter or the number two if the music is in triple meter.
28. Key Signature
The key signature is symbolized by a series of sharps or flats at the beginning of a piece on a musical staff.
29. Marcato Accent
A marcato is a slightly more intense accent than a regular accent.
30. Multi Rest
A multi rest shows that the player should rest for multiple bars.
31. Music End
A double bar is the music symbol that is at the end of the piece to indicate where this piece of music ends.
32. Natural
A natural note is a note that’s neither sharp nor flat.
33. Note
Notes are used to communicate rhythms and pitches. There are many different types of notes, each signifies a specific subdivision in duration relative to a whole note.
34. Ottava Alta
Ottava alta indicates that the notes on the sheet should be played one octave higher than what’s written.
35. Ottava Bassa
Ottava bassa indicates that we should play the notes on the sheet one octave higher than what’s written.
36. Percussion Clef
A percussion clef is used to indicate that the sheet music is written for atonal instruments that aren’t subject to a specific pitch. Usually, this applies to percussive instruments.
37. Repeat
A repeat symbol indicates to the player to repeat a section, either from the top or from the repeat start symbol.
38. Rest
Rests are used to communicate when a player should be silent. There are many kinds of rest, each with a time length value based on a subdivision of a whole rest.
39. Segno
Segno is the sign where a player resumes playing after passing a dal segno instruction.
40. Sforzando
Sforzando calls for a loud and abrupt increase and decrease in dynamic.
41. Sharp
A sharp symbol indicates that we must play a note one semitone higher than its natural state.
42. Simile
In sheet music, a simile symbol indicates that the player should repeat what’s written in the previous bar.
43. Staccato
A staccato mark on a note indicates that the player should play the note shorter and more abbreviated than it’s typical value.
44. Staff
The staff in sheet music the five horizontal lines around which notes are written. The staff is the base structure for all written music.
45. Sustain Pedal Engage
The sustain pedal engages symbol indicates to a piano or vibraphone player to depress the sustain pedal and let the notes ring out.
46. Sustain Pedal Release
The sustain pedal release symbol indicates to the play that the sustain pedal should be turn off at a specific point in the piece.
47. Tenuto
The tenuto marking shows the player to sustain the note to its absolute maximum values. Tenuto notes should as little space as possible between them.
48. Time Signature
The time signature is the stacked number symbol at the beginning of a piece of music. It dictates the meter and number of beats in a bar.
49. Tremolo
The tremolo markings indicate the player should play the notes in a rapidly repeating way to create a tremolo effect.
50. Volta Brackets
Volta brackets tell the player to play an alternate ending section after a repeat.
Music symbols are important
Now you know 50 music symbols used in sheet music.
With a little bit of practice, you’ll be reading and playing music without thinking twice about the music symbols on the page. | https://buildmyplays.com/50-music-symbols-2/ |
Career path following Life path
There’s more to finding your dream job than simply figuring out what you love and doing it. Career development or career change requires a long-term view, patience and commitment. Unfortunately, many people fail in a particular career path because they gave up too soon. Also, the starting point for many individuals is what kind of job I would love to have, rather than asking themselves and have a clear answer to what kind of life they want to have. Then, afterward, tailor the job they need that would fit their life.
Accordingly, I suggest a short list of questions to start the process of exploring your career path that includes:
- Ask yourself what kind of life you want to have.
- Figure out the work that can fulfill such life and consider all factors that are important to you.
- Make a list of what you love is only a starting point and may not yield an obvious career choice.
- Then ask yourself, why do I love what I love? What are the underlying characteristics is what allows you to identify potential paths.
Many clients come to my practice and say I would like to do X or to do Y without knowing and understanding what it takes to get to that point. I always recommend starting by knowing who you are and where you are. This is why our starting point is self-knowledge. So it makes sense to begin with a personal SWOT analysis. SWOT is an assessment tool that originally was created for organizational analysis, but many now applies it to individuals, while turning the lens on ourselves. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, current Opportunities, and a determination of what situations in our life are bringing out the worst in us, both professionally and personally (Threats).
Successful career path starts by defining who you and knowing where you want to be. Then, the SWOT analysis can show you if your goals are realistic and within that what it takes for you to achieve your goals. Then one need to realize the cost involved in committing to one path. For example, do you need to gain education or go back to school?, do you need to scarify your current income?, and what about relocation, or family etc. Suddenly, many questions appear to be relevant. But ultimately, all these questions needed to be considered and while understanding the consequences of each decision. When making the decision and realizing the change you want to make, then figure out the track you would take from your present position to where you want to be and create a gradual path that would lead you to your destiny. | https://www.spiral2grow.com/2010/10/12/career-path-following-life-path/ |
A recent post on HN got me thinking (and reading) about elevator scheduling algorithms. As it turns out, this is an active area of extensive research. Manufacturers tend to use slightly different algorithms and treat them as trade secrets. But in practice, their algorithms are similar, because the theoretical optimization criteria are roughly the same:
- provide even service to each floor
- minimize how long passengers wait for an elevator to arrive
- minimize how long passengers spend to get to their destination floor
- serve as many passengers as possible
The single elevator case is not very interesting, nor is the case when the passenger can't specify his direction of travel when making the call (one button per floor), so I'll instead discuss only the case where there are multiple elevators, and two buttons on each floor:
There are many criteria to consider in elevator scheduling. For example, people have predictable behavioral patterns that must be addressed, including the uppeak and downpeak---respectively 9AM and 5PM, in many office buildings---which are when elevator efficiency matters the most. There is often a 1-2 hour two-way peak (lunchtime) to address as well. Algorithms should consider whether an elevator is full before assigning it to an elevator call. Sometimes, some blocks of floors have predictably higher interblock or intrablock traffic than other blocks. Often, calls on some floors (executive floors, for example) are given higher priority than others (basements). All of these factors increase the algorithm sophistication.
Still, they tend to be based on the four classic group traffic control algorithms.
Nearest Car (NC)
Elevator calls are assigned to the elevator best placed to answer that call according to three criteria that are used to compute a figure of suitability (FS) for each elevator.
If an elevator is moving towards a call, and the call is in the same direction, FS = (N + 2) - d, where N is one less than the number of floors in the building, and d is the distance in floors between the elevator and the passenger call.
If the elevator is moving towards the call, but the call is in the opposite direction, FS = (N + 1) - d.
If the elevator is moving away from the point of call, FS = 1. The elevator with the highest FS for each call is sent to answer it. The search for the "nearest car" is performed continuously until each call is serviced.
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Fixed Sectoring Common Sector System (FSO):
The building is divided into as many sectors as there are elevators. Elevators in each sector prefer calls in that sector.
Fixed Sectoring Priority Timed System (FS4):
The building is divided into up sectors and down sectors, and elevators only ever treat down calls in down sectors and up calls in up sectors. Each sector has a priority level, which increases the longer the passengers wait. The rate of increase can vary from sector to sector and over time.
Dynamic Sectoring System (DS):
Floors are grouped into dynamic sectors. Each elevator is allocated to a sector in the sector definition, and the sectors change size and location based on the position of moving and idle elevators.
Modern control systems do even more than this. Some of them dynamically compute cost functions for passengers waiting on an elevator. Stochastic traffic control systems empirically compute the distribution of response times and try to make it as Gaussian as possible (wait times should be consistent; there shouldn't be some times when elevators respond instantly and others where they take a while). Some advanced techniques use fuzzy logic schedulers (Ho and Robertson 1994), genetic algorithms (Siikonen 2001, Miravete 1999), and neural networks (Barney and Imrak 2001).
Most of this information is paraphrased from UK-based lift consultant Gina Barney's book "Elevator Traffic Handbook: Theory and Practice." A most uplifting read.
This post originated as an answer on Quora.
See discussion on reddit and hackernews. | http://vedantmisra.com/elevator-algorithms/ |
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
TECHNICAL FIELD
BACKGROUND ART
CITATION LIST
Patent Literature
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST
This is a continuation of International Application PCT/JP2014/079084 which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to an image-processing method and a cell-sorting method.
In the related art, there is a known method of collecting cells in a specific region of a section of biological tissue by attaching the section to a substrate bonded on a sheet, by dividing the substrate into numerous chips together with the section by stretching the sheet, and by collecting a certain chip from the sheet (for example, see Patent Literature 1). In Patent Literature 1, two sections are cut out from adjacent positions in the biological tissue, one of which is divided together with the substrate by using the above-described method, and the other of which is stained. Then, the region to be harvested in the section is determined on the basis of a stained-section image, and the chip at a position corresponding to the determined region is collected.
{PTL 1} PCT International Publication No. WO 2012/066827
A first aspect of the present invention is an image-processing method with which an image of a chip array in which numerous chips, which are obtained by dividing a substrate to which a section of biological tissue is attached together with the section, are two-dimensionally arrayed with spaces between the chips, the image-processing method including: an image-acquiring step of acquiring a divided-section image that includes the entire divided section by capturing an image of the chip array; a chip-recognizing step of recognizing chip images in the divided-section image acquired in the image-acquiring step; an attribute-information assigning step of assigning, to each of pixels that constitute the chip images recognized in the chip-recognizing step, attribute information that includes positional information of the chip images to which those pixels belong in the image of the chip array; and a restoring step of generating a restored section image in which images of the divided section are joined into a single image by joining the chip images constituted of the pixels to which the attribute information has been assigned in the attribute-information assigning step.
A cell-sorting method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
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First, a cell-sorting system for executing the cell-sorting method according to this embodiment will be described.
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The cell-sorting system is a system for harvesting a specific region containing desired cells from a section A of biological tissue and is provided with, as shown in : an inverted optical microscope having a horizontal stage ; a punching portion provided above the stage ; an image-processing device that processes images acquired by the optical microscope ; a display portion ; and a data bus that connects these components with each other.
FIG. 2A
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As shown in , the section A to be used in the cell-sorting system is attached on a thin substrate , such as a cover glass. On the surface of the substrate , grooves are formed in a grid so that the depth thereof reaches an intermediate position of the thickness of the substrate . The spacing between the adjacent grooves is 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm, preferably 0.3 mm to 1.0 mm, and more preferably 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm.
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The back side of the substrate is made to adhere, by using an adhesive, on a sheet (for example, a dicing sheet) having elasticity along the surface direction. By stretching this sheet along the surface direction, it is possible to divide the substrate into numerous small rectangular chips along the grooves , as shown in . At this time, the section A on the substrate is also divided into numerous small pieces along the grooves together with the substrate . By doing so, as shown in , a chip array formed of the numerous chips that are in square array with spaces between them is created.
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The optical microscope is provided with, below the stage , an objective lens with which a specimen on the stage is observed in a magnified form, and an image-acquisition portion , such as a digital camera, that captures specimen images acquired by the objective lens . In addition, the stage has, at a substantially center portion thereof, a window that passes therethrough in the vertical direction. As shown in , by placing the sheet on the stage so that the chip array is positioned in the window and so that the surface on which the chip array is formed faces downward, it is possible to observe the chip array from the underside of the stage by using the objective lens and to capture an image of the chip array acquired by means of the objective lens by using the image-acquisition portion .
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The punching portion is provided with a needle and a holder that holds the needle so that a needle tip points downward and that can be moved in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. By moving the holder in the horizontal direction, the needle tip can be aligned in the horizontal direction with respect to the chips on the stage . In addition, by lowering the holder in the vertical direction, it is possible to pierce one of the chips on the back side thereof, to peel the chip off from the sheet , and to drop the chip off.
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The image-processing device is, for example, a computer, and is provided with a computation portion , such as a CPU (central processing unit), and a storage portion , such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), that stores an image-processing program. In addition, the image-processing device is provided with an input device (not shown), such as a keyboard, a mouse, or the like, with which a user performs inputs to the image-processing device .
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The image-processing device stores a-divided-section image P received from the optical microscope in a temporary storage device (not shown) such as a RAM, generates a restored section image Q from the divided-section image P by executing the image-processing program stored in the storage portion , and outputs the generated restored section image Q to the display portion to be displayed thereon.
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Next, a cell-sorting method employing the cell-sorting system will be described.
FIG. 3
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As shown in , the cell-sorting method according to this embodiment includes: an image-acquiring step S; a template-creating step S; a chip-recognizing step S; an attribute-information assigning step S; a restoring step S; a displaying step S; a punching-position specifying step (specifying step) S; and a collecting step S.
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An image-processing method according to the present invention corresponds to steps from the image-acquiring step S to the restoring step S.
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In the image-acquiring step S, the user observes the chip array by using the optical microscope and captures an image of the entire section A by using the image-acquisition portion at an appropriate image-capturing magnification at which the entire divided section A is included in the viewing field of the image-acquisition portion . The divided-section image P acquired by the image-acquisition portion is transmitted to the image-processing device via the data bus .
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Note that it is possible to employ an arbitrary method for the acquisition of the divided-section image P in the image-acquiring step S. For example, partial images of the chip array may be acquired at a high magnification, and the divided-section image P may be obtained by appropriately joining the plurality of acquired partial images.
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The computation portion performs the procedures from the template-creating step S to the displaying step S by executing the image-processing program.
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In the template-creating step S, the computation portion creates a template to be used in the subsequent chip-recognizing step S on the basis of the actual size of one side of each chip the image-capturing magnification at which the divided-section image P is captured by the microscope , and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels in the divided-section image P. The size of one side of the chip corresponds to the spacing between the grooves , and is, for example, input to the image-processing device by the user via the input device, and is stored in the storage portion . The image-capturing magnification of the microscope and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the divided-section image P are, for example, acquired from the microscope by the computation portion and are stored in the storage portion .
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The image-processing device calculates, on the basis of the image-capturing magnification of the microscope and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the divided-section image P, the actual image size per pixel of the divided-section image P, and calculates, on the basis of the calculated actual image size per pixel and the actual size of one side of the chip the number of pixels corresponding to the one side of one chip Then, the image-processing device creates a rectangular template in which one side thereof has the calculated number of pixels.
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Next, in the chip-recognizing step S, the computation portion reads out the divided-section image P from the temporary storage device, performs pattern matching between the template and the divided-section image P, and recognizes, as chip regions R, regions in the divided-section image P that have a high correlation with the template. In pattern matching, by using the template having a shape that is substantially similar to the individual images of the chips in the divided-section image P, images of rectangular dust particles or the like of different sizes other than the images of the chips would not be misrecognized as the chip regions R, and thus, it is possible to accurately and quickly recognize the images of the chips in the divided-section image P as the chip regions R. Here, in order to enhance the precision of pattern matching, image processing, such as grayscale binarization, thinning, outline identification, or the like, may be applied to the divided-section image P before performing pattern matching.
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Next, in the attribute-information assigning step S, the computation portion assigns attribute information to all of the pixels in the divided-section image P and stores the attribute information in the storage portion in association with the pixels. The attribute information includes flags (region information), the addresses (position coordinates), and the center coordinates of the chip regions R.
There are three types of flags, for example, “0”, “1”, and “2”: “1” is assigned to pixels constituting the chip regions R, “2” is assigned to pixels that are positioned at the outermost side among the pixels constituting the individual chip regions R and that constitute the outlines of the chip regions R, and “0” is assigned to pixels that constitute regions other than the chip regions R. On the basis of these flags, it is possible to judge to which region in the divided-section image P the individual pixels belong.
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The addresses are pieces of information that indicate the positions of the individual chip regions R in the image of the chip array in the divided-section image P and are defined by, for example, combinations of the row numbers A, B, C, . . . and the column numbers 1, 2, 3, . . . , as shown in . The addresses are assigned to the pixels to which the flag “1” or “2” has been assigned. For example, in the example shown in , an address “A1” is assigned to all of the pixels included in the chip region R positioned at the upper left corner of the image of the chip array .
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The center coordinates of the chip region R are coordinates in the divided-section image P at the center position of the chip region R to which a given pixel belongs. The center coordinates of the chip regions R are calculated by the computation portion on the basis of the coordinates of pixel groups that constitute the individual chip regions R.
5
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Next, in the restoring step S, the computation portion rearranges, on the basis of the attribute information assigned to the individual pixels, the chip regions R so that the adjacent chip regions R are in contact with each other without gaps therebetween and without overlapping with each other.
FIG. 5
Specifically, first, the pixels to which the flag “0” has been assigned are eliminated from the divided-section image P. By doing so, only the chip regions R arrayed with spaces therebetween are left. Next, one chip region R among the plurality of chip regions R is focused on, and, so as to bring the pixels to which the flag “2” has been assigned in the focused chip region R and the pixels to which the flag “2” has been assigned in the chip regions R adjacent to the focused chip region R into direct contact with each other, the adjacent chip regions R are moved in the horizontal direction. By dong so, gaps between the chip regions R are eliminated. By repeating the horizontal movement of the adjacent chip regions R while changing the focused chip region R, as shown in , a restored section image Q that includes an image of the entire section A that is joined without gaps is obtained. To the individual pixels constituting the restored section image Q, the above-described flag “1” or “2”, addresses, and center coordinates of the chip regions R are assigned as the attribute information.
6
5
15
5
Next, in the displaying step S, the generated restored section image Q is output to the display portion from the computation portion , and the restored section image Q is displayed on the display portion .
7
5
15
3
Next, in the punching-position specifying step S, the user observes the restored section image Q on the display portion , and specifies, by using, for example, a user interface like a touch screen (not shown), a desired position of the section A in the restored section image Q. The computation portion identifies, on the basis of the address assigned to the pixel at the specified position, a chip region R that includes the pixel at the specified position from among the chip regions R in the restored section image Q and transmits the center coordinates of the identified chip region R to the punching portion .
8
3
15
7
13
13
13
7
5
9
7
10
a
a
a
Next, in the collecting step S, the punching portion computes, on the basis of the center coordinates of the chip region R received from the computation portion , the center position of the chip to be punched out with the needle , moves the needle to the calculated center position in the horizontal direction, and lowers the needle . By doing so, the chip corresponding to the chip region R at the position the user has specified in the restored section image Q on the display portion is punched out and falls from the sheet . The fallen chip is recovered in a container (not shown) that is placed vertically below the stage in advance.
7
70
70
7
7
a
a
a
As has been described above, with this embodiment, the individual pixels constituting the chip regions R in the divided-section image P are given the addresses that indicate to which chip region R those pixels belong, and, subsequently, a restored section image Q in which an image of the entire section A is restored by joining the chip regions R with each other is generated. The addresses also correspond to the positions of the individual chips in the actual chip array . Therefore, there is an advantage in that it is possible to, in an accurate, simple manner, identify, in the chip array in which numerous minute chips are arrayed, the chip corresponding to the position the user has specified in the restored section image Q on the basis of the address thereof.
7
70
13
7
14
a
a
Note that, in this embodiment, although a desired chip is automatically collected from the chip array on the basis of the position the user has specified in the restored section image Q, alternatively, the user himself/herself may manually position the needle and collect the chip by manipulating the holder .
5
7
70
70
7
70
a
In this case, the divided-section image P is also displayed on the display portion , and processing that would allow the user to visually recognize which one of the chip regions R in the divided-section image P is the chip region R corresponding to the position specified in the punching-position specifying step S is applied to the divided-section image P. Because the image of the chip array in the divided-section image P is an image in which the actual chip array is captured, it is possible for the user to easily identify to which one of the chips in the actual chip array the specified chip region R in the divided-section image P corresponds.
FIG. 6
5
9
5
6
In addition, as shown in , this embodiment may additionally include, after the restoring step S, a color-correcting step S of correcting colors of pixels positioned in boundaries between adjacent chip regions R in the restored section image Q on the basis of colors of pixels in the vicinity thereof. In this case, a color-corrected restored section image Q′ is displayed on the display portion in the displaying step S.
5
9
15
15
15
FIG. 7
In the restored section image Q generated in the restoring step S, in a boundary between two adjacent chip regions R, two pixels (hereinafter, also referred to as boundary pixels) to which the flag “2” has been assigned are arranged next to each other. In the color-correcting step S, the computation portion corrects the colors of such two (a pair of) boundary pixels, on the basis of the colors (hue, brightness, and saturation) of pixels positioned on either side of the two (the pair of) boundary pixels in the arraying direction. For example, the computation portion assigns the average color of the colors of the pixels on either side of the two (the pair of) boundary pixels or the color that is the same as that of the pixel on one side to the boundary pixels. The computation portion applies the color correction, in the same manner, to all of the two (the pair of) boundary pixels positioned on boundaries between two adjacent chip regions R. By doing so, the colors of the restored section image Q are locally corrected so as to be smoothly continuous, bridging the boundaries therein, and thus, there is an advantage in that it is possible to obtain a restored section image Q′ in which boundaries among the chip regions R are inconspicuous, as shown in . Note that the color correction may be applied not only to the boundary pixels but also to pixels in the vicinity of the boundary pixels, as needed.
The above-described embodiment leads to the following invention.
A first aspect of the present invention is an image-processing method with which an image of a chip array in which numerous chips, which are obtained by dividing a substrate to which a section of biological tissue is attached together with the section, are two-dimensionally arrayed with spaces between the chips, the image-processing method including: an image-acquiring step of acquiring a divided-section image that includes the entire divided section by capturing an image of the chip array; a chip-recognizing step of recognizing chip images in the divided-section image acquired in the image-acquiring step; an attribute-information assigning step of assigning, to each of pixels that constitute the chip images recognized in the chip-recognizing step, attribute information that includes positional information of the chip images to which those pixels belong in the image of the chip array; and a restoring step of generating a restored section image in which images of the divided section are joined into a single image by joining the chip images constituted of the pixels to which the attribute information has been assigned in the attribute-information assigning step.
With the first aspect of the present invention, the chip images in the divided-section image acquired in the image-acquiring step are recognized in the chip-recognizing step, in the restoring step, the chip images are combined with each other into a single image without gaps therebetween and without overlapping with each other, and thus generating the restored section image including the image of the entire section before the division. In the restored section image, it is possible to accurately ascertain the tissue structure, cell distribution, or the like in the section. Therefore, the user can appropriately select, on the basis of the restored section image, a position which should be harvested from the section.
In this case, in the attribute-information assigning step, the individual pixels that constitute the restored section image are given, as the attribute information, the positional information that indicates the positions of the chips in the chip array to which those pixels correspond. Therefore, on the basis of the positional information of a pixel at the position which should be harvested in the restored section image, it is possible to easily and accurately identify which one of the chips in the divided-section image is the chip to be collected. Then, by comparing the image of the chip-array in the divided-section image with the actual chip array, it is possible to easily identify a desired chip even among the numerous minute chips.
The above-described first aspect may include a color-correcting step of correcting, at a boundary of the chip images adjacent to each other in the restored section image, colors of pixels that are adjacent to each other on either side of the boundary on the basis of colors of pixels in the vicinity of these pixels.
In the restored section image, the boundaries between the chip images tend to be conspicuous due to burrs or the like created along the dividing lines when dividing the substrate together with the section. Therefore, by correcting the colors of the pixels positioned in the boundaries so as to have the same or similar colors as those of the pixels in the surrounding areas thereof, it is possible to restore a more natural image of the entire section before the division in which the boundaries between the chip images are inconspicuous.
In the above-described first aspect, in the attribute-information assigning step, region information that indicates whether or not a given pixel is a pixel that constitutes the chip images may be assigned, as the attribute information, to all of the pixels constituting the divided-section image, and, in the restoring step, pixels that do not constitute the chip images may be eliminated on the basis of the region information, and the restored section image may be generated by joining the remaining pixels that constitute the chip images with each other.
By doing so, it is possible to generate a restored image by means of a simple processing.
A second aspect of the present invention is a cell-sorting method including: any one of the above-described image-processing method; a displaying step of displaying the restored section image; a specifying step of specifying, in the restored section image displayed in the displaying step, a position which should be harvested from the section; and a collecting step of collecting the chip from the chip array on the basis of the positional information assigned to a pixel corresponding to the position specified in the specifying step.
With the second aspect of the present invention, on the basis of the positional information of the pixels at the position specified in the specifying step, it is possible to easily identify the chip that should be collected from the actual chip array, and it is possible to collect the identified chip in the collecting step.
1
cell-sorting system
2
optical microscope
3
punching portion
4
image-processing device
5
display portion
6
data bus
7
substrate
7
a
chip
70
chip array
8
groove
9
sheet
10
stage
10
a
window
11
objective lens
12
image-acquisition portion
13
needle
13
a
needle tip
14
holder
15
computation portion
16
storage portion
A section
P divided-section image
Q restored section image
1
S image-acquiring step
2
S template-creating step
3
S chip-recognizing step
4
S attribute-information assigning step
5
S restoring step
6
S displaying step
7
S punching-position specifying step (specifying step)
8
S collecting step
9
S color-correcting step
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is an overall configuration diagram of a cell-sorting system for executing a cell-sorting method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2A
FIG. 1
is a diagram showing a substrate and sections before being divided, which are to be used in the cell-sorting system in .
FIG. 2B
FIG. 2A
is a diagram showing the substrate and the sections in after being divided.
FIG. 3
shows a flowchart showing an image-processing method and the cell-sorting method according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4
shows an example of a divided-section image acquired in an image-acquiring step.
FIG. 5
shows an example of a restored section image generated in a restoring step.
FIG. 6
FIG. 3
shows a flowchart showing a modification of the image-processing method and the cell-sorting method in .
FIG. 7
shows an example of a restored section image to which color correction has been applied in a color-correcting step. | |
Every process needs some resources to complete its execution. However, the resource is granted in a sequential order.
A Deadlock is a situation where each of the computer process waits for a resource which is being assigned to some another process. In this situation, none of the process gets executed since the resource it needs, is held by some other process which is also waiting for some other resource to be released.
Let us assume that there are three processes P1, P2 and P3. There are three different resources R1, R2 and R3. R1 is assigned to P1, R2 is assigned to P2 and R3 is assigned to P3.
After some time, P1 demands for R1 which is being used by P2. P1 halts its execution since it can't complete without R2. P2 also demands for R3 which is being used by P3. P2 also stops its execution because it can't continue without R3. P3 also demands for R1 which is being used by P1 therefore P3 also stops its execution.
In this scenario, a cycle is being formed among the three processes. None of the process is progressing and they are all waiting. The computer becomes unresponsive since all the processes got blocked.
Difference between Starvation and Deadlock
Necessary conditions for Deadlocks
A resource can only be shared in mutually exclusive manner. It implies, if two process cannot use the same resource at the same time.
A process waits for some resources while holding another resource at the same time.
The process which once scheduled will be executed till the completion. No other process can be scheduled by the scheduler meanwhile.
All the processes must be waiting for the resources in a cyclic manner so that the last process is waiting for the resource which is being held by the first process. | https://www.javatpoint.com/os-deadlocks-introduction |
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a tray carrier, and more particularly to a stackable plant tray carrier having shelves that support plant trays filled with soil and bedding plants, allowing multiple plant trays to be easily lifted and carried, and making the transportation and display of the plant trays more space efficient.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many bedding and nursery plants are grown, shipped and sold in plastic plant trays also known as flats. Each plant tray forms as many as forty eight individual pots that are filled with potting soil and a seed, seedling, or cutting of an appropriate plant. These plant trays are constructed of a thin plastic material to reduce their cost, and they are designed to be stackable when empty. However, plant trays are awkward to lift and carry when fully loaded with plants and soil, and one must generally use both hands to support and balance a single plant tray. Even with this technique, the plant trays are susceptible to being dropped or spilled.
When the young plants are large enough to sell, the plant trays are delivered to nursery and garden centers for sale to a final consumer, but the transportation of the plant trays is hampered by their instability. The plant trays can only be lifted one at a time, so loading and unloading the trays is time consuming. In addition, the plant trays occupy a large horizontal area because they cannot be stacked on top of one another without damaging the plants. Racks having multiple horizontal shelves can be used to stack the plant trays, but the plant trays must be individually loaded and unloaded. In addition, the racks cannot be easily repositioned as desired by the grower or retailer. Thus, growers and retailers have difficulty in displaying and transporting large numbers of plant trays because of the space occupied by the trays, and consumers have difficulty when buying and transporting only a few plant trays.
Several prior attempts have been made to make plant trays easier to carry, display, and transport. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,660, 934 to Pollack et al discloses a molded expandable breakaway nursery tray and shipping container. This nursery tray is not the industry standard, so retailers and consumers do not have the opportunity to use the disclosed plant tray. Instead, they must use the original tray chosen by the grower. The shipping container does not solve the problems associated with displaying and carrying plant trays.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,788 to Smit discloses a welded wire crate for supporting longitudinal troughs of plants used to sprout and grow plants. Thus, the disclosed device is intended for use by the original grower using troughs instead of plant trays. Moreover, the '788 patent does address the problems associated with carrying or transporting fully loaded plant trays.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,812 to Winters et al discloses a plant tray having a removable handle. Thus, the problem of lifting and carrying plant trays is recognized, but a non-industry standard plant tray does not help the retailer and consumer that must accept the type of plant tray used by the original grower. In addition, the problems of display and transportation are not addressed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,149 to Fulton discloses a plant shipping and display container, in which stackable units house one plant tray each for shipping and display. The vertical side trays of each unit can be removed to act as a carrying tray for the final consumer. However, the disclosed device does not allow more than one plant tray at a time to be carried.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a tray carrier having two or more shelves that extend in a ramp-like manner above a horizontal base portion at an angle of between about twenty degrees to about sixty degrees. Each shelf can support at least one plant tray, so the tray carrier allows several of the normally flimsy plant trays to be easily lifted and carried. The shelves can be parallel to one another, or they can extend away from the mid-point of the base portion. Tray carriers with two to four shelves can be carried by one person, and a centrally disposed handle allows the tray carrier to be lifted with one hand. Larger tray carriers having more than four shelves are usually carried by at least two people, so they include handles or handgrips at each end of the carrier.
The tray carriers can be stacked one on top of another without damaging the plants by resting the base portion of an upper tray carrier on the top edge of the shelves of a lower tray carrier. The bottom surface of the base portion can be configured to cooperate with the top edges of the shelves to align and stabilize the stacked arrangement of tray carriers. Thus, the tray carrier makes transportation and display of the plant trays more space efficient.
The plant tray carriers can be made of any durable material including wood, plastic, and metal, or a disposable material such as corrugated cardboard can be used to produce a disposable plant tray. Preferably, the shelves and base portion are integrally formed of injection molded plastic. In addition, the handles and shelves can be adjustable or removable, and the tray carriers can include a small storage area for carrying items other than plant trays.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and for further details and advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a plant tray carrier constructed in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front view of first plant tray carrier as shown in FIG. 1 stacked on a second plant tray carrier.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of a plant tray carrier constructed in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a front view of a second alternative embodiment of a plant tray carrier constructed in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention relates to a tray carrier that can support multiple plant trays filled with soil and bedding plants, so that the plant trays can be easily carried. Moreover, the tray carriers can be stacked one on top of each other, so the transportation and display of the plant trays is more space efficient.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of tray carrier 10 having base 20 that defines oppositely disposed base sides 22 and base ends 24. Each base side 22 includes indention 26, and each base end 24 includes indention 28. The top surface of base 20 is designated as 30. Shelves 40 extend upward from base 20 at an angle of inclination 41 of about forty- five degrees, and each shelf 40 has shelf top 42 and shelf bottom 44. Adjacent shelves 40 have base spacing distance X as measured along top surface 30 of base 20. Side retainers 50 extend between adjacent shelves 40. Base 20 extends forward of shelves 40 as designated with 52 and rearward of shelves 40 as designated with 54.
FIG. 2 is a front view of a first tray carrier 10 as shown in FIG. 1 stacked on top of an identical tray carrier 60. Shelf tops 42 of second tray carrier 60 cooperate with indentions 26 on base sides 22 of tray carrier 10. Base side 22 includes ledges 62. Plant trays 70 having individual growing pots 72 and plants 74 are supported by shelves 40 of tray carriers 10 and 60. The lower edges 76 of plant trays 70 extend below side retainers 50 and contact top surfaces 30 of bases 20. Top surface 30 of base 20 can define horizontal surface 80 between shelves 40 or angled surface 82 to conform to the lower edge 76 of plant tray 70. Shelf spacing distance Y is the distance between adjacent shelves 40 as measured on line perpendicular with the surfaces of shelves 40.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of tray carrier 100 which is a first alternative embodiment from tray carrier 10 of FIG. 1. Tray carrier 100 includes base 20 with oppositely disposed base sides 22, base ends 24, and top surface 30. Shelves 40 extend upward from base 20 at an angle of inclination 41 of about forty-five degrees, and each shelf 40 has shelf top 42 and shelf bottom 44. Side retainers 50 extend between adjacent shelves 40. Handle means 110 includes handle member 112 and attaching members 114.
FIG. 4 is a front view of tray carrier 150 which is a second alternative embodiment from tray carrier 10 of FIG. 1. Tray carrier 150 includes base portion 152 and side walls 154. Shelves 160 extend upward from base portion 152 and side walls 154 at an angle of inclination 41 of about forty-five degrees and away from midpoint 162 of base 152. Side retainers 164 extend from each shelf 160 to side wall 154. Plant trays 70 with individual pots 72 and plants 74 are supported on shelves 160, and lower edge 76 of each plant tray 70 is resting on angle surface 166. Handle means 170 includes handle member 172 and attaching members 174.
Shelves 40 have substantially the same width as base 20, and shelves 40 attach to top surface 30 of base 20 with shelf bottoms 44 extending across the width of base 20. Shelves 40 are intended to support at least one plant tray 70 filled with soil and plants 74, and because plant trays 70 have an average size of about fourteen and one- half inches by twenty- one inches with a height of about 2.5 inches, shelves 40 should be about fourteen and one-half inches by about twenty- one inches. However, if the size of the industry standard changes or if tray carriers 10 and 100 are needed for use with plant trays 70 having a different standard size, shelves 40 should be dimensioned accordingly. Side retainers 50 prevent plant trays 70 from sliding off the sides of shelves 40.
Shelves 40 extend upward from base 20 at angle 41, so the length of base 20 is shorter than would be required if plant trays 70 were laid horizontally side-by-side. Preferably, angle 41 is between about twenty and sixty degrees, and more preferably angle 41 is about forty-five degrees so that plant trays 70 can be supported on shelves 40 without collapsing under their own weight and without spilling. Angle 41 can be greater or less than about forty-five degrees depending on strength of plant tray 70, the combined height of plant tray 70 and plant 74, and the desired length of base 20. As angle 41 is reduced from about forty- five degrees, shelf spacing distance Y is also reduced if the base spacing distance X remains constant. As angle 41 is increased from about forty- five degrees, the weight placed on lower edge 76 of plant trays 70 increases, and plant trays 70 are more likely to fall against the next adjacent shelf 40, damaging plants 74. Angled surface 82 protects and supports lower edge 76 of plant trays 70 better than horizontal surface 80.
Shelf spacing distance Y must be sufficient to allow multiple trays to be supported without contacting each other. Because the plant trays 70 have a height of about 2.5 inches, shelf spacing distance Y is at least about 2.5 inches. A preferable shelf spacing distance Y between parallel shelves 40 is at least about 3 inches and not more than about 8 inches. More preferably, shelf spacing distance Y between parallel shelves 40 is at least about 4 inches and not more than about 6 inches. Shelf spacing distance Y can be greater to protect taller plants 74. Base spacing distance X is a function of the angle of inclination 41 and shelf spacing distance Y.
Tray carrier 10 is shown in FIG. 1 to have six shelves, and tray carrier 100 is shown in FIG. 3 to have three shelves. However, the number of shelves on a tray carrier can vary depending on the needs of the specific user. Even tray carrier 100 with only a single shelf 40 would allow a single plant tray 70 to be carried with one hand by using handle means 110. Preferably, tray carriers 10 and 100 have two to four shelves if intended to be carried by one person or five to eight shelves if they are intended to be carried by two or more people. Thus, one person can conveniently carry one to four plant trays 70, and two people can conveniently carry four to eight plant trays 70.
Tray carriers 10 and 100 have shelves 40 extending in the same direction from base 20 so that all shelves 40 are substantially parallel. Several tray carriers 10 can be placed end to end so that base surface 52 of a first tray carrier 10 abuts base surface 54 of a second tray carrier 10, and a plant tray 70 could then be supported by the front- most shelf 40 of the first tray carrier 10. In the alternative, base surface 52 can include an angled surface 82 so that the frontmost shelf 40 can support a plant tray 70, and base surface 54 can be dimensioned to support one plant tray 70 in a horizontal position. For tray carriers having shelves 40 extending in the same direction, the center of gravity may not be disposed on the midpoint of base 20.
Tray carrier 150 is similar to tray carriers 10 and 100 in most regards. Shelves 160 extend from base 152 at an angle of about forty- five degrees. Shelves 160 are dimensioned to each support one plant tray 70. Tray carrier 150 preferably has two to six shelves 160, and more preferably tray carrier 150 has two shelves 160. Side retainers 164 function as side retainers 50. The primary difference between tray carrier 150 and the previous embodiments is that each shelf 160 extends away from mid-point 162 of base 152. Thus, shelves 160 on one side of mid- point 162 are perpendicular to the shelves 160 on the opposite side of mid-point 162 when angle of inclination 41 is about forty-five degrees. Of course, shelves 160 can be disposed at angles other than forty-five degrees in a manner similar to tray carriers 10 and 100. If more than two shelves 160 are included on tray carrier 150, an even number of shelves should be used, and the shelves should be equally distributed across mid- point 162. The spacing distance of adjacent and parallel shelves 160 on each side of mid-point 162 is substantially equivalent to shelf spacing distance Y for adjacent shelves 40 of tray carriers 10 and 100. The spacing distance of adjacent shelves 160 disposed across mid-point 162 should be sufficient to prevent the supported trays from contacting each other and to prevent damage to plants 74. Preferably, the spacing across mid-point 162 is greater than necessary to protect plants 74, and a small storage area is defined by base 152, side walls 154, and shelves 160. Retail consumers can use the small storage area for items they wish to carry in addition to plant trays 70. Because tray carrier 150 is intended for use by retail consumers, shelves 160 can be smaller than the larger plant trays used in the plant and nursery industry. The orientation of shelves 160 places the center of gravity of tray carrier 150 directly over mid-point 162 making the tray carrier 150 easy to lift and support.
A handle means facilitates lifting and carrying tray carriers 10, 100, and 150. The handle means of tray carrier 10 includes end indentions 28 which act as handgrips for lifting and supporting the tray. Indention 28 can be narrow for gripping with one hand, or it can be wide for gripping with two hands. Alternatively, indentions 28 can be placed on side surface 22 of base 20 to form two widely spaced hand grips at each end of base 20. Instead of indentions 28 on base 20, the front-most and rear- most shelves 40 can include handgrips near shelf tops 42. Tray carrier 100 includes handle means 110 to allow the tray carrier to be lifted and carried by one person. Handle member 112 is preferably disposed over the center of gravity of tray carrier 100 when fully loaded with plant trays 70, and attaching members 114 attach handle member 112 to tray carrier 100. Handle member 112 can traverse the width of base 20 as shown in FIG. 3, or handle member 112 can traverse the length of base 20. Handle means 170 of tray carrier 150 is substantially equivalent to handle means 110. Handle means 170 includes two attaching members 174 at each end of handle member 172 for greater stability. Attaching members 114 and 174 can be constructed of rigid or flexible material, and they can attach the handle members to shelves or to the base position.
The handle means of tray carriers 10, 100, and 150 can assume many configurations, and many equivalent structures can be used. The function of the handle means is to allow the tray carrier to be conveniently lifted and carried. Handgrips such as end indentions 28 are convenient for tray carriers that are intended to be carried by more than one person, and the handgrips do not interfere with stacking multiple tray carriers as shown in FIG. 2. Instead of handgrips, the handle means for tray 10 can include handle members extending upward at each end of base 20. Handle means 110 and 170 of tray carriers 100 and 150, respectively, can be fixed in place, or they can be adjustable, collapsible, or removable. In particular, attaching members 114 and 174 can pivot on the base member to allow handle members 112 and 172 to be moved to one end of the tray carrier.
Tray carrier 10 is stacked on tray carrier 60 by resting base 20 of the upper tray carrier 10 on shelf tops 42 of the lower tray carrier 60. Thus, the length of shelves 40 from shelf bottom 44 to shelf top 42 should be sufficient to prevent damage to plant trays 70 and plants 74 when multiple tray carriers are stacked on one another. The bottom of base 20 is also configured to facilitate stacking by mating or cooperating with the shelf tops 42 of the lower tray carrier 60. Preferably, base 20 includes side indentions 26 that conform to the shelf tops 42 of the front-most and rear-most shelves 40. Alternatively, ledge 62 can extend around the periphery of base 20, and the shelves 40 could be confined within the oppositely disposed ledges 62. In this configuration, shelves 40 could be slightly narrower than base 20 to fit with ledges 62, or shelf tops 42 can include a notch on each corner to correspond with ledges 62. In a second alternative embodiment, tray carrier 10 includes several grooves on the bottom of base 20, each groove corresponding to a shelf top 42 of the lower tray carrier 60. Tray carriers 100 and 150 can be similarly configured to facilitate stacking. In particular, attaching members 114 and 174, when handle members 112 and 172 have been removed, can engage the sides of the base of an upper tray carrier when they are stacked. Tray carrier 150 can also include an aperture in base 152 that can receive handle means 170 of a lower tray carrier when stacked.
For more efficient transportation of plant trays 70, base 20 of tray carrier 10 can be dimensioned to correspond to the measurements of the cargo bay of a selected vehicle. Therefore, very little volume of the cargo bay is wasted, and loading and unloading is easier since plant trays 70 are not removed from the tray carriers. In a similar fashion, tray carriers 100 and 150 can be dimensioned to easily fit in the trunk of most automobiles since these smaller carriers are intended for the final purchaser.
Tray carriers 10, 100, or 150 are preferably constructed of a durable and washable material. More preferably, the tray carriers are constructed of plastic, wood, or metal, and even more preferably, the base portion, shelves, and handle means are integrally formed of injection molded plastic. Cardboard and other inexpensive material can be used to construct disposable tray carriers.
Tray carriers 10, 100, and 150 provide improvements in transportation, display and storage of plant trays 70. The transportation of plant trays 70 is difficult because plant trays 70 are not stackable. Racks that have several horizontal shelves do not support supported plant trays 70 while they are being loaded and unloaded from the shelves. Likewise, the display and storage of plant trays 70 require large amounts of space. The tray carriers 10, 100, and 150 of the present invention provide a solution for each of these problems. As previously discussed, the angled shelves 40 and 160 allow the length of bases 20 and 152 to be shorter than if plant trays 70 were horizontal, and the tray carriers 10, 100, and 150 are stackable. Therefore, a large number of plant trays 70 can be stacked in a small area for transportation, display or storage without damaging plants 74, and plant trays 70 are fully supported each time they are moved. In addition, the open top and sides of the tray carriers of the present invention make loading and unloading of the tray carriers easier than racks of horizontal shelves.
Other improvements and modifications are encompassed by the present invention. For example, shelves 160 of tray carrier 150 can be disposed toward mid-point 162, instead of away from it, to create a storage area under the inner-most two shelves, and the outermost shelves can form angled surface 166 to support a plant tray 70. In addition, the shelves of tray carriers 10, 100, and 150 can pivot on the base member to assume different angles or to lay flat for storage. The shelves can also be removable from the base member to provide a tray carrier with a variable number of trays and variable tray spacing.
The present invention has been described in the context of its benefits in the plant and nursery industries. However, the tray carrier can be used in any industry as a device to aid the support, transportation, and storage of items. Additionally, tray carrier 10 can have only one shelf extending above the base portion, with ability to place adjacent shelves nearby. The adjacent shelves can extend from the same base portion or from a different tray carrier.
It will be appreciated that by forming the shelves 40 of the plant tray carrier in a tapered shape and by injection molding such tray carriers, the carriers can be nested together when not in use. This nesting capability will facilitate storage and shipment of the tray carriers.
Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described in the foregoing detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions of parts and elements without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to encompass such rearrangements, modifications and substitutions of parts or elements as fall within the scope of the invention. | |
Today, I'm taking you to the Hellenic Peninsula for a delectable second course. Chops with vegetables Greek is a complete dish rich in proteins and vitamins that you will find difficult to resist once you have tried it.
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Additional Time 5 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 Pork chops
- 2 red peppers
- 1 Eggplant (large)
- 3-4 Zucchini
- 4 Potatoes (medium)
- 1-2 Shallots
- 2 glasses Dry white wine
- Origan
- Timo
- Parsley
- 2 tsp smoked paprika (or sweet)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Brown the chops on both sides in a large skillet. Oregano, thyme, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper to taste.
- Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the white wine has evaporated.
- Wash and clean the vegetables before cutting them into small pieces.
- Season the vegetables with salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, parsley, 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper in a mixing bowl with the shallots cut into thin slices. With the spoon, thoroughly combine everything.
- A tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil should be brushed over the pan. Place the chops on top of the vegetables.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180°F in a preheated oven. Stir the vegetables with a spoon while they are cooking.
- Remove the pan from the oven when the vegetables are golden and serve the chops with a drizzle of oil or a few drops of lemon juice and a side of vegetables.
- Have a delicious meal! | https://umi.kitchen/greek-braciole-with-vegetables/ |
As a followon to previous conferences, we invite presentations on all topics related to the development and furtherance of X Window System technologies.
If you wish to volunteer to give a presentation or lead a discussion, please send e-mail to [email protected]. In addition, if you have specific topics you'd like to see discussed in a presentation or during informal sessions, please send e-mail with your suggestions to that address as well.
Location and Dates
The next X.Org Developer's Conference will be held from February 8, 2006 to February 10, 2006 at the Sun Microsystems Santa Clara (Agnews) Campus in Santa Clara, CA, USA. (Driving Directions)
Building Change
Same Sun Santa Clara Campus, but we have acquired a room inside the Fortress. The Building Name is SCA15, room "HARVARD" on the first floor. This building is accessed from the NorthEast side of the campus, a short, direct walk from the RiverMark Plaza shopping area/Sierra Suites area.
(Google Map of the Sun Campus, Centered on SCA15)
We have an attended lobby with badges for everyone listed on this Wiki page. If you do not see your name here, let me know ASAP or you will not gain admittance to the conference.
Registration
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
Simple: Send email to [email protected]
Conference Notes
Notes from the presentations are being maintained by Adam Jackson (Presentation Notes). (thanks, Adam! skk)
Conference Schedule
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
- 8:00 AM Room Open, Get Togethers, Continental Breakfast
- 9:00 AM Real Start: Welcome, logistics, agenda, schedule bashing
- 9:30 AM Board of Directors Introductions
- 10:00 AM "Xgl" - David Reveman, Novell (Slides)
- 11:00 AM "Avalon" - Matthias Hopf
- 12:00 AM Lunch
- 1:00 PM "Status Update on Project Looking Glass" - Deron Johnson, Sun
- 1:30 PM "Coordinate Redirection" - Keith Packard
- 2:00 PM "NVIDIA Driver Internals" - Andy Ritger, Nvidia (Slides)
- 3:00 PM "Development Challenges for X and GL" - Kevin Martin, Red Hat (Slides)
- 4:00 PM "Device Driver Issues TBD" - David Airlie
- 5:00 PM "X on Small Devices, Nokia 770" - Tapani Pälli, Nokia (Slides)
- 6:00 PM Shuttle to El Torito's Mexican Restaurant (2950 Lakeside Dr, Santa Clara), Dinner Hosted by StarNet Communications
- 9:00 PM Shuttle back to Campus, Hotels
Thursday, February 9, 2006
- 9:00 AM Soft Start (joint Board/Sponsor's headbashing from 7:30 to 10:00)
- 10:00 AM Real Start
- 10:00 AM "What Accessibility Needs from X" - Peter Korn, Sun
- 11:00 AM Open Time Slot - BREAKOUT SESSIONS
- XCB status update - Keith Packard
- GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap spec wrangling - numerous people
- 12:00 AM Lunch "Open Solaris, Open Source Development at Sun"
- Stephen Harpster, Director of Open Solaris, Sun Microsystems
- 1:00 PM "Accelerated Indirect GLX" - Kristian Høgsberg, Red Hat (slides)
- 2:00 PM "A preview of the GNOME compositing manager" - Søren Sandmann Pedersen, Red Hat
- 3:00 PM "Deconstructing X Server Configuration" - Adam Jackson, Red Hat (slides)
- 4:00 PM Break, Depart for Intel computer museum
- 6:00 PM Shuttle to Mountain View Castro Street Restaurant District
- 8:30 PM Everyone meet at Tied House Brewery off of Castro
- 10:00 PM Shuttle back to conference center
Friday, February 10, 2006
- 8:00 AM Continental Breakfast
- 9:00 AM Start
- 9:00 AM "Power Management for Graphics Subsystems" - Jay Cotton, Sun (slides)
- 10:00 AM "Beyond Modelines: Xorg Display Configuration" - Stuart Kreitman, Sun
- 11:00 AM "Challenges of OLPC Graphics" - Jim Gettys, OLPC
- 12:00 AM Lunch
- 1:00 PM "New DRI memory manager and i915 driver update" - Keith Whitwell & Thomas Hellstrom, Tungsten Graphics (slides)
- 2:00 PM "Evolving" - Zack Rusin (cancelled)
- 3:00 PM TALKS ARE OVER! Beer by the case. We'll keep the room open till 6
- 6:00 PM BYE ALL!!
Hackfesting, Brainstorming, and Beer
In response to feedback from previous Developer Conferences, we will enable good amounts of time, infrastructure, and space for getting actual work done.
Proposed Breakout Sessions/Hacking Focus on:
- Display configuration
- Accessibility
- Composite-aware managers
- Composite-aware screen magnification
- Live Video
- Security
- Thin Client and workstation performance analysis
- Composite / OpenGL compatibility
- Composite / XVideo compatibility
- Making X pixmaps directly usable as textures by OpenGL clients
- A session on improvements that should be made to OpenGL texture resource management in order to gracefully operate in an environment where all running programs are using textures
Please submit your interest in these and other topics.
Confirmed Attendees
Mahmood Ali, David Airlie, Paul Anderson, Stuart Anderson, Jesse Barnes, Billy Biggs, Eric Boucher, David J. Brown, Ignacio Castano, Jesse Clayton, Alan Coopersmith, Jay Cotton, Jim Gettys, Alexandre Gouaillard, Thomas Hellstrom, Jay Hobson, Kristian Høgsberg, Alan Hourihane, David Hoover, Matthias Hopf, Harold Hunt, Adam Jackson, Deron Johnson, James Jones, Joe Kain, Stuart Kreitman, Tommi Komulainen, Peter Korn, Carol Lavelle, Phillip Langdale, Sam Lau, John M. Martin Jim McQuillan, Kevin E. Martin, Valery Moya, Shrijeet Mukherjee, Jens Owen, Keith Packard, Tapani Pälli, Stuart Parmenter, Søren Sandmann Pedersen, Aaron Plattner, Martin Porcelli, Nivedita Rao, Andy Ritger, Zack Rusin, Bankim Shah, Jamie Sharp, David Schleef, Steve Schoch, Leon Shiman, Edward Shu, Paul Swart, Carl Switzky, Vladimir Vukicevic, Keith Whitwell, Henry Zhao, Daniel Zhu,
Count: 59
Logistics
The nearest airport is San Jose Mineta ("SJC"). Distance to Sun Santa Clara Campus Bell Tower is 3 miles. San Francisco Airport ("SFO") is larger and be more accessible by air. It is about 45 miles north of the Bell Tower, but you can take the Caltrain shuttle down to Santa Clara or up to San Francisco. The Sunway shuttle stops at various caltrain stations near Santa Clara and Menlo Park. Bicycles are permitted on the caltrain and Sunway.
http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_map.html
Stay tuned for a list of closeby hotels with favorable rates and shuttle bus availability
This is California. Public transportation is mostly nonexistant. You don't get anywhere without wheels. Therefore, we are working on attaching the SunWay shuttle fleet to help move willing groups of people to the selected evening events. We will make every attempt to minimize the need for having a car during this conference. Carpooling will figure large in this endeavor, so please indicate whether you will have seats available, or will need a seat during your stay here.
Update, Dec 13, 2005:
It looks like we will be able to provide Sunway Shuttle service for airport pickups, hotel sweeps, and evenings out. We do need headcount for these resources ASAP.
Feb 6,2006: Having received zero requests for ground transportation, this option is no longer being offered.
Recommended Hotels
- Sierra Suites, 3915 Rivermark Plaza, Santa Clara, CA (408) 486-0800
- 3 miles from SJC, Walking Distance to Conference. | https://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/Events/XDC2006/ |
Some data are contained within our paper and the other data are from national standards of PRC. China tMoPSotPsRo. Code for fire protection design of buildings (GB 50016-2014). In: Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People\'s Republic of China. Beijing. 2014. China MoAotPsRo. Technical specification and acceptance of standard for straw gasification system of central gas supply (NY/T 443-2001). In: Ministry of Agriculture of the People\'s Republic of China. Beijing. 2001. China MoAotPsRo. Construction criterion for station of argo-residues gasification (NYJ/T 09-2005). In: Ministry of Agriculture of the People\'s Republic of China. Beijing. 2005.
Introduction {#sec001}
============
The energy crisis has confused mankind for several decades, especially in many low- and middle-income countries \[[@pone.0170012.ref001]\]. To solve this problem, the development of renewable energy is significant. Biomass has tremendous potential in solving future shortages of energy as renewable resources \[[@pone.0170012.ref002]\], and it has undergone rapid development in recent years \[[@pone.0170012.ref003]--[@pone.0170012.ref005]\]. Likewise, as a middle-income developing country, biomass energy has also recently undergone rapid development in China \[[@pone.0170012.ref006],[@pone.0170012.ref007]\]. Utilization of biomass resources is multifarious, including biodiesel \[[@pone.0170012.ref008]\], biomass to liquid (BTL, \[[@pone.0170012.ref009]\]), biomass gasification \[[@pone.0170012.ref010]\], and so on. However, biomass gasification is considered to be a crucial utilization alternative \[[@pone.0170012.ref011]\]. In recent years, biomass gasification stations have been constructed and massively put into service in rural areas of China. The agriculture wastes are converted into green energy *via* biomass gasification. Herein the biomass gas is produced by the burning of agriculture wastes under the condition of insufficient oxygen \[[@pone.0170012.ref012]\], thus the produced biomass gas contains hydrogen (H~2~), carbon monoxide (CO), and methane (CH~4~) which are flammable and explosive while CO is poisonous \[[@pone.0170012.ref013],[@pone.0170012.ref014]\]. Because the produced biomass gas and biomass materials are flammable and the biomass gas has explosive and poisonous characteristics, hazard factors exist in biomass gasification stations. As a result, to conduct risk control and safety management for a biomass gasification station, hazard assessment is necessary.
Hazard assessment can also be called risk assessment, and it\'s widely used in the prediction and prevention of accidents. Hazard assessment includes various methods, such as a fire and explosion index (F&EI, \[[@pone.0170012.ref015],[@pone.0170012.ref016]\]), a fuzzy risk assessment \[[@pone.0170012.ref017],[@pone.0170012.ref018]\], and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP, \[[@pone.0170012.ref019],[@pone.0170012.ref020]\]), among others. However, the set pair analysis (SPA) proposed by Zhao \[[@pone.0170012.ref021]\] can also be used in hazard assessment. SPA is a multifunctional assessment method that is simple in concept and easy to apply \[[@pone.0170012.ref022]\], and it is a systematic analysis method that deals with uncertain problems; it is also an uncertainty theory that integrates certainty and uncertainty \[[@pone.0170012.ref023]\]. SPA is practical in various fields and can be used in the investigation of leaking water from a dam \[[@pone.0170012.ref024]\], quality assessment of groundwater \[[@pone.0170012.ref025]\], evaluation of surrounding rock stability \[[@pone.0170012.ref026]\], hazard assessment of debris flow and landslides \[[@pone.0170012.ref022],[@pone.0170012.ref027]\], assessment of a water resources system \[[@pone.0170012.ref028]\], comprehensive risk assessment of floods \[[@pone.0170012.ref023]\], safety assessment of thermal power plants \[[@pone.0170012.ref029]\], risk assessment of water pollution sources \[[@pone.0170012.ref030]\], prediction analysis of integrated carrying capacity \[[@pone.0170012.ref031]\], and so on. In SPA, one of the cores is the confirmation of assessment index weight. Several methods are involved in the confirmation of index weight. The information entropy method (IEM) can be utilized to confirm the index weight \[[@pone.0170012.ref022],[@pone.0170012.ref024],[@pone.0170012.ref025],[@pone.0170012.ref030]\]. AHP can also be used to confirm the index weight \[[@pone.0170012.ref032],[@pone.0170012.ref033]\]. Furthermore, fuzzy methods can be coupled with AHP, and the fuzzy AHP will make the index weight more reasonable \[[@pone.0170012.ref023]\]. The index weights confirmed by the above methods have a common characteristic, i.e., the value of the index weight is a single numerical value. In other words, the SPA results will be greatly influenced by the value of the index weight. While the index weight is confirmed via expert judgment, the subjective consciousness of experts will lead to results. Therefore, a cloud model (CM) can be employed to confirm the index weight due to its characteristics of randomness and fuzziness \[[@pone.0170012.ref034]\]. CM was proposed by Li \[[@pone.0170012.ref035]\] to handle uncertainty problems. CM is used to make a conversion between qualitative concepts and quantitative values; then, the randomness and fuzziness of uncertainty can be fully reflected by CM \[[@pone.0170012.ref036]\]. It has tremendous application in various fields. Liu \[[@pone.0170012.ref034]\] conducted a comprehensive stability evaluation of rock slopes using a cloud model-based approach; in their study, various factors of slope stability were analyzed based on their cloud membership. Zhang used a cloud model-based method to analyze the accelerated life test data \[[@pone.0170012.ref037]\]; due to the random uncertainties existing in the testing data, a multi-rule-based cloud reasoner was proposed and the relationship between the uncertain stress level and the means of sample lifetimes was derived. Parhoudeh \[[@pone.0170012.ref038]\] took advantage of the cloud model to establish a novel stochastic framework for the handling of the uncertainty effects in the optimal operation of micro-grids. CM can also be used in topology optimization \[[@pone.0170012.ref039]\], risk assessment \[[@pone.0170012.ref040]\], image segmentation \[[@pone.0170012.ref041]\] and so on. Moreover, CM is useful in dealing with uncertain linguistic variables \[[@pone.0170012.ref042],[@pone.0170012.ref043]\]. In Wu\'s study \[[@pone.0170012.ref044]\], SPA was coupled with CM to create a set pair fuzzy decision method. Based on their method, the qualitative linguistic description of identity, discrepancy and contradistinction by experts can be converted into a quantitative value so that the quantitative SPA can be made. However, in the process of SPA, the index weight is confirmed by expert judgment; therefore, the linguistic variables of expert judgment can also be handled by CM so that the index weight can be more reasonable and scientific.
This study proposes a novel hazard assessment method based on the cloud model-set pair analysis (CM-SPA). In regard to the proposed method, the index weight is confirmed by the CM and the cloud weight is extracted. In contrast with other index weight confirmation methods, the cloud weight is denoted by the cloud descriptors rather than a constant value. Then, the connection degree (CD) of SPA is replaced with the cloud connection degree (CCD) based on the cloud weight. Meanwhile, the calculation algorithm of CCD is worked out in this paper. Finally, two biomass gasification stations in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, northeast China, are made hazard assessment by CM-SPA and AHP based SPA, respectively.
Methodology {#sec002}
===========
Set Pair Analysis {#sec003}
-----------------
As an uncertainty theory proposed by Zhao \[[@pone.0170012.ref021]\], SPA is a systematic methodology that deals with the integration of certainty and uncertainty problems. The relationship of certainty and uncertainty discussed in SPA is analyzed based on identity, discrepancy and contradistinction \[[@pone.0170012.ref025],[@pone.0170012.ref028]\]. Let two sets *A* and *B* be a pair set *H* = (*A*, *B*). Meanwhile, assume the total number of characteristics in *H* to be *N*. Then, assume the amounts of identical characteristics to be *S*, the amounts of discrepant characteristics to be *P*, and the amounts of contrary characteristics to be *F*. Based on the definition of SPA \[[@pone.0170012.ref021],[@pone.0170012.ref031]\], the relation of *N*, *S*, *P* and *F* is *N* = *S*+*P*+*F*. Then, CD is used to describe the connection of *H* = (*A*, *B*); the calculation algorithm of the connection degree is shown below ([Eq 1](#pone.0170012.e001){ref-type="disp-formula"}, \[[@pone.0170012.ref021]\]): $$\varphi(H) = \frac{S}{N} + \frac{F}{N}i + \frac{P}{N}j = a + bi + cj$$ where *φ*(*H*) denotes the CD of *H* and *a*, *b* and *c* denote the identity degree, discrepancy degree and contradistinction degree, respectively. *i* and *j* are the discrepancy coefficient and the contradictory coefficient, respectively. It is defined that *i* is within \[-1, 1\], the value of *j* is 1, and the relation of *a*, *b* and *c* is *a*+*b*+*c* = 1.
[Eq 1](#pone.0170012.e001){ref-type="disp-formula"} shows the calculation of the CD of the basic SPA model. Moreover, the discrepancy degree can be divided into multiple grades and the model can be extended to the general form, called the *m*-element model. The CD of an *m*-element SPA is calculated by solving [Eq 2](#pone.0170012.e002){ref-type="disp-formula"} \[[@pone.0170012.ref026]\]. $$\varphi = a + {\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{m - 2}{b_{n}i_{n}}} + cj$$ where *b*~*n*~ denotes different grades of the discrepancy degree; *i*~*n*~ denotes different grades of the discrepancy coefficient.
For the CD of index *k*, the values of the identity degree, discrepancy degree and contradistinction degree are set as \'0\' or \'1\'. If the assessment value belongs to the hazard grade, the value is set as \'1\'; otherwise, the value is set as \'0\'. In general, the index weight is in the focus of SPA. For the traditional SPA, the index weight is a constant; the final hazard assessment results, i.e., the total CD, is calculated by solving [Eq 3](#pone.0170012.e003){ref-type="disp-formula"} \[[@pone.0170012.ref023]--[@pone.0170012.ref025]\]. $$\varphi = {\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{r}{\varphi_{k}\omega_{k}}}$$ where *φ* denotes the total CD, *ω*~*k*~ denotes the weight of index *k*, *r* denotes the amounts of indices, and *φ*~*k*~ denotes the CD of index *k*.
In the hazard assessment based on SPA, the assessment results are confirmed by the maximal connection degree principle. For a sample *l* with the *m*-element model, the corresponding amounts of the hazard grades are also set to *k*. Assume that the total CD for sample *l* is *φ*~*l*~ = *a*+*b*~1~*i*~1~+*b*~2~*i*~2~+...+*b*~*k*-2~*i*~*k*-2~+*cj*; if it is satisfied with the condition *d* = max{*a*,*b*~1~,*b*~2~,...,*b*~*k*-2~,*c*}, then the hazard grade of sample *l* can be confirmed as the corresponding grade of *d*.
Cloud Model {#sec004}
-----------
In general, each index of the SPA was not the same in the hazard assessment; they had different weights. The weight of an index can be confirmed by AHP, IEM, and so on. In this study, CM was employed to confirm the weight of indices in SPA; then, the CM-SPA was used to conduct a hazard assessment of a biomass gasification station.
For the given universe of discourse *U*, *C* is the corresponding concept of *U* and *x* ∈ *U* is the definite parameter, which is also a random occurrence of *C*. If the membership *μ*(*x*) ∈ \[0, 1\] of *x* to *C* is a random number with steady tendency, then the distribution of *x* in *U* is called the cloud and each *x* is called the cloud drop ([Eq 4](#pone.0170012.e004){ref-type="disp-formula"}).
{#pone.0170012.e004g}
μ
:
U
→
\[
0
,
1
\]
∀
x
∈
U
x
→
μ
(
x
)
In the CM, the digital characteristics are defined as *C* = (*Ex*, *En*, *He*) to describe the uncertainty. Among these digital characteristics, *Ex*, *En* and *He* denote the expected value, entropy and hyper entropy, respectively. *Ex* is the expected value of the cloud drop in the distribution of universe of discourse *U*. Generally, it is the point that can represent the qualitative concept. *En* denotes the uncertainty measurement of the qualitative concept; it is confirmed by the randomness and fuzziness of concepts together. The dispersion degree of cloud drops is reflected by *En*, which also determines the certainty of cloud drops. *He* is the entropy of *En*; it reveals the uncertainty measurement of *En*. Likewise, *He* can be called the second-order entropy. For the commonsense concept, *He* is smaller when the acceptance degree is higher. *He* will be bigger if the concept cannot reach an agreement. Let *U* be the quantitative universe of discourse and *C* = (*Ex*, *En*, *He*) be the qualitative concept in *U*. If the quantitative value of *x* (*x* ∈ *U*) is a random instantiation of *C*, *x* satisfies *x* \~ *N*(*Ex*, *En*\'^2^). Meanwhile, *En*\' is also a random instantiation and satisfies *En*\' \~ *N*(*En*, *He*^2^). Then, the certainty of *x* to *C* satisfies [Eq 5](#pone.0170012.e005){ref-type="disp-formula"}.
{#pone.0170012.e005g}
μ
=
e
−
(
x
−
E
x
)
2
2
(
E
n
′
)
2
The distribution of cloud drop *x* in universe of discourse *U* is called the normal cloud. Then, cloud drops are generated by a forward cloud generator. As shown in [Fig 1](#pone.0170012.g001){ref-type="fig"}, when the cloud descriptors *C* = (*Ex*, *En*, *He*) are given, the cloud drops *P* = (*x*~*i*~, *μ*~*i*~) will be obtained to represent the qualitative concepts. On the contrary, if the cloud drops *P* = (*x*~*i*~, *μ*~*i*~) are known, then the cloud descriptors *C* = (*Ex*, *En*, *He*) can be obtained by the backward cloud generator \[[@pone.0170012.ref034],[@pone.0170012.ref045]\].
