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Given a string str consisting of lowercase characters, the task is to find the total numbers of unique substrings with non-repeating characters.
Examples:
Input: str = “abba”
Output: 4
Explanation:
There are 4 unique substrings. They are: “a”, “ab”, “b”, “ba”.
Input: str = “acbacbacaa”
Output: 10
Approach: The idea is to iterate over all the substrings. For every substring, check whether each particular character has previously occurred or not. If so, then increase the count of required substrings. In the end return this count as count of all unique substrings with non-repeating characters.
Below is the implementation of the above approach:
CPP
Java
Python3
C#
4
Time Complexity: O(N2) where N is the length of the string.
Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important DSA concepts with the DSA Self Paced Course at a student-friendly price and become industry ready. To complete your preparation from learning a language to DS Algo and many more, please refer Complete Interview Preparation Course. | https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/count-of-all-unique-substrings-with-non-repeating-characters/ |
The mission of the association is to increase the influence of the European Aerial Surveying Industry on political and administrative decisions that affect it, to promote the use of aerial surveying data by educating decision makers, to ensure a predictable quality level of the services by certification, and to serve as a platform for communication and cooperation among the members to enact positive change.
Vision
To make European aerial surveying business sustainable.
Values
Our values are:
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We are professional
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We are independent
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We are constructive
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We create positive value for all members
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We act with integrity and high ethical standards
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We are respectful
Goals
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Be a platform for regular contacts/exchange/discussions within the industry and with our international client/customer-base. Organize regular meetings among the members to have an industry specific platform for discussion of relevant issues and general networking. Be a forum for CEOs/Top Managers to share and exchange best practices on business management
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Attain a high level of influence, visibility, reputation of the industry through lobbying and marketing. Achieve a high awareness in society of the strategic role that aerial survey data plays in the framework of the Digitalization, information systems and virtual reality. European Aerial Companies are key actor of these processes stated by Government, and largest companies.
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Define, maintain and promote quality, safety, ethical and business requirements for our industry and provide European wide acknowledged certifications. The standards should be implemented by all actors (providers and customers).
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Lobby to facilitate access to founds to develop regional and national programmes using airborne data instead of or along with Remote Sensing.
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Serve as influential counterpart to towards civil aviation authorities. Deal with and influence Aviation regulations (EASA) and safety standards. Inform and influence aerial management and civil aviation lobby regarding our constraints and flight permission.
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Participate in National and European institutions and key actors to discuss evolution of certification and rules (ISO and others), standards (Geospatial Database and Data Formats (City GML, IFC, LOD) and technical specifications (accuracy, resolutions, density) in the field of geospatial data. 0
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Represent the interests of the industry and serve as a counterpart for professional discussions and advice to regional and international bodies, and individual member-states on government competition, tax policies and trade policies
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Enact professional education within the industry. Provide a growing knowledge base for information and study by forming and supporting working groups to study and share technology performance. Cooperation with educational institutions.
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Support workforce development. If there is a shortage of technician/production workers for firms in Europe, can an association create a training and workforce development program to attract and prepare new employees to fill jobs in member firms
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Monitor and inform the industry about global acquisition programs
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Discuss new markets to "increase the pie"
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Represent the interests of the industry and serve as a counterpart for professional discussions and advice to the aircraft industry
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Support individual members or national groups in discussions about handling contractual elements, such as product and service guarantees, liabilities, and data privacy regulations.
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Collect data from member firms to compare and benchmark financial performance
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Seek and negotiate, on behalf of the members, favourable conditions at general service providers, such as law-firms or insurance providers. | https://www.eaasi.eu/manifest |
The trickster embodies contradiction. He creates order out of disorder and disorder out of order and thus he defines the two in terms of each other. With any definition one has to say what something is and what it isn’t; this is hot and this is cold, this is right , this is wrong. Wrong is that which is not right and right is not wrong. The trickster. uses this principle to teach by bad example, showing in a humorous way how things are not supposed to be done. The humor in these stories provides an emotional release through identification.
When one learns something new there are two sides to what one learns. When one learns how to do something like say wash dishes the person who instructs tells the person how it is to be done, “You put the dishes in the soapy water, scrub them, and rinse them in clean water.” This is in the positive.
The student may say “OK that’s how it is done but which is the way that it can’t be done; if I’m supposed to put the dishes in both the soapy water and the rinsing water, does it matter which I do first, or does the temperature of the rinsing water matter?”
I think the role of the trickster is to provide an example bf the way not to do things and thereby clarify how things are to be done.
The Zuni myth “Teaching the Mudheads How to Copulate,” provides a perfect example of the tricksters teaching by bad example. The “man” in the story tries to show these “clowns” how to do very simple things, the clowns on the other hand through their inability to grasp what he is showing them, teach how things are not supposed to be done. They teach children how not to sit how not to use a ladder, and how not to copulate.
Another example is in the “Turkey Makes the Corn and Coyote Plants it” story of the White Mountain Apache (p. 252). In this story, the coyote shows the people that cooked corn will not grow after it is planted. The people were given the corn and shown what to do with it, but the things that are crucially important and must be done exactly, is discovered by coyote. He shows by bad example that planting cooked corn does not cause corn to grow that is already cooked, but rather that nothing will be produced at all.
There is an element of humor in both of these stories. The first story where the mudheads are doing everything wrong must have been very funny to children, who are have already grasped the ways of doing these simple things. Also, the idea of planting cooked corn seems to be an idea that is intuitively absurd, but how does one know what will work if it hasn’t been done before. I think the place of humor in both of these stories is more than pure entertainment, but that it is also serves as an emotional release.
Whenever I have learned how to do something new I have made mistakes. These mistakes have helped me to gain a better understanding of the fundamental nature underneath what I have learned, but have also been at times painfully embarrassing. I think that when people listen to these trickster myths, they identify with the trickster’s failure to understand. I also think that when they laugh at the tricksters failings they are also laughing at their own; seeing someone else struggle with learning then gives them the distance they need to release those painful feelings of embarrassment.
When embarrassing things happen usually people are able to laugh about it when they get older, but at the time it seems very serious. That distance of years gives them a somewhat more removed perspective and allows them to release those emotions through laughter. I think that the humor in the trickster stories works much the same way. The listener identifies with the trickster but is removed from the perspective enough to laugh about it and thereby release his own feelings of embarrassment. Humor then m the trickster stories provides a much more immediate release of painful feelings of embarrassment, because instead of a temporal removal there is a personal one.
The “teaching by bad example” role of the trickster is just one of his many roles, but I think it is one of the most important. When the trickster teaches by bad example it is not only a useful educational tool which helps other people gain a better understanding of the fundamental nature underneath what they are learning, but the comical element of these bad examples also enables the audience to release their own feelings of embarrassment through laughter. It is easy for me to see why the tricksters are so important in the lives of Native Americans. The learning process can be quite painful and the tricksters play a major role in lessening the blow and releasing the pain of life’s difficult lessons. | https://art.brettanthonydixon.com/writer/essays/role-of-the-trickster/ |
By Kyle Peterson, Architect, LEED AP BD+C, Associate
Currently under construction and awaiting its official groundbreaking ceremony next week, Liberty Community Plaza creates a sense of place and unites Whittier with a new community center and park. The design of Liberty Community Plaza builds on the City’s distinctiveness with an identifiable entry for the community center off the main street, a Veteran’s plaza and picturesque open park space.
Centrally located near the plaza entry, the community center serves as the hub of Liberty Community Plaza and offers a view of the entire park, enabling staff to supervise activities both in the park and within the community center from the reception desk area. The building is bisected by the central lobby space, which divides the building into separate use zones. Half of the building is dedicated to Helpline Youth Counseling (HYC), whose mission is to serve youth and their families by promoting the development of strong individuals and families in their community through education, therapeutic approaches, advocacy and the utilization of community resources. The other half of the building serves the community through multi-purpose, activity and other meeting spaces.
Flexibility is important to accommodate all the functions that Los Angeles County’s Parks and Recreation Department offers. A large space with two operable wall partitions enables the County to hold large meetings in one space or up to three smaller gatherings in the same space. These spaces open out to an activity patio that extends the interior space, connecting the scenic landscape of the park with the interior gathering spaces.
The landscape design features demonstration gardens that educate the community about the native ecosystems of Southern California, while maximizing usable open green space. Native and adaptive landscaping throughout the park provides a low maintenance and low water-use palette that responds to the climate and creates an oasis for the community.
The park amenities cater to the surrounding community’s recreational needs and include a multi-purpose open field, decomposed granite exercise path with exercise equipment stations and play structures. It also includes a small amphitheater for performances and movie screenings.
Liberty Community Plaza is targeting LEED Gold certification, and the project includes a park area and plaza that contribute to two innovative LEED credits: Access to Recreational Facilities and Access to Civic and Public Space. Los Angeles Community Development Commission also elected to fund a new shuttle bus to service the community center and claim the Public Transportation Access credit. The project exceeds T24 energy by 20% and acquires 70% of electricity from renewable energy credits (REC) and green energy sources: wind power, solar PV, geothermal and non-gaseous biomass.
Project Team:
Mark Schoeman, Evan Troxel, Xiang Liu, Beryl Mensonides, Maria Mendoza, Tom Hunter, Jon Richardson, Scott Rogers, Alondra Lopez, Mike Mosakowski, Chris Taylor and myself. | https://hmcarchitects.com/news/liberty-community-plaza/ |
Heart disease and stroke are serious public health concerns. Modifiable lifestyle risk factors include high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, being overweight, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, smoking and stress1. Adopting healthy behaviours, including a healthy diet, can help prevent early disease.
On September 9, 2014, the Heart & Stroke Foundation released a position statement on "Sugar, Heart Disease and Stroke" recommending that "total intake of free sugars not exceed 10% of total daily calorie (energy) intake, and ideally less than 5%”. These recommendations mirror draft recommendations released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 5, 20142. However, the draft WHO recommendations were based on evidence related to dental caries only, not obesity or other diseases; the 10% ‘strong’ recommendation was based on evidence graded by the WHO as “moderate” and the ‘conditional’ 5% recommendation was based on evidence graded by the WHO as “very low quality”3.
Unfortunately, this new position statement has not systematically reviewed the breadth of scientific evidence available with respect to sugar consumption and health effects. The references cited in the position statement either do not support associations between sugars and obesity, diabetes, or blood cholesterol; are not relevant to the issue under discussion; are observational studies providing very low quality evidence; or are narrative reviews rather than systematic reviews. All recent systematic reviews have not found support from the totality of the evidence to link sugar with heart disease or other lifestyle diseases, with the exception of dental caries, in which all fermentable carbohydrate play a role4-10. None of these systematic reviews has found evidence to set a specific limit on added sugars intake. Current estimated intakes of added sugars in Canada are in the range of 11-13% daily energy intake11, which is considered moderate and is well below the Institute of Medicine’s suggested maximum intake of 25% energy to prevent inadequate micronutrient intakes in some population subgroups12.
In terms of maintaining a healthy weight, the Heart & Stroke Foundation correctly observes that “While there are a variety of causes of obesity, researchers speculate that excess caloric intake may be the single largest driver”. Excess energy intake is associated with an increased risk of obesity, however the source of the calories has not been found to be a significant factor10. Therefore a singular focus on any one nutrient including sugar, which has not been identified as a unique contributor to excess calories or weight gain, will not address the problem of rising obesity rates in Canada.
The Canadian Sugar Institute, Nutrition Information Service supports public health approaches to reducing obesity that reflect the complexity of the disease and its multiple risk factors. Maintaining a healthy weight depends on regular physical activity and eating a healthy diet according to Canada's Food Guide, including avoiding fad diets, managing portion sizes, and moderating overall food intake13.
References
- Heart & Stroke Foundation, Heart disease prevention. June 2012. http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3483919/k.EB14/Heart_disease__Prevention_and_risk_factors.htm
- WHO Draft Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. March 2014. http://www.who.int/nutrition/sugars_public_consultation/en/
- Canadian Sugar Institute, Review of WHO draft guidelines on sugars. Review of WHO "Draft guidelines on free sugars released for public consultation, 5 March 2014"
- Gibson S, Gunn P, Wittekind A, Cottrell R.The effects of sucrose on metabolic health: a systematic review of human intervention studies in healthy adults. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2013;53(6):591-614.
- Sievenpiper JL, de Souza RJ, Mirrahimi A, Yu ME, Carleton AJ, Beyene J, Chiavaroli L, Di Buono M, Jenkins AL, Leiter LA, Wolever TM, Kendall CW, Jenkins DJ. Effect of fructose on body weight in controlled feeding trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2012 Feb 21;156(4):291-304.
- Cozma AI, Sievenpiper JL, de Souza RJ, Chiavaroli L, Ha V, Wang DD, Mirrahimi A, Yu ME, Carleton AJ, Di Buono M, Jenkins AL, Leiter LA, Wolever TM, Beyene J, Kendall CW, Jenkins DJ. Effect of fructose on glycemic control in diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials. Diabetes Care. 2012 Jul;35(7):1611-20.
- European Food Safety Authority. Scientific opinion on dietary reference values for carbohydrates and dietary fibre. EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. EFSA Journal. 2010; 8(3):1462.
- Ruxton, C. H. S., Gardner, E. J. and McNulty, H. M.(2010) 'Is Sugar Consumption Detrimental to Health? A Review of the Evidence 1995—2006', Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 50: 1, 1-19.
- Te Morenga L, Mallard S, Mann J. Dietary sugars and body weight: Systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies. British Medical Journal. 2013;346:e7492.
- Langlois K, Garriguet D. Diet composition and obesity among Canadian adults. Statistics Canada Health Report 2009.
- Brisbois TD, Marsden SL, Anderson GH, and Sievenpiper JL. Estimated Intakes and Sources of Total and Added Sugars in the Canadian Diet. Nutrients, 2014, 6(5);1899-1912.
- Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. Dietary reference intakes for energy, carbohydrates, fiber, fat, protein and amino acids. National Academic Press. Washington, 2005. | https://sugar.ca/news/view/209 |
Torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentGUIDANCE NOTELast updated: June 2019
In the cases of applicants for whom torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment may be a real risk, there would often be a nexus to a reason for persecution under the definition of a refugee, and such individuals would, therefore, qualify for refugee status. However, with reference to cases where there is no nexus to a Convention ground and the applicant would not qualify for refugee status, the need for subsidiary protection under Article 15(b) QD should be examined.
When examining the need for protection under Article 15(b) QD, the following considerations should be taken into account:
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Healthcare unavailability and socio-economic conditions: It is important to note that serious harm must take the form of conduct on the part of a third party (Article 6 QD). In themselves, the general unavailability of healthcare, education or other socio-economic elements (e.g. situation of IDPs, difficulties in finding livelihood opportunities, housing) are not considered to fall within the scope of inhuman or degrading treatment under Article 15(b) QD, unless there is intentional conduct on the part of a third party, in particular the intentional deprivation of the applicant of appropriate healthcare.
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Criminal violence: Criminal networks in Iraq have been exploiting children for drug trafficking and dealing purposes and migrants for forced labour. Actors such as PMU and tribes are also reported to engage in criminality. Criminal violence is usually motivated by financial gain and power struggle. Where there is no nexus to a reason for persecution under the refugee definition, the risk of crimes, such as killing, armed robbery, kidnapping, destruction of property, extortion, forced labour, child recruitment, trafficking for sexual exploitation, etc. may qualify under Article 15(b) QD.
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Arbitrary arrests, illegal detention and prison conditions: Special attention should be paid to the phenomena of arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, as well as to prison conditions. When assessing the conditions of detention, the following elements can, for example, be taken into consideration (cumulatively): number of detained persons in a limited space, adequacy of sanitation facilities, heating, lighting, sleeping arrangements, food, recreation or contact with the outside world.
Reports mention that there are arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention, including in secret detention facilities, and widespread torture, especially of terrorism suspects. Detention facilities have been described by UNAMI as seriously overcrowded and with poor infrastructure, including the facilities for juveniles; and children are not always separated from adult detainees. Torture is reported to remain a widespread practice in police detention, interrogation cells, and in prisons. Detained ISIL suspects have been subjected to treatment such as electrocution, solitary confinement, and beatings by investigators. There were reports of deaths in custody following torture or other ill-treatment. International human rights groups documented a wide range of torture and abuses in detention facilities run by the Ministry of Interior and, to a lesser degree, in facilities of the Ministry of Defence and in facilities run by the KRG. In KRI, the access of local and international organisations to detention facilities is also severely limited, rendering monitoring of the situation almost impossible.
Furthermore, it can be assessed that in cases where the prosecution or punishment is grossly unfair or disproportionate, or where subjecting a person to prison conditions which are not compatible with respect for human dignity, a situation of serious harm under Article 15(b) QD can occur. Where there is no nexus to a reason for persecution, such treatment may qualify under Article 15(b) QD.
Please note that exclusion considerations could be relevant. | https://easo.europa.eu/country-guidance-iraq-2021/article-15b-qd |
Full investigation into all aspects of the case is key in road traffic accidents claims
Mr M. was injured as a result of a road traffic accident in which a third party driver collided with the side of his vehicle.
Previous solicitors wrongly claim to Motor Insurer's Bureau (MIB)
Mr M. had went to another firm of solicitors originally to make a road traffic accident claim.
His previous Solicitors had informed him that after carrying out liability investigations; it seemed that the third party was not insured at the time of the accident.
In light of this information, his solicitors had intimated a claim to the Motor Insurer's Bureau (MIB) under their uninsured driver’s scheme and the MIB were denying liability.
Switched road traffic accident claim to Digby Brown
Mr M. asked if Digby Brown would take over the handling of his road traffic accident claim as he had been a client in the past and was impressed by the level of service provided.
After carrying out our own investigations, we established that insurance was in fact in place.
Our solicitors raised a claim against the other driver's insurers, and, after failing to receive a response from the insurers, we raised an action in the Sheriff Court.
Mr M.'s case settled shortly thereafter.
What our clients say about us
We put our clients at the centre of everything we do and are committed to providing the very best service. The hundreds of five star reviews we have received on Trustpilot is a reflection of this approach.
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Car accident, where I was non liable but suffered ...Michael -
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First class service from Sarah in the Inverness of...R M -
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Thinking of making a claim?
Digby Brown's highly trained and experienced team will give you all the support you need.
How your case is funded
Don't be worried about the cost of legal advice. We will fully explain how your claim will be funded.
Frequently asked questions
Digby Brown are here to help. Here are some answers to some of your frequently asked questions. | https://www.digbybrown.co.uk/clients-we-have-helped/full-investigation-into-all-aspects-of-the-case-is-key-in-road-traffic |
The conserved angular momentum L obeys a simple formula for a constant vertical (or else horizontal) rotation axis of the wheel:
L = ω m r^2
Since this expression is hard to remember by heart, the word “L’hombre” can help even though it is not high-Spanish. ω is the rotation rate, m the mass and r the radius of Noether’s frictionlessly rotating bicycle wheel.
If ω is halved (as on the surface of a neutron star), what about m and r , the other two components of the conserved L ?
You guess it: m is halved and r doubled. How come? The halved mass follows from the halved frequency and hence energy of the photons produced down there. They are locally transformable into particles with mass, via quantum mechanics’ creation and annihilation operators. The resulting half-mass atoms have a doubled Bohr radius: so r is doubled if ω is halved.
But does this doubled size of the wheel rotating downstairs at halved speed not contradict the fact, implicit in the theory which underlies the accelerating Einstein rocketship (special relativity), that light has to travel up and down along straight vertical lines?
The latter fact indeed remains in charge. It thereby entails that the doubled radius of the horizontally rotating wheel must be optically masked when viewed from above. So the wheel looks non-enlarged horizontally when viewed from above – even though its radius r is doubled. | https://lifeboat.com/blog/2015/04/noethers-theorem-equivalence-principle-c-global-part-ii |
Posted: February 2, 2016
It's that time of year again, when the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honours Canadian musical artists, bands, producers, et. al. for their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music - the JUNO Awards.
For a Canadian in the music industry it is, from all accounts, the highest form of patriotic pats on the back - so while we weren't surprised to see so many East Coast Artists on the the list of this year's nominees - we can admit we're delighted....and some proud!!!
We've put a heart beside those amazing Atlantic Canadians and we'll be cheering you on this spring! SABS
This year JUNO Week will be Calgary, March 28 – April 3, 2016. For more information & for a complete list of nominees visit junoawards.ca
No Comments »
No comments yet. | http://seaandbescene.com/2016/02/2016-juno-nominations-east-coast-contenders/ |
Among patients who had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, intravenous sodium nitrite given by paramedics during resuscitation did not significantly improve their chances of being admitted to or discharged from the hospital alive. The study was presented at the recent "virtual" American College of Cardiology 2020 Scientific Session (ACC.20)/World Congress of Cardiology (WCC). Lead investigator Francis Kim, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, explained that sodium nitrate is an antioxidant; animal studies have suggested that under conditions of hypoxia, it is converted into the vasodilator nitric oxide, which can increase blood flow to the brain and heart tissues. In animal models of cardiac arrest, the use of sodium nitrite during resuscitation increased survival by almost 50%.
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@ashish Results showed no statistically significant differences between the groups who received placebo, low-dose sodium nitrite, or high-dose sodium nitrite on survival to hospital admission (the primary endpoint) or on hospital discharge (the secondary endpoint). There was also no difference in either endpoint in the subgroup with ventricular fibrillation. | https://forum.reanfoundation.org:443/topic/3658/sodium-nitrite-disappoints-in-cardiac-arrest |
An award-winning organization offering unique educational expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic. Our mandate is to educate the world’s youth about the importance of the Polar Regions, support their continued growth and inspire and catalyze initiatives that contribute to global sustainability.
This summer, SOI will bring together Indigenous and non Indigenous youth and educators from around the world on an expedition to the Canadian Arctic and Western Greenland July 23-August 7, 2019. Through this immersive, cross-cultural learning journey, youth will develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Arctic and engage in key topics such as climate change, ocean conservation, and more!2019 Arctic Expedition
Expedition to Community (E2C) is a youth-led service program that is grounded in, and supported by, community.
Hosted by the Students on Ice Foundation, funding for E2C is provided by Canada Service Corps and reflects the Government of Canada’s commitment to promote civic engagement and build capacity in the North.Expedition to Community
Students on Ice is proud to support a global community of more than 2,500 talented and diverse alumni. Learn more about their stories and positive impact across disciplines and around the world.
The SOI Foundation is committed to educating, inspiring and empowering the world’s youth through life-changing expeditions to the Polar Regions and ongoing project, outreach and mentorship support. Be a part of the journey.
Students on Ice is proudly supported by bv02.
This website was made possible by a generous contribution from the Leacross Foundation. | http://studentsonice.com/?content=careers |
The responsibiltiy for returning samples to the laboratory is with the customer.
Samples for bacteria should be dropped back within 6 hours of taking the sample. If this is not possible, then samples should be posted back with next day delivery.
Samples for chemical only can be dropped back in person or alternatively posted back.
Our postal address is
The Water Lab
Unit C3
M4 Business Park
Celbridge
Co Kildare
If the customer has received sample bottles that are damaged when delivered, please inform the laboratory and we will post out new bottles. Contact us on 01-6275656 or email [email protected]
Sample kits will be sent out within 1 week of confirmation of purchase. If you need them urgently, please contact the office.
Any sample kits that are posted out and are subsequently not required, there will be an administration charge of 20 euro. | https://www.watertesting.ie/delivery-returns.35.html |
I think we all have projects and goals we want to start or get around to someday that we keep putting off. Maybe it's learning how to play an instrument, writing a book, learning a new language, or getting in shape. It can be difficult to find the motivation to do something you ultimately want to do but is difficult to get started on.
So, here's some ideas on how to get yourself motivated to reach your goals.
1. Stop making excuses.
Sometimes even if we really want to complete a goal, our brain intervenes with all sorts of reasons not to do it. "Eh, I have a headache," or, "It takes too much time," or, "It's too much effort," or even doubts like, "Will it really lead to anything?" I say, the bottom line is, if you really want to get something accomplished, and it won't hurt yourself or others, then do it. Don't wait until you feel like doing it:
2. Don't be a perfectionist.
This is related to the first one, but it's more along the lines of, don't wait for the ideal time or circumstances to get something done. Newsflash: nothing in life is ever ideal. There's always downsides and upsides to everything. So don't wait until the weather is perfect to go running. Don't wait until you feel energized and inspired to start writing that novel.
But don't be too perfectionistic about your goals, either. Try to set realistic, achievable goals for yourself, and give yourself credit for the progress you make, even if it's just a little bit of progress compared to the amount you wanted to make.
3. Just get started.
Again, don't wait. If you really want something (again, that doesn't harm anyone, including yourself), then go for it! Even if the conditions aren't super great, start it if you're able to. Start. Starting is always the hardest part, but once you start, you might be surprised at how much you can get done.
4. Reward yourself and take breaks.
One thing I did freshman year of college was, when I had a book to read for a class, at the end of each chapter, I'd allow myself to eat a handful of dark chocolate M&M's. Another rule of thumb for me was taking a 15 minute break for every hour of homework I completed. Both of those tactics allowed me to do my work with a better attitude and the breaks helped me come back to it with a refreshed mind.
5. Visualize the outcomes you'd like to come out of accomplishing your goal.
Think of why you want to accomplish the goal, and hold a picture of what that would mean for your life in your mind. Maybe it's you smiling in the mirror, more self-confident after working out regularly, or it's holding that college diploma, feeling free and excited for the future, after years of hard work. When you have a clear idea of what it is you want to get out of your goal, and really imagine it happening, that can be a great motivator for accomplishing your goal.
Good luck on whatever it is you want to get done! Here's a cute GIF to help with your motivation: | https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-get-motivated |
With their ability to cross traditional boundaries and achieve a level of functionality greater than their component elements, mega-systems have helped corporations and government organizations around the world resolve complex challenges that they otherwise couldn’t address with stand-alone systems. Engineering Mega-Systems: The Challenge of Systems Engineering in the Information Age provides a clear understanding of the engineering of this class of systems—a process that demands consideration of increasing program scale and the rapid change of underlying technologies.
Written by Renee Stevens, a Senior Principal Engineer at The MITRE Corporation with decades of experience analyzing, engineering, and acquiring large-scale systems for the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies, this book explains how the engineering of mega-systems is inherently different from that of large-scale monolithic systems. It supplies the vocabulary and framework needed to explore the issues relevant to mega-systems. This framework then evolves into the Profiler diagnostic tool that helps you understand the nature and context of the system at hand and, on that basis, select the most appropriate processes, tools, and techniques.
Stevens examines commercial and government applications of mega-systems to provide insight into the contemporary challenges of engineering these systems in three critical dimensions: engineering processes, management processes, and the larger context in which these systems are developed and deployed. Complete with two case studies in engineering mega-systems that illustrate valuable lessons learned and highlight emerging practices, this book supplies the understanding and the tools needed to begin engineering, characterizing, and acquiring mega-systems across multiple dimensions.
Table of Contents
SETTING THE STAGE
List of Acronyms
Introduction
The Trend Toward Large-Scale, Richly Interconnected Systems
Why This Book?
Organization of the Book
Context and Trends
Changing the Strategic Environment in the U.S. Department of Defense
The Imperative to Share Information across Agencies
Enabling Conditions
Institutional Trends: Enterprisewide, Top-Down Perspective
Implications for Systems and Programs
A Look Ahead
CONCEPTS AND FRAMEWORKS
Mega-System Concepts
What Is a System?
Mega-Systems
Summary
A Framework for Exploring Mega-Systems
Basis for the Framework
Elements of the Basic Framework
Tame versus Wicked Problems
Engineering and Acquiring Mega-Systems
What Is Systems Engineering?
Mega-System Challenges for Systems Engineers
Troubled Large-Scale Systems
Levels of Systems Engineering
Enterprise Systems Engineering Profiler
CASE STUDIES IN ENGINEERING MEGA-SYSTEMS
Introduction to Mega-System Case Studies
A Note about Case Studies
Approach to Mega-System Case Studies
Single Integrated Air Picture
Motivation: Moving from Independent Systems to a Theater-Wide Integrated Capability
Standing up a System Engineering Organization
SIAP System Engineering Process
Building the IABM
Formalizing the SIAP
Summary
SIAP Mapping to the Systems Engineering Profiler
Insights for Engineering Mega-Systems
Developing the Electronic Product Code Network
Background
The Auto-ID Center
The Vision: An Internet of Things
Concept and Technologies
RFID Design Process and Implementation
Transition from Research to Commercialization
EPC Adoption
Summary
EPCglobal Network Mapping to the Extended Framework
Insights for Engineering Mega-Systems
Observations from the Case Studies
Case Study Recap
Observations
THE WAY AHEAD
The Way Ahead
Emerging Tenets
Matching Practice to Circumstances
An Emerging View of Systems Engineering as a Continuum of Practice
Refining the Engineering Tenets: A Way Ahead
An Emerging View of Next-Generation Practice
Concluding Thoughts
POSTSCRIPT: PROFILING A COMPLEX ACQUISITION PROGRAM
Multiple Purposes of the Study
Approach
Findings
The Profile as an "Uncertainty Map"
Recommended Practices for Dealing with Uncertainty
Conclusion
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Author(s)
Biography
Renee G. Stevens is a Senior Principal Engineer at The MITRE Corporation. She has 30 years of experience in the analysis, engineering, and acquisition of large-scale systems for the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies. Her current interests lie in research and practice contributing to the development of an enterprise systems engineering discipline.
Stevens has developed the well-received Profiler tool for use in characterizing the environment and context in which a system will be developed and will operate. It serves as both a diagnostic tool and the basis for a situational model. Results have been widely briefed to government, academic, and professional audiences. She is applying the model to the assessment of several large-scale programs and is conducting research on innovative strategies and practices to improve the acquisition of information technology systems.
Stevens received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Hunter College, City University of New York, in 1966, and a master’s degree in public and business administration from George Washington University in 1981. She is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Academy of Management. | https://www.routledge.com/Engineering-Mega-Systems-The-Challenge-of-Systems-Engineering-in-the-Information/Stevens/p/book/9781420076660 |
The events in Exodus chapter 8 revolving around the Pharaoh of Egypt and his interaction with God through Moses have roused many a Bible skeptic to revulsion and anger at the thought of such a seemingly unjust and cruel God. Truthfully, it’s not only Bible skeptics that take issue with this story. Former Christian Kendall Hobbs cites the story of Pharaoh in a list of alleged “atrocities committed by God” in the article, “Why I Am No Longer a Christian.” Hobbs writes, “…the Exodus story when the Egyptian Pharaoh was repeatedly ready and willing to let Moses and his people go, until God hardened his heart, and then God punished him for his hardened heart by sending plagues or killing children throughout all of Egypt.” Some self-professed Christians share Hobbs view, leading them to see a stark contrast between the “wrathful God of the Old Testament” and the “loving God of the New Testament.”
This is a blatantly unbiblical view as there are many verses throughout the Bible proclaiming that God does not change. Revelation 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” I believe asking ourselves a series of questions can be helpful in reconciling these events.
Is differing verb usage between the Hebrew and Greek languages and modern English important to this story?
As readers of the Bible, we should be aware that not all words and figures of speech recorded in the Bible come across perfectly as expressed in our modern usage. Bible translators usually do a good job of taking care of this when translating our modern Bibles. E.W. Bullinger was a biblical scholar and theologian of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s who engaged in in- depth studies of biblical figures of speech. Dave Miller and Kyle Butts discuss his work in their article for Apologetics Press, “Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?.” Miller and Butts include the following example from Bullinger’s work,“To illustrate, in discussing the Israelites, Deuteronomy 28:68 states: ‘Ye shall be sold (ie, put up for sale) unto your enemies…and no man shall buy you.’ The translators of the New King James Version recognized the idiom and rendered the verse, ‘you shall be offered for sale.’ The text clearly indicated that they would not be sold, because their would be no buyer, yet the Hebrew active verb for ‘sold’ was used.”(There are multiple examples of this figure of speech. To read about more visit the link above to the article written by Dave Miller and Kyle Butts.)
Miller and Butts continue,“…Bullinger’s fourth list of idiomatic verbs deals with active verbs that ‘were used by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent said to do.’ (p. 823, emp in orig.)” Bullinger actually uses the example of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart to illustrate the biblical application of an active verb being used to express permission being given. Miller and Butts write, “When the text says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it means that God would permit or allow Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened.”
Did God change Pharaoh’s heart?
An important question to ask is this, “Did God change Pharaoh’s inherent nature in order to set this series of events in motion?” The answer is, absolutely not. There is nothing in the recorded history that would reflect that Pharaoh was sympathetic toward the Hebrews at any point prior to his interaction with Moses. In fact, the situation is just the opposite. David Guzik does an excellent job of putting this into perspective in his Exodus sermon series. He reminds us that Pharaoh was not sitting on his thrown all day thinking of ways he could improve the lives of the Israelites. Instead, he oppressed them terribly. They were forced to perform hard labor as slaves, were mistreated, and beaten.
The fact is, the Hebrews had become so numerous that the Egyptian Pharaohs had perceived them as a potential threat for years. A threat they had already unsuccessfully attempted to diminish by (a) enslaving them (Exodus 1:11-14); (b) demanding that Hebrew midwives kill all Hebrew male babies as they were born (Exodus 1:15-21); and (c) commanding all of his people to kill Hebrew baby boys by throwing them into the Nile River (Exodus 1:22- 2:10).
The Pharaoh that Moses interacted with was no different. Exodus chapter 5 explains that, calling them “lazy,” Pharaoh increased the Israelites’ work load by requiring them to collect the straw used to make bricks (their overseers had formerly provided this to the Israelites) without lowering their daily brick quotas in an attempt to overwork them to the point that they would be too exhausted to listen to what Moses and Aaron had to say.
Pharaoh’s heart was hard before Moses ever darkened his palace door. Loren gives the perfect analogy, writing for Answers From the Book, “When wet concrete is poured into a mold to form a sidewalk, it remains concrete both before and after it hardens. It doesn’t change into something entirely different.”
What does the Bible say about who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?
Now that we have established that Pharaoh had a “heart problem” long before Moses entered the scene, let’s discuss what the Bible actually says about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Walter Kaiser, President Emeritus and Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary writes, “In all there are ten places where ‘hardening’ of Pharaoh is ascribed to God (4:21; 7:3, 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17). But it must be stated just as firmly that Pharaoh hardened his own heart in another ten passages (7:13, 14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34, 35; 13:15). […] Even more significant is the fact that Pharaoh alone was the agent of the hardening in the first sign and in all the first five plagues. Not until the sixth plague was it stated that God actually moved in and hardened Pharaoh’s heart (9:12), as He had warned Moses in Midian that He would have to do (4:21).”
Does the fact that God knows the end from the beginning mean that He manipulates free will?
An innate characteristic of God is that He is all-knowing and His will is sovereign. This fact in no way constrains an individual’s free will or negates that individual’s responsibility nor the consequences that result. This is important: God is not “winging” it as He goes, rolling with the punches as history unravels. God has had a plan in place for mankind since before creation. He didn’t have to improvise His plan by directing Pharaoh to act because He knew what Pharaoh was going to do long before Pharaoh did. Romans 9:17 says, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’”
God used Pharaoh, acting of his own accord by the direction of his own free will, to carry out His sovereign will. Loren writes in the Answers From the Book article, “Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart,” “That God knew beforehand how Pharaoh would respond is certain. God is all-knowing. Yet in this encounter between a proud and hard-hearted man and a merciful but holy God, we have the mysterious tension between man’s free will and God’s sovereign will. In a perfect God’s dealings with sinful man, neither is ever frustrated or tampered with. God accomplishes His will and man reaps what he sows; freely deciding at every juncture his own course of action. That God knows the end from the beginning should never be interpreted to mean that He in any way affects that outcome by manipulating the free will that He Himself has placed within every man. Just because He knew what was already in the heart of Pharaoh, as He surely knows what is in the heart of every man, does not mean that He moved the hand of Pharaoh nor tempted him to commit evil (James 1:13).”
Does the fact that God created the circumstances that caused Pharaoh’s heart to harden mean that Pharaoh wasn’t responsible for his actions? | https://truthsnitch.com/tag/mans-free-will/ |
Founded in 1839, Virginia Military Institute has produced leaders imbued with a high sense of public duty and possessing the skills to lead successfully across the military, public, and non-profit arenas. Virginia Military Institute operates under the philosophy that the measure of a college lies in the quality and performance of its graduates and their contributions to society.The challenges of the 21st century are complex. VMI’s core values — honor, character, and service — prepare our citizen-soldier leaders to overcome these complexities. VMI’s program of leadership development seeks to educate cadets on the theory and practice of leadership and to offer opportunities to put cadet understanding of leadership to the test.
Leadership in Organizations Course
LEAD 344 is an interdisciplinary study of leadership in an organizational context focusing on the integration of theory and practice, taught by faculty with formal academic training and experience in leadership studies and affiliated disciplines. Cadets study the leader’s direct influence on individual motivation and group processes through the application of leadership theories, skills, and attributes. They also learn how to influence subordinates indirectly through organizational systems and procedures, organizational culture, and ethical climate. The course will be structured around opportunities for cadets to reflect upon and apply the knowledge gained in the classroom to their experiences as leaders (and followers) in the Corps of Cadets and in the various ROTC curricula.
Leadership Publications
VMI Leader Journey
The VMI Leader Journey is a leadership development system that incorporates the Institute's core values -- honor, character, and service -- practiced in an environment stressing civility. This document provides an overview of the cadet's four-year journey of "whole person" development across our academic, physical development, and military programs.
Leadership Opportunity Inventory
This document outlines opportunities available to cadets across the four-year VMI experience and demonstrates that cadets seeking opportunities will find them. In addition, it provides a foundation for a structured and formalized cadet leader development system, identifying cadet development goals and the methods by which those goals are attained.
Leaders-in-Residence
The VMI Leader-in-Residence program brings to VMI leaders of character whose distinguished careers within the military and/or private sector exemplify the citizen-soldier model.
Annually, one LIR conducts a “residency" at the Institute during the Spring semester. During their stay, the LIR interacts with cadets, faculty and staff in a variety of formal and informal settings including the classroom, in barracks and during athletic activities such as club sports. Additionally, the LIR delivers one major presentation, open to the public, on a topic related broadly to leadership.
The “residency” aspect of the program allows cadets and faculty to explore the full range of leadership issues the leader has faced during his or her career. Both the LIR and members of the VMI Community benefit from a mutual exchange of ideas to test their understanding of leadership concepts, explore how these concepts have been used in practice and investigate the broad range of challenges faced by leaders today.
Core Progressive Professional Development for Faculty and Staff at VMI
Our Center conducts progressive professional development programs and workshops to enhance interpersonal, teaching, and leadership skills. This program reinforces VMI culture; provides attendees with enhanced self-awareness, includes some baseline leadership skills common to both staff and faculty; and incorporates critical thinking and reflection opportunities.
For more information on these programs, please contact Lt. COL Tucker, Assistant Director, Leadership and Character Development at [email protected] or X7799.
Accelerating Professional and Personal Success – A core developmental sequence for incoming faculty and staff members to reinforce knowledge of key interpersonal skills fundamental to personal and career growth. These skills set a foundation for quality interactions with cadets, peers, and supervisors in and out of the classroom / work-place.
- Outcome: Understand and apply key interpersonal skills to enhance professional development and personal effectiveness as a VMI faculty or staff member.
- Objectives:
- Understand and incorporate Habits of Excellence as part of the professional and personal development plan.
- Define and articulate the Leader/Follower connection to enhance on-the-job effectiveness at VMI and personal effectiveness off duty.
- Gain a greater degree of self-awareness of active listening tendencies and communications styles; apply active listening and communications techniques to enhance personal / group effectiveness.
- Comprehend and reenact how to elicit and give feedback to develop productive professional relationships within VMI.
Continuing Professional Growth for Employees (Years 6-10) - A sequence of seminars conducted over an academic year. The course develops each individual’s self-awareness; how to influence other people, and leadership fundamentals that can be applied within academic and administrative departments. The seminars focus on key leader and follower skills that enhance participants’ effectiveness in performing committee or departmental duties.
- Outcome: Understand and apply key interpersonal skills to enhance professional development and personal effectiveness as a VMI faculty or staff member.
- Objectives:
- Understand and incorporate Habits of Excellence as part of the professional and personal development plan.
- To assess and enhance understanding of their individual strengths by participating in StrengthsFinder instrument and coaching.
- To develop selected leadership and supervisory skills that can be successfully applied during committee work and the course of their daily duties.
- To understand and apply organizational leadership theory and techniques during seminar discussions and exercises.
Related Programs
- Cadet Facilitator Training is offered each year to prepare cadets to lead small group discussions and facilitate round-table work at conferences hosted by the CLE. Cadets, and the participants in the discussions they lead, use an ethical triangle card to evaluate the choices and decisions they would make or recommend. In addition to gaining leadership experience during conferences, trained cadets also leave VMI with marketable skills in collaborative work and decision making.
- Speaker videos on topics of national important - our Center maintains a library of videos from the various speakers we've hosted. The content of these speeches could easily enhance any classroom discussion or unit of study providing first-person perspectives or research from renowned subject-matter experts. We have listed a few topics as shortcuts, but from any one of these playlists, you may link back to our channel to see our full library of recorded speeches and moderated interviews. Highlights include:
Additional Resources
Self-Assessment Instruments
Self-awareness and reflection are important elements in understanding one's leadership style and behaviors. The following links contain a few key leader self-assessment Instruments that are free to the general public.
- The Ohio State LBDQ-XII assesses leadership under the style approach (initiating structure and consideration). LBDQ Self-Assessment | LBDQ manual and scoring guide
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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assesses personality type under the psychodynamic approach. You can take a free test online that uses the Myers-Briggs as its basis, but an official MBTI Assessment must be administered by a certified practitioner or can be completed online for a fee.
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The Big Five Personality assessment provides feedback on five personality traits. This site contains other free self-assessments and resources.
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Straights Talk provides an assessment of an individual’s communication style.
Self-Study Professional Reading Lists
The following professional reading lists (listed in no particular order) provide intellectual food for thought and reflection on a variety of leadership and ethics-related topics for a range of professions:
- VMI Leadership Book Club Reading Lists
- National Defense University's list of military service professional reading lists (one site with each of the service's reading lists)
- MOAA's Five Vintage Books You Should Be Reading This Fall
- MOAA's Five History Books You Should be Reading
- Defense Intelligence Agency's 2018 Reading List
- The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List
- Chief of Naval Operations Professional Reading Program
- Official site of the Marine Corps Commandant's Professional Reading List
- Chief of Staff of the Air Force Professional Reading List
- The USCG Commandant’s Reading List
- The 2018 War on the Rocks Holiday Reading List
- Darius Foroux’s Reading List: Books That Help You To Build A Better Life And Business
- TED Books & TED Ideas Summer Reading List
- Modern War Institute at West Point: War Books: Building a Counterinsurgency Library
- Military Times' Best Books of 2018: 10 Can’t-Miss Military Reads
Associated Professional Organizations
The following professional organizations have resources available to their members on their websites. | https://www.vmi.edu/cadet-life/cadet-leadership-and-development/cle/leadership/ |
On January 2, 2019, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) released a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input on its Strategic Plan 2020-2024. From a collaborative process involving external and internal stakeholders, six themes have emerged for which NICHD is seeking public input.
- Understanding Early Human Development
- Setting the Foundation for a Healthy Pregnancy and Lifelong Wellness
- Promoting Gynecological, Andrological, and Reproductive Health
- Identifying Sensitive Time Periods to Optimize Health Interventions
- Improving Health During the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood
- Ensuring Safe and Effective Therapeutics and Devices
Within each of these themes are goals and opportunities that include critical behavioral and social sciences research questions including the influence of environmental exposures on early development, the role of lifestyle factors and exposures during pregnancy that promote health or lead to disease at the very earliest stages of life, the integration of genetic and phenotypic exposure data to understand the underlying mechanisms of gynecological conditions and reproductive health, the sensitive time periods in which exposures or interventions have their greatest impact, the identification of behavioral, social, environmental, and biological factors that enhance health among adolescents, and the acceptability and adherence research to ensure that these interventions can be meaningfully used. NICHD has a long history of support of the behavioral and social sciences relevant to health within its broad mission to ensure that every person is born healthy and wanted, that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive processes, or some hair loss problem and that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives. Its establishment in 1962 represented the first time an NIH Institute explicitly included biobehavioral and social science as part of an integrated biomedical research effort. From its inception to present day, NICHD has provided substantial support to behavioral and social sciences research that contributes to health and human development. NICHD also has been a reliable partner to OBSSR and the NIH Institutes and Centers in trans-NIH efforts that support the behavioral and social sciences. I encourage you to take the time to consider the research themes, goals, and objectives of the NICHD Strategic Plan and respond to this RFI with the key social and behavioral research directions that support its mission. Responses should be submitted via email to: [email protected] by February 15, 2019. | https://obssr.od.nih.gov/news-and-events/news/director-voice/nichd-seeks-input-strategic-plan |
The Buzz: Town Council Kitchen & Bar closes indefinitely in Neenah
Neenah's Town Council Kitchen & Bar has closed indefinitely, prompted by one employee testing positive for the coronavirus.
Chef/owner Jon Horan posted the news Tuesday morning on his Facebook page.
Reached separately by The Post-Crescent, he said he didn’t wish to make additional comments right away.
The small restaurant is at 133 W. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Neenah. It had operated with carry-out and outdoor seating through the bulk of the pandemic, and had only added limited seating indoors last week.
In his Facebook post, Horan said the remainder of the staff is “healthy and quarantining at home,” and that the employee who tested positive came from “outside our work circle and we feel confident that our risk for exposure is low given the precautions we take at work.”
The decision to close indefinitely was prompted by the realization that small restaurants can’t tolerate pandemic conditions, including temporary, sporadic and unforeseen closures.
“Operating such a tiny restaurant has been a losing game since March,” he said.
“Despite the steps I have taken to ensure safety and keep the business running, the restaurant’s fate is out of my hands in this situation. This is a reality that I can no longer tolerate. Starting and stopping service for a week to two weeks while retaining staff is incredibly costly and currently unsustainable. In addition, given the trend in coronavirus cases, I feel we simply can not operate in good conscience. All things considered it seems the most prudent move is to close the restaurant indefinitely.”
Town Council opened in 2016. It serves locally sourced food made from scratch along with craft cocktails.
Horan, who was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London, attracted a loyal following from the start.
The restaurant had kept its indoor dining dark during most of the pandemic because the 45-seat restaurant is only 17 feet wide, making social distancing a tough challenge.
Horan attended Neenah’s online Common Council meeting in late May to urge it to approve an outdoor dining expansion ordinance. He explained that the situation for his business was getting critical at that time.
More:Neenah gives restaurant and bar owners way to expand seating during COVID-19 outbreak
“Even if I can add eight seats outside, it will help my business hang on,” he told the Council.
