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2022. 7. 29. · The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger) is a species of very large tortoise in the genus Chelonoidis (which also contains three smaller species from mainland South America).It comprises 15. Just this year, the 190-year-old tortoise broke a Guinness World Record as the oldest living land animal. Thu, Jul 28, 2022. ... Wild tortoises can live up to 150 years old. Their life expectancy. 2022. 2. 23. · Johnson Michaels February 23, 2022. A tortoise can live without food for a long time. In the wild tortoises can go without food for months even years. When food is scarce tortoises will slow down their metabolism and enter a state of dormancy. During this time the tortoise will not eat drink or defecate. When conditions improve and food becomes. 1 day ago · Since this behemoth tortoise has lived in isolation for so long and their lives are measured in centuries, it’s very difficult to get an accurate age on them. These are the big fellas they think could have lived 400 or more years. In.
The oldest known turtle lived to be more than 150 years old. The oldest tortoise named "Tuatara" was recorded at 188 years of age. It is estimated that sea turtles have a life span of 80-100 years. A Greek tortoise can live up to 100 years. However, the exact life expectancy of a turtle depends on its environment. A whale that can live for 200 years and a lizard that became a father at 111 are just a few of the longest-lived animals in the world. See the photo gallery. ... was Harriet, a Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise who lived to the ripe old age of 175 (give or take a year or two). Born in the 1830s, Harriet was collected by Charles Darwin when he.
Galápagos tortoises are noted to live over 150 years, but an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita may have lived an estimated 255 years. In general, most tortoise species can live 80-150 years. Tortoises are placid and slow-moving, with an average walking speed of 0.2-0.5 km/h. Contents 1 Terminology 2 Biology 2.1 Life cycle 2.2 Sexual dimorphism. In the wild, red footed tortoises can live anywhere from 20-40 years, however, in captivity it is believed they live much longer. A captive bred, hatched and raised red footed tortoise for sale, could live as long as 90 years. An Average lifespan of a red foot tortoise is 50-90 years in captivity. Learn proper red footed tortoise care with our. Parrots, like the scarlet macaw, can live to over 80 years. Giant tortoises can weigh over 600 pounds. Galápagos tortoises are the biggest land tortoise and one of the oldest- living tortoises in the world. Seeing the immortal jellyfish life cycle.
But it's difficult to know exactly how long sea turtles can live. Their life span is often longer than most research projects. So it is hard to accurately measure their life span over this long period of time. The most consistent estimate is about 80 years. There are seven species of sea turtles. Six of them are endangered. Tortoises have a very long life compared to other reptiles and animals. Most aquatic and land tortoises and tortoises live around 40 years, but there are certain species that will live even longer than that, some of them even reaching ages over 100 years old. By making an average of the lifespan of all tortoise species, 40 years is a good estimate.
2016. 5. 17. · The oldest living giant tortoise known to science (and the oldest animal in the world) is Jonathan, a 184-year-old that lives on St. Helena Island. Unofficially,. Jun 01, 2021 · A 21-year-old man is fighting for his life after crashing with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Virginia Tuesday, creating a miles-long backup, police said. US 95 exits Clark U. 10-25-2018 10:31 AM. From there you can continue straight up a Jul 06, 2019 · Virginia State Police say the crash happened just before 1:30 p.
Galápagos tortoises are noted to live over 150 years, but an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita may have lived an estimated 255 years. In general, most tortoise species can live 80–150 years. Galápagos tortoisesGalápagos tortoisesWith lifespans in the wild of over 100 years, they are one of the longest-lived vertebrates.
2022. 2. 9. · Ideally tortoises should be drinking water everyday however in environments that are low humidity and if the tortoise is relatively healthy they can survive up to 1 week without water. As the time increases your tortoise will be more likely to become dehydrated and suffer health problems. In this article we are going to cover why water is.
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Answer (1 of 12): Different turtle species have various lifespans. There are shorter-lived species like common painted turtles. They are designed to be generalists, being able to live in a variety of environmental conditions. These species have a quick turn around time-- meaning they reach sexual.
The smallest of the species are terrapins and box turtles and their average life-span is 30-40 years. Larger turtles, usually sea turtles live approximately up to 80 years, while the largest species, the giant tortoise has an average age of one hundred years! A few are known to have lived for over two hundred years.
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2022. 4. 8. · It’s no secret that turtles are known to live longer lives than many other pets. Some species of tortoises can live 100 years or more. Several common species of pet water turtles can live into their 40s, though there are.
Can turtles live to be 150 years old? You're right, turtles and tortoises live a lot longer than most other animals. If you were a turtle, you might live for more than 150 years. One giant Galápagos tortoise named Harriet even lived to be more than 170 years old, said my friend Donna Holmes. | https://baub.kempener-kompetenznetz.de/how-old-can-tortoises-live.html |
The Three Principles of Image Optimization by George Peirson
Are you losing visitors to your web site due to slow page load times? Is your site being penalized because the images on your site are too large? Are you able to capture your visitor’s attention in the first 10-15 seconds that they are on your site?
All of these problems can be caused by an improperly optimized web page. In other words, the page loads too slowly and your visitor leaves before you have had a chance to hook them.
Optimizing a page for quick load times can be broken down into 3 broad categories: the basic coding of the page, scripts that are used on the page, and images. Of these three, images that are too large can have the most significant impact on load times and therefore have the greatest potential for improved page loading times if properly optimized.
A Brief Primer On Image Types
There are many image formats in common use on web sites, the three most popular being GIF, JPEG, and to a lesser extent Flash content. We will be limiting our discussion to GIF and JPEG images, with a specific focus on still images.
Each of these image formats has their strengths and weaknesses. GIF or Graphics Interchange Format was developed by CompuServe before the Internet boom as a way to share images on the CompuServe service. Due to limitations with screen resolutions and color depths at the time, GIF images were limited to showing up to 256 colors, more colors were imitated by Dithering, a process of fooling the eye into seeing one color by using 2 or more sets of color dots spaced too closely for the eye to distinguish separately.
Imagine a chessboard with black and white squares. When viewed closely we can distinctly see the individual squares, but if we back off far enough we will no longer be able to discern the individual squares and instead we will see one large grey square, the black and white squares merging together in our eyes to form one solid color. This is the concept behind dithering.
The JPEG file format on the other hand is a newer format that can handle millﯮs of colors easily. The initial drawback to JPEG images is that they do contain many more colors, and each color requires some coding for display, making the file size larg벮
Speeding Up Image Load Times
The main idea behind making an image load faster is to make the file size smaller. This can be accomplished in two ways, you can either make the dimensions of the image smaller, or decrease the amount of coding that is required to display the image.
The easiest way to reduce an image’s file size is to reduce the image’s physical dimensions. In other words, the smaller the image, the smaller the file size. Imagine an image that is a square 80 pixels by 80 pixels. The number of pixels contained in the image is 80×80 or 6400 individual pixels. If we reduce the image size by one half to 40 pixels by 40 pixels we then have 40×40 or 1600 pixels. So reducing the image size in half reduces the file size to one fourth of the original.
This is our First Principle of Image File Size Reduction: Use the smallest image dimensions that will work with your layout. And likewise the fewer images on the page, the fewer image pixels, therefore the smaller the page size.
Since GIF and JPEG image formats use different methods of saving image information, they tend to be better at showing some types of images and worse at showing others.
GIF images, since they are limited to 256 colors per image, are better at displaying images with large solid blocks of color and images with very small physical dimensions. The GIF format will produce smaller file sizes than JPEG for these types of images.
JPEG images are better at showing gradients or subtle changes from one color to another. Therefore JPEGs reproduce photographs very well, or any other image with gradations. The JPEG format will produce smaller file sizes for these types of images than the GIF format will.
This is our Second Principle of Image File Size Reduction: Choose the correct image format for the image you are using. Most web pages will contain a combination of GIF and JPEG images.
Decreasing the coding is called image compression. Both GIF and JPEG images can be compressed but the process is different. In GIF images we try to limit the number of colors, in a JPEG image we use software algorithms to remove redundant information from the file.
Whenever we compress a file we will losë ³ome image quality. We have to reach a balance between a small file size and acceptable image quality.
This is our Third Principle of Image File Size Reduction: Find the least acceptable level of image quality. Most images can handle some compression with very little quality loss, and all images can stand more image quality loss and still be acceptable. Your job is to decide how much quality loss you can accept. In other words, the lower the quality, the smaller the file size.
GIF images can usually be reduced from 256 colors to 128 colors or less, the fewer colors used the smaller the file size. JPEG images can almost always be reduced to a quality setting of 80% and frequently can be reduced down to as little as 15-30%. So when you use a higher compression level (smaller number) the file size will be reduced. Experiment with the image, try smaller and smaller settings until you find the smallest setting that still displays an acceptable quality.
The fastest loading page will have no images and the slowest loading page will be completely filled with full resolution images. If you work towards controlling your images using the principles outlined above you will have a very lean web page that will load quickly and be viewed favorably by the search engines.
About The Author
George Peirson is a successful Entrepreneur and Internet Trainer. He is the author of over 30 multimedia based video training titles covering such topics as Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. To see his training sets visit HowToGurus.com. | https://www.wnwdigital.co.uk/blog/seo/general-seo/the-three-principles-of-image-optimization/ |
Paper prices rose to about 1,200 Egyptian pounds in the local market at the beginning of September, bringing the average price of a ton of paper weighing 50/48 grams close to 28,000 pounds.
Amr Khader, head of the paper division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement that the new increase is the highest in the history of the paper sector in Egypt.
Khader pointed out that the local paper factories attributed the recent increase in prices of the final product to the high cost of production, in conjunction with the high cost of imported and local raw materials.
He said that Quena Paper Industry Company’s paper prices per ton weighing 50/48 grams have now risen to 27,900 pounds, 55/54 grams to 27,300 pounds, and 60/58 grams to 26,800 pounds.
In comparison the paper prices of Misr Edfu Paper Company weighing 50/48 grams was around 27,950 pounds, 55/54 grams was 27,400 pounds, and 60/58 grams were 26,900 pounds, per ton each.
Khader revealed that the price of imported paper rose by about 1,000 pounds per ton, to reach an average price of 35,000 pounds per ton in August. However he expects a decrease in the price of imported paper during the coming period. This is especially so with freight charges dropping by more than 30% with increased services from bigger vessels operating at lower prices, reducing the cost of imports following the decisions of the Ministry of Finance regarding customs release.
According to official sources the demand for paper has increased by more than 50% during the current period, especially with the start of the academic year. The high cost of paper is also expected to raise the cost of the end product, including textbooks, notebooks, brochures, and others.
Khader feels that printing presses and companies can cover the demand of the local market if the import process is facilitated in light of the shortage of local paper supply, calling for the need for the state to support the sector in order to prevent the closure of some printing presses and incurring losses.
The decrease in the supply of paper in the market as well as the difficulty in importing in recent times, and the obstacles to securing financing for importing some of the required items are some of the challenges faced by the industry.
Khader added that Egypt imports wood pulp from several countries, including the USA, Russia, Finland, and Sweden, stating that approximately 12,000 tons are brought annually for Misr Edfu Paper Company, to produce kraft paper of different weights.
The Egyptian market’s consumption of paper is around 500,000 tons annually. Of this about 200,000 tons of paper is produced locally by leading paper manufacturers like Quena and Misr Edfu, along with several other smaller manufacturers, while the rest is imported from abroad. | https://meprinter.com/paper-prices-in-egypt-shatter-records/ |
Welcome to Southern Cup 2018! All of the UK’s southern teams will be competing for the title of Regional Champions, as well as fighting to earn their place at the inaugural European Qualifying Tournament and the British Quidditch Cup 2019.
Dates to Remember
26/10/18 – Player Registration Deadline
26/10/18 – Roster Submission Deadline
29/10/18 – Southern Cup 2018 Hospitality Guide
6/11/18 – Tournament Structure release
7/11/18 – Tournament and Player Fees Payment Deadline
16/11/18 – Schedule release
16/11/18 – Player Guide release
17/11/18 – Volunteer Registration Soft Deadline
Deadlines to Remember
26/10/18 – Player Registration Deadline
26/10/18 – Roster Submission Deadline
7/11/18 – Tournament and Player Fees Payment Deadline
17/11/18 – Volunteer Registration Soft Deadline
Final Standings
|Rank||Team||Played||Wins||W Snitch||QP Diff.||Avg||Total game time||Avg|
|1||Werewolves of London Firsts||7||7||7||520||74.29||131.3||18.76|
|2||London Quidditch Club||7||6||4||560||80||131.5||18.79|
|3||London Unspeakables||7||6||5||250||35.71||162.18||23.17|
|4||Southampton Quidditch Club Firsts||7||4||3||170||24.29||159.83||22.83|
|5||Oxford Mammoths||7||5||5||130||18.57||142.28||20.33|
|6||Werewolves of London Seconds||7||3||2||70||10||147.03||21.00|
|7||Bath Quidditch Club||7||3||4||-440||-62.86||154.92||22.13|
|8||Warwick Quidditch Club||7||4||4||110||15.71||157.77||22.54|
|9||Exeter Eagles||4||2||1||130||32.5||84.88||21.22|
|10||Oxford Radcliffe Chimeras||4||1||1||-70||-17.5||123||30.75|
|11||Portsmouth Strikers||4||2||2||-160||-40||109.98||27.50|
|12||Bournemouth Banshees||4||1||1||-200||-50||96.62||24.15|
|13||Swansea Swans||5||1||1||-110||-22||116.47||23.29|
|14||Bristol Bears||5||1||1||-240||-48||128.12||25.62|
|15||Norwich Nifflers||5||0||0||-290||-58||146.58||29.32|
|16||Southampton Quidditch Club Seconds||5||0||0||-450||-90||106.48||21.30|
|17||London Unbreakables||4||0||0||-220||-55||115.02||28.75|
|18||Cambridge Quidditch Club||4||0||0||-340||-85||110.40||27.6|
The full results can be found here.
PLAYER AND VOLUNTEER SIGNUP FORM
Player signups are now closed, however we are still looking for non-playing volunteers. Please sign up here:
Player and Volunteer Signup Form
Please read each section carefully and if you wish to change any of your answers the form has editing responses enabled.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Tournament Committee:
Tom Challinor – Tournament Director
Arkady English – Assistant Tournament Director
Alix Marie D’Avigneau – Gameplay and Scheduling Co-ordinator
Genevieve Tyrrell- Operations Co-ordinator
Jade Broomby – Communications Co-ordinator
TOURNAMENT FEES
QuidditchUK will invoice clubs the full team AND player fees which must be paid by 11:59pm on 7th November 2018.
Regional Prices are as follows:
Team Fee – £30 Per Team
Player Fee – £20 Per Player
VOLUNTEER
QuidditchUK has set volunteer requirements for Southern Cup.
This is outlined in the QuidditchUK Event Referee Quota Policy on our website, please ensure you and your club are familiar with the volunteer requirements.
The International Quidditch Association has released their referee tests for the 2018/2020 Rulebook. You can register to take the referee tests at iqareferees.org and you can sign up as a volunteer here.
Clubs that do not make their volunteer quota will not be eligible to compete at either Northern or Southern Cup 2018. If you or your club are struggling to reach these quotas, please contact [email protected].
We do accept volunteers who are not part of the referee quota continuously until the volunteer deadline. This is a great way to get involved in the tournament and to support those attending.
ROSTER SUBMISSION
Roster submissions closed on the 26/10/18.
TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE
Day 1 – Pools
18 teams are registered to compete at Southern Cup 2018. These teams have been divided into 4 groups (A-D), using the process outlined in the 2018 Regionals Tournament Info announcement. Groups A and B are made up of 5 teams and Groups C and D contain 4 teams. Each group will play a round robin on Day 1 of Southern Cup.
After all games for Day 1 are completed, teams will be ranked using the criteria below:
- Select as appropriate:
1a. For Ranking Intra-Group: Number of Wins
1b. For Ranking Inter-Group: Group Position(*)
1c. For Final Rankings: Stage of Elimination
- Highest Quaffle Point Differential (QPD), with a maximum of 90 QPD able to be accumulated from any single game
- Head to Head (where applicable)
- Number of Winning Snitch Catches
- Lowest Total Regulation Time Played
- Fewest Red Cards
- Fewest Yellow Cards
- Fewest Blue Cards
- Coin toss
*In pools in which there are 5 teams (A and B), games against the fifth ranked team will be discounted for the purpose of ranking against other pools. For the fifth ranked team, results against the fourth ranked team will be excluded from the standings calculations.
Day 2 – Bracket
After ranking the teams an 18-team bracket will be formed, with a play-in round for teams ranked 15-18. After the round-of-16, a losers’ bracket will be formed in order to determine BQC qualification.
The Southern region has been allocated 14 of the available 30 BQC spots that can be earned through Regionals. The losers of the round-of-16 will all play a “bottom 8” round of playoffs, the winners of which will qualify for BQC. The losers of the “bottom 8” round will play a further round of playoffs, the winners of which will qualify for BQC.
5th/6th and 7th/8th playoffs will take place to determine seeding and qualification respectively for the European Qualifier Tournament.
If you have any queries regarding the tournament structure please email [email protected]. For general queries regarding Southern Cup, please email [email protected].
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
The Tournament Schedule will be released on 16/11/18.
COMPETING TEAMS
GROUP DRAW
The Group Draw for Southern Cup 2018 will be released on 6/11/18.
IMPORTANT LINKS
Volunteer Policy
Player and Volunteer Signup Form
Tournament Venue
Spectators are welcome; there is no entrance fee. There is limited seating, but you are welcome to bring your own folding chairs. Refreshments will be available. If you are planning to attend in a large group you are welcome to come, just please email us in advance at [email protected].
CONTACT FORM
If you have any general concerns, questions, or suggestions about tournament, these should be directed to the form below: | https://www.quidditchuk.org/events/southern-cup-2018/ |
The implementation of government programs would be affected if Congress passed the law raising the tax-exemption ceiling on employees’ 13th month pay and bonuses to P70,000, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Monday.
Purisima urged lawmakers to adopt a “holistic approach” in passing tax reform measures as the government stands to lose anywhere between P40 billion to P60 billion if House Bill 4970 is approved.
“[If the amount lost is P60 billion], that’s equivalent to our CCT (Conditional Cash Transfer) program.... Our ability to fund the government’s programs would be affected,” he said.
Of the proposed P2.6-trillion national budget for 2015, 7.1 percent or P967.9 billion has been set aside for social services. The Aquino administration’s flagship CCT program is seen to receive P64.7 billion to support 4.4 million beneficiaries.
Should the tax-exemption ceiling on bonuses be raised, Purisima said the Department of Finance should be given the administrative capacity to broaden the tax base and adjust exemptions from the Value Added Tax so the government’s losses would be balanced with gains.
“That’s why if the tax collection is reduced [as a result of the proposal], our suggestion is for us to be given the opportunity to either recover the losses through other taxes or improve our capacity to tax those who aren’t paying taxes,” he said.
HB 4970 seeks to amend Section 32(B)(7)(E) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 by increasing the ceiling for the total exclusion from gross income of employees’ 13th month pay and other benefits from the current P30,000 to P70,000.
The bill was approved on second reading on September 9. It is expected to be approved on third and final reading within this year.
Should the measure be passed into law by the end of 2014, private and government employees will be able to take a larger amount of 13th month pay and bonuses by 2015.
‘Don’t blame us’
Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said the BIR had no means of recovering the revenue it would lose if the tax-exemption ceiling on bonuses is increased.
“If the take-home pay of workers from bonuses is increased, they spend it on items we can’t tax, such as vacations or school tuition fees. Where then can we recover the taxes we’ll lose?” she asked.
Henares warned the Philippine economy might suffer from a credit downgrade if tax exemptions are increased.
“Let’s be prepared for a credit downgrade. If that happens, interest rates will rise, which in turn will lead to an increase of prices of goods,” she said.
While the BIR is ready to implement HB 4970 if it becomes a law, Henares said its effects on the economy should be clear for lawmakers and the public. | https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/personalfinance/379300/gov-t-to-lose-p60b-if-cap-is-raised-on-tax-exempt-bonuses/story/ |
---
abstract: |
Reading Comprehension has received significant attention in recent years as high quality Question Answering (QA) datasets have become available. Despite state-of-the-art methods achieving strong overall accuracy, Multi-Hop (MH) reasoning remains particularly challenging. To address MH-QA specifically, we propose a Deep Reinforcement Learning based method capable of learning sequential reasoning across large collections of documents so as to pass a query-aware, fixed-size context subset to existing models for answer extraction. Our method is comprised of two stages: a linker, which decomposes the provided support documents into a graph of sentences, and an extractor, which learns where to look based on the current question and already-visited sentences. The result of the linker is a novel graph structure at the sentence level that preserves logical flow while still allowing rapid movement between documents. Importantly, we demonstrate that the sparsity of the resultant graph is invariant to context size. This translates to fewer decisions required from the Deep-RL trained extractor, allowing the system to scale effectively to large collections of documents.
The importance of sequential decision making in the document traversal step is demonstrated by comparison to standard IE methods, and we additionally introduce a BM25-based IR baseline that retrieves documents relevant to the query only. We examine the integration of our method with existing models on the recently proposed QAngaroo benchmark and achieve consistent increases in accuracy across the board, as well as a 2-3x reduction in training time.
author:
- |
AAAI Press\
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence\
2275 East Bayshore Road, Suite 160\
Palo Alto, California 94303\
- |
Alex Long Joel Mason Alan Blair Wei Wang\
School of Computer Science and Engineering\
University of New South Wales\
Sydney\
{alex.long, joel.mason}@unsw.edu.au, [email protected], [email protected]
bibliography:
- 'library.bib'
title: |
Multi-hop Reading Comprehension\
via Deep Reinforcement Learning based Document Traversal
---
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**Q** & **Located in province:**\
$S_1$ & The Johannesburg Zoo is an zoo in ****, South Africa. The zoo is dedicated to the accommodation, enrichment, husbandry, and medical care of wild animals, and houses about 2000 individuals ...\
$S_2$ & Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west ...\
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$S_{10}$ & **** (also known as Jozi, Joburg and eGoli) is the largest city in South Africa and is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital of ****, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa\
$S_{11}$ & ****, which means ‘place of gold’, is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa’s first all-race elections on 27 April 1994. It was initially named PretoriaWitwatersrandVereeniging (PWV) and was renamed ‘****’ in December 1994.\
$S_{12}$ & **** is a popular lake and public park in ****, South Africa. It is part of the Hermann Eckstein Park and is opposite the Johannesburg Zoo. The **** consists of two dams, an upper feeder dam, and a larger lower dam, both constructed in natural marshland watered by the Parktown Spruit.\
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$S_{18}$ & Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara desert. According to the UN, it consists of all African countries that are fully or partially located south of ...\
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Introduction
============
Reading Comprehension (RC) is the task of extracting an answer span from a context document, given a query concerning that document. The recent publication of large-scale RC datasets such as SQuAD [@Rajpurkar2016], Trivia QA [@Joshi2017], and MS MARCO [@Nguyen2016] has significantly increased interest in the field, with neural models becoming the approach of choice. These systems typically make use of an LSTM-based [@Hochreiter1997] encoder layer, followed by successive layers of context-query attention [@wang2017gated; @Hupeng2017; @Li2018]. As attention weights are calculated for every hidden state of the recurrent unit, such methods rapidly increase in memory requirements as the context document length increases.
We argue that RC, especially in the multi-hop case, is inherently sequential, requiring several independent actions to be carried out prior to receiving feedback on performance in the form of a correct or incorrect signal. This action takes the form of knowledge selection, where the system must decide where to look next, based on the current knowledge extracted from the document and the query. We propose a model where the knowledge extraction phase is explicitly decoupled from the question answering phase. Specifically, an RL-trained knowledge extractor first identifies the sequence of knowledge chunks required to answer the query, after which a standard base extractor computes the answer from the shortened context produced in the first phase. Critically, our method is able to use information already gathered in the knowledge chain to inform which information should be sought out next. Thus, the system is able to gather supporting information prior to identifying knowledge chunks likely to contain the answer.
Experiments are carried out on WIKIHOP, a dataset contrcuted specifically for multi-hop RC as part of the QAngaroo benchmark [@Welbl2017]. The key property of WIKIHOP, aside from the large context size, is that the selected queries are unable to be answered solely from a single point of information. Instead, the answer follows logically from several disjoint pieces of knowledge that may be scattered across the multiple documents. Selecting the relevant knowledge chain is thus key to scalable RC in this cross-document setting, and is the motivating factor behind the present work. We present three contributions;
1. A novel recasting of multi-hop question answering as a finite-horizon, deterministic Markov Decision Process (MDP).
2. A simple and effective algorithm for sentence graph construction that allows both the state and action spaces of the proposed MDP to scale independently of document length.
3. A policy network architecture capable of learning basic reasoning in the embedded space that is readily transferable to unseen data.
Related Work
============
{width="\textwidth"}
Deep Reinforcement Learning has been combined with NLP techniques to address Named Entity Recognition [@NarasimhanCSAIL2016a], Abstractive Summarization [@Paulus2017] and coreference resolution [@Clark2016a] among others. Specific to summarization for question answering, [@Choi2017] detail a similar hierarchical model, with a simple network computing attention over sentences and passing this summary to a more complex reader. Although this method achieves strong results, it does not consider coreference ties, potentially breaking the logical flow of information. The use of Neural Cascades has also been proposed [@Swayamdipta2017], demonstrating the promise of simple networks to learn an initial filter-like step. Many state-of-the-art approaches also make use of the REINFORCE algorithm [@Williams1992] for end-to-end RC [@Hupeng2017; @xiong2016dynamic]. However, this approach is primarily used as a drop-in replacement for supervised learning with a non-differentiable loss, rather than for the facilitation of sequential reasoning.
Graph-based document traversal has been applied in the QA context. [@Dhingra2017] utilise coreference relations to set the order in which tokens are presented to a recurrent network. Other systems typically construct a Knowledge Graph (KG) from text, through the use of a separate Information Extraction system and learn to reason about the types of links to explore [@Dong2015]. In this vein, Variational Reasoning Networks [@ZhangDKSS18] have recently being proposed specifically for the multi-hop case, however this work is implemented in a context where an external KG is available.
Recently, as performance on SQuAD has neared human-level accuracy, focus has increased on generalising extractive RC models to open-domain QA, or QA on longer documents. Open-domain QA models are comparable to our method in that they commonly contain both Information Retrieval (IR) and neural RC elements. The Reinforced Ranker Reader [@Wang2018R3RR] explicitly separates the data selection and reading stages, proposing a *ranker* module that is jointly trained with the *reader*, reducing the amount of information considered by the reader to a subset that is likely to answer the question. This approach achieves strong results on open-domain QA datasets, however unlike our method it is unable to incorporate information learned during the IR stage as the ranker is query-aware only. The use of a hierarchical match-attention model capable of focusing solely on specific paragraphs of the input document has also been proposed [@ZhangZBL18]. Designed specifically for long contexts, this approach operates at the paragraph level, identifying the most promising paragraph and passing this to an RC model. While powerful, such models are not designed for multi-hop style questions which require sequential reasoning in order to extract disjoint knowledge chunks spread across the context documents.
Dataset
=======
Each entry in the WIKIHOP contains a query, multiple context documents, the answer in plain text format and a list of potential answer candidates. The average context size is 58.14 sentences containing 22.3 words, with the maximum document size being 261 sentences. WIKIHOP contains 43738 samples in the training set and 5129 in the dev set, with a typical sample shown in Fig \[fig:example\]. To ensure the generality of our method, we remove the potential candidate information and instead extract the answer directly from the supporting documents, similarly to the SQuAD dataset [@Rajpurkar2016].
Model
=====
Question Answering as an MDP
----------------------------
In our formulation, we set the base parcel of knowledge to be a sentence and construct a coherency graph that specifies which sentences semantically follow from one another. We then reframe this coherency graph as an MDP and learn a traversal policy. These two components are complementary, and without either, tractable learning is unable to occur.
### Sentence Representation
We follow the representation method presented in [@article]. Here, sentences are stored as matrices, with rows corresponding to the sequence of words, and columns to the word embeddings. All matrices have rows zero-padded to a ‘max words per sentence’ hyper-parameter, $W$, in order to ensure consistent dimensionality.
Consider a sentence $s = [w_1, w_2, \ldots, w_n]$, with each word corresponding to a precomputed word embedding $\mathbf{e}_i \in \mathbb{R}^v$, where $v$ is the length of the embedding vector. Then, the sentence representation $\xi_s$ is computed as $$\xi_s =
\begin{cases}
\left[\mathbf{e}_1; \mathbf{e}_2; \ldots; \mathbf{e}_n; \mathbf{0}_1; \ldots ;\mathbf{0}_{W-n}\right], & n < W \\
\left[\mathbf{e}_1; \mathbf{e}_2; \ldots; \mathbf{e}_W\right],& n \geq W
\end{cases}$$ where the semicolon operator ($;$) indicates the stacking of tensors, and $\mathbf{0}$ a null-vector of length $v$. Queries are converted into this representation by splitting on underscores and proceeding with the above process.
**Input:** Context documents $\mathcal{D}$ **Output:** Coherency graph $G$ Initialise empty coreference graph, $R$ Initialise empty document coreference graph, $R_d$ $R_d$ $\gets $add edge ($s_i \rightarrow s_j$) $R_d$ $\gets $add edge ($s_i \rightarrow s_{i+1})$
$R \gets$ $\bigcup_d R_d$ Initialise empty entity link graph, $L$ E $\gets$ get named entities $(s_i)$ L $\gets $add edge ($s_i \rightarrow $ root node$_R(s_j$)) **Return** $G = R \cup L$
### MDP Formulation {#sec:MDP}
Consider a deterministic infinite-horizon discounted MDP, $\langle\mathcal{S}, \mathcal{A},\delta, r, \rho_0, \gamma \rangle$ with $\mathcal{S}$ denoting the set of possible states, $\mathcal{A}$ the set of possible actions, $\delta$ the transition function, $r$ the rewards, $\rho_0$ the initial state distribution, and $\gamma$ the discount factor. In the following, we consider a single sample in the dataset containing a query, $q$, and a set of support documents $\mathcal{D} = \left\{d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_n\right\}$, where $n$ is the number of documents in that sample and each document is comprised of multiple sentences; $d_i = \left\{s_{i_1}, s_{i_2}, \ldots, s_{i_m}\right\}$. Let $\mathcal{C} = \bigcup_i \mathcal{D}_i$ represent the flattened set of all sentences within all documents.
The information relevant to making a correct decision is the sequence of visited sentences $ \left[ c_1, \ldots, c_t \right] $, the current query $\,q$, and a set of options $ \left[ o_1, \ldots, o_\ell \right] $, where an option, $o_n$ is a candidate for the next sentence to be selected, $c_{t+1}$. The full state representation is thus $$x_t= \left\{\xi_q; \xi_{c_1}; \ldots, \xi_{c_t}; \xi_{o_1}; \ldots ; \xi_{o_\ell} \right\} \in \mathcal{S}$$ where $\xi_q$ is the embedding of the query, $\xi_{c_t}$ is the embedding of the current sentence at time $t$, and $\xi_{o_i}$ is the embedding of the $i^\text{th}$ option sentence, at time $t$, generated by an options function $g: c_t \rightarrow \mathcal{O}$, with $c_t\in \mathcal{C}$, $\mathcal{O} \subset \mathcal{C}$, and $\ell=\max_j |\mathcal{O}_j|$. As a consequence of this state formulation, the action space is comprised only of an ‘option selector’, $a \in \mathcal{A} = \left\{1, 2, \ldots, \ell\right\}$. We assign a reward $r=1.0$ and terminate the episode on the condition that a sentence containing the answer has been located, and a small $r=-0.1$ when the action selector refers to an unavailable option (e.g. there are 2 options but the chosen action is 4). Denoting the sentence containing the answer with v, the objective function can be expressed as;
$$J(s_t, a_t)=\begin{cases}1&t=n, \exists v\in x_t\\-0.1& a_t>\ell\\0 &\text{otherwise}\end{cases}
\label{eqn:reward}$$
Documents as Graphs of Sentences
--------------------------------
In the given MDP formulation, the size of both the state and action spaces are dependent on the choice of $g$, which specifies the maximum number of options that are considered at any given time. We make the observation that a very small subset of other sentences in a document logically follow from any given sentence, and if these options are identified, the state and action spaces lose their dependence on document size. We propose a simple algorithm that is able to construct a directed graph of sentences, $G$, from a given document, with edges indicating textual coherency (i.e., one sentence can be understood in the context of another). Our approach results in a graph with several desirable properties.
1. Any chain of sentences extracted from $G$ preserves the logical flow of the context.
2. A reader can move to another section of interest at any given time without being required to finish processing the current block of text.
3. The number of ‘decisions’ that need to be made at any point is significantly reduced, as only those sentences that immediately follow from the current sentence can be considered.
4. Sections of the text are able to be revisited if new information is found.
$G$ is constructed in two stages. First, co-referent links are constructed for each document $d_i \in \mathcal{D}$. During coreference resolution, a link is added between two sentences if they share a resolved entity. The direction of this link is based on the order of occurrence, with only forward links added. For example, given two sentences; ‘The dog was running. He was happy’, a forward coreferent link would be created between ‘The dog’ and ‘He’ as they refer to the same entity. However no link would be created in the reverse direction as the first sentence is required to provide context to the second. These links then form disjoint subgraphs, or clusters of sentences, which are highly coreferent.
In the second stage, these separate subgraphs are joined by entity linking applied to all sentences $s_i$ in $\mathcal{C}$. Our goal here is to provide a mechanism for inter-document traversal based on common entities mentioned in those documents. For example, consider a question asking for the country of a city, X. After some exploration, a context sentence is encountered that states, ‘X is in province Y’. At this point, all information about Y should be immediately accessible - if there is a document specifically detailing Y, moving attention there is likely to be more helpful than finishing the current document. However, the document may not be focused on Y, and it may instead be mentioned in passing, or in the context of another entity. For this reason, entity links are made to the root nodes of the coreferent sub-graphs constructed in stage 1. This ensures that a sentence in the middle of a document cannot be jumped to without context, if context exists for that sentence. As a result, all walks through the graph are highly coherent, forming a logical chain of sentences that can be understood independently. The full process is outlined in Algorithm 1.
Policy Network
--------------
In order to learn a traversal policy from word embeddings alone, we implement a convolution-based policy network where channels correspond to the sentences being considered (i.e., current options, previously accepted sentences and the current question). Importantly, this structure allows for sequential knowledge retrieval, where information can be incorporated into future decisions as it is discovered. Our structure is inspired by [@kim2014], where convolutional nets were found to achieve high performance in supervised sentence classification. Specifically, our policy $\pi$ selects an option sentence $o$ provided the current state, $x_t$. Given $\pi(x_t) = o$, we define feature matrices of size $c_i\in\mathcal{R}^{g\times 50}\text{, for }g=1,2,5,10,20$. Let $f^{(k)}_i$ indicate the $i^\text{th}$ feature of channel $k$, and $r$ a vector of Bernoulli random variables with $P(r_j=1)=0.5$. The policy is then defined as $$f^{(k)}_i = \text{relu}[c^{(k)}_i \cdot x^{(k)}_{i:i+g} + b^{(k)}_i] \text{ for } i=0, 1, \ldots, l$$ $$\hat{f}^{(k)}=\max{\left(f^{(k)}_0, f^{(k)}_1, \ldots, f^{(k)}_l\right)}$$ $$d = [\hat{f}^{(0)}, \hat{f}^{(1)}, \ldots, \hat{f}^{(n+\ell +1)}]$$ $$o = \text{relu}[w_{\text{dense}}\cdot(d\circ r)+z]$$
Where $w_{\text{dense}}$ is initialized with constant values in order to ensure action distributions are uniform. In our implementation, $l$ is set to $50$ based on empirical analysis of the data, as this value ensures only 10% of the sentences are clipped, and those that exceed this limit are are clipped by only three words on average. Again, $l$ should be as small as is reasonably possible in order to constrain the size of the state space..
BM25 Baseline
-------------
In the original paper proposing the QAngaroo dataset [@Welbl2017], both neural and non-neural RC baselines were examined. These baselines include recent RC models such as BiDAF [@BIDAF] and FastQA [@fastqa], which were applied to the Wikihop and MedHop datasets by converting the data into SQuAD-style format through the concatenation of supporting documents into a single context, and stripping of answer candidates. Such baselines are consequently single-hop, and their relatively poor accuracy supports the assertion that sequential reasoning is required on QAngaroo.
DRL-GRC addresses this issue by performing what is effectively an information retrieval step prior to reading, resulting in an approach fundamentally different to standard RC models. While both DRL-GRC and standard neural RC models make use of the same data, in order to perform a fair comparison, and to examine the importance of the DRL-trained IR policy, we implement a BM25 [@BM25] IR baseline and examine its effect on performance.
BM25 is a commonly used document scorer that takes a query, $q = q_1, q_2, \ldots, q_n$ (where the subscript here index’s words in the query), a candidate document, $d \in \mathcal{D}$, and assigns a relevancy score; $$\text{BM25}(d,q) = \sum_{i=1}^{n} \text{IDF}(q_i) \frac{f(q_i, d) (k_1 + 1)}{f(q_i, d) + k_1 \left(1 - b + b \frac{\text{dl}}{\text{avgdl}}\right)}$$ where $f(q_i, d)$ is the term frequency of $q_i$ in $d$, *dl* is the number words in $d$, and *avgdl* is the mean *dl* across $\mathcal{D}$. $b$ and $k$ are constants, and in our implementation are set to 1.2 and 0.75 respectively. We extract documents where the score is non-zero, in descending order of relevance, and use this set as subsequent input to the RC models. To keep the context size extracted by our method and this baseline comparable, when less than 10 documents are selected, we randomly sample from unselected documents, without replacement, until 10 supporting documents are present.
It is important to note that this differs in several ways to the TF-IDF baseline present in the original QAngaroo paper. In that implementation, candidates are combined with the query, and this ‘meta-query’ is then used to rank all supporting documents, with the highest score candidate across all (meta-query, document) pairs selected as the answer. $$\operatorname*{arg\,max}_{h\in \mathcal{H}}\left[\max_{d \in \mathcal{D}} \text{TF-IDF}(q+h, d)\right]$$ Where $h \in \mathcal{H}$ is an answer candidate from the set of all candidates provided by the dataset (not a sentence candidate in the MDP sense). This baseline is an RC model itself, and makes use of the provided candidate options to return an answer to the question. In comparison, our BM25 baseline returns a ranked list of documents, which can then be passed to a reader, and does not make use of answer candidate information.
We also considered applying BM25 at the sentence level, however this approach selects only sentences that are relevant to the question. In the multi-hop case (where answer and question entities never appear in the same sentence), this makes the selection of the answer sentence less likely than in the case of a simple random search.
Experiments
===========
Graph Construction
------------------
We conduct several experiments specific to the output graphs created on the WikiHop dataset. First, we implement a random policy by taking 5 random walks of length 10 through the graph created for each sample. In each run we record if the walk encounters the answer sentence. To estimate the upper performance bound of the extractor, we calculate the shortest path length between question and answer nodes for each sample. To estimate the number of decisions that must be made at each traversal step, we record the average out-degree across all samples.
A key aspect of our method is the ability to completely disregard information that is judged to be irrelevant to answering the question. To examine the effect this property has on the scalability of our system with regard to input size, we compute the coherency graphs for the text of ‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville, added chapter by chapter.
Reader Accuracy
---------------
We experimented with two approximations to the policy $\pi$; a standard 2-layer MLP, and the convolution-based architecture shown in Fig. \[fig:system\]. In the MLP case, we flatten the state, and apply two dense layers of 64 $tanh$ units. For the convolutional policy, we calculate 5 feature maps for each input channel while varying the kernel height. We then apply max-pooling over time [@Collobert2001] to the features, feeding them into a final dense layer of 64 ReLU units with a dropout keep-probability of 0.5.
Across the range of potential RC models, we found the Reinforced Mnemonic Reader [@Hupeng2017] to produce the highest accuracy, and use it as the base reader implementation. We also experiment with the use of Document Reader [@DocumentReader] and R-Net [@wang2017gated]. To apply these models, the data was transformed to the same format as the SQuAD dataset. This process requires the identification of the answer in the context so that an index value can be provided during training. As some summarizations do not contain the answer (especially in our ablation implementations), these samples were dropped from the training set. In the development set, these samples were provided without corresponding answers.
We define two separate RL environments: one that samples from the training set and another that samples from the dev set.. In the training environment, we provide minor reward shaping as shown in Equation \[eqn:reward\]. The test environment is used solely to apply the learned policy to the context documents, and as such does not consider a reward (consequently, no learning occurs). Training was carried out using PPO as the RL algorithm [@schulman2017proximal], with $\gamma = 0.995$, step size $5\times 10^{-5}$, 30 steps per iteration and 10k timesteps per batch.
Results and Analysis
====================
[0.835]{}[lllr]{} **Linker** & **Extractor** & **Reader** & **Wikihop Accuracy**\
Coherency Graph & Convolutional Policy & Mnemonic Reader & 65.12\
Coherency Graph& Convolutional Policy & R-Net & 63.95\
Coherency Graph & Convolutional Policy & Document Reader & 62.33\
Coherency Graph & Dense-Net Policy & Mnemonic Reader & 58.21\
Fully Connected Graph & Convolutional Policy & Mnemonic Reader & 33.45\
Coherency without Coreference & Convolutional Policy & Mnemonic Reader& 54.18\
Coherency without Entity Linking & Convolutional Policy & Mnemonic Reader& 3.23\
Coherency Graph& Random Walk & Mnemonic Reader & 33.81\
&Mnemonic Reader & 13.82\
Graph Analysis
--------------
We observe strong properties of the resultant graph, with 100% of answer sentences reachable from the initial question, and only 1.52% requiring more than 10 hops. The mean hops required, across all samples, was 3.44. Fig. \[fig:hists\] shows two key properties of the coherency graph in comparison to a fully-connected implementation. As can be seen, the coherency graph roughly preserves random walk performance, which serves as an effective baseline for the policy, while dramatically reducing the mean degree of the graph. This increases the tractability of the learning problem for the extractor by reducing both the state and action spaces.
{width="\columnwidth"}
\[fig:hists\]
On inspection of graphs created, we observed that the combination of coreference and entity linking created distinct ‘attractor nodes’ at the head of causal chains. Because entity linking is routed to the head of a coreference chain, the most general description of that entity is visited first, and is visited commonly (given a random traversal policy). Consequently, this provides context for subsequent sentences concerning that entity. For QA, this is beneficial as it makes entities that are extensively discussed in the supporting documents more likely to be visited.
The results of the scalability analysis were similarly promising. As context size increases, we observed an overall slight decrease in sparsity. There was, however, also a corresponding increase in max degree (see Table \[res:scalability\]). These high values are caused by sentences that contain extremely common entities (such as ‘whale’) and pose a challenge to questions concerning these entities. This issue could be addressed in future work by altering the graph construction so that links between common entities form a hierarchical, as opposed to flat, structure. This would also necessitate the implementation of a hierarchical policy, which may further improve performance.
[Xrr]{} &\
**** & Contains Answer & Total Chars.\
A Rand. sents (10) & 11.66%& 1319\
Rand. docs (5) & 18.32%& 2583\
BM25 docs (5) & 20.10% & 2553\
DRL-GRC & **72.12%** & 1227\
All docs & 100% & 7583\
[Xrrrrrr]{} **Chapters**& **1**&**20**&**40**&**60** &**80**\
Density ($\times10^{-3}$) &2.53 &0.76&0.69 & 0.58&0.51\
Max Degree & 8 &42 &61 &81 & 112\
[Xrr]{} **Model** & **Train Speed (s/itr)**& **WikiHop**\
Random & - & 11.50\
Max Mention & - & 10.60\
Majority Candidate & - & 38.80\
TF-IDF & - & 25.60\
Document-cue & - & 36.70\
FastQA$^1$& - & 25.70\
BiDAF$^1$ & -& 42.90\
Mnemonic Reader & 2.2 & 44.06\
R-Net & 2.1 & 43.21\
Document Reader & 1.8 &40.10\
BiDAF+GC$^1$ & - & 57.90\
DRLGRC+ Mnemonic Reader$^2$ & **1.6**& **65.12**\
Oracle$^1$ & -& 69.00\
Baseline Comparison
-------------------
An analysis of the resultant knowledge chains (see table \[res:knowlegechains\]) underlines the benefit of sequential reasoning and the importance of incorporating new information in the IR stage. Specifically, DRL-GRC identifies the answer sentence about 3.5 times more frequently in comparison to the BM25 baseline. This can be attributed to the fact that a naive IR implementation will return documents most relevant to the query. In the multi-hop case, such documents are unlikely to include the answer entity. Thus, BM25 returns many documents that are highly useful in the contextualization of the question, but only represent the starting point on the causal chain of knowledge leading to the answer.
Overall Performance
-------------------
We observed increases in EM scores in the order of 10-20% when integrated with existing QA models such as the Menumonic Reader (see Table \[res:main\]). This increase in accuracy supports the initial observations of [@Welbl2017], demonstrating that reducing irrelevant information not only increases scalability, but also increases accuracy. Our model outperforms the BiDAF Benchmark on Gold Chain (GC) documents. We hypothesise that this stems from the mode of operation of our model, which is more fine-grained (sentence level rather than document level). Due to the size of the input documents, a large amount of irrelevant information is still fed to the reader even if only GC documents are selected.