{#pone.0170012.g001}
Assume a normal cloud and let *Ex*, *En* and *He* be 5, 1 and 0.1, respectively. Meanwhile, the amounts of cloud drops are set as 1000. Then, the normal cloud is generated by the forward cloud generator ([Fig 2](#pone.0170012.g002){ref-type="fig"}). Regarding the cloud drops that contribute to the qualitative concepts, they are mainly focused on \[*Ex*-3*En*, *Ex*+3*En*\]. According to the different contributions of these cloud drops, they are divided into basic elements, peripheral elements and more peripheral elements, which belong to \[*Ex*-*En*, *Ex*+*En*\], \[*Ex*-2*En*, *Ex*-*En*\]∪\[*Ex*+*En*, *Ex*+2*En*\] and \[*Ex*-3*En*, *Ex*-2*En*\]∪\[*Ex*+2*En*, *Ex*+3*En*\], respectively. The contribution of cloud drops outside \[*Ex*-3*En*, *Ex*+3*En*\] can be neglected. The definition is called the \'3*En* rule\' \[[@pone.0170012.ref036],[@pone.0170012.ref046]\].
{#pone.0170012.g002}
For the representation of concepts in CM, the confusion degree is introduced ([Eq 6](#pone.0170012.e006){ref-type="disp-formula"}). It is used to measure the consensus degree of concepts; if the value of the confusion degree is equal to or greater than 1, then the cloud will be \'fog\'. In other words, the concepts cannot reach consensus and need to be given again \[[@pone.0170012.ref035],[@pone.0170012.ref036]\].
{#pone.0170012.e006g}
confusion degree
=
3
H
e
E
n
Cloud Model-Set Pair Analysis {#sec005}
-----------------------------
In this paper, the CM was employed to confirm the index weight in SPA, and the new type of weight is called the cloud weight. Because the index weight in SPA is confirmed using linguistic variables \[[@pone.0170012.ref042]\], the linguistic variables are converted into a definite value by traditional methods. However, the definite value cannot reflect the uncertainty of linguistic variables. As a result, the hazard assessment results will be greatly influenced by the value of the index weight; this makes the final hazard assessment results inaccurate. Hence, cloud weight takes the place of the traditional weight for indices; meanwhile, the hazard assessment results are also expressed by the cloud descriptors. Then, the randomness and fuzziness of linguistic variables can be fully reflected and the hazard assessment results will be more reasonable. The steps of CM-SPA are shown below.
7. Experts judge each index by using the linguistic variables. The judgment criterion is shown in [Table 1](#pone.0170012.t001){ref-type="table"}.
Then, the judgment results are normalized ([Eq 7](#pone.0170012.e007){ref-type="disp-formula"}). $$X_{kl} = \frac{x_{kl}}{\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{r}x_{kl}}$$ where *x*~*kl*~ denotes the judgment of index *k* by expert *l*, *r* denotes the amounts of indices, and *X*~*kl*~ denotes the normalized value of *x*~*kl*~.
8. After the judgments for the index weight are obtained, these qualitative linguistic variables are converted into quantitative values, i.e., the cloud descriptors *Ex*, *En* and *He* ([Eq 8](#pone.0170012.e008){ref-type="disp-formula"}) \[[@pone.0170012.ref036],[@pone.0170012.ref037],[@pone.0170012.ref046]\]. $$\left\{ \begin{array}{l}
{Ex_{k} = \frac{1}{N}{\sum\limits_{l = 1}^{N}X_{kl}}} \\
{En_{k} = \sqrt{\frac{\pi}{2}} \times \frac{1}{N}{\sum\limits_{l = 1}^{N}\left| {X_{kl} - Ex_{k}} \right|}} \\
{He_{k} = \sqrt{\left| {\frac{1}{N - 1}{\sum\limits_{l = 1}^{N}{{(X_{kl} - Ex_{k})}^{2} - {(En_{k})}^{2}}}} \right|}} \\
\end{array} \right.$$ Then, the cloud weight of index *k* is displayed as the cloud descriptors *ω*(*C*)~*k*~ = (*Ex*~*k*~, *En*~*k*~, *He*~*k*~).
9. The hazard assessment results by SPA focus on the cloud weight of the index afterwards. As previously mentioned, Eqs [2](#pone.0170012.e002){ref-type="disp-formula"} and [3](#pone.0170012.e003){ref-type="disp-formula"} can be re-written as [Eq 9](#pone.0170012.e009){ref-type="disp-formula"} to calculate the total CD based on CM, called the CCD. $$\begin{array}{ll}
{\varphi(C)} & {= \varphi_{1} \otimes \omega{(C)}_{1} \oplus \varphi_{2} \otimes \omega{(C)}_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus \varphi_{k} \otimes \omega{(C)}_{k}} \\
& {= a_{1}\omega{(C)}_{1} \oplus a_{2}\omega{(C)}_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus a_{k}\omega{(C)}_{k}} \\
& {+ \left( {b_{1,1}\omega{(C)}_{1} \oplus b_{2,1}\omega{(C)}_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus b_{k,1}\omega{(C)}_{k}} \right)i_{1}} \\
& {+ \left( {b_{1,2}\omega{(C)}_{1} \oplus b_{2,2}\omega{(C)}_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus b_{k,2}\omega{(C)}_{k}} \right)i_{2} + \ldots} \\
& {+ \left( {b_{1,m - 2}\omega{(C)}_{1} \oplus b_{2,m - 2}\omega{(C)}_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus b_{k,m - 2}\omega{(C)}_{k}} \right)i_{m - 2}} \\
& {+ \left( {c_{1}\omega{(C)}_{1} \oplus c_{2}\omega{(C)}_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus c_{k}\omega{(C)}_{k}} \right)j} \\
\end{array}$$ For [Eq 9](#pone.0170012.e009){ref-type="disp-formula"}, the calculation involves the summation of *Ex*, *En* and *He*. The calculation algorithm is shown below ([Eq 10](#pone.0170012.e010){ref-type="disp-formula"}) \[[@pone.0170012.ref043]\]. $$\left\{ \begin{array}{l}
{Ex_{s} = Ex_{1} \oplus Ex_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus Ex_{k} = Ex_{1} + Ex_{2} + \ldots + Ex_{k}} \\
{En_{s} = En_{1} \oplus En_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus En_{k} = \sqrt{En_{1}^{2} + En_{2}^{2} + \ldots + En_{k}^{2}}} \\
{He_{s} = He_{1} \oplus He_{2} \oplus \ldots \oplus He_{k} = \sqrt{He_{1}^{2} + He_{2}^{2} + \ldots + He_{k}^{2}}} \\
\end{array} \right.$$ where *Ex*~*s*~, *En*~*s*~ and *He*~*s*~ denote the summation of the expected value, entropy and hyper entropy, respectively.
10. As shown in [Eq 9](#pone.0170012.e009){ref-type="disp-formula"}, the final hazard assessment results, i.e., the CCD *φ*(*C*), consist of several normal clouds. Generally, if the SPA is an *m*-element model, there are *m* normal clouds displayed in the final hazard assessment results. However, in some cases, the value of the identity degree, discrepancy degree or contradistinction degree may be \'0\'; thus, the corresponding normal cloud is non-existent. After that, the hazard grade is confirmed by the descriptors of these normal clouds based on the maximal connection degree principle and the \'3*En* rule\' as previously mentioned.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t001
###### Judgment criterion of experts for index weight.
{#pone.0170012.t001g}
Linguistic Variables Level Value Range
---------------------------- -------------
Very important (8, 10\]
Important (6, 8\]
Middle important (4, 6\]
Unimportant (2, 4\]
Very unimportant (0, 2\]
Case Study {#sec006}
----------
In this study, no specific permissions were required for the locations introduced. Because these locations are public area and our activities were permitted by Shenyang Municipality. We can ensure that the field studies did not involve endangered or protected species. Afterwards, two biomass gasification stations were introduced to conduct a hazard assessment using CM-SPA. The two stations\' names were Huangtukan Village biomass gasification station and Yanjia Village biomass gasification station (hereafter referred to as \'Huangtukan station\' and \'Yanjia station\', respectively). Huangtukan station and Yanjia station are located in Huangtukan Village, Liaozhong District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, northeast China and Yanjia Village, Hunnan District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, northeast China, respectively. Huangtukan station is located at 122.767°E, 41.718°N; Yanjia station is located at 123.750°E, 41.996°N.
Confirmation of Indices and Calculation of Cloud Weight {#sec007}
-------------------------------------------------------
In a biomass gasification station, the hazard mainly comes from the biomass materials used to make biomass gas and the produced biomass gas. The produced biomass gas contains hydrogen (H~2~), carbon monoxide (CO), and methane (CH~4~) \[[@pone.0170012.ref047]\]. Thus, the biomass materials and biomass gas are flammable and the biomass gas has explosive characteristics. Meanwhile, the CO in biomass gas makes it poisonous. As a result, the hazard of biomass gasification contains fire, explosion and poisoning. In this study, 6 corresponding hazard assessment indices were introduced based on the immediate causes of fire, explosion and poisoning \[[@pone.0170012.ref048]--[@pone.0170012.ref050]\]: biomass gas production rate (*k*~1~), volume fraction of CO (*k*~2~), lower explosive limit of biomass gas (*k*~3~), artificial ventilation atmosphere (*k*~4~), pressure relief ratio (*k*~5~) and quantity of biomass materials (*k*~6~). However, many other assessment indices are involved into the hazard assessment for biomass gasification stations, such as the tar, human error, weather factors and so on. There may be large numbers of the assessment indices, whereas they aren\'t immediate causes. Thus the hazard assessment for biomass gasification stations made in this study can be regarded as a specific hazard assessment with respect to the most critical hazards. In regard to these introduced indices, 10 experts were invited to make judgments regarding their importance based on [Table 1](#pone.0170012.t001){ref-type="table"} while introductions of these experts were shown in [Table 2](#pone.0170012.t002){ref-type="table"}; the cloud descriptors *Ex*, *En* and *He* were calculated by using [Eq 7](#pone.0170012.e007){ref-type="disp-formula"} through [Eq 8](#pone.0170012.e008){ref-type="disp-formula"}. However, some judgments will not meet the objective fact due to the mistakes may made by some experts. For example, a general judgment of the importance for index *k*~1~ should be 'middle important' or 'important'. If the judgment made by some expert was 'very unimportant', it meant that the judgment deviated from the objective fact, and experts cannot reach consensus. As previously mentioned, the generated cloud will be 'fog' when judgments of experts cannot reach consensus, that is to say, some judgments deviated from the objective fact. Then the 'fog' cannot be used to make assessment using CM \[[@pone.0170012.ref035],[@pone.0170012.ref036]\]. Hence, the confusion degree was employed to check the validity of the judgment results \[[@pone.0170012.ref035],[@pone.0170012.ref036]\], that is to say, whether the judgments will meet the objective fact of the biomass gasification or not should be checked. As a result, the cloud descriptors *En* and *He* should satisfy the condition that the value of the confusion degree must be less than 1. If the condition was not satisfied, then the judgments of experts needed to be made again until the condition was satisfied. The judgment results and cloud weight of each index are shown in Tables [3](#pone.0170012.t003){ref-type="table"} and [4](#pone.0170012.t004){ref-type="table"}, respectively.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t002
###### Introduction of the experts.
{#pone.0170012.t002g}
Professional position Education background Experience (years)
----------- ----------------------- ---------------------- --------------------
Expert 1 Student Master 4
Expert 2 Student PhD 7
Expert 3 Worker Junior college 18
Expert 4 Worker High School 30
Expert 5 Engineer Bachelor 17
Expert 6 Engineer Master 15
Expert 7 Engineer Bachelor 23
Expert 8 Professor PhD 29
Expert 9 Professor PhD 32
Expert 10 Professor PhD 27
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t003
###### Results of experts' judgments regarding the importance of hazard assessment indices.
{#pone.0170012.t003g}
*k*~1~ *k*~2~ *k*~3~ *k*~4~ *k*~5~ *k*~6~
----------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------
Expert 1 6 1 10 8 4 2
Expert 2 5 2 7 7 3 2
Expert 3 6 2 9 7 5 2
Expert 4 7 1 8 8 3 3
Expert 5 8 2 10 7 3 1
Expert 6 5 3 8 9 4 1
Expert 7 6 2 8 10 5 2
Expert 8 5 2 7 9 3 1
Expert 9 8 3 10 9 4 2
Expert 10 7 1 8 9 3 3
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t004
###### Cloud weight of each index.
{#pone.0170012.t004g}
Index Cloud Weight (*ω*(*C*))
----------------------------------------------- --------------------------
Biomass gas production rate (*k*~1~) (0.2053, 0.0297, 0.0092)
Volume fraction of CO (*k*~2~) (0.0622, 0.0226, 0.0054)
Lower explosive limit of biomass gas (*k*~3~) (0.2776, 0.0258, 0.0072)
Artificial ventilation atmosphere (*k*~4~) (0.2722, 0.0345, 0.0032)
Pressure relief ratio (*k*~5~) (0.1206, 0.0232, 0.0052)
Quantity of biomass materials (*k*~6~) (0.0622, 0.0231, 0.0073)
Classification of Hazard Grade for Assessment Index {#sec008}
---------------------------------------------------
In this study, the SPA was set as a 5-element model; therefore, the general type of CD was *φ* = *a*+*b*~1~*i*~1~+*b*~2~*i*~2~+*b*~3~*i*~3~+*cj* and the 5 corresponding hazard grades were named very low hazard (I), low hazard (II), middle hazard (III), high hazard (IV) and very high hazard (V). Index *k*~1~ denotes the ability of biomass gas production; its unit is m^3^/h. Index *k*~2~ denotes the volume fraction of CO in the produced biomass gas; its unit is %. Index *k*~3~ denotes the lower explosive limit of the produced biomass gas; its unit is %. Index *k*~4~ shows the ability of ventilation; it is reflected by the air change rate and its unit is times/h. Index *k*~5~ reflects the ability of pressure relief when fire and explosion appear in the biomass gasification station; it was calculated by solving [Eq 11](#pone.0170012.e011){ref-type="disp-formula"} \[[@pone.0170012.ref048]\]; $$C = A/10V^{2/3}$$ where *C* denotes the pressure relief ratio (m^2^/m^3^), *A* denotes the area of pressure relief (m^2^), and *V* denotes the volume of the biomass gasification station (m^3^).
Index *k*~6~ shows the quantity of biomass materials that were stored in the biomass gasification station to produce biomass gas; its unit is m^3^.
Afterwards, the classification of hazard grade was given, as shown in [Table 5](#pone.0170012.t005){ref-type="table"}; the classification rule was based on the related standard of PRC \[[@pone.0170012.ref048]--[@pone.0170012.ref050]\].
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t005
###### Classification of hazard grade.
{#pone.0170012.t005g}
Index Hazard Grade
----------------------------------------------------- -------------- ----------- ------------- -------------- ------------
Biomass gas production rate (*k*~1~; m^3^/h) 100--500 500--1000 1000--3000 3000--5000 \>5000
Volume fraction of CO (*k*~2~; %) 0--5 5--10 10--15 15--20 20--100
Lower explosive limit of biomass gas (*k*~3~; %) 100--30 30--20 20--15 15--10 10--0
Artificial ventilation atmosphere (*k*~4~; times/h) \>12 12--9 9--6 6--3 3--1
Pressure relief ratio (*k*~5~; m^2^/m^3^) \>0.25 0.25--0.2 0.2--0.16 0.16--0.11 0.11--0.03
Quantity of biomass materials (*k*~6~; m^3^) 0--10 10--5000 5000--10000 10000--50000 \>50000
Data Collection {#sec009}
---------------
The data related to the 6 indices were collected and calculated. The biomass gas production rate (*k*~1~) and the artificial ventilation atmosphere (*k*~4~) were the inherent properties of the biomass gasification station; the volume fraction of CO (*k*~2~) and the lower explosive limit of biomass gas (*k*~3~) can be confirmed by testing the produced biomass gas. However, the pressure relief ratio (*k*~5~) needed to be calculated based on the structure size of the biomass gasification station. Based on the corresponding standard of PRC \[[@pone.0170012.ref048]\], the area of pressure relief was equal to the area of windows and doors. According to the structure size, the area of pressure relief of Huangtukan station and Yanjia station was 17.22 m^2^ and 46.90 m^2^, respectively, while the volumes of the biomass gasification station of Huangtukan station and Yanjia station were 149.18 m^3^ and 278.43 m^3^, respectively. Then, the pressure relief ratio was calculated by solving [Eq 11](#pone.0170012.e011){ref-type="disp-formula"}. Generally, the quantity of biomass materials (*k*~6~) was equal to one third of the volume of the biomass materials storage room; the volumes of the biomass materials storage room of Huangtukan station and Yanjia station were 40.62 m^3^ and 87.78 m^3^, respectively. Finally, the collected data were listed as shown in [Table 6](#pone.0170012.t006){ref-type="table"}.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t006
###### Index data of Huangtukan station and Yanjia station.
{#pone.0170012.t006g}
Index Huangtukan Station Yanjia Station
----------------------------------------------------- -------------------- ----------------
Biomass gas production rate (*k*~1~; m^3^/h) 300 600
Volume fraction of CO (*k*~2~; %) 20.26 17.73
Lower explosive limit of biomass gas (*k*~3~; %) 18.47 21.98
Artificial ventilation atmosphere (*k*~4~; times/h) 10 8
Pressure relief ratio (*k*~5~; m^2^/m^3^) 0.0612 0.1110
Quantity of biomass materials (*k*~6~; m^3^) 13.54 29.26
Results and Discussion {#sec010}
======================
Confirmation of Identity Degree, Discrepancy Degree and Contradistinction Degree {#sec011}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Based on the definition of SPA previously mentioned, the evaluations for each hazard grade, i.e., the values of identity degree, discrepancy degree and contradistinction degree, were confirmed by Tables [5](#pone.0170012.t005){ref-type="table"} and [6](#pone.0170012.t006){ref-type="table"}; the results are listed in [Table 7](#pone.0170012.t007){ref-type="table"}.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t007
###### Evaluations for each hazard grade.
{#pone.0170012.t007g}
-------------------- -------- ------------ ------------- ------------ --------
Huangtukan Station
I(*a*) II(*b*~1~) III(*b*~2~) IV(*b*~3~) V(*c*)
*K*~1~ 1 0 0 0 0
*K*~2~ 0 0 0 0 1
*K*~3~ 0 0 1 0 0
*K*~4~ 0 1 0 0 0
*K*~5~ 0 0 0 0 1
*K*~6~ 0 1 0 0 0
Yanjia Station
I(*a*) II(*b*~1~) III(*b*~2~) IV(*b*~3~) V(*c*)
*K*~1~ 0 1 0 0 0
*K*~2~ 0 0 0 1 0
*K*~3~ 0 1 0 0 0
*K*~4~ 0 0 1 0 0
*K*~5~ 0 0 0 1 0
*K*~6~ 0 1 0 0 0
-------------------- -------- ------------ ------------- ------------ --------
Calculation of Cloud Connection Degree {#sec012}
--------------------------------------
After the evaluations for each hazard grade of the two stations were obtained, the CCD was calculated using [Eq 9](#pone.0170012.e009){ref-type="disp-formula"} through [Eq 10](#pone.0170012.e010){ref-type="disp-formula"} and [Table 7](#pone.0170012.t007){ref-type="table"} afterwards; the calculation results are listed in [Table 8](#pone.0170012.t008){ref-type="table"}. Let the amounts of cloud drops be 1000; the corresponding normal clouds for each hazard grade were generated by the forward cloud generator and were as shown in Figs [3](#pone.0170012.g003){ref-type="fig"} and [4](#pone.0170012.g004){ref-type="fig"}.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t008
###### Calculation results of CCD.
{#pone.0170012.t008g}
Huangtukan Station Yanjia Station
----- -------------------------- --------------------------
I (0.2053, 0.0297, 0.0092) 0
II (0.3344, 0.0415, 0.0080) (0.5450, 0.0456, 0.0138)
III (0.2776, 0.0258, 0.0072) (0.2722, 0.0345, 0.0032)
IV 0 (0.1828, 0.0324, 0.0075)
V (0.1828, 0.0324, 0.0075) 0
{#pone.0170012.g003}
{#pone.0170012.g004}
Analysis of Hazard Assessment Results by CM-SPA {#sec013}
-----------------------------------------------
As shown in Figs [3](#pone.0170012.g003){ref-type="fig"} and [4](#pone.0170012.g004){ref-type="fig"}, the calculated CCD of the hazard grade for Huangtukan station and Yanjia station clearly reflected the relationship of each hazard grade. [Fig 3](#pone.0170012.g003){ref-type="fig"} shows that the expected value of the CD of grade II was the maximum. Hence, based on the maximal connection degree principle, as previously mentioned, the hazard grade of Huangtukan station mainly belonged to grade II. However, it can also be seen in [Fig 3](#pone.0170012.g003){ref-type="fig"} that not all of the cloud drops of grade II were the maximum. Based on the \'3 *En* rule\', as previously mentioned, the CD of grades I, II, III and V were mainly focused on \[0.1162, 0.2944\], \[0.2099, 0.4589\], \[0.2002, 0.3550\] and \[0.0856, 0.2800\], respectively. It can be concluded that the intersection scope of grade II and grade III was the maximum; thus, the relevance of grade III to grade II was closer than for other grades. Then, it was summarized that the hazard grade of Huangtukan station was between grade II and grade III and closer to grade II. Hence, the hazard of Huangtukan station was between low hazard and middle hazard and closer to low hazard. On the other hand, as shown in [Fig 4](#pone.0170012.g004){ref-type="fig"}, the expected value and the whole cloud drops of the CD of grade II were both the maximum. Similarly, the CD of grades II, III and IV were mainly focused on \[0.4082, 0.6818\], \[0.1687, 0.3757\] and \[0.0856, 0.2800\] based on the \'3 *En* rule\', respectively. There was no intersection between grade II and the other grades. In other words, the hazard grade of Yanjia station completely belonged to grade II and the hazard of Yanjia station was low hazard.
For the hazard assessment results of Huangtukan station and Yanjia station, although the CD of grade II of the two stations both had the maximal expected value, regarding the difference of the distribution of cloud drops, it can be summarized that the hazard of the two stations was different.
Comparison of Hazard Assessment Results by CM-SPA and AHP Based SPA {#sec014}
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For the comparison and verification of hazard assessment results using CM-SPA, the hazard assessment using the traditional method of SPA was also made for biomass gasification stations. In regard to the traditional method of SPA, the assessment results are expressed as constant values due to indices weights were constant values. As AHP has been widely used in the confirmation of indices weights for SPA \[[@pone.0170012.ref032],[@pone.0170012.ref033]\], thereby using AHP to confirm indices weights for the compared hazard assessment by SPA. In order to ensure the comparability, the data used in this paper were employed again to make hazard assessment by AHP based SPA. Owing to AHP was a classical approach \[[@pone.0170012.ref051]\] and the limited space in this paper, a brief introduction for the confirmation of indices weights obtained by AHP was given as followed \[[@pone.0170012.ref032]\].
1. Firstly, the hazard assessment for biomass gasification stations is set as the overall objective of AHP. Afterwards, accidents of fire, explosion and poisoning discussed in this paper are set to be the middle factors of AHP. Thereby setting the six assessment indices as the criteria of AHP.
2. The pair-wise comparisons \[[@pone.0170012.ref032]\] are used to make judgments for the importance of criteria to middle factors and middle factors to the overall objective, then the obtained pair-wise comparison is reflected by the judgments matrix. Herein, the 1/9-9 scale \[[@pone.0170012.ref033]\] is used to make comparison. Therefore, the judgments matrix for fire, explosion and poisoning to the overall objective are shown as the matrix *M*~1~ ([Eq 12](#pone.0170012.e012){ref-type="disp-formula"}), and the judgments matrices for the six assessment indices to fire, explosion and poisoning are shown by matrices *M*~2~, *M*~3~ and *M*~4~ (Eqs [13](#pone.0170012.e013){ref-type="disp-formula"}--[15](#pone.0170012.e015){ref-type="disp-formula"}), respectively. $$M_{1} = \begin{bmatrix}
\alpha_{p_{1},p_{1}} & \alpha_{p_{1},p_{2}} & \alpha_{p_{1},p_{3}} \\
\alpha_{p_{2},p_{1}} & \alpha_{p_{2},p_{2}} & \alpha_{p_{2},p_{3}} \\
\alpha_{p_{3},p_{1}} & \alpha_{p_{3},p_{2}} & \alpha_{p_{3},p_{3}} \\
\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}
1 & {1/3} & 1 \\
3 & 1 & 2 \\
1 & {1/2} & 1 \\
\end{bmatrix}$$ where *p*~1~, *p*~2~ and *p*~3~ denote the fire, explosion and poisoning, respectively, *α* denotes the pair-wise comparison result. $$M_{2} = \begin{bmatrix}
\alpha_{k_{1},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{6}} \\
\alpha_{k_{3},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{3},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{3},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{3},k_{6}} \\
\alpha_{k_{4},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{6}} \\
\alpha_{k_{6},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{6},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{6},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{6},k_{6}} \\
\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}
1 & {1/3} & {1/2} & 1 \\
3 & 1 & 2 & 4 \\
2 & {1/2} & 1 & 2 \\
1 & {1/4} & {1/2} & 1 \\
\end{bmatrix}$$ $$M_{3} = \begin{bmatrix}
\alpha_{k_{1},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{5}} \\
\alpha_{k_{3},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{3},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{3},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{3},k_{5}} \\
\alpha_{k_{4},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{5}} \\
\alpha_{k_{5},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{5},k_{3}} & \alpha_{k_{5},k_{4}} & \alpha_{k_{5},k_{5}} \\
\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}
1 & {1/4} & {1/2} & {1/3} \\
4 & 1 & 2 & 3 \\
2 & {1/2} & 1 & 2 \\
3 & {1/3} & {1/2} & 1 \\
\end{bmatrix}$$ $$M_{4} = \begin{bmatrix}
\alpha_{k_{1},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{2}} & \alpha_{k_{1},k_{4}} \\
\alpha_{k_{2},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{2},k_{2}} & \alpha_{k_{2},k_{4}} \\
\alpha_{k_{4},k_{1}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{2}} & \alpha_{k_{4},k_{4}} \\
\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}
1 & 3 & {1/2} \\
{1/3} & 1 & {1/4} \\
2 & 4 & 1 \\
\end{bmatrix}$$
3. Finally, indices weights are calculated based on the above matrices while calculation results are listed in [Table 9](#pone.0170012.t009){ref-type="table"}.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t009
###### Indices weights obtained by AHP.
{#pone.0170012.t009g}
*k*~1~ *k*~2~ *k*~3~ *k*~4~ *k*~5~ *k*~6~
-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------
Weight 0.1586 0.0293 0.3594 0.3273 0.0985 0.0269
After the AHP based indices weights were obtained, the CDs were then computed based on [Eq 3](#pone.0170012.e003){ref-type="disp-formula"}, Tables [7](#pone.0170012.t007){ref-type="table"} and [9](#pone.0170012.t009){ref-type="table"}. Calculation results, i.e., hazard assessment results by SPA are shown in [Table 10](#pone.0170012.t010){ref-type="table"}.
10.1371/journal.pone.0170012.t010
###### Calculation results of CD.
{#pone.0170012.t010g}
Huangtukan Station Yanjia Station
----- -------------------- ----------------
I 0.1586 0
II 0.3542 0.5449
III 0.3594 0.3273
IV 0 0.1278
V 0.1278 0
According to the maximal connection degree principle as previously mentioned, it can concluded that the hazard grades of Huangtukan station and Yanjia station were grade III (middle hazard) and grade II (low hazard), respectively. Obviously, the obtained hazard assessment results by AHP based SPA weren\'t reasonable and precise enough due to the influences of other parameters of the CD were neglected. For example, in regard to the hazard assessment result of Huangtukan station, though assessment values of grade II (0.3542) and grade III (0.3594) were almost equal, the hazard assessment result can only confirmed to be grade III due to the maximal connection degree principle. In addition, with the exception of the maximal parameter of the CD, some other parameters weren\'t considered in confirming hazard assessment results even though values of them weren\'t \'0\'.
By contrast with CM-SPA, the hazard assessment results obtained by the traditional method of SPA can only be reflected by the stationary hazard grade due to calculated indices weights were constant values. Thus the subjectivity of the confirmation for indices weights will vastly affect hazard assessment results. For the CM-SPA, further and complete hazard assessments will be made based on the randomness and fuzziness of CM; the assessment results will be more precise and reasonable. To sum up, CM-SPA could be a more effective and scientific method for hazard assessment of a biomass gasification station, in contrast with SPA.
Conclusions {#sec015}
===========
Because various hazardous factors exist in a biomass gasification system, hazard assessment is needed to evaluate the hazard degree of a biomass gasification station. In this study, a novel hazard assessment method was proposed based on CM-SPA. After a study of the method, conclusions were summarized and are listed below.
1. CM was employed to improve SPA. The weight of index was replaced by the proposed cloud weight in this study. In contrast with the traditional weight of index, the cloud weight was defined as the cloud descriptors and can reflect the randomness and fuzziness of experts judgments.
2. CCD was proposed and used to confirm the hazard grade of a biomass gasification station instead of CD; meanwhile, the calculation algorithm of CCD was worked out. Hence, the hazard assessment results were shown as cloud descriptors and each hazard grade was related to a corresponding normal cloud. Then, hazard assessment of a biomass gasification station was made via the analysis of the cloud descriptors in CM. Based on the randomness and fuzziness of CM, the assessment results will be more reasonable and scientific.
3. Two biomass gasification stations in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, Northeast China, were made hazard assessment by CM-SPA and AHP based SPA, respectively. The comparison of hazard assessment results illustrated that the CM-SPA was a more effective, reasonable and scientific method for the hazard assessment of a biomass gasification station.
The study is supported by the Rural Energy Comprehensive Construction Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture of the People\'s Republic of China (Grant No. 2015--36).
[^1]: **Competing Interests:**The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
[^2]: **Conceptualization:** FY KX.**Data curation:** FY KX.**Formal analysis:** FY.**Funding acquisition:** KX.**Investigation:** FY.**Methodology:** FY KX.**Project administration:** KX.**Resources:** KX.**Supervision:** FY KX.**Validation:** FY.**Writing -- original draft:** FY.**Writing -- review & editing:** FY KX.
| |
Q:
Query to get average of multiple columns and rows
My table data is like below
id a b c d
101 2 2 2 2
101 3 3 3 3
101 2 2 2 2
102 5 5 5 5
102 5 5 5 5
and I want output as per id and average of all concern rows and columns
for example
id average
101 2.33
102 5
A:
Try this:
select id, avg((a+b+c+d)/4) from table_name group by id;
| |
How many hours does a season have?
Part-time: How many hours can you work per week?
Many men and women do not want to choose between work and family and choose one Part-time position. So they can less than 40 hours a week spend in the company and then still have enough timethat they can spend with the family.
Use the free part-time calculator
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In a nutshell: hours part-time
You can read here how many hours a week are allowed to work part-time.
The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has put together seven different part-time models. You can find out what exactly these look like in our summary.
The minimum hours for part-time work are usually specified in the employment contract.
In this guide you will learn what to do with part-time employees Hours per month is prescribed. How many hours can you work part-time? What does that see Part-time working time law before and which Part-time models is there?
What is part time?
Basically can not flat rate say how many hours define part-time employment. This depends on the respective employment relationship and in which one Scope of full-time employment stands. So are in a company 40 full-time hours per weekin another, employees work 38 hours a week.
According to Section 2 Part-time and Temporary Employment Act (TzBfG) an employee is employed part-time if his regular weekly working hours are shorter than those of a full-time employee. Is there no regular weekly working hours, the average working time in a period of one year applies in relation to a full-time position.
Generally, every employee who already has six months or longer with the company, the right to a reduction in his working hours to part-time. The hours can agreed with the employer and set out in the employment contract. It is also possible to check the exact working hours in Contract in writing to agree.
Part-time is particularly suitable for employees who are after the Parental leave want to get back to work slowly. A big advantage of this is that employees next to one Part-time employment have more time for family and household. A big disadvantage, however, is that low pension entitlementscaused by low earnings.
Part-time: How many hours per week can I work?
In the case of part-time work, the hours are agreed in advance with the employer. The employment contract usually set how many hours you have weekly should work. Both part-time 39 hours a week as well as 20 or just 3 hours to be agreed.
There is part time no statutory minimum hoursthat have to be served. The basis for the number of hours is the employment contract. However, it may well be that in the contract for part-time no fixed number of hours is agreed. In this case you will find expressions such as “part-time with flexible weekly hours” or “working hours depend on the interests of the company”.
In this case, the employee is entitled to at least ten hours a week to be employed part-time. If the employer assigns you part-time for fewer hours, you can Pay for ten hours of work per week desire.
Since there is no minimum number of hours for part-time work, you and your employer can state in the contract that you are only two hours a week work.
But if your boss regularly uses you much more often, you can do one Request contract adjustment and your average hours correct to let.
Are part-time overtime allowed?
The Number of hours vary and is mostly based on the employment contract. But what about part-time overtime? Here, too, the employment contract serves as a guideline for the hours. If there is that stated you weekly or monthly a certain number Extra work or have to work overtime, you have to adhere to it.
Will the overtime not be by the employment contract regulated, these must be in the collective agreement or in the context of another company agreement be prescribed. Otherwise, the employer can do you do not obligeTo work overtime.
The whole thing looks different in the event of an acute emergency for the company. In this case, it must be done by all employees Overtime required become. This can be done, for example, at Natural disasters occurrence.
Make an appointment with your employer that you will be part time do more hours and work overtime accordingly, they will be remunerated at the regular hourly wage. Despite part-time work, the working hours become one Full time employment exceeded, you are also entitled to surcharges.
What part-time models are there?
The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has seven different part-time models compiled. Through this, every employee can have his own individual needs adapt to part-time and hours. For example, it is possible to work fewer hours on all working days or in principle fewer days per week to work. You can read about all the options in the following sections.
Part-time Classic - The 30 or 20-hour week
In the Classic model, the Hours daily reduced. Work is still going on five days a week. As a result, the employee wins few hours of free time every day and can therefore, for example, pick up the children from kindergarten earlier or take care of the household.
The daily working hours remain as a result regularly and is determined in advance with the employer. The form of part-time offers itself above all in one 30 or 20 hour week at.
The part-time for a 30-hour week is spread over five days of the week, so six hours every day is being worked on. In addition, part-time work can be spread over a 20-hour week. In part-time, the hours are also based on here five days of the week equally divided so that there are four working hours per day. The employee has a dayfour hours more free time than with a full-time position with 40 hours.
Part-time Classic Vario - part-time and full-time in combination
According to Employment Law the working hours for part-time workers do not have to be defined according to a certain Structured scheme become. However, one or the other model can certainly be used when dividing the hours. Another model is the part-time Classic Vario. When working part-time, the hours in this model are based on two to five days distributed.
So are part time and full time can be combined with each other. Part-time employees can distribute their hours over the days of the week. At a 3-4 day week the weekly working time is, for example, 15 hours, which is divided into six hours, four hours and five hours. Thus every day at least gained two hours of free time and per week result two days off completely.
Are you pending part-time work? 34 hours per week these can be spread over a 5-day week. This means, for example, that you work eight hours a day two days a week and six hours a day three days. The division is in any case Leave it to you and your employer and can be chosen freely.
Part-time job sharing - two employees share a full-time position
In this part-time model, two employees share self-dependent a full-time position.
The main advantage here is that employees also work part-time Full time project be able to take over and lead. In any case, one is important regular coordination as well as an exchange of information.
In the case of part-time work, dividing the hours between several employees is particularly useful for companies long service times at. In this way, better customer orientation can be guaranteed.
At the Job sharing can either be five days a week each time half day or two to four days a week in Part-time and full-time combined to be worked. With a weekly working time of 20 hours per person, these can be divided as follows:
- five times four hours a week
- twice eight hours and once four hours per week and two days off
If you are part-time the hours of one full-time job with another Share employees, by the way, you do not have to take over the other employee's working hours if he or she resigns. In this case, the employer must look for a new employees look around to see who occupies this position.
If this is not possible or the workplace should be closed operational reasons be deleted, the boss may one Change notice pronounce. For you, this means that your employer will give you another one Part-time job or even offer a full-time position. Don't come across one common denominator, your boss may terminate you.
Job sharers cannot be required to do so at a Part-time employment to take over the hours of the other employee, the latter should due to illness fail. One is possible extended working hours for example, only if urgent operational conditions require it.
This is the case, for example, if, due to the loss of the part-time employee, the Production interrupted would have to be. In principle, however, the representation must be reasonable for the employee. Does a father have to look after the in the afternoon, for example Taking care of his child because no one else can take care of it, he can not required to work in the afternoon become.
Part-time invest - saving the accumulated working hours
In this model, unchanged full-time worked. However, the employee is only paid for part-time employment. The difference is called Time or money credit saved in an account and can be used within several months of leave of absence be used. For example, the employee will have a Sabbatical enables.
During the longer break from work The money that was worked out in advance is then paid out. Since the employee does not accumulate the hours part-time, but works full-time, this amounts to weekly working hours usually 40 hours.
If the employee wants to work out a four-month leave of absence, he must have a Period of four years 1/12 of the salary per year as Cash balance to save. An employee would like to have a whole year off, for example to do a World Travel to make, z. B. a working time of 30 hours per week can be agreed.
In fact, the employee does not work up Part time his hours, but also in this case works 40 hours a week in the company. That way he can a time credit of 10 hours per week record. The employee can take one year off after saving for three years.
As part of the part-time invest is also a early retirement conceivable. Here, too, a working time of 30 hours agreed, whereas Actually completed 40 hours per week become. This allows the employee to join within six years Time credit of two years save up so that he can retire two years earlier.
Part-time team - flexible working time planning in the group
The employer specifies how many employees present at certain times must be. The team can then plan the working hours together.
Also last-minute changes can be done at any time. This gives employees a lot Flexibility, in terms of planning the hours to be worked part-time.
This model is particularly useful in the customer focus because the load can be different at different times. So that all employees are fully utilized, the flexible division the working hours very good. In addition, it can be guaranteed that employees have several hours a day or entire days or weeks of free time. This is particularly useful after parental leave to get back to work.
Part-time season - compensation of over- and under-utilization
This form of working part-time is particularly useful in Seasonal operation at. Especially with seasonal work there are so-called High and low phases. For example, roofers in the Summer months needed rather than in winter months. The employer can do this so that there is no under-utilization Prevent layoffs.
During the season the employee is in Employed full time. So he can out of season Months of free time win. The basic monthly salary remains the same throughout the year. There are two different variants of the Season part-time:
- The employee works four months a year full-time. Then he has eight months off and gets every month ⅓ of the monthly full-time salary.
- The annual working time is twice three months a year. This also gives the employee three months' free time twice a year. Half of the monthly amount is paid out Full-time wages.
Part time home - working from home
In this form of part-time, the employee works his hours in Home office from. This eliminates the need for long journeys there and back, as well daily idle timesbecause work can be started straight away at home. Separate Working days in the company strengthen the bond with the company.
The working hours can be either on divided into five days be or as combined part-time and full-time serve for two to four days. This division of working hours means that several hours per day and even days per week can be used as leisure be won. Here, too, it can be agreed with the employer in advance when the part-time will be worked at home in hours.
This has the advantage for both employers and employees that a Agreement despite the distance is possible at any time. For example Core working hours be created. The employee must then z. B. be definitely at work from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., so that he can be contacted.(83 Ratings, average: 3,90 of 5)
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The way we calculate taxes in Brandibble is by applying it to each menu item and each modifier separately. Each tax gets rounded up so if you try to calculate tax on an order total, it's never going to be exactly the same as the sales tax. This is the correct way to apply sales tax.
For example, this is how an 8.875% tax rate would be calculated and applied to this order:
If you applied the tax rate to the order total, you'd get $2.01.
If there are individual taxes or overrides on certain items and modifiers, the same rules apply: the tax will be applied to each item individually, rounded up to two decimal places, and then added to the total.
All POS systems calculate taxes in their own unique way and typically allow for a small margin of difference (usually up to 10¢ per order). If you see any egregious discrepancies, please reach out to our support team so we can take a look! | http://help.brandibble.co/en/articles/2584527-how-are-taxes-calculated-in-brandibble |
Q:
Normalization UNF to 1NF
When normalizing a relation with multi-value attributes, we decompose it as a new relation with the primary key field and the values from the multi-valued attribute.
The problem I have is, what is the primary key for that newly created attribute?
If we use the same old primary key as the new one, since we repeat the values there with the values from the multi-valued attribute, how can we have unique values for the primary key field here?
I have a table with customer_names, their hobbies and so on. Some people have more than 1 hobby, so now it's a multi-valued attribute. Now even if I create a new relation only with customer_name & one hobby at a time, how can I add details of the people say who have 3 hobbies?
A:
When you create the lookup table for the new attribute, you don't repeat the value in the lookup table. And usually you add an artificial PK in the form of an IDENTITY column.
For example: You have a table with a bunch of addresses. There are many addresses with a common city.
You decide to normalize by creating a city table. You only add a given city to the City table ONCE. Not once for each address.
EDIT: in the scenario described in your comment, you could create a Hobbies table with CustomerID and HobbyName.
CustomerID would be a foreign key that references the Primary Key in the Customers table.
EDIT 2: As Beth and I mentioned in comments, it seems you want a many-to-many relationship.
Create a Hobbies table, which has only one row per unique Hobby. If two or more customers have the same Hobby, you still only list the hobby in the table once. Use an Identity column to create a HobbyID as the Primary Key.
Then create a CustomerHobby table. It has CustomerID and HobbyID. Both are foreign keys that reference the primary keys of the Customers table and Hobbies table, respectively.
That's it.
| |
Les Ateliers Beau Roc inc.
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Work conditions: Permanent position; Salary $18.17/hour ($19.29 after 6 months); 4 days/week (40 hours) Monday to Thursday; Possible overtime required on Friday mornings; Day shift; Benefits.
Requirements: Industrial setting experience preferable; Team worker; Able to work in a dynamic and fast pace work environment; Punctual and diligent; Sense of responsibility and intiative; Good physical condition; Must have own transportation. | https://www.manufacturejobs.ca/manufacturing/labourer-plasma-cutting-table-16b390/ |
There is no universal blood type, but there is a universal donor type and a universal recipient type. Blood type O-negative is the universal donor type, while AB-positive is the universal recipient type.
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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to data translation and more particularly to translating geometric data to object-oriented data.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The introduction of new layout design tools which utilize an object- oriented database structure has posed a new problem to designers. Traditional layout design tools in the past have utilized databases which contain unassociated geometric data. When the data is taken as a whole, active transistors, contacts, wires, etc. are formed by the overlap and abutment of various layers of material.
Recently many design tools have adopted an object-oriented representation. This database representation has a distinct advantage over the traditional representation in that only user-defined objects which have the properties of certain layout structures, such as transistors, contacts, or wires, exist. Pure polygonal data can exist in an object-oriented database, but it cannot take advantage of the object- oriented capabilities.
For instance, in a traditional database a transistor is represented by a geometry of diffusion which is overlapped by a smaller geometry of polysilicon. To construct a transistor in a traditional design tool, the designer would first place a rectangular piece of N or P diffusion, then place a rectangular piece of polysilicon on top of the diffusion at the location where the active transistor is desired as shown in FIG. 1.
In an object-oriented database, a transistor is simply a transistor object. The design tool inherently knows what a transistor is and what materials make it up. The designer no longer needs to place two separate polygons of material, only a single object: a transistor.
Wires have a similar difference between the two database structures. In the traditional database, wires are represented as "random" geometries in which connectivity is determined by overlap and abutment as shown in FIG. 2. There is no inherent connectivity information present in the database. The data must be taken as a whole. A comparison of the numerous endpoints and edges of the polygons and rectangles will determine which geometries comprise electrical connections.
In an object-oriented database, "free" or unassociated rectangles or polygons do not contain inherent connectivity information. The head and tail of each wire must be connected to a terminal or contact object. Therefore, wires themselves are considered objects as shown in FIG. 3. In written expression:
TERMINAL head.sub.-- object (1,3);
CONTACT tail.sub.-- object (5,3);
WIRE head.sub.-- object to tail.sub.-- object.
Object-oriented database structures have a distinct advantage over the traditional database representation in that the connectivity of the routing/wiring is inherent. No comparison of the relative locations of the geometries is required to determine connectivity.
There has been little previous work on this topic. Software/Algorithms are available which provide a simple one-to-one conversion between database representations. The electrical connectivity still must be derived by a comparison of the edges of the various geometries. The inherent ability of the object-oriented database to hold connectivity information is not exploited.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a translation of electrical connectivity information from traditional layout design representation to object-oriented design representation is achieved wherein the connectivity information of the wiring is added to the object-oriented database. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the method includes the step of reading locations of terminals and contacts and unassociated geometric data from geometric data. The geometric data also includes elements and locations of edges of the elements. The method includes the step of comparing the locations of the edges of the elements with the locations of the terminals and contacts read above.
IN THE DRAWINGS:
FIG. 1 illustrates a traditional database for a transistor;
FIG. 2 illustrates a traditional database for wires;
FIG. 3 illustrates an object-oriented database for a wire;
FIG. 4 illustrates a system programmed to operate according to the flow chart of FIG. 5.
FIG. 5 is a flow chart for the operation of data translator according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 illustrates a simplified case of five terminals and the wiring geometries; and
FIG. 7 illustrates how FIG. 6 would be represented in the translated object-oriented database.
DESCRIPTION OF ONE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In accordinance with present invention the unassociated/free geometries areconverted to object-oriented representation. Furthermore, electrical connectivity information is added to the database.
Referring to FIG. 4 the translator 70 may be a general purpose computer with a processor section 71, a display 72, a keyboard 73 input, and a mouse 74 input. The processor section 71 would include a microprocessor 71a and a memory 71b. The memory stores the data in this case in a C language data structure. The processor operates according to the flow chart of FIG. 5 and generates the store information in an object- oriented format as discussed previously. The system can also be a dedicated translator made up of memory, a processor and a comparator to perform the steps discussed above. The process (step 41 in FIG. 5) first reads in all the terminals present in a large VLSI design. These terminals include the connection points to the physical package and the I/O terminals present onthe various modules internal to the chip. Several attributes of the terminals are read into memory 71b; the most important of which is the physical locations of the terminals in the design. This information is stored (step 42) in the following C data structure.
______________________________________
typedef struct term.sub.-- info{ /*Terminals */
char ob[MAXTEXT], pnam[MAXSNAM];
char lnam[MAXTEXT];
char inst[MAXTEXT], type[10], side[2];
byte used;
float x1, y1, x2, y2;
float w, cx, cy;
} term.sub.-- def;
______________________________________
All of the contacts (step 43) are also read into the program in a similar manner. Several attributes are stored concurrently in the data structures listed below (step 44). These terminals and contacts will become the headsand tails of the numerous wires which make the routing of the design.
______________________________________
typedef struct cont.sub.-- info{ /* Contacts */
char ob[MAXTEXT], inst[MAXSNAM];
int orient;
float x, y;
} cont.sub.-- def;
typedef struct mcont.sub.-- info{ /*Matrix Contacts*/
char ob[MAXTEXT], inst[MAXSNAM];
float x, y, dx, dy;
int ncx, ncy, orient;
}mcont.sub.-- def;
______________________________________
Finally the large amount of unassociated geometric data which represents the routing of the chip is read (step 45) into the program. In order to extrapolate the connectivity information, all of the geometric figures must be read in at once. This required the creation of a series of large Cdata structures:
______________________________________
typedef struct path.sub.-- range{ /*CLF Paths*/
byte used;
char lnam[MAXTEXT];
char snam[MAXSNAM];
int np;
float w, *points;
} path.sub.-- list;
typedef struct rect.sub.-- range{ /*Rectangles*/
byte used;
char lnam[MAXTEXT];
char snam[MAXSNAM];
float w, x1, y1, x2, y2;
} rec.sub.-- list;
______________________________________
After this data is present in memory (step 46), a thorough comparison of the endpoints is performed (step 47). The endpoints of the random geometries are compared against the pre-existing terminals and contacts which were read in initially. If no pre-existing terminals or contacts canbe found for a given endpoint of a wire, it is assumed that this wire made a connection in the traditional database through overlap of or abutment toanother geometry.
In an object-oriented database, wires are defined by two endpoints:
WIRE head.sub.-- object TO tail.sub.-- object;
"Head" and "tail" must either be a contact or terminal object. Therefore inorder to transfer a given wire geometry from a traditional database to an object-oriented database, all wires must have a head and a tail. Connectivity no longer can be assumed by overlap or abutment. When all geometries are not identified or marked as used (step 47) the next unused geometry is made active and first the coordinates of the head of geometry is compared (50) with coordinates of terminals and contracts. If a terminal or contract is found (51), the coordinates of tail of geometry iscompared with the coordinates of the terminals and contracts (step 54).
Where an endpoint of a geometry does not correspond to a contact or terminal ("no" in steps 51 and 55), an internal terminal is created (steps52 and 56) and placed at that location to act as the endpoint and gives that wire something to connect to. This internal terminal is added to the terminal data structure (steps 53 and 57) and therefore is included in future terminal search iterations.
As the process continues, it will encounter the geometry which connected tothe original geometry by overlap or abutment. The endpoint for this new geometry will be identical to the internal terminal which was created for the original geometry. When the process traverses the terminal data structure, a terminal match will be found with the internal terminal. Since this terminal has been created, it gives a physical object for the wire to connect to. This is how connectivity information which was not present in the traditional database is added to the object- oriented database.
When a head and tail of a given geometry is found, it is marked as "used" (step 58) and is removed from future searching iterations. When all geometries are marked as "used" the algorithm terminates (step 48).
For example, consider the simplified case of two terminals (A and B) and three wire geometries (1, 2, and 3) of FIG. 6.
Terminal List:
A: (10,5)
B: (15,1)
Wire Geometry List (endpoints):
1: (10,5) and (10,3)
2: (10,3) and (15,3)
3: (15,3) and (15,1)
The process will first read in the physical locations of the terminals (andcontacts, which there are none in this design). The location of the endpoints of the geometries are then read into the program. All of this information is stored in the above data structures (steps 41-46).
The process sequentially works throughout all wire geometries studying the endpoints. In this case, the first geometry with (10, 5) and (10,3) as endpoints is considered.
The first endpoint is compared against the list of pre-existing terminals (step 50). A match is found with terminal A (step 51). The other endpoint is also compared against the list of terminals (step 54). No match is found (step 55). Therefore, an internal terminal is placed at that location, (10,3) (step 56). Furthermore, the location of that terminal is added to the terminal list (step 57). Also since a head and tail for this geometry was found, it is marked as "used" (step 58).
The status of the terminal and wire geometry list is now:
Terminal List:
A: (10,5)
B: (15,1)
(10,3)
Wire Geometry List (endpoints):
1: (10,5) and (10,3) USED
2: (10,3) and (15,3)
3: (15,3) and (15,1)
Wire geometry #2 is then considered. The first endpoint (10,3) is compared to the terminal list. A match is found with the internal terminal that wascreated during the previous iteration. The second endpoint is not found in the list and therefore an internal is placed at (15,3). This terminal is placed in the terminal list and the geometry is marked as used.
The status of the terminal and wire geometry list is now:
Terminal List:
A: (10,5)
B: (15,1)
(10,3)
(15,3)
Wire Geometry List (endpoints):
1: (10,5) and (10,3) USED
2: (10,3) and (15,3) USED
3: (15,3) and (15,1)
The third geometry is then considered. A match is found for both endpoints,one with pre-existing terminals and a another with a recently defined internal terminal. This geometry is then marked as used. Since all geometries are marked as used, the process terminates. The following is how this example would be represented in and object-oriented database:
______________________________________
WIRE A TO internal.sub.-- terminal.sub.-- 1;
WIRE internal.sub.-- terminal.sub.-- 1 TO internal.sub.-- terminal.sub. --
2;
WIRE internal.sub.-- terminal.sub.-- 2 TO B;
______________________________________
FIG. 7 illustrates this representation. One can see that the three wire objects that make up this piece of routing are inherently connected. In a traditional database, the only way one knew that terminal A and wire 1 were connected was by a comparison of the endpoints. Now in the object- oriented representation wire 1's head is terminal A. In other words, terminal A defines wire 1, without terminal A, wire 1 can not exist.
By studying the group of wire statements in the object-oriented database, electrical connectivity of terminals A and B can be ascertained. A netlistcan be extracted, and it would be seen that terminal A and terminal B are, electrically, one node.
Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention as defined by the appended claims. | |
“How you getting greater when you’re afraid of your neighbor?” – Sol
“Penny is a composition meant to invoke reflection among its audience—inquiring: what is the value of one’s ‘thoughts’ to you? In a world where a single stream of a song amounts to just 8/10 of a penny, the age-old idiom “penny for your thoughts” has developed a newly ironic yet powerful meaning. So, as all art and creative ideas are contributions to our collective social commentary in one way or another, the burden of determining its value is placed on the consumer. Does it warrant a response? Does it make you think? Does it hold value beyond what you gave for it? Is it an idea worth sharing with others? These are the questions Sol The Artist asks with his piece “Penny”.” – Excerpt taken from Sol’s Youtube.
Song: Courtesy of Nima Skeemz Production, Sango Drum Production, MTK Co-Production, and Guitar Written by Elan Wright and Played by Budo. Mixed and Mastered by Teal Douville.
Penny for your thoughts? | https://www.rizeentertainment.com/new-music-monday-seattle-rapper-sols-latest-single-penny/ |
---
abstract: 'We establish parabolicity and quadratic area growth for minimal surfaces-with-boundary contained in regions of ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ which are within a sub-logarithmic factor of the exterior of a cone. Unlike previous work showing that these two properties hold for minimal surfaces-with-boundary contained between two catenoids, we do not make use of universal superharmonic functions. Instead, we use stochastic methods, which have the additional feature of giving a type of parabolicity in a more general context than Brownian motion on a minimal surface.'
address: 'Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA'
author:
- 'Robert W. Neel'
date: 'February 15, 2011'
title: On parabolicity and area growth of minimal surfaces
---
Introduction
============
We are interested in controlling the geometry and conformal structure of minimal surfaces-with-boundary in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, under the assumption that they are contained in certain rotationally symmetric regions. In particular, let $(x_1, x_2, x_3)$ be standard Euclidean coordinates on ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ and let $r=\sqrt{x_1^2+x_2^2}$. We consider minimal surfaces-with-boundary contained in sets of the form $\{ |x_3| \leq f(r)\text{ and }r>C\}$ for some positive, increasing, continuous function $f$ and some positive constant $C$. We are interested in two possible properties of such surfaces, parabolicity and quadratic area growth. A surface-with-boundary is parabolic if the boundary is non-empty and any bounded harmonic function on the surface is determined by its boundary values. (This is not the standard notion of parabolicity for a Riemann surface, but it will be a convenient usage for us.) Equivalently, a surface is parabolic if Brownian motion on the surface, started from any interior point, hits the boundary (in finite time) almost surely. Now for positive $\rho$, let $B_{\rho}=\{x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2 \leq \rho^2\}$ be the ball of radius $\rho$. We say that a surface $M$ has quadratic area growth if $M\cap B_{\rho}$ has area less than or equal to $C \rho^2$ for sufficiently large $\rho$, for some positive constant $C$. (Note that this is an extrinsic notion of quadratic area growth.)
We prove that both of these properties hold for minimal surfaces-with-boundary contained in regions that are within sub-logarithmic factors of the exterior of a cone (that is, $f(r)$ as above is within a sub-logarithmic factor of being linear), under mild additional assumptions like stochastic completeness or properness of the immersion. These results are given in Theorems \[THM:Para\] and \[THM:Area\]. We prove both results using a stochastic approach, in contrast to the analytic approach via universal superharmonic functions (as described below). One additional feature of this approach is that parabolicity can be proven for a broader class of processes than Brownian motion on minimal surfaces, in a sense described in Theorem \[THM:MartPara\].
In the remainder of this section, we give additional background on this problem and make a few preliminary observations. We say that a surface $M$ is contained between two catenoids if $M$ is contained in the region $\{|x_3|\leq c \log r\text{ and }r\geq 2\}$ for some $c>0$. In [@CKMR], parabolicity and quadratic area growth were shown for properly immersed minimal surfaces with compact boundary contained between two catenoids (see also Section 6 of the comprehensive survey [@MPSurvey]). This was done using the technique of universal superharmonic functions, where a universal superharmonic function is a function on a subset of ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ with the property that its restriction to any minimal surface is superharmonic. More specifically, the method of [@CKMR] is to find a universal superharmonic function on the region between two catenoids which is also proper and bounded from below. The existence of such a function immediately shows that any minimal surface of this type is parabolic. Further, using that the gradient and Laplacian of their universal superharmonic function are natural geometric quantities, they were able to deduce quadratic area growth. Bill Meeks has asked whether universal superharmonic functions which are proper and bounded from below can be found on the exterior of sufficiently large cones, mainly for the purpose of extending the parabolicity and quadratic area growth results just mentioned. The results of the present paper bring us much closer (within sub-logarithmic factors) to the region conjectured by Meeks (of course, they leave open the question of the existence of universal superharmonic functions themselves on such regions).
We also mention the complimentary project of finding regions (preferably as small as possible) where one can minimally (conformally) immerse a surface of arbitrary conformal structure. Recent progress in this direction can be found in [@AlarconLopez].
The motivation for studying minimal surfaces-with-boundary restricted to this type of region comes in part from the fact that such surfaces arise as (representatives of) ends of complete minimal surfaces. In particular, the results of [@CKMR] on minimal surfaces-with-boundary contained between two catenoids, mentioned above, were used in the same paper in order to advance the classification of properly embedded minimal surfaces by controlling the behavior of certain ends. In light of this connection, as well as the fact that parabolicity and quadratic area growth are global properties, we are primarily interested in the large $r$ behavior of the surfaces, and thus our results are formulated without much concern for the small $r$ behavior of the surfaces. In this context, we note that parabolicity and quadratic area growth are preserved under homothetic rescaling (which also preserves minimality of the surface) and under removing compact subsets of the surface. This allows the results proven below to be applied somewhat more broadly than the hypotheses might otherwise indicate.
We make one more preliminary observation. Suppose that $M$ is contained in the exterior of a cone, that is, $M$ is contained in the region $\{(x_1,x_2,x_3): |x_3| \leq r \}$ for some positive constant $c$. Let $T_{\rho}=\{(x_1,x_2,x_3): r \leq \rho\}$ for positive $\rho$ (so that $T_{\rho}$ is a cylindrical region). Then we see that $M$ has quadratic area growth if and only if the area of $M\cap T_{\rho}$ is bounded by $C\rho^2$ for large $\rho$, for some positive constant $C$. That is to say, quadratic area growth with respect to the distance from the origin is equivalent to quadratic area growth with respect to $r$ for such surfaces. All of the surfaces we consider in this paper are contained in the exterior of a cone and thus satisfy this equivalence. In what follows, we will frequently use the condition on $M\cap T_{\rho}$ as our criterion for quadratic area growth without further comment.
The author would like to thank Bill Meeks for introducing him to this problem in the context of Oberwolfach’s Arbeitsgemeinschaft on minimal surfaces held in October 2009. In particular, this paper addresses several questions that the author raised in his talk there. The author would also like to thank Bennett Eisenberg for advice about Markov chains, and Graham Smith and Rob Kusner for discussions about universal superharmonic functions and minimal ends.
Background on Markov chains {#Sect:MC}
===========================
A central tool for us will be the comparison of Brownian motion on $M$ (or a more general martingale) to a Markov chain. In preparation for this, we briefly review some relevant facts about Markov chains, formulated for our case of interest.
We take a subset of the non-negative integers, $\Omega_L=\{L, L+1,L+2, \ldots\}$ for some non-negative integer $L$, as our state space. We are interested in discrete time Markov chains $(Y_n, n\in\{0, 1,\ldots\})$ that evolve in the following way. If $Y_n=m>L$, then $Y_{n+1}$ is $m+1$ with probability $p_m$ and $m-1$ with probability $q_m=1-p_m$. We stop the process upon hitting the boundary at $L$. So $Y_n$ is a time-homogenous nearest-neighbor random walk on $\Omega_L$, stopped at $L$. We will always assume that $p_m>0$ and $q_m>0$ for all $m>L$, so that our chain is irreducible. Obviously, one could reduce this to the usual case of $L=0$ by a simple translation. However, this more general set-up will make the notation somewhat less burdensome later on.
For $m\geq L+1$, we let $$A_m= 1+\frac{q_{L+1}}{p_{L+1}} +\frac{q_{L+1}q_{L+2}}{p_{L+1}p_{L+2}} +\cdots +\frac{q_{L+1}\cdots q_m}{p_{L+1}\cdots p_m} .$$ A well-known computation (see, for example, Theorems 5.3.7 and 5.3.8 of [@DurrettProb]) shows that $A_m$ is the reciprocal of the probability that the process, starting from $L+1$, hits $m+1$ before $L$ (we note that, under our assumptions, the process almost surely hits either $L$ or $m+1$ in finite time). Thus, the chain is parabolic, meaning that it almost surely hits $L$, if and only if $A_m{\rightarrow}\infty$ as $m{\rightarrow}\infty$.
To give an example which will be relevant later, let $q_m=m/(2m+1)$ and $p_m=(m+1)/(2m+1)$. Then $$\frac{q_{L+1}\cdots q_m}{p_{L+1}\cdots p_m} = \frac{1}{m} \quad\text{and}\quad A_m = \sum_{k=L}^m\frac{1}{k} .$$ Because the harmonic series is divergent, it follows that this chain is parabolic, and more generally, so is any chain with $p_m\leq (m+1)/(2m+1)$ for large $m$. Further, we think of this chain as a borderline case, in the sense that the harmonic series is a borderline case for the divergence of series.
In addition, we will need a result on an expected number of upcrossings. We assume that the chain is parabolic. Then if we start the process at $Y_0=m$, we let $\sigma_1$ be the first hitting time of $m+1$, which may be infinite if the process reaches $L$ first. Then we let $\tilde{\sigma}_1$ be the first hitting time of $m$ after $\sigma_1$, $\sigma_2$ the first hitting time of $m+1$ after $\tilde{\sigma}_1$, and so on. Note that if $\sigma_i$ is finite, then $\tilde{\sigma}_i$ is also finite, almost surely, because the chain is parabolic. If we let $u_m = \sup\{ m: \sigma_m<\infty \}$ (with the convention that $u_m=0$ if $\sigma_1=\infty$), then $u_m$ is the number of upcrossings from $m$ to $m+1$. Because the chain is parabolic, $u_m$ is almost surely finite. A straightforward adaptation of the computation that leads to $A_m$ shows that $$\begin{split}
& {\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\text{$Y_n$ hits $L$ before $m+1$} |Y_0=m{\right)}\\
&\quad\quad\quad= {\left(}1+\frac{p_m}{q_m}+\frac{p_m p_{m-1}}{q_m q_{m-1}}+\cdots+\frac{p_m\cdots p_{L+1}}{q_m\cdots q_{L+1}}{\right)}^{-1} .
\end{split}$$ Further, by the Markov property, the number of upcrossings from $m$ to $m+1$ is a geometric random variable with the above as its parameter, and thus its expectation is $${\mathbb{E}}{\left(}u_m| Y_0=m {\right)}= 1+\frac{p_m}{q_m}+\frac{p_m p_{m-1}}{q_m q_{m-1}}+\cdots+\frac{p_m\cdots p_{L+1}}{q_m\cdots q_{L+1}} .$$
Control of the radial process {#Sect:Radial}
=============================
Having recalled some basic facts about Markov chains, we now discuss how they arise in the present work. We begin by introducing a broader class of processes, which we will use in our discussion of parabolicity. Consider an ${\mathbb{R}}^3$-martingale $Z_t$ which solves an (Ito) SDE of the form $$dZ_t = \sigma_t \, dW^{{\mathbb{R}}^3}_t , \quad \text{where $W^{{\mathbb{R}}^3}_t$ is an ${\mathbb{R}}^3$-Brownian motion,}$$ and where $\sigma_t$ is an adapted process taking values in the set of $3\times3$ matrices conjugate under rotation to $$\begin{bmatrix}
1 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 1 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0
\end{bmatrix} .$$ That is, $\sigma_t$ takes values in the set of projections onto planes. For simplicity, we will also assume that $\sigma_t$ is a continuous process. Intuitively, such a $Z_t$ is infinitesimally Brownian motion on the plane corresponding to $\sigma$, where $\sigma$ is allowed to vary. One possibility is for $\sigma_t$ to be projection onto the tangent plane of a minimal surface. More specifically, let $M$ be a stochastically complete minimal surface-with-boundary. Stochastic completeness means that Brownian motion on $M$ exists until it hits the boundary (that is, it doesn’t explode), and we note that all properly immersed minimal surfaces-with-boundary are stochastically complete. Then $Z_t$ is Brownian motion on $M$, immersed into ${\mathbb{R}}^3$. (Here we are using the fact that such a $Z_t$ stays on the minimal surface, so $\sigma_t$ is well-defined as projection onto the tangent plane at $Z_t$, where self-intersections are handled in the usual way.) This is the motivating case. However, the point is that nothing in our approach to parabolicity will require the plane field corresponding to $\sigma_t$ to be integrable, so that $Z_t$ need not be restricted to a surface. In particular, in what follows it is appealing to consider the case when we choose $\sigma_t$ as a control in order to try to force $Z_t$ to remain in some subset of ${\mathbb{R}}^3$. As usual, we also wish to allow the possibility that our process $Z_t$ is stopped in finite time; in particular, $Z_t$ runs until some stopping time $\zeta$, which may be infinite. In the minimal surface-with-boundary case, we will always take $\zeta$ to be the hitting time of the boundary.
For convenience, we call such a $Z_t$ a rank 2 martingale. The terminology is motivated by the fact that $\sigma_t$ has rank 2, which means that the process infinitesimally evolves along a plane. Of course, we’re assuming more than just that $\sigma_t$ has rank 2, corresponding to assuming that $X_t$ is not merely infinitesimally evolving along a plane but is doing so “like Brownian motion.” Nonetheless, making our terminology more specific at the expense of making it more cumbersome doesn’t seem worth it.