Neenah’s Common Council approved the ordinance that night. It was the first Fox Cities municipality to approve an outdoor dining expansion during the pandemic.
Contact reporter Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang. | https://www.postcrescent.com/story/money/companies/buzz/2020/09/15/buzz-neenahs-town-council-kitchen-bar-closes-indefinitely/5804958002/ |
Job Title: Customer Service Specialist (Full-Time, Bargaining Unit)Division: Domestic RelationsManager: Debra BuechnerPosting ID: 03-DOM-21Posting Dates: Monday, July 12th, 2021 – Monday, July 26th, 2021Starting Salary: $15.00 Hourly/ $31,200.00 Annually
Responsibilities and Duties: • Provides assistance and informational services to customers, in person or by telephone, regarding the issuance of legal documents, court filings, notary requirements, verification of legal documents submitted by customer, processing transactions, and determining authenticity of documentation. • Approves all E-File documents and verifies the contents of the documents. • Acts as cashier to accept and validate money from payment of fees as required for various transactions, balances cash drawer, and maintains daily records of all transactions. • Enters data from legal documents on computer and verifies the accuracy of the data. • Performs a variety of clerical tasks in order to assist with the efficient operation of the office.
Minimum Qualifications:• A high school diploma and/or any equivalent combination of education, experience, and training. • Skill in computer operation, typing, and data entry. • Ability to read, copy, and record figures, and calculate fractions, decimals, and percentages. • Ability to carry out instructions; deal with problems within a familiar context. • Ability to handle cash, make change and meet office balancing standards. • Must be able to communicate effectively and respond to routine inquiries from public or officials. • Must be able to develop and maintain effective working relationships. | https://careers.cbalaw.org/jobs/15112580/customer-service-specialist |
Q:
Binary logistic regression with two dependent variables
I have a continuous independent variable, X, and two binary dependent variables, Y and Z. I'm trying to run a binary logistic regression that models the correlation between Y and Z. X = age, while Y and Z are two pass/fail tasks. I want to determine the probability of an individual passing a given task at a given age, but I also want to test whether individuals who pass one task tend to also pass the other.
How should I go about doing this? I've tried the following in R:
glm(cbind(Z,Y)~X, family="binomial", data= my_data)
This gives me a coefficient of -0.02335 for X. However, when I reverse the order of (Z,Y) in the formula above, the X coefficient becomes positive. Why is that?
Does anyone know how to run a binary logistic regression in R with correlated dependent variables?
A:
You are using it wrong, there are three possible input formats for logistic regression in R
As a factor: ‘success’ is interpreted as the factor not having the
first level (and hence usually of having the second level).
As a
numerical vector with values between 0 and 1, interpreted as the
proportion of successful cases (with the total number of cases given
by the weights).
As a two-column integer matrix: the first column
gives the number of successes and the second the number of failures.
Logistic regression is an univariate model, if you have two target variables, then you need to use a different model (there are a number of choices, including the bivariate logistic regression model given by Palmgren (1989), "Regression Models for Bivariate Binary Responses", UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series, 101, and implemented by binom2.or in the VGAM package).
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Working with diverse student populations in a classroom can be both rewarding and challenging. One the one hand, it requires additional effort from the teacher, and on the other hand, the diversity of the classroom provides genuinely unique experiences. This brief paper will deal with several challenges and opportunities of working with diverse student populations.
One of the main challenges of multiracial environment in the classroom is the additional requirement of being culturally sensitive and finding the right knowledgeable approach to different students. This involves not only being aware of the students’ country of origin, race or religion, but also other intrinsic intangible factors such as study ethics, motivation and values. Students of different backgrounds can vary not only in levels of diligence or study success but also in the feelings surrounding daily classroom activities. Therefore, diverse student populations require both cultural knowledge and sensitivity which are often challenging to acquire and put into practice.
Nevertheless, being sensitive to students’ backgrounds is not exclusively required in the conditions of the diverse classroom. Moreover, while acknowledging the possibility of different behaviours, it is important to remember that one “cannot assume that all students who share a cultural background will have the same experience in school, or the same motivational processes” (Urdan & Bruchmann, 2018). In this light, knowing the students from different races or cultures requires the same approach as in being acknowledgeable of any students’ peculiarities.
For any teacher, working with students is a learning experience which becomes richer when working with diverse student populations. It allows the teacher to become more knowledgeable about possible differences in learning habits and compare observations with the theory.
Reference
Urdan, T., & Bruchmann, K. (2018). Examining the academic motivation of a diverse student population: A consideration of methodology. Educational Psychologist, 53(2), 114–130. Web. | https://chalkypapers.com/working-with-diverse-student-populations/ |
I’ve just watched “Faster than the speed of light” programme on ITV. There is one assumption that these people always have that I have never understood. Why does travelling faster than the speed of light have to mean “time travel”??. The only reasoning i ever hear is that “You would arrive before you left”. This just doesn’t make sense to me. Why is light any different to sound? In theory, you can make a sound then travel faster than the speed of sound to hear your own voice in another location.
If they mean Einstein’s theory about time slowing down as you reach the speed of light, why not say that? Why state that “it’s impossible to go faster because you “would arrive before you departed”? Do you know what I mean??
Thanks
Russell
Answer:
According to Einstein’s assumptions in the theory of relativity, the velocity of light in vacuum is a constant and no particle can travel faster than light. The theory of relativity is based on this central concept. So, if we imagine to travel faster than light, time will reverse (As per theoretical results) and we may go back in time. That is why travel with or above the speed of light is referred to as “Time Travel”.
Light is an electromagnetic wave and is different from sound as it is a mechanical wave which requires a medium to travel. Sound cannot travel through vacuum. | http://www.askphysics.com/time-travel-relativity/ |
Nairobi Kenya Music
Kenya is undoubtedly one of the most diverse countries in the world, with its seductive natural landscapes, wildlife and cultural diversity. From the parched savannahs to the fast-growing and changing urban areas, Kenya's music is as diverse and diverse as its people and culture.
International influences have always been part of Kenyan music, but there is also a style of its own that can be heard in Kenyan pop, which meets the tourism industry. There are also Benga artists based in Kenya's capital Nairobi, as well as in other parts of the country such as Mombasa, and there is also an increase in the number of international artists from Africa, South Africa and the United States, among others.
The Kalambya Boys "Kivelenge song is a great example of Kamba benga, and the DK Lulu Band song represents Kikuyu b Benga. Stylistically, these songs are an example of the emerging genre of pop music in Kenya, which embodies the original Benga style, embodied by the use of traditional instruments such as drums, bass and percussion. Pop music is an important part of Kenya's cultural identity and a way to spread throughout the country. National performers appeal to a broad cross-section of the population, as music tends to be more accessible to those living in western Kenya and those living outside Kenya, especially those living in rural areas.
Bengali songs have long managed to win over a large, all-ethnic audience in Kenya, but what makes this music unique is its ability to be sung in a regional lingua franca, Swahili. Interestingly, Simba Wanyika's international publication presents an example of Congolese music by Nairobi, sung and performed in the Luo style. Bengali music, as sung, is also linguistically diverse and enables it to be brought closer to a Kenyan audience through the use of Swahili and rap in Kenyan slang.
Now in the 60s and 70s there is a Kenya Special that does a great job of documenting what is happening musically in Nairobi and the rest of Kenya, and also to pray with the other ethnic groups and their music.
There are also numerous musicians from Tanzania who have made Kenya their home and whose music still resonates in the country today. The compilation also sheds light on the time when some of them performed in Nairobi and even settled down. The music scene in Kenya today is very different from that of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in terms of music and culture.
While Afrobeats, Kwaito, Bongo and Dancehall music have been forced to behave proactively, protesting for the improvement of Kenyan sound, there are also activists who have been in Nairobi for some time. Kenyan music will soon take its rightful place and as we speak, there is NuNairobin, a visionary supergroup from Just Band, who are using their localized visuals correctly.
I have always identified with Kamba bands, but since Kakai started recording in Swahili, the group has enjoyed great popularity in Kenya. Kenyan music scene, this Afro-Pop band debuted in 2008 and has been on the rise ever since. I would say the music of the 90s that was played in Kenya was Beyonce, Jay-Z and Rihanna. The African Eagles and others who continue to play are playing at the top level in their country.
With talented groups like Sauti Sol producing hits of the genre, the potential of the Afro-Pop music scene in Kenya is enormous.
Kenyan pop music is considered one of the most important cultural traditions in East Africa and the world. Smithsonian Folkways is spreading this musical tradition, while Nairobi-based Ketebul Music is pursuing a similar mission, focusing on the music of Kenya and East Africa.
A number of styles that predominate in Kenya, including Benga and Reggae, fall into different categories. One of the most innovative is the Alliance Francaise de Nairobi, which aims to identify and promote talented young Afro-fusion musicians by giving them the opportunity to perform at concerts and participate in album productions. Kenyan artists have been honoured over the years and in 2019 IFPI will be organising a series of workshops for artists and musicians who want to deepen their understanding of music licences in various countries, including Kenya and East Africa, as well as in other countries in the region.
In the early 1960s, instruments such as the accordion were also introduced, which made its mark on the Kenyan music scene by being used to play traditional Kenyan melodies. These concerts opened other doors and exposed them to Kenya's ever-growing classical music scene. The guitar was also popular in other African countries, especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Kenya is home to a number of music schools and schools, and there is a growing Western classical music scene. Meanwhile, young Kenyans are confronted with emerging Afro-jazz bands such as the African Jazz Orchestra. These genres play a key role in shaping Kenyan music by bringing it to the sounds of jazz, jazz-rock, hip-hop, reggae, funk and other genres. | https://www.hellonairobi.com/local_articles/music/25225/nairobi-kenya-music |
Please can someone explain the "Rule of Thirds"?
The rule of thirds is actually the golden ratio. It's a number that divides a line into roughly 2/3 and 1/3.
This can be applied both horizontally and vertically, and used for different purposes. The lower right spot is considered positive while the upper left is considered negative, which can be used to enhance what you want to express with the picture.
The rule of thirds is a popular and common compositional guideline for photography and for painting.
In its most basic form, the rule of thirds suggests that dividing areas within the frame into thirds is more successful than an even division. For example, the sky should occupy the top third (or two-thirds) of the frame, rather than sharing the space evenly with the ground.
A second use of the rule holds that objects of interest should be placed at the intersections of the horizontal and vertical third-lines. Proponents argue that these four points have a special strength.
Analogous to this "Rule of thirds", (if I may be allowed so to call it) I have presumed to think that, in connecting or in breaking the various lines of a picture, it would likewise be a good rule to do it, in general, by a similar scheme of proportion; for example, in a design of landscape, to determine the sky at about two-thirds ; or else at about one-third, so that the material objects might occupy the other two : Again, two thirds of one element, (as of water) to one third of another element (as of land); and then both together to make but one third of the picture, of which the two other thirds should go for the sky and aerial perspectives. This rule would likewise apply in breaking a length of wall, or any other too great continuation of line that it may be found necessary to break by crossing or hiding it with some other object : In short, in applying this invention, generally speaking, or to any other case, whether of light, shade, form, or color, I have found the ratio of about two thirds to one third, or of one to two, a much better and and more harmonizing proportion, than the precise formal half, the two-far-extending four-fifths—and, in short, than any other proportion whatever. I should think myself honored by the opinion of any gentleman on this point; but until I shall by better informed, shall conclude this general proportion of two and one to be the most pictoresque medium in all cases of breaking or otherwise qualifying straight lines and masses and groupes [sic], as Hogarth's line is agreed to be the most beautiful, (or, in other words, the most pictoresque) medium of curves.
It appears that Smith at least believes himself to be coining the phrase, and I can't find any earlier references (and, he does generally reference other works when he refers to them, as he does Sir Joshua Reynolds's essay).
The golden ratio is not mentioned at all, so the idea appears to be derived independently of that, not an intentional simplification. This is not surprising, as 1797 predates the 19th-century naming of the golden ratio and its subsequent popularization as an aesthetic construct. One of course could argue that it is the inherent power of that ratio which unknowingly lead Smith to a "slightly-off" conclusion. It's hard to back that up with facts either way, so it must be left as a matter of faith. In any case, Smith certainly argues that a ratio of ⅔ : ⅓ is "much better and and more harmonizing" than "any other proportion whatever".
Of course, Smith also doesn't provide much argument for his chosen proportion, simply declaring it to be the best. He says that an even split is too static, and a four-fifths division too strong, but doesn't appear to have any real basis for this particular number. It would be interesting to know what would happen if one of the "gentlemen" he speaks of would have explained the golden ratio to him; perhaps he would have been swayed. Ah, for a time machine.
It's also interesting to note that Smith's version of the rule is much more general than the one in common use today: he initially applies it to division of areas within the total frame, but goes on to claim it as the best way to divide any line, group, or mass. That application certainly does not seem to have caught on. On the other hand, he does not mention at all the idea of attaching special power to the intersection of the frame's third-lines.
The rule of thirds is a simplification of the golden ratio.
The idea is that an image will be more pleasing to the eye if important elements of the image is positioned according to this rule, rather than positioned in the center of an image.
Of course, it's just a rule of thumb and as such should not be followed blindly. Sometimes breaking it and positioning the subject extremely far out towards an edge or corner or even in the center of the image lead to a stronger composition.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged composition composition-basics rule-of-thirds or ask your own question.
Is this a good example of “Rule of Thirds”?
What are your photography tips for people who are casual photographers?
How to apply the Rule of Thirds with people? | https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/521/what-is-the-rule-of-thirds |
Five Things to Think About: Accessibility
What is “accessibility?” We define accessibility as “the extent to which the information being presented is available and understandable by anyone.” One might argue that an application should be designed only for the target audience, but it should also be taken into consideration that audience members may have a visual or aural impairment and require the use of a “helper” like a screen reader or translation software. Is the content accessible publicly by everyone or in a controlled environment like a private workplace? In other words, it is important to know your audience.
Your audience may or may not be obvious, but it is important to know who they are and what tools they use. If the product will be used by a very specific user type–an employee, for example–then you only need to consider the tools that are specific to the users in that environment. Questions to ask include, “What age group do our users belong to?” “Do any of my employees have disabilities?” “What are typical helper tools that this group may use?” Answers to these questions may be as simple as “eye glasses,” but some of your users may require the use of screen readers (for the blind).
If the application or web site will be available to the public, it should be designed with the broadest audience in mind. Here are some accessibility issues to consider:
- Client functions
- Browser magnification has grown in use since smart phones and tablets have become more prevalent. The availability of high definition on laptops and other smaller monitors have also caused the increased use of magnification in browsers.
- Opening new windows has had unreliable behavior as tabs have become popular in browsers.
- Modal windows and dialogs (a.k.a. “lightboxes”) have been known to cause issues with screen readers if implemented incorrectly.
- Optical equipment
- Monitors today come in more shapes and sizes than ever before. With high-definition monitors available on laptops, it’s difficult to imagine a user browsing your web site at a full 1920×1080 on a 17” monitor… or is it?
- Projectors often don’t represent color as intended. Ensure that your important content can be viewed easily when being projected. Use high contrast for text (e.g., black on white).
- Software
- Consider the use of screen reading software for the blind. Any images that give context to your content should include textual representation.
- Some visually impaired users employ additional magnification software to view content on the screen.
- Some audience members may rely on language translators. You can avoid miscommunication by offering an alternative version of your content in multiple languages so that the user will not have to rely on software. This way, you can be sure to communicate the intended ideas rather than risk losing something in translation.
- Hardware
- Mobile or desktop browser? Be sure to make the content compatible across all platforms and enable responsive design on your content if it will be viewed on multiple devices.
- Will the content be viewed on a TV? With the growing popularity of devices like Google TV, gaming consoles, and smart TVs, web content is being displayed on television more than ever before.
- People
- Will your users require another human being to help them? The elderly often rely on younger helpers to assist them with accessing content. Ensure that your content is understandable to all possible parties.
Be sure to also observe accessibility compliance requirements if your audience may include users that have specific needs. For example, the standards in Section 508 are regulated by the government and require that people with disabilities have access to certain types of content.
Accessibility is a critical element in designing anything, whether it is hardware, software, or content. Making sure that users can understand your product helps to reduce miscommunication and calls to the help desk. What’s more, exceptional accessibility naturally makes your product available to anyone, which is the bottom line for most businesses. | http://blog.tahoepartners.com/index.php/five-things-to-think-about-accessibility/ |
... black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short) is usually a quiet inhabitant. But recent observations with the Keck telescope have showed a big increase in activity suggesting that it could be waking up. Either that or a recent meal has given...
Using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, astronomers have found a super-Jupiter mass...as the K2C9 program, which involves the recovered Kepler space telescope working in conjunction with ground-based observatories to find possible events suitable for ...
...-STARRS), a large-scale astronomical survey programme. The team also used data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Keck and Gemini Observatories, in Hawaii, and the MDM and MMT Observatories in Arizona. Other collaborating institutions...
... wasn’t a dim background star system contaminating the signal. So we made high resolution adaptive optics observations at the Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. We knew that an eclipsing binary or a star with a giant transiting planet could combine... | https://room.eu.com/tag/Keck--Telescope |
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they have taken, if any, in response to the finding in the UCAS End of Cycle Report 2019, published on 30 January, that white ethnic group students from state schools had the lowest entry rate to higher education.
My Lords, the Government are committed to transforming the lives of young people so that they can go as far as their hard work and talent will carry them, regardless of their background or where they live. The Government acknowledge the findings of the UCAS 2019 End of Cycle Report. Our reforms since 2010 have set out an ambitious agenda and made substantial investments in opportunities for all young people.
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for his Answer. Recent Centre for Social Justice analysis of education results by ethnicity found that white British children on free school meals had performed worst at GCSE by a significant margin for many years. How will the Government improve GCSE results so that poor white boys and girls stand a better chance of getting into higher education? How do they plan to improve parental engagement in education, as teachers can only ever be part of the solution?
My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right that, when it comes to higher education, the seeds of equal opportunity are sown much earlier. It has been the Government’s mission over the past decade, under successive Prime Ministers and Education Secretaries, to break the correlation between parental wealth and pupil achievement by raising standards for all pupils. That is what our reforms are doing, with the knowledge-rich national curriculum and more children in good or outstanding schools. Part of the reforms has also been about giving more power to school leaders and to parents, who, as my noble friend says, have a crucial role to play, such as in the opening of more than 500 new free schools.
My Lords, while it is true that the gap in HE entry rates between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged has narrowed, nevertheless the UCAS report for 2019 shows that the entry rate for students from the most disadvantaged areas is 21%, whereas it is 47% for the most advantaged students. Moreover, the gap is much higher in universities with higher entry tariffs. What do the Government propose to do about this, given their recently stated commitment to levelling up?
My Lords, the noble Baroness is absolutely right to point out some of the distinctions between the attainment gap at different levels of pupils’ education. I am pleased to say that, on this year’s numbers, disadvantaged 18 year- olds are entering higher education at record rates; 23% of 18 year-olds in England have been granted access to higher education this year. That shows the progress that we have made but also the work that still must be done.
My Lord, there is a trade-off in sixth forms between the depth of provision and the quality of provision. If more sixth-form colleges in white, working-class areas were to narrow the range of provision and concentrate on the quality, results would go up. This is not raised in the report. Will the Government give it some consideration?
My Lords, the noble Lord is right that we need to increase aspiration for people at all levels, and our reforms to the national curriculum have been about equipping people with a knowledge-rich curriculum that will carry them as far as their talents can, whatever route they wish to pursue after the age of 18.
My Lords, the Government’s levelling-up commitments are rightly not just about regional growth but about people. Does the Minister agree that improving educational outcomes for poor white boys should be a specific part of the levelling-up commitments and a measurable part of those commitments?
First, I pay tribute to the work my noble friend did as Education Secretary to increase opportunity and drive up standards. Levelling up means setting the highest standards for all pupils and ensuring that they are helped to achieve their full potential, regardless of their background or location. We want schools to address the needs of every individual pupil using the resources available to them, including the pupil premium. As she knows, the disadvantaged white pupil cohort is the largest such group in our schools, so attracts the most pupil premium.
My Lords, universities and colleges make great efforts to improve inclusivity strategies, but can find it difficult to access the information to identify the particularly disadvantaged youngsters, such as free school meals data. Could that information be made available to them so that they can more readily identify the needy children?
That is a sensible suggestion, which I shall take back to the department. The noble Baroness is absolutely right to point out the important work that universities do to increase access. They work with the Office for Students to increase access to university for people from underrepresented backgrounds. A number of universities are also helping with specialist maths schools—indeed, the University of Liverpool Mathematics School opened last week.
My Lords, does the Minister recognise Professor Jon Rasbash’s research at Bristol University, which found that only 20% of attainment is attributable to school-level factors? The remaining 80% is due to pupil-level factors, half of which, he says, are “family effects”. What is the Government’s response to his suggestion that policies targeted at the family level may provide an effective means of improving pupils’ progress?
I have not seen the research that my noble friend cites, but I will certainly look it up and read it with interest. He is right that our reforms have been focused on breaking the link, as I said, between the financial background of pupils’ parents and the pupils’ level of attainment in education. As part of that, we have made a record investment in this area, including 15 hours of free early education for disadvantaged two year-olds right at the very beginning.
My Lords, while support from family is key to assisting a child’s life chances, we all remember teachers who inspired a love of learning. Does the Minister agree that schools that enhance the aspirations of children from a working-class background should be recognised as such, perhaps by measuring the number of pupils with an entitlement to free school meals who go on to higher education?
The noble Lord is absolutely right to point out the important work done by teachers in raising aspirations and encouraging pupils. I know that as a comprehensive schoolboy who went to Oxbridge. Part of our reforms has been about giving more autonomy to school leaders so that they can follow the evidence and do what is best to raise standards in our schools and help people go as far as their talents can carry them.
My Lords, the admissions system has barely changed since I was one of just 10% of school leavers to go to university in 1970. It is now nearly 50%, yet it is assumed that largely the same system is still fit for purpose. Palpably it is not, and one thing that must change is the introduction of post-qualification applications and an end to the corrupted system of unconditional offers of places. In Scotland there is an aim for 20% of all entrants to higher education to come from the 20% most deprived backgrounds by 2030. In light of the UCAS report, can the Minister say why in England there are no targets for the involvement of white students from lower socioeconomic groups and when the Government plan to introduce them?
My Lords, there are no national targets, but all higher education providers that want to charge higher-level fees need to have an access and participation plan agreed by the Office for Students. As part of those plans, they set the activities and targets to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds going to their institutions. If a provider fails to meet its access and participation plan, the OfS can hold it to account, while respecting its academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
My Lords, I declare an interest as chancellor of Cardiff University. The A-level results fiasco has distorted university recruitment and universities face considerable costs to cope with problems not of their making. Can the Minister assure us that they will be given additional funding and assisted to meet government targets such as those affecting the underrepresented group referred to in this question, who often need additional support when they gain their places at university?
The noble Baroness is right. This has been an extraordinarily difficult year both in schools and for universities, and we have worked closely with both to make sure they are equipped to do everything they need to do to help people in this challenging year. As I say, the UCAS data for this year’s entry shows a rise in the number of people accepted to university, including a record rate of 23% of people from disadvantaged backgrounds going, which is encouraging to see in these challenging times.
My Lords, the Minister will know of the National Education Opportunities Network’s work in widening participation and outreach. Last year it found that less than 40% of universities were doing outreach with white males and less than 12% with white females. Will he please have a look at what the problem is there, in the light of his comments about access and participation? It is clearly not widespread.
I will certainly follow up on that. As I say, the Office for Students has a responsibility to work with universities that want to charge the higher-rate fees to have such plans in place and to make sure they are enforced.
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed. | https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2020-09-08/debates/38E40C85-63DB-4503-8D51-EB0929FACBFF/UCASEndOfCycleReport2019 |
Constraints on the current stress regime of the actively extending northern Basin and Range province are provided by deformation data (focal mechanisms and fault slip studies), hydraulic fracturing in situ stress measurements, borehole elongation ("breakouts") analyses, and alignment of young volcanic vents. The integrated data indicate significant variations both in principal stress orientations and magnitudes. An approximately E-W least principal stress direction appears to characterize both the eastern and western margins of the Basin and Range province, whereas in the active interior parts of the province extension occurs in response to a least principal stress oriented NW to N60 °W. The contrast in stress orientations between the province boundaries and in the interior suggests that along the margins the least principal stress direction may be locally controlled by the generally northerly trending profound lithospheric discontinuities associated with these margins. Active deformation along the southeastern and western province margins is characterized by a combination of strike-slip and normal faulting. Focal mechanisms along northeastern province margin (Wasatch front) and in central Nevada indicate a combination of normal and oblique-normal faulting. Temporal, regional, and depth-dependent variations in the relative magnitudes of the vertical and maximum horizontal stresses can explain much of the observed variations in deformation styles. However, some depth variation in faulting style inferred from focal mechanisms may be apparent and simply a function of the attitude of fault planes being reactivated. Evidence for significant temporal variation (or multiple cycles of variation) in relative stress magnitude comes from the Sierran front-Basin and Range boundary region where recent earthquakes are predominantly strike slip, whereas the profound relative vertical relief across the Sierra frontal fault zone in the last 9-10 m.y. implies a normal faulting stress regime. Using the best data on stress orientation, relative stress magnitudes are constrained from slip vectors of major earthquakes and young fault displacements. Analysis of well-constrained slip vectors in the Owens Valley, California, area indicate that large temporal variations in the magnitude of the approximately N-S oriented maximum horizontal stress are required to explain dominantly dip-slip and strike-slip offsets on subparallel faults. Similar faulting relations are observed throughout much of the boundary zone between the Basin and Range-Sierra Nevada (including the Walker Lane belt). Along the eastern province margin in the Wasatch front area in Utah, available data suggest that the maximum and minimum horizontal stresses may be approximately equal at depths of <4-5km. Earthquake focal mechanisms in this area suggest more variability in relative magnitude of the two horizontal stresses with depth. Furthermore, superimposed sets of young fault striae along a segment of the Wasatch fault also indicate temporal variations of relative stress magnitudes. Sources of regional and temporal variations in the stress field may be linked to variable shear tractions applied to the base of the brittle crust related to intrusion, thermally induced flow, and the influence of the San Andreas plate boundary. Although difficult to date accurately, the fault slip data suggest that the temporal variations in relative magnitudes stress may occur on the time scale of both a single major earthquake cycle (1000-5000 years) and multiple earthquake cycles (10,000+ years). | https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsstaffpub/459/ |
The Pingasualuit Complex was introduced by Charette and Beaudette (2018) to describe intermediate to mafic foliated granulitic rocks forming a large part of the Narsajuaq Domain. These were previously included in the older plutonic suite (pPNAR1) and unit pPNAR2 of the younger plutonic suite, described by St-Onge and Lucas (1992) and St-Onge et al. (1992).
The Pingasualuit Complex consists primarily of banded or locally gneissic hypersthene quartz diorite and hypersthene diorite (nApgs2), as well as metric to kilometric horizons of mesocratic gabbronorite and hypersthene diorite (nApgs1). The majority of this complex is characterized by a paragenesis characteristic of the granulite facies. In places, mafic to ultramafic klippes at the amphibolite facies, possibly retromorphosed, are included in subunit nApgs1a.
Unit nApgs1 consists of klippes and hectometric to kilometric strips of mesocratic and granoblastic gabbronorite and hyperstene diorite usually present in the main unit of the Pingasualuit Complex (nApgs2). These mafic rocks are dark greenish grey to brownish black in altered surface. The rock is heavily recrystallized, fine to medium grained and contains 50-65% ferromagnesian minerals. It also has a homogeneous, speckled or foliated to banded appearance. Banding is produced by a variation in the modal proportion of ferromagnesian minerals (35-75%). On the other hand, the speckled appearance is due to millimetric to centimetric clusters of ferromagnesian minerals and recrystallized plagioclase clusters <1 cm. Leucosomes occuring as 2 mm to 10 cm diffuse clusters form up to 10% of the rock. They are slightly coarser grained than the matrix. They are recrystallized, oriented to foliation and include isolated crystals or clusters of clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and hornblende. Locally, garnet clusters are observed. In thin sections, minerals are strongly recrystallized. Hornblende and clinopyroxene are the principal ferromagnesian minerals, followed by orthopyroxene and biotite. Clinopyroxene is commonly amphibolitized and orthopyroxene is partially replaced by serpentine and oxides. Hornblende marks the foliation and occurs as poikiloblastic crystals in some samples. Very few accessory minerals are observed (opaque minerals, apatite and carbonates).
Pingasualuit Complex 1a (nApgs1a): Gabbro, Diorite and Associated Ultramafic Rocks
Subunit nApgs1a consists of klippes of intermediate to mafic rocks without orthopyroxene in the vicinity or within units of the Pingasualuit Complex. Unlike rocks of unit nApgs1, rocks of subunit nApgs1a do not have the brownish colour typical of altered orthopyroxene rocks. Their alteration patina ranges from greenish black to dark green. In thin section, the presence of serpentine clusters and orthopyroxene cores locally preserved in hornblende crystals suggests that they are granulitic rocks retromorphosed to the amphibolite facies. With the exception of their colour, the appearance of these rocks in outcrop differs little from the rest of unit nApgs1. They are banded or homogeneous and foliated. A speckled facies with clusters of ferromagnesian minerals and small centimetric plagioclase crystals is also observed. In some places, in this facies, ferromagnesian mineral clusters are centimetric and joint, giving a recrystallized cumulate appearance. Ultramafic horizons and boudins are locally present in gabbro and diorite of subunit nApgs1a. A few fractured olivine crystals (<10%) partially replaced by iddingsite and magnetite are observed in thin sections of a websterite.
No orthopyroxene was observed in the area north of the Naujaat Shear Zone. Lithologies in this area are foliated, homogeneous and have, in places, discontinuous leucosomes indicating partial melting. Microscopic observations identify hornblende, actinolite and clinopyroxene as the main mafic minerals. Clinopyroxene is variably amphibolitized and biotite replaces hornblende in fracture and cleavage planes.
Unit nApgs2 includes hypersthene quartz diorite and hypersthene diorite, fine to medium grained, usually banded and granoblastic. They form the majority of the Pingasualuit Complex. These rocks are greenish to brownish grey in altered surface and have a foliated to gneissic fabric, as well as banding marked by the presence of mafic mineral laminae and millimetric to centimetric leucocratic bands. These are brownish to whitish beige in altered surface and generally vary from a quartz dioritic to tonalitic composition, even granitic locally. Some of these bands are fine grained, conformable to foliation and in diffuse contact in the matrix. They occur as lenticular clusters in places and commonly include orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and magnetite crystals. These thin bands, interpreted as leucosomes derived from melting of intermediate granulitic rocks of the Pingasualuit Complex, account for 5-20% of the rock. Other bands are slightly coarser grained than the fine-grained matrix, and they are subconformable to or cutting foliation and in sharp contact. In places, these coarser-grained bands include quartz bands. At the outcrop scale, banding is also marked by compositional variations produced by variation of ferromagnesian mineral contents (10-40%) within quartz diorite or hypersthene diorite. Centimetric to metric horizons of nApgs1 gabbronorite are present in sharp or diffuse contact with granulitic intermediate rocks. These horizons are usually more competent and less banded than host rocks.
In diffuse contact with the banded main facies, a second facies of hypersthene quartz diorite is medium grained, homogeneous and speckled. This facies is characterized by millimetric clusters of mafic minerals and slightly coarser plagioclase crystals producing the speckled appearance. The modal proportion of ferromagnesian minerals (10-20%) is generally lower in this facies than in the main facies and the granoblastic texture is less developed.
Petrographic studies and geochemical analyses indicate that the composition of unit nApgs2 varies from quartz dioritic, dioritic and quartz monzodioritic to tonalitic or monzodioritic locally. In places, these variations are observed in diffuse centimetric bands within the same sample. When present, K-feldspar is distributed heterogeneously as fine crystals disseminated in the matrix, as inclusions in plagioclase or as fine laminae. Plagioclase forms, in places, millimetric (3- 7 mm) rounded crystals that are coarser than the fine-grained matrix, while mafic minerals occur as discontinuous millimetric laminae and are disseminated in the matrix. In thin sections, minerals are moderately to well recrystallized in general. Hornblende and pyroxene are the main ferromagnesian minerals followed by biotite. The modal proportion of these minerals varies by band. Hornblende either occurs as recrystallized even-grained crystals or as crystals with a poikilitic core and a rim without inclusions. Pyroxene crystals are commonly elongated along primary foliation. Specifically, orthopyroxene is fractured and partially replaced by iddingsite and oxides. Biotite forms rosettes with quartz intergrowth and is observed as a partial replacement for orthopyroxene or hornblende. Locally, garnet is present in small stocky crystals in equilibrium contact with hornblende. Epidote locally forms small stocky crystals associated with mafic laminae or clusters. In places, chlorite is replacing hornblende, biotite and garnet in fractures.
Pingasualuit Complex 2a (nApgs2a): Intermediate Granulitic Gneiss
Subunit nApgs2a consists of granulitic banded sequences of felsic to intermediate composition whose fine grain size and compositional variations make the origin of the protolith uncertain. These banded sequences may be paragneiss, although they may include orthogneiss. In outcrop, these rocks have a brownish to rusty alteration patina and are friable. In fresh exposure, they are medium to medium-dark greenish grey. Straight-lined banding is produced by the presence of 5-20% millimetric to centimetric leucosomes with biotite ± garnet ± orthopyroxene rims. Also, several outcrops are characterized by alternating horizons showing variations in the proportion of mafic minerals and the presence or absence of garnet. Some horizons are very rich in quartz (>70%), while others are very rich in garnet (up to 40%). Locally, horizons of diatxite with biotite-garnet schlierens are observed within granulitic gneiss.
Like unit nApgs2, rocks of subunit nApgs2a exhibit variations in the composition of diffuse centimetric bands of tonalite, granite, quartz diorite and locally quartz monzodiorite. Mafic minerals are disseminated or occur as fine laminas and account for 10-30% of the mineralogy. Biotite and orthopyroxene are the principal mafic minerals. In places, the latter is partially replaced by iddingsite and oxides or hornblende. Hornblende and garnet crystals are present locally. Garnet occurs as porphyroclasts and is locally poikilitic. Several indications of partial melting were observed in thin section such as irregular quartz films in the matrix and inclusions in garnet, the shape of which is dictated by its crystalline structure.
Hypersthene quartz diorite and hypersthene diorite of unit nApgs2 account for most of the granulitic rocks present in the Narsajuaq Domain. They form kilometre-thick strips and klippes, elongated and folded in the E-W regional fabric. They include centimetric to metric layers or enclaves of mesocratic gabbronorite and hypersthene diorite. They also form kilometric strips and klippes that have been grouped into unit nApgs1. A significant number of these intermediate to mafic rocks is present near the contact with the Kovik Lithotectonic Domain. The orthopyroxene-free facies of subunit nApgs1a is present in significant proportion north of the Naujaat Shear Zone, where it forms kilometric klippes in association with the Saint-Hélène Complex.
Two hypersthene quartz diorite samples were collected by Charette and Beaudette (2018) in the Cape Wolstenholme area. In both cases, U-Pb analyses give an age range from Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic. Davis and Sutcliffe (2018) divided zircons into two populations on the basis of Th/U ratios. The protolith is Neoarchean, and Paleoterozoic metamorphism resulted in Pb loss via diffusion.
|Unit||Sample Number||Isotopic System||Mineral||Crystallization Age (Ma)||(+)||(-)||Metamorphic Age (Ma)||(+)||(-)||Reference(s)|
|nApgs2||2017-CT-5021A||U-Pb||Zircon||>2773||–||–||1841||24||24||Davis and Sutcliffe, 2018|
|nApgs2||2017-MP-1013A||U-Pb||Zircon||>2609||–||–||1880||9||9||Davis and Sutcliffe, 2018|
Intermediate to mafic granulitic rocks of the Pingasualuit Complex appear to be one of the oldest units in the Narsajuaq Domain. These rocks are injected bed by bed and cut by leucocratic enderbite intrusions assigned to the Navvaataaq Suite (nAnav) and by foliated to massive granitoids of the Sanningajualuk Suite (pPsnn). They are also observed as enclaves in these suites.
Does not apply. | http://gq.mines.gouv.qc.ca/lexique-stratigraphique/province-de-churchill/complexe-de-pingasualuit_en/ |
Space wave propagation generally takes place when particular radio waves propagate through space from the transmitting antenna around the earth to reach a receive antenna.
These kinds of waves are known as tropospheric propagation because from the earth’s surface to the tropospheric propagation they generally tended to travel. It is generally called the straight propagation line. This is due to the fact that the signals are sent in a straight line from receiver to the transmitter.
Space Wave propagation and its components
Space wave propagation occurs within the troposphere layer of the earth’s atmosphere that is within 20km in the atmosphere. Space waves are the radio waves that are capable of propagating within the troposphere layer directly or after reflection. Space wave propagation generally relies on three components (Chen et al. 2019).
These are Direct waves, ground reflected waves, tropospheric waves
Figure 1: Space Wave Propagation
- Direct Waves: These waves are transmitted from the transmitter antenna to the receiving antenna directly.
- Ground Reflected Waves: These radio waves reach the receiving antenna after reflecting from ground.
- Tropospheric Wave: These waves reach receiving antenna after getting refection from troposphere.
Space wave propagation: Application
Space wave propagation is very important as it is used in the communication system. It is used in the line between satellite communication and sight communication. Radar communication, Microwave linking, and s waves are used for many technological purposes.
Microwave uses
In microwaves, these waves are generally used in a magnificent range of technological implementations, including GPS navigation, the service of the cellular phone, satellite communication, and radio communication. As opined by Wong et al. (2020), microwaves also possess a very high wavelength that further increases the ability to penetrate the materials. These particular features make them essential for communication because they have the ability to pass through different objects.
Electromagnetic Wave and its uses
Electromagnetic waves generally possess a shorter wavelength than that of microwaves. They do not have the ability to enter into the objects. These waves are limited within the straight line of communication. These waves generally bring more information than microwaves (Raza & Salam, 2020). In the field of meteorology and astronomy, these waves are very useful for collecting dates about remote events or objects which are obscured by sunlight and clouds.
Figure 2: Propagation of electromagnetic wave within free space
Space wave propagation: Limitations
The curvature of earth affects space waves. The spreading of the waves occurred along a straight line that is defined by the distance between receiving antenna and transmitting antenna. This is also named as range of communication.
Occurrence of space wave propagation
Space wave propagation occurs while the radio waves spread through the space from the transmitting antenna to the receiving antenna. As opined by Carcione et al. (2019), Space wave propagation is a very important thing in the field of physics. These waves have multiple uses in modern technologies. Various kinds of space waves are generally used in different mechanisms such as microwaves, television broadcasts, satellite communication, and many more.
Space waves: Characteristics features
Space wave is generally used for the high-frequency bands with a range of 30 MHz - 300 MHz, microwaves, and ultra-high frequency bands This is due to the high frequency both ground wave propagation and sky wave propagation fails.
The antenna that is used in this frequency is smaller and it must be placed at a height of various wavelengths above the ground. These waves generally have the nature of line-of-sight, the curvature of earth blockers these waves. As opined by Bennewitz et al. (2018), this is because of the fact that if someone wants to receive the signals across the horizon, then they have to make sure that the receiving antenna has enough height to break off line-on-sight waves.
Therefore, the propagation of the space waves is confined to the lines that are straight in their position. It is identified as the particular distance between the receiving and transmitting antenna and it further enables them to see each other. As opined by Salam (2019), space wave propagation indicates the radio waves that arrive within twenty kilometres of troposphere and it includes both reflected and direct waves. These waves generally travel in a straight line it covers the possible shortest distance. It further indicates that when the waves propagate at a certain point and can be seen through naked eyes.
Conclusion
Space wave propagation denotes the expansion of the radio waves, in the tropospheric layer of earth. These waves are both reflected and direct by the nature. Direct weaves refers to the waves that go directly from source antenna to receiving antenna without any obstruction or interruption. Reflected waves generally reach their destination after being reflected on the building or ground and eventually reach to receiving antenna. These are very important in modern technology and its different uses.
FAQs
Q1. What is meant by space wave propagation?
Space wave propagation indicates the radio waves that appear in 20km of atmosphere that is in tropopause. It consists of two direct kinds of waves namely direct waves and reflected waves. These particular waves are also called tropospheric propagation. It is because they are able to travel from earth's surface to the surface of troposphere.
Q2. How the wave propagation happens in free space and in earth?
There are mainly two methods of the propagation that is sky wave and ground wave, in free space the propagation befalls in Line of the Sight wave and straight line
Q3. What is the importance of propagation model?
The propagation model allows anticipating the attenuation and propagation of the radio signals because the signals go through environment. Different modes can be stimulated by using particular function of propagation model.
Q4. What is the importance of s waves?
S waves are very necessary in various technological aspects. Satellite and modern machines are largely affected by these waves. These waves are also very essential in the mode of communication.
References
Journals
Bennewitz, J. W., Bigler, B. R., Hargus, W. A., Danczyk, S. A., & Smith, R. D. (2018). Characterization of detonation wave propagation in a rotating detonation rocket engine using direct high-speed imaging. In 2018 Joint Propulsion Conference (p. 4688). Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Bennewitz/publication/326262785_Characterization_of_Detonation_Wave_Propagation_in_a_Rotating_Detonation_Rocket_Engine_using_Direct_High-Speed_Imaging/links/5b4a5af60f7e9b4637d9eee4/Characterization-of-Detonation-Wave-Propagation-in-a-Rotating-Detonation-Rocket-Engine-using-Direct-High-Speed-Imaging.pdf
Carcione, J. M., Cavallini, F., Wang, E., Ba, J., & Fu, L. Y. (2019). Physics and simulation of wave propagation in linear thermoporoelastic media. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124(8), 8147-8166. Retrieved from: https://scholar.google.com
Chen, Y., Li, X., Nassar, H., Norris, A. N., Daraio, C., & Huang, G. (2019). Nonreciprocal wave propagation in a continuum-based metamaterial with space-time modulated resonators. Physical Review Applied, 11(6), 064052.Retrieved from: https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10106444
Raza, U., & Salam, A. (2020). Wireless underground communications in sewer and stormwater overflow monitoring: radio waves through soil and asphalt medium. Information, 11(2), 98. Retrieved from: https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/129586/1/Review_Streltsov_final_.pdf
Salam, A. (2019). An underground radio wave propagation prediction model for digital agriculture. Information, 10(4), 147. Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/10/4/147/htm
Wong, K. K., Tong, K. F., Chu, Z., & Zhang, Y. (2020). A vision to smart radio environment: Surface wave communication superhighways. IEEE Wireless Communications, 28(1), 112-119. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.14082
Website
Electronicsdesk (2022). About Radio Wave Propagation. Retrieved from: https://electronicsdesk.com/radio-wave-propagation.html [Retrieved on: 17th June 2022]
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Respecting diversity involves understanding and valuing the perspectives, behaviors, and needs of people from all backgrounds. The ability to value, respect, and acknowledge the identities, backgrounds, and differences of others contributes to a more tolerant society. As society becomes more diverse, your adolescent will be exposed to people from different backgrounds. To help your teen navigate our changing society, teach them about the value of tolerance and diversity.
Talk about stereotypes, differences, and hurtful behavior. The world is a great tapestry of diversity made up of people with different personalities, backgrounds, beliefs, religions, genders, sexual preferences, and socioeconomic statuses. All of these groups have encountered negative stereotypes, and it’s important to talk with your teen about how these labels and assumptions affect others. You may want to point out a stereotype related to your family or background. This can also be a good time to talk about the effect that hurtful comments on social media or cruel actions have on others, especially when it comes to teenagers who are excluded or bullied because they are different. You can also use this as an opportunity to discuss how diversity enhances our world, and how being tolerant and accepting of others can help them learn more about the world. Tom Hoerr, Head of St. Louis-based New City School, says that if your teen is interested, you may want to suggest that they read The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, a historical fiction book that deals with slavery in South Carolina in the early 1800s. Hoerr says that this book includes examples of overt and subtle kinds of racism that are present in the country today, and it can be a good way to get your teen to reflect on these issues.
Documentaries and critical films can teach your teen about tolerance. Another way to build your teen’s ability to respect differences is by watching documentaries that feature people from all walks of life. These types of films often deal with social issues, conflicts, and problems, and they can be useful tools for starting a discussion about tolerance. Films like "The Kite Runner," "Refugee Like Me," and "Poverty in America" offer social commentary about diversity and tolerance and can help teach your teen about respecting differences. You may also want to ask your teen about languages or places that they are interested in learning more about. This can be a great time to begin a discussion about studying abroad in college and the value of learning another language or immersing himself or herself in another culture.
Visit other neighborhoods in your own city or town. Education consultant Jennifer Miller recommends finding ways to experience other cultures in your area. Miller says that it can be something as simple as shopping at a Chinese, Mexican, or Indian market, or it can involve going to a performance given by a culture that is not your own. She adds that if you have the resources, you may also want to travel to diverse locations to introduce your high-schooler to different cultures.
Parent Toolkit resources were developed by NBC News Learn with the help of subject-matter experts, including Hoerr, Emeritus Head of School, New City School, and Jennifer Miller, Author, Confident Parents, Confident Kids. | |
Green New Deal – Editor
The following extract was obtained from Wikipedia, internet encyclopedia:
“The Green New Deal (GND) is a proposed economic stimulus program in the US [and other countries] aiming to address inequality and climate change. The name New Deal refers to a combination of social and economic reforms and public works projects undertaken by US President Franklin Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression[ GND supporters advocate a mix of Roosevelt’s economic approach with modern ideas such as renewable energy and resource efficiency ].”
A UK report “A Green New Deal: Joined-up policies to solve the triple crunch of the credit crisis, climate change and high oil prices”, released on 21 July 2008 by the Green New Deal Group and published by the New Economics Foundation, outlines a series of policy proposals to tackle global warming, the current financial crisis, and peak oil. The report calls for the re-regulation of finance and taxation, and also major government investment in renewable energy sources. Its recommendations:
- Government investment in energy efficiency and microgeneration which would make ‘every building a power station’.
- The creation of thousands of green jobs to enable low-carbon infrastructure reconstruction.
- A windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies – as has been establish-ed in Norway – so as to provide revenue for government spending on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
- Developing financial incentives for green investment and reduced energy usage.
- Changes to the financial system, including the reduction of the central bank’s interest rate, to support greenInvestment.
- Large financial institutions – ‘mega banks’ – to be broken up into smaller units and green banking.
- The re-regulation of international finance: ensuring that the financial sector does not dominate the rest of the economy. This would involve the re- introduction of capital controls.
- Increased official scrutiny of exotic financial products such as derivatives.