Of interest is the simplicity, both in number of parameters, and structure, of the policy network. The success of such a network indicates that the problem of identifying a chain of sentences that likely to yield the answer is requires fewer parameters than the problem of identifying the answer itself when choices of sentences are aggressively limited, as in our system. A similar result has been observed in prior work [@Choi2017], and suggests the explicit decoupling of sentence-level and word-level answer identification may be a promising direction for general QA on long documents.
Ablation Analysis
-----------------
The proposed convolution-based policy outperforms the MLP variant, achieving higher accuracy and stability, as well as faster convergence. Creating the graph without entity linking results in a significant drop in accuracy, which is to be expected as without entity linking there is no way for the reader to move across the supporting documents. Applying the agent to a fully connected graph resulted in lower overall reader accuracy. Interestingly, this drop in final accuracy exceeded the drop in extractor performance. This can be attributed to the lower quality of sentence chains passed to the reader, as disjoint pieces of information can then appear sequentially, and there is no guarantee of the preservation of logical and contextual flow that is provided by the use of the coherency graph. This makes the task significantly harder for the reader.
Performance is worst on the BM25 IR baseline. Although BM25 is a strong IR method, its weaknesses in this application should be apparent. In particular, a document will not be retrieved if it does not contain at least one word present in the query. As stated, in cases such as Fig. \[fig:example\], the document containing the answer span will never be retrieved as it shares no common entities with the question.
Conclusion
==========
We have proposed an effective method of learning query-aware document traversal, where the final path through the document is logically consistent in a multi-hop setting. Empirical results demonstrate the strength of the proposed approach, achieving high EM scores on the WikiHop dataset, while simultaneously significantly reducing the size of the input to the RC model, increasing both training speed and accuracy.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Overview
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to the use of the Internet, and in particular, to the use of virtual Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on the Internet.
In the latter half of the twentieth century, there began a phenomenon known as the information revolution. While the information revolution is a historical development broader in scope than any one event or machine, no single device has come to represent the information revolution more than the digital electronic computer. The development of computer systems has surely been a revolution. Each year, computer systems grow faster, store more data, and provide more applications to their users. At the same time, the cost of computing resources has consistently declined, so that information which was too expensive to gather, store and process a few years ago, is now economically feasible to manipulate via computer. The reduced cost of information processing drives increasing productivity in a snowballing effect, because product designs, manufacturing processes, resource scheduling, administrative chores, and many other factors, are made more efficient.
The reduced cost of computing and the general availability of digital devices has brought an explosion in the volume of information stored in such devices. With so much information stored in digital form, it is naturally desirable to obtain wide access from computer systems. The volume of information dwarfs the storage capability of any one device. To improve information access, various techniques for allowing computing devices to communicate and exchange information with one another have been developed. Perhaps the most outstanding example of this distributed computing is the World Wide Web (often known simply as the “web”), a collection of resources which are made available throughout the world using the Internet. People from schoolchildren to the elderly are learning to use the web, and finding an almost endless variety of information from the convenience of their homes or places of work. Businesses, government, organizations and even ordinary individuals are making information available on the web, to the degree that it is now the expectation that anything worth knowing about is available somewhere on the web.
The Internet, which provides the support for the web as well as for e-mail and other forms of communication and distributed processing among multiple digital systems, is a heterogeneous network of digital devices (nodes) connected by multiple links, so that between any two nodes of the network there are typically multiple paths, giving the Internet some degree of redundancy.
In order to support communication between any two arbitrary nodes coupled to the Internet, a global naming convention known as the Domain Name System (DNS) is used to assign a unique name to each node. A source node connected to the Internet, having only the global DNS name of a target node, can send a data packet to the target, allowing the various routers, servers and other devices on the Internet to determine a path and final destination node for the data packet. As part of this routing process, the global DNS name is translated to an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the target node which is used at the communications link level. Name-to-address translation is accomplished by one or more domain name servers connected to the Internet.
As the Internet has evolved, the task of maintaining the databases in the domain name servers has accordingly grown in scope and complexity. Originally, it was anticipated that the domain server databases would be relatively static databases maintained by manual editing. The massive increase in number of nodes and uses to which they are put has induced changes to the underlying Internet protocols. The most recent protocol, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), supports dynamic assignment of IP addresses to physical devices and IP addresses which have limited lifetimes, expiring by their own terms at the end of the defined lifetime. With these and other changes, it is expected that the number of IP addresses per node may increase dramatically, and that the set of current valid addresses may be subject to frequent change. The burden of maintaining IP addresses is accordingly increased.
In some circumstances, it is possible for multiple physical network adapters coupled to a common node to share the same IP address. Such a shared address is also referred to as a virtual IP address. The use of virtual IP addresses provides a degree of fault tolerance, since if one adapter fails, another adapter sharing the same virtual IP address can receive incoming network communications addressed to the virtual address. Unfortunately, current techniques for automatically configuring an IP address to a physical device generally do not work well with virtual IP addresses. Using prior art techniques, it is generally necessary to manually configure the virtual IP address.
Manual configuration is cumbersome and error prone. Furthermore, manual reconfiguration may be required every time an adapter is added, removed, or plugged into a different physical network. The advent of IPv6 and the continued growth and maturation of the Internet is likely to overwhelm conventional processes for maintaining Internet address data, and in particular for configuring virtual IP addresses. A need therefore exists for improved techniques for configuring IP addresses, and in particular, for configuring virtual IP addresses.
In a first aspect of the present invention, a host node connected to a network using an Internet Protocol automatically identifies multiple adapters connected to the same local network, causes an IP address to be generated for one of the adapters, and automatically configures the adapters to share the IP address thus generated as a virtual IP address.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a host node connected to a network using an Internet Protocol automatically identifies multiple adapters connected to the same local network by broadcasting a request for assignment of an IP address on a first adapter, and listening to the broadcast request on a second adapter, thereby determining that both adapters are on the same network.
In the preferred embodiment, the host node uses the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to dynamically assign an IP address to one of its adapters. This is accomplished by broadcasting a DHCPREQUEST message on the adapter's local network. All adapters on the local network receive the broadcast DHCPREQUEST message, including in particular any other adapters in the same host which are connected to the local network. If another adapter in the same host receives the DHCPREQUEST message, the host determines that the other adapter is connected to the same local network. In this instance, the host configures an IP address assigned by a DHCP server as a virtual IP address shared by all adapters on the same local network. One of the adapters (preferably the one through which the DHCPREQUEST was initiated) is designated as the virtual IP address owner, and receives incoming traffic and responds to Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests on behalf of the virtual IP address. The other adapter or adapters on the same network are standby adapters, and may assume ownership of the virtual IP address if the designated owner ceases to function.
In the preferred embodiment, one of the adapters sharing a virtual IP address is designated the primary adapter, and responds to communications addressed to the virtual IP address. The host automatically responds to deactivation of the primary adapter by assigning the virtual IP address to another adapter sharing the same network. In the DHCP protocol, this means that the host transmits an ARP advertisement over the network to inform other network devices that the virtual IP address is now associated with a different device.
Providing a means for automatically detecting multiple host adapters coupled to the same network and automatically configuring a virtual IP address makes virtual IP addresses significantly easier to use and maintain, reducing the amount of manual intervention and errors which can result therefrom. This advantage becomes more pronounced when using temporary IP addresses in accordance with more modern protocols. At the same time, the techniques described herein are compatible with existing Internet protocols. By making virtual addresses easier to use and maintain, the use of such addresses is further encouraged, thereby resulting in more robust network connection
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
Prior to discussing the operation of embodiments of the invention, a brief overview discussion of the Internet is provided herein.
The term “Internet” is a shortened version of “Internetwork”, and refers commonly to a collection of computer networks that utilize the packet-based TCP/IP suite of protocols, well-known in the art of computer networking. TCP/IP is an acronym for “Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol”, a software protocol that facilitates communications between computers.
FIG. 1
is a high-level conceptual view of the Internet. The Internet has no pre-established topology, and is indefinitely extensible by adding new nodes and links. A node may have any number of links connecting it to other nodes, and these may use any of various communications technologies, having different data capacities and other characteristics. The topology of the Internet therefore becomes an extremely complex interconnected network, in which there are typically a large number of possible pathways between any two nodes.
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The central part of the network, sometimes called the “backbone”, contains multiple high-speed routers which receive data packets and forward these on to other nodes in the network. Typically, each router has multiple connections to other routers, and these connections have a high data capacity. For example, fiber optic links are often used between high-speed routers . Connected to the high-speed routers are nodes which serve as access points to the Internet “backbone” of high-speed routers, illustrated in as nodes . Access nodes are also routers since they function to route data packets between the high-speed routers and other network nodes, but they typically employ lower-speed connections. An access node may be, for example, a public Internet Service Provider which provides access to the Internet through telephone lines, cable TV, or other connections for a fee, or may be an access node of an enterprise which is coupled to an internal local area network (LAN) for the enterprise's internal systems. Usually, each access node connects to multiple high-speed routers to provide redundancy, although this is not a requirement. Each access node typically provides access to multiple host computer systems A, B (referred to generically as reference numeral ), of which only two are illustrated in .
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Hosts are the computer systems which connect to the Internet and which generate as the source or receive as the ultimate destination the data packets transmitted over the Internet. Hosts may be any type of computer system, from large mainframe systems to PCs to handheld portable devices. Often, a host has only one access node which it uses to access the Internet (in which case it is non-redundant), although it may have multiple such access nodes for redundancy. The connection between the host and the access node is often relatively low speed (such as a telephone line or radio frequency link), but could be a high-speed link. In the case of some computer systems, such as large Internet servers which function primarily to provide information over the Internet, the host may be connected directly to high-speed routers and therefore serve as its own access node.
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It will be understood that is intended as a conceptual illustration of the Internet, and that in reality the number of nodes and connections on the Internet is vastly larger than illustrated in , and that the topology of the connections may vary. Furthermore, it will be understood that there may be further hierarchies of types of connections and forms of access, which are not shown in for clarity of illustration. I.e., there may be multiple types or classes of access node through which a host connects to reach the high-speed routers of the backbone, and that different hosts may connect at different levels of access node. Strictly speaking, the Internet comprises all devices coupled to it, and when a small computer system such as a PC is logged on to the Internet, it is part of the Internet in the sense that it becomes an Internet node and has an address (although the address may be only temporary). Often, the routers and connections of the Internet backbone and access nodes are referred to as the Internet, i.e., the Internet is viewed as a communications medium as opposed to a distributed processing network of computer systems. Depending on the context, either usage may be employed.
In order to enable communication of data in any network from one arbitrary node to another, the sending node must specify the destination of the receiving node. For very small networks, such as a local area Ethernet network, it is possible to broadcast data to all nodes in the network, identifying the desired recipient with a simple addressing scheme. The size of the Internet makes such an approach impractical. It is still necessary for the sender to specify a destination, but it is not practical to transmit the data to every node in the network until the destination is found. This means that the sender, and every node in between the sender and recipient in the pathway, must be able to make a determination where to route the data so that it reaches its destination. Generally, there will be multiple possible routes and a router may decide which to use based on various factors.
At the level of the router hardware, an Internet destination node is specified by a multi-bit numerical address, called an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The original Internet addressing system used a 32-bit IP address divided into four parts or “octets” of 8 bits each. These octets are often written separated by periods, e.g., an IP address might be written as: 90.4.63.18. This is the format employed by Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), in general use on the Internet today. The octets are a hierarchical form of addressing, and it is not necessary for any single router to know the ultimate destination of all Internet addresses. A data packet bearing a distant address will be routed to a router which is closer and therefore able to further refine the address, and so on until the data packet reaches its ultimate destination.
Although the original 32-bit address was initially adequate, in recent years the Internet address space has become constrained. One response has been to adopt a new standard for Internet IP addresses, known as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). IPv6 supports IP addresses of 128 bits. IPv6 is currently being phased in, and many Internet devices still use the older IPv4 32-bit addressing protocol.
Where an IP address specifies a node connected to a local area network (LAN), some or all of the IP address typically specifies the access point of the LAN. Another portion of the IP address may specify a node within the LAN. Since the Internet address space is becoming constrained, another response to the shortage of IPv4 addresses has been to share IP addresses on the LAN. This can be done by dynamically recycling a smaller number of IP addresses among a larger number of devices on the LAN. Alternatively, a “port” designation, in addition to the IP address, can be used for specifying a node within the access point (LAN). I.e., the IP address can be used to specify the Internet access point of the LAN, and the port to specify a node within the LAN which is connected to the Internet at that access point. The Internet access point translates the IP address (and port, if included) of a packet received over the Internet to a local network address, which may also be an IP address. When configured in this manner, the IP address used by the Internet “backbone” routers is referred to as a global IP address, and the IP address used within the LAN is a LAN-local or local IP address.
As used in the present application and unless otherwise qualified, an “Internet Protocol address” or “IP address” includes an address compliant with IPv4, or with IPv6, or any subsequent version or modification thereof, and may be any of a global IP address or a local IP address.
An IP address allows a sending node to route a data packet to a receiving node, but there would be drawbacks to using a numerical IP address for higher-level interprocess communications using the Internet. For one thing, numerical addresses are hard for people to remember. Additionally, some IP addresses might be shared among multiple nodes, or might change due to changes in network configuration. For these and other reasons, a higher level naming convention for Internet nodes exists, which is called the Domain Name System (DNS). Internet nodes are given names in the DNS having arbitrary alphabetic characters, which are then translated to IP addresses. The DNS name of a node can thus be made easier to remember, and need not change simply because some hardware has changed. For example, a person can establish a web server having a familiar DNS name which clients are likely to remember, and can maintain the same DNS name even if the actual IP address of the web server changes due to hardware upgrades and so forth.
Due to the size and dynamic nature of the Internet, it is almost impossible to maintain a single large record of all DNS names and their corresponding IP addresses. The Internet's DNS therefore employs a distributed form of address record keeping, in which DNS names are hierarchical. A DNS name comprises multiple text character portions, each separated by a period, the portions representing a naming hierarchy, proceeding left to right from most specific to most general. When a source node, such as a PC executing an Internet browser application, attempts to send data to a user-specified domain name, one or more domain name servers are invoked to translate this domain name to an IP address, and the IP address is then used to route the data packet through the Internet's routers to its destination.
A name is resolved to an IP address in a hierarchical fashion, which may take multiple steps. The sender first accesses its own DNS name server to request a translation of the name (each node must at the very least have the IP address for its name server, and therefore this server is always available without the need to translate an address). If we assume that a name will be translated from scratch, the name server first accesses a DNS server for the root part of the destination name. This DNS server should be able to identify the next level of the name, and so on. The number of steps may vary, since the number of name portions may vary, and the DNS database for any part of the name may itself be maintained on hierarchical servers. In reality, most DNS servers cache a large number of names and IP addresses, so it is not always necessary to follow all the translation steps described above from the root DNS server on down.
For any given node, there is always at least one DNS server which maintains domain names and addresses at the lowest level of the hierarchy. When this DNS server is reached during a traversal of the various DNS servers which maintain portions of a name, the IP address with that name can be obtained. The set of nodes for which such a low level DNS server maintains names and IP addresses is called the zone of the server. Typically, there will be multiple DNS servers for each zone which synchronize their records in some fashion, e.g., one server maintains a master copy of the domain name database, while others have shadow copies of the database. The use of multiple DNS servers provides redundancy as well as the additional processing power of the multiple servers.
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Referring to the Drawing, wherein like numbers denote like parts throughout the several views, is a high-level illustration of an Internet environment, showing some of the major components involved in a system which automatically maintains certain IP addresses including virtual IP addresses, in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in , a host node is coupled to one or more networks, of which two networks A, B (generically referred to herein as feature ) are shown in the exemplary embodiment of , it being understood that the number could vary. At least one Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server is coupled to at least one of the networks . represents DHCP servers A, B (generically referred to herein as feature ) coupled to respective networks A, B. Each network A, B is coupled to the Internet via a respective router A, B (generically referred to herein as feature ), the router serving as an access node for all devices on its respective network to access the Internet. Any of various additional devices may be connected to networks , such as workstations A-E and printer .
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For clarity of description herein, host node is referred to as the host. However, it should be understood that devices , and are also hosts, and may send and/or receive communications over their respective networks, including communications to or from other devices (not show) attached via the Internet. Host node could be any digital data device (other than a router) which either sends or receives communications, from large mainframe computer systems to small portable devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and laptops. While it is preferably a general purpose computer system, it could alternatively be a special purpose device or component of a distributed processing system, such as a storage device array, a printer, a specialized server, etc.
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Host contains a plurality of network adapters for coupling to the networks, of which three adapters A-C (generically referred to herein as feature ) are illustrated in . As shown, adapters A and B are coupled to network A, while adapter C is coupled to network B. Adapters A and B thus can provide a redundant connection to network A. It will be understood that the number of such adapters may vary.
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Networks may comprise any communications medium which allows host to communicate with other devices, particularly DHCP server . For example, a network might be an Ethernet or a Token Ring local area network, as might typically be the case in a business enterprise having multiple internal nodes which communicate with each other, and which have an external connection through one or more routers to the Internet. Although networks are described in the exemplary embodiment herein as local area networks, they are not necessarily local area networks, and could take some other form. For example, a network could be the telephone system, or a radio frequency transmission medium, or any of various other communications media. Additionally, although for simplicity a single router is shown coupling each network to the Internet, multiple redundant routers may couple each network to the Internet, as is well known. Alternatively, routers may couple networks to each other or to other networks, which are directly or indirectly connected to the Internet. Finally, although it is preferred that networks be coupled directly or indirectly to the Internet to provide an Internet connection to host , the present invention is not limited to use on networks coupled to the Internet.
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DHCP servers are preferably general-purpose computer systems which are suitably programmed to maintain IP address data for the corresponding network and respond to requests according to the DHCP protocol. DHCP is a known protocol, by which a device attached to a network may request assignment of an IP Address from a DHCP server having that responsibility, the DHCP server automatically providing the IP Address and updating its database to reflect the new address assignment. Although in the preferred embodiment the DHCP Protocol is used, any successor or substitute protocol or technique could alternatively be used.
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Although a pair of networks, each having a single DHCP server , a single router , and several workstations and other devices, are shown in the simplified illustration of , it will be understood that the actual number and type of such components may vary. As explained previously, there will frequently be multiple redundant routers. Additionally, it would alternatively be possible for a single DHCP server to be coupled to multiple networks and/or for a single network to have multiple DHCP servers. The number of devices attached to each network may vary, and is typically larger than illustrated.
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Host node is preferably a general purpose computer system which executes one or more applications which communicate with other computer systems coupled to networks and/or the Internet. shows a high-level block diagram of the major hardware components of an exemplary host node computer system , according to the preferred embodiment. CPU is at least one general-purpose programmable processor which executes instructions and processes data from main memory . Main memory is preferably a random access memory using any of various memory technologies, in which data is loaded from storage or otherwise for processing by CPU .
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One or more communications buses provide a data communication path for transferring data among CPU , main memory and various I/O interface units, which may also be known as I/O processors (IOPs) or I/O adapters (IOAs). The I/O interface units support communication with a variety of storage and I/O devices, and include in particular interface units - and network adapters A-C. For example, terminal interface unit supports the attachment of one or more user terminals -. Storage interface unit supports the attachment of one or more direct access storage devices (DASD) - (which are typically rotating magnetic disk drive storage devices, although they could alternatively be other devices, including arrays of disk drives configured to appear as a single large storage device to a host). I/O device interface unit supports the attachment of any of various other types of I/O devices, such as printer and fax machine , it being understood that other or additional types of I/O devices could be used.
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Network interfaces (“network adapters”) A-C supports a connection to one or more external networks for communication with one or more other digital devices. As explained previously, networks are preferably local area networks coupled to the Internet, although other configurations are possible. The host computer system of the preferred embodiment contains at least two network adapters , three being illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of . It will be understood that the number of such network adapters may vary.
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It should be understood that is intended to depict the representative major components of host system at a high level, that individual components may have greater complexity than represented in , that components other than or in addition to those shown in may be present, and that the number, type and configuration of such components may vary, and that a large computer system will typically have more components than represented in . Several particular examples of such additional complexity or additional variations are disclosed herein, it being understood that these are by way of example only and are not necessarily the only such variations.
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Although only a single CPU is shown for illustrative purposes in , host system may contain multiple CPUs, as is known in the art. Although main memory is shown in as a single monolithic entity, memory may in fact be distributed and/or hierarchical, as is known in the art. E.g., memory may exist in multiple levels of caches, and these caches may be further divided by function, so that one cache holds instructions while another holds non-instruction data which is used by the processor or processors. Memory may further be distributed and associated with different CPUs or sets of CPUs, as is known in any of various so-called non-uniform memory access (NUMA) computer architectures. Although communications buses are shown in as a single entity, in fact communications among various system components is typically accomplished through a complex hierarchy of buses, interfaces, and so forth, in which higher-speed paths are used for communications between CPU and memory , and lower speed paths are used for communications with I/O interface units - and A-C. Buses may be arranged in any of various forms, such as point-to-point links in hierarchical, star or web configurations, multiple hierarchical buses, parallel and redundant paths, etc. For example, as is known in a NUMA architecture, communications paths are arranged on a nodal basis. Buses may use, e.g., an industry standard PCI bus, or any other appropriate bus technology. While multiple I/O interface units are shown which separate system buses from various communications paths running to the various I/O devices, it would alternatively be possible to connect some or all of the I/O devices directly to one or more system buses.
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Host system depicted in has multiple attached terminals -, such as might be typical of a multi-user “mainframe” computer system. The actual number of attached devices may vary, and the present invention is not limited to systems of any particular size. Host system might alternatively be a single-user system such as “personal computer”. User workstations or terminals which access host system might also be attached to and communicate with system over any of networks . Host system may alternatively be a system containing no attached terminals or only a single operator's console containing only a single user display and keyboard input. Furthermore, while certain functions of the invention herein are described for illustrative purposes as embodied in a single computer system, these functions could alternatively be implemented using a distributed network of computer systems in communication with one another, in which different functions or steps described herein are performed on different computer systems. Finally, it will be understood that a host node in accordance with the present invention need not be a computer system at all, but can be any of various special purpose digital devices which communicate over one or more networks.
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While various system components have been described and shown at a high level, it should be understood that a typical computer system contains many other components not shown, which are not essential to an understanding of the present invention. In the preferred embodiment, host system is a computer system based on the IBM i/Series™ architecture, it being understood that the present invention could be implemented on other computer systems.
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is a conceptual illustration of the major software components of host computer system , represented as components of memory , according to the preferred embodiment. Operating system kernel is executable code and state data providing various low-level software functions, such as device interfaces, mapping and management of memory pages, management and dispatching of multiple tasks, security and data integrity, error recovery, etc. as is well-known in the art. In particular, OS kernel includes a respective network adapter device driver instance A-C for each network adapter A-C of host system . Each adapter driver instance is executable code and state data for communicating with and supervising the corresponding network adapter. The adapter driver instances are represented conceptually as separate entities in ; however, depending on the hardware configuration, the executable code of the adapter drivers may actually be the same for some or all adapters, although state data will differ. In this case, the OS kernel may actually contain only a single copy of the code, and multiple copies of state data.
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Connection manager manages the various network connections on behalf of one or more applications executing on host system . Connection manager is likewise executable code and state data for performing various services relating to connection management, such as management of TCP/IP stacks, assembly of packets for outbound transmission, receiving of inbound packets and extraction of data therefrom, communication with higher-level applications, and so forth. Among the functions included in connection manager is an adapter activation function which responds to detection of an activated adapter to automatically configure an IP address for the adapter, a host DHCPREQUEST handling function which handling a DHCPREQUEST received over a network by an adapter within the host, and an ARP request handling function for handling an ARP request received over a network by an adapter within the host, and an adapter deactivation function which responds to deactivation of an adapter, the operation of which are explained in greater detail herein. Connection manager further includes various conventional functions as are known for handling network connection protocols. Connection manager maintains various state data including network object structure . Network object structure represents a state of various network connections, as explained further herein.
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In the exemplary embodiment of , connection manager is represented as an entity separate from operating system . However, it will be understood that some or all of the functions of a network connection manager could be integrated into operating system kernel , and/or that an operating system may contain multiple components at different levels of proximity to the hardware.
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System further contains one or more user applications or high-level applications - (of which three are represented in , it being understood that the actual number may vary, and is typically much larger). User applications generate, maintain and/or use user data, conceptually represented as three user data entities - (it being understood that the actual number may vary, and is typically much larger). Data entities - may represent data in any form, including flat files, tables, arrays, relational databases, etc. User applications - communicate with remote processes over networks and/or the Internet to perform productive work on behalf of users. User applications - do not directly perform network communications tasks, but invoke appropriate network communications functions in connection manager for managing network communications. User applications may include those usually associated with client functions (such as web browsers, e-mail, etc.) or may include applications usually associated with server functions (such as search engines, large database management, etc.), and the functions of client and server may reside together on the same host system.
It will be understood that a typical host system will contain many other software components (not shown), which are not essential to an understanding of the present invention. In particular, a typical operating system will contain numerous functions and state data unrelated to the transmission of data across a network.
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Various software entities are represented in as being separate entities or contained within other entities. However, it will be understood that this representation is for illustrative purposes only, and that particular modules or data entities could be separate entities, or part of a common module or package of modules. Furthermore, although a certain number and type of software entities are shown in the conceptual representations of , it will be understood that the actual number of such entities may vary, and in particular, that in a complex host system environment, the number and complexity of such entities is typically much larger.
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While the software components of are shown conceptually as residing in memory , it will be understood that in general the memory of a computer system will be too small to hold all programs and data simultaneously, and that information is typically stored in data storage devices -, comprising one or more mass storage devices such as rotating magnetic disk drives, and that the information is paged into memory by the operating system as required. Furthermore, it will be understood that the conceptual representation of is not meant to imply any particular memory organizational model, and that host system might employ a single address space virtual memory, or might employ multiple virtual address spaces which overlap.
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is a conceptual representation of an exemplary network object structure for internally representing the state of a network configuration as shown in , according to the preferred embodiment. Network object structure comprises a NET list object , which is the root of a list of networks available to host system . The root NET list object references the list of network objects A, B (generically referred to herein as feature ), each network object representing a corresponding network available to host system . Specifically, root NET object references NET object A for representing network “Net” A, which in turn references NET object B for representing network “Net” B. Additional networks, if present, are similarly represented by extending the list, i.e., referencing another network object from NET object B, and so on.
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Each network object in turn references a list of adapter objects A-C (herein generically referred to as feature ), each adapter object A-C representing a corresponding adapter A-C which is coupled to the corresponding network. Thus, network object A representing NetA references adapter object A representing adapter A, which is coupled to network Net. Adapter object A in turn references adapter object B representing adapter B, also coupled to network Net. If there were additional adapters coupled to the same network, they would be represented by extending the list of adapters from adapter object B. Network object B references adapter object C representing adapter C, the only adapter in host coupled to network NetB. In addition to any other useful state information, each adapter object records the Media Access Control (MAC) address of the corresponding adapter and its assigned IP address. The MAC address is a unique hardware number assigned to a device at the time of manufacture, and is used by certain LAN protocols at a low level to uniquely specify a device.
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If a virtual IP address is assigned to any network connection, then a corresponding virtual IP address object is referenced by the corresponding network object. represents a single virtual IP address object referenced by network object B representing network Net. The virtual IP address object contains a virtual IP address assigned to the network to which it is linked. This virtual IP address could be used by either of Adapter A or Adapter B. Since only one adapter should use the virtual IP address at any one time, the adapter (in this case, Adapter A) represented by an adapter object A at the head of the list is considered the primary adapter and handles all communications addressed to the virtual address. The remaining adapter or adapters function as backups. Outbound packets may be load balanced across primary and backup adapters, however, inbound packets typically only arrive on the primary adapter, since only the primary adapter responds to and advertises ARP packets on behalf of the virtual IP address. In the preferred embodiment, a single virtual address is automatically assigned to any network having multiple adapters connected to it. However, it will be understood that there could be multiple virtual addresses assigned to a network connection, and that each virtual address could have a different primary adapter or multiple virtual addresses could share a primary adapter, and that some of these could be assigned manually, or that an automatic configuring means could be programmed to assign multiple virtual addresses.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a host node detects the fact that multiple adapters within the host are connected to the same network as part of a configuration process for one of the adapters, in which it broadcasts a request for an IP address for a first adapter, and listens to the broadcast on the second. In this situation, the host automatically assigns a virtual IP address to the multiple adapters coupled to the same network The host can further detect a change in configuration causing one adapter to be coupled to a different network, and assign a virtual IP address to the new network connection as appropriate. This process makes it possible to automatically configure a host node to have a virtual IP address with no or minimal manual intervention.
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In the preferred embodiment, an configuration process performed by adapter activation function is triggered whenever an adapter is activated. Detection of adapter activation is preferably accomplished automatically, using any of various techniques commonly known as “plug and play”, or any other technique now known or hereafter developed for automatic detection of adapter activation. Preferably, host (in which the adapter being activated is located) invokes the services of another network device (also a host) acting as a DHCP server in accordance with the established protocol known as DHCP. It should be understood, however, that the present invention is not limited to a DHCP based implementation. is a high-level flow diagram of the process of configuring an adapter (designated adapter X) performed by adapter activation function , according to the preferred embodiment.
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Referring to , adapter activation function determines whether an IP address for adapter X (designated IP-X) was saved from a previous activation (step ). If so, it is desirable to re-use the previous IP address, and therefore the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and IP-X is initialized to the previously saved value (step ). The host will then attempt to obtain the IP address again by issuing a DHCPREQUEST message over the adapter (step ).
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If no previous IP address was saved (the ‘N’ branch from step ), then IP-X is initialized to all zeroes to allocate a new IP address (step ). The host then issues a DHCPDISCOVER message over adapter X, and waits for a DHCPOFFER response from a DHCP server (step ). The DHCPOFFER will contain a new IP address. The host should receive one or more DHCPOFFER responses, and selects one of the offers using any suitable criteria
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Whether a previous IP address was saved or not, the host then sends a DHCPREQUEST message from adapter X over the network, the DHCPREQUEST message containing the previously saved or new IP address (step ). The host then waits for a response from the DHCP server in the form of either a DHCPACK (acknowledge) or DHCPNAK (no acknowledge)
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If a DHCPNAK is received (the ‘Y’ branch from step ), then the DHCP server has rejected the IP address, and the host returns to step to attempt to obtain another IP address. This could happen, for example, because a previously saved IP address is no longer available. If a DHCPACK is received, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step . The host then send an ARP advertisement from adapter X over the network (step ). The ARP advertisement informs all hosts on the network that the IP address (IP-X) has been assigned to adapter X, which is identified by its MAC address (MAC-X). I.e., the ARP advertisement contains IP-X and MAC-X. This mapping information is saved in DHCP server , and depending on the network implementation, other devices on the network may cache this information as well.
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After sending the ARP advertisement, the adapter activation function examines the network object structure to determine whether the adapter being activated (adapter X) has been configured in the network object structure, i.e. whether MAC-X is defined in any network object in the network object structure (step ). Although recently activated, it is possible that MAC-X is already defined because host contains multiple adapters on the same network, as explained herein with respect to . If MAC-X is not defined in a network object, then adapter X is apparently the only adapter within host which is coupled to the network to which it is attached. In this case, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , a new network object (NETn) is created to represent the network to which adapter X is coupled, and object NETn is added to the list of network objects in network object structure (step ). Adapter X is then linked under NETn by creating or linking an adapter object representing adapter X to the network object NETn (step ). If, at step , MAC-X was already defined in a NET object, then the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and steps and are by-passed. Activation and configuration of adapter X are then complete.
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In the preferred embodiment, the connection manager detects the presence of multiple adapters coupled to the same network, links multiple adapter objects representing the multiple adapters to a common network object in the network object structure , and causes a virtual IP address to be generated for the network connection serviced by multiple adapters. This process is performed by DHCPREQUEST handling function for handling a DHCPREQUEST received by host , as shown in .
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is a high-level flow diagram of the process of handling a DHCPREQUEST received in an adapter coupled to a network, as performed by DHCPREQUEST handler , according to the preferred embodiment. This process executes asynchronously with the adapter activation process described above with respect to , and is triggered when an adapter within host coupled to a network receives a DHCPREQUEST. It will be understood that each adapter within host which receives a DHCPREQUEST triggers a separate instance of the DHCPREQUEST handler, and therefore if multiple adapters are connected to the same network, it is possible that multiple instances of the DHCPREQUEST handler will be triggered responsive to a single DHCPREQUEST.
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Referring to . the MAC address of the receiving adapter (MAC-R) and the MAC address of the sending adapter (MAC-S) are determined (step ). The MAC address of the receiver should be available in host state data; the MAC address of the sender is contained in the DHCPREQUEST.
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If the two MAC addresses are the same (MAC-S=MAC-R), then the adapter is receiving its own echoed DHCPREQUEST. There is nothing to do in this case, so the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and no further processing takes place. It is not necessarily possible for an adapter to receive its own DHCPREQUEST in all network protocols, and in those protocols which make it impossible, the check performed at step may be omitted.
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Assuming MAC-S and MAC-R are different, then the handler determines whether MAC-S is owned by host , i.e., whether MAC-S is the MAC address of an adapter within host (step ). This may be determined by any conventional means for referencing machine state data. If not, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , and nothing further is done to process the DHCPREQUEST. If MAC-S is owned by host , then it is known that both MAC-R and MAC-S are owned by host and are coupled to a common network. In this case, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and processing continues at step .
408
503
502
705
706
706
706
706
408
707
710
The network object structure is then accessed to determine whether adapter MAC-R has been defined in the network object structure, i.e., whether an adapter object representing adapter MAC-R is linked to any network object in the network object structure (step ). If so, the ‘Y’ branch is taken to step , and it is determined whether MAC-S is defined in the network object structure. If MAC-S is also defined, then no further action is necessary, and the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step . (This may be the case, e.g. where MAC-S and MAC-R were previously defined, and MAC-S is requesting another IP address.) If, at step , MAC-S is not defined, then the ‘N’ branch is taken from step . Since it is known that MAC-S is on the same network as MAC-R, Adapter MAC-S is then linked the common network in the network object structure by creating or linking an adapter object representing adapter MAC-S to the network object to which adapter MAC-R is linked (step ). Processing continues at step .
705
705
708
408
709
710
If, at step , MAC-R was not defined in the network object structure, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step . If MAC-S is defined in the network object structure, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and adapter MAC-R is then linked the common network in the network object structure by creating or linking an adapter object representing adapter MAC-R to the network object to which adapter MAC-S is linked (step ). Processing continues at step .
710
710
710
713
FIG. 7
FIG. 8
At step , the DHCPREQUEST handler determines whether a virtual IP address (VIPA) already exists for the common network by examining the network object structure to find a virtual IP address object linked to the network object shared by adapters MAC-S and MAC-R. If such a virtual address already exists, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and no further action is performed. If no such virtual address exists, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , and a new virtual IP address is generated for this network. Generation of the new virtual IP address is represented in as step , and is shown in greater detail in .
708
708
408
711
712
If, at step , it was determined that MAC-S is not defined in the network object structure, then neither MAC-S nor MAC-R is defined, and the ‘N’ branch is taken from step . This may be the case, e.g., in an initialization situation. In this case, a new network object (NETn) is created to represent the network to which adapters MAC-R and MAC-S are coupled, and object NETn is added to the list of network objects in network object structure (step ). Adapters MAC-R and MAC-S are then linked under NETn by creating or linking adapter objects representing the two adapters to the network object NETn (step ). Since both adapters are coupled to the same network, a virtual IP address is then generated for network NETn.
606
607
701
712
607
608
201
502
503
713
FIG. 6
FIG. 7
It is expected that under the DHCP protocol, a sufficient time will have elapsed so that by the time the adapter activation process receives the DHCPACK and transmits an ARP advertisement (steps and of ), the asynchronously executing DHCPREQUEST handler will have created a network object and/or linked adapters to a network object if multiple adapters are coupled to a common network (steps - of ). However, if this can not be guaranteed, it would be possible to insert a semaphore or other wait device between steps an , to force the adapter activation process to wait until any DHCPREQUEST handling process executing in host will have completed the creation of any necessary network object and linking of adapter object(s) to a common network object. In this case, it would not be necessary to wait until the virtual IP address is assigned at step .
FIG. 7
FIG. 7
201
201
In the above description and in , it is assumed for the sake of clarity that host is not itself a DHCP server, and therefore the received DHCP request is used solely for the purpose of detecting the presence of two or more adapters on the same network. If host is also acting as a DHCP server for the network, then it would, in addition to those steps shown in , process the DHCP request to generate an appropriate response (DHCPNAK or DHCPACK) in the manner required by the DHCP protocol.
FIG. 6
FIG. 8
If the DHCPREQUEST handler determines to create a virtual IP address for a network (designated NETx), it follows the DHCP protocol to assign a new virtual address to one of the adapters. This procedure is analogous to certain steps of , and is shown in .
FIG. 8
801
503
502
Referring to , an adapter (designated adapter X) coupled to network X is selected as the primary adapter for servicing the virtual IP address (step ). In the preferred embodiment, the primary adapter is the adapter at the head of the list of adapters in the network object structure, i.e., represented by the first adapter object linked to the network object . However, other criteria could alternatively be used for selecting the primary adapter.
802
803
806
If a virtual address(designated IP-Vn) was saved from a previous activation, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and IP-Vn is initialized to the previously saved value (step ). The host will then attempt to obtain IP-Vn again by issuing a DHCPREQUEST message over the primary adapter (step ).
802
804
805
806
If no previous virtual IP address was saved (the ‘N’ branch from step ), then IP-Vn is initialized to all zeroes to allocate a new IP address (step ). The host then issues a DHCPDISCOVER message over the primary adapter, and waits for a DHCPOFFER response from a DHCP server (step ). The DHCPOFFER will contain a new IP address, which can be used as a virtual IP address. The host should receive one or more DHCPOFFER responses, and selects one of the offers using any suitable criteria Whether a previous IP address was saved or not, the host then sends a DHCPREQUEST message from the primary adapter over the network, the DHCPREQUEST message containing the previously saved or new IP-Vn (step ). The host then waits for a response from the DHCP server in the form of either a DHCPACK (acknowledge) or DCHPNAK (no acknowledge).
807
803
807
808
203
If a DHCPNAK is received (the ‘Y’ branch from step ), then the DHCP server has rejected the IP address, and the host returns to step to attempt to obtain another IP address. If a DHCPACK is received, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step . The host then send an ARP advertisement from the primary adapter over the network (step ). The ARP advertisement informs all hosts on the network that IP-Vn has been assigned to the primary adapter, which is identified by its MAC address (MAC-p). This mapping information is saved in DHCP server , and depending on the network implementation, other devices on the network may cache this information as well.
504
408
502
809
A virtual IP address object is then created to represent virtual address IP-VN in the network object structure , and this virtual IP address object is linked to the network object representing NETx (step ). Assignment and configuration of the virtual IP address are then complete.
201
406
FIG. 9
FIG. 9
If host receives an ARP request from another network device (i.e., a request that the owner of a particular IP address identify itself), the host must respond if the address is owned by it, either as an IP address assigned to a specific adapter within the host, or a virtual address which can assigned to any of multiple adapters. If it is a virtual address, the host will provide the identity (i.e. MAC address) of the primary adapter. The process of handling an ARP request received in an adapter R, performed by ARP request handler , is shown in . It will be understood that each adapter which receives an ARP request will trigger a separate instance of the ARP request handling process shown in , and that at most one of these should respond.
FIG. 9
901
503
901
904
901
902
504
902
903
408
904
904
903
Referring to , upon receipt of an ARP request in adapter R, the ARP request handler determines whether the IP address contained in the request (IP-X) is owned by adapter R (step ). This can be determined by examining the adapter object for adapter R. If so, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and an appropriate ARP reply is transmitted to the requester (sender of the ARP request) from adapter R (step ). The ARP reply contains the MAC address of adapter R. If IP-X is not owned by adapter R, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , and the ARP request handler determines whether IP-X is a virtual IP address (step ). This can be determined to examining the virtual IP address object(s) in the network object structure. If IP-X is not a virtual IP address, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , and no further action is required. If IP-X is a virtual address, the ARP handler then determines whether adapter R is the primary adapter assigned to the virtual address (step ). The primary adapter can be determined by examining the network object structure to determine the adapter immediately linked to the network object (at the head of the list of adapters coupled to the network). If adapter R is the primary adapter, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step , and an ARP reply is transmitted to the requester from adapter R (step ). If R is not the primary adapter, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , and no further action is taken. Thus in the case of a virtual IP address, one and only one adapter (the primary adapter) will respond with an ARP reply.
When an ARP requester (a host or other device on the network which issued an ARP request) receives a reply to the ARP request, it typically updates an ARP cache to associate the IP address which was the subject of the request with the MAC address which was returned in the reply to the request. The ARP requester thereafter associates the IP address with the MAC address provided in response to the request. The ARP requester does not, and need not, know whether an IP address is a virtual IP address or is fixed to a particular adapter. It merely knows that there is an adapter that will respond to that IP address.
Similarly, when a host or other device on the network receives an ARP advertisement, it will typically update its ARP cache to associate the IP address with the MAC address, both of which are contained in the ARP advertisement. The device receiving the ARP advertisement does not, and need not, know whether the IP address is virtual or not.
407
403
FIG. 10
In the preferred embodiment, an adapter deactivation function in connection manager is triggered when an adapter is deactivated. Adapter deactivation may be caused by physically unplugging an adapter, by internal failure of an adapter, by failure of a connection, by deactivation under command of a system administrator or similar person, etc. Any appropriate means for detecting adapter deactivation, now known or hereafter developed, may be used to trigger the adapter deactivation function. Among other things, the adapter deactivation function attempts to assign any virtual address to another adapter, if there is one. shows the process of handling adapter deactivation.
FIG. 10
503
408
502
1001
Referring to , upon detection that an adapter (adapter X) has been deactivated, the adapter object representing adapter X in network object structure is unlinked from its corresponding network object (step ). This adapter object could either be deallocated entirely, or could be simply unlinked and placed in a list or pool of deactivated adapters.
1002
1002
The adapter deactivation function determines whether adapter X is the primary adapter for a virtual IP address (step ). Adapter X will be the primary adapter for a virtual address if it is at the head of a list of adapters for a network having a virtual address. It will be appreciated that the status of primary adapter could alternatively be recorded in the adapter object for adapter X. Note that it may be necessary to make this determination in whole or in part before unlinking adapter X from the network object. If adapter X is not the primary adapter for a virtual IP address, the ‘N’ branch from step is taken, and no further action is required.
1002
1003
1003
1003
1004
201
201
If adapter X is the primary adapter for a virtual address, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step . In this case a determination is made whether there is another active adapter on the same network (step ). If not, the ‘N’ branch is taken from step , and no further action is required. If there is another adapter, the ‘Y’ branch is taken from step . The first adapter on the list of adapters coupled to the network (adapter B) is then chosen as the new primary adapter (step ). Host then sends an ARP advertisement over the new primary adapter (adapter B), mapping the virtual IP address to the MAC address of adapter B (MAC-B). Other devices on the network thereafter treat adapter B as the adapter to which the virtual IP address is assigned, and host treats it as the primary adapter for the virtual IP address.
Thus, once a virtual IP address is assigned and configured, the primary adapter responds to it exactly the same as it would for any other IP address assigned to that adapter. The only difference is that, in the case of a virtual IP address, the host has the capability to automatically substitute a different adapter, and inform other network devices of that substitution by means of an ARP advertisement, in the event that the primary adapter becomes inactive. This capability is entirely seamless to the user.
FIG. 2
FIG. 10
FIG. 6
FIGS. 7 and 8
207
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502
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202
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202
605
207
504
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202
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207
Furthermore, the connection manager responds automatically to changes in configuration to re-assign virtual IP addresses, and even assign new virtual IP addresses, as needed. For example, if, in the exemplary configuration of , adapter A were to be unplugged from network A and coupled to network B, then host would take the following steps. First, it would unlink adapter object A (representing adapter A) from network object A and assign the virtual address to adapter B, using the process of . Then, when adapter A is plugged into network B, an IP address (which could be the same IP address) would be obtained for adapter A in network B, using the process of . The sending of a DHCPREQUEST message at step would cause adapter C to receive it, thus triggering the process of , causing adapter object to be linked to network object B (representing network B) and a virtual IP address to be created for network B. This new virtual address would be assigned to one of adapters A or C as the primary adapter.
FIGS. 6-10
FIGS. 6-10
408
It will be understood that the flow diagrams represented in are simplified flow diagrams intended to illustrate the significant action performed to support virtual IP address configuration, and that certain features are not necessarily shown. For example, network communications protocols typically define circumstances of timeout, error recovery, and so forth which have been eliminated from the flow diagrams for clarity. Furthermore, it will be understood that disclosed herein is a preferred embodiment of a technique for automatically configuring virtual IP addresses, and that many variations in addition to those specifically discussed herein are possible in the method steps shown in and described above. Specifically, it will be recognized that the order of performing certain steps may be changed, that some steps may be optional or may be performed in a different manner from that described herein, that some steps may be combined, and so forth. In particular, certain steps shown are for maintaining the network object structure . It will be understood that network configuration state data could be maintained in a different form from that shown in the network object structure of the preferred embodiment, and that in this case some of the steps may be modified accordingly.
In the preferred embodiment, a local network contains at least one DHCP server operating in accordance with the defined DHCP protocol, and the host detects a DHCPREQUEST received under the DHCP protocol in a different adapter to trigger a virtual IP address assignment. However, the local network need not use a DHCP server, and any suitable alternative whereby some form of message issued by one adapter is detected by another adapter on the same network could be used as a basis for automatic configuration of a virtual IP address. For example, a local network may use some other form of autoconfiguration of IP addresses, such as configuration in accordance with the “IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration” draft standard Internet Society protocol, described in RFC 2462, by S. Thomson & T. Narten, December 1998. A further refinement of this protocol for use in automatic configuration of Internet communications is described in U.S. Patent Publication 2004/0083306 A1, published Apr. 29, 2004, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Maintaining Internet Domain Name Data”, which is herein incorporated by reference. Any equivalent procedure or any subsequent modification or revision of this draft standard protocol may alternatively be used.