Recall that we let $r=\sqrt{x_1^2+x_2^2}$ be the radial coordinate, in the sense of cylindrical coordinates. We will assume that $Z_t$ is contained in the region $\{r\geq e^L\}$ for some non-negative integer $L$, and that it is stopped if it ever hits $\{r= e^L\}$. For convenience, we will also assume that $r(Z_0)=e^{L+1}$. We now discretize $Z_t$ (in particular, its radial component $r_t=r(Z_t)$) in the following way. Set $\sigma_0=0$, and let $\sigma_1$ be the first time $\log r_t$ hits either $L$ (in which case the process is stopped) or $L+2$. Then we inductively define $\sigma_{n+1}$ for $n\geq 1$ to be the first time $\log r_t$ hits either $\log r_{\sigma_{n}}+1$ or $\log r_{\sigma_{n}}-1$. As usual, we allow $\sigma_n$ to be $\infty$ if the event never occurs.
Let $n_t$ be a unit vector in the kernel of $\sigma_t$, and let $n_{3,t}$ be its $x_3$-component. The notation is chosen because when $Z_t$ is Brownian motion on a minimal surface, $n_t$ is a unit normal to $M$ (at the current point). Then a simple application of Ito’s rule shows that $\alpha_t=1-n_{3,t}^2$ is the infinitesimal drift of $r^2_t$, meaning that $r(Z_t)^2 - \int_0^t \alpha_t \, dt$ is a martingale. In the minimal surface case, this is just the fact that $({\Delta}_M/2) r^2 = 1-n_3^2$, where $n_3$ is the $x_3$-component of the unit normal to $M$. Since $1\leq \alpha_t\leq 2$, it follows that the expectation of $r^2_t$ grows at a rate between 1 and 2. In particular, we see that $\log r_t$ almost surely leaves any interval of the form $(m+1,m-1)$ for $m\geq L+1$, unless the process is stopped first. Thus, almost surely, $\sigma_n$ will be $\infty$ if and only $\zeta$ is finite and occurs before $\sigma_n$. So we have that $X_n=\log r_{\sigma_n}$ is a nearest-neighbor random walk on $\{L,L+1,\ldots \}$, started at $X_0=L+1$ and stopped at the random time $\zeta$ (where this has the obvious meaning in terms of the underlying process $Z_t$). If the process is stopped before $n$, in the sense that $\zeta<\sigma_n$, we will say that $X_n$ does not exist. Note that $X_n$ is not, in general, Markov. This is true even in the case when $Z_t$ is Brownian motion on a minimal surface-with-boundary $M$, since the transition probabilities (as well as $\zeta$) depend on where $Z_{\sigma_n}$ is (on $M$).
We now further assume that $Z_t$ is contained in the region $$\{|x_3|\leq f(r) \}$$ for some continuous, non-negative, monotone non-decreasing function $f:[e^L,\infty){\rightarrow}[0,\infty)$. Our goal is to find a Markov chain with which to compare $X_n$. The first step is to find upper bounds on ${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}X_{n+1}=m+1 | X_n=m{\right)}$ that depend only on $\{X_n=m\}$ and not on anything else in ${\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n}$ (here ${\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n}$ is the $\sigma$-algebra generated by $Z_t$ up to time $\sigma_n$).
Recall the following basic estimate for minimal surfaces (see Lemma 2.3 of [@CKMR])
\[Lem:Basic\] Let $M$ be a minimal surface-with-boundary and assume that $r\neq 0$ on $M$. Then $|{\Delta}_M \log r| \leq |\nabla_M x_3|^2/r^2$ (on the interior of $M$).
The key observation for us is that this generalizes immediately to rank 2 martingales. We let $\beta_t$ and $\gamma_t$ be the infinitesimal drifts of $\log r_t$ and $x_{3,t}^2 = x^2_3(Z_t)$, respectively, analogously to our earlier introduction of $\alpha_t$. Then the generalization is $$\label{Eqn:BetaGamma}
{\left|}\beta_t {\right|}\leq \frac{\gamma_t}{2r_t^2} \quad\text{assuming that $r_t\neq 0$.}$$ For completeness, we now take a moment to derive this inequality. Because $\sigma_t$ is a projection, $\sigma_t^2=\sigma_t$. Thus, in terms of a unit vector $(n_1,n_2,n_3)$ in the kernel of $\sigma_t$, the diffusion matrix associated to $Z_t$ is (and where we feel free to drop the $t$’s in the subscripts to simplify the notation) $$\begin{bmatrix}
1-n_1^2 & -n_1n_2 & -n_1n_3 \\
-n_1n_2 & 1-n_2^2 & -n_2n_3 \\
-n_1n_3 & -n_2n_3 & 1-n_3^2
\end{bmatrix} .$$ The Hessian of $\log r$ (where $r\neq 0$) is given by $$\begin{gathered}
\frac{\partial^2}{\partial x_1^2} \log r = \frac{1}{r^2}-\frac{2x_1^2}{r^4}, \quad
\frac{\partial^2}{\partial x_1\partial x_2} \log r= \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x_2\partial x_1} \log r
= -\frac{2x_1x_2}{r^4}, \\
\frac{\partial^2}{\partial x_2^2} \log r = \frac{1}{r^2}-\frac{2x_2^2}{r^4}, \quad
\text{and $0$ for everything else.}\end{gathered}$$ Then Ito’s rule gives $$\beta_t = \frac{2x_1x_2n_1n_2}{r^4}+\frac{1}{2r^2}{\left[}{\left(}1-\frac{2x_1^2}{r^2}{\right)}{\left(}1-n_1^2{\right)}+ {\left(}1-\frac{2x_2^2}{r^2}{\right)}{\left(}1-n_2^2{\right)}{\right]}.$$ Similarly, we compute that $\gamma_t = 1-n_3^2 = n_1^2+n_2^2$. Because the desired inequality is invariant under rotation around the $x_3$-axis, it is enough to prove it under the assumption that $x_1=r$ and $x_2=0$ at the current point. Making this assumption, we get the simplification $\beta_t= (n_1^2-n_2^2)/2r^2$. Comparing this with $\gamma_t/2r^2$ establishes the desired inequality. In the case when $Z_t$ is Brownian motion on $M$, we have that $\beta_t = ({\Delta}_M/2)\log r$ and $\gamma_t = |\nabla_M x_3|^2$, where the right-hand sides are evaluated at $Z_t$, of course. Thus the situation reduces to that of Lemma \[Lem:Basic\], interpreted probabilistically.
Next, our assumptions on $f$ (and the definition of the $\sigma_n$) imply that $$\begin{split}
& {\mathbb{E}}{\left[}\left. \int_{\sigma_n}^{\sigma_{n+1}\wedge \zeta} \gamma_t \, dt
\right| \{X_n=m\}\cap {\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n} {\right]}\\
& \quad\quad= {\mathbb{E}}{\left[}x_3^2{\left(}Z_{\sigma_{n+1}\wedge\zeta}{\right)}- x_3^2{\left(}Z_{\sigma_n}{\right)}\left| \{X_n=m\}\cap {\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n} \right. {\right]}\\
& \quad\quad\leq {\left(}f {\left(}e^{m+1}{\right)}{\right)}^2 .
\end{split}$$ Note that this bound is independent of everything in ${\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n}$ except $\{X_n=m\}$. We use this estimate along with Equation and Ito’s rule to see that $${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}\log r_{\sigma_{n+1}\wedge\zeta} | \{X_n=m\}\cap {\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n} {\right]}\leq n+\frac{{\left(}f {\left(}e^{m+1}{\right)}{\right)}^2}{2e^{2m-2}} ,$$ which again is independent of everything in ${\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n}$ except $\{X_n=m\}$. Recall that, given $X_n=m$, $X_{n+1}=\log r_{\sigma_{n+1}}$ is either $m+1$ or $m-1$, assuming $\sigma_{n+1}<\infty$ (that is, the process isn’t stopped first), and if $\sigma_{n+1}=\infty$ then $\log r_{\zeta}\in[m-1,m+1]$. Thus, we see that $${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}X_{n+1}=m+1 | X_n=m{\right)}\leq \frac{1}{2}+\frac{{\left(}f {\left(}e^{m+1}{\right)}{\right)}^2}{4e^{2m-2}},$$ independent of anything else in ${\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_n}$. In particular, we have found the desired uniform estimate for ${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}X_{n+1}=m+1 | X_n=m{\right)}$.
We wish to use this bound as the transition probability $p_m$ for our comparison chain. This means that it must be less than one (recall that we want our chain to be irreducible). Thus, we will now also assume that $L$ and $f(r)$ are such that $$\label{Eqn:fCondition}
\frac{{\left(}f {\left(}e^{m+1}{\right)}{\right)}^2}{4e^{2m-2}} <\frac{1}{2} \quad\text{for all $m\geq L+1$.}$$ (Note that this is done mainly for convenience.) We set $$p_m = \frac{1}{2}+\frac{{\left(}f {\left(}e^{m+1}{\right)}{\right)}^2}{4e^{2m-2}}\quad\text{for all $m\geq L+1$.}$$
Next, we assume that the probability space on which $Z_t$ is defined is rich enough to support a countable sequence $U_1, U_2, \ldots$ of i.i.d. random variables, distributed uniformly on the interval $[0,1]$, and all independent of $Z_t$ (this can always be accomplished; for example, by taking the product of the original probability space with the unit interval with Lebesgue measure). We now determine the process $Y_n$ as follows. Let $Y_0=L+1$, and define $Y_n$ for $n\geq 1$ inductively as follows. If $Y_{n-1}=m>X_{n-1}$ or if $X_{n-1}$ doesn’t exist (equivalently, $\zeta<\sigma_{n-1}$), then $$Y_n =
\left\{ \begin{array}{ll}
m+1 & \text{if $U_n\in{\left[}0,p_{m}{\right]}$,} \\
m-1 & \text{if $U_n\in{\left(}p_{m},1{\right]}$.}
\end{array}\right.$$ If $Y_{n-1}=m=X_{n-1}$, then let $${\varphi}_m={\mathbb{P}}{\left[}X_n=m+1 \left| \{X_{n-1}=m\}\cap {\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_{n-1}}\right. {\right]}.$$ Note that ${\varphi}_m$ is bounded from above by $p_m$ (so ${\varphi}_m\leq p_m$), and let $$Y_n =
\left\{ \begin{array}{ll}
m+1 & \text{if $X_n=m+1$,} \\
m+1 & \text{if $X_n\neq m+1$ and $U_n\leq {\left(}p_m- {\varphi}_m{\right)}/{\left(}1- {\varphi}_m{\right)}$,} \\
m-1 & \text{if $X_n\neq m+1$ and $U_n> {\left(}p_m- {\varphi}_m{\right)}/{\left(}1- {\varphi}_m{\right)}$.}
\end{array}\right.$$ Here $X_n\neq m+1$ should be thought of as short-hand for $X_n=m-1$ or $X_n$ doesn’t exist. Finally, we stop $Y_n$ if it hits $L$. Recall that we’re also assuming that $Z_t$ is stopped if it hits $\{r=e^L\}$.
A simple computation shows that ${\mathbb{P}}{\left[}Y_n=m+1|Y_{n-1}=m{\right]}=p_m$, independent of anything else in ${\mathcal{F}}^Z_{\sigma_{n-1}}$ and of $U_1,\ldots,U_{n-1}$. It follows that $Y_n$ is a Markov chain with transition probabilities $p_m$. In addition, by construction $Y_n$ dominates $X_n$ in the sense that $Y_n \geq X_n$ for all $n$ such that $\sigma_n\leq \zeta$, almost surely. So $Y_n$ is the desired comparison chain.
Parabolicity
============
Because the conditions for minimal surfaces-with-boundary we are ultimately interested in, namely parabolicity and quadratic area growth, aren’t affected by homothetically rescaling (as mentioned in the introduction), we will assume that $M$ is contained in the region $\{r\geq e^L\}$ for some non-negative integer $L$ (instead of the more general $\{r\geq c\}$ for positive $c$), and that any intersection of $M$ and $\{r=e^L\}$ is contained in the boundary of $M$.
Let $$f_1(r) = \frac{c r}{\sqrt{\log r \log{\left(}\log r{\right)}}} \quad\text{for some $c>0$},$$ and let $L$ be chosen so that Equation is satisfied with $f=f_1$. Note that a simple computation shows that such an $L$ always exists. (We should perhaps use $L_1$ here, analogously to $f_1$, but that would make the subscripts too unwieldy.)
The point of working with rank 2 martingales in the last section is that we have the following more general version of parabolicity.
\[THM:MartPara\] Let $f_1(r)$ and $L$ be as in the preceding paragraph. Suppose that $Z_t$ is a rank 2 martingale as described in Section \[Sect:Radial\] (in particular, we continue to assume, for convenience, that $r(Z_0)=e^L$). If $Z_t$ is contained in the region $${\left\{}
\newcommand{\rc}{\right\}}r \geq e^L \text{ and } |x_3|\leq f_1(r) \rc \subset {\mathbb{R}}^3 ,$$ then $Z_t$ almost surely has finite lifetime.
*Proof:* We recall $X_n$, the discretization of $\log r(Z_t)$ introduced above. Then with $f=f_1$, our earlier computations show that we have a comparison Markov chain $Y_n$, started at $Y_0=L+1$, with (after a bit of simplification) $$p_m= \frac{1}{2}+\frac{c^2 e^4}{4}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1)\log(m+1)} .$$ Then a little more algebra shows that $$p_m\leq \frac{m+1}{2m+1}\quad\text{if and only if} \quad
\frac{4}{c^2e^4}(m+1)\log(m+1)\geq 4m+2 .$$ This last inequality holds for all sufficiently large $m$. Thus $p_m\leq(m+1)/(2m+1)$ for large $m$, and it follows from the discussion in Section \[Sect:MC\] that $Y_n$ is parabolic, that is, $Y_n$ almost surely hits $L$.
Recall that $Y_n$ dominates $X_n$ until $\zeta$. Then because $Z_t$ is contained in the region $\{r\geq e^L\}$ and we stop $Z_t$ when $\log r(Z_t)=L$, if not before, $Z_t$ is stopped no later than the time when $Y_n$ hits $L$, where this has the obvious meaning in terms of the stopping times $\sigma_n$. In particular, $\zeta$ is almost surely finite. $\Box$
Returning to minimal surfaces, recall that asserting that a surface-with-boundary is parabolic implies that the boundary is nonempty. Again, we are interested in the asymptotic behavior of minimal surfaces, so the following theorem is formulated without much concern for the behavior of the minimal surface for “small $r$.”
\[THM:Para\] Let $f_1(r)$ and $L$ be as above. Suppose that $M$ is a stochastically complete minimal surface-with-boundary contained in the region $${\left\{}
\newcommand{\rc}{\right\}}r \geq e^L \text{ and } |x_3|\leq f_1(r) \rc \subset {\mathbb{R}}^3 ,$$ with the assumption that that any intersection of $M$ and $\{r=e^L\}$ is contained in the boundary of $M$. Then $M$ is parabolic.
*Proof:* We consider Brownian motion $B_t$ on $M$ started at some interior point with $r=e^{L+1}$, which we can assume exists after homothetically rescaling (though we might have to change $c$ and $L$ after rescaling) and using that $M$ is stochastically complete. We let $\zeta$ be the first hitting time of the boundary and stop $B_t$ at $\zeta$. Recall that, in order to show that $M$ is parabolic, it is enough to show that Brownian motion started at any interior point hits the boundary in finite time, that is, $\zeta$ is almost surely finite. Now $B_t=Z_t$ satisfies the hypotheses of Theorem \[THM:MartPara\], and we conclude that $B_t$ almost surely hits the boundary in finite time. $\Box$
The same arguments, along with more involved computations, could presumably be pushed to give a slightly weaker hypotheses, meaning replacing $f_1(r)$ with something larger by a sub-logarithmic factor. However, these arguments, in their present form, break down if we try to extend them to the case of surfaces (or rank 2 martingales) contained in the exterior of a cone (that is, the case when $f_1(r)$ is replaced by $cr$ for some $c>0$). The reason is that such a region is preserved under homothetic rescaling, and thus the $p_m$ (as defined above) don’t decay to $1/2$ as $m{\rightarrow}\infty$. In another direction, one could estimate quantities associated with the parabolicity of $M$, for example, the distribution of the maximum of $r$ along Brownian paths. However, we have not pursued these directions here because we are unaware of any applications of this kind of result.
The reason for framing the discussion in terms of rank 2 martingales is that, depending on your point of view, it provides an appealing “explanation” for parabolicity, and clarifies the hypotheses. In particular, it is interesting that parabolicity doesn’t rely on having a surface at all, or equivalently, on the plane field determining the evolution of the rank $2$ martingale being integrable.
Area growth
===========
While it is common to study parabolicity using Brownian motion, it is perhaps more interesting that it also makes a fairly natural tool, at least in this context, to study area growth. The generalization of quadratic area growth to rank 2 martingales would be a quadratic estimate on occupation times, as the proof the following theorem makes clear. However, working with rank 2 martingales doesn’t seem worth the added complexity in the present context. Thus, for the remainder of the section we restrict our attention to the case when our rank 2 martingale is Brownian motion on a stochastically complete minimal surface-with-boundary, and adopt notation accordingly.
Let $$f_2(r) = \frac{c r}{\sqrt{\log r} \log{\left(}\log r{\right)}} \quad\text{for some $c>0$},$$ and let $L$ be chosen so that Equation is satisfied with $f=f_2$. Again, a simple computation shows that such an $L$ always exists. Note that for a minimal surface satisfying the assumptions of the following theorem, quadratic area growth is equivalent to quadratic area growth with respect to $r$, as discussed in the introduction.
\[THM:Area\] Let $f_2(r)$ and $L$ be as in the preceding paragraph. Suppose that $M$ is a properly immersed minimal surface with compact, non-empty boundary, contained in the region $${\left\{}
\newcommand{\rc}{\right\}}r\geq e^L \text{ and } |x_3|\leq f_2(r) \rc \subset {\mathbb{R}}^3$$ with the assumption that any intersection of $M$ and $\{r=e^L\}$ is contained in the boundary of $M$. Then $M$ has quadratic area growth.
*Proof:* Removing a compact subset of $M$ doesn’t affect the result, nor does homothetic rescaling (though we might have to change $c$ and $L$ after rescaling). Thus, without loss of generality, we can assume that the boundary of $M$ is equal to $M\cap \{r =e^L\}$ and that $M\cap \{r= e^{L+1}\}$ is a smooth, compact curve in $M$, which we denote $\gamma$. Then $\gamma$ divides $M$ into two connected components (which intersect only at $\gamma$), the unbounded piece $M_u=M\cap \{r\geq e^{L+1}\}$ with boundary $\gamma$, and the compact piece $M_c=M\cap \{e^L\leq r\leq e^{L+1}\}$ with two boundary components, $\gamma$ and $\partial M$ (the original boundary of $M$). Also, since $\partial M= M\cap \{r =e^L\}$, we see that Brownian motion is only stopped when it hits the level $\{r=e^L\}$.
Note that for large $r$, $f_2(r)\leq f_1(r)$, regardless of what constants $c$ are used in the two functions. So applying Theorem \[THM:Para\] and using that $M$ is properly immersed, we see that $M$ is parabolic. It follows that $M_u$ is also parabolic.
We consider the function $h$ on $M$, determined as follows. We let $h$ be harmonic on $M_c$ with boundary values 1 on $\gamma$ and 0 on $\partial M$. Because $M_c$ is compact, these boundary values uniquely determine a function. On $M_u$, we let $h$ be the unique bounded harmonic function with boundary values 1 on $\gamma$ (which is well-defined because $M_u$ is parabolic); thus $h$ is identically 1 on $M_u$. Finally, we let $h$ be 1 on $\gamma$. Thus, $h$ is a continuous, bounded function on $M$ and is harmonic on $M\setminus\gamma$.
Observe that $\frac{1}{2}{\Delta}h$ is measure-valued, supported on $\gamma$, and has finite mass; let that mass be $1/\alpha$. Then $\frac{1}{2}{\Delta}(\alpha h)$ is a probability measure, which we denote $\mu$, supported on $\gamma$. It follows that $\alpha h$ is the Green’s function associated to $\mu$, and thus $\alpha h$ is also the density of the expected occupation time of Brownian motion on $M$ started from $\mu$ and stopped at $\partial M$. (See [@Grigoryan] for background on the relationship between Brownian motion and potential theory on manifolds.) Since we know that $M_c$ has finite area and $\alpha h$ is bounded there and that $\alpha h$ is identically equal to $\alpha$ on $M_u$, it follows that the expected occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$ is asymptotic to $\alpha$ times the area of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$ (as $\rho{\rightarrow}\infty$). This is the connection between Brownian motion and area growth that we need. In particular, suppose that, for Brownian motion started at some point on $\gamma$, we show that the expected occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$ is bounded from above by $C\rho^2$ for some positive constant $C$. If this holds with $C$ independent of which point of $\gamma$ our Brownian motion starts from, then the estimate will hold for Brownian motion started at $\gamma$ and we will have shown that $M$ has quadratic area growth.
To do this, let $\rho=e^k$ for some integer $k>L+1$. We start be observing that Brownian motion started at a point with $r=e^{L+1}$ (that is, a point on $\gamma$) almost surely hits either $r=e^L$ (in which case the process is stopped) or $r=e^{k+1}$ (that is, $e\rho$) in finite time. Next, we need to estimate how long this takes. Let $\theta_j$ be first hitting time of $r=e^{j}$ for any integer $j$; then $${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}r^2_{\theta_L\wedge\theta_{k+1}} |r_0=e^{L+1} {\right]}=e^{2(k+1)}{\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right)}+ e^{2L}{\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_L<\theta_{k+1} {\right)}$$ (independent of where on $\{r=e^{L+1}\}$ the Brownian motion starts). On the other hand, from $1\leq ({\Delta}_M /2)r^2\leq 2$ and Ito’s formula, we see that $${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}r^2_{\theta_L\wedge\theta_{k+1}} |r_0=e^{L+1} {\right]}\geq e^{2(L+1)} + {\mathbb{E}}{\left[}\theta_L\wedge\theta_{k+1}{\right]}$$ (again independent of where the Brownian motion starts). It follows that $${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}\theta_L\wedge\theta_{k+1} | r_0=e^{L+1}{\right]}\leq e^{2(k+1)}-e^{2(L+1)} .$$ This is the desired estimate on how long it takes for Brownian motion to leave $r\in(e^L,e^{k+1})$; note that it is quadratic in the upper endpoint $e^{k+1}=e\rho$ and independent of where on $\gamma=\{r=e^{L+1}\}$ the Brownian motion starts.
Continuing, we see that if $\theta_L<\theta_{k+1}$ then the process is stopped at $\theta_L$ and the only contribution to the occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$ is $\theta_L$. (Because we’re stopping at $r=e^{k+1}$ rather than $e^k$, this is just an upper bound on the contribution; the reason for this set-up will be clear below.) If $\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L$ then the process continues, and we must also estimate the contribution to the occupation time after $\theta_{k+1}$. Intuitively, we do this as follows. Once the process hits $r=e^{k+1}$, we stop counting it toward the occupation time, until the next time it hits $r=e^k$ (which almost surely happens). Then we start counting the time again, until the next time it hits either $e^L$ or $e^{k+1}$, at which point either the process is stopped or we perform another round of the same procedure. Note that, almost surely, the process eventually hits $r=e^L$ and is stopped. This procedure counts all of the occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$ and part of the occupation time of $M\cap\{ \rho < r\leq e^{k+1}\}$, but it certainly provides an upper bound on the occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$. Further, for the purpose of establishing quadratic area growth, this is no real loss, since $e^{L+1}=e\cdot\rho$.
We now formalize the above procedure. Let $\xi_0 = \theta_{k+1}$ be the first hitting time of $r=e^{k+1}$, and let $\tilde{\xi}_0$ be the first hitting time of $r=e^{k}$ after $\xi_1$. Then we inductively define $\xi_n$ to be the first hitting time of $r=e^{k+1}$ after $\tilde{\xi}_{n-1}$ and $\tilde{\xi}_n$ to be the first hitting time of $r=e^{k}$ after $\xi_n$. By parabolicity, $\tilde{\xi}_n$ is almost surely finite if $\xi_n$ is. Let $U_k=\sup\{ n\geq 0: \xi_n<\infty\}$ be the number of upcrossings from $r=e^k$ to $e^{k+1}$; again by parabolicity it is almost surely finite. An argument completely analogous to the above shows that, starting from $\tilde{\xi}_{n-1}$, the expected amount of time spent until the process leaves $r\in(e^L,e^{k+1})$ satisfies the estimate $${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}{\left(}\theta_L\wedge\xi_n{\right)}- \tilde{\xi}_{n-1}\right|\left. \tilde{\xi}_{n-1}<\infty {\right]}\leq e^{2(k+1)}-e^{2k} .$$ (We note that this estimate is uniform over where on $\{r=e^k\}$ the process is at $\tilde{\xi}_{n-1}$.) Thus, the contribution of each upcrossing to the expected occupation time is bounded by the expression on the right.
Summarizing our progress so far, we have that the expected occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$, where $\rho=e^k$, for Brownian motion started at any point of $\gamma$ is bounded from above by $$e^{2(k+1)}-e^{2(L+1)} + {\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}{\left[}e^{2(k+1)}-e^{2k}{\right]}{\mathbb{E}}{\left[}U_k | \theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right]}.$$ Observe that $e^{2(k+1)}-e^{2(L+1)}$ and $e^{2(k+1)}-e^{2k}$ are both quadratic in $\rho=e^k$. Thus, in order to show that this expression grows quadratically (in $\rho$), it is enough to show that $${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}{\mathbb{E}}{\left[}U_k | \theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right]}$$ is bounded as $k{\rightarrow}\infty$. Again, we recall $X_n$, the discretization of $\log r_t$ introduced above. We see that $\theta_{k+1}$ corresponds to the first time $X_n$ hits $k+1$ (where this correspondence is understood in the natural way in terms of the stopping times $\sigma_n$) and $\theta_L$ corresponds to the first time $X_n$ hits $L$ (and is stopped). Also, note that $\zeta=\theta_L$, so $X_n$ is a nearest-neighbor random walk on $\{L,L+1,\ldots\}$ stopped when, and only when, it hits $L$. Thus we will have no need to refer explicitly to $\zeta$, and the discussion in Section \[Sect:Radial\] simplifies accordingly in this case. (This simplification is made possible because here, unlike in Theorem \[THM:Para\], we are assuming that $M$ is properly immersed with compact boundary, as discussed at the beginning of the proof.)
We see that ${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}$ can be re-expressed as the probability that $X_n$ hits $k+1$ before $L$. Further, letting $f=f_2$, our earlier computations show that we have a comparison Markov chain $Y_n$ with $$p_m= \frac{1}{2}+\frac{c^2e^4}{4}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2} .$$ Thus ${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}$ is bounded from above by the probability that $Y_n$, started from $L+1$, hits $k+1$ before $L$, independent of where on $\gamma$ the underlying Brownian motion in $M$ starts. Further, this probability was given in Section \[Sect:MC\] as the reciprocal of $A_k$, and recalling that gives $${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}\leq
{\left(}1+\frac{q_{L+1}}{p_{L+1}} +\frac{q_{L+1}q_{L+2}}{p_{L+1}p_{L+2}} +\cdots +\frac{q_{L+1}\cdots q_k}{p_{L+1}\cdots p_k} {\right)}^{-1},$$ where $p_m$ is as above and $q_m=1-p_m$, as usual. Also, observe that both $X_n$ and $Y_n$ are parabolic, which follows from the proof of Theorem \[THM:Para\].
Next, we wish to estimate ${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}U_k | \theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right]}$ in terms of $Y_n$ as well, and note that such an estimate in terms of $Y_n$ will hold for $X_n$ independent of where on $\gamma$ the underlying Brownian motion starts. The point is that, even though upcrossings of $X_n$ might occur at different times than upcrossings of $Y_n$, parabolicity and the Markov property (of $Y_n$) imply that ${\mathbb{E}}{\left[}U_k | \theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right]}$ is no larger than ${\mathbb{E}}{\left(}u_k| Y_0=k {\right)}$. This is more or less obvious, but we provide a bit more detail for the sake of clarity. The main idea is that we can feel free to pause either $X_n$ or $Y_n$ in order to allow the other process to “catch up” without changing the distribution of the total number of upcrossings of either process. First, because we’re conditioning on $\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L$, we know that $X_n$ will hit $k+1$ and then by parabolicity will come back to $k$. We wait until the happens to start $Y_n$ (which we start from $k$). Then $Y$ dominates $X$, so if $X$ has an upcrossing (that is, if $X$ hits $k+1$ again before hitting $L$), so does $Y$. Supposing that $X$ does have an upcrossing, it might come back down to $k$ before $Y$ does. However, once $X$ comes back down to $k$, we can “pause” it there and wait for $Y$ to also come back down to $k$, which it will by parabolicity. With both processes at $k$, we simply repeat the above procedure. This shows that every upcrossing of $X$ corresponds to an upcrossing of $Y$, and thus the desired inequality for the expected numbers of upcrossings holds.
Now using our computation of ${\mathbb{E}}{\left(}u_k| Y_0=k {\right)}$ from Section \[Sect:MC\], we see that $$\begin{gathered}
{\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}{\mathbb{E}}{\left[}U_k | \theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right]}\leq
{\left[}1+\frac{p_k}{q_k}+\frac{p_k p_{k-1}}{q_k q_{k-1}}+\cdots+\frac{p_k\cdots p_{L+1}}{q_k\cdots q_{L+1}}{\right]}\\
\times {\left[}1+\frac{q_{L+1}}{p_{L+1}} +\frac{q_{L+1}q_{L+2}}{p_{L+1}p_{L+2}} +\cdots +\frac{q_{L+1}\cdots q_k}{p_{L+1}\cdots p_k}{\right]}^{-1} .\end{gathered}$$ Recall that, in order to show that the expected occupation time of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$, where $\rho=e^k$, grows quadratically in $\rho$, it is enough to show that the above quantity stays bounded as $k{\rightarrow}\infty$. The right-hand side is a fraction (though not displayed as such), and because $p_m>q_m$ the terms in the numerator are increasing (from left to right) while the terms in the denominator are decreasing. Since both numerator and denominator have the same number of terms (for a given $k$), we see that in order to show that this fraction is bounded as $k{\rightarrow}\infty$, it is sufficient to show that the ratio of the right-most terms, that is, $${\left(}\frac{p_k\cdots p_{L+1}}{q_k\cdots q_{L+1}}{\right)}\Biggl/
{\left(}\frac{q_{L+1}\cdots q_k}{p_{L+1}\cdots p_k}{\right)}= {\left(}\frac{p_k\cdots p_{L+1}}{q_k\cdots q_{L+1}}{\right)}^2$$ is bounded as $k{\rightarrow}\infty$. Taking the logarithm of the right-hand side, we see that it is enough to show that $\sum_{m=L+1}^k\log(p_m/q_m)$ is bounded as $k{\rightarrow}\infty$ (recall that all terms in the sum are positive since $p_m>q_m$). To do this, we will show that $$\tag{$*$}
\log{\left(}\frac{p_m}{q_m}{\right)}\leq \frac{\tilde{c}}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2}$$ for some $\tilde{c}>0$, for large $m$ (so that $\sum_{i=L+1}^k\log(p_m/q_m)$ is bounded by the usual comparison test for sums).
We have (using the above formula for $p_m$) that $$\begin{split}
\log{\left(}\frac{p_m}{q_m}{\right)}= &\log{\left(}\frac{1}{2}+\frac{c^2e^4}{4}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2}{\right)}\\
&- \log{\left(}\frac{1}{2}-\frac{c^2e^4}{4}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2}{\right)}.
\end{split}$$ For large $m$, both $p_m$ and $q_m$ become arbitrarily close to $1/2$. Thus we can use an estimate based on the first-order Taylor expansion of the logarithm, namely that $|\log(x+1/2)-\log(1/2)|\leq 3|x|$ for $x$ sufficiently close to 0. This implies that, for large $m$, $$\begin{split}
\log{\left(}\frac{p_m}{q_m}{\right)}&\leq \log{\left(}\frac{1}{2}{\right)}+\frac{3c^2e^4}{4}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2} \\
&\quad\quad- \log{\left(}\frac{1}{2}{\right)}+\frac{3c^2e^4}{4}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2} \\
& = \frac{3c^2e^4}{2}\cdot\frac{1}{(m+1){\left(}\log(m+1){\right)}^2} .
\end{split}$$ This establishes $(*)$. Combining all of the above, we have proven the desired estimates on Brownian motion uniformly with respect to where on $\gamma$ the Brownian motion starts, and we can now conclude that there exists a positive constant $C$ such that the area of $M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}$, when $\rho=e^k$, is bounded from above by $C\rho^2$ for sufficiently large $\rho$.
Finally, to extend this result to all $\rho$ (and not just those that are an integer power of $e$, as we have been assuming to make use of our discretization $X_n$ of the radial process), suppose that $\rho\in(e^{k-1},e^k]$. Then since the area is monotone in $\rho$, we have $$\operatorname{Area}{\left(}M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}{\right)}\leq Ce^{2k} =Ce^2e^{2(k-1)}<{\left(}Ce^2{\right)}\rho^2 .$$ So increasing $C$ by a factor of $e^2$ gives the estimate for general $\rho$, completing the proof. $\Box$
Note that, having proven the above result, a standard argument can be used to extend it somewhat. In particular, the monotonicity formula for area (see [@Simon]) shows that $$\frac{\operatorname{Area}{\left(}M\cap\{ r\leq \rho\}{\right)}}{\pi\rho^2}$$ converges to a finite limit as $\rho{\rightarrow}\infty$, which we denote $n(M)$. Then because $M$ is contained in $${\left\{}
\newcommand{\rc}{\right\}}r\geq e^L \text{ and } |x_3|\leq f_2(r) \rc ,$$ geometric measure theory allows us to conclude that the homothetic shrinkings of $M$ converge to a locally finite minimal varifold supported on the $(x_1,x_2)$-plane. This limit is thus an integer multiple of the plane, and we conclude that $n(M)$ is a positive integer. (See either the end of Section 2 in [@CKMR] or Section 6.4 of [@MPSurvey] for more details of the argument.) When $M$ is an appropriate representative of an end of a minimal surface, $n(M)$ is generally called the multiplicity of the end.
Recall that if the area of a surface grows quadratically with respect to the intrinsic distance, then the surface is parabolic. In light of this, it is not surprising that these methods give parabolicity under a strictly weaker condition than is needed for quadratic area growth (with respect to $r$, or equivalently the exterior distance from the origin). Also, as was the case for Theorem \[THM:Para\], these computations could likely be extended to allow replacing $f_2(r)$ by something slightly more lenient, but they cannot be simply extended to allow $f_2(r)$ to be replaced by $f_1(r)$, much less to allow $M$ to be contained in the complement of a cone. Further, in various cases one could give explicit estimates for the constants appearing in the proof in order to derive an estimate for $C$, and thus also for $n(M)$. In particular, $\alpha$ depends only on the behavior of a compact subset of $M$, such as $M\cap \{r\leq e^{L+2}\}$. Moreover, ${\mathbb{P}}{\left(}\theta_{k+1}<\theta_L{\right)}{\mathbb{E}}{\left[}U_k | \theta_{k+1}<\theta_L {\right]}$ can be estimated in terms of the $p_m$, which depend only on $f_2$. Replacing $f_2$ with a smaller $f$ would decrease the $p_m$ and thus also the upper bound on $n(M)$. However, as was the case previously, we have not pursued this because we are unaware of any interest in such an estimate.
\[2\][ [\#2](http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=#1) ]{} \[2\][\#2]{}
[9]{}
Antonio Alarcón and Francisco J. López, *Minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ properly projecting into $\mathbb{R}^2$*, preprint, `arXiv:0910.4124v2`.
Pascal Collin, Robert Kusner, William H. Meeks, III, and Harold Rosenberg, *The topology, geometry and conformal structure of properly embedded minimal surfaces*, J. Differential Geom. **67** (2004), no. 2, 377–393.
Richard Durrett, *Probability: theory and examples*, third ed., Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA, 2005.
Alexander Grigoryan, *Analytic and geometric background of recurrence and non-explosion of the [B]{}rownian motion on [R]{}iemannian manifolds*, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.) **36** (1999), no. 2, 135–249.
William H. Meeks, III and Joaquín Pérez, *The classical theory of minimal surfaces*, preprint, available at `http://www.ugr.es/local/jperez/papers/papers.htm`.
Leon Simon, *Lectures on geometric measure theory*, Proceedings of the Centre for Mathematical Analysis, Australian National University, vol. 3, Australian National University Centre for Mathematical Analysis, Canberra, 1983.
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In this post I’ll be proving to you that:
Now firstly I will have to say that:
And also that:
If this is the case, then…
Since this is in the form:
I would have to conclude that:
Hence I’ve proven that:
In this post I’ll be showing you how to derive Euler’s identity using the Maclaurin Series. It turns out that the Maclaurin series looks like this:
And expanded, it looks like this:
[*A larger version of this image can be found here.]
Now, since we want to derive Euler’s identity, we first have to find out what the formula for e^x looks like. In order to get this formula we must use the table below:
|Derivatives of e^x||When x=0|
Ok. So we’ve got a useful table just above. Let’s write out the function of e^x in its Maclaurin Series form:
Now, let’s replace
with the values from the table. If we do this, the formula for e^x will become:
Alright, so far, so good. We are certainly on the right track. Our next goal will be to discover what e^(i*x) is. This is because to produce Euler’s identity, we need to come up with:
To come up with the formula above, we will need the table below, because our latest e^(x) formula will have to be transformed. x will be turned into i*x.
|Imaginary Numbers Exponentiated|
As we’ve got the table above, we can figure out what the formula e^(i*x) would look like:
Since:
[*To find out why it’s the case, visit this page.]
This means that:
And finally, when x=π:
This is because:
You have produced Euler’s identity from almost absolute scratch. Give yourself a pat on the back! 🙂
Related: | http://mathsvideos.net/tag/imaginary-number/ |
BACKGROUND
SUMMARY
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Autonomous vehicles use various computing systems to aid in transporting passengers from one location to another. Some autonomous vehicles may require some initial input or continuous input from an operator, such as a pilot, driver, or passenger. Other systems, for example autopilot systems, may be used only when the system has been engaged, which permits the operator to switch from a manual mode (where the operator exercises a high degree of control over the movement of the vehicle) to an autonomous mode (where the vehicle essentially drives itself) to modes that lie somewhere in between.
The present application discloses embodiments that relate to modifying vehicle behavior based on confidence in lane estimation. In one aspect, the present application describes a method. The method may comprise receiving, at a computing device that is configured to control a vehicle, lane information relating to locations of lane boundaries. The method also may comprise estimating, using the computing device, a lane boundary on a road on which the vehicle is traveling, based on the lane information. The method may further comprise determining, using the computing device, a level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. The method also may comprise modifying, using the computing device, a driving behavior for the vehicle such that a degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary is based on the determined level of confidence and further may comprise controlling, using the computing device, the vehicle in accordance with the modified driving behavior.
In another aspect, the present application describes a control system for a vehicle. The control system may comprise one or more sensors. The control system also may comprise a computing device that is in communication with the one or more sensors. The computing device may be configured to receive, from the one or more sensors, lane information relating to locations of lane boundaries. The computing device also may be configured to estimate a lane boundary on a road on which the vehicle is traveling, based on the lane information. The computing device also may be configured to determine a level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. The computing device further may be configured to modify a driving behavior for the vehicle such that a degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary is based on the determined level of confidence. The computing device also may be configured to control the vehicle in accordance with the modified driving behavior.
In still another aspect, the present application describes a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computing device of a vehicle to cause the computing device to perform functions. The functions may comprise receiving lane information relating to locations of lane boundaries. The functions may also comprise estimating a lane boundary on a road on which the vehicle is traveling, based on the lane information. The functions may further comprise determining a level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. The functions may also comprise modifying a driving behavior for the vehicle such that a degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary is based on the determined level of confidence. The functions may further comprise controlling the vehicle in accordance with the modified driving behavior.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the figures and the following detailed description.
The following detailed description describes various features and functions of the disclosed systems and methods with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, similar symbols identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative system and method embodiments described herein are not meant to be limiting. It may be readily understood that certain aspects of the disclosed systems and methods can be arranged and combined in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are contemplated herein.
In an example, a computing device may be configured to control a vehicle operating in an autonomous mode. The computing device may be configured to receive, from sensors on the vehicle, lane information relating to locations of lane boundaries and may be configured to estimate a lane boundary on a road on which the vehicle is traveling, based on the lane information. The lane information may include, for example, one or more of map information, position tracking information of one or more vehicles on the road, location information of one or more static objects with respect to the road, lane marker recognition information, and road geometry information. The computing device also may be configured to determine a level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. The computing device further may be configured to modify a driving behavior for the vehicle such that a degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary is based on the determined level of confidence, and also may be configured to control the vehicle in accordance with the modified driving behavior.
An example vehicle control system may be implemented in or may take the form of an automobile. Alternatively, a vehicle control system may be implemented in or take the form of other vehicles, such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, buses, boats, airplanes, helicopters, lawn mowers, recreational vehicles, amusement park vehicles, farm equipment, construction equipment, trams, golf carts, trains, and trolleys. Other vehicles are possible as well.
Further, an example system may take the form of non-transitory computer-readable medium, which has program instructions stored thereon that are executable by at least one processor to provide the functionality described herein. An example system may also take the form of an automobile or a subsystem of an automobile that includes such a non-transitory computer-readable medium having such program instructions stored thereon.
FIG. 1
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Referring now to the Figures, is a simplified block diagram of an example automobile , in accordance with an example embodiment. Components coupled to or included in the automobile may include a propulsion system , a sensor system , a control system , peripherals , a power supply , a computing device , and a user interface . The computing device may include a processor , and a memory . The memory may include instructions executable by the processor , and may also store map data . Components of the automobile may be configured to work in an interconnected fashion with each other and/or with other components coupled to respective systems. For example, the power supply may provide power to all the components of the automobile . The computing device may be configured to receive information from and control the propulsion system , the sensor system , the control system , and the peripherals . The computing device may be configured to generate a display of images on and receive inputs from the user interface .
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In other examples, the automobile may include more, fewer, or different systems, and each system may include more, fewer, or different components. Additionally, the systems and components shown may be combined or divided in any number of ways.
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The propulsion system may be configured to provide powered motion for the automobile . As shown, the propulsion system includes an engine/motor , an energy source , a transmission , and wheels/tires .
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The engine/motor may be or include any combination of an internal combustion engine, an electric motor, a steam engine, and a Stirling engine. Other motors and engines are possible as well. In some examples, the propulsion system could include multiple types of engines and/or motors. For instance, a gas-electric hybrid car could include a gasoline engine and an electric motor. Other examples are possible.
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The energy source may be a source of energy that powers the engine/motor in full or in part. That is, the engine/motor may be configured to convert the energy source into mechanical energy. Examples of energy sources include gasoline, diesel, other petroleum-based fuels, propane, other compressed gas-based fuels, ethanol, solar panels, batteries, and other sources of electrical power. The energy source(s) could additionally or alternatively include any combination of fuel tanks, batteries, capacitors, and/or flywheels. In some examples, the energy source may provide energy for other systems of the automobile as well.
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The transmission may be configured to transmit mechanical power from the engine/motor to the wheels/tires . To this end, the transmission may include a gearbox, clutch, differential, drive shafts, and/or other elements. In examples where the transmission includes drive shafts, the drive shafts could include one or more axles that are configured to be coupled to the wheels/tires .
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The wheels/tires of automobile could be configured in various formats, including a unicycle, bicycle/motorcycle, tricycle, or car/truck four-wheel format. Other wheel/tire formats are possible as well, such as those including six or more wheels. The wheels/tires of automobile may be configured to rotate differentially with respect to other wheels/tires . In some examples, the wheels/tires may include at least one wheel that is fixedly attached to the transmission and at least one tire coupled to a rim of the wheel that could make contact with the driving surface. The wheels/tires may include any combination of metal and rubber, or combination of other materials.
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The propulsion system may additionally or alternatively include components other than those shown.
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The sensor system may include a number of sensors configured to sense information about an environment in which the automobile is located. As shown, the sensors of the sensor system include a Global Positioning System (GPS) module , an inertial measurement unit (IMU) , a radio detection and ranging (RADAR) unit , a laser rangefinder and/or light detection and ranging (LIDAR) unit , a camera , and actuators configured to modify a position and/or orientation of the sensors. The sensor system may include additional sensors as well, including, for example, sensors that monitor internal systems of the automobile (e.g., an Omonitor, a fuel gauge, an engine oil temperature, etc.). Other sensors are possible as well.
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The GPS module may be any sensor configured to estimate a geographic location of the automobile . To this end, the GPS module may include a transceiver configured to estimate a position of the automobile with respect to the Earth, based on satellite-based positioning data. In an example, the computing device may be configured to use the GPS module in combination with the map data to estimate a location of a lane boundary on road on which the automobile may be travelling on. The GPS module may take other forms as well.
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The IMU may be any combination of sensors configured to sense position and orientation changes of the automobile based on inertial acceleration. In some examples, the combination of sensors may include, for example, accelerometers and gyroscopes. Other combinations of sensors are possible as well.
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The RADAR unit may be any sensor configured to sense objects in the environment in which the automobile is located using radio signals. In some examples, in addition to sensing the objects, the RADAR unit may additionally be configured to sense the speed and/or direction of motion of the objects.
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Similarly, the laser rangefinder or LIDAR unit may be any sensor configured to sense objects in the environment in which the automobile is located using lasers. In particular, the laser rangefinder or LIDAR unit may include a laser source and/or laser scanner configured to emit a laser and a detector configured to detect reflections of the laser. The laser rangefinder or LIDAR may be configured to operate in a coherent (e.g., using heterodyne detection) or an incoherent detection mode.
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The camera may be any camera (e.g., a still camera, a video camera, etc.) configured to capture images of the environment in which the automobile is located. To this end, the camera may be configured to detect visible light, or may be configured to detect light from other portions of the spectrum, such as infrared or ultraviolet light, or x-rays. Other types of cameras are possible as well. The camera may be a two-dimensional detector, or may have a three-dimensional spatial range. In some examples, the camera may be, for example, a range detector configured to generate a two-dimensional image indicating a distance from the camera to a number of points in the environment. To this end, the camera may use one or more range detecting techniques. For example, the camera may use a structured light technique in which the automobile illuminates an object in the environment with a predetermined light pattern, such as a grid or checkerboard pattern and uses the camera to detect a reflection of the predetermined light pattern off the object. Based on distortions in the reflected light pattern, the automobile may determine the distance to the points on the object. The predetermined light pattern may comprise infrared light, or light of another wavelength.
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The actuators may, for example, be configured to modify a position and/or orientation of the sensors.
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The sensor system may additionally or alternatively include components other than those shown.
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The control system may be configured to control operation of the automobile and its components. To this end, the control system may include a steering unit , a throttle , a brake unit , a sensor fusion algorithm , a computer vision system , a navigation or pathing system , and an obstacle avoidance system .
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The steering unit may be any combination of mechanisms configured to adjust the heading or direction of the automobile .
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The throttle may be any combination of mechanisms configured to control the operating speed and acceleration of the engine/motor and, in turn, the speed and acceleration of the automobile .
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The brake unit may be any combination of mechanisms configured to decelerate the automobile . For example, the brake unit may use friction to slow the wheels/tires . As another example, the brake unit may be configured to be regenerative and convert the kinetic energy of the wheels/tires to electric current. The brake unit may take other forms as well.
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The sensor fusion algorithm may include an algorithm (or a computer program product storing an algorithm) executable by the computing device , for example. The sensor fusion algorithm may be configured to accept data from the sensor system as an input. The data may include, for example, data representing information sensed at the sensors of the sensor system . The sensor fusion algorithm may include, for example, a Kalman filter, a Bayesian network, or another algorithm. The sensor fusion algorithm may further be configured to provide various assessments based on the data from the sensor system , including, for example, evaluations of individual objects and/or features in the environment in which the automobile is located, evaluations of particular situations, and/or evaluations of possible impacts based on particular situations. Other assessments are possible as well
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The computer vision system may be any system configured to process and analyze images captured by the camera in order to identify objects and/or features in the environment in which the automobile is located, including, for example, lane information, traffic signals and obstacles. To this end, the computer vision system may use an object recognition algorithm, a Structure from Motion (SFM) algorithm, video tracking, or other computer vision techniques. In some examples, the computer vision system may additionally be configured to map the environment, track objects, estimate the speed of objects, etc.
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The navigation and pathing system may be any system configured to determine a driving path for the automobile . The navigation and pathing system may additionally be configured to update the driving path dynamically while the automobile is in operation. In some examples, the navigation and pathing system may be configured to incorporate data from the sensor fusion algorithm , the GPS module , and one or more predetermined maps so as to determine the driving path for the automobile .
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The obstacle avoidance system may be any system configured to identify, evaluate, and avoid or otherwise negotiate obstacles in the environment in which the automobile is located.
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The control system may additionally or alternatively include components other than those shown.
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Peripherals may be configured to allow the automobile to interact with external sensors, other automobiles, and/or a user. To this end, the peripherals may include, for example, a wireless communication system , a touchscreen , a microphone , and/or a speaker .
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The wireless communication system may be any system configured to be wirelessly coupled to one or more other automobiles, sensors, or other entities, either directly or via a communication network. To this end, the wireless communication system may include an antenna and a chipset for communicating with the other automobiles, sensors, or other entities either directly or over an air interface. The chipset or wireless communication system in general may be arranged to communicate according to one or more other types of wireless communication (e.g., protocols) such as Bluetooth, communication protocols described in IEEE 802.11 (including any IEEE 802.11 revisions), cellular technology (such as GSM, CDMA, UMTS, EV-DO, WiMAX, or LTE), Zigbee, dedicated short range communications (DSRC), and radio frequency identification (RFID) communications, among other possibilities. The wireless communication system may take other forms as well.
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The touchscreen may be used by a user to input commands to the automobile . To this end, the touchscreen may be configured to sense at least one of a position and a movement of a user's finger via capacitive sensing, resistance sensing, or a surface acoustic wave process, among other possibilities. The touchscreen may be capable of sensing finger movement in a direction parallel or planar to the touchscreen surface, in a direction normal to the touchscreen surface, or both, and may also be capable of sensing a level of pressure applied to the touchscreen surface. The touchscreen may be formed of one or more translucent or transparent insulating layers and one or more translucent or transparent conducting layers. The touchscreen may take other forms as well
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The microphone may be configured to receive audio (e.g., a voice command or other audio input) from a user of the automobile . Similarly, the speakers may be configured to output audio to the user of the automobile .
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The peripherals may additionally or alternatively include components other than those shown.
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The power supply may be configured to provide power to some or all of the components of the automobile . To this end, the power supply may include, for example, a rechargeable lithium-ion or lead-acid battery. In some examples, one or more banks of batteries could be configured to provide electrical power. Other power supply materials and configurations are possible as well. In some examples, the power supply and energy source may be implemented together, as in some all-electric cars.
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The processor included in the computing device may comprise one or more general-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purpose processors. To the extent the processor includes more than one processor; such processors could work separately or in combination. The computing device may be configured to control functions of the automobile based on input received through the user interface , for example.
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The memory , in turn, may comprise one or more volatile and/or one or more non-volatile storage components, such as optical, magnetic, and/or organic storage, and the memory may be integrated in whole or in part with the processor . The memory may contain the instructions (e.g., program logic) executable by the processor to execute various automobile functions.
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The components of the automobile could be configured to work in an interconnected fashion with other components within and/or outside their respective systems. To this end, the components and systems of the automobile may be communicatively linked together by a system bus, network, and/or other connection mechanism (not shown).
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Further, while each of the components and systems are shown to be integrated in the automobile , in some examples, one or more components or systems may be removably mounted on or otherwise connected (mechanically or electrically) to the automobile using wired or wireless connections.
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The automobile may include one or more elements in addition to or instead of those shown. For example, the automobile may include one or more additional interfaces and/or power supplies. Other additional components are possible as well. In these examples, the memory may further include instructions executable by the processor to control and/or communicate with the additional components.
FIG. 2
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illustrates an example automobile , in accordance with an embodiment. In particular, shows a Right Side View, Front View, Back View, and Top View of the automobile . Although automobile is illustrated in as a car, other examples are possible. For instance, the automobile could represent a truck, a van, a semi-trailer truck, a motorcycle, a golf cart, an off-road vehicle, or a farm vehicle, among other examples. As shown, the automobile includes a first sensor unit , a second sensor unit , a third sensor unit , a wireless communication system , and a camera
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Each of the first, second, and third sensor units - may include any combination of global positioning system sensors, inertial measurement units, RADAR units, LIDAR units, cameras, lane detection sensors, and acoustic sensors. Other types of sensors are possible as well.
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While the first, second, and third sensor units are shown to be mounted in particular locations on the automobile , in some examples the sensor unit may be mounted elsewhere on the automobile , either inside or outside the automobile . Further, while only three sensor units are shown, in some examples more or fewer sensor units may be included in the automobile .
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In some examples, one or more of the first, second, and third sensor units - may include one or more movable mounts on which the sensors may be movably mounted. The movable mount may include, for example, a rotating platform. Sensors mounted on the rotating platform could be rotated so that the sensors may obtain information from each direction around the automobile . Alternatively or additionally, the movable mount may include a tilting platform. Sensors mounted on the tilting platform could be tilted within a particular range of angles and/or azimuths so that the sensors may obtain information from a variety of angles. The movable mount may take other forms as well.
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Further, in some examples, one or more of the first, second, and third sensor units - may include one or more actuators configured to adjust the position and/or orientation of sensors in the sensor unit by moving the sensors and/or movable mounts. Example actuators include motors, pneumatic actuators, hydraulic pistons, relays, solenoids, and piezoelectric actuators. Other actuators are possible as well.
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The wireless communication system may be any system configured to wirelessly couple to one or more other automobiles, sensors, or other entities, either directly or via a communication network as described above with respect to the wireless communication system in . While the wireless communication system is shown to be positioned on a roof of the automobile , in other examples the wireless communication system could be located, fully or in part, elsewhere.
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The camera may be any camera (e.g., a still camera, a video camera, etc.) configured to capture images of the environment in which the automobile is located. To this end, the camera may take any of the forms described above. While the camera is shown to be mounted inside a front windshield of the automobile , in other examples the camera may be mounted elsewhere on the automobile , either inside or outside the automobile .
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The automobile may include one or more other components in addition to or instead of those shown.
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A control system of the automobile may be configured to control the automobile in accordance with a given driving behavior from among multiple possible driving behaviors. The control system may be configured to receive information from sensors coupled to the automobile (on or off the automobile ), modify a driving behavior based on the information, and control the automobile in accordance with the modified driving behavior. The control system further may be configured to continuously monitor the information received from the sensors to continuously evaluate driving conditions and also may be configured to modify the driving behavior or select another driving behavior based on changes in the driving conditions.
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is a flow chart illustrating a method for modifying behavior of a vehicle (e.g., the automobile or ) based on confidence in lane estimation.
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The method may include one or more operations, functions, or actions as illustrated by one or more of blocks -. Although the blocks are illustrated in a sequential order, these blocks may in some instances be performed in parallel, and/or in a different order than those described herein. Also, the various blocks may be combined into fewer blocks, divided into additional blocks, and/or removed based upon the desired implementation
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In addition, for the method and other processes and methods disclosed herein, the flowchart shows functionality and operation of one possible implementation of present embodiments. In this regard, each block may represent a module, a segment, or a portion of program code, which includes one or more instructions executable by a processor for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. The program code may be stored on any type of computer readable medium, for example, such as a storage device including a disk or hard drive. The computer readable medium may include a non-transitory computer readable medium, for example, such as computer-readable media that stores data for short periods of time like register memory, processor cache and Random Access Memory (RAM). The computer readable medium may also include non-transitory media or memory, such as secondary or persistent long term storage, like read only memory (ROM), optical or magnetic disks, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. The computer readable media may also be any other volatile or non-volatile storage systems. The computer readable medium may be considered a computer readable storage medium, a tangible storage device, or other article of manufacture, for example.
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In addition, for the method and other processes and methods disclosed herein, each block in may represent circuitry that is wired to perform the specific logical functions in the process.
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At block , the method includes receiving, at a computing device that is configured to control a vehicle, lane information relating to locations of lane boundaries. The computing device may be onboard the vehicle or may be off-board but in wireless communication with the vehicle, for example. The computing device may be configured to control the vehicle in an autonomous or semi-autonomous operation mode. The computing device may be configured to receive, from sensors coupled to the vehicle, information associated with, for example, condition of systems and subsystems of the vehicle, driving condition, road condition, etc.
For example, the computing device may be configured to receive lane information relating to locations of lane boundaries. The lane information may comprise one or more information types. For example, the lane information may comprise map information received from a GPS module coupled to the vehicle. The map information may include information associated with a number of lanes, locations of lane boundaries, etc. The map information may be accurate; however, the map information may not include information relating to recent changes to road structure or temporary road work that may cause changes to road lanes (e.g., number of lanes or the locations of lane boundaries may change).
In another example, the lane information may include position tracking information of one or more vehicles on the road. Tracking positions and trajectories of other vehicles on the road may provide information relating to the locations of lane boundaries on the road. In one example, the lane information may comprise information associated with locations of static objects with respect to the road (e.g., curbs, shoulders, etc.) and the information may be used to infer road structure, the locations of lane boundaries, etc.
In an example, the lane information also may comprise road geometry information. The road geometry information may be received at the computing device from sensors (e.g., a camera) coupled to the vehicle.
In still another example, the lane information may comprise images of the road depicting lane markers, where the images may be received, from a camera coupled to the vehicle, at the computing device controlling the vehicle.
In yet another example, an electromagnetic radiation source may be coupled to the vehicle, and may be configured to emit waves of a given frequency or multiple frequencies on the road. The electromagnetic radiation source may be any type of a light source, visible or invisible. In an example, the electromagnetic radiation source may include a laser source. The lane information may comprise information provided by sensors coupled to the vehicle, where the sensors may be configured to receive a reflection of the emitted electromagnetic (e.g., laser) waves from the road. Properties of the reflected waves may be indicative of the locations of lane boundaries.
These examples of the types of lane information are for illustration only and other types are possible.
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At block , the method includes estimating, using the computing device, a lane boundary on a road on which the vehicle is traveling, based on the lane information. Based on the lane information that may include one or more of the types of information described above, the computing device may be configured to estimate lane boundaries of lanes on the road on which the vehicle is travelling.
For example, the computing device may be configured to estimate a location of a lane boundary based on location information received through the GPS module in combination with map data.
In another example, the computing device may be configured to identify, using image recognition techniques known in the art, lane markers in an image of the road received through a camera coupled to the vehicle.
In yet another example, the computing device may be configured to estimate the location of lane boundary based on intensity of waves emitted by the electromagnetic radiation source and reflected on the road. As an example, intensity of respective waves reflected off of lane markers may be different that intensity of waves reflected from other parts of the road, and based on difference in intensity, the computing device may be configured to estimate the location of the lane boundary. These examples are for illustration only. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other algorithms and arrangements and other elements can be used for estimating the location of a given lane boundary.
In some examples, the computing device may be configured to estimate lane boundaries of multiple lanes on the road not only of the lane on which the vehicle is travelling. In these examples, the computing device may be configured to determine a configuration of the road such as: (i) a travel lane on which the vehicle is travelling is the only lane, (ii) a lane to the left of the travel lane may exist, (iii) a lane to the right of the travel lane may exist, and (iv) lanes to the left and to the right of the travel lane may exist.
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At block , the method includes determining, using the computing device, a level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. Upon estimating the lane boundary, the computing device further may be configured to determine or assign a level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. The level of confidence can be qualitative such as “high” or may be numerical such as a number on a scale, for example. Other examples are possible.
In an example, the computing device may be configured to receive accurate map information associated with the road on which the vehicle is travelling and, assuming no changes to the road, the computing device may be configured to assign or determine a high level of confidence for the lane boundary estimated based on the map information.
In another example, the computing device may be configured to determine a clarity metric for a lane marker on the road. The clarity metric, for example, may be a function of clarity of the lane marker in an image of the road, or a function of intensity of reflected waves on the road. The level of confidence may be a function of the clarity metric, for example.
In still another example, the computing device may be configured to receive, as input, curve fragments corresponding to potential lane boundary observations, such as those detected in an image or based on intensity of reflected waves as described above. While some of the curve fragments may be true observations of the road and lanes, some may arise from tree shadows or lens flare, and others may be due to painted markings that may not correspond to lane boundaries (e.g., crosswalk stripes, parking spot delimiters, or stop lines). The computing device may be configured to use a probabilistic model (e.g., a Gaussian distribution) to model uncertainty of estimated lane curve geometries and boundaries. Further, the computing device may be configured to determine or assign the level of confidence for lane estimation based on the probability model.
In one example, the computing device may be configured to assign or determine a respective level of confidence for each type of information (e.g., map information, position tracking information of one or more vehicles on the road, lane markers recognition information, reflected waves, road geometry, etc.) and further may be configured to determine a single level of confidence based on respective levels of confidence.
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At block , the method includes modifying, using the computing device, a driving behavior for the vehicle such that a degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary is based on the determined level of confidence. The computing device may be configured to modify a given driving behavior based on the estimated lane boundary as well as the determined level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary.
The control system of the vehicle may comprise multiple driving behaviors that may be predetermined or adaptive to changes in a driving environment of the vehicle. Generally a driving behavior may comprise sets of rules associated with traffic interaction in various driving contexts such as lane driving. The driving behavior may comprise rules that determine a speed of the vehicle and a lane that the vehicle may travel on while taking into account safety and traffic rules and concerns (e.g., vehicles stopped at an intersection and windows-of-opportunity in yield situation, lane tracking, speed control, distance from other vehicles on the road, passing other vehicles, and queuing in stop-and-go traffic, and avoiding areas that may result in unsafe behavior such as oncoming-traffic lanes, etc.). For instance, in a lane driving situation, the computing device may be configured to modify or select, based on the determined level of confidence, a driving behavior comprising rules for actions that control the vehicle speed and tracking lane to safely maintain a distance with other objects and select a lane that is considered safest.
As an example, the computing device may be configured to drive the vehicle in a given lane and configured to receive from sensors coupled to the vehicle information associated with a given automobile that may be approaching a given side of the vehicle. If a high level of confidence is determined for lane boundaries of a lane the vehicle is travelling on, the computing device may select a driving behavior that may cause the vehicle to stay within the lane. However, if the level of confidence is low, the computing device may be configured to modify the driving behavior to cause the vehicle to move away—after evaluating other safety concerns—and/or reduce the speed of the vehicle, for example. Therefore, when the determined level of confidence is low (e.g., below a given threshold), the computing device may be configured to modify the driving behavior to give more weight to other inputs (e.g., location of other vehicles on the road) than to the estimated lane boundary.
In an example, a first driving behavior may comprise a default driving behavior and a second driving behavior may comprise a defensive driving behavior. Characteristics of a the defensive driving behavior may comprise, for example, following another vehicle, maintaining a predetermined safe distance with other vehicles that may be larger than a distance maintained in the default driving behavior, turning-on lights, reducing a speed of the vehicle, and following an estimated centerline of a lane. In this example, the computing device of the vehicle may be configured to compare the determined level of confidence of the estimated lane boundary to a threshold level of confidence, and the computing device may be configured to select the first or the second driving behavior, based on the comparison. For example, if the determined level of confidence is less than the threshold level of confidence, the computing device may be configured to select the second driving behavior (e.g., the defensive driving behavior). If the determined level of confidence is greater than the threshold level of confidence, the computing device may be configured to modify the driving behavior to the first driving behavior (e.g., select the default driving behavior).
In yet another example, alternatively or in addition to transition between discrete driving behaviors (e.g., the first driving behavior and the second driving behavior) the computing device may be configured to select from a continuum of driving modes or states based on the determined level of confidence. In still another example, the computing device may be configured to select a discrete driving behavior and also may be configured to select a driving mode from a continuum of driving modes within the selected discrete driving behavior. In this example, a given driving behavior may comprise multiple sets of driving rules, where a set of driving rules describe actions for control of speed and direction of the vehicle. The computing device further may be configured to cause a smooth transition from a given set of driving rules to another set of driving rules of the multiple sets of driving rules, based on the determined level of confidence. A smooth transition may indicate that the transition from the given set of rules to another may not be perceived by a passenger in the vehicle as a sudden or jerky change in a speed or direction of the vehicle, for example.
In an example, a given driving behavior may comprise a program or computer instructions that characterize actuators controlling the vehicle (e.g., throttle, steering gear, brake, accelerator, or transmission shifter) based on the determined level of confidence. The given driving behavior may include action sets ranked by priority, and the action sets may include alternative actions that the vehicle may take to accomplish a task (e.g., driving from one location to another). The alternative actions may be ranked based on the determined level of confidence, for example. The computing device may be configured to select an action to be performed and, optionally, modified based on the determined level of confidence.
In another example, multiple driving behaviors (e.g., programs) may continuously propose actions to the computing device. The computing device may be configured to decide which behavior may be selected or configured to modify the driving behaviour based on a weighted set of goals (safety, speed, etc.), for example. Weights of the weighted set of goals may be a function of the determined level of confidence. Based on an evaluation of the weighted set of goals, the computing device, for example, may be configured to rank the multiple driving behaviors and respective action sets and select or modify a given behavior and a respective action set based on the ranking.
As an example, assuming a high level of confidence in estimation of lane boundaries, the computing device may be configured to modify the driving behavior to cause the vehicle to: (i) maintain a maximum speed possible in a given segment of the road, (ii) maintain safe distances with respect to other vehicles, (iii) reach a target (e.g., a location) at a desired lane and at a desired speed, and (iv) merge into the desired lane with sufficient spacing so as to not violate spacing rules relative to other vehicles in the desired lane or in neighboring lanes.
These examples and driving situations are for illustration only. Other examples and driving behaviors are possible as well.
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At block , the method includes controlling, using the computing device, the vehicle in accordance with the modified driving behavior. In an example, the computing device may be configured to control actuators of the vehicle using an action set or rule set associated with the modified driving behavior. For instance, the computing device may be configured to adjust translational velocity, or rotational velocity, or both, of the vehicle based on the modified driving behavior.
As an example, controlling the vehicle may comprise determining a desired path of the vehicle, based on the estimated lane boundary. In one example, the computing device may have determined a high level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary, and may accordingly take into account the lane boundary as a hard constraint. Taking the estimated lane boundary into account as a hard constraint may indicate that the computing device may be configured to cause the vehicle to strictly adhere to the estimated lane boundary when determining the desired path, for example. For instance, the computing device may be configured to control the vehicle to travel strictly within lane boundaries.