- Prevention of corporate tax evasion by demanding financial reporting and by clamping down on tax havens. | https://era.org.au/green-new-deal/ |
Utilising the core practices of Exercise is Medicine, this module dives into the reality of the mental illness; depression; and importantly how exercise is a valuable tool for prevention, treatment and management.
It is recommended that the student has completed the recommended groundwork in modules: 1) Pre-Participation Screening and 2) Physical Activity Assessments before commencing with this module.
Pre-Requisite
Exercise is Medicine Accreditations are only valid for certified Professionals:
Personal Fitness Trainers, Biokineticists, Physiotherapists and other Health Care Providers. | https://fitpro.co.za/product/exercise-is-medicine-for-mental-illness-and-depression/ |
Workers striking for a second day at a garment factory in suburban Phnom Penh succeeded yesterday in having one of their eight demands met, as Taiwanese-owned Meroson Cambodia Co Ltd agreed to reinstate three employees allegedly fired for joining a union, a union official said yesterday.
The agreement to reinstate the three workers followed an all-day meeting between company executives, workers’ representatives and officials from the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, said Un Dara, vice-president of the Cambodian National Confederation for Labourers Protection.
However, the strike by about 500 of the 600 workers at the factory in Kouk Roka commune in Dangkor district will continue, he said, until the company agreed to the rest of the workers’ demands. These include paying overtime for work on Sundays, not forcing workers to work after 8:30pm, allowing sick leave, complying with legally required maternity benefits and ending timed toilet breaks.
Currently, before they can go to the toilet, all employees must write their name and company ID number on a form, along with the time they leave, Un Dara said. If they take longer than 10 minutes to return they receive a warning from managers that they will be fired if they do so twice more, he said.
Garment worker Yan Savet said the company deducted payment from bonuses if workers took longer than five minutes to go to the toilet. She also said that if workers were sick they were given a medical drip rather than allowed to go to a clinic. Working conditions like these were what prompted the strike, Yan Savet said. “We could not stand it any longer. The factory uses workers like animals.”
Yan Savet said the trigger for the strike was the firing of the three union representatives on October 3. Garment maker Phai Ra said workers wanted the union in the factory because they were under great pressure from management. The company routinely violated workers’ rights by forcing them to work overtime and firing staff without just cause, she added.
Police and the female strikers had scuffled briefly yesterday and the day before, but no one was injured and no arrests were made, Un Dara said.
“The workers’ spirits are high and they are fully committed to the strike. They are not afraid of police,” he said.
Dangkor district deputy police chief Touch Phorn denied that police had scuffled with the female protesters.
Last night, workers began blocking the road entering the factory, to prevent goods from being transported out of it. They vowed to stay there overnight.
Staff at Meroson did not respond to requests for comment. Khieu Savuth, deputy director of the Labour Ministry’s department of labor disputes, could not be reached for comment. | https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-bows-strike-continues |
From Neolithic times to the present day, the Yellow River and its watershed have both shaped and been shaped by human society. Using the Yellow River as a case study in understanding the long-term effects of environmentally significant human activity, Ruth Mostern unravels the long history of the human relationship with water and soil and the consequences, at times disastrous, of ecological transformations that resulted from human decisions.
As she follows the Yellow River through three millennia of history, Mostern underlines how governments consistently ignored dynamic interrelationships among the river’s varied ecosystems—grasslands, riparian forests, wetlands, and deserts—and the ecological and cultural impact of their policies. With an interdisciplinary approach informed by archival research and GIS (geographical information system) records, this groundbreaking volume provides unique insight into patterns, transformations, and devastating ruptures throughout ecological history and offers profound conclusions about the way we continue to affect the natural systems upon which we depend.
Ruth Mostern is an associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is also the director of the World History Center. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
Publication Date: September 28, 2021
43 color + 120 b/w illus. | https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300238334/yellow-river |
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
BACKGROUND
SUMMARY
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Collaborative Filtering
Event
Event Date:
Index Page and Category Pages
Event Details
The present invention relates to automated diary population.
Electronic diaries have been available for many years. They allow a user to view on a display of their user device a diary which includes appointments, etc. for a user. Appointments are entered into an electronic diary in a number of different ways. A user can enter them manually by calling up a diary page and entering text in the appropriate time and date slot.
Alternatively, diaries can be shared across a number of users in a defined user group, such that appointments of one user can automatically populate the diary of another user within the group.
Appointments received by an email service can be transferred automatically into a diary by selecting an attachment within the email. Some applications allow specific invitations to be sent by email, whereupon a user upon receipt of such an invitation merely has to select the attachment and it populates his diary automatically. British Airways offer a facility which allows a user to select that a booked flight automatically populates their diary.
The word “diary” used herein implies an electronic store into which a user can enter appointments and which can present a view of these appointments to a user on a screen of a user device.
Calendars also exist, which display to a user a view of dates, times, etc. populated by appointments. Calendar usage has been extended recently by online sharing services such as Google calendars and the iCal format where calendar views of multiple diaries can be shared.
However, developments in calendar usage thus far have been confined to updating times and dates, adding notes and inviting participants. Apart from the limited possibilities to import specialist calendar entries, there has been limited development in population of a calendar other than by user input. Where a possibility does exist to import specialist entries, the user has to accept all of the data without limitation or refinement.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a diary and calendar with facilities for automated population with substantially reduced user input.
It is a further aim to extend the type of data for populating a diary and calendar, without placing any additional burden on a user.
a processor configured to execute a program which generates a request identifying a date;
means for transmitting the request to an event database;
means for receiving from the event database event data corresponding to the selected date;
a user interface configured to present to a user event information based on the event data for the selected date so as to permit a user to select at least one event for populating the user diary, whereby selection of the event by the user automatically imports the event to the diary, by updating stored diary data.
One aspect of the present invention provides a user device configured to automatically populate a user diary, the device comprising:
Event data can be refined prior to populating the diary. Embodiments of the invention further provide API's to allow any website to provide event information in a format which can be imported directly into the user's diary.
The date in the request can be automatically determined as the present day, recognised by the user terminal or, alternatively, can be selected by a user using a calendar displayed to him.
The user device can take the form of any user terminal such as a personal computer, cell phone, tablet, personal entertainment device, games console or Smart mobile device.
The invention also provides a computer system including a user device and a database storing event data relating to a plurality of events and operable to receive a request from the user terminal and return event information corresponding to the request.
The database can be accessible to the device via a server system. The server system can be arranged to filter event data based on user preferences and/or characteristics prior to returning event information responsive to the request.
The server can be accessed by the user terminal via a network such as the Internet, with the user terminal having uploaded a web browser capable of delivering the functionality claimed herein. This is the case for a web-based application of the calendar service. Alternatively, a mobile version of the calendar service can be made available as an APP through a wireless portal contactable to the server system via a wireless network.
a database storing event data relating to a plurality of events, each event associated with an event date;
a handling function for receiving a request from a user terminal;
the request including at least a user identifier, a date and a search refinement criteria;
a filter function for returning event information corresponding to the date in the request, the filter function filtering event data based on characteristics associated with the user identifier, wherein the filter function is operable to filter events based on a history of events selected by a user making the request; and
wherein the handler function is operable to supply the request to the filter function for accessing the database, the filter function operable to return events based on the user identifier and any search parameters supplied in the request, and to return events based on the user identifier where no search parameters are supplied in the request.
The invention also provides a computer system for managing event data comprising:
A “history” button can be provided so that a user can select a date in the past to see if anything of interest has happened on that date.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the database includes events data associated with a category identifier and date identifier. Thus, the principle organisation of the event data can be by category, but associated with any particular date. This provides a first level of filter for displaying information to a user.
Filtering can be carried out by the server system. User preferences can be determined from a user via the user terminal. User characteristics can be obtained from a user profile used by the user in other networks, for example, social networks.
User characteristics can identify one or more user's network and other users “connected” in these networks, whereby the navigation history of the user and/or his connected users can be taken into account when filtering events to be recommended to the user.
Events can be searched by a user who can enter search parameters of the user terminal. In that case, the server system can receive the search parameters and return event data based on those search parameters. The search function provides a useful tool for a user separate or in addition to the filtering function.
One specific search parameter which can be used is a location parameter. To that end, the user device can include means for receiving a location indicator in the request which is supplied to the database. The location indicator can be derived automatically from the user terminal, for example, using a GPS location device at the user terminal, or can be entered by a user who can, for example, click on a country icon. To allow event data to be searched by location, event data can be held in the database in association with the location identifier. Multiple locations can be selected allowing the user to build/view an International itinerary. Public Holidays at a location can automatically update the calendar/diary.
Major national events such as Halloween/Valentines Day can automatically be updated into the calendar/diary.
Another search parameter can define an artist or venue, and the search can be configured to return a set of events grouped by a common criteria, such as artist. These can be displayed to a user in a “stack”, wherein a single event image is visible with a user selectable icon for selecting the display of all events in the group.
a database storing event data relating to a plurality of events, each event associated with an event date;
a handling function for receiving a request from a user terminal;
the request including a user identifier and a date; and
a filter function for returning event information corresponding to the date in the request, the filter function filtering event data based on characteristics associated with the user identifier.
The invention further provides a computer system comprising:
a handler function for receiving a request from a user terminal, the request including a location identifier identifying a location of the user terminal;
a diary update function operable to update a user diary with a class of event data relating to the location identified in the location identifier.
The invention further provides a server system for managing event data, the server system comprising:
generate a request identifying a date;
cause a request to be transmitted to an event database;
receive from the event database event data corresponding to the selected date;
present on a user interface event information based on the event data for the selected date so as to permit a user to select at least one event for populating a user diary, whereby selection of the event by the user automatically imports the event to the diary, by updating stored diary data.
The invention further provides a computer program product, comprising program code means which when executed on a computer at a user device implement the following steps:
receive a request from a user terminal, the request including a user identifier and a date;
access an event database for event information associated with events; and
filter the event data based on characteristics associated with the user identifier to return event information corresponding to the date in the request after said filtering.
The invention further provides a computer program product comprising program code means which when executed on a computer implement the following steps:
receiving a diary update message from a user terminal, the diary update message including a user identifier and an event identifier identifying an event selected by a user at the user terminal; and
importing event data of the event identified by the event identifier into a personal diary associated with the user identified by the user identifier.
The invention further provides a computer program product comprising program code means which when executed on a computer implement the following steps:
The invention further provides a computer program product in the form of an application programming interface, comprising program code arranged to receive information defining an event from an event source and to transform the event information into event data in a format suitable for loading into an event database.
a diary function operable to receive a diary update message identifying an event and to update the user diary with event data of the identified event; and
an update function configured to detect changes in event data stored in an event database and to generate a diary update message to automatically update the user diary with the changed event data.
The invention further provides a server system for updating a user diary, the system comprising:
The personal diary to be updated by the event data can be provided in the server system with the filtering function, or it can be a separate diary which receives an update message in a suitable format for updating the diary. For example, an existing calendar such as iCal can be updated with event data in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
Push notification/reminders can be provided of events listed in a personal diary or events that may be of interest to a user.
Clash event notifications can be provided such that a user gets a modal warning if attempting to add an event or diary event in the same time frame as an existing event
Embodiments of the invention can provide the ability to create an open diary which can be read widely; the writer being the author and the reader being the user. The user's diary is updated and populated with diary data from the author.
Embodiments of the invention can further provide the ability for the user to enter their own diary data to include a postcode; entry of such postcode allows the user to automatically view the event position on a map.
In addition to the architectural and structural search and filtering features for events discussed above, the following embodiments describe a number of ways of presenting event information to a user which simplifies management of a personal diary calendar for the user.
a processor configured to execute a program which generates a request identifying a search parameter;
means for transmitting the request to an event database;
means for receiving from the event database event data corresponding to the selected search parameter, wherein the event data is received as a group of events sharing a common criteria defined by the search parameter;
a user interface configure to present to a user event information based on the event data wherein the group of events is displayed as a stack wherein a single event image is visible with a user selectable icon for selecting the display of event images of all of the events in the group.
The invention also provides in a further aspect, a user device configured to automatically copulate a user diary, the device comprising:
a database storing event data relating to a plurality of event, each event associated with an event date;
a recommendation and ranking function for supplying event information to a user terminal for display to a user;
a diary function operable to receive data from an event selected by a user and update a user's diary based on the event data;
wherein the recommendation and ranking function is operable to determine which events a user has selected to populate his diary and to locate at least one event in the database that is similar to events which the user has used to populate his diary whereby the at least one event can be supplied to the user as a recommendation.
The invention also provides in a further aspect, a computer system for managing event data comprising:
For a better understanding of the present invention and to show how the same may be carried into effect reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1
FIG. 1
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is a schematic diagram of an architectural platform for supporting a calendar service. The platform of is web-based. That is, the calendar service is available through standard browsers on a plurality of user terminals connected to the Internet. It will be appreciated that there will be a very large number of user terminals extending globally, but two are shown in by way of example. The user terminals are connected to a central server system by way of a network such as the Internet . The server system can comprise a distributed collection of web servers , a system for managing a plurality of web crawlers and a distributed media server . A database is connected to the server system . The database can be managed by a distributed database server (for example, a sequel server) in the server system .
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The web servers serve primary front end web requests which are received via the Internet from the user terminals . The database serves the data storage and search needs of the population service, and is accessed by the web servers and the system managing the crawler services. In particular, the database holds event data in a data format for allowing events to be displayed at the user terminals .
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The function of the crawler services is to crawl the Internet to locate the sources of events and grab information about those events for supply to the database . Crawler services are known per se, and can run on a server instance and deposit fetched data into the database . In the present case, the crawlers are focussed on locating event data from event data sources. The crawler services extract information from websites providing events and convert the information into a data format for storage in the database. Event data is also supplied to the database through the Application Programming interfaces (API's) made available to event suppliers. The API's provide data to the database in the data format.
Another source of event data is an open diary having an author who enters his appointment in the diary—for example the author can be a celebrity.
12
The media server can store and supply large, static content, when appropriate, such as images and videos. That is, the event data can include a pointer to media content, e.g. a video, to be displayed with the event information. For example, video content can play from sponsor's servers.
The event data is accessible through the instances of the population service running in browsers of the user terminals so as to automatically populate a personal user diary which is available to a user at his terminal.
FIG. 2
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shows a schematic diagram of a home page displayed to a user at his user terminal when he enters the website address for the service using his web browser. Page shows a calendar for the current month, displaying the current date highlighted. A user can change month by activating the arrows by activating his user interface control, for example, keyboard, mouse and cursor, touch screen or in any other way. In the illustrated example, the date 6 Oct. 2011 is highlighted in the calendar . Located to the left of the calendar is an event display portion .
FIG. 2
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The event display portion can take a number of different display configurations as discussed more fully in the following, but on the home page illustrates a set of events in each of a number of different categories, for example, as shown in , sport, entertainment, family/kids, culture and general. In each category, a set of individual events is displayed which take place on the highlighted day 6 Oct. 2011. For example, in the category of sport, sport events SE1, SE2, SE3 are shown in adjacent display portions, each display portion having an image so that the user can readily identify the nature of the sport event, a date portion with the date of the event and a text portion describing details about the event. Event information displayed in other categories has a similar format. The event information which is displayed to a user pertains to the date selected by the user in the calendar . When the home page is launched, the display defaults to the current date, which is highlighted. However, a user can change the date with his user interface control (user input device) and when he selects a different date, event information for that date is automatically displayed to him.
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This is achieved in the following way. When the user selects a date on the calendar , a request is transmitted from the user terminal via the Internet to the server system for event information related to that date. The event information for the relevant date is retrieved by the server system from the database , which holds event data which has been uploaded to the database . The relevant event information is returned in the form of an event information message (EIM) via the server system and the Internet to the user terminal that requested that particular date. In one embodiment, on the user display the selected date is shown in yellow highlight, while the current day is shown in a grey highlight. As the user navigates away from the current month using the arrows , a memory retains data identifying the current day such that the user can automatically recover current day information.
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FIG. 1
FIG. 2
The event information can be retrieved from one or more database servers. Three database servers , , are shown in . The database server holds information about events in the United Kingdom, the database server holds information about events in the USA and the database server holds information about events in Europe. It will be appreciated that the principle can be extended to any number of geographical locations, organised by country or in any other way. The database which returns the event information for display to a user can be selected in a number of different ways. The user interface illustrated in shows a country flag associated with a drop-down menu from which a user can select one or more of a number of different countries, but only selecting one country at a time. When a country has been selected, the request which is transmitted from the user terminal contains information about that country which redirects the request to the correct country specific domain. Although illustrated as separate servers, it will be appreciated that any implementation of country specific domain is possible.
Alternatively, automatic location of the user can be accomplished and this location information is incorporated into the request from the user terminal each time a request is transmitted from that user terminal. The location can be determines automatically by using a built-in GPS or other geo location function in the web browser of the user terminal, or by considering IP address information or using cookies or in any other way. If the user location is provided automatically, a function can be provided to a user to allow him to override it and choose another location.
603
28
FIG. 6
The population service incorporates a search tool () which provides a text box to a user. A user can search by keyword, word or phrase to locate events of interest. Advance search options are also possible, for example, if a user wants to view pop concerts for five days from 21 October, then in advance they can enter words, categories and dates ahead of that date.
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If a user is interested only in one of the categories displayed to him, he can select that category, for example, by using a mouse and cursor to click on the category tab associated with the event whereupon all events displayed to the user are in the selected category. Scroll arrows are provided in each category to allow a user to scroll within the category. A plurality of events are available from the database for each date in each category, not all of which may be able to be shown on the display at the same time.
39
The display provides an event map which shows the location of an event on a display when the user selects the event, for example by clicking on it.
Event information supplied to a user can be refined by characteristics associated with the user. These can be shared with a user identifier at the server system, along with user preferences and user event selection history.
One such characteristic can be the name of an author of an open diary, for example a celebrity. In that case, the celebrity's appointments/events are shown to the user.
Thus, filtered and organised events can be displayed to a user in association with his calendar.
FIG. 2
30
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The automated diary and calendar population function will now be described. In , reference numeral illustrates a user diary. In order to see or access their diary, a user must register or be signed in. This provides a user identifier associated with the user. A sign-in and registration box is provided to the user for this purpose. If a user sees an event that they would like to attend, they can add it to their diary simply by actuating an add button which is associated with each event. It will be appreciated that the add button could take any form and could in fact be omitted in place of a function where a user could actuate the event information itself displayed to the user, for example, by actuating the image, date portion or text portion or the entire footfall of the event image.
Following a search for a particular category or micro category, a user may determine that all events displayed to him as a result of the search are relevant and can select an “add all” function to add them all into his diary.
An automatic update feature can be provided for selection by a user. According to this feature, a class of events can be preselected by a user which automatically populate the user diary without the user having to take any action. For example, an open (e.g. celebrity) diary can be selected by a user to automatically populate their personal diary with celebrity events.
20
When a user has selected an event to populate his diary, a marker appears on that date in the calendar to indicate that the user has an event on that date.
A user can also input to the diary personal dates with information and explanation that the user can provide. These can also be marked in the calendar.
FIG. 3
FIG. 2
FIG. 2
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illustrates different views of the calendar and diary function provided by the calendar service. Reference numeral denotes the home page which has been described in more detail already with respect to . In addition to the search box , events can be displayed to a user in a number of different formats. The different formats can be selected by selecting different modes using the bar . Reference numeral denotes a selection of day mode using the bar . In day mode, the events entered into the user diary for that day are shown. The diary is divided into time slices with each time slide being populated by an event or not depending on the selections which have been made by the user previously. Events can be personal, and can be represented by a specific personal icon or they can be stored events from the event database , for example event . Events from the database can be recognised by carrying an image representative for the event as in the image portion described above with reference to .
312
In day mode, it is possible to activate (for example, by single clicking) any day which is illustrated on the day bar to make an entry into the diary on that activated date. An entry portal is opened which is described later.
The time slices can be any size but typically they may be one hour slots. It is likely that a user will not have an event every hour.
A user can activate a time slice, for example, by clicking, to enter an event into that time slice, by opening an entry portal.
20
The calendar is visible in day mode and can be used to look at dates without changing the diary view. If a user activates a date in the calendar, the diary view will update to that date.
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Reference numeral denotes the diary view presented to a user when week mode has been selected at bar . In week mode, the week number in the year is displayed as shown at . As with the day mode, activating any day which is visible in that week allows an entry to be made into the diary on that activated date.
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Furthermore, as with the day mode, events in the event database can be easily recognised by the image associated with the event as in the image portion. This is denoted by reference numeral for two of the events. Personal events are recognisable by the personal icon . It is noted that users can personalise their personal icon for each event by uploading an image or photo to replace the generic icon.
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Each event is associated with a set of functions to . Although not described with reference to day mode (and month mode which follows), these functions are available in all modes. The share mode allows a user to share the event with others, for example, by emailing it.
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The remove function allows a user to delete the event from the diary. The edit function allows a user to alter aspects of the event, provided that it is a personal event. It is noted that a limited edit function is available for events from the event database so that a user can edit all information but the edited information is only visible to them. They cannot share the edited event. This is done in case they wish to add time handles or if crawled data in the database is incomplete. Reference numeral denotes the diary view in month mode as selected by bar . In the monthly mode, a single month is shown in full, with events marked against days of the month. An event from the event database can be marked with a dot of a first colour, for example, yellow and personal events can be marked with a different colour dot, for example, grey. By way of example, a personal mark is shown against 17 October, and a database event mark is shown against 25 October.
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Location, time of event, diary status, alarm, invitees, attachments, URL and note.
The monthly view shows a modal entry window which can be used to enter a new personal event. The modal entry window can be provided to a user on actuation of a selected date in any of the monthly, weekly or day views. The modal entry window includes a plurality of fields including:
39
By entering appropriate details into these fields, a user can add a personal event to the diary. A postcode field can be provided. If a postcode is entered, the location of the event is shown on the events map .
603
The fields for entering the personal event can match the fields for event data in the database. Data entered into a personal event entry window can be supplied to the search function to allow a search to be carried out using that data.
FIGS. 4A to 4C
FIGS. 4A to 4C
Reference will now be made to to describe the search function for database events in more detail. illustrate a user interface on a user terminal in the form of a mobile device such as a smart phone. It will readily be appreciated that the concepts described above with respect to a web-based user terminal can be applied on a mobile device implemented as an APP, while the search concepts which are about to be discussed with reference to the mobile device can similarly be applied to any type of user terminal. The particular display configurations are given here by way of example only and are not intended to be limiting.
FIG. 4A
FIG. 2
FIG. 4B
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illustrates the home page of an event service suitable for a mobile device. Reference numerals are used to denote the same items as on the home page illustrated in , although the display configuration is different. The current date is displayed at the top of the screen. A user has the ability to flick forward and backward day by day using arrows on the right and left of the date . Four quick searches are made available by reference numeral . These searches include “what's on today”, “what's on this week”, and “what's on this month”. Each search, when activated, shows a set of events in display portions for that day, week or month which can be scrolled through. The fourth quick search is activated through the “anytime” button. This button accesses an event search page. This event search page can also be accessed from an events button . The event search page is shown in more detail in . A date or period can be entered by using the date fields . A select categories field allows a user to access a categories list.
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A “refine by” field allows a search to be refined in a number of different ways, for example, by city within the UK, by country, by most popular, by top ten, by category or by recently added.
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An optional advanced refine field allows further refinements of the search, for example, by just added, alphabetical event A-Z, alphabetical event Z-A, date nearest, date furthest, category, randomised, UK location (top twenty cities), international (twenty countries), most popular venue indoor, venue outdoor.
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A find button instigates the search by sending a request to the server system and consequently the database for events which match the search criteria. These events are returned to the device for display to a user.
FIG. 4C
FIG. 4A
FIG. 2
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illustrates a display page which can be made visible to a user by actuating a detailed page icon which is associated with each event, and illustrated in . The display page shows details of a single event, with the image portion, date portion and text portion as already described with reference to . A share function associated with the event allows the event to be shared with friends. The event has an add button for adding the event to a user's diary. When the add button is activated, the event automatically populates the user diary. A tickets function is highlighted if tickets to the displayed event are available. The ticket function can display contact details for ticket sellers or provide a direct link to an affiliate ticket seller's page. A category box allows a user to see a list page of other related events within the same category.
One issue which can arise with display of information to a user is that too much information or the wrong type of information is displayed to a user, which can be off-putting and difficult for a user to manipulate. This can be managed in a number of different ways.
FIG. 4B
According to one option, a user will be provided with a mechanism for inputting a preference as to how their display should be populated with event information. For example, they could prefer that they only receive events for times after 5:00 in the afternoon or weekends, for example. Alternatively, they could express a preference for events to be filtered on any of the refine options in the search (for example, as described above with reference to ).
8
Whether or not a user expresses a preference, events can be filtered by the server system which extracts events from the database for supply to the user terminals.
8
The system can filter for events that happen in the future, which match user preferences with categories chosen and search options by time slot, and displayed by day, week or month. The server system could be operable to extract information from social networking sites associated with the user to determine a user profile, such that events appropriate to that user are displayed to them.
As one specific example of this, age range identification would allow content and event filtering, while geo location services could be used to find current location, especially for use with mobile devices.
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FIG. 1
The database of events is organised by category. In addition to crawlers supplying events to the database, scrapers could also be used or the database could have direct feeds (through API's) from explicit suppliers such as aggregators and ticketing service suppliers. These are denoted by block in . Open diaries can also be provided.
39
Location services support zip code and post code for an “around me” style of event reporting. That is, each event in the database is associated with a location identifier which can be used as a search tag if location information is supplied from a user terminal in the search. The location identifier can also be used to display the location of the event on the event map .
FIG. 4B
It will be appreciated that each of the search parameters described above with reference to can be implemented as a tab against event data for a particular event in the database.
Users can create a “most popular” listed ranking of events so that less popular events will be aged and eventually culled based on age.
A possibility exists to allow sponsored events to be hardwired to appear at the top of listings. That is, a certain type of event (sponsored) will be marked in the database with a tab which overrides other search criteria but which still nevertheless falls within the user search parameters of date and category.
605
FIG. 6
After a user has used the event service for some while, it is possible to determine which events the user has used to populate his diary, and thus determine the set of events that the user likes. Then, a group of events can be located in the database that is similar to the set of events known to be liked by the user and these events can be ranked and recommended to the user. In that case, it would not be necessary for a user to enter search criteria—instead when he opened his calendar at a certain day the group of events similar to those he has liked in the past, duly ranked would appear to him. The recommendation and ranking function ( in ) is carried out by an algorithm executed at the server system which runs on the data in the database.
The recommendation function will now be described in more detail.
The recommendation function is based on a hybrid method combining collaborative and content-based filtering methods.
604
The Collaborative filtering used is a variant of item-to-item collaborative filtering to recommend based on user history. Information is retained (for example a store of the diary function ) about all events the user has added to diary and those he visited if he has not added to diary enough events.
FIG. 8
FIG. 7A
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illustrates the format of an event entry in the event database , in accordance with the embodiment. It is not necessary for each event to have all of these fields populated, but they are all available if there is data to populate them. However, certain fields are a prerequisite for efficient searching and/or recommendation features. The event entry comprises a title field which holds the title of the event—this could include, for example, an artist name such as John Smith or an event title such as Ayrshire Arts & Crafts Fair (see ). Reference numeral denotes a location field which holds a location of the event. Reference numeral denotes a notes field which includes any notes a user has made concerning the event. Reference numeral denotes an event description field. When searching for similar events, as described below, it is fields , , , , and which are taken into account.
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The event entry also includes a date field , a time field , a pre-event time/leave time field . The event entry also includes a invite/share field which defines how the event is to be shared by the user, for example, with other users connected to the user in social networks. The event entry includes a generate tickets/invites field , an edit field and a field which indicates the status of the event whether private or open when it is to be incorporated into a shared calendar. The event entry includes a ticket field , an add to calendar field and a reminders field .
102
The add to calendar field is updated when a user has selected the event so that it populates the user diary.
In another embodiment, the event data is separated from event date data in accordance with the following:
name
description
venue
url—url it was grabbed
slug
geohash (latitude, longitude in fact)
featured_flag
affiliate_flag
ranking—boosting ranking
click_ranking—ranking counted from clicks and boost
hidden_flag
clicks—how many times events was visited
owner—if it is users' event—points to user
private—if event is publicly visible
all different image size fields+link to original image
tags—categories of event
crawler—crawler that grabbed this event
event—points to event
start—date and time
end—date and time
all_day—if event is all day event
hidden_flag
day_of_week
day_of_month
month_of_year
Event to event similarity is an expensive computation and is computed offline in the way described in the following pseudocode:
function count_and_store_similarity(event, another_event) {
in_one_diary = number_of_events_in_one_diary(event, another_event)
return
in_one_diary/ (number_of_diaries (event) *number_of_diaries(another_event)
}
function count_similarities(all_events) {
for event in all_events {
diary_entries = all_diary_entries_for_event(event)
similar_events = list( )
for entry in diary_entries {
similar_events.append(get_events_in_diary_with_entry(entry))
}
for another_event in all_events {
if another_event in similar_events {
count_and_store_similarity(event, another_event)
}
}
}
}
This is computed for all events added to the database compared with events already added into user diaries.
For all events, a huge matrix of event to event similarities is the result of this process. Storing only similarities of events with some minimal reasonable similarity makes this matrix smaller and faster to access. Thus, a matrix of events having a minimal reasonable similarity is stored.
Those offline computed similarities in the matrix can be later easily accessed to get event recommendations for a specific user based on the most similar events to those in the user diary for the specific user or the diaries of users to who he is connected in one or more of his social networks. In pseudocode:
function get_recommended_events (user) {
events_from_diary + get_events_from_diary(user)
recommended = get_most_similar_events (events_from_diary)
return recommended
}
There are two places where recommendations are used.
FIG. 2
The first place is index page (shown in ) and all category views where recommended events are always appearing at the beginning of each category.
Those events are only based on collaborative filtering method with fixed limit of minimal similarity, so the accuracy of those recommendations is quite high.
FIG. 4A
At event detail pages (see for example ) “You may also like” consist of event from collaborative method (once again with fixed but lower than on category pages minimal similarity) at the beginning followed by events content-similar up to fixed number of events.
FIG. 5
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2
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is a schematic diagram of hardware at a terminal . Each user terminal may comprise a processor connected to a network interface , a memory and a display . The display is associated with the user interface which has an input device such as discussed before e.g a keyboard and/or mouse and cursor and/or touch screen. Processor is arranged to execute code portions which can be downloaded from the memory . The code portions implement the various event display functions described above by acting on instructions received from a user via UI and returning relevant information presentation instructions to the display . In this way, the code portions in conjunction with the UI elements of the display constitute means for implementing various functions at the user terminal.
504
The memory also provides a store which can provide a cache for the personal user diary.
When an event is selected, event data automatically updates the diary data. The diary data for each user is held at the server system.
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The presentation information instructions which are supplied from the processor to the display include event data which is supplied from the event database via the server system through the network interface . It is assumed that event data incoming to the user terminal via the network interface has already been filtered to a significant extent such that management of the event information to be displayed can then be handled by the local processor at the user terminal. It will be appreciated that the server system and database also include processors running code portions to implement various means which carry out their respective functions.
FIG. 6
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2
shows the message flow in more detail. The server system provides a handler function , a refine and filter function and a diary function . A request transmitted from the user terminal is received by the handler function . As described above, the request includes the date, which is either the default date or the date selected by the user. In addition, the request includes a user identifier which identifies a user logged into the user terminal . The request can also include search parameters, etc. as described above. The handler function supplies the request to the filter function which accesses the database to retrieve event data dependent on the date and the user identifier, and on any other search criteria which have been supplied with the request. Importantly, even if the user does not specifically enter any search criteria or other event-related information (such as categories), the filter function nevertheless responds to the request by returning events which are refined for that user based on the user identifier. Event data for these set of events determined to be interesting to the user is returned in the event information message EIM to the user terminal .
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604
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When the user makes a selection of an event, a diary update message is transmitted from the user terminal to the diary function at the server system . The diary update message includes at least a user identifier and an event identifier. The user identifier allocates the update to the appropriate diary for that user. It will be appreciated that the diary function runs a number of personal diaries associated with respective users. The event identifier in the diary update message allows the event data associated with that event to populate the diary for that user, as described earlier. The diary function thus includes a store which holds data populating the diary. When the user uses an entry portal to enter a personal appointment, a similar diary update message is transmitted from the user terminal to the diary function to update the diary.
504
8
604
As mentioned above, personal user diary data can be also be cached locally in the memory in addition to being held at the central server system in the diary function .
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10
As already explained above, the database receives event data from crawler services , from API's associated with direct suppliers and possibly from a set of featured events which can be identified by the user of the server system or by other appointed users.
606
The database is updated with event data periodically or in real time. If event data for an event changes, the new event data is associated with the event identifier and automatically updates the diaries of users who had that event in their diary. This is carried out by the update function .
606
The update function also allows a user to preselect a class of events (e.g. an open diary for a celebrity) which automatically updates their personal diary whenever a new event/appointment is added to the class of events.
FIG. 7A
FIG. 7B
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The user interface can be arranged to enable a user to enter a search parameter and to receive the event data as a group of events sharing a common criteria defined by the search parameter. In that case, the user interface is configured to display the group as a stack wherein a single event image is visible with a user selectable icon for selecting the display of all the events in the group. illustrates a user interface where the event display image on the right hand side is such a “stack”. This is the result of entering an artist name, for example, John Smith, into the text box which allows entry of a keyword for a search. The event image has a user selectable icon which, when selected, indicates a plurality of dates on which the artist is performing (see ).
FIG. 7B
Alternatively, by clicking on the image portion itself, a screen such as that of is displayed, showing the image with other dates available.
FIGS. 7A and 7C
72
This is a particularly efficient mechanism for providing event data to a user which avoids cluttering the user display. In , reference numeral denotes a field in which the artist name can be displayed.
FIG. 9
FIG. 9
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is a schematic diagram illustrating the cooperation between the event function and diary function in more detail. illustrates as part of the event function, event data including name, description, venue, etc., as described earlier, event date data , category data and image data (photo ). The event data, event date data, category date and image data can each be implemented as a functional software component capable of interacting with each other and with components in the diary function. The diary function provides a tracking component , a diary entry component , and do not display component all capable of interfacing with a user.
In the present description, embodiments of the invention are described offering a number of improvements and advantages in the field of event data and diary/calendar population.
a processor configured to execute a program which generates a request identifying a date and/or dates, and/or location and or keyword such as artist or venue or interest or category;
means for transmitting the request to an event database;
means for receiving from the event database event data corresponding to the selected date and/or dates, and/or location and or keyword such as artist or venue or interest or category;
a user interface configured to present to a user event information based on the event data and/or dates, and/or location and or keyword such as artist or venue or interest or category for the selected date or dates so as to permit a user to select at least one event for populating the user diary and or adding it to their social network sites, and or sharing the event with their contacts, whereby selection of the event by the user automatically imports the event to the diary/calendar, by updating stored diary data.
Embodiments provide a user device or devices all of which update if accessed under a single login, configured to automatically aggregate event information (an event being something a person may attend or observe or take-part in) and populate a user diary or be present within the diary/calendar database allowing the user to add a single or multiple events into the calendar, the device comprising:
By virtue of populating the diary the user now also gets a map showing the event location, travel updates to the zip/postcode area, weather updates if within forecasting range of the area selected, and the ability to find nearby restaurants and/or bars and/or other places of interest. All such data can be shared. The user can also select the map and choose to look anywhere in the world for similar or any event. The user can select and save keywords to preferences allowing the database to push notify the user of similar events being posted into the database. The user can select to ignore or add the event directly into the calendar. The user is warned by virtue of a popup should adding an event clash with another calendar entry.
To select a date, the user taps any date to view events on that date. For a date range the user taps a date, holds down and scrolls to the end date before releasing their mouse button.
Each ‘signed in’ user is presented with a bespoke set of events based on algorithms which track the users navigation and other users tracked navigation whereby the same event has been viewed and the probability of navigating forward is anticipated based on where the majority of other users go. This means the user is always looking at relevant events that they are likely to like or want to know about. This unique event display, made for each individual user, can be refined further by virtue of personal preferences (nearest within a defined perimeter . . . furthest from current location or any input zip/postcode . . . free . . . most to least expensive and vice versa . . . date soonest to furthest and vice versa . . . scale of event . . . time of day, soonest to furthest and vice versa . . . alphabetical a-z or z-a . . . by venue . . . ticketed . . . by artist . . . most popular . . . random.
Categories also comprises sub categorisation. The categorisation works in tandem with keywords with the event detail so as to automatically rank listings so as to be most relevant to the user. The user themselves can determine or input keywords, which help rank an event higher for them, but also the calendar algorithm determines ranking a category higher based on keywords which may repeatedly appear in detail about the event during the users navigation history. The unique structure of code is able to stack similar events into a single event window so that the user is not deluged with a repeat artist playing multiple dates for example. The stacking displays one artist with text to indicate that multiple dates are selectable. The user interface further allows the user to see all dates by selecting a single ‘+’ button within the event box. This is presented in a modal window.
Algorithms will also present similar events in multiple categories within a ‘you may also like’ section beneath the main category on display.
The calendar recognises the user's location and can push/display events to their device for that location. The user is able to switch to any one of multiple post/zip codes at any time through the filter, and layer results. For example, if a user is in location A and selects to view events in that location, then selects one event, the system will indicate if that event is also in other locations, whereby the user can display those events. Or a user can input any other location and select ‘similar events’ to find matching events in other locations.
Geo-location can be selected in user preferences allowing the user to, by default, view nearest events. A selectable icon on the user interface allows the user to (i) view a world map (ii) drag and select any country, town, or place, always being presented with ‘popular’ event markers on the map, wherever they look. The user may also input single or multiple zip/postcodes and view events by filter, in all locations simultaneously. Entry of a post/zipcode automatically creates a map within the calendar, so that the user can view their event and see its location in respect of their location.
The location device which automatically determines the position of a user and generates the location indicator works in alignment to the user's personalised settings and algorithms to display relevant events which the user is more likely to want to view. In addition the user can enter other addresses within the maps and get directions from A to B. Traffic updates according to the route are automatically fed into the user's diary; if the user selects travel by public transport then the diary/calendar is automatically updated with any such delays.
As an alternative to an activatable icon for selecting the event, the entire event footfall can be used for selecting the event. Also the event can be added directly to the calendar from the image portion.
The user interface is configured to display to a user means for selecting different diary views, the different diary views including day mode, week mode and month mode, derived from the stored diary data. Each view can be preferenced by a user, meaning they can select which day of the week their week-view starts . . . the hours displayed in day-view . . . whether month view is the next 31 days or the current month. The user enters their event and/or meeting into predetermined fields of the modal window allowing their event to display in the same way as a commercial event.
Personal events can be marked in the diary views with a personal event icon and database events with a database event icon. In the calendar view, any date on the calendar on which a selected event takes place includes a marker, wherein the marker for personal events differs from that for database events. The user can set preferences to select different colour markers for different genres such as ‘home’ ‘work’ ‘family’. When the user hovers over the marker a modal window appears showing the event detail.
The user interface is operable to present to a user a modal entry window for entering details of a personal event for populating the diary. The user can upload an image and/or video to accompany their entry. They can opt to list their entry on their other social network sites. The database will present other events to the user based on keywords that may appear in the users data, such as same location events nearby; events that have the same meaning. For example if the user inputs a diary event such as ‘drum lesson’ and then the address, the database will return listing for drum shops in that area . . . or perhaps a famous drummer is doing a book signing in the area . . . or there's a drum seminar. User input data relates directly to the events database and works in tandem to present relevant information to the user.
Event data is returned based on user personalisation and algorithm-detected preferences, resulting in relevant discovery and listing. The database and algorithms serve to display data ranked in what it believes the user wishes to see. Resulting information also determines the exact advert to be shown alongside any event as well as relevant discount vouchers, which relate either to the event and/or a similar category of product. For example, if the user is returned with an event ‘Disney On Ice’ at Wembley Arena; then it is likely they will see an advert for EuroDisney as well as a discount voucher for the Disney Store or to the cinema to see a new Disney film. All data can be added to the user's diary with clicking ‘+’.
The user can select to view or hide any number of categories or sub categories. Furthermore they can ‘drag’ each category window into the order they wish to view them from top of page to bottom. The selection of category forms part of the basis of future events displayed to the user. For example, if the user selects the category of premiership football and selects to add the entire premiership schedule into the calendar/diary, then the database remembers this selection and will constantly update the data entries in the calendar, push notify of any changes, and auto update the calendar year on year without further user interaction, thereby negating the need to select categories in the future.
Geo-location can be selected in user preferences allowing the user to, by default, view nearest events.
The database stores a type of events with a preference tag, the preference tag ensuring the return of the event responsive to a request if it meets the category and date criteria in the request, but regardless of other search parameters. The user may select any tag in order to view other related events.
The user can opt to display ‘events they've clicked on previously’ as a permanent feature thereby negating the need for a user to act proactively to see such data.
Search is predictive and is recognised as vertical search, search solely from the database. The search field recognises the characters instantly to when the user starts typing and immediately predicts potential events to negate the user having to type extensively. For example if the user types “GE . . . ” a modal window will open to display all “GE” events in the database starting with what the algorithm tells it is most likely to be what the user is looking for. In other words the user will see “GEORGE MICHAEL IN LONDON” “GEORGE HARRISON ANTHOLOGY RELEASE DATE” etc. When the user sees an exact match he may select that to see solely one event. This is ultimate refinement. User may prefer a more open search for “George” with the result being all ‘george’ events.
When an event is automatically updated the user will receive a push notification. All of the user's devices and systems will update under the same login. Whereby an event is updated and that update causes a clash with another diary entry the user will need to accept (in the push notification) which event should take preference.
An application programming interface (API), comprises program code arranged to receive information defining an event from an event source and to transform the event information into event data in a format suitable for loading into an event database. Other website developers will be able to use this API to easily adapt their websites to work with the database. For example a school would integrate the API in their website design so that when they enter their term schedule, their site displays the data for one-click entry into the diary.
INSTANT CHAT.
A user sees an event they like they can click on a chat button . . . select the friend they'd like to chat with . . . and discuss the event with them, whereby they can both then add the event into diary.
MICRO SITES.
Similar to the author pages for open access. In this instance companies have all their events in one address. For example “Daybees.com/Disney” to find all Disney events, with everything one-clickable into diary.
Other functionality includes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a schematic block diagram of a technical platform for implementing an electronic diary and calendar population service;
FIG. 2
is a screen shot of a home page of the service;
FIG. 3
shows expansion of the screen shot into various diary views;
FIGS. 4A-4C
show the diary population service implemented on a mobile device to describe a search function of the service;
FIG. 5
is an architectural block diagram of a user terminal for implementing the service;
FIG. 6
is a schematic diagram showing message flow;
FIGS. 7A to 7C
are illustrations of the user interface implementing a stack function; and
FIG. 8
shows the format of an event entry in the database. | |
Histories of 16th-century art in France typically devote entire chapters to the Galerie François I at Fontainebleau or the châteaux of Philibert de l’Orme, but seldom more than a footnote to manuscript illumination. This art-historical lacuna is authoritatively redressed by Renaissance Manuscripts: the Sixteenth Century, fruit of a lifetime’s research by the late Myra Orth, a curator at the Getty Research Institute.
Like previous contributions to this ambitious Harvey Miller series, it comprises two substantial volumes: the first with brief introductory essays, illustrations and succinct biographies of artists, scribes, authors and patrons. The second provides full catalogue entries on 100 manuscripts made between 1516 and 1574, plus indexes and a bibliography. This layout necessitates close reading and frequent cross-reference, amply compensated for by an enthralling level of detail that makes an immense contribution to Renaissance studies.
For half a century after the end of the Hundred Years War, the preferred residence of the French court was at Tours. Paris reclaimed its position as the centre of deluxe book production only after the accession of François I (1515-47). Printing had been introduced to France in 1470, but the wealthy continued to commission prayer books and receive opulent presentation copies of new works. Manuscripts were generally supplied by a bookseller or publisher, who supervised the scribe, illuminators and painters.
A third of those catalogued by Orth belong to that traditional “best seller”, the book of hours. Their texts were made more uniform by the growing popularity of printed prayer books and the Sorbonne’s ban in 1525 on the translation of prayers into French, and their figurative repertory became dependent on engravings by Dürer and after Raphael. Nevertheless, many were decorated to a superlative standard by such artists as the so-called Doheny Master and the Master of the Getty Epistles.
The mother of François I, Louise de Savoie, commissioned François Desmoulins’s Commentaires de la Guerre Gallique (1519-20), based on Caesar’s account but written in the vernacular because of the king’s indifferent Latin. This was decorated with elegant grisaille miniatures by Godefroy le Batave and life-like portraits of the French commanders at the Battle of Marignano by Jean Clouet. Both artists came from the Low Countries, as did the leading Parisian “master painter”, Noël Bellemare. Their Flemish origins help to explain the appearance in French books of figures copied from Antwerp Mannerist drawings. Resplendent scenes of court life in the 1530s adorn presentation copies of Diodorus Siculus’s Histoire Universelle and Cicero’s Four Orations, showing François and his most powerful baron, Anne de Montmorency, each at the centre of a galaxy of courtiers.
Like the king, his bluestocking elder sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême, was sympathetic to religious reform, and the text and miniatures of her pious Initiatoire Instruction (1527-30) have a distinctly evangelical tone. A prolific poet, she presented friends with illuminated copies of her autobiographical lament The Coach. Verse was also composed by members of the Third Estate, including Rouen bourgeois and mariners from Dieppe, as well as court orators. A volume of their prize-winning Chants Royaux, delivered annually at the competitions of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception in Rouen between 1519 and 1528, depicts recondite allegories and religious subjects, as well as everyday scenes, including a lively representation of a printer’s shop.
The circle of Italian artists whom François I established at Fontainebleau included Luca Penni and Niccolò dell’Abbate, who contributed to religious manuscripts for Henri II (1547-59) and nobles such as Montmorency and the Duc de Guise. By mid-century, French book design had become distinctly Mannerist, with borders of scrollwork, swags and masks, and landscapes replete with obelisks, banded columns and circular temples resembling the Pantheon. Inspired by the abundant classical remains of his native Lyons, Guillaume du Choul composed a volume of Antiquités Romaines with wash drawings copied from coins and medals and Italian engravings. Antiquarian research on seals and medieval tombs gave historical authority to the splendid full-page miniatures of the kings of France since Merovingian times in Le Grand Recueil des Roys de France, presented in 1566 by the royal secretary Jean de Tillet to Charles IX (1560-74).
The independent portrait miniatures by Jean and François Clouet, set in precious lockets to serve as princely gifts, derived from the likenesses of the heroes of Marignano contained within the Commentaires de la Guerre Gallique. This process was turned on its head around 1580 when the dowager queen Catherine de’ Médici pasted four oval miniatures by the English artist Nicholas Hilliard into her Book of Hours to join the 34 family portraits originally made for it. Thus, a prayer book became a portrait album.