FIG. 3
302
325
327
In general, the routines executed to implement the illustrated embodiments of the invention, whether implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, program, object, module or sequence of instructions are referred to herein as “computer programs”. The computer programs typically comprise instructions which, when read and executed by one or more processors in the devices or systems in a computer system consistent with the invention, cause those devices or systems to perform the steps necessary to execute steps or generate elements embodying the various aspects of the present invention. Moreover, while the invention has and hereinafter will be described in the context of fully functioning computer systems, the various embodiments of the invention are capable of being distributed as a program product on computer-readable media in a variety of forms, and the invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of computer-readable media used to actually carry out the distribution, and whether distribution is accomplished in whole or in part using electronic transmission of instruction data. Examples of suitable computer-readable media are illustrated in as memory and data storage devices -.
Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been disclosed along with certain alternatives, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that additional variations in form and detail may be made within the scope of the following claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1
is a high-level conceptual view of the Internet
FIG. 2
is a high-level illustration of the major components of an Internet environment for maintaining IP addresses, in accordance with the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 3
shows a high-level block diagram of the major hardware components of an exemplary host node, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 4
is a conceptual illustration of the major software components of a host computer system, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 5
is a conceptual representation of an exemplary network object structure for internally representing the state of a network configuration, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 6
is a high-level flow diagram of the process of configuring an adapter, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 7
is a high-level flow diagram of the process of handling a DHCPREQUEST received in an adapter coupled to a network, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 8
is a high-level flow diagram of a process of creating and assigning a virtual IP address, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 9
is a high-level flow diagram showing a process of responding to an ARP request received in a host adapter, according to the preferred embodiment.
FIG. 10
is a high-level flow diagram showing a process of handling deactivation of an adapter, according to the preferred embodiment. | |
Alcohol molecules are held together by weak electrostatic bonds between hydrogen of a hydroxyl and oxygen of a neighboring molecule. … When two or more hydroxyl groups are present in an organic molecule, hydrogen bonding increases and the boiling point rises sharply.
What is the boiling point of water and alcohol?
Different types of alcohol have different boiling points, so this can be used to separate them from each other and from other organic compounds. Distillation may also be used to separate alcohol and water. The boiling point of water is 212 F or 100 C, which is higher than that of alcohol.
Why does water have a high boiling point compared to alcohol?
water has higher boiling point than alcohol because the extent of hydrogen bonding is stronger in water than in alcohol . Moreover we know that water freezes into ice at 273 k and changes into vapour states at 373 k.
What happens to alcohol when you boil it?
As a reference, here’s a helpful rule of thumb: After 30 minutes of cooking, alcohol content decreases by 10 percent with each successive half-hour of cooking, up to 2 hours. That means it takes 30 minutes to boil alcohol down to 35 percent and you can lower that to 25 percent with an hour of cooking.
Which alcohol has higher boiling point?
Only (c ) is a straight-chain alcohol having a larger surface area, and thus high boiling point.
Which boils faster water or alcohol?
As alcohol evaporates at a much faster rate compared with water due to its lower boiling temperature (82 compared to 100 degrees C), it is able to carry away more heat from the skin. This means for a given amount of time much more alcohol evaporates than water.
Which alcohol has lowest boiling point?
tert-butyl alcohol has the most branched structure, therefore, it has the lowest boiling point.
Why does water have the highest boiling point?
Water molecules in liquid state have the ability to form hydrogen bonds with each other. These hydrogen bonds are some of the strongest of all intermolecular forces, so a large amount of energy is needed to break these interactions − this is the main reason why water has such a high relative boiling point.
Why h20 has higher boiling point than ethanol?
Hydrogen bonding is not as extensive in ethanol as in water, and so its boiling point is lower than water’s, despite its greater molecular weight. Ethanol is completely soluble in water, but when a liter of ethanol is added to a liter of water at 20°, only 1.93 liters of the mixture is produced.
Why does higher alcohol decrease solubility?
Alcohols are soluble in water. … The reason why the solubility decreases as the length of hydrocarbon chain increases is because it is requires more energy to overcome the hydrogen bonds between the alcohol molecules as the molecules are more tightly packed together as the size and mass increases.
Can you boil out alcohol?
Since alcohol evaporates at 172°F (78°C), any sauce or stew that is simmering or boiling is certainly hot enough to evaporate the alcohol.
Does alcohol boil away?
The standard explanation, when there is one, is that alcohol boils at 173 degrees, while water doesn’t boil until 212 degrees, and therefore the alcohol will boil off before the water does. It’s true that pure alcohol boils at 173 degrees and pure water boils at 212.
Does boiling alcohol kill its effect?
Does boiling alcohol kill its effect? Alcohol boils at a lower temperature because its molecules are not held as tightly together as are water molecules, thus, it takes less energy to loosen alcohol up. Despite starting to boil much sooner than water does, alcohol does not just evaporate away the instant it is heated.
Does alcohol have higher boiling point than water?
There are less extensive hydrogen bonding between ethanol molecules than between water molecules, thus less energy is needed to vaporise ethanol than water and water has a higher boiling point than ethanol.
What is the formula of ethanol?
C2H5OH
Which has higher boiling point acetic acid or acetone?
since acetone has dipole-dipole interactions with ITSELF, it has the second-highest boiling point. since acetic acid hydrogen-bonds with ITSELF, it has the highest boiling point. | https://disruptedphysician.com/heavy-drinking/how-does-alcohol-affect-the-boiling-point-of-water.html |
Crispy and fragrant appetizer – potato sticks in the oven – is easy to prepare, even if you do not have special culinary skills. Dried herbs (in moderation), sesame or poppy seeds can be added to the potato dough, coarse sea salt can be sprinkled on top. You can serve these sticks for lunch, with hot or cold soup, with vegetable salad or just as a snack, with or without sauce.
To prepare sticks, you need to prepare all the necessary products in advance – boil potatoes in their skins, cool and peel, measure the right amount of wheat flour. Butter must be taken out of the cold in advance so that it becomes soft. For sticks, you can take a mixture of dried herbs, however, add in moderation so as not to spoil the taste.
Ingredients:
- Boiled potatoes – 2 pcs.
- Wheat flour – 90 g.
- Salt – 2 pinches.
- Dried herbs – 2 pinches.
- Butter – 65 g.
- Spices – 3 pinches.
- Green onions – 3-4 feathers.
How to cook:
1. Pour the sifted wheat flour into a deep bowl, add the soft butter cut into pieces.
2. Start mixing flour with butter, it’s best to do it with your hands. The result should be a fairly large oil crumb.
3. Grate boiled potatoes and place in a bowl with flour and butter.
4. Pour dried herbs (thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano) into a bowl, as well as spices and salt.
Choose spices to your taste, a mixture of ground peppers, coriander, paprika, fenugreek will do.
5. Finely chop fresh herbs (green onions) and pour into a bowl. You can also add dill, parsley, thyme.
6. Mix everything, then knead a soft dough, cover with foil and put in the refrigerator for half an hour.
7. Dust the work surface with flour. Divide the dough into halves, roll one part into a cake.
8. Cut the cake into thin strips, 1.5-2 cm wide.
9. Cover the baking sheet with baking paper, put the sticks close to each other.
For a more interesting look, you can roll the strips of dough into spirals.
Bake the sticks at 180 degrees for a quarter of an hour or a little longer.
Let the finished sticks cool, after which you can try them.
Enjoy your meal! | https://verytastyrecipes.com/potato-sticks-in-the-oven-crispy-and-fragrant/ |
This invention relates to digital signal recording apparatus which may be applied to record, for example, audio pulse code modulation (PMC) signals on to a magnetic tape using rotary heads and, more particularly but not exclusively, to such apparatus provided with a digital encoder for recording high quality audio PCM data, for example as described in US Patent No. US-A-4 551 771.
Error correction encoding apparatus and methods have been previously proposed for use with information symbols arranged two-dimensionally in a matrix form in which encoding processes of error detection and error correction codes, for example Reed Solomon codes, are executed in each of the vertical and lateral directions of the information symbols. These codes are transmitted for each column in the vertical direction. On the reception side, the error correction is performed by using a first error detection code and a first error correction code and, at the same time, a pointer indicative of the presence or absence of errors is formed. The errors are then corrected by a second error detection code and a second error correction code with reference to this pointer.
In the case where the foregoing error correction encoded data is transmitted for each column, a synchronisation (sync) signal and sub-data such as a block address and the like are added thereby to form one block of data. For example, in US Patent No. US-A-4 630 272, there is shown a method whereby a sync signal and an address in which error detection can be independently performed by a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code are added to each column of data and to the parity data of a first error correction code, thereby forming one block. In the above US Patent No. US-A-4 630 272, as shown in Figure 1A of the accompanying drawings, for the address, the error detection can be executed by the CRC code and for a data portion (PMC audio signals), encoding processes of a first error correction code (referred to as a C1 code) and a second error correction code (referred to as a C2 code) are performed. In the case of the encoding as shown in Figure 1A, however, since the C1 code is not applied to the address, the protection against errors may be insufficient.
To solve this problem, for example, as disclosed in US Patent No. US-A-4 682 332 and as shown in Figure 1B of the accompanying drawings, an error correction encoding is proposed in which an encoding by a C1 code is also executed for the address.
When a header consists of only an address, the error correction encoding shown in Figure 1B is useful. However, if PCM audio signals (main data) are included in the header in addition to the address, the encoding by the C1 code is only executed for the main data and there is a problem in that the protection for errors may be insufficient, as discussed hereinafter. Encoding by the C2 code of the whole header, including the address, to eliminate this drawback causes an inconvenience in that the data area in which the addresses are recorded is lost by virtue of the existence of the C2 parity.
To solve this further problem, the present applicant has proposed an error correction encoding apparatus in which a complete header together with a data portion is C1 encoded and the encoding of a C2 code is performed for the main data included in the header, excluding addresses, thereby enabling error protection of the part of the main data included in the header to be strengthened, so that the main data can be recorded into the header part. This error correction encoding apparatus is suitable for use in what is called an 8-mm video tape recorder (VTR) as disclosed in US Patent No. US-A-4 551 771 in which both a video signal of one field and audio PCM signals of one field, that is, time base compressed audio PCM signals, are recorded on a magnetic tape in a single scan.
h
h
In the already commercialised 8-mm VTR, a sampling frequency of the audio PCM signals is selected to be 2f (where f is the horizontal frequency). Therefore, the rotary heads which rotate at the frame frequency and a sampling system are synchronised, and the problem of asynchronisation between an image and audio sound does not occur. However, there is a problem in that the sampling frequency of the conventional 8-mm VTR is too low when audio signals of a high quality are to be recorded and reproduced. In addition, there is a problem with the absence of matching with the sampling frequencies (44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 32 kHz, etc.) which are used in other digital audio apparatus such as compact disc (CD) players and rotary head type digital audio tape recorders (R-DATs). Therefore, it would be preferable to be able to use those frequencies (44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 32 kHz, etc.) as the sampling frequency of the audio PCM signals in the 8-mm VTR.
However, since there is no integer ratio relationship between the above-mentioned frequency and, for example, the field frequency (59.94 kHz) of the NTSC system, the number of sampling data included in one field period is not an integer. Therefore, when both a video signal and audio PCM signals are recorded on the same track, as in the 8-mm VTR, the problem occurs of asynchronisation between the video image and the corresponding audio sound.
According to the invention there is provided digital signal recording apparatus for recording signals which have been digitally sampled at a first predetermined frequency and subject to error correction encoding into units having a second predetermined frequency and in which the first predetermined frequency cannot be evenly divided by the second predetermined frequency, wherein the recording apparatus includes an analog to digital converter for converting analog input signals into digital information signals, an encoder for error encoding the digital information signals, memory means for storing the product of the error encoding, an address generator for controlling the write and read operations of the memory means, and recording means for recording the output data of the encoder on to a recording medium by means of rotary magnetic heads, the digital signal recording apparatus comprising:
integer setting means for setting one of at least two count values each of which is an integer value near the quotient obtained by dividing the first predetermined frequency by the second predetermined frequency;
first counter means for counting the number of input samples to be recorded and outputting a corresponding first count signal;
means for comparing the count value of the first count signal and the count value selected from the numerical values of two or more set by the integer setting means and outputting a decision signal;
word number control means supplied with the decision signal for determining the number of samples to be included in the error correcting code unit in response to the decision signal; and
means controlled by the word number control means for controlling the address to be addressed in the memory means by the address generator.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention, to be described in greater detail hereinafter, provides a digital signal recording apparatus in which, even when the sampling frequency of an audio PCM signal cannot be evenly divided by the encoding frequency, for example by the field frequency, video/audio synchronisation can be maintained.
The preferred digital signal transmitting or recording apparatus is suitable for error correction encoding a plurality of samples of a digital information signal, wherein the number of samples included in a unit (for example a unit corresponding to one field of the video signal) in the error correction encoding is changed and a discrimination signal indicative of the number of samples is transmitted.
Preferably, the data recorded is organised into blocks. One block is formed by: a header consisting of a block address, an identification (ID) signal, and data; and a data block consisting of only main data. Audio PCM signals are recorded in a format in which a two-dimensional array of symbols in which a plurality of blocks are arranged is used as a unit. The two-dimensional array includes the data of one field of the audio PCM signals. The error correction encoded data of one field are time base compressed and recorded on to a magnetic tape.
In the case of the NTSC system, the field frequency is 59.94 kHz. When the sampling frequency is 48 kHz, the sampling frequency cannot be divided by the field frequency. That is, 48000 - 59.94 = 800.8. Integers of 2 or more which are close to the quotient, for instance, 800 and 801 are then chosen. The number of samples (words) of audio PCM signals to be recorded is counted. This count value and a count value selected from the foregoing numerical values are compared at a field period. When the count value of a number of samples is larger than the count value of the set numerical value, 801 is selected. However, when the count value of the number of samples is smaller than the count value of the set numerical value, 800 is selected.
This selected number of samples is recorded as the data of one field. Therefore, even if the number of samples of one field is an integer, the foregoing number of samples which is close to the quotient which is not an integer is recorded in an averaged manner and the occurrence of asynchronisation between a video image and audio sound can be prevented. On the other hand, since an ID signal indicative of the number of samples (800/801) is recorded, the data can be decoded on the reception side without any difficulty.
Figures 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams which are useful for explanation of a previously-proposed error correction code;
Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing a block constitution of an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing a frame constitution of the embodiment shown in Figure 2;
Figure 4 is a schematic diagram which is useful for explanation of the formation of a C2 code;
Figures 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D and 6 are schematic diagrams which show an example of interleaving of data;
Figures 7A, 7B-I, 7B-II, 7B-III, 7B-IV, 7C-I and 7C-II are schematic diagrams which are useful for explanation of the constitution of a header;
Figures 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams of another example of a frame constitution;
Figure 9 is a block diagram of an example of a recording/reproducing circuit of a rotary head type VTR to which the invention can be applied;
Figures 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D, 10E and 10F are timing charts useful in explaining the operation of the recording/reproducing circuit depicted in Figure 9;
Figure 11 is a block diagram of an example of a PCM recording processing circuit;
Figure 12 is a block diagram of a word number control circuit;
Figure 13 is a block diagram of a clock generating circuit;
Figure 14 is a block diagram of a word number deciding circuit which is useful for explaining the operation of the circuit depicted in Figure 13; and
Figures 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D are waveform diagrams useful for explaining the operation of the circuit depicted in Figure 14.
The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, throughout which like parts are referred to by like references, and in which:
(a) Block constitution and frame constitution.
(b) An example of data interleave.
(c) An example of constitution of a header.
(d) Recording and reproducing circuit.
(e) Word number control circuit.
(f) Modification.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinbelow, in accordance with the following order.
Figure 2 shows the constitution of one block of data, for example audio data which is recorded on to a magnetic tape. This block corresponds to the amount of PCM data recorded in one track of the magnetic tape. One block consists of 49 symbols. A block sync signal of one symbol is located at the head of one block. This is followed by a header of four symbols, and then by a data portion of 44 symbols. As will be explained later, the header may comprise: an ID signal, data, or a C2 parity; a block address ADR; and an error detection code EDC such as simple parity, CRC, or the like. The data portion may comprise: data (audio PCM signals) or a C2 parity; or either data or a C2 parity and a C1 parity.
As shown in Figure 3, one frame is formed by arranging the above-mentioned blocks into 100 columns. Block-in-addresses of 0 to 47 are added to 48 symbols in the vertical direction, excluding the block sync signal, in a matrix-shaped frame construction, and block addresses 0 to 99 are added to 100 blocks in the lateral direction.
The audio PCM signals and C1 parity are included in 44 symbols x 80 blocks in the block addresses 20 to 99 and block-in addresses 4 to 47. When the sampling frequency is 48 kHz, the PCM audio signals of one field according to the NTSC system are set to
As will be clear from this equation, the sampling frequency cannot be evenly divided by the field frequency. To solve this problem, in the frame constitution shown in Figure 3, there exist both 800 words and 801 words which are recorded in mixed manner. However, in the following description of the code constitution, the frame constitution has 801 words.
In the case of performing a linear digitisation of 16 bits, each word is divided into an upper eight bits and a lower eight bits and one symbol is set to eight bits. On the other hand, when one word consists of 12 bits, one symbol is set to six bits. Instead of 48 kHz, the sampling frequency can be set to 44.1 kHz or 32 kHz.
Referring to Figures 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D, symbols LOu and ROu (Figure 5D) on the upper side of words LO and RO in the heads of the audio PCM signals LO to L800, RO to R800 of the left and right channels are set to 1 in the block-in address and are arranged in the block addresses 97 and 99. On the other hand, symbols LOℓ and ROℓ on the lower side are set to 3 in the block-in address and are arranged in the block addresses 97 and 99. Among the remaining 800 words in each channel, the 800 symbols of the odd-number designated words are arranged in the block addresses 20 to 59 and the 800 symbols of the even-number designated words are arranged in the block addresses 60 to 99.
The parity (C2 parity) of the second error correction code (C2 code) is included in 20 blocks x 44 symbols in the block addresses 0 to 19 and block-in addresses 4 to 47. As shown in Figure 4, the C2 code is a (25, 20) Reed Solomon code which is formed for groups of 20 symbols, every four blocks of which are arranged in the lateral direction. Since four series of this C2 code are formed with respect to one row, the C2 parities of 4 x 5 = 20 symbols are included in one row. Therefore, the encoding processes of the C1 code and C2 code are executed for all of the symbols of 44 symbols x 80 blocks in the block addresses 20 to 99 and block-in addresses 4 to 47.
The error detection code EDC for the header is included in the block-in address 0 and block addresses 0 to 99. The encoding process of the C2 code is not performed for the error detection code EDC. This is a feature of this arrangement.
An ID signal IDu or data LOu and ROu is included in the block-in address 1 and block addresses 20 to 99. The C2 parities of 5 x 2 = 10 symbols formed from this data are included in the block-in address 1 and block addresses, 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., 17, 19. Five symbols are needed for each of data LOu and ROu. An ID signal IDu is included in the block-in address 1 and block addresses 0, 2, 4, 6, ..., 16, 18, as shown in the upper part of Figure 5A.
The block address ADR is included in the block-in address 2 and block addresses 0 to 99. Encoding of the C2 code is not executed for the block address ADR. This is another feature of this arrangement.
The ID signal IDℓ or data LOℓ and ROℓ is included in the block-in address 3 and block addresses 20 to 99. The C2 parities of 5 x 2 = 20 symbols formed from this data are included in the block-in address 3 and block addresses 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., 17, 19. The ID signal IDℓ is included in the block-in address 3 and block addresses 0,2,4,6, ..., 16, 18.
The encoding by the C1 code is executed for all one hundred of the blocks in a manner similar to the method described in US Patent No. US-A-4 630 272. The C1 code is a (48,44) Reed Solomon code. The series of this C1 code is constructed so as to exist in two adjacent blocks. That is, one C1 series is formed by the even-number designated symbols 0, 2, 4, 6, ... of the block-in address of the series of symbols of two adjacent blocks (for example, blocks 20 and 21 shown in Figure 6). Another C1′ series is formed by the odd-number designated symbols 1, 3, 5, 7, ... of the block-in address. The reason why the C1 series are formed so as to exist in two blocks is to prevent the two symbols in one C1 series from including errors due to errors generated at the boundary of two continuous symbols upon recording. The C1 parities (8 symbols) of two adjacent blocks are arranged in the block-in addresses 40 to 47 of the odd-number block addresses.
Upon recording, the C2 parity is formed by the data and ID signal. Next, the C1 parity is formed from these data. Upon reproduction, error detection and/or error correction is executed by means of the C1 code. A pointer is set for the symbols which cannot be error corrected. The error detection and error correction of the C2 code are executed by reference to this pointer. In addition, upon reproduction, error detection regarding the header is performed using the error detection code EDC.
The production of the C2 code will be explained again with reference to Figure 4. As shown in Figure 4, the block-in addresses 0, 1, ..., 47 are expressed as ℓ and the block addresses 0,1, ..., 99 are expressed as k. When ℓ = 0 and ℓ = 2, the encoding by the C2 code is not executed, since audio data does not exist. When ℓ = 1, only the C2 series including the data LOu and ROu (series marked by O and X) is formed. When ℓ = 3, only the C2 series including the data LOℓ and ROℓ (series marked by O and X) is formed. When ℓ = 4 to 47, the C2 series (series marked by O, X, Δ and □) is formed for all of the data.
Figures 5 and 6 show the interleave of data of 801 words (= 1602 symbols)/one channel of one field according to the NTSC system in detail. Figures 5A and 5B show the data constitution in the block addresses 0 to 59. Figures 5B, 5C and 5D shown the data constitution in the block addresses 60 to 99, and Figure 6 shows those in the block addresses 20 and 21 in detail.
As mentioned above, four symbols LOu, LOℓ , ROu, ROℓ of two words are positioned in the block-in addresses 1 and 3 in the block addresses 97 and 99. The odd number designated words L1 to L799, R1 to R799 are arranged in the block addresses 20 to 59. The even-number designated words L2 to L800, R2 to R800 are arranged in the block addresses 60 to 99. By interleaving the recording positions of the odd-number designated words and the even-number designated words, the poor effect caused upon reproduction when consecutive words are error words can be reduced.
An example of the interleave of the symbols of the odd-number designated words will now be described. As shown in Figures 5A, 5B and 6, the data are sequentially arranged from the block-in addresses 4 and 6. In this case, the symbols L1u, R1u, L3u, R3u, ..., R19u on the upper side are successively arranged in the even-number designated block addresses 20, 22, 24, 26, ..., 58 in the block-in address 4. The symbols L1ℓ , R1ℓ , L3ℓ , R3ℓ , ..., R19ℓ , on the lower side are sequentially arranged in the even-number designated block addresses 20, 22, 24, 26, ..., 58 in the block-in address 6. The next odd-number designated symbols are arranged in the block-in addresses 5 and 7 in a manner similar to that described above. By repeating the data arrangement in this manner, the symbols R799u and R799ℓ are located in the block-in addresses 37 and 39 in the block address 59.
In Figure 6, P00 to P13 denote C1 parities regarding two blocks in the block addresses, for example, 20 and 21. That is, in the two blocks in the block addresses 20 and 21, the parities P00, P01, P02 and P03 of a (48, 44) Reed Solomon code (C1 code) are formed from the 48 symbols located in the even-number designated block-in address 20. The parities P10, P11, P12 and P13 of the (48, 44) Reed Solomon code (C1′ code) are formed from the 48 symbols located in the odd-number designated block-in address 21.
As shown in Figures 5C and 5D, the even-number designated words are arranged in a manner similar to the odd-number designated words. The symbols R800u and R800ℓ of the last word in the R channel are arranged in the block-in addresses 37 and 39 in the block address 99. According to the interleave shown in Figures 5 and 6, the recording positions of adjacent words are interleaved by four blocks in each of the even-number designated word series and the odd-number designated word series in each channel. Successive recording of the upper side symbols and lower side symbols of one word is prevented. The influence of burst errors is reduced. In the actual write operation of the data into memory, odd-numbered words and even-numbered words are written into the tables shown in Figures 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D, for example LOu, Rou, L1u, R1u, R2u, L3u, R3u, ... .
Figure 7A shows a portion of the header in one of the blocks in which C2 parity is not included. The header comprises: the ID signals IDu and IDℓ comprised of two symbols; the block address ADR comprised of one symbol; and a parity of the error detection code (EDC) comprised of three symbols, for instance, of a simple parity. Hereafter, this parity code is referred to as "third parity data". This error detection code is also used to detect a block sync signal. Figure 7B shows the information of each of the three symbols IDu, IDℓ , and ADR when one symbol consists of six bits, namely one word consists of twelve bits. On the other hand, Figure 7C shows the information of each of the three symbols IDu, IDℓ , and ADR when one symbol consists of eight bits, namely one word consists of sixteen bits.
As shown in Figure 7B-I, when the least significant bit of block address ADR is "O", namely, in the even number designated blocks (for example, the area P in Figures 5C), the block address is indicated by a total of eight bits consisting of six bits of the block address ADR and the lower two bits of the ID. The upper four bits of the signal IDℓ are set to a frame address. The frame address indicates a track number. This frame address is used to discriminate the frame (namely the track) in the high-speed reproducing mode in which the rotary heads can scan a plurality of tracks, or in the editing mode. The lower three bits of the signal IDu are set to a track address. The track address, namely the channel address, is used to discriminate a channel when one track is divided into six channels. Six kinds of compressed audio PCM signals are recorded in each of the six channels. The upper three bits of the IDu are used as an ID signal. This ID signal can be used as a head search signal to select a desired track or a time code to indicate the position of a recording signal on the tape. This ID signal can be also used to discriminate the recording mode of the recording signals, for example, stereo/bilingual, prohibition of copy, or the like.
As shown in Figure 7B-II, when the least significant bit of the block address ADR is "1", that is, in the odd-number designated block addresses 97, 99, including main data (for example, the area Q in Figure 5D), the six bits of the ADR are used as a block address, which is an insufficient number of bits to express the full block address. However, the correct block address can be recovered by interpolation using the block addresses of the blocks before and after this block. In this case the area of the IDu is used for the symbols LOu and ROu in this embodiment on the upper side of the data. The area of the ID is used for the symbols LOℓ and ROℓ in the embodiment on the lower side of the data.
Figure 7B-III shows the contents of data in the odd-numbered blocks 21, 23, 25, ..., 95 (for example, the area Y). The ID signal is the so-called sub-code data. This ID signal is used to discriminate the sampling frequency, the number of words, etc., in addition to the above-mentioned use. When three bits are not sufficient to express this control information, six bits included in the odd-numbered blocks are used.
Figure 7B-IV shows the contents of data in the odd-numbered blocks 1, 3, 5, ..., 19 (for example, the area Z) and C2 parity is inserted in the ID area.
Figure 7C shows the constitution of a header when one symbol consists of eight bits. In the block in which the least significant bit of the block address is "O", an ADR of 8 bits is set to a block address, the IDℓ is set to track address (3 bits) and a frame address (5 bits), and the IDu is assigned to the ID signal (Figure 7C-I). In the block in which the least significant bit of the block address is "1", the 8 bits of the ADR are used as a block address and the IDu and IDℓ are assigned to the ID signal, data or C2 parity, respectively (Figure 7C-II).
Even in any of the cases where one symbol consists of 6 bits or where one symbol consists of 8 bits, no data is included in the blocks 20, 22, 24, ..., 112 in which the least significant bit of the block address is "O", so that, as mentioned above, the symbols in the block in which the least significant bit of the block address in the header is "O" are not C2 encoded. Namely, C2 encoding need not be performed, since no data is included in the blocks. In this way the block address, frame address, and track address are prevented from being lost by the C2 parity.
The invention is not limited to recording the audio signals associated with the video signal according to the NTSC system, but can be also applied to the case where the audio signals associated with the video signal according to the CCIR system are recorded. In the CCIR system, since the field frequency is 50 Hz, the data of one field in the case of a sampling frequency of 48 kHz consists of (48,000 x 1/50 =) 960 words (LO to L959, RO to R959).
Figures 8A and 8B show an example of a frame constitution in the case where the invention is applied to the CCIR system. Forty-eight symbols, excluding the block sync signal, are arranged in the vertical direction and 116 blocks are arranged in the lateral direction. The symbols of the head words LO and RO are included in a part of the header. The C2 encoding is performed for this data. The interleave of the even-number designated words and odd-number designated words, the C1 encoding, and the C2 encoding, are similar to those in the case according to the NTSC system.
Figure 9 shows an example of a recording/reproducing circuit of a rotary head type VTR to which the invention can be applied. In this VTR, the video signal and PCM audio signals are recorded on to a magnetic tape in a single scan.
F
In Figure 9, a pair of rotary heads 25A and 25B are mounted inside of a drum 25C. The rotary heads 25A and 25B have an angle interval of 180° therebetween and are rotated at a frame frequency f (29.97Hz in the case of the NTSC system) by a motor 33 through a rotating shaft 32. A magnetic tape 31 is wrapped obliquely around the peripheral surface of the rotary head drum 25C, over an angular range of about 210° of head travel, and is transported past the head drum 25C at a constant velocity with respect to its rotational peripheral surface.
In this case, the rotational phases of the rotary heads 25A and 25B are controlled so as to synchronise with the video signal to be recorded upon recording and are servo controlled so as to correctly scan the track upon reproduction.
PCM
PCM
Therefore, as shown in Figure 10A, in every other field period Ta, the rotary head 25A scans the PCM interval S about 1/6 field period before the video interval is scanned in the period Ta. Similarly, in every other field period Tb, the rotary head 25B scans the PCM interval S about 1/6 field period before the video interval is scanned in the period Tb. The above-mentioned format is similar to that disclosed in US Patent No. US-A-4 551 771.
m
f
f
Upon recording of the video signal, a colour video signal S₂c and a frequency modulated monaural audio signal S are supplied to a video recording processing circuit 21. As shown in Figure 10B, a frequency multiplexed signal S, comprising an FM luminance signal, a low frequency band converted carrier chrominance signal, FM audio signals, and a pilot signal for auto tracking, is continuously extracted. This signal S is supplied to a switching circuit 22.
g
f
A pulse generating means 34 is provided for the rotating shaft 32. Frame period pulses P indicative of the rotational phases of the rotary heads 25A and 25B are supplied to a signal forming circuit 36 through a shaping amplifier 35. As shown in Figure 10C, a pulse signal SW, which is inverted for each period Ta and Tb, is formed by the signal forming circuit 36. The pulse signal SW is supplied as a control signal to the switching circuit 22. The switching circuit 22 is switched between the state shown in the diagram and a state opposite to that shown in the diagram for the periods Ta and Tb. Therefore, as shown in Figure 10D, the signal S is alternately supplied by the switching circuit 22 for each period Ta and Tb.
f
f
The frequency multiplexed signal S is supplied through recording amplifiers 23A and 23B and, further, through recording side terminals R of switching circuits 24A and 24B to the rotary heads 25A and 25B. The switching circuits 24A and 25B are timed to switch in synchronism with the rotation of the heads in the conventional manner. Therefore, the signal S is sequentially recorded as a video interval on to the magnetic tape 31 during each period Ta and Tb.
s
s
s
s
Further, stereo audio signals L and R are supplied to a PCM recording processing circuit 29. The signal SW is supplied to a pulse forming circuit 37. As shown in Figure 10E, a pulse P, which is set to "1" for a period of time when each of the rotary heads 25A and 25B scans the PCM interval, is formed in which a change point of the signal SW is used as a reference. This pulse P is supplied to the PCM recording processing circuit 29 and, as shown in Figure 10F, the signals L and R of one field period are time base compressed for a period of P = "1" and converted into the PCM signals. Moreover, they are digitally modulated to form a PCM signal S.
s
f
s
For the field period Ta, the signal S is supplied to the rotary head 25B through a signal path comprising the switching circuit 22, the amplifier 23B and the terminal R of the switching circuit 24B. For the period Tb, it is supplied to the rotary head 25A through a signal path comprising the switching circuit 22, the amplifier 23A and the terminal R of the switching circuit 24A. Therefore, prior to recording the signal S in the video interval, the signal S is first recorded in the PCM interval.
s
f
s
f
f
s
Upon reproduction, the signals S and S are alternately reproduced from the track of the magnetic tape 31 by the rotary heads 25A and 25B. The reproduced signals S and S are respectively supplied through reproducing side terminals P of the switching circuits 24A and 24B and, further, through reproducing amplifiers 26A and 26B, respectively, to a switching circuit 27. The signal SW is supplied as a control signal to the switching circuit 27. The signal S is continuously extracted from the switching circuit 27 and the signal S is extracted at every field period.
f
c
m
s
s
s
The signal S from the switching circuit 27 is supplied to a video reproduction processing circuit 28. The original colour video signal S and the monaural audio signal S are supplied by the video reproduction processing circuit 28. The signal S from the switching circuit 27 is supplied to a PCM reproduction processing circuit 30. The pulse P is supplied as a window signal to the PCM reproduction processing circuit 30. The original stereo audio signals L and R are extracted from the signal S.
An example of the foregoing PCM recording processing circuit 29 will be described with reference to Figure 11. In Figure 11, analog audio signals are supplied to an input terminal 1. These analog audio signals are converted into PCM signals by an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 2. Output data from the A/D converter 2 is supplied to an adder 3. An address signal and an ID signal from an address/ID generating circuit 4 are supplied to the adder 3 where they are added to the PCM audio signals.
The output signal of the adder 3 is used as a data input to random access memories (RAMs) 5 and 6. Each of the RAMs 5 and 6 has a capacity sufficient to store the symbols of one frame. An address generating circuit 7 and a timing generating circuit 8 are provided in conjunction with the RAMs 5 and 6 and are controlled so as to write in and read out data into and from the RAMs 5 and 6 on a symbol unit basis. The reason why the two RAMs 5 and 6 are provided is that, during a period when data is being written into one of the RAMs, data is read out of the other RAM and error correction encoded.
The audio PCM signals read out from one of the RAMs 5 and 6 are supplied to an encoder 10 of the C1 and C2 codes, and the parities of the C1 and C2 codes are formed. These parities are written into either one of the RAMs 5 and 6. A parity generating circuit 9 is provided and the parity of the error detection code for three symbols included in the header is formed. After completion of the error correction encoding process, the digital signals consisting of the parity symbol, block address, ID signal, and data are read out of the RAMs 5 or 6, block by block, and supplied to a parallel/serial converter 11 where they are converted into serial data.
The output data from the parallel/serial converter 11 is supplied to a channel encoder 12 and subjected to a channel encoding process such as 8 to 10 conversion or the like. The output of the channel encoder 12 is supplied to an adding circuit 13 where a block sync signal is added from a sync generator 14. The recording signals output from the adder 13 are supplied to rotary heads 25A and 25B through a recording amplifier 15 and a rotary transformer 16, and recorded on to a magnetic tape 31 by the rotary heads 25A and 25B.
As shown in Figure 12, the PCM recording processing circuit 29 is provided with a word number control circuit 41 to control the number of words included in one frame of the code constitution so as to be set to 800 words or 801 words in conjunction with the address generating circuit 4 and the timing generating circuit 8. When the number of words included in one frame of the code constitution is 800 words, for example, the words L800 and R800 are not recorded and, in place of these words, zero data such as dummy data is recorded.
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s
J
F
A clock signal from a clock signal generating circuit 42 and a decision signal S from a word number deciding circuit 44 are supplied to the word number control circuit 41. Sampling clock pulses, having a frequency f, formed by the clock generating circuit 42, are supplied to the word number deciding circuit 44. A decision output of the word number deciding circuit 44 is supplied to the word number control circuit 41 at an output terminal 68 thereof. The word number control circuit 41 controls the address generating circuit 7 and timing generating circuit 8 in the basis of a decision output S to designate whether the number of words included in one frame of the code constitution is 800 words or 801 words. Further, a signal of the frame frequency F (29.97 Hz) according to the NTSC system is supplied by an external source (not shown) from a terminal 43 to the clock generating circuit 42.
Sampling clock pulses CK from the clock generating circuit 42 are supplied to the A/D converter 2 and used to digitise the analog audio signals. On the other hand, when the audio PCM signals are supplied from the outside, the external audio PCM signals are supplied to a sample and hold circuit and sampled by the sampling clock pulses from the clock generating circuit 42. Therefore, any of the analog audio signals and audio PCM signals may be synchronised with the internal sampling clock pulses.
0
s
Figure 13 shows an arrangement of an example of the clock generating circuit 42. The clock generating circuit 42 comprises a phase locked loop (PLL) to generate fundamental clock pulses of a frequency f and a PLL to generate a sampling frequency f.
s₁
s₂
s₃
h
S₁
h
s₂
h
s₃
h
The relationship between the sampling frequencies f, f, f (48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 32 kHz) and the horizontal frequency f (15.734265 kHz) of the NTSC system is expressed by the following equations.
f = f/5 x 32 x 143 x 160 x 1/125 x 1/384
= 48,000
f = f/5 x 32 x 143 x 147 x 1/125 x 1/384
= 44,100
f = f/5 x 32 x 143 x 160 x 2/3 x 1/125 x 1/384
= 32,000
s₁
F
s₁
F
F
In the case of the sampling frequency f of 48 kHz, the above equations are modified as follows.
525 f/5 x 32 x 143 x 1/125 x 1/384 x 480/3 x 512
= 512 f
= f x (525 x 32 x 143)/5
x (480 x 512)/(125 x 3 x 384)
= f x 480480 x 1/1125 x 4 x 480
h
s₁
h
s₂
h
s₃
h
On the other hand, in the case of the CCIR system (f = 15.625 kHz),
f = f/5 x 32 x 144 x 160 x 1/125 x 1/384
= 48,000
f = f/5 x 32 x 144 x 147 x 1/125 x 1/384
= 44,100
f - f/5 x 32 x 144 x 160 x 2/3 x 1/125 x 1/384
= 32,000
F
In Figure 13, the signal of the frame frequency f and an output signal of a frequency dividing circuit 47 are supplied to a phase comparing circuit 45. An output signal of the phase comparing circuit 45 is supplied to a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 46. The frequency dividing ratio N1 of the frequency dividing circuit 47 is set to N1 = 480480 in the case of the NTSC system and to N1 = 557056 in the case of the CCIR system. Therefore, the frequency f₀ of the fundamental clock generated at an output of the VCO 46 is set to:
f₀ = 14.4 MHz (NTSC system)
f₀ = 13.926 MHz (CCIR system)
The fundamental clock pulses are supplied to an output terminal 48 and to a frequency dividing circuit 49. The frequency dividing ratio N2 of the frequency dividing circuit 49 is selected to have the following values:
N2 = 1125 (NTSC system)
N2 = 1088 (CCIR system)
The output signal of the frequency dividing circuit 49 is supplied to a phase comparing circuit 50. The output signal from a further frequency dividing circuit 53 is also supplied to the phase comparing circuit 50. The output signal of the phase comparing circuit 50 is supplied as a control signal to a VCO 51. The output signal of the VCO 51 is supplied to a 1/4 frequency dividing circuit 52. The output signal of the frequency dividing circuit 52 is supplied to the frequency dividing circuit 53.
s
s
s
s
The output signal of the frequency dividing circuit 52 is supplied to an output terminal 54 and is also supplied to a frequency dividing circuit 55. The frequency dividing ratio of the frequency dividing circuit 55 is set to 1/128. The output signal f of the frequency dividing circuit 55 is supplied to an output terminal 56. The output signal of the frequency dividing circuit 49 is 12.8 kHz. As shown by the table in Figure 13, the frequency dividing ratio N3 of the frequency dividing circuit 53 is selected to have the following values, depending on the sampling frequency (namely N3: f):-480: 48 kHz, 441: 44.1 kHz, 320: 32 kHz. A signal of 12.8 kHz is generated from the frequency dividing circuit 53. A signal of a frequency 128 f is supplied to the output terminal 54. A signal of the sampling frequency f is supplied to the output terminal 56.
s
Referring again to Figure 12, the output signal of the sampling frequency f from the terminal 56 of the clock generating circuit 42 is supplied to an input terminal 61 of the word number deciding circuit 44 shown in more detail Figure 14. A counting circuit 62 which is constituted by a counter is provided. An output signal of a count value NA is generated from the counting circuit 62. This count value NA is supplied to one input of a comparing circuit 63.
J
J
J
Data generating circuits 64 and 65 are provided to generate numerical value data of 800 and 801, respectively. Output signals from the count data generating circuits 64 and 65 are supplied to opposite terminals of a single pole, double throw switching circuit 66. The output signal of the switching circuit 66 is supplied to a counting circuit 67. A count value NB from the counting circuit 67 is supplied to the other input of the comparing circuit 63. The comparing circuit 63 compares the magnitudes of the count values NA and NB and generates the decision signal S. The decision signal S is supplied to an output terminal 68 and is also supplied as a control signal to the switching circuit 66. The decision signal S supplied to the output terminal 68 is then supplied to the word number control circuit 41.
The operation of the word number deciding circuit 44 will be described with reference to Figures 15A to 15D. Figure 15A shows the timing of the field period. For example, assuming that the numerical value of 800 from the count data generating circuit 64 is selected first, the count value NB of the counting circuit 67 is also set to 800 as shown in Figure 15B. On the other hand, the counting circuit 62 counts the sampling clock pulses formed in the clock generating circuit 42 and generates the count value NA which is sequentially increased as shown in Figure 15C.
J
J
The count value NA and NB are compared by the comparing circuit 63 at the timing of the field period. For instance, when NA = 799, NB = 800, since NA≦ NB, as shown in Figure 15D, the decision signal S of "O" is generated. When S = "O", the switching circuit 66 selects the data of 800 from the data generating circuit 64. The output of the counting circuit 67 is set to 1600 and at the same time, the number of words in one frame of the code is set to 800 words.
J
The count values NA and NB are again compared at the timing of the next field period. When NA = 1601 in this comparison, since NB = 1600, NA > NB and the decision signal S is set to "1" as shown in Figure 15D. Therefore, the switching circuit 66 selects the data of 801 from the data generating circuit 65. The output of the counting circuit 67 is set to 2401 and the number of words in one frame of the code is set to 801.
An operation similar to the above is repeated and the number of words to be recorded and the number of words of the input data are made coincident in an averaging manner. Since the values of the counting circuits 62 and 67 are limited, when the field period is repeated a predetermined number of times, their count values are returned to the respective initial values.
s
In the above-described embodiment, 800 and 801 have been used as two kinds of numerical value data. However, it is also possible to use numerical values of, for example, 800 and 802 which are close to the quotient when the sampling frequency f is divided by the field frequency. Furthermore, three or more kinds of numerical values can also be selectively used.
In other embodiments of the invention, error correction codes other than the Reed Solomon code can be used.
Accordingly, even if the number of words included in one frame of the code constitution of digital information signals is an integer, the recording of the number of words which equal to the quotient when the sampling frequency is divided by the field frequency can be performed in an averaging manner. The occurrence of asynchronisation between a video image and an audio sound can be prevented. A discrimination signal indicative of the number of words included in one frame of the code constitution is recorded together with the PCM signals. Therefore, in the data processing on the reproduction side, the number of words in one frame can be known from the discrimination signal and the data processing on the reproduction side can be excuted without difficulty.
(a) A block constitution and a frame constitution
(b) An example of data interleave.
(c) An example of the constitution of a header.
(d) Recording and reproducing circuit.
(e) Word number control circuit
(f) Modification | |
Conventionally, there is known a display device capable of 3-dimensional stereoscopic expression for expressing an image that is stereoscopic and realistic. Generally, a stereoscopic image providing 3-dimensional expression is formed by a principle of stereopsis using both eyes. Since both eyes are separated from each other by about 65 mm, an image with a stereoscopic effect can be displayed using binocular parallax.
As a technique for displaying a stereoscopic image, there are known stereoscopic image display of glass type and stereoscopic image display of no-glass type. Of these, as a stereoscopic image display method of no-glass type, there are known a parallax barrier method in which vertical grid-like openings are placed in front of respective images for left and right eyes so that the images are separately observed via the openings, a lenticular method using a lenticular plate formed by semicylindrical lenses arranged in a stripe shape, and an integral photography method using a fly-eye lens plate.
The above methods can also be taken as a parallax method in which stereoscopic images for left eye and right eye (left-eye viewpoint image and right-eye viewpoint image) are configured to be separately visible, thereby realizing a 3-dimensional image. Of the above methods, for example, in the parallax barrier method, a parallax barrier is placed which has slit-like openings vertically or horizontally formed being opposed to a surface of display elements on which image information for left eye and right eye is displayed, so that an image that should enter a left eye is shut out of a right eye and an image that should enter a right eye is shut out of a left eye, thereby eventually allowing a user to view a 3-dimensional stereoscopic image owing to binocular parallax.
In the above display devices, one pixel is composed of sub pixels for a plurality of colors such as RGB. For example, there is known a stereoscopic image display device having sub pixels of RGB repeatedly arranged in the vertical direction. There is also known a stereoscopic image display device having stripe-like barriers set in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction so that a stereoscopic image is visible even when a screen is turned by 90 degrees.