In another example, accurate or updated map information may not be available and the computing device may be configured to estimate the lane boundary based on other information (e.g., road images, trajectories of other vehicles, lane markers recognition etc.). In some examples, lane markers may be obscured or may not exist on a given road, or other vehicles may not be in a close vicinity of the vehicle being controlled by the computing device, or weather conditions may affect accurate sensor detection of the road characteristics, and accordingly the computing device may be configured to determine or assign a low level of confidence for the estimated lane boundary. In these examples, the computing device may be configured to take the estimated lane boundary as a soft constraint when determining the desired path.
Taking the estimated lane boundary into account as a soft constraint may indicate that the computing device may be configured to adhere to the estimated lane boundary to a degree proportional to the determined level of confidence, when determining the desired path, for example. Thus, a high level of confidence may indicate a higher degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary (i.e., a lower degree of disregarding of the estimated lane boundary), for example. Similarly, a low level of confidence may indicate a lower degree of adherence to the estimated lane boundary (i.e., a higher degree of disregarding of the estimated lane boundary), for example.
As an example, the computing device may be configured to control the vehicle such that the vehicle may cross the estimated lane boundary and may not stay strictly within an associated lane, if another safer path is determined. In another example, the computing device may be configured to control the vehicle such that the vehicle follows a centerline of the estimated lane and stay away from associated lane boundaries due to the low level of confidence determined for the estimated lane boundaries. In still another example, in a situation when a low level of confidence is determined for a given lane estimation, the computing device may be configured to use geometric information associated with curbs and road shoulders, for example, to bias the vehicle towards a center of the road. In yet another example of a low level of confidence in lane estimation, the computing device may be configured to keep to a right of an estimated lane and take into account position of approaching oncoming vehicles.
Therefore, in addition to or alternative to having a discrete transition from using the estimated lane boundary as a hard constraint to using the estimated lane boundary as a soft constraint based on a threshold confidence level, the computing device may be configured to control the vehicle in a continuous smooth operation. For example, the determined level of confidence in the estimated lane boundary may be used as a factor, among other factors, indicative of a degree to which the vehicle may abide by or adhere to the estimated lane boundaries.
FIG. 4A
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illustrates an example of controlling an automobile, based on a high confidence in lane estimation, in accordance with an example embodiment. illustrates a road having three lanes, an automobile travelling on a middle lane on the road and being controlled by a computing device and may be operating in an autonomous or semi-autonomous mode. Other vehicles travelling on the road are a first automobile , a truck , and a second automobile . Lane markers such as lane markers A and B define the three lanes on the road. The computing device controlling the automobile may be configured to receive lane information (e.g., map information, lane markers A-B recognition information, etc.) and may be configured to estimate locations of the lane boundaries, based on the lane information. In an example, map information that provides accurate lane information may be received at the computing device. In another example, lane markers A-B recognition information may define the locations of the lane boundaries with a high probability. Accordingly, the computing device may be configured to determine or assign a high level of confidence for the estimated lane boundaries.
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FIG. 4A
The computing device may be configured to control or drive the automobile from a position shown in to a target location marked by a star. Because of the high level of confidence for the estimated lane boundaries, the computing device may be configured to control the automobile such that the a speed of the automobile is a maximum speed possible according to traffic rules on the road , cause the automobile follows traffic rules associated with lane changing (e.g., maintain safe distances with other vehicles such as the automobile and the truck ), and cause the automobile reach the target location at a desired speed, for example.
FIG. 4B
FIG. 4B
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illustrates an example of controlling an automobile, based on a low level of confidence in lane estimation, in accordance with an example embodiment. As shown in , the automobile may enter a region of the road that may not have lane markers (e.g., lane markers such as the lane marker B are non-existent) or the lane markers may be obscured, such that one or more sensors of the automobile detect obscurities . Accordingly, the computing device may be configured to estimate the locations of lane boundaries on the road based on trajectories of other vehicles (e.g., the automobile and the truck ) and may determine or assign a low level of confidence to the estimated lane boundaries, for example. The computing device may be configured to modify a driving behavior of the automobile accordingly. For example, the computing device may be configured to control the automobile based on a defensive driving behavior that may comprise reducing a speed of the automobile , shifting to a position behind the automobile , and following the automobile while keeping a predetermined safe distance, as shown in .
These control actions and driving situations are for illustration only. Other actions and situations are possible as well.
FIG. 5
FIGS. 1-4
FIG. 3
FIG. 5
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In some embodiments, the disclosed methods may be implemented as computer program instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage media in a machine-readable format, or on other non-transitory media or articles of manufacture. is a schematic illustrating a conceptual partial view of an example computer program product that includes a computer program for executing a computer process on a computing device, arranged according to at least some embodiments presented herein. In one embodiment, the example computer program product is provided using a signal bearing medium . The signal bearing medium may include one or more program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors may provide functionality or portions of the functionality described above with respect to . Thus, for example, referring to the embodiments shown in , one or more features of blocks - may be undertaken by one or more instructions associated with the signal bearing medium . In addition, the program instructions in describe example instructions as well.
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In some examples, the signal bearing medium may encompass a computer-readable medium , such as, but not limited to, a hard disk drive, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Video Disk (DVD), a digital tape, memory, etc. In some implementations, the signal bearing medium may encompass a computer recordable medium , such as, but not limited to, memory, read/write (R/W) CDs, R/W DVDs, etc. In some implementations, the signal bearing medium may encompass a communications medium , such as, but not limited to, a digital and/or an analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, a wireless communication link, etc.). Thus, for example, the signal bearing medium may be conveyed by a wireless form of the communications medium (e.g., a wireless communications medium conforming to the IEEE 802.11 standard or other transmission protocol).
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FIGS. 1
The one or more programming instructions may be, for example, computer executable and/or logic implemented instructions. In some examples, a computing device such as the computing device described with respect to , , and may be configured to provide various operations, functions, or actions in response to the programming instructions conveyed to the computing device by one or more of the computer readable medium , the computer recordable medium , and/or the communications medium . It should be understood that arrangements described herein are for purposes of example only. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other arrangements and other elements (e.g. machines, interfaces, functions, orders, and groupings of functions, etc.) can be used instead, and some elements may be omitted altogether according to the desired results. Further, many of the elements that are described are functional entities that may be implemented as discrete or distributed components or in conjunction with other components, in any suitable combination and location.
While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope being indicated by the following claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
FIG. 1
is a simplified block diagram of an example automobile, in accordance with an example embodiment.
FIG. 2
illustrates an example automobile, in accordance with an example embodiment.
FIG. 3
is a flow chart of a method for modifying behavior of a vehicle based on confidence in lane estimation, in accordance with an example embodiment.
FIG. 4A
illustrates an example of controlling an automobile, based on a high level of confidence in lane estimation, in accordance with an example embodiment.
FIG. 4B
illustrates an example of controlling an automobile, based on a low level of confidence in lane estimation, in accordance with an example embodiment.
FIG. 5
is a schematic illustrating a conceptual partial view of a computer program, in accordance with an example embodiment. | |
- Directorate:
- Learning Directorate
- Part of:
- Children and families, Education
- ISBN:
- 9781839604881
Summary of research into the impact of Learning for Sustainability on educational outcomes.
Conclusions
As LfS policy and practice become more widespread, a deeper understanding of the value of integrating education for sustainable development, global citizenship and outdoor learning, should emerge. However, the review concludes that whilst the Scottish approach to LfS is novel internationally, there is robust evidence of its value in attainment, personal development and environmental stewardship.
This review did not set out to examine evidence regarding the effectiveness of LfS in developing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, however it was a clear and significant finding, with studies highlighting the particular importance of fostering emotional connections to nature through time spent outdoors.
In terms of broader educational outcomes, the findings are significant for both policy and practice as they position LfS as an excellent context through which all aspects of CfE can flourish, enabling learners to develop and display the values and dispositions outlined in its 'four capacities'. Building teacher confidence through pre-service and professional development opportunities will help them recognise and maximise the potential of LfS to contribute to these broad educational outcomes.
Further, an LfS-based, whole-setting approach, which is a key feature of Scottish Government LfS policy, offers a way to build a 'learning community'; where educators and pupils alike are encouraged and supported to work together towards a sustainable and equitable future, whilst simultaneously motivating and inspiring young people to become independent learners. | https://www.gov.scot/publications/impact-learning-sustainability-educational-outcomes-summary-findings/pages/4/ |
Renewable energy targets (RETs) may be too blunt a tool for ensuring a sustainable future, according to University of Queensland-led research.
Energy supply plays a crucial role in local developments and expansion in all countries’ growth plans. As cooling, both in comfort and refrigeration, contributes a significant portion of the need, the energy mix and clean energy targets play a significant and direct role on the planning outcomes. It is arguably also one of the most important aspects for the HVAC sector in terms of maximising efficiency from a consumption point of view.
PhD candidate Scott Spillias, from the University of Queensland (UQ) School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said that, while RETs are a go-to for policymakers, more nuanced approaches were further effective at actually achieving holistic, sustainable outcomes.
“Many jurisdictions around the world including the European Union, Australia, India and several states in the US have set specific quantitative targets for renewable energy development,” Spillias said.
“While it’s encouraging to see action being taken to move us away from fossil fuels, unless there’s rigorous analysis and stakeholder engagement that goes into their formulation, these targets could exacerbate many sustainability issues we face. For example, California is currently suffering extensive rolling energy blackouts that some attribute to an overzealous pursuit of state-wide targets for renewables. They’ve done this without solving the associated problem of what to do when energy demands are high and there is no sun or wind, and affordable battery storage is not yet a reality. Setting a target – a quantitative threshold to be attained, such as 80% wind energy – rather than an objective – a qualitative direction in which to go, such as working to maximise wind energy – can blind us to trade-offs when evaluating different policy actions. They can also create psychological incentives to act quickly to implement them, causing decision-makers to lose sight of the more fundamental objectives that motivated the target in the first place. Europe’s Renewable Energy Directive, for example, instead of reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, threatens to increase net carbon emissions and deforestation,” adds Spillias.
The researchers believe that setting such targets are a simple, easy policy instrument, but lack the nuance of more considered mechanisms for energy development. “Targets may or may not be appropriate tools to use for renewable energy development,” Spillias said.
The team argues that, instead, a rigorous decision-making process should be undertaken to evaluate the trade-offs between different sustainability objectives with respect to a variety of possible targets and/or other policy instruments. For example, the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations have an energy-related objective, but it refers to clean energy not renewable energy.
Renewable energy is likely going to be the best way to generate clean energy in the future, but importantly it should be recognised as merely the means to achieving that objective, rather than the ends in of itself.
The energy-related goals and targets we set for ourselves in the years ahead will guide the course of renewable energy development and will flow through to every sector of our society.
“If, for whatever reason, we make mistakes in setting those goals, no matter how well-intentioned they might be, there will be real and enduring consequences for biodiversity, communities, and economies,” Spillias concludes. | https://refrigerationandaircon.co.za/renewable-energy-targets-can-undermine-sustainable-intentions/ |
Podcast - Rule 10: Witnesses Need to Use Their Counsel
In the latest episode of his "Powerful Witness Preparation" podcast series, "Witnesses Need to Use Their Counsel," litigation attorney Dan Small concludes his in-depth, 10-part series on the rules for witness preparation. The final rule concerns four crucial ways a lawyer can help a witness while they are on the stand. Lawyers and witnesses should be clear about their relationship and remain vigilant about protecting privilege. Witnesses should be encouraged to take breaks early and often, and when their lawyer makes an objection, they should stop, listen closely and wait before continuing. Finally, in some forms of testimony, witnesses and counsel have the opportunity to review the transcript and submit an errata sheet, an opportunity that should not be ignored. Above all, Mr. Small says, no matter how much time is spent preparing a witness, there is still plenty counsel can do to help them during questioning, and a good lawyer will do everything to provide that assistance.
Listen to more Powerful Witness Preparation Podcasts here.
Podcast Transcript
Dan Small: No matter how much time is spent in preparation, there's often still a lot a witness' lawyer can do to help while the witness is being questioned. A good lawyer will do everything appropriate to provide that assistance. So when a U.S. senator tried to keep lawyer Brendan Sullivan from talking too much during the Iran-Contra hearings, he countered, "Senator, I am not a potted plant." He apparently received potted plants in the mail from appreciative trial lawyers around the country, and the phrase became a symbol for lawyers actively representing witnesses. A witness' lawyer can help his client in a variety of ways at each stage of the process. Although there are differences depending on the type of questioning or proceeding, the types of help may include the following.
Privilege: When in Doubt, Ask
Number one, privilege. Both lawyer and witness should be clear up front about what their relationship is. I learned that early as a federal prosecutor. The people were my client, but I had no attorney-client relationship or privilege with any witness. If the lawyer does represent the witness, then both have to be vigilant to protect that privilege. Privilege issues fill volumes of case law and analysis. It can be confusing. When in doubt, a witness needs to stop and ask. One common area for which it's important to prepare is questions about the preparation. Preparation with a witness' own counsel is strictly privileged; however, many questioners will ask about the logistics of the preparation in the hope of getting more. The logistics means who, when, where, etc. That's fine, and no witness should ever feel defensive about having prepared for such an important event. But be careful about opening the door to privileged communications. What was said remains strictly off limits, or the questioner may claim that the privilege has been waived. If the witness is not a direct client, that should not deter preparation. Just prepare your witnesses so they know that opposing counsel may ask about the conferences and then conduct the conference accordingly. Preparation is about seeking the truth. I tell witnesses, "I'm not here to tell you what to say. All I want to do is to learn the truth. And if I say anything that's not right, please correct me. I want you to be comfortable that if anyone asks you what I told you to say, I just told you to tell the truth." And preparation is about asking questions. "Madam Witness, we're trying to get at the truth here, so I have a lot of questions to ask you, some of which they may ask, and documents to show you and ask you about that they may show you as well. Would that help you out?"
Take Breaks, Talk to Counsel
Number two, breaks. Being a disciplined witness is surprisingly exhausting mentally. There are many things we do in our normal lives that are more exhausting in short spurts, but few that require the unrelenting intensity and focus of being a witness. What that means is that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and the witness has to prepare himself accordingly. Have your witness take breaks early and often for any reason or no reason.
The challenge for the witness is to know themselves well enough to take breaks before they really need them, not four or five questions after they've lost focus. In addition to combating exhaustion and distraction, breaks can be important for other reasons. One of those is the assistance of counsel. A witness' lawyer is their only friend in the room, no matter how friendly others may seem. If the type of proceeding and local rules allow it, a witness should break to talk to counsel for whatever reason and however often. Whatever a questioner might say, it doesn't look bad on the record, and it will not reflect badly on testimony. Sounds easy, but in some cases it may feel uncomfortable. After all, in a normal conversation, we don't usually get up and walk out of the room to talk to someone else and then come back. It stops the flow, people look at you funny and you feel self-conscious. Too bad. A witness is involved in an unnatural process. Having the regular opportunity to take a break and to confer with counsel is far more important than any minor feelings of discomfort.
Objections: Stop and Wait
Number three, objections. If you find yourself in a proceeding during which counsel makes objections, do not make the mistake of treating them as irrelevant legal technicalities. If you see a lawyer getting up to object, stop and wait. Listen closely to any objection and response, and consider it carefully. You may learn something important about the question and how it could be handled from the objection. In a deposition, the rules that govern counsel in most jurisdictions prevent objections that go to the substance of the testimony, hearsay, irrelevance, best evidence, etc. Since the deposition is supposed to be a far-ranging discovery process, there's no judge to rule on objections and no jury to hear objectionable testimony. It can be dealt with later before the case goes to trial. The principal objection in the deposition is objection to form. Lawyers can be as lazy as other human beings and may shorten those three words to simply "objection" or even just "form," but the intent is the same.
The problem is that when most unprepared witnesses hear one or more of those three words — "objection to form" — they assume that it is some technical legal nonsense that they can ignore. So they plow forward, undaunted by the objection. Alas, they're only half right.
There are technical legal reasons for objections to form. However, the more important half is that counsel has heard something about the question to which he or she objects. Objection to form is shorthand for, "I have an objection to the form in which that question was asked." If your lawyer has that kind of a problem with a question, maybe you should, too, and ask to have it rephrased. It's important to understand that objection is generally not an instruction not to answer. There are only a few areas in a deposition in which counsel can give such an instruction. In the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for example, they're defined as, "Counsel may instruct deponent not to answer only when necessary to preserve a privilege, to enforce a limitation ordered by the court, or to present a motion." Thus, the witness must generally answer the question despite the objection. However, "please rephrase the question" is an appropriate answer to a bad question.
In a complex contracts dispute between two healthcare systems whose cooperative effort had turned into finger pointing, the top executive of the joint venture was called for deposition. He was an intelligent, articulate administrator who, during preparation, typical of that kind of successful person, had a hard time understanding why he had to slow down, listen and insist on clear questions. It took a good deal of work to persuade him, but he finally got it. The questioning lawyer was talented and experienced but, like most lawyers, spoiled. Spoiled by years of questioning poorly prepared witnesses who did not challenge bad questions. As a result, he repeatedly asked questions that were too lazy, too long, too complex and too confusing. I objected to form, and my witness asked to have the questions rephrased. Unable to have his way with the witness for a change, the questioner became more and more frustrated. Finally, he asked yet another bad question, I made yet another objection to form and my witness yet again asked to have the question rephrased, and the lawyer could no longer contain himself. "Mr. Witness, you don't have to do that, you know." And there was a pause, and my witness said, "Do what, Counselor?" "Well, just because your lawyer objects to form, you don't have to ask me to rephrase the question." And there was a pause, and my witness said, "I know, but it does kind of raise a red flag, doesn't it?" And everyone in the room laughed except for the questioning lawyer. Exactly right. Whatever the other technical legal meanings of objection to form, it is also a bright red flag that there were problems with the question. There's nothing automatic or universal here. And maybe counsel hasn't heard the question right or misjudged it, but maybe not. Please rephrase the question.
Review the Transcript, Submit Errata Sheets
Number four is errata sheets. In a deposition or other form of testimony where the witness and counsel have the opportunity to review the transcript and submit an errata sheet, too many lawyers treat that process as a trivial chore. It should instead be viewed as an important opportunity to continue the dialogue with your witness. Ask him to review it with three things in mind: a) typos and other errors; b) points that, in 20/20 hindsight, he got wrong or simply wishes he had said differently; and c) issues or questions that reading through the transcript raises in his mind. Then take the time to go through all those things with the witness. I'm a believer in being aggressive about errata sheets. Better to clarify something now than have to deal with it down the road or at trial. There is some disagreement among jurisdictions, but the majority rule is that it is permissible to make substantive changes in an errata sheet. The process is not without risk. Among other things, if the changes are too great, the other side may seek to reopen the testimony. Still, the benefits of a clear record generally outweigh the risks. A witness will hopefully spend a great deal of time and effort working with counsel before questioning to prepare. Counsel, in turn, has a great deal of experience dealing with the environment. Use that crucial combination of effort and experience at every stage of the process. | https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/media-entities/2020/03/podcast-rule-10-witnesses-need-to-use-their-counsel |
Indumathi S.
“I am just like the millions, not one in the million. I am no different from others. Any girl can do what I did; all they need is doggedness, determination, the will to push hard and push through boundaries, and never-ending commitment to achieve their goal.” – Sakshi Malik, Indian Wrestler
Malik’s quote is more about individual commitment. Success and participation in sports appear to be self-driven and self-motivated, but in reality schools play an important role in encouraging and involving girls in sports. This article discusses and draws attention to how organizing sports and physical education in schools can help girls participate in sports. It points out to the factor of not just involving and helping girls participate but sustaining their engagement with sports.
If one asks, why this should be a matter of concern, the answer is that research indicates that girls dropping out of sports is twice the number as that of boys by the time girls attain puberty. It is also a matter of concern for the reason that sports or Physical Education (P.E) is an important component of growth, development and well-being.
Participation in sports helps develop important social skills – negotiation, collaboration, team building, etc., which are important skills and the need of the hour. Physical aspects such as being energetic, building of strength and energy and feeling brisk is taken care of when one is involved in sports activities. It helps in building bone and especially vitamin D and calcium. Muscle gains and bone mass increases with physical activity and this helps in later years. Sport is found to contribute to cognitive development. Multitasking, complex and dynamic visual and spatial coordination is enhanced with the involvement in sports. It reduces the risk of getting depressed. Moderate to intense physical activity is a must for children, recommends the World Health Organization (WHO).
Now that the aspect of well-being and role of sports has been discussed, I will move on to explore issues related to the participation of girls in sports and how it can be addressed.
Though girls show interest in sports, they tend to drop out due to various reasons especially in the teenage years. A lot of it is related to social stereotypes and stigma. I explore a few reasons below.
Gender stereotypes: Often girls are advised not to exert themselves much and are encouraged to play indoor games. Most of the sports and games are considered more suitable for boys as they involve a lot of physical activity. Girls involved in sports experience bullying and body shaming.
Issues with menstruation: The taboo around menstruation makes girls withdraw from physical activity and games even if they have actively participated in sports in the primary school years.
Lack of spaces and facilities: Many schools do not have enough space or playground and public facilities are few in India.
Availability of female coaches: In India, there are few role models and coaches. Trained female coaches are few. Teaching of many games and exercises involves touch and often learning it from the opposite sex becomes an issue.
What can be done?*
Gender desegregation: All sports and games need to be played together. Schools can take the lead of not segregating girls and boys and allowing them to play together. This often breaks the stereotypes and one finds that girls can play with just as much skill and agility as the boys, when given a chance.
Games which are inclusive: Instead of fostering competition among girls and boys, schools can think of games that are inclusive. Nurturing collaboration and helping them play as a team helps to foster positive and healthy relationships.
Games which have self-goals: The Nali-kali initiative or Activity Based Learning (ABL) have learning goals and students move from one step to another on their own. They allow students to explore on their own and self-evaluate their learning. A similar approach can be tried in games and sports. Games which help students decide at their level can be encouraged initially. For example, cycling, gymnastics, skating, trampoline, swimming, etc., have different levels or stages. Often, children learn more from their peers than from coaches or adults. They tend to improvise and challenge themselves. In cycling, we can see that children try to ride without holding the handle bar, or challenge themselves not to break, but at the same time are able to control their speed and try to wheel or balance on their own. Similarly, in a pool/ trampoline, one can see them jumping, flipping, somersaulting or attempting multiple flips in the air before landing. Most of these are unsupervised and if children are allowed to learn from each other and teach each other, they tend to master the skills more easily and without pressure. Children like challenges and like to test their own physical limits. They need to be advised on safety and need to be left to themselves to explore every day in school.
Women coaches and role-models: Having role models and inviting women achievers to school and having them talk about their challenges, how they overcame hurdles, some of the routines they followed, etc., can motivate students. Hiring women coaches and teachers is also important, as there might be parents and adults who may take time to accept equity in sports.
Integrating sports in other subjects: Often PE is seen as a free period and many girls tend to sit under the tree and giggle or talk. However, if sports and movement is integrated with teaching physics, history and mathematics, for example, students will not view sports or PE as a separate activity. Concepts such as distance and time, force, etc., can be taught using physical movements and making sports/games part of the lessons might help girls feel that they can also participate and excel.
Work with parents: Parents need to be involved in order to bring about a change in their mindsets. Parents can play an equally important role. Parents can encourage their children to run or swim or take up physical activity. If there are parents who are experts in a sport, schools can enlist them as coaches and get them to volunteer as escorts during games and sports events.
There are multiple possibilities and schools can decide to focus on a few sports, if not all. Schools need to have a well-thought through sports curriculum and think of sports as a means for equity and inclusiveness. Involving girls is challenging, but schools need to keep trying multiple programs and strategies.
Schools often focus on academic work and tend to treat PE as an extra-curricular activity. Educators and teachers need to be trained in the holistic development of children. Schools need to think of sports and games as an important component of growth and give it the attention it requires as a first step. Involving girls consciously, encouraging them actively and sustaining their participation is the next step that schools need to work on. Sustaining the involvement is another major challenge and hence schools need to think of integrating sports across the curriculum, especially during class 10 and class 12 when examinations and academic performance take precedence.
*Some of the suggestions offered above come from observations of sports and P.E in different progressive schools and as well as observing my own daughter’s patterns of involvement, achievement and withdrawal in different phases.
The author is an independent educational consultant. She has been involved in teacher professional development for a decade now. Her interests are gender, science education and teacher development. She has submitted her doctoral thesis at TISS, Mumbai. She can be reached at [email protected]. | https://www.teacherplus.org/keep-playing-like-a-girl/ |
Nymph Representative:
Second in Commands:
Ashlan Rose ~ Satyr SIC position available (speak with Aurora)
About the species:
Nymphs are female nature spirits from Greek mythology which are well-known for their beauty. While they're often the descendent of gods and goddesses, they themselves are not typically regarded as goddesses in the same sense the Olympic gods are, as it's possible for them to be killed. Still, they're not considered mortals either, as they won't ever grow old or be affected by illness.
Nymphs are typically friendly in disposition, although there have been some exceptions. They're often associated with dance, music, love and promiscuity, and known to engage in love and sexual behavior not only with humans but also with other forest denizens such as Fauns and Satyrs. Historically, each Nymph or group of Nymphs is intrinsically linked with a specific location or landmark. Many are associated with water bodies, to the point that the alchemist Paracelsus used the term "Nymph" as a synonym for his water elementals, a.k.a. Undines.
The Nymphs are essentially physical incarnations of the forces of nature such as water or wind. They are a mysterious race, believed to have been created to preserve what is called "The Great Balance" As a result, they are spirits of neither good nor evil and will aid the side that is necessary to preserve or realign the afore mentioned balance. Depending on what type of Nymph the female is (water, land, wood,..) they have the ability to control a specific element.
Nymph legend says that they were created by an entity believed to be the source of all things natural to which they refer to as Shialakzoran, which literally means “Nymph mother” in ancient Esirian. This may also refer to Aurosozahnah, High Goddess of Nature from the ancient days prior to the Mianorite invasion. Shialakzoran, though highly revered, has never been worshiped by the nymphs. It is due to the nature of their relationship resembling more of a bond between a mother and her children as opposed to a goddess and her followers. As such, nymphs consider themselves all part of one big family. They refer to each other as cousin, if speaking to a nymph of another element, but will refer to nymphs of the same elemental alignment as sister.
All nymphs are female, however due to their longevity it is not necessary that they procreate. Which prevents their population from growing out of control or dwindling. Nymphs can born from nature itself, one day appearing from a minor gust of wind or newly budded tree in spring. They may also be born through mating with other sufficient races (depending on the race, mortal or immortal). Depending on the nymph, in the case of a female offspring, it will be born a nymph. This method of nymph creation is usually very rare, due to their nature of separating themselves from mortal society.
Nymphs exist in an unusual state of limbo between life and death. In a general sense nymphs are immortal, however some nymphs can be killed or made mortal through rare circumstances, secrets that nymphs guard dearly.
Satyrs are creatures with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a goat complete with hairy goat legs and hooves, as well as goat horns, and the pointed ears of a goat. When in public, they tend to be clumsy, for they have to wear fake feet and hats so that the sound or appearance of their hooves or horns won't draw unwanted attention from humans.
As Dionysiac creatures, they are lovers of wine, women, and men, and are ready for every physical pleasure. They roam to the music of pipes (auloi), cymbals, castanets, and bagpipes, and love to dance with the Nymphs (with whom they are obsessed, and whom they often pursue), and have a special form of dance called sikinnis. Because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding winecups and appear often in the decorations on winecups.
Satyrs are described as roguish but faint-hearted folk — subversive and dangerous, yet shy and cowardly. They are also often depicted as fumbling, joking, and careless creatures.
Compatibilities:
Nymphs have especially low fertility rates, but can mate with almost any species. Luckily, regardless of the species they mate with, the child is almost always a Nymph.
Nymph pregnancies will last a full term of 9 months unless they procreate with a shifter; in that case, the full term pregnancy will last 7 months.
Nymph x Satyr will be either a Nymph or Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Human will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Vampire will be a Vampire
Nymph/Satyr x Werewolf will be a Werewolf
Nymph/Satyr x Warlock will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Shapeshifters will be a Shapeshifter
Nymph/Satyr x Phoenix will be a Phoenix
Nymph/Satyr x Mermaid/Merman will be a Mermaid/Merman
Nymph/Satyr x Siren will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Fairie will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Incubus will be a Incubus/Succubus
Nymph/Satyr x Heretic will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Cambion will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Dhampir will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Angels will be a Angel
Nymph/Satyr x Nephilim will be a Nymph/Satyr
Nymph/Satyr x Dragon will be a Dragon
Nymph/Satyr x Banshee/Banhee will be a Banshee/Banhee
Physiology:
Nymphs appear human, but usually have an appearance that is tied to their natural object - a dryad's hair will usually match the leaves of her tree (in all seasons), for instance, and water nymphs universally have blue eyes. Whatever their individual traits, they are always beautiful and youthful in appearance.
In addition to not aging, nymphs are immortal - as long as their natural object is around, so shall they be. They can, however, be harmed, generally in any way that a human can be. They share the specific strengths and weaknesses of their natural object, however - a water nymph cannot drown, but a dryad will be especially vulnerable to fire.
Every spring after attaining majority (which in nymphs usually takes as long as it took their natural formation to form), nymphs experience a fluctuation in their hormones somewhat akin to an animal going into heat. To put it bluntly, they become extremely horny, and seek out partners with which to have rather vigorous intercourse. Repeatedly. It is incredibly rare for them to produce offspring from these liasons, but any child born to a nymph will have an affinity for their mother's natural formation, while taking after its father in terms of genetic traits.
Satyrs are typically tall creatures much like their female counterparts. A fully developed satyr height ranges from 5'6 to 6'6, typically even at their tallest most will never reach a weight of more than 275 pounds. They are typically very nimble, and are typically rather lean well built. It is like most races where the male is the strong of the two genders; this does not differ for Nymphs and Satyrs. Yet, because Nymphs are magical creatures a completely physical satyr is still something of a great rarity. With proper conditioning any creature can become gradually stronger, this is also true with the Nymphs. A satyrs skin tone ranges from a light blue hue, to a darker blue tone, their hair although ranges from white, silver, to grey, as well have blue toned eyes.
Satyrs are male goat-human hybrids with the torso and head of a man, and in Greek tradition with the legs, and tail of a horse. Originally, Satyrs also had human feet before Roman alterations. They are often depicted with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair, and full beards, with wreaths of vine or ivy circling their balding heads. They are able, however, to transform into the complete body of a man but eventually, must return to their satyr forms, these woodlands are called Fauns.
Fauns acquired their goat-like aspect through later Roman conflation with Faunus, a carefree Italic nature spirit of similar temperament. Hence satyrs are most commonly described in Latin literature as having the upper half of a man and the lower half of a goat. In Roman art, ature Satyrs have long goat's horns, while juveniles are often shown with bony nubs on their foreheads.
A thing that differs Satyrs and Nymphs is the fact that Satyrs possess two different eye colors (listed below).
Magical Characteristics:
As beings tied to nature, nymphs can communicate with plants and animals. Seeing as they control the elements, usually they and the elements get along, meaning they can generally encourage some sort of cooperation. In addition, nymphs can move through the woods without cracking a single twig or disturbing a single leaf, due to their kinship with nature.
Each nymph has a special tie to her natural formation, and can retreat into it regardless of normal impossibilities. A nymph cannot stray far from her natural formation without weakening. Her life is also dependent upon it - if something detrimental happens to her formation (a tree sickening, a river being polluted), she too will suffer. If her formation is destroyed, she dies. This relationship is not reversed - if a nymph is harmed or slain, her natural formation will remain untouched.
When a nymph is 'in heat', she exudes magically enticing pheromones, which are particularly effective on humans and satyrs.
Society and Habitat:
Nymphs from nearby natural things tend to gather in groups, but they can't wander far, and they don't have much interest in things beyond their natural habitat. With the pollution and industrialization prevalent in the modern world, nymphs are quickly becoming more and more rare. Under normal circumstances, nymphs cannot travel to another plane or world without severing the tie to their object, and therefore dying.
Various aspects of nature have their own particular kind of Nymph:
Celestial Nymphs: Apsara, in Indian religion and mythology, one of the celestial singers and dancers who, together with the gandharvas, or celestial musicians, inhabit the heaven of the god Indra, the lord of the heavens. Originally water nymphs, the apsaras provide sensual pleasure for both gods and men. They have been beautifully depicted in sculpture and painting in India and throughout areas of South and Southwest Asia influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. Notable examples are the 5th–6th-century frescoes at Ajanta in India and at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka and the sculptures and bas-reliefs decorating the temples of Angkor, Cambodia. Aurae are the nymphs of the breezes. They were daughters of either the earth-encircling river Oceanus or the north-wind Boreas. Asteriae were nymphs of the stars. Most were daughters of the Titan Atlas including the Pleiades and Hyades, both of which were also classed as Oreiades (Mountain-Nymphs). Nephele were the nymphs of rain-clouds. They were numbered amongst the Okeanides (Oceanids).
Water Nymphs, called Nereids, are similar to Mermaids. The 3,000 Oceanids, the Nymphs of the oceans, are the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Naiads were nymphs of the earthly sources of fresh-water, including springs, rivers, streams, wells and fountains. Some were daughters of the earth-encircling river Okeanos (i.e. the Okeanides), while others were born of local River Gods. They were sometimes also associated with rain-clouds (the Naiad-Nephelai), trees (the Naiad-Dryades), and flowery meadows (the Naiad-Leimonides). Hydriads were fresh-water nymphs whose name comes from the Greek word hydros"water". They were essentially the same as the Naiades.
Land Nymphs are linked to particular geographic locations. Oreids, who inhabit mountains and ravines, often accompany Artemis on hunting expeditions. Alseids protect glens and groves, while Auloniads are found in pastures and mountain valleys, often in the retinue of Pan.
Wood Nymphs and Plant Nymphs are identified with particular species of trees. Often their bodies become part of the trees they inhabit. Dryads are associated with oak trees, Hamadryads with nut, elm and fig trees, and Anthousai with ash trees. Ovid tells the story of Daphne, the Nymph who becomes a laurel tree. The god of love Eros wounds Apollo the god of the Sun, with an arrow, causing him to fall in love with Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus. A follower of Artemis and vowed to chastity, Daphne runs away from her pursuer. Just as Apollo is about to catch her, Daphne cries out to her father for help. The moment the cry leaves her lips, her skin turns to bark, her hair to leaves, her arms to branches and her feet to roots. Embracing the lovely laurel tree, Apollo declares it sacred and winds a laurel wreath around his brow.
Underworld Nymphs: The Lampades were the torch-bearing nymphs of the underworld who accompanied the goddess Hekate in her night-time revels and hauntings. They were the divine counterparts of the Eleusinian celebrants who carried torches in the nocturnal procession of the Mysteries of Demeter. Cocytiae is a representation of the darkness of the river Styx, the river of hatred.
Satyrs come in three forms; the Fauns of the woods, the Tritons of the sea and the Potamoi of the rivers.
The Potamoi are the counterparts to the water nymphs, to be specific the Oceanids. As the Ocanids were the 3000 daughters of the river god Oceanus and the goddess Thetis, they also had the same amount of sons, which were called the Potamoi (river gods) because they represented all the rivers. They were either depicted as men or with body parts of a bull or with a serpentlike fishtail.
The Tritons can be seen as the male versions of the sea nymphs, the Nereids. These ocean deities were the sons of the ocean god Triton, who is one of the gods in Greek mythology that had a fishtail. Just like their father, the Tritons are usually depicted as mermen with tails.
Fauns were male nature spirits that were known for their wild and often questionable behavior. They mostly lived in woodlands, mountains and pastures where the land and tree nymphs lived as well. But they did not have the same powers as the nymphs who watched over their trees etc. Instead, the Fauns were much more animalistic. They were often trying to seduce or abduct nymphs (mostly without success).
Depending on what type of Nymph they are, each has a specific eye color when using their elements (see below):
Celestial Nymphs: Aurae have aquamarine eyes, Asteriae have true sapphire eyes, and Nephele have satin gray eyes
Water Nymphs: Nereids have blue eyes and Oceanids have ice blue eyes
Land Nymphs: Oreids have hazel eyes, Alseids have brown eyes, and Auloniads have amber brown eyes
Wood and Plant Nymphs: Dryads have green eyes, Hamadryads have emerald green eyes, and Anthousai have forest green eyes
Underworld Nymphs: Lampades have crimson red eyes and Cocytiae have blood red eyes
Satyrs: Fauns have one brown eye and one gold eye, Tritons have one blue eye and one green eye, Potamois have one gray eye and one purple eye.
Controlled elements:
Classical elements typically refer to the concepts in ancient Greece of earth, water, air, and fire, which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. However, there are actually eight known elements of nature: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Nature, Ice, Light, and Darkness. Each type of Nymph group are capable of performing two out of the eight elements unlike Aurora, who can perform every element (even though her main incarnation is a water nymph). Satyrs, however, can only possess one element.
Celestial Nymphs: Earth and Air
Water Nymphs: Water and Ice
Land Nymphs: Nature and Earth
Wood and Plant Nymphs: Air and Nature
Underworld Nymphs: Fire and Darkness
Fauns: Earth
Tritons: Water
Potamois: Ice
Elemental Abilities (Satyrs only possess the basics):
All Nymphs:
Enhanced Condition: The power to possess a physical and mental condition beyond the peak of human condition.
Environmental Adaptation: The power to survive and adapt to an environment.
Ecological Empathy: The ability to sense the overall well-being and conditions of one's immediate environment and natural setting stemming from a psychic sensitivity to nature.
Nature Unity: The ability to become one with nature.
Celestial
Asteriae;
Flight: The power to fly without any outside influence.
Night, Stellar and Constellation Empowerment: The powers to become stronger during the night, gain strength from stars, and gain enhancements from constellations.
Stellar Embodiment: The power to become the embodiment of the stars.
Constellation Manipulation: The power to manipulate constellations, asterisms and zodiac signs.
Aurae;
Air Embodiment: The power to become the embodiment of the element of air.
Air Walking/Flight: The power to walk/fly in air.
Air Mimicry: The power to transform into or have a physical body made up of air.
Air Manipulation: The power to manipulate air/wind.
Air Teleportation: The ability to teleport via air and winds.
Nephele;
Sky Embodiment: The power to become the embodiment of the sky.
Air Walking/Flight: The power to walk/fly in air.
Weather Sensing: The power to predict the weather patterns.
Cloud Manipulation: The power to manipulate the clouds.
Cloud Teleportation: The power to teleport via the clouds.
Cloud Mimicry: The ability to transform into or have a physical body made up of clouds
Water:
Naiad;
Enhanced Strength: The ability to pull full-grown mortals into their waters to drown them and hold them there.
Water/Lake/River Manipulation: The power to manipulate water/lakes/rivers and everything in them.
Water Teleportation: The ability to teleport via water and water sources
Water Embodiment: The power to become the embodiment of the element of water.
Oceanide;
Ocean Embodiment: The power to become the embodiment of the ocean.
Hydroportation: The ability to teleport via water and water sources.
Ocean Manipulation: The power to manipulate the oceans and everything in them.
Hydriad;
these have similar powers to naiads, aside from the enhanced strength
Esoteric Water Generation: The power to generate esoteric water.
Speed Swimming: The power to swim at incredible speeds.
Water Defence: The ability to use water to defend oneself.
Land:
Oreid;
Earth Manipulation: The power to manipulate elements derived from earth.
Botanical Communication: The power to communicate with plant-life.
Plant/wood Mimicry: The power to transform into or have a physical body made up of wood/plants.
Alseid;
Land Manipulation: The power to become the embodiment of the land.
Unearth: The power to dig up anything/everything buried.
Botanical Communication: The power to communicate with plant-life.
Auloniad;
Forest Manipulation: The power to manipulate the forests and everything in them.
Botanical Communication: The power to communicate with plant-life.
Earth/Landmass Mimicry: The power to become or mimic the traits of a landmass/earth.
Wood and Plant:
Dryad;
Botanical Communication: The power to communicate with plant-life.
Plant Manipulation: The power to manipulate plant-life
Plant Growth: The power to influence the growth of plant life.
Plant Mimicry: The power to transform into or have a physical body made up of plant materials.
Hamadryad;
Plant/wood Mimicry: The power to transform into or have a physical body made up of wood/plants.
Tree Embodiment: The power to embody the element wood.
Botanical Communication: The power to communicate with plant-life.
Anthousai;
Flower Manipulation: The power to manipulate flowers.
Flower Generation: The power to generate flowers.
Flower Mimicry: The power to transform into or have a physical body made up of flowers.
Botanical Communication: The power to communicate with plant-life.
Underworld:
Lampade;
Afterlife Embodiment: The power to become the embodiment of the afterlife.
Hell-Fire Manipulation: The power to manipulate the demonic flames of Hell.
Underworld Manipulation: The power to manipulate the underworld.
Ghost Mimicry: The power to use the abilities of ghosts.
Cocytiae;
Underworld Manipulation: The power to manipulate the underworld.
Night Empowerment: The power to become stronger during the night.
Soul Reading: The ability to perceive/read souls.
Fear Aura: The power to generate an aura of fear.
Weaknesses:
Nature life force: A nymph's life force is connected to the specific part of nature that they control (e.g. a dryad with a tree, a myceliad with a mushroom, etc). As such, if that specific part of nature is destroyed, then the nymph will die.
SHOULD ANY OF THIS NOT MAKE SENSE AND CONFUSE YOU IN ANY WAY, PLEASE CONTACT AURORA. If your bio makes no sense or doesn't look like the info provided on this page, you will be contacted and asked to change things around. | https://houseofmemoriesrp.ning.com/nymphs |
Objective: Reflecting increased scientific interest in any nutritional contribution to the onset and treatment of mood disorders, we overview research into two neurotransmitter precursors - the amino acids tryptophan and tyrosine - particularly examining whether any deficiency increases risk to depression and whether those amino acids have any antidepressant properties.
Method: The theoretical relevance of the two amino acids was overviewed by considering published risk and intervention studies, technical papers and reviews.
Results: There is some limited evidence, suggesting that depressed patients, especially those with a melancholic depression, have decreased tryptophan levels. Whether such findings reflect a causal contribution or are a consequence of a depressed state remains an open question. There is a small database supporting tryptophan preparations as benefitting depressed mood states. There is no clear evidence as to whether tyrosine deficiency contributes to depression, while the only randomized double-blind study examining tyrosine supplementation did not show antidepressant benefit.
Conclusion: Acute tryptophan depletion continues to provide a research tool for investigating the relevance of serotonin to depression onset. There is limited evidence that tryptophan loading is effective as a treatment for depression through its action of increasing serotonin production. Most clinical studies are dated, involve small sample sizes and/or were not placebo controlled. The development of the new serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs seemingly signalled an end to pursuing such means of promoting increased serotonin as a treatment for depression. The evidence for tyrosine loading promoting catecholamine production as a possible treatment for depression appears even less promising, and depletion studies less informative.
© 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S. | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21488845/ |
The invention provides a layered gas storage device and a gravity compressed air energy storage system. The total volume of gas in the gas storage device is effectively increased through the arrangement of multiple layers of gas storage bags; and the length of the hose can be properly increased through hose coiling, so that the operation height of each stage of supporting assembly is increased, the engineering gas storage volume requirement in a larger range is met, and the problems that the high-performance requirement of a sealing film and the gas storage volume are limited in a traditional arrangement form are solved. In addition, compressed gas is injected into each layer of gas storage bag, and the external pressure borne by each layer of gas storage bag is gradually reduced, so that the internal and external pressure difference of each layer of gas storage bag is reduced layer by layer, the stress of each layer of gas storage bag is integrally reduced, and the service life of each stage of sealing film is prolonged. In addition, only the air storage bag on the uppermost layer is directly contacted with the gravity assembly in the gravity compressed air energy storage system, and only the air storage bag on the uppermost layer is required to jack the gravity assembly upwards for a small distance, so that the risk that the posture of the gravity assembly is inclined is reduced. | |
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Volume 7, Number 1 (2020) pp 95-118 doi 10.20448/802.71.95.118 | Research Articles
After the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, the largest economic changes in the U.S. and globally were not to inflation and wages, but were to wild swings in unemployment and output, contradicting “rational expectations” economics- why? Some blamed U.S. weather conditions on volatile growth after 2008. This article hypothesizes that the differences between the volatile stagflation of the 1970s, the relatively docile 1980s, the 2008 volatile crash, and, most pointedly, the topsy-turvy, global, low-wage stagnation after, are several fold: first, structural changes to the high-tech economy; second, central bank assertions about monetary policy; third, a finicky consumption and marketing of risky high-tech products, in-part responsible for the United States and Japan entering into liquidity traps, where firms decline to invest; and fourth, all of these factors causing the Phillips Curve to pivot, or move horizontally, particularly over expectations. These differences are hypothesized to create growth instability, swings in unemployment, and flat wages. The article uses conceptual and statistical methods, with new policies for ongoing conditions in high-tech economies such as the United States and Japan.
Keywords:Finicky consumerism, Investment, Risk, Liquidity trap, Phillips Curve, Great recession.
JEL Classification: E21, E22, E27, J38.
DOI: 10.20448/802.71.95.118
Citation | Todd J. Barry (2020). Finicky Consumerism, Volatile Investment, and the Puzzle of Low Wages in the High-Tech Economy. International Journal of Economics, Business and Management Studies, 7(1): 95-118.
Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Funding : This study received no specific financial support.
Competing Interests: The author declares that there are no conflicts of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
History : Received: 17 February 2020 / Revised: 20 March 2020 / Accepted: 22 April 2020 / Published: 6 May 2020 .
Publisher: Online Science Publishing
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Highlights of this paper
In her concluding remarks before leaving the Federal Reserve, in 2017, Chairwomen Janet Yellen commented that the puzzle of low wages globally in the Phillips Curve relationship at that time, and leading up until today, was a mystery which needed research by future economists. With a lack of relevant research that followed, this article explains the puzzle of low wages and inflation over the global “Great Recession,” by focusing on finicky consumption over different iterations of high-tech products: the unstable investment need to make high-tech goods. Investment ultimately depends on consumption; and, the low wages which followed, due to the resultant lower profits, causes “stop-start” growth. This is not to mention, in the low wage puzzle, the structural changes to global labor markets in high-tech workforces, and a change in behavior by firms from focusing on forecasting inflation and wages to expectations of employment, and productivity, needed to meet output, possibly with a Keynesian kinked long-run aggregate supply curve due to low investment. This behavior has been reinforced by central bank statements, leading to different outcomes than those found by Friedman and Lucas, which will be addressed.
Although the great economist John Maynard Keynes “generally” linked such concepts in his time, this paper puts them together by juxtaposing newer methodologies, namely game theory, and a Phillips curve, overlaying both, and statistically regressing many of such structural variables- numerous conceptual techniques largely unavailable earlier on. The lack of investment stands out as the greatest contributor to lower wages, being susceptible to too many risks. This trend lowers profits and directs resources even more towards capital, not workers. Consumption over housing also factors statistically in volatility, with increasing female employment adding to lower wages. The paper offers several original, conceptual models of consumption and investment, and policies, categorizing how wages and employment are affected, which are corroborated by looking at different periods of history, namely the low-inflation era post-the-Great Recession (2007-2009 technically) versus the opposite, inflationary gaps of the 1970s, using as examples two high-tech, highly illiquid states: the U.S. and Japan.
Most specifically, “rational expectations” came about in the 1970s by economists looking for a way to return economics to its laissez faire origins. Business leaders, theoretically reducing risk, focus on possible wage and price changes in the future. Unemployment and growth self-adjust and do not change as much as the price-wage element of the Phillips Curve, created by British economist A.W. Phillips in 1958. However, during the “Great Recession,” a global event following the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, the largest change for developed countries were “topsy-turvy” swings in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), such as -1.2% in Q1 of 2013 to 5% in the Q3 of 2014 in the United States (Statista, 2017) . Unemployment rates swung too, from 9.4% in Oct., 2010, to 9.8% in Nov., to 9.3% in Dec., and from 7.7% in Nov. 2012, to 8% in Jan. 2013 and 7.5% in May 2013 (United States Labor, 2017b) . Inflation and wages stayed low globally, coupled at times with stagnant output, the fluxes of which the U.S. Federal Reserve linked to weather. The interim years of the 1990s, the “New Economy,” saw research investment grow 6% per year, and productivity doubled (Samuelson & Varian, 2001) .
With all of these introductory observations providing a necessary contextual foundation, this article addresses the following research question. How did the “Great Recession,” and its aftermath, with its low wages and inflation, and high, volatile employment, with the topsy-turvy, inconsistent growth stagnation, differ from previous global times of exuberance or “stagflation?” That is, from their mix of high inflation and unemployment? While unemployment changed markedly in the “Great Recession,” price levels and wages stayed the same, in-part distinctive of liquidity traps, which have low investments due to riskiness of consumerism over new products.
In addressing this question, the article presents and assesses the extent of the validity of the following four hypotheses. First, U.S. and economic structural changes (x variable) have put downward pressures on wages and inflation (y). Second, Federal Reserve assurances and policies (x) have added to low inflation and interest rates (y). Third, a finicky, volatile consumerism related to risky investment in producing high-tech goods (both x), rooted in game theory, has resulted in “stop-start” growth in the Great Recession (y). This relationship has caused the United States and Japan to enter into dangerous liquidity traps (x), where firms and consumers sit on cash and refuse to spend it due to risks, also causing low inflation and growth (y). Fourth, in times of slow or near zero wage increases (x), firms focus on part-time, on-demand jobs, and productivity, rather than wages (y), which, along with low investment, cause the Phillips Curve to pivot its slope (x), affecting the employment-inflation relationship. All of such factors (x) generate lower wages with volatile unemployment and growth (y).
Consumption is the largest sector in Western and many other developed economies. In explaining inflation, employment, and output volatility, early theories on unemployment come from post-World War II British economist John Maynard Keynes, who differed from Classical Economists in that he was the first to consider that a state’s economy could a rate of cyclical unemployment above that of normal times. Keynes also disagreed with Say’s Law in a money economy, that “supply creates its own demand,” because consumers can put money for many uses, including savings (Pressman, 2014) . Keynes tied to flow of money to interest rates and to jobs “generally,” but not mathematically, and theorized that even with low interest rates, firms could be slow to borrow and invest, due to low liquidity, the lack of investable prospects. These traits occurred during the U.S. Great Depression, with Japan over the 1990s, briefly with the United States in the early 1990s, and then in the United States following the Great Recession, but sundry definitions of “liquidity traps” exist. The definition here is that while interest rates are near zero, there is no investment, and instead low inflation, all due to risk (Sancya, 2015) .
Early theories about inflation came from Knut Wicksell in the late 1890s, one of the first “monetarists.” He believed, incorrectly, that there was a “natural rate” of interest. This can only be true if interest rates equal the profit rates of investment, which does not occur in liquidity traps. Additional inflation work was conducted by Irving Fischer, one of America’s first great economists, in the 1920s, who discovered, among other ideas on inflation, that investors are awarded a premium for inflation on asset prices (Pressman, 2014) . Keynes disagreed with the quantity theory, or exchange theory of inflation, held true since David Hume in the 1740s, and formalized by Fisher in the 1920s. Rather, Keynes held velocity as volatile, and also spending/saving. Keynes did not address central banks, and the “Investment: Saving- Liquidity: Money” (IS-LM) curve, which was developed shortly afterwards by J.R. Hicks and others to use interest rates to link the financial markets to the household goods markets (Pressman, 2014) .
The crisis of economic volatility that began in 2008 in the United States and around the world, which saw huge changes to unemployment but little in the way of inflation, are attributable to a confluence of problems which Keynes foresaw. These ideas were prescient of the 2008 Crash, which was natural to the business cycle, but went beyond normal fluctuations. History will read, in part, that the “Great Recession” was a systemic problem, with many villains and causes. In the 1990s the federal Housing Department and quasi-governmental entities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac followed too easy lending policies over a decade, allowing home owners to take out easy loans and mortgages that were converted into complex financial derivatives. Such derivatives were so complex that no one realized how risky they were, similar to the writings beforehand by Minsky (1977) and his later works. There was no trust to provide credit, and the unsold houses, left from demographic change, created immobilized resources. The United States’ government faced massive debts, as did private firms, so spending responses were tepid. The Federal Reserve meanwhile pursued too loose of a monetary policy leading up to it, and too strict a policy right before. Everyone was to blame. The U.S. jobless rate rose to 10.4% at its peak, while inflation stayed bizarrely near zero (Zuckerman, 2015) .
This author observed that the “Great Recession” truly began, but may not be completely correlated with, a $1.6 trillion dollar President George W. Bush tax cut in 2001, followed by further tax cuts in 2003, mostly for the wealthy, a credit and confidence crunch a year later, FICA (Social Security) tax rebates to spur consumer spending while usurping long-term funds, and volatile equity markets. The government responded to the crisis with the financial and auto sector bailouts, and then with President Barack Obama’s construction stimulus plan.
Next came predictions of a double-dip, a fiscal cliff by the Congressional Budget Office over the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, which President Obama eased, a government shutdown over increased spending budgets, disagreements over raising the debt limit, Executive Orders to circumvent Congress, such as on federal employees’ minimum wage, and the budget sequester which saw large cuts to military spending. The United States Federal Reserve responded with three phases of quantitative easing, the largest of which was called “Operation Twist.”
While much has been written on the crash’s causes, little is yet written on the 2007-2009 “Great Recession’s” aftermath, especially compared to earlier eras. The U.S. government probably was wise to solve the short-term growth problems first. Now, longer term problems such as the national debt, income inequality, and tax reforms can better be addressed without as much volatility, presuming another crash does not follow. This article contributes to the literature by combining theories to explain inconsistent growth and low wages.
This article frequently notes a variety of ways how wealthier and poorer classes spend and save differently. The middle-class, those with the flattest wages, are defined as earning between 75% and 125% of the median U.S. income, which is roughly $45,000 (Hodgson, 2016) . The United States and Japan are defined as being “high tech,” in that they use industrial (technological) policy to develop resources, and were the first to do so in the 20th Century.
The first theory to explain inconsistent, or “topsy-turvy,” growth is consumerism. Keynes, along with Professor A.C. Pigou and others, helped develop the concept that from their income, people either consume or save/invest, the only options in economics, creating a marginal propensity to consume. Keynes gave no explanation why this metric changes other than that of tastes and preferences. From this, though, was born the multiplier- that money expands as it is changes hands, in a chain reaction (Dornbusch, Stanley, & Richard, 2011) .
Keynes believed that consumerism depends on liquidity, the willingness to spend. He disagreed with the monetarists that this concept, when applied in the equation of exchange (MV=PQ), derived by Fischer, because the speed money spreads (V, velocity) was not fixed (Pressman, 2014) . Keynes also disagreed with the writings of John-Baptiste Say, an earlier French economist, who had held that supply creates its own demand in this “chicken vs. egg” question. Keynes, who debated with his uncertain rival A.C. Pigou, insisted demand comes first. Today, it seems clear that Say’s “law” would hold true in underdeveloped economies, because producers cannot make all specific items consumers demand. On a desert island, only certain goods can be made, forcing trade and full consumption. But, in more economically developed societies, demand comes first since people can save their money, and are not be forced to buy those goods supplied. Contrarily, in the 21st century, high-tech economies, so much money and time is invested into developing sophisticated products, that by the time they reach the market, the market has changed. Consumers thus face a difficult decision of whether to buy, or save for the next great innovation, which can be called “finicky consumerism.”
Most historical theory suggests consumption is smooth, and not finicky. In the 1950s and 1960s, Milton Friedman, a monetary economist, developed the Permanent Income Hypothesis, similar to this Relative Income Hypothesis, which is supported by empirical data that the wealthy tend to save more proportionately than the poor. More authoritarian states, though, may limit spending and savings choices of their populations through trade policies, so they may save more, as in Asia (The Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2015) . Friedman showed that a person does not decide how much to spend daily, but takes a long-term view (Kosicki, 1987) .
Modigliani, however, retorted with a contrasting view, suggesting that these two theories should contain a bequeathing element (Kosicki, 1987) . People should not be viewed to have an infinite life, but to want to leave as much as possible to posterity. Most wealth is bequeathed by the wealthiest 20%, but poorer young individuals tend to spend less, so, the inequality eventually evens out, spoken to in this article’s institution section (Siilats.com, 2016) . Institutionally, many others asserted that the need to “maintain self-esteem” and status, and that minorities have had less wealth to pass on, and have less credit access
In the 1980s, British economist Angus Deaton reconsidered the question of consumerism versus saving. The issue of household spending actually stems from the ancient Greeks, as the word “economics” comes from two Greek words, meaning “households,” and “norms.” Working at times with John Muellbauer, Deaton found, “consumer choice…does not necessarily hold at the aggregate level, even if all individuals are rational” (The Comm. “Angus” 2015). Deaton, with others like Jorgensen, Lau, and Stoker, hypothesized that demand for risky, luxury goods and necessities, and the make-up and sizes of households, would all affect spending. Adjusting for taxes, Deaton found that individual consumption is rough; household consumption is smooth, but it is again volatile aggregately, perhaps due to individuals, a mystery titled the “Deaton Paradox” (The Comm. “Angus” 2015).
The United States and Japan, as of 2008, may have entered liquidity traps. The trap is a term coined by Keynes, in his section on money in Keynes (1936) which describes an economy in which there is no place to invest. Keynes includes this as his final section, and traces the ramifications backwards, that is, upon interest rates and investments and then employment. The word “liquidity” itself is an accounting term meaning the ease of spending money. So, Keynes wrote, it is like “pushing on a string”: no matter how low interest rates go, from whatever policies, firms or investors will not take out the loans to spend and invest. The rate of return on such investments will not make them worthy, if investments are too risky. Liquidity traps are risky because they can affect growth for years, because states must use aggressive policies to increase investment, which are often contentious politically. Consider the Asian “tigers” cases, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea (Jones, 2002) .
A liquidity trap may result if demand becomes infinitely elastic at an interest rate, fixed, unchanging. An increase in the money supply will not affect interest rates, and GDP will not rise, noted Keynes. According to Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, the current trend could be an indication of greater saving than investment, which was a theory proposed in the Great Depression by Alvin Hansen, the “American Keynes.” Summers says income inequality has produced wealthy citizens who save more than lower classes, lowering interest rates through more saved funds. Technology has lessened physical investment in plants that would increase construction or manufacturing jobs, in favor of software (Summers, 2016) . Writes Summers, “these forces push interest rates down” (Summers, 2016) .
All of these trends have created what Summers calls, not a liquidity trap, but the “secular stagnation hypothesis” (Summers, 2016) which is different from liquidity traps in that it includes high unemployment, and financial institution instability. He provides explanations from various economists. Robert Gordon has pointed to slow productivity, but Summers says that low inflation and quantity of output is more likely a demand problem than a supply one. Former Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke noted high savings of developing countries. Paul Krugman’s theory involving liquidity traps, says Summers, should only be a temporary problem of stagnation. The only precedents for negative interest rates are Japan, a few European states, and ancient Babylon (Summers, 2016) . One would think it possible if investors borrow to earn profits greater than the loaner’s expense, or if they shared profits. Despite cuts by the Fed to the federal funds rate, and that interest rates have remained low, investment has declined sharply.
The Phillips Curve, derived in 1958 by British economist A.W. Phillips, suggests that an economy has a trade-off between inflation and unemployment. More poignantly, it depends on consumerism generating economic activity, creating numerous jobs, but leading to inflation, or vice-versa. Originally, the idea of inflation applied to wages, but was later adapted to prices. The Phillips Curve held true in the U.S. in the 1950s-1960s, but then began shifting outwards.
The simplest way to observe how changes in the economy affect employment and inflation in the Phillips Curve model is that some variable causes supply to change in the economy, the short-run demand curve shifts either to the right or left. Shifts to the right increase employment and GDP temporarily, but raise prices. Shifts to the left reduce employment and GDP temporarily, but lower prices. Despite temporary changes, firms, faced with more or fewer employees, will raise or lower wages, causing the short-term supply curve to shift back to its long-term level (Arnold, 1998) . In effect, most economists prefer that wages fall in recessions so firms have more money, shifting the supply curve outwards to reach full employment, as it did, for instance, in the U.K’s 2014 recovery (Pettinger, 2014) . Labor is viewed as a “resource,” which economics tries to maximize, whereas wages and prices are not. Supply and demand shift first, then employment, then GDP. A simple multipart figure is below:
The Phillips Curve is better understood if broken into wage and unemployment components, in the bottom part. Both parts react differently to what Keynes called “sticky” variables, such as velocity of money, contracts and unions, inflation and the Cantillon Effect of money sticking in sectors, credit ability, employment at will, minimum wages, price/wage controls, regulations, and supply chains. The 1970s had massive amounts of private and public spending, with U.S. federal spending as a percent of GDP increasing from 18.% in 1970 to 20.6% in 1980 (The FRED- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2017) due to the long Vietnam War, what Milton Friedman would call temporary, or “one shot,” inflation. Monetary policy was weak, keeping rates high. These policies, along with higher energy costs, and high productivity, as high as a 4% increase in 1974, added to Phillips Curve shifts. Thomas (1977) found in Sweden, declining union rates lowered the slope. Hercowitz (1983) found transactions changes the slope, needing more people. A changing Phillips Curve slope or shift, and their underlying reasons, may affect volatility. Randomly chosen Phillips Curves for the United States and Japan are shown in Figures 3-4 (with data from the U.S. Dept. of Labor, “International Comparisons,” “International Indexes” 2017). The United States has the most reliable curvature shape, likely from better central bank and fiscal policy. Japan’s “linear” graph reflects better expectations.
These graphs, elegant by themselves, will be used for the regressions; ideally, if stable, they should look consistently curvilinear as in the upper right of Figure 2 previously. One can infer that inflation is lessening globally, while some nations have seen gains in hiring. Germany’s volatile graphs would be attributed to the political upheaval from post-Cold War unification, while France, for instance, not shown here, has had high unemployment from socialist labor regulation. Canada’s graphs would reflect sound fiscal policies of surpluses used to pay down debt and for $80 billion in stimulus in the 1990s and 2000s (Lee, 2011) .
In an economic renaissance, the “expectations-augmented” Phillip Curve was conceived by Milton Friedman in the 1960s. He believed that there was a “monetary illusion,” inspired by Fisher, which would cause the curve, over several years, to rise directly upwards, from higher prices. Along with Edmund Phelps, Friedman argued that only “real” wages mattered. Wages would render the quantity supplied and demanded for labor to always meet at the natural rate of unemployment. This spot is the “non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment”- the NAIRU. If unanticipated inflation caused short declines in real wages, workers would demand higher wages, and unemployment would increase to its natural rate (Dornbusch et al., 2011) . This idea was developed further by Lucas, Sargent, and others after realizing that the Phillips Curve shifted between the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, which they initially theorized was due to structural changes in an economy, for example, oil prices, or pressures from labor unions (Fuhrer, 1995) . These scholars composed a “rational expectations theory,” that workers and firms negotiate future wages for the next year based on the expectations of inflation for the current year.
The “Lucas critique” revolution that followed, which emphasized expectations, began with a Lucas (1972) contending that investors are aware of possible policy changes. Firms raise wages before interest rate cuts, and skip the processes of supply or demand economic adjustment. These ideas helped explain the “stagflation,” or joint high inflation and employment in the 1970s, which from Orphanides (2004) is now believed to have resulted from easy Federal Reserve policy, the already stated Vietnam War spending, the oil crisis, and leaving the gold standard. Stagflation was eased by Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, appointed by President James E. Carter, Jr., who knowingly drew the United States into recession to control inflation for the long-term good, perhaps costing Mr. Carter reelection to Ronald Reagan. The “Great Moderation” followed from 1984-2008, named for its balanced growth, including balanced inflation (Knotek, 2007) .
One flaw with the Phillips Curve thinking, addressed in hypothesis number four of this article, is how the curve may “pivot” in its slope, but not shift, if there is a change in productivity, which is related to wages, and other factors such as investment. A second flaw is always assuming increases in demand, rather than decreases, in which case the resulting equilibrium may be lower along the Phillips Curve. Figure 5 was created from unemployment and inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, assuming that next year’s inflation will be this year’s, but it still does not look amply curvy, convex right. Expectations theory says unemployment is at its “natural rate” when actual inflation equals expected inflation. The second graph is more accurate to theory. The Phillips Curve could change from any of the supply or demand “shifters:” expectations, substitute goods, “acts of God,” import costs, taste and preference changes, or changes in numbers of consumers or suppliers (Arnold, 1998) .
In Figure 5, the author used expected rates of inflation. In Figure 6, entitled “refined,” the author used the difference between actual and expected rates of inflation, which is a more accurate measure of how inflation affects the Phillips Curve. The negative inflation is from low actual inflation. The data for both graphs comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, using average annual unemployment rates, with inflation calculated from the University of Michigan Survey Research Center. Figure 6, highlighted in blue, shows more of an inflation-unemployment tradeoff, although it appears more linear than curvilinear, across several point at a time, because the curve is not shifting, but demand may be moving along a horizontal, long-term supply curve. Wages do not change more than 1%, short-term, settling to the long-term average. Expectations remove the in-between points, yielding a visually smoother, linear, less risky curve.
With prices/wages staying the same during the “Great Stagnation,” what some call the period after the “Great Recession,” it is possible that employers focus on hiring, which is the forth hypothesis of this article, in which unemployment and GDP would vary, but not wages/prices Figure 8 in App.. But, wages are easier for employers to foresee than hiring. This alternative model would more likely only happen under wage/ inflation stagnation, a complete lack of productivity, in which employment is easier to forecast than wages, also due to central bank assurances. In such cases, temporary workers are valued, demonstrated in Results I.
The article analyzes structural changes, Federal Reserve transparency in the 2010s, and a game theory model of a liquidity trap with finicky consumption and volatile investment. Then, the article regresses these variables, with variables for the Phillips Curve changes, for the United States’ and Japans’ economy to find causes of volatility and why inflation/wages remained low.