Manuscripts provide numerous such insights into the sensibilities of their long-dead owners. Those catalogued here have beguiled many later collectors—six belonged to the legendary William Beckford (1760-1844), builder of Fonthill Abbey. Thanks to the research of Myra Orth, these ravishing Renaissance treasures are now accessible to a new generation of connoisseurs. | https://www.theartnewspaper.com/review/histories-of-16th-century-french-art-have-overlooked-manuscript-illumination-until-now |
It is now 23 years since I retired from my University Chair and became a “gentleman of leisure.” In my case leisure meant working full time on matters that are essentially of a moral and political nature, such as, the elimination of nuclear weapons and the abolition of war. But the first five decades of my adult life were spent on scientific research—first in nuclear physics and later on its applications to medicine. In this lecture I want to go back to science, to discuss its past role in society, and the role it should play in the future, a role that may affect the lives of generations to come.
We are now at the threshold of a new millennium. This is an appropriate time to reflect on the legacy we are handing down from the past, especially from the century that is now coming to an end. There can be no doubt that the 20th century has been a unique century, with more momentous changes than in any previous century: changes for better, changes for worse; changes that have brought enormous benefits to human beings, changes that threaten the very existence of the human species. The world today is completely different from the world into which I was born in the first decade of this century.
Many factors have contributed to these changes, but in my opinion the most important factor—the dominating factor—has been the progress made in the natural sciences.
I was five years old when the First World War broke out. My formative years—when as a young child I began to comprehend the world around me—were spent in utter poverty and hardship. At that time I began to develop a great passion for science, science pursued not only to satisfy our thirst for knowledge, but as the means to alleviate the miseries of life that I experienced every day: death and destruction; hunger and cold; squalor and disease; degradation and cruelty. I fervently believed that science could, and would, put an end to these evils. It was this dream that sustained me in those terrible years during and immediately after the war.
Now—as a nonagenarian, looking back at this dream of a child—I am glad to note that much of the dream has come true. On the whole, the world is much better off at the end of the century than it was at its beginning. And most of the betterment is the consequence of the progress made in the natural sciences.
Infectious diseases that killed so many in infancy and young age, are now a thing of the past. The average life-span has generally increased dramatically. Greatly improved techniques in agriculture have made it possible—at least potentially—to provide food for the world population, even though the world population has been growing very fast as a result of better health and hygiene. New industrial technologies applied in factories and mines have largely removed the drudgery and mindlessness of labour, as well as reducing working hours and increasing safety standards. The products of the new industrial technologies have also lessened the chores of day-to-day life, such as housing amenities, food preparation and materials for clothing. The fantastic progress in communication and information has given more and more people access to the great cultural achievements—to books, concerts, museums, as well enabling them to keep in touch with current events via radio, television and the Internet. All this has made it possible for them to be more actively involved in the life of the community, whether at local, national or world-wide level. Altogether, people nowadays are much healthier, more affluent, better educated and informed, and thus more disposed to live in peace with one another, than at the beginning of this century. And, as I said, all this came about mainly as a result of the application of science to day-to-day life.
Sadly, however, I have also to note many negative applications of science. Firstly, the benefits of science are not enjoyed by all people to the same degree. One result of this is that, in relative terms, there is now a much wider gap between the industrialized and the developing nations, as well as between the upper and lower strata within individual nations. This has created new social tensions which may lead to strife and military confrontation.
Furthermore, the better-off nations—and the affluent strata within nations—do not seem to be satisfied with their high standards of living. They want ever more luxuries; greed, the hallmark of the capitalist system, is a driving force. The result is excessive consumption of energy and squandering of natural resources. These excesses, in a world with an ever increasing population, may lead to a catastrophic degradation of the environment. We are poisoning ourselves with our own affluence. Unless drastic steps are initiated soon to deal with the ecological problems, we may be heading for global disaster and the destruction of many species, including the human one.
Above all, the use of science and technology to develop and produce weapons of mass destruction, has created a real threat to the continued existence of the human race on this planet. This is already the case with nuclear weapons. Although their actual use in combat has so far been confined to the destruction of two Japanese cities, during the four decades of the Cold War obscenely huge arsenals of nuclear weapons were accumulated and made ready for use. The arsenals were so large that if the weapons had actually been detonated, the result could have been the complete extinction of the human species, as well as of many animal species. To a very large extent this was due to the work of scientists. Many of them did it not because of any credible security requirement—arsenals a hundred times smaller would have sufficed for any conceivable need for deterrence—but simply to satisfy their inflated egos, for the intense exhilaration experienced in exploring new scientific concepts. This is a complete perversion of the lofty ideals of science. It is a terrible but warranted indictment of members of a highly respected group in society.
On several occasions during the Cold War we came very close to the ultimate catastrophe. Each time we were saved at the last moment because the leaders concerned were sane people; but can we be sure that we will be so lucky next time? According to Robert McNamara: “The indefinite combination of nuclear weapons and human fallibility will lead to a nuclear exchange.”
That human society is capable of being led to extreme inhumanity is exemplified by another gruesome event of this century. I am referring to the holocaust. Millions of people—literally millions—were put to death for no reason other than that they were members of certain ethnic groups. And this genocide was carried out not in a spontaneous act of frenzy; not in some ritualistic fight between primitive tribes; not as a last resort in the face of extermination. It was carried out in cold blood, in a systematic fashion, in a carefully prepared plan; it was executed with scientific precision, using a chemical “zyklon”, which was invented by a scientist, a Nobel Laureate. It was perpetrated by one of the most civilized of nations.
These two events—the holocaust and the nuclear arms race that began with the Hiroshima bomb—are in my opinion the worst chapters in the 20th century, a very violent century by any measure, with some 160 million people estimated to have perished in various conflicts. Although having different causes and consequences, these two events demonstrate the degree of lunacy to which our minds can descend, the depths of depravity to which our society is capable of sinking. These evils must never be forgotten. Future generations must be constantly reminded that there is no limit to the evil that can be perpetrated by Man on Man. Every country should set up—as part of its millennium commemorations—museums of the holocaust and of the atom bomb.
William Shakespeare had said: “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” My brief review of the application of one strand of human activities, science, seems to bear out this adage. But does it have to be so? Must ill always co-exist with good? To be more explicit: are we biologically programmed for aggression and war?
I am no authority in genetics, but from my readings and life-long observations, I see no evidence that we are genetically condemned to commit evil. On the contrary, on very general grounds I would venture to say that we are destined to do things that are of benefit to the human species, and that the capacity for aggression was acquired as a transient requisite in the struggle for survival. In other words, I start from the assumption that Man is inherently good. This has been my basic philosophy since my youth, and all the terrible events of this century that I have mentioned—including personal tragedy—have not shaken this belief.
I would like to expand on this philosophy as part of my attempt to outline the future role of science in relation to human values, although it is not a necessary part of my argument.
I mentioned the goodness of Man. By doing this I entered into the field of ethics, which for most people is linked with religion. I do not quarrel with people who seek ethical guidance in religion, as long as they do not insist on imposing their religious doctrines on others; when this happens, religion becomes a highly negative, even dangerous element in society. As a scientist, I try to derive ethical concepts on rational grounds, in terms of the laws of nature, mainly the laws of physics.
The laws of physics seem to be able to explain the evolution of life from inanimate matter to simple living organisms, and thence to plants, to animals, to Man. The human species is the outcome of a continuous, inexorable process that has led, through random mutations influenced by environmental factors, to the emergence of systems of ever better adaptation, thus safeguarding their continuity. In animals, this has led to the evolution of species with increasing intelligence, climaxing in the human species, which has acquired the ability of original thinking. I believe that this marks a very important phase in evolution: the first time that Man was able to take charge of his own destiny.
The acquisition of the power of original thinking has added a new dimension to the process of natural evolution: a much faster cultural evolution. It has resulted in huge strides in all aspects of civilization—in the arts, in literature, in medicine, in technology, above all, in science, which is at the forefront of the expansion of the human intellect. However, these very advances in science have led to our acquiring the capacity for self-destruction, to the development of the means to destroy the human species itself.
As I have shown, this has already happened in one area, with the development of nuclear weapons. But other means of wholesale destruction, perhaps more readily available than nuclear weapons, may result from further scientific research, if it is allowed to go on without any restriction.
We are thus faced with a daunting dilemma. As part of cultural evolution, science should be allowed to develop freely, with no restrictions put on it. But can we afford the luxury of uninhibited research—which may lead to an even greater potential for total destruction—in a world in which war is still a recognized social institution?
For the preservation, and continuing enhancement of the human species, we need to learn to live with one another in peace and harmony. But this learning process has been slow and arduous, and is far from being complete. In the distant past, under the harsh conditions in which primitive Man lived, he often had to kill for survival, in competition for food or for a mate. Later on, when communities were formed, groups of people were killing other groups of people for the same reason, and war became part of our culture. But now such motivation is no longer valid. Thanks largely to the advances in science and technology, there is no need for people to kill one another for survival. If properly managed and distributed, there could be enough food and other life necessities for everybody, even with the huge increase in world population. But as already mentioned, the problem is that the resources are not distributed evenly, and thus many people are still starving, many children are still dying from malnutrition. We have still much to do before the basic cause of war is removed in practice.
Apart from the basic cause, survival, other causes of war, based on tribal, cultural, religious or ideological differences, have arisen in course of time and resulted in terrible carnage. Most of these causes are derivatives of the basic cause, and they too are becoming obsolete. The increasing interdependence of nations, and the rapidly growing means of communication, such as the Internet, which enable people to talk to each other directly, is instrumental in removing prejudice and mistrust which mostly stem from ignorance.
Indeed, there are signs that we are learning the lessons of history and are moving towards a war-free world. In the two World Wars of this century, France and Germany were mortal enemies. Young people of these and many other countries were slaughtered by the millions. But now a war between France and Germany seems inconceivable. The same applies to the other members of the European Union. There are still many disputes between them over a variety of issues, but these are being settled by negotiations, by mutual give-and-take agreements. The members of the European Union have learned to solve their problems by peaceful means.
The same is beginning to take place in other continents. Military regimes are on the decline; more and more countries are becoming democracies. Despite the terrible bloodshed still taking place—the recent tribal genocide in Rwanda; the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo—the number of international and internal wars is decreasing. Slowly and painfully we are appreciating the folly of war and learning how to resolve conflicts without resorting to military confrontation.
However, we are not there yet. We are still not organized for a war-free world. In the meantime, the human species may be brought to an end by the use of the tools of destruction, themselves resulting from science and technology.
In my opinion, the problem has to a large extent arisen from the uneven advancements in the different areas of human activities, in particular, the discrepancy between the progress made in the natural sciences—which include the physical and biological disciplines—and that made in the various social sciences: economics, sociology, political science, psychology. There is no doubt that there has been much faster progress in the natural sciences than in the social ones.
Why have the natural sciences, especially the physical sciences, advanced so much faster than the social sciences? Two main reasons come to mind. One, the social sciences became recognized as scientific disciplines much later than the physical sciences; indeed, even now there are many who doubt whether the social sciences can be classified as such. Related to this is the second reason, that the subject matter of the social sciences is much more difficult to master than the physical sciences. Physics, for example, deals with highly intricate matters, but the laws of physics are immutable, they apply everywhere, on this planet or everywhere else in the universe. They are not affected by human reactions and emotions, as the social sciences are.
Indeed—if I may digress for a moment—it is these very characteristics of the physical sciences that have led to the “ivory tower” mentality of the natural scientists, to their assertions that science is neutral, that it has nothing to do with politics, and should be allowed to be undertaken for its own sake, without regard to the ways it may be applied. In its extreme form, it was this attitude that enabled the scientists in the military establishments on both sides of the iron curtain, in Los Alamos and Livermore, in the Chelyabinsks and the Arzamases, to use their ingenuity to keep on inventing new, or improving old, instruments of destruction during the Cold War, and has led to the build up of the huge nuclear arsenals with the capacity to destroy the human species. It is this frame of mind that currently enables scientists working in genetic engineering to propose experiments that could play havoc with our genetic make up.
How can we tackle this unevenness in the rate of progress of different areas of science? The two alternatives are: accelerate the rate of progress in the social sciences, or slow down the rate of advancement of the natural sciences in some areas.
Clearly, the former is preferable by far. What we would like to see is faster progress in the social sciences, leading to the establishment of a social system that would make war not only unnecessary but unthinkable; a system in which the existence of old, or the invention of new, weapons of mass destruction, would not matter, because nobody would dream of using them; a system which Victor Weisskopf described succinctly: “nuclear weapons, who cares?”
How long will it take to achieve this ideal state? Considering that it would require an educational process to develop and nurture in us a feeling of loyalty to mankind, transcending national boundaries, it may be a long time coming. Earlier than this much progress can be made by initiating a comprehensive programme of political measures, aiming at enhancing confidence in relations between nations; increasing adherence to international law; and strengthening the peacekeeping and peace-enforcing instruments of the United Nations. Eventually it would mean setting up a system of global governance.
What can be done to accelerate progress in the various disciplines of the social sciences? I do not know enough about these sciences to offer specific suggestions. But it seems to me that social sciences would benefit from the adoption of some of the methodology of the natural sciences. In the first instance, by greater reliance on fact than on opinion; on a rational approach in place of precedents; on objective analysis rather than on preconceived ideas. This may reduce somewhat the very wide divergence of views that is now apparent in the social sciences.
George Bernard Shaw had said: “If you take all economists in the world and lie them end to end, you would still not get agreement on a single idea.” This was said a long time ago, and by now this may no longer be true. Economics is now recognized as a respectable discipline, with the prospect of a Nobel Prize for its luminaries.
However, even with much greater effort, it will take a long time to achieve the objectives that I have outlined. Meanwhile the threats now hanging over our heads could become a reality, should there occur a major military conflict. We have therefore to consider, in addition, the alternative approach, namely imposing some restraint on research in the natural sciences.
At first this sounds unimaginable, a limitation on scientific research is almost a contradiction in terms. How can thinking be muzzled? How can one control the ideas that come into one’s head? We still remember the political regimes that tried to do this, and nobody wants to bring them back. Moreover, scientific research is very likely to bring huge further benefits to us all, and we should not do anything that may hinder such outcomes.
But given that unlimited research may also lead to grave dangers, as I have described, the prevention of these dangers should, in my opinion, have priority, even if it means that, temporarily, science does not have a completely free run. After all, we do not need to do everything; we don’t have to pursue every idea that comes into our heads. In exercising our intellectual powers we can afford to be selective, and the basis for the selection should be responsibility for the consequences of our work.
This responsibility has not yet been fully recognized by the scientific community. Despite the enormous impact of science on the world community, many scientists still cling to the “ivory tower” mentality. Their logic rests on the distinction between pure and applied science. It is the application of science that can be harmful, they say. As far as pure science is concerned, the only obligation on the scientist is to make the results of research known to the public. What the public does with them is their business, not that of the scientist.
Actually, the distinction between pure and applied science is a remnant of the distant past when scientific research was completely divorced from day-to-day life, and practical applications that could have resulted from academic research were remote in time and space. It would take decades before an application was found, and then it would have been taken up by different people, mostly engineers, in polytechnics or industrial laboratories.
Nowadays, the distinction is hardly discernible. Practical applications often follow immediately after scientific discoveries, and are pursued by the same people. University scientists are encouraged to do applied research, to enable them to be financially self-sufficient.
The amoral attitudes of the advocates of the laissez-faire policy for science is actually highly immoral, because it eschews personal responsibility for one’s actions.
We live in a world community with ever greater interdependence; an interdependence largely due to technical advancement arising from scientific research. An interdependent community offers great benefits to its members, but by the same token it imposes obligations on them. Every citizen has to be accountable for his/her deeds. We all have a responsibility to society.
But the need for such responsibility is particularly imperative on scientists, mainly because scientists understand the technical problems better than the average citizen or the politician. And knowledge brings responsibility.
In any case, the scientists do not have a completely free hand. The general public, through elected governments, have the means to control science, either by withholding the purse, or by imposing restrictive regulations harmful to science. Clearly, it is far better that any control should be exercised by the scientists themselves. It is most important that science improves its public image, that it regains the respect of the community for its integrity, trust in its pronouncements. Scientists must show by their conduct that it is possible to combine creativeness with compassion; letting the imagination roam with caring for fellow creatures; venturing into the unknown yet being fully accountable for one’s doings.
The prominent role of modern science in society has made it necessary for scientists as individuals to adopt a self-imposed code of conduct, and for organizations of scientists to take measures to implement it.
An ethical code of conduct for physicians has been in existence for nearly two and a half millennia, since the days of Hippocrates. In those days—and still today—the life of the patient was literally in the hands of the doctor, and it was essential to ensure that the doctor would wield his power responsibly, the care of the patient being his foremost duty. Hence the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors when they qualify.
Nowadays, scientists can be said to have acquired a somewhat similar role in relation to humanity. The time has thus come for some kind of Hippocratic Oath to be formulated and adopted by scientists. A solemn oath, or pledge, taken when receiving a degree in science, would, at the least, have an important symbolic value, but might also generate awareness and stimulate thinking on the wider issues among young scientists.
Various professional groups have proposed different formulations for oaths or pledges, to suit specific desiderata. For young scientists, and if to be taken on graduation, the text of the pledge adopted by the US Student Pugwash Group seems to me highly suitable. The Pledge reads:
“I promise to work for a better world, where science and technology are used in socially responsible ways. I will not use my education for any purpose intended to harm human beings or the environment. Throughout my career, I will consider the ethical implications of my work before I take action. While the demands placed upon me may be great, I sign this declaration because I recognize that individual responsibility is the first step on the path to peace.”
Apart from the individual expression by scientists of their social responsibility, there is a need for organizations of scientists to articulate this collectively. In the first instance, the national academies of sciences (or corresponding bodies in countries where there are no academies), which usually are the highest authorities on scientific matters, should explicitly include ethical issues in their terms of reference. The charters of some academies already contain clauses that allow them to be concerned with the social impact of scientific research. But I would like to see those clauses made mandatory: there should be explicit statements that ethical issues are an integral part of the work of scientists.
A specific task for the academies should be the setting up of ethical committees to review research projects—another practice to be borrowed from medicine. In many countries, a research project that involves patients has to be approved by the ethical committee of the hospital, to ensure that the investigation will not put the patient’s health and welfare to a significant risk. This practice should be extended to research work in general, but in the first instance, perhaps, to genetic engineering, an area of research that has a direct bearing on the health of the population.
I suggest that ethical committees, composed of eminent scientists from different disciplines, should be set up for the task of examining potentially harmful long-term effects of proposed research projects. The ethical committees should work under the aegis of the national academy of sciences in the country, but it would be essential for the criteria used in the assessment of projects to be agreed internationally by academies of sciences, so that the same standards are applied everywhere.
I believe that these proposals, if accepted by the scientific community and backed by public opinion, would go some way towards reducing the adverse effects of science, without diminishing its beneficial potential.
On many issues of public concern, non-governmental organizations play an ever-increasing role. Academies of science often are formally or indirectly part of the governmental establishment and this limits their freedom of action. There is, therefore, also a need for completely independent organizations of scientists to be concerned with the ethical issues arising from scientific research and its applications, functioning in a way that is complementary to the activities of the academies.
Many such organizations are in existence. Among those familiar to me I would mention the Federation of American Scientists, the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Scientists for Global Responsibility. Above all, our own, the Pugwash Movement, often described as the social conscience of scientists, has a good track record; this applies both to the seniors and the student Pugwash organizations, particularly the Student Pugwash Group in the United States.
I spoke earlier about the code of conduct for scientists. This applies, of course, to Pugwashites, but I believe that something more is expected from them. I talked about this on another occasion, in an address to a Pugwash Conference.
We are a bunch of individuals, engaged in scientific work, or in preparing for a scientific career. What links us is that we all have a social conscience; but, in addition, we want, through our activities, to set an example to other scientists. In calling on others to heed their social conscience, we must take care that we are doing it in a responsible way. Pugwash should always be avant-garde, not afraid of being unconventional; we should have vision, imagination, originality. But we should not become divorced from reality. We should be modernizers but also moderate; pioneers but also pragmatic; radical but also realistic. Our work should be a combination of idealism and practicality. We should have long-view objectives but not neglect short-term measures. Expressed colloquially, what we want is to be able to hold our heads high, above the clouds, but at the same time keep our feet firmly on the ground. And this, of course, is not at all easy.
Pugwash desires to be progressive, to foster new ways of thinking and encourage pioneering ideas. This may bring us into conflict with the establishment; make us non-conformists, radicals, dissidents. Dissidence can be said to be part of our ethical code.
Bertrand Russell, the great dissident of this century, has said: “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, because every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” We cannot be bystanders when the establishment behaves in a hypocritical manner. We cannot but protest against the manipulation or suppression of facts, particularly in areas in which we have expert knowledge. Our protests can often take the form of “whistle-blowing”; bringing to the notice of the public attempts by governments, or industrial firms, to mislead by giving false information, or by concealing misconduct.
But in this too, things are not always simple. What are the criteria that determine whether an act of whistle-blowing is responsible or foolhardy? What is the difference between an idealist and a crank?
The judgement of where the balance lies is highly subjective, and is influenced by many factors. This explains why even in Pugwash, where we all share the same ultimate objective, there are considerable differences of opinion about the ways to achieve it. Some believe that we should speak out in public when a threat to world security appears. Others feel that by being more circumspect we will have more credibility among decision-makers and thus be able to influence them in the right direction. For the same reason, some people stay in government posts even if they disagree with official policy. In Pugwash we have former ministers, past scientific advisers to government, retired generals, ex-ambassadors. They feel free to express their real view only after retirement. On the whole, they have probably done more good by staying in their posts than by resigning in protest and being replaced by hawks.
These observations, a sort of an addendum to the code of conduct for scientists, apply both to senior and to student Pugwashites, although the roles of the two groups differ in some respects. The seniors are often in a position to talk directly to decision-makers and thus facilitate the implementation of our objectives. On the other hand, the students in Pugwash have opportunities to influence the new recruits to science, a most important task since our future depends on the responsible attitude of the young generation. SPUSA is doing a magnificent job, through its many chapters, in providing advice about careers. It is vital to make students think on ethical issues and social responsibilities, so that they will not be lured by siren calls of rapid advancement and unlimited opportunities.
The SPUSA Pledge is highly relevant to this. I hope that the campaign to promote its application—and to persuade more universities to incorporate it as part of the degree ceremonies—will be pursued with even more vigour. The campaign would be helped if universities could be persuaded to run courses of lectures on the ethical aspects of science in undergraduate curricula. In this connection I would like to see SPUSA taking on yet another task, a task that would be a reversal of tradition, namely, students educating the teachers. There are still members of science faculties who do not see any necessity for scientists to be concerned about the social impact of science; indeed there are some who are actively opposed to such ideas and discourage their students from becoming involved in these issues. SPUSA might have a go at persuading them to change their attitudes, by arranging discussion meetings with those teachers. It would be a worthy exercise. To quote George Bernard Shaw again: “It’s all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up do date.”
Referring back to the differences between the natural and social sciences, Pugwash—young and senior—has played a significant role in narrowing the gap, by providing an opportunity for both groups to meet and discuss problems of mutual concern.
When Pugwash began, the participants in the Pugwash Conferences were mainly physicists, some of whom had worked on the Manhattan Project: in those days the technical aspects of nuclear weapons and the effects of nuclear warfare figured prominently on the agenda. But gradually, with the debate becoming focused on arms control measures, social scientists were brought in in increasing numbers so that nowadays their participation exceeds that from the natural sciences.
This change also reflects the radical change in the political climate. When Pugwash came into being, at the height of the Cold War, its outstanding feature was the provision of a channel of communication between scientists from both sides of the iron curtain. At that time there were hardly any such channels in existence; now there are plenty. Nowadays, the noteworthy feature of Pugwash is that it provides a forum for collaboration between social and natural scientists, while retaining the methodology of the natural sciences.
Since the end of the Cold War Pugwash has concentrated its efforts on the elimination of nuclear weapons, because their very existence is a threat to mankind. As long as nuclear weapons are deemed to be a vital element of national security, sooner or later they will be used, and once used there is danger of escalation, with the dire consequences that I have described. We have to keep on drawing attention to this danger, until we convince the decision makers of the logic of our arguments. I believe that the combined intellectual power of the natural and social scientists will prevail. But the elimination of nuclear weapons is only part of our goals. These weapons cannot be disinvented: we cannot erase from our memories the knowledge of how to make them. We will have therefore to go on to achieve the main objective, the creation of a war-free world. This should be our clear goal at the start of the 21st century.
The establishment of a war-free world would enable science to remove the temporary restrictions, and to resume in full its roles of advancing the frontiers of knowledge and bring further benefits to people and society.
What these further benefits will be we do not know. By the very nature of scientific research, its long-term outcome is unpredictable. But on the basis of past performance, we can be sure that the benefits will be immense. And if scientists fully accept their social obligations, if they include ethics into their paradigms, and take steps to ensure that their work does not lead to harm to human beings or the environment, then the outlook for humanity in the new millennium is very good, not only for survival but for a peaceful, equitable and prosperous world.
In 1955, at the height of the Cold War, scientists issued the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. It concluded with the grim warning:
“There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings, to human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot there lies before you the risk of universal death.”
Now, at the end of this violent century, the risk of universal death is still with us, but the chance of avoiding it is much better, and the prospect of a new Paradise shines brighter. | https://spusa.org/science-and-humanity-at-the-turn-of-the-millennium |
The Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria (SCGN) has enjoined its newly inducted fellows to be upright in the discharge of their duties.
The call was made by Mr. Pascal Dozie at the 2017 annual president’s dinner/induction ceremony of SCGN held in Lagos.
He is the society’s president.
According to him, a honorable character would not only promote good corporate governance but also best practices in the country.
He said: “Good corporate governance is about building credibility, ensuring transparency and accountability as well as maintaining an effective channel of information disclosure.
“It is also about building trust and sustaining confidence among the various interest groups that make up an organization.”
He also noted that corporate governance encompasses practically every sphere of management, thus, he enjoined the inductees to adhere to good corporate governance practices.
Dozie disclosed that the admission of the inductees as members of the society was to be a catalyst to the campaign for good corporate governance both locally and internationally.
He admonished the 39 new inductees for 2017 to continue the culture of impeccable character to serve their organizations and the country with honour and integrity.
Also, the founding president of the society, Dr. Christopher Kolade, unveiled the 17th edition of the Journal of Corporate Governance, which features current issues and trends in Nigeria.
The event, which had over 110 guests in attendance was supported by Eko Electricity Distribution Plc and some individual members of the society. | https://guardian.ng/news/scgn-tasks-new-members-on-good-governance/ |
This chapter examines medium and heavy trucks, which are defined as follows:
- medium trucks — gross vehicle weight between 4.5 and 15 tonnes (t)
- heavy trucks — gross vehicle weight of 15 t or more
4.1 Medium and heavy truck distance travelled
As seen in Section 1.2, medium and heavy trucks accounted for 8.9 percent of vehicle kilometres (VKM), even though they comprised less than 4 percent of the vehicle stock. These statistics imply that medium and heavy trucks were driven further than light vehicles, on average.
Over 2000 to 2009, the compound annual growth rate of VKM was 3.8 percent for medium trucks (from 5.930 billion kilometres [km] in 2000 to 8.295 billion km in 2009). The compound annual growth rate of VKM for heavy trucks was much more modest at 0.4 percent (from 20.716 billion km in 2000 to 21.416 billion km in 2009).
4.2 Medium and heavy truck configuration
Medium and heavy trucks can be configured in different ways. A straight truck is a complete unit (i.e. a power unit and a box or flatbed that cannot be detached). A tractor, on the other hand, is the front part of a tractor-trailer combination and can be accompanied by one or more detachable trailers. Tractor-trailer combinations are typically used for long-distance hauls.
In the medium truck fleet, the majority of VKM (67.8 percent) were travelled by straight trucks in 2009 (see Figure 29). This share of distance is a decrease from 81.3 percent in 2000, which indicates increased utilization of medium trucks with configurations other than straight trucks. Over the same period, the share of straight trucks and trailers increased 5.2 percentage points, and other configurations increased 5.6 percentage points.
Figure 30 illustrates the heavy truck share of VKM by configuration in 2000 and 2009.
In 2009, the majority of VKM (66.4 percent) were travelled by tractors with one trailer. The second most driven configuration was straight trucks, which had 16.0 percent of the distance travelled. The remaining 17.5 percent was travelled by all other configurations, which include configurations such as tractors with more than one trailer and straight trucks with trailers.
The share of distance travelled for each configuration of heavy truck has changed moderately since 2000. Between 2000 and 2009, the share of VKM by the tractor and one trailer configuration dropped by 8.2 percentage points. Conversely, both the straight truck and the tractor and two or more trailers configurations increased their share of VKM over the same period (3.4 and 4.4 percentage points, respectively).
4.3 Medium and heavy truck trip purpose
The distance travelled by medium and heavy trucks for different purposes is illustrated in Figures 31 and 32. Medium trucks were generally used for a greater variety of purposes than heavy trucks. For medium trucks, carrying goods or equipment accounted for 50.7 percent of all VKM in 2009, up from 49.8 percent in 2000. Travel for other purposes decreased significantly from 27.4 percent of VKM in 2000 to 19.1 percent in 2009, and driving to or from service calls accounted for 18.2 percent of distance travelled, up from 11.6 percent in 2000.
Figure 32 shows that the main purpose for travel by heavy trucks in 2009 was to carry goods or equipment (76.9 percent), up from 74.7 percent in 2000. Another 15.1 percent of distance was travelled by empty vehicles, up slightly from 2000 (13.5 percent).
Trucks travel empty for various reasons, including the inability to find cargo on the way to or from a haul. For-hire companies have business tools and cargo logistics that can help minimize empty trips. However, Figure 34 shows that the for-hire truck share of distance travelled is decreasing, and the owner-operator share is increasing. This change may help to explain why heavy-truck empty trips are continuing to rise.
4.4 Medium and heavy truck activity
Most truck traffic on Canadian roads is related to one of the following activities:
- for-hire trucking — a company transports goods as its principal activity
- private trucking — a company transports goods as a secondary activity that is part of the distribution process of its primary output
- owner-operators — individuals transport goods either independently or for a for-hire or for private companies
Table 4 displays the number of medium and heavy trucks, as defined by the Canadian Vehicle Survey scope, in 2009 based on their type of activity. As the numbers indicate, most of the medium trucks are privately owned, while the majority of heavy trucks are involved in the for-hire business.
|Activity type||Vehicles||Total|
|Medium trucks||Heavy trucks|
|For-hire||51 793 E||142 494 D||194 287|
|Owner-operator||63 344 E||64 231 E||127 575|
|Private||240 045 C||78 967 E||319 013|
|Other||82 815 E||31 528 E||114 343|
|Total||437 997 B||317 219 B||755 217|
The letter to the right of each estimate indicates its quality: A — Excellent, B — Very good, C — Good, D — Acceptable, E — Use with caution and F — Too unreliable to be published.
Due to rounding, the numbers in the tables may not add up, and some data may differ slightly from one table to the next.
Figures 33 and 34 show the distance travelled by medium and heavy trucks by activity type in 2000 and 2009. Even though nearly half (47.4 percent) of VKM travelled by medium trucks in 2009 were by private operators, there has been a shift away from private operators toward owner-operators. Within the medium truck fleet, privately operated vehicles decreased from 52.4 percent to 47.4 percent between 2000 and 2009. During the same period, medium trucks increased in the owner-operator activity type from 16.0 percent to 22.2 percent.
Figure 34 shows that the majority of distance travelled by heavy trucks was by for-hire truckers (58.8 percent), followed by owner-operators (21.0 percent) and private truckers (12.7 percent). As with medium trucks, the trend in the activity type of heavy trucks was a shift from for-hire (67.2 percent to 58.8 percent) to more owner-operator (15.2 percent to 21.0 percent) between 2000 and 2009.
4.5 Age of medium and heavy trucks
Figure 35 illustrates the age distribution of medium and heavy trucks in 2005 and 2009. In general, the average medium truck was slightly older than the average heavy truck.
In 2009, less than one quarter of medium and heavy trucks was less than 3 years old, and a third was more than 9 years old. Overall, the medium and heavy truck fleet contains a greater proportion of both newer and older vehicles than the light vehicle fleet.
As a medium or heavy truck gets older, it is widely believed that they are used less. Figure 36 confirms this statement. Indeed, the average distance travelled by medium and heavy trucks that are more than 9 years old is roughly one third of the distance travelled by those that are between 6 and 9 years old.
4.6 Medium and heavy truck fuel consumption rate
Medium trucks vary in composition, utility and size. For example, a medium truck could be used for local mail delivery or as a fire truck. It makes sense for medium trucks to be gasoline-powered for some purposes and diesel-powered for others.
Figure 37 illustrates that diesel-powered medium trucks are generally slightly more fuel-efficient than the gasoline-powered trucks. Due to the varied usage of medium trucks, changes in fuel consumption rate (FCR) from year to year are hard to associate solely with improvements in fuel consumption. Adding more classifications to the medium truck fleet would enable better tracking of their fuel efficiency by fuel type.
Figure 38 illustrates the gasoline and diesel FCRs by heavy truck configuration. Within the heavy truck fleet, diesel trucks are considerably more fuel-efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts. In fact, in 2009, the average diesel-powered tractor-and-one-trailer heavy truck was more than twice as fuel-efficient as the corresponding gasoline-powered truck. This fact may help explain why more than 97 percent of the heavy truck fleet comprises diesel-powered trucks.
Figure 39 illustrates FCRs for gasoline-and diesel-powered medium trucks by activity type and shows that gasoline-powered medium trucks tend to be slightly more fuel-efficient than their diesel-powered counterparts. The only exception appears to be for gasoline-powered, private medium trucks whose FCR is nearly 15 percent higher than their diesel-powered counterparts.
These trucks account for the majority of VKM in this fleet, which has the effect of increasing the FCR for the entire gasoline-powered medium truck fleet. For-hire and owner-operator trucks are the most fuel-efficient.
Figure 39 also confirms that heavy trucks that are diesel-powered are more efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts. In fact, few heavy trucks are gasoline-powered.
For-hire companies that have multiple activities can more closely match the truck type to the activity, thus maximizing fuel efficiency. Activity type does not affect the fuel efficiency of diesel-powered heavy trucks as much as it does for other trucks.
Figure 40 illustrates diesel truck FCRs by age of the vehicle in 2009. The data show that medium trucks that are more than 13 years old were significantly less fuel-efficient than the newer medium trucks.
For medium trucks, the newer the truck is, the more efficient it is. In heavy trucks, the same holds true except for the 10 to 13 years old category, which is slightly more fuel-efficient than the 6 to 9 years old category. Overall, a marked improvement was noticed in the FCRs for both newer medium and newer heavy trucks. | https://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/statistics/cvs/2009/chapter4.cfm |
Marine Insight, 5 Jan 2016 - Article by maritime website Marine Insight featured a new Industry Mentors’ Network (IMN) programme, initiated by NP, which sees first-year polytechnic students linked up with industry professionals to gain access to career advice and industry networking. In line with the SkillsFuture movement, the programme seeks to provide greater opportunities for education and career guidance and to get students in Singapore to think about career aspirations early in their polytechnic education. SP and TP will also be adopting the IMN programme. Principal of NP, Mr Clarence Ti, opined that through the programme, students will learn from their mentors about what their dream job entails, professional ethics and work ethos that will make them successful. | https://www.sp.edu.sg/sp/news/sp/IMarEST-Supports-Mentoring-Programme-in-Singapore |
Achieving work-life balance in financial careers seems to be a dream, at least for the juniors there. Most of the finance graduates are attracted by high-paying financial jobs like private equity jobs, investment banking, or venture capital.
Though the career is more promising, the main drawback is that they are gradually losing track of their other aspects of lives. They feel they are becoming slaves to their profession very soon and feel burned out.
Take a look at this recent working condition survey by Goldman Sachs. It's an anonymous survey of 13-first year analysts at Goldman Sachs.
The survey says they work for 105 hours per week and professionals go to bed at 3 AM. Most of them feel they are victims of workplace abuse, and the jobs have negatively impacted relationships with family and friends. The survey report has received divided opinions in the firm and elsewhere too.
The millennial and Gen Z workers are challenging their bosses than the predecessors. Goldman Sachs chief executive said that professionals can share their concerns, and promised to enforce the existing ban on requiring junior bankers to work on Saturdays strictly. Also, asked the staff to go the extra mile for the client, even when we are reaching our limit.
Further, the COVID-19 situation has made the situation worse. As people are still working from home, the line between work and home is thinning. It is removing the contacts with colleagues or senior bankers. Many are defending their work with their concerned and protective parents rather than taking time to have late-night takeaway with colleagues.
This statistic serves just as an example. All these situations are creating stress and burnout among the professionals at private equity firms, investment banks, or any other financial services.
How to win over the stress and bring job-life balance?
Continue to read on.
To summarize, career goals, skills, and work styles of different professions differ. Accordingly, the definition of work-life balance differs. What a few people think as chaos may be a blessing or harmony for others.
So, finding a perfect work-life balance chart is difficult. The boundaries are fluid and change from one life stage to another. Working for long hours is not a problem for many, the exact problem lies in how it is managed. There are professionals who can meet deadlines, dedicate time for their kids, cook food, and spend time with life partners.
So, the point here is the necessary freedom to manage the schedules. These days men prefer to take an egalitarian approach to organize family life, while women are demanding flexibility and paid maternity leave.
The secret is not to look for perfect life balance, for there is no one as such. Instead, you should ask yourself these questions:
If the answers are ‘yes’ then you are on the happy path. On the contrary, if you get hollow answers, then you should work on changing your routine. From the organization side, you will not get any incentives to empower workers to live healthy lives.
It is our cup of tea to do the work that lets us live our lives to the fullest.
According to McNeff, the author of The Work-life Balance Myth: Rethinking Your Optimal Balance for Success, there are seven key components - professional life, family life, physical life, emotional life, intellectual life, and spiritual life – that make our life.
One should achieve a sense of equilibrium rather than following the roller coaster of circumstances and events that occur in personal or business life. Research suggests that most of the employees are consuming about 97% of their time on professional and family life while spending only minutes per week in the other components.
If you can spend some time on other components also, your life may change. For instance, you can:
If you can devote some time to these components, then only you can have a perfect and balanced professional and family life.
As we are working remotely these days, we should learn to switch from the office and go to the kitchen. Due to social restrictions posed by the pandemic, you may not be able to visit the gym or go on a vacation, you can definitely spend time on other components.
We find lots of data indicating stress in private equity jobs, marketing jobs, and many more. the solution lies in not stopping what you are doing, but add something new to it. Find some time to add a new thing to your life that is totally under your control.
See the difference it brings to your professional and personal life.
Your stress has disappeared!
You are bound to lead a stress-free and balanced life despite your working hours.
Share your thoughts with us. | https://recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/achieving-work-life-balance-in-private-equity-jobs?xg_source=activity |
The Health Data Balancing Act
Despite the need to remain HIPAA-compliant, data breaches are common in the healthcare industry. Fortunately, there are security actions that can be taken.
28 January 2015
As more and more physicians and patients blithely adopt technologies and devices that collect, interpret, and share health information, the pressure on healthcare providers to keep all that data secure — and accessible — is growing.
Despite the need to remain HIPAA-compliant, data breaches are an all-too common occurrence in the health industry. In fact, one of 2014’s biggest data hacks involved a healthcare organization. Attributed to a Chinese hacker, the incident compromised the Social Security numbers, names, and addresses of 4.5 million patients at Community Health Systems of Tennessee, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Security breaches put the data of more than 5 million patients at risk last year, according to a recent report from PwC's Health Research Institute (HRI). The report entitled, Top Health Industry Issues of 2015, interviewed health industry executives and surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults about the nation’s healthcare system. It explores 10 trends that will shape the sector this year — including the challenge of balancing privacy and convenience when it comes to health data.
Security Still Rules
The report reveals a high level of concern among consumers regarding the privacy of their health records and related data. And with good reason, as such records typically contain lots of personal, medical, and financial information — the identity theft trifecta. According to PwC:
- Of those surveyed, 68 percent were concerned about the security of smartphone health apps
- Additionally, 78 percent expressed worry about medical data security
- And 73 percent said security was more important than convenience when it comes to doctor’s notes and diagnoses
Consumers may clearly love the convenience and control promised by technologies such as portable medical devices, electronic health records, smartphone health apps, and wearable fitness trackers. But they also prize the privacy of their sensitive data, which is clear based on PwC’s findings.
Privacy and security may pose serious implications for the health industry. Some 56 percent of consumers surveyed by PwC said privacy and security concerns could crimp communication with their physician or color their decision to participate in a clinical trial. Such attitudes suggest that the ability of doctors to diagnose, and drug companies to conduct research, may be at risk unless the nation’s health industry can reassure an anxious public that their data is in safe hands.
A Prescription for Action
Fortunately, there are actions that organizations can take now to bolster health data security and shore up consumer confidence regarding privacy. These include:
- Guarding against both internal and external threats to security by scrutinizing every process involved when collecting sensitive data
- Training employees regularly about the importance of security, data privacy and compliance -- and actively enforcing those practices
- Getting a handle on the types of personal health data you collect and your regulatory obligations regarding data privacy
- Investing in file sharing and collaboration tools to secure information and preserve the privacy of health data
Just like physicians, health organizations have an obligation to “do no harm” to the millions of consumers who entrust them with their personal data. And putting in place the right safeguards to ensure privacy while fostering collaboration can help to inoculate the industry against future data breaches.
Steff Gelston
Steff Gelston is a professional journalist whose editorial career spans magazines, newspapers, and websites. She spent five years at International Data Group (IDG), including three years as a senior editor at CIO magazine with coverage oversight of IT staffing and the mid-market. Before joining IDG, Gelston was an assistant business editor at The Boston Globe. She has also worked for Inc.com, the Boston Herald, and the Boston Business Journal. | https://www.intralinks.com/blog/2015/01/health-data-balancing-act |
5 questions with our webinar speakers
Last week, in a 30 minute live webinar, authors of a recent study in Prenatal Diagnosis discussed the key differences between the two most common genome sequencing methods used for noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS): whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) method.
Co-authors of the paper and webinar presenters, Dale Muzzey, PhD and Carrie Haverty, MS, LCGC, discuss the answers to questions received during the live session.
1. Is NIPS recommended for average risk patients by societal guidelines?
Carrie Haverty, MS, LCGC: The 2016 ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 163 on “Screening for Fetal Aneuploidy”, written in conjunction with SMFM, states that “all women should be offered the option of aneuploidy screening or diagnostic testing for fetal genetic disorders, regardless of maternal age.” NIPS (or cell-free DNA) is listed as one of the screening tests now available for aneuploidy for pregnant women in all trimesters of pregnancy: “triple, quad, and penta screens; cell-free DNA; and ultrasonographic screening as single screening tests.”
Additionally, the 2016 ACMG statement, “Noninvasive prenatal screening for fetal aneuploidy”, recommends “informing all pregnant women that NIPS is the most sensitive screening option for traditionally screened aneuploidies.”
As NIPS moves into the average risk population, it will impact more people, which makes it all the more important to be well-informed about the key differences between different NIPS sequencing methodologies.
2. Would you recommend a redraw for WGS at fetal fractions less than 1%, where sensitivity even for the WGS method drops to 80% or below for Trisomy 21?
Carrie Haverty, MS, LCGC: The guidelines referenced in the previous question, ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 163 on “Screening for Fetal Aneuploidy” recommends against redraws even for no-calls because it “may delay diagnosis of fetal aneuploidy, which may affect reproductive options for an abnormal result.”
It is important to note that a sensitivity of 80% is far better than that provided by maternal age or nuchal translucency screening or quad screen. Additionally, for trisomy 21, it has been shown that affected pregnancies actually have a higher average fetal fraction overall, so weighing the odds of a pregnancy having trisomy 21 and a fetal fraction less than 2% and being called a false negative against the clinical consequences of many no calls (additional invasive procedures, anxiety, delays in results, etc) is an important consideration and one of the motivations for doing this modeling and evaluation.
We are also aware that this is a screening test and the purpose is not to identify every affected pregnancy at any cost, but rather to most effectively identify the vast majority of affected pregnancies with the least number of unnecessary invasive procedures.
3. Doesn’t “no-calling” mitigate the risk of reporting false negatives?
Carrie Haverty, MS, LCGC: Guidelines state that patients with a “no-call” result should get counseling and strongly consider a diagnostic procedure. However, it is important to consider what happens in these “no call” situations. What do patients and providers do with this information (or lack thereof)?
Based on published clinical experience studies, we know the reality is many patients will neither get a second blood draw done nor will they get an invasive diagnostic procedure done. Ultimately, this leads to some of them having a baby born with a chromosome abnormality that was undiagnosed, an effective false negative.
4. How was fetal fraction calculated for both the WGS and SNP methods?
Dale Muzzey, PhD: For the modeling in our paper, fetal fraction was an input parameter used to generate the simulated data, not a value that needed to be inferred from patient data. We assumed for both methods that fetal fraction was known without error.
In a clinical setting, inference of fetal fraction depends on testing methodology. For the SNP method, fetal fraction can be calculated from the deflection of allele balance at SNPs where the mother is homozygous for one allele and the fetus inherits a different allele from the father. For the WGS method, fetal fraction can be calculated using the SeqFF method published by Kim et al in 2015, a well-established and widely used technique.
5. In the simulated population, what % of “patients” had a fetal fraction of 4% and below?
Dale Muzzey, PhD: For this analysis, all simulated patients had low fetal fraction, i.e., ≤4% fetal fraction. As this was a simulation-based paper, we did not examine or model what percent of the US population have a low fetal fraction. This percent would range based on the laboratory and methodology used to measure fetal fraction. For example, Ryan et al (2016) noted that 3.8% of women would have a fetal fraction less than 2.8%, and fitting a model to the Nicolaides et al (2012) WGS-method paper suggests that only 0.33% of samples have <2.8% fetal fraction.
Not all cell-free DNA methodologies are created equal. The area where the two main sequencing methodologies differ in performance is in low fetal fraction samples. This analysis found that no-calling low fetal fraction samples has far greater implications than taking a slight dip in sensitivity.
Please note that all sources for this paper were third party data, patents or peer-reviewed publications, that are available in published scientific literature. Full transparency of our analysis has been provided by making all information publicly available (https://github.com/counsylresearch/artieri_et_al_nips_at_low_ff).
Access the recording of our live webinar here.
Only have 5 minutes? View our Counsyl Insights video, highlighting the main conclusions.
Please submit any questions to [email protected].
ABOUT US
At Counsyl, we strive to put patients first, put clinicians in control, and put costs in their place. Since 2007, we’ve worked with tens of thousands of providers to screen over half a million patients.