In the stereoscopic image display device having vertical and horizontal barriers as described above, since sub pixels of RGB are repeatedly arranged in the vertical direction, there is a problem that, for example, when a screen is viewed being turned by 90 degrees (for example, when a screen is viewed with its mode switched from a portrait mode to a landscape mode), increase/decrease rates of amounts of RGB entering a right eye and a left eye are different. Specifically, first, it will be assumed that a screen is viewed in a portrait mode (vertical mode screen). On this screen, it will be assumed that sub pixels are arranged in order of R, G, then B in the vertical direction (as seen from observer's eyes). When such a screen is viewed, it will be assumed that the positions of both eyes slightly move (shift) leftward or rightward from an appropriate position (for example, an exactly front position) for the observer to view stereoscopic display. For example, if the positions slightly shift leftward, the parallax barrier appears to be shifted rightward as a whole. That is, the parallax barrier overlaps on a part of the sub pixel. Even in such a case, in the portrait mode, since the sub pixels of RGB are arranged in the vertical direction, degrees to which the parallax barrier overlaps on the sub pixels of RGB are equal. Therefore, amounts of red, green, and blue entering a right eye and left eye decrease or increase at the same rate.
On the other hand, it will be assumed that a screen is turned by 90 degrees from the above state and the screen is viewed in the landscape mode. In this case, the sub pixels are arranged in order of R, G, then B in the horizontal direction as seen from the observer. That is, sub pixels for each of red, green and blue are arranged in one line in the vertical direction as seen from the observer. Then, it will be assumed that, from such a state, the positions of both eyes slightly move leftward from an appropriate position for the observer to view stereoscopic display as described above (the parallax barrier appears to be shifted rightward as a whole). In this case, in an image viewed by the observer, among sub pixels of red, green, and blue, an area of a blue sub pixel B increases, and conversely, an area of a red sub pixel R decreases, whereby the image is tinged with blue. As a result, for example, even if white is expressed using such pixels, proper white is not obtained as compared to the case of portrait mode. That is, a problem that a color display quality is deteriorated arises.
Therefore, the exemplary embodiments will be given to describe a display device capable of displaying a stereoscopic image such that the stereoscopic image is visible even if a screen is changed from a predetermined orientation, while maintaining a color display quality in a preferred state before and after the change.
Configuration examples to achieve the above are as follows.
One configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of an image for right eye and an image for left eye. The display device includes an image display portion, a display mode setting portion, a parallax barrier forming portion, and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a pixel for right eye and a pixel for left eye, the plurality of stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The display mode setting portion is configured to set one of at least a vertical display mode and a horizontal display mode. The parallax barrier forming portion is configured to form a parallax barrier in accordance with the setting by the display mode setting portion. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion in accordance with the setting by the display mode setting portion. The pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye each include at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green. The image control portion is configured to, when the vertical display mode is set, not allow the sub pixels at first intervals in the horizontal direction to emit color lights, but allow the sub pixels at second intervals in the vertical direction to emit color lights, and when the horizontal display mode is set, not allow the sub pixels at the second intervals in the vertical direction to emit color lights, but allow the sub pixels at the first intervals in the horizontal direction to emit color lights.
In another configuration example, control for allowing or not allowing color light emission by the image control portion may be performed on sub pixels for one of red, blue, and green. Further, the color of such sub pixels may be green.
In another configuration example, in each of the pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye, the number of sub pixels for a color for which control for allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion may be larger than the respective numbers of sub pixels for the other colors. Further, a total area of such sub pixels may be greater than respective total areas of sub pixels for the other colors.
In another configuration example, in the stereoscopic pixel, in each of a column and a row in which sub pixels for a color for which control for allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion are located, sub pixels for the other colors may not be located.
In another configuration example, in the stereoscopic pixel, in each of a column and a row that are respectively adjacent to each of a column and a row in which only sub pixels for a color for which control for allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion are located, at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green may be located.
In another configuration example, the image control portion may be configured to, when the vertical display mode is set, not allow sub pixels in columns present at the first intervals in the horizontal direction to emit color lights, but allow sub pixels in rows present at the second intervals in the vertical direction to emit color lights, and when the horizontal display mode is set, not allow sub pixels in columns present at the second intervals in the vertical direction to emit color lights, but allow sub pixels in rows present at the first intervals in the horizontal direction to emit color lights.
In another configuration example, the image control portion may be configured to, when the vertical display mode is set, not allow sub pixels at even-numbered locations in the horizontal direction to emit color lights, but allow sub pixels at even-numbered locations in the vertical direction to emit color lights, and when the horizontal display mode is set, not allow sub pixels at even-numbered locations in the vertical direction to emit color lights, but allow sub pixels at even-numbered locations in the horizontal direction to emit color lights. Alternatively, the image control portion may be configured to, when the vertical display mode is set, not allow sub pixels at odd-numbered locations in the horizontal direction to emit color lights, but allow sub pixels at odd-numbered locations in the vertical direction to emit color lights, and when the horizontal display mode is set, not allow sub pixels at odd-numbered locations in the vertical direction to emit color lights, but allow sub pixels at odd-numbered locations in the horizontal direction to emit color lights.
In another configuration example, the stereoscopic pixel may be configured such that at least four sub pixels can be arranged in each of the horizontal direction and the vertical direction.
In another configuration example, a width of each sub pixel for a color for which control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion may be smaller than widths of sub pixels for the other colors.
In another configuration example, a width of each sub pixel for a color for which control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion may be substantially the same as widths of sub pixels for the other colors.
In another configuration example, at least one vacant region in which no sub pixel is located may be present adjacent to each sub pixel for a color for which control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion.
In another configuration example, at least one sub pixel that is not allowed to emit color light at least when a stereoscopic image is displayed may be located adjacent to each sub pixel for a color for which control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion.
In another configuration example, the stereoscopic pixel may include at least one sub pixel for a color other than red, blue, and green. The color of the sub pixel other than red, blue, and green may be at least either yellow or white.
In another configuration example, the first interval and the second interval may be the same interval.
In another configuration example, in the stereoscopic pixel, the sub pixels are arranged such that sub pixels positioned substantially symmetrically with respect to a diagonal line extending from an upper left to a lower right or an upper right to a lower left in the stereoscopic pixel may have the same color.
In another configuration example, in the stereoscopic pixel, the sub pixels may be arranged such that sub pixels positioned substantially point-symmetrically with respect to a specific position in the stereoscopic pixel have the same color.
In another configuration example, the sub pixels may be arranged such that an arrangement order in a predetermined direction of sub pixels for red, blue, and green in one of the pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye is different from an arrangement order in the predetermined direction of sub pixels for red, blue, and green in the other one.
In another configuration example, starting from an upper left or an upper right in the stereoscopic pixel, at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green may be arranged in a predetermined order in the horizontal direction, and at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green may be arranged in the same order as the predetermined order, in the vertical direction.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of a plurality of viewpoint images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a plurality of viewpoint pixels, the stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. Each of the plurality of viewpoint pixels is composed of a plurality of sub pixels that include at least sub pixels for a first basic color and a second basic color that serve as a base for expressing a color. The image control portion is configured to perform control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission, for sub pixels present at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of a plurality of viewpoint images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a plurality of viewpoint pixels, the stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. Each of the plurality of viewpoint pixels is composed of a plurality of sub pixels. The stereoscopic pixel includes at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green, the sub pixels being arranged such that sub pixels positioned substantially symmetrically with respect to a diagonal line extending from an upper left to a lower right or an upper right to a lower left in the stereoscopic pixel have the same color.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of a plurality of viewpoint images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a plurality of viewpoint pixels, the stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. Each of the plurality of viewpoint pixels is composed of a plurality of sub pixels. The stereoscopic pixel includes at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green, the sub pixels being arranged such that sub pixels positioned substantially point-symmetrically with respect to a specific position in the stereoscopic pixel have the same color.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of an image for right eye and an image for left eye. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a pixel for right eye and a pixel for left eye, the plurality of stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. The pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye each includes at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green. The sub pixels are arranged such that an arrangement order in a predetermined direction of sub pixels for red, blue, and green in one of the pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye is different from an arrangement order in the predetermined direction of sub pixels for red, blue, and green in the other one. In this case, an arrangement order in a predetermined direction of sub pixels for red, blue, and green in one of the pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye may be the same as an arrangement order, in a direction perpendicular to the predetermined direction, of sub pixels for red, blue, and green in the stereoscopic pixel composed of the pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of a plurality of viewpoint images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a plurality of viewpoint pixels, the stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. The stereoscopic pixel at least includes one sub pixel for red, one sub pixel for blue, and two sub pixels for green. A first sub pixel for green is located between the sub pixel for red and the sub pixel for blue. A second sub pixel for green is located outward of the sub pixel for red and the sub pixel for blue. A sum of sizes of the first sub pixel for green and the second sub pixel for green is the same as a size of the sub pixel for red or blue.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of a plurality of viewpoint images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. Each of the plurality of stereoscopic pixels is composed of a plurality of regions arranged in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction, the regions each including a plurality of sub pixels that include at least sub pixels for a first basic color and a second basic color that serve as a base for expressing a color. The image control portion is configured to perform control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission, on a region-by-region basis, for sub pixels included in the regions present at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction. In this case, each of the plurality of regions may be a four-row four-column region in the stereoscopic pixel. Alternatively, a width of each region for which the control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission is performed by the image control portion may be substantially equal to or substantially half a width of each region for which the control for selectively allowing or not allowing color light emission is not performed by the image control portion.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of a plurality of viewpoint images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a plurality of viewpoint pixels, the stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. Each of the plurality of viewpoint pixels is composed of a plurality of sub pixels. Starting from an upper left or an upper right in the stereoscopic pixel, at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green is arranged in a predetermined order in the horizontal direction, and at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green is arranged in the same order as the predetermined order, in the vertical direction.
Another configuration example is a display device for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of an image for right eye and an image for left eye. The display device includes an image display portion and an image control portion. The image display portion has a plurality of stereoscopic pixels each composed of a pixel for right eye and a pixel for left eye, the plurality of stereoscopic pixels being arranged in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. The image control portion is configured to control the image display portion. The pixel for right eye and the pixel for left eye each includes at least one sub pixel for each of red, blue, and green arranged in the vertical direction. A region having a predetermined width is provided between the sub pixel arranged in the vertical direction in the pixel for right eye and the sub pixel arranged in the vertical direction in the pixel for left eye. At least one sub pixel for one of red, blue, and green is located in the region having the predetermined width. The image control portion may perform control for allowing or not allowing color light emission, on the sub pixel located in the region having the predetermined width. The number of the sub pixel located in the region having the predetermined width may be less than the number of the at least one sub pixel for red, blue, or green arranged in the vertical direction.
According to the exemplary embodiments, it becomes possible to provide a display device that allows a stereoscopic image to be visible even if a screen is changed from a predetermined orientation, while maintaining a color display quality in a preferred state before and after the change.
| |
As Jordi Alba is the only left-back in Barcelona, the club needs to find a suitable replacement, Paris Saint-Germain player Lucas Digne is a good candidate for Barcelona.
Lucas Digne, 22 years old, joins Paris Saint-Germain in 2013 but fails to get the main position in the squad. He has a total of 43 appearances as a bench player in two seasons and scores no goals. Digne is loaned to Roma in 2015 where he scores 3 goals and contributes 5 assists. But the 22 years old still has no position in Paris Saint-Germain after he returns.
In order to get more opportunities, Digne is likely to leave Paris. Currently, Barcelona show great interest in the French left-back, the player's transfer fee is about 16 million euros, it is not a problem for Barcelona. Let's wait to see whether Lucas Digne will join the La Liga club.
In the end, if you want to read more related news, stay tuned on www.imfifa.co where sell cheap FIFA 16 Coins. | https://www.imfifa.co/news/Barcelona-Interested-in-Lucas-Digne.html |
Coordinates:
Latitude: 34.9491359132
Longitude: -80.9904503734
WebMercator_X: -9015815.69469
WebMercator_Y: 4156971.06439
Air Conditioned Area: Office Only
Auto Spaces: 25
Available Office Sq Ft: 2,000
Available Sq Ft: 150,000
Clear Height Range: 16'0 - 22'0''
Fire Protection: Wet
Heated Area: Office Only
Lighting Type: Fluorescent
Most Recent Use: Distribution/Warehouse
Number of Dock Doors: 11
Number of Drive In Doors: 0
Trailer Spaces: 30
Comments:
Industrial warehouse that was built in 1968 and renovated in 1988. It has 2,000 SF of showroom/office space.
Condition: Excellent
Expansion Square Feet: Not Expandable
Site Size: 8.2
Surrounding Land Use:
North: Light Industrial
South: Light Industrial
East: Light Industrial
West: Light Industrial
Tenancy: Single Tenant
Total Square Feet: 150,000 Sq Ft
Typical Column Spacing: Typical Width x Depth
Wall Material: Metal
Year Built: 1968
Access Road: Langston Street (2 Lanes)
Nearest Commercial Airport:
Charlotte/Douglas International (21 Miles)
Nearest Inland Port:
Inland Port Greer (92 Miles)
Nearest Intermodal Access:
NS Charlotte (23 Miles)
Nearest International Airport:
Charlotte Douglas Intl Airport (21 Miles)
Nearest Interstate:
77 (2 Miles)
Nearest Sea Port: | https://www.i77alliance.com/property.php?property=18c819f0-097e-e811-80c2-000d3a12ff89&type=building |
Write a Python program to build a list, using an iterator function and an initial seed value.
- The iterator function accepts one argument (seed) and must always return a list with two elements ([value, nextSeed]) or False to terminate.
- Use a generator function, fn_generator, that uses a while loop to call the iterator function and yield the value until it returns False.
- Use a list comprehension to return the list that is produced by the generator, using the iterator function.
Sample Solution:
Python Code:
def unfold(fn, seed): def fn_generator(val): while True: val = fn(val) if val == False: break yield val return [i for i in fn_generator([None, seed])] f = lambda n: False if n > 40 else [-n, n + 10] print(unfold(f, 10))
Sample Output:
[-10, -20, -30, -40]
Flowchart:
Visualize Python code execution:
The following tool visualize what the computer is doing step-by-step as it executes the said program:
Python Code Editor:
Have another way to solve this solution? Contribute your code (and comments) through Disqus.
Previous: Write a Python program to sort one list based on another list containing the desired indexes.
Next: Write a Python program to map the values of a list to a dictionary using a function, where the key-value pairs consist of the original value as the key and the result of the function as the value.
What is the difficulty level of this exercise?
Test your Python skills with w3resource's quiz
Python: Tips of the Day
Floor Division:
When we speak of division we normally mean (/) float division operator, this will give a precise result in float format with decimals.
For a rounded integer result there is (//) floor division operator in Python. Floor division will only give integer results that are round numbers.
print(1000 // 300) print(1000 / 300)
Output:
3 3.3333333333333335
- New Content published on w3resource: | https://www.w3resource.com/python-exercises/list/python-data-type-list-exercise-219.php |
One result of trawling cemeteries for interesting monuments is that you occasionally get sidetracked into interesting investigations that have little to do with a monument. The provocation here is the headstone of Pocahontas Bolling (Smith) Todd, who was born in 1877 in Winchester, VA.
The handsome marker is not particularly striking, although I very much like the olde-tyme headstone revival font, which is also used in other markers of this extended family. Here is an example of the real thing (from 1776) so you can compare: the numbers are particularly telling.
I remember thinking to myself—as someone born in 1963, well-traveled, and having lived in a variety of different places in the US over the years—that the name Pocahontas seemed very, very unusual.
In fact, this stone was the first time I had ever heard the name used for anyone but the Indian princess, daughter of the chief Powhatan, who had legendarily saved John Smith (of Jamestown) from the headsman’s axe (or head man’s club).
I think I saw the stone before President Trump used the name to imply that Senator Warren, because of her claim to have Indian ancestry, is a “fake Indian,” as he might gently put it. Or in the argot of the tombstone above, “he hath endeavour’d to adminstre ye sicke burne.”
I am aware that the legend was ventilated by a Disney animated movie Pocahontas, but my daughter preferred the Barbie and Land Before Time movies, so I never saw it. I am also aware, from the most cursory Google search imaginable that almost every part of the famous Pocahontas story is subject to vigorous dispute, and that in the spirit of our age the story is now chiefly told with ad peius interpretations on most counts.
Useful is Edward Gallagher’s (of Lehigh University) Pocahontas archive, particularly the clippings on the Pocahontas story. These latter give valuable direct evidence of the reception of the story. None of it will surprise the student of such lore: the accepted story has morphed over time in terms of emphasis and moral content to suit contemporary social and political climate.
Anticipating where I’m going, it’s worth stating now that in the national imagination of the nineteenth century Pocahontas was interpreted as a cog in a bigger story (of America! dammit) and she was seen as a bridging, and sometimes a conciliating figure between Indian and English cultures in collision.
To many of us who grew up around old books, E. Boyd Smith’s well known 1906 The Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith crystallized her story with its memorable Pre-Raphaelite-ish illustrations and vaguely King James English text. In fact, it focuses her story around a number of memorable incidents, not wholly unlike the way the Stations of the Cross are made memorable through setpiece images.
Of course, I am not saying Pocahontas or Jesus are fictional; just that these illustrations, like many of the stories about them, were created by people with an interest in telling their stories in a certain way that agreed with their politics or religion. The search for the historical Pocahontas and the search for the historical Jesus will probably end up with about the same level of success.
Pocahontas was romanticized in interesting ways Boyd did not consider. In an 1848 bust Pocahontas by Joseph Mozier in the Peabody Institute we find a classicizing portrait heroically rendering her as half-Venus half-Amazon. She’s also been given idealized classical features.
Boyd had at least made a pro-forma attempt to represent Pocahontas’ ethnicity in his book, as did the splendid US Commemorative 5-cent stamp of 1907, one year later, which is based upon an earlier portrait.
So, the story of Pocahontas, at least in the nineteenth century, was viewed positively, if in some ways tragically. Certainly, it was treated as an integral part of US and Virginia history.
Still, this doesn’t really tell us about Pocahontas as a name or sobriquet. For that I think we need to go find what actual Americans have done. As I type this I’m told that Pocahontas is ranked 4764 on Nameberry, and that it’s down 25% this week. babycenter, which lists it only as a Disney name, ranks it 12,351 in 2019, and 9,587 in 2018. The same site graphs the data from the Social Security Administration:
As you may imagine, these minuscule numbers mean that lists of the 1000 most popular girls’ names in the nineteenth century categorically omit Pocahontas. But conversely, the same small number of occurrences makes a manual search through US Census results feasible, and ancestry dot com has them for 1940, 1930, 1920, 1900, 1880, and 1870.
The 1940 results were the most complete, and so I trawled through all people in the census who bore the first name Pocahontas. There were 328 records, though I’m sure my eye strayed once in a while and I claim no great accuracy. The 1940 census also notes “race,” and I divided up the figures that way, too, just for interest. The US government used the terms ‘White,’ ‘Negro,’ ‘Indian,’ terms I mention here in case these terms were not used then in the usual acceptance of the words today.
|Decade||n (White)||n (Black)||n (Indian)||n (Other)||Totals|
|1840-49||1||0||0||0||1|
|1850-59||8||0||0||0||8|
|1860-69||19||1||0||0||20|
|1870-79||23||9||0||0||32|
|1880-89||30||15||0||0||45|
|1890-99||23||14||0||0||37|
|1900-09||38||25||3||1||67|
|1910-19||13||40||4||0||57|
|1920-29||11||21||3||1||36|
|1930-39||5||17||2||0||24|
|1940||1||0||0||0||1|
Of course in the earlier decades the cohort is dying out and the numbers are small. I assume the earlier figures are also skewed because Black citizens had less access to resources and medicine with the result that they tended to die younger. There may also be an effect from the fact that before 1865 a huge percentage of them may not have been able to choose their own names. I’ll come back to this. Interestingly, the peak White usage of the name comes in the last half of the nineteenth century, whereas Black adoption of the name peaks, at roughly the same levels, maybe 10 years later. There is an expected bump everywhere coming from the Jamestown tercentenary (and indeed the postage stamp may have helped popularize the name).
You might expect many Indians to have chosen Pocahontas as a name; the census might well miss some on the reservations, but the number in the general population is startlingly small. The two ‘others’ are a mother and daughter, both named Pocahontas Street, for whom “race” is given as Japanese.
So, thinks I, by 1940, the only representatives of possible earlier bearers of the name will be the few miracle survivors form the 1840s and 1850s. So I went through the earlier census reports for Pocahontases, selectively looking for examples before 1840. Now, this data will be scrappy for a hundred different reasons, and my competency in analyzing it suspect for a hundred more. However that may be, from a mix of census reports, mostly 1870 and 1880 (and trying not to double count) I found:
|Decade||n (White)||n (Black)||Total|
|1790-99||1||0||1|
|1800-09||0||0||0|
|1810-19||2||0||2|
|1820-29||6||2||8|
|1830-39||17||4||21|
This table will not bear much interpretive burden. It does interestingly show that some Black citizens born in the age of slavery bore the name Pocahontas. The census does not tell whether these persons were freed slaves or born free, though all of them were born in slave states. It also shows that the name Pocahontas, used in one way or another, goes back to the dawn of the records I have at my disposal, about 1800.
What else does it mean? It means that a broad cross-section of Americans named their girl children Pocahontas, and with the possible exception of slave owners ironically assigning the name (if any did), common sense dictates none gave the name to make fun of their baby daughter.
One mea culpa. I did not systematically record birth places (usually just given as the state) for the various Pocahontases. Almost without exception the earlier ones (before 1880 or so) are from the historic South, and of those, the great majority from Virginia. Of the 34 I had the wit to record birthplace for, the numbers come up like this:
|State of birth||n (all)|
|Virginia||20|
|North Carolina||4|
|Tennessee||4|
|Ohio||2|
|Georgia||1|
|Indiana||1|
|Kentucky||1|
|Missouri||1|
Among those records I found a Powhatan, a male born in 1840 in Tennessee. This led me to the (to me) astounding discovery that Pocahontas’ father was also a source for names. The name is much more poorly known than Pocahontas, and might serve as a proxy for a closer knowledge of the story. So, I went manually through the 1940 census noting 74 Powhatans:
|Decade||n (White)||n (Black)||n (Indian)||Total|
|1840-49||0||0||0||0|
|1850-59||4||0||0||4|
|1860-69||5||1||0||6|
|1870-79||13||0||0||13|
|1880-89||5||2||0||7|
|1890-99||5||4||0||9|
|1900-09||8||4||0||12|
|1910-19||3||2||0||5|
|1920-29||5||4||1||10|
|1930-39||6||2||0||8|
|1940||0||0||0||0|
Here again, the numbers will be skewed for the same reasons as for the 1940 census records on Pocahontases. I do note that there are two cases where Powhatan was used as a girl’s name, once in a Black family in 1812 and once in a White family in Tennessee in 1891. Fascinatingly, the Black child was born in Matoaca in Chesterfield county, Virginia, Matoaca being another name the historic Pocahontas bore. I regret to the core of my being that I found no Powhatan as the father of a Pocahontas.
As with Pocahontas, I looked selectively in older censuses for Powhatans. Here are the oldest I found in a (I think) random sample of 40:
|Decade of birth||n (White)||n (Black)||Total|
|1790-99||1||0||0|
|1800-09||3||0||3|
|1810-19||8||4||12|
|1820-29||15||0||15|
|1830-39||4||4||8|
|1840-49||2||0||2|
And, because I know you’re wondering, yes, the vast majority, far outweighing Pocahontases, were born in Virginia. Of all 119 Powhatans I took data down for, 84 were from the Old Dominion:
|Birth state||1940||Σ Other censuses||Totals|
|Virginia||48||36||84|
|Kentucky||6||4||10|
|North Carolina||4||1||5|
|Tennessee||2||3||5|
|Mississippi||2||1||3|
|Missouri||3||0||3|
|New York||2||0||2|
|Alabama||1||0||1|
|District of Columbia||1||0||1|
|Georgia||1||0||1|
|Massachussetts||1||0||1|
|Ohio||1||0||1|
|South Carolina||1||0||1|
|Texas||1||0||1|
Powhatan and Pocahontas were names given primarily by Virginians, as makes sense. It also makes sense that that pool diffused as the nineteenth century wore on and the story began to have more resonance as an American one and not simply as a Virginia one. Our Pocahontas, who did not last until the 1940 census, by the way, fell right into the leading edge of the great age of the name.
When President Trump uses the name Pocahontas against Senator Warren, he uses a name that was current among both Whites and people of color, and was almost always, if not always, a name given with respect both to the child and to the namesake. | https://syngrammata.com/2019/07/20/pocahontas/ |
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present patent application claims priority to the provisional patent application identified by U.S. Ser. No. 60/360,300, filed on Feb. 26, 2002.
Not Applicable.
FIGS. 1 and 3
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Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to , shown therein and designated by a reference numeral is a grappling hook constructed in accordance with the present invention. The grappling hook is constructed of a malleable, relatively soft and bendable material such as a carbon steel alloy in the mild range, aluminum or other materials.
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The grappling hook can be used by the military in obstacle reduction (hooking on to barbed wire or concertina and being pulled out of place by a vehicle with the grappling hook and rope, cable or chain attached). The grappling hook can also be used in finding and exploding mines that use trip wires (throwing the device over an area where the known or suspected trip wire may exist). The grappling hook can be used as a dragging device by fire and rescue officers in dragging a body of water for missing people or submerged missing items. The grappling hook can be thrown by hand, with a rope-like attachment, or can be fired some useful longer distances using compressed air, spring tension, or explosive charges.
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The grappling hook offers the primary advantage of being a strong, easily storable, in its delivered form, easily manually deployable, tool for retrieving objects and has other numerous uses. It can be made in various sizes and widths. The tool can be machined from steel, aluminum, or other materials. Two main logistical or military advantages of the grappling hook are the small space required to carry several of the grappling hooks and its light weight. As will be discussed below, the grappling hook can be a relatively cheap, almost “disposable” device.
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FIG. 1
FIG. 3
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The grappling hook is provided with a shaft , a plurality of arms (labeled in via the reference numerals , and for purposes of clarity), and a connecting member . The connecting member connects each of the arms to the shaft such that the arms extend angularly from the shaft . The shaft forms an eyelet () such that a rope, cable, chain or other device can be attached to the shaft .
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FIG. 3
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The grappling hook is provided with a plurality of relief cutouts to promote or facilitate bending of the arms relative to the connecting member . The relief cutouts are indicated in by the reference numerals , , , and for purposes of clarity. Generally, two cutouts are provided at the intersection of each of the arms and the connecting member . For example, the relief cutouts and are provided at the intersection between the connecting member and the arm . The relief cutouts promote compression and tension of the arms and the connecting members , without cracking or breaking the arms or the connecting members . In one preferred embodiment, the shaft , the arms , and the connecting member are formed as a unitary structure which has been bent to the configuration shown in FIG. .
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The use of grappling hooks, such as the grappling hook , is well known in the art. Thus, a description of the use of the grappling hook is not deemed necessary to teach one skilled in the art how to use the grappling hook .
FIG. 2
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Referring to , shown therein is a grappling hook blank which is used in the formation of the grappling hook . The grappling hook blank is preferably formed of a piece of flat material having malleable, yet rigid qualities such that portions of the grappling hook blank can be easily bent using little manual force. For example, the grappling hook blank can be constructed of a carbon steel in the mild range, aluminum or other materials. The material forming the grappling hook blank preferably has a thickness in the range from ⅛ of an inch up to ½ of an inch depending on the desired application, and the material used in constructing the grappling hook blank .
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The grappling hook blank has a width and a length . The size of the width and length can vary widely depending on the types of materials forming the grappling hook blank , as well as the intended configuration of the grappling hook . In one preferred embodiment, the width of the grappling hook blank is about 2 ½ inches, and the length is in a range from about 12 inches to about 16 inches.
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The grappling hook blank defines a shaft portion , a plurality of arm portions , and a connecting member portion . The shaft portion and the arm portions are connected to the connecting member portion . A plurality of relief cutouts are provided at the intersection of each of the arm portions and the connecting member portion such that the arm portions can be bent or formed as will be discussed below. The grappling hook blank can be provided with any number of arm portions desired for the intended use. For example, the grappling hook blank may be provided with 2, 3, 4 or 5 arm portions .
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The shaft portion of the grappling hook blank forms the shaft of the grappling hook . The arm portions of the grappling hook blank form the arms of the grappling hook . The connecting member portion of the grappling hook blank forms the connecting member of the grappling hook .
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The shaft portion , the arm portions and the connecting member portion can be defined in the grappling hook blank by an outer peripheral edge of the grappling hook blank as well as separation lines formed in the grappling hook blank . The separation lines can be formed in the grappling hook blank by any machine or process capable of cutting and/or otherwise forming the separation lines . For example, the separation lines can be formed with a laser or a plasma cutter, die cutting device, or a mill.
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Because of its compact size and light weight, the grappling hook blank is preferably shipped or transported to a desired location for use and then formed into the grappling hook . The grappling hook can be formed by applying manual force to the arm portions of the grappling hook blank and thereby moving the arm portions outwardly to form the arms of the grappling hook .
FIGS. 4 and 5
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Referring now to , shown are two other versions of grappling hook blanks and , constructed in accordance with the present invention. The grappling hook blanks and are similar in construction and function as the grappling hook blank , except that the grappling hook blanks and are shaped to provide a plurality of hooks and on the arm portions and . The hooks and are used to snag barbed wire and trip wires attached to explosives. Only some of the hooks and have been numbered for purposes of brevity. The configuration of the hooks and can be varied.
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The grappling hook blanks and are each further provided with a breakaway, protective portion top and , respectively. The break away, protective tops and prevent damage to the sharp points and of the arm portions and , as well as prevent injury to an individual carrying the grappling hook blanks and . The grappling hook blanks and may be sized to a length of about 7 inches and a width of about 2.25 inches so that the grappling hook blanks and will fit in an M16 ammo pouch which holds several 30-round magazines for military or police SWAT unit use.
FIG. 6
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Shown in is a grappling hook blank constructed in accordance with the present invention. The grappling hook blank is similar to the grappling hook blanks and , except that the grappling hook blank is provided with one or more breakaway tabs for changing the configuration of arm portions . The grappling hook blank is also provided with a notch formed therein. The notch is sized to receive a portion of one of the breakaway tabs for permitting the grappling hook blank to be used as a tool for removing the breakaway tabs on another grappling hook blank . The breakaway tabs can also be removed with a hand tool, such as a pair of pliers. The size of the grappling hook blank can be varied. In one preferred embodiment, the grappling hook blank has a length of about 7 inches and a width of about 2.25 inches so that the grappling hook blank will fit in an M16 ammo pouch which holds several 30-round magazines for military or police SWAT unit use.
FIG. 7
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Referring to , another version of a grappling hook blank constructed in accordance with the present invention, is shown. The grappling hook blank is similar to the grappling hook blank , except that the grappling hook is provided with one or more breakaway horns so as to provide storage spaces and for storing rope, cable, or chain by linearly wrapping the rope, cable, or chain about the grappling hook blank .
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The grappling hook blank is also provided with a break-off tool formed in shaft portion . The break-off tool may be popped out of the shaft portion without the use of a hand tool. One end of the break-off tool is provided with a wrench for breaking off breakaway horns and breakaway tabs . The opposite end of the break-off tool is shown provided with a bottle opener. However, it should be understood that any other varied implement may be placed on the opposite end of the break-off tool , such as a screw driver, a file, or a knife.
The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described above. Therefore, changes may be made in the combinations, operations, and arrangements of the various parts and elements described herein without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a grappling hook constructed in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 2
1
is a plan view of a grappling hook blank constructed in accordance with the present invention and used in constructing the grappling hook depicted in FIG. .
FIG. 3
is another perspective view of the grappling hook.
FIG. 4
is a plan view of an alternate embodiment of a grappling hook blank.
FIG. 5
is a plan view of another alternate embodiment of a grappling hook blank.
FIG. 6
is a plan view of another alternate embodiment of a grappling hook blank.
FIG. 7
is a plan view of another alternate embodiment of a grappling hook blank. | |
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Founded over two thousand years ago, London is the capital city of England and the UK. This metropolis is home to around 9 million people, and covers an area of more than 600 square miles. Tour central London and visit the city's historic landmarks. Stop off at Buckingham Palace, visit the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, see the Tower of London, stroll around St Paul's Cathedral, and sit in Trafalgar Square and admire Nelson's Column. To visit a historic landmark to the south of the city, hire a car from Victoria Coach Station and visit Hampton Court Palace.
If you are keen to discover more about the world, take a trip to Kensington to the Museum Quarter. You'll be able to visit the Natural History Museum, The Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Theatre-goers can enjoy a matinee performance or evening show in the west end, take in a classic Shakespeare piece at the Globe Theatre, or watch a Visual arts show at Somerset House. For a fun, furry day out, hire a car from Victoria Coach Station and visit London Zoo, home to a variety of animals including penguins, Giraffes and Zebras. | https://www.hertz.com/p/car-rental/united-kingdom/london/victoria-coach-station-central-london |
Stomach Acid On Ph Scale
Stomach acid has long been blamed for acid reflux. Low-acid eating rebalances the diet: fewer high-acid foods and more high-alkaline ones. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14; distilled water has a pH.
Jul 20, 2018. The pH scale goes from 1, being very acidic, to 14, being very alkaline. of the stomach and is broken down by hydrochloric acid and stomach.
Aug 22, 2019. The pH test for acid reflux (gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD) measures how often and for how long stomach acid enters the.
Mar 15, 2017 · The stomach releases anywhere from 400 to 700 ml of stomach acid (also referred to as hydrochloric acid or HCl for short) to help digest a meal. HCl creates a highly acidic environment in the stomach, with the average pH level of 2.
Antacids as weak bases, raise the pH of the stomach acid. This does not mean that the stomach secretions are now alkaline but rather that it is less acidic. When antacids make contact and react with stomach acid (HCl), water and a salt, like sodium chloride or calcium chloride, is formed. In addition, carbon dioxide gas may be produced.
What is pH level? What is the scale of acidic and alkaline on the pH scale. According to an expert, “Your stomach must produce a little more acid every time you drink alkaline water to compensate.
Mar 20, 2018. Useful application of the pH scale reaches far beyond household items, the horse's stomach manufactures and secretes hydrochloric acid,
Jul 04, 2018 · There are variations in the pH levels of the stomach. They might range from 1-2 and can reach up to 4-5. After eating, various kinds of enzymes and acids are secreted by the stomach so that the process of digestion is enhanced and improved. It has been.
In order to deal with these large numbers more easily, scientists use a logarithmic scale, the pH scale. Each one-unit change in the pH scale corresponds to a ten-fold change in hydrogen ion concentration. The pH scale is theoretically open-ended but most pH values are in the range from 0 to 14.
Okay, let’s back up a sec for a quick lil science lesson: pH is the measurement of acidity or alkalinity. But FWIW, one 2012 study suggests that alkaline water could help neutralize stomach acid.
It helps neutralize the stomach acid that is generated during the digestive process. You just drink it, two or three times a day. Scientists use the pH scale to measure the acidity of a solution.
The pH scale measures how acidic or basic a substance is. It ranges from 0 to 14. A pH. next lower whole value. The pH of the acid in dental plaque is 4; therefore it will dissolve enamel. Stomach Acid, 1.50-3.50. Phosphoric and Sulfamic.
H+ binds with OH- to make water. Heartburn is a form of indigestion felt as a burning sensation in the chest when stomach acid comes back up into the esophagus. Some people take an antacid to.
An important property of blood is its degree of acidity or alkalinity. The acidity or alkalinity of any solution, including blood, is indicated on the pH scale. The pH.
Considerations. Antacids increase the pH in the stomach, which might make the enzymes in the stomach less effective. The low pH of the juices in the stomach can cause ulcers if they eat through the walls of the small intestine or stomach. This low pH also kills many microorganisms in the food you eat, helping prevent illnesses.
May 31, 2018. Our stomachs are naturally acidic, with normal stomach acid – necessary to properly break down foods – keeping stomach pH levels between 1.
The pain of heartburn is caused by high acidity content in the stomach. Acidity is measured with a pH unit on a scale of 0 to 14. The scale measures how acidic or basic a substance is.
Ever since the discovery of hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice by Prout. of the chart the sensitivity per 0.1 on the pH scale is about uni- form. In the lower part.
Aug 10, 2016. pH tells you whether a solution is acidic, basic or neutral. The pH scale is logarithmic. Stomach acid (gastric juices), 1.4, 0.0398.
Mar 6, 2012. The much stronger hydrochloric acid in the stomach with a pH of 1 is. 6 on the pH scale (acidic), while alkaline water is actually dehydrating.
The pH scale ranges from 1 (the most acidic. Heartburn is caused by a flow of stomach acid backward into the esophagus, and drinking an alkaline solution may neutralize that fluid for a few minutes.
This article deals about how plants and animals are pH sensitive. In 1909 Sorenson devised a scale. stomach is important in the process of digestion, the pH in mouth can become a cause of tooth.
So, pH is the unit measure we use to say how much acid is in a substance. acid are very strong with pH values of 0, while stomach acid has a pH of 1. the scale actually refers to the concentration of positively-charged hydrogen (H+) ions.
Vultures have the pH for public health – Record Searchlight – Jul 26, 2017. He refers to pH, the chemists’ and pool-owners’ 0-14 scale. "Turkey vultures’ stomach acid has a pH slightly above zero, lower than car. which helps to prevent the spread of disease to both humans and other animals.
Acidity is determined by the pH scale. Neutral is around 7 and anything under. Research shows that herbal teas may actually help conditions like acid reflux. Adding milk may help your stomach.
Aug 16, 2019 · The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. The readings are based around a pH of 7, which is neutral, like pure water: A pH below 7 is acidic. A pH higher than.
On a scale of 1 to 14, foods that have a pH less. They promote saliva production and this is good for acid reflux, since saliva neutralizes the acid that comes up from your stomach. pH of tomatoes.
Jun 27, 2008 · The contents of the stomach are highly acidic, with a pH level of 2.0. It can cause symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease such as acid regurgitation, heartburn and chest pain. Excess acidity in the gastric juice in the stomach can lead to heartburn discomfort.
A pH probe is a study of the acid levels in your. GERD is a disease where stomach acid pushes back. A substance rated 7 on a pH scale is very low in acid.
Feb 24, 2012. Introduction to acids, bases, and pH. Take your stomach, a very acidic environment. The enzymes that work in. Acidity and the pH Scale Water has a pH of 7, so this is the point of neutrality on the pH scale. Acids have a pH.
The pH scale measures how acidic or alkaline — basic — something. This means that blood is naturally slightly alkaline or basic. In comparison, your stomach acid has a pH of around 1.5 to 3.5. This.
Jul 27, 2017 · The pH of Humans. Different fluids in the human body have different normal pH values. The normal pH of tears is about 7.1 or slightly higher. Saliva is slightly acidic at around 6.4. Sweat is also slightly acidic at between 4 and 6.8. Blood pH is normally.
The scale goes from 1- most acid, to 14-most alkaline, with 7 in the center being pH neutral, neither acid nor alkaline at all (a substance like distilled water). Every point on the scale represents a power of one hundred, so the difference between acids at 2 and 1 on the scale is enormous.
FIGURE 14.4 ▷ On the pH scale, values below 7.0 are acidic, a value of 7.0 is neutral, fluid with the highest pH: stomach acid (1.4), sweat (4.8), urine (5.3),
If you buy something through a link on this page, we may earn a small commission. How this works. Cold brew coffee has gained popularity among coffee drinkers in recent years. Instead of using hot.
The pH scale ranges from 1 (the most acidic. Heartburn is caused by a flow of stomach acid backward into the esophagus, and drinking an alkaline solution may neutralize that fluid for a few minutes.
“The pH in your stomach is so acidic that. there haven’t been any large-scale studies in people to confirm this. So, Dr. Mueller says you should still stick with traditional antacids and.
Learn how esophageal pH monitoring is used for measuring stomach acid to diagnose GERD, as well as side effects, limitations and alternatives to this test.
Scientists use pH, a measure of hydrogen ion concentration in a solution, as an indicator the acidic or basic nature of a solution. The pH scale typically ranges from 1 to 14, with lower numbers representing acids, higher numbers, bases. Neutral liquids like water have a pH of 7.
Aug 8, 2018. A: Alkaline refers to part of the pH scale. Plus, when the alkaline water you drink hits your stomach, the acids in your gut neutralize it.
Most biological fluids are between pH 6 and pH 8, and there are a few exceptions to this like stomach acid. Each pH unit represents a tenfold difference of the H+ and OH- concentration. This makes the pH scale so compact. A solution of pH 2 is not twice as acidic as.
Interestingly enough, the component in ginger that helps relieve symptoms of acid reflux is melatonin. You probably know melatonin as the sleepytime chemical our bodies produce. But when levels of.
Acidity or alkalinity of a solution is measured by concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) versus hydroxyl ions (OH-) and is expressed as pH level, an exponential scale that.
The human body is more capable than you think. Acids are ranked on a scale from 0 to 14—the lower the pH level, the stronger the acid. Human stomach acid is typically 1.0 to 2.0, meaning that it has.
The pH scale. If a solution contains more hydrogen ions than hydroxide ions, it is said to be acidic, and the pH of the solution is less than 7. If a molecule releases hydrogen ions in water, it is an acid. The more hydrogen ions it releases, the stronger the acid, and the lower the pH value.
The pH in cells (6.8) and the blood (7.4) are both very close to neutral, whereas the environment in the stomach is highly acidic, with a pH of 1 to 2. The pH scaleThe pH scale measures the concentration of hydrogen ions (H +) in a solution. Non-neutral pH readings result from dissolving acids or bases in water.
. form more water. The principles of how acids and bases react in water form the basis of the pH scale. The table below shows you the pH of some common substances and may visually help you to figure out the pH scale. 1, Stomach acid.
Most people’s image of the typical acid reflux patient is an overweight. As you may recall from your school chemistry lessons, the pH scale runs from 1 to 14 — anything below pH 7 is considered.
Sep 12, 2016 · When the food in your stomach has been mixed with the correct amount of stomach acid, enzymes, and other digestive secretions, it will reach an acidity between 1.5-3.0 on the ph scale and then move into the small intestine to continue the digestive process. 8 Key Things that Happen When There Isn’t Enough Stomach Acid: 1.
Our bodies NEED acid in the stomach. But not all acid is the same. One of the main digestive enzymes in our stomach is hydrochloric acid. Just by the title, you probably guessed — it is an acid! On a.
pH is a logarithmic scale. A solution that has a pH of 1.0 has 10 times the [H + ] as a solution with a pH of 2.0, which in turn has 10 times the [H + ] as a solution with a pH of 3.0 and so forth. Using the definition of pH, it is also possible to calculate [H + ] (and [OH − ]) from pH and vice versa.
Stomach acid is generally more acidic than all of these; it averages around 1.5 on the pH scale. These may seem like minor differences, but be aware that the pH scale is logarithmic – stomach acid.
If you experience a burning sensation or irritation in your esophagus after eating, you may have acid reflux. This condition occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter fails to close off your.
j Influence of Food on Gastric pH and Stomach Emptying. a compensatory rise in serum gastrin and fall in mucosal somatostatin levels induced by gastric inflammation.33–36. Urease, Neutralize acidity/regulate inflammation, Gastric acid.
Jul 17, 2018. Stomach acid is generally more acidic than all of these; it averages around 1.5 on the pH scale. These may seem like minor differences, but be.
It may be easier for your stomach to digest cold brew. Many people avoid drinking coffee for reasons related to acid reflux, indigestion, and heartburn. Cold brew and regular coffee have similar. | https://dingyuyang.com/stomach-acid-on-ph-scale/ |
Assistance towards CPD costs
Flexible Training Opportunities - run by Skills Development Scotland - gives Scottish businesses with up to 100 employees the opportunity to apply for up to £5,000 towards employee training costs.
On their website (http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/flexible-training.aspx) it says that there is funding available for:
"- Qualifications including individual units
- Masterclasses
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Funding is available for up to 10 employees per business and the money is not a loan so there's no need to pay it back. We will refund up to 50% of each episode of employee training up to a maximum of £500 for each training episode.
For example, if an episode of training costs £1200 excluding VAT, we will refund £500. If it costs £300 excluding VAT, we will refund £150.''
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article. | https://www.scottishlawagents.org/news/assistance-towards-cpd-costs-0 |
During offensive operations the brigade commander sets the conditions for successful operations. He accomplishes this by employing all of his organic and supporting systems with precision. These systems are employed at their maximum capability to meet the conditions set by the brigade commander. The commander then maneuvers his force to decisively defeat the enemy.
|Section I.||Fundamentals of Offensive Operations|
|Section II.||Forms of Tactical Offense|
|Section III.||Brigade as a Covering Force|
|Section IV.||Combined Arms Breaching Operations|
|Section V.||Night Offensive Doctrine|
SECTION I. FUNDAMENTALS OF OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS
CHARACTERISTICS OF OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS
The offense is the primary means of gaining and maintaining the initiative. Through constant offensive pressure on the enemy, the brigade commander is able to force the enemy to conform to his intent and retain his own freedom of maneuver. Even in the defense the commander seeks to regain the initiative through offensive action at the earliest opportunity.
The success of the attack depends on the proper application of the four offensive characteristics of initiative:
- Surprise.
- Concentration.
- Tempo.
- Audacity.
Surprise
Commanders achieve surprise by attacking the enemy at a time or place and in a manner for which he is not physically or mentally ready. The commander must anticipate the enemy commanders intent and deny the enemy the ability to collect intelligence on friendly forces. Surprise is achieved by the direction, timing, boldness, and force of the attack. Sudden and violent attacks have a devastating effect on the enemy as do attacks from unexpected directions. Surprise can also be achieved from unexpected changes in tempo.