The U.S. is undergoing structural changes. Productivity rose in some sectors in 2014-2015, up-ticking 2.6% in wholesale trade, 1.9% in retail trade, and 0.3% in food services, partly from technologies and global competition. Still, productivity gains were slow since 2007-2008 crash and the subsequent Great Recession, and much slower than the New Economy of the 1990s (Sancya, 2015) . Compensation growth has been declining, from a U.S. high of 13.8% in 1979, to -5.8% in 2009, back to only 5% in 2014 (Trading Economics.com, 2017) . Productivity is always important to wages: marginal revenue must equal marginal costs. America is still one of the world’s most productive nations, fifth after five small European states (Johnson, 2017) .
American investment, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, rose from the 1960s to the 1980s, then fell slightly in the early 1990s, rose until 2000, then fell slightly until around 2007, when plummeted to 1.4%, and then began rising again around 2010. This corresponds with the U.S. business cycle (Matthews, 2015) . According to Alan Blinder’s calculations, weak investment is to blame for 70% of the productivity slowdown after 2010, but only 25% of the slowdown after 2005 (Blinder, 2015) . Gordon says that investment, largely from the state, helped lead the U.S. out of the 1930’s Great Depression (Phillips, 2016) .
The “On demand” economy allows for more part-time hiring. Part-time work is substituting full-time work; 53 million American workers are “freelance” (The Economist, 2015) . Part-time workers rose 84% after the start of the Great Recession, and their jobs often paid less. This created uncertainty and risk for individuals in how to smooth and spend their income (Zuckerman, 2015) . More hiring as of 2020 is done via social media and networks. This reflects that firms want high-skilled labor, but flexibility. In the writings of Hagerty and Jeff (2015) it is the inflow of low cost foreign parts, or intermediate goods, lowering wages (Hagerty & Jeff, 2015) . In others’ views, like Yellen (2006b) it is globalized competition of workers in different countries that lessens prices/wages, causing the Phillips Curve relationship to flatten (The Economist, 2016a) .
1. In the aftermath of the 2008 Crash, the Fed signaled that inflation would be kept low. Beyond structural changes, which will be included in the regressions, the evidence collected suggest that central bank assurances have kept wages down, and put emphasis on employment, (Arnold, 1998) . The U.S. Federal Reserve may have held inflation low, despite rate cuts, because “the Fed was very explicit that it expected to ‘unwind’ the new purchases [of bonds]. So, the increased supply was viewed as largely temporary” (Dornbusch et al., 2011) . Firms reacted to these reports and “moral suasion” signals from the Fed, and focused more on hiring (Appelbaum, 2014) . Inflation can also have a Keynesian slow-adjustment (Bernanke, 2003) .
Transparency at the Federal Reserve has increased greatly in several decades. In 1994, it began a post-meeting press release; in 2000 it started issuing a “balance of risks” sheet; in 2002, releasing individual members’ votes; in 2003, giving a forward-guidance statement; and in 2005, releasing its minutes sooner (Yellen, 2006a) . In 2006, the President of the San Francisco Bank, Janet Yellen, who would become Fed Chair in 2014, blamed the 1970’s stagflation on communication (Yellen, 2006a) . She followed: “it is only when the Fed’s commitment to low inflation is credible that people will expect low inflation … and set prices accordingly” (Yellen, 2006a) . By 2013, in his final years, Mr. Bernanke spoke about the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep inflation “well anchored” (Fed.res, 2013) . Since 2013, the reserve bank holds press conferences after meetings (Yellen, 2006a) and has considered showing meetings live on t.v., despite potential volatility in equity markets. The table below compares inflation, via the Consumer Price Index (CPI), not just after Fed moves, with new hires (United States Department of Labor, 2017c; United States Labor, 2017b) rather than unemployment, for greater insight.
|
|
Jan. 2013
|
|
Feb. 2013
|
|
Mar. 2013
|
|
Apr. 2013
|
|
May 2013
|
|
June 2013
|
|
(16.52, 0.0)
200 employ.
|
|
16.46, 0.7
275 employ.
|
|
16.53, -0.2
140 employ.
|
|
16.58, -0.4
205 employ.
|
|
16.55, 0.1
200 employ.
|
|
16.64, 0.5
200 employ.
|
|
July 2013
|
|
Aug 2013
|
|
Sept 2013
|
|
Oct 2013
|
|
Nov 2013
|
|
Dec 2013
|
|
16.65, 0.2
150 employ.
|
|
16.73, 0.1
205 employ.
|
|
16.81, 0.1
165 employ.
|
|
16.86, 0.0
225 employ.
|
|
17.01, 0.1
325 employ.
|
|
17.01, 0.2
75 employ.
|
|
Jan 2014
|
|
Feb. 2014
|
|
Mar. 2014
|
|
Apr. 2014
|
|
May 2014
|
|
June 2014
|
|
16.91, 0.1
170 employ.
|
|
16.98, 0.1
180 employ.
|
|
17.07, 0.2
225 employ.
|
|
17.17, 0.3
335 employ.
|
|
17.28, 0.4
240 employ.
|
|
17.35, 0.3
280 employ.
|
|
July 2014
|
|
Aug. 2014
|
|
Sept. 2014
|
|
Oct. 2014
|
|
Nov. 2014
|
|
Dec. 2014
|
|
17.43, 0.1
250 employ.
|
|
17.56, -0.1
220 employ.
|
|
17.57, 0.1
150 employ.
|
|
17.59, 0.1
225 employ.
|
|
17.66, -0.3
425 employ.
|
|
17.60, -0.3
335 employ.
|
|
Jan. 2015
|
|
Feb. 2015
|
|
Mar. 2015
|
|
Apr. 2015
|
|
May 2015
|
|
June 2015
|
|
17.58, -0.7
255 employ.
|
|
17.72, 0.2
265 employ.
|
|
17.65, 0.2
85 employ.
|
|
17.81, 0.1
250 employ.
|
|
17.92, 0.4
275 employ.
|
|
18.00, 0.3
230 employ.
In recessions, with no expected price/wages changes, as policies increase demand, there should be new hiring. With the hypotheses, in a low inflation environment, firms should have been hiring based on demand expectations, but, while this appears true to a degree, it seems that rather than hire long-term based on future expectations about inflation, which is low, firms were and are deciding to hire ad hoc based on very short-term combinations of other changes, which will be looked at later. In the “big box stores,” there is a dogma called “on-call” shift scheduling, which employees have to ready within one hour to arrive to work promptly. Some states are mulling a 24 hour notice law to ease worker planning (Norton, 2016) .
2. Liquidity Traps: A Game Theory Model and Annual Reports Micro-Analysis
In this section, finicky consumption is evaluated in light of investment that tries to meet its demands, which is unique in high-tech economies. In looking at early American families, there is some evidence that bequeathing wealth to multiple children diversified wealth to create greater consumption and investment, but in a cursory study performed amongst the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, DuPonts, Astors, Strohs, and Woolworths, only one family, the Rockefellers, succeeded in diversifying their wealth to contribute to these two factors of GDP. Money left to multiple children lowers unsystematic risk, but says nothing about the risks taken by each child (Scott, John, William, & Arthur, 1999) .
Here, we focus on the modern day Annual Reports of Apple, IBM, and Samsung, in high-tech economies. Examining sales from 4th Quarters, one of the most volatile quarters, Apple’s and other firms’ cell phones sales fell in the 4th quarter of 2011. In 2014’s 4th quarter, sales were slightly higher than the third quarter, but at $39.27 million, still very low by Apple’s standards during that year (Statista “Apple iPhone sales” 2016a, 1). In the 4th quarter of 2015, Apple’s smartphone sales in North America fell by 6%. These were the periods the Federal Reserve blamed on weather. As one article says, “[The] Market is saturated with high-end smartphones, and customers are keeping them longer” (Hamblen, 2016) . Says analyst Kevin Walsh, “‘More contract free packages are coming to market, encouraging consumers to hold on to their handsets for longer … .” (Hamblen, 2016) . Jack Rasmus, a banker, attributes the decline in the in the first quarter of 2014, originally set at -1.0%, but later revised to -2.9%, not to weather, but consumerism (Harlan, 2015) . But, inventories grew for a sales surge that did not occur. The decline in GDP hypothetically would have been greater: -3.2% (Rasmus, 2014) . Rasmus calls the era since the U.S.’s financial crisis a “stop-go” trajectory, very erratic, with periods of high and low growth, moderation and stagnation (Rasmus, 2014) . Samsung lost billions in 2016 when the product of its research bombed (The Economist Group, 2016c) .One of the reasons firms are having difficulty estimating demand is that, today, consumers “delay their phone upgrades to take advantage of the lower monthly service prices carriers offer to consumers who wait to upgrade phones at the end of their two-year contracts” (Entner, 2015) . The “handset replacement cycle” increased from an average of consumers holding phones for 22.4 months in 2013, to 26.5 months in 2014, the largest such change in approximately four years. In the words of analyst Roger Entner, “consumers’ phone purchase have changed significantly” (Entner, 2015) . About ½ upgrade it every year, while over 1/3 wait until it becomes outdated in use (Entner, 2015) . Consumers must consider their own families, as 68% of smart phone owners belong to a group or family plan (Smith, 2015) which might suggest an addendum to Deaton’s paradox from theory 1 that household spending on technological goods is not always so smooth. The economists at PNC, a banking firm, say that going forward, the Federal Reserve is more likely to evaluate macro factors than “wild swings” in inventories or “finicky” consumers (Craig, 2016) .
Game theory, first developed by von Neumann and Nash, analyzes competition versus collaboration. Consumers compete with producers, consumers wanting better deals, producers wanting higher profit. Investments in high tech goods, which need massive investments, may not meet consumer satisfaction Figure 9, App., assuming the market stays the same. This is a near Neo-Ricardian model: Pierre Sraffa, writing in Italy in the 1920s, argued that firms compete for resources (Pressman, 2014) . Consumers cooperate by buying, in effect telling what they want made, but compete by saving, awaiting better “deals.” Observe the following game, building off Edmund Phelps’ idea of holding money versus spending (Conrad, 2013) :
Consumers collaborate with producers for the goods they want through their previous purchases, which providing information about prices, as well as via brand loyalty developed with marketing. They compete with producers for lower prices, also saving money. Producers, meanwhile, collaborate by investing in new products they believe the market will want, but sometimes compete by deciding to hold onto money for the future, due to excessive risks, leading to liquidity traps. The games’ terms rest on expectations of prices, utility, and profit.
With respect to the United States, consumption and investment data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, which only goes back until approximately 1959-1960, shows that such a situation for the first quadrant (liquidity trap and risky low growth) occurred around 1967, 1980, late 1981-1982, and 1991. In the second quadrant (low growth but high future growth), we see such activities occurring in the 1960s until 1967, the early-mid 1970s, the late 1980s, and 2014 until today (except for the 2nd Quarter of 2016: then, investment plummeted). The third quadrant (balanced growth but low future growth) occurred in the mid-to-late 1970s, the early 1990s, and the 2000s. The fourth quadrant (exuberance with high, but risky growth) occurred, strangely, in the late 1970s, and, as would have been expected, the mid-1990s. Of course, there are other aspects not covered by the model, such as international trade and government spending, but in general, this overall scenario meets anticipations (St. Louis Fed 2016 data) See Figure 10, App. The caveats are that traditionally, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a recession occurred in 1960, which was not identified by this schematic, as well as in 1969-1970, which came two years later than expected here, and from late 1973-1975, which only corresponds with low growth in this case. In Japan, while investment had a steady decline, saving rose from 1979-1981, and GPD fell slightly. Near 1988, both investment and saving rose, and growth improved. In 1992, both factors fell again, and growth turned negative; each has been low since then, as has growth, signifying a liquidity trap. As The Economist (2016d) writes, tech companies today are pursuing marketing and branding more, to link consumption with investment, and collect information about consumers (The Economist, 2016b) . Firms are using technology to form better relationships with customers, trying to discern what customers want to invest and manufacture to their needs, often lowering prices to do so. In fact, Amazon and Uber keep prices down, while Google and Twitter provide many services for free, to some $280 billion dollars per year one expert calculates (The Economist, 2016b) .
The author tests the macroeconomic economic changes in the United States and Japan from 1970-2014, using variables discussed in the preceding sections, to analyze their effects on inflation, unemployment, the Phillips Curve, and volatility (risk). The caveats are: a minimum wage, union data, and Innovation/technology index did not date to 1970. The data is from:
Bo/Dependent: Volatility- calculated from St. Louis Fed.
Bo/Dependent: Phillips Curve Slope: dummy variable analyzed from the St. Louis Fed.
Bo/Dependent: Phillips Curve Shift: dummy variable analyzed from the St. Louis Fed.
B1: Inflation over unemployment: calculated from the St. Louis Fed.
B2: Saving: from the OECD.
B3: Female workforce: St. Louis Fed.
B4: Capital Investment: Index from the World Bank.
B5: Trade over GDP: World Bank.
B6: GINI inequality: OECD, Chartbook, UN Inequality Spreadsheet.
B6: Housing: from the St. Louis Fed.
B7: Part-time work: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Houseman and Osawa.
B8: Productivity: calculated from the St. Louis Fed.
B9: Demographics: Dependency Ratios from the St. Louis Fed.
B10: Energy Prices: St. Louis Fed.
MV= PQ, LWV= GDP, M= LW, where L= labor, M= money supply as via the Federal Reserve V= velocity, P= prices, quality, Q= quantity of goods, as in fiscal policy, W= wages. Whether M affects L or W depends on productivity and investment see Figure 9, App.. Although there is no high-tech variable, it is created by investment, and it creates productivity. There was some heteroscedasticity, but the variables pass a Breusch-Pagan test. The hypotheses for all are:
The Inflation/Unemployment, Saving, Female, Investing, Trade, and Part-time variables should create flexibility, reducing risk and volatility, in the next two tables.
Ho: B = 0 H1: B < 0: The beta figure standardizes coefficients for comparing.
For Gini, Housing, Productivity, these create greater risk, and should be volatile.
Ho: B = 0 H1: B > 0: The beta figure standardizes coefficients for comparing.
Variable: Volatility [abs.(growth-ave.)] No. of Obs: 90 F > p= 0.0864 R2= 0.1633
|
|
Independent Variables
|
|
Coefficient
|
|
t value
|
|
p value
|
|
beta
|
|
Inf_over_unemployed
|
|
0.2359
|
|
1.82
|
|
0.072*
|
|
0.2983
|
|
Saving Rate
|
|
0.1008
|
|
0.76
|
|
0.439
|
|
0.3143
|
|
Female Workforce
|
|
-.0644
|
|
-0.83
|
|
0.407
|
|
-0.1842
|
|
Capital Inv.
|
|
-0.0439
|
|
-0.33
|
|
0.740
|
|
-0.1220
|
|
Trade over GDP
|
|
-0.2108
|
|
-2.13
|
|
0.036 *
|
|
-0.3209
|
|
GINI
|
|
5.4364
|
|
0.516
|
|
0.516
|
|
0.1592
|
|
Housing
|
|
-0.0000176
|
|
-1.88
|
|
0.063*
|
|
-0.2969
|
|
Part-time Work
|
|
0.1464
|
|
1.11
|
|
0.269
|
|
0.2838
|
|
Productivity
|
|
0.0679
|
|
0.58
|
|
0.567
|
|
0.0625
|
|
Constant
|
|
5.3830
|
|
1.03
|
|
0.304
|
|
N/A
Note: *= Significant at 90% or greater.
Consumption in the housing market, in particular, creates massive aggregate volatility. Keynes would have called this a “shock.” As the housing market improves, it reduces volatility, significant at the 90% level. Trade per GDP is negative, which is an unusual result. One explanation for this is that as countries grow larger, they solidify their institutional supply chains, and GDP in the denominator increases, which is stabilizing and allows for greater risk taking. The changing inflation-over-unemployment relationship (the Phillips Curve) is also significant as destabilizing. Energy, not included previously, is insignificant and interferes with the inflation variable.
Variable: Volatility [abs.(growth-ave.)] No. of Obs: 90 F > p = 0.0901 R2= 0.1929
|
|
Independent Variables
|
|
Coefficient
|
|
t value
|
|
p value
|
|
beta
|
|
Saving Rate
|
|
0.0606
|
|
0.46
|
|
0.646
|
|
0.1889
|
|
Female Workforce
|
|
-0.1363
|
|
-1.74
|
|
0.085
|
|
-0.3897
|
|
Capital Inv.
|
|
0.1435
|
|
1.15
|
|
0.252
|
|
0.3988
|
|
Trade over GDP
|
|
-0.2023
|
|
-2.03
|
|
0.046*
|
|
-0.3079
|
|
GINI
|
|
18.5216
|
|
2.36
|
|
0.021*
|
|
0.5399
|
|
Housing
|
|
-0.0000192
|
|
-2.06
|
|
0.043*
|
|
-0.3238
|
|
Part-time Work
|
|
0.1958
|
|
1.48
|
|
0.142
|
|
0.3796
|
|
Productivity
|
|
0.0440
|
|
0.34
|
|
0.737
|
|
0.0405
|
|
Energy
|
|
-0.0175
|
|
-0.67
|
|
0.504
|
|
-0.0873
|
|
PC Shift
|
|
1.4109
|
|
1.69
|
|
0.096*
|
|
0.3679
|
|
PC Slope
|
|
1.8422
|
|
2.07
|
|
0.041*
|
|
0.4459
|
|
Constant
|
|
-1.7441
|
|
-0.33
|
|
0.742
|
|
N/A
Note: *= Significant at 90% or greater.
Phillips Curve shifts, and new slopes, affect volatility, more-so the slope (>beta).
For Saving, Female, Trade, GINI, Housing, Part-time, Productivity: these variables, if risen, should result in greater unemployment, causing a shift inwards, rarer than shifts outwards.
Ho: B = 0 Ha: B < 0.
For Saving, Investing, Gini: these variables, when increased, lessen the money multiplier, discussed in Theory I, and as workers need tools to work. The GINI inequality index should also cause a shift outward, since the wealthy tend to save more.
Ho: B = 0 Ha: B > 0
Table-4. Phillips Curve shift regression.
Variable: PC Shift No. of Obs.: 90 F > p = 0.01 R2= 0.2104
|
|
Independent Variables
|
|
Coefficient
|
|
t value
|
|
p value
|
|
beta
|
|
Saving Rate
|
|
-0.0206
|
|
-0.63
|
|
0.528
|
|
-0.2468
|
|
Female Workforce
|
|
-0.0219
|
|
-1.20
|
|
0.235
|
|
-0.2405
|
|
Capital Inv.
|
|
0.0138
|
|
0.46
|
|
0.647
|
|
0.1468
|
|
Trade
|
|
-0.0362
|
|
-1.45
|
|
0.150
|
|
-0.2111
|
|
GINI
|
|
1.2275
|
|
0.72
|
|
0.477
|
|
0.1428
|
|
Housing
|
|
-4.25e-06
|
|
-1.85
|
|
0.069*
|
|
-0.2750
|
|
Part-time Work
|
|
0.0322
|
|
0.98
|
|
0.330
|
|
0.2391
|
|
Productivity
|
|
-0.0358
|
|
-1.21
|
|
0.231
|
|
-0.1265
|
|
Constant
|
|
1.6127
|
|
1.29
|
|
0.200
|
|
N/A
Note: *= Significant at 90%.
The Phillips Curve shifts primarily due to the housing market; the negative sign means the shift is inward with an improved mortgage market. Energy is excluded for serial correlation: the Phillips Curve includes an inflation component.
For Saving, Female, Trade, Gini, Part-time: they will lessen price/wages-to jobs.
Ho: B = 0 H1: B < 0
For Capital, GINI, Housing, Productivity: these will reduce price/wages related to jobs.
Ho: B = 0 H1: B > 0
Variable: PC Slope No. of Obs: 90 F > p = 0.025 R2= 0.1883
|
|
Independent Variables
|
|
Coefficient
|
|
t value
|
|
p value
|
|
beta
|
|
Saving Rate
|
|
0.0459
|
|
1.50
|
|
0.138
|
|
0.5915
|
|
Female Workforce
|
|
0.0196
|
|
1.14
|
|
0.258
|
|
0.2318
|
|
Capital Inv.
|
|
-0.0457
|
|
-1.62
|
|
0.110*
|
|
-0.5242
|
|
Trade
|
|
0.0218
|
|
0.93
|
|
0.355
|
|
0.1370
|
|
GINI
|
|
-2.3811
|
|
-1.42
|
|
0.161
|
|
-0.2867
|
|
Housing
|
|
2.30e-06
|
|
1.06
|
|
0.292
|
|
0.1601
|
|
Part-time Work
|
|
-0.0257
|
|
-0.83
|
|
0.292
|
|
-.02061
|
|
Productivity
|
|
0.0138
|
|
0.49
|
|
0.407
|
|
0.0525
|
|
Constant
|
|
0.7632
|
|
0.65
|
|
0.517
|
|
0
Note: *= 90% significance, given the 1% room for human error, explained below.
Slope changes were codified first, the lesser in curvilinear magnitude when compared to shifts. Judging slope changes is difficult, which is not quite the same as the relationship between inflation and unemployment, so this analysis has significant room for human error, including the rare event, with “sticky” expectations, the curve may shift and pivot simultaneously. Two or more, same direction shifts would indicate expectations. Energy affected other variables, as the Phillips Curve has an inflation component. Only capital investment is significant, though saving comes close. Low investment signals low profits, hence lower wages. Flattened slopes were coded with a dummy variable, so an increase in saving should flatten the slope, since it would lead to less spending and inflation, and the reverse for capital investing, which, with a negative sign, steepens the curve. Capital investment in 2014 was low at 19.9% of U.S. GDP, versus 24.8% in 1978, causing a flattening (Gross Capital, 2017) . Nearly significant is saving, the reverse of consuming, which fell from 9.5% in 1978 to 3.4% in 2014 (Saving Rate, 2017b) .
To determine the best balanced growth (inflation/unemployment), see the table below. This table was used to create the “line of balanced growth,” using the fact that inflation over growth is volatile, but that liquidity traps bring slow growth, a finding by Solow that equivalent wage and employment growth is stabilizing See Figure 11, App.).
For Saving, Female, Trade, Gini, Part-time: they will lessen price/wages-to jobs.
Ho: B = 0 H1: B < 0
For Investing, Housing, Productivity, Energy: these will increase price/wages- to jobs.
Ho: B = 0 H1: B > 0
Inflation/Unemployment No. of Obs: 90 F > p= 0.0000 R2= 0.6630
|
|
Independent Variables
|
|
Coefficient
|
|
t value
|
|
p value
|
|
beta
|
|
Saving Rate
|
|
0.1008
|
|
0.97
|
|
0.335
|
|
0.2486
|
|
Female Workforce
|
|
-0.1294
|
|
-2.08
|
|
0.040*
|
|
-0.2926
|
|
Capital Inv.
|
|
0.3537
|
|
3.59
|
|
0.001*
|
|
0.7772
|
|
Trade
|
|
-0.0259
|
|
-0.33
|
|
0.745
|
|
-0.0312
|
|
GINI
|
|
24.9552
|
|
3.96
|
|
0.000*
|
|
0.5752
|
|
Housing
|
|
-0.0000161
|
|
-2.19
|
|
0.032*
|
|
-0.2141
|
|
Part-time Work
|
|
0.0989
|
|
0.94
|
|
0.352
|
|
0.2281
|
|
Productivity
|
|
0.0659
|
|
0.65
|
|
0.519
|
|
0.1516
|
|
Energy
|
|
0.0714
|
|
3.53
|
|
0.001*
|
|
0.2825
|
|
Constant
|
|
-10.7113
|
|
-2.67
|
|
0.009*
|
|
N/A
Note: *= Significant at 90% or greater.
Capital investment steepens the inflation-over-unemployment relationship which can also shift the curve outward, most likely because it results in greater risk taking that leads to higher inflation and interest rates; this is consistent with other parts of the study. In 2020, with low investment, the relationship is becoming less steep, which would contribute to greater unemployment, which, through Okun’s rule of thumb that unemployment lessens growth, also increases volatility. The GINI inequality variable was unusual. Income inequality is increasing inflation, implying the middle class is morphing into lower classes that spend more, relatively. But, there is a difference between core and non-core inflation; core inflation eliminates food and energy prices. The data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve included both. Finally, female workers make the economy more elastic, since they give employers greater flexibility in production, and since employers can lower wages. Women earn only approximately 79 cents to every dollar men earn in the United States, and even less abroad. Productivity was insignificant again, perhaps because it only has short-run effects. Although volatility was included here, a GDP growth regression was also run, but since many factors go into growth, the model was not significant, and not included. Adding the dependency ratio variable was insignificant in all regressions, via serial correlation, making other variables counter-intuitive, as well as raising the heteroscedasticity number, and the F values, so, it was not included.
The policies of the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low but assure firms it would only be temporary, the decisions of businesses not to invest due to a liquidity trap over finicky consumption, and the changing structure of the U.S. workforce and economy all contributed to a 2010’s Phillip Curve that shifted sideways, instead up and down as via traditional theory. An additional reason may be that employers, unable to gage longer-run wage changes, rely on productivity data in the on-demand economy see Figure 8, App.. Finally, as Appendix Figure 8 shows, more investment over the “Great Recession,” and even today (2020) is going towards capital (equipment) rather than towards new hiring or for wages. Growth is most balanced, and lost volatile when inflation and unemployment change in similar increments, which comes from Table 6’s regressions, and the conceptuality shown in Figure 11 in the Appendix.
What could remedy the inconsistent, finicky consumerism and global illiquidity of today? Political leaders must make the traditional Phillips Curve choice, recognized as far back as Solow, but which is now more complex (Solow, 1956) . While classical economists like Adam Smith were laissez faire, and favored non-government interference in the economy, Keynes, though only briefly in Keynes (1936) urged for risk-taking fiscal stimulus, such as the Depression era construction projects. President Herbert Hoover, and even Franklin D. Roosevelt initially, were for balancing the budget at all costs. Keynes argued thiswas foolish. Fiscal policy and even deficit spending, at a multiplier (velocity) rate of 2.5 at his time, were necessary, he said, because prices and wages could be “sticky” and slow to adjust to the market. This section will address how taxes and other laws can be used to remedy the volatility.
American companies today have a record total of $2 trillion dollars in cash on their balance sheets, which, if it were a country, would be the tenth largest in the world (Foroohar, 2016) . Apple keeps nearly ¼ of its market capitalization (the value of its equity, which is about $700 billion) entirely in cash, which allows it to quickly buy start-ups firms when synergy opportunities arise. However, this also lessens investment. Global companies are outsourcing their money to do research and development (R&D) in less expensive countries. General Electric, for example, conducts more than ¼ of its healthcare research in India (The Economist “The rise of” 2016b, 6, 7). And, U.S. firms are now spending $1 trillion dollars per year, or 95% of their earnings, on buying back their own stock, known as “treasury stock,” which increases the stock price, rather than invest it. For instance, Microsoft bought $20 billion of treasury stock in 2006 to repair a stock market fall when they had announced a new R&D plan, which did not impress investors (Foroohar, 2016) . Taiwanese-American economist Richard Koo called the “Great Recession” a “balance sheet recession.” Firms use profits to pay off debts, and to offer high CEO salaries, rather than invest or pay higher wages (Foroohar, 2016) .
The best way to solve liquidity traps might be large investment tax credits, similarly implemented by U.S. President William J. Clinton in the 1990s. The tax credits helped prevent a liquidity trap by stimulating investment, which went towards the use of technology, and ushered in the New Economy. Therefore, it would seem that, just as dividends have been taxed twice, on both the company and individual side, policy-makers should also consider a temporary cash tax on a firm’s balance sheet during illiquid periods of falling investment. Although it would mean taxing cash in the form of income as well on the income statement, unless taxing the latter were temporarily reduced, a cash tax would encourage firms to spend money, on: more risky investments, paying higher wages, or paying off debt, since they would seek to use the cash rather than have it taxed. This could go to creating greater, and more stable, growth. Economist James Tobin suggested taxing Wall Street transactions. This would lead to investment outflows, which occurred to Scandinavian countries in the 1990s. A cash tax would encourage investment, and, if firms did not spend the cash, the state would still receive revenues for policy options. This idea is original, never before perceived, and would could also help improve income inequality by freeing cash from wealthy firms that could multiply down to lower classes.
Assume that a company has $100 dollars in cash. If the cash is taxed at 10%, then the “cash tax” burden is $10 dollars. The company could instead spend that $10, and be cash taxed $9 dollars ($90 cash x10% cash tax= 9), and save $1 in cash tax. Then, for the company to come out ahead under a cash tax, the $10 spent would have to earn a return to make up for the $9 future’s return, and it does so by making investments at a risky time, which are thereby encouraged by the policy. So, the company would spend the money if the return of the cash flow and the tax saving is greater than the future expected return. Therefore, to stimulate spending, the government could set the cash tax rate just less than the going rate of return, which could be at the 1 year Treasury Bond yield. This would keep the program one that is short-term focused which is easier for planning. Assume the return is around 1%. The benefit to the firm would be the: (cash spent + saving x 1 yr. bond rate), or ($10 x [1+g]) = $10.10 > $9 x future growth rate using a 10% cash tax rate and 1% growth rate. A 1% return, which, if a 35% corporate tax rate is taken out, would be a gain of 0.6565, which is greater than the 0.6% tax here proposed.
The company comes out about better than if it had done nothing under the cash tax regime, but, by investing the money in such bonds, or R&D projects earning a similar rate, society benefits. There would more funds earning returns and for loaning money, rather than just sitting on a balance sheet waiting to be spent. And, some interest is tax deductible. Tax credits for investing are a more preferable policy, but would add to government deficits; the choice between the two, if not using both, would depend on a nation’s finances. This would enable risk, spurring an illiquid economy. And, if, in 2018, $2 trillion dollars sit on America’s balance sheets, then the tax revenue, given a 0.6% yearly tax, would yield $13 billion dollars. Also, the government could tax capital (particularly Artificial Intelligence) to create worker-AI parity, and use the revenue for taxpayer relief.
In addition, tax credits for investment and hiring the long-term unemployed could remove these vices from the developing economy. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Theresa May followed ideas in the United States dating to the 1960s, and recently placed union representatives on corporate boards, but it was quickly rejected by some as being “silly” (The Economist Group, 2017) . And, in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, candidate Hillary Clinton proposed tax credits for companies that share earnings with employees. More similar, innovative ideas might be: dividends paid to employees, not just stockholders; allowing employees, under law, to vote for the board members who support the highest wages; or, in the long-term, creating a “Legion of Merit” of wealthy families or individuals who donate funds to the state, which could go for the wage-depressed middle-class through Keynesian-style stimulus projects. This idea was even proposed during the time of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but, writes Myers (1939) was opposed by populist movements and by third parties in the 1930s.
Furthermore, a new idea, proposed by Barry (2015) which has come to be known as “pump theory,” suggests that when savings rate of the public are high, the government could tax savings, and pump it into the economy through spending, yet cut taxes for spending when saving is low. Typically, consumption and government stimulus increase GDP the most, because they multiply, not savings. Disposable income would be taxed before being saved, or savings tapped into themselves, so that the revenue could be used for Keynesian projects, too risky for companies, to stimulate the economy. The government acts like a tire pump, allowing pressure (savings) to accumulate, taxing disposable income, and then pumping the air (savings) into the tire (the economy). Interest rates would adjust to the level of saving, such that they will be low when savings are high, due to outward supply, and high when savings are low, from inward supply. This policy would smooth saving versus spending, but would be highly political. The negative effect would be on long-term savings, but states could allow savings to accumulate until tax-rate (% spent) [sum (1+i)^y]/time value > tax-rate x sum, unless individuals consume their savings given lower taxes. The policy would be to use several pumps at a time.
Theories about finicky consumerism, particularly in 2020, over high-tech goods, Keynesian illiquid investment, the Phillips Curve tradeoff, and volatility are all related, contributing to the “Great Recession’s” topsy-turvy growth and swings in employment. Some blamed weather, as the Federal Reserve did from 2013-2014, for the stuttered growth after the 2007-2009 collapse. In fact supply chains were effected, and weather can indeed affect certain retail industries, but these are eased by structural changes such as online sales. While housing starts and permits fell 3% in 2014 (Bloesch & Gourio, 2015) statistically significant, this is not enough to blame weather nationally. Instead, the 2013-2014 volatility, for example, was mainly from finicky consumption over iterations of high-tech goods, leading to excess inventory.
Long-term, the risk to liquidity traps is low growth, it is indicated by the Phillips Curve, and it stems from numerous structural changes to the developed economy, most notably: the variable of women entering the workforce, finicky consumerism over high tech products, as well as low investment. These factors impacted the volatility of the “Great Recession” and the stagnation in its aftermath. The results were not conclusive statistically regarding productivity. Investment affects the Phillips Curve slope most, but, surprisingly, the housing market had the largest impact on volatility, most likely for the 2008 crash itself. Chair Yellen herself said in June, 2017 “that the so-called Phillips curve appears to be quite flat. That means that inflation doesn’t respond … to movements in unemployment,” and, “research by economists … will help inform our future decisions on this” (Federalreserve.gov, 2017) .
One can observed that the “Great Recession,” and its topsy-turvy, up-and-down stagnation aftermath, had both demand and supply side impetuses, due to finicky consumerism for the former, and investment on the latter. This is why it was so “great,” and the aftermath so stagnated, so different from the 1970s; the risks exist today. These main factors have caused Phillips Curve changes, with high GDP and employment volatility, and low inflation and wages.
It would seem that conceptually see Figure 9 again, App., in times of low inflation, firms make expectations in terms of short-term price/wage changes but also conceptually in terms of on-demand productivity, needed to meet finicky consumers, along a kinked supply curve. This differs from the contention since the 1970s that firms only “expect” changes in wages, and think long-term, but it needs further research. Also, in the analysis of the Federal Reserve, and hiring in the 2010s, proving at what point, or “elasticity” of the Phillips Curve relationship this occurs, will be left to the future. Statements by central banks to keep inflation low, and increases in transparency, have enabled low wages but expanded options to firms to spend on inventories, invest (riskily), at a time of finicky consumerism, pay off debt, buy their own stocks, or expand workers, particularly women and part-timers who earn less and are more flexible. And, it would seem that shifts to the Phillips Curve happen during times of large, unexpected supply or demand shocks, notably housing, creating greater volatility, while a flattening slope correlates with 90% certainty to a lack of investment. This relationship is still changing, and as it does, it inserts new risk, and a need for new policies. A staggered, “pump” tax, to help consumers balance risk through saving and spending, a “cash tax,” to compel firms to take riskier investments, and a capital/AI tax, with revenues for tax credits, might prove propitious to economies if used wisely.
In total, in the short-run, the hypotheses are in part confirmed, that over several decades, certain structural changes, notably female employment, income inequality, as well as finicky consumption over high-tech goods, low investment, housing shocks, assurances by the Fed, risky globalization, and expectations of employment have led to varied outcomes, namely, the perilous liquidity trap of low wages and inflation, the “stop-start” growth, and the volatile employment after the “Great Recession,” the Phillips Curve tradeoff. In sum, this article has added to the literature by juxtaposing concepts in all facets of consumption in never before seen ways.
This paper is a shortened version of one of three articles written for a dissertation at the University of Southern Mississippi, with: Dr. Robert J. Pauly, Jr. (Chair), Dr. Joseph J. St. Marie, Dr. Edward Sayre, and Dr. Tom Lansford as committee members. The original article included a much more thorough section on bequeathing methods as affecting consumption long-term, but has been excluded for brevity.
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Appendix: with permission
Source: This conceptual model is provided by the author.
Source: This conceptual model is provided by the author.
Source: This conceptual model is provided by the author.
Source: This conceptual model is provided by the author.
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Online Science Publishing is not responsible or answerable for any loss, damage or liability, etc. caused in relation to/arising out of the use of the content. Any queries should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. | http://onlinesciencepublishing.com/welcome/htmlarticle/17/498/ |
Southlake’s Safety Committee members were honored recently with a City Manager Commendation for their commitment to excellent safety practices and their role in promoting a culture of safety for the municipal organization.
When Southlake’s Human Resources Director Stacey Black learned that on-the-job injuries with medical costs or lost time decreased by 25% over the previous fiscal year, it made her smile. She believes this success is due, at least in part, to the efforts of the City’s hardworking Safety Committee. The group is an interdepartmental team whose mission is to keep employees and the public safe through mindful business practices aimed at reducing risk.
“A few years ago we saw a need to be a little more intentional with our safety practices,” said Black. “In fact, we set a goal of creating a strong culture of safety so that our employees return home at the end of the day or their shift in the same condition they arrived.”
Following an organizational safety audit, the team was formed and put into place under the leadership of employees Chad Minter and Tim Slifka.
“We value the well-being of our employees and the public we serve, and this guides our work,” explained Minter. “Last year we arranged for more than 900 hours of civilian safety training for various workgroups, and have worked since the beginning to create workplace practices that prevent accidents. We make a difference because we proactively focus attention on safety, and take corrective steps when needed.”
The team has worked to:
City Manager Shana Yelverton has the highest praise for the performance of the team. “Their importance and effectiveness can’t be overstated,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what outcomes are achieved over time.”
For their strategic and committed work, each member of the Safety Committee has received a formal commendation, and thank you. Above photo from left to right: top row, Mike White, W. Wood, Ryan Arthur, and Tim Slifka. Middle row, Ryan McGrail, Robert Burns, Chad Minter, and Eric Lusk. Bottom row, Shane Cloud, Terry Holloway, and Andrew Merrick. | https://mysouthlakenews.com/tag/workplace-safety |
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[SOLVED] Talking Point Presentation
. Preparation requires having done the readings, thought about it carefully, and written down your thoughts. To that end, you are asked to produce talking points and post them to Compass for each set of weekly readings (300 words maximum). I want to see what youre thinking. You should stake out arguments or raise issues that you believe arise from your engagement with the assigned readings. This means you should be integrating ideas from most, if not all, of the readings. The goal is NOT to provide a synopsis or even an evaluation of the readings. Rather, you should communicate your own ideas and arguments that were prompted by the readings. If you dont have your own ideas or arguments, try harder. When youre making an argument, heres something to keep in mind: Brockriede states that the argument implies five characteristics: (1) an inferential leap from existing beliefs to the adoption of a new belief or reinforcement of an old one; (2) a perceived rationale to justify that leap; (3) a choice among two or more competing claims; (4) regulation of uncertainty in relation to the selected claimsince someone has made an inferential leap, certainty can be neither zero nor total; and (5) a willingness to risk a confrontation of that claim with ones peers. At the end of your talking points, list (at least) three discussion questions that you like to share with the class. Those questions will be selectively used in the class by the instructor or the assigned discussants. Grade Criteria for Talking Points Assignments I will grade these assignments using a 1 to 3 scale basis. Heres a brief qualitative description of what these scores represent to me: 3: Exceptional A thorough knowledge of the materials: An excellent response written in a clear and concise way, and few, if any errors of fact or writing, and well-written essay with multiple examples. 3 2: Satisfactory Some care and expression of knowledge: A clear, understandable written style; perhaps a few errors of fact or writing. The discussion needs more clarity, more development, and/or examples. The essay is missing some of the subtleties of the argument. 1: Unsatisfactory A substandard adequate completion of the assignment; superficial response with few examples; discussion or argument is unsubstantiated; sources are poorly cited; many errors of fact; inadequate writing and grammar.
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Persistence of stimulus-response compatibility effects with extended practice.
The influence of extended practice on stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility effects was investigated. Three experiments, each extending over a period of 8 sessions, were conducted. The nature and degree of compatibility was manipulated across experiments. In all experiments, a persistent effect of S-R compatibility on reaction times was observed. Thus, the lower bound for reaction times appears to be less for compatible assignments than for incompatible assignments. This persistence of S-R compatibility indicates that the initial codings used to perform a novel task continue to exert an influence on later performance.
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More than half of the population of the United States lives in coastal counties, a powerful indicator of the ocean's economic value. Yet, our dependence on and use of the ocean are exposing the limits of the ocean as an ecosystem and as a resource. MIR is pleased to present this excerpt of America's Living Oceans: Charting a Course for Sea Change. This study, conducted by the Pew Oceans Commission is the result of a three-year, nationwide study of the oceans, the first of its kind in more than 30 years.
America's oceans are in crisis and the stakes could not be higher. More than half the U.S. population lives in coastal counties. The resident population in this area is expected to increase by 25 million people by 2015. More than 180 million people visit the shore for recreation every year.
Though a price tag has never been assigned to our coastal economy, it is clear that it contributes significantly to the nation's overall economic activity. Tens of thousands of jobs in fishing, recreation, and tourism depend on healthy, functioning coastal ecosystems. Now, thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment have either been lost or are jeopardized by collapsing fisheries. Pollution and sprawl threaten ocean-related tourism and recreation, far and away the largest component of the coastal economy.
But more than jobs are at stake. All Americans depend on the oceans and affect the oceans, regardless of where they live. Ocean currents circulate the energy and water that regulate the Earth's climate and weather and, thus, affect every aspect of the human experience. Our very dependence on and use of ocean resources are exposing limits in natural systems once viewed as too vast and inexhaustible to be harmed by human activity. Without reform, our daily actions will increasingly jeopardize a valuable natural resource and an invaluable aspect of our national heritage.
In the midst of crisis, there are expressions of hope and signs of success. Striped bass, severely depleted along our Atlantic shores, made a striking comeback when given a chance. North Atlantic swordfish recently did the same in response to lower catch limits and closed nursery areas. Seabirds, kelp beds, and fish communities returned to the coastal waters off Los Angeles after waste discharges were reduced. Proven, workable solutions to the crisis in our oceans exist but such successes will remain the exception rather than the rule until we chart a new course for ocean management.
The Evidence
The evidence that our oceans face a greater array of problems than ever before in our nation's history surrounds us. Marine life and vital coastal habitats are straining under the increasing pressure of our use. We have reached a crossroads where the cumulative effect of what we take from, and put into, the ocean substantially reduces the ability of marine ecosystems to produce the economic and ecological goods and services that we desire and need. What we once considered inexhaustible and resilient is, in fact, finite and fragile.
The crisis confronting our oceans has many dimensions.
* Coastal development and associated sprawl destroy and endanger coastal wetlands and estuaries that serve as nurseries for many valuable fishery species. More than 20,000 acres of these sensitive habitats disappear each year. Paved surfaces have created expressways for oil, grease, and toxic pollutants into coastal waters. Every eight months, nearly 11 million gallons of oil run off our streets and driveways into our waters - the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
* More than 60 percent of our coastal rivers and bays are moderately to severely degraded by nutrient runoff. This runoff creates harmful algal blooms and leads to the degradation or loss of seagrass and kelp beds as well as coral reefs that are important spawning and nursery grounds for fish. Each summer, nutrient pollution creates a dead zone the size of Massachusetts in the Gulf of Mexico. These types of problems occur in almost every coastal state and the trends are not favorable. If current practices continue, nitrogen inputs to U.S. coastal waters in 2030 may be as much as 30 percent higher than at present and more than twice what they were in 1960.
* Many ecologically and commercially crucial fish species, including groundfish and salmon populations along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, face overfishing and numerous other threats. Thirty percent of the fish populations that have been assessed are overfished or are being fished unsustainably. An increasing number of these species are being driven toward extinction. Already depleted sea turtle, marine mammal, seabird, and noncommercial fish populations are endangered by incidental capture in fishing gear. Destructive fishing practices are damaging vital habitat upon which fish and other living resources depend. Combined, these aspects of fishing are changing relationships among species in food webs and altering the functioning of marine ecosystems.
* Invasive species are establishing themselves in our coastal waters, often crowding out native species and altering habitat and food webs. More than 175 introduced species thrive in San Francisco Bay alone. Nearly one million Atlantic salmon escaped from farm pens on the western coast of North America in the last 15 years. The species is now successfully reproducing in British Columbia rivers and diluting the gene pool of native species by hybridizing with Pacific salmon. New species are regularly finding a home around our coastlines as hitchhikers in ship ballast water or on ship hulls, escapees from fish farms, and even as discarded home aquarium plants and animals. Of the 374 documented invasive species in U.S. waters, 150 have arrived since 1970.
In addition to these varied threats, climate change over the next century is projected to profoundly impact coastal and marine ecosystems. Sea-level rise will gradually inundate highly productive coastal wetlands, estuaries, and mangrove forests. Coral reefs that harbor exceptional biodiversity will likely experience increased bleaching due to higher water temperatures. Changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation attributable to climate change could adversely affect coastal upwelling and productivity and have significant local, regional, and global implications on the distribution and abundance of living marine resources.
These are just some of the signs that our interactions with the oceans are unsustainable. Our activities, from those that release pollutants into rivers and bays to the overfishing of the seas, are altering and threatening the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems -from which all marine life springs and upon which all living things, including humans, depend.
Seeds of Crisis
The root cause of this crisis is a failure of both perspective and governance. We have failed to conceive of the oceans as our largest public domain, to be managed holistically for the greater public good in perpetuity. Our oceans span nearly 4.5 million square miles,*2 an area 23 percent larger than the nation's land area. Similarly, we have only begun to recognize how vital our oceans and coasts are to our economy as well as to the cultural heritage of our nation. Finally, we have come too slowly to recognize the interdependence of land and sea and how easily activities far inland can disrupt the many benefits provided by coastal ecosystems.
The foundation of U.S. ocean policy was laid in a very different context than exists today. The principal laws to protect our coastal zones, endangered marine mammals, ocean waters, and fisheries were enacted 30 years ago, on a crisis-by-crisis, sector-by-sector basis. Much of what exists of an ocean governance system in this country can be traced to recommendations of the Stratton Commission - the nation's first review of ocean policy in 1969. Driven by the need to ensure the -full and wise use of the marine environment,- Stratton focused on oceans as a frontier with vast resources, and largely recommended policies to coordinate the development of ocean resources.
Reflecting the understanding and values of this earlier era, we have continued to approach our oceans with a frontier mentality. The result is a hodgepodge of ocean laws and programs that do not provide unified, clearly stated goals and measurable objectives. Authority over marine resources is fragmented geographically and institutionally. Principles of ecosystem health and integrity, sustainability, and precaution have been lost in the fray. Furthermore, the nation has substantially underinvested in understanding and managing our oceans. The information we do have in hand is often underutilized. Plagued with systemic problems, U.S. ocean governance is in disarray.
A 30-Year Old Review of Oceans Policy
More than 30 years after the Stratton Commission issued its recommendations, the state of our oceans and coasts is vastly altered. Although some of the problems that were considered 30 years ago remain with us today, new environmental, economic, and policy challenges have emerged. These challenges exceed the capacity of today's governance framework and management regimes.
Our perspective on ocean resources and policy has also changed over 30 years. We are increasingly aware that development activities can change marine environments. We are learning more about complex interactions in marine ecosystems and the need to maintain the diversity and resilience of those complex and adaptive natural systems. Today, there is a clear sense that we must do a better job of protecting the oceans if we hope to continue to enjoy their benefits.
The Pew Oceans Commission, a bipartisan, independent group of American leaders, was created to chart a new course for the nation's ocean policy. Our mission is to identify policies and practices necessary to restore and protect living marine resources in U.S. waters and the ocean and coastal habitats on which they depend. The Commission was also charged with raising public awareness of the principal threats to marine biodiversity and of the importance of ocean and coastal resources to the U.S. economy.
The Commission brought together a diverse group of American leaders from the worlds of science, fishing, conservation, government, education, business, and philanthropy. It secured the help of leading scientists to determine priority issues and to write reports summarizing the best scientific information available on those subjects (see list of publications on page 136). The Commission organized into four committees to review the core issues of governance, fishing, pollution, and coastal development. It also investigated marine aquaculture, invasive species, ocean zoning, climate change, science, and education.
For more than two years, the Commission conducted a national dialogue on ocean issues. We convened a series of 15 regional meetings, public hearings, and workshops to listen to those who live and work along the coasts. From Maine to Hawaii, Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, we spoke with hundreds of citizens, fishermen, scientists, government officials, tourism operators, and business leaders. Commissioners held a series of 12 focus groups with fishermen, including one in Kodiak, Alaska, which is among the nation's oldest and largest fishing communities. Believing that experience is the best teacher, Commissioners went lobster fishing in Maine, toured a pineapple plantation in Hawaii to learn about ways to control polluted runoff, and visited coastal habitat restoration projects in New York and South Carolina.
By speaking with those who live and work along the coasts and around the country, and by collecting the best scientific information available, the Commission learned a great deal about the problems facing our oceans, the consequences to coastal communities and the nation if we fail to act, and actions needed to overcome the crisis facing our oceans. The status quo is unacceptable. Future generations will judge this generation on whether it shoulders its responsibility.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The fundamental conclusion of the Pew Oceans Commission is that this nation needs to ensure healthy, productive, and resilient marine ecosystems for present and future generations. In the long term, economic sustainability depends on ecological sustainability. To achieve and maintain healthy ecosystems requires that we change our perspective and extend an ethic of stewardship and responsibility toward the oceans. Most importantly, we must treat our oceans as a public trust. The oceans are a vast public domain that is vitally important to our environmental and economic security as a nation. The public has entrusted the government with the stewardship of our oceans, and the government should exercise its authority with a broad sense of responsibility toward all citizens and their long-term interests.
These changes in our perspective must be reflected in a reformed U.S. ocean policy. National ocean policy and governance must be realigned to reflect and apply principles of ecosystem health and integrity, sustainability, and precaution. We must redefine our relationship with the ocean to reflect an understanding of the land-sea connection and organize institutions and forums capable of managing on an ecosystem basis. These forums must be accessible, inclusive, and accountable. Decisions should be founded upon the best available science and flow from processes that are equitable, transparent, and collaborative.
To embrace these reforms and achieve our goal, the nation must realize five priority objectives:
1. Declare a principled, unified national ocean policy based on protecting ecosystem health and requiring sustainable use of ocean resources.
2. Encourage comprehensive and coordinated governance of ocean resources and uses at scales appropriate to the problems to be solved.
a. The regional scale of large marine ecosystems is most appropriate for fisheries management and for governance generally.
b. Coastal development and pollution control is most appropriately addressed at the watershed level.
3. Restructure fishery management institutions and reorient fisheries policy to protect and sustain the ecosystems on which our fisheries depend.
4. Protect important habitat and manage coastal development to minimize habitat damage and water quality impairment.
5. Control sources of pollution, particularly nutrients, that are harming marine ecosystems.
The Commission recommends the following actions to achieve these objectives.
Governance for Sustainable Seas
1. Enact a National Ocean Policy Act to protect, maintain, and restore the health, integrity, resilience, and productivity of our oceans.
2. Establish regional ocean ecosystem councils to develop and implement enforceable regional ocean governance plans.
3. Establish a national system of fully protected marine reserves.
4. Establish an independent national oceans agency.
5. Establish a permanent federal interagency oceans council.
Restoring America's Fisheries
1. Redefine the principal objective of American marine fishery policy to protect marine ecosystems.
2. Separate conservation and allocation decisions.
3. Implement ecosystem-based planning and marine zoning.
4. Regulate the use of fishing gear that is destructive to marine habitats.
5. Require bycatch monitoring and management plans as a condition of fishing.
6. Require comprehensive access and allocation planning as a condition of fishing.
7. Establish a permanent fishery conservation and management trust fund.
Preserving Our Coasts
1. Develop an action plan to address nonpoint source pollution and protect water quality on a watershed basis.
2. Identify and protect from development habitat critical for the functioning of coastal ecosystems.
3. Institute effective mechanisms at all levels of government to manage development and minimize its impact on coastal ecosystems.
4. Redirect government programs and subsidies away from harmful coastal development and toward beneficial activities,
including restoration.
Cleaning Coastal Waters
1. Revise, strengthen, and expand pollution laws to focus on nonpoint source pollution.
2. Address unabated point sources of pollution, such as concentrated animal feeding operations and cruise ships.
3. Create a flexible framework to address emerging and nontraditional sources of pollution, such as invasive species and noise.
4. Strengthen control over toxic pollution.
Guiding Sustainable Marine Aquaculture
1. Implement a new national marine aquaculture policy based on sound conservation principles and standards.
2. Set a standard, and provide international leadership, for ecologically sound marine aquaculture practices.
Science, Education, and Funding
1. Develop and implement a comprehensive national ocean research and monitoring strategy.
2. Double funding for basic ocean scienceand research.
3. Improve the use of existing scientific information by creating a mechanism or institution that regularly provides independent scientific oversight of ocean and coastal management.
4. Broaden ocean education and awareness through a commitment to teach and learn about our oceans, at all levels of society.
This nation must decide how it will choose to meet the crisis in our oceans. Fundamentally, this is not a decision about us.
It is about our children, and actions we must take to bequeath them thriving oceans and healthy coastlines.
This is our challenge. To meet this challenge, the nation must substantially increase its investment in understanding and managing its oceans. We need a much greater financial commitment to strengthen governance and management infrastructure, to improve our scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and human impacts, and to educate all Americans about the oceans.
If properly executed, this investment will be paid back manyfold in the form of abundant living ocean resources for centuries ahead. Without this investment, we risk further decline in ocean ecosystem health and serious consequences for human well-being far into the future. | https://www.planningreport.com/2004/05/05/pew-americas-living-oceans-commission-report-waht-was-once-thought-inexhaustable-fragile |
According to a recent editorial authored by top biologists and published in the journal Science, we aren’t doing nearly enough at present to ward off a mass extinction event in the near future. Specifically, we need to be setting aside far more land and ocean space for wildlife if we hope to avoid catastrophic consequences.
Currently, a mere 3.6 percent of the world’s oceans and 14.7 percent of global land is protected under law. Both of these figures fall short of the benchmarks international governments agreed to meet at the 2010 Nagoya Conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
And even if countries around the world were fulfilling their mutually agreed upon pledge to protect 10 percent of Earth’s oceans and 17 percent of the land, it still wouldn’t be nearly enough, according to study author and National Geographic Society member Jonathan Baillie.
So what is an ideal target that will minimize the widespread destruction of ecological systems that are essential to our own survival? Erring on the side of caution, we should initially aim to protect somewhere around one-third of both our oceans and land by 2030. Then, by 2050, we need to strive to protect half of all land and oceans in order to avoid mass extinction of plants, animals and, ultimately, humans.
If global governments don’t act fast, the results will be disastrous for everything and everyone on the planet, including the human race, warn Baillie and his coauthor, Ya-Ping Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thus, the two scientific experts are seriously pushing for targets to be set much higher at the next major biological diversity conference, which is scheduled to occur in Beijing in 2020.
What’s more, the biologists are emphasizing the importance of strategically choosing which areas to set aside. Namely, protection efforts need to be focused on areas of high biodiversity in order to conserve these vital, vulnerable ecosystems so that they may continue to support human, plant and animal life on Earth.
Another key detail to note is that these protected areas must be responsibly managed. As David Lindenmayer of the Australian National University reportedly stated in an interview with New Scientist, “The basis for conservation will need to change so that it becomes a key part of economies and livelihoods.” In other words, conservation cannot simply be an afterthought, as it has often been in the past and still is to a great extent in the present; it needs to be a priority.
While we wait for our government and others around the world to step up and take this issue seriously, we can all help solve the imminent crisis we face by reducing our meat and dairy consumption. By eating plants instead of animals, we can help free up land so that it can be set aside for wildlife, plus conserve essential resources and help reverse the effects of climate change, thus ensuring a happier and healthier future for ourselves and generations to come.
"By eating plants instead of animals, we can help free up land so that it can be set aside for wildlife." Unfortunately there is no band aid that will save anything as long as the single human species keeps proliferating. Right now it\’s projected to reach 10 billion by 2050 & 15 by the end of this century. Even if the planet is herbicided to death growing plants for human consumption, Nil Zacharias, it still will not save the web of biological life. The human ego, the most destructive force imaginable, knows no bounds. | https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/set-aside-half-planet-wildlife/ |
Mr. Mohammad Sobh is Occupational Therapist at ACPN. He completed a graduate program in Occupational Therapy (BSc OT) from Bethlehem University, Palestine in 2011. He is licensed as Occupational Therapist with the DOH, Abu Dhabi.
With ten years of experience in occupational therapy in UAE, Mr. Sobh gained insight into clinical and hospital rehabilitation settings treating neurological and developmental disorders. Upon completing his graduation, he worked as Occupational Therapist under World Health Organization at a Psychiatry Hospital until 2012. Moving to Dubai, he started his OT career at Majdi El-Halik Pediatric Center Physical and Mental Rehabilitation Center for two years until 2014. He then joined Dubai Rehabilitation Center for Special Needs under the Ministry of Social Affairs where he would work as occupational therapist for three years. He then joined Berlin Medical and Neurological Rehabilitation Center in 2017 leading the Occupational Therapy department there for three years. Before joining ACPN in 2021, he was as Senior Occupational Therapist at Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women and Children overseeing both outpatient and inpatient long-term care and rehabilitation for neonatal, children and adults.
Mr. Sobh works with children with developmental and physical challenges such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD/ADD, Cerebral Palsy, Brachial Plexus Injury, gross and fine motor delays, executive functioning challenges, sensory processing challenges, and social skill challenges. He uses diagnostic tools and evaluation methods including sensory processing evaluation, Peabody Developmental Motor Scales Evaluation, sensory integration techniques, and behavioral modification (RBT). Mr. Sobh is passionate about supporting children reach their potential by providing strategies, building on their strengths, and collaborating with family and other professionals involved in the child’s life. | https://www.americancenteruae.com/clinicians/mohammad-sobh/ |
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has remained his humility after being crowned the game’s best player and being honoured with an emotional haka, admitting it almost brought him to tears.
The star fullback became the first New Zealand Warrior to win the Dally M Medal at Wednesday night’s NRL awards ceremony.
His international teammates Issac Luke, Jazz Tevaga, Jordan Rapana and Jamayne Isaako performed a powerful haka in the middle of the ballroom.
The Warriors captain told Karl Stefanovic on The Today Show he was ‘buzzed out’ by the haka.
‘I was trying to hold back all the emotions. This is something they do for someone on a special occasion and you honour them with this haka, it’s one of the highest accolades,’ Tuivasa-Sheck said.
The 2018 Dally M Medal winner Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (pictured) is the first player from the Warriors to win the award
Warriors teammates, led by Issac Luke, paid tribute to Tuivasa-Sheck by performing the haka (pictured) in the middle of the ballroom, bringing him to tears
‘It meant a lot to have Isaac Luke and the rest of the group get up there and having two other players from different clubs honour me with a haka, it means a lot.’
‘I was just grateful to be there and taking in the moment.
‘When I was walking up there, to receive it from one of the greats, Johnathan Thurston, just walking up there and standing up there, thinking in the back of my mind ”This is just unreal”, and I just can’t believe I’m here.
‘When I go back and look at the names of the players who have won this… this is not me, these guys are legends and I’m just trying to make my way.’
His father Johnny accompanied him to the ceremony and ‘just couldn’t believe it’ when his son took away the game’s biggest individual honour.
‘I think he was just so proud, he’s not used to having that conversation, that man-to-man ”I’m proud of you” conversation but I know deep down he means well,’ Tuivasa-Sheck said.
‘I’m looking forward to catching up with my parents later on, seeing my mum and my sisters.’
Tuivasa-Sheck backed his old club the Sydney Roosters to take out the Grand Final.
Tuivasa-Sheck was emotional and humble in his acceptance speech thanking his family, club, team and fiancee for their continued support
He also refused to be joined by Russell Crowe, Phar Lap and the pavlova as another New Zealand product to be claimed by Australia.
‘It’s going to be tough to (claim me), New Zealand hard. Still proud to be from New Zealand, and happy to take this award back to Auckland with me, sorry guys.’
The 25-year-old showed raw emotion as he took to the stage to accept the award on Wednesday.
‘I remember the first time I came to these awards in 2013 and Cooper Cronk won the Dally M Award and I was just sitting there thinking it would be a dream to win this award and not knowing the day would ever come.’
Tuivasa-Sheck polled 29 votes to win the league’s player-of-the-season award by two points from Newcastle’s Kalyn Ponga, with Cronulla’s Valentine Holmes in third.
‘Feeling truly blessed right now to be up here holding this trophy and wearing this medal. There are so many people I would like to thank,’ Tuivasa-Sheck said.
‘My family, mum and dad, you guys have been awesome. Constant love and support, always keeping me in your prayers, keeping me grounded which is what is most important.’
His fiancee, Ashley Walker, was unable to make it to the event, but Tuivasa-Sheck paid tribute to her.
‘A big thanks to my partner Ashley, this one’s for you babe. All the hard work you do behind doors and all the hard work you put in so I can go away and train,’ he said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison awarding Roger Tuivasa-Sheck the 2018 Dally M Medal on Wednesday
A touching moment between teammates after an emotional haka was given in tribute to the 2018 Dally M Medal winner Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (pictured right)
He ended his speech by wishing good luck to all players in the Grand Final on Sunday.
None of the top five – which also included Luke Brooks and Mitchell Pearce – have previously polled in the top five positions at the Dally Ms during their career.
The Warriors fullback trailed by one vote with a round to go, but polled three points in the final round against Canberra while Ponga remained on the sideline injured.
It was a fitting tribute for the first ever Warriors player who wins the Dally M Medal to be given a haka in his honour
In doing so, he became the first fullback to win the award since Ben Barba in 2012, as he averaged 167 metres a match and busted through a total of 92 tackles.
The Dally M Medal was first introduced in 1980 and is awarded each year to the player who is judged to be the ‘Player of the Year’.
The award was created by News Limited as a way to recognise the most outstanding player in the NRL competition every year.
It was named after a legend of the sport, Herbert ‘Dally’ Messenger, he was a crucial figure in the establishment of rugby league in Australia, captaining the Eastern Suburbs, runners-up in the inaugural Sydney Rugby League competition.
He played 163 first class games and scored 73 tries and has been known as ‘The Master’ ever since, he passed away in Gunnedah, NSW in 1959. | https://expressdigest.com/roger-tuviasa-sheck-says-dally-m-haka-from-nrl-players-almost-brought-him-to-tears/ |
1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to energy dissipation devices which can be used in structural engineering.
2. Description of the Related Art
Often, it is necessary to control the physical response of a mechanical or structural system from some dynamic excitation. This can be done through the use of materials with inelastic behaviors. In buildings, for instance, certain regions of the building may be designed as “structural fuses” that become damaged during a high-intensity seismic event. These “fuses” can be constructed of steel or reinforced concrete and detailed such that they deform in a ductile manner, dissipating energy during a dynamic motion. An example of one of these “fuse” types is the braced frame. There are several well developed, and quite effective, types of structural “fuses” used in structural and mechanical system design. Most have a similar behavior when loaded in either of two possible directions (e.g. tension/compression, positive/negative bending, etc.) This type of behavior is described herein as having a symmetric load-deformation behavior.
Some applications have a need for an asymmetric load-deformation behavior. As an example, a pre-engineered metal building can use steel moment frames to resist lateral building loads in the building transverse direction. Most metal buildings are lightweight, and thus their structural member sizes are controlled by load demands from non-seismic types of loading, such as snow or roof dead load. Research has shown that these types of structures lack the level of ductility often found in traditional column-and-beam steel frames. An attempt at using a traditional steel plastic hinge would place a symmetric behavior hinge near the column-to-rafter joint, but as the bending moments from snow and dead load often exceed those from the expected seismic demands, sizing the plastic hinges for seismic demands would result in failure under those other loadings. Stronger plastic hinges, sized for the controlling load cases, would result in a lack of energy dissipation during seismic excitation. Therefore, this application would benefit from an energy dissipation device that would provide sufficient strength and stiffness to resist non-seismic loads, while still deforming significantly under seismic demands, such as an energy dissipation device with an asymmetric load-deformation behavior.
The concentric braced frame is an example of an energy dissipation system that has an asymmetric load-deformation behavior. It is designed to yield in tension. However, it buckles in compression. Due to the high local strains caused by buckling, cyclic loading of the concentric braced frame tends to result in low-cycle fatigue cracking. Also, the post-buckling strength and stiffness of the brace is difficult to predict and typically a source of high uncertainty in design.
Another type of lateral load resisting system formed from asymmetrically behaving components is the tension-only brace. This type of brace, made from slender rods or cables, has effectively no compression strength, and therefore must be used in pairs (e.g. an X-configuration) to provide bi-directional strength and stiffness. The tension-only braces do not typically provide energy dissipation, only linear elastic strength and stiffness to resist lateral forces on the buildings. If they were to yield, the rods/cables would elongate and effectively result in an unsupported structure when the building returned to its original configuration. Neither of these types of devices provides a reliable and ductile asymmetric load-deformation behavior.
| |
Investigation by the Tri-Cities Transport Action Group (TriTAG) reveals that the planned 2010 budget for the Region of Waterloo is heavily skewed towards road expansion and makes minimal investments in transit, cycling, and pedestrian infrastructure.
“While the Region is budgeting $100 million for road infrastructure in 2010, little of that money is for sidewalks and bicycle lanes — and most of that expenditure is almost incidental”, said Tim Mollison, a TriTAG founding member. “Major Regional roads such as Franklin Boulevard, Ottawa Street, Fischer-Hallman Road, Coronation Boulevard, Westmount Road, King Street, and Hespeler Road are all still missing sidewalks. Of the Region’s proposed $100 million transportation budget, less than $1 million is planned for sidewalks, and out of a total expenditure of $2.2 million for sidewalks and bike lanes, only $300,000 is not part of an existing road project.”
“These numbers are an absolute embarrassment for the Region,” said Michael Druker, a founding member of TriTAG. “If you channel most of your infrastructure funds to roads and road expansion, it’s hardly surprising that sprawl and air pollution are the result.”
“Grand River Transit is struggling with an aging fleet of buses and insufficient funding to accommodate existing ridership on its most important routes,” said Mollison. “Just $250,000 is allocated to hiring more drivers, and Regional Council is still awarding tenders to rebuild twelve-year-old buses so they can run for another three to six years at best.” At the same time, the Region of Waterloo plans to spend $71.6 million on road capacity expansion, with $17.5 million on new roads and $18.9 million on road widening.
The Government of Canada’s Gas Tax Fund (GTF) contributes stable revenue of $14.2 million annually to “support environmentally sustainable municipal infrastructure projects.” In contrast to these stated aims, the Region actually plans to use 100% of its GTF allocation for road projects between 2010 and 2019.
In citing the road infrastructure deficit as the justification for this expenditure, the Region of Waterloo ignores its transit infrastructure deficit and its active transportation infrastructure deficit. “The Gas Tax Fund is explicitly provided for municipalities to invest in sustainable infrastructure, and yet the Region of Waterloo is squandering this opportunity,” said Druker.