Our DNA tests include:
Foresight™ Carrier Screen (formerly Family Prep Screen): Unmatched detection of at-risk couples for serious conditions.
Prelude™ Prenatal Screen (formerly Informed Pregnancy Screen): Personalized insights into more patients’ pregnancies with our NIPS.
Reliant™ Cancer Screen (formerly Inherited Cancer Screen): Help patients get ahead of cancer with our hereditary cancer screen. | https://blog.myriadwomenshealth.com/2017/07/26/clinical-consequences-of-nips-no-calls-methodology-matters/ |
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Crop Science – Kenya Production Research Assistant
Purpose of the role
Conduct field agronomy research protocols under the direction of the Production Research Scientist. Assign work in the area of responsibility to contract/temporary workers, lead process improvements in ergonomics/safety/compliance/plot quality, monitor and acquire field trial supplies. Captures quality Production Research data to give reliable seed production recommendations to maximize seed yield and quality, reduce costs and improve reliability
Crop Science - Plant Controller
Purpose of the role
This role oversees product supply accounting, controlling, reporting and compliance activities with support from regional, global, and site controlling teams. The responsibilities include internal controls and compliance at the production site, safeguarding of assets, accurate cost analysis and reporting for the Product Supply organization, and working as the key finance business partner for the function as well as the Country Leadership Team.
Crop Science – Accountant
Purpose of the role
Based in Mozambique, the role will oversee all accounting, reporting, and compliance activities with support from regional, global and Shared Services Centre teams. The responsibilities include working as a single point of contact (SPOC) for all local finance, tax, treasury and other Country Platform activities as well as providing sound leadership to Mozambique Leadership Team.
Country Platform– Head of Tax – Southern African countries
Purpose of the role
Responsible for operations and compliance in the area of taxation and ensure internal controls as per global and local guidelines – processes audit and control system
Crop Science (Breeding) – Research Associate – Seed Production and Pipeline Delivery
Purpose of the role
Bayer is currently seeking a highly motivated Research Associate with the ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary Research and Development Organization. The successful candidate will primarily be responsible for promoting operational excellance through increased quality seed returns and ensuring seed availability to stakeholders. Also supporting the activities of the SPPD program to work in all operations related to Nursery activities , Farm managment, HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) and significant computer-based responsiblities.
This is a unique opportunity to work with leading edge technology and talented research scientists seeking to deliver the best in the industry.
Pharmaceutical – Quality Assurance Pharmacist
Purpose of the role
To ensure compliance to quality requirements on release of medicine for sale in line with GMP and Bayer Policies, Directives and SOPs. Maintain the Local Bayer Quality System, in line with Global Bayer Policies, Directives and SOPs. Collaborate with Local Regulatory Affairs, to ensure continuous supply of compliant medicines to our market.
Crop Science – OnePSS Seed Process Engineer
Purpose of the role
Provide ongoing support to Field and Plant operations through identification and evaluation of process improvements, leverage areas and ideas, troubleshooting support for process issues, and identification of future projects. Leading seed processing improvements and process optimization to reduce waste, improve quality, safety and reduce operating costs. Conduct Lean & Six Sigma projects and provide leadership, prioritization and direction, acting as champion for other engineers and team members. Act as a SME (Subject Matter Expert) in lean practices and facilitate the continuous improvement journey for Field and Plant operations. | https://www.bayer.com/en/za/sea-vacancies |
COVID-19 restrictions have impacted events being held, however, during this time we will continue to share local Australian and international digital events you can attend online. So keep on learning, improving your skills and networking!
Intro to SEO
August 25
Learn how to rank your website at the top of search engines, like Google. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more important than ever if you’re interested in driving targeted traffic to your website. We’ll share the strategies for creating an effective SEO campaign that improves your online visibility and brings potential customers to your company website.
General Assembly’s classes, workshops and events are recreational and for avocational purposes only. No certificate is awarded. | https://marketing.com.au/event/intro-to-seo-2/ |
How do you insert multiple rows at once in Excel?
Insert rows
- Select the heading of the row above where you want to insert additional rows. Tip: Select the same number of rows as you want to insert. …
- Hold down CONTROL, click the selected rows, and then on the pop-up menu, click Insert. Tip: To insert rows that contain data, see Copy and paste specific cell contents.
How do I insert 4 rows after every row?
Insert multiple rows in Excel using the standard menu options
- Select the cells where the empty rows need to appear and press Shift + Space.
- When you pick the correct number of rows, right-click within the selection and choose the Insert option from the menu list. Tip.
How do I add multiple rows in sheets?
When you select a cell in Google Sheets, you can right click to add a new row.
- Right-click on a selected cell.
- Choose “Insert Row” from the pop-up menu.
- Click and hold your mouse on the number to the left of the row where you want to add more rows.
How do you insert multiple rows in Excel without overwriting?
The following steps should work:
- Copy the cells from Sheet B to the clipboard.
- Highlight the row where you want your data to be inserted (ex. if you want it inserted at the top, highlight row 1)
- Right click and select “Insert Copied Cells”
How do I add multiple rows to a table in Google Docs?
Add and edit tables
- On your computer, open a document or a slide in a presentation.
- Click Insert Table. choose how many rows and columns you want to add. Tables can be as large as 20 x 20 cells.
- The table will be added to your document. | https://supercoolbeaches.com/watersports/frequent-question-how-do-i-insert-multiple-rows.html |
Vogue magazine has issued a statement apologizing for their August cover story, which featured Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid, after they received a ton of backlash online. While the photos of Zayn and Gigi are undeniably gorgeous and impeccably styled, the iconic fashion mag got flack for calling the attractive couple "part of a new generation embracing gender fluidity." The story cites the couple borrowing each other's clothes as evidence of their gender fluidity, however, neither stars identify themselves as gender-fluid or non-binary.
"I shop in your closet all the time, don't I?" Hadid, 22, flicks a lock of dyed-green hair out of her boyfriend's eyes as she poses the question. "Yeah, but same," replies Malik, 24. "What was that T-shirt I borrowed the other day?"
While it's great that these two don't let gender norms inform their entire lives and embrace gender fluidity, many people believe that Vogue should have featured the people Zayn and Gigi embrace instead of Zayn and Gigi.
After hearing the backlash against their cover story, Vogue issued a thoughtful apology concerning the issue. A spokeswoman for the magazine told Fashionista.com:
The story was intended to highlight the impact the gender-fluid, non-binary communities have had on fashion and culture. We are very sorry the story did not correctly reflect the spirit — we missed the mark. We do look forward to continuing the conversation with greater sensitivity. | https://ktu.iheart.com/content/2017-07-17-heres-why-vogue-apologized-for-zayn-and-gigis-cover-shoot/ |
For this reason, scientists warn that we are in the middle of the ‘sixth mass extinction’. Research undertaken by the Stockholm Resilience Centre analyses threats to what they have termed ‘planetary boundaries’. They define these boundaries as nine processes through which humans can ‘regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system’. Within these boundaries, the planet can continue to thrive and cater to the needs of humanity.
Figure 1 shows the state of our Earth according to this research. You can see that biosphere integrity measured by the extinction rate (extinctions per million species/years (E/MSY)) is at high risk and has already passed the boundary of uncertainty. As biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus) have also passed the boundaries, we do not know how ecosystems will react.
Research conducted by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency identify “EUR 81 billion in loans provided by Dutch financial institutions to high nitrogen-emitting sectors, and a EUR 28 billion exposure to companies that operate in protected or high conservation value (HCV) regions and face potential stranded assets risks”.2
This is an example of the interconnectedness of Dutch and other financial institutions to high-emitting and biodiversity-threatening industries. On the one hand, this confirms their negative role in reaching planetary boundaries of uncertainty. On the other hand, it highlights the risks they face if legislation or consumer behavior changes on this topic.
Next to this, biodiversity loss is posing a systemic risk, of which investors should become aware. As we find ourselves at the doorstep of the sixth mass extinction, both businesses and regulators have a huge role to play in shifting paradigms about who pays for the externalities created by ‘business-as-usual’.
Many investors are currently focusing on climate change and developing metrics to measure, manage and monitor climate risks and opportunities in their portfolios. However, given the growing body of evidence on the large impact that biodiversity loss will have globally, we believe more effort should be put into measuring the biodiversity impact of portfolios.
In the Netherlands, several investors under leadership of the ASN bank are collaborating in the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF) to develop such metrics. They aim to create a framework for financial institutions to consider and address the biodiversity impact of their portfolios across asset classes.
Furthermore, Robeco started an engagement theme on biodiversity earlier this year. Land use change is one of the major contributors to biodiversity loss, and much of this is driven by crop commodity production. Therefore, our engagement will focus on the impact on biodiversity of deforestation that is linked to five high-risk crop commodities – cocoa, natural rubber, soy, beef, and tropical timber and pulp.
Our engagement centers around five issues. The first three engagement objectives will focus on environmental management, with a clear value placed on ‘zero deforestation’ commitments, biodiversity impact assessments, fauna and flora restoration and conservation, and circular economy principles within companies’ production lines. We deem these highly relevant, especially for the five commodities that fall under this engagement.
The fourth objective will address disclosures, certifications and traceability. The fifth will focus on the social aspect of the production of these commodities, and will tackle both community and land rights, along with labor rights. We want to steer towards reaching 100% traceability for producers and users of these chains. Only then will it be possible to trace the impact on biodiversity in the supply chain.
On 25 September the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge will be launched during the Nature for Life Hub at the 75th UN General Assembly. The organizations that have signed the pledge have committed to protecting and restoring biodiversity through their financial activities and investments.
As one of the signatories, Robeco is extending a firm ‘call to arms’ to other investors to sign up. Then they can make sure they are not part of a problem which is already testing the Earth’s ability to digest it.
By signing the pledge, institutions commit to collaborating and sharing knowledge, engaging with companies, assessing impact, setting targets and report publicly on progress. This entails a roadmap that will take up several years, requiring commitment and resources from as many investors as possible. More information on the pledge can be found at: https://www.financeforbiodiversity.org
Make it happen!
1https://stockholmuniversity.app.box.com/s/avnyhh4xzshxb19j82hn5mf3hxyuvqj0
2https://chainreactionresearch.com/the-chain-financial-institutions-face-growing-pressure-to-quantify-and-mitigate-material-risk-exposure-related-to-biodiversity-loss/
The information contained on these pages is for marketing purposes and solely intended for Qualified Investors in accordance with the Swiss Collective Investment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006 (“CISA”) domiciled in Switzerland, Professional Clients in accordance with Annex II of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (“MiFID II”) domiciled in the European Union und European Economic Area with a license to distribute / promote financial instruments in such capacity or herewith requesting respective information on products and services in their capacity as Professional Clients.
The Funds are domiciled in Luxembourg and The Netherlands. ACOLIN Fund Services AG, postal address: Affolternstrasse 56, 8050 Zürich, acts as the Swiss representative of the Fund(s). UBS Switzerland AG, Bahnhofstrasse 45, 8001 Zurich, postal address: Europastrasse 2, P.O. Box, CH-8152 Opfikon, acts as the Swiss paying agent. The prospectus, the Key Investor Information Documents (KIIDs), the articles of association, the annual and semi-annual reports of the Fund(s) may be obtained, on simple request and free of charge, at the office of the Swiss representative ACOLIN Fund Services AG. The prospectuses are also available via the website www.robeco.ch. Some funds about which information is shown on these pages may fall outside the scope of the Swiss Collective Investment Schemes Act of 26 June 2006 (“CISA”) and therefore do not (need to) have a license from or registration with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Some funds about which information is shown on this website may not be available in your domicile country. Please check the registration status in your respective domicile country. To view the RobecoSwitzerland Ltd. products that are registered/available in your country, please go to the respective Fund Selector, which can be found on this website and select your country of domicile.
Neither information nor any opinion expressed on this website constitutes a solicitation, an offer or a recommendation to buy, sell or dispose of any investment, to engage in any other transaction or to provide any investment advice or service. An investment in a Robeco Switzerland Ltd. product should only be made after reading the related legal documents such as management regulations, prospectuses, annual and semi-annual reports. | https://www.robeco.com/ch/en/insights/2020/09/si-opener-loss-of-biodiversity-is-a-bigger-threat-than-climate-change.html |
MacBeth, King of Scots – not quite what Shakespeare portrayed!
On October 2nd, a new film version of Shakespeare’s MacBeth is released. Undoubtedly Shakespeare’s work is an outstanding piece of theatre. But how closely does it follow the historical MacBeth’s reign? Not very closely as it turns out. In fact, there is not a huge amount known about MacBeth despite his reign encompassing seventeen years, a pilgrimage to Rome, and being alongside a critical piece of English history; the build-up to the Norman Conquest.
I have put together this article to explore what we really know about MacBeth, and investigate some of the possibilities that the gaps in our knowledge raise. I have tried to clearly distinguish between fact, contemporary opinion, my own educated guesses, and speculative trains of thought, and to make the story reasonably coherent. It is intended for the interested non-professional, so don’t expect extensive footnotes and references, because I haven’t put them in! I will in time produce a fully illustrated version of this, but as my time is at a premium at the moment, I wanted to get the article out there for you to read at about the same time as the film. I hope that you enjoy it and that it inspires you to look into this fascinating and formative period of Scottish history, and an individual I believe was one of the most important of its early Kings.
Click the link below to download the pdf. | https://thecastleguy.co.uk/blog-post/macbeth-king-of-scots/ |
Happy Saturn’s Day
I will probably do a closer look at Valhalla in the future when I consider things of the Norse World but right now I want to deal with the issue of the afterlife, because it probably had one of the greater effects on the Norse mind than many other things. The notion that any culture has about the afterlife often affects how that culture interacts with others and how the people act in the face of death.
It is a pretty simple notion really, if a Viking faced his death bravely and died in battle, then the Valkyrie would come and take his soul to Valhalla. Valhalla was a place of Viking pleasure. Read into that, a place where one would know the glory of battle each day and at the end of it, one would sit down to mead, a feast with Odin, and beautiful women to bed as night fell. Although Valhalla is not limited to the men as brave women found their way too.
The question of what effect this would have on a society’s mindset is something to consider. The Vikings were certainly innovators in technology in the longship and navigation at sea. They could have turned those innovations to peaceful trade exclusively, if they had wished. They didn’t do that. Instead they would often raid a country first to demonstrate power and have Vikings who needed land take it. Then they would negotiate trade deals that had the force of negotiating from a position of strength. Part of that is the notion of Valhalla that the warriors would take into battle. They were either gong to gain great glory in death, or a very comfortable life after victory. Pretty good motivation for Viking leaders and ship captains to get new crew members.
I would probably submit this belief in Valhalla was the main motivation for Viking expansion right along side a growing population that need to emigrate. The second sons and following that were not going to inherit anything from their fathers. So they boarded a viking ship to seek their fortune; but as a back up plan if the died in battle, the earned Valhalla. That said, there were probably some who were seeking Valhalla and its pleasures more than a better life in this world.
As a person who has studied religion and faith and the affects of the same on the human psyche, I can tell you what a person believes about the afterlife greatly affects not only how they face their death, but how they live their life. The Vikings seem to have this two-fold nature. One is to live bravely and virtuously as possible so no matter what death they might face, they will be welcomed to Valhalla, but at the same time they seek a glorious end to guarantee Valhalla. It isn’t enough to die in battle, you also have to be deemed worth by the life you lived up to your death and how you died in battle.
For myself, I am not too sure about Valhalla. As a Deist most religions, including the Norse religion are subject to skepticism. That said, I cannot deny that belief in the afterlife in general is a powerful motivator. It has a way of giving meaning to life and depending on how one achieves the best in the afterlife, it will affect how one lives. For the Viking Warrior, it would have driven him to courage. When you board a ship and go to an unknown land to fight a battle, you need a lot of courage. In this culture a brave man was far more valued than any other kind. The beliefs surrounding Valhalla demonstrate this probably better than any other part of their culture.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Skaal!!! | https://thegreywayfarer.com/2019/02/09/crossing-bifrost-norse-culture-and-history-belief-in-valhalla/ |
Breaking your game down into it’s core mechanics might be one of the hardest things you do, but it’s worth it.
There isn’t really a recipe for success when it comes to games, but keeping your design focused certainly increases your odds. When making a game it’s very easy to be distracted by parts of the game that aren’t central to the core experience. This is why it’s helpful to identify your game’s core game mechanics in order to focus your design. Whether you have an idea for a great game, or need to fight feature creep in a current project, these exercises will keep you focused.
The result should be a better understanding of the player’s experience which can guide your design decisions resulting in a more focused game.
First, let’s define what makes a core mechanic that way we know what we’ll be working with. In this post I’ll use the definition from the book Game design workshop.
To identify your game’s core mechanic begin by writing a short (one to two sentences) description of what the player does when they play your game. This description will be your game’s essence statment. not only will the game’s essence statment help you to communicate what your game is about, it will also remind you (and your team) why you’re making the game in the first place.
From this description we know exactly what to expect when we pick up the game.
We know the goal of the game: "beat[ing] back Hell’s raging demon hordes"
And, we know the player's role: "you" (this implies that it will be a first person perspective as opposed to, say, Resident Evil 4 where players take control of the character Leon Kennedy.
Seems simple, right? Let’s try it out.
For this exercise try not to focus on the game’s art, story, or setting. Instead Focus on the goal, player actions, and role. Take some time to write out your game’s essence statment now.
Before we move on let’s revisit DOOM’s description to see what else we can learn about the game from the 2 sentences. On top of the roles, goals, and actions in the description we also learn a bit about other mechanics that add to the player’s experience. “There is no taking cover or stopping to regenerate health” highlights two game mechanics that set DOOM apart from other modern shooters. Unlike Call of Duty or Halo, players are encouraged to play aggressively. By eliminating cover players are forced to act ant think quickly. At the same time, the player receives a lot of health by performing melee attacks bringing the focus back to the advanced melee system and player actions of “knock-down, slash, stomp, crush”. Now would be a good time to look back at your essence statment and see if there are any core mechanics that you didn’t mention that you can incorporate in the same way.
Another way to determine what the core mechanics of our game are is to create a Core Game Loop diagram of the game in order to visualize the core gameplay. This diagram shows the series of actions players takes in order to play the game. In other words, what is player doing over and over again? The diagram you come up with is called a core game loop. Diagraming your core game loop is a good way to focus/edit your game and can be shared as a blue print with your team. Your core game loop should also support your game’s essence statement.
Let’s look at a popular game genere and their core game loop to get a feel for them before making our own. RPGS, for example, can be described as a loop that contains the actions Defeat enemies -> Get Reward -> Level up, Repeat. Once your game’s core game loop you can use it to identify and strengthen the core mechanics of your game. Generally, all of your game’s core mechanics should be in service of the core game loop. If one of your game’s mechanics doesn’t support your game’s core game loop, or your essence statement you might consider eliminating it.
Although the core game loop of your game won’t look exactly like these, they’ll probably look very similar.
You’ll notice that the diagram for Pac-Man is essentially the arcade game loop with an additional sub-loop (Eat Dots -> Eat Fruit, Repeat). You’ll also notice that there is no way to get from the Eat Fruit bubble to the Next Level bubble. This is because in the game Pac-Man eating fruit is not required to progress, but eating dots is, and so our diagram reflects this. In fact, you could probably remove the Eat Fruit completely and still have the essence of Pac-Man. This tells us that although Eating Fruit increases your score and feels good to do (it provides an added challenge) it isn’t a core game mechanic and could be removed without drastically changing the game (it does change the game feel, but more on that in another post).
Unlike the digram for Pac-Man where Eating Fruit was optional, none of the bubbles in these diagrams can be removed without breaking the loop indicating that each bubble is an important part of the game.
Try diagramming the core gameplay of your game. While making your core game loop diagram make sure that each part of your game loop supports the essence statement you wrote above. If you run into a problem and don’t know the best way to represent a part of your game just take your best guess (you can always update the diagram later).
Now do it again. No, really. This time try and see if you can reduce the number of bubbles without changing the core of your game. If you can’t, great, you’re done.
Another way to diagram your game is to use the Noun/Verb diagram technique. This technique tries to visualize what a player can do by showing the relation ships between the important objects in your game (nouns) and the actions a player can take (verbs). This exercise is particularly helpful if you don’t what the major mechanics in your game are. In this section we’ll create a Noun/Verb diagram for the game Pac-Man before creating one for your own game.
You’ll notice that in this diagram the player has the most arrows pointing to/away from it. This makes sense since you generally want your game to revolve around the player and their actions. If you find that some other object has more actions associated with it, consider why that might be the case and see if you can’t shift the focus back to the player.
Take some time to create a Noun/Verb diagram of your game. Make sure that the diagram you create matches with your essence statement and edit accordingly.
If you finished the exercises above you might notice that some elements of your game didn’t make the cut. That’s ok, in fact, editing your game to focus on the core mechanics is a good thing. If you found the previous exercises difficult, or struggled to fit all your mechanics into 1-2 sentences, it might be time to rethink what mechanics are core to your game. In order to address this, think go back to your essence statement and think about the core experience you want to present to your players. Ask yourself if all of the mechanics you’ve identified above reenforce, or distract, from that experience and cut the ones that don’t fit.
It’s generally better to get one core mechanic right than to have several that aren’t very fleshed out. If you’ve ever played a game where it feels like a certain part was added as an after thought, you know what I mean. Another way to think about this is, unless the game was focused on crafting, a crafting system would be really out of place in a Mario game. In fact, having a crafting system might really detract from the platforming mechanics that are at the core of most Mario games. So don’t be afraid to cut out the unnecessary elements. This part is difficult, and it’s a good idea to keep a notebook handy to write down any of the ideas you like, but don’t exactly fit into this game. Who knows, maybe they’ll be the core of another game.
Editing is hard, and if you’re having a difficult time with it just know you’re not alone. The great youtube series Extra Credits has an excellent video on editing that I highly recommend watching if you’re having problems with this part of the design process.
If you feel that your game is a bit lean now find ways to iterate on your core mechanic rather than introducing new mechanics to flesh out your game. Nintendo does a great job of keeping their games focused to a few core mechanics which they then use multiple times in new and interesting ways.
For your game this might mean revisiting a mechanic that you haven’t fully explored and seeing new it can be used.
By now you probably have a much greater understanding of your game’s core game loop and the core mechanics that support it. These diagrams will serve you well during development whether you use them to communicate ideas with your development team, or fight against feature creep by using these diagrams to edit. If you come up with any cool Noun/Verb diagrams or interesting game loops contact us, connect with us on Facebook, or let us know on Twitter. We’d love to hear more.
Till next time, game on!
A list of resources to help you make games!
Most people don’t know how to ask a question effectively, don’t be one of them. An important part of learning is figuring out how to ask for help, and how to do it properly.
Whether you’re new to critiques, or if you want to strengthen this skill, the method I introduce here will help you give or receive better critiques in any creative endeavor.
There has never been a better time to start designing games. No budget? No experience? No problem. We’ll help you get started.
Have a question? Comment? Want to take it to the next level with one on one tutoring?
Videogame Workshop © Videogame Researcher LLC. All rights reserved. | https://www.videogameworkshop.com/game-design/Core-Game-Mechanics.html |
Effects of self-esteem on age-related changes in cognition and the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated the effects of self-esteem on global health and life expectancy in normal aging. Endocrinological studies in humans have demonstrated the effects of self-esteem on basal regulation and reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. To investigate the effects of differences in self-esteem on age-related changes in cognitive performance and HPA regulation, we investigated 20 healthy elderly subjects (age range 60-84, mean age 69.8 y). We assessed salivary cortisol levels together with neuropsychological assessment, and psychological assessment for self-esteem and locus of control. Across the study sample, age was significantly associated with reductions in cognitive performance and changes in basal cortisol regulation. Self-esteem appeared independent of age. Defining two groups of subjects with high and low self-esteem, age-related changes in cognitive and endocrinological variables became more prominent in the low self-esteem group, whereas age no longer had a significant impact on the variables in the high self-esteem group. These data suggest an effect of self-esteem on cognitive decline with aging. It further suggests an effect on age-related endocrine changes in humans. These results are discussed with regard to potential mechanisms by which the reported association between self-esteem and aging could be mediated.
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Metacognitive monitoring of attention performance and its influencing factors.
Metacognitive monitoring is a central element of metacognitive processing exerting widespread influences on information processing. Albeit being subject to numerous empirical investigations referring to memory performance, there is little research investigating metacognitive monitoring in other cognitive domains. The present study investigated in 45 healthy students whether factors that are known to influence monitoring of memory performance, i.e., task difficulty, time of assessment, and practice, also exhibit a significant impact on monitoring of attention performance. A multivariate analysis of variance with three within-subject repeated measures factors on two dependent variables (monitoring of (a) time, and (b) errors in an attention task) was conducted. Results showed that monitoring ability significantly decreased with increasing task difficulty, was significantly better for post than for pre-assessment, and significantly increased with practice. Therefore, results suggest that the examined factors influenced monitoring of attention performance equivalent to the influence of these factors found in metamemory research.
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While in 2009 the Andalusian aeronautical sector managed to overcome the hardship of the international economic crisis with an 8% increase in sales, in 2010 turnover increased by 26% to reach nearly 2 billion euros (1.983 billion euros), four times industry figures in 2001. Employment also continued its upward trend, with an interannual increase of 10% to reach a total of 10,278 employees in the sector during 2010.
The Andalusian aeronautical sector is going from strength to strength despite the current international economic situation. For yet another year, it has emerged as one of the most improved regions in the Spanish and European aeronautical industry in terms of turnover and employment. Far from suffering the consequences of the financial crisis, the data provided by the Statistical Report on the Andalusian Aeronautical Sector for 2010 prepared by the Hélice Foundation with the collaboration of Aertec demonstrates that the industry is continuing its process of growth, expansion and diversification and is becoming one of the strategic sectors with the greatest potential for the Andalusian economy.
The Andalusian aeronautical industry increased in terms of sales, employment, diversification, productivity and even R&D investment, reflecting the widespread adoption by the sector of the key steps required to reinforce its position in the world aeronautical market. Turning to the figures, sales reached 1.983 billion euros, 26% more than in 2009, a year which was also characterized by an increase of8% despite the crisis. This growth means that over the last decade the turnover of the Andalusian industry has multiplied by four, from 495 million euros in 2001 to nearly 2 billion euros today.
The Andalusian turnover now also accounts for 24.1% of the total national sales, an increase which if it continues will consolidate the region’s status as the third major European aeronautical hub and the second in Spain after Madrid. The growth of sales in 2010 was mainly due to final assembly companies (which increased by 40.7%), assembly of major structures (with an increase of 28.1%), and services, testing and space (67.8%). In terms of employment, the upward trend continues. While 1,200 jobs were created in 2009, last year this figure increased by 10% to 1,452 jobs.
The sector now accounts for 10,728 jobs, 2.7 times more than in 2001. As a consequence, Andalusia’s importance in the national employment figures has continued to grow to reach 24.7% of the total.
This growth is especially interesting due to the quality of the advances made. For example, the sales increase is not only for Airbus products, with a continuation of the gradual increase in diversification to include products by other manufacturers such as Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier. Sales to these other manufacturers increased by 41,6% in 2010, with increased participation in the total turnover to 23%, as opposed to 5% in 2001. The report also revealed that products by Airbus Spain experienced positive growth in 2010 following the decrease in sales of Airbus aircraft in 2009, while Airbus Military products have maintained their level of growth from the previous year.
This represents confirmation of the efforts by the Andalusian industry to continually advance with the diversification of customers and products at an international level, reducing its level of dependency upon a single customer and improving its internal balance. In terms of employment, this growth also has greater added value due to the particular emphasis on highly qualified professionals, with a 12% increase of jobs for management, engineers and university graduates. The area with the biggest employment growth was engineering, with a 40% increase.
The Andalusian aeronautical sector currently includes 123 companies, of which more than 90% are concentrated in the Seville-Cádiz area as was the case last year, ratifying this zone’s status as the engine of the Andalusian aeronautical industry.
Of these, 30% are mechanical companies, 17% offer engineering and consultancy services and 13% are involved in assembly.
The remaining companies work in the areas of composites and plastics, electric and electronic supplies, testing and technical analysis, general aviation, space and services. An analysis of the major manufacturers in the industry reveals that their turnover increased by 375 million euros compared to 2009, a 35.6% increase fuelled by the 40.7% sales increase for Airbus Military.
Employment, however, dropped slightly by 2.9% to 2,817 jobs. As a consequence, productivity understood as “turnover per employee” increased in general for the major manufacturers by 40% and 45% in the case of Airbus Military.
The Andalusian auxiliary industry increased its turnover by 6.5% compared to the previous year (more than 555 million euros as opposed to 488.4 million euros for 2009) and 15.4% in terms of employment (1,655 more jobs). noteworthy among these new jobs is the significant increase in engineering staff. More specifically, the increase in engineering and R&D staff has boosted the numbers of highly qualified staff from 21.6% in 2009 to 23.3% in 2010. Another optimistic figure is the investment in R&D by the auxiliary industry, which doubled in just one year from 4.3 million euros in 2009 to 9 million euros in 2010.
The companies involved in ‘large assemblies’ and ‘complementary industry’ were responsible for 27.7% and 44.13% of the total investment respectively. The only downside for the auxiliary sector is the decrease in turnover per employee (around 8%). This makes improving productivity a priority objective for these companies, incorporating activities with greater added value as a way of combating the threat posed by emerging countries with significantly lower labor costs.
The Statistical Report on the Andalusian Sector for 2010 prepared by the Hélice Foundation with the collaboration of Aertec concludes that the future of the Andalusian sector is fairly promising, not only due to the figures but also the nature of the improvements made.
The gradual concentration of companies is enabling them to improve their solvency and increase their expansion in the national and international sector. Similarly, its activities are diversifying towards wider fields than traditional areas such as aerostructures and developing new areas of interest such as unmanned aerial vehicles and systems, a field in which the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC) is developing some of the most innovative and advanced research lines in Europe. Another positive aspect is the fact that in the last quarter of 2009 a Tier One company was established in Andalusia, Alestis Aeroespace.
This was a necessary step in order to continue to opt for new and larger obs which will benefit the entire Andalusian business network.
The creation of Alestis has attracted important work packages for the A350 and its impact on sales is already evident in the figures for 2010. It is also noteworthy that the A400M program has consolidated its presence after the first flight in late 2009, as is evident from the results obtained by Airbus Military in 2010.
Similarly, the positive evolution of R&D investment and direct employment associated with R&D confirms the positive effect of the activities being carried out by the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies. | http://helicecluster.com/news/andalusian-aeronautical-industry-intensifes-its-growth-2010-despite-crisis |
You and your child will share a unique experience. This will include learning about friends, teamwork, sharing and attitudes and feelings about living that will carry on long after your child has left our program. At this age the distinction between work and play need not be drawn, therefore, our program is designed towards having fun while accomplishing things.
Our program is Play-Based – the Co-op does not emphasize academic performance, although it does aim at providing necessary experiences which contribute toward appropriate cognitive development. Research suggests that play-based learning offers more long-term performance benefits than strict academics at this age.
We want to encourage a sense of competence in the child so that he/she feels worthy and respected. Children are to receive realistic feedback about their actions so they may learn how to productively relate to others. Each child will be encouraged to use his or her own resources in both problem solving and in seeking out stimulating experiences. The working parents will help facilitate learning, assisting the child when it is necessary, and defining limits as the child grows into developing inner controls.
Our children learn through self-directed and inspired exploration. We layer planned projects and themes with any “improv” as it occurs.
We educate by inspiring students to become interested in the world around them, using one weekly theme at a time, one playful day at a time.
Between the ages of 3 and 4, language acquisition happens at an astonishing pace, so our children are encouraged to express themselves verbally, as well as through art and play. | https://www.studiocitycoop.com/our-philosophy |
Take all your knowledge about green, large disgusting insects, or grey humanoids with big oval eyes, and leave them to horror films and science-fiction thrillers. A new study suggests that the ugly aliens people commonly imagine might not be so funny-looking in reality. In fact, if they are indeed real, they might look very similar not to animals or ET, but to humans.
One of the problems with trying to understand how aliens look like is that we don’t know exactly anything about them — we don’t even know if their existence is real or just a myth. We can only imagine how they would walk, breath, feel, think, and probably the most important thing: feed.
However, British scientists discovered that they might have passed through life-processes similar to ours, including natural selection. Thus, shaping their bodies with many of our characteristics.
Previous research about evolution practically explains that we are how we are thanks to significant transitions. We became more complex because we developed from simple organisms into a higher status — making us able to be and look as we do today.
Just like us, aliens might have done it too.
Natural selection and evolution on another planet
Million of years ago, Earth passed through conditions so extreme that we wouldn’t even be able to breathe as we do right now if they continued. When everything started to calm, simple organisms began to develop, and then to adapt to the hard environment. Soon after, human life would appear as we know it.
Knowing that aliens passed through natural selection just like us, might shed light on not only their physical behavior but also physiological. However, this is more complex because we would have to know millions of years of history, and the actual lives of the extra-terrestrial society.
If these significant transitions didn’t occur, we definitely wouldn’t have two eyes, two arms, legs, mouth, brain, or any other parts of our body.
Sam Levin, from the University of Oxford, is the lead researcher on the first study performed to explain the physical composition and appearance of foreign life forms. According to him, aliens might have undergone natural selection just like us, making them able to evolve and adapt to new environments — thus, becoming wiser or stronger.
“A fundamental task for astrobiologists (those who study life in the cosmos) is thinking about what extraterrestrial life might be like,” says Sam Levin, the researcher in Oxford’s department of zoology. “But making predictions about aliens is hard.”
Oxford’s lead researcher said that he based the study mostly on the unique example of life he has: “life on Earth.” According to Levin, we have made “mechanistic” predictions about aliens taking what we see on our planet, and also common knowledge — like chemistry, geology, and physics.
What makes this study the first of its kind is that scientists used evolutionary theory to make “predictions that are independent of Earth’s details.” This might be the appropriated way to estimate more about our space-neighbors.
The researchers said this study made them feel very excited about finding other life-forms in space. If scientists are right, someday we might know unique things about our own species — like technological advances, the development of another global human population, life meaning, or what happens to us when we die.
We still have to wait until we see one of them — if they exist
Although scientists suggested facts about the appearance of aliens, this can only be proved when they encounter a specimen. This is why Levin said he can’t still predict which features they would have — like legs, arms, or eyes. That’s further information that scientists have not accessed yet.
However, Levin believes natural selection and evolution gave the team a valuable “tool” and point of view to make them understand more about extra-terrestrial life. In the paper, he attaches a few examples “of the kinds of strong predictions” they were able to do thanks to this theory.
“By predicting that aliens have undergone major transitions – which is how complexity has arisen in species on earth, we can say that there is a level of predictability to evolution that would cause them to look like us,” Levin said. “Like humans, we predict that they are made-up of a hierarchy of entities, which all cooperate to produce an alien.”
Just like humans, aliens might also be organized in a hierarchy. Thus, having different organisms to “eliminate conflicts, maintain cooperation, and keep the organism functioning. “
We already know that there are hundreds of galaxy besides ours, and space is so huge that we can’t certainly say there’s no life outside of our planet. According to the researchers, there are potential “hundreds of thousands of habitable planets” just in our galaxy alone.
When talking about the existence of aliens, Levin said that “we can’t say whether or not we’re alone on Earth, but we have taken a small step forward in answering, if we’re not alone, what our neighbors are like.” – the Daily Mail reported.
It will be just a matter of time to know if there are indeed extraterrestrial life forms. | https://www.pulseheadlines.com/aliens-similar-people-scientists/68454/ |
On Thursday 13 August, along with approximately ten #INF537 colleagues, I had the great pleasure of engaging in an online colloquium with Tim Klapdor, Online Learning Technology Leader, Charles Sturt University. Very early on Tim stated, “Networks are the key to life”, and quickly emphasised that the nodes/individuals within those networks determine their quality. At their best when individuals are empowered through ownership and autonomy of those networks. However, he soon pointed out that current systems and models don’t exist to support networks in their truest ‘co-operative’ form.
Tim expanded upon his argument by highlighting that there are questions about ‘Data Sovereignty’ such as, “Who owns the data?” and, (for companies who have your data), “How do they define your identity?” Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media groups can produce social graphs which map people to other people, places and events. Such companies then use ‘Algorithms’ to determine what information comes to you, say, for example, when you are on Facebook. Algorithms can also determine how Google ‘ranks’ your searches. The Licensing Terms we agree to when we join these groups, gives them the right to use your information as they see fit. They own the accumulation of information about you; however, do we really know what they do with this information?
Such actions of companies have brought about the question of ‘Enclosure’. Tim referred back to agricultural times gone by and use the example of the Land of Commons to explain ‘enclosure’. Over time, the land owned collectively by numerous people was transitioned to more and more individual and company ownership who put fences up around the boundaries of their land. This prompted the question, “Is the distributed networked nature on the world wide web becoming ‘fenced in’ and owned by persons or companies?” Tim’s argued that the ‘common space’ of the web is no longer there. Are we being fenced in?
Tim encouraged the thinking, “We want people to own their own data and encourage more cooperative ways of sharing information.” Soon after, I asked Tim about the difference between the ‘co-operative’ and the ‘collaborative’. In responding, he made reference to the work of Harold Jarche. Soon after the colloquia, I went searching for a blog by Jarche, PKM in 2013 because I remembered this rich and descriptive graphic below…..
Some of the excerpts from that same blog help explain the graphic above. They are as follows….
“Both collaborative behaviours (working together for a common goal) and cooperative behaviours (sharing freely without any quid pro quo) are needed in the network era. Most organizations focus on shorter term collaborative behaviours, but networks thrive on cooperative behaviours, where people share without any direct benefit. PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) helps to add cooperation to workplace collaboration.”
“Communities of practice (are) a half-way space between work teams and social networks, where trusted relationships can form that enable to share more openly.”
“Connecting social networks, communities of practice and work teams, becomes an important framework for integrating learning and working in the network era. We seek new ideas from our social networks and then filter them through more focused conversations with our communities of practice, where we have trusted relationships. We make sense of these embryonic ideas by doing new things, either ourselves, or with our work teams. We later share our creations, first with our teams and perhaps later with our communities of practice or even our networks. We use our understanding of our communities and networks to discern with whom and when to share our knowledge.”
Dreaming about the possibilities of the ‘co-operative’ may require us to challenge the notion of data ownership when authentically engaging in true sense of distributed networks though the Network ‘Common’. As such, I am reminded of Elizabeth Stark, founder of Harvard Free Culture Group points out, who suggests that people who are engaged in traditional structures are often threatened by newer paradigms around ownership and control. My question is, “Are companies of the newer paradigm (such as Facebook and Google) capitalising upon old notions of ownership and control?”
Thoughts, comments and feedback would be appreciated.
Greg. | https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/leadlearn/2015/08/14/data-algorithms-and-enclosure-time-with-time-klapdor/ |
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Microsoft is inviting you to share your feedback regarding the Windows touch keyboard with the engineers who are directly responsible for designing and developing it. This will be a perfect opportunity to share your thoughts on the touch keyboard, and offer suggestions on improvement.
Those interested can participate in an online session on Sunday, September 29, 2019, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM (Pacific Time). All you have to do is bookmark this page.
During the feedback session, which is basically a live chat, Microsoft will take notes on your experiences when its your time to participate in the one-on-one talk. The company might even ask you for your thoughts on new design ideas for other Microsoft products and features.
You won’t have to provide any personal data, such as name, birth date, phone number, etc.
“Our engineers are excited to hear from you! As we’ve seen with previous research sessions, the insights and suggestions you provide have an important impact on future development for Windows users around the world,” Microsoft says.
This is a pretty cool way to gather feedback directly from users. Let us know in the comments below if you plan on participating, and/or if you have any feedback regarding the touch keyboard in Windows. | https://www.onmsft.com/news/tell-microsoft-how-much-you-love-or-hate-the-windows-10-touch-keyboard |
Students connect contemporary Spanish-speaking authors with international counterparts through a comparative study of their works that isolates and explores common literary and philosophical concepts. Literary works are grouped by theme and studied concurrently. Selected units explore the topics of tension between the individual and society, narrative ambiguity, the monster within, the nature of reality, and Cain and Abel’s allegory in literature and film. Student papers and class discussions are in Spanish. Spanish works are read in the original Spanish text.
Texts:
Camus, The Plague
García Márquez, Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada
García Márquez, Ojos de Perro Azul
Kafka, The Trial
Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Unamuno, Abel Sánchez
Unamuno, Don Manuel Bueno Mártir
Viewings:
Abre Los Ojos
Amadeus
Summer Reading: | https://www.maret.org/all-posts/~board/upper-school-world-languages/post/comparative-literature-wl-us |
Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is calling for more manmade floods to be released from the Glen Canyon Dam into the Colorado River in an effort to protect wildlife and archaeological sites.
The flooding builds up sandbars and beaches along a 277-mile stretch of the river as it runs through the Grand Canyon. Salazar announced this week that his department would head up an effort to determine when and how high flow experiments should be conducted.
"We must find a way to protect one of the world's most treasured landscapes -- the Grand Canyon -- while meeting water and clean energy needs in the face of climate change," Salazar said in a video message to the Colorado River Water Users Association in Las Vegas this week.
The operation of the dam built more than 40 years ago has been controversial.
Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam has blocked 90 percent of the sediment that provides habitat for plants and animals, beaches for campers and river runners and helped protect archaeological sites from erosion from the downstream Colorado. Several endangered species of fish have declined in numbers.
Environmentalists have decried the high flow experiments as meaningless without a plan for more steady flows and say the flooding better serves the interests of hydropower than natural resources.
The last high flow experiment in 2008 sent torrents of water from the dam on the Arizona-Utah line for 60 hours to mimic natural flooding. The results were short-lived, though, and newly built up sandbars eroded within months.
Compounding the erosion is the practice of sending more water through the dam in the daytime to maximize power generation, then trimming output at night.
The sediment provides a habitat for plants and animals, builds beaches for campers and river runners and helps protect archaeological sites from erosion and weathering.
John Weisheit, conservation director for the Moab, Utah-based conservation group Living Rivers, said the plan won't work. Aside from getting rid of the dam, the next best thing would be to adjust the flows from the dam to restore the once muddy and warm river that was an ideal habitat, he said.
Salazar must determine if the Grand Canyon or "a few kilowatt hours" is more important, Weisheit said.
The plan for high flows would be developed partly on reports from the U.S. Geological Survey on the effects of the 2008 flood due out next month.
Salazar said high flows could be triggered partly by the sediment deposited when tributaries of the Colorado River downstream from the dam flood. That happens on average every one to two years, said John Hammill, chief of the USGS's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center.
At that rate, it could take more than 30 years to build up sediment to levels existing before the dam was constructed, Hammill said. Keeping flows as low as possible after a manmade flood would help conserve the sandbars, but that flow regime would cut the amount of hydropower produced from the dam, he said.
"Finding that balance has always been a difficult task," he said. | https://www.ksl.com/article/8999531 |
The 1939-era dam that blocked the Willow River in the Minnesota town by the same name is on its way out, to be replaced by a series of rock rapids designed to allow fish to swim upstream but also retain the small but popular Lake Stanton reservoir.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is heading the nearly $2 million project with contractors on the job this winter, part of an ongoing statewide and national effort to re-wild river ecosystems whenever possible.
The project is just upstream from where the Willow River flows into the Kettle River. The dam was breached and damaged in a July 2016 mega-rainstorm and ensuing flood that mostly drained the lake. But rather than replace it, the DNR sought to make changes to reopen the river to migratory fish, native mussels and other aquatic creatures that had been blocked for nearly 80 years — including lake sturgeon that are native to the St. Croix-Kettle-Willow River system.
“The rapids are designed for a (stream) velocity that allows sturgeon to pass, and the gaps will be wide enough for them to get through,” said Jason Boyle, state dam safety engineer for the DNR.
In December, contractors temporarily diverted the river channel and dewatered the work area so they could remove the failed concrete dam. In the next phase of construction, expected to last into February, a series of steps and slopes will reshape the riverbed below the small lake. Base rock and large boulders will be placed to create so-called arch rapids that should eventually retain water in Lake Stanton near its previous levels.
The river upstream of the old dam should also make decent habitat for walleyes and other game fish, at least during high flow periods, said Leslie George, DNR area fisheries supervisor in Hinckley.
“It’s absolutely a step in the right direction for fish passage up the Willow River,” George said. “That dam was a total barrier before.”
Residents of the town and people who camp at the campground on the shores of the little lake made it clear they liked the impoundment for recreation and wanted to restore the reservoir, Boyle said. The Willow River Campground is part of the General C.C. Andrews State Forest.
Boyle noted that removing the dam also eliminates the roiling waters at its base that are considered a drowning hazard.
Because of the extensive nature of the construction and heavy equipment needed to perform the work, the adjacent Willow River City Park, now a staging area for construction materials, is closed to visitors. During the final phase of construction in the spring, rock placements will be touched up, a trail will be built along the rapids and trees and grass will be planted. The water level in the Stanton Lake reservoir is expected to refill by late spring as snow melts.
The lake is between Interstate 35 and old Highway 61 and when full is roughly 87 acres in size and about 12 feet deep at its deepest point. Several species of fish are common in the area, including bullhead, bluegill, largemouth bass, northern pike, rock bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, yellow perch and pumpkinseed.
The $1.8 million project is funded by the construction bonding bill passed by the 2017 Minnesota Legislature. The project was delayed several years due to the complexity of retaining both the previous lake level and allowing fish passage, Boyle noted.
In nearby Sandstone, a dam was removed from the Kettle River a few years ago in a move that reopened miles of habitat for sturgeon. Meanwhile, the DNR is currently making plans to remove another dam in the area, the Grindstone Dam in Hinckley on the Grindstone River.
Minnesota has about 1,100 small dams on streams across the state, many built in the early 1900s to create ponds, provide electricity, run sawmills or control flooding — and many of which are now in need of repair or removal. | https://www.twincities.com/2021/01/23/dnr-removing-willow-river-dam-to-allow-fish-passage/ |
2 ways to enjoy the Monitor's award-winning journalism!
An artist’s conception of a new subatomic particle is shown in this image provided by CERN. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe have discovered a new subatomic particle, notably having two heavy 'charm' quarks instead of one. Physicists hope its discovery will fuel research that further explains how matter is bound together.
CERN/AP
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Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
July 6, 2017
Washington—Scientists have found an extra charming new subatomic particle that they hope will help further explain a key force that binds matter together.
Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe announced Thursday the fleeting discovery of a long theorized but never-before-seen type of baryon.
Baryons are subatomic particles made up of quarks. Protons and neutrons are the most common baryons. Quarks are even smaller particles that come in six types, two common types that are light and four heavier types.
The high-speed collisions at the world's biggest atom smasher created for a fraction of a second a baryon particle called Xi cc, said Oxford physicist Guy Wilkinson, who is part of the experiment.