Concentration
Concentration is achieved by massing the effects of combat power. To achieve concentration on the modern battlefield, and provide security for the force, the commander uses a combination of dispersion, concentration, deception, and attack. The commander designates a main effort and allocates enough CS and CSS to accomplish his desired end state. The plan must be flexible enough to allow the commander the ability to shift the main effort to the supporting effort if the situation provides a greater opportunity for success.
Tempo
Tempo is the rate of speed of military action and may be either fast or slow. Controlling and altering the tempo are essential to maintaining the initiative. While a rapid tempo is often preferred, the tempo is adjusted to ensure synchronization. Controlling and altering enemy and friendly tempo promotes surprise, keeps the enemy off balance, denies the enemy freedom of action, and contributes to the security of the attacking force.
Audacity
Audacity is key to successful offensive action. This is the ability of leaders to understand and decisively and boldly operate within the commanders intent. This type of action often negates the disadvantage of numerical inferiority. The commander takes advantage of opportunities and plans for success throughout his battle space.
ORGANIZATION OF OFFENSIVE BATTLES
To organize the battlefield, the commander and staff must view tactical offensive battles as operations in depth, which consist of three interrelated parts:
- Deep operations. In vital parts of the attack zone, deep operations contribute to the success of the brigades close fight. Deep operations limit the enemys options and disrupt its coordination and synchronization. Brigade deep operations are closely linked with division operations. Identification of division deep operations assists the brigade in targeting units and setting priorities for brigade deep operations.
- Close operations. These operations include reconnaissance and security actions, the main effort, and reserve actions.
- Rear operations. Rear operations are necessary to maintain offensive momentum. This may include fighting enemy airborne and airmobile units within the BSA until augmented by combat units from brigade or division and conducting the necessary activities to sustain the brigades offensive momentum.
PLANNING FOR OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS
Successful offensive action requires the concentration and synchronization of all assets. Available ground and air maneuver forces, engineers, FA, ADA, attack helicopter, CAS, and EW assets must be concentrated at the decisive point and time to ensure tactical success. This requires that the brigade mission be analyzed and translated into specific objectives that, when secured, permit control of the area or facilitate destruction of the enemy force. The brigade plan designates:
- The deep attack.
- The main attack and main effort.
- The supporting attack.
- The reserve.
- Follow-and-support forces, if any.
- Reconnaissance and security forces.
The deep attack is focused on utilizing the brigade's available deep fires (lethal and nonlethal) to disrupt enemy functions or to delay or destroy enemy forces. The deep fight will set and maintain the conditions for success in the close fight. Inherent in deep operations planning is the detail necessary to ensure that the forward observers on the battlefield are linked (redundantly if possible) to the delivery systems. This effort contributes to the success of the deep fight.
The main attack is directed to secure the objectives that contribute the most to mission accomplishment.
The supporting attack contributes to the success of the main attack in one or more of the following ways:
- Fixing enemy forces to facilitate the main attack.
- Controlling terrain that facilitates maneuver of the main attack.
- Destroying enemy forces that hinder the main attack.
- Deceiving the enemy as to the location of the main attack.
- Preventing or delaying enemy concentration against the main attack.
Reserves are constituted to be committed at the decisive time and place to exploit success or to ensure mission accomplishment. They should not be used to reinforce failure in the hope of reversing a defeat.
A reserve provides the commander with the flexibility to deal with unforeseen contingencies. It also adds to security, although this is not its primary function. Reserves may consist of maneuver and CS units. The reserve is specifically used to:
- Exploit success by moving to attack an enemy weakness or vulnerability.
- Reinforce or maintain momentum by passing through or around units held up by enemy forces.
- Defeat enemy counterattacks.
The size of the reserve is determined by METT-T. The more vague the situation, the larger the reserve. Whenever possible, one-third or more of the available combat power is retained in reserve.
The reserve is positioned to:
- Permit rapid movement to points of probable employment.
- Weight the main attack by destroying or blocking enemy counters to the main attack.
- Provide security to unoccupied terrain within the brigade sector.
- Provide maximum protection from hostile observation and fire consistent with mission requirements.
Reserve missions should be sufficiently detailed to provide the reserve force commander a clear understanding of the brigade commanders intent and commitment criteria. Plans are made to reconstitute a reserve at the earliest opportunity after the original reserve is committed. Designating on-order reserve missions to committed units is a recommended technique.
Follow and support is an assigned mission from a higher headquarters. The follow-and-support force is not a reserve; it is a committed force that accomplishes the following tasks:
- Destroys bypassed units.
- Relieves units that have halted to contain enemy force.
- Blocks enemy reinforcements.
- Secures LOCs, EPWs, or key areas.
- Controls refugees.
Follow and assume, like follow and support, is not a form of the offense. A follow-and-assume force is also a committed force. It plans and prepares to take over and complete the mission of the force it is following. This mission is common in offensive operations. A follow-and-assume force will often follow the main attack.
Reconnaissance is the precursor to all operations. It focuses on locating the enemy and provides information on terrain. While conducting reconnaissance, the brigade relies on limited assets. This reinforces the importance of a focused R&S plan designed to confirm the adopted enemy course of action.
In the offense, as in all operations, the brigade commander secures his force. Surveillance, fires, OPSEC, and the effective use of obstacles and security forces protect the brigade.
SYNCHRONIZATION OF OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS
Successful offensive operations require coordination, integration, and synchronization of all combat, CS, and CSS elements within the brigade AO. Synchronization of the BOS occurs vertically from corps and division through brigade to battalion and separate company. It also occurs horizontally among the staff sections. Major considerations for integration of the BOS in offensive operations follow.
Intelligence
The brigade commanders guidance to the S2 should contain the commanders PIR. After coordinating with the S3, additional intelligence requirements may be recommended to the commander during the S2s and staffs IPB.
It is especially critical that the brigade S2 prepare an up-to-date enemy data base during the IPB process to support offensive operations and to answer the commanders PIR. The threat estimate and data base are used in identifying specific enemy vulnerabilities and weaknesses. This information assists the brigade commander in properly concentrating his available combat power.
The development of PIR and IPB is a continual process throughout the planning and execution of the offensive operation. The brigade intelligence section answers PIR using a detailed R&S and collection plans developed and coordinated by the brigade S2 and the battalion task force S2s and S3s. The brigade S2 requests additional information and collection assets from its higher headquarters when the brigade commanders PIR cannot be gathered by organic brigade assets.
During the operation, the brigade S2 provides the commander continuous updates of enemy activities and anticipated enemy COAs. His sources include reports from the ASAS, monitoring of battalion radio nets, and analysis of reported sightings.
Maneuver (Army Aviation)
Elements from the divisional aviation brigade may be placed OPCON to the brigade commander to accomplish a mission or for the duration of an operation. Cavalry elements conduct reconnaissance and security operations. Assault elements conduct air assault operations and provide limited CSS functions. Attack helicopter battalions augment and extend the brigades maneuver capability and are most effective against massed enemy armor and stationary or moving artillery. They are also well-suited to conduct reconnaissance and security missions.
Aviation units operating with the brigade or in the brigade AO coordinate locations for assembly areas, forward assembly areas, and FARPs through the depth of the zone with the brigade S3. In offensive operations, these areas will be used in sequence as the main body advances.
Aviation units placed OPCON to the brigade remain the responsibility of the aviation brigade for logistics support. Efficient distribution of certain critical classes of supply may require coordination with the brigades FSB.
For a detailed discussion on ground maneuver see Section II of this chapter.
Fire Support
FS can deliver a variety of munitions to support brigade operations. FS assets available to the brigade are normally one DS FA battalion and organic battalion mortars. Additional FS assets may include:
- CAS.
- NGF.
- Army aviation.
- Reinforcing and general support reinforcing battalions.
- Electronic warfare assets.
The brigade FSE is the focal point for integration of all FS for the brigade. To effectively integrate FS into the operation, the FSCOORD must understand the mission, the commanders intent, the concept of the operation, and the commanders guidance for FS. The FSCOORD must be involved in the planning process from the outset. Using the products of the IPB and TVA processes, the FSCOORD and the FSO jointly wargame COAs with the brigade command and his staff. Following the commanders decision, the FSCOORD produces the FS plans or execution matrix, an attack guidance matrix, and the HPT list. These tools fully integrate FS for the operation by focusing attack and acquisition systems on enemy systems that must be eliminated. The FSCOORD ensures FS assets are properly employed and synchronized.
Specific considerations for the employment of FS in offensive operations include:
- Weighting the main attack by assigning priorities of FS to lead elements.
- Isolating the point of attack.
- Softening enemy defenses by delivering effective preparatory fires.
- Suppressing enemy weapon systems to reduce the enemy stand-off capability.
- Suppressing and obscuring overwatching enemy forces during breach operations.
- Screening maneuver forces adjacent to enemy units.
- Suppressing bypassed enemy elements to limit their ability to disrupt friendly operations.
- Interdicting enemy counterattack forces, isolating the defending force, and preventing its reinforcement and resupply.
- Providing counterfire to reduce the enemy's ability to disrupt friendly operations and to limit the enemy's ability to rapidly shift combat power on the battlefield.
- Supporting rear operations.
Air Defense
The division commander's ADA priorities determine what ADA resources the brigade will receive. Normally, the brigade receives a battery of ADA attached, OPCON, or DS.
The ADO must understand the commander's mission, intent, and concept of operations. Continued involvement by the ADO in the planning process is critical to the successful integration of ADA support with the brigade concept. The brigade S3 needs to consider terrain requirements to optimize ADA weapon systems and ground-based sensor/light and special division interim sensor coverage.
Considerations for employing ADA in the offense are:
- To concentrate ADA to achieve massive fires at decisive points.
- To integrate ADA weapon systems throughout the brigade.
- To weight the main effort with ADA protection.
- To assist the S2 during the IPB process and in analyzing air avenues of approach.
- To identify potential choke points and plan their protection.
- To ensure the supporting ADA unit is as mobile as the supported force.
The ADA battery should be task organized to support the operation from the LD to the objective. In the offense, the following are normal air defense priorities:
- Maneuver forces.
- Choke points.
- Command, control, communications, and intelligence assets.
- CSS assets.
Mobility and Survivability
The brigade engineer plans and coordinates mobility, countermobility, and survivability tasks to support the offensive mission. He links engineer planning at division level and execution at battalion task force level.
The engineer develops a scheme of engineer operations, through terrain visualization, that focuses on providing mobility support throughout the depth of the attack. The combined arms breaching tenets provide the framework for planning breaching operations:
- Intelligence.
- Organization.
- Fundamentals.
- Mass.
- Synchronization.
The engineer battalion is task organized forward to support in-stride, deliberate, or assault breaching operations. The staff engineer officer (S2, S3, and ABE) work closely with the brigade S2 in developing obstacle intelligence. The data is collected and used to develop the obstacle and situation templates.
Countermobility planning in the offense includes the coordination and wargaming of FASCAM delivery assets by the brigade engineer to close potential flank avenues of approach, fix enemy forces, and close retreat routes for engaged enemy units. Upon consolidation of the objective, tactical obstacles are emplaced to support the defense against enemy counterattacks.
Survivability missions are of lower priority during offensive maneuvers; they become important upon consolidation on the objectives and must be anticipated.
The brigade engineer must receive clear guidance and priorities for engineer efforts. He is an integral part of the development of the scheme of maneuver; he coordinates with the S3, FSO, ADA officer, S2, and S4 to integrate and synchronize engineer operations.
Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical
Division assets available to support brigade offensive operations include NBC decontamination, NBC reconnaissance, and smoke. These assets will normally be platoon-size organizations. Based on the factors of METT-T, these organizations may be OPCON, attached, DS, or GS to the brigade.
Decontamination
Brigade decontamination operations during the offense focus on immediate decontamination operations. Thorough decontamination operations are designed for reconstitution operations. Operational decontamination operations are conducted at the battalion level using organic lightweight decontamination equipment. To facilitate decontamination operations, the brigade decontaminates:
- As soon as possible.
- Only when necessary.
- As far forward as possible.
- By priority.
The brigade commander identifies mission-critical assets and establishes priorities for decontamination within the brigade. Logistics support for decontamination is coordinated by the S4 and provided through normal supply channels.
Reconnaissance
All brigade units have an implied mission to conduct NBC reconnaissance, using organic detection and identification equipment. The brigade S3 establishes the NBC reconnaissance requirements and tasks based on the brigade chemical officers recommendations. The detection, marking, identification, and reporting of contaminated areas are established in SOPs according to relevant STANAGs.
Smoke
The brigade conducts smoke operations in the offense to screen friendly forces and to obscure or deceive enemy forces. Assets that are available to provide smoke include the vehicle engine exhaust smoke system, smoke pots, artillery and mortar smoke, and smoke generators. To conduct a successful smoke mission, the brigade must provide the following information to the supporting smoke unit:
- Commanders intent.
- Location of target.
- Length of mission.
- Start time.
- Visibility requirements.
Combat Service Support
CSS operations in the offense are designed to maintain the momentum of the attack. The FSB commander prepares and executes a logistics plan developed to support the maneuver brigades tactical plan.
The specific logistics needs of the maneuver brigade are identified and coordinated by the brigade S4. Based on the brigade S4s planning estimate, the FSB commander and his staff tailor a mobile CSS package to be pushed forward to support the brigade. Specific coordination for locations of ATPs, UMCPs, and MSRs outside the BSA are coordinated between the FSB S3 and brigade S4 at the rear CP and approved by the brigade S3. This coordination ensures the integration of the CSS plan and the tactical plan.
FSB logistics support must be continuous. The FSB displaces priority resupply classes by bounds to support the momentum of the offense. The movement of the FSB is coordinated among the FSB, rear CP, and main CP to ensure continuous support and to avoid impeding maneuver elements.
Command and Control
The command group, augmented by other special staff as desired by the commander, is positioned to see and sense the battle. By being well forward, the commander can feel the tempo of the battle, improve communications, and influence the main effort with his presence. The command group moves much of the time and relies on the brigade TOC to maintain communications with higher and flanking units.
The TAC CP and the main CP are required to move frequently during offensive operations. The TAC CP has command and control for the main CP during these relocations. Therefore, the TAC CP may be augmented with more people from the current operations, intelligence, operations support, and FS sections out of the main CP. The signal section will leapfrog multichannel and FM retransmission systems forward to maintain communications.
The main CP will continue to perform its essential current battle coordination; however, the main CP will weight its effort toward future battle planning. This is possible because the disruption of frequent displacement causes much of the command, control, communications, and intelligence structuring for working the current battle to be pushed forward to the TAC CP and command group.
The rear CP and the FSB commander are heavily committed to coordinating and facilitating the pushing of CSS forward through the cluttered battlefield to sustain the attack. The rear CP and the FSB commander are initially concerned with sustaining forward units; providing rear area security; clearing MSRs; evacuating casualties, equipment, and EPWs; and preparing to reestablish CSS base areas forward.
FORMS OF MANEUVER
The five basic forms of maneuver are envelopment, turning movement, infiltration, penetration, and frontal attack. The brigade can conduct a frontal attack, penetration, and envelopment. The brigade can participate as one element of a turning movement conducted by corps. Subordinate infantry units can conduct an infiltration as part of the brigade's larger mission.
Envelopment
Envelopment is the basic form of maneuver that seeks to apply strength against weakness. Envelopment avoids the enemy's front where forces are most protected, attention is focused, and fires are most easily concentrated. The attacker fixes the defender with supporting attacks. The attacker maneuvers the main attack around or over the enemy's defenses to strike at its flanks and rear. Detailed IPB and reconnaissance of the enemy defensive position are required for successful envelopments. If there is no open flank or gaps leading to a flank, gaps can be created by fires, maneuver, or by deception operations.
Successful envelopment often depends on speed to prevent the enemy from reacting quickly and with enough force to slow the attack. Brigade envelopments usually require fixing the enemy with a battalion supporting attack. Remaining battalions then maneuver past the enemy flank to rear positions. The enemy is then forced to fight in several directions or to abandon positions.
Envelopment is the preferred form of maneuver. Striking from several directions at once or from unexpected directions forces the enemy to fight along unprepared, lightly defended, or undefended avenues of approach (see Figure 4-1). The double and the single envelopment are variations of the envelopment.
Turning Movement
A turning movement is a large scale envelopment in which the attacking force passes over and around the enemy defense to secure objectives deep in the enemys rear. As a result, the enemys position is made untenable. The enemy is forced to "turn" and attack to his rear, or attempt a retrograde operation. Brigades participate in turning movements as part of a larger force.
Infiltration
Infiltration is the covert movement (mounted or dismounted) of all or part of the attacking force through enemy lines to a favorable position in the enemy's rear. An armored brigade cannot expect to infiltrate all its combat elements through the enemys defense. The brigade attacks after infiltration or uses infiltration to obtain intelligence and to harass the enemy. Though it is not restricted to small units or dismounted infantry, the brigade normally employs infiltration techniques with a part of its units and performs offensive operations with the remaining units.
Dismounted infiltration is particularly effective when both threat forces are mechanized and unaccustomed to defending against dismounted troops. In these instances, infantry with supporting engineers infiltrate, followed quickly by mounted attacks. FS assists infiltration by supporting the deception plan. The commander centralizes control of FS to preclude the loss of surprise and fratricide as the infiltration is conducted.
Normally infiltration is conducted with light infantry forces assigned to a brigade for the purpose of attacking elements along the FEBA or in the security zone to facilitate friendly maneuver. Targets normally include company defenses located on terrain within a major choke point that hinders the brigades ability to maintain its momentum.
Penetration
The penetration attempts to rupture enemy defenses on a narrow front and create both assailable flanks and access to the enemys rear. Penetration is used when enemy flanks are not assailable, when enemy defense is overextended, or when time does not permit some other form of maneuver. Penetrations typically comprise three stages: initial rupture of enemy positions, roll-up of the flanks on either side of the gap, and exploitation to secure deep objectives.
A successful penetration depends on the ability of the attacker to suppress enemy weapons, mass forces and fires to overwhelm the defender at the point of attack, and quickly pass sufficient forces through the gap to rupture the defense. Once this is accomplished, the commander has two options. He can continue forward to rupture successive defense lines and ultimately enter enemy rear areas, or he can turn forces to roll-up enemy positions from the flanks.
Frontal Attack
The frontal attack is the least desirable form of maneuver. A frontal attack is used to strike the enemy across a wide front and over the most direct approaches. The purpose of the frontal attack is to overrun and destroy or capture a weakened enemy in position or to fix an enemy force in place to support another friendly attack elsewhere. Although the frontal attack strikes along the entire front within the zone of the attacking force, it does not require that all combat forces be employed in line or that all combat forces conduct a frontal attack. During a frontal attack, the commander seeks to create or take advantage of conditions that permit a penetration or envelopment of the enemy position. Fires are delivered across the zone of the attacking force, then shifted to the points of penetration or envelopment to facilitate rapid movement through enemy positions.
BRIGADE FORMATIONS FOR OFFENSIVE ACTIONS
The brigade may use any of several basic formations in offensive operations. The scheme of maneuver identifies the initial attack formation that offers the best chance for success. These formations are not restrictive drills but general techniques for employment of subordinate battalion task forces.
Brigade in Column
A column of battalion task forces may be adopted for the initial attack when terrain or enemy defenses force the brigade to attack on a narrow front (see Figure 4-2). In certain situations, the strength, composition, and location of enemy reserves may require the brigade to adopt this formation to provide the depth necessary for a sustained attack. This formation facilitates retention of the initiative and permits flexibility because the following battalion task forces are in position to move through or around the leading elements to maintain the momentum of the attack. It also provides a degree of security because the following battalions are in position to counter a threat from either flank and support the uninterrupted advance of the leading companies. However, brigades in column can concentrate only a small portion of their combat power to the front initially and are subject to piecemeal commitment and slower deployment to the front.
Brigades require multiple routes in their zones if they are to attack effectively from columns. Passage of the brigade through a given area using this formation usually requires more time than when other formations are used.
Brigade Vee
The brigade vee may be employed when great depth in the attack is not required, such as in a limited-objective attack (see Figure 4-3). It may also be used in the initial attack against a weak enemy, vulnerable to defeat by an attack on a relatively wide front. In the envelopment, this formation can be used when the brigade can envelop an assailable flank on a broad front. Lead task forces receive priority for FS.
Brigade on Line Without a Reserve
Normally, the brigade commander retains some degree of flexibility in his initial attack by withholding part of his force in reserve; however, where METT-T warrants, a formation with two or more task forces abreast without a reserve may be used successfully (see Figure 4-4). Inherently dangerous, it is considered when the enemy has been routed and is incapable of a large-scale counterattack. This might occur during a corps or division exploitation or pursuit. FS is usually positioned well forward to provide maximum continuous fires as the brigade attacks. The fundamental consideration for using this formation is whether the mission dictates a rapid advance on a broad front.
After commitment to battle, the brigade can rapidly alter its formation and organization for combat to conform to the changing situation. The brigades scheme of maneuver should ensure superior combat power at the point of decision. Regardless of the initial formation for an attack, rigid adherence to formations and FS plans contradicts the basic concepts of the attack. Subordinates freely exercise initiative to exploit enemy weaknesses within the context of the operation to achieve the commanders intent.
Brigade Box
The brigade box provides combat power forward over a relatively broad front. The box allows the commander to employ the rear elements in mutually supporting attacks. He can converge the combat power of leading units into one coordinated assault. The box formation also allows the commander to gain information across a broad front (see Figure 4-5). Gaps, weak points or flanks of the enemys disposition are more rapidly discovered.
Brigade Wedge
The brigade wedge/diamond allows the commander to gain contact with minimal combat power. This formation also provides the commander flexibility in massing combat power once contact is made (see Figure 4-6). The wedge/ diamond provides good 360-degree security for the brigade.
SECTION II. FORMS OF TACTICAL OFFENSE
The forms of brigade offensive operations are:
- Movement to contact.
- Planning.
- Security force.
- Advance guard.
- Flank and rear security.
- Main body.
- Preparation.
- Execution.
- Planning.
- Attack.
- Hasty attack.
- Planning.
- Advance of reconnaissance and security forces.
- Deployment of reconnaissance and security forces.
- Assault by the main body.
- Preparation.
- Execution.
- Planning.
- Deliberate attack.
- Planning.
- Support force.
- Mission.
- Composition.
- Employment
- Maneuver force.
- Mission.
- Composition.
- Employment.
- Actions on the objective.
- Scheme of maneuver.
- Support force.
- Preparation.
- Execution.
- Continuation of the attack.
- Planning.
- Feint.
- Raid.
- Demonstration.
- Hasty attack.
- Exploitation.
- Pursuit.
The brigade is trained and task organized to pass from one operation to another without delay. The types of operations may be conducted in sequence in a successful battle, beginning with a movement to contact to locate the enemy and ending with the destruction of the enemy through pursuit.
Each of these offensive operations will be disclosed in terms of planning, preparation, and execution.
MOVEMENT TO CONTACT
When the enemy situation in the objective area is vague, a movement to contact is conducted to gain or reestablish contact with the enemy. It is used to develop the situation early to provide an advantage before decisive engagement (see Figure 4-7). The movement to contact is characterized by decentralized control and rapid commitment of forces from the march. If the brigade gains contact with the enemy, the operation ends in an attack, a defense, a withdrawal, or a bypass.
During the movement to contact, the brigade provides security by posting flank and rear security screens as appropriate. This is not necessary when the flank(s) or rear is protected by adjacent or following friendly units. Forward security is established by the use of a forward security force.
In the separate brigade, this is an ideal mission for the brigades cavalry troop. In divisional brigades, the forward security force is provided by the lead battalion task force. The size and composition of the force are based on METT-T, particularly the width of the brigade sector and the enemy situation. The forward security force:
- Conducts reconnaissance.
- Develops the situation.
- Destroys enemy reconnaissance elements.
- Secures key terrain.
- Reports and breaches obstacles (if possible).
- Prevents unnecessary or premature deployment of the main body.
The main emphasis is placed on the best use of roads and terrain. The brigade conducts aggressive reconnaissance to identify enemy locations, obstacles, and areas of possible NBC contamination and prepares to overcome obstacles and rapidly pass through defiles. Normally, movement is conducted in multiple columns. Subordinate battalions adopt the formations that enable them to accomplish their missions.
The brigade integrates FS into march columns and attack formations. Normally, this includes one FA battery immediately behind the lead task force and the remainder of the battalion behind the following task force.
Brigade air defense protection is provided by attached ADA assets and organic weapon systems. ADA occupies selected sites along the route of march and integrates into the moving column. These elements provide low-altitude air defense. See FM 44-16 for discussions of air defense procedures applicable to this offensive operation.
The decision to attack, bypass, defend, or withdraw must be made rapidly at each echelon. This decision is governed by the understanding of the division commander's intent. Commanders should not hesitate to take appropriate action in the absence of orders. While efforts to retain the initiative remain decentralized, the decision to commit the entire force or to halt the attack remains with the senior commander.
Planning
The primary consideration in planning a movement to contact is the determination of actions that are anticipated during the movement. This drives the organization of the brigade for the mission. Potential threat defensive locations, OPs, EAs, and obstacles are among those items that must be identified early and incorporated into the R&S plan.
Security forces for a brigade movement to contact may consist of the advance, flank, and rear guards. When a brigade is moving as part of a division movement to contact, it can provide elements to reinforce or augment the division covering force, and provide and control either right or left flank guard and/or rear guard.
Security Force
The security force locates the enemy, develops the situation, and prevents the unnecessary or premature deployment of the main body. Its missions may include destroying enemy reconnaissance, securing key terrain, or containing enemy forces. The security force operates well forward of the main body.
When planning for the security force, the commander considers whether there has been any contact with the enemy, the enemy has broken contact, or the enemy situation is vague. The commander must move his forces toward an objective until it is reached or there is enemy contact. To maintain flexibility of maneuver after contact, he must put forward the minimum force possible. The mission best suited to execute security of a movement to contact is a guard. The main factors that determine which mission is used are the enemy situation, the terrain, and the amount of risk assumed by the commander. His risk is keyed to the amount of time the security force gives the commander to maneuver his other elements.
Advance Guard
The advance guard is normally furnished and controlled by the leading element of the main body. It is organized to fight through small concentrations of enemy forces identified by the covering force or to make sure the main body can deploy uninterrupted into attack formations. Necessary CS, such as engineers and artillery, is integrated into the advance guard. Reconnaissance assets and surveillance systems are used to assist the advance guard in detecting the enemy before actual contact.
Flank and Rear Security
Flank and rear security protect the main body from observation, direct fire, and surprise attack. These forces may be strong enough to defeat an enemy attack or to delay it long enough to allow the main body to deploy. The commander must perform a risk analysis to tailor the size of the security force.
Flank and rear security operate under the control of the brigade main body. Flank security travels on routes parallel to the route of the main body. It moves by continuous marching or by successive or alternate bounds to occupy key positions on the flanks of the main body. During the movement to contact, the flank security also maintains contact with the advance guard. Rear security follows the main body.
A rear or flank guard is similar to an advance guard in strength and composition. If the flanks or rear of the brigade are secured by adjacent or following units, the size of the brigade security force can be reduced.
The Main Body
The main body contains the bulk of the brigades combat power. It is organized and deployed to conduct a hasty attack or defense on short notice. March dispositions of the main body must permit maximum flexibility during the movement and after contact with the main enemy force.
Elements of the main body may be committed to reduce pockets of resistance contained or bypassed by the covering force, or may be left for elimination by follow-and-support units. Elements of a covering force that are assigned containing missions are relieved as rapidly as possible to rejoin the covering force and avoid dissipating their strength.
The main FS task in a movement to contact is to provide immediate responsive suppressive fires to the maneuver units in contact.
The staff engineer plans and wargames critical engineer tasks. His objective is to integrate and synchronize the tasks with other BOS. In a movement to contact, he considers the enemy situation and allocates his forces accordingly. He recommends a task organization for the advance guard and forward task forces to support in-stride breaching. The objective is to maintain the speed of the main body and not become impaired by obstacles. The brigade engineer anticipates and assigns a "be prepared" deliberate breach mission. His thought process includes the tenets of breaching (intelligence, mass, synchronization, organization, and fundamentals) as he conducts the wargaming process. See FM 90-13-1 for additional information.
Air defense protects both the forward ground forces and the main body. Some air defense assets accompany the maneuver forces, moving with them as part of the tactical formation, and others will bound with the force, providing protection from a stationary position.
Because movement to contact is characterized by increased consumption of petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL), increased vehicular maintenance requirements, and reduced ammunition expenditure, planning should be geared toward pushing supplies forward. The speed of the operation and the high POL consumption necessitate careful planning of CSS operations; moreover, the brigades support organization must be capable of sustaining uninterrupted delivery of supplies. As a result, the support units will often require reinforcements during movement to contact. Additional MP units may also be necessary to ensure adequate traffic control.
The brigade main CP would normally displace as far forward as possible before beginning movement to contact to support the operation with a stable command and control environment. The location depends on the depth of the movement to contact, time available, and location of the division command and control facilities. The TAC CP and command group would operate forward with the main body to facilitate decision making and transition to other offensive tactical missions (see Figure 4-8 and Figure 4-9).
Preparation
When preparing for movement to contact, the primary concern of the commander is that his subordinate commanders understand their individual missions within the context of his intent. This is partially accomplished after the order is issued by an immediate backbrief. Once the battalion task force commanders have an opportunity to conduct their own TLPs, they may be recalled to the brigade commander for a rehearsal and update.
The commander must think through the entire operation before rehearsal. He must identify possible choke points and examine the enemys probable COAs.
When conducting the rehearsal, he must ensure the brigade players understand their individual and team responsibilities. Options and contingency planning are essential during rehearsal so virtually every eventuality is addressed. He must point out where formations may have to change, or where speed of the operation is adjusted as a result of the terrain or suspected enemy. Integration and coordination between combat, CS, and CSS elements will go a long way toward lessening the support problems after crossing the LD.
Each commander rehearses what to do when making contact with the enemy, not only for his benefit but so the other commanders understand their responsibilities to the element in contact. The S2 should role-play the enemy commander.
The most critical decision the brigade commander must make is the commitment of his reserve force. It is paramount that he be provided timely and accurate intelligence on the situation so the reserve is effectively committed. Even after the reserve is committed to the fight, the commander should look for forces to create a new reserve.
As with maneuver, it is important to rehearse the FS plan. The brigade commander reviews the conduct of battery movement and the brigade FS plan with his FSCOORD, and ensures subordinate maneuver commanders understand their role in executing the plan.
The engineer commander and staff ensure task organization linkup is complete, monitor precombat checks and inspections, and supervise rehearsals. The engineer battalion commander is the key player at the brigade rehearsal. He talks through critical engineer missions, tasks, actions, and decisions as the battle is played out.
CSS rehearsal is very important in a movement to contact due to the extended lines and speed of the operation. Planned LRPs should be checked during rehearsal as should any scheduled refueling operations. Route security and convoy security are especially important as there are no established enemy lines. Moreover, the possibility of bypassing undetected enemy forces is all too real and could become a severe threat to CSS operations. The echeloning of trains is an effective technique for moving CSS assets without creating overwhelming space control problems.
Execution
The brigade moves as directed by the brigade commander. The mission is to regain contact with the enemy. The enemy may leave nuisance minefields; or he may leave obstacles guarded by small stay-behind parties to slow the brigades movement. It must be assumed the enemy will overwatch choke points and defiles.
The commander must be aware of these delaying actions, and give bypass criteria so the speed of the main body is not impaired. Unless an enemy stay-behind force provides a significant threat to one of the formations, it is fixed, bypassed, and handed over to a follow-on support force.
Forward and flank security forces execute their mission in terms of both the commanders intent and the R&S plan. The movement of the brigade can be controlled using PLs and checkpoints on easily identifiable terrain. Unit orientation is first directed in zone with respect to the formation itself, and second toward those areas suspected of posing a threat to the brigade.
Movement to contact ends with the occupation of an objective or limit of advance without enemy contact, or when contact is made and the enemy cannot be defeated or bypassed. This occurs in a series of engagements and/or hasty attacks. In an encounter with a moving force, action should take place without hesitation. Battalions use fire and movement to fix the enemy. The decision to attack, bypass, or defend must be made rapidly at each echelon. The decision must be governed by an understanding of the division commanders intent.
In the execution of the movement to contact, the FS plan should continuously be updated to reflect the availability of more detailed information provided by the maneuver units and the S2s refinement of the situation template. This includes changes to the maneuver plan made by the commander in response to enemy actions.
During movement, engineer assets must be protected by the combat maneuver elements. Only after an obstacle has been identified and no bypass route found, will the engineers move forward to breach. However, during the reconnaissance for bypass routes, an engineer element may move forward to conduct initial reconnaissance and assessment of the obstacle to confirm or deny whether planned engineer support will accomplish the mission. On order of the maneuver commander, engineer assets found in the follow-on forces have the additional responsibility to reduce obstacles bypassed by the advance guard, or to breach obstacles encountered by the flank guards.
As the air defense elements maneuver with the brigade, the air defense plan must be continuously refined to reflect any changes in the enemy situation.
CSS elements follow the main body and are protected by the rear guard. As forces require refueling and resupply, the support elements move forward in logistic packages (LOGPAC). UMCPs are established as required.
The most critical control measures are objectives, PLs, checkpoints, axes of advance, and boundaries. Intermediate objectives may be used to coordinate the essential movements of attacking forces, but their excessive use can reduce the momentum of the attack. On-order objectives are used to orient following forces and reserves quickly and to increase the flexibility of tactical maneuver throughout the force.
Attacking units may bypass local obstacles and stubborn pockets of resistance that do not threaten overall success according to the higher commanders intent. Bypassed enemy forces then become the responsibility of the higher commander. Also, the directing maneuver headquarters needs to retain some ability to reinforce fires and redirect maneuver with minimum oral instructions. The most effective means of accomplishing this goal is with an operation overlay that reflects the higher commanders intent and scheme of maneuver (see Figure 4-10). The overlay gives each command echelon flexibility to mass fires and modify maneuver plans as the situation develops.
ATTACK
Hasty Attack
A hasty attack is conducted to gain or maintain the initiative. Before mounting a hasty attack, the commander must develop the situation, determine enemy strength, and rapidly mass firepower against the enemy. A hasty attack is usually conducted following a movement to contact. To maintain momentum, it is conducted with the resources immediately available.
Planning
The commander has a vague picture of where and how the enemy defends, based on input from the S2 as well as his own experience. Much of the planning for a movement to contact is based on the desired outcome on contact. If the situation is vague and the enemy is a considerable distance away, he may choose to lead with a large number of reconnaissance elements spread over a wide area to develop the situation and retain the main body in a tighter, more responsive formation.
Regardless of the formation selected for reconnaissance and security elements, the hasty attack normally occurs in the following sequence. Therefore, the drills and SOP tasks that are associated with each step should be reevaluated within the context of the current situation.
- Advance of Reconnaissance and Security Forces
In planning the advance of reconnaissance and security elements, the commander should identify the direction of movement, possible danger areas, objectives to be occupied, and bypass criteria. This planning is the same process used in the movement to contact planning.
- Deployment of Reconnaissance and Security Forces
Once contact has been made with the enemy, the security force attempts to develop the situation. In planning, the major consideration for deployment is task organization. Reconnaissance elements generally are not heavy enough to deploy against an enemy and must be augmented by armored forces. The commander ensures that the organization of the security force is a mix of armored and reconnaissance elements.
Based on the commander's guidance, the reconnaissance force will move to the flanks or continue its reconnaissance. In either case this force maintains contact with the enemy until the security force arrives.
Again, the organization must be based on METT-T considerations. One of the key points the commander should remember is that the enemy may want to slow the main body by making it deploy. The advance guard must have enough firepower to destroy smaller size elements. If it does not, the enemy will have accomplished its mission. If the enemy encountered is too strong for the advance guard, it must be prepared to become the support force for an assault by the main body.
- Assault by the Main Body
As the security force suppresses the enemy with direct and indirect fires, the main body changes from a movement to contact formation to an assault formation. The size of the actual assault force is determined by the intelligence generated by the advance guard. The planning for this assault is generally limited to templated or suspected enemy defensive locations. In this regard, the identification of areas such as checkpoints corresponding to these and other easily identifiable locations allows the maneuver units to execute quickly from FRAGOs. However, not all maneuver units will be committed to the assault. The commander maintains security throughout the operation; therefore, he identifies which units maintain security if the main body is deployed.
Preparation
The commander prepares for the brigade hasty attack while rehearsing the movement to contact. Specifically, he must run the brigade staff and commanders through a series of enemy COAs. This exercises command and staff drills and SOPs. There are several enemy actions to consider during rehearsals:
- The advance guard makes contact with a small force. Options may include fix and bypass so as not to sacrifice speed, or conduct a hasty attack.
- The advance guard makes contact with a large force. Options include possible hasty attack, suppressing for the main body attack, or hasty attack while the main body bypasses.
- A flank security force makes contact with a small force. The flank security force can fix and bypass or conduct a hasty attack. What does the rest of the main body do in the meantime?
- A flank security force makes contact with a large force. The flank security force suppresses the enemy, while elements of the main body conduct the attack. What does the remainder of the formation do during the attack?
The commander reinforces his intent throughout the rehearsal, and identifies any possible difficulties in execution. The S2 ensures the enemy COA is accurately portrayed.
During the rehearsal, the commander verifies that his control measures are adequate for the hasty attack. More often than not, the hasty attack will be a FRAGO. Therefore, the commander ensures "on order" graphics are adequate to control the hasty attack. The commander ensures control measures sufficiently control movement and direct and indirect fires.
Execution
The commander has a particularly difficult role during the hasty attack. He allows his subordinates to develop the situation and make decisions quickly, with very little planning. It is paramount, therefore, that subordinate commanders understand the brigade commanders intent; likewise, the brigade commander must trust the judgment of his battalion commanders. Once the brigade commander decides to conduct a hasty attack, he puts his full weight into assuring that each subordinate commander gets the necessary support. Any CAS sorties that may be allocated to the brigade should be synchronized to augment the fires of the assault force. Each element must move quickly as in a drill. Commanders talk laterally and vertically, making suggestions and maneuvering as a team. The brigade operates as a close-knit unit, where each knows his role and that of his teammate. The commander must know, through continuous information flow from subordinate commanders, what to expect of each element and what he can give in return.
The element that makes initial contact has the responsibility to develop and make a quick assessment of the situation. In particular, the commander of the unit in contact must quickly decide whether to fix and bypass, attack, or become the support force for an attack by the main body. Also, his report to higher headquarters drives the decisions of the higher commander. Assuming the situation is such that the advance guard must lay down a base of fire for a hasty attack by the main body, thus becoming the support force, the advance guard commander must move to a position of advantage over the enemy force. Specifically, the support force attempts to fix the enemy to deny their freedom of movement. While this occurs, the commander of the support force constantly updates the higher commander about the situation and attempts to identify the most effective direction of attack for the assault force. The brigade commander quickly gives instructions for the CS elements to support the brigade designated main effort. For example, the artillery positions forward to range to the identified enemy, probable adjoining enemy positions, and enemy counterattack avenues of approach.
The force designated to conduct the assault must rapidly change formation from whatever it was for the movement to contact to the appropriate attack formation. The assault force commander communicates with the support force commander to coordinate direct and indirect fires as the assault force conducts their movement to the enemy position and during the final assault of the enemy position. In particular, the assault force commander isolates the position quickly from other possible enemy positions and suppresses the enemys ability to observe or engage the assault force. This is accomplished by a combination of direct and indirect fire. In the meantime, reconnaissance elements must screen to any exposed flank(s) of the assault force, ensuring security.
Deliberate Attack
A deliberate attack is a fully synchronized operation. Due to the detailed planning and synchronization required, a brigade may conduct a deliberate attack from a defensive posture. If in an offensive posture, a brigade may transition to deliberate attack immediately after entering an area of operations. In either case, the enemy situation is known and the brigade commander has enough combat power to defeat the enemy. This is accomplished through a detailed reconnaissance effort that identifies the enemys weakness. Once identified, the brigades combat power is focused on this weakness and is exploited to the extent that leads to the enemys defeat, destruction, or neutralization. Brigade commanders plan deliberate attacks when directed or as the opportunity warrants and execute them to support the overall purpose of operations.
Planning
The factors of METT-T influence each situation in which a deliberate attack must be made and prevent development of a standard organization for combat. While the commanders estimate process must be conducted for each deliberate attack, general rules can be stated. The brigade commander organizes forces to fix and to maneuver against the enemy. Engineers are task organized to the force penetrating the enemys defensive positions. An intelligence collection effort is conducted to locate enemy reserves and second-echelon forces.
FS planning is characterized by the full integration of intelligence-gathering sources into the targeting process. The brigade DS FA battalion uses the DIVARTY, intelligence officer, and brigade controlled and supporting intelligence sources to locate HPTs. Fires are planned for HPTs. FS systems are positioned well forward and in depth to provide continuous support throughout the attack. Displacement of FS systems is executed to maintain continuous FS.
Brigades conduct deliberate attacks through coordinated battalion task force attacks consisting of fire and maneuver. A battalion task force participates in a brigade deliberate attack as a main effort or as a supporting effort. Key to the main attack achieving its purpose, a battalion task force is designated as the main effort. The brigade commander designates the supporting effort, ensuring the main effort accomplishes its mission through supporting attacks, a follow-and-support role, or follow-and-assume-the-main-effort role.
- Supporting Effort
The mission, composition, and employment of the supporting effort are explained in the following paragraphs.
- Mission
The supporting effort sets and maintains the conditions necessary for the success of the main effort. A battalion task force, as the supporting effort, fixes enemy forces by attacking objectives that support the main efforts objective. The supporting effort can also suppress large forces that it cannot destroy, allowing the main effort to have maneuver options. These may be forces that the main effort is attacking directly or they may be forces that could influence the successful attack of the main effort. Tasks for supporting forces are offensive or defensive in nature. They include fix, attrit, suppress, or delay, and also may include seize, secure, or destroy.
- Composition
Supporting efforts at brigade level normally consist of battalion task forces, or in some situations, a portion of a task force that is working directly for the brigade. They are still allocated resources for successful mission accomplishment, but supporting efforts are only allocated enough to accomplish their missions so that the main focus will be the main effort. In some cases, direct or indirect fire assets may be increased to set the conditions for the main effort.
- Employment
Depending on the missions given, supporting efforts attack as any other force. The difference is that the supporting effort must plan with the main effort in mind. (How will direct and indirect fires assist the main effort? How will maneuvering of forces aid the main effort and not mask its forces?) Additionally, the supporting effort must also be prepared to engage targets of opportunity within the commanders intent. Similarly, the supporting effort must be prepared to move to other positions from which it can continue to aid the main effort.
- Main Effort
The mission, composition, and employment of the main effort are discussed in the following paragraphs.
- Mission
The main effort closes with the enemy to defeat, destroy, or neutralize him. In most cases, tasks are purely offensive in nature, e.g., seize, destroy, secure, or neutralize.
- Composition
The maximum possible strength should be placed in the main effort. When possible, it should be a combined arms unit of tanks, mechanized infantry, engineer, and aviation. The main effort should be supported to the fullest extent possible with artillery and CS/CSS assets.
- Employment
The main effort closes with the enemy as quickly and directly as possible to exploit the effects of the supporting efforts. It is usually committed so that it has mass, and when possible, it seeks to attack at an identified weak point in the enemys defense. Once the main effort is committed, it should proceed with all the speed and violence at its command. The advance should be timed so the elements of the main effort arrive on the objective simultaneously. Tanks and mechanized infantry can then provide mutual support. As the objective is reached and overrun, the supporting effort shifts its attention to the flanks and rear of the enemys defense.
- Actions on the Objective
As the assault force secures the objective, the brigade begins to focus on the enemy elements that could counterattack. The brigade commander will reposition battalion task forces on the objective either to defend against an enemy attack or to prepare for future operations. The brigade continues to synchronize the consolidation on the objective. Based on the end state combat power of each battalion task force, the commander may adjust task organization.
- Scheme of Maneuver
This is the detailed plan for the placement and movement of the main attack into advantageous positions on the objective with respect to the enemy. In developing the scheme of maneuver, consideration is given to its possible effects on future operations.
Preparation
In preparation for the deliberate attack, the commander rehearses the maneuver and synchronization of the brigades assets. Specifically, the commander ensures that his commanders understand both the maneuver plan and his intent, so that if they must deviate from the maneuver plan it is within the context of his intent.
The brigade commander first ensures that the supporting efforts understand their role within the maneuver plan. He must be prepared to maneuver supporting efforts so they maintain continuous and effective pressure on the enemy force. He must then determine where they will shift their focus once the main effort closes on its objective. (Where will they shift their direct and indirect fires? What criteria should be developed that allows them to join the main attack or assume the main effort?)
Likewise, the main effort must demonstrate the best use of terrain to support his approach to the objective. He must be prepared to conduct hasty breaches of obstacles and change his maneuver formation to suit the terrain and enemy situation. Finally, and most importantly, he must rehearse the final assault on the objective. Can he effectively suppress the objective or will it require help from a supporting effort as he closes? How has the objective been divided into battalion/company objectives? What happens if the assault force is counterattacked just as they are about to assault? How can this be prevented? Where is the limit of advance? How are the task forces using their scouts during the assault? What actions are being taken to deny effective enemy fires from adjacent and depth positions? These are only a sampling of the questions that must be answered as the commander conducts the rehearsal.