TriTAG is calling on the Regional government to direct at least 50% of its Federal Gas Tax Fund allocation to truly environmentally sustainable infrastructure: transit and active transportation. The group first made this request at the November 25 meeting of the Budget Committee. TriTAG will continue to advocate for more prudent use of the GTF until the Region of Waterloo is adequately funding environmentally sustainable and community-enhancing transportation infrastructure.
“The Region is doing a commendable job with its new Official Plan and the Rapid Transit project, but at some point the rubber has to hit the road, and without adequate funding for transit, that rubber will belong to cars and not buses,” said Druker. “The more people the Region gets on their feet or into buses, the less needs to be spent on road expansion. In addition to its significant benefits, transit and active transportation infrastructure costs far less than does road infrastructure.”
The Tri-Cities Transport Action Group (TriTAG) was founded in May 2009 with the idea that people should be able to walk, cycle, and take transit to everywhere they need to go, with dignity. These modes should be accessible to as many people as possible, and made as useful as possible, because transit and active transportation are better for the environment, public health, and the form of our cities. TriTAG believes that through the promotion of both transit and active transportation, the Region of Waterloo can be an even better place to live. | http://www.tritag.ca/blog/2009/12/08/tritag-urges-region-of-waterloo-to-cut-the-budget-for-sprawl/ |
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Search for the word below: epigenetics
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Number of hits: 8
Hypertension and nephrology
NOVEMBER 04, 2020
[The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the relationship between stress and hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, furthermore to introduce an evidence based stress management intervention available in Hungary. The correlation between cardiovascular disease and psychosocial factors (including concomitant mental disorders as well as personality traits or the effect of social environment) has been established in numerous studies aimed at investigating pathogenesis or various clinical endpoints. The 2016 Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology include the assessment and the management of psychosocial problems with behavioral medicine interventions as a I.A level recommendation. The implementation of these guidelines in everyday clinical practice is crucial to decrease cardiovascular risk. This involves the training of health care professionals, the facilitation of multidisciplinary collaboration and the integration of behavioral intervention into everyday care. The Williams Life Skills (WLS) program is an evidence based behavioral medicine intervention aiming to improve stress management and communication skills which implemented internationally and also available all over Hungary. It involves the learning of simple coping strategies that facilitate the successful management of every day psychosocial stress situations and the self-conscious reduction of bodily and psychological tensions. In cardiovascular disease, this improves quality of life and survival. The WLS program is especially recommended for healthcare workers to decrease the negative health consequences of their high stress load and to prevent burnout. Stress may affect both doctors and patients during their interactions. Bálint groups have a positive impact on the physician-patient collaboration and help to reduce burnout by improving the understanding of the diseases from a more complex approach.]
Clinical Neuroscience
SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
[With the acceptance of “The developmental origins of health and disease” concept in the 1990s, it became clear that epigenetic inheritance, which do not involve changes in the DNA sequence has important role in the pathogenesis of diseases. Epigenetic regulation serves the adaptation to the changing environment and maintains the reproductive fitness even on the drawback of increased risk of diseases in later life. The role of epigenetic mechanisms in chronic non-communicable diseases has been well established. Recent studies have revealed that epigenetic changes have also causal role in certain pediatric diseases. The review evaluates the recent epigenetic findings in the pathomechanism of common pediatric diseases. The wide range and long-lasting duration of epigenetic regulations give importance to the subject. Methods are already available to evaluate a part of the epigenetic changes in the clinical practice, presently aiming primarily the estimation of the disease risk or definition of diagnosis. Furthermore, there are already available limited means to influence the epigenetic regulation. ]
Clinical Oncology
FEBRUARY 15, 2016
[Although follicular lymphoma is the most frequent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma with an indolent clinical course, it is a rare disease. Patients with FL are characterized with a long survival with a relatively good quality of life, however using the current standard chemo-immunotherapy, the disease is considered incurable. The increasing knowledge of the molecular genetic background of the disease and the role of the reactive microenvironment lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of follicular lymphoma. Furthermore, the detailed functional characterization of the various cell surface antigens and deciphering the complex network of signaling pathways catalyzed the development of a number of novel targeted therapies (monoclonal antibodies, kinase- and NFκB-inhibitors), while understanding the effects of the cell surface receptors of cytotoxic T-cells initiated development of the monoclonal checkpoint inhibitors. The epigenetic therapies represent a novel therapeutic area with methyltransferase inhibitors demonstrating the most favorable results. Among the novel therapies, the immunomodulatory lenalidomide appears as the most promising and most effective drug, which acts via regulating the microenvironment, and in combination with rituximab in fi rst line setting it demonstrated similar effi cacy to the current standard protocols. Indeed, the rational use of the novel data and drugs paves the way towards personalized and targeted therapies for FL, resulting in more effective treatment and further improvement in patients’ survival, with a very long disease-free survival representing cure.]
Clinical Oncology
FEBRUARY 15, 2016
[Epigenetics is concerned with the modulation of the genom without structural changes in the nucleotide-sequence. The main target in the regulation of epigenetical activity is gene expression. The main mechanisms in epigenetics the reversible chemical modulation of the DNA and the histones which are regulated by enzyme-complexes, acting directly with the metabolism and the signaling pathways, as well as with the sensors of macro- and microenvironment. New members of the epigenetical family are the non-coding RNAs (e.g. microRNA). The misregulation of these components can infl uence the tumors at different stages of growth and progression. Several inhibitory anticancer drugs (e.g. azacytidine, decitabin, vorinostat, romidepsin, belinostat) are used in the clinical targeted therapy.]
Clinical Neuroscience
SEPTEMBER 30, 2015
[Meningiomas represent nearly one-third of all adult primary brain tumours. According to their clinical and histologic appearance, they can be divided into WHO grades I-III. Almost 90% of meningiomas are benign, showing favourable response to conventional therapies, however, patients diagnosed with grade 2 and 3 tumours may have a poor prognosis. In addition, high frequency of tumour recurrence renders treatments more challenging even in benign meningiomas. Molecular-pathological profiling of meningiomas could lead to development of more effective therapies. Although the cytogenetic background of these tumours are already wellcharacterised, the majority of related genes and mutations is still unknown. Recently, high-throughput techniques enabled better characterisation of mechanisms involved in meningioma development, progression and recurrence. Furthermore, epigenetic dysregulation could offer new opportunities for both diagnosis and treatment of meningiomas. We provide a comprehensive overview of cytogenetic and molecular genetic defects as well as epigenetic alterations in meningiomas. Many of these may serve as biomarker or therapeutic target in the near future.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
JUNE 20, 2013
LAM KID
SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
[Twin studies had an important role in the development of medicine. In this review, we present the available data of Hungarian twin studies and the number of twins in Hungary on the basis of statistical data. Comparing these data with international ones and taking into account probable prevalences, we aim to provide an estimation of the number of twins in Hungary who have cancerous diseases. Our estimation suggests that creation of a national database for such twins is feasible and could provide a great help for a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms of cancerous diseases.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
DECEMBER 21, 2011
[Besides its effect on the uterus and breasts, oxytocin also regulates affiliative behaviour. The so-called central oxytocin effect influences pair bonding, maternal care and attachment through the regulatory functions of oxytocin that acts as a neurotransmitter within the brain. The central oxytocin effect increases trust and social support, decreases fear and anxiety, and promotes wound healing. These effects form the basis of the stress-triggered, oxytocin-based ‘calm and connection’ reaction. Some methods that are widely used in modern obstretric practice - such as the use of synthetic oxytocin for inducing or speeding up labour or epidural anaesthesia - hinder the psycho-emotive effects that are based on natural oxytocin. Epigenetic studies performed in animals indicate that the oxytocin effect experienced at birth can be transgenerational.]
1.
Clinical NeuroscienceLate carcinomatous meningitis as vertigo
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Clinical NeuroscienceAlexithymia is associated with cognitive impairment in patients with Parkinson’s disease
3.
Lege Artis Medicinae[COVID-19-cardiology at spring, 2020]
4.
5.
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Clinical Oncology[Opportunities and challenges in online support of cancer patients]
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Clinical Oncology[Role of infl ammation in the carcinogenesis]
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Clinical Oncology[Treatment sequencing in metastatic colorectal cancer]
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Clinical Oncology[The treatment of the locally advanced and the metastatic gastric cancer]
5. | https://elitmed.hu/en/search?s=epigenetics |
dMCL1-2 is a PROTAC Degrader for Protein Myeloid Cell Leukemia 1 (MCL1)
Myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1) is a prosurvival protein. It overexpresses in a variety of different cancers and is of tremendous therapeutic interest. Furthermore, MCL1 is involved in complex protein−protein interactions (PPIs) involving proapoptotic factors Bim, Bak, and Bax. Thus, MCL1 is a vital survival factor in human cancers, such as lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, and multiple myeloma (MM), wherein levels of MCL1 directly correlate to disease progression. On the one hand, some compounds modulate MCL1 through competitive inhibition of interactions with its pro-apoptotic targets. It disrupts “hot spots” of the PPI interfaces. On the other hand, the recent surge in applications toward selective protein degradation, especially since seminal reports utilizing proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology. dMCL1-2 is a potent and selective degrader of MCL1 based on PROTAC.
PROTACs are small molecule conjugates that tether target proteins and E3 ligases through hetero-bifunctional poles. They induce ubiquitination and label proteins for proteasomal degradation. Here, the authors demonstrate the development of PROTACs capable of inducing degradation of the antiapoptotic protein MCL1. In addition, dMCL1-2 binds to MCL1 with a KD of 30 nM. Furthermore, it forms ternary complex between CRBN and MCL1, necessary for PROTAC-mediated degradation.
dMCL1-2, a PROTAC which effectively enhances proximity between MCL1 and the E3 ligase CRBN. It induces direct ubiquitination of MCL1 and labels it for proteasomal degradation at nanomolar concentrations. Moreover, dMCL1-2 induces apoptosis at 250 and 500 nM after a 24 h treatment with 1% fetal bovine serum in OPM2WT cells. It reveals by cleavage of Caspase-3.
In summary, dMCL1-2 is the first demonstration of a PROTAC. It will be a powerful tool for studying this family of antiapoptotic proteins. Meanwhile, it provides a more indepth understanding into their mechanisms of action.
Reference:
Papatzimas JW, et al. J Med Chem. 2019 Jun 13;62(11):5522-5540. | https://www.cancer-research-network.com/cancer/dmcl1-2-is-a-protac-degrader-for-protein-myeloid-cell-leukemia-1-mcl1/2019-08-09/ |
“Shame on you!” Those were very common words of parents and others in authority when I grew up. I remember hearing them regularly. I don’t mean to dishonor those who said them—I know what most of them intended to communicate. But it wasn’t helpful—or healthy—no matter how well-intentioned.
Parents, grandparents, or any authority figure saying, “Shame on you,” to a child is in response to some unacceptable behavior of the child. Other common versions are, “Bad boy! Bad girl!” Or, “You should be ashamed of yourself!”
Bad Behavior Or Bad Child?
I’m a firm believer in training kids while they are very young to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It is a major aspect of parenting.
But there is a HUGE difference between correcting bad behavior and infusing a child with an unhealthy view of himself.
Creating a shame consciousness in a child condemns them to a life feeling unworthy and having an ongoing sense of false guilt. In essence, you will be conditioning them to feel that your acceptance and approval of them is dependent upon their behavior.
Is that what you really want? I don’t think so.
Separate the child from their behavior—love and accept the child, but not necessarily the behavior. You won’t tolerate unacceptable behavior, but they should never doubt your love for and acceptance of them.
A Healthy Process For Admonishment
Without an established process for admonishing your kids when they misbehave, you won’t be consistent and may also act in a way you regret out of frustration or anger.
This was our format:
- Stop the unacceptable behavior. Tell them to stop whatever they are doing and get control of the situation. Relocate to a more private space if possible to avoid unnecessary embarrassment or humiliation.
-
Address the unacceptable behavior. Remind them again of why their behavior was unacceptable.
-
Administer a consequence. This is a big subject and depends on the behavior, but the point is that there should be a consequence for the inappropriate behavior. It could be a time out or losing a privilege such as screen time for a duration. Something commensurate to help them remember to act differently in the future.
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Require their admittance and apology. Don’t skip this. Every one of us needs to learn to admit when we’ve acted inappropriately.
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“Let’s pray.” In our home, we were always directing attention to God, our heavenly Father. If we are ultimately answerable to Him, then kids need to learn to confess their inappropriate behavior to Him, ask for help to not repeat it, and accept His forgiveness.
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Forgive them and reassure them of your love. Always wrap up the correction with, “I forgive you,” “I love you,” and a hug.
This may be a good time to discuss how they should have acted and what to do in the future. If applicable, you can share an important lesson you learned from making a similar mistake.
“Shame Off You!”
I recently heard a speaker begin her talk by having each of us in the audience turn to someone and say, “Shame off you!” Everyone knew she was juxtaposing the more familiar “shame on you”—and it sounded so good to all of us.
Don’t put a sense of shame on your child. Correct the behavior, yes—yet love and accept your child.
Question: How do you correct unacceptable behavior without shaming your child? Share your answer in the comments below. | https://kirbyandersen.com/2016/09/cut-shame-on-you-from-your-parenting-vocabulary/?print=true |
I can’t wait for the New Year to tell you all about a personal negotiation I was just in that sent my blood boiling! The deal isn’t completely done yet, so I don’t want to jinx it. (In case you’re wondering, no, I’m not superstitious — that would be bad luck.) However, in this deal, something happened that triggered an immediate and angry response. I bring it up because even as a highly trained and experienced negotiator, my emotion was getting the better of me. That is, until I did the following . . .
As I said, I’ll get into deal specifics in the New Year, once the dust has settled. But I wanted to highlight the anger piece because anger is a powerful emotion that can get in our way during a negotiation. Anger is a natural adaptive response to threats. It can produce powerful feelings and behaviors that allow us to defend ourselves against those threats. That means a certain amount of anger is healthy and needed for our own preservation. However, there’s a tipping point at which anger becomes destructive to our situation.
Typically, when anger appears, we use a combination of conscious and unconscious methods to resolve it. Psychologists identify three primary types of approaches: expressing, suppression, and calming.
Expressing anger can be done verbally or physically. Expressing your anger in an assertive but non-aggressive manner is usually a healthier approach than screaming or pounding your fist on the table.
Suppression is about holding it in or ignoring it. While doing so may bring peace to a situation, it can also produce side effects, such as passive-aggressive behavior and even high blood pressure.
Calming is about how you control both your external behavior and internal responses. It’s about recognizing when you’re angry, putting the situation into perspective, and then changing the way you think about or process it. For a negotiator, this is the state we want to be in when anger appears.
In my situation, the other party did something that immediately triggered a verbal and physical reaction. First, my tone changed. My responses became terse. Physically, my brow furrowed, my jaw clenched, and my heart raced. I could feel all of it, but I couldn’t control it because I was so focused on what caused the reaction. Then, something happened: At the moment I was searching for the profanity with which to blast the other side, my body took over, and I took a deep breath. It was an unconscious reaction that would pay dividends.
As I drew the deep breath, I realized that my breathing had been shallow — an indicator of anger. I started to recognize all the other physical signs of anger and immediately paused to take inventory. While my initial reaction was that “everything that could go wrong is going wrong!” I remembered something a mentor told me years ago. He said, “No matter how frustrating something might seem, it’s never as bad as you think it is.” That’s when I started changing my thinking about the situation (a technique called cognitive restructuring).
I started to assess the “threat” more clearly. Instead of responding with inflammatory statements, I began asking questions to better understand what was said and why it was said. I calmly expressed my disappointment and started structuring their expectations by saying something like, “This is not what I expected. I’m going to need some time to process this before I respond.”
Then, I did just that: I took a break to process and calm down. I kept breathing, but I also turned my focus from “how this is bad for me” to “how can I make this work for me?” I began writing down what I needed to make this situation better as well as what they probably needed/wanted to make this situation better. Then, I focused on how I was going to approach the next conversation. I even practiced it with someone else to make sure I was comfortable and in control of my words and emotions.
When I got back together with the other side, I found that taking the break, calming myself down, and putting together a plan proved super helpful in terms of how we came to a resolution. More importantly, the experience reminded me of what to do when my anger is triggered:
- Recognize the physical and emotional signs. Shallow breathing, clenched jaw, furrowed brow as well as that feeling of doom and gloom can all be signs of anger. Be attuned and recognize it.
- Take a deep breath. Not from your chest but from your diaphragm. That deep breathing will help calm you down and improve your ability to think.
- Take a break and recalibrate. Get out of the room and reassess what’s happening. Remember, it’s rarely as bad as you think it is. Adjust your thinking and focus on how to improve the situation.
- Practice and partner. As you refocus and create a new plan, partner with someone to ensure that there are no blind spots waiting for you. Practice what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it so you can reapproach the situation more calmly. | https://www.scotwork.com/insights/be-angry-then-do-this/ |
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Buah keluak kari ayam/chicken curry
Buah keluak kari ayam/chicken curry
Main Dish
4
servings
24 hours
45 min
Easy
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The nuts from Malacca into this spicy curry.
Ingredients
Number of serving:
4
8-10 buah keluak (how to prepare - as said, soak overnight and scrub every now and then with a brush. Before cooking, lightly crack and soak in some water)
400g
chicken
- cut into bite sizes
1 tsp
ginger
paste
1 tsp
garlic
paste
** mix chicken with ginger paste and garlic paste and keep aside
6 shallots - crushed/smashed
2 sprigs
curry
leaves
Some asam/tamarind juice
1/4 cup oil
Salt
for taste
For the curry paste
1 1/2 tbsp plain chilli powder (or as needed)
1/4 tsp garam masala/mix spice powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp fennel powder
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
** Mix with some water for a thick paste
Preparation
Heat oil.
Saute shallots.
Add curry paste.
Fry and cook till aromatic and oil splits.
Add chicken and keluak with the water.
Gently stir and cook till chicken is tender.
Note: pour more water for more gravy.
Add curry leaves, pour tamarind juice and season with salt.
Stir, simmer and remove from heat.
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In "Eggless Chocolate Cake" how many ml is 1 tin condensed milk? | https://en.petitchef.com/recipes/main-dish/buah-keluak-kari-ayamchicken-curry-fid-1562877 |
This month, cybersecurity research firm Volexity discovered a series of four critical security vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Exchange Server software. Since then, the vulnerability has been independently verified and confirmed by Microsoft. It is believed to have been used by foreign state threat actors for an unknown period, extending to at least January 2021. Exchange acts as the primary software that handles email for the vast majority large organizations; Outlook connects to Exchange to view emails from user accounts.
Although the vulnerability does not affect customers running Microsoft’s Exchange Online service exclusively, most organizations in the United States run some form of Internet-facing Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) for their email systems in tandem with Exchange servers.
Companies that use Microsoft Exchange Server for email in any version should take immediate action to remedy the situation. Office 365 is not affected, but businesses with physical Exchange servers combined with Office 365 would still be vulnerable. The vulnerability affects all versions of Microsoft Exchange Server from 2010 through 2016. The exploited vulnerability and potential backdoor allow a remote attacker full access and control organization’s Exchange server, including all data residing there: emails, attachments, contacts, notes, tasks, calendar items, etc. Attackers using this vulnerability can also identify a mailbox by username and view or copy the entire contents of the mailbox.
The seriousness of the problem is difficult to underestimate. By using the exploit, intruders can leave behind one or more “web shell” scripts for future use. A web shell is an easy-to-use, password-protected hacking tool that can be accessed from any browser on the Internet. they are also commonly used for legitimate functions, and therefore difficult to identify as malware by file type alone.
Victims so far include businesses, local governments, construction companies, hospitals and financial institutions, including the European Banking Authority. Organizations affected number in the tens of thousands so far. Additionally, the list of affected companies is expected to grow significantly as others become aware of the issue and investigate server traffic and activity.
Current information suggests that the threat actor (hacker) in this case was a Chinese cyber-espionage group called Hafnium, whose main goal is to steal information from organizations. As Microsoft released a patch to address these vulnerabilities on March 2, 2020, Hafnium threat actors have dramatically increased their efforts in response, hoping to capture organizations that were unaware of the patch. Their attack boost seems to be working. Volexity President Steven Adair said:
“Even if you patched the same day that Microsoft released its patches, there’s still a good chance there’s a web shell on your server. The truth is, if you’re using Exchange and you don’t have fixed this yet, chances are your organization is already compromised.
Worse still – since the announcement of the vulnerability and the fixes, other hackers have rushed to take advantage of the situation and install their own Web Shell files. And the longer it takes for victim organizations to remove backdoors, the more likely intruders will follow up by installing additional backdoors, or even expanding their attack to include other parts of the victim’s network infrastructure. .
As of March 5, conservative estimates suggested 30,000 or more organizations were affected. As of March 8, that number is believed to have doubled to 60,000. Undoubtedly, as of this writing, the number is even larger, with thousands of compromised servers per hour worldwide. US officials told CNN that up to a quarter of a million organizations are at risk or already compromised by the exploitation of these vulnerabilities.
Microsoft has announced that it is working with the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as well as other government agencies and security companies, to ensure it provides the best advice and mitigations possible. to its customers. CISA has issued an emergency directive ordering all federal civilian departments and agencies running vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers to update software or disconnect products from their network.
This critical issue will have long term effects and impact around the world. Additionally, the lack of availability of incident response teams – relative to the number of organizations attacked, leads to a severe shortage in demand for skilled cybersecurity talent to deal with the massive number of breaches caused by this vulnerability.
If you are concerned that your organization is using Microsoft Exchange and Outlook Web Access and need assistance in assessing your organization’s situation, we encourage you to contact Seyfarth’s cybersecurity professionals who can guide you in your immediate response to threats, your mitigation and legal compliance. issues related to this critical security threat. | https://dailyhotsite.com/organizations-using-microsoft-exchange-mail-server-face-serious-cybersecurity-threats-seyfarth-shaw-llp/ |
The Baroque era emerged in the 17th century, and one of the leading French artists of this period lived and worked most of his professional career in Rome.
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) managed to incorporate a classical style into the overly dramatic Baroque paintings that Baroque artists produced at the time.
This notion made him one of the most inspirational artists of the 17th century. Let’s take a closer at the artist’s life and why Poussin is considered to be so influential.
1. He was born in a small village in Normandy in the late 16th century
Nicolas Poussin’s childhood remains an obscure subject. That’s mainly because very little is known about his initial training.
We know that he was born in a small picturesque village called Les Andelys which is situated in the Normandy region in the northwestern part of France.
According to his friend and biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696), he received a formal education in Latin which stressed the relatively good standing of his family.
He spent most of his childhood filling up entire notebooks with drawings and it was clear he was extremely talented from a young age.
2. He traveled to Paris in 1612 but had a hard time finding a breakthrough
His parents weren’t too keen on the fact that the young Nicolas aimed to pursue a painting career. This made him run away to Paris in 1612.
He hoped to become one of the leading artists in the city, but things weren’t exactly easy to achieve this at the time.
Despite the copious amounts of patrons, including Queen of France Marie de Medici, the churches, palaces, and monasteries in Paris were filled with artworks from members of a powerful guild.
Poussin wasn’t a member and didn’t have an easy way to get into it. He studied under a relatively unknown Flemish artist named “Ferdinand Elle” (1570-1637) and wasn’t able to make a name for himself in the following years.
3. The French Royal collection inspired him to travel to Rome in 1624
The defining moment in Poussin’s career did happen in Paris, though, because here he managed to admire the French royal collection.
He befriended Alexandre Courtois, the valet de chambre of Marie de Medici, and was able to see some of Raphael’s paintings.
The Renaissance master had a profound effect on the artistic direction of Poussin, and it encouraged him to travel to Rome in 1624.
Remarkably, he first tried to travel to Rome in 1617 but never made it this far. He only made it as far as Florence in the Tuscany region before returning to Paris for unknown reasons in 1618.
4. He learned from Italian masters but detested one particular Italian artist
The inspiration he got from the works of Italian painters during his initial attempt to reach Rome allowed him to find his artistic style.
He also started earning commissions in Paris, producing works for various churches and convents.
After completing several paintings, Nicolas Poussin finally made it to Rome and permanently settled in the city in 1624.
Apart from discovering even more Raphael paintings, he also saw paintings of Italian artists who worked in the city more recently. These included paintings by Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni, and Caravaggio.
He hated the works of Caravaggio, the troubled artist who integrated a profound contrast of light and shadow into his paintings known as chiaroscuro.
HIs hate went as far as Poussin remarking that “Caravaggio was born to destroy painting.”
5. He completed his first prestigious commission in the year 1627
The first two years of Poussin’s stay in Rome weren’t a great success. He had a hard time finding patrons, especially because Cardinal Barberini departed Rome shortly after he arrived there.
Cardinal Barberini and Cassiano dal Pozzo returned to Rome in 1626 and he earned his first commissions from these two rich patrons.
He completed a painting called “The Death of Germanicus” in 1627. This is a work that depicts the death of the Roman general using accurate depictions of historical events.
The success of the Death of Germanicus, which is now part of the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, firmly established Poussin’s reputation as one of the leading Baroque artists in Rome in the late-1620s.
6. He lived in the artistic quarter and became a prolific artist in the 1630s
His artistic breakthrough also opened several other doors for Poussin during this phase of his life. Just a few years later he married his wife Anne-Marie Dughet.
This event took place on September 1, 1630, followed by the acquisition of a small house on Via Paolina just north of Rome’s historical center.
It’s unknown where this house was located exactly, but it’s believed to have been across from the church of Sant’Atanasio dei Greci.
This was near Rome’s northern city gate and considered to be the artistic quarter of the city at the time.
7. He briefly returned to France to become the First Painter to the King
His success in Rome didn’t go unnoticed in France. He started receiving invitations to complete Royal commissions in the 1630s, but initially declined the offers.
When he was offered the position of “First Painter to the King” and received a personal invitation from King Louis XIII along with an opulent residence at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, he simply couldn’t resist.
He returned to Paris in 1640, and while he was certainly flattered with the luxury and title, he felt overwhelmed by the large number of commissions he received.
Poussin was a slow painter who simply couldn’t cope with dozens of commissions at the same time. He completed some works and made an excuse to return to Rome in the autumn of 1642, never to return to France again.
8. He inspired one of the greatest French artists in history in the 1640s
He instantly picked up his relatively slow pace upon returning to Rome, and gradually completed the commissions he earned in the city.
One of the most important events of his final period in Rome was the fact that he had another French artist joining him in the 1640s.
Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) learned the trade from Poussin and became the First Painter of King Louis XIV upon his return to France.
The French King even referred to Le Brun as “the greatest French artist of all time,” a title he partially earned because of the great master he had in Rome.
9. What types of paintings did Nicolas Poussin paint?
Niclas Poussin is considered to be the leading classical Baroque artist. This meant that many of his works are religious, historical, or mythological.
All of his works depict a story, a notion that emphasizes his knowledge about history, especially religious history, mythology, and classical literature.
His paintings can be overwhelming to look at because there are often a lot of things going on as multiple stories intertwine in a single composition.
During the latter phase of his career, he also paid close attention to the landscapes in his works, turning them into multi-dimensional masterpieces.
The most notable example of the intricate paintings he produced is his enigmatic “A Dance to the Music of Time” (1640), an incredible work of art on display at the Wallace Collection in London.
10. He passed away a year after his wife died
Poussin’s wife Anne-Marie passed away in the year 1664 and his health started failing shortly after as well.
He was bedridden for multiple months, dictating his will on September 21. He passed away a few months later on November 19, 1665.
The artist was buried in a church in Rome called San Lorenzo in Lucina, a minor basilica in central Rome just south of where he lived.
His tomb can be found in the second chapel and the monument in his honor was donated by the French in 1830.
11. Poussin’s oeuvre became an excellent inspiration for multiple other artists
Nicolas Poussin was a remarkable artist of the 17th century, mainly because he rejected the overly dramatic effects integrated by other Baroque artists.
The influence of Renaissance masters was too profound and he stuck to the ideals of the Renaissance which aimed to surpass art produced in classical antiquity.
His paintings were highly influential for artists of later generations, including Neoclassical artists Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, as well as the works of Paul Cézanne.
12. His paintings can be admired in famous museums all around the world
So where can you admire the paintings of Nicolas Poussin? These museums all have important works of the Baroque master on display:
- The Louvre Museum in Paris
- The National Gallery in London
- The Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh
- The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg
- The Prado Museum in Madrid
The most extensive collection of paintings by the artist can be found at the Louvre Museum in Paris. | https://art-facts.com/nicolas-poussin-facts/ |
A 15-page paper on moisture vapor transmission through SPF including tables and sample calculations.
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A 19 page guideline covering the generic types of elastomeric coatings, the why and how to achieve the best performance for the life of a warranty.
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There are 26 Illustrated design details included in this 46-page document, which is the most important guideline for the SPF roofing contractor or his/her applicator.
- SPFA-107 Spray Polyurethane Foam Blisters
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- SPFA-110 Spray Polyurethane Foam Aggregate Systems for New and Remedial Roofing
This is an 18-page document that details considerations dealing with SPF aggregate systems and new and remedial roofing.
- SPFA-122 The Renewal of Spray Polyurethane Foam and Coating Roof Systems
A 16-page document covering roof preparation, procedures and considerations including maintenance procedures.
- SPFA-127 Maintenance Manual for Spray Polyurethane Foam Roof Systems
This nine-page manual, with photos, provides the building owner and maintenance personnel with a basic guideline for the maintenance and repair of SPF roof systems. This is the brochure that you leave with the building owner/manager when your project is finalized.
- SPFA-130 Spray Polyurethane Foam Roofing
Updated SPF Roofing Brochure - The high performance, cost effective, weather resistant solution for commercial, industrial and residential structures.
- SPFA-138 Guideline for Roof Assembly Evaluation for Spray Polyurethane Foam Roof System
8-pages including roof surface assembly considerations. What is an acceptable substrate surface for SPF application? Criteria for recover, re-roof, and tear-off.
- SPFA-139 Recommendations for Repair of Spray Polyurethane Foam Roof Systems due to Hail and Wind Driven Damage
This document provides a means to evaluate information collected from the investigation of an SPF roof system after damage has occurred and to make recommendations for the rehabilitation and/or repair of the damaged areas.
- SPFA-142 A Guideline for Securing Roofing Components with SPF Adhesives
Colored photos of typical jobs including single and dual component adhesives and how to apply them.
- SPFA-150 Photo-Voltaic Systems and SPF Roof Systems
This document provides SPF (Spray polyurethane foam) professionals an understanding of PV systems and how they interface with and affect the performance of SPF Roofs.
Specialty
- SPFA-103 Spray Polyurethane Foam Insulation Systems For Metal Service Vessels Operating Between -35oC (-30oF) and 93oC (200oF)
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For those designing cold storage facilities and utilizing the insulating qualities of SPF, this document is a must.
SPFA believes that the path to a healthful, safe, high-quality and performing SPF installation travels through the hands of a knowledgeable, trained, experienced, and ideally PCP-certified professional contractor. | http://www.sprayfoam.org/technical/spfa-technical-documents |
Two-dimensional (2D) tungsten disulfide (WS2) has inspired great efforts in optoelectronics, such as in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and photodetectors. However, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown 2D WS2 domains with the coexistence of a discontinuous single layer and multilayers are still not suitable for the fabrication of photodetectors on a large scale. An emerging field in the integration of organic materials with 2D materials offers the advantages of molecular diversity and flexibility to provide an exciting aspect on high-performance device applications. Herein, we fabricated a photodetector based on a 2D-WS2/organic semiconductor materials (mixture of the (Poly-(N, N'-bis-4-butylphenyl-N, N'-bisphenyl) benzidine and Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (Poly-TPD/PCBM)) heterojunction. The application of Poly-TPD/PCBM organic blend film enhanced light absorption, electrically connected the isolated WS2 domains, and promoted the separation of electron-hole pairs. The generated exciton could sufficiently diffuse to the interface of the WS2 and the organic blend layers for efficient charge separation, where Poly-TPD was favorable for hole carrier transport and PCBM for electron transport to their respective electrodes. We show that the photodetector exhibited high responsivity, detectivity, and an on/off ratio of 0.1 A/W, 1.1 × 1011 Jones, and 100, respectively. In addition, the photodetector showed a broad spectral response from 500 nm to 750 nm, with a peak external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 8%. Our work offers a facile solution-coating process combined with a CVD technique to prepare an inorganic/organic heterojunction photodetector with high performance on silicon substrate.
RESUMO
The authors report a new patterned electroless metallization process for creating micro- and nanoscale metallic structures on polymeric substrates, which are essential for emerging flexible and stretchable optical and electronic applications. This novel process features a selective adsorption of catalytic Pd nanoparticles (PdNPs) on a lithographically masked poly(dopamine) (PDA) interlayer in situ polymerized on the substrates. The moisture-resistant PDA layer has excellent stability under a harsh electroless plating bath, which enables electroless metallization on versatile substrate materials regardless of their hydrophobicity, and significantly strengthens the attachment of electroless plated metallic structures on the polymeric substrates. Prototype devices fabricated using this PDA-assisted electroless metallization patterning exhibit superior mechanical stability under high bending and stretching stress. The lithographic patterning of the PDA spatially confines the adsorption of PdNPs and reduces defects due to random adsorption of catalytic particles on the undesired area. The high resolution of the lithographic patterning enables the demonstration of a copper micrograting pattern with a linewidth down to 2 µm and a silver plasmonic nanodisk array with a 500 nm pitch. A copper mesh is also fabricated using our new patterned electroless metallization process and functions as flexible transparent electrodes with >80% visible transmittance and <1 Ω sq-1 sheet resistance. Moreover, flexible and stretchable dynamic electroluminescent displays and functional flexible printed circuits are demonstrated to show the promising capability of our fabrication process in versatile flexible and stretchable electronic devices.
RESUMO
Nanoparticles for biomedical applications are generally formed by bottom-up approaches such as self-assembly, emulsification and precipitation. But these methods usually have critical limitations in fabrication of nanoparticles with controllable morphologies and monodispersed size. Compared with bottom-up methods, top-down nanofabrication techniques offer advantages of high fidelity and high controllability. This review focuses on top-down nanofabrication techniques for engineering particles along with their biomedical applications. We present several commonly used top-down nanofabrication techniques that have the potential to fabricate nanoparticles, including photolithography, interference lithography, electron beam lithography, mold-based lithography (nanoimprint lithography and soft lithography), nanostencil lithography, and nanosphere lithography. Varieties of current and emerging applications are also covered: (i) targeting, (ii) drug and gene delivery, (iii) imaging, and (iv) therapy. Finally, a future perspective of the nanoparticles fabricated by the top-down techniques in biomedicine is also addressed.
AssuntosPesquisa Biomédica , Nanopartículas/química , Nanotecnologia , Humanos
RESUMO
A fast-reconfigurable and actively-stabilized fiber-optic interference lithography system is demonstrated in this paper. Employment of fiber-optic components greatly enhances the flexibility of the whole system, simplifies its optical alignment, and suppresses the interference of mechanical vibrations. Active stabilization is implemented in the system and evaluated through modeling and experiment. We demonstrate 3-inch-diameter wafer-scale patterning of 240-nm-period grating lines with a sub-50-nm linewidth and an aspect ratio over 3. Two-dimensional patterns of different geometries and dimensions are also demonstrated to show the versatility of our system. Step-and-repeat exposure is demonstrated with independently controlled patterning fields of 2×2cm2 large.
RESUMO
We report stretchable metal-mesh transparent electrodes (TEs) with excellent electrical conductivity (<2 Ω/sq) and optical transparency (>80%) under up to 55% strain. The figures of merit on these electrodes, as defined as the ratio between electrical conductivity and optical conductivity, are among the highest reported for stretchable TEs under moderate stretching. Moreover, we demonstrate their application in a stretchable electroluminescent (EL) light-emitting film as top and bottom electrodes. EL lighting devices require low-resistance electrodes to unleash their potential for large-area low-power-consumption applications, in which our highly conductive and transparent stretchable TEs provide an edge on other competitor approaches. Importantly, our stretchable metal-mesh electrodes are fabricated through a vacuum-free solution-processed approach that is scalable for cost-effective mass production. We also investigate the fracture and fatigue mechanisms of stretchable metal-mesh electrodes with various mesh patterns and observe different behaviors under one-time and cyclic stretching conditions. Our solution-processed fabrication method, failure mechanism investigation, and device demonstration for metal-mesh stretchable TEs will facilitate the adoption of this promising high-performance approach in stretchable and wearable electronics applications.
RESUMO
The maneuver of small bubbles in a programmed way will advance numerous processes, including gas evolution reaction and aeration. Unlike in-air droplets, rapidly rising bubbles in liquid medium can hardly be steered through interaction with solid substrates, causing difficulties in maneuvering bubbles. We pattern and lubricate nanoporous substrates with regions of contrasting wettability that is similar to the back of Namib desert beetles and subsequently immerse the lubricated surface underwater to spontaneously form spatially patterned Nepenthes-inspired slippery surfaces after the dewetting of lubricants. As a result, bubbles are confined on lubricant-infused surfaces, with their high mobility well preserved. The interfacial states of attached bubbles are analyzed, and their dynamic sliding velocities are quantified. Using the lubricated patterned surfaces, we further demonstrate the predefined motion of bubbles driven by buoyancy at a small tiling angle, as well as a self-propulsion of bubbles driven by surface tension force at a tilting angle of 0°, respectively. The spatially lubricated surfaces simplify gas handling in liquid medium and have potential applications in fields where bubble handling is crucial.
RESUMO
Here, the authors report the embedded metal-mesh transparent electrode (EMTE), a new transparent electrode (TE) with a metal mesh completely embedded in a polymer film. This paper also presents a low-cost, vacuum-free fabrication method for this novel TE; the approach combines lithography, electroplating, and imprint transfer (LEIT) processing. The embedded nature of the EMTEs offers many advantages, such as high surface smoothness, which is essential for organic electronic device production; superior mechanical stability during bending; favorable resistance to chemicals and moisture; and strong adhesion with plastic film. LEIT fabrication features an electroplating process for vacuum-free metal deposition and is favorable for industrial mass production. Furthermore, LEIT allows for the fabrication of metal mesh with a high aspect ratio (i.e., thickness to linewidth), significantly enhancing its electrical conductance without adversely losing optical transmittance. We demonstrate several prototypes of flexible EMTEs, with sheet resistances lower than 1 Ω/sq and transmittances greater than 90%, resulting in very high figures of merit (FoM) - up to 1.5 x 104 - which are amongst the best values in the published literature.
AssuntosCobre/química , Cicloparafinas/química , Eletrodos , Polímeros/química , Condutividade Elétrica , Soluções , Propriedades de Superfície
RESUMO
A new type of embedded metal-mesh transparent electrode (EMTE) with in-situ electrodeposited catalytic platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) is developed as a high-performance counter electrode (CE) for lightweight flexible bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The thick but narrow nickel micromesh fully embedded in a plastic film provides superior electrical conductivity, optical transmittance, and mechanical stability to the novel electrode. PtNPs decorated selectively on the nickel micromesh surface provide catalytic function with minimum material cost and without interfering with optical transparency. Facile and fully solution-processed fabrication of the novel CE is demonstrated with potential for scalable and cost-effective production. Using this PtNP-decorated nickel EMTE as the CE and titanium foil as the photoanode, unifacial flexible DSSCs are fabricated with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.91%. By replacing the titanium foil with a transparent ITO-PEN photoanode, full-plastic bifacial DSSCs are fabricated and tested, demonstrating a remarkable PCE of 4.87% under rear-side illumination, which approaches 85% of the 5.67% PCE under front-side illumination, among the highest ratio in published results. These promising results reveal the enormous potential of this hybrid transparent CE in scalable production and commercialization of low-cost and efficient flexible DSSCs.
RESUMO
A new structure of flexible transparent electrodes is reported, featuring a metal mesh fully embedded and mechanically anchored in a flexible substrate, and a cost-effective solution-based fabrication strategy for this new transparent electrode. The embedded nature of the metal-mesh electrodes provides a series of advantages, including surface smoothness that is crucial for device fabrication, mechanical stability under high bending stress, strong adhesion to the substrate with excellent flexibility, and favorable resistance against moisture, oxygen, and chemicals. The novel fabrication process replaces vacuum-based metal deposition with an electrodeposition process and is potentially suitable for high-throughput, large-volume, and low-cost production. In particular, this strategy enables fabrication of a high-aspect-ratio (thickness to linewidth) metal mesh, substantially improving conductivity without considerably sacrificing transparency. Various prototype flexible transparent electrodes are demonstrated with transmittance higher than 90% and sheet resistance below 1 ohm sq(-1) , as well as extremely high figures of merit up to 1.5 × 10(4) , which are among the highest reported values in recent studies. Finally using our embedded metal-mesh electrode, a flexible transparent thin-film heater is demonstrated with a low power density requirement, rapid response time, and a low operating voltage.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Plectasin might serve as a substitute for traditional antibiotics, but its yields and antimicrobial activities warrant further investigation. OBJECTIVE: To identify the influence of inducible versus constitutive expression of plectasin on yields and antimicrobial activities. METHODS: Through SOE-PCR, a recombinant plectasin gene was generated and inserted into inducible (pPICZαA) and constitutive (pGAPZαA) vectors in order to create Pichia pastoris GS115 strains. After 120 h of fermentation, supernatants were purified by an AKTA purifier using nickel columns. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and inhibition zone assays were performed after Tricine-SDS-PAGE. RESULTS: After 120 h of fermentation, the yield of constitutive plectasin (370 µg/ml) was much lower than that from inducible vector (880 µg/ml) (P < 0.05). However, constitutive strain reached its plateau phase faster and keep more consistent yield (P < 0.05). The MICs of inducible plectasin against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) 15471118, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus feces (VREF), and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumonia (PRSP) 31355 were 64, 32, and 64 µg/ml, respectively, while those of constitutive plectasin were 4, 4, and 16 µg/ml. No significant differences were observed in antimicrobial activities between inducible and constitutive plectasin for MRSA 15471118, VREF and PRSP 31355 (all P ï¼ 0.05). However, constitutive plectasin had a larger inhibition zone than inducible plectasin with the same mass. CONCLUSIONS: Although P. pastoris GS115 (pGAPZαA-Plectasin-GS115) had lower expression than P. pastoris GS115 (pPICZαA-plectasin-GS115), it reached the plateau phase faster, had steadier yields and showed superiority in antimicrobial activities. Therefore, pGAPZαA might be more suitable for expression of plectasin in GS115 compared with pPICZαA.
AssuntosAntibacterianos/biossíntese , Peptídeos/genética , Peptídeos/metabolismo , Pichia/genética , Antibacterianos/farmacologia , Bactérias/efeitos dos fármacos , Bactérias/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Regulação Bacteriana da Expressão Gênica , Humanos , Testes de Sensibilidade Microbiana , Peptídeos/farmacologia , Pichia/classificação , Pichia/metabolismo
RESUMO
We theoretically study the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure based ultrathin broadband optical absorber which consists of a metallic substrate, a dielectric middle layer, and a nanostructured metallic top layer. It is found that, there exists an effective permittivity, εnull, for the top nanostructured metallic layer which leads to unit-absorption (zero-reflection) of the MIM structure. Importantly, this εnull exhibits abnormal dispersion behaviors. Both its real and imaginary parts increase monotonically with the wavelength. To obtain such naturally non-existing permittivity, we investigate the optical properties of two typical types of metal-dielectric nanocomposites, namely, thoroughly mingled composites using Bruggeman's effective medium theory, and more realistic Au nanosphere-in-dielectric structures using numerical permittivity retrieval techniques. We demonstrate that the εnull-type dispersions, and consequently, perfect absorption can be obtained over a broad spectral range when the filling factor of the metal component is close to the percolation threshold. The result not only explains the recently reported broadband absorbers made of randomly deposited Au nanoparticles [M. K. Hedayati, et al, Adv. Mater. 23, 5410 (2011)], but also provides theoretical guidelines for designing ultrathin broadband plasmonic absorbers for a wealthy of important applications.
RESUMO
A challenge in the fabrication of nanostructures into non-planar substrates is to form a thin, uniform resist film on non-planar surfaces. This is critical to the fabrication of nanostructures via a lithographic technique due to the subsequent pattern transfer process. Here we report a new double transfer UV-curing nanoimprint technique that can create a nanopatterned thin film with a uniform residual layer not only on flat substrates but also on highly curved surfaces. Surface relief gratings with pitches down to 200 nm are successfully imprinted on the cylindrical surface of optical fibers, and further transferred into a SiO2 matrix using reactive ion etching (RIE), demonstrating that our technique is applicable for fabricating high-resolution nanostructures on non-planar substrates.
RESUMO
Quantum lithography (QL) is a revolutionary approach to significantly increase the throughput and lower the cost of electron beam lithography in writing large-area masks with nanoscale features. A major challenge in QL is that its principle can be readily applied to positive- but not negative-tone QL. In fact, negative-tone QL, which is as indispensable as positive-tone QL in practical usage, has not been achieved. Here we propose a new method to overcome the obstacle, and report the first experimental demonstration of negative-tone QL. The new method uses a new type of nanoimprinted blank with the nanoscale tiles made of an aluminum/chromium bi-layer of metals, and a novel electrochemical process that removes only non-tagged quantized tiles of the new blank while keeping tagged ones. The demonstrated negative-tone QL has a 200 nm pitch and 30 nm gap and can be further scaled down to even smaller pitch sizes.
RESUMO
Using a new nanoplasmonic architecture and an optimized spacer, we observed the following: (a) the average fluorescence of an infrared dye (indocyanine green) is enhanced by 2970 fold uniformly (variation < 11%) over a large sample area and over a wide range of dye concentrations (380 to 380,000 molecule µm(-2)), laser excitation powers and laser beam sizes; and (b) for a single molecule placed at a 'hot spot', the fluorescence enhancement is 4.5 × 10(6) fold. The giant and uniform enhancements (orders of magnitude higher than before), plus easy and inexpensive large area fabrication ( > 4â³ wafers), should open up wide applications.
RESUMO
We observed that when subwavelength-sized holes in an optically opaque metal film are completely covered by opaque metal disks larger than the holes, the light transmission through the holes is not reduced, but rather enhanced. Particularly we report (i) the observation of light transmission through the holes blocked by the metal disks up to 70% larger than the unblocked holes; (ii) the observation of tuning the light transmission by varying the coupling strength between the blocking disks and the hole array, or by changing the size of the disks and holes; (iii) the observation and simulation that the metal disk blocker can improve light coupling from free space to a subwavelength hole; and (iv) the simulation that shows the light transmission through subwavelength holes can be enhanced, even though the gap between the disk and the metal film is partially connected with a metal. We believe these finding should have broad and significant impacts and applications to optical systems in many fields.
AssuntosMetais/química , Nanotecnologia/métodos , Algoritmos , Simulação por Computador , Desenho de Equipamento , Luz , Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura/métodos , Nanoestruturas/química , Dispositivos Ópticos , Óptica e Fotônica/métodos , Refratometria , Espalhamento de Radiação , Ressonância de Plasmônio de Superfície
RESUMO
Nano-graphene ribbons are promising in many electronic applications, as their bandgaps can be opened by reducing the widths, e.g. below 20 nm. However, a high-throughput method to pattern large-area nano-graphene features is still not available. Here we report a fabrication method of sub-20 nm ribbons on graphite stamps by nanoimprint lithography and a transfer-printing of the graphene ribbons to a Si wafer using electrostatic force assisted bonding. These methods provide a path for fast and high-throughput nano-graphene device production.
RESUMO
We propose and demonstrate a new SERS substrate architecture that couples a dense three-dimensional (3-D) cavity nanoantenna array, through nano-gaps, with dense plasmonic nanodots; and a new nanofabrication that combines nanoimprint, guided self-assembly and self-alignment and has fabricated the architecture precisely, simply, inexpensively and over large area (4-inch wafer). We experimentally achieved not only high area-average SERS enhancement (1.2×109) but also excellent uniformity (22.4% variation) at the same time over the entire large-area sample by measuring 90 points with a regular mapping distance. The best uniformity achieved is 15% variation over 1.6 mm by 1.6 mm area at slightly lower enhancement factor and is independent of the excitation laser probe size, which had an area varying from ~1 to 10,000 µm2.
AssuntosNanoestruturas/química , Nanotecnologia/instrumentação , Pontos Quânticos , Ressonância de Plasmônio de Superfície/instrumentação , Desenho de Equipamento , Análise de Falha de Equipamento , Nanoestruturas/ultraestrutura , Propriedades de Superfície
RESUMO
Typically, nanopatterning on plastic substrates has poor fidelity, poor adhesion, and low yield. Here the proposal of and the first experiment using a new fabrication method that overcomes the above obstacles and has achieved arrays of 60-nm-diameter, perfectly round metal dots over a large area on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate with high fidelity and high yield is reported. This new method is based on the use of a thin hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) layer on top of PET, nanoimprint lithography, and self-perfection by liquefaction (SPEL). The HSQ layer offers excellent thermal protection to the PET substrate during SPEL, as well as good surface adhesion and etching resistance. Nanoimprinting plus a lift off created a large-area array of Cr squares (100 nm x 130 nm) on HSQ and SPEL changed each Cr square into a perfectly round Cr dot with a diameter of 60 nm, reducing the Cr footprint area by 78%. Compared to bare PET, the use of HSQ also reduced the variation in the diameter of the Cr dots from 11.3 nm (standard deviation) to 1.7 nm, an improvement of over 660%. This new technology can be scaled to much larger areas (including roll-to-roll web processing) and thus potentially has applications in various fields.
AssuntosCromo/química , Cristalização/métodos , Nanoestruturas/química , Nanoestruturas/ultraestrutura , Nanotecnologia/métodos , Polietilenotereftalatos/química , Teste de Materiais , Propriedades de Superfície
RESUMO
We designed, fabricated and demonstrated a solar-blind deep-UV pass filter, that has a measured optical performance of a 27% transmission peak at 290 nm, a pass-band width of 100 nm (from 250 to 350 nm), and a 20dB rejection ratio between deep-UV wavelength and visible wavelength. The filter consists of an aluminum nano-grid, which was made by coating 20 nm Al on a SiO(2) square grid with 190 nm pitch, 30 nm linewidth and 250 nm depth. The performances agree with a rigorous coupled wave analysis. The wavelength for the peak transmission and the pass-bandwidth can be tuned through adjusting the metal nano-grid dimensions. The filter was fabricated by nanoimprint lithography, hence is large area and low cost. Combining with Si photodetectors, the filter offers simple yet effective and low cost solar-blind deep-UV detection at either a single device or large-area complex integrated imaging array level.
AssuntosAlumínio/química , Filtração/instrumentação , Nanotecnologia/instrumentação , Dispositivos Ópticos , Refratometria/instrumentação , Energia Solar , Desenho de Equipamento , Análise de Falha de Equipamento , Nanoestruturas/química , Nanoestruturas/ultraestrutura , Fotografação/métodos , Dióxido de Silício/química , Raios Ultravioleta
RESUMO
We proposed and demonstrated a new approach to pressed self-perfection by liquefaction (P-SPEL), where a layer of SiO2 is used as a stopper on one sidewall of gratings, to self-limit the final trench width in P-SPEL to a preset stopper layer thickness, allowing a precise control of the final trench width without the need to control any pressing parameters such as pressure, temperature and the gap between the pressing plate and the substrate. We achieved 20 nm wide trenches from a 90 nm original width, reducing the original trench by 450%. We also observed improvement in the trench width uniformity. Using the fabricated resist trenches as templates, 20 nm metal lines were achieved by lift-off. | https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/portal/?lang=pt&q=au:%22Li,%20Wen-Di%22 |
These architects are known to push boundaries and have worked on progressive large-scale projects across the globe that have redefined architecture. Our vision for the site is to create a landmark that innovates and redefines the way the built environment responds to how Melburnians and visitors live, work and interact, and each of the shortlisted architects have adopted this vision in their own way.
-Adelene Teh, Executive Director, Beulah International
The shortlisted teams will present their initial concepts to the jury on Thursday 17th May, with a winning design selected in July.
News via:
OMA’s 2017 MPavilion to Be Relocated to Monash University in Melbourne
Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten / OMA’s 2017 MPavilion has found a permanent home at Monash University, Clayton, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced. The news marks the fourth MPavilion to be gifted to the public by the Foundation. | http://obsigen.ru/big-oma-and-mvrdv-among-shortlisted-firms-for-melbourne-landmark-competition/ |
Goal of research: The aim of the project is to describe the mechanisms of language change in Russian caused by the social, political, cultural, and technological factors in the present-day communication space.
Methodology: The project uses various methods of modern linguistics. We apply semantic and discourse analysis as well as methods common in pragmatics centered around Gricean maxims, speech act theory, politeness theory, etc. We also make use of experiments and often employ corpora and surveys for our study, since these methods allow us to obtain information that cannot be inferred from introspection.
Empirical base of research: We use a wide variety of electronic resources as an empirical base of the research project, such as corpora of Standard as well as Non-Standard Russian and texts downloaded from the Web. The choice of sources depends on the research objectives. For instance, in order to study lexical change we use written corpora, but we have to recourse to spoken corpora and poetic corpora in order to study phonological change.
Results of research: The main outcome of the project is “The Dictionary of Language on the Internet.RU” (2016), which is an innovative lexicographic resource covering new words, collocations and technical terms used on the Web. This approach is really novel for Russian linguistics, because the language of the Web has been developing since the end of the 20st century, but is has been neglected or even stigmatized by linguists. Even though there are some online dictionaries of the Russian language of the Internet, they are mostly not up to lexicographic standards.
Another range of important research problems covered within our project lie within the scope of phraseology, lexicology and lexical semantics. They are discussed in the works by M. Krongauz, A. Baranov, and A. Somin, who study the emergence of new meanings, metaphors, etc., and the mechanisms of their development.
An important issue is also studying language attitudes. Papers by M. Krongauz describe conflicts caused by language change, whereas A. Somin compares the attitudes to Russian in Belarus and Russia, which yields interesting results related to sociolinguistics, politics, and the perception of Belarusian identity.
The research of A. Piperski covers methodological issues, such as the use of corpora for studying language change. These findings are applied to specific topics within the recent history of the Russian language, such as stress variation and change in the language starting with the 18th century and onwards.
Level of implementation, recommendations on implementation or outcomes of the implementation of the results: The results of the project can be used in teaching Russian as a native language and in composing prescriptive dictionaries, grammars, etc.
Сомін А.А. Новы падручнік «Белорусский язык. Самоучитель»: праблемы і рашэнні, in: Мова – літаратура – культура Part 2. Minsk : РІВШ, 2016. P. 189-193.
Баранов А. Н., Северская О. И. Поэтические практики в современном политическом дискурсе // Общественные науки и современность. 2016. № 4. С. 159-170.
Пиперски А. Ч. Конструирование языков: от эсперанто до дотракийского. М. : Альпина нон-фикшн, 2017.
Сомин А. А., Полий А. А. Беларусь vs. Белоруссия: структура одного лингвополитического конфликта в социальных медиа // Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии. 2016. № 15 (22). С. 645-659.
Сомин А. А., Архипова А. С., Шевелева А. И. С экрана на плакат: дискурс власти в языковой игре оппозиции // В кн.: Настройка языка: управление коммуникациями на постсоветском пространстве / Под общ. ред.: Е. Г. Лапина-Кратасюк, Е. Г. Ним, О. В. Мороз. М. : Новое литературное обозрение, 2016. С. 177-196.
Кухто А. В., Пиперски А. Ч. Фонологические заметки из Будапешта // Вопросы языкознания. 2016. № 5. С. 147-159.
Piperski A., Kukhto A. Intra-speaker stress variation in Russian: A corpus-driven study of Russian poetry // Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии. 2016. P. 540-550.
Кронгауз М. А., Пиперски А. Ч., Сомин А. А., Черненко Ю. А., Мерзлякова В. Н., Литвин Е. А. Словарь языка Интернета.RU / Рук.: М. А. Кронгауз; под общ. ред.: М. А. Кронгауз. М. : АСТ-Пресс Книга, 2016.
Баранов А. Н. О дискурсивных режимах использования оценочных слов и выражений // Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии. 2016. № 15. С. 72-83. | https://www.hse.ru/en/org/projects/179862821 |
Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is a 2004 American stoner comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. It stars Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris and Paula Garces. The film grossed $24 million worldwide against a production budget of $18 million.
What is Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay?
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a 2008 American stoner comedy film directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. The film stars John Cho and Kal Penn as the eponymous characters, who are detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp after being mistaken for terrorists. They escape and embark on a road trip back to the United States in an attempt to clear their names.
The film was released on April 25, 2008, to generally positive reviews from critics. It grossed $35 million worldwide. A sequel, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, was released in 2011.
Story Behind the Movie
The movie Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is based on a true story. The main characters, Harold and Kumar, are based on the real-life friends of the film’s writer and director, Jon Hurwitz.
Hurwitz first came up with the idea for the movie while he was working as a lawyer in New York City. He was inspired by the case of Jose Padilla, who was detained at Guantanamo Bay for over three years without being charged with a crime.
Padilla’s story made Hurwitz think about what would happen if two innocent guys were caught up in the same situation. That’s how the idea for Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was born.
The film was released in 2008, and it was a hit with audiences and critics alike. It grossed over $43 million at the box office and earned an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Possible Plot
Harold and Kumar are back and this time they’re trying to escape from Guantanamo Bay. The two friends have been imprisoned after being caught in a terrorist plot. They escape from their cell and must now find a way out of the prison. With the help of some new friends, they may just be able to make it out alive.
Themes
It is a satirical comedy that pokes fun at the War on Terror. The film follows the hapless duo as they become caught up in the world of international espionage and end up being detained at the notorious prison camp.
The film’s themes of racism, torture, and xenophobia are sure to resonate with audiences in the current political climate. With its sharp satire and hilarious gags, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a must-see for fans of the franchise.
Effects on Society
It’s been 10 years since Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was released, and the film is still relevant today. The film addresses the issue of racial profiling and the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
The film was controversial when it was released, but it started a conversation about race and detention that is still going on today. The film showed the humanity of the detainees, and how they were being treated like animals.
The film also showed how racial profiling can affect innocent people. In the film, Harold and Kumar are detained because they “fit the profile” of terrorists. This is a problem that many people of color face in America.
It is a important film that is still relevant today. It addresses important issues that are effecting society, and it is a must-watch for anyone who wants to understand these issues better.
Conclusion
It is a hilarious movie that will have you laughing from beginning to end. The two main characters are extremely likable and their chemistry is undeniable. If you’re looking for a good laugh, this is the movie for you. | https://kachakhuh.com/harold-and-kumar-escape-from-guantanamo-bay/ |
As you will realize, this article presents many questions which can only be addressed by more observation which will have to be next winter. However even though it is incomplete I feel it may be of interest.
On Sunday, March 18 the Springtails in Redmondville were having a great time on the surface of small pools of water that had formed on the road as you can see in # 3. As you can also see in # 3, many of the Springtails have maneuvered themselves into positions whereby they are either on top of or sideways to a neighbour(s). My theory is that they must sense that there is something solid under their legs before the spring is released. One website I visited said that Springtails can use their springs in water but I didn’t observe that in this case. Unfortunately in most cases the melt water that was running down the sides of the depressions in which the pools had formed, carried those who had successfully catapulted out of the pool back down into the water.
I went back on Wednesday, March 21 to get some more photos. From a standing position Springtails were visible but upon taking a closer look, I discovered they were dead, as can be seen in # 1 and # 2.
My thought after seeing them on the water on Sunday was that since they were making use of the water surface tension, they would be able to disperse after the water froze underneath them. However I didn’t know how complex events could possibly be as this happens.
From www.marietta.edu/~mcshaffd/aquatic/sextant/physics.htm the following:
“On the surface, water striders, Collembola (Springtails), and a host of other small animals try to avoid making a transition – that is, sinking. They all have hydrophobic bodies with one exception – the claws. The claws are hydrophilic and penetrate the water surface, allowing the animal to “get a grip” on the water surface.”
Also I tried to find out if insects that use surface tension can get trapped as the water freezes but I had no luck. Isn’t it likely that anything that makes use of surface tension could be easily trapped due to the water expanding and freezing around the parts of the leg (such as minute hairs) that make dents in the surface tension? Do the hydrophilic Springtail claws which penetrate the water surface get stuck in the ice that forms above them as the air temperature drops? There may be evidence in # 1 that this is what happened. It appears to me that some of the bodies are missing legs or parts of legs. What do you think? Compare # 1 with # 3. Did this happen as they tried to struggle free?
The ice and snow melted during the day and as the volume of water built up, some bodies were swept downstream. # 2 is a photo of some that were caught by pine needles laying in the water flow. There were also many bodies located upslope from the channel which may have lost flotation as the water level dropped during the downward erosion of the channel.
From www.waterencyclopedia.com/En-Ge/Fresh-Water-Physics-and-Chemistry-of.HTML the following:
“The mutual attraction of water molecules allows water to form thin and continuous films and also creates surface tension. At the surface of water, the molecules grab on to each other even more tightly because there are no molecules pulling on them from the air above. As the molecules on the surface stick together, they form an invisible “skin” called surface tension. For instance, pond skaters (sometimes also called water striders), along with other similar insects, can walk on the water without sinking because the surface tension of the water is strong enough to hold them. The feet of the insects actually make tiny dents in the surface tension—but not enough to break the tension—allowing them to stride or skate across the water. ”
On March 24 with the temperature dropping below zero, I visited the road again. Again there were many bodies on the ice surface. I have attached a photo of one with its furcula (spring) showing (#4). This led me to think that the spring may have been used in trying to free itself and because of its position at the rear of the body it would tend to lift the rear end. Consequently the rear and middle legs might be apt to be torn off in this activity. Eventually there might only be one leg left intact but trapped by ice.
I stand corrected about them springing off the water. On March 24 I did observe one doing so. | https://miramichinaturalistclub.com/2012/04/04/858/ |
With the decision of the federal government to suspend fuel supply to filling station located within 20 kilometres to the nation’s land border, fuel scarcity has hit border towns in Katsina State, THISDAY checks have revealed.
Investigation also revealed that the scarcity had led to an increase in the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) from N145 to N250 in towns coterminous with the Niger Republic, accounting for an increase of about 40 percent.
This was uncovered yesterday when a correspondent visited some of the border towns to evaluate the impact of the directive that restricted fuel supply to filling stations within 20 kilometres to the nation’s land border.
During the visit, THISDAY checks revealed that the directive of the federal government had resulted in fuel scarcity in Daddara, Nasarawa, Dan Arau, Magaman, Jibia, Makada and Tsayau communities.
In these communities, findings revealed that the directive stoked fuel scarcity and hike in the prices of petroleum products at Jibia and Kongolam border towns between Nigeria and Niger Republic.
THISDAY observed that the federal government task force on border closure had shit all major filling stations within 20 kilometres to the border, a decision that put the residents in the communities under pressure.
Among others, some of the filling stations shut by the task force include Afdin Petroleum Services Limited, Coil Oil, A.Yau Moba Nigeria Limited, B.H Maidingi Ventures, Lolo Dakare Nigeria Limited, Fulani Yarima Petroleum Limited and Danyaro General Enterprises.
Consequently, residents of the border towns, who spoke with THISDAY, lamented undue increase in fuel pump price following the suspension of fuel supply to areas within 20 kilometres to the nation’s land borders.
One of the residents of Magaman Jibia, Sule Safiyanu, said the federal government’s action was affecting the economic growth of the country and the livelihood of the citizens.
“As you can see, all the petrol stations in this town are closed down by the men of the Nigeria Customs Service. Before, we can get fuel for N145 per litre but now, it is N200 or N250. The worst aspect of it is that we cannot even get the product to buy,” he said.
Another resident, Faroq Tijani, said: “Now that the federal government has stopped the supply of fuel to border communities, we are the ones suffering. How can we survive? We cannot travel again for lack of fuel. We travel as far as Katsina to get fuel for our vehicles and machines.”
The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, had directed that no petroleum products should be supplied to any filling station within 20 kilometres to the country’s borders. | https://www.tori.ng/news/135444/fuel-scarcity-hits-katsina-borders-litre-goes-for.html |
Appendix H: Prerequisites for Meaningful Moral Action
In Chapter 11 I discuss the possibility of “moral enhancement” – the use of chemicals or other interventions to increase the likelihood that people will make sound moral decisions. The discussion in that chapter rests on a basic framework of ideas about what constitutes meaningful moral action. This is of course a complex topic, but it is worth laying it out here in (highly) schematic form. Let us start with the following necessary conditions:
1. Free will. In order to engage in responsible moral behavior, I need an ability to project different scenarios of possible action in my mind, imagining the probable consequences of my action in each scenario, both for myself and for other people. Free will, in other words, means the ability to choose meaningfully among projected courses of action, after weighing the costs and benefits of each one for ourselves and for others.
2. Free agency. I also require physical, environmental, and societal conditions that allow space for the exercise of free will.
3. Moral character. Finally, I must possess a sense of right and wrong – a moral compass – and a commitment to be the kind of person who seeks to guide my actions according to the dictates of that compass. I must intend for my deed to align consistently with my moral principles.
These conditions – free will, agency, and moral character – are in turn affected by the following factors which always operate together:
A. Biological factors. I refer here to such elements as brain functions that allow us to put ourselves in the shoes of other people; genetic predispositions to feel empathy (or not); and brain states that allow us to project future scenarios in our minds, predicting consequences of various courses of action.
B. Environmental factors. Here I am thinking of our upbringing, and the moral models given to us by the people with whom we grew up; concepts and moral theories we have learned about ourselves and the world; and the cultural mores and normative expectations of the particular society in which we live.
C. Situational factors influencing the act of choice. What is the context for our decision? Are we under great duress? Are we surrounded by other people who heavily influence the kinds of judgments we make?
Moral choice comes about through the delicate balancing of these three domains – biological, environmental, and situational factors – each of which plays a key role in influencing our capacities for evaluation and agency. The equilibrium among them is crucial to the moral nature of the action. If one set of factors is either absent or excessively predominant, the balance is lost, and the moral nature of the deed is either undermined or destroyed.