The particle has two heavy quarks – both of a type that are called "charm"– and a light one. In the natural world, baryons have at most one heavy quark.
It may have been brief, but in particle physics it lived for "an appreciably long time," he said.
The two heavy quarks are in a dance that's just like the interaction of a star system with two suns and the third lighter quark circles the dancing pair, Mr. Wilkinson said.
"People have looked for it for a long time," Wilkinson said. He said this opens up a whole new "family" of baryons for physicists to find and study.
"It gives us a very unique and interesting laboratory to give us an interesting new angle on the behavior of the strong interaction [between particles], which is one of the key forces in nature," Wilkinson said.
Chris Quigg, a theoretical physicist at the Fermilab near Chicago, who wasn't part of the discovery team, praised the discovery and said "it gives us a lot to think about."
The team has submitted a paper to the journal Physical Review Letters.
The Large Hadron Collider, located in a 16.8-mile tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border, was instrumental in the discovery of the Higgs boson. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym CERN. | |
The following are details of some other groups working as part of a local network to reduce the suffering of many animals.
Providing an emergency transport service to help animals (including hedgehogs)and birds involved in accidents etc. They have an emergency telephone number.
Finds homes for stray or unwanted cats and kittens For advice regarding help with the spaying and neutering of cats, please contact PUP as we provide a contact for schemes in the local areas. Tel: 0115 923 4555 If you are in urgent need of transport for cats please telephone 01623 756 592 (VEGGIES help with the cost of this).
PUP would be most grateful for any donations, and donations of bric-a-brac, clothing, etc for the PUP Charity shop. (Please make cheques payable to 'Prevent Unwanted Pets') With your help, we can continue to reduce the number of animals who suffer unnecessarily. | https://www.all-creatures.org/pup/support.html |
The article discusses the life and political career of Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada's Liberal Party and a candidate for prime minister. Topics discussed includes serving by Pierre Elliott Trudeau from 1968 to 1984, death of youngest Trudeau son, Michel, and government led by Stephen...
- Canada: We Await The Future. GRAY, OWEN // Moderate Voice;10/20/2015, p3
The article presents views of Stephen Harper, head of the National Citizens Coalition, on the assessment of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Former Prime Minister of Canada and columnist Andrew Coyne has mentioned about Justin Trudeau, prime minister-designate of Canada.
- PIERRE TRUDEAU: CHAMPION OF A JUST SOCIETY. Iglauer, Edith // Americas;Jan/Feb2001, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p56
Profiles former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Vision he had for Canada; Scenes during his funeral service; Professions and activities before entering politics.
- The Other Side of Trudeau's Legacy. Cole, Susan G. // Herizons;Fall2000, Vol. 14 Issue 2, p47
Offers some perspective on former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau's lack of job prior to his election to Parliament; Initiatives launched on behalf of women; Efforts to champion individual freedom; Legacies for future Canadians.
- Quebec Votes No. // America;5/31/1980, Vol. 142 Issue 21, p453
The article discusses the referendum for change in Quebec on May 20, 1980. It notes that Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's passionate plea to voters not to vote for sovereignty was heeded with a 3-to-2 vote in favor of the status quo in the Canadian Federation. It states that despite...
- A time to weep for the loss. Atkins, Michael // Northern Ontario Business;Oct2000, Vol. 20 Issue 12, p4
Laments the death of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Achievements in his political career; Stand on the issue of free markets; Espousal of a vision of Canada based on the rule of law and of inclusion; Concern over the building of the infrastructure of a nation state.
- Abandonment of Settlements & Regions. Forbes, H.D. // Books in Canada;Feb97, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p66
Presents criticisms to the literary works of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in Canada. Opposition against nationalism; Contents of literary collections; Stand on the issue of nuclear war.
- THE CONTENDER. REID, STUART A. // Atlantic;May2015, Vol. 315 Issue 4, p24
The article profiles Justin Trudeau, a member of the Canadian Liberal Party who is campaigning to be Prime Minister. Topics discussed include the views of the nation's Conservative Party and Prime Minster Stephen Harper, the fact that Trudeau is the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre...
- ECLECTICA. Grace, Kevin Michael // Report / Newsmagazine (National Edition);10/23/2000, Vol. 27 Issue 12, p30
Offers news briefs relating to coverage of the death of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as of October 2000. Discussion of the eulogy delivered by Justin Trudeau; Reaction of the public to Trudeau's death; Comparisons of Trudeau's death and the death of Princess Diana of Wales;... | http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/34607350/son-also-rises |
Improvement of visual field indices after surgical reduction of intraocular pressure.
In a prospective case series (consecutive patients) of 30 eyes from 30 subjects with medically uncontrolled glaucoma being treated at a hospital-based, referral glaucoma service, we sought to ascertain if a surgically obtained reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP) in human glaucomatous eyes is paralleled by an improvement of the visual field. Uncomplicated limbus-based trabeculectomy was performed in 13 men and 17 women familiar with computerized perimetry testing, with a pupil diameter of at least 4 mm (measured at the Goldmann perimeter bowl), a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/20 in both eyes, and a Mean Sensitivity (MS) index greater than 10 dB. The main outcomes measured were: visual field data (Octopus, program G1) and IOP (mean of the two highest values during the diurnal curve) obtained 3 days before and 3 months after surgery in both the operated and the fellow eyes. In the operated eyes, an increase of MS (from 17.2 +/- 2.4 to 18.9 +/- 2.8, P < .000001, paired samples two-tailed t test) was observed. Meanwhile, the Corrected Loss Variance (CLV) remained substantially the same (46.8 +/- 12.2 before, vs 47.3 +/- 13.4 after; P = .87, paired samples two-tailed t test). The increase in MS was positively correlated with the amount of IOP reduction (linear regression: r = 0.901, P < .00001). No statistically significant change of either MS or CLV values occurred in the fellow eyes. The correlation between the amount of IOP reduction and the increased MS suggests that, in the short term, reducing the IOP may improve visual function to some extent. The apparent lack of correlation between the amount of IOP reduction and the CLV may indicate that the depth of the preexistent glaucomatous scotomas remains unchanged.
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Challenging Our Secular Theocracies
Hmm, a contradiction here? An oxymoron? We know that the word ‘secular’ is synonymous with terms like non-religious, non-spiritual, non-church, temporal, worldly, etc. Secular is the opposite of sacred. ‘Sacred’ has to do with God, religion, spirituality, etc.
The word ‘theocracy’ is a compound of two Greek terms: God and rule. Ancient Israel was a theocracy in many respects (although there was some separation of powers, with prophet, priest and king), and Islam is a theocracy, with no division between sacred and secular.
So the two terms would seem to exclude each other. However, there ARE such things as secular theocracies. That is because at bottom everyone is a theist. Sure, they may not be Hindus or Jews or Christians or Muslims. They may be secular to the core. But they are still theists.
That is because everyone has a god that they worship. If it is not the one true God, it is a god of their own choosing. It may be fame or fortune that they worship. It may be themselves – that may be the most common god being served today. And plenty of ‘secular’ political and ideological isms can become objects of worship as well.
Thus societies and cultures are all at bottom religious. One of the great lines from Douglas Wilson (and he has many) came from an essay he penned a decade ago. He was responding to another believer who said “I sure don’t want to live in a theocracy.” Wilson replied:
But if we are talking about lifestyle, and if lifestyle refers to something more than a personal consumption item, at some point we are going to have to enact laws. Culture is impossible without them. But cultures differ because they serve different gods, and different gods require different things. This means the laws are different. Every society is a theocracy. The only question is, “Who’s Theo?”
Yep, every culture is a theocracy and we need to ask who is god in that culture. In the West the primary god of this age can be called by various names: secular leftism, secular liberalism, secular humanism. This is the reigning worldview amongst the intelligentsia, the media, the academy, and so on.
Those who dare to stand against it are branded as heretics and apostates. And it has its own sacred texts, priests and prophets. Secular humanism was long considered to be a religion, with many secular humanists proudly affirming this. For example, John Dewey, in his 1934 book, A Common Faith, spoke of a “humanistic religion”. He wrote:
Ours is the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying and expanding the heritage of values we received that those who come after us may receive it more solid and secure, more widely accessible and more generously shared than we have received it. Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class, or race. Such a faith has always been implicitly the common faith of humanity. It remains to make it explicit and militant.
Julian Huxley’s 1957 book was titled Religion Without Revelation. In it he said, “What the world needs is an essentially religious idea-system… charged with the total dynamic of knowledge old and new… scientific and spiritual.”
And again, “Man’s most sacred duty… is to promote the maximum fulfillment of the evolutionary process on this earth; and this includes the fullest realisation of his own inherent possibilities.” And the first Humanist Manifesto (1933) spoke openly of “Religious humanists”.
Even the US Supreme Court referred to secular humanism as a religion (see the 1961 Torcaso v. Watkins case). So this may well be the major religious system in the West today. Back in 1983 Herbert Schlossberg penned a very important book called Idols for Destruction. In it he wrote:
What is widely regarded as a struggle between the religious and the secular is really a struggle between religions. . . . Man is the autonomous ruler of himself, able to define right and wrong and frame statutes according to whatever he defines as just. Or else man is created and sustained by a holy and just God who declares on matters of right and wrong in the form of law. Both are religious views held by faith. In the most basic sense there is no such thing as a secular culture.
All cultures are religious, and some are better than others. Secular humanism really has become a counterfeit religion, and when it is combined with the power of the state it becomes a very dangerous thing indeed. As Ben Wiker put it in an article from 2013:
But the truth is secular liberalism isn’t what you get when you subtract all religions. What you get when you subtract religion is another religion, secular liberalism, an entirely secular worldview dominated by materialism and hedonism and exceedingly intolerant of all other religions, especially Christianity. You get, to be exact, the secular culture championed with religious zeal by the Left imposed with all the power the federal government can muster. The naked public square is secular atheism’s monument.
The same year his incisive book appeared, Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion. In it he said, “The truth is that secular liberalism is a political religion… It isn’t just removing Christianity from the public square, so as to be fair to everyone who’s not Christian. It’s really, at heart, a revolution to establish secular liberalism as the defining worldview for our whole society.”
And one more quote:
In defining itself from top to bottom directly against Christianity, secular liberalism is a kind of inverse image, like a photo negative, of the religion it has so energetically worked to displace for the past several centuries. It is a kind of anti-Christian religion as extensive in its claims as the Christianity it denies, with its own set of passionately held beliefs and dogmas. It doesn’t just look like a religion. It doesn’t just function like a religion. It is a religion.
So we know who Theo is in the West today. And it is a very dangerous rival to the Judeo-Christian worldview. That is why we must do much more than engage in particular – albeit important – skirmishes, such as about redefining marriage or defending the sanctity of life.
We must also engage in the battle of ideas at the worldview level. We must do two things simultaneously: we must uphold, promote and defend the Judeo-Christian worldview, and we also must challenge, resist and take head on the secular humanist worldview.
Until we engage in this bigger battle of worldviews, we will not get very far in the culture wars. At bottom this is a war over supreme allegiances and ultimate loyalties. It is a war about who is Theo. Is it the one, true and living God, or is it the new false god of secular humanism.
In many ways this is the defining battle of our time. Let me finish with some words from a Catholic philosopher who I have so often quoted. In his 1971 volume, The Gods of Atheism, Vincent Miceli concludes with these words:
Moses failed to write the following commandment: ‘Thou shall not be an atheist.’ Instead his first commandment read: ‘I am the Lord thy God . . . Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.’ It was as if Moses had written: ‘Atheists are not godless men; they are men addicted to false gods.’ Thus, the battle of love to which the Christian is honourably called today is the struggle to liberate his atheist neighbours from enthrallment to false gods and to help these neighbours find the True God. | https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/11/28/challenging-secular-theocracies/ |
Kai Damian Matthiesen on the Rhetoric of Typography
In our everyday life we are not only confronted with an abundance of pictures without reference or context but also typefaces that try to persuade us. One can only respond subjectively, following inherent (unconscious) selection and aesthetic rules. But to what extent are these decisions made randomly? Or, are they rather embedded in our cultural memory? In the many conversations with the cultural philosopher Herbert Lachmayer (DaPonte Institute, Vienna) on these subjects the name Aby Warburg kept reoccurring.
Aby Warburg: Collective memory
Aby Warburg was an art historian who developed the idea of “collective” and “social memory” in the 1930’s. His last work “the Mnemosyne Atlas” is an anachronic attempt to map the pathways that give art history their pathos (or emotionally)-laden meanings. Warburg thought this visual encyclopedia would animate the viewer’s memory, imagination, and understanding of what he called “the afterlife of antiquity.”
Here is what the Mnemosyne Atlas looks like in today’s visual library.
These are some examples of writing styles from antiquity.
Let us first consider Aby Warburg’s idea of “cultural memory”, which is ingrained in our heritage. These writing styles were widespread for centuries. So it seems plausible that the key of writing being aesthetically pleasing and appealing to one’s emotions relies mainly on the recognition of a “human touch”. This seems to still be the case today.
Modernism and the myth of neutrality
There have recently been several projects, which aim to revive the age-old quest for a neutral design. As I have a Swiss Design and Educational background, I was always rather sceptical of so called ‘Neutrality’, also in design. I rather think that so called Modernist or Swiss Design today is highly stylized and does not reflect the idea of design as a utilitarian tool. In “the Crystal Goblet” Beatrice Warde suggests that good design and typography are invisible. But the research I found seems to suggest that typefaces are expressive themselves and function beyond being mere vessels for language. For example ‘Helvetica’ is in theory meant to be a neutral typeface, but ‘Helvetica’ light is considered stylish and bold is instructional. It has many personalities within it. In the same way that it is impossible for your voice to be completely neutral the same applies to typefaces.’ (Sarah Hyndman). So I attempted to find a new approach.
The Rhetorical stance
In Aristotle’s theory of Rhetoric: Logos, Pathos and Ethos are the key dimensions for speaking and communicating effectively. As typefaces have a rhetorical ability and can communicate certain emotions, I felt the need to investigate to what extent the reader can be influenced by typography. I looked at existing psychological research that attempts to quantify the effect of typeface designs. I designed a typeface that is equal in its expression by combining traditionally separate categories of typography. “Sans-Serifs” for traits such as Consistency and Logic (Logos), “Humanist” for emotions, imagination (Pathos) and “Serifs” for credibility and trust (Ethos).
Rhetoric of Typography
Aby Warburg is an anachronic typeface. By saying this I mean it is not constructed in a traditional fashion but rather combines traits from different time periods. My aim is to make a typeface that is equal in its expression. The aim here is not to design a “final” typeface but rather to investigate what cultural characteristics can be applied to typography. I found that it is not a question of designing a perfect letter shape, but rather that the letters have the right combination of traits for a wanted effect.
Most readers don’t consciously pay attention to typography, due to the cognitive process of continuous reading, therefore I looked at both conscious and sub-conscious studies.
Sans Serifs such as Neue Haas Grotesk, Arial etc. were perceived as most plain and logical. (Font Effect poster)
Roman Style & Humanist Slight inconsistencies in letter shapes were perceived as more “natural” looking. Hence I adopted old style serifs and humanist characteristics for the characters. (Font Effect poster)
Sub-consciously Baskerville was perceived as more believable and convincing when compared to sans serifs and other serif types, due to its stark contrast and solid columns. (Errol Morris: NYT Blog)
The Font Effect poster is a visualisation that I designed in order to test my own typeface. As a basis I took the findings of the study “Impression Management Using Typeface Design” by Pamela W. Henderson, Joan L. Giese, and Joseph A. Cote. This research was vital because rather than testing specific typefaces, it found that multiple type classifications (Geometric, Serif etc.) are perceived similarly by the audience. Generally when asked people did not respond to categories such as Serif, Sans-Serif. More broad categories became apparent, for example Verdana, Century Gothic and Times were all seen as Reassuring & Harmonious in cluster studies. But by far highest Scoring were script faces resembling human handwriting. From this research I developed the emotional font variations you see in the app.
The ‘Aby Warburg’ Typeface project was my final thesis at the Royal College of Art in London. I wanted to focus on designing a serif typeface in my second year, but the more I read up on the subject, I noticed the many accepted rules which exist in type design that seemed to be set in stone. It got me curious about where they come from and whether designers and non-designers actually perceive and react to typefaces differently. In the end I found that they do. | https://www.typeroom.eu/article/kai-damian-matthiesen-rhetoric-typography |
Who was the president of Muslim League in 1932?
List of party presidents
|Session||Date||Presided by|
|22nd||26-27 Dec 1931||Muhammad Zafarullah Khan|
|23rd (Aziz League)||21 October 1933||Mian Abdul Aziz|
|23rd (Hidayat League)||25-26 Nov 1933||Hafiz Hidayat Hussain|
|24th||11–12 April 1936||Syed Wazir Hasan|
Who led Simla deputation in 1906?
The Simla Deputation was a gathering of 35 prominent Muslim leaders within the British Raj led by Aga Khan III at the Viceregal Lodge in Simla in October 1906.
Who was the lifetime president of Muslim League?
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
|Quaid-e-Azam Baba-i-Qaum Muhammad Ali Jinnah محمد علی جناح|
|Died||11 September 1948 (aged 71) Karachi, Federal Capital Territory, Pakistan|
|Resting place||Mazar-e-Quaid, Karachi|
|Nationality||British Indian (1876–1947) Pakistani (1947–1948)|
|Political party||Muslim League (1947–1948)|
Who demanded Pakistan first?
Muhammad Ali Jinnah became disillusioned with politics after the failure of his attempt to form a Hindu-Muslim alliance, and he spent most of the 1920s in Britain. The leadership of the League was taken over by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, who in 1930 first put forward the demand for a separate Muslim state in India.
Who gave the word Pakistan?
The name of the country was coined in 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in a pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym (“thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKISTAN”), and referring to the names of the five northern regions of the British Raj: Punjab, Afghania, …
Who opposed the partition of India?
The Hindu, Christian, Anglo-Indian, Parsi and Sikh communities were largely opposed to the partition of India (and its underlying two-nation theory), as were many Muslims (these were represented by the All India Azad Muslim Conference).
Who is a pioneer of two-nation theory?
Thus, many Pakistanis describe modernist and reformist scholar Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) as the architect of the two-nation theory.
When Pakistan Resolution was passed?
The resolution for the establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India passed in the annual session of the All India Muslim League held in Lahore on 22–24 March 1940 is a landmark document of Pakistan’s history.
How many Muslims live in East Bengal?
An estimation suggests that before Partition, West Bengal had a population of 21.2 million, of whom 5.3 million, or roughly 25 percent, were Muslim minorities, and East Bengal had 39.1 million people, of whom 11.4 million, or roughly 30 percent, were predominantly Hindu minorities.
Who led the Khilafat movement in India?
The Khilafat movement or the Caliphate movement, also known as the Indian Muslim movement (1919–24), was a pan-Islamist political protest campaign launched by Muslims of British India led by Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajmal Khan, and Abul Kalam Azad to restore the caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate, …
Was Jinnah a Shia?
Although born into a Khoja (from khwaja or ‘noble’) family who were disciples of the Ismaili Aga Khan, Jinnah moved towards the Sunni sect early in life. There is evidence later, given by his relatives and associates in court, to establish that he was firmly a Sunni Muslim by the end of his life (Merchant 1990).
Who wanted to create a separate Islamic nation?
Muslim League, original name All India Muslim League, political group that led the movement calling for a separate Muslim nation to be created at the time of the partition of British India (1947). The Muslim League was founded in 1906 to safeguard the rights of Indian Muslims. | https://al-ijtihad.com/belief/best-answer-who-was-the-leader-of-the-muslim-league-in-1906.html |
New Department of Labor Rule to Limit Live-In Employees Eligible for Exempt Status
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has long provided an exemption for overtime wages to employees engaged in "companionship services," such as in-home caretakers who sleep at their patients' homes. Recently, however, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a new rule significantly limiting those employees eligible for the exemption status. The new rule, effective Jan. 1, 2015, will also entirely prohibit third-party employers, such as home care agencies, from taking advantage of the exemption. As a result, employees of these agencies will soon be entitled to the benefits of the FLSA's overtime provisions.
Limiting the Definition of "Companionship Services"
The DOL defines "companionship services" as "the provision of fellowship and protection for an elderly person or person with an illness, injury or disability who requires assistance in caring for himself or herself." The new rule limits the classification of caretakers engaged in companionship services by specifying that such employees must also be engaged in "fellowship and protection" and that the "care" services must not exceed 20 percent of the employee's weekly work hours. "Fellowship and protection" are defined to include activities such as conversation, reading, games, crafts, accompanying the person on walks, going on errands and similar acts. The DOL defines "care" as activities such as dressing, grooming, feeding and bathing. In short, the new rule limits the companionship exemption to include only those employees truly engaged as social and emotional companions, rather than those aiding a patient in life's bare necessities. Therefore, employees engaged in the performance of medically related tasks, such as nurses, will no longer be eligible for the companionship exemption.
Additionally, the new rule specifies that the companionship services must aid one specific person by excluding "household work," such as cooking or doing laundry for everyone in a household. Employees, such as maids, who are engaged in these tasks will no longer be subject to the companionship exemption and will be entitled to overtime pay going forward.
Employers of Domestic Servants Must Now Maintain a Record of Hours Worked
If employed by an individual, family or household, live-in domestic servants will remain exempt from overtime pay, as long as they are paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked. Furthermore, the FLSA will continue to exclude activities such as sleeping, eating and other off-hours periods from that time for which compensation is required. However, under the new rule, employers of domestic servants must now maintain a record of the hours their employees work.
Third-Party Employers Are Now Barred from Utilizing the Companionship Exemption
Perhaps the most wide-sweeping change brought about by the new rule is its effect on third-party employers of care workers. Under the rule, no third-party employer may take advantage of the exemption, regardless of whether an employee's duties would fit within the companionship services exemption. Therefore, businesses such as home care staffing agencies will soon be required to pay their employees overtime wages even if those employees are strictly engaged in companionship services. In order to comply with the new DOL rule, effective Jan. 1, 2015, employers with employees engaged in companionship services should review their current overtime policies and procedures related to those employees to determine what changes need to be implemented.
To ensure compliance with Treasury Regulations (31 CFR Part 10, §10.35), we inform you that any tax advice contained in this correspondence was not intended or written by us to be used, and cannot be used by you or anyone else, for the purpose of avoiding penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Code.
Information contained in this alert is for the general education and knowledge of our readers. It is not designed to be, and should not be used as, the sole source of information when analyzing and resolving a legal problem. Moreover, the laws of each jurisdiction are different and are constantly changing. If you have specific questions regarding a particular fact situation, we urge you to consult competent legal counsel. | https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2014/06/new-department-of-labor-rule-to-limit-livein-emplo |
Healthcare worker with proven ability to ensure exemplary level of healthcare service delivery to patients. Coordinate admission and discharge of patients. Plan and implement strategies for developing improved health care management. Proven problem solver and excellent communicator. Strong organizational skills, superb understanding of data collection and performance metrics. Recognized for staff development leading to high performing teams. Skilled at improving processes, maximizing team productivity and reducing costs to achieve sustainable nursing home operations. Familiar with employee motivation and retention strategies, resident relations and accreditation requirements. Goal-driven Healthcare Administration professional well-versed in recruiting, training and managing employees to provide exceptional resident services. Highly organized and hardworking with excellent planning and program management skills.
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- Communicated with patients, ensuring that medical information was kept private.
- Recruited, hired and trained all staff, providing direct supervision, ongoing staff development and continuing education to employees.
- Offered patients and patrons information on various immunizations including flu, DTaP and HPV vaccines.
- Developed and updated policies and procedures, maintaining compliance with statutory, regulatory and local, state and federal guidelines relating to HIPAA, benefits administration and general liability.
- Discussed medical histories with patients in effort to provide most effective medical advice.
- Evaluated patients to identify and address wounds, behavioral concerns and medically relevant symptoms.
- Cleaned and prepared rooms between patients, using aseptic technique to prevent infections and cross-contamination.
- Assisted patients with mobility needs, including moving to and from beds, organizing wheelchairs and preparing assistive devices.
- Administered medications or treatments such as catheterizations, suppositories, enemas and douches, as directed by nurse or physician.
- Collaborated with Doctors/Team Leaders to maintain daily operations.
- Maintained current and accurate medical records for over 800 patients.
- Completed and filed financial documentation for accounting purposes.
- Organized paperwork such as charts and reports for office and patient needs.
- Completed skilled administrative work to support all office staff and operational requirements.
- Completed billing and coding duties to ensure claims were successfully submitted.
- Carried out front office duties utilizing data entry skills in framework of medical database.
- Successfully scheduled patient appointments and placed reminder calls to ensure exceptional customer experience.
- Communicated with patients regarding payments on outstanding accounts.
- Contacted patients regarding unpaid and underpaid accounts to resolve issues.
- Scheduled surgeries for multiple surgeons and booked operating rooms.
- Reconciled cash drawer at start and end of each shift, accounting for errors and resolving discrepancies.
- Processed POS transactions, including checks, cash and credit purchases or refunds.
- Checked prices for customers and processed items sold by scanning barcodes.
- Counted cash in register drawer at beginning and end of shift.
- Helped customers complete purchases, locate items and join reward programs to promote loyalty, satisfaction and sales numbers.
- Restocked, arranged and organized merchandise in front lanes to drive product sales.
- Replenished sales floor merchandise and organized shelves, racks and bins for optimal appearance.
- Answered questions about store policies and concerns to support positive customer experiences.
- Assisted customers by answering questions and fulfilling requests.
- Mentored new team members on POS system operation, customer service strategies and sales goals.
- Board member of Kettering Emergency Department Unit Council
- Stop the Bleed Communities Member
How this resume score could be improved?
Many factors go into creating a strong resume. Here are a few tweaks that could improve the score of this resume: | https://www.livecareer.com/resume-search/r/health-unit-coordinator-nursing-assistant-b9789b08ba614009ac414db894b4951b |
Post-18 Education and Funding: A Mums In The Wood Opinion by Rajni Jayasekera, founder of Mums in the Wood
“Earlier this year, Theresa May announced her plans for the review of post-18 education and funding. The review was launched based on a promise made by the Conservatives last May to launch a major review of tertiary education in their election manifesto. This was sparked by two concerns, one, that graduate debt was rising and was currently between the unimaginable levels of £50,000 – £57,000 per student and two, that the rising cost of going to University is becoming a deterrent for some students in lower income brackets. It is also taking a toll on those who do in fact enrol, along with their parents who themselves might be struggling financially and would be required to fill in for any extras needed by those students.
However, there seems to be doubt as to whether or not the review will address the main issues or if it will largely fail to address points raised as main concerns i.e. “be more talk than action” and Theresa May’s rhetoric about making education accessible by all, has been viewed with scepticism. With the alternatives like interest rate cuts and variable fee structures for different degrees (degrees in STEM studies, costing more than arts and social sciences degrees) having been downplayed, the independent review which is supposed to last till early 2019, does not look like it will end up serving the interests of the students. There is little hope of drastic, more accessible changes to fee structures, maintenance grants and favourable taxation on student loans. The divide being introduced between academic institutions and vocational institutions has also been criticised with the point being made that universities are key to developing skill sets that employers value. The only up side to the review seems to be that fees will at least may be frozen until the review is complete.
There is a great deal of indecision within the government on education policy but things don’t seem to be moving towards any solutions so far, in spite of the Prime Ministers admission of having got things wrong and her admission that the universities in the UK are among the most expensive in the world. Labour are heavily critical of the Conservative stance and gaining popularity among the young voters with offers of free education, maintenance grants and lower taxation etc.
Something to bear in mind in all this is that free education comes with its own list of complications, one of which to consider (having seen and experienced, first hand what a cost free university education results in) would be that exploitation of free access to education is rarely avoidable and will have to have complicated entry requirements in order to succeed. Furthermore, if offered, this will no doubt also result in even higher taxes. The best way forward does seem to be some level of compromise which may be a combination of reduced fees and greater support but it is unlikely that this will be the outcome of the review in 2019. Perhaps as Lord Adonis (who was responsible in the main for introducing tuition fees) had said last year, the government could consider reverting to charging between £1000 and £3000 as per the original scheme. The greatest challenge faced by those involved in the independent review then seems to be to make university education not only accessible to all, but also valued by all.”
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Creative arts and culture are an important part of my life and my community. As a coastal region, our beautiful towns and landscape attract regional artists and art-viewers. Importantly, we have consistently worked to make art available to everyone and have many local organizations that help accomplish this. The Plymouth Center for the Arts serves a crucial role by providing a range of accessible programming for both children and adults. I am proud of our vibrant music scene, which includes free concerts presented by the Project Arts group on summer Wednesdays. I have been personally connected to the arts through my son Zakk, who is a musician and has played in local bands since he was young. As Vice Chair of the Kingston Board of Selectmen, I look forward to the Kingston Arts Festival, an annual celebration of our local artists and art appreciators.
Among many issues, I am particularly focused on improving education, promoting our local economy, and preserving our environment. I have sent my children to public schools and understand the need for the arts at all grade levels. They play an important role in our curriculum and have a positive impact on students beyond the classroom. As a former small business owner, I understand how necessary a creative mindset is for supporting the local economy. More directly, the arts community can play a crucial role in business development—from opening art galleries to local design and advertising. Also, part of ensuring the longevity of this community and others is to make sure the district remains a beautiful place to live. I advocate for responsible management of Monponsett Pond and our natural resources as well as funding to secure our coastal infrastructure.
Art can help strengthen community and give those who may feel alone a sense of belonging. There is always a way to engage with art—through classes, festivals, and concerts. Those who are suffering can also benefit from seeing similar feelings and experiences depicted by others. Art is fundamental to bringing people together and demonstrating that they are not alone. Both the state and municipalities should work hard to facilitate community events centered around the arts as these help build a stronger community, which will reduce social isolation.
I believe that we must update the Foundation Budget formula. Schools are currently not receiving the funding they need, and as a result, they may have to cut back on programs like the arts in order to fund other mandates. If we get more funding and benefits for teachers, we can attract more teachers who will focus on art in their classrooms, and schools will have more resources for after school programs that focus on the arts. It is also important for our communities to be able to fund opportunities for youth to participate in things like music lessons and out-of-school visual arts programs. As a Selectman, I know how hard it is for towns to find room in the budget for programs like these, and that’s why I’ll work to increase local aid and develop our local economy to expand our tax base and bring in more revenue.
Public investment in the arts strengthens local economies, attracts additional investment, and ensures resources serve the public interest. With the passage of its FY2019 budget, the Legislature approved a $16 million state investment in the Mass Cultural Council. This is the Legislature’s first increase to state arts investment after three years of level funding the Mass Cultural Council at $14 million. In 1988, the Mass Cultural Council gave out more than $27 million in grants, nearly twice what we do now.
Culture and the arts are so important to Massachusetts, and I am pleased that the Legislature increased the Council’s funding this year. I strongly support the Council’s mission, and I think it has a vital role to play in our communities. Specifically, I believe we should spread funding to projects throughout the state, particularly to areas in need of economic revitalization.
Created by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2007, the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund has granted $110 million in matching grants to help restore the Commonwealth’s most treasured historical and cultural landmarks, and fund visionary capital projects that revitalize our communities. In a 2017 Mass Cultural Council survey, 169 organizations reported $114 million in essential capital projects through 2019. The Legislature recently reauthorized the Cultural Facilities Fund at $50 million for another five years, yet there’s interest to increase the Fund to $75 million, allowing the yearly allocations to increase from $10 million to $15 million and meet the increasing demands of projects.
I support projects that bring meaningful jobs, growth, and beauty to our local communities. The Massachusetts Public Art Program can definitely help us achieve these goals and encourage interest in art and culture throughout the state. By making the public aware of the connection between a vibrant art and cultural environment and economic development, we can increase support for this bill and others like it. On Beacon Hill, I will bring my experiences as an advocate for these kinds of projects with me and can speak to their importance in the lives of those in my district.
From my experience as a Recreation Commissioner and in my work with the Council on Aging, I know art has a role to play in rehabilitation and recreational programs. We need new approaches to serving communities in need, and art therapy should be one of them. Combating the opioid crisis, which is a significant problem in my district and statewide, is a top priority of mine. On Beacon Hill, I will make sure that those in need of treatment will be given a wide range of options, including creative therapies, so that they can find peace, purpose, and stability in their lives. | http://www.mass-creative.org/ctv18lanatra |
The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges posed to business leaders from major global demographic changes expected in the workforce composition, such as higher participation of women and more active involvement of elder and more experienced people in the future workforce.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors ran a survey among 733 middle managers, focusing on their ideal leadership behavior. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior project methodology was applied for data collection and analyses.
Findings
Several significant differences were established in leadership ideals according to gender, age and managerial experience. The differences based on gender had higher practical significance than the ones based on age and experience of the respondents.
Research limitations/implications
The paper adds up to the pertinent in the implicit leadership approach dialogue over the existence of stable, global and unchanging aspects of leadership.
Practical implications
Leader behaviors traditionally deemed as positive, such as the participative and charismatic/value-based leadership, are shown to be critical for the future business leader. Leadership development in organizations should focus on these two aspects.
Social implications
Leaders who can meet the expectations of diverse groups of people will be able to achieve inclusion of least privileged groups at the business level, leading to higher inclusion at the social, aggregate level.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to explore how documented demographic trends could affect the way that leadership will evolve in the near future.
Keywords
Citation
Galanaki, E. and Papalexandris, N. (2017), "Demographic challenges for the future business leader: evidence from a Greek survey", Evidence-based HRM, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 297-310. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-03-2017-0019Download as .RIS
Publisher: | https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EBHRM-03-2017-0019/full/html?skipTracking=true |
Market types:
Civil
The FORTIS-R Smart is the most advanced and high-tech professional thermal imaging binocular that has a unique feature — detachable laser rangefinder. Two types of rangefinder are available for use with maximal range up to 700 meters and 1200 meters. The CPU automatically identifies the type of rangefinder, connects it to rifle scope controller, transmits the information to a monitor and displays it on a screen. The device is equipped with a set of additional user functions (available by request), such as Wi-Fi, GPS, E-compass, digital video recorder, digital pitch and roll scales, etc. The device is designed for special applications, i.e. customs, police, security, Civil Defense authorities, sea and land monitoring, hunting. | https://ammoterra.com/product/electrooptic-thermal-imaging-binocular-fortis-r-smart |
The complex genomes of many economically important crops present tremendous challenges to understand the genetic control of many quantitative traits with great importance in crop production, adaptation, and evolution. Advances in genomic technology need to be integrated with strategic genetic design and novel perspectives to break new ground. Complementary to individual-gene-targeted research, which remains challenging, a global assessment of the genomic distribution of trait-associated SNPs (TASs) discovered from genome scans of quantitative traits can provide insights into the genetic architecture and contribute to the design of future studies. Here we report the first systematic tabulation of the relative contribution of different genomic regions to quantitative trait variation in maize. We found that TASs were enriched in the nongenic regions, particularly within a 5-kb window upstream of genes, which highlights the importance of polymorphisms regulating gene expression in shaping the natural variation. Consistent with these findings, TASs collectively explained 44%-59% of the total phenotypic variation across maize quantitative traits, and on average, 79% of the explained variation could be attributed to TASs located in genes or within 5 kb upstream of genes, which together comprise only 13% of the genome. Our findings suggest that efficient, cost-effective genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in species with complex genomes can focus on genic and promoter regions. | http://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/29113/ |
The Music History Library is located within the University Campus and precisely on the fourth floor of the Faculty of Humanities ( Lettere e Filosofia).
The library's heritage is continually and qualitatively increased, so much so that at present the one of History of Music is one of the richest music libraries of Italy and an essential point of reference not only for students of the University "La Sapienza" of Rome, but for scholars from all over Italy and abroad. The Library of Music History is also widely stocked with books, visual and audiovisual media in ethnomusicology. The Library adheres to the Polo SBN Sapienza, to ACNP (National Collective Periodicals Archive) and NILDE (Network Inter Library Document Exchange). It also participate at the Google Books project – Digital editing of the historical and valuable heritage.
Biblioteca Italiana is a digital library of representative texts of the Italian literary and cultural tradition from the Middle ages to the Twentieth Century. The portal is divided into five sections: Bibit, more than 1600 texts freely downloadable, XML-TEI encoded, are in complete edition and are based on the most authoritative reference editions; Writers of Italy, digital reproduction of the homonymous series, founded in 1910 by the Publisher Laterza of Bari under the direction of Benedetto Croce; Vulgar Incunabula, the largest digitization of vulgar incunabula that exist in italian and foreign libraries; Special Collections, scientific project of acquisition of the original documentation of the texts of the Cortegiano by Castiglione, and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso; Resources, many digital projects questinable as external resource. | http://www.disp.let.uniroma1.it/node/5992 |
BACKGROUND
SUMMARY
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)
Power operated lift chairs are useful for raising persons, especially those having impaired mobility, from a seated to a standing position. These chairs include a powered lift mechanism which raises and tilts the chair allowing a seated occupant to stand with a limited amount of exertion. Further, in a reverse mode, the seat may lower a user from a standing to a seated position. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,007,960, 4,083,599, and 4,993,777 describe various known lift chairs.
Lift chairs of the type known in the art typically include a base frame which rests on the floor, a mechanism attached to the base frame, an electric motor-driven actuator for motivating the mechanism, and a seating portion for receiving a user. When the lift chair is raised, a gap is formed between the seating portion and the base frame. This gap poses a risk to a pet, a small child, or an unwary adult that may wander between the seating portion and the base frame. Injury may be caused when the lift chair is adjusted from a raised to a lowered position causing the person or pet to be compressed between chair components.
It is known to use ribbon sensing switches under a seating portion or on a base frame of a lift chair, whereby a foreign object under the seating portion may contact one of the sensing switches cutting power off to a mechanism actuator. This configuration may not provide an adequate solution to the problem of protecting humans or animals that move into a position beneath a lift chair. It is possible for a human or animal to avoid contact with the sensing switches and become injured by the moving mechanism, because it is impractical to provide such a ribbon sensing switch on every potentially dangerous portion of the lift chair. Further, since many types of sensing switches require contact with an object before motion of the mechanism can be stopped, a living being may become injured trying to escape the moving lift chair or become trapped after the motion of the mechanism is stopped.
It has also been suggested that light sensors be used to sense a foreign object under a lift chair. However, this solution fails to address some of the problems in a practical and effective manner. Light sensors require a light transmitter and a light receiver which detects changes in the transmitted light. Since the size and shape of an area under a seating portion of a lift chair changes significantly during a raising or lowering operation, a sophisticated and expensive controller may be required to prevent false detection of a foreign object. Moreover, the quantity of receivers and/or transmitters that are potentially required to cover an entire area under the seating portion of a lift chair is impractical and cost prohibitive.
It would be desirable to provide an effective, practical and cost effective system which prevents injury of a living being which enters beneath a seating portion of a lift chair.
The present invention provides an adjustable furnishing, such as a lift chair, including a support member with a surface for supporting a user. The support member may include a seat portion of a lift chair. A mechanism is connected to the support member for adjusting a position of the support member. One or more infrared radiation sensors are positioned beneath the surface of the support member to generate a signal when a heated body is detected in proximity to the mechanism. A controller is provided for receiving the signal from the infrared radiation sensors and providing a warning and/or inhibiting travel of the mechanism and the support member in a direction of the detected heated body.
Certain terminology is used in the following description for convenience only and is not considered limiting. Words such as “front”, “back”, “top” and “bottom” designate directions in the drawings to which reference is made. This terminology includes the words specifically noted above, derivatives thereof and words of similar import. Additionally, the terms “a” and “one” are defined as including one or more of the referenced item unless specifically noted.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the drawing figures where like numerals represent like elements throughout.
FIG. 1
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Referring to , an adjustable furnishing in the form of a lift chair is shown. The lift chair includes a base which supports a plurality of linkages of a mechanism . Alternatively, the base may be omitted, and the mechanism may be mechanically fastened to a pre-existing structure. User support members are provided including a seat portion , a back rest portion , and preferably armrests which are connected to the mechanism . The mechanism is configured to adjust the support members from a lowered position, where the seat portion is substantially horizontal relative to a surface on which the base rests, to a raised position (as shown in ), where the seat portion is elevated and angled.
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An actuator is provided which adjusts the mechanism according to signals or power provided by a controller , which preferably receives signals from a user through switches positioned on a remote control . The remote control can be wired to the controller , or can be wireless. The controller may be positioned in proximity to the actuator as shown, or alternatively, may be located within the remote control or at any other suitable location on the lift chair or external to the lift chair . The actuator is preferably an electric motor-driven linear screw-type actuator. However, any suitable actuator may be used.
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Infrared radiation sensors are positioned beneath the seat portion for generating a signal in response to radiant heat detected from a heated body in a given area in proximity to the mechanism and the base . The sensors are preferably arranged to detect a heated body anywhere in proximity to a perimeter of the lift chair, or in an area bounded by the lift chair perimeter, such that a heated body passing under the chair from any side will be detected. As shown, the sensors are positioned on the inside of armrests . Alternatively, the sensors could be positioned in any suitable location which would allow detection of a heated body in proximity to the mechanism and the base . Sensors may even be positioned exposed on an external surface of the lift chair to detect heated bodies near the lift chair but not under the support members , , . While two sensors are pictured in , any number of sensors may be provided as required to detect a heated body in the given area.
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Each of the sensors may optionally be provided with a lens, such as a Fresnel lens, for focusing radiation emanating from a desired area into the sensor . Further, the sensors are preferably provided with a filter for limiting radiation incident on the sensor to wavelengths between approximately 8 and 15 microns, the range associated with radiation emitted by a human body. Optionally, a heat shield is provided to cover the drive for the actuator to prevent the sensors from detecting heat generated by the electric motor or other components of the actuator . Alternatively, the heat shield may be omitted depending on positioning and sensitivity of the sensors. Preferably, the infrared sensors are pyroelectric (PIR) sensors which are capable of detecting small changes in infrared energy. Sensors of this type are manufactured by Nippon Ceramic Co., Ltd. Japan. Alternatively, other types of infrared sensors may be used.
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The controller receives a signal from one or more of the infrared radiation sensors when a heated body is detected. Upon receiving a signal, the controller can shut off power to the actuator , preventing motion of the mechanism and support members , , . Alternatively, after receiving a signal from the sensor, the controller can reverse a direction of motion of the actuator to maneuver the mechanism away from a detected heated body.
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The controller may be configured to disable the sensors during certain predetermined lift chair operations or permit certain actuation operations regardless of whether a heated body is detected by the sensors . For example, during a chair raising operation where risk of injury to a detected body is low, the controller may signal the actuator to raise the chair despite having received a signal from the sensors indicative of a heated body. Otherwise, the controller may simply disable the sensors when the actuator is raising the chair. The controller can determine whether the actuator is raising the chair by, for example, monitoring the polarity of voltage sent to the actuator.
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Preferably, a reset switch is provided. If the controller cuts off power to the actuator , or prevents motion of the actuator in a given direction, manually pressing the reset switch signals the controller to resume normal operation. The reset switch is preferably located on the remote control . A chair-mounted reset switch may be provided in addition to or instead of the reset switch located on the remote control.
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In addition to or instead of inhibiting motion of the mechanism , the controller may activate an alarm to alert a user that a heated body has been detected. The alarm may be an audible alarm such as piezo buzzer , or a visible alarm, such as an LED indicator light . Also, a vibrator incorporated into the remote control , or any other suitable warning device, may serve as an alarm. Further, any combination of audible, visible, vibrating, or other alarms may be utilized.
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Referring to , an alternative preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. A reclining lift chair having a foot rest and a seat portion frame is shown without cushions or upholstery in a lowered position. Infrared sensors are provided on the seat portion frame . A first actuator for raising the seat portion frame and a second actuator to control a back rest portion frame are provided. Using the actuators , , a controller can coordinate motion of the seat portion frame and the back rest portion frame to assist a user in attaining a seated or standing position. Alternatively, one or more additional actuators may be provided to allow additional range(s) of motion. Also, each actuator , may be provided with a heat shield on its drive to prevent the sensors from sensing heat from the actuator.
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Referring to , another alternative preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. A lift chair , structurally similar to the lift chair of is shown. The lift chair includes infrared sensors positioned on a linkage of the mechanism . Such a configuration may be advantageous if obstructions are present which prevent a sensor located elsewhere on the lift chair from sensing a nearby heated body.
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In a separate alternative preferred embodiment, shows a lift chair , also structurally similar to the lift chair . However, the lift chair includes the sensors positioned on external surfaces of support members , , to detect heated bodies near the lift chair , at backs and side portions of the lift chair outside the perimeter of the lift chair's base.
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shows another alternative preferred embodiment of a lift chair . The lift chair includes infrared sensors which are mounted to separate locations on the base . In the preferred embodiments shown in , the sensors are positioned to detect a heated body anywhere in proximity to a perimeter of the lift chair, or an area bounded by the lift chair perimeter, such that a heated body passing under the chair will be detected. Further, the number of sensors required to detect a heated body is not limited to the number of sensors pictured in the described embodiments, and may depend on the type of sensor and size of an area in which sensing is required. However, a minimum of two sensors is preferred.
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One skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention is not limited to lift chairs. Many types of adjustable furnishings can benefit from the use of infrared sensors. shows an adjustable bed according to an alternative preferred embodiment including a mattress support , actuators , a controller , and a remote control . The adjustable bed includes sensors under the mattress support to detect a heated body in proximity to a perimeter of the adjustable bed , or an area bounded by the adjustable bed's perimeter, such that a heated body passing under the bed from any side will be detected. If a heated body is detected, the sensors signal the controller to shut off power to the actuators and/or signals a user in the manner described above with reference to the lift chair of .
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Referring to , a flow chart for a method is provided for adjusting a furnishing according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In a step , a furnishing having a support member for supporting a user is provided. The furnishing may be one of the types described above with reference to , or another type of furnishing. In a step , a mechanism is provided connected to the support member. An infrared sensor is provided in a step for detecting a heated body in proximity to the mechanism and support member in a space beneath the support member. In a step , the mechanism is actuated. The mechanism may be actuated using manual controls. In a step , it is determined whether a heated body is detected. Preferably, only heated bodies which emit radiation having wavelengths between 8 and 15 microns (wavelengths typically indicative of a living being) are detected by the sensor. If detection of a heated body occurs, continued motion of the mechanism is inhibited (step ) at least in a direction of the heated body. Motion may be inhibited by preventing actuation of the mechanism or reversing a direction of actuation such that the mechanism and support member are moved away from the detected heated body. In addition to or in place of step , an audible, visible, or vibratory alarm is triggered, as shown in step , to inform the user of the detected heated body. Preferably, in a step , it is determined whether a reset switch has been pressed. If the reset switch has been pressed, there is a return to step to again determine whether a heated body is detected. Otherwise, if it is determined that the reset switch has not been pressed, there is a return to step to continue inhibiting actuation of the mechanism and support member. Alternatively, if a reset switch is not provided, after a predetermined length of time after commencement of steps and , there is a return to a step to again determine whether a heated body is detected. If no heated body is detected in step , actuation of the mechanism is continued in a return to step .