Execution
An indirect-fire preparation may be delivered immediately before the attack (see Figure 4-11). The preparation is coordinated with the movement of attacking units, depending on the amount of surprise desired or necessary to soften the point of attack. The preparation must have a specific purpose. Criteria must be developed prior to execution. This criteria may include:
- All targets must be confirmed.
- The targets justify the loss of surprise and expenditure of ammunition.
- The targets justify the risk to the DS artillery battalion.
Desired effects on the target are established.
The attack plan is vigorously executed, and all favorable developments are exploited. If the attack lags in one portion of the zone, the main effort is shifted to another portion offering a greater opportunity for success.
The progress of the attack is not delayed to preserve the alignment of units or to adhere to the original plan of attack. Follow-and-support units reduce isolated enemy resistance as necessary.
The attack may be a single, rapid advance and assault until the brigade objective is secured, neutralized, destroyed, or overrun, or it may be a series of rapid advances and assaults to obtain the same results. As enemy resistance is encountered, the attacking echelons converge, following close behind their supporting fires, until they are within assaulting distance of the hostile position. After the assault, attacking units disperse as rapidly as possible (to preclude forming lucrative targets), continue the attack, or prepare for other operations.
The reserve is kept ready for immediate employment. The reserve moves within the overall formation of the brigade and is positioned to permit rapid movement to the point of probable employment and to provide security by its presence. When conditions dictate its use, the reserve is committed without hesitation. With the compression of TDIS factors inherent in the mobility of the brigade, teams of the reserve can be assigned a specific short-term mission and the reserve quickly reconstituted.
Continuation of the Attack
When the brigade objective is secured, reorganization is accomplished rapidly, and all means are used to continue the attack (if so ordered). Maximum use of supporting fires is made during this critical period. Minimum forces normally retain control of objectives and remaining units disperse to defend themselves and the objective, prepare to continue the attack, and block enemy avenues of approach, if required. Ground mobile or air assault units maintain contact with the enemy, keep the enemy off balance, and obtain information.
Continuing the attack or exploitation must be an integral part of the attack plan. The commander's intent includes the disposition of the force as part of his end state. Immediate reorganization of the force is necessary to maintain momentum and prepare for the next phase.
Continuing the attack frequently depends on the ability to resupply attacking forces. Large quantities of ammunition, POL, and equipment expended during the attack must be replenished. Provisions for this logistic support are an integral part of the attack plan. During continuous day and night operations, leading elements of the brigade are rotated to provide time for rearm and refit operations.
The commander must anticipate halts and prepare orders to include the time or circumstances of the halt, missions and locations of subordinate units, and command and control measures. To prevent congestion, some units may be diverted into defensive positions before the halt of the entire brigade.
Feint
A feint is a limited objective attack; it is a show of force intended to deceive the enemy and draw attention and (if possible) combat power away from a main attack. Feints must be of sufficient strength and composition to cause the desired enemy reaction. Feints must appear real; therefore, some contact with the enemy is required. The feint is most effective when it reinforces the enemys expectations, when it appears as a definite threat to the enemy, when the enemy has a large reserve that has been consistently committed early, or when there are several feasible COAs open to the attacker. Some of the desired reactions are to force the enemy into improper employment of its reserves, attract enemy supporting fires away from the main attack, force the enemy to reveal defensive fires, or accustom the enemy to shallow attacks in order to gain surprise with a deep main attack. Normally, the brigade executes a feint as part of a corps or division attack plan. Planning for a feint follows the same sequence as any other offensive operation.
Raid
A raid is usually a small-scale offensive tactical operation. It is based on detailed intelligence, involves swift movement into hostile territory, and ends with a planned withdrawal. Typical raiding missions are
- Capture prisoners, installations, or enemy materiel.
- Destroy enemy materiel or installations.
- Obtain specific information of a hostile unit such as its location, disposition, strength, or operating scheme.
- Deceive or harass enemy forces.
- Liberate friendly, captured personnel.
The raid operation is appropriate to the brigade because of its capabilities for shock, speed, mobility, and firepower. Normally, raids are so short in time and distance that only a limited amount of supplies can be carried on the combat vehicles. Maintenance support is confined to the crews ability to make minor repairs.
FS systems are positioned during a raid to support the attacking force throughout the operation. HPTs are attacked to provide the maximum shock effect on the enemys force. Interdiction fires, counterfires, and FASCAM are delivered to reduce the enemys ability to react to the raid.
After reaching the objective and accomplishing the mission, the raiding force can anticipate vigorous enemy reaction in the area through which they have passed. For this reason, the withdrawal of the raiding force is usually over alternate routes. Brigade forces should avoid main LOCs and should consider using routes for attack and withdrawal that are not usually considered feasible for mechanized movement.
Once the brigade raid objective has been achieved, no time is wasted in returning to friendly territory. The longer the withdrawal is delayed, the greater the chance the enemy has of defeating the raiding force. In this phase of the raid, the operation corresponds to techniques used during linkup.
When Army aviation assault and attack helicopter assets are available, an aerial raid may be conducted with dismounted infantry to quickly move behind enemy lines, perform the required mission, and return.
Demonstration
A demonstration is an attack or show of force in an area where a decision is not being sought. It is made with the intention of deceiving the enemy; however, no contact with enemy forces is made. Demonstration forces use fires, movement of maneuver forces, smoke, EW assets, and communication equipment to support the deception plan to include firing false artillery preparations and delivering fires comparable to a thrust forward in a deliberate attack.
EXPLOITATION
Exploitation is an offensive operation that follows a successful attack to take advantage of weakened or collapsed enemy defenses. Its purpose is to prevent reconstitution of enemy defenses, prevent enemy withdrawal, secure deep objectives, and destroy command and control facilities and enemy forces. During the exploitation, the brigade advances on a wide front (if the terrain and road net permit), retaining only those reserves necessary to ensure flexibility, momentum, and security. The exploitation is initiated when an enemy force is having recognizable difficulty in maintaining its position. Although local exploitations may appear insignificant, their cumulative effects can be decisive.
Depending on the situation and its task organization, the brigade can exploit its own success; it can be used as an exploiting force for a higher echelon; or it can follow and support another exploiting force. The heavy brigades inherent mobility, firepower, and shock effect make it an ideal exploiting force. Exploiting forces can have the mission of securing objectives deep into the enemys rear, cutting LOCs, surrounding and destroying enemy forces, denying escape routes to an encircled force, and destroying enemy reserves.
Preparation for the exploitation entails planning, issuing WOs, grouping of exploiting forces, planning for CSS, and establishing communications. The commander must be ready at all times to use every opportunity afforded by the enemy for exploitation. Exploitation opportunities are indicated by an increase in prisoners captured; an increase in abandoned materiel; and the overrunning of artillery, command facilities, signal installations, and supply dumps. The transition from the deliberate attack to the exploitation may be so gradual that it is hardly distinguishable, or it may be abrupt. The abrupt transition occurs most frequently when nuclear or chemical munitions are used. After transition to the exploitation, every effort is made to continue the advance without halting, bypass enemy resistance when possible, and use available FS to the maximum when appropriate targets are presented. FS target acquisition systems and observers are positioned well forward with lead elements.
Once the exploitation begins, it is carried out to the final objective. The enemy should be given no relief from offensive pressure. Enemy troops encountered are not engaged unless they are a threat to the brigade or cannot be bypassed. The decision to bypass or engage these enemy forces rests with the next higher commander. Normally, freedom of action is delegated to commanders in the exploitation. The leading elements of the brigade habitually attack from march column to reduce roadblocks and small pockets of resistance and to perform the reconnaissance necessary to develop the situation.
Follow-and-support units clear the bypassed areas and expand the zone of exploitation. Follow-and-support units are assigned missions to assist exploiting forces by relieving them of tasks that would slow their advance (such as preventing the enemy from closing the gap in a penetration and securing key terrain gained during a penetration or envelopment). Follow-and-support forces are allocated FS as the situation dictates. As the exploiting brigade advances farther into the enemys rear areas, the follow-and-support units secure lines of communication and supply, support the exploiting elements of the brigade, destroy pockets of bypassed enemy, and expand the area of exploitation from the brigade axis.
Follow-and-support units relieve brigade elements blocking or containing enemy pockets, or protecting areas or installations, thereby enabling these elements to rejoin the exploiting force. Liaison must be maintained between lead units and follow-and-support units to facilitate coordination.
Decentralized execution is characteristic of the exploitation; however, the commander maintains enough control to prevent overextension of the command. Minimum control measures are used. CSS operations are normally centralized.
Reconnaissance systems maintain contact with enemy movements and keep the commander advised of enemy activities. CAS aircraft, deep FA fires, and attack helicopters attack moving enemy reserves, withdrawing enemy columns, and enemy constrictions at choke points. CAS, FA, and attack helicopters may also be used against enemy forces that threaten the flanks of the exploiting force.
Petroleum consumption rates are high; therefore, provision for rapid resupply is essential. Since forward elements may be operating to the rear of bypassed enemy forces, security of ground supply columns must be considered. Aerial resupply may be necessary. Exploiting forces take advantage of captured supplies whenever possible.
In the exploitation, the attacker seeks to follow up the gains of a successful penetration. The attacker drives deep into the enemys rear to destroy his means to reconstitute an organized defense or to initiate an orderly withdrawal.
PURSUIT
The pursuit normally follows a successful exploitation. The primary function of pursuit is to complete the destruction of the enemy force. As a successful exploitation develops and the enemy begins to lose the ability to influence the situation, the brigade may be ordered to execute the pursuit. Unlike exploitation, in which the attacking force avoids enemy units in order to destroy their support system, in the pursuit the brigade may point its advance toward a physical objective; however, the mission is the destruction of the enemys main force.
Friendly forces in the exploitation are alert for indicators of an enemy collapse that would permit a pursuit operation. There are several indicators of a weakening enemy:
- Continued advance without strong enemy reaction.
- An increased number of captured prisoners, abandoned weapons, and unburied dead.
- A lessening of hostile artillery fire.
- A lack of enemy countermeasures.
The pursuit is ordered when the enemy can no longer maintain its position and tries to escape. The commander exerts unrelenting pressure to keep the enemy from reorganizing and preparing its defenses. The brigade may conduct a pursuit operation as part of a corps or division pursuit, functioning as either the direct-pressure or encircling force.
SECTION III. BRIGADE AS A COVERING FORCE
A covering force is a tactically self-contained security force that operates a considerable distance to the front or rear of a moving or stationary force. Its mission is to develop the situation early; defeat hostile forces (if possible); and deceive, delay, and disorganize enemy forces until the main force can cope with the situation.
The brigade may participate in a covering force mission as part of a division that is in turn the covering force for a corps, or as a complete covering force for a division or corps. Because the brigade as a covering force is operating on a broad front, a well-prepared, coordinated plan is required. The plan must reflect centralized, coordinated planning and decentralized execution. Control measures governing the rate and direction of movement are specified. The rate of movement is controlled by successive march objectives, checkpoints, and PLs. The axis of advance or withdrawal is controlled by establishing boundaries between battalion task forces. Army aircraft may be used to provide auxiliary communication, liaison, and other controls between commands.
As a covering force, the brigade will normally operate forward and without the support of the divisions main body. The brigade may have up to three or more task forces abreast operating in task force zones keyed on high-speed routes. Tank-heavy battalion task forces usually lead the advance. Engineers are kept well forward with the task forces. When the brigade conducts a covering force operation, supporting CS and CSS assets are attached to preserve unity of command. Small tank-heavy reserves may be maintained at both battalion and brigade level to influence local actions.
Covering force actions are characterized by speed and aggressiveness (especially in reconnaissance) by developing situations rapidly with strength, by unhesitating commitment of reserves, and by keeping the enemy off balance. The brigade concentrates its attention against enemy forces that are of sufficient size to threaten the main force. Minor resistance is bypassed. Every action is directed toward ensuring the uninterrupted advance of the main body.
Tailored, mobile, high-demand CSS is moved forward with the brigade. Limited Classes III and V supplies and medical triage and evacuation assets move with and are provided march security by the reserve battalion of the brigade.
PLANNING
The commander plans for the operation by task organizing his forces to suit the mission. In this example, he commands an element consisting of the divisional cavalry squadron, an armored and mechanized infantry battalion, and a DS artillery battalion. Knowing that the cavalry squadron operates in zones, essentially with a ground and an air troop working together in each one, the commander designates a task force to follow and support in each zone. He task organizes the battalions so that each task force is able to respond to a variety of threats, generally 2 x armor and 2 x mechanized, with the mechanized task force retaining the ITV company (in an M113-equipped mechanized battalion). The artillery trails, yet remains within the body of the formation.
Based on the commander's bypass criteria, the mission of the covering force is to identify and destroy those enemy elements that can influence the divisions maneuver. In effect, the cavalry troops and the battalion task forces become "hunter/killer" teams. However, some enemy forward detachment positions may be too strong for the covering force battalions. When this occurs, the covering force commander must attempt to find a bypass route that cannot be observed or influenced by a forward detachment. He should also fix the position with indirect fire and, if available, Army aviation or CAS assets.
PREPARATION
The brigade commander conducts a rehearsal following the issuance of the OPORD to confirm that each subordinate commander understands his mission within the context of the intent. In particular, the commander reviews actions on contact and the bypass criteria. Commanders must overcome the temptation to focus on each enemy element that attempts to engage the force, but at the same time, they must clear the axis of enemy elements that may significantly impair the movement of the main body. It is the responsibility of the brigade commander to exercise this decision making during the rehearsal and to ensure that the subordinate commanders operate as a team.
The commander observes the rehearsal and provides comments when appropriate. Generally, however, he allows his subordinate commanders to demonstrate their knowledge of the plan and their decision making within the context of the commander's guidance. For his part, the commander practices his use of the DST in an effort to anticipate likely enemy actions. Once he has made a decision, he then rehearses synchronizing his resources to achieve the greatest effect. The commander must resist making changes. Normally, there will not be enough time to coordinate a change in the operation throughout the entire force. Subordinate commanders will already have prepared (and probably issued) their OPORDs. At this point in the process, changes will only increase the confusion that always exists in combat. The commander must continually weigh the amount of combat power he is willing to commit to an area against his overall mission to guard the division main body. Moreover, he must identify the conditions under which he would no longer be able to effectively operate as the covering force, such as increasing strength of the enemy defense, his own attrition, or a combination of the two. The impact of having a covering force become ineffective prior to reaching the enemys main defensive belt is that the attacking force would have to commit prematurely, arriving at the objective area at less than the desired combat strength. Ultimately, this could be the difference between success and failure.
EXECUTION
As the brigade advances along the division axis of advance, enemy units are identified by the divisional cavalry squadron. This information is passed to the battalion task forces, which in turn maneuver against the enemy position. In execution, the cavalry troop hands over the enemy to the scout platoon of the following task force. Elements of the air troop may continue to observe the enemy until the arrival of the task force. The cavalry and scout platoons should have gathered enough information about the enemy position so that, upon arrival, the task force can be directed into the assault. This hasty attack should be supported with an appropriate level of CS to ensure success; otherwise, the operation could develop into a deliberate attack and consequently slow the covering force operation significantly.
Weak enemy elements are handed over to the advance guard battalions or brigade main body for destruction. Conversely, those enemy positions that the covering force clearly cannot destroy are maintained under observation by reconnaissance elements; a bypass route is selected around the area, out of direct fire and observation. All information concerning the enemy position is relayed to the division commander, who must then decide to continue to bypass or destroy the position.
As the covering force nears the enemy force, the cavalry squadron probes to confirm possible weaknesses in the enemys array. The task forces adopt a hasty defense that maintains the shoulders of the division penetration and also supports the attack of the main body elements. The cavalry screens farther forward of the hasty defending battalions to provide flank security, or it may continue to infiltrate depending on the division commander's concept of the operation. At this point, the covering force operation ceases, and the brigade commander awaits further instructions or possible task organization changes.
One of the commander's greatest challenges is the control of the two task forces when one is in contact conducting a hasty attack and the other is continuing to move. The commander must stay abreast of the location and situation of the task force in the other zone. He must also guard against focusing too much attention on the action in his own zone. The maintenance of a consistent rate of march through the use of PLs, and the continual adjustment to the speed of each task force in its zone, are essential to a unified action across a broad front.
SECTION IV. COMBINED ARMS BREACHING OPERATIONS
BREACHING TENETS
Commanders and staffs plan breaching operations as a part of all offensive missions. Successful combined arms breaching is a function of applying the four tenets of breaching. The tenets are:
- Intelligence.
- Breaching fundamentals and organization.
- Mass.
- Synchronization.
See FM 90-13-1 for additional information on breaching operations.
Intelligence
In any operation where enemy obstacles can interfere with friendly maneuver, obstacle intelligence becomes a PIR. Finding enemy obstacles or seeing enemy obstacle activity validates and refines the S2s picture of the battlefield. Obstacle intelligence does several things:
- Supports the situation template.
- Helps determine enemy intentions as well as the strength of his defenses.
- Focuses intelligence-gathering assets.
- Drives breach/maneuver planning.
Breaching Fundamentals
Suppress, obscure, secure, and reduce (SOSR) are breaching fundamentals. These fundamentals apply to all types of breaching operations (in-stride, deliberate, assault, and covert) with some variations based on the situation.
Suppress
Suppression is the mission-critical task for breaching operations. Direct and indirect fires serve to isolate the breach site/point of penetration and protect forces reducing and maneuvering through the obstacle.
Obscure
Effective emplacement of smoke degrades enemy observation and target acquisition and conceals friendly activities and movement.
Secure
The force secures the breaching operation site to prevent the enemy from interfering with obstacle reduction and passage of the assault forces. Security by fire or force depends on the enemy situation. The security force secures the breach site by suppressing outposts and fighting positions near the obstacle, and against overwatching and counterattacking forces.
Reduce
Reduction means creating lanes through the obstacle to allow the attacking force to pass. The actual breaching of obstacles is a major part of actions on the objective. The number and width of lanes varies with the situation and type of breaching operation. Reduction cannot be accomplished until the other SOSR fundamentals are applied.
Breaching Organization
The commander organizes the forces to accomplish SOSR. This requires him to organize support, breach, and assault forces with the necessary assets to accomplish their roles.
Support Force
The support forces primary responsibility is to eliminate the enemys ability to interfere with the breaching operation. It must:
- Isolate the battlefield with fires and suppress enemy fires covering the obstacle.
- Mass direct and indirect fires to fix the enemy in position and to destroy any weapons that are able to bring fires on the breaching force.
- Control obscuring smoke to hinder enemy-observed direct and indirect fires.
Suppression is critical for a successful breach. The first priority of force allocation is the support force. The commander allocates direct and indirect-fire systems to achieve the support force ratio of 3 to 1 for a deliberate breach.
Breach Force
The breach force is a combined arms force. Its primary mission is to create the lanes that enable the attacking force to pass through the obstacle and continue the attack. It includes engineers, breaching assets, and a maneuver element capable of providing internal SOSR operations. The breach force commander can be the engineer commander or any subordinate commander working for the brigade commander in a command relationship.
The commander allocates engineer platoons and equipment based on the number of lanes required. The breach force must be capable of creating a minimum of one lane for each assaulting company or two lanes for an assaulting task force. The commander should expect a 50 percent loss of mobility assets in close combat. Therefore, breaching a lane in close combat requires at least an engineer platoon in the breach force.
Assault Force
The assault forces primary mission is to destroy or dislodge the enemy on the far side of the obstacle. It secures the far side by physical occupation in most deliberate or light-force breaching operations. The assault force may be tasked to assist the support force with suppression while the breach force reduces the obstacle.
If the obstacle is defended by a small force, the assault force mission may be combined with the breach force mission. This simplifies command and control and provides more immediate combat power for security and suppression. Combat power is allocated to the assault force to achieve a 3 to 1 ratio on the assault objective.
Mass
Combined arms breaching is conducted by rapidly applying combat power to reduce the obstacle and rupture the defense.
Table 4-1. Types of breaching operations versus enemy size.
|Maneuver Unit||Instride||Deliberate||Assault||Covert||Enemy Size|
Overwatching Obstacles
|Brigade||
|
X
X
|X
|
*
|X||X||Battalion|
Company
Platoon
|Task Force||
|
X
|
|
X
*
|
|
X
|
|
X
X
|Battalion|
Company
Platoon
|Company||
|
X
|
|
X
|
|
X
X
|Battalion|
Company
Platoon
|X - Type of breach normally
conducted|
* - Possible variation depending on scheme of maneuver
Massed combat power is directed against an enemy weakness. The location selected for breaching depends largely on a weakness in the enemy defense where its covering fires are minimized. If the attacker cannot find a natural weakness, he creates one by fixing the majority of the defending force and isolating a small part of it for attack.
The need to generate enough mass strongly influences which echelon can conduct a breaching operation (see Table 4-1). A company team generally cannot simultaneously mass sufficient fires, breach the obstacle, and also assault the defending position unless it is a simple obstacle defended by no more than a squad. A task force has sufficient combat power to attack an obstacle defended by a company and is normally the echelon used to execute the breach.
The brigade has sufficient combat power to attack a complex and well-defended obstacle but has difficulty deploying all its combat power within range. Normally, the brigade breaches by isolating a small segment of the defense (platoon or company) that a task force can then attack as the breaching echelon. If the obstacle and defense are in-depth (large scale), brigades would normally receive additional support (such as artillery, engineer, aviation) from division for large-scale breaching operations. A large-scale breach is defined as a deliberate operation conducted by brigades and divisions to create a penetration through well-prepared defenses so that follow-on brigades and divisions can pass through them.
The commander also masses his engineers and breaching equipment to reduce the obstacle. The breach force is organized and equipped to use several different reduction techniques in case the primary technique fails (a key breaching asset is destroyed or casualties render dismounted engineers ineffective). Additional breaching assets are available to handle the unexpected. Normally, 50 percent more than required are positioned with the breach force.
Synchronization
Breaching operations require precise synchronization of SOSR by support, breach, and assault forces (see Table 4-2). The commander ensures synchronization through proper planning and force preparation. Fundamentals to achieve synchronization are:
- Detailed reverse planning.
- Clear subunit instructions.
- Effective command and control.
- A well-rehearsed force.
Synchronizing the combined arms breach begins by using the reverse planning process to ensure actions at obstacles support actions on the objective. Planning a breach without regard to actions on the objective leads to disaster. The commander first decides how he must attack an objective to accomplish his mission. This decision drives where, how, and with what force he must support, breach, and assault through the enemys obstacles and take the objective.
Table 4-2. Breach complexity.
|ACTION||ELEMENT||TIME
|
(MINUTES)
|CONTROLLED|
BY
|Develop situation (verifying boundary of enemy obstacles system)||Force in contact||M to 2||S3|
|Maneuver support force into overwatch position||Support||M+2 to 15||Support Cdr|
|Maneuver assault force into covered assault position||Assault||M+2 to 15||Assault Cdr|
|Call for artillery||DS artillery||M+2 to 15||FSO|
|Build smoke||Mortars||M+5 to 10||FSO|
|Suppress enemy with direct fires||Support||M+15 to 29||Support Cdr|
|Suppress enemy with artillery fires||DS artillery||M+10 to 29||FSO|
|Maintain smoke||DS artillery/mortars||M+10 to 30||FSO|
|Maneuver breach force to breach location||Breach||M+20 to 23||Breach Cdr|
|Reduce obstacle
|
Prepare two lanes
|Breach||M+23 to 30||Engineer Leader|
|Place smoke pots||Breach||M+23 to EOM||Breach Cdr|
|Shift direct fires off of OBJ||Support||M+29 to 30||Assault Cdr|
|Shift indirect fires beyond OBJ||DS artillery||M+29 to 30||Assault Cdr|
|Assault to destroy enemy on far side of obstacle||Assault||M+30 to 45||Assault Cdr|
|Reorganize to continue mission||TF||M+45 to EOM||S3|
|M = contact with obstacle|
The most effective synchronization tool available to the commander is the rehearsal. The inherent complexity of a breaching operation makes rehearsals at every level essential to success. The commander must afford his subordinates the time to plan how they will execute their assigned missions and to rehearse that plan with their unit. Breaching operations are a part of every rehearsal.
TYPES OF BREACHING OPERATIONS
In-Stride
In-stride breaching is a very rapid technique using standard actions on contact and normal movement techniques. It consists of preplanned, well-trained, well-rehearsed breaching actions and reduction procedures by predesignated combined arms elements. The force uses the in-stride breach against either weak defenders or very simple obstacles and executes it from the march. Subordinate forces always move configured to execute an in-stride breach with organic and task organized engineer assets. A brigade in-stride breach is a deliberate breach for a task force.
Deliberate Breach
The maneuver force attacks a stronger defense or more complex obstacle system with a deliberate breach. It is similar to a deliberate attack, requiring detailed knowledge of both the defense and the obstacle system. Units conduct a deliberate breaching operation when:
- The unit fails an attempted in-stride breach of enemy tactical obstacles.
- Force ratios indicate that a confirmed enemy situation is beyond the capabilities of a subordinate unit.
A brigade conducts a deliberate breach using one or more task forces in support, breach, and assault roles. Breach task organization considerations and application of SOSR breaching fundamentals are the same as for the task force deliberate breach. The brigade scheme of maneuver must address how task forces maneuver to accomplish their support, breach, and assault missions. Since the brigade deliberate breach involves the maneuver of task forces, the brigade commander and staff are responsible for detailed planning, centralized rehearsals, and synchronization.
Assault
The maneuver force uses an assault breach to break a dismounted force through enemy protective obstacles onto the enemy position. Depending on the size and difficulty of the defensive obstacle system, this breaching procedure can be a variation of either deliberate or in-stride breaching techniques.
Covert
Light and dismounted forces use covert breaching operations to pass secretly through obstacles. The covert breach also uses elements of the deliberate or in-stride breach. Surprise is the primary consideration that drives the commander to a covert breach. Covert breaching centers around using stealth to reduce the obstacle with support and assault forces executing their mission only if reduction is detected.
A brigade with automated capabilities can conduct deliberate and in-stride breaching operations with greater speed and precision than a conventional unit. Rehearsals are still key, because breach operations are complex, yet the entire breaching operation can be conducted with greater confidence of success; this includes during periods of limited visibility. Units designated to conduct reconnaissance for the breach force unit can transmit accurate bypass information to the brigade with waypoints. This keeps units from blundering into the obstacle and allows for rapid passage through the obstacle system. Accurate and timely information on enemy and friendly forces allows the brigade to disperse, provide accurate direct and indirect fires on the enemy, and aggressively move to continue attacking the enemy. The brigade uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), scouts, and other observation systems to accurately locate deep enemy targets (artillery, logistics) and attacks them prior to the assault forces arrival.
SECTION V. NIGHT OFFENSIVE DOCTRINE
Night offensive operations are conducted to exploit the possibilities for security and surprise or to continue combat operations. By conducting night operations the commander expects to conceal his action from the enemy, achieve surprise, exploit earlier success, or maintain the momentum. In each case, the focus is gaining or retaining the initiative.
Note. All limited visibility operations require more detailed planning, rehearsals, and graphic control measures.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Advantages
Advantages of night offensive operations include:
- Defenses are more susceptible to infiltration.
- Despite increased efforts at protection, the defender is more susceptible to NBC attack because of reduced efficiency and sleep rotations.
- Movement of large forces is concealed by darkness.
- Physical and psychological factors favor the attacker. Shock, disorientation, and isolation are more easily achieved.
- Air assets can operate more safely due to difficult observation.
- Surprise is enhanced. Defenders are more susceptible to deception techniques (dummy lights, noise, smoke, and fires).
- The speed at which a defender can employ his reserves is reduced at night. DPs must be farther out in time and space.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages of night offensive operations include:
- Command and control and coordination of units become more difficult, and it is easier for the defender to react to a changing situation and alter operations than it is for the attacker.
- It is difficult for the attacker to determine the limits of obstacles.
- Attackers can be deceived with light, smoke, noise, and fires.
- The attacker can lose momentum during the final assault because of the reduced speed of the attack.
- Navigation is difficult for night attacks. Units may be separated, command and control lost within units, and support elements moved out of position.
- The battlefield can be changed during darkness. Obstacles that escape reconnaissance can be emplaced under darkness.
- Adjustment of indirect fire is difficult, even with the use of night-vision devices (NVD) or illumination.
- Units require significantly larger quantities of signal ammunition (smoke, tracers, flares, and illumination rounds).
- Locating and evacuating casualties is very difficult.
- Use of FA illumination can render the artillery vulnerable to counterfire.
- Muzzle flash from the artillery guns can be detected easily.
TACTICAL PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS
The following is a list of tactical planning considerations, by BOS, that are different for a night offensive operation when compared to a daylight offensive.
Intelligence
Reconnaissance of the enemy should not be confused with reconnaissance of the routes to the objective. Units should reconnoiter their routes and rehearse if possible. Reconnaissance assets may be tasked to provide guides to a point on the battlefield, but are best used to pinpoint enemy fortifications. Reconnaissance of night objectives should include:
- Presence and number of searchlights and NVDs.
- Location of illumination points.
- "Duty" positions, that is, those that are continuously manned. These may also be false positions for daylight occupation only.
- Locations of AT weapons and FA guns.
- Forward locations of the reserve, command and OP positions, and counterattack routes.
Maneuver
The forms of maneuver for the night offense are the same as for the daylight offense; however, conditions of METT-T may change the commander's perception of which form of maneuver best ensures mission accomplishment. Some additional planning considerations for night maneuver are:
- If attacking an enemy that has technological parity in night observation equipment and training or has the means to fully illuminate the battlefield, the envelopment or the turning movement can take advantage of darkness to flank or avoid enemy fields of fire, since not all areas of the defense will have equal coverage of night-vision equipment.
- Conversely, if the attacker has the advantage in night observation technology or is better trained than the defender, darkness may be used to conduct a penetration, infiltration, or frontal attack that may not have been feasible in daylight.
Unit reconnaissance of routes and axes is invaluable in conducting a night maneuver. Plans for night movement should include:
- Leader reconnaissance, in daylight, as far forward as possible.
- Measuring distances to check-points, PLs, and other control measures along the route of advance.
- Designation of guides for the combat formations.
Fire Support
The adjustment of indirect fire by human observation becomes degraded at night. Darkness and the use of NVDs both degrade depth perception. To counter these effects, plans should include the use of radar, illumination, and terminally guided munitions to ensure accuracy of adjustments. Each fire support team vehicle (FISTV) has a ground/vehicle laser locator/designator (G/VLLD) that can be dismounted to provide increased observation capability. The following considerations apply when conducting night attacks:
- Plan for illumination. A nonilluminated attack plan ceases to be one with the first enemy illumination round. Contingency plans should be made to illuminate at any point of the attack or to switch to continuous illumination.
- Plan counter observation to degrade night observation devices (NOD). Illumination rounds can white out enemy image intensification sights, and smoke can obscure the ambient light needed to use intensification devices.
- Initiate and cancel fires for prearranged handheld illumination.
- Place fire support coordination measures (FSCM) on identifiable terrain. Permissive measures should be as close as possible in front of friendly forces.
- Exercise caution when using FASCAM at night because it is difficult to see.
- Mark targets for ground burst illumination for ground forces as well as for CAS.
If possible, register as many targets as possible during daylight.
Mobility and Survivability
The process of planning and preparing combined arms breaching during hours of darkness is the same as during daylight. The only difference is the inherent command and control difficulties experienced when conducting night operations. The tenets of combined arms breaching are planned and the operation wargamed and synchronized. Special considerations for breaching at night include:
- Covert breaching. Consideration must be given to decreasing the signature of firing demolitions.
- Additional time required to position forces and conduct the breaching operations.
- Control measures for moving and positioning forces.
- Night marking devices (far recognition, final approach, and lanes).
- Fire control measures.
- Rehearsals (night).
Air Defense
At night, identification, friend, or foe (IFF) relies mostly on electronic interrogation. Visual detection capability depends on the ambient light available.
Forward area air defense (FAAD) has immense signatures; it should not be positioned where it brings return fire onto adjacent units.
Combined arms for air defense should not normally be employed at night, except for immediate self-defense.
Combat Service Support
Units in a night offensive must be resupplied, rearmed, and refueled before execution. Logistics activity is much tougher at night.
Casualty location, identification, and evacuation require additional control measures and ground resources. The battalion aid station should be farther forward, and plans for aeromedical evacuation must include marking signals for the pickup zones.
Pre-positioning supplies and services forward helps support night attacks. OPSEC must be maintained so that an imminent offense is not detected.
CSS should be brought forward rapidly at first light to allow the momentum of the offense to continue.
Command and Control
This is the area of tactical planning that changes most during night offensive operations. That is because centralized control can simplify synchronization of the plan in this instance.
Graphic control measures are usually more restrictive for a night attack. There are graphic control measures that apply specifically to limited visibility, point of departure, and probable line of deployment (see FM 101-5-1). All leaders must be familiar with these terms and symbols. All control measures should translate into easily identifiable locations on the ground, under all levels of visibility.
Navigation at night must be planned in greater detail and take advantage of visual and nonvisual technological capabilities. It may also include the use of guides and traffic control points.
Communications must also be planned in greater detail. Plan redundant means of communication. Place particular emphasis on COLT, scout, and FS links. Specify communications events in the synchronization matrix and plan event triggers. Pre-position single vehicles forward to act as manual radio relays to back up retransmission failure. Link vulnerable communication teams with scouts and MPs for force protection.
Scout and other reconnaissance elements such as COLTs, ADA scouts, MPs, or engineer scouts require highly detailed signal support and extensive back-up. Reconnaissance elements operating well forward at night should not plan operations beyond their communications ranges. This is even more true during air insertions and dismounted/light scout operations.
Forward to
Chapter 5.
Return to Chapter 3.
Return to the Table of Contents. | https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/71-3/f377ch4.htm |
The course consists of two parts: 1) Cognitive ergonomics: the modules aims at providing a theoretical base on the cognitive aspects of interaction design as well as the methods and techniques derived from cognitive models of interaction; 2) Partecipatory design: the module aims at providing a theoretical framework and empirical experience of Participatory Design, including planning a PD project, running it, communicating the results.
|12|
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Social interaction
Building on the basic concepts of social cognition, the current course aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the emotions, attitudes and behaviors that products and their interfaces can elicit on the self, and how they can impact interpersonal and intergroup interactions in different cultures.
|6|
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Visual brain and design
The course's objective is to provide the basis for understanding the relationships between structure and function/mind and brain with particular emphasis to the neural mechanisms underlying visual and multisensory perception, and attention. These processes will be explored through the study of cognitive neuroscience paradigms, and discussed in the framework of visual design and human-computer interaction.
|6|
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|
Research methodology – quantitative
The course covers some basic/intermediate statistical and computational analyses for conducting empirical quantitative research. The statistics introduced will serve to explore quantitative data and organize data for statistical analysis and modeling. The statistical procedures will be illustrated using the R statistical package. Topics in the course will include: experimental design, questionnaires and surveys (both paper and pencil format and online format), social network analysis, and inferential statistics including generalized linear mixed models.
|6|
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|
Research methodology – qualitative
The course intend to analyze the theoretical and methodological framework of the qualitative research and to teach how to use the main qualitative methods and tools.
|6|
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Design epistemology and ethics
Students will be provided with solid theoretic-philosophical tools to understand the role that emotions play in interpreting verbal and non-verbal messages (i.e. whether they are assessed positively or negatively and are considered to be plausible). Students will acquire theoretical knowledge about the role emotions play in persuasive communication, in moral judgments, in situations that can potentially trigger empathic processes and, more generally, in the assessment of/reactions to various kinds of messages. At the end of the course, students will be able to recognize various kinds of persuasive messages; to identify what principles underpin various persuasive strategies and how these are based on moral judgments, emphatic mechanisms and other kinds of emotional reactions; what emotions are involved and how these can influence our understanding of the message.
|6|
|Courses||Credits (ECTS)|
|6 credits to be chosen from|
|
|
Bridging HCI to Psychology
The course objective is to provide a common perspective on HCI terminology and approaches and an historical perspective on the disciple specifically on its relation and historical evolution with cognitive psychology. Students will acquire theoretical knowledge about the role cognition plays in interacting with digital technologies and the importance of the recent advances in neuroscience for the future of HCI.
|6|
|
|
Bridging HCI to Computer Science
The course objective is to provide a common perspective on HCI terminology and approaches and an historical perspective on the disciple specifically on its relation and historical evolution with computer science. Students will acquire theoretical knowledge on the major technical patterns of digital interactive infrastructure and a working knowledge on computational thinking.
|6|
|Courses||Credits (ECTS)|
|
|
Affective computing
This class explores computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion. The aim is to identify the important research issues, and to ascertain potentially fruitful future research directions in relation to the multimodal emotion analysis and to human-computer interaction. In particular, the course will introduce key concepts, discuss technical approaches, and open issues in the following areas: interaction of emotion with cognition and perception; the role of emotion in human-computer interaction; the communication of human emotion via face, voice, physiology, and behavior; construction of computers that have skills of emotional intelligence; the development of computers that "have" emotion; and other areas of current research interest.
|6|
|
|
Prototyping interactive systems
The course covers methodologies for designing and prototyping graphic user interfaces. Principles of design research and visual communication are presented in the context of interaction design, cognition and user behavior.
|6|
|
|
Internship
|18|
|
|
Final Exam
|18|
|Courses||Credits (ECTS)|
|6 credits to be chosen from|
|
|
Cognitive Neuroscience and Neurotechnology
The course analyzes how interactive technologies may benefit from careful consideration of cognitive and brain processes. Specific emphasis will be devoted to the the application of such knowledge to implement technological devices to help individuals suffering from psychological and neurological problems.
|6|
|
|
Nonverbal behavior and interaction
Nonverbal behaviors such as facial expressions, body movements and touch may communicate interpersonal attitudes, social relations, affective states, or personality traits to the interaction partners (being humans or artificial agents). This course focuses on analysis and generation of nonverbal behaviors. During the course students will learn basic concepts of social psychology and psychology of emotions, and how these concepts can be modeled with the recent AI techniques (e.g., machine learning). This includes automatic recognition and classification of humans’ internal states from nonverbal behaviors, as well as modelling and synthesis of nonverbal behaviors for the purpose of human-artificial agent (e.g., intelligent virtual agent) interaction.
|6|
|
|
Visual design
The course covers principles of visual design that will allow for efficient organization and presentation of information using technological interfaces. Topics will include typography, information architecture, layout, color, and design principles with specific reference to mobile devices.
|6|
|6 credits to be chosen from|
|
|
Educational technology
This course focuses on the theory and the practice of the design of Interactive applications for human use in reali life contexts. The theme of the course may range from e-learning, to mobile computing, game design, or e-health. The objective of the course is to develop an awareness of the theoretical and practical assumptions a designer needs to make in order to develop useful, usable and engaging application for real life use.
|6|
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Multisensory interactive systems
This course introduces new paradigms of interaction beyond graphical users interfaces and in particular multisensory, physical and tangible interactions. In particular it aims at providing students with an understanding of concepts and techniques for designing usable and engaging interactive systems within these paradigms including the introduction of a tools for building prototypes.
|6|
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Design for Social inclusion
The course will explore the interaction and institutional conditions for the design of physical, technological and organizational devices able to provide greater chances of inclusion of disadvantaged groups. | https://offertaformativa.unitn.it/en/lm/human-computer-interaction/course-content |
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present application claims priority to an application entitled “MOBILE TERMINAL AWARE OF EXTERNAL DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE SAME” filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Oct. 15, 2007 and assigned Serial No. 2007-0103687, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates generally to a mobile terminal and, more particularly, to a mobile terminal that is aware of external devices and control method for the same wherein the mobile terminal automatically switches between a charge mode and communication mode according to the type of a connected external device.
Modern mobile terminals have been widely utilized in various fields because of high portability, large storage capacity for various application programs, and high usability. In particular, mobile communication terminals enabling voice communication while in motion have won over numerous users or subscribers.
Early mobile terminals had sizes bulky enough to stabilize their batteries and other components, and were inconvenient for users to carry and were portable only in name. However, recent advances in components and batteries have made it possible to develop light, small and thin mobile terminals.
For charging, a cable can be provided to connect a charger and a mobile terminal together, and a connector interface can be provided on the mobile terminal for cable connection. The connector interface can be used both as a path connecting to the charger and as a path supporting universal serial bus (USB) communication.
Whereas the number of pins in a connector of a mobile terminal is fixed, the number of external devices connectable to the connector gradually increases. Hence, the connector pins of the mobile terminal may have to be shared among different external devices. In view of the fact that different external devices require the mobile terminal to operate differently, the sharing of connector pins may cause severe damage to the control circuit of the mobile terminal or to the external devices. Thus, it is necessary to provide a mobile terminal with a method and apparatus that can adaptably control a connected external device according to the type of the external device.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary object to provide a mobile terminal and control method for the same that can adaptably control a connected external device according to the type of the external device.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a mobile terminal, including: checking for an attachment of an external device; sending, when an external device is attached, a dummy data to the external device; checking for a presence of a response associated with the dummy data from the external device; determining a type of the external device on the basis of the presence of a response; and activating one of a charge mode and a communication mode according to the type of the external device.
In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a mobile terminal, including: checking for an attachment of an external device; sending, when an external device is attached, a signal of a first phase through one of a first signal line and second signal line connected to the external device; sensing a second phase of a signal on the other signal line; comparing the first phase with the second phase; determining a type of the external device according to an equality between the first phase and second phase; and activating one of a charge mode and a communication mode according to the type of the external device.
In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a mobile terminal including: a connector unit to which an external device is attached; and a control unit sending a preset signal to the external device attached to the connector unit, determining a type of the external device on a basis of a change in the sent signal, and activating one of a charge mode and a communication mode according to the type of the external device.
In a feature of the present invention, a mobile terminal and control method for the same automatically detecting attachment of an external device and driving the external device according to the type thereof. This facilitates efficient and convenient utilization of an external device connected to the mobile terminal.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
FIGS. 1 through 6
, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged mobile terminal.
For the purpose of description, a charger and external storage device are described as an external device connectable to the connector unit of a mobile terminal. However, a notebook computer, personal digital assistant, desk-top computer, and gaming device may also acts as an external device of the present invention. That is, an external device of the present invention is a device that is connectable to the connector unit of the mobile terminal and supports a charge mode to supply electricity or a communication mode to perform communication.
The mobile terminal of the present invention is described as a mobile communication terminal having a radio frequency unit. The mobile terminal may further include a connector unit to connect to an external device for supporting necessary functions of the external device.
The D+ line and D− line of the external storage device connect respectively to the D+ line and D− line of the connector unit, which then connect respectively to the D+ line and D− line of the control unit. A D+ signal line is referred to as a first signal line, and a D− signal line is referred to as a second signal line.
Hereinafter, external devices of the mobile terminal are described.
FIG. 1
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is a diagram illustrating an external storage device and charger connectable to a connector unit of a mobile terminal .
FIG. 1
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Referring to , the mobile terminal of the present invention automatically switches between a charge mode and a communication mode according to an external device connected to a connector unit , and performs operations necessary for the mode.
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To be more specific, when the external device connected to the connector unit is an external storage device , the mobile terminal activates the communication mode to communicate with the external storage device , and receives information stored in the external storage device or sends stored information to the external storage device . When the external storage device is a personal computer or notebook, the external storage device can include a connection line such as a cable connectable to the connector unit .
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When the external device connected to the connector unit is a charger , the mobile terminal activates the charge mode and allows the charge current from the charger to flow to the battery for charging. In other words, one end of the charger is connected through a cable to the connector unit and the other end is connected to an outlet for supplying electric power from the outlet to the mobile terminal . Preferably, the charger converts high-voltage power from the outlet into low-voltage power acceptable to the mobile terminal . For high-speed charging, the charger can supply electric power of maximum rated current within a preset margin acceptable to the mobile terminal and battery.
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The cable can include a first connector to connect to the mobile terminal , a second connector to connect to the charger , and a line to connect the first connector and second connector together. The first connector may include a hook member to secure stable electrical connection to the mobile terminal , and further include a release member to control the hook member for easy release. The second connector may have a configuration connectable to a portion of the charger (for example, a USB interface).
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As described above, the mobile terminal determines the type of an external device connected to the connector unit and activates the mode corresponding to the determined type to thereby control performance of operations necessary for the external device. Next, the mobile terminal is described in detail.
FIG. 2
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is a block diagram illustrating the mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2
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Referring to , the mobile terminal includes a radio frequency unit , display unit , memory unit , connector unit , power control unit , battery , and control unit . If the mobile terminal is not a communication terminal, the radio frequency unit may be removed as an unnecessary element.
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The radio frequency unit sends and receives signals related to voice communication, short message service and multimedia message service, and data communication. The radio frequency unit converts voice, audio or control data into a radio signal for transmission, and converts a received radio signal into voice, audio or control data for output. Thereto, the radio frequency unit includes a radio frequency transmitter for upconverting the frequency of a signal to be transmitted and amplifying the signal, and a radio frequency receiver for low-noise amplifying a received signal and downconverting the frequency of the received signal. When the charger is connected to the connector unit , the radio frequency unit can directly receive power for operation from the charger under the control of the control unit . When the external storage device is connected to the connector unit , the radio frequency unit can be send information stored in the external storage device to the outside under the control of the control unit .