For example, if the brain’s functioning is altered by drugs or by a surge of hormones released in fear or rage, then the biological factors are too strong, and the mind becomes unable to perform its role in envisioning alternative courses of action and rationally assessing their consequences. Moral reflection is compromised, and therefore morally responsible action becomes difficult if not impossible. On the other hand, if one’s upbringing has involved severe cultural techniques of conditioning or brainwashing, such as one finds in certain cults, then the environmental factors are too strong, and the person’s mind becomes less capable of properly evaluating alternatives and consequences. Again, moral choice is compromised. Finally, if one is surrounded by dozens of other persons who put great peer pressure on us to make a certain decision rather than another, then it is the situational factors that become too strong, and the mind becomes less capable of performing its role as an independent source of judgment. All three sets of factors work together in dynamic equilibrium – not too much, not too little – to produce the space in which moral agency occurs.
Autonomy and ‘Coercive Paternalism’
The discussion of “moral enhancement” in Chapter 12 may seem like a rather abstract and futuristic philosophical issue – but it is not. A striking version of it arose in 2012 in New York City, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned the sale of large bottles of high-calorie soft drinks at certain public venues within the city limits. Bloomberg was seeking to address the rampant problem of obesity that afflicts American society – and he was willing to restrict the beverage choices available to New Yorkers in the name of working toward this goal. In this sense, he was following a similar line of reasoning to that of Persson and Savulescu described in Chapter 12. Bloomberg was seeking to pre-channel or pre-limit citizens’ choices, in the name of achieving a desirable end-result. He was trading a (small) measure of human autonomy for an increase in public health.
The ethics of such campaigns to mold public behavior is taken up in Sarah Conly, Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism (Cambridge, 2012); and in a review of Conly’s book by Cass Sunstein: “It’s For Your Own Good!” New York Review of Books (March 7, 2013), 8-11. Sunstein observes:
To Mill’s claim that individuals are uniquely well situated to know what is best for them, Conly objects that Mill failed to make a critical distinction between means and ends. True, people may know what their ends are, but sometimes they go wrong when they choose how to get them. Most people want to be healthy and to live long lives. If people are gaining a lot of weight, and hence jeopardizing their health, Conly supports paternalism—for example, she favors reducing portion size for many popular foods, on the theory that large, fattening servings can undermine people’s own goals. In her words, paternalism is justified when “the person left to choose freely may choose poorly, in the sense that his choice will not get him what he wants in the long run, and is chosen solely because of errors in instrumental reasoning.”
Although I can understand Conly’s well-intentioned arguments in favor of “coercive paternalism,” I am leery of any policy that limits the autonomy of individuals – even if those individuals have a lousy track record when it comes to behaving in their own best interests. Conly holds that, as long as individuals still maintain the final right to decide, then various efforts to pre-emptively channel or ‘pre-shape’ their choices is legitimate. I am uncomfortable with this – for all the reasons detailed above about the importance of maximizing free will and autonomy whenever possible.
As a general principle, it is always better to treat people like responsible, rational agents and to seek to persuade them through educational campaigns and public debate. The cost of taking this route may be high – as someone like Mayor Bloomberg might readily point out. People who are truly autonomous will not always make good decisions. A great many of them will routinely opt for stupid, counterproductive, selfish, or even nasty courses of action. But the ability of an individual to make real choices – meaningful choices based on all manner of good and bad options – is essential to our humanity. Our autonomy may come at a high price, but the costs of limiting it are in most cases even higher. John Stuart Mill had it right when he argued that the only legitimate constraint on our liberty comes at the point where the exercise of one person’s free choices undermines the liberties of other people. Human autonomy is an absolute good, and our public policies should aim to maximize and nurture it, not curtail it.
Notes
David Copp, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory (Oxford, 2006); Hugh LaFollette, The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory (Blackwell, 2000); Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (Notre Dame, 1984); Susana Nuccetelli and Gary Seay, Ethical Naturalism: Current Debates (Cambridge, 2012); James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy (McGraw Hill, 2010); John Rawls and Erin Kelly, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, 2nd ed. (Belknap, 2001); Michael Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009); T. M. Scanlon, What We Owe to Each Other (Belknap, 1998); Jeffrey Schaler, ed., Peter Singer Under Fire (Open Court, 2009); Samuel Scheffler, Human Morality (Oxford, 1992); Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (Belknap, 2009); Peter Singer, How Are We to Live? (Prometheus, 1995); David Wiggins, Ethics: Twelve Lectures on the Philosophy of Morality (Harvard, 2006); James Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense (Free Press, 1993).
Michael Gazzaniga, Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain (Harper Collins, 2011); Robert Kane, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 2011).
[3 Gazzaniga, Who’s in Charge?
A fascinating case study of the effect of situational factors is Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (Harper, 1993).
Kathleen Taylor, Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control (Oxford, 2006); Steven Hassan, Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults (Park Street, 1990); Joost Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing (Progressive, 2009). | https://michaelbess.net/books/grandchildren-redesigned/our-grandchildren-redesigned-appendices/appendix-h-prerequisites-for-meaningful-moral-action/ |
Urban bees collaboration wins USDA grant
A team that received early support from the Living Earth Collaborative was awarded a $633,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to evaluate pollination in orchards across the city of St. Louis. They will examine how factors such as human population density, socioeconomic status, soil type and surrounding vegetation impact insect numbers and fruit yield.
Climate change is affecting when, how violets reproduce
Living Earth Collaborative postdoctoral fellow Matthew Austin published new research finding that climate change is affecting how violets reproduce.
Giving metal to microbes could reduce greenhouse gas
Collaborative research from the labs of Daniel Giammar and Jeffrey Catalano finds a lack of available metals may be responsible for more nitrous oxide than previously thought.
Researchers receive NSF grant
Joan Strassmann and David Queller, both in Arts & Sciences, received a $141,578 supplemental award from the National Science Foundation for research on amoeba-bacteria cooperation.
The space between us
Arts & Sciences biologists from the lab of Jonathan Myers determined that tree beta diversity — a measure of site-to-site variation in the composition of species present within a given area — matters more for the ecosystem than other components of biodiversity at larger scales.
When more complex is simpler
A new modeling framework proposed by physicist Mikhail Tikhonov in Arts & Sciences demonstrates how a more complex microbial ecosystem can be more coarse-grainable, making it potentially easier for scientists to understand, than one with only a few microbes interacting.
Undergraduate biologists awarded 2022 Quatrano, Spector prizes
Ethan Lowder, a December 2021 graduate who majored in the biochemistry track of biology in Arts & Sciences, won the Ralph S. Quatrano Prize; Kayla Wallace, a senior majoring in environmental biology with a minor in anthropology in Arts & Sciences, received the Spector Prize.
Nonlethal parasites reduce how much their wild hosts eat, leading to ecosystem effects
Research from the Living Earth Collaborative highlights the cascading consequences of common parasitic infections. Although many of these infections are not lethal, they can still impact health or animal behavior, leading hosts to eat less vegetation. The study led by biologist Amanda Koltz in Arts & Sciences is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Pappu lab untangles more IDR secrets
Rohit Pappu’s latest look at intrinsically disordered regions of proteins explains why some sequences behave in different ways. His paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Class Acts: Gabriella Smith
Gabriella Smith, a senior biology major in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is a champion for access to mental health services. She hopes to combine her passion for working with children with her leadership skills to pursue a career in medicine that incorporates patient care, research and advocacy. | https://source.wustl.edu/category/science-technology/biology/page/3/ |
In November 1753, 21-year-old George Washington first traveled an old Native American path over the rugged Appalachian Mountains. It was called “Nemacolin’s Path,” and began at the junction of Wills Creek and the Potomac River, at the site of present-day Cumberland, Maryland. The path then traversed a series of mountain peaks through endless forest to the Forks of the Ohio, the meeting place of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Washington traveled as an emissary on behalf of Virginia. He carried an order for the French military to withdraw from the fertile Ohio Country, which had been claimed by both the British and French crowns. Many tribes of Native Americans, primarily the Six Nations of the Iroquois and the Delawares, also claimed these lands. All sides were willing to shed blood to secure their rights.
Washington’s March
When negotiations between Washington and his French counterparts failed, the three empires prepared for war. Washington traveled Nemacolin’s Path a second time in the spring of 1754, leading a band of Virginia militia in an effort to forcefully expel the French military, which had seized the Forks of the Ohio.Washington fought the French twice in 1754, at the Jumonville Glen, and at the battle of Great Meadows or Fort Necessity. In the latter engagement, Washington surrendered to the French after taking heavy casualties.
Nemacolin’s Path Renamed “Braddock’s Road”
In 1755 the Nemacolin Path became “Braddock’s Road” in honor of British Gen. Edward Braddock, who led a costly expedition against the French Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. Gen. Braddock widened the path into a 110-mile road for his army of siege guns, field pieces, 200 wagons, and 2,200 troops. It was an epic maneuver in a summer plagued by heat and drought.
Participants in the campaign included:
- Col. Thomas Gage, who would one day order British forces into the field against colonial militia at Lexington and Concord.
- Capt. Horatio Gates, future general of continental forces and American hero following his victory over British forces at the battle of Saratoga.
- Daniel Morgan, a wagon driver who would become the most feared leader of American sharpshooters in the American Revolution and the key to victory against the British at the battle of Cowpens.
- Daniel Boone, another wagon driver who would gain fame as a frontiersman, explorer, and politician.
- Benjamin Franklin, who didn’t march with the army but who, as Postmaster General of America, met with Braddock and helped to secure funding and supplies for the campaign.
Suprise Attack & Retreat
Seven miles short of Fort Duquesne, Braddock’s force was surprised and routed by an allied force of French and Native Americans at the Battle of the Monongahela. Braddock received a mortal wound in battle, and George Washington led the retreat back to the mountaintop camp of the British supply train. Here, at Dunbar’s Camp, the army destroyed supplies too heavy to carry back to Fort Cumberland, and fleeing eastward, chose the roadbed for Braddock’s grave to prevent the general’s body from being defiled by the enemy. The shattered army soon went into winter quarters in Philadelphia–in July.
Other Historial Significance of Braddock Road
The French & Indian War ended in this region in 1758 when Gen. John Forbes marched an army westward across Pennsylvania and captured Fort Duquesne. Forbes purposefully avoided Braddock’s Road, which was longer and had fallen to disrepair. But Braddock’s Road was not to be forgotten. It would soon become a major route for settlers heading west to the new town of Pittsburgh and on into the Ohio Country. It would form the basis for the first National Pike, which went on to become U.S. Route 40, and then U.S. 68. The name of Braddock has been remembered with streets, towns, and waterways, and his mastery of the terrain has formed the basis for interstate transportation as we now know it in the mid-Atlantic corridor. | https://braddockroadpa.org/history/story/ |
by James Repetti
As a competitive coach, my students often ask me questions like, “What level am I?” or “Do you think I’m ready for the next level?” Because I’ve been teaching for over a decade, all it takes is a few moments of viewing someone’s dancing to tell them what I personally think the answers to these questions are. However, my opinion is far from absolute.
The level I deem a student to be capable of competing in may be very different than what another coach might think. Some people may categorize a dancer based on what figures they know, others on their technical ability, while others may base it simply on how long they’ve been dancing in the style. While there’s no way to definitively categorize what level a dancer should be competing in, the next best thing is a points system based on a dancer’s competitive history.
What is it?
The YCN proficiency points system is preferred for determining level eligibility at the majority of collegiate competitions. It was created by the Youth College Network, a branch of the national chapter of USA Dance.
The YCN system recognizes 7 competitive levels as capable of earning proficiency points: Championship, Pre-Championship, Novice, Master of Syllabus, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. When a dancer places in a competitive event, according to the YCN rules, they will receive the correlating amount of points for the place they’ve earned in that level.
Once a dancer has received 7 points in a level, they are “placed out” and no longer eligible to compete in that level or any level below it. They will have no choice but to compete in the next level, with the exception that a 7 point cap does not apply to the Championship and Master of Syllabus levels, and so a dancer may dance in these levels regardless of how many points they have accrued.
How does it work?
When a dancer competes in an event that is a straight final (meaning there are no rounds prior to the final), no points are earned. If a semi-final round is danced, each dancer who won first place receives 3 points, while those in second receive 2, and those in third receive 1. If a quarter-final round is danced, the same rules for the top three apply as in a semi-final round, however, dancers in fourth, fifth, and sixth places also each receive 1 point.
It is important to note that points earned in a specific level double at each level below it; however, this is not a single-laddered system. Championship points filter down to Pre-Championship, Pre-Championship points filter down to Novice and Gold, Master of Syllabus points filter down to Gold, Gold filters down to Silver, and Silver filters down to Bronze, while Novice is the only level that doesn’t filter down to other levels. This means that the points earned in all levels except for Novice double in the level below them and continue to double in each level below that until they reach Bronze.
To better understand this system, let’s take for example a dancer who places first in a Championship Latin event from a semi-final, and therefore receives 3 points in the Championship level. These points will continuously double in every level below it. So, in Pre-Championship they will receive 6 points, in Novice and Gold 12 points, in Silver 24 points, and in Bronze 48 points. The dancer will receive no points in Master of Syllabus, as no categories filter down to this level. Because this dancer placed first in a Championship event, they will become ineligible to compete in any levels other than Pre-Championship and Master of Syllabus, as they will have more than the 7 allowed points in all other levels.
Some Things to Remember
It is important to note firstly that points are earned individually for each dance, and secondly that points are earned by individual dancers, not by couples.
For instance, if Henry and Jane place first in a two-dance semi-final event such as Silver Rhythm Cha Cha/Rumba, the points earned will only apply to these two dances and will not affect future eligibility in Silver Swing, Bolero, or Mambo. They will only receive 3 points in Silver Rhythm Cha Cha and 3 points in Silver Rhythm Rumba – in other words, the only way to earn points in a dance is by placing in a final for said dance. Additionally, Henry and Jane will each earn 3 points in each dance separately, in case they want to compete with different partners in the future.
When determining a couple’s level eligibility, the partner with the greater amount of points is the determining factor. Take for example if John and Kelly plan to compete in Silver Smooth Waltz. John has earned 3 points in Silver Smooth Waltz, but his new partner, Kelly, has earned 7 points in this dance and level. If they chose to compete together, they will have to compete in at least Gold Smooth Waltz, as Kelly has 7 points and is thus placed out of Silver for this dance. Together, John and Kelly will not be eligible to compete in Bronze or Silver for Smooth Waltz.
Worth noting is that many collegiate competitions follow their own variant of the YCN points system or create their own rules. For instance, it is common for collegiate competitions to create time-out rules for Newcomers. Since no points are accrued in Newcomer, often competitions create time limits for dancers to stay eligible for competing in this level.
Additionally, MIT has created a variant of the traditional point system that is single-laddered in order to incorporate the now common integration of Novice levels in collegiate events. Their system goes from Championship, to Pre-Championship, to Novice, to Gold, to Silver, to Bronze, with points filtering down in that direction. As someone who’s been on the collegiate scene for many years and watched how things have changed, I commend MIT on their variation to the traditional system and hope that other colleges will follow suit in the years to come.
Taking all of this into account, now more than ever is it important to check each competition’s website to determine your level eligibility. The level you belong in based on the traditional YCN points system, while relevant at the large majority of collegiate competitions, may not be relevant at every competition.
While this system and its variants may be a bit confusing to understand at first, as competitors I believe it is important for everyone to stay on top of their own level eligibility. Though calculating point totals and disqualifying dancers for “dancing-down” aren’t common practice at every competition, keep in mind that while it may be fun to win a category you are no longer eligible for, at the end of the day it is unsportsmanlike and unfair to all of the hard-working dancers who are actually eligible for that level. Next time you consider “dancing-down,” perhaps consider challenging yourself in a harder level instead – your placements may very well surprise you.
James Repetti began dancing as a child and in 2015 he became the United States National Vice Champion in American Rhythm. Since he has focused primarily on his teaching, and with over a decade of teaching experience and involvement in the collegiate circuit, James serves as the coach of all four styles for both Stony Brook and Hofstra University’s Ballroom Dance teams, as well as privately coaches individual couples from across the country. | https://waltztangofoxtrot.com/2019/02/01/the-ycn-points-system-and-level-eligibility/ |
Produced by Indigo Productions, breaking tradition with the most popular musical shows (Soy de Cuba, Irish Celtic, etc.) here is an original work that reconciles two worlds which would normally be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Ralph, a hip-hop dancer from Los Angeles, is training relentlessly to transform his hobby into a job. Selected to take part in a major competition, he places all his hopes in this event. It is then that he meets Marie, a classical dancer who is as passionate as he is. And together, and despite everything being against them, they will try to create an innovative, shared dance, which will set them apart from the crowd. At once romantic and spectacular, the show cleverly measures out the many ingredients of musical comedy and choreographic work: you will admire the dancers’ performances and you find yourself hoping that they will get together: Marie and Ralph, of course, but also the two styles of fiercely different dance disciplines. And it is indeed this symbiosis that make this show so successful. Unexpected and joyful: a show for all the family to enjoy! | https://en.palaisdesfestivals.com/cannes/diamond_dance_the_musical/fmapaca06v50hokc |
An essay is usually, by definition, a written piece that present the writer’s argument, but this definition is quite obscure, overlapping significantly with that of an article, a report, a novel, an guide, pamphlet, and even a brief story. Essays are traditionally typically formal and academic. In the USA, nevertheless, essays now are often used as a way to communicate, both to pupils and to the general public, as well as for professional reasons. There are many unique kinds of essays, each with its own distinct purposes and requirements.
An argumentative essay is one which introduces some new perspective or debate about a subject. For this type of essay, the purpose is not to present a specific concept, truth, or suggestion, yet to present a variety of differing opinions about a specific matter, in order to convince the reader the point of view presented is the most effective available. Essays on political issues often contain expository style documents, which assert that social issues are better left for another day, or political incorrectness is poor. The goal of this style of essay will be to establish a claim, usually according to scientific or historical data. Historians frequently write expository essays about historical events, while scientists expound about present events.
A descriptive article, by contrast, is one which presents information about a specific topic or content. A common type of descriptive essay is a personal essay, which explains the daily life activities of a person. A scientific expository essay is a written essay that presents research findings linked to the author’s subject; in recent days, many scientific articles are published as expository essays.
A persuasive essay is one which introduces either a thesis statement that’s a powerful case for a specific argument, or an argument for one side of an issue. A thesis statement in a persuasive composition typically begins with”I propose…”, and restates the place of the writer in connection with the subject available. Proposing a thesis is essential to the success of any composition, and is generally best written when the writer is in their last academic semester prior to graduation.
An outline another major component in the writing of any essay. An outline will help a writer to concentrate their thoughts and organize their ideas, leading to a well-written essay. A summary can be as straightforward as a list of main factors, or as complex as a history of humankind. The major body of the essay format should consist of the thesis statement, which is a tightly coordinated argument, the body of the essay, which contains all of the necessary supporting details and other particulars, and ultimately, the concluding section, which examines the discussions and viewpoints of the essayist.
Among the most essential aspects of the essay format is your debut. The introduction is a important part of any essay, since it is where the writer first makes their situation to the reader. Most people studying an essay do not have sufficient time to go the whole paper; essay checker plagiarism therefore, it is important to begin on the simplest line to handle first. The opening paragraph should either discuss the main topic temporarily, or the main ideas of this essay. The main body of the essay should contain all the details and study accumulated throughout the essay, such as references and bibliography. The title page is used to display the main body of the essay, as well as also the works cited page links to any external websites or resources utilized comma placement checker in the article. | https://taqalytics.com/2022/09/essay-format/ |
Q:
Fetching results from query and separating based on values - why won't > < = symbols work correctly?
I'm not exactly sure how to title this, so if someone knows a better title I would greatly appreciate it.
So, basically I am fetching two timestamps and calculating the difference in minutes from an oracle database and parsing them to my PHP doc, where I am counting them based on the if loop, below.
Everything seems to work fine, except the only values actually entering the loop are those that are < 50, 50 > < 100, and 100 > < 150. Why is this?
SQL:
select a.num_1 as Job_ID, a.tycod as Job_Type,
to_char(to_date(substr(nvl(a.off_dts,a.ad_ts),1,14),'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'), 'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS') as off_dts,
to_char(to_date(substr(min(u.cdts),1,14),'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'), 'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS') as disp_dts,
(to_char(( to_date(substr(min(u.cdts),1,14),'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS') - to_date(substr(nvl(a.off_dts,a.ad_ts),1,14),'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS') )) * 24 * 60) as DIFF
from aeven a,un_hi u
where to_date(substr(AD_TS,1,14), 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS') > to_date('01/01/2014', 'mm/dd/yyyy')
and a.curent = 'T'
and a.dgroup not like '%99'
and a.dgroup not like '%98'
and a.event_status <> 'C'
and a.tycod = 'TRWIRE'
and not exists (SELECT P_EID FROM XREF X WHERE A.EID = X.S_EID AND X_TYPE = 'X')
and a.eid = u.eid
and u.unid not like 'FSA%'
and u.unit_status in ('DA','DP')
group by a.num_1,a.tycod, u.cdts, a.ad_ts, a.off_dts,
to_char(to_date(substr(nvl(a.off_dts,a.ad_ts),1,14),'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'), 'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS')
Example Results:
JOB_ID JOB_TYPE OFF_DTS DISP_DTS DIFF
T14020300128 TRWIRE 02/03/2014 19:34:44 02/04/2014 12:06:45 992.01666
W14040700061 TRWIRE 04/07/2014 10:27:51 04/07/2014 10:29:33 1.
T14041300447 TRWIRE 04/13/2014 15:33:57 04/13/2014 15:36:00 2.049999
W14040900078 TRWIRE 04/09/2014 13:31:24 04/10/2014 08:13:55 1122.5166666
N14041300268 TRWIRE 04/13/2014 09:57:22 04/13/2014 10:24:45 27.383333333
N14041300268 TRWIRE 04/13/2014 09:57:22 04/13/2014 10:24:49 27.45
N14041201144 TRWIRE 04/12/2014 21:59:28 04/13/2014 09:01:11 661.717
N14041201144 TRWIRE 04/12/2014 21:59:28 04/13/2014 11:29:28 810
T14041300274 TRWIRE 04/13/2014 10:15:02 04/13/2014 10:31:33 16.5166666
T14041401323 TRWIRE 04/14/2014 16:35:22 04/14/2014 16:57:00 21.633333
N14041300434 TRWIRE 04/13/2014 13:26:28 04/13/2014 13:31:57 5.483333333
N14041400108 TRWIRE 04/14/2014 07:09:56 04/14/2014 07:27:46 17.8333333
N14041400108 TRWIRE 04/14/2014 07:09:56 04/14/2014 07:27:48 17.8666666
N14041600107 TRWIRE 04/16/2014 09:37:08 04/16/2014 09:54:46 17.63333333
N14041600158 TRWIRE 04/16/2014 10:53:57 04/16/2014 11:02:55 8.9666666
T14041401308 TRWIRE 04/14/2014 16:17:42 04/14/2014 16:23:15 5.5500000
T14041401308 TRWIRE 04/14/2014 16:17:42 04/14/2014 16:25:50 8.13333
If Loop:
if(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 50) {
$LT50 = $LT50 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 50 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 100) {
$GT50_LT100 = $GT50_LT100 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 100 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 150) {
$GT100_LT150 = $GT100_LT150 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 150 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 200) {
$GT150_LT200 = $GT150_LT200 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 200 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 250) {
$GT200_LT250 = $GT200_LT250 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 300 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 350) {
$GT300_LT350 = $GT300_LT350 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 350 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 400) {
$GT350_LT400 = $GT350_LT400 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 400 && round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) < 450) {
$GT400_LT450 = $GT400_LT450 + 1;
} elseif(round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) > 450) {
$GT450 = $GT_450 + 1; }
A:
I'd recommend you to save round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"),0) in a variable. It's not good always doing the same. What you forgot (or your logical error) is, that if a value is exact a value where you're requiring to be higher (100 for example) it does nothing.
$diff = round(OCIResult($stmt, "DIFF"), 0);
if($diff < 50) {
$LT50 = $LT50 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 50 && $diff < 100) {
$GT50_LT100 = $GT50_LT100 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 100 && $diff < 150) {
$GT100_LT150 = $GT100_LT150 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 150 && $diff < 200) {
$GT150_LT200 = $GT150_LT200 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 200 && $diff < 250) {
$GT200_LT250 = $GT200_LT250 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 300 && $diff < 350) {
$GT300_LT350 = $GT300_LT350 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 350 && $diff < 400) {
$GT350_LT400 = $GT350_LT400 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 400 && $diff < 450) {
$GT400_LT450 = $GT400_LT450 + 1;
} elseif($diff >= 450) {
$GT450 = $GT_450 + 1;
}
| |
20 April 2022
The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) has today welcomed the Department for Transport (DfT) announcement to amend the Highway Code to “ensure the first self-driving vehicles are introduced safely on UK roads”. However, it warns that Government’s desire for the UK to become a world-leader in the use of autonomous vehicles may be thwarted as a result of poor infrastructure.
In the short to medium term well-maintained, high quality road markings are essential for the successful operation of semi/fully autonomous vehicles. If Government fails to invest in upgrading and maintaining road markings on the strategic road network and local authority A roads, highly capable vehicles will fail to operate successfully.
Stu McInroy, RSMA Chief Executive, said “The RSMA fully supports the Government’s ambition to be a world-leader in autonomous vehicles, however, it must ensure that the UK’s infrastructure is able to support this aim. The Government, in announcing regulatory changes to allow the use of certain technologies while autonomous vehicles are operating, appears to be focussing on everything except the most critical element of the drive towards the operation of semi/fully autonomous vehicles - road markings.
“For semi/fully autonomous vehicles to operate without input from the driver, the vehicle must be able to read the road; this cannot be done if the road markings are not maintained to an appropriate standard. Road markings are the rails of the road and are essential if semi/fully autonomous vehicles are to operate successfully; the current UK infrastructure threatens to undermine and potentially prevent their successful roll-out. | https://www.rsma.co.uk/govt-plans-for-avs-threatened-by-poor-rms/ |
Q:
Split up a list at each element satisfying a predicate (Scala)
In a text file I have data in the form:
1)
text
text
2)
more text
3)
even more text
more even text
even more text
...
I read it as a list of Strings using the following:
val input = io.Source.fromFile("filename.txt").getLines().toList
I want to break the list down into sub-lists starting with 1), 2) etc.
I've come up with:
val subLists =
input.foldRight( List(List[String]()) ) {
(x, acc) =>
if (x.matches("""[0-9]+\)""")) List() :: (x :: acc.head) :: acc.tail
else (x :: acc.head) :: acc.tail
}.tail
Can this be achieved more simply? What would be really nice would be if there were a built-in method to split a collection on every element that satisfies a predicate (hint, hint, library designers :)).
A:
foldRight with a complicated argument is usually an indication that you might as well write this using recursion, and factor it out to its own method, while you are at it. Here's what I came up with. First, let's generalize
to a generic method, groupPrefix:
/** Returns shortest possible list of lists xss such that
* - xss.flatten == xs
* - No sublist in xss contains an element matching p in its tail
*/
def groupPrefix[T](xs: List[T])(p: T => Boolean): List[List[T]] = xs match {
case List() => List()
case x :: xs1 =>
val (ys, zs) = xs1 span (!p(_))
(x :: ys) :: groupPrefix(zs)(p)
}
Now you get the result simply by calling
groupPrefix(input)(_ matches """\d+\)""")
| |
Posts full of "bravos" and "respect" flooded the internet. As a four-time Olympian, winner of a gold medal in Athens in 2004 and a bronze in Beijing four years later, Sofia Bekatorou is used to praise. This time, however, the praise was not about her sailing prowess.
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Poland Pushes Law to Limit ‘Censorship’ by Internet Giants
High-level Polish officials have jumped on the bandwagon of criticism over US President Donald Trump's social media bans to promote a recent draft law officially aimed at combatting online "censorship", but which digital rights groups warn must be scrutinised carefully.
Putin Signs New Law Envisioning Sanctions for Censoring Russian Mass Media
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill envisaging restriction of access to Internet resources censoring Russian media outlets into law. The document has been published on the official website of legal information.
Albania Govt Moves Again to Toughen Defamation Penalties
The Ministry of Justice in Albania on Thursday said it is working on changes to the penal code that include upping the fines to 4.5 million leks (36,000 euros) for defamation, and extending responsibility not only to journalists but also to editors and directors of media outlets and others.
Former New York Times reporter blasts Amazon for censorship over Covid-19 masks
‘Big Tech censorship of opposing views on COVID is a huge problem, and it’s part of an even bigger problem,’ he said
World Press Freedom Day, as seen by political people, public authorities of Romania
The freedom of press is the guarantee of any functional democracy wherein citizens must be properly and timely informed, reads a message by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) on the World Press Freedom Day, sent on Sunday to AGERPRES.
Ethnic Intolerance, Hate Speech Persists in Croatia: Report
Human Rights House Zagreb said in its annual report published on Friday that "as in previous years, war crimes prosecutions were stagnant" in Croatia in 2019, while hate speech and intolerance toward minorities persisted in the public arena and the digital environment.
Europe’s Other Coronavirus Victim: Information and Data Rights
In the semi-democracies of the region, as lives moved from the public to the digital sphere, many freedoms were likewise suspended, while the burden of responsibility for violations fell on citizens as government imposed restrictions that in many cases flouted normal standards of human rights.
Pakistan Adopted a Strict Law on the Control of Social Networks
Pakistan announced that the newly adopted law will help the government monitor and mitigate online content that has to do with "terrorism, extremism, hate speech, fake news, incitement to violence and national security."
Critics of the new rules, however, say the government paves the way to mass censorship, Deutsche Welle writes.
Inside Facebook’s moderation hub in Athens
For months, Tassos was banned from speaking about his job in the southern Athens suburb of Moschato. His task was determining whether content put up on Facebook should be allowed to stay there. In the few seconds until the next post would pop up on his screen, he would feel his chest tightening. | https://www.infobalkans.com/social-tags/censorship |
Reading: Numbers 3:13; 1:51; 3:38; 1 Chron. 15:2,13; Mal. 2:4,5; Rom 8:1,2,4,6-9.
We come to this further feature and characteristic of the sons of Levi, that they are the custodians of the way of life. They stand in the old dispensation as representing an abiding Divine idea; and though as a class and a caste literally on the earth as in the Mosaic economy they ceased to be, the Divine idea goes on and obtains as much today as ever it did then - perhaps more so. This idea of God is of a people standing in a relationship to Himself, wholly jealous for the expression of His full thought.
You notice that we read twice in connection with the ministry of the Levites, "the stranger that cometh near shall be put to death". In spiritual language, that means that which is strange to God's mind. And when we ask what it is that is strange to God, but which does often seek to come into touch with the holy things of God (and whenever it does it always brings spiritual death in its train) the letter to the Romans answers our enquiry very clearly, "The mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8:5). "My covenant was with Levi of life and peace" (Mal. 2:5). So that it is immediately clear that the sons of Levi stand to represent Life in the Spirit as opposed to life in the flesh even in the case of the children of God. The stranger to God is the man or the woman who lives in the flesh, in other words, who lives on the ground of nature as differing from the ground of Christ. On the ground of nature there is condemnation and death; on the ground of Christ there is righteousness and life. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" - on the ground of Christ. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death".
The Course of Death Arrested
To come still closer to the sons of Levi, we have noticed that they have a very close and continuous association with the altar and with the blood. To no other tribe but to theirs was it committed to receive and slay the sacrifices and to sprinkle the blood. Theirs was ministry, shall we say, in virtue of shed blood and that is always related to Life which sets death aside.
When Israel broke loose at the mount, making the calf and worshipping it, death immediately came into the camp and would have made an end of all but for the Levites, who stepped into the breach, cleft the divide between this breaking out of the flesh in the Lord's people, this uprising of the natural life in holy things, and the life which is separate unto God in the spirit. They stepped into that breach and so, although there was judgment, condemnation, and death, they preserved a way of life that there could be progress still.
Spiritual Life Always Condemns Sin in the Flesh
What they did was, in type, what the Lord Jesus did when He came to this earth and went to the cross. Here in Romans 8 we have the words that He was made, "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (the margin says the flesh of sin), "and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit". The act of the Levites was, on the one hand, the act of condemning sin in the flesh in order to open up and preserve a way of Life in the Spirit. That is the function of spiritual people.
It is easy to talk about being spiritual. The test of our spirituality is in this twofold effect of our presence: of our testimony and of our life. Do we, on the one hand, condemn sin in the flesh, or do we condone and excuse it? The presence of a truly spiritual person brings condemnation to sin in the flesh. That again, is not pleasant for the spiritual person because sin in the flesh, wherever it is found, always comes back in antagonism upon the spiritual person. I mean that if you have any measure of true spiritual life, your presence among those who are living in sin, in the flesh, means that you are an object of their suspicion, of their dislike. You haven't to say anything at all. The antagonism wakes up and you know that you are a speckled bird so far as they are concerned, because sin is not impersonal, abstract or negative. Sin brings in Satan with spiritual intelligence, and the enemy knows the presence of a spiritual person and such a one will always suffer in the presence of sin. It is a test of our spirituality, whether we are condemning sin in the flesh.
Spiritual Life is Communicated in Fellowship
On the other hand, the presence of a truly spiritual person means Life to the spiritual. The gathering together of truly spiritual people means Life for anybody who has even a little spiritual life. May that not be one of the unexplained things (for God very rarely explains Himself when He says a thing) lying behind such a word as, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together... and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh" (Heb. 10:25)? For if the approach of the Lord's Day is marked by one thing more than another, it is by spiritual death in this world. We are all conscious today of a far more intense battle for Life than ever we have known. The very vitality is being sapped, especially from the children of God. It is a fight for spiritual life; the very atmosphere is impregnated with spiritual death. It is coming down upon us in spirit and mind and body in a very intense way.
The Day is approaching; the forces of death are active, rampant. Our salvation is found in one thing, in spiritual people being together as much as possible; in other words, in spiritual fellowship. Be watchful therefore against those disintegrations, separations and isolations which the enemy would bring about in order to deprive of spiritual life and energy. He will be far more active in that way towards the end than ever. How much he gains by isolating saints! How many imaginary things come up about others which have no foundation in fact whatever! They come up, they become very real, you believe them to be facts. And when you meet the people concerned, those facts are found to be phantoms, with no truth in them at all. It is isolation, the distance, that has been the occasion of so much. It requires that we take a very strong stand against all these insinuations and suggestions until we have proved that they are true, for the forces of death know that if they can but distance the Lord's people in spirit from one another, they have destroyed the life of the Lord's people in a very large measure.
The presence of spiritual people, then, means Life, and you can test the true spirituality by the true Life. But that Life is essentially in the spirit and not in the flesh.
The Activity of the Flesh Always Issues in Death
Now, if you as a stranger, without perhaps any spiritual discernment or perception, had come into the camp on that day when Moses came down the mountainside and the people were shouting and singing and dancing, you probably would have thought that it was a scene very full of life: it was religious, it was worship, and from all the semblance of life it looked as though they were having a good time. If (to pass over to 1 Chronicles 13) you had arrived on the scene on that day when David had put the ark upon the new cart and Uzza and Ahio were driving the oxen and David and all the others were before the ark dancing before the Lord with all their might, singing and clapping their hands and playing their instruments, you probably would have said, 'This is a scene of life'! But in both of those cases, it was a scene of death; death was terribly there.
Oh, how terrible was the former case when a great number fell by the sword of the Levites under the judgment of God! It was not Life, it was false life that day when David brought out the ark. It was a day of death; the Lord made a breach upon Uzza and he died before the Lord and the whole procession was halted and turned aside, and for three months there was not a movement. It was death and yet with all the marks of being something very much alive. There is a life of the natural man, the soul, the flesh, which is a false life, which is death and is not safe, and is not going to get us through. It may have a few hours or a few days of seeming to be doing something effectual, but it is really short-lived and it does not get through.
On the side of our natural life, which is the side of the flesh, we are bound to come to a point of arrest sooner or later. Spiritual people will not go very far in real progress if they drop down on to the ground of the flesh. I mean this: you know there are times when the Lord's children are subjected to trial similar in principle to that which produced this situation at Sinai. Moses, who had brought them out of Egypt and led them through the Red Sea, had gone up into the mount and he was there forty days and forty nights; and they were tested in their faith. They saw nothing, they heard nothing, they felt nothing. It was as though they had been forsaken by God and His servant, His representative, and they were left alone to their own resources. Faith was subjected to an intense test, for there was nothing to see and the test was as to whether in spirit they would believe God, though they did not see, feel, or hear Him, or whether they would come down onto the ground of nature which always must have evidences, proofs, sights and signs, and create for themselves something which answered to that natural requirement in order to believe. It was a real test under which they broke down. They were the Lord's children in life, in peace, until they broke down at that point.
True Life is Nourished by Faith in God, not by Outward Evidences
We come under the same kind of testing. The Lord allows us to pass into experiences where there is no sight, no sound, no sense, as to Himself; where we seem to be left alone to our own resources. What are we going to do? There are two alternatives: to cling desperately to God in sheer, naked faith, without anything as evidence; or to turn back, to come down on to some lower level of life, demanding proofs and evidences, and even making them for ourselves. The Lord brings His people very often into a situation like that in their education in the school of the Spirit. When we are there, let us beware lest we turn away from the position of faith to the position of human reasoning, which is the ground of nature, and begin to doubt because there is not the outward evidence and sign and seal of the Lord's presence with us.
If we come down onto that ground of human reasoning and begin to open the door to doubt, questioning the Lord and wondering whether after all He did bring us out, whether all has been of Him, we lose our position to begin with and we shall lose our life very quickly after. That is, we come to definite arrest in life. Whether we come down onto nature's ground in the realm of the reason or in the realm of feelings, we shall very soon be brought by them to the realm of will where in the matter of volition, which is decision, we decide that we cannot and will not go on until the Lord gives us evidence of His nearness. As a more or less mature child of God, have you ever found the Lord meet you on that ground? Have you ever had a controversy with the Lord and gone to Him and said, 'Now, Lord, you must give me evidence before I believe' and the Lord has done it? I think I can answer for you. If you have ever acted like that, you have never found the Lord come down onto that ground, the ground of your doubt and question. Israel in the wilderness fell finally and was destroyed because in unbelief they carried in their hearts too long one question which was in essence: "Can God?" God only came down to that ground at their very beginning. No, you die there, that is death. Oh, it is difficult; we have all failed in this way more or less.
Now, the Levites stand for the ruling out of that whole realm of nature, that mind of the flesh. They say that that has been entirely cut off, that now our life is wholly in the Spirit and our evidences are going to be of a different kind altogether; in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The Lord is going to prove Himself to us in another realm, not in the realm of nature; and the experience of a truly spiritual man or woman is that their proof of the Lord is always pre-eminently spiritual. Of course, in the days of our spiritual childhood the Lord does come and make Himself known to us in many things, circumstances and so on. The trouble is that we want to go on thus all our days, staying there as big, grown-up babies, always having these sops given us from the Lord to keep us going; and the Lord's mind is otherwise. No, we have to graduate from that, and the time comes with every true child of God when the line is drawn, and the Lord says, "I am not going to carry you any longer". To change the metaphor, He stirs up the nest to bring us out on the wing, suspended between heaven and earth with nothing solid in nature under our feet, in order to prove Him, and we begin to learn what life in the Spirit is, and to prove the Lord in a spiritual way. But spiritual proof is a very solid thing. It is really very much more solid than the other kind.
And this works in a multitude of ways. For instance, in the matter of guidance so often we naturally tend to ask the Lord to come and begin His evidences in some realm which is physical and natural. If only the Lord will do this in a physical, literal, material way, then we will know and we will act; and the Lord leaves His spiritual people alone altogether in that realm so that they are not conscious of His coming in thus. But He begins with us inside and touches us in spirit, and then when that life of His has touched the spirit it seems to work through to the mind and body and we rise up and things happen. We have found life in the spirit.
We learn as we go on with the Lord in this school not to wait for things to happen in the physical, external realm, but to get the touch of His Spirit on our spirit, and we have the guarantee of all the rest. It is marvellous how the other follows. God is dealing with us as with spiritual people and Life is there. And such a one is the true Levite. The Levite is not the one who must ever and always have the proof and the evidence in the physical, sentient realm. He is one who has learned to know and move with God in spirit, and that is a deeper intelligence; an intelligence that only the Levite has.
Knowledge for Others is with those who Know the Secret of Life
And that leads me to this great thing about the Levites, that whereas they were the custodians of the way of life, they were entrusted with the instruction of the Lord's people. And what is the nature of spiritual instruction? It is just this, that you know something that other people do not know and you have learned it in the deep school of experience with the Lord in spirit. How much we owe to people who have been in the school of the Spirit and know the Lord in spirit and in truth! Somehow or other they touch us, they help us, as no number of Bible readings ever helps us. Give us the one who speaks right out of that inner knowledge of the Lord gained in the deep school of experience, and Life will be ministered to us. Such are Levites. They are the ones who know that the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made free from the law of sin and death, and they have that knowledge to minister to the rest of the Lord's people.
Does the Lord need Levites? Does He need the sons of Levi? In other words, does He need a people in the midst of His people who know the secret of spiritual Life, and through whom there can be ministered the Life of the Lord to His people? Oh, surely He needs a people like that!
Then another question. Is it not true that the majority of the Lord's people know nothing about that secret of Life? They are simply occupied with the externals of Christianity, with traditions and forms and offices. While perhaps knowing that they are saved, that their sins are forgiven, they know little of real Life in the Spirit - and there are multitudes of Christians who gape at you if you talk about the Lord.
The other day I was talking about spiritual things to a good man who had been brought up in a godly home, whose whole life has been among Christian people and who is a member of a church, and I used, quite unconsciously the phrase, "Now the Lord... so-and-so...". I saw that he looked rather far away, and when it came to his turn to say something, he said, "I don't think in terms of your phraseology, 'the Lord'; I simply say, 'God wants so-and-so'". It is indicative; he may have been just as true as I, but to talk about the Lord was strange language to him. But you and I know the difference; we know that such language indicates something of a relationship, a walk. God is remote for multitudes of His own people. 'The Lord' - that is so much nearer, it is not just phraseology. But many are awkward in the presence of such a phrase. They cannot talk about the Lord and the things of the Lord. As with Israel as a whole, they may love Him in a general way, they may be His people, but oh, He wants His people to know Him in a more living way, and His link with them is through Levites. The way of life for them all is the way of the sons of Levi.
Life Produces Results Inevitably and Spontaneously
And so there is bound up with those who are truly spiritual a great ministry to the Lord's people. Oh, let us be very careful that the others do not lose what the Lord would give to them or bring them into if only we, in patient, faithful, humble, selfless ministration out of our own deep walk with the Lord would minister to them. They need, and the Lord needs, Levites to meet their lack, and we never know what is going on in other lives. They may all seem so far away and so cold and so indifferent, but we do not know which among them may be longing for help. It may be one in a dozen, one in a hundred, but the Lord has His eye upon them. And if only we go on faithfully, denying ourselves, taking the Cross for our own souls day by day, it may be we shall at last find that the Lord has done something very vital through that quiet walk with Him in the midst of those who for a long time gave no sign whatever of desiring anything more.
Be a true Levite, that is the point, and leave the rest with the Lord. Walk in the spirit, and Life is bound to bring its own registration in some way. If there is life anywhere else, it will be found and drawn out. If there is sin in the flesh, the Life will condemn it. It is very important that we should be a savour of Life unto Life - or of death unto death. This latter is not a very pleasant ministry, but it is necessary to the Lord that the very presence of His own in this world should mean the condemnation of sin in the flesh. That is a Levitical ministry. | http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/006339.html |
The Unfettered is an Hour of the Fourth Fansus, created by Maltramac. Her aspects are Forge and Moth. She is an Hour of rebellion against law and authority, a self-professed foil and eternal enemy of The Listless King. The Listless King does not seem to care.
Contents
Description
History
Appearance
The Unfettered takes on many humanlike guises, lacking a single preferred appearance. However, she always appears as a woman, usually wearing an outfit that indicates belonging to a typically male profession or defies cultural gender roles in other ways. Her apparent age likewise never matches what could be reasonably expected, such as a gray-haired and wizened construction worker or a preteen military officer.
On occasion, the Unfettered also takes the shape of a phoenix or firebird, most often when her patience wears thin and her temper flares, or when she wishes to roam the ruins of the Mansus freely. The Hour's method of transformation is a spontaneous combustion of her current body, followed by her new shape rising from the ashes.
Principles
The Unfettered stands for defiance, rebellion and revolution. To this end, she wields the Forge principle. However, she never concerns herself with the consequences of the revolutions she inspires and when the new government inevitably falls under the Listless King's sway and becomes an oppressive regime itself, she will be there to inspire another bloody uprising. Thus she wields the principle of Moth, always chasing a goal she will never achieve. | https://www.thefansus.com/wiki/The_Unfettered |
In order to describe Marcello Cinque’s sculptures it is useful to divide the discourse in four main thematics: The technique, the form, the influence of the territory and the binomial lightness-concreteness.
The technique :
The new sculptures, exhibited at Galerie Pièce Unique in Paris, are made of rubber and a special elastic paint which is able to roll up, as if squeezed out of a tube of paint.
The form :
Like Renata Caragliano e Stella Cervasio notice, the molded forms “are, like one can say, post-lunar… real plastic constructions that occupy a measured space.”
In certain sculptures there is no comparison with nature. The spirals and the concentric and/or threadlike forms arouse in the spectator an envy of touching them in order to discover the mystery of their fascination.
At the opposite, in other works, the forms are organic and particularly drawn from nature. Coasts’ profiles, islands, cliffs or architectural elements.
The influence of the territory :
Some works are inspired from the region where the artists was born : Campania. The profiles of Capri and Sorrento make clear the connection between the Neapolitan artist and the country where he was born.
The binomial lightness-concreteness :
The works, all rigorously white and suspended from earth or on the wall, are light and aerial, but at the same time concrete. It is as if they contain in themselves a very peculiar space and a balance of their own.
It is spontaneous to associate the work of this young artist with the ones of Italian masters of the 60’s, like Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Pino Pascali and Gino de Dominicis. These important artists, although very different one from the other, have in common a continuous research on space and forms.
And in fact that is exactly why Marcello Cinque fascinates, his willing, and capability, to experiment new materials and new forms. | http://www.mazarine-variations.com/exhibitions/marcello-cinque-2/ |
The federal government’s $50 million trailblazer program will support businesses to develop a semi-autonomous robot which NASA will use to collect lunar soil as part of the Artemis program, which seeks to set up a permanent “strategic base” on the moon.
This comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled an increased focus on space-exploration.
“By 2030, we want to triple the size of our space sector – adding $12 billion to our economy and creating up to 20,000 new, high-skilled jobs – providing more opportunities for Australians and industries.”
The Artemis Accords, drafted by NASA and the US Department of State and signed by Australia and twelve other countries in late 2020, is the legislative framework aimed at tying Space Law to US-interests.
Unlike the United Nations’ multilateral 1979 “Outer Space” treaty, the Artemis Accords are an attempt by the US to enforce its own interpretation of space law from above, pressuring its allies and subordinates to accept and abide by its terms.
The Accords have been criticised for violating space law established in the Outer Space treaty that expressly forbids nations from claiming planetary bodies by allowing Artemis signatories to claim any resources extracted from celestial objects.
However, as a ratifier of the Moon Treaty since 1986, the Morrison government has placed Australia in conflict with its legislated commitment to an international regime responsible for overseeing the extraction of resources from space.
The Artemis Accords amount to little more than a brazen attempt to not only privatise space for the benefit of US commercial interests, but to militarise it in preparation for war.
In addition to desired profits from resource extraction, space “exploration” is as an important outlet for surplus capital in the expanding the military industrial complex.
Military action is reliant on satellites for communication, navigation, and weapons guidance. The militarisation of space is a front-line in the unceasing campaign to enforce the US-led imperialist world order.
The AUKUS agreement was flagged by Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne as increasing collaboration between the US and Australia on space technology.
This was reiterated by the Joint Statement on Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) 2021, which claimed that the US and Australia must establish shared space capabilities to understand “space related threats […] and achieve Alliance objectives.”
In addition, plans for combined satellite activities “to provide global coverage in support of a wide range of intelligence mission requirements” were unveiled. | https://cpa.org.au/guardian/issue-1985/australia-to-help-us-establish-strategic-base-on-the-moon/ |
^ Noricks, C. (2006). From style to strategy: An exploratory investigation of public relations practice in the fashion industry. Unpublished master's thesis, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA. in Cassidy, L. & Fitch, K. (2013) Beyond the Catwalk: Fashion Public Relations and Social Media in Australia, Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, vol. 14, No. 1 & 2, Murdoch University.
In the 16th century, national differences were at their most pronounced. Ten 16th century portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats. Albrecht Dürer illustrated the differences in his actual (or composite) contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right). The "Spanish style" of the late 16th century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid-17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a process completed in the 18th century.
Though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France since the 16th century and Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion in the 1620s, the pace of change picked up in the 1780s with increased publication of French engravings illustrating the latest Paris styles. By 1800, all Western Europeans were dressing alike (or thought they were); local variation became first a sign of provincial culture and later a badge of the conservative peasant.
The beginning in Europe of continual and increasingly rapid change in clothing styles can be fairly reliably dated. Historians, including James Laver and Fernand Braudel, date the start of Western fashion in clothing to the middle of the 14th century, though they tend to rely heavily on contemporary imagery and illuminated manuscripts were not common before the fourteenth century. The most dramatic early change in fashion was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment from calf-length to barely covering the buttocks, sometimes accompanied with stuffing in the chest to make it look bigger.
fashion, style, and fad mean the way that up-to-date people do things. fashion is used of any custom (as a way of dressing or behaving) that is widely accepted at any one time or place. It was once the fashion for everyone to wear hats. style may suggest a fashion that is approved of by people with taste. The house was decorated in the latest style. fad is used for something that is very popular and often only for a short time. Beach tennis may be just a fad. | https://justfirefits.top/blog/what-to-buy-a-fashion-blogger-how-many-fashion-bloggers-are-there-in-india-read-more-here.html |
Feature photo by Stever Porter/The Telescope
Over 900 guests attended the annual fashion show presented by the Palomar College Fashion Merchandising and Design class at the California Center for the Arts on April 24.
Moda Xtreme, a student produced show that featured clothing lines developed from current Palomar students, showcased almost 200 pieces displayed down the runway by 58 models.
“It’s like a capstone kind of class where all the skills that they’ve learned can come together in one,” said Student Facilitator Rita Campo-Griggs.
This year’s show featured both new and returning student designers.
After being part of the production class last year, Nicola Hopwood decided that she too wanted to become a designer.
“I saw all the designers and how excited they were and I saw that they were my age, so I’m like I have to do that and after watching all the clothes go down the runway, it just inspires you to do it,” Hopwood said.
Yanin Luna said that she returned as a designer for the second time because she really wanted to show something different from last year. She also said that she already has the designs in her mind that if she can, wants to use in next year’s show.
According to Campo-Griggs, the student designers are responsible for every stage of development for their lines.
“Starting off with sketches, illustrations, then creating the pattern, then they’ll start cutting everything out and sewing it,” Campo-Griggs said.
Before the models started down the runway, Palomar College Alumnus Malcolm McCassy spoke about how years earlier, he had taken some of the same fashion classes and how appreciative of Palomar College he is.
McCassy has worked in the fashion industry since he was 15 and with the support of hip hop artist Lil John, he eventually created his own underwear brand, Ethika.
“I feel grateful that I’ve started a brand and done things but I think it’s a big reward to have your initial inspiration from a teacher, from a college and then be asked by that teacher to come over a decade later to speak in front of the future of fashion design, merchandising and business,” McCassy said. | https://www.palomar.edu/telescope/2014/05/05/moda-hosts-xtreme-extravaganza/ |
BACKGROUND
Technical Field
Background of the Related Art
This disclosure relates generally to controlling access to resources being managed in a computer network.
When defining an access control policy for an organization a common approach is to implement Role Based Access Control (RBAC). Using RBAC, entitlements to perform particular functions are assigned to roles instead of directly to users. The way a user gets the entitlements is by being assigned to roles or requesting membership of the role. Thus, to define an RBAC-based policy for an organization, an understanding of the user roles and the entitlements for those roles is required. Once this information is understood for an organization, the appropriate RBAC policy can be defined and deployed to an Identity Management system, such as IBM® Tivoli® Identity Manager™. Use of such tools greatly simplifies access management as compared with directly defining a user-to-entitlement relationship.
Access control for applications is usually granted through user groups defined and controlled by an underlying operating system (OS) of a computing system. Typically, there are administrator and non-administrator groups with different levels of privilege. A member of the administrator group can control application processes initiated by a member of a non-administrator group. Within some applications, however, there is a need to grant access privilege to one user on actions initiated by a different user. This access privilege, however, is limited to the application only. Thus, access control groups in the OS (which apply to all applications) cannot be used to determine whether the access privilege should be granted. Moreover, specific operations within an application are not visible to the operating system, which only sees application processors. Thus, the need to grant access privilege in this context needs to be solved with access control implemented “within” the application. This requirement often arises in management applications where multiple application users share the responsibility of administering the same resources. Examples of such applications include, without limitation, security management systems and data center management systems.
One way to approach this need is to add an operation on a transaction as a new security resource (within the access control system) being controlled via additional permissions or role mappings. That approach, however, increases management complexity and is error-prone.
There remains a need in the art to provide enhanced access control techniques that address this and other problems associated with the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY
A technique to implement access control from within an application begins by dynamically-generating a “management scope” for a transaction associated with a set of managed resources. The management scope is a collection of permissions defined by at least one of: a set of roles, and a set of resource administration rights, that are assigned to a first operator that issues the transaction. As the transaction executes, a request to alter the transaction is then received from a second operator. According to the technique, the management scope for the transaction and associated with the first operator is then evaluated against a management scope associated with the second operator. Upon determining the management scope associated with the first operator has a given relationship to the management scope for the second operator, the transaction is permitted to be altered in response to the request. The given relationship is scoped by one or more rules.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent features of the disclosed subject matter. These features should be construed to be merely illustrative. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed subject matter in a different manner or by modifying the invention as will be described.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
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depicts an exemplary block diagram of a distributed data processing environment in which exemplary aspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented;
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is an exemplary block diagram of a data processing system in which exemplary aspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented;
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is a block diagram of an exemplary business model built around an access entitlement framework and in which the disclosed technique may be implemented;
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depicts an operating scenario in which the techniques of this disclosure are carried out;
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is a process flow depicting an access control method of this disclosure; and
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depicts a representative distributed computing environment in which the techniques of this disclosure may be implemented.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT
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With reference now to the drawings and in particular with reference to , exemplary diagrams of data processing environments are provided in which illustrative embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented. It should be appreciated that are only exemplary and are not intended to assert or imply any limitation with regard to the environments in which aspects or embodiments of the disclosed subject matter may be implemented. Many modifications to the depicted environments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
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With reference now to the drawings, depicts a pictorial representation of an exemplary distributed data processing system in which aspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented. Distributed data processing system may include a network of computers in which aspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented. The distributed data processing system contains at least one network , which is the medium used to provide communication links between various devices and computers connected together within distributed data processing system . The network may include connections, such as wire, wireless communication links, or fiber optic cables.
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In the depicted example, server and server are connected to network along with storage unit . In addition, clients , , and are also connected to network . These clients , , and may be, for example, personal computers, network computers, or the like. In the depicted example, server provides data, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to the clients , , and . Clients , , and are clients to server in the depicted example. Distributed data processing system may include additional servers, clients, and other devices not shown.
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In the depicted example, distributed data processing system is the Internet with network representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers, consisting of thousands of commercial, governmental, educational and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, the distributed data processing system may also be implemented to include a number of different types of networks, such as for example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the like. As stated above, is intended as an example, not as an architectural limitation for different embodiments of the disclosed subject matter, and therefore, the particular elements shown in should not be considered limiting with regard to the environments in which the illustrative embodiments of the present invention may be implemented.
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With reference now to , a block diagram of a data processing system is shown in which illustrative embodiments may be implemented. Data processing system is an example of a computer, such as server or client in , in which computer-usable program code or instructions implementing the processes may be located for the illustrative embodiments. In this illustrative example, data processing system includes communications fabric , which provides communications between processor unit , memory , persistent storage , communications unit , input/output (I/O) unit , and display .
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Processor unit serves to execute instructions for software that may be loaded into memory . Processor unit may be a set of one or more processors or may be a multi-processor core, depending on the particular implementation. Further, processor unit may be implemented using one or more heterogeneous processor systems in which a main processor is present with secondary processors on a single chip. As another illustrative example, processor unit may be a symmetric multi-processor system containing multiple processors of the same type.
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Memory and persistent storage are examples of storage devices. A storage device is any piece of hardware that is capable of storing information either on a temporary basis and/or a permanent basis. Memory , in these examples, may be, for example, a random access memory or any other suitable volatile or non-volatile storage device. Persistent storage may take various forms depending on the particular implementation. For example, persistent storage may contain one or more components or devices. For example, persistent storage may be a hard drive, a flash memory, a rewritable optical disk, a rewritable magnetic tape, or some combination of the above. The media used by persistent storage also may be removable. For example, a removable hard drive may be used for persistent storage .
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Communications unit , in these examples, provides for communications with other data processing systems or devices. In these examples, communications unit is a network interface card. Communications unit may provide communications through the use of either or both physical and wireless communications links.
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Input/output unit allows for input and output of data with other devices that may be connected to data processing system . For example, input/output unit may provide a connection for user input through a keyboard and mouse. Further, input/output unit may send output to a printer. Display provides a mechanism to display information to a user.
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Instructions for the operating system and applications or programs are located on persistent storage . These instructions may be loaded into memory for execution by processor unit . The processes of the different embodiments may be performed by processor unit using computer implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory, such as memory . These instructions are referred to as program code, computer-usable program code, or computer-readable program code that may be read and executed by a processor in processor unit . The program code in the different embodiments may be embodied on different physical or tangible computer-readable media, such as memory or persistent storage .
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Program code is located in a functional form on computer-readable media that is selectively removable and may be loaded onto or transferred to data processing system for execution by processor unit . Program code and computer-readable media form computer program product in these examples. In one example, computer-readable media may be in a tangible form, such as, for example, an optical or magnetic disc that is inserted or placed into a drive or other device that is part of persistent storage for transfer onto a storage device, such as a hard drive that is part of persistent storage . In a tangible form, computer-readable media also may take the form of a persistent storage, such as a hard drive, a thumb drive, or a flash memory that is connected to data processing system . The tangible form of computer-readable media is also referred to as computer-recordable storage media. In some instances, computer-recordable media may not be removable.
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Alternatively, program code may be transferred to data processing system from computer-readable media through a communications link to communications unit and/or through a connection to input/output unit . The communications link and/or the connection may be physical or wireless in the illustrative examples. The computer-readable media also may take the form of non-tangible media, such as communications links or wireless transmissions containing the program code. The different components illustrated for data processing system are not meant to provide architectural limitations to the manner in which different embodiments may be implemented. The different illustrative embodiments may be implemented in a data processing system including components in addition to or in place of those illustrated for data processing system . Other components shown in can be varied from the illustrative examples shown. As one example, a storage device in data processing system is any hardware apparatus that may store data. Memory , persistent storage , and computer-readable media are examples of storage devices in a tangible form.
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In another example, a bus system may be used to implement communications fabric and may be comprised of one or more buses, such as a system bus or an input/output bus. Of course, the bus system may be implemented using any suitable type of architecture that provides for a transfer of data between different components or devices attached to the bus system. Additionally, a communications unit may include one or more devices used to transmit and receive data, such as a modem or a network adapter. Further, a memory may be, for example, memory or a cache such as found in an interface and memory controller hub that may be present in communications fabric .
Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object-oriented programming language such as Java™, Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer, or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
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Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in may vary depending on the implementation. Other internal hardware or peripheral devices, such as flash memory, equivalent non-volatile memory, or optical disk drives and the like, may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in . Also, the processes of the illustrative embodiments may be applied to a multiprocessor data processing system, other than the SMP system mentioned previously, without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed subject matter.
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As will be seen, the techniques described herein may operate in conjunction within the standard client-server paradigm such as illustrated in in which client machines communicate with an Internet-accessible Web-based portal executing on a set of one or more machines. End users operate Internet-connectable devices (e.g., desktop computers, notebook computers, Internet-enabled mobile devices, or the like) that are capable of accessing and interacting with the portal. Typically, each client or server machine is a data processing system such as illustrated in comprising hardware and software, and these entities communicate with one another over a network, such as the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, a private network, or any other communications medium or link. A data processing system typically includes one or more processors, an operating system, one or more applications, and one or more utilities. The applications on the data processing system provide native support for Web services including, without limitation, support for HTTP, SOAP, XML, WSDL, UDDI, and WSFL, among others. Information regarding SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and WSFL is available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsible for developing and maintaining these standards; further information regarding HTTP and XML is available from Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Familiarity with these standards is presumed.
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By way of further background, is a block diagram of an access entitlement framework comprising an access entitlement entity model and role-based access control. The access entitlement framework is provided by an identity management system, such as, for example, IBM® Tivoli® Identity Manager™. Business model in may be used to support logical provisioning of business applications within the context of an identity management system. In particular, business model is used to abstract the concept of access entitlement to one more aligned with a business perspective. The abstraction of access entitlement from a business perspective de-couples the implementation details of the IT infrastructure to support access control and allows the same business model to be applied to different IT environments without any impact on the access privileges of the business users.
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Business model is shown to comprise a business view and a resource view . A business view is the business-oriented description of the roles and access privileges so that it can be understood by business users. The roles are defined based on business related job functions for the user. The business-oriented description describes the access privileges in the context of a specific business domain, such as what an accountant can do in an accounting application. A resource view describes the details about the underlying access control system that provides a safeguard to the corresponding business applications. For example, the details may include information about the identity service provider to authenticate the subject user and provide identity and attributes for the user, information about the policy provider in which the access control policy is defined to specify user entitlements, and system specific permissions (e.g., access control lists (ACLs)).
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In this illustrative example, a company, Acme Inc., employs an identity management system in its business model. Within business view , user attributes specific to an organizational role and access entitlement to resources are supported via role assignment, which includes assigning a user to one or more business roles in the organization. Organizational roles are used to group people according to their function in the organization. All Acme employees are granted the employee role in the organization. For example, a user may be assigned to one or more organizational roles in a company, such as, for example, site manager, project manager, HR manager, and the like, as well as ancillary employee roles such as university liaison or community coordinator. Assignment of a user to an organizational role enables role-based provisioning of access entitlements to managed resources. For example, services in an identity manager represent different types of managed resources, such as Oracle® databases, Windows® machines, and the like. An organizational role may be linked to services by means of provisioning policies, entitling persons in the organizational role to an account on the managed resource that is linked to that service.
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In addition, one or more access entitlements may be assigned to a user or to an organizational role. Access entitlements specify permissions given to a user or organizational role to access managed resources. Within the access entitlement framework, access entitlement comprises a set of attributes that describes the business perspectives of the access privilege and contains a set of resource entitlements that defines what entitles the user to have the access privilege with a specific resource infrastructure. The set of attributes that describes the access privilege may include the name of the access privilege, the access privilege type (business category), the description of the access privilege, and other access-specific custom attributes from a business perspective.
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In this example, access entitlements comprise application entitlements , employee benefits entitlements , and self-care entitlements . A user or organizational role may gain access to an application if the access entitlements in application entitlements specify that user or organizational role has access privileges to the application resource. For example, all managers at Acme have access to the Acme manager portal in application entitlements . Only people managers may have access to application access entitlements, such as the employee salary management system or the employee stock option granting system in employee benefits entitlements .
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Role hierarchies/dependencies may be built among access entitlements (e.g., lines ) or organizational role and access entitlement (e.g., lines ) and be integrated into the organizational role hierarchy. Role hierarchies/dependencies specify a prerequisite for obtaining access to an application. For instance, a user may be granted access to application A only if the user also has access to application B. Thus, the user's access to application A is dependent upon also having access to application B. In this illustrative example, access entitlements to the employee salary management system or the employee stock option granting system are dependent on access entitlements to the employee appraisal system and the manager portal in application entitlements being granted.
Access entitlement types include group entitlement, ad hoc rule entitlement, and composite entitlement. Group entitlement comprises access entitlements fulfilled by organizational role membership in the context of a single identity service provider. Ad hoc rule entitlement comprises access entitlements fulfilled by a Boolean rule defined on set of user attributes in the context of a single identity service provider. Composite entitlement comprises access entitlements fulfilled by multi-resource entitlements in the context of different identity service providers. A multi-resource entitlement comprises access to multiple elements. For instance, a user is granted access to application D. In this example, application D is an aggregated element which comprises applications A, B, and C. Thus, if a user requests access to application D, the user may also obtain access to applications A, B, and C when access to application D is granted.
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The managed resources that an identity manager provides provisioning for are represented as services. Within resource view , resource entitlements define the conditions in which an access entitlement, such as an entitlement in application entitlements , employee benefits entitlements , or self-care entitlements , may be fulfilled for a user with a specific identity provider. Identity providers are authentication authorities which issue and validate user identities and access entitlements for a set of users. The business organization may act as an identity provider for users . Identity providers use the conditions in which an access entitlement may be fulfilled to generate a Boolean rule that is used to evaluate if a specific user has the access entitlement, as well as to discover existing user entitlements. The rule may also be used to generate a set of attributes with which the rule provisions the access entitlement for a user. Resource entitlements may be managed in groups, as shown by resource entitlement groups . Identity providers may instantiate access entitlement for a user via a set of accounts on related services. An account may contain the user identity, profile attributes, access entitlement attributes (permission attributes), and access specific attributes for the user. An administrative owner can be identified for the access entitlement so that the administrative owner may participate in any lifecycle management process related to the access entitlement, including the access request approval and access recertification process. An existing resource entitlement in the framework may be managed directly as an access entitlement, or it can bind to an abstracted access entitlement object which de-couples any specific dependencies of the framework but contains the static business description of the access privilege.
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In this illustrative example, identity providers include Resource Access Control Facility (RACF) , Athena user database , and corporate LDAP server . RACF hosts identities that pertain to any financial management systems (e.g., salary, stock, financial systems). Athena user database hosts identities for applications that pertain to operational systems (e.g., site maintenance applications). Corporate LDAP server hosts identities for people working on the Athena project and is concerned with protecting access to the Athena project.