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, which should be considered as merely exemplary. Further modifications and extensions of the present invention may be developed, and all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING(S)
FIG. 1
is a rear perspective view of a lift chair according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2
is a front perspective view of a reclining lift chair according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3
is a rear perspective view of a lift chair according to yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4
is a rear perspective view of a lift chair according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5
is a rear perspective view of a lift chair according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6
is a perspective view of an adjustable bed according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
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is a flowchart depicting a method for adjusting a furnishing according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. | |
What is Mesothelioma Benign?
A mesothelioma is a cancerous growth of the mesothelial cells that line the lungs and the peritoneum. In the vast majority of cases, mesothelioma benign is easily curable. Because the disease usually does not spread to other parts of the body, there is no need for follow-up treatment. This is also the most common form of the condition.
Symptoms of mesothelioma are different for each type, and the presence or absence of symptoms can depend on the type of mesothelioma and the stage at which it has developed. Benign mesothelioma may not produce pleural effusion and chest pain, though these are rare symptoms. It is important to note that benign mesothelioma may have other symptoms, such as fever and weight loss.
Although mesothelioma benign does not present any symptoms, it must be treated as soon as possible. If left untreated, it can spread and damage the surrounding organs. Surgery for mesothelioma of the lungs is the preferred treatment option, and it is usually successful. However, patients should be aware that a recurrence is possible, so long-term follow-up is required to determine whether the tumor is gone for good.
Mesothelioma Benign
The most common treatment for mesothelioma is surgery. During this procedure, the tumor is surgically removed. There is no need for chemotherapy or a follow-up regimen because the cancer will not spread to other areas of the body. Once surgically treated, mesothelioma benign can be completely cured, without recurrence. If it has progressed, palliative treatment may be needed.
While mesothelioma is a life-threatening disease, it can also be classified as benign. Despite the fact that it is not dangerous, it can pose a high risk of developing malignant mesothelioma. It is not difficult to treat benign mesothelioma, as it is characterized by non-invasive growths of the pleura.
In many cases of mesothelioma, the tumor is benign. It does not spread, and if it is benign, it can be surgically removed. This procedure is known as thoracotomy and involves removing the entire lung. A thoracotomy is the most common surgical procedure for benign mesothelioma. While the patient recovers fully after this surgery, it may be necessary to undergo follow-ups to monitor the condition.
The majority of benign mesothelioma cases will require surgery to remove the tumor. These patients will not require chemotherapy, but they will be closely monitored for the recurrence of the disease. These types of mesothelioma may also be diagnosed at any stage. If this is the case, patients should be evaluated by their doctors to ensure that they have no other underlying conditions.
Although mesothelioma benign is usually treated without chemotherapy, it may require surgery to remove the tumor. Symptoms of benign mesothelioma are often similar to those of malignant mesothelioma. The diagnosis of the disease should be made by a healthcare professional. A patient should seek medical attention for any abnormalities. He or she should undergo tests to detect any asbestos-related diseases.
Mesothelioma Benign
The symptoms of mesothelioma can be ambiguous. While it is possible to identify mesothelioma from a benign tumor, the symptoms can be a little difficult to distinguish from those of a malignant mesothelioma. If the mesothelioma is in the peritoneum, it will most likely be symptomless. The patient will have fluid buildup in the peritoneum and this will cause discomfort.
A mesothelioma that is benign usually does not spread to other parts of the body. It is usually found in the lungs and causes pain in the patient’s chest. The symptoms of malignant mesothelioma vary widely, but there are some common signs of mesothelioma. While it is not the same as malignant mesotheliomma, it is rare.
There are two types of mesothelioma: the malignant and the benign types. A benign mesothelioma is often discovered by accident, and does not have any symptoms. A tissue biopsy is the only way to diagnose it. A mesothelioma that is not malignant is a serious problem. While it can be painful, it is generally asymptomatic. | https://mesothelioma-portal.info/mesothelioma-benign/ |
AAAI-11 Tutorial Forum
The Tutorial Forum of the Twenty-Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-11) will be held August 7–8, 2011 in San Francisco. The Tutorial Forum provides an opportunity for junior and senior researchers to spend two days each year freely exploring exciting advances in disciplines outside their normal focus. We believe this type of forum is essential for the cross fertilization, cohesiveness, and vitality of the AI field. We all have a lot to learn from each other; the Tutorial Forum promotes the continuing education of each member of the AAAI.
To encourage full participation by technical conference registrants, no separate fee will be charged for admittance to the Tutorial Forum in 2011.
Sunday, August 7, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- SA1:
Machine Learning in Time Series Databases (and Everything Is a Time Series!)
Eamonn Keogh
- SA2:
Security Games
Chris Kiekintveld, Nicola Gatti, and Manish Jain
- SA3:
Discourse Structure: Theory and Practice
Bonnie Webber, Markus Egg, and Valia Kordoni
SA4: Trust Theory: A Socio-Cognitive and Computational Model
Cristiano Castelfranchi and Rino Falcone
This tutorial has been cancelled.
Sunday, August 7, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- SP1:
Event Processing – State of the Art and Research Challenges
Opher Etzion and Yagil Engel
- SP2:
Human Computation: Core Research Questions and State of the Art
Luis von Ahn and Edith Law
- SP3:
Large-Scale Data Processing with MapReduce
Jimmy Lin
- SP4:
Recognizing Behavior in a Spatio-Temporal Context
Hans W. Guesgen, Mehul Bhatt, and Stephen Marsland
Monday, August 8, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- MA1:
Collective Intelligence
Haym Hirsh
- MA2:
Discourse Models for Generating Optimized User Interfaces: Theory from AI and Application in HCI
Hermann Kaindl
- MA3:
From Structured Prediction to Inverse Reinforcement Learning
Hal Daume III
- MA4:
Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis
Bing Liu
Monday, August 8, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- MP1:
Algorithms for Classical Planning
Jussi Rintanen
- MP2:
Conformal Predictions for Reliable Machine Learning: Theory and Applications
Vineeth N. Balasubramanian and Shen-Shyang Ho
- MP3:
Information Organization and Retrieval with Collaboratively Generated Content
Eugene Agichtein and Evgeniy Gabrilovich
- MP4:
Philosophy as AI and AI as Philosophy
Aaron Sloman
SA1 Machine Learning in Time Series Databases (and Everything Is a Time Series!)
Eamonn Keogh
Time series and multimedia data are ubiquitous; large volumes of such data are routinely created in scientific, industrial, entertainment, medical and biological domains. Examples include gene expression data, medical imagery, electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, gait analysis, stock market quotes, space telemetry, microarrays, zoology, and others. Furthermore, many kinds of data that are not true time series can be fruitfully transformed into pseudo-time series, including text, DNA, shapes, video, and others.
To deal with such data we must carefully chose algorithms and data representations. While most representations used in the past have been real valued (wavelets and Fourier methods) in this tutorial I advocate for using discrete (symbolic) representations of the data. Symbolic representations allow us to use very useful algorithms and data structures which are not available for real data, for example suffix trees, hashing and Markov models.
The tutorial will be illustrated with numerous real world examples created just for this tutorial, including examples from archeology (petroglyphs and projectile points), microscopy (nematodes and blood cells), historical manuscripts, zoology, motion capture and biometrics. The data mining tasks considered include indexing, classification, clustering, novelty discovery, motif discovery and visualization.
Eamonn Keogh's research interests are in data mining, machine learning and information retrieval, especially for time series data. He is one of the top-ten most prolific authors in the ACM SIGKDD, IEEE ICDM and SIAM SDM conferences, and his time series papers have been cited thousands of time are used in research and commercial efforts worldwide.
SA2 Security Games
Chris Kiekintveld, Nicola Gatti, and Manish Jain
Game theory is an increasingly important paradigm for modeling and decision-making in security domains, including homeland security resource allocation decisions, robot patrolling strategies, and computer network security. Several deployed real-world systems use game theory to randomize critical security decisions to prevent terrorist adversaries from exploiting a predictable security schedule. The ARMOR system deployed at the LAX airport and the IRIS system deployed by the Federal Air Marshals Service were first presented at the AAMAS conference.
This tutorial will introduce a wide variety of game-theoretic modeling techniques and algorithms that have been developed in recent years for security problems. Introductory material on game theory and mathematical programming (optimization) will be included in the tutorial, so there is no prerequisite knowledge for participants. After introducing the basic security game framework, we will describe algorithms for scaling to very large games, methods for modeling uncertainty and attacker observation capabilities in security games, and applications of these techniques for randomized resource allocation and patrolling problems. At the end we will highlight the many opportunities for future work in this area, including exciting new domains and fundamental theoretical and algorithmic challenges.
Christopher Kiekintveld is currently an assistant professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, USA. He has done extensive work recently in applications of game theory for Homeland Security, including work on deployed software tools for the Federal Air Marshals Service and Transportation Security Administration. He has coauthored several papers on the subject of security games that have been presented at previous AAMAS conferences, in both the main track and industry track (including the winner of the 2009 industry track best paper award). He has given numerous presentations at conferences, workshops, seminars, and guest lectures for courses, including many on the topic of security games. He is currently teaching an undergraduate course on data structures and algorithms, and was previously a teaching assistant in three different courses.
Nicola Gatti is currently assistant professor with tenure at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. His research topics are artificial intelligence, multiagent systems, and specifically algorithmic game theory. Currently, he is lecturer of informatics systems (undergraduate course) and algorithmic game theory (PhD course), and assistant of the graduate courses of artificial intelligence and of autonomous agents and multiagent systems in computer engineering, at Politecnico di Milano. He has coauthored more than ten papers on the subject of security games that have been presented at several conferences (for example, AAAI, AAMAS, IAT, GAMESEC), receiving two best paper awards at IAT and ICUMT, respectively.
Manish Jain is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California, USA. He is a part of the Teamcore Research group. His work is on the applications of game theoretic and large scale optimization techniques for homeland security, including deployed software tools for the Federal Air Marshals Service and Los Angeles World Airports police. He has coauthored papers on the subject of security games that have been presented at AAMAS and AAAI conferences, in both the main track and the industry track. He has given presentations at AAMAS, AAAI and IJCAI conferences, and several other workshops. He has been a teaching assistant for courses on multiagent systems at both the graduate and the under-graduate level. His work published at the operations research venue Interfaces was recently nominated as a finalist for the EURO excellence in Practice award. In addition to many presentations at technical conferences and workshops, he has been a teaching assistant for Milind Tambe.
SA3 Discourse Structure: Theory and Practice
Bonnie Webber, Markus Egg, and Valia Kordoni
Understanding natural language is a long-standing goal of AI. Since language is more than just individual sentences, achieving this goal means confronting discourse and its structure. But doing so can also improve system performance on tasks such as information extraction, summarization, essay grading, and opinion mining.
This tutorial presents aspects of discourse structure and the improvements they can bring to system performance. The tutorial eschews a monolithic view of discourse structure in favor of an integrated approach to topic modeling and segmentation, genre-specific discourse segmentation, entity-based structure, structure based on discourse relations, and hierarchical structure.
Part 1 of the tutorial presents complementary bases for organizing and structuring discourse and their formal properties, to demonstrate the challenges of discourse modeling. Since an integrated, multifaceted approach to discourse structure can use different algorithms to recognize different structures, Part 2 describes algorithms in current use and resources for their training and/or evaluation. The possibility of joint modeling, addressing multiple aspects of discourse structure simultaneously, will emerge as a possible way forward. Part 3 outlines established and novel uses of discourse structure in the tasks noted above. We close with a list of problems for attempts to use discourse structure more widely or, more significantly, to achieve AI's Holy Grail of understanding natural language.
Bonnie Webber ([email protected]) is a professor in the School of Informatics, Edinburgh University. She is best known for work on question answering (starting with LUNAR in the early 1970s) and discourse phenomena (starting with her PhD thesis on discourse anaphora). She has also carried out research on animation from instructions, medical decision support systems and biomedical text processing.
Markus Egg ([email protected]) is a professor of linguistics at the Department of English and American Studies of the Humboldt University in Berlin. His main areas of interest are syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse; the interfaces between them; and their implementation in NLP systems.
Valia Kordoni ([email protected]) is a senior researcher at the Language Technology Lab of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) and an assistant professor at the Department of Computational Linguistics of Saarland University. Her main areas of interest are syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse. She works on the theoretical development of these areas as well as on their implementation in NLP systems.
SP1 Event Processing — State of the Art and Research Challenges
Opher Etzion and Yagil Engel
The term event processing refers to an approach to software systems that is based on reaction to events, often under time constraints, and that includes specific decision making logic based on detection of patterns in events as they occur. In comparison to traditional AI methods, event processing avoids comprehensive decision theoretic analysis in favor of tractability and quick reaction given high volumes of real-time data. Event processing is being used for dynamic operational behavior (for example, real-time algorithmic trading in capital markets), active diagnostics (for example, problem determination in network management), information dissemination (for example, detecting patterns of signals from multiple monitors connected to a patient), and observation (for example, a luggage arrived at a cart destined to the wrong flight). The tutorial is intended for the AI community; it is self-contained and does not require any prior knowledge. The audience will gain insights about event processing, and on how it relates to various AI subdisciplines. The first part of the talk will detail the current state of the art, the leading architectures, the basic building blocks, and the various programming styles; the second part will be dedicated to research challenges in temporal probabilistic reasoning, semantic correctness, pattern matching, inexact processing, and machine learning.
Opher Etzion is an IBM senior technical staff member, chair of the Event Processing Technical Society, and an ACM distinguished speaker, and in addition is an adjunct senior teaching fellow at the Technion. He is one of the pioneers of the event processing area, coauthor of the first technical book in this area, and published more than 70 papers on related topics.
Yagil Engel is a research scientist at IBM Research Lab – Haifa, and an adjunct lecturer at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He joined IBM after two years of post-doc research at the Technion, in the areas of planning and decision theory in artificial intelligence. He received his PhD degree in computer science from the University of Michigan, where his thesis work is in the areas of graphical models for decision making, in the context of business-to-business electronic commerce and procurement problems. Before graduate studies he worked in the software industry, mainly in the area of electronic commerce. His current research activities combine operational decision making, probabilistic reasoning, and decision theoretic planning.
SP2 Human Computation: Core Research Questions and State of the Art
Luis von Ahn and Edith Law
Human computation is the study of systems where humans perform a major part of the computation or are an integral part of the overall computational system. With the growth of the web, human computation systems, for example, Games With A Purpose (the ESP Game), crowdsourcing marketplaces (Amazon Mechanical Turk, oDesk), and identity verification tasks (reCaptcha), can now leverage the abilities of an unprecedented number of people to solve complex problems that are beyond the scope of existing AI algorithms.
Our tutorial will highlight the core research questions in human computation, and focus on the design of mechanisms, algorithms and interfaces for tackling each of those questions. The tutorial will be divided into two sections: (1) human computation algorithms (for example, programming paradigms and tools, efficiency, output aggregation, task routing, the role of machine intelligence), and (2) design (for example, games with a purpose, incentives, human computation markets, crowd-driven interfaces). We expect participants to leave with a bird's eye view of the research landscape, as well as some tools to begin their own investigations. More details can be found at the supplemental tutorial site.
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic Knowledge of AI and machine learning.
Edith Law is a Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, who is doing research on human computation systems that harness the joint efforts of machines and humans, particularly in the context of games. She is the co-organizer of HCOMP 2009 and 2011, and the recipient of the Microsoft Graduate Research Fellowship 2009–2011.
Luis von Ahn is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Packard Fellowship, a Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship, and a Sloan Research Fellowship and has been named one of the 50 best minds in science by Discover Magazine and one of the "brilliant 10" scientists of 2006 by Popular Science Magazine.
SP3 Large-Scale Data Processing with MapReduce
Jimmy Lin
This tutorial provides an introduction to large-scale data processing with MapReduce, focusing in particular on scalability and the tradeoffs associated with distributed processing of large datasets. Emphasis will be placed on analysis of large unstructured text collections, although material will touch on management of structured data and large-scale graph algorithms as well. Content will include general discussions about algorithm design (for example, representational issues associated with large event spaces), presentation of illustrative algorithms (for example, iterative optimization algorithms), and case studies in a range of applications.
Jimmy Lin is an associate professor in the iSchool at the University of Maryland, College Park. He joined the faculty in 2004 after completing his Ph.D. in EECS at MIT. Lin's research interests lie at the intersection of NLP and IR, with a particular focus on large-scale distributed algorithms. He is currently on sabbatical at Twitter.
SP4 Recognizing Behavior in a Spatio-Temporal Context
Hans W. Guesgen, Mehul Bhatt, and Stephen Marsland
Recognizing human behavior plays a significant role in many applications, ranging from ensuring security in public and private places to monitoring people (for example, with diminished or challenged mental and physical capabilities) and their interactions with systems and artefacts in a smart home, to name just two examples. Recent years have seen significant progress in methods, algorithms, and technologies for behavior recognition, but the task remains to be a challenging one and far from being solved.
The tutorial will provide an introduction to the recent developments of the area of behavior recognition, highlighting the AI techniques that are most frequently used to achieve the task. It will argue that behavior recognition in isolation is likely to fail, independently of which method is used. Based on this observation, it will demonstrate how considering the spatio-temporal context in which the behavior occurs can boost the performance of the recognition process. The tutorial concludes by highlighting some challenges and opportunities for AI research in this vibrant and emerging area of sociological, scientific, and economic interest. Since the topic integrates many areas of AI, it is appropriate to a general audience.
Hans W. Guesgen holds a chair in computer science at Massey University, New Zealand. He has taught courses at all levels of the computer science curriculum for about 20 years and has published extensively in his area of research, which in particular includes spatio-temporal aspects of ambient intelligence.
Mehul Bhatt is a research fellow at the Cognitive Systems Institute at the University of Bremen, Germany. His research encompasses the areas of spatial and temporal reasoning, commonsense reasoning, cognitive robotics, ontology, and parallel and distributed systems. He has been a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (Germany), a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Award for Young Scientists and Academics, and an Australian Post-graduate Award. Bhatt has contributed in areas such as architectural design, cognitive robotics, ambient intelligence and smart environments, and medical decision support systems.
Stephen Marsland is an associate professor in the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology at Massey University, New Zealand. His research interests are in diffeomorphism groups and shape spaces, machine learning and smart homes, and complex networks and complexity. He is the author of Machine Learning: An Algorithmic Perspective.
MA1 Collective Intelligence
Haym Hirsh
Collective intelligence refers to our ability to bring people and computing together in ways that exhibit behaviors and achieve outcomes that, collectively, are more intelligent than is possible by people or machines alone. Collective intelligence makes contact with AI in three ways. First, AI practitioners are increasingly using collective intelligence as a routine element in their work, such as to create corpora in computer vision or to evaluate results in information retrieval. Second, AI methods are a key enabler of many examples of collective intelligence, such as mining consumer behaviors and product review sentiments to facilitate product recommendation. Third, collective intelligence offers a provocative phenomenon to consider by those seeking computationally tractable understandings of intelligence. This tutorial will survey the state of the art in collective intelligence from an AI perspective. It will discuss examples of collective intelligence in which people knowingly act to achieve collective outcomes, such as editing Wikipedia articles, identifying astronomical objects, or rating news articles, as well as examples in which collectively intelligent outcomes arise through automated analysis of people's routine activities, as exhibited by Google's page ranking algorithm and Amazon's recommendation system. The tutorial will conclude with a discussion of prospects for the future.
Haym Hirsh is a professor of computer science at Rutgers University, and a visiting scholar at MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence. His BS is in mathematics-computer science from UCLA and MS and PhD in computer science from Stanford. From 2006–2010 he was director of information and intelligent systems at the National Science Foundation.
MA2 Discourse Models for Generating Optimized User Interfaces: Theory from AI and Application in HCI
Hermann Kaindl
This intermediate-level tutorial shows how human-computer interaction can be based on discourse modeling, even without employing speech or natural language. Communicative acts as abstractions from speech acts can model, for example, a question or an answer. These are glued together as a so-called adjacency pair. Deliberately complex discourse structures can be modeled using relations from Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). The content of a communicative act can refer to ontologies of the domain of discourse. Taking all this together, we created a new discourse metamodel that specifies what discourse models may look like. Such discourse models can specify an interaction design. This tutorial also sketches how such an interaction design can be used for automated user-interface generation.
Experience has been gained, for example, having applied this approach to the interaction design and user interface generation for a semi-autonomous robot (in the form of a shopping cart for a supermarket). For small devices like current Smart Phones, these user interfaces are ready for use in real-world applications, through optimization based on heuristic search.
In effect, such user interfaces are generated from models underpinned through theories from artificial intelligence (AI), and these theories are applied to human-computer interaction (HCI) and user-interface generation.
There are no prerequisites such as knowledge about AI or HCI in general, nor on heuristic search in particular.
Hermann Kaindl joined the Vienna University of Technology in Vienna, Austria, in early 2003 as a full professor, and he is currently the director of an institute. Prior to moving to academia, he has gained more than 24 years of industrial experience. He is a Distinguished Scientist Member of the ACM, and he is on the executive board of the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence.
MA3 From Structured Prediction to Inverse Reinforcement Learning
Hal Daume III
Machine learning is all about making predictions; in many AI application domains (language, vision, biology) we see lots of complex rich structure. Structured prediction marries these two. However, structured prediction isn't always enough: sometimes the world throws even more complex data at us, and we need reinforcement learning techniques. This tutorial is all about the how and the why of structured prediction and inverse reinforcement learning (also known as inverse optimal control): participants should walk away comfortable that they could implement many structured prediction and IRL algorithms, and have a sense of which ones might work for which problems.
The first half of the tutorial will cover the basics of structured prediction the structured perceptron and Magerman's incremental parsing algorithm. It will then build up to more advanced algorithms that are shockingly reminiscent of these simple approaches: maximum margin techniques and search-based structured prediction.
The second half of the tutorial will ask the question: what happens when our standard assumptions about our data are violated? This is what leads us into the world of reinforcement learning (the basics of which we'll cover) and then to inverse reinforcement learning and inverse optimal control.
Hal Daume III is an assistant professor in computer science at the University of Maryland, with a joint appointment in Linguistics. He is primarily interested in the interface between natural language processing, computational linguistics and machine learning. His work in statistical modeling spans multiple aspects of language processing, including structured prediction, Bayesian methods, domain adaptation, and linguistic typology.
MA4 Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis
Bing Liu
Opinion mining or sentiment analysis is the computational study of people's opinions, appraisals, and emotions toward entities, individuals, topics and their attributes expressed in text. Opinions are important because they are key influencers of our behaviors. Our beliefs and perceptions of reality are to a considerable degree conditioned on how others see the world. For this reason, when we need to make a decision we often seek out the opinions of others. In recent years, opinion mining from social media has emerged as a popular research area in NLP and text mining due to many challenging research problems and a range of applications. It has gone from computer science to reach social sciences and management science. In fact, apart from NLP, it also presents many challenges to other areas of AI, for example, machine learning, data mining, and automated reasoning. In the tutorial, I will first define the problem, describe its main tasks, and then present the current state-of-the-art techniques. Many examples will also be given to help participants better understand the key concepts. One feature of the tutorial is that it will not only address seminal research issues but also will look at the technology from an application angle.
Bing Liu is a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include opinion mining or sentiment analysis, and data mining. He has given more than 20 keynote and invited talks on opinion mining and has served as program chairs of KDD, ICDM, WSDM, SDM, CIKM, and PAKDD.
MP1 Algorithms for Classical Planning
Jussi Rintanen
Planning is a fundamental aspect of the behavior of intelligent beings. Construction of intelligent agents, physical or virtual, often requires the solution of complex forms of the planning problem, identifying sequences of actions that fulfill the performance objectives of the agent. Understanding of planning has made dramatic progress in the last 10 years, tremendously improving its applicability to hard problems requiring intelligent decision making and acting.
The focus of the tutorial is in the most important state-space traversal methods: heuristic state-space search and logic-based symbolic methods such as planning as satisfiability. These directly solve the classical planning problem, but are also the basis of solving its extensions such as temporal and conditional planning. We explain the most important algorithms for classical planning, relations between them, and their applicability to more general planning problems. We also give a practical overview of existing planning systems.
The target audience is AI researchers interested in understanding the landscape of modern planning and the issues arising in their application. As background knowledge we assume a basic understanding of standard search algorithms and logic.
Jussi Rintanen is a principal researcher at NICTA, the leader of NICTA's planning group, as well as an adjunct professor at the Australian National University. In the last years, his main interests have been in constraint-based search methods and their application to hard combinatorial problems such as diagnosis, planning and control.
MP2 Conformal Predictions for Reliable Machine Learning: Theory and Applications
Vineeth N. Balasubramanian and Shen-Shyang Ho
Reliable estimation of confidence remains a significant challenge as learning algorithms proliferate into challenging real-world applications. The Conformal Predictions framework is a recent development in machine learning to associate reliable measures of confidence with results in classification and regression. This framework is founded on the principles of algorithmic randomness, transductive inference and hypothesis testing, and has several desirable properties for potential use in various real-world applications, such as the calibration of the obtained confidence values in an online setting. Further, this framework can be applied across all existing classification and regression methods, thus making it very generalizable. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in applying this framework to real-world problems such as clinical decision support, medical diagnosis, sea surveillance, network traffic classification, and face recognition. This tutorial will: (1) expose the audience to the basic theory of the framework; (2) demonstrate examples of how the framework can be applied in real-world problems, and (3) provide sample adaptations of the framework to related problems such as active learning, transfer learning, anomaly detection, and model selection.
A basic understanding of machine learning approaches (such as classification, clustering, regression, and others) is the only prerequisite for this tutorial.
Sethuraman Panchanathan and Vladimir Vovk served as co-organizers of this tutorial.
Vineeth Balasubramanian is an assistant research professor at Arizona State University. His research interests include pattern recognition, machine learning, computer vision and multimedia computing. His work on the conformal predictions framework was nominated as an outstanding PhD dissertation at ASU, as well as the annual ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award.
Shen-Shyang Ho is a research associate at the University of Maryland, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). His research interests include data mining, machine learning, and pattern recognition in spatiotemporal/data streaming settings. His current research involves the application of data mining and machine learning approaches to support NASA Earth science research.
MP3 Information Organization and Retrieval with Collaboratively Generated Content
Eugene Agichtein and Evgeniy Gabrilovich
Ubiquitous access to the Internet enables millions of web users to collaborate online. These efforts often result in the construction of large repositories of knowledge, either as their primary aim (for example, Wikipedia) or as a by-product (for example, Yahoo! Answers). The unprecedented amounts of information in collaboratively generated content (CGC) enable new, knowledge-rich approaches to information access. Some examples include the use of human-defined concepts to augment the bag of words, using large-scale taxonomies to construct additional class-based features, or using Wikipedia for better word sense disambiguation. However, the quality of CGC varies significantly, and a substantial amount of post-processing is necessary to take full advantage of the knowledge therein.
The tutorial will cover two complementary directions: (1) Using CGC as an enabling resource for knowledge-enriched, intelligent information retrieval algorithms, and (2) Development of supporting technologies for extracting, filtering, and organizing CGC.
As we will show, not only the knowledge repositories can be used to improve information retrieval methods, but the reverse pollination is also possible. For example, better information extraction methods can be used to automatically collect more knowledge, or to verify the contributed content.
Understanding of basic concepts in machine learning and data mining is expected. Information retrieval and NLP concepts will be introduced as needed.
Eugene Agichtein is an assistant professor in the Emory University Mathematics and Computer Science Department, where he directs the Intelligent Information Access Lab (IRLab). Agichtein 's expertise is in web search and information retrieval, with an emphasis on organizing and searching collaboratively-generated content. His work has been supported by NSF, HP Labs, and Yahoo.
Evgeniy Gabrilovich is a senior research scientist and manager of the NLP and IR Group at Yahoo! Research. His research interests include information retrieval, machine learning, and computational linguistics. Gabrilovich has published extensively on computational advertising, as well as on using world knowledge to enhance text representation beyond the bag of words, and has served as a senior pc / area chair at AAAI, IJCAI, SIGIR, EMNLP, and ICWSM.
MP4 Philosophy as AI and AI as Philosophy
Aaron Sloman
Although most AI researchers have engineering objectives, some are primarily interested in the scientific study of minds, both natural and artificial. Some of the deep connections between both scientific and applied AI are linked to old problems in philosophy about the nature of mind and knowledge, what exists, how minds are related to matter, about causation and free will, about the nature of consciousness, about how language is possible, about creativity, and about whether non-biological machines can have minds. Questions linking AI and philosophy motivated AI pioneers such as Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy and Herbert Simon, and are also addressed by Margaret Boden, Andy Clark, David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett, John Searle, and others. Yet many questions remain unanswered and some philosophers and scientists think AI is only engineering.
I'll try to explain how progress can be based on unnoticed relationships between AI and Philosophy, including the connections of both with unexplained features of biological evolution and the development of various kinds of intelligence in individual animals. The tutorial will be highly interactive and provocative.
Prerequisites:: None, except interest in how AI and philosophy are mutually relevant, and illuminate the nature of mind and intelligence. See the author's website for details.
Aaron Sloman received his first degree in mathematics and physics, DPhil in philosophy of mathematics, then worked in philosophy, cognitive science, AI and theoretical biology. He is the author of The Computer Revolution in Philosophy (1978) and many articles and book chapters, a Fellow of AAAI, and also a contributor to Poplog multilanguage toolkit for AI research and teaching.
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The public is invited to experience the power of oral history from a Native American master storyteller on Wednesday, November 28, in another of a series of monthly programs sponsored by the Kenmore Heritage Society.
The program, “Teachings of the First People,” starts at 6pm in the Hangar at Town Square, 6728 NE 181st St. in Kenmore. All are welcome.
Roger Fernandes, or Kawasa as he is called by his fellow members of the Lower Elwha Band of S’Klallam Indians, has strong feelings about how stories should be shared.
A tribal historian, artist, and teacher specializing in Coast Salish art, Fernandes believes stories should not be trapped in books.
Fernandes began story-telling by sharing simple legends, then enlarged his subject matter to include myths, creation stories, flood stories, and stories about heroes. They teach non-Natives about the complexities of the Indian cultures, going beyond the basics of food, shelter, and clothing.
Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served. Door prizes will be given.
The society’s series of monthly programs is made possible with support from the City of Kenmore and 4Culture. | https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2018/11/story-teller-to-share-teachings-of.html |
The PhD topics I offer are in the area that combines machine vision with Natural Language Processing. Below are some PhD topics, however these are just ideas and can be tuned to match both our interests.
If you are a self-funded student considering to study for a PhD in any of the topics below please email me to discuss before applying. Click here for information on applying for Research Degrees at Loughborough University.
I am recruiting sponsored or self-funded PhD students who wish to undertake projects in data science and A.I, including projects within the topics below and here:
Topic 1: Multi-modal Transfer Learning for Cross-Modal Data Retrieval *NEW* Deep learning is a subset of machine learning in artificial intelligence (AI) that is capable of learning from data. Deep learning is receiving a lot of attention due to its ability to achieve unprecedented levels of performance in terms of accuracy and speed, to the point where deep learning algorithms can outperform humans at decision making, and tasks such as classifying images, and real-time detection. Multi-modal data fusion is an important task for many machine learning applications, including human activity recognition, information retrieval, and real-time applications of A.I. For example, datasets can include audio and visual data; image and sensor data; multi-sensor multi-modal data; and text and image data. Multi-modal data can be complex, noisy and imbalanced, particularly when collected from real environments. Therefore, it is a significant challenge to create deep learning models using multi-modal data. Training deep neural networks to learn a very accurate mapping from inputs (unimodal or multimodal) to outputs (e.g. labels also known as classes) requires large amounts of labelled data. Even when these models are trained, they have limited ability to generalise to conditions which are different to the ones used for training the model. Cross-Modal Retrieval is the task of retrieving data across different modalities. such as image-text, video-text, and audio-text. It is a challenging task to generate new representations from different modalities in the shared subspace. The project will focus on: | https://datascienceplus.blog/phd-project-topics/ |
A burned out employee is the workforce equivalent of the marathon runner who has gassed out—which is just what happens with burned out employees. Naturally, this could lead to huge productively problems within your business.
Symptoms of burnout tend to manifest as anxiousness, noticeable tiredness, inability to focus and a short temper. Obviously, none of these are conducive to a positive, strong work environment. To make sure you avoid becoming burned out, integrate the following six tips from your friends at Dale Carnegie Training of the Northwest:
1. Take Regular Breaks — Mental health is becoming increasingly important in the workplace, and more and more employers are recognizing the need for their employees to take frequent breaks to keep their minds sharp. By taking a 15-minute break in the morning, a 30-60 minute lunch break (that we recommend you take outside of the office) and an additional 15-minute break before the end of the day, you will find your batteries are constantly at a full charge.
2. Create A Unique Break Room — Conventional break rooms tend to be pretty plain: Coffee machine, water cooler, and the usual bland walls. Some companies have started to stray from this, however, and transformed break rooms into brief escapes from work, going so far as to set up televisions, game tables and video game systems in their break rooms. An environment that provides a brief escape for a reasonable amount of time will go a long way to prevent job burnout.
3. Set Aside “Me Time” Outside Of Work — While being a dedicated employee is admirable, being an indentured servant to your business will wear you down over time. When work is your life, your life is work, and burnout becomes inevitable. Know when to walk away from work. Schedule regular time away from work each week, preferably dedicated to a personal passion or hobby that clears your mind of any fog.
4. Be Wary Of Overworking — Many people find it difficult to say “no” in the workplace. This typically leads to the accumulation of more and more workload each time they agree to lend a hand here or there, or take on a side project or something similar. Being a team player is important in the business world, and helping your colleagues from time to time is a surefire way to further your career. But if you aren’t careful, other employees will take advantage of your generous, helping nature and all you’ll get is stressed-out from being overworked.
5. Balance Life And Work — Work cannot be the all-encompassing focus of your life—especially if you hope to maintain a happy home life. Whether you live independently, with a significant other, or a whole family, you need to manage your time between work and home effectively. When it’s time to punch out, punch out. Go to the local pub. Go home to your family. Go to the movies with your partner or friends. Give your personal life just as much time and attention as you do your work life. Otherwise, you will start to see problems and frustrations develop at home, affect your work life and cause you to feel burned out.
6. Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle — The importance of a healthy lifestyle is among the top issues in our nation — and for good reason. This is because the benefits of diet, exercise, proper sleep and choosing water over carbonated cans full of nothing but chemicals drastically affect our behavior—both at home and at work. All it takes is setting aside 30-40 minutes just three days a week to exercise and make a greater effort to manage your diet. Doing so will benefit you directly in ways innumerable, and a positive lifestyle will lead to a more positive work experience.
Just because job burnout is common does not mean it’s anything to scoff at, or “just deal with.” Preventative measures like the ones outlined above should be initiated to help minimize the threat of job burnout.
This post is brought to you by Dale Carnegie Training of the Northwest, providers of professional development and management course. Please connect with us on Facebook! | http://www.dalecarnegiewaynw.com/2014/01/24/tips-for-avoiding-burnout-on-the-job/ |
What Is Contract Administration? Key Processes And Practices
Anyone who has ever worked on large-scale construction projects would be familiar with the concept of contract administration. For those who need more clarity: When a company hires a contracting firm for working on a particular project, the two parties’ partner and sign an agreement on how long a project will take, what work would be involved, its scope, value, and so on. All the necessary details are outlined and then solidified in an official contract. Contract administrators create official documents to protect both parties if anything goes wrong or needs to be altered.
The role of a Contract Administrator
Contract administrators have extensive knowledge regarding contract laws and business finance. .
The duties of a contract administrator vary depending on the type of construction project and contract. Overall, contract administrators are responsible for providing updates regarding contracts, managing disputes, making impartial and fair decisions, and coordinating with various departments. They also communicate expectations, set quality standards, analyze risks, and set meetings. Here are some recommendations regarding the best practices for contract administration.
Contract Administration: Best Practices
#1- Familiarize Yourself with the Project
Before beginning your role as a contract administrator, you must understand the project’s scope and context of the contract. This helps answer questions and resolve issues during the process while enabling the adjustment of strategies according to the project’s size, types, and more.
#2- Prepare for the Unexpected Outcomes
There are many extra precautions contract administrators can take to ensure they remain a step ahead at all times. They must prepare for unprecedented situations where contractors or employers want to make significant changes to the contract. Professional contract administrators usually tend to already have a system in place for how to proceed in such situations.
#3- Include a Detailed Timeline
Contract administration plans must include a detailed timeline that accounts for every critical milestone throughout the contract’s life, including the project’s starting and ending dates, deliverables’ deadlines, and progress updates.
#4- Sort Out the Finances
To maintain positive relationships and avoid contract disputes between the concerned parties, every stakeholder must be aware of the financial terms of the agreement, including the payment intervals, contract’s value, and the process to address the need for additional expenses, depending on the type of contract.
#5- Anticipate the Potential Risks
While each contract comes with considerable risk, putting contingency plans to account for the risks in advance can prevent contract failure. Outline the potential risks for each contract and the steps needed to be taken if such events occur. Building in some flexibility for budgets and timelines will allow for minor, unexpected problems or delays to be taken in stride to prevent the contract from being negatively impacted.
Whether you are looking for contract management services or contract administration services, experts at ADDMORE Services can help ensure all of the firm’s agreements are created, organized, executed, monitored, and optimized according to the company’s and industry standards.
Businesses in the UK, the USA, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and various other regions worldwide can spend less time on tedious contract administration and more time on high-value, strategic initiatives with cost-effective and high-quality offshoring and outsourcing solutions offered by ADDMORE Services.
We’ve got you covered for a wide range of comprehensive outsourcing services and offshoring solutions such as architectural 3D visualization services, architectural drafting services, 2D and 3D CAD drafting Services, Revit design services, construction cost estimates, takeoff estimating services, real estate rendering, Planswift estimating, construction project management, Primavera modeling services, BIM services, and more.
Connect with us to learn more before getting started. | https://addmoreservices.com/2022/01/03/what-is-contract-administration-key-processes-and-practices/ |
Since 2000, Friends School of Minnesota has graduated nearly 200 alumni who are out in the world carrying out the mission of the school. We caught up with Matt Chrastek (FSMN Class of 2004) as he heard that he will receive a Peace Corps Master’s International assignment next summer.
Friends School of Minnesota Alumni Take the Stage
Three Friends School of Minnesota alumni took to the stage on November 22 and 23, 2013, as part of St. Paul Academy‘s production of Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle. Written in 1944 and first performed at Carleton College, this dark and complex play is ultimately a fable about land ownership told through a dispute over parentage of a child. In the play, set to original music, Evan Leduc (FSMN Class.. Read More
Fencer Emma Deschamps Qualifies for the Junior Olympics
Congratulations to Friends School of Minnesota alumna Emma Deschamps (Class of 2012)! Emma competed in the cadet (under 17) qualifiers for the Junior Olympics for the State of Virginia. She took first place with a very strong showing. The Junior Olympics are in Portland, Oregon in February. She is excited to compete for her new club, The DC Fencers Club (DCFC) in Washington, D.C. We love to hear from.. Read More
Raking Leaves for Elders Service Project
Last Saturday, 30 Friends School of Minnesota students, teachers, alumni, and parents spent the morning raking leaves to help senior citizens in our community. The Hamline-Midway Elders organization identified neighborhood folks who needed a hand with their fall yard work. FSMN volunteers gathered at the school, rakes in hand, and got to work. Two crews spent four hours tidying five yards and hauling mountains of leaves to the compost. .. Read More
Congratulations, graduates! Class of 2013
Congratulations to Friends School of Minnesota’s Class of 2013! Our 18 graduates will be attending eight senior high schools in the Twin Cities: Highland Park High School, St. Paul (9 students) St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists (2 students) Central High School, St. Paul (1 student) Como Senior High School, St. Paul (1 student) DeLaSalle High School, Minneapolis (1 student) St. Paul Academy and Summit School, St. Paul (1 student) St. Paul Preparatory.. Read More
Conflict Resolution Training for High School Girls
Last weekend we helped nine Girl Scouts learn our model of conflict resolution. They will use the process on a trip with 36 high school girls to visit historically black colleges.
Emma and Will Place Third in State Fencing Competition
Congratulations to Friends School of Minnesota alumni Emma Deschamps and Will Wharton who both took third place in their individual events at the 2013 Minnesota State High School Fencing Competition! | https://blog.fsmn.org/category/alumni-2/page/3/ |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To determine an optimal combination of the number of loop unrolling and the number of circuit parallels in high-level synthesis.
max
SOLUTION: A circuit synthesis information generation unit 11 sets a plurality of combinations of the number of loop unrolling M and the number of circuit parallels N as parameter candidates, and generates, for each of these combinations, circuit synthesis information 23 indicating a synthesis circuit obtained by high-level synthesis processing. An optimal parameter determination unit 13 calculates, for each generated circuit synthesis information 23, an estimation processing performance P for the synthesis circuit indicated by the circuit synthesis information 23, and determines an optimal combination of the number of loop unrolling M and the number of circuit parallels N on the basis of the circuit synthesis information 23 from which the maximum estimated processing performance P has been obtained.
SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1
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EFFICIENT COMPUTATION OF QUANTUM DOT PROPERTIES: APPLICATION OF MODIFIED CHARGE EQUILIBRATION TO LARGE INCLUSIVE SETS OF WURTZITE CDSE NANOCRYSTAL STRUCTURES Semiconducting quantum dots (QDs) exhibit tunable size dependent properties, leading some to designate these materials as “artificial atoms”. Synthetic methods of CdSe QDs have been highly refined and typically involve ...
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Jury Nullification: Convincing Your Fellow Jurors to Break the Law Delivering a verdict that goes against the law, termed jury nullification, is a seldom studied phenomenon which has severe implications for the judicial system. Research on the topic suggests that those who know about ...
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The Relationship between Dissociation, Personality Disorders, and Neurocognitive Disorder Peritraumatic dissociation is a disturbance of emotion and/or cognition during or immediately after a traumatic experience. Trait dissociation describes these same emotional/cognitive disturbances in daily functioning. ...
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Open Set Text Classification Using Neural Networks In a closed set environment, classifiers are trained on examples from a number of known classesandtestedwithunseenexamplesbelongingtothesamesetofknownclasses. However, in most real-world scenarios, a trained classifier is ...
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Examination of Concentrations of THC and its Major Metabolites in Postmortem Blood Using Solid-Phase Extraction Preparation Methods and Analysis by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry As of 2018, in the United States, thirty states have legalized cannabis for medical use and nine states have legalized cannabis for recreational use. In the state of Colorado, by law, a driver may be prosecuted for Driving ...
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Examining the Effectiveness of Online Mindfulness and Nature Interventions on Improving Cognitive Functioning in a Trauma-Exposed Sample Mindfulness and nature-based treatment interventions are increasingly used to reduce stress, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little is known about their mechanisms of change or influence on cognitive ...
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Construal Level of Embodied Episodic Representations Despite advancements in the study of personality, many traits continue to lack a neurocognitive theoretical basis. In the current study, a theory was proposed for the personality dimension of abstractedness. It was ...
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Neural Networks For Automatic Polyphonic Piano Music Transcription Automatic Music Transcription is the process of producing an accurate musical representation from a polyphonic audio signal and continues to challenge state-of-the-art techniques. To produce reliable transcriptions, human ...
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HIDDEN VARIABLE RESULTANT APPROACH FOR CLASSICAL COMPUTER VISION PROBLEMS Many problems in computer vision may be formulated as minimal problems; problems that require a minimal number of inputs and solving them equals to solve a system of non-linear polynomial equations with a finite number ...
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Relationship Between Homicide Hot Spots, Victim Characteristics, and Economic Disadvantage in a large Urban City in Colorado This research utilized geographic information system map capabilities to analyze homicide hotspots within a large city in east central Colorado. Previous literature has found numerous examples of the influence of social ...
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Androgynous Leadership Style as Performed by Queer Leaders This study explored the lived experiences of six transgender leaders and considers how they perform androgynous leadership as an extension of their gender transition. Individual interviews were conducted with each leader, ...
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Openset Approach To Object Detection, An Object detection has been a popular area of research in computer vision, where during the recent years deep learning based approaches have taken over the traditional approaches based on hand engineered features like HOG ...
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ARMET: An Engineering Education Program to Expedite Aircraft Geometry Creation and Meshing with Element Quality Feedback A program known as ARMET (Automated useR-interfaced Multi-Software Educational Tool) that automates aircraft geometry creation, meshing, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) pre-processing is described. Developed for use ...
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INFLUENCE OF INTERPERSONAL INTIMACY ON DONOR RETENTION: AN INTRINSIC CASE STUDY APPROACH This dissertation utilizes an intrinsic case study approach to analyze the influence of interpersonal communications on religious philanthropy. Specifically, I test my proposition that Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) ...
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Freedom Movement: A Case Study of Feminist Leadership in Kurdistan Metcalfe, Amanda (Ph.D. Educational Leadership, Research, and Policy) Freedom Movement: A Case Study of Feminist Leadership in Kurdistan Dissertation directed by Associate Professor Sylvia Mendez ABSTRACT The Kurds ...
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DUAL-BAND BANDSTOP FILTER (DBBSF) USING SPURLINE & STEPPED-IMPEDANCE RESONATOR WITH TUNABLE DEVICES Bandstop filters are very important components in RF microwave systems by virtue of their effective suppression of spurious signals. They are used widely as key components in transmitter and receiver systems. They can be ...
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Academic Peer Mentorship and Transitioning College Writers: A Closer Look at Support for Developmental Education The state of Colorado is committed to closing the attainment gap and strengthening its economic fabric. Policy changes in required cut scores for college admission have been designed to facilitate a smoother transition ...
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Learning Based Visual Engagement and Self-Efficacy With the advancements in the fields of Affective computing, Computer vision and Human-computer interaction, along with the exponential development of intelligent machines, the study of human mind and behavior is emerging ...
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FIND A BETTER WAY: A STUDY OF PARENT TEST REFUSALS OF COLORADO K12 STATE ASSESSMENTS IN 2015 AND 2016 USING A FRAMEWORK BASED ON THE KANO MODEL This dissertation applies a parallel convergent mixed-methods study of the historic parent test refusals (PTR) that occurred in Colorado in 2015 and 2016. The study analyzed the themes in responses to the Colorado Standards ...
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OPTIMIZED EMBEDDED AND RECONFIGURABLE HARDWARE ARCHITECTURES AND TECHNIQUES FOR DATA MINING APPLICATIONS ON MOBILE DEVICES Increasingly, most of the electronic devices which are surrounding us, are designed in mobile (portable) and embedded systems platforms; therefore, the global market for these devices are growing exponentially. Almost every ... | https://mountainscholar.org/handle/10976/1201 |
Cleavage and sequence recognition of 2,6-diaminopurine-containing DNA by site-specific endonucleases.