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The display unit displays image data from the control unit , user data requested by the user, and screen data related to supplementary functions. The display unit can display basic screens for the mobile terminal such as the idle screen, menu screen, and display screen for lists of information stored in the memory unit . The display unit may include a panel of liquid crystal display (LCD) devices. If the panel has a touch screen capability, the display unit can also act as an input device. In particular, the display unit can display a different screen according to an external device connected to the connector unit . When the charger is connected to the connector unit , the display unit can display a pop-up message or image indicating attachment of the charger for a preset duration, and display a battery level indicator in real time while being charged by the charger . When the external storage device is connected to the connector unit , the display unit can display a pop-up message or image indicating attachment of the external storage device , and read and display a list of information stored in the external storage device under the control of the control unit . During identification of information stored in the external storage device , the display unit can display an image or icon indicating a communication mode for signal transmission to and signal reception from the external storage device . When the external device is detached from the connector unit , the display unit can display an image corresponding to an alarm indicating detachment of the external device. Such an alarm is preferably activated for a short duration. After alarm activation for a short duration, the display unit can transition to a sleep mode and cut off power used for light emission under the control of the control unit .
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The memory unit can store an operating system for booting the mobile terminal , and application programs for functions of the mobile terminal such as file playback, photographing and broadcast reception. The memory unit can also store user data generated from utilization of the mobile terminal , and received through a communication channel. Thereto, the memory unit may include a program storage section and data storage section.
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The program storage section stores application programs to support various functions described above, and stores, in particular, application programs to support external devices. For example, if the mobile terminal supports a mobile commerce application and the mobile commerce module is an external device, the mobile terminal stores an application program to support mobile commerce services. Likewise, when a notebook computer as an external device connects to the mobile terminal , the program storage section can store an application program to support communication with the notebook computer including automatic connection and data transfer. In this case, the application program may have been pre-stored, or received from the notebook computer and stored.
The data storage section stores data generated from execution of the programs, and setting information related to mobile commerce. The data in the data storage section may be structured in the form of a database.
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The connector unit is connectable to the cable leading to an external device, and to the external storage device . The connector unit is preferably connectable to the first connector of the cable . The connector unit preferably includes a connection terminal corresponding to a pin of the first connector of the cable , and a member to support stable connection of the first connector after attachment. That is, when the first connector includes a hook member, the connector unit can include a stepped portion that provides a guide function for easy fitting of the hook member and a hook function for stable connection of the hook member after attachment. The connector unit may vary according to the type, design and version of the mobile terminal , and may have, for example, 10 pins, 20 pins or 24 pins. The pins of the connector unit are common pins, which may be allocated to different external devices.
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When the charger is connected, the power control unit controls power supply from the charger to the battery through the control unit or directly thereto. The power control unit can control the amount of charge current from the charger for suitably charging the battery . In other words, the power control unit can control the amount of charge current from the charger according to the charge level of the battery . That is, when the charge level of the battery is too low, the power control unit controls the charge operation to maximize the amount of charge current. When the charge level of the battery is higher than or equal to a preset value, the power control unit controls the charge operation to decrease the amount of charge current according to the charge level.
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The battery supplies necessary power to the elements of the mobile terminal . The battery may be made of a rechargeable secondary cell or electrochemical cell. The battery is charged by charge current from an external device (i.e., the charger ) under the control of the power control unit .
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FIGS. 3 and 4
The control unit controls the overall operation of the mobile terminal and signal exchange between the elements of the mobile terminal . In particular, the control unit controls signal exchange between an external device connected to the connector unit , power control unit , and battery . The control unit identifies the type of an external device connected to the connector unit , and controls the elements of the mobile terminal according to the identified type. Identification of the type of an external device and control of the mobile terminal according the identified type are described in connection with .
FIG. 3
FIG. 4
FIGS. 3 and 4
FIG. 3
FIG. 4
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is a block diagram of an embodiment of control circuitry and associated elements of the mobile terminal . is a block diagram of another embodiment of control circuitry and associated elements of the mobile terminal . depict control of the mobile terminal according to a connected external device. If a different function of the mobile terminal is used or an additional external device is employed, additional elements can be included. In , the charger is connected. In , the external storage device is connected.
FIG. 3
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Referring to , the control circuitry of the mobile terminal includes the control unit , power control unit , and connector unit , and can further include the charger connected to the connector unit . The control circuitry can further include an over-voltage protector between the power control unit and connector unit to prevent system damage due to a rapid increase in power from the charger . The charger can include a high-voltage signal line (TA) to deliver high-voltage power and a signal line short-circuiting the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) together, and can further include a ground line. The control circuitry can further include a USB filter between the connector unit and control unit , which connects signal lines together for transmitting signals and filters signals according to a communication mode. A low dropout (LDO) regulator regulates a voltage from the battery or a signal from the external storage device connected to the connector unit , and sends the regulated voltage or signal to a communication port (i.e., USB port).
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When the charger is attached to the connector unit , the high-voltage signal line (TA) of the charger is connected to that of the connector unit . The connector unit can send a high-voltage signal through the over-voltage protector to the power control unit . The first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit are connected to a signal line of the charger , and become short-circuited together. Accordingly, the control unit can determine whether an attached external device is the charger by utilizing the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit . In other words, because of a short-circuited signal line of the charger , the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit become short-circuited together. The control unit sends a signal of a preset phase through the first signal line (D+), detects a signal on the second signal line (D−), and compares the phases of the signals to each other. If the signal sent through the first signal line (D+) and the signal detected on the second signal line (D−) have the same phase, the control unit can identify the external device attached to the connector unit as the charger .
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FIG. 3
As described above, in the control circuitry of the mobile terminal in , whether the external device attached to the connector unit is a charger can be identified on the basis of a signal loop composed of a port of the control unit , a signal line of the connector unit , and a short-circuited signal line formed at the charger . After identification of attachment of the charger , the mobile terminal can automatically deliver charge current received through the high-voltage signal line (TA) to the power control unit via the over-voltage protector .
FIG. 4
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Referring to , the control circuitry of the mobile terminal includes the control unit , power control unit , and connector unit , and can further include the external storage device connected to the connector unit . The control circuitry can further include an over-voltage protector between the power control unit and connector unit to prevent system damage due to a rapid increase in power from the charger . The external storage device includes a first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−), and can further include a high-voltage signal line (not shown) for signal exchange and a ground line (not shown). The control circuitry can further include a USB filter between the connector unit and control unit , which connects signal lines together for transmitting signals and filters signals according to a communication mode. The control circuitry can further include a logic gate , which can identify the type of an external device attached to the connector unit using a voltage difference between the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit , and send the identified type to a first general-purpose input/output (GPIO) port GPIO of the control unit . A low dropout (LDO) regulator regulates a voltage from the battery or a signal from a second GPIO port GPIO, and sends the regulated voltage or signal to a communication port (i.e., USB port). The second GPIO port GPIO outputs a signal activating the LDO regulator according to the type of the external device. That is, if the external device supports a communication mode, the second GPIO port GPIO outputs a signal activating the LDO regulator .
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FIG. 3
When the external storage device is attached to the connector unit , the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the external storage device are respectively connected to the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit , and hence signals of different phases are sent to the logic gate . If the output of the logic gate is different from the previous output, the control unit determines that the external device attached to the connector unit is not a charger but an external device needing communication. Alternatively, after sending dummy data through at least one of the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−), the control unit can identify the type of the external device by checking the presence of a response signal associated with the dummy data. For example, in the case of a charger , when dummy data is sent through the signal line, dummy data returns. Hence, the control unit can identify the type of the external device by sending dummy data. This technique can also be applied to the case in . When a distinctive response is not present after sending dummy data, the control unit can control a charge operation to charge the battery with charge current of, for example, about 500 mA. As described before in connection with , the control unit may check a phase change through the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) to identify the type of the external device.
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The control unit can detect attachment of an external device by sensing a change in voltage of selected pins. For example, when a pull-up voltage is applied to a selected pin or a high voltage is periodically applied to a selected pin, attachment of an external device can convert the pull-up voltage into a pull-down voltage or change the magnitude of the high voltage. The control unit can determine attachment of an external device on the basis of such a signal change. Thereafter, the control unit can determine the type of the attached external device utilizing the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) as described before.
Hereinabove, the configuration of the mobile terminal and external devices are described. Next, a method of controlling the mobile terminal according to the type of the attached external device is described.
FIG. 5
is a flow chart illustrating a method of controlling the mobile terminal according to the type of a connected external device.
FIG. 5
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Referring to the control method of , the mobile terminal checks attachment of an external device (S). To be more specific, after application of a pull-up voltage to the connector unit to which an external device is attached, the mobile terminal can detect attachment of an external device on the basis of a change in the pull-up voltage due to attachment of the external device. When an external device is attached to the connector unit after application of a pull-up voltage, the pull-up voltage changes as the associated current flows into the external device. In particular, when the connector unit is connected to the ground terminal of an external device after application of a pull-up voltage to a selected pin of the connector unit , the pull-up voltage can change to a pull-down voltage. Here, the resistance of the selected pin for the pull-up voltage is preferably higher than that of the ground terminal of the external device. Alternatively, to identify attachment of an external device, the mobile terminal may apply a high voltage to a selected pin of the connector unit and check the form of a response voltage associated with the applied high voltage.
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If an external device is not attached, the mobile terminal performs a requested operation (S). For example, the mobile terminal can perform various operations related to idle screen display, keeping of a sleep mode, making a voice or video call, broadcast reception, and message transmission. During these operations, the mobile terminal preferably monitors occurrence of an event related to attachment of an external device.
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If an external device is attached, the control unit of the mobile terminal sends dummy data through at least one of the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit (S). The dummy data is sent to check a response from the external device, and may be random data generated from the control unit or preset data. The control unit checks for the presence of a response corresponding to the dummy data (S).
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If no response is present, the control unit identifies the external device as a charger (S). The dummy data sent by the mobile terminal can return via the short-circuited path of the charger . Hence, the return of the dummy data can be regarded as an absence of a response.
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The mobile terminal charges the battery with charge current from the charger (S). The control unit controls the power control unit to adjust the amount of charge current from the charger according to the charge level of the battery . That is, when the charge level of the battery is too low, the power control unit controls the charge operation to maximize the amount of charge current. When the charge level of the battery is higher than or equal to a preset level, the power control unit controls the charge operation to decrease the amount of charge current to a preset value. In addition, the over-voltage protector can prevent an over-voltage power flow from the charger or due to static electricity.
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If a distinctive response is present at step S, the control unit identifies the external device as a communication-supporting device such as an external storage device , personal computer, or notebook (S). The mobile terminal communicates with the external device according to, for example, USB communication (S).
FIG. 5
As described above, in the control method of , the type of the external device is identified by the presence of a distinctive response after sending dummy data, and the charge mode or communication mode is automatically initiated according to the identified device type.
FIG. 5
is a flow chart illustrating another method of controlling the mobile terminal according to the type of a connected external device.
FIG. 6
FIG. 5
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Referring to the control method of , the mobile terminal checks for the attachment of an external device (S). Attachment of an external device can be checked in a similar manner described in step S of . If an external device is not attached, the mobile terminal performs a requested operation such as call processing or file playing (S).
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If an external device is attached, the mobile terminal sends a signal of a first phase through the first signal line (D+) (S). The mobile terminal checks the phase of a signal on the second signal line (D−) (S). The first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the control unit are respectively connected to the first signal line (D+) and second signal line (D−) of the connector unit . Hence, the mobile terminal may send a signal of a first phase through the second signal line (D−) and check the phase of a signal on the first signal line (D+).
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The mobile terminal compares the phase of the signal on the first signal line (D+) with the phase of the signal on the second signal line (D−) (S). If the phase on the first signal line (D+) is equal to that on the second signal line (D−), the mobile terminal identifies the external device as a charger (S), and initiates a charge mode using the charger (S). If the phase on the first signal line (D+) is not equal to that on the second signal line (D−), the mobile terminal identifies the external device as an external storage device (S), and initiates a communication mode to communicate with the external storage device (S).
FIG. 6
As described above, in the control method of , the type of the external device can be identified by sending a signal of a first phase through the first signal line, checking the phase of a signal on second signal line, and comparing the phase on the first signal line with that on the second signal line.
Although the present disclosure has been described with an exemplary embodiment, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that the present disclosure encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:
FIG. 1
is a schematic diagram illustrating an external storage device and charger connectable to a mobile terminal;
FIG. 2
is a block diagram illustrating a mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3
FIG. 2
is a block diagram of an embodiment of a control unit and connector unit shown in according to the present invention;
FIG. 4
FIG. 2
is a block diagram of another embodiment of a control unit and connector unit shown in according to the present invention;
FIG. 5
is a flow chart illustrating a method of controlling a mobile terminal according to the type of a connected external device according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 6
is a flow chart illustrating another method of controlling a mobile terminal according to the type of a connected external device according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. | |
PURPOSE: To develop the maximum value of compression residual stress on the surface of a treated material without coarsening the surface of the treated material and prevent the irregularity and degradation of fatigue strength by specifying the specific gravity and the projecting speed of a spherical projected material colliding with the metal treated material.
CONSTITUTION: A substantially spherical projected material with a specific gravity of 11-16 collides with a metal treated material at a projecting speed of 10-40m/s. For such injected material, hafnium carbide, tantalum carbide, tungsten carbide, hafnium nitride, tantalum nitride, hafnium boride, tantalum boride, tungsten boride, these combined compound, solid solution or cemented carbide or cermet mainly containing these is exampled, and cemented carbide mainly containing tungsten carbide is preferable from the point of strength and toughness. As a projecting system, a centrifugally projecting system, a compression air system, or etc., is used for shot peening.
COPYRIGHT: (C)1996,JPO | |
There are no self guided tours, the only way to view the museum is while on a tour.
If there are 6 or more visitors in your group we request you book a tour in advance, to be certain we have guides to accommodate your group. We have a maximum of 18 per tour, and can accommodate up to 36, by splitting the group into two tours which begin in different areas of the museum.
Call 310-548-7509 to book your tour day and time. You will be asked to provide your name, the name of your group, your telephone number, the number in the tour, and the day and time you prefer. We will check the tour schedule and advise if this is available. If not, we will work with you to determine an acceptable alternative. The earlier you call to schedule, the more likely we will have your preferred day and time available. | http://drumbarracks.org/index.php/en/visit-the-drum-barracks/tours |
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FBI statistics report that 67 percent of murders have been solved since 1980. The other 33 percent go unsolved as a result of lack of evidence, lack of witnesses, witnesses who refuse to cooperate, lack of motive and geographic location.
Lack of Motive
Some murders have a clear motive. When a cheating spouse turns up dead, the other spouse and lover are prime suspects. When a gang member's body is found in a rival's territory, the rival is the likely offender. Some murders, however, have no motive. If someone with no criminal ties and no enemies is murdered, it is difficult to ascertain the reason. When that happens, the case is more likely to go unsolved.
Lack of Evidence
Investigators rely on evidence for identification and conviction of the murderer. If evidence is lacking, it is difficult to make a case, even if you establish clear motive. The murder weapons, footprints, tire tracks and DNA (hair, saliva, blood) are all useful in catching the killer. The less evidence found, the more difficult it will be to capture the murderer. Even if the authorities apprehend him, it will be difficult to convict him.
Witnesses
An eyewitness testimony can truly solidify a case when combined with strong evidence and clear motive. The problem is many murders occur in isolated areas without witnesses. Even if a person observes the crime, he may be reticent to come forward out of fear for his own safety. The notion of testifying in open court when there is a chance the suspect can be released is frightening. This fear of reprisal can lead to a witness abstaining from testimony, which can ultimately leave the murder unsolved.
Geography
Large cities tend to have higher incidences of unsolved murders than small towns. Although less populated areas can have unsolved homicides, the greater population of big cities can make it difficult to narrow down suspects. Areas with high crime rates are even more likely to have a higher number of unsolved murderers. Combine this with police forces that are often spread thin due to the high crime rate and outside factors such as budget cuts, and you have an area where murders are likely to go unsolved. | https://careertrend.com/info-8180105-reasons-murders-go-unsolved.html |
The game uses a 3x3 square board. 2 players take turns to play,
either placing a red on an empty square, or changing a red to
orange, or orange to green. The player who forms 3 of 1 colour in a
line wins.
A number game requiring a strategy.
In this game for two players, take it in turns to shade one petal, or two petals next to each other. Is it better to go first or second?
Before playing this game, you might like to have a go at the simpler version, Board Block.
This version is also for two players and can be played on the interactive version of the pegboard, or a real circular pegboard if you have one.
Firstly, choose the number of pegs on your board.
Decide what shapes you will be allowed to make.
You could allow:
Take it in turns to add a band to the board to make any of the shapes you are allowing.
A band can share a peg with other bands, but the shapes must not overlap (except along the edges and pegs).
A player loses when they cannot make a shape on their turn.
For your choice of shapes, how does the winning strategy change as you increase the number of pegs on the board?
If you keep the number of pegs fixed, how does the winning strategy alter as you change the shapes you are permitted to make?
How is the game affected if you play to lose?
Perhaps you can invent some of your own games using the pegboard? Email us if you'd like to share your ideas. | https://nrich.maths.org/2872/note |
Tony Curran is a professional Actor and he is born on Glasgow, United Kingdom. Scroll below and check our most recent updates about Tony Curran Height, Weight and Body Measurements. We don't have much information about he's past relationship and any previous engaged. Tony Curran height 1.83 m and Weight 75 KG right now. Check in Table Tony Curran's Height, weight and Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size.
How tall is Tony Curran?
Tony Curran's Height 1.83 m, Weight 75 KG And Body Measurements 42 Inch.
|Physical Status|
|Height||1.83 m|
|Weight||75 KG|
|Body Measurements||42 Inch|
|Reference||Wikipedia|
What is Tony Curran Body Measurements?
Q: What is height Tony Curran?
A: Tony Curran height is 1.83 m
Q: What is weight of Tony Curran?
A: Tony Curran weight is 75 KG
Q: What is body measurements Tony Curran? | https://mycelebritybio.com/tony-curran-height/ |
Released by Amazon Studios and Bleecker Street, The Lost City of Z casts Charlie Hunnam as British explorer Percy Fawcett. It tells the story of Fawcett’s journeys into the Amazon in the early 20th century to first discover, then study a mysterious, advanced civilization inhabiting the region — only to disappear there along with his son in 1925. The film is based on David Grann’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Along with Sons of Anarchy star Hunnam in the role of Fawcett, the film also casts Sienna Miller (Foxcatcher, The Girl) as Fawcett’s wife, Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Fawcett’s son, and Robert Pattinson (The Twilight series) as Fawcett’s partner, Corporal Henry Costin. Supporting cast members include Angus Macfadyen, Edward Ashley, Clive Francis, Ian McDiarmid, and Franco Nero.
The film chronicles Fawcett’s repeated journeys into what is now the Brazilian city of Barra do Garças during the dawn of the 20th century. Fawcett was roundly dismissed for reporting the discovery of a relatively advanced culture living in the region, and made several return trips in order to bring back proof of the civilizations’s existence.
Grann’s 2009 novel explores the mystery of Fawcett’s disappearance, as well as the many attempts to find him and the mysterious civilization he claimed to have discovered living in the region. Grann himself made a trip into the Amazon to learn more about Fawcett’s experiences, which he describes in the novel.
The Lost City of Z was screened as the closing film of the 54th New York Film Festival in October, and has received near-universal acclaim from critics. The film will have its wide release in theaters April 21, 2017. | https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/the-lost-city-of-z-trailer/ |
When I meet with students and tell them that they will have to spend time doing “planning work” before doing their actual homework and studying, they often look at me like I’m crazy. I’ve actually become used to that look and usually respond with: “I know you think I’m crazy but this will save you time in the long run! Imagine what you can do with all the extra time you’ll have!” Their look of dread does not usually go away, and may even stay around for a few weeks or months---until that one day when they tell me that they spent only a small amount of time on homework, got everything done and then had extra time to play video games!
One of the first organizational tools that I implement is a homework and study calendar. The goal of this monthly calendar is to provide students with the opportunity to enhance their time management skills, plan for the future, break tasks down into smaller parts and become more independent & responsible for their own learning (this means less reminders and nagging from parents since it’s all on the calendar!)
Here’s how the calendar works:
-We use a monthly calendar so that students can see what is ahead.
-All tests / assignments / projects / etc. that are non-negotiable (assigned by the teacher) are written at the top of a date’s box in pen and highlighted. Those are the items that students must plan to accomplish.
-All extra curricular activities that are non-negotiable (registered activities, volunteering, etc.) are written in pen.
-All work that needs to be done to complete a non-negotiable assignment / test / project / etc. is written in pencil and underlined. -All regular homework is written in pencil.
-When a student writes down a non-negotiable assignment / test / project / etc., he/she is the immediately required to plan the time that will be needed to get that assignment done by breaking it down into smaller parts.
For an example, let’s look at “Math Test” on the 28th. It is written in pen and highlighted. This way the student knows that there is something big coming up that needs to be worked on.
On the 27th, it says “math review”, which is underlined. On the 26th, it says “math: 10’q”, which is underlined. On the 25th, it says “math- 10’q”, which is underlined, and on the 24th it says “review all math concepts & make cheat sheet”. These are all the steps involved in studying for a math exam.
On the first day of studying, the student will go through all the concepts and pages of the book that are required for the exam. He will make his cheat sheet (if he is not allowed to have one then he will take notes). This way, he has gone through every concept and has started committing it to memory. On the second day, he will choose 10 examples (half easier, half harder) and do each example and show all his work. He should also bring it to his parents, teacher, tutor, etc., to get it checked. On the third day, he will choose another 10 examples for review. On the fourth day, he will review everything by choosing a particular study method to use (not just re-reading it! This is NOT studying!). Then he is ready to write his math test.
Happy planning!
*Please note that this calendar is just an example and the time and methods used for studying vary depending on the needs of each student. | https://www.brightsidelearning.com/post/2017/04/04/schedule-away-the-homework-wars |
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Ingredients
12 marshmallows (regular)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or oleo
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 package milk chocolate chips (12 ounce pkg)
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 pound Salted Peanuts (no skins)
1 package Cherry Chips
Directions
In a large pan, combine marshmallows,sugar, butter,evaporated milk and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add cherry chips and stir until melted. Pour in buttered 9 x 13 inch pan. Chill until firm. Then combine milk, chocolate chips and peanut butter in pan cook over low heat. Stir constantly until melted and smooth. Chop peanuts fine, add to mixture. Pour over cherry layer. Chill until firm. Makes about 60 squares
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The data shows that self-imposed constraints are beneficial to creativity relative to external constraints, providing empirical evidence of the benefits of self- imposed constraints.
Incorporating users' creativity in new product development via a user successive design strategy
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A design process for facilitating users' successive design is introduced to help designers develop designs to achieve such goal and products developed through such procedure can enhance user's creativity while increasing values of the product commercially and emotionally.
Thinking inside the Box: Why Consumers Enjoy Constrained Creative Experiences
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From cooking kits to home improvement shows, consumers are increasingly seeking out products that are designed to help them be creative. In this research, the authors examine why consumers…
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Research on creativity in organizations has revealed a variety of important paradoxes that seem fundamental to the nature of creativity itself. One such paradox is the tension between freedom and…
When Customers Get Clever: Managerial Approaches to Dealing with Creative Consumers
- Economics
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Abstract Creative consumers (defined as customers who adapt, modify, or transform a proprietary offering) represent an intriguing paradox for business. On one hand, they can signify a black hole for…
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A common belief states that more choice of creative inputs boosts consumer creativity because it expands consumers’ creative solution space. Two experimental studies, run in a knitting and a crafting…
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Managers and producers regard designers are people difficult to work with, in particularly when it comes to the balancing of creativity, budgeting, timing and producing. It is not new to see…
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Creativity and knowledge: A challenge to theories. | https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Designing-the-Solution%3A-The-Impact-of-Constraints-Moreau-Dahl/abc551c8072bf1c464d0868c8f9c749c3c961534 |
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hello there. My colleagues and I have been having a discussion about which way round a multiplication number sentence should go. Can you please help?
Should 4+4+4 be written as 4x3 or 3x4. Obviously I understand it will give the same answer. I just want to find the correct way.
Many thanks
It's arbitrary. People do it either way and think their way is the way everyone does it.
The most important thing as a teacher is to be aware that your children may be seing it either way. This is demonstrated clearly with an array layout of objects. If you just turn your head you can see they're the same thing.
I would say that when you are introducing multication as a step on from repeated addtion 4 + 4 + 4 is '3 groups of 4' so it should be written as 3 x 4.
4 x 3 is '4 groups of 3' so would be written as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3
It is important to be able to 'read' a number sentence to visualise what it represents. Once children are secure with that then they will know that 3x4=4x3.
The numbers being multiplied in a 'number sentence' have different names.
e.g. a X b
a is a the multiplicand
b is the multiplier.
a is the value of the set (group)
b is the number of times it is being 'produced' hence 'product'
so 4 X 4 X 4 is actually 4 X 3. (three lots of 4) (4 produced 3 times)
This goes against what is commonly seen on posters and on the web - e.g. times tables often start 1 X 4, 2X 4, 3 X 4 etc
Personally I'm not a stickler for this - though we had a visiting consultant once, who was.
Yes I agree with the above.
4+4+4 is 4 multiplied 3 times 4 x 3
The trouble with English is we tend to say 4 lots of 3 reading from right to left but definitions show it is
multiplicand x multiplier = product
Arrays are nice - they show the relationship without worrying about the order.
I think lots of teachers will have multiplicand and multiplier in a particular order in their head. The multiplicand doesn’t have to come first, and the product is the same if it comes first or second.
3 x 4 = 3 lots of four = 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 4 x 3 = 4 three times = 4 + 4 + 4 = 12
¾ of £20 The ‘of’ gets replaced by the ‘x’ symbol, so the multiplicand comes second.
If you think of multiplication as
factor x factor = product
the order of the factors will not matter. If we want children to reason and be fluent when calculating, we really don’t want them to get hung up on the order. When we abstract and write a calculation, we want them to use an order that makes sense to them and know what each factor means in the context of the question.
Hope this helps!
Both ways are correct. Neither is more correct than the other. Best to consider it as factor x factor= product.
Hello
What is the actual NCETM advice on this as there are both points of view shown above?
I have been told by consultants that it should be multiplicand first, i.e. 4+4+4 = 4 x 3
But most websites and textbooks show the other way round.
Obviously we show through commativity that the product is the same, but it does seem confusing, would be nice to see one 'mathematically correct' way.
Many other written calculations start with an amount eg addition, adding onto an amount if its augmentation, in subtraction taking away from an amount (not relating to difference), the whole if its division, so perhaps it should be the 'amount' first which is then mulitplied a certain number of times- I think, this is the official way. However, if you use language like lots of its often refers to the second number as the amount, which is more common place ( partly due to all the posters/ workbooks that use this model). The important element to me, is to ensure that children understand that in the written calculation only one of the numbers relates to an amount and the other is how many times we have it, whichever way round; often this understanding can be demonstrated if you ask a child to show you 4 X 3, if they get 4 blocks out and 3 blocks out, you can be sure they haven't developed this understanding.
I'm leaning towards 4 x 3 since the latter part of the calculation normally shows the operation (as with addition, subtration and division). I have 4... I'm multiplying it by 3. Having said that, in algebra we put the multiplier first e.g. 3(x+2). Another contributor has mentioned fractions and % calcluations where we replace the 'of' with 'x', so in these instances the multiplier comes first (as we would say it). But again, it can be written the other way too: Half of 16 can be written as 16 x operation (16 x 1/2). | https://www.ncetm.org.uk/community/thread/145909?post=160655 |
U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 315,000 jobs in August, substantially less than the 526,000 gain in July. The July estimate was revised down by 2,000 from the original estimate of 528,000. June was also revised down, now estimated to have increased 293,000, 105,000 less than the previous estimate of 398,000.
Private payrolls posted a 308,000 gain in August, less than the 477,000 gain in July (revised up by 6,000 from 471,000 while June was revised down by 58,000 to 346,000). August was the smallest gain since April 2021 (see first chart).
Gains in August were broad-based, though smaller than recent prior months. Within the 308,000 gain in private payrolls, private services added 263,000 versus a 3-month average of 325,700 while goods-producing industries added 45,000 versus a 3-month average of 51,300.
Within private service-producing industries, education and health services increased by 68,000 (versus a 93,300 three-month average), business and professional services added 68,000 (versus 80,700), retail employment rose by 44,000 (versus 31,800), leisure and hospitality added 31,000 (versus 56,300), wholesale trade gained 15,100 (versus 13,400), information services gained 7,000 (versus 16,300), and transportation and warehousing added 4,800 jobs (versus an average 15,100; see second chart).
Within the 45,000 gain in goods-producing industries, durable-goods manufacturing increased by 19,000, construction added 16,000, mining and logging industries increased by 7,000, and nondurable-goods manufacturing added 3,000 (see second chart).
While actual monthly private payroll gains are dominated by a few of the services industries, monthly percent changes paint a different picture. Mining and logging industries have recently posted strong monthly percentage gains (see third chart).
Average hourly earnings for all private workers rose 0.3 percent in August, the smallest increase since February (see fourth chart). That puts the 12-month gain at 5.2 percent, about steady since October 2021 (see fourth chart). Average hourly earnings for private, production and nonsupervisory workers rose 0.4 percent for the month and are up 6.1 percent from a year ago, also about in line with results over the last eleven months.
The average workweek for all workers fell to 34.5 hours in August versus 34.6 in July while the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory dropped to 33.9 hours from 34.0 hours in July.
Combining payrolls with hourly earnings and hours worked, the index of aggregate weekly payrolls for all workers gained 0.3 percent in August and is up 9.4 percent from a year ago; the index for production and nonsupervisory workers rose 0.3 percent and is 9.9 percent above the year ago level.
The total number of officially unemployed was 6.014 million in August, a jump of 344,000. The unemployment rate rose a sharp 0.2 percentage points to 3.7 percent from 3.5 percent in July while the underemployed rate, referred to as the U-6 rate, increased by 0.3 percentage points to 7.0 percent in August (see fifth chart).
The employment-to-population ratio, one of AIER’s Roughly Coincident indicators, came in at 60.1 percent for August, up 0.1 percentage points but still significantly below the 61.2 percent in February 2020.
The labor force participation rate jumped by 0.3 percentage points in August, to 62.4 percent. This important measure has been trending lower in recent months after hitting a pandemic high of 62.4 in March 2022. Despite the August gain, it is still well below the 63.4 percent of February 2020 (see sixth chart).
The total labor force came in at 164.746 million, up 786,000 from the prior month and the first month above the February 2020 level (see sixth chart). If the 63.4 percent participation rate were applied to the current working-age population of 264.184 million, an additional 2.75 million workers would be available.
The August jobs report shows total nonfarm and private payrolls posted slower gains compared to July. There was also a jump in labor force participation contributing to a sharp rise in unemployment. Continued gains in employment are a positive sign though the gains may be slowing. At the same time, more people joined the labor force. If both of these trends continue, wage gains will likely slow. Persistently elevated rates of rising prices are weighing on consumer attitudes and may be starting to impact spending patterns as well. Furthermore, an intensifying cycle of Fed policy tightening is increasing borrowing costs for consumers and businesses alike. At the same time, the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and new lockdowns in China continue to disrupt global supply chains. The outlook remains highly uncertain, and caution is warranted. | https://chinasecretsrevealed.com/2022/09/02/unemployment-rate-jumps-and-job-gains-slow-in-august/ |
Security by obscurity may not be so bad after all, according to a provocative new research paper that questions long-held security maxims.
The Kerckhoffs' Principle holds that withholding information on how a system works is no security defence. A second accepted principle is that a defender has to defend against all possible attack vectors, whereas the attacker only needs to find one overlooked flaw to be successful, the so-called fortification principle.
However a new research paper from Prof Dusko Pavlovic of Royal Holloway, University of London, applies game theory to the conflict between hackers and security defenders in suggesting system security can be improved by making it difficult for attackers to figure out how their mark works. For example, adding a layer of obfuscation to a software application can make it harder to reverse engineer.
Pavlovic compares security to a game in which each side has incomplete information. Far from being powerless against attacks, a defender ought to be able to gain an advantage (or at least level the playing field) by examining an attacker's behaviour and algorithms while disguising defensive moves. At the same time defenders can benefit by giving away as few clues about their defensive posture as possible, an approach that the security by obscurity principle might suggest is futile.
Public key encryption works on the basis that making the algorithm used to derive a code secret is useless and codes, to be secure, need to be complex enough so that they can't be unpicked using a brute force attack. As computer power increases we therefore need to increase the length of an encryption key in order outstrip the computational power an attacker might have at his disposal. This still hold true for cryptography, as Pavlovic acknowledges, but may not be case in other scenarios.
Pavlovic argues that an attacker's logic or programming capabilities, as well as the computing resources at their disposal, might also be limited, suggesting that potential shortcomings in this area can be turned to the advantage of system defenders. | https://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/05/security_by_obscurity/ |
GRANT STATEMENT
TECHNICAL FIELD
BACKGROUND ART
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
III.A. Receiving Neural Signal
III.B. Neural Spike Detection
III.C. Neural Spike Processor, Transmitter, and Receiver
IV. Embodiments of a Neural Signal System
IV.A. Signal Receiver
IV.B. Neural Spike Detection
IV.C. Neural Spike Processor and Transmitter
This invention was supported by DARPA grant N0014-98-1-0676. Thus, the Government has certain rights in this invention.
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for acquiring and transmitting neural signals for processing. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system for acquiring neural signals having neural spikes and transmitting an information signal in response to detecting a neural spike.
The human brain is an exceedingly complex processing system, which integrates continual streams of incoming sensory input data with stored memories, uses the input data and memories in complex decision processes at both conscious and unconscious levels and, on the basis of these processes, generates observable behaviors by activation of its motor or movement control pathways and the muscles which these innervate. The neurons of the nervous system propagate input data by generating characteristic electrical pulses called action potentials, or neural spikes, that can travel along nerve fibers. A single neuron or a group of neurons represent and transmit information by firing sequences of neural spikes in various temporal patterns. Information is carried in the neural spike arrival times.
In certain cases of traumatic injury or neurological disease, the brain can be partially isolated from the periphery. Input data from certain senses are thus lost, at least for a portion of the body, as are many voluntary movements. Spinal cord injury is a well-known example of traumatic injury. With spinal cord injury, the pathways that link higher motor centers in the brain with the spinal cord and that are used for control of voluntary movements can be functionally transected at the site of injury. As a result, the patient is paralyzed, and can no longer voluntarily activate muscles that are innervated by regions of the spinal cord below the level of the injury. Despite the injury to their long fibers, however, many of the cells in these higher brain regions that control voluntary movement will survive and can still be activated voluntarily to generate electric signals for controlling voluntary movement. By recording the electrical activities produced from these cells with implantable neural sensors (e.g., a microwire electrode array, a microwire, a magnetic field detector, chemical sensor, or other neural sensor), signals generated by the cells can be “exteriorized” and used for the control of external prostheses, such as an assist robot or an artificial limb, or functional electrical stimulation paralyzed muscles. Additionally, these generated signals can be used for control of computer operations such as the movement of a cursor on a computer display.
Another example of such loss occurs in cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease), in which the motor neurons that control muscles, as well as some of the brain cells that control these motor neurons, degenerate. In advanced stages of this disease, the patient might have completely intact senses and thought processes, but is “locked in,” so that neither movements nor behavioral expressions of any kind can be made. Providing these patients with some way of communicating with the external world would greatly enhance their quality of life.
In sum, there is a need to develop a system for monitoring and processing the electrical signals from neurons within the central nervous system, so that the brain's electrical activity can be “exteriorized” and used for the voluntary control of external prostheses or assist devices which are adapted to provide sensory feedback. In this way, damaged pathways can be circumvented and some control of the environment can be restored; additionally, a patient can be provided the ability to interact with his or her environment. Because the electrical fields of small groups of neurons drop off rapidly with distance from the cells, a representative system can include surgically implanted electrodes or other neural sensors, which can be placed in close proximity to the individual or large numbers of brain cells that generate command signals for voluntary movement.
Neural signals can be detected by measuring the electric field potential of an area or region of the brain or other organ. The field potential detected at any one point represents the sum of the potential created by a number of electric potential generators in the area surrounding the field potential measuring device. By way of example, when an individual monitors a field potential (e.g., the amplitude of a field potential) at a point on the surface of the cerebral cortex, for example, what is detected is the overlapping summation of electric fields generated by active neurons in the depths of the cerebral cortex, which have spread through the tissues and up to the surface. These nerve cells can be characterized as point dipoles that are oriented perpendicular to the surface of the cerebral cortex. In other words, each cell or group of cells has a current source where positive charge moves outwardly across its membrane and a current sink where the same amount of positive charge moves inwardly at each instant. Thus, the flow of current across each cell or group of cells establishes an electric field potential that is equivalent to the electrostatic field potential of a pair of point charges, one positive at the location of the current source and one negative at the current sink. The amplitude of this field potential, i.e., the electric field strength, decreases inversely with distance in all directions from each point charge, and is relatively low at the surface of the cerebral cortex.
When many nerve cells are generating field potentials in a given region, these field potentials sum and overlap in the neural tissue, in the extracellular fluid, and at the brain surface. This summation is a linear function in this volume conductor, since the field strength of a given cell or group of cells varies inversely as a function of the distance from each current source or sink. Thus, if the electric potential of a given region of neurons is measured at a sufficient number of points and depths, it is possible to deduce the locations and amplitude of each dipole generator at any instant of time.
Integrated circuits, called neurochips, have been developed to acquire neural signals from a subject and condition the signals for processing. Some current neurochips include multi-channel sieve electrodes for detecting neural signals from regenerated axons. A sieve electrode is a planar structure with small throughbores extending therethrough. In order to implant a sieve electrode, an axon is severed, the ends placed through adjacent throughbores, and the nerve is allowed to heal. Signals in the regenerated axon are detected by the sieve electrode. Detected signals are then processed and transmitted by the neurochip for further processing.
Many current neural signal systems utilize radio frequency telemetry for transmitting information signals. A significant amount of the total power required for operating a neurochip is used to implement telemetry. High power consumption is undesirable for neurochips in order to achieve reduced neurochip and system size. Thus, neurochip telemetry and transmission methods are desired having lower power requirements for transmitting information signals. In general, double the power is required to transmit twice the amount of data. Thus, neurochips are desired that require as little data transmission as possible, thus using a lower amount of power to transmit. Further, neurochips are desired having a smaller size and improved circuitry for receiving, conditioning, and processing neural signals. Such improvements will reduce the amount of information that must be passed to through the telemetry links to other parts of the device thus conserving power and will distribute the processing burden to multiple devices operating serially and synchronously.
According to one embodiment, a neural spike detection system is provided. The neural spike detection system can include a signal receiver operable to receive a plurality of neural signals comprising a neural spike. The system can also include a neural spike detector adapted to communicate with the signal receiver and detect the neural spike in the plurality of neural signals. Further, the system can include a transmitter in communication with the neural spike detector and operable to transmit an information signal when a neural spike is detected.
According to a second embodiment, a neural signal detection system is provided. The neural signal detection system can include a signal receiver adapted to condition neural signals received from neural sensors. The system can also include a control module operable to select neural signals for transmission. Further, the system can include a transmitter operable to transmit the conditioned neural signals selected by the control module.
According to a third embodiment, a neural signal transmission system is provided. The system can include a signal receiver operable to condition a plurality of neural signals. The system can also include a wireless power receiver adapted to wirelessly receive power from a wireless power transmitter for powering the system. Further, the system can include a neural signal transmitter operable to transmit the conditioned neural signals.
According to a fourth embodiment, a method for transmitting a neural spike signal is provided. The method includes receiving a neural signal including neural spikes and detecting occurrences of neural spikes in the neural signal. The method can also include transmitting an information signal indicating the occurrence of a neural spike when a neural spike is detected.
According to a fifth embodiment, a method for transmitting neural signals is provided. The method can include selecting neural signals received by neural sensors for transmission. The method can also include conditioning the selected neural signals. Further, the method can include transmitting the neural signals.
According to a sixth embodiment, a method for transmitting neural signals is provided. The method can include conditioning a plurality of neural signals. The method can also include receiving a wireless power signal from a wireless power transmitter for powering the system. Further, the method can include transmitting the neural signals.
According to a seventh embodiment, a neural processing system is provided. The system can include an implanted neurochip operable to transmit a plurality of detected neural signals including neural spikes and noise. The system can also include a wearable relay device operable to receive the plurality of detected neural signals, filter the noise, and transmit a signal having the neural spike. Further, the method can include a remote processing system operable to receive the signal having the neural spike.
According to an eighth embodiment, a neural signal receiver for conditioning a plurality of neural signals is provided. The neural signal receiver can include a plurality of preamplifiers for conditioning the plurality of neural signals. The neural signal receiver can also include a differential amplifier module connected to the plurality of preamplifiers for selecting a reference signal from among the plurality of neural signals and generating a plurality of difference signals. The plurality of difference signals can be a difference between the plurality of neural signals and the reference signal.
Some of the objects of the invention having been stated hereinabove, other objects will become evident as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings as best described hereinbelow.
I. Definitions
Following long-standing patent law convention, the terms “a” and “an” mean “one or more” when used in this application, including the claims.
As used herein, the term “about,” when referring to a value or to an amount of mass, weight, time, volume, concentration or percentage is meant to encompass variations of ±20% or ±10%, more preferably ±5%, even more preferably ±1%, and still more preferably ±0.1% from the specified amount, as such variations are appropriate to perform the disclosed method.
As used herein, the terms “actuator”, “external device” and “prosthetic limb” are used interchangeably and mean any kind of device adapted to perform a movement. Although an actuator preferably performs a movement in three dimensions, an actuator can also be limited to performing movements in two dimensions. Thus, an actuator can be a manipulandum confined to two-dimensional motion. A representative actuator comprises a prosthetic limb, which can be fitted on, or integrated into, the body of a subject. An actuator can also be associated with machinery and/or circuitry that allow the actuator to respond to one or more forms of input with one or more movements. In one example, the range of motion of an actuator designated as a substitute for a patient's lost or paralyzed limb is limited to the range of motion of the limb for which the actuator is substituting.
As used herein, the term “electrode” means an electric conductor through which a voltage potential can be measured. An electrode can also be a collector and/or emitter of an electric current. In one embodiment, an electrode is a solid and comprises a conducting metal. Representative conducting metals include noble metals, alloys and particularly stainless steel and tungsten. An electrode can also be a microwire, or the term “electrode” can describe a collection of microwires. In one embodiment, electrodes comprise polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (TEFLON®, a product produced by E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company) coated stainless steel or tungsten microwires.
As used herein, the terms “field potential data” and “field potentials” are used interchangeably and typically mean low frequency, voltage measurements collected from one or more locations near or at one or more neurons in a subject's brain or nervous system.
As used herein, the term “integrated circuit” refers to a small-scale, electronic device densely packaged with more than one integrated, electrical component. The components are manufactured on the surface of semiconductor material. There are various scales of integrated circuits that are classified based on the number of components per surface area of the semiconductor material, including small-scale integration (SSI), medium-scale integration (MSI), large-scale integration (LSI), very large-scale integration (VLSI), ultra large-scale integration (ULSI).
As used herein, the term “location source” means a position wherein a neural sensor can detect one or more neural signals.
As used herein, the term “neural signal” means a signal, which can take any form, originating in the nervous system of an organism. Neural signals typically include neural spike signals that carry information in their arrival times at destination neurons.
As used herein, the term “neural sensor” means an implantable device for sensing neural signals. Examples of neural sensors include microwire electrode arrays, optical sensors, microwires, magnetic field detectors, chemical sensors, and other suitable neural sensors which are known to those of skill in the art upon consideration of the present disclosure.
As used herein, the term “neurochip” means any integrated circuit, multi-integrated circuit, or multi-module system adapted for detecting neural signals from the body of an organism. In one embodiment, a neurochip is adapted to be implanted in an organism near the nervous system for detecting neural signals.
As used herein, the terms “operator,” “patient” and “subject” are used interchangeably and mean any individual monitoring or employing the present invention, or an element thereof. Operators can be, for example, researchers gathering data from an individual, an individual who determines the parameters of operation of the present invention or the individual in or on which a high-density multichannel microelectrode array is disposed. Broadly, then, an “operator,” “patient” or “subject” is one who is employing the present invention for any purpose. As used herein, the terms “operator,” “patient” and “subject” need not refer exclusively to human beings, but rather the terms encompass all organisms having neural tissue, such as monkeys, dogs, cats, rodents, etc.
II. General Considerations
Through the years there has been significant research in the area of detecting and observing various electric potentials generated within the human body for medical diagnosis, biofeedback control of mental and physical states, and control of external devices. It is known that different regions of the brain are used to control different parts of the body and to process different sensory inputs. It is also known that when a human performs a certain function, such as moving an extremity or listening to a particular sound, multiple regions of the brain generate electrical action potentials to accomplish that function. It is also known that direct electrical stimulation of a particular region of the brain can cause at least partial reproduction of the functions or sensory input normally associated with that region of the brain. Determining which portions of a patient's brain are responsible for certain motor activities or certain sensory functions has become known as brain “mapping.” After a patient's brain has been mapped, the brain can be electrically stimulated to restore lost functions.
For example, it is possible to determine which portions of a patient's brain are responsible for processing signals associated with the movement of an extremity. Once a neurologist knows which portions of the patient's brain are responsible for processing these signals, it is possible to electrically stimulate selected portions of the patient's brain to cause the patient to “move” the extremity. Thus, a patient whose motor control has been partially or permanently damaged can regain motor control if an apparatus is employed to translate these neural signals into movement of an external device, such as an actuator. Similarly, if the areas of the patient's brain that are associated with tactile and other sensory information are known, these areas of the patient's brain can be electrically stimulated to make the patient “experience” the sensory interaction between an object and an external device interacting with the object. Systems according to the present invention can be employed as a component of a system such as a closed loop brain-machine interface or intelligent brain pacemaker. These devices can greatly enhance the quality of life of individuals those individuals whose motor control has been impaired.