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Modeling of the access entitlement as a manageable entity allows access entitlement to be unified into the RBAC model to support various security policies in access policy repository around access entitlement. An access entitlement may be viewed as a system or application role, and may be associated with business roles. Security policies in access policy repository may be used to define relationships between different organization roles , between an organizational role and access entitlements , and between different access entitlements . Semantics supported in such relationships include inheritance, allow (privileged or granted), relationship constraints, and attribute constraints. An inheritance relationship implies that one role will automatically inherit all privileges of the other role. The privilege inheritance is automatic and enforced consistently. An allow relationship (privileged or granted) implies that membership in one role allows a user to request another role explicitly. The other role may be granted to the user upon the completion of a business workflow. Relationship constraints are a set of constraints that are defined among the different types of roles, including business roles and application roles. For example, the constraints of “separation of duty” may be defined statically or dynamically to prevent a user from having multiple roles. Attribute constraints are a set of constraints which define the user-role assignment restrictions when a role is assigned to user.
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In a representative embodiment, the identity manager is Tivoli Identity Manager, the access manager is Tivoli Access Manager for Enterprise Single Sign-On (TAM E-SSO), and the directory integrator is Tivoli Directory Integrator (TDI).
An RBAC data model may be defined as follows.
An entity, like a person or organization, has one or more identities in a given context, and each identity defines a set of characteristics (defined by a set of attributes and related information) that represent various views of the entity within that context. A human being typically has many identities. Thus, for example, assume Bob Smith as a person has an identity relevant to his employer (e.g., IBM). Bob Smith as an entity has an identity (with his email as identifier—[email protected], and with attributes like level, location, and the like), and this identity is relevant to a given context (e.g., IBM Bluepages). Similarly, Bob Smith has an identity as an employee (to his employer), as a citizen (to the government), and so forth, with respect to any person, organization, group or device type. An identity thus has a set of attributes that defines the characteristics of that entity. Some of those attributes are relevant to that identity in a given context (e.g., name, account number, etc.), and some are specific to particular roles that the identity may take on in that given context. Some of these attributes may also be shared across different contexts. Thus, for example, Bob Smith may have attributes, such as email-address, phone number, passport information, fingerprint data, or the like that may be shared with others, such as his employer, port control authority, or the like. Bob Smith may have a specific attribute, such as platinumCustomer, and preferredColor, in the context of “customer” to an entity such as Clothes-R-Us. As also noted, an identity can be identified by one or more identifiers, e.g., email id, short name, etc. An identity may have multiple authenticators. A given authenticator may only validate some of the attributes and not all of them (e.g., a password is sufficient to identify a Teller role, but not Supervisor role). Some authenticators may be self-managed identifiers, assigned by a naming authority, or merely system identifiers. Among these, there may be one identifier (e.g., X.500 name) that uniquely identifies that identity in a given context. Thus, a given identity has at least one attribute that acts as an identifier. For example, Bob Smith may have a “bob” identifier in Company A's system, an identifier [email protected] in his employer's system, an identifier SSN in a Government system, and so forth. Example types of relationships between identities are (a) an entity Bob Smith can have an identity bsmith (as identifier) in IBM and bsmith (as identifier), and those two identities can be related, (b) an organization identity (e.g., SWGOrg) has its employees (person identities), (c) a group identity, USTennisTeam, is related to its constituent players (d) person identity bsmith is related to a device identity cell-phone sim #1234, and so forth. An identity can take on zero or more roles. The scope of a given role is relevant to the appropriate context. By taking on a role, an identity may include additional attributes. e.g., PCP has <patientList, specialty>. A financialAdvisor role may have <certificationLevel, adviseeList>, etc. Such attributes that are specific to a role are typically given values (e.g., specialty is ‘cardiologist’) when the role is assigned to an identity and, thus, the values of those role specific attributes are specific to a given identity. Attributes may also be independent of role, e.g., “location=NewYork,” which in a given use case might apply that users in a primary care physician (PCP) role and in New York would have the privilege to treat patients in that State.
Access Control of Administrative Operations Within an Application
With the above as background, the techniques of this disclosure are now described.
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depicts a particular operating environment in which the techniques of this disclosure are implemented. In an exemplary enterprise, there is a system with a plurality of operators . The operators can be authorized to manage a plurality of resources based on explicit permissions or role membership. The resources may be of various types, such as systems, sub-systems, devices, applications, databases, files, objects, other assets, or combinations thereof. Typically, and as described above, an operator is assigned one or more roles. A role grants an operator permission to perform certain actions, which are referred to herein as “transactions,” on the resources. Further, a given operator may be an administrator operator, or a non-administrator operator. Some operators may be “master” operators who have the ability and right to define and grant roles to other operators; conversely, non-master operators can neither define nor grant roles.
A particular transaction is associated with a set of one or more managed resources. The particular nature and scope of the transaction is not a limitation of this disclosure. As will be seen, and according to the techniques herein, a transaction may be started by a first operator but then cancelled or overridden by a second operator, and this is so even if the second operator is a non-master operator. An operator who issues or initiates a transaction is sometimes referred to herein as the “owner” of the transaction.
Given that a particular transaction is issued or initiated by a particular operator, according to this disclosure that transaction is associated with a construct that is referred to herein as a “management scope.” Preferably, a management scope for the transaction as used herein refers to a collection of permissions, where that collection is defined by one or more of the following that are assigned to the particular operator that issues/initiates the transaction itself, namely: (a) a set of one or more roles, (b) a set of one or more resource administration rights, and/or (c) combinations thereof. The one or more roles typically are defined in the application within which the access control technique of this disclosure is implemented. Likewise, the one or more resource administration rights typically are defined in the application. A resource administration right determines which resources are controlled by which users of the application. A resource administration right may be defined directly, or indirectly. As used herein, the management scope is said to be “dynamically-generated” because it is instantiated with respect to a particular transaction that is issued/initiated by a particular operator. In other words, until the particular transaction is initiated by the particular operator/user, the collection of permissions is not necessarily known to the access control system. This is not meant to imply that the management scope(s) cannot be determined in advance, only that a particular management scope is not surfaced or otherwise provided in the access control system until the transaction itself actually is initiated. In effect, the management scope is an “implicit” permission set that is based on the roles and permissions explicitly assigned to the operator that issues the transaction.
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For example, and as depicted in , assume Alice and Bob are two operators of the system. Alice is assigned Roles and , and Bob is assigned Role . A third operator Carol is assigned Roles , and . In this example, it is assumed that neither Alice nor Bob are master operators such that one of them might otherwise be able to interfere with the other's operations. Thus, and as depicted, it is assumed that Alice starts a transaction, e.g., to apply an update X to 10 Linux servers in a lab, and then leaves the lab. Operator Bob finds out that X is the wrong update and should not be applied, but there is no master operator around (e.g., Carol) to cancel Alice's operation, which is in progress. To provide a more concrete example, assume that Alice is granted role “AliceLinux,” which is defined with permission to apply updates to the 10 Linux servers. Bob is granted role “BobLinux,” which is defined with permission to apply updates to these 10 Linux servers and to 5 other servers. Thus, Alice and Bob were granted different roles. Alice was granted at least one role that Bob was not. In this context, and assuming the techniques of this disclosure are not applied, the access control system does not permit Bob to cancel the operation Alice started.
Now, assume that the technique of this disclosure is implemented. In particular, once Alice has initiated the transaction, the management scope for that transaction is dynamically-generated and made available to the access control system. At this point, it is assumed that a request to cancel the transaction is then received, e.g., from Bob. Again, and to provide a concrete example, Alice was granted role “AliceLinux” which is defined with permission to apply updates to these 10 Linux servers. Bob was granted role “BobLinux” which is defined with permission to apply updates to these 10 Linux servers and to 5 other servers. Assume further that Bob was also granted role “AliceLinux.” In other words, in this example scenario Bob was granted a superset of roles that Alice was granted. When the access control system receives Bob's request to cancel the transaction originally initiated by Alice, the control system may be programmed to cancel the transaction, and whether or not this is possible preferably is based on the relationship between Alice's management scope (the dynamically-generated implicit permission set) and Bob's management scope (the current explicit permissions or role membership).
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In RBAC techniques such as described above with respect to , what transactions operator Bob can execute depend on role assignment, group membership, and resource access policy. The access control decision, however, is not changed or otherwise impacted by the roles or permissions of another user, e.g., when another operator's role assignment changes. RBAC has three basic rules for role assignment, role authorization and transaction authorization. The technique of this disclosure differs from RBAC in the transaction authorization rule. In particular, in the approach herein a subject can or cannot execute a transaction based on role assignments of the subject and of other subjects. Thus, and continuing with the previous example, subject Bob can execute an action to cancel the transaction to apply updates on the 10 Linux servers if the set of Bob's role assignments is equal to or a superset of the set of Alice's role assignments.
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is a process flow that depicts that high level operation with respect to a particular transaction. Although not depicted, a similar process is carried out for other transactions, typically on a per-transaction basis. At step , a transaction on a set of managed resources is associated with the dynamically-generated implicit permission set based on the permissions explicitly assigned to the operator that issued the transaction. The operator that issued the transaction owns the transaction, as has been described. At step , a test is performed to determine whether another operator (a non-master) desires to alter the transaction. It is assumed that step is carried out while the original transaction remains pending (i.e., not complete). If no request to alter the transaction is received, the routine cycles. When an operator wants to alter a transaction, however, the routine continues at step . At this step, a check is performed to determine whether the permission set assigned explicitly to the current operator is compatible with the implicit permission set associated to the transaction (at step ) as derived from the permission set of the operator who initiated the transaction. In this manner, the decision whether to allow the operation to continue is based on the relationship between the permissions assigned to the original operator who issued the transaction, and the permissions assigned to the operator who wants to alter it. Thus, step differs from conventional RBAC wherein the determination about whether to allow the transaction to be cancelled would depend on just the permissions assigned to the current operator. As will be described below, the evaluation at step is based on one or more “equal” or “superset” rules. If the rule is met, an appropriate response is provided to the current operator's request to cancel. This is step . Typically, this response is the cancellation of the transaction, although other responses (e.g., issuing a notification, providing a programmatic or automated update, or the like). If the rule is not met, however, the original transaction continues at step and the current operator's request is denied.
The above-described approach of using implicit permissions (derived from the transaction-initiator and the nature of the transaction itself) significantly reduces the complexity in explicit permissions management as compared with known RBAC systems.
The following provides additional implementation details. Preferably, and as noted above, each transaction is associated with a dynamically-generated implicit permission set. The implicit permission set constitutes a “management scope” of the transaction, and it is assumed to be available to the access control system once the operator issues the transaction. As noted, the implicit permission set is dynamically-generated as the set of assigned roles and resource administration rights (i.e., explicit resource permissions) for the operator that issued the transaction. When the follow-on operator wants to alter the transaction, the permission set assigned explicitly to the follow-on operator is checked to determine whether it is compatible with the implicit permission set associated to the transaction. In one embodiment, the implementation checks that the current operator's management scope is a superset of the management scope associated with the transaction that is being altered. When the set of roles (and/or the resource administration rights) associated with the current operator is the same or contains the set of roles (and/or the resource administration rights) associated with the transaction, the alteration operation is allowed. It is not required that the roles are exactly the same if the set of resources managed by the roles can be determined, for instance, when the resources are assigned explicitly to the roles, so that the sets of managed resources can be easily compared.
While the typical implementation will involve the current or follow-on operator seeking to cancel the then-pending transaction, the notion of cancellation is not intended to be limited. All that is required is that the second operator provide some request that implicates the then-pending transaction in some manner. The access control system then uses the approach herein to determine whether or not to apply whatever action is dictated by the request from the follow-on operator.
The following describes several different methods to determine authorization for operations within an application. These methods are exemplary, and typically they are implemented within the access control system by one or more rules. The rules are applied in any convenient programmatic or automated manner.
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A first method computes access control based on membership in user groups defined within the application, called roles. Equal or superset rules are then applied for access control between roles. Preferably, the equal rule is defined as follows. When user A and user B have each been granted role R and no other roles, then A is granted access control over operations initiated by user B, and user B is granted access control over operations initiated by user A. Preferably, a superset rule is defined as follows. If a user A has been granted role R, and a user B has been granted roles R and R, then user B is granted access control over operations initiated by user A. As noted above, preferably the equal and superset rules are checked dynamically by the application at execution time for the application operations. This is different from other methods like RBAC, which statically grant to a user access control for specific operations on specific resources, independent of any roles given to other users. This first method is implemented by verifying that the set of roles for the user owning the transaction is the same or contained in the set of roles for the user that wants to alter the transaction. The method dynamically computes access control based on the roles of the user and other users.
A second method determines which resources are controlled by which users of the application, i.e., by evaluating resource administration rights. In this scenario, preferably equal and superset rules also are applied. For example, if a user A has been granted administration rights over resources (or resource groups) named Win and Mac, and a user B has been granted administration rights over resources named Win, Nix and Mac, then user B is granted access control over operations initiated by user A. The second method is implemented by verifying that the set of resources administered by the user owning the transaction is the same or contained in the set of resources explicitly administered by the user that wants to alter the transaction.
A third method is just a combination of the first and second methods, such that access control is determined by equal and superset rules applied to both roles and resource administration rights applied to all users of the application. This method is implemented by verifying that both the above-identified conditions (for each individual method) apply. Resource administration rights typically are determined directly, e.g., from stored information sources that define them. In a fourth method, effective resource administration rights are computed by the application indirectly (i.e., based on indirect ways of granting resource admin rights), for example, via roles and any other ways of defining which user has access to which resources (or resource groups). Equal and superset rules are then applied on the effective resource administration rights to determine a user's access control on operations of a different user. This method is implemented for roles and explicit resource assignments based on specific resource identities. One approach to implement this fourth method is to create a set of the resources administered by all roles assigned to the user owning the transaction and the resources explicitly assigned to that same user, and then to compare that set to the equivalent set constructed for the user that wants to alter the transaction.
The techniques herein may be implemented in various types of computing infrastructures. One example is IBM® BigFix, which is a suite of products that provides a solution for compliance, endpoint, and security management and allows organizations to see and manage physical and virtual endpoints through a single infrastructure, a single console, and a single type of agent. This solution provides a multi-layered technology platform that acts as a core part of a global IT infrastructure. The platform is a dynamic, content-driven messaging and management system that distributes the work of managing IT infrastructures out to the managed devices themselves, the agents. The platform can manage up to hundreds of thousands of physical and virtual computers, over private or public networks, including servers, desktops, roaming laptops, mobile phones, point-of-sale devices, self-service kiosks and other network-connected machines. The platform supports various operating systems. In this approach, a single intelligent agent provides for continuous endpoint self-assessment and policy enforcement, real-time visibility and control from a single management console, management of thousands of endpoints regardless of location, connection type, or status, targeting of specific actions to an exact type of endpoint configuration or user type, management of complexity and cost reduction, increasing accuracy, and boosting productivity, patch management, software distribution, and operating system deployment, support for heterogeneous platforms, mobile device management, automatic endpoint assessment and vulnerability remediation, real-time protection from malware and other vulnerabilities, and server automation.
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As depicted in , a solution of this type comprises an intelligent agent , a console , a server , optionally one or more relays , and an optional secondary server . The intelligent agent is a small piece of code that is installed on each computer to be managed. The agent continuously assesses the state of the endpoint against a stated policy, whether connected to the network or not. As soon as the agent notices that a target is out of compliance with a policy or checklist, it informs the server , runs a configured remediation task, and immediately notifies the server of the task status and result. In most cases, the agent operates silently, without any direct intervention from the user. A computer with the IBM BigFix agent installed is also referred to as a client. The console is provided to manage the solution; thus, depending on the supported application, the console facilitates various functions such as endpoint protection, systems lifecycle management, software distribution, security configuration and vulnerability management, and so forth. An operator with the required privileges can quickly and easily distribute a fix to only those computers that need it, with no impact on the rest of the network. The server coordinates the flow of information to and from individual clients and stores the results in a database. The server manages policy-based content and allows the operator to maintain real-time visibility and control over all devices in the environment. Preferably, the content is delivered in messages that are updated continuously, e.g., using a content delivery cloud-based service . Because most of the analysis, processing, and enforcement work is done by the agent rather than the server, one server can support up thousands of endpoints. When necessary, high availability is enabled by employing multiple servers.
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One or more relays may be implemented and facilitate a lightweight and robust architecture. A relay is a client that is enhanced with a relay service, and it may be an existing computing system. It performs all client actions to protect the host computer, and in addition, delivers content and software downloads to child clients and relays, e.g., via the Internet . Instead of requiring every networked computer to directly access the server, relays can be used to offload much of the burden. Hundreds of clients can point to a relay for downloads, which in turn makes only a single request to the server. Relays can connect to other relays as well, further increasing efficiency. Promoting an agent to a relay does not require dedicated hardware or network configuration changes.
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The secondary server replicates the server information for disaster recovery. The console supports web-based reporting by which the user can produce charts and graphs of data, maintain audit trials, and so forth. The interface runs in a web browser and provides a set of users with visibility into the state of the computers.
The agent(s) perform multiple functions including continuous self-assessment and policy enforcement, all with minimal system impact. The server and console are highly-secure, and highly-scalable, and they provide aggregated data, analysis and reporting, as well as the ability to push out to the endpoints pre-defined or custom policies. Existing systems can be used as relays and to provide built-in redundancy, as well as to support and secure roaming endpoints.
The solution comprises one or more applications that provide consolidated security and operations management, simplified and streamlined endpoint management, while increasing accuracy and productivity. These include, without limitation, lifecycle management (e.g., operating system deployment, power management, remote control, server automation, software distribution, etc.), automated patching to all distributed endpoints, automated remediation, inventory management, vulnerability protection, and the like.
The technique herein provides significant advantages. The approach authorizes a user based on a dynamic check of roles and/or permissions of that user relative to other user(s) when executing an operation; unlike the prior art, authorization is not determined through a static assignment, i.e., authorizing a user based on roles and permissions assigned statically to only the user seeking to take some action. The approach dynamically permits new actions by administrators using implicit roles that are not actually created/stored, and can apply more broadly to any RBAC-based application or system. Additionally, the technique provides an administrator the ability to take action on another administrator's actions based on how their permissions compare, rather than granting new actions against a resource or based on resource access control. The technique simplifies the complex role assignment matrix that traditional RBAC would require to grant different permissions to act on other administrator's actions and update those permissions as administrators are added, removed, or modified. It does so using a run-time check of dynamically-created implicit roles, as opposed to creating and assigning roles ahead of time. The technique enables changing access permission automatically, but based on other operator permissions, as opposed to usage of an underlying resource or other operational constraints.
According to the described approach, a single transaction can be issued against resources assigned to different roles and permissions. Each transaction in effect has associated therewith a new dynamically-generated collection of permissions that is created from the set of roles and explicit permissions that are assigned to the issuer of the transaction. When another user wants to alter that transaction, the access control system simply requires that the collection of permissions assigned through a set of roles and explicit permissions are compatible with this implicit transaction permission set.
The technique herein provides for dynamic evaluation of access control, which is inferred from static assignment of access control. In this disclosure, access is inferred dynamically, but it is possible (with an increase in complexity for the administrator) to define access completely statically within RBAC. And although access is inferred dynamically, preferably it is not derived from a definition expressed using a particular language but, rather, by the relationship of the set of permissions for the different users involved.
While the technique herein typically is implemented within an access control system itself, this is not a requirement. The functionality may be implemented in a system, sub-system, device, program or process that operates in association with the access control system, in which case the outcome of the management scope rule evaluation is communicated to the access control system.
The functionality described above may be implemented as a standalone approach, e.g., a software-based function executed by one or more hardware processors, or it may be available as a managed service (including as a web service via a SOAP/XML interface). The particular hardware and software implementation details described herein are merely for illustrative purposes and are not meant to limit the scope of the described subject matter.
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More generally, computing devices within the context of the disclosed subject matter are each a data processing system (such as shown in ) comprising hardware and software, and these entities communicate with one another over a network, such as the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, a private network, or any other communications medium or link. The applications on the data processing system provide native support for Web and other known services and protocols including, without limitation, support for HTTP, FTP, SMTP, SOAP, XML, WSDL, UDDI, and WSFL, among others. Information regarding SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and WSFL is available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsible for developing and maintaining these standards; further information regarding HTTP, FTP, SMTP and XML is available from Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Familiarity with these known standards and protocols is presumed.
The technique described herein also may be implemented in or in conjunction with various server-side architectures including simple n-tier architectures, web portals, federated systems, and the like. The techniques herein may be practiced in a loosely-coupled server (including a “cloud”-based) environment.
Still more generally, the subject matter described herein can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the function is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, as noted above, the endpoint identity and tracking functionality described herein can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain or store the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or a semiconductor system (or apparatus or device). Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. The computer-readable medium is a tangible item.
The computer program product may be a product having program instructions (or program code) to implement one or more of the described functions. Those instructions or code may be stored in a computer readable storage medium in a data processing system after being downloaded over a network from a remote data processing system. Or, those instructions or code may be stored in a computer readable storage medium in a server data processing system and adapted to be downloaded over a network to a remote data processing system for use in a computer readable storage medium within the remote system.
In a representative embodiment, the process flows described above are implemented in a special purpose computer, preferably in software executed by one or more processors. The software is maintained in one or more data stores or memories associated with the one or more processors, and the software may be implemented as one or more computer programs. Collectively, this special-purpose hardware and software comprises or supplements an existing intrusion detection system solution.
Without meant to be limiting, preferably a management server management console exposes one or more web-based interfaces that may be used to configure, manage and administer the system.
The described functionality may be implemented as an adjunct or extension to an existing identity management solution, product, or service.
While the above describes a particular order of operations performed by certain embodiments of the disclosed technique, it should be understood that such order is exemplary, as alternative embodiments may perform the operations in a different order, combine certain operations, overlap certain operations, or the like. References in the specification to a given embodiment indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic.
Finally, while given components of the system have been described separately, one of ordinary skill will appreciate that some of the functions may be combined or shared in given instructions, program sequences, code portions, and the like.
Any application or functionality described herein may be implemented as native code, by providing hooks into another application, by facilitating use of the mechanism as a plug-in, by linking to the mechanism, and the like.
The techniques herein may be implemented in other types of access control systems besides RBAC. Thus, for example, the approach described herein may be applied to user-based access control, attribute-based access control, discretionary access control (DAC), mandatory access control (MAC), other life cycle management schemes, and the like.
The techniques herein provide for an improvement to an existing technique or technology, namely a role-based access control system, or the like.
Having described our invention, what we claim is as follows. | |
This study proposes that the diffusion VSNs in a country is influenced by the levels of its information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and human capital, which in turn are contingent on the national cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance.
Exploring Transitions and Work-Life Balance in the Digital Era
- Sociology, Computer ScienceECIS
- 2014
The objectives through this study are to improve the understanding around switching across role-identities and domains, and to co- design tools that will help individuals manage their switching process.
Content and language integrated learning in OpenSimulator project. Results of a pilot implementation in Greece
- Computer ScienceEducation and Information Technologies
- 2016
Results indicate that the learning outcomes of CLILiOP were better compared to the other two teaching methods, but also underline the need to further investigate the uses of 3D multi-user virtual environments in second language learning.
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Security and compliance is everyone's responsibility. FlowTrack is committed to ensuring all workforce members actively address security and compliance in their roles. Statistically, cybersecurity breaches typically start with compromise of end-user computing devices, social engineering, human error or insider threat. Therefore, users are the first line of defense and yet usually the weakest link. As such, training is imperative to assuring an understanding of current best practices, the different types and sensitivities of data, and the sanctions associated with non-compliance.
In this and all related policy documents, the term "employees" and "workforce members" may be used interchangeably to include all full-time and part-time employees in all job roles, contractors and subcontractors, volunteers, interns, managers and executives at FlowTrack.
The Security Officer, in collaboration with the Privacy Officer, is responsible for facilitating the development, testing, implementation, training, and oversight of all activities pertaining to FlowTrack's efforts to be compliant with the applicable security and compliance regulations and industry best practices. The intent of the Security Officer Responsibilities is to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical and sensitive data. The Security and Privacy Officer is appointed by and reports to the CEO.
FlowTrack has appointed Mike Brown as the Security Officer and Mike Brown as the Privacy Officer.
FlowTrack has appointed Mike Brown as the Data Protection Officer responsible for all GDPR-related affairs.
An official Security Committee has been formed, chaired by the Security Officer, and represented by the select members of the senior leadership team (Mike Brown).
FlowTrack policy requires that:
(a) A Security and Privacy Officer [164.308(a)(2)] must be appointed to assist in maintaining and enforcing safeguards towards security, compliance, and privacy.
Additionally, a Data Protection Officer must be appointed to fulfill the tasks and responsibilities specified in GDPR.
(b) Security and compliance is the responsibility of all workforce members (including employees, contractors, interns, and managers/executives). All workforce members are required to:
Complete all required security trainings, including annual regulatory compliance training, security awareness, and any additional role-based security training as part of the ongoing security awareness program and as required by job role.
Complete annual HIPAA awareness training
Follow all security requirements set forth in FlowTrack security policy and procedures, including but is not limited to access control policies and procedures and acceptable use policy for end-user computing.
See something, say something: follow the incident reporting procedure to report all suspicious activities to the security team.
(c) All workforce members are required to report non-compliance of FlowTrack's policies and procedures to the Security Officer or designee. Individuals that report violations in good faith may not be subjected to intimidation, threats, coercion, discrimination against, or any other retaliatory action as a consequence.
(d) All workforce members are required to cooperate with federal, state and local law enforcement activities and legal investigations. It is strictly prohibited to interfere with investigations through willful misrepresentation, omission of facts, or by the use of threats against any person.
(e) Workforce members found to be in violation of this policy will be subject to sanctions.
(f) Segregation of Duties shall be maintained when applicable and practical as determined by the CEO to ensure proper checks and balances and minimize conflict of interests. This helps reduces the possibility of fraud and insider threat considerably, and eliminates single points of compromise to critical systems.
FlowTrack has appointed Mike Brown as the Security Officer and Mike Brown as the Privacy Officer.
The security committee is chaired by the Security Officer, and represented by the select members of the senior leadership team, including Mike Brown, in addition to the Security and Privacy Officer, all of which may be the CEO if practical.
The authority and accountability for FlowTrack’s information security program and privacy program is delegated to the Security and Privacy Officer. The Security Officer and the security team are required to perform or delegate the following responsibilities:
Although the Security Officer is responsible for implementing and overseeing all activities related to maintaining compliance, it is everyone's responsibility (i.e. team leaders, supervisors, managers, co-workers, etc.) to supervise all workforce members and any other user of FlowTrack's systems, applications, servers, workstations, etc. that contain sensitive data.
FlowTrack has dedicated team/personnel assigned the job function of security and compliance. Segregation of duties are achieved via a combination of assignment of roles and responsibilities to different personnel, and automation enforcement for software-defined processes.
Checks and balances are ensured via such segregation of duties and related review/approval processes. When applicable and with exception of the CEO, reviews and approvals must be obtained from designated personnel separate from the individual performing the work.
The Security & Privacy Officer facilitates the training of all workforce members as follows:
Documentation of the training session materials and attendees is retained for a minimum of seven years.
The training session focuses on, but is not limited to, the following subjects defined in FlowTrack's security policies and procedures:
FlowTrack leverages KnowBe4 to deliver innovative, fun and engaging security awareness contents to all employees monthly. This security awareness training shall include modules on
Progress is tracked individually for each employee and reported on KnowBe4's cloud-managed learning platform.
FlowTrack requires all employees to take a HIPAA awareness training within 30 days of onboarding and annually thereafter. The training record is captured within the HR record and/or the learning system KnowBe4.
FlowTrack holds a company-wide roundtable at least quarterly to communicate updates across all aspects of business operations, performance and objectives.
Senior management sends out additional company-wide announcements as appropriate through pre-established internal communication channels such as email or chat.
Regular performance and status updates are communicated by each department, functional team, and/or designated individuals through pre-established channels.
Additionally, each project team maintains team updates at their own committed cadence and channel -- for example, daily development standups/scrum or weekly team meetings. | https://policy.flowtrack.co/rar |
Summary: An Architect Liability Expert Witness was not allowed to testify regarding damages caused by a fall because of flawed methodology to determine faults in infrastructure.
Facts: This Case John W. Robinson v. American Multi-Cinema, Inc, Case No. 20-946 Section “G” (United States District Court Eastern District of Louisiana) involves a dispute over details of injuries following a fall. The Plaintiff claims that upon leaving an American Multi-Cinema (AMC) movie theater, his foot was stuck on a bicycle rack causing him to sustain injuries. At the time of the incident, Robinson argues that a bench was blocking his view of a bicycle rack which led to him falling and injuring his back and shoulder. The Plaintiff believes that AMC should be held liable for his injuries because the company lacked awareness that blocking a bicycle rack with a bench will inevitably lead to harm. From the damages caused by the fall, John W. Robinson opines that his life would not be the same following the incident in terms of lost income, medical expenses, pain, and permanent wounds. With the help of Architect Liability Expert Witness Ladd Ehlinger, a damages report was made to showcase the effects of the fall. American Multi-Cinema filed a motion to limine the Plaintiff’s Expert Witness testimony.
Discussion: AMC argued Plaintiff’s Architect Liability Expert Witness Ladd Ehlinger was unqualified, especially in his published report. In the first conclusion within the report, Ehlinger focused on vision and its role in maintaining a safe environment to walk through. He relied on scientific methods as support with specifics on how far the average person can see as well as the need for visual cues such as signs or lights to indicate a hazard such as a bench in front of a bicycle rack. AMC opined that this part of the report lacked evidence from valid sources and was based on outdated information from Ehlinger’s college classes. Additionally, AMC argued that Ehlinger does not have qualifications in human factors such as how vision interacts with the environment because he is not a medical professional. Because of the flawed methodology, AMC urged the court to exclude the first conclusion in Ehlinger’s report. The Plaintiff disagreed.
The Plaintiff offered an alternative opinion that Ehlinger is qualified to testify on human factors. His background in architecture and various licenses across the United States were used as counters to the Defendant’s claims. Beyond Ehlinger’s qualifications in proper architectural designs, the Plaintiff continued discussion by noting that the Architectural Liability Expert Witness’ opinion is reliable. In regards to the claim of invalid resources for evidence, the Plaintiff emphasized that a website seen within the report which was seen as irrelevant by AMC was only attached to inform the court about peripheral vision and not to act as a tool in his methodology. Ehlinger’s reliability and his relation to not being a human factors expert was further proved through analysis of Ehlinger’s claims. The Plaintiff emphasized that Ehlinger’s argument was not written in the way of a Human Factors Expert Witness because Ehlinger pointed out missing indications of a hazard to clearly show the bicycle rack behind the bench, as opposed to how well indicators worked.
AMC replied again and continued the argument that Ehlinger should not be allowed to testify regarding whether the company should be liable for Robinson’s injuries. Although Ehlinger does not regard himself as a human factors expert, American Multi-Cinema opined that Ehlinger should not be allowed to speak on issues related to the field due to overlaps in his argument with other areas of expertise that he has no qualifications in. Additionally, AMC reaffirmed that the Plaintiff’s Architectural Liability Expert Witness first conclusion in the published report is unreliable. AMC highlighted that evidence used within the report lacks any form of testing, peer review, or any repeatable techniques to prove one solidified point. Lastly, Ehlinger’s conclusion is also irrelevant because it assumed the jury agreed that a warning for the bench was a necessity to prevent injury. The court ultimately agreed with AMC and the first conclusion in the report was excluded from Ehlinger’s testimony.
Conclusion: The Court Granted American Multi-Cinema’s motion to exclude Ladd Ehlinger’s first conclusion in the damages report due to flawed methodology related to the necessity of a warning for a potential hazard. | https://www.expertwitnessblog.com/architect-liability-expert-witness-not-allowed-to-testify-in-an-injury-damages-dispute/ |
Commentary | Open | Open Peer Review | Published:
RePAIR consensus guidelines: Responsibilities of Publishers, Agencies, Institutions, and Researchers in protecting the integrity of the research record
Research Integrity and Peer Reviewvolume 3, Article number: 15 (2018)
The Commentary to this article has been published in Research Integrity and Peer Review 2018 3:14
Abstract
The progression of research and scholarly inquiry does not occur in isolation and is wholly dependent on accurate reporting of methods and results, and successful replication of prior work. Without mechanisms to correct the literature, much time and money is wasted on research based on a crumbling foundation. These guidelines serve to outline the respective responsibilities of researchers, institutions, agencies, and publishers or editors in maintaining the integrity of the research record. Delineating these complementary roles and proposing solutions for common barriers provide a foundation for best practices.
Background
The iterative process of research allows science to continuously advance and progress, but this renders research vulnerable to inaccuracy and error. Given the frequent delays between identifying and correcting literature, inaccuracies may persist long after discovery .
Researchers, institutions, agencies, and publishers or editors have complementary roles and responsibilities in maintaining the integrity of the research record . However, due to a myriad of real and perceived barriers to communication, the requisite interactions between these key stakeholders are often insufficient. This frequently leads to delays in correcting the literature and a lack of transparency regarding rationale for posted retractions. All of these problems diminish the public’s faith in the research process and must be communally addressed. The following guidelines define the respective responsibilities of key stakeholders when questions arise regarding possible research or publication misconduct and identify barriers to communication as well as potential solutions. This document serves to complement prior guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and others for responding to published inaccuracies [3,4,5,6]. The existing literature provides advice on dealing with retractions, and on cooperation between different groups such as editors and universities. We aim to expand these recommendations by providing best practices for other key groups, and also address frequent barriers to effective communication and provide suggestions for working through these challenges.
The following guidelines emerged from the collaborative effort of a working group from the conference entitled Keeping the Pool Clean: Prevention and Management of Misconduct Related Retractions held on July 20–22, 2016, in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. Collectively, this 20-member working group has expertise spanning multiple scientific and professional disciplines with representatives from 14 institutions and five countries, including attorneys, Research Integrity Officers, journal editors, publishers, federal officials, and researchers. These guidelines are intentionally US focused, but the general nature of these recommendations is equally applicable in an international context. The intent of these guidelines is not to provide prescriptive recommendations for every potential scenario, rather to outline best practices that can serve as a springboard for implementation strategies. As such, this is a purposefully concise outline of key stakeholder responsibilities.
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Responsibilities
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Maintain compliance with, and foster an environment conducive to, the highest ethical standards for research including robust and rigorous research practices;
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Address and communicate observations of likely ethical breaches as appropriate;
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Sustain and create a local environment where ethical issues can be safely and honestly discussed;
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Employ rigorous experimental and analytical methods;
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5.
Maintain careful and accurate research records of all primary data, protocols, and other procedures (including analyses, software/code version);
-
6.
Archive data and documentation according to applicable guidelines, including those set by funding agencies and institutions;
-
7.
Regularly review raw data with the group leader, those who created the data, and other interested parties;
-
8.
Perform and report robust and transparent data analysis;
-
9.
Provide primary data and documentation on request (in the case of research involving human participants, appropriate safeguards to ensure participant confidentiality must be in place);
-
10.
Cooperate with government, institutional, and journal inquiries.
Institutions
-
1.
Designate a Research Integrity Officer or equivalent administrative officer to ensure institutional research activities are in compliance with regulations and community standards;
-
2.
Ensure prominent posting of contact information for designated Research Integrity Officer;
-
3.
Create an environment that fosters ethical behavior and rigorous practice through effective mentoring, education, and institutional oversight;
-
4.
Establish clear, confidential channels to report allegations of misconduct and protect whistleblowers from retaliation;
-
5.
Perform thorough, timely, and impartial assessment and investigation of credible allegations of research misconduct in accordance with relevant rules, policies, and laws;
-
6.
Protect both respondent and complainant privacy (to the extent possible) during ongoing investigations;
-
7.
Provide findings (redacted according to institutional policy) upon request from investigations when misconduct is found;
-
8.
Identify publications that warrant retraction or correction and provide timely notification and details to journals;
-
9.
Cooperate in investigations and communicate with publishers and responsible government agencies as appropriate.
Publishers and editors
-
1.
Effectively screen manuscripts for plagiarism, inappropriate textual and/or image duplications, discrepancies indicating inappropriate image manipulation, statistical irregularities, and other common pitfalls before publication;
-
2.
Publish clear policy and process guidelines regarding research and publication misconduct;
-
3.
Examine suspicions or allegations of serious problems in submitted manuscripts or published work (e.g., fraudulent data), beginning with a professional and open communication channel with the author(s), and, if appropriate, requesting primary data;
-
4.
Notify institutions when misconduct involving a publication or submitted manuscript is suspected after consideration of the authors’ response; publishers should consider adding to their authorship policy a requirement for authors to supply appropriate contact information for their institutional representatives, such as the Research Integrity Officer, at the time of manuscript submission;
-
5.
Determine which publications warrant retraction, expression of concern, or correction in accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines ;
-
6.
Cooperate with institutional investigations involving allegations of research misconduct, including sharing of relevant information within publishers’ stated policy guidelines;
-
7.
Issue freely available retraction/correction notices that provide a summary of the retraction, including who is retracting the article (e.g., author/s, institution, editor) and reason for retraction, in accordance with COPE guidelines ;
-
8.
Ensure retracted articles are clearly identified as such by search engines, and abstracting and indexing services.
(Regulatory or funding) agencies
-
1.
Publically post contact information for reporting of misconduct concerns;
-
2.
Where mandate allows, perform thorough, timely, and impartial oversight and/or investigation of credible allegations of misconduct according to relevant agency policy;
-
3.
Assess appropriate penalties (including appropriate recommendations for correcting the research record) for those found guilty of research misconduct according to relevant mandates;
-
4.
Ensure that relevant legal mandates and sanctions are executed per agency policy;
-
5.
Notify public of findings of research misconduct according to applicable federal or agency policy.
Overcoming barriers to communication: an agenda for harmonization
The responsibilities of researchers, institutions, agencies, and publishers in protecting the integrity of the research record are complementary and interdependent. In order to encourage collaboration, it is important to recognize the complexities and recurrent barriers to communication and to discuss potential solutions. The following challenges are frequently encountered in the communication process but should not be viewed as insurmountable barriers. We offer positive suggestions for moving through these roadblocks and outline opportunities for harmonization.
Share information
Appropriately handle and prevent threats of legal action
The best defense against researchers or authors who threaten to sue is for institutions to carry out thorough and confidential investigations into allegations of research misconduct, while adhering to relevant federal and institutional policies. This includes establishing and carefully following procedures and policies for handling allegations of research misconduct.
Establish adequate national oversight
Not all countries have a central agency or policy on how to handle allegations of research misconduct, although this is a topic of active conversation in Europe [7, 8]. Many U.S. agencies have avenues for reporting concerns of research misconduct (National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture), and other systems include Sweden’s independent Expert Group for Scientific Misconduct at the Central Ethical Review Board, and the Australian Research Integrity Committee, all of which could serve as a model for other groups to establish national mechanisms for reporting and investigating allegations of misconduct.
Ensure institutional research integrity oversight
There is great variation in institutional regulations, reporting channels, and allegation processes. Institutions should designate a Research Integrity Officer or equivalent administrative officer to oversee compliance of research activities in accordance with institutional policy and community standards. Additionally, the Research Integrity Officer should establish clear, confidential channels to report allegations of research misconduct and protect whistleblowers from retaliation, and institutions should ensure prominent posting of the Research Integrity Officer’s contact information and whistleblowing procedures.
Protect whistleblowers
Institutions and agencies must protect whistleblowers from retaliation .
Maintain transparency and declare potential conflicts of interest
It is the duty of researchers, institutions, and journals to prevent conflicts of interest from interfering with the open and honest communication and/or investigation of allegations of research misconduct. Conflicts of interest could include financial interests and fear of reputational loss, among others. Minimizing and fully declaring potential conflicts of interests are essential to transparency.
Create a positive research culture through researcher training in responsible conduct of research and good research practices
Institutions should facilitate a positive research culture [10, 11] at every level. Such a culture would be supported both by adopting hiring and promotion criteria that explicitly recognize and reward rigor, transparency, and ethical and collegial conduct, and by embedding responsible conduct of research (RCR) and good research practice within core training curriculum of every researcher, faculty member, and trainee. Such efforts may also include mandatory RCR training and/or the signing of an ethics code of conduct.
Perform timely investigations
Investigating allegations of research misconduct constitutes a considerable time and cost commitment. By establishing a clear research misconduct policy and procedures and committing to timely communication between stakeholders, involved parties may be spared substantial time and resources.
Conclusion
This document serves to summarize the respective roles of key stakeholders in maintaining the integrity of the research record and puts forth recommendations to overcome common communication barriers. It is important to note that many, if not most, errors in the published literature are not due to research misconduct, but rather to other factors including, but not limited to, irreproducible research, honest error, authorship disputes, or lack of necessary approvals (i.e., institutional human/animal/biosafety approval). We believe these recommendations will be useful not only to prevent research misconduct, but to promote open communication between stakeholders in sharing the responsibility to maintain the integrity of the research record. Additionally, these suggestions could enhance the efficiency of the investigative process, so that false alarms could be less resource-intensive.
Abbreviations
- COPE:
-
Committee on Publication Ethics
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Van Noorden R. Science publishing: the trouble with retractions. Nature. 2011;478(7367):26–8.
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Steneck N, Mayer T, Anderson M. Singapore statement on research integrity. Principles and Responsibilities for Research Worldwide https://wcrif.org/guidance/singapore-statement.
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Wager E, Barbour V, Yentis S, Kleinert S. Committee on Publication Ethics Retraction Guidelines https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines.
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Wager E, Barbour V, Yentis S, Kleinert S. Retractions: guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Obes Rev. 2010;11(1):64–6.
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Wager E, Kleinert S. Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity cases: guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines; 2012.
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Wager E, Kleinert S, Garfinkel M, Volker Bahr C, et al. Cooperation & Liaison between Universities & Editors (CLUE): Recommendations on Best Practice bioRxiv. 2017;doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/139170.
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Godecharle S, Nemery B, Dierickx K. Guidance on research integrity: no union in Europe. Lancet. 2013;381(9872):1097–8.
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Hiney M. Research integrity: what it means, why it is important and how we might protect it. Brussels: Science Europe; 2015.
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Rhodes R, Strain JJ. Whistleblowing in academic medicine. J Med Ethics. 2004;30(1):35–9.
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Nuffield Council on Bioethics The culture of scientific research in the UK; 2014. Available from: http://nuffieldbioethics.org/project/research-culture.
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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Fostering integrity in research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2017.
Acknowledgements
Working Group Members (in alphabetical order)
Carolyn J Broccardo (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA)
Noémie Aubert Bonn (Hasselt University, Belgium)
Laura Bandura-Morgan (National Science Centre, Poland)
Jeffrey Beall (Retired)
Catherine Bens (Colorado State University, USA)
Monica Bradford (Science/AAAS, USA)
Lyndon Branfield (Springer Nature, London, England)
Arthur M. Buchberg (American Association for Cancer Research, USA)
Ferric Fang (University of Washington, USA)
Anna Keith (Colorado State University, USA)
Barb Houser (Colorado State University, USA)
Jennifer K Nyborg (Colorado State University, USA)
Kelly Perry (Colorado State University graduate, USA)
Charon A. Pierson (COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics, USA)
Kenneth D. Pimple (Teach RCR Services)
Kaoru Sakabe (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, USA)
Dan Wainstock (Harvard Medical School, USA)
Tamara Welschot (Springer Nature, Netherlands)
B. R. Woods (Colorado State University, USA)
Alice Young (Texas Tech University, USA)
Funding
Conference funded by the Office of Research Integrity, US Department of Health and Human Services, grant #ORIIR150014 (principle investigator CJ Broccardo) and Colorado State University.
Availability of data and materials
Not applicable
Further reading (in alphabetical order)
Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. https://nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-code-responsible-conduct-research-2018
CSE’s White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications, 2012 Update. www.councilscienceeditors.org
European Science Foundation (ESF)/ All European Academies (ALLEA). The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. http://archives.esf.org/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&g=0&t=1544889565&hash=3243ba9632ffd36be8eabdc9d224bcb9df8b79f7&file=/fileadmin/be_user/CEO_Unit/MO_FORA/MOFORUM_ResearchIntegrity/Code_Conduct_ResearchIntegrity.pdf
Honesty, Accountability and Trust: Fostering Research Integrity in Canada. The Expert Panel on Research Integrity, 2010. https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/about/policies/research_integrity/index.html
National Science Foundation. Responsible Conduct of Research. https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/rcr.jsp
Office of Research Integrity. Handling misconduct. https://ori.hhs.gov/handling-misconduct
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Fostering Integrity in Research. 2017. The National Academies Press: Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.17226/21896
UK Research Integrity Office. Procedure for the Investigation of Misconduct in Research. www.ukrio.org
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable
Consent for publication
Not applicable
Competing interests
Lyndon Branfield is a legal advisor for journals published by Springer Nature, including RIPR.
Tamara Welschot is a Head of Advisory and Assurance, Research Integrity at Springer Nature.
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided 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 Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. | https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-018-0055-1 |
Public higher ed. enrollment down 7% in Massachusetts
BOSTON — Undergraduate enrollment levels at public higher education institutions took a historic tumble this fall, and education officials say they are fearful that the pandemic may forever throw college education plans off course for some students.
Undergraduate student enrollment in the Massachusetts public higher education system dropped roughly 7%, the largest single-year decrease since data collection began, according to preliminary data presented Tuesday to the Board of Higher Education. And fall enrollment trends for first-time degree-seeking students are down across the board, with the greatest decrease at the community college level.
The pandemic brought on an altered fall semester where students are adjusting to new teaching formats, restricted campus life, and increased financial strains as a result of an economic downturn associated with COVID-19. Middlesex Community College President James Marby said many students are being forced to put off education plans due to financial strain.
"Millions of jobs in the hospitality and retail sectors are gone and tragically many of our students have lost jobs," he said during the meeting. "They're being forced to put off their educational plans. And we are concerned that many may not be able to get back on track."
Jonathan Keller, an official at the Department of Education, said the impacts of the pandemic are having a disproportionate effect on low-income students and students of color.
"There's a fear that a lot of the students who decided they just won't go this year, may have difficulty deciding in subsequent years that they're gonna go back to higher education," said Keller, who presented the enrollment data to the board. "And it suggests implementations that really focus on these students and figuring out who the students we're losing."
Preliminary enrollment numbers presented Tuesday take into account community colleges, state universities, and the University of Massachusetts, where enrollment is down by half a percentage point compared to 2019. The numbers only look at undergraduates and do not account for graduate programs or full-time equivalency.
The Department of Education plans to finalize fall data collection in December.
The public higher education system's total undergraduate enrollment dropped from just over 172,000 students in fall 2019 to 160,360 a year later.
"There's been declines for a stretch of time and those have been mainly associated with demographic issues," Keller said. "But this most recent decline really can't be attributed to demographics alone, it really seems to suggest a very strong impact from the pandemic."
Much of the decline can be attributed to community colleges, which had the largest single-year undergraduate enrollment loss out of the three levels of higher education. Community colleges hit a peak enrollment of 100,798 in fall 2012 and then over the course of eight years dropped to 67,415 in fall 2020.
The 15 community colleges announced Monday that they plan to continue with largely remote, online, and hybrid learning formats for the spring semester. A minimal number of classes are slated to occur in-person such as labs and clinics.
Fall 2020 enrollments for first-time degree-seeking students at a majority of the community colleges in the state are at an all-time low. Massasoit Community College in Brockton experienced the sharpest decline in this category, with a nearly 35% decrease from fall 2019 to fall 2020.
Aside from providing preliminary fall undergraduate enrollment numbers, the report offered the top ten prevalent factors that institutions said had a negative impact on undergraduate enrollment.
That list included students taking time off, increased child care and parenting responsibilities, and discomfort or dissatisfaction with distanced learning. Students most commonly cited personal finances as the top factor in deciding not to attend or return to colleges or universities, according to Keller.
Department of Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago praised all levels of public higher education in the state, saying institutions have responded well to the fall semester openings. He said "robust" communication, information sharing, and coordination within the system have helped immensely.
"For all of our initial angst, the public higher education system has responded to the COVID-19 challenge professionally and effectively," he said Tuesday. "We still have significant challenges, both financial challenges that have been brought about by expenditures on COVID-19 as well as the uncertainty of not knowing exactly what the fall and winter will bring." | https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/state/2020/10/21/public-higher-ed-enrollment-down-7-in-massachusetts/114458786/ |
Getting the runaround with Chase customer service
An interesting thing happened last week when I logged on to the Chase Web site to pay my Visa bill.
Like many other consumers, I noticed that my credit limit had been reduced — substantially. So, being the curious type, I clicked on the Secure Message Center link so that I could find out why.
Simple enough, right? Not even close.
The message I received in response to my inquiry was that “after careful consideration” my credit limit had been decreased because I had “too few accounts paid as agreed” and my “total available credit on satisfactory bankcards is too low.”
Apparently “this decision was based in whole or in part on information provided by” Experian Consumer Assistance — one of the three major credit reporting bureaus.
The message suggested that I obtain a copy of my credit report, which I did.
The report told me I had “0 potentially negative items” and “three accounts in good standing.”
Also, the status on the accounts showed they were “never late.”
So, I wrote back to Chase and asked them to explain in further detail the two bullet points.
This response was even better: “If you have any questions about the account closure …”
What? Now my account has been closed? What’s going on here?
So, I called the toll-free number provided in the message.
Carlos took my call and I asked to speak with a supervisor. He said he would transfer me. Only problem was, apparently nobody told Carlos that supervisors don’t work on weekends.
So, I called back Monday morning and finally got a supervisor.
She simply read me the bullet points in the message (which had now increased from two to three) and couldn’t explain why Chase didn’t know whether my account was open or closed. Then things really got fun.
She said that if I had a problem, I should send them a copy of the credit report — and I got nowhere when I said they themselves had stated that they’d already reviewed the report, so why did I need to send it to them?
This was obviously going nowhere, so I asked to speak with her supervisor.
Her response: “Upper management does not take calls.”
Wow. That kinda flies in the face of the on-hold message which kept telling me, “We appreciate your business and value the opportunity to serve you.”
She offered to give me an address to which I could send a written inquiry, but I wanted to talk with a live person who could answer my questions, not just read a script.
So, I asked her for the name and phone number of her supervisor.
She told me they had many supervisors. I asked point blank if she was telling me she didn’t know the name of her supervisor and she responded, “That’s correct.”
Then she hung up on me.
Wow. That’s great customer service.
Mary Jane Rogers, who handles public relations for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., told me on Tuesday that she was very sorry that I had a bad experience and that she understood my frustration, but she said that mine was “not typical of the Chase customer experience.”
However, the blogosphere tells a different story.
The following was posted on TimeForBlogging.com under “Boycott Chase bank and learn what not to do in customer service”:
“I had a call into Chase about an issue with my credit card the other night and couldn’t believe what I heard. My discussion with a customer service representative was not going where I wanted it to, so I asked to talk to a supervisor. I was told that there was no supervisor to talk to ….”
Sound familiar?
There’s also a whole page of former Washington Mutual customers complaining about problems with Chase on denverpost.com. Way too much to write, so here’s the link: http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?p=928388.
Rogers told me that while Chase does have some customers who are not happy, “we do have thousands and millions of satisfied customers.”
But based on personal experience and what I was able to find online, I’m not buying the company P.R. line — even though Rogers did apologize profusely and repeatedly for my unpleasant experience.
So, is this type of treatment standard for ginormous financial institutions?
Well, I called a senior employee of a global financial institution, who isn’t allowed to comment on the record, to get his take. He said that all the large banks operate the same way as Chase because they are trying to save money by centralizing.
He also said that the best course of action to take when something like this happens is to “talk with a local branch manager in person. They will get you some help.”
Ah, a real person, offering real help.
That advice was echoed by Matt Gendron, vice president of operations, at Ent Federal Credit Union.
“Our mindset would be to handle the member at the first point of contact,” he said, but if that didn’t work, “we have a large enough, and yet compact enough, management group that we can get to someone who has an answer.”
Apparently there are some folks at Chase who didn’t get the memo.
Mike Boyd is editor of the Colorado Springs Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected] or 329-5206.
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3 Comments
I just opened my mail and read a wonderful letter from Chase telling me that my credit limit has been lowered (by 40%). I googled around and found your post… EXACT same excuses for dropping my limit. EXACT same B.S. unknown reasoning.
Why did this happen? Damned if I know. Never late on payments, have been with WaMu for 3 years before the takeover… credit score is 750. I only have 2 credit cards (small number I know). I’ve been using both pretty steadily and the WaMu…..excuse me “CHASE” card has been used quite heavily for the last year for business purchases. I’ve paid off the balance within two months each time ($3k max balance at certain points). Never a late fee, never any worries.
What has this WaMu to Chase conversion brought me? Nothing but trouble. APR’s raised; OK, I guess I can deal with that in this “tough economic climate”. But lowering my credit limit? You’re basically telling me “We don’t need your money”. If you’re going to lower my limit, I’m going to use your card less and you’ll get less money from finance charges.
WaMu was great, I’m sad it had to go (yeah, I know they had a lot of their own problems and thats why they failed). I’ll be be paying off and shredding my Chase CREDIT CARD within a month and I’m closing my Chase CHECKING ACCOUNT in a week once I sign up with another bank. On a more entertaining note: the last few times I went into my new “Chase” bank the people working there were uncharacteristically cheerful; almost like puppets. I wanted to ask them why they changed all of a sudden but didn’t have the time.
Thanks Mike for this nice post, I know I’m not alone in saying:
*U*K YOU CHASE!
I’ve heard Chase horror stories way before the WaMu buyout, that is why I’ve never worked with them. Now I know this story first-hand.
Thank you, Chase, for making it very clear that you don’t want my business! I’ll be joining that class-action lawsuit against you hopefully very soon!
As an organization grows, there are lots of different departments – moving parts. And many departments do not know what other departments are doing or why things are the way they are. All of this translates to poor customer experience. How can you trust some one with your money if they can not answer a straight forward question!
Customer facing problems can be basically classified into system issues and people issues with in the company. Most of the times its these broken systems – cog wheels that do not engage properly causing inefficiencies.
Smart businesses use structured processes that help minimize these issues. Customer satisfaction surveys is a start but designing the business processes for efficiency, effectiveness, consistency, and customer delight is the key. Businesses using this methodology typically gain significant market share and grow profitably. While no business can claim a perfect score, FedEx and Best Buy do a super job.
“we do have thousands and millions of satisfied customers.” What is that supposed to mean? Is it thousands or is it millions? Well, if they have thousands and millions of satisfied customers, then apparently thousands and millions of customers have never called Chase customer service. | |
Upon the request from the Office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic in Talas province (OPRGKR), the POiB supports establishment of the new Entrepreneurship Support Centre (ESC) in Talas within the project ¡§Business Promotion and Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises¡¦. The aim of the project is to support the regional development processes in Kyrgyzstan by assisting the local state bodies in fostering favourable conditions for development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) through supporting establishment of the ESCs in the regions. The ESCs¡¦ objective is to deliver comprehensive support for entrepreneurs, including training courses, consultancy and marketing assistance, disseminating information and promoting SMEs¡¦ interests through public-private dialogue events. To this end, the POiB will support the establishment of the ESC in Talas by recruiting local consultants (Team Leader, Business Consultant and Business-Lawyer).
Tasks and Responsibilities
The selected local Business- Lawyer will be required to provide the following services:
Providing consultations and written legal advice to entrepreneurs on legal documentation, on taxation, registration, re-registration, patent, trademark, access to public services and other legal matters directly related to the performance of their entrepreneurial activities;
Conducting meetings and seminars in the Talas province with participation of entrepreneurs and other stakeholders;
Assisting and consulting startups on strategies to mitigate risks and providing support for drafting and vetting of contracts, producing technically accurate quality standard work, drafting technically correct tax/financial reports;
Discussing and performing the qualitative and quantitative KPIs set by the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek;
Guiding the entrepreneurs for their legal compliance management/requirements: compliance with labour and employment laws, corporate laws, consumer protection laws, etc;
Being aware about recent developments in the law and informing/consulting entrepreneurs on changes and how it might affecting their business activities;
Collecting success stories of the clients after legal services to the extent possible.
Deliverables
The number of consultations and written advice to entrepreneurs on taxation, registration of a legal entity in regional offices of Ministry of Justice, registration in a tax office, social fund, re-registration, patent, registration and protection of intellectual property rights, access to public services and other legal matters directly related to the performance of their entrepreneurial activities;
Collection of relevant data and maintaining a database of ESC¡¦s clients with a disaggregated data by gender, region and age of participants;
The number of success stories from entrepreneurs on legal problem solving cases, and its influence in improvement/achievements in their business;
The number of agreements on comprehensive business support with clients and reports;
Monthly activity and progress reports on the support and filled form of consultations provided to local entrepreneurs, as well as on other conducted activities;
Copies of all above-mentioned deliverables have to be submitted to the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek before payment of the each installment;
Monthly and Final Deliverable reports on activities of the ESC to POiB are submitted. All reports should include parts with a disaggregated data by gender, region and age of participants. Training report should include analysis of pre-post tests (if applicable) and feedback forms.
For more detailed information on the structure and work of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, please see: //www.osce.org/programme-office-in-bishkek‘>https: //www.osce.org/programme-office-in-bishkek.
Necessary Qualifications
University degree in law, preferably in business law;
At least 5 years of working experience as a business lawyer;
Proven work experience and knowledge on providing consultations and written advice on legal matters related to the conduction of entrepreneurial activities; some comparative international experience would be an advantage;
Tags advisory services consumer protection legal services property rights public services regional development
Good analytical skills, including familiarity with business practices and economic methods;
Excellent interpersonal skills; able to relate easily and openly with government officials and private sector;
Good report writing skills;
Ability in providing analytical and advisory services;
Good computer skills;
Fluent in Russian and Kyrgyz languages; good understanding of English language (reading, writing and speaking).
Required competencies
Core values
Commitment: Actively contributes to achieving organizational goals
Diversity: Respects others and values their diverse perspectives and contributions
Integrity: Acts in a manner consistent with the Organization’s core values and organizational principles
Accountability: Takes responsibility for own action and delegated work
Core competencies
Communication: Actively works to achieve clear and transparent communication with colleagues and with stakeholders of the Organization
Collaboration: Works effectively with others on common goals and fosters a positive, trust-based working environment
Planning: Works towards the achievement of goals in a structured and measured manner
Analysis and decision-making: Analyses available information, draws well-founded conclusions and takes appropriate decisions
Initiative-taking: Proposes and initiates new ideas, activities and projects
Flexibility: Responds positively and effectively to changing circumstances
Managerial competencies (for positions with managerial responsibilities)
Leadership: Provides a clear sense of direction, builds trust and creates an enabling environment
Strategic thinking: Identifies goals that advance the organizational agenda and develops plans for achieving them
Managing performance: Helps to maximize team performance by providing active feedback and skill development opportunities
Remuneration Package
The duration of the contract of an expert based in Talas will be 44 working days with maximum fee of 45 EUR per day, starting on 2 November 2020 and ending on 31 December 2020.
How To Apply
Please, note that this vacancy is open for competition amongst Kyrgyz Republic citizens only. We strongly encourage applicants to use the online application system at //jobs.osce.org/vacancies‘>https: //jobs.osce.org/vacancies. However, if you have difficulties with the system you may use the OSCE offline application form found under //jobs.osce.org/resources/document/offline-application-form‘>https: //jobs.osce.org/resources/document/offline-application-form and forward the completed form quoting the vacancy number by e-mail [email protected]‘>[email protected].
The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, to offer an appointment at a lower grade or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration. The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates to apply to become a part of the organization. Applications received after the published deadline will not be considered. Please note that in the event of invitation for interview/test, the OSCE is unable to reimburse costs incurred. Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process. | https://www.wienerzeitung.at/amtsblatt/jobs/internationale-jobs/2077142-Local-Business-Lawyer-Economic-and-Environmental-Department-Talas-Bishkek-Kyrgyzstan.html |
It’s not uncommon for a former partner or spouse to move away and relocate after separation. Complications can arise when children are involved, as relocation may limit the time your child is able to spend with a parent or other significant person in their life. In some cases, the child can become caught up in abduction, relocation and passport issues requiring dedicated and professional legal intervention.
What should you consider before taking a child overseas?
In all cases, the number one priority should be the welfare of your child or children. It’s advisable to discuss the issue with your former partner prior to relocation to ensure you both remain on the same page. For example, satisfactory outcomes may be as easy as altering your parenting plan to accommodate longer visits during school holidays.
The situation can become complex when one party decides to relocate overseas, with a lot to consider, such as:
- The child’s age
- Educational requirements
- Safety and security issues
- Accommodation and transport
- Medical or special needs
- Cultural sensitivity and language difficulties
- The role of both parents in the child’s upbringing
- The child’s own preferences and views regarding the arrangements
If possible, it’s in the best interest of everyone to enter into a written ‘parenting plan’ or obtain a legally binding ‘parenting order’ to safeguard the health and wellbeing of your children. Taylor & Scott Family Law experts can guide you through the process and get the best deal to protect your interests.
What happens when one parent relocates overseas?
If you or your former partner intends to relocate overseas you should advise the other parent or guardian of your intentions as early as possible. This can be part of an agreed-upon parenting plan or consent order. Details of travel, overseas addresses and contact numbers should be provided.
In some cases, a child is relocated overseas without consent. International laws can be difficult to negotiate, and if your former partner refuses to allow your child to return to Australia, contact Taylor & Scott Lawyers for appropriate and decisive advice. You should also contact the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department for further clarification and assistance.
What is the process in the case of child abduction?
Although international laws in relation to family matters vary, Australia has agreements in place with some countries. The agreement, called the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“the Hague Convention”), gives you power to enforce a ‘recovery order’ for safe return of your abducted child or children to their usual country of residence.
Family dispute matters have a tendency to escalate quickly, so your comprehensive and confidential consultation with a Taylor & Scott Family Lawyer is advisable at the outset. The Hague Convention, although comprehensive, has limitations that include:
- It only applies between countries that are signatories to the convention.
- It only applies in situations where the child is less than 16 years old.
- The child needs to have normally resided in a contracted convention state directly prior to the breach of custody, access or relocation.
The judicial officer in charge of hearing a Hague matter can also assist both parties by participation in the dispute resolution process, along with providing guidance in general parenting matters.
What happens if a parent won’t consent to the issuing of a passport?
There may be justifiable concerns regarding the issuing of a passport in some instances. For example, one parent may be planning to relocate with the child to another country, with no intention of returning to Australia. In other situations, reluctance to sign a passport application form is more about control rather than care, and action needs to be taken.
The easiest course is to consult with Taylor & Scott Lawyers who can act on your behalf in negotiations with your former spouse or partner. Our mediation experts are second-to-none, and act with empathy, consideration and courtesy toward all concerned parties. We can establish a workable parenting plan or assist with the forming of binding parenting orders to ensure your interests and those of your child are satisfied.
If negotiations between partners reach a stalemate, Taylor & Scott Lawyers will guide you through the appropriate steps, including the submission of a B-9 application form for a child travel document such as a passport where you have court orders in place already providing you parental responsibility. If this step is unsuccessful, Taylor & Scott can assist your presentation to obtain a court order for a passport. We understand the sensitive nature of family issues and the effect they have on children and parents, and will leave no stone unturned in achieving the best possible outcomes for you and your family.
At Taylor & Scott, ‘We Care For You’. | https://www.taylorandscott.com.au/our-services/family-law/family-law-separation/family-law-separation-childrens-issues/childrens-issues-abduction-relocation-passport/ |
Showing employees you value them might be more challenging when in the midst of a crisis, but it’s even more important to do it at these times. With the COVID-19 emergency, healthcare workers, whether on the frontlines treating patients or behind the scenes providing support, are likely drawing on empty wells of energy. Here are some suggestions to show them you appreciate their dedication, drive, and passion for what they do.
- REMEMBER THEY’RE PEOPLE, TOO – If you have only brief interactions, make them count. If you have temporary workers in place for the crisis, make them feel welcome. Make meaningful connections with your employees by asking about their family by name and situation. Check in on, and be ready to respond to, their states of mind. Help them find solutions for child care, elder care, and family meals.
- KEEP IT POSITIVE – Many in healthcare get into the work because of the intrinsic feeling of making a difference, but in times when the volume of work increases dramatically and more outcomes are negative, it can be harder for employees to see the meaning in their work. Reinforce their feelings of worth by really listening to them and refocusing on the positives in the situation. As a leader you’ll need to walk the very fine line of earnestness and optimism in all your communication.
- SOLICIT FEEDBACK – In a fast-changing environment, better solutions will come from a group than just one individual. Where you can, ask for input from your staff and implement their suggestions. If a nurse has a suggestion to improve safety or efficiency, don’t just yada-yada the request. Take the time to consider it and, if feasible, put it in place.
- BE FLEXIBLE – Be willing to bend or break non-critical rules in order to express your concern for emotional and physical needs. Be tuned in to what makes the most sense in a given situation.
- RECOGNIZE THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS – Depending on your current situation, you might only have time for a heartfelt “Thank you” right now. If that’s so, make sure you are saying it. People who are continually tamping down concerns about their safety and that of their family so they can continue to provide essential services need to hear those words often. If your circumstances allow, keep up with your regular recognition programs and incorporate specific acknowledgement of the sacrifices they are making.
- COMMUNICATE WELL AND OFTEN – Whether personnel is informed or not can make a critical difference in patient care, especially as we learn more about this virus. Establish multiple channels of communication and be methodical about your approach to distributing information. Frequency of communication is key as new information is available and facilities adapt to changing directives.
- HELP THEM RECOVER – We’re being told “when this is over” is not coming any time soon. As we get past the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak, we will be able to return some normalcy to our lives. For some people, that will be when the results of the emotionally taxing crisis become evident. Be prepared to offer employees more time off, mental health support, and the larger rewards and recognition that were earned but not given in the midst.
These tips will go a long way to help healthcare workers weather the crisis, and the effects will not be forgotten for long after. Leaders who take the time and make the effort to value their employees will earn the respect, trust, and gratitude of their staffs. | https://www.leaderstat.com/knowledge-base/show-healthcare-employees-you-value-them-during-the-covid-19-crisis |
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