The susceptibility of 2,6-diaminopurine (DAP)-containing bacteriophage DNA to several restriction and other endonucleases was examined. With the only exception of TaqI, these enzymes did not accept the modified base as a substitute for adenine. The phage DNA was extensively fragmented by the restriction endonucleases which recognize only G and C-containing sites. 5'-terminal analysis of the MspI and SmaI fragments revealed that d(DAP-T) basepairs can be mistaken by some enzymes for d(G-C) pairs.
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Listen to presences inside poems.
Let them take you where they will.
Follow these private hints
and never leave the premises.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), from Unseen Rain, trans. Coleman Barks and John Moyne, Shambhala, 1986
Another National Poetry Month. And a tsunami of poems everywhere I look! So I want to be careful how I add to the tsunami and not become more poetry clutter in an inbox! So I will devote this month to small poems; poems the American poet Jane Hirschfield calls Pebbles! I may include some haiku, such a famous form of small poems, but will not focus there!
Rumi, the Sufi mystic poet, who died more than eight hundred years ago in Konya, Turkey, needs little introduction for a North American audience! He has become almost a household name now in the English-speaking world thanks to the proliferation of English translations of his poems in the past forty years. Of course, in the Middle East he has been a household name for centuries.
As I meditate on Rumi’s quatrain I am struck by its reminder of how much listening goes into writing a poem. Listen to the presence inside poems./ Let them take you where they will. So reminiscent of Jack Spicer’s famous quote in the 1960’s that a poet is a catcher not a pitcher.
Seamus Heaney address this as well in his essay Feeling Into Words when he connects the image of a water diviner to poetry:
The diviner resembles the poet in his function of making contact with what lies hidden, and in his ability to make palpable what was sensed or raised…The crucial action is pre-verbal, to be able to allow the first alertness or come-hither, sensed in a blurred or incomplete way, to dilate and approach as a thought or a theme or a phrase.
What a lineage we poets come from. Here is Rumi, a poet from more than eight hundred years ago, reminding me of what I have learned to be true. At its heart poetry is a learned listening. And an act of trust in that listening. To give up control so, as Mary Oliver says in her poem Praying, another voice may speak.
For those of us writing poems this month may we enjoy productive listening! | http://www.recoveringwords.com/site/celebrating-the-bigness-of-small-poems-1-in-a-series-for-poetry-month |
People in more equal societies live longer, a smaller proportion of children die in infancy and self-rated health is better.
There are now over 170 studies of income inequality in relation to various aspects of health. Life expectancy, infant mortality, low birth weight and self-rated health have repeatedly been shown to be worse in more unequal societies. These studies have been reviewed in the journal Social Science and Medicine.
Researchers sometimes disagree about the pathways leading from inequality to worse population health. The most consistent interpretation of all the evidence is that the main route hinges on the way inequality makes life more stressful. Chronic stress is known to affect the cardiovascular and immune systems and to lead to more rapid aging. Inequality makes social relations more stressful (see section on Trust and Community Life), by increasing status differences and status competition. These effects are important: Americans living in more equal states live around 4 years longer than those living in more unequal states.
More Information
Wilkinson RG, Pickett KE. Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence. Social Science and Medicine 2006;62(7):1768-84.
Wilkinson RG. The Impact of Inequality: how to make sick societies healthier. New Press, New York, and Routledge, London. 2005
Subramanian SV, Kawachi I. Whose health is affected by income inequality? A multilevel interaction analysis of contemporaneous and lagged effects of state income inequality on individual self-rated health in the United States. Health and Place 2006; 12: 141-56.
Wilkinson RG, Pickett KE. Income inequality and social gradients in mortality American Journal of Public Health 2008; 98(4): 699-704.
Subramanian SV, Kawachi I. Income inequality and health: what have we learned so far?Epidemiologic Reviews 2004; 26: 78-91.
Wilkinson RG, Pickett KE. The Spirit Level. Penguin. 2009. Buy the book from Amazon. | https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/physical-health |
In this lesson, students identify stereotypical images of girls and women as represented by female action heroes.
This lesson looks at food photography and the different techniques used by food stylists to make foods look appealing in advertisements.
“Media Literacy for Development & Children’s Rights” was created by UNICEF Canada to help young people in grades 6 - 8 understand the role played by the media in influencing their attitudes and perceptions about developing nations and development issues. This module contains a series of lessons, exercises and background information to help familiarize students with the issues and challenges surrounding representation of other countries and cultures by the media.
In this lesson, students explore how magazines are developed to reach specific target markets.
This lesson looks at the increasing prominence of gambling in the media, particularly movies and television.
This lesson focuses on how to write a newspaper story, and what may influence the information selected. The lesson begins with a review of the “5 Ws,” and how journalists use these elements to craft topical, interesting and relevant news stories.
In this lesson, students examine the visual codes used on television and in movies through an exploration of various camera techniques. Students begin with a discussion about camera-subject distance, and review various film techniques that are used to create visual meaning.
This is the first of three lessons that address gender stereotypes. The objective of this lesson is to encourage students to develop their own critical intelligence with regard to culturally inherited stereotypes, and to the images presented in the media - film and television, rock music, newspapers and magazines.
In this lesson students consider and discuss the trade-offs we all make on a daily basis between maintaining our privacy, and gaining access to information services.
This lesson familiarizes children with the nutritional value of foods advertised on television and in magazines. | http://mediasmarts.ca/search?page=1&f%5B0%5D=type%3Atutorial&f%5B1%5D=type%3Alesson_plan&f%5B2%5D=field_categories%3A483&f%5B3%5D=field_categories%3A466&f%5B4%5D=field_categories%3A479&f%5B5%5D=field_categories%3A475&%3Bf%5B1%5D=field_categories%3A454&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B1%5D=type%3Acurricular_outcome_chart&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B2%5D=field_categories%3A452&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B3%5D=field_categories%3A461&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B4%5D=field_categories%3A529&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B5%5D=field_categories%3A453 |
,” about the headaches U.S. manufacturers face trying to secure exemptions from the Trump administration’s steep tariffs on imported steel.
Husisian said steel users face months-long delays in getting a decision and an opaque process that allows domestic steel producers to sink companies’ requests for exclusions from the tariffs. “There is a lot of concern that the U.S. [steel] industry is getting something close to a veto power,” he said.
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The precursors of late-life cognitive decline can be traced back to mid adult life. Risk states in middle age include behavioral factors (eg, smoking), aspects of cardiovascular function (eg, hypertension and cardiac structure) and metabolic traits. Metabolic factors shown to confer risk in cohort studies include diabetes and prediabetes: in the Framingham Offspring Study, individuals with prediabetes and diabetes had smaller brain volumes and poorer cognitive performance, especially on tests of executive function and visual memory ([@B1]), compared with those with normal glucose regulation. Adiposity, indexed by body mass index (BMI), has also been associated with subsequent dementia ([@B2], [@B3]).
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by a high prevalence of obesity, hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance, leading to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. An unfavorable metabolic profile persists after menopausal transition as a result of increased androgen levels and decreased estrogen levels with further exacerbation of insulin resistance, chronic inflammation and adiposity ([@B4]). There have been few investigations of the effect of PCOS on the brain. One internet-based study compared neuropsychological functioning in right-handed women with and without PCOS, finding no evidence of an effect of hyperandrogenism or hyperestrogenism on cognitive function ([@B5]). One other study described poorer performance on tests of verbal fluency, verbal memory, manual dexterity, and visuospatial working memory in PCOS, but importantly, the comparison group of healthy women was not matched for BMI ([@B6]).
Some early evidence suggests that metabolic risk states may have an influence on brain structure. Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique that is sensitive to the structure and organization of white matter in the brain, providing unprecedented insight into the organization of white matter fibers and tracts. Furthermore, it provides quantitative indices of white matter microstructure. Diffusion tensor MRI studies have shown how white matter microstructure evolves in the developing and ageing brain and have also revealed subtle damage in early cognitive decline and in association with vascular risk states. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with altered microstructural measures derived from diffusion tensor MRI ([@B7][@B8][@B9]). Several studies have now shown associations between BMI and white matter microstructure ([@B10][@B11][@B12]). Furthermore, in type 2 diabetes, alterations in tract microstructure have been found to correlate with cognitive performance ([@B7]). A common difficulty in interpreting these studies is that metabolic features tend to occur in clustered syndromes, for example, metabolic syndrome, rather than as isolated abnormalities. Consequently, the critical factors that most influence brain structure and function are unclear. This is also true of previous cognitive studies in PCOS that might have been confounded by BMI ([@B6]). Defining the main factors that drive end-organ damage in the brain is crucial to the construction of preventative strategies. Carefully controlled studies, that isolate 1 or a small group of factors, have a role that is complementary to large cohort studies in identifying specific features or mechanisms that might be targeted.
The current study investigated brain structure and cognitive function in women in early adulthood with a diagnosis of PCOS. To investigate the effects of metabolic disturbances specific to PCOS, a control group was recruited that was carefully matched for BMI, the main potential confounder, as well as age and premorbid intelligence.
Materials and Methods
=====================
Participants
------------
Patients with PCOS (n = 18, 16 Caucasian and 2 Afro-Caribbean) were recruited from the endocrine clinic at the University Hospital of Wales. Diagnosis was according to the Rotterdam criteria ([@B13]). Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, Cushing\'s syndrome, androgen-secreting neoplasms, hyperprolactinemia and thyroid disease were excluded by biochemical testing. Patients were between 18 and 45 years of age. Metabolic exclusion criteria were: pregnancy and breastfeeding, hyperlipidemia or use of lipid-lowering agents, diabetes or use of antidiabetic drugs, and use of antiandrogens within 6 months. Neurological exclusion criteria included: previous or current major psychiatric illness, clinical cerebrovascular disease, previous severe head injury, hypertension, and current substance and alcohol abuse.
Healthy volunteers (n = 18, all Caucasian) were recruited as controls with 1 to 1 matching for age and BMI. For each individual patient, a control was identified matched for age (within 2 y) and BMI (within 2 kg/m^2^). Controls needed to have regular menstrual cycles (menses every 27--32 d). Control subjects with signs of hirsutism or with a personal history of diabetes or hypertension, or a family history of PCOS were excluded. Control subjects were recruited by advertisement among students and staff within the School of Medicine and University Hospital of Wales. Their health status was determined by history, physical examination and hormonal evaluation (testosterone, androstenedione, thyroid function, prolactin, and 17-hydroxyprogesterone). The study was approved by Cardiff University (study sponsors), Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and the South East Wales Research Ethics Committee. All subjects gave written, informed consent.
Anthropometric and biochemical measurements
-------------------------------------------
Height, weight, waist and hip circumference were measured according to our previously published protocol ([@B14]). Blood pressure was measured at the brachial artery of the right arm using a validated semiautomated oscillometric device (Omron 705IT; Omron Corp) after 10 minutes of rest in the seated position; an average of 3 readings taken over a 10-minute period was recorded.
Blood samples were collected after an overnight fast. Serum total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides were assayed using an Aeroset analyzer (Abbott Diagnostics); low density lipoprotein cholesterol was calculated using Friedewald\'s formula. Insulin was measured using an immunometric assay specific for human insulin (Invitron), and glucose was measured using the Aeroset chemistry system (Abbott Diagnostics). High sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) was assayed by nephelometry (BN II system; Dade Behring), and total testosterone was measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (Quattro Premier XE triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer; Waters Ltd). Androstenedione was measured by immunoassay (Siemens Healthcare). The intra- and interassay coefficients of variation were all less than 9%.
A standard 75-g oral glucose tolerance test was performed in all participants. Glucose and insulin were measured at 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. The areas under the curve (AUCs) for insulin and glucose were calculated using the trapezoid method.
Cognitive testing
-----------------
A set of cognitive tests was devised based on previous literature on cognitive dysfunction in metabolic disorders ([@B15], [@B16]) and that included tests of episodic memory, attentional, and executive function. Premorbid IQ was estimated with the National Adult Reading Test Revised and current IQ estimated with the Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence (WASI). Short-term and working memory were assessed with Digit Span. Episodic memory was assessed by the Free and Cued Selective Reminding test ([@B17]) and the Rey Osterrieth Complex figure. Tests sensitive to attention and executive function included Verbal Trails, Digit Symbol Substitution, Stroop Color-Word Association Test, letter and semantic fluency (with letters "FAS" and the category "animals," respectively). The Beck depression inventory was also administered.
MRI data acquisition
--------------------
MRI was performed on a 3T GE HDx MRI system (General Electric). Diffusion images were acquired with a twice-refocused spin-echo echo planar imaging sequence, providing whole oblique axial (parallel to the commissural plane) brain coverage. Data acquisition were peripherally gated to the cardiac cycle. Data were acquired for 60 slices of 2.4 mm in thickness, with a field of view of 23 cm and an acquisition matrix of 96 × 96. Echo time was 87 milliseconds and parallel imaging (array spatial sensitivity encoding factor = 2) was used. The b-value was 1200 s/mm^2^. In each imaging session, data were acquired with diffusion encoded along 30 isotropically distributed directions and 3 nondiffusion-weighted scans, according to an optimized gradient vector scheme ([@B18]). Fluid attenuated inversion recovery scans were also obtained. Acquisition time was 19 minutes.
Images were visually inspected for the presence of white matter hyperintensities. On this basis, 2 subjects were excluded from further analysis.
Diffusion metrics and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Diffusion-weighted images were corrected for eddy current and motion distortion using the ExploreDTI software package ([@B19]). Diffusion tensor images were then corrected to remove the effects of cerebrospinal fluid contamination using the Free Water Elimination approach ([@B20]). Maps of the next microstructural measures were then created. Fractional anisotropy (FA) is a measure of the directionality of diffusion, commonly used in diffusion MRI research studies. FA is high in white matter, especially in major tracts in which axons are packed in a coherent, parallel fashion. It is also increased by the presence of axonal membranes or myelin sheaths that hinder diffusion. Disruption of this coherent organization or loss of axons or myelin generally reduce FA and increase mean diffusivity (MD), a measure of diffusion averaged in all spatial directions. Axial diffusivity (AD) is a measure of diffusion taken along the principal axis of diffusion (usually assumed to be the orientation of fibers in a white matter tract). Radial diffusivity (RD) is a measure of diffusion perpendicular to this principal axis. Some have argued that AD is more sensitive to axonal factors and RD more sensitive to myelination but their precise biophysical correlates are not known. Tissue volume fraction (*f*) represents the proportion of a voxel that is composed of gray or white matter (as opposed to cerebrospinal fluid). One simplified interpretation of this measure would be to view it as a measure of atrophy at a small (microstructural) scale. All measures were calculated as previously described ([@B21]).
The above steps produced diffusion measurements at each voxel (imaging element) in the brain. To compare measurements across the PCOS and control groups, these images were all mapped to a single template. This allows measures to be compared voxel by voxel (described as "voxel-based analysis"), with the problem of comparisons across many voxels addressed by one of a number of statistical approaches that are widely accepted in neuroimaging research. The advantage of this approach is that it is free of a priori bias about the likely location of structural alteration in the brain. TBSS is a widely accepted approach for statistical analysis of diffusion data and was implemented in this study. TBSS is part of the FMRIB Software Library image analysis software (Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, University of Oxford, <http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/>, version 5.0) ([@B22]). Using TBSS, microstructural measures from the presumed tract centers of each participant were estimated. First, the recommended FMRIB58_FA standard-space image was used as the registration target for each subject\'s FA maps. The aligned FA data were then projected to the mean FA skeleton. Voxel projections defined in this way were applied to project voxel values of MD, AD, RD, and *f* to the white matter skeleton for each subject. Resulting skeletonized data were used to generate voxelwise statistical analyses.
Statistical analysis
--------------------
Principal components analysis was used to generate an unbiased composite measure of cognitive scores. Principal components were derived from the next tests: Digit Span, Free and Cued Selective Reminding test, Rey Osterrieth Complex figure test, Verbal Trails, Digit Symbol Substitution and the letter and semantic fluency test. The first principal component, which accounted for 35% of the variance across all test scores, was used as a summary score and compared across the 2 groups using an unpaired *t* test. A threshold of significance of 0.05 was used for this single comparison. Subsequent comparisons for individual test scores were performed. These were exploratory, so only uncorrected *P* values are provided.
For TBSS, 2-sample unpaired *t* tests for reduced and increased diffusion measures in PCOS patients compared with controls were performed. Additionally, microstructural measures were correlated with the value of the first principal component and hormonal levels in each group separately. Statistical inference was based on nonparametric permutation: 5000 permutations were performed using randomize software ([@B23]). Resulting statistical maps were thresholded for *P* \< .05, corrected for familywise error, by implementing threshold-free cluster enhancement ([@B24]).
In the absence of any previous data in subjects with PCOS, we based our sample size calculations on data from a previous study, which examined the influence of BMI on corpus callosum microstructure ([@B10]). Anticipating a broadly similar effect size, we calculated that a sample of 18 participants per group would provide at least 95% power to detect a between-group difference in FA of 0.05 at the 5% significance level.
Results
=======
Group differences between PCOS and control participants
-------------------------------------------------------
Participants in the PCOS group included those with full-blown (n = 8, 44%), non-polycystic ovary (n = 1, 6%), nonhyperandrogenic (n = 5, 28%), and ovulatory (n = 4, 22%) subphenotypes described by the Rotterdam criteria. No individual in either group had evidence of depression based on Beck depression inventory score (scores all \<15). The groups were well matched for premorbid intelligence. [Table 1](#T1){ref-type="table"} shows demographic, clinical, anthropometric, and metabolic characteristics of the 2 groups. The groups were closely matched for age, BMI, and anthropometric measures. As expected, individuals with PCOS had raised testosterone and androstenedione levels compared with controls. Insulin response to oral glucose challenge (insulin AUC) was higher in those with PCOS, confirming insulin resistance in this group. Two subjects in each group were taking a combined oral contraceptive pill, and 2 in each group were smokers. Five subjects in the PCOS group, and 2 controls had prediabetes (American Diabetes Association criteria), whereas 3 subjects with PCOS and 4 controls had metabolic syndrome according to the International Diabetes Federation definition.
######
Anthropometric and Metabolic Characteristics of the Study Population
PCOS (n = 18, Mean ± SD) Controls (n = 18, Mean ± SD) *P* Value
---------------------------------- -------------------------- ------------------------------ -----------
Age (y) 31 ± 6 31 ± 7 .9
Estimated premorbid intelligence 122 ± 4 121 ± 8 .35
Weight (kg) 78 ± 21 76 ± 15 .68
BMI (kg/m^2^) 30 ± 6 29 ± 6 .61
Systolic BP (mm Hg) 119 ± 8 120 ± 11 .96
Diastolic BP (mm Hg) 66 ± 8 69 ± 10 .36
Waist (cm) 91 ± 15 86 ± 13 .31
Hip (cm) 111 ± 16 106 ± 12 .24
Visceral fat area (cm^2^) 31 ± 23 26 ± 14 .46
Subcutaneous fat area (cm^2^) 287 ± 119 298 ± 114 .78
Total fat area (cm^2^) 318 ± 133 324 ± 124 .89
Testosterone (nmol/L) 1.6 ± 0.6 0.9 ± 0.6 .01
Androstenedione (nmol/L) 13.4 ± 7.3 6.8 ± 2.5 .001
hsCRP (mg/L) 1.2 (0.2 ± 21.8) 0.9 (0.1 ± 16.7) .73
Total cholesterol (mmol/L) 4.6 ± 1.3 4.8 ± 1.1 .67
Triglycerides (mmol/L) 1.2 ± 1.4 1.0 ± 0.5 .52
LDL cholesterol (mmol/L) 2.4 ± 1.4 2.5 ± 1.3 .79
HDL cholesterol (mmol/L) 1.2 ± 0.5 1.3 ± 0.6 .65
HbA1c (mmol/mol) 34.6 ± 2.9 33.6 ± 4.4 .40
Insulin AUC (pmol min/L) 93 151 ± 42 694 61 933 ± 29 614 .04
Glucose AUC (mmol min/L) 764 ± 217 692 ± 133 .24
Estimation of premorbid intelligence was based on the National Adult Reading Test--Revised. hsCRP, high sensitivity CRP; LDL, low density lipoprotein; HDL, high density lipoprotein; AUC, AUC during oral glucose tolerance test.
Cognitive performance was degraded in patients with PCOS compared with controls. For the summary score, the between group difference was significant: *t* = 2.88, *P* = .007. [Table 2](#T2){ref-type="table"} summarizes performance on underlying individual cognitive measures.
######
Performance on Individual Cognitive Tests
PCOS (n = 18, Mean ± SD) Controls (n = 18, Mean ± SD) *P* Value
---------------------------------------- -------------------------- ------------------------------ -----------
Intelligence and executive function
Digit span forward 12 ± 1.9 13.6 ± 2.2 .02
Digit span backward 7.4 ± 2.5 9.1 ± 2.3 .04
Digit symbol 83 ± 15.8 90.1 ± 12.5 .14
Verbal trails (switching cost) 44.5 ± 21.2 33.4 ± 9.8 .03
Verbal trails (errors) 1.1 ± 1.5 .55 ± 1.1 .23
Letter fluency 38.1 ± 11 39.1 ± 11 .79
Category fluency 39.6 ± 7.5 44 ± 6.3 .06
Stroop Colour Word test (duration) 118.3 ± 22.7 106.4 ± 20.5 .11
WASI (vocabulary) 64 ± 9.2 69.88 ± 5.5 .02
WASI (block design) 49.1 ± 13.7 56.2 ± 8.9 .07
WASI (similarities) 39.5 ± 4.8 43.61 ± 2.8 .04
WASI (matrix reasoning) 27.1 ± 6.6 27.8 ± 3.2 .7
Episodic memory
FCSRT immediate recall 13.7 ± 1.9 15.4 ± 2.4 .03
FCSRT free recall 35.7 ± 8.9 41.1 ± 8.1 .06
FCSRT total recall 41.7 ± 7.7 44.7 ± 6.1 .20
FCSRT delayed free recall 13.2 ± 2.4 14.9 ± 1.2 .01
FCSRT delayed total recall 15.8 ± 0.4 15.9 ± 0.2 .65
Rey Osterrieth Complex figure 26.7 ± 6.9 30.6 ± 4 .05
FCSRT, Free and Cued Selective Reminding test.
Analysis of diffusion MRI images revealed differences in white matter microstructure between PCOS and control groups. Areas of decreased AD in PCOS were found throughout the mean white matter skeleton ([Figure 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}, blue). In addition, tissue volume fraction was increased in the rostral body of the corpus callosum and parts of anterior white matter ([Figure 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}, red) in PCOS. There were no significant differences in voxelwise values of FA, MD, or RD between the groups.
{#F1}
Insulin resistance and white matter microstructure
--------------------------------------------------
Voxelwise correlations between insulin AUC and AD were not significant in either PCOS or controls. However, there was a significant group by insulin AUC interaction (*P* \< .05 corrected with familywise error) ([Figure 2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}A), suggesting that the relationship between insulin resistance and white matter microstructure differed in PCOS and control groups. To explore this further, mean values of AD were extracted from this region and plotted against insulin AUC ([Figure 2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}B). Increasing insulin resistance was associated with reduction of AD in controls (Pearson\'s *r* = −0.75) but with increasing AD in those with PCOS (Pearson\'s *r* = 0.73), a reversal of the relationship found in controls. The reduction in AD found, on average, in patients with PCOS compared with controls was evident in those with relatively normal insulin AUC (\<100 000 pmol min/L) but AD was increased in a subset of PCOS patients with marked insulin resistance.
{#F2}
Androgens and white matter microstructure
-----------------------------------------
Serum testosterone correlated positively with both AD and FA in the PCOS group ([Figure 3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). No association was observed in control participants. The direction of effect was consistent with that found between insulin AUC and diffusion metrics, ie, increasing values of AD were associated with both increases in testosterone and insulin AUC ([Figure 2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}B) in patients with PCOS.
{#F3}
Metabolic status, white matter microstructure, and cognition in PCOS
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We found no correlation between cognitive performance and testosterone or insulin AUC in PCOS (testosterone: *r* = −0.12, *P* = .64; insulin AUC: *r* = 0.01, *P* = .98). No significant correlations were observed between microstructural measures and cognition. Similarly, no significant associations with cognitive performance were found in the control group.
Discussion
==========
PCOS was associated with both subtle decrements of cognitive function and alterations in microstructure of brain white matter. These differences are not attributable to BMI, which was closely matched between groups, as was general intelligence. PCOS is one of the commonest metabolic syndromes, affecting up to 10% of women of reproductive age ([@B25]). The public health importance of PCOS is amplified by the association with other rapidly growing public health problems, notably type 2 diabetes and obesity ([@B26]). Traditionally, treatment has focused on managing infertility and reducing cardiovascular risk. The current results suggest that the potential consequences of PCOS are wider: the possibility that PCOS represents a midlife risk state for cognitive decline in old age should be explored. The case-control design effectively isolated 2 features of PCOS, insulin resistance and hyperandrogenemia, as possible causes of the alterations in white matter structure and cognition that were observed. Attention to these specific factors would help to define such a risk state and potential treatments more precisely.
The current findings suggest a subtle but widespread erosion of cognitive performance. In an internet-based computerized study, Barnard et al hypothesized that women with PCOS would display enhanced cognitive performance on sexually dimorphic tasks ([@B5]). However, no difference was found in performance of mental rotation or spatial location tasks. Contrary to expectation, women with PCOS showed impaired performance on reaction time and word recognition tasks. Schattmann and Sherwin similarly found no differences on tests of mental rotation, spatial visualization, or spatial perception in PCOS ([@B6]). However, subjects with PCOS performed less well on tests of verbal fluency, verbal memory, manual dexterity, and visuospatial working memory. Previous studies have often been limited by poor case-control matching. For example, Barry et al found evidence of better visuospatial task performance in women with PCOS compared with subfertile controls, but this difference was no longer significant when age and BMI were controlled for in the analysis ([@B27]).
In parallel with metabolic and cognitive differences, microstructural alterations in cerebral white matter were observed in the PCOS group. AD was reduced in a large portion of the white matter skeleton in PCOS and tissue volume fraction was increased in the anterior corpus callosum. Intriguingly, similar findings have been reported in studies on sexual dimorphism. For example, Kumar et al ([@B28]) found widespread reductions of axial and RD values in the male brain. The corpus callosum is generally larger in males. Further, a study with myelin-water fraction imaging has illustrated increased myelin density in males in the rostral body and posterior midbody of the corpus callosum ([@B29]), possibly concordant with our findings of increased *f* in the anterior part of the corpus callosum even though these studies address structural characteristics that are not necessarily closely correlated. One interpretation of the findings in the present study, therefore, is that an influence of androgens on brain structure produces alterations in PCOS that parallel the characteristics of the male brain.
The finding of a positive association between androgens and AD within the PCOS group was a surprise, given evidence that white matter AD is reduced in PCOS. Hyperandrogenemia and insulin resistance in the PCOS group were associated with increasing AD, despite a mean reduction in the PCOS group as a whole. The likely explanation was a reversal of the normal relationship between microstructure and metabolic status in patients with PCOS, reflected in a significant group by insulin AUC interaction. These findings raise the possibility that the brain responds differently to the effect of androgens in PCOS. Alternatively, there may be significant heterogeneity among individuals that is currently not captured by the coarse diagnostic categories in current use. For example, there may be distinct subtypes of PCOS with and without insulin resistance that differ in a variety of ways that are not yet fully understood; similarly, the presence of increased insulin resistance in some BMI-matched controls suggests heterogeneity in the healthy population.
Previous studies have reported differences in diffusion metrics in both type 2 diabetes ([@B7]) and obesity. Type 2 diabetes is associated with increases in AD in a number of specific tracts. Studies in obesity are less consistent, with at least 1 study reporting effects that vary by anatomical location in the brain and include both increases and decreases of AD in different regions ([@B12], [@B30], [@B31]). These reports illustrate that there is no simple relationship between diffusion measures and better or worse white matter "integrity" ([@B32]). The histological basis of alterations in disease states remains unclear and further work is required to aid the interpretation of direction as well as the magnitude of effects. Previous epidemiological studies suggest a complex relationship between BMI and dementia risk. Both high and low body mass states have been associated with future dementia risk, with evidence that the relationship might differ in mid and later life ([@B2]). One recent report highlighted this complexity by showing a relationship between low body weight in midlife and dementia ([@B33]) contradicting previously held views about midlife obesity ([@B2], [@B3]). The average age of individuals at entry to this recent retrospective study was 55; even less is known about the risk implications of BMI in the twenties and thirties, the age range relevant to the current study.
There were some limitations to the experimental approach. Firstly, we selected our PCOS subjects by the Rotterdam criteria, which embrace a less severe metabolic phenotype than other definitions of the syndrome. However, if anything this might be expected to underestimate the extent of white matter alteration in PCOS subjects with more severe hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance. The Rotterdam criteria also encompass a heterogeneous group, hence future studies should compare distinct PCOS phenotypes, including lean subjects alone, in order to establish whether cognitive function and white matter microstructure are altered in all PCOS patients or only in some. Secondly, we did not capture information on physical activity levels in our study; future studies should look to record this in view of the possible relationship between sedentary behavior and cognitive decline. Thirdly, no clear correlation was found between cognition and white matter structure of relevant regions or connections. This related partly to power. Another factor was the unexpected interaction between group and metabolic factors in their influence on white matter structure.
A key question that follows from these observations is whether alterations in brain structure and function can be reversed, reducing the risk of future cognitive decline. Interestingly, 1 study in PCOS suggested improvement in a single cognitive measure (verbal fluency), after combined treatment with an antiandrogen plus estrogen ([@B34]). Based on the current results, both insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism are potential targets, and advanced MRI has a potential role as a biomarker of treatment effect.
Abbreviations: ADaxial diffusivityAUCarea under the curveBMIbody mass indexCRPC-reactive protein*f*fractionFAfractional anisotropyIQintelligence quotientMDmean diffusivityMRImagnetic resonance imagingPCOSpolycystic ovary syndromeRDradial diffusivityTBSStract-based spatial statisticsWASIWechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence.
This work was supported by the Medical Research Council, United Kingdom Grant G0701912 and by School of Medicine, Cardiff University.
Current address for D.A.R. and M.U.: Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Disclosure Summary: The authors have nothing to disclose.
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A two-stage ditch is a design conversion that modifies the geometry of a ditch to establish benches ... within the ditch. The ditch provides a low-flow channel and then a vegetated bench that is flooded during ... in the flow might settle. A two-stage ditch is an in-channel practice. Figures 16a and 16b. ...
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Surface Drain/Field Ditch (NRCS 607)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/surface-drainfield-ditch-nrcs-607
A graded ditch for collecting excess water in a field. Used to drain surface depressions; collect ... https://agbmps.osu.edu/submit/email-general-questions-comments-or-concerns Surface Drainage/Field Ditch (NRCS 607) ...
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Saturated Buffer (NRCS 604)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/saturated-buffer-nrcs-604
buffer where the soil filters nutrient removal before naturally entering an adjoining ditch or stream. ... buffers can be placed in many locations. A saturated buffer is best suited where: low-grade ditches (less ... zones along ditches and streams. Figure 50. A side view of a saturated buffer. Credit: ...
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Critical Concerns
https://agbmps.osu.edu/critical-concerns
deposited as the water slows in the water course (ditch, stream, or river). Removal is required to maintain ... Ditch/Streambank Collapse adds sediment downstream Channel Bed Stabilization Stream Bank Stabilization Riparian ... Forest Buffers Open Channel/Two-Stage Ditch Surface water leaving via field edge or tile risers results ...
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Water Control Structure (NRCS 587)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/water-control-structure-nrcs-587
elevation of water in drainage or irrigation ditches include checks, flashboard risers and check dams. Other ... as installation of a structure in a ditch, a permit might be required. Sizing and installing ...
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Stream Bank Stabilization (NRCS 580)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/stream-bank-stabilization-nrcs-580
barbs/bendway weir Other measures are floodplain establishment measures, such as two-stage ditches and ... a stream or ditch. Shoreline stabilization measures are often associated with preventing and reducing soil ...
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Wood Chip Bioreactor (NRCS 605)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/wood-chip-bioreactor-nrcs-605
water at the edge of a field prior to the water entering a ditch or a stream. Bioreactors do not ...
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Subsurface Placement of Nutrient
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/subsurface-placement-nutrient
soil surface to surface drains or directly to ditches/ streams will have a higher concentration of ... direct runoff to a ditch, surface water features, or macropore movement. Edge-of-field monitoring studies ...
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Blind Inlet (NRCS 620)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/blind-inlet-nrcs-620
sediment, nutrients, and other contaminants that would otherwise be transported to receiving ditches or ...
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Grassed Waterways (NRCS 412)
https://agbmps.osu.edu/bmp/grassed-waterways-nrcs-412
as shallow, grassed field ditches that collect runoff from furrows and areas in fields that slope ... | https://cfaes.osu.edu/search/site/klase%20ditch?f%5B0%5D=hash%3Aom8u5n&f%5B1%5D=hash%3A7lpb3h&f%5B2%5D=hash%3Agdwtnr&f%5B3%5D=hash%3Ah6e84e |
Olmsted and Vaux, having recently separated as professional partners, presented their first proposal for the improvement of Morningside Park in 1873. While elements of the plan were adopted, the estimated costs of $800,000 were too expensive and financial setbacks halted construction. It was not until 1887, when Olmsted & Vaux were hired to present a proposal for the second time, that the Park Commissioners officially accepted and implemented their revised plans.
Only a block away from the northwest corner of Central Park, Olmsted wanted the entrance of its neighbor to be “a scene strikingly interesting in character” as to “not produce the effect of a small weak pendant of the older and more important ground”. Throughout their involvement with the project, they faced several limitations due to the park's geography, which consisted of 30 acres of steep uneven terrain caused by Manhattan schist bedrock. To highlight the dramatic shifts in elevation, the 1873 proposal recommended a western stone retaining wall with balconies and stairways overlooking the Harlem flats, and a total of 14 entrances from the surrounding 20-foot wide mall. Construction of Olmsted and Vaux’s retaining wall along Morningside Avenue progressed slowly and the Department of Public Works hired architect Jacob Wrey Mould and Julius Munckwitz, in 1880 and 1883 respectively, to oversee the final designs of the overlooks and octagonal alcoves. Jacob Wrey Mould had been an assistant architect in Olmsted, Vaux & Co when the firm worked on Central Park.
As few improvements had been accomplished in the prior decade, Olmsted and Vaux joined together again 14 years later, with a revised plan that considered the evolution of the neighborhood and proximity to a newly established railroad. Morningside Avenue was widened and construction of three western bays made of granite and bluestone, were approved with the understanding that they would match the style of work already completed. Focused on the park’s internal design, in this simpler amended plan they described the need for "a more than liberal...use of variety of plants" to refresh the rocky property, and emphasized outward looking views by selecting trees where "except at occasional points, none shall grow to a height at which they will hide the horizon." Construction of the park was finished in 1895. [FLO to SHWales_1873-10-11_Papers of FLO-v.6-p.654] [General Plan for the Improvement of Morningside Park_FLO&CVaux_1887-10-01_p.9_HTDL]
To view plans, documents, & images
Plans (43)
Documents See Research Instructions & Links in sidebar for additional information (4)
|Type||Title|
|Job fIle (LOC)||LOC_00503(1886-1889)_OAR-B-R26_mss52571.00520||View|
|General Correspondence (LOC)||LOC_00503(1887-08-07)_FLOP-C-GC-R21_DWOlmsted-FLO_mss35121.0171_im.5||View|
|document||Morningside Park Designation Report||View|
|published document||General plan for the Improvement of Morningside Park_1887||View|
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To additional plans & images for this project:
Olmsted Archives - digital collection courtesy of NPS Frederick Law Olmsted NHS
To additional project information: | https://olmstedonline.org/Job/Details/00503 |
One of the most innovative segments in all of healthcare is the development of GCT driven therapies for rare and ultra-rare diseases. Driven by a series of insights and tools and funded in part by disease focused foundations, philanthropists and abundant venture funding disease after disease is yielding to new GCT technology. These often become platforms to address more prevalent diseases. The goal of making these breakthroughs routine and affordable is challenged by a range of issues including clinical trial design and pricing.
- What is driving the interest in rare diseases?
- What are the biggest barriers to making breakthroughs ‘routine and affordable?’
- What is the role of retrospective and prospective natural history studies in rare disease? When does the expected value of retrospective disease history studies justify the cost?
- Related to the first question, what is the FDA expecting as far as controls in clinical trials for rare diseases? How does this impact the collection of natural history data?
- Moderator:
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- Speakers: | https://worldmedicalinnovation.org/events/rare-and-ultra-rare-diseases-gct-breaks-through/ |
It is hard to visit a performance of Parsifal without interpretative clutter getting in the way. It is not drawn primarily from a Christian source, despite being linked to Christian references. Nor is it a “sacred drama”, for Wagner had far more serious intentions than the simple-minded idea that he was simply deifying sensual renunciation in quest of spiritual truth. His search for original source materials for his operas led him to seek far and wide, grappling with ideas drawn from histories and mythologies far beyond his own native land. He even engaged with Buddhism, and nearly wrote a Buddhist themed opera Die Sieger (The Victors), but that did not advance beyond a brief prose draft.
Parsifal is Wagner’s last major operatic statement, weaving many themes and narratives into a flow of inventive dramaturgy, strangely austere but nevertheless rich in meaning. Seeing the revival of the 2012 production by Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam at the end of 2016, I was most struck by the sheer beauty of the composer’s final operatic score, with its rich blending of so many themes of human frailty, mortality, redemption and transcendence in a lucid and intelligent production by Pierre Audi.
The set design by Anish Kapoor partly incorporated a gigantic concave mirror suspended by near invisible steel wires above the stage. This allowed director Pierre Audi to access the floor of the space clear of set artifacts, so that action could move freely. The presence of the huge mirror in some of the scenes was as much a reflective surface as also one that made available a meditative reflection on the deeper themes in the drama, graphically intensifying the figures of the actors moving before it in striking ways, both distorting and beautifying the amplified visual forms in a chaos of colour and form.
Parsifal is a gigantic work, an opera spinning out its three Acts over four hours. How does one approach a work of such provenance, with its enormous tracts of dialogue? Perhaps mindful of the interpretive hysteria that surrounds Parsifal’s identity, Pierre Audi chose simply to concentrate on elucidating some of the deepest levels of emotional surface, as in the unforgettable scene between Kundry and Parsifal, a tension whose resolution also makes possible the redemption of the entire kingdom of the Grail. Audi energised these long stretches of dialogues on an almost bare stage, marshalling the tested resources of a minimalist presentation, shorn of illustration. The exchanges with Kundry during which Parsifal peers through the mists of time to learn about his mother and his origins are some of the most deeply felt strophes in the opera, and an essential part of his personal journey. Even though Parsifal shot down a bird in flight in Act One with his cross-bow, his intentionality never harbours violence, and retains throughout a touching harmlessness of character and bearing. This innocent quality, untainted by the ravages of an upbringing that is normally the preserve of warriors and noblemen, makes it possible for him to eventually claim the power of a healer, and release Amfortas from his suffering. The tenor Christopher Ventris carried these scenes with enormous integrity, negotiating a rich and demanding score with authority and a sense of the title character’s inner resources. Parsifal’s journey from the innocent Fool to an enlightened Savant, in the body and song of Ventris, becomes a journey borne with forbearance, revelation and courage.
The “wound”, a ubiquitous reference point in Parsifal, is the dark centre of so much of the action, and a source of the suffering borne not just by Amfortas but also by his subjects. To that extent, this narrative oddly connects us with the Oedipus myth. In the Greek story the wound is borne by all of Thebes’ citizens, a land and its citizens accursed by an unknown plague, whose origins, we learn later, stem from Oedipus’s incestuous relationship with his mother, something Oedipus himself is unaware of. Self-knowledge, when it comes, is cathartic but devastating, destroying Oedipus, as he blinds himself brutally and stumbles away from his kingdom into exile. Parsifal however is no such tragedy; essentially transformative in its action, its revelation leads the character of Parsifal to a transcendent wakening. The Parsifal myth lies beyond Greek tragedy, and its many other strands of narrative come into play to bring about the transfiguration of a hugely interesting character, who is entirely believable and credible in his core of integrity.
Though commentators have suggested that Amfortas’s bleeding wound is analogous to the wound of Christ on the Cross, a close reading of the text shows that this link is only ancillary. The Parsifal story really originates in a Celtic myth of an infertile ruler, thereby inflicting his inadequacy on his subjects who are also thus afflicted and share Amfortas’s suffering. While Wagner does refer to the wound in Christian terms and to the ‘Redeemer’, his real interest is in Parsifal’s spiritual journey and the redemption of Amfortas and his subjects. The Christian references therefore are allusive and arguably rather glossed over. It is a sort of ambiguity that makes the narrative line less obvious and direct, leaving spaces for learning and reflection, yielding many facets of meaning.
It is tempting to see a strong influence of Buddhism in Parsifal. But there are some striking differences too. What originally impelled the young Sakyan prince Gautam to asceticism was not a rejection of the sensual world in itself, but his relentless search for an immutable state of grace, free from suffering. This was the primary motive of the movement towards Enlightenment. That it involved, ultimately, a rejection of sensual experience as a temporary and dubious gain, is a natural consequence of his primary search for a transcendent state free of the causal processes that bring about suffering. In Wagner’s dramaturgy however, the rejection of sensual experience is very much in the foreground, as in the rejection of the advances of the Flower Maidens and in the rejection of Kundry’s amorous demands, which are all too human. But it is a psychological rejection, not a religious one. Once Wagner had charted Parsifal’s transformation from innocent Fool to Wise Sage, he felt he had achieved his objective and could walk away from the pseudo-Buddhist opera Die Sieger that he had once thought of writing.
An extraordinary blend of recurring themes, all closely linked motivically, as well as ambiguities in harmony and several references to Wagner’s previous works show what a rich amalgam of musical ideas informed his musical processes. There are telling references to Lohengrin, The Mastersingers, Tristan and the Ring Cycle – as it were, a conscious coalescing of themes by a seasoned composer creating a unified harmonic field filled with mythic resonances that had preoccupied and inspired him his whole life. The dramaturgical achievement of tying the music to the narrative drama is immense, and it isn’t terribly perceptive to disparage the theatrical power of the work and to claim – as some notable commentators do – that all of the drama is in the music. That would discount the incredible skill needed to blend so many strands of textual narrative together and to underpin these in a web of musical grundenmotives that are in a perennial state of iteration and transformation. The text of this work was itself an enormous undertaking, and fashioned by a superlative story-teller.
From the moment the gentle and searching unison monody, bereft of any obvious metrical pattern, launches the luminous Overture, the music was deftly and powerfully directed by Marc Albrecht, chief conductor of the Dutch National Opera, who is equally at home in traditional operatic repertoire as in contemporary music. There was not one faltering beat or bar, and the baton fell with incredible grace and power on every musical surface, with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra lighting up harmonies of lustrous resonance. Tempi were perfectly judged, elucidating emotional energy in a landmark performance, that one could cherish and for long summon to memory.
Pierre Audi has had a brilliant tenure at Dutch National Opera (formerly De Nederlandse Opera) as Intendant for well nigh 30 years and left an indelible mark on the company. He has had many groundbreaking productions to his credit, including the entire Ring Cycle, and has been responsible for commissioning and mentoring a plethora of modern composers, and for consistently producing work of vision. He came to Amsterdam after a brief period with London’s hugely successful Almeida Theatre, which he also founded. He leaves his post in Amsterdam in 2018 for other challenges in the operatic stratosphere. It is hard to imagine who could succeed him.
Audi’s deft and experienced hand was evident throughout the performance of Parsifal – in the delineation of the dramatic line, constantly in touch with emotion, in the inspired choice of a brilliant visual artist to design the set, but above all in the meticulous attention he paid to the qualities embedded in the script and the score. His reading allowed the character of Parsifal, in all its complexity and beauty, to come through lucidly, shorn of any hint of pretension, speaking at the most elemental level of feeling. If this, Wagner’s last opera, is overwhelming, the production did it overwhelming justice. Audi’s great hallmark as a director is his unerring ability to energise a long drawn out dramatic process with tension and sensitivity, without any disruptive clutter and without reliance on decorative surface gesture. His dramatic approach in Parsifal was spare, minimal, elucidating the expressive intentions of a composer at the height of his powers. At a time when sensate art seems to be all the rage, this was an eloquent statement of ideational art at its most expressive and intense. | https://paramvir.net/art/parsifal-wagners-rich-myth-of-transformation/ |
Evaluation of sequence variations in the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of 19 accessions, comprising of 11 accessions of Chenopodium quinoa, eight accessions of Chenopodium album and 165 retrieved sequences of different species of Chenopodium belonging to subfamily Chenopodioideae revealed a higher intraspecific genetic diversity in Himalayan C. album than that in C. quinoa. ITS and amplified fragment-length profiles of the accessions suggest the existence of accessions of Himalayan C. album as heteromorphs of the same species rather than a heterogenous assemblage of taxa. While the evolutionary relationship reconstructed from variations in 184 sequences of ITS region from species belonging to Chenopodiaceae, Amaranthaceae, Polygonaceae and Nelumbonaceae established a paraphyletic evolution of family Chenopodiaceae, it also revealed a monophyletic evolution of Chenopodieae I. The reconstruction also established five independent lineages of the subfamily Chenopodioideae with C. album as a sister clade of C. quinoa within the tribe Chenopodieae I. The results also indicate a much younger age for Himalayan chenopods (C. album) than the reported crown age of Chenopodieae I. | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12041-019-1079-0 |
- Mix together yeast and lukewarm water, set aside.
- In bowl, mix 2 cups flour, salt, sugar, oil and hot water until mixed. Then add yeast and a further 2 cups of flour and mix together. Continue mixing by hand, add flour as needed until mixture isn't sticky to touch.
- Turn out onto surface and knead for 10 minutes, using more flour if needed. Generally the recipe needs 5 cups flour in total, but no worries if you need the full 6 to get the preferred consistency.
- When happy with knead, place in bowl and let rise to twice the size.
- When risen, turn out and knock about for a few minutes before returning to bowl for a 2nd rise to double size.
- Section dough out into preferred tins or shapes - this mix with make 3 traditional loafs but spilt out how you wish. Allow the mixture to rise for a 3rd time in its tin.
- Cook for 10 mins on 200 deg C (conventional), then for a further 30 mins on 170 deg C (conventional). Cover the top with foil if bread starts to catch too much colour before fully cooking.
Recipe Notes
Not only does triple-raised bread sound fancy if you have friends and family coming over but it actually develops the bread's flavour and increases its shelf life. | http://www.thedinnerset.com/recipes/view/triple-raised-brilliant-bread |
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