III. Configuration and Operation of the Neural Signal System
FIG. 1
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In accordance with the present invention, efficient methods and systems are provided for detecting, processing, and transmitting information contained in neural signals received from neural tissues, for example neural tissue of the brain or central nervous system. This stored information can be used to control an external device, such as an actuator, prosthetic device, or computer system, or to treat a neurological condition. The methods and systems according to the present invention will be explained in the context of flow charts and diagrams. It is understood according to this invention that the flow charts and diagrams can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Thus, the present invention can include computer program products comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in computer-readable media for performing the steps illustrated in each of the flow charts or implementing the devices illustrated in each of the diagrams. is a schematic view of a neural signal system of the present invention, generally designated , according to one embodiment of the present invention. Broadly, neural signal system includes the following main modules: a signal receiver , a neural spike detector , and a neural spike processor and transmitter .
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While in operation, signal receiver , described in more detail below, detects neural activity in the form of field potential data generated from neural tissue (e.g., from large numbers of single neurons) in a subject, such as a human or a monkey. Signal receiver converts field potential data to an electrical-based representation of the neural signal that is suitable for processing by the hardware and/or software of system . Signal receiver can include one or more neural sensors (e.g., metallic wire electrodes) implanted in a location in the subject for detecting field potential data of the neural signals of interest. In one embodiment, signal receiver can include multiple neural sensors that are positioned in different location sources in the subject for converting the field potential data detected from different neurons into electrical-based neural signals.
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Signal receiver can also include electrical components for conditioning the electrical-based neural signals. Preferably, signal receiver conditions the electrical-based neural signal with buffering and filtering to remove unwanted in-band and out-of-band signal noise, such as field potential data detected from signals of other bioelectric generators in the subject. These sources include the heart (ECG), muscles (EMG), and signals from the effect of mechanical movement of the sensor in response to blood pressure, respiration, and physical motion. Further, signal receiver can correct a DC offset problem associated with conditioning neural signals. Further, system can include a transmission link for communicating amplified and conditioned, electrical-based, neural signals on one or more communication channels from signal receiver to neural spike detector .
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Neural spike detector can receive one or more conditioned signals on one or more communication channels from signal receiver for detecting the occurrence of a neural spike in any of the conditioned signals. Additionally, neural spike detector can include spike sorting, the process of identifying which particular neuron detected on a conditioned signal produced a particular neural spike. Neural spike detector can detect a neural spike and sort detected spikes in a conditioned signal by performing a mathematical algorithm. In one embodiment, the mathematical algorithm can detect a neural spike on a conditioned signal by the following steps: (1) sampling the conditioned signal; (2) combining the samples; (3) comparing the combined samples to predetermined thresholds; and (4) determining whether a spike has been detected based on the comparison in step (3). The comparison can be to one threshold value, for instance a voltage level, or could be multiple threshold values, for instance level and slope, or could be the level of a derived signal, for example, energy or absolute value, or the level of multiple derived signals. Similarly, the detector may differentiate between threshold crossings in the positive direction and the negative direction. Upon detecting a neural spike, neural spike detector can transmit an information signal to neural spike processor to indicate the detection of a neural spike in one of the conditioned signals. Neural spike detector can transmit information signals to neural spike processor via transmission link . When neural signals are received from multiple channels or locations, the information signal can carry data identifying the neuron corresponding to a detected neural spike.
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Neural spike processor can receive the information signal from neural spike detector and generate and transmit control signals based on the information signals. Control signals can be transmitted via a transmission link to a device such as an actuator, prosthetic device, computer system, or other suitable device. Other devices include but are not limited to weapons or weapon systems, robots or robot systems, other commercial electronic devices that can be controlled remotely including TV, radio, mechanical bed systems stoves, ovens, and other cooking devices, other household devices that might be controlled by a remote device and used to improve the quality of life of a disabled person. Still other devices include scientific or commercial mechanical devices that work at a much larger or much smaller scale than is normal for a human, for instance optical tweezers for manipulating molecules and atoms, or earth moving equipment. Preferably, transmission link comprises a wireless link such as ultra wide band (UWB) radio telemetry. Alternatively, the transmission link can comprise any other suitable wireless link such as by the BLUETOOTH™ standard developed by BLUETOOTH SIG, Inc. Neural spike processor can include a memory for storing information signals. Data can be stored in terms of the time the neural spike was generated and/or the channel or location source of the neural spike. The memory can also receive and store the signal data with information identifying the sensory or motor activity ongoing at the time of the neural spike. In one embodiment, the memory stores the signals in a digital format. Alternatively, signal data can be represented by analog voltage records of the complete signal, a time multiplexed analog signal, analog records of only the neural spikes and a time indicator identifying the time of the neural spike, or any other suitable format known to those of skill in the art.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system can also be operable to receive signals for configuring the components of system , as described herein. Therefore, in this embodiment, links , , and comprise bidirectional signals for passing configuration data.
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In one embodiment, neural signal system comprises a neurochip, an integrated device or a highly integrated package of semiconductor circuits adapted to receive signals from the neural tissue of a subject and process and condition neural signals. The neurochip can be implanted in the tissue of a subject or positioned outside the skin of the subject in a transcutaneous configuration. Alternatively, the neurochip can be positioned at a location on or near the subject and can be adapted to interact with additional components, such as a signal receiver, via a conductive wire or wireless communication. The processing by the neurochip can be analog signal processing or digital signal processing. The neurochip can be implemented using a VLSI circuit. The use of integrated circuit technology allows the tailoring of device parameters to optimally use the available power and space for the desired sensory or motor functions.
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In an alternative to the implementation of components , , and on a single neurochip for implantation in a subject, signal receiver and neural spike detector can be implemented on a neurochip, and neural spike processor can be implemented separately as a non-implanted, integrated circuit. Further in the alternate, components , , and of neural signal system can be implemented together or separately on a single integrated circuit, any combination of one or more integrated circuits, or any other suitable hardware and/or software combination known to those of skill in the art.
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In one embodiment, signal receiver is implemented in the form of an implant. Alternatively, one or more of components and can be implemented as an integrated circuit in the form of an implant, a transcutaneous implant, a remote device, a portable remote device, a wearable device, or a wearable tethered device. An implant is a component residing completely within the subject. A transcutaneous implant is an implanted component having a mechanical transcutaneous link, such as a transcutaneous, conductive wire, or to a component located outside of the skin of the subject. A remote device is a component remotely located from the subject. Typically, the remote device does not physically move with the subject. Alternatively, the remote device can move with the subject without being wearable by the subject. A wearable device is a component wearable by a subject, removed with no surgical procedure, and not physically connected to a remote device. For example, a wearable device can be worn on the head, back, waist, or other convenient location on the subject (e.g., a helmet or backpack). A wearable, tethered device is a wearable device that is connected to a remote device via a wire link.
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Components can be implemented as a combination of one or more implants, transcutaneous implants, remote devices, portable remote devices, wearable devices, or wearable tethered devices. In one exemplary embodiment, signal receiver can be implemented as a transcutaneous implant that communicates with a wearable, tethered neural spike detector located on the head of a subject. In another exemplary embodiment, signal receiver is implemented as an implant communicating via a wire link with a wearable neural spike detector . Wearable neural spike detector communicates with another wearable system including neural signal processor on the waist of a subject. Neural signal processor can transmit via radio communication to a remote device for further interpretation.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted component, such as a neurochip, and a remote component, such as a processing system. The implanted component transmits signals to the remote component via a wireless link.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes a wearable component, a transcutaneous implant, such as a neurochip, and a remote component, such as a computer processing system. The transcutaneous implant communicates with the wearable component via a wire link. The wearable component communicates to the remote component via a wireless link.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted neurochip, a wearable component, and a remote component. The implanted neurochip transmits signals to the wearable component via a wireless link. The wearable component transmits signals to the remote component via a wire link.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted component having a set of transcutaneous wires. System also includes a wearable component, such as a neurochip disposed in a helmet. The neurochip and implanted component communicate via a wireless link. Further, the wearable component transmits signals to a second wearable component via a wireless link. The second wearable component is tethered to a remote or portable remote component for wire communication. Alternatively, the second wearable component can transmit control signals to an actuator.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted component, such as a neurochip, operable to transmit signals via a wireless link. The wireless link transmits signals optically to a wearable component, such as a helmet. The wearable component is operable to relay signals to a remote component for further processing.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes a remote component operable to transmit data acquisition configuration parameters to an implanted component.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted neurochip for transmitting via a wireless link, such as optically, to a wearable component including a transmitter. The transmitter transmits via a wireless link, such as a radio link, to a remote component. The remote component transmits via a radio link to a wearable prosthetic device.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted component, such as a neurochip, for optically transmitting signals to a wearable component. The wearable component communicates with a wearable component, such as a prosthetic device, via a conductive wire.
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According to one embodiment, neural signal system includes an implanted, transcutaneous component, such as a set of implanted transcutaneous wires, operable to transmit signals to a wearable component having a neurochip. The wearable component transmits control signals to a wearable component, such as a wearable prosthetic device.
As stated above, transmission links , , and can be implemented as a wire link, a wireless link, or a combination of wire and wireless links. The following list includes exemplary embodiments of neural signal system having different wire and wireless link configurations according to the present invention:
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A method for receiving neural signals in neural signal system according to the present invention can be performed by signal receiver . The purpose of receiving neural signals is to convert a biological-based neural signal into an electrical-based, machine-readable signal and to condition the received signal. In one embodiment, neural signal detection according to the present invention includes two main steps—(1) receiving the biological-based neural signal from a neuron of interest and (2) conditioning the neural signal. A transmission step optionally can be included if transmission link is necessary for transmitting the conditioned signal from neural signal receiver to neural spike detector .
The step of receiving the neural signal can include providing a neural sensor near a neuron to obtain a neural signal in the form of field potential data from a neuron or large number of single neurons. The neural sensor converts the field potential data to electrical-based current flow. The typical maximum potential voltage associated with a propagating neuronal action potential is between approximately 100 and 700 microvolts (μV). The chemical reaction that performs this conversion requires a driving potential, referred to as polarization, that causes a significant direct current (DC) voltage of approximately 200 millivolts (mV) on the measured neural signals. Because the offset voltage is a function of the ionic concentrations at the interface, small movements in the neural sensor associated with respiration, blood pressure, and locomotion can modulate the DC potential providing an additional source of electrical noise. The DC and low frequency noise components of the measured electrical-based signal are frequently orders of magnitude greater in size than the neural signals of interest.
Isolating the neural signal is one of the primary challenges in building an integrated circuit for this purpose. The neural sensor in the subject can be situated among thousands of neurons and thus measures neural spikes from many neurons simultaneously. Only a few neurons produce signals with amplitude large enough to be accurately interpreted. The remaining neurons produce signals that are interpreted as noise. The neural information carried by the neural spike is contained in its timing relative to other neural spikes from the same neuron. Thus, it is important to be able to differentiate spikes originating from a specific neuron or neurons. Neural spike sorting schemes for identifying the neuronal origin of a given neural spike can be implemented in hardware and/or software. Typically, neural spike sorting schemes require the entire temporal waveform of the approximately 1–2 millisecond (ms) neural spike to be acquired and analyzed by the system.
Conditioning the electrical-based signal can include the steps of filtering and differential recording the detected signal. As stated above, the electrical signal of interest is a neural spike approximately 2 milliseconds (ms) in duration. The frequency content of the neural spike can be between approximately 500 and 8000 Hertz. This relatively small voltage spike is corrupted by several sources of noise both internal and external. Some significant sources of corruption is from other bioelectric generators within a subject, such as cardiac, neuromuscular, and other cortical neurons located in proximity to the electrodes. Filtering and differential recording eliminates sources of out-of band noise or noise in frequencies outside the frequencies of interest. Differential recording eliminates in-band noise common to both the signal and its reference voltage.
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A method for neural spike detection in neural spike detector according to the present invention includes receiving conditioned neural signals and detecting neural spikes in the conditioned signals. Neural spike detector can also include sorting spikes according to the particular neuron producing a detected spike. As discussed above, neural spike detector can detect neural spikes among noise signals by threshold and slope detection. In one embodiment, neural spike detection includes four main steps—(1) sampling the conditioned signal; (2) combining the samples; (3) comparing the combined samples to predetermined thresholds; and (4) determining whether a spike has been detected based on the comparison in step (3). One such process can digitally filter the signal to produce a measure of slope and detect the location of a slope above or below a particular value that corresponds in time with a voltage level exceeding a particular value.
FIG. 2
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Referring to , a flow chart is provided which illustrates a process for neural spike detection according to an embodiment of the present invention. As stated above, such neural spike detection can be performed by neural spike detector . The process begins at the step indicated by reference numeral . At step , neural signals are received by neural spike detector . The received neural signals can be electrical-based analog signals. Next, at step , the neural signals can be sampled N times. In one embodiment, the neural signal is sampled 8 times at 40 kHz. The N samples can be combined at step . In one embodiment, the samples are combined using gain. Alternatively, the samples can be combined by summing, power operations or other suitable methods known to those of skill in the art. Next, at step , it is determined whether the samples are greater than a predetermined threshold. The comparisons can be made to determine the presence of a particular feature of a spike, for example, the point at which the slope or the amplitude or the energy exceeds a threshold. This point can then be taken as the time the spike occurred or some temporal displacement from that point is taken as the time the spike occurred (i.e., 1 millisecond earlier). If the samples are greater than the predetermined threshold, a spike is detected (step ). If the samples are not greater than the predetermined threshold, a spike is not detected (step ). Next, the process stops (step ). The process can then repeat for another sample group at step .
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Referring to , a graphical view of computer simulation results are provided of the input signal and output signal of a neural spike detector according to one embodiment of the present invention. The vertical axis indicates the amplitude of a neural signal. The horizontal axis indicates time. In this embodiment, neural spike detector can determine whether a neural spike is starting to occur based on a number of samples of a neural signal. First, neural spike detector samples a neural signal, obtaining 8 sequential values. Next, neural spike detector determines a neural spike is starting if the sum of the last two samples is less than 0.23 times the sum of the first six samples. Reference numeral indicates the neural signal input to neural spike detector . Reference numerals indicates instances of spike detection. In the simulation of this embodiment, 99.97% of all neural spikes in the simulation were detected. Neural spike detector of this embodiment indicated neural spikes falsely about half of the time. These computer simulations were conducted using the MATLAB® mathematics computer program, produced by MathWorks, Inc. of Natick, Mass.
Neural spike detection and sorting can be performed with either analog or digital circuitry. An integrated monolithic analog circuit can detect spikes and pass the reduced data on to a sorter before or after a telemetry link. Alternatively, a monolithic analog circuit can process the detected spikes and perform spike sorting. Further, in the alternative, spike detection and sorting can be performed by digital circuitry by digitizing the neural signals and processing the resultant digital data stream using a digital signal processor or a custom digital circuit.
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Upon detecting a neural spike, neural spike detector can indicate the detection of a neural spike on one or more of the communication channels to neural spike processor . If necessary, neural spike detector can transmit an information signal to neural spike processor via transmission link . When neural signals are received from multiple channels or locations, the information signal can carry data identifying the channel or location source corresponding to the detected neural spike. Further, if spike sorting is performed before transmission on transmission link , the information signal can carry information indicating the particular neuron originating the neural spike.
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A method for neural spike processing and transmission according to the present invention can be performed by neural spike processor . The purpose of neural spike processing and transmission is to generate and transmit information or control signals to a suitable device such as an actuator, prosthetic device, or computer system. In one embodiment, the information or control signals are transmitted via a wireless link.
Signal processing of various types can occur. This processing is divided into two stages: 1) processing within one signal 2) processing across many or all signals. In the first stage, the signals can be used with sorting or without sorting. A sorting process generally increases the number of signals by separating portions of one signal into one or more additional signals of spike data. In the second stage, an estimate of firing rate can be made based on a summing of spike counts over an interval (binning) for example at 100 milliseconds. Other methods of estimating rate are familiar to those skilled in the art. Similarly, a process can use the temporal order of the signals to derive other parameters for use in control processing. Such time based interpretation schemes are also known to those skilled in the art. After extraction of the information from a single channel of spikes, the information among signals can be combined. The signals can be combined with linear weighting schemes or using techniques such as neural networks.
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As stated above, component can communicate over transmission link via a wireless link. A wireless link is desirable because a subject can move freely within the transmission range of the wireless link. In one embodiment, the wireless link is implemented with ultra wide band (UWB) radio. UWB radio is particularly suited to digital data transmission at high bandwidth (data rates) over short distances. The advantages of UWB radio over other communication systems include low power per bit of information and simplicity of transmission electronics.
Information signals can be transmitted via UWB radio in real-time for maintaining the neural spike sequence. For example, if 50 channels are monitored, each time a spike is detected on a channel, a number identifying the channel or origin of the neural spike is transmitted via UWB radio. Transmission can include a short delay due to processing. An indication of the channel or origin of the neural spike is transmitted via a short identification transmission. Short identification transmission resolves situations in which two or more neurons fire at the same time. For example, if identification requires 200 nanoseconds and a neural spike lasts 2 milliseconds (ms), the system has the capacity for transmitting the identification of 10,000 neural spikes. In a neural signal system having time designated to the nearest millisecond, the system can transmit identification for 5,000 neural spikes per millisecond.
The method of encoding spikes for radio transmission requires minimal power because the temporal firing patterns are simply reproduced by the radio transmission and the time of firing is inherent within the transmission structure. Thus, information regarding the time of a neural spike is not required, only a neural channel or origin identifier. This type of coding reduces the required bandwidth and reduces power consumption by more than 50%. Power consumption is further reduced because information is transmitted only when a neural spike is detected and the time required to transmit that information is very short compared to the intervals between neural spikes on a given channel. For example, if it takes 200 nanoseconds to transmit an information signal indicating a neural spike, a typical 50 Hertz firing rate for a given neuron would result in a duty cycle of only approximately 0.001 per channel, assuming one neuron per channel. All analog signal processing and spike sorting is performed prior to transmission on UWB transmitter.
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As stated above, neural spike processor and transmitter can include a memory for storing information signals. Data can be stored in terms of the time the neural spike was generated and/or the channel or location source of the neural spike. The memory can also receive and store the signal data with information identifying the sensory or motor activity ongoing at the time of the neural spike. Preferably, the memory stores the signals in a digital format. Alternatively, signal data can be represented by analog voltage records of the complete signal, a time multiplexed analog signal, analog records of only the neural spikes and a time indicator identifying the time of the neural spike, or any other suitable format known to those of skill in the art.
FIGS. 4A and 4B
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Referring to , schematic views of a signal receiver, generally designated , having 16 channels according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Signal receiver can include a signal conditioner module and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter module . Signal receiver is operable to receive neural signals from a first group of neural sensors (NS–NS) and a second group of neural sensors (NS–NS), condition the neural signals, and provide a digital representation of the neural signals to a neural spike detector or other hardware and/or software combination for further processing such as neural spike detection, sorting, display, or control of a prosthetic device. Signal conditioner module can include input channels for receiving neural signals and connecting first and second group of neural sensors and to a first group of preamplifiers (P–P) and a second group of pre-amplifiers (P–P), respectively, for providing high gain input amplification and band pass filtering for the neural signals of first and second group of neural sensors and , respectively. Preamplifiers and can be followed by a differential amplifier module having a first and second multiplexer and and switches (not shown) for selecting two neural sensors from first and second group of neural sensors and , respectively, for providing reference signals to eliminate common mode noise, described in more detail below. Such signal could come from a standard neural sensor or from a sensor designed specifically to act as a reference electrode. Further, differential amplifier module can include a switch connected between the outputs of multiplexer and for selecting any of neural sensors and to provide a reference signal. Differential amplifier module can also include switches and connected between the output of multiplexers and , respectively, and ground for selectively grounding the reference signal from either multiplexer or multiplexer . Differential amplifier module can also include differential amplifiers for providing a difference signal that between a neural signal and one of the reference signals for eliminating common mode noise signals. Differential amplifiers can also provide additional gain to the neural signals. In one embodiment, multiplexers and comprise ANALOG DEVICES™ AD708 multiplexer produced by Analog Devices, Inc. of Norwood, Me. In one embodiment, switch , , and is a MAXIM™ 4626 switch produced by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.
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Signal conditioner module can include filters , described in more detail below, connected to differential amplifiers for providing high and low pass filtering to the difference signals. In one embodiment, filters can be adjusted to filter different frequency ranges. Filters can be followed by variable gain amplifier for selectively adjusting the gain of the signals. In the case of analog-to-digital conversion in a later stage, the gain adjustment can reduce the number of bits of resolution required in the analog-to-digital converter.
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Signal receiver can also comprise a control module for controlling various components of signal conditioner module and A/D converter module . Control module can be an autonomous system or an operator-assisted system. In the case of an operator-assisted system, the operator visualizes each signal in turn and decides if the signal is an appropriate neural signal or is noise and turns the channel on or off depending on this decision. The operator can select the appropriate reference electrode by looking for one channel that shows little or no discrete activity and would thus be suitable as a reference. Similarly, the operator can optimize the gain on a particular channel based on the size of the neural signals. In the case of an autonomous or semi-autonomous system, a computer program can search for similar criterion as described above for selecting the proper control settings. For instance, the rate of neural spiking as determined by the detector can be an indication if the signal had an appropriate neural signal or was just measuring noise. For automatic gain selection, an autonomous device can monitor the signal levels and adjust the gain so that the fall within a specific voltage range suitable for processing by the A/D converter or other following stage. Control module can receive signals from a processor (not shown) for controlling the components of signal conditioner module and A/D converter module . Control module can be implanted into a subject or worn by the subject.
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Control module can comprise a channel on/off module connected to preamplifiers and for selectively powering preamplifiers and . Module can turn on/off each preamplifier of preamplifiers and for conserving power when it is determined that a corresponding one of neural sensors and is receiving a suitable neural signal from the subject. Selector is shown in connected to only one of preamplifiers and for clarifying the illustration.
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Control module can comprise a reference channel selector connected to multiplexers and and switches , , and for choosing a neural signal or ground as a reference signal. Selector can select one of the inputs into multiplexers and as an output to function as a reference signal. Additionally, selector can control switches and to close to provide ground as a reference signal or open to provide for the output of multiplexers and as the reference signal. Switch can be controlled to select any of neural sensors and as a reference signal as described above.
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Control module can comprise a filter frequency selector connected to filters for selectively adjusting the frequency ranges filtered by filters . The frequency ranges can be selected by adjusting either the capacitive or resistive components of filters . The capacitive elements could be adjusted using electronic switches to add or delete discrete values of capacitance. The resistive components of the filter circuit can be adjusted using a digital potentiometer or another suitable adjustable resistive component known to those of skill in the art. If the filters are composed of integrated switched capacitor elements, the frequency can be adjusted by modifying the clock frequency used to drive the switched capacitor elements. Selector is shown in connected to only one of filters for clarifying the illustration.
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Control module can comprise an amplification selector connected to amplifiers for selecting a magnitude of amplification for each of amplifiers . The amplification can be adjusted by modifying the resistive elements of the amplifier circuit or in the case of a switched capacitor amplifier by adjusting the clock frequencies. Selector is shown in connected to only one of amplifiers and for clarifying the illustration.
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Control module can comprise a channel selector connected to multiplexer for selecting the channels output to A/D converter . Multiplexer can control multiplexer to output only the channels carrying suitable neural signals.
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Referring to , a schematic view of components in signal conditioner module following a neural sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Signal receiver can be include a gain to vary between 3,200 and 50,000. Signal receiver can also have bandpass filter corner frequencies of about 350 hertz and 8,000 hertz. Small amplitude noise signals detected by neural sensors and necessitate low noise and high gain preamplifiers and . Noise can be limited by combining a low noise operational amplifier and a low-pass filter. Preamplifier can include a capacitor C and a resistor R connected to neural sensor and ground for providing a unity gain, high-pass filter. The output of the unity gain, high-pass filter is followed by a non-inverting, low-pass filter having gain. The high-pass filter can include an operational amplifier , a capacitor C, and resistors R and R. The output of the low-pass filter can be connected to the non-inverting input of operational amplifier to prevent loading of the high-pass filter. Resistor R and capacitor C are connected in a feedback configuration from the output of to the inverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between ground and the inverting input of operational amplifier . In one embodiment, operational amplifier is a MAXIM™ 4253 operational amplifier produced by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. for featuring low noise and shutdown to reduce power consumption when not operational. In this embodiment, the gain of preamplifier is 100.
414
410
412
414
410
412
414
514
514
514
516
1
518
2
520
1
522
2
524
410
1
518
514
416
418
1
522
514
414
526
3
528
4
530
514
526
504
4
530
526
2
520
514
3
528
526
2
524
514
514
526
FIGS. 4A and 4B
As stated above, differential amplifier module can follow preamplifiers and . Differential amplifier module follows preamplifiers and for applying more gain in an early stage and improving signal quality by allowing for the rejection of common-mode noise signals. Module can include a differential amplifier (indicated with broken line). In this embodiment, differential amplifier is a MAXIM 4199 differential amplifier produced by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. for providing a differential gain with a common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of about 110 decibels. Differential amplifier can include an operational amplifier , resistors Rd and Rd of the inverting input and resistors Rd and Rd of the noninverting input. The output of preamplifier is connected to resistor Rd of differential amplifier . The reference signal selected by multiplexers and (shown in ) is connected to the resistor Rd of differential amplifier . Module can also include an operational amplifier , a capacitor C, and a resistor R configured as an integrator in the feedback of differential amplifier . The noninverting input of operational amplifier is connected to ground . Resistor R is connected between the inverting input of operational amplifier and resistor Rd of differential amplifier . Capacitor C is connected between the inverting input of operational amplifier and resistor Rd of differential amplifier . Placement of the integrator in the feedback path of differential amplifier improves the common mode range by adding a high-pass pole to attenuate low frequency offset voltages. In one embodiment, operational amplifier is Burr Brown OPA2244 operational amplifier produced by Texas Instruments Incorporated.
428
428
530
532
534
530
536
4
538
5
540
5
542
6
544
7
546
8
548
4
538
5
540
536
516
414
6
544
536
4
538
5
540
5
542
504
536
7
546
504
536
8
548
536
In one embodiment, filter is configured with Bessel filters. Bessel filters can preserve the activation signals if any waveform-based spike sorter is used. Filter can include one or more cascaded filters: (1) a high-pass filter , (2) a first low-pass filter , and (3) a second low-pass filter . Low pass filter can include an operational amplifier , capacitors C and C, and resistors R, R, R, and R. Capacitors C and C are connected in series between the noninverting input of operational amplifier and the output of operational amplifier of differential amplifier module . Resistor R is connected from the output of operational amplifier to the node connecting capacitor C and C. Resistor R is connected between ground and the noninverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between ground and the inverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between the output and the inverting input of operational amplifier .
532
550
5
552
6
554
9
556
10
558
1
560
12
562
9
556
10
558
550
536
530
5
552
550
9
556
10
558
6
554
504
550
11
546
504
550
12
562
550
First low-pass filter can include an operational amplifier , capacitors C and C, and resistors R, R, R, and R. Resistors R and R are connected in series between the noninverting input of operational amplifier and the output of operational amplifier of high-pass filter . Capacitor C is connected from the output of operational amplifier to the node connecting resistors R and R. Capacitor C is connected between ground and the noninverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between ground and the inverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between the output and the inverting input of operational amplifier .
534
564
7
566
8
568
13
570
14
572
15
574
16
576
13
570
14
572
564
550
532
7
566
564
13
570
14
572
8
568
504
564
15
574
504
564
16
576
564
Second low-pass filter can include an operational amplifier , capacitors C and C, and resistors R, R, R, and R. Resistors R and R are connected in series between the noninverting input of operational amplifier and the output of operational amplifier of first low-pass filter . Capacitor C is connected from the output of operational amplifier to the node connecting resistors R and R. Capacitor C is connected between ground and the noninverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between ground and the inverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R is connected between the output and the inverting input of operational amplifier .
FIG. 5
FIGS. 6A and 6B
FIG. 5
FIG. 6A
FIG. 6B
Since Bessel filters can tend minimize phase distortion at the expense of sharp filter roll-offs, higher order filters can be used. In the embodiment described with regard to , there are four high-pass and five low-pass poles. Referring to , graphical views of actual and measured phase and gain responses of the embodiment described with regard to . Referring specifically to , the gain response in the vertical axis is shown verses the frequency spectrum in the horizontal axis. Referring specifically to , the phase response in the left vertical axis and the group delay in the right vertical axis is shown verses the frequency spectrum in the horizontal axis. The maximum group delay at any frequency is about 2 milliseconds.
532
534
536
In one embodiment, high-pass filter , first low-pass filter , and second low-pass filter can comprise three Sallen-Key filters for forming Bessel filters. The operational amplifiers in the three Sallen-Key filters can be a BURR-BROWN™ OPA4244 quad package produced by Texas Instruments Incorporated.
430
428
432
430
578
17
580
582
430
402
465
534
578
17
580
504
578
582
578
430
582
582
578
430
Variable gain amplifier can be positioned after filters for driving the capacitive input load of multiplexer . Variable gain amplifier can include an operational amplifier , resistor R, and a variable resistor . Variable gain amplifier can increase the dynamic range of signal conditioner module . The output of operational amplifier of second low-pass filter can be connected to the noninverting input of operational amplifier . Resistor R can be connected between ground and the inverting input of operational amplifier . Variable resistor VR can be connected between the output and inverting input of operational amplifier for controlling the gain of the input signal to variable gain amplifier . In one embodiment, variable resistor VR is a 200 kiloohm potentiometer. Alternatively, variable resistor VR can be a MAXIM™ 5160 potentiometer produced by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. The MAXIM™ 5160 is a 200 kiloohm, 32-tap digital potentiometer evenly spaced between one and 16.5. In one embodiment, operational amplifier is available on the BURR-BROWN™ OPA4244 quad package for use in variable gain amplifier .
FIGS. 4A and 4B
FIG. 9
404
432
434
432
430
432
434
434
432
434
434
902
Referring again to , A/D converter module can include a time-division multiplexer and an A/D converter for providing time-division multiplexing and sampling, respectively. Time-division multiplexer can include 16 inputs for connection to the outputs of variable gain amplifiers . In one embodiment, time-division multiplexer is an ANALOG DEVICES™ AD706 multiplexer produced by Analog Devices, Inc. of Norwood, Me. In one embodiment, A/D converter includes 12-bit, low power, successive approximation analog-to-digital conversion with a maximum throughput rate of 1 mega samples per second for allowing each of the 16 channels to e sampled at up to 62.5 kilo samples per second. In one embodiment, A/D converter is an ANALOG DEVICES™ AD7495 analog-to-digital converter produced by Analog Devices, Inc. of Norwood, Me. In one embodiment, timing signals for time-division multiplexer and A/D converter are produced on a separate integrated circuit board. The output of A/D converter can be transmitted to a processor, such as a processor of computer system shown in .
402
404
402
404
402
404
In one embodiment, signal conditioner module and A/D converter module are manufactured on the same integrated circuit board. Alternatively, signal conditioner module and A/D converter module can be manufactured on different boards. Power to signal conditioner module and A/D converter module can be supplied by voltage regulators (not shown). In one embodiment, the voltage regulators are two high precision, low dropout voltage regulators. The two voltage regulators can be ANALOG DEVICES™ REF191 and REF198 produced by Analog Devices, Inc. of Norwood, Me., which generate 2.048 volts and 4.096 volts, respectively. The 2.048 voltage rails of ANALOG DEVICES™ REF191 can be used as a virtual ground for effectively creating a ±2.048 volt power supply without requiring an inverting voltage regulator or negative power supply. Since the ANALOG DEVICES™ REF191, by acting as the virtual ground, is incapable of sinking current, its output can be buffered with a unity gain source follower, for example an ANALOG DEVICES™ OP262 produced by Analog Devices, Inc. The virtual ground can be used to ground the subject, provided that the power source is isolated from true ground.
400
400
410
412
414
In one embodiment, signal receiver comprises a six-layer printed circuit board (PCB) for holding the components of signal receiver and a power supply. The PCB can include two 30-pin digital input/output (I/O) connectors and a 20 pin analog input zero input force (ZIF) connector. The analog channels can be laid out in eight parallel rows on each side of a PCB. A high board density can be achieved by using the smallest available hand-solderable parts, such as size 0402 for the passive components, 6.25 mil trace widths, and 24 mil vias with 10 mil drill holes. The analog input connector can include the 16 input lines and two power lines and two ground lines for powering an active circuit. Preamplifiers and and differential amplifier module can be protected from electromagnetic radiation by a grounded metal shield positioned over both sides of the PCB.
400
In one embodiment, a PCB having signal receiver and a power supply includes 50 digital control signals listed in Table I below:
Control Signal
Quantity
ADC Clock
1
ADC Chip Select
1
Variable Gain Up/Down
1
Ground Select Switches
3
Multiplexer 416 Sel/Enb
4
Multiplexer 418 Sel/Enb
4
Multiplexer 432 Sel/Enb
4
Channel Enable
16
Variable Gain Clocks
16
434
582
430
420
422
424
416
418
432
416
418
420
The ADC clock and chip select control signals can control A/D converter . Variable gain up/down control signal can control the resistance of variable resistor VR for adjusting the gain of variable gain amplifier . Ground select switches control signals can control switches , , and . Multiplexer sel/enb, multiplexer sel/enb, and multiplexer sel/enb control signals can control multiplexers , , and , respectively. Channel enable and variable gain clocks control signals can control amplifier enable signals and the variable gain amplifiers in each channel.
434
400
434
448
434
450
436
438
440
442
444
446
Digital input/output can be handled through two parallel 30-pin connectors. The connectors can have 50 control signals, four reference power supply lines, four ground lines, and the output of A/D converter . In one embodiment, the connectors can be connected to a remote computer or processor for controlling and receiving signals from signal receiver . A/D converter can be connected to a transmitter , as described herein, for transmitting the output of converter to the remote computer or processor. Similarly, a remote transmitter can transmit control signals to a receiver that are passed to control module and used to set the state of selectors , , , , and .
FIG. 7
700
700
702
704
706
700
10
708
1
8
710
9
16
702
708
710
712
714
1
8
716
9
16
408
410
712
718
720
722
708
710
718
724
704
16
726
728
714
716
Referring to , a schematic view of a signal receiver, generally designated , having 16 channels according to another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Signal receiver can include a signal conditioner module , a capacitor module , and an A/D converter module . Signal receiver is operable to receive neural signals from a first group of neural sensors (NS–NS) and a second group of neural sensors (NS–NS), condition the neural signals, and provide a digital representation of the neural signals to a neural spike detector or other hardware and/or software combination for further processing such as neural spike detection, sorting, display, or control of a prosthetic device. Signal conditioner module can include input channels for receiving neural signals and connecting first and second group of neural sensors and to a pre-amplification stage (indicated with broken line) having a first group of preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) and a second group of preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) for providing high gain input amplification and band pass filtering for the neural signals of first and second group of neural sensors and , respectively. Pre-amplification stage can be followed by a differential amplifier stage (indicated with broken line) having a first and second multiplexer and for selecting two neural sensors from first and second group of neural signals and , respectively, for providing reference signals to eliminate common mode noise, described in more detail below. Differential amplifier stage can also include operational amplifiers for providing a difference signal between a neural signal and one of the reference signals for eliminating common mode noise signals. Capacitor module can include capacitors connected between a ground and preamplifiers and for reducing the effect of DC offset.
FIG. 8
FIG. 7
714
702
726
704
714
716
714
726
704
714
800
1
802
2
804
1
802
800
728
2
804
800
800
1
802
2
804
50
1
802
2
804
726
800
1
802
728
712
726
800
726
800
714
Referring to , a schematic view of a preamplifier of signal conditioner module configured with an associated capacitor of capacitor module (shown in ) according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Components of first group of preamplifiers and second group of preamplifiers are the same in this embodiment. As stated above, each preamplifier is connected to one of capacitors of capacitor module . Preamplifier can include an operational amplifier and resistors R and R. Resistor R is connected between the inverting input of operational amplifier and ground . Resistor R is connected between the output and inverting input of operational amplifier . In one embodiment, the configuration of operational amplifier and resistors R and R provide a gain of . According to one embodiment, resistor R is 7.3 kilo ohms and R is 357 kilo ohms. Capacitor is connected in the feedback of operational amplifier between resistor R and ground to provide a high-pass portion for forcing the gain of pre-amplification stage to unity for DC signals. According to one embodiment, capacitor is 100 nanofarads. The low-pass filter is provided by the gain bandwidth product of operational amplifier . Capacitor provides correction of the DC offset problem associated with conditioning neural signals. Input from the neural signal can be connected to the noninverting input of operational amplifier . In this embodiment, pre-amplifier provides a gain of 50 and band pass filtering between 218 hertz and 10,000 hertz to the received neural signal.
702
704
706
714
726
726
714
716
Preferably, signal conditioner module , capacitor module , and A/D converter module are manufactured on separate integrated circuits. This design for pre-amplifier has the advantage of high input impedance and large pass band gain and only one off chip component, capacitor , for signal conditioning and only one additional input/output (I/O) pin required to connect capacitor to a preamplifier of first group of preamplifiers or second group of preamplifiers . The circuit operation offers the advantage of reducing the effect of DC offset on a very broad range of neural sensors. This configuration can present a very high input impedance to the sensor thus allowing sensors with a high or low output impedance to be monitored. Manufacturing the modules on separate chips can allow commercial devices to be used for the capacitor module and the A/D converter modules. These parts can be made from different IC technologies and manufacturing them on different chips can allow the optimum technology to be used for each module.
FIG. 7
718
720
722
714
1
8
716
9
16
700
708
1
16
1
8
708
9
16
710
1
8
708
9
16
710
720
722
720
722
714
716
700
720
722
724
714
716
724
724
714
716
720
722
724
724
Referring again to , as stated above, differential amplifier stage can also include first and second multiplexers and for providing selection of a neural signal from a first group of preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) and a second group of preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) as reference signals to eliminate common mode noise. As stated above, signal receiver can include inputs for 16 neural sensors , NS to NS. In this embodiment, the neural sensors are divided into a first group (NS–NS) and a second group (NS–NS) for positioning in generally different locations of the neural tissue of a subject. First group (NS–NS) and second group (NS–NS) can be connected to first multiplexer and second multiplexer , respectively, for selectively setting a reference signal for the neural signals of the respective group. Taking a reference signal from the portion of neural tissue close to the other sensors allows for the optimal cancellation of signals common to both sensors. These common signals are typically noise from both intrinsic and extrinsic sources. First multiplexer and second multiplexer include 8 inputs for connection to the outputs of first and second preamplifiers and , respectively, and can be set to one of the neural signals of the respective group as the reference signal for output. Preferably, the reference signal is set to a suitable neural signal. A reference signal can contain all of the noise signals common to the neural signal but does not contain the neural signal itself. Thus, when the reference signal is subtracted from signal recorded from the neural electrode, all of the noise will be removed. A good reference signal can be purposely created by implanting a sensor specifically to be used as a reference sensor, or a reference signal can be selected from among the available neural signals by examining the signal properties of each one using a distant reference signal and determining which of the neural signals is composed of only noise signals and contains little or no components from discrete neural generators. In the alternative, signal receiver can include circuitry for automatically selecting and setting suitable reference signals. The output of first multiplexer and second multiplexer can be connected to the inverting input of each of operational amplifiers in its associated group of operational amplifiers. The outputs of preamplifiers and can be connected to one of the noninverting inputs of its associated operational amplifiers . Therefore, the resulting output of operational amplifiers is the difference signal of the inputs. The difference signal is the difference between the input neural signal from one of preamplifiers and and the reference signal of one of multiplexers and . Operational amplifiers can also provide a gain to the difference signal. In one embodiment, operational amplifiers provide a gain of 10.
706
730
732
724
734
734
706
734
734
A/D converter module can include a third and fourth multiplexer and for multiplexing the difference signals at the outputs of operational amplifiers into two signals for analog-to-digital conversion by A/D converters . The outputs of A/D converters is the digital representation of the difference signal. Alternatively, module can include a number of multiplexers up to one half of the total number of channels and a number of A/D converters up to the total number of channels. The output of A/D converters can be connected to a neural spike detector or other suitable hardware and/or software configuration, such as a computer system, for further processing.
FIG. 9
900
902
900
904
900
906
902
Referring to , a schematic view of a signal receiver, generally designated , having 32 channels and communication with a remote computer system, generally designated , according to another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Signal receiver can include a headstage component attached to the outside of the skin of the head of a subject for receiving and conditioning neural signals from the subject. Further, signal receiver can include a wearable component for attachment to the subject and for further processing neural signal, converting the signal to a digital representation, and transmitting the signal to remote computer system .
904
1
16
908
17
32
910
908
910
904
1
912
2
914
908
910
Headstage component can be attached to a first group of neural sensors (NS–NS) and a second group of neural sensors (NS–NS) for receiving electrical-based neural signals from the subject. The first and second group of neural signals and are positioned in generally different portions of the neural tissue of the subject. Headstage component can also be connected to a first reference neural signal (REF NS) and a second reference neural signal (REF NS) positioned generally in the same portion of the neural tissue as first and second group of neural sensors and , respectively, for providing a reference signal for eliminating common mode noise.
904
1
16
916
18
33
918
908
910
906
920
922
912
914
1
500
1
502
FIG. 5
FIG. 5
Headstage component can include a first group of preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) and a second group of preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) attached to first and second group of neural sensors and , respectively, for filtering and amplifying the neural signals. Headstage component can further include preamplifiers and attached to reference neural sensors and , respectively, for filtering and amplifying the reference neural signals. The preamplifiers can include a circuit for removing the DC offset. If the DC offset correction is not included, the output signals can connect to an analog processor of the type shown in, for example, which corrects the DC offset using capacitor C and resistor R (shown in ).
904
920
922
922
916
918
920
922
924
926
920
922
928
930
928
930
928
930
922
916
918
924
926
FIG. 5
Headstage component can further include a first group of operational amplifiers and a second group of operational amplifiers for providing a difference signal of the neural signals and an associated reference neural signal to eliminate common mode noise. If operational amplifiers are included, the outputs of preamplifiers and can be connected to one of the noninverting inputs of an associated operational amplifier of first group of operational amplifiers and second group of operation amplifiers , respectively. The output of preamplifiers and can be connected to the inverting input of each of first group of operational amplifiers and second group of operation amplifiers , respectively. Therefore, the resulting output of operational amplifiers and is the difference signal of the inputs, the neural signal and its associated reference signal. Operational amplifiers and can also provide a gain to the difference signal. Preferably, operational amplifiers and provide a gain of 10. If operational amplifiers are not included, then the signal outputs from , , and can be input to an analog processor of the type shown, for example in .
906
932
928
930
932
906
934
936
934
934
938
938
936
936
936
936
934
Wearable component includes an analog processor for receiving and processing the signals from operational amplifiers and . Analog processor can condition and time-division multiplexes the neural signals. Wearable component can also include an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter for converting the signal into a digital representation of the neural signal for receipt by a single board computer . A/D converter can digitize signals at 30 k samples/second per channel at eight, ten, or 12 bits of resolution. Fifty digital inputs can be used for controlling channel enables, variable gain amplifiers, and analog to digital conversion timing. A/D converter can include a regulated power supply and pack the digitized data. In this embodiment, power supply is powered by a pair of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Computer can format the data from the A/D converter into a format which is suitable for transmission over standard media for instance TCP/IP or UDP protocols for a wired or wireless network. Computer can also format the data for a wired or wireless non-standard media connection such as a point-to-point wired or wireless connection. Further, computer can perform data reduction schemes including spike based data reduction such as spike detection and transmission or spike sorting. Additionally, computer can also perform other types of data compression encoding familiar to those skilled in the art such as run length encoding or MPEG type compression. A/D converter module includes power regulation circuitry, complex programmable logic device (CPLD), and a first-in first-out (FIFO) memory. CPLD can generate both static and timing control signals. The static signals are specified by an operator (via the wearable computer) and loaded into registers in the CPLD. The registers automatically assert signals onto the A/D converter and receiver modules thus controlling the function of these components.
936
940
902
938
940
902
938
936
940
Computer can also prepare the digital signal for transmission by a wireless telemetry module to remote computer system . Wireless telemetry module and antenna can transmit a representation of the neural signal to remote computer system for further processing. In this embodiment, wireless telemetry module comprises an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11b wireless ethernet card for transmitting a distance up to 9 meters. Alternatively, computer and wireless telemetry unit can be another suitable wireless technology such as 802.11a, 802.11g, a Bluetooth module, UWB radio or a commercial or other point-to-point wireless connection.
902
942
902
944
902
Remote computer system can include a processor, memory, and a telemetry component for receiving and processing the transmitted signal from antenna . Computer system can further process the signal and display the received neural signal and any results of processing the neural signal to an operator on a display . Computer system can be a commercial system for processing and receiving neural signals such as the Plexon MAP processor (plexon is in Texas) or could be a commercial computer with software to process the neural signals. In either case, the signals can be spike sorted, and processed as previously described within and across signals to derive control commands from the neural signals.
FIG. 10
1000
1002
1000
1000
1004
1006
1000
1008
1002
1006
1008
1008
1002
1008
1002
Referring to , a schematic view of a signal receiver, generally designated , having 16 channels and communication with a remote computer system, generally designated , according to another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. In this embodiment, signal receiver is a headstage neurochip for implantation into a subject. Signal receiver can comprise a neural signal receiver and a neural signal processor and another implanted module . Further, signal receiver can include a wearable component for attachment to the subject and for further processing neural signals, converting the signals to a digital representation, compressing the signals, and transmitting the signal to remote computer system . Further, implanted module can communicate with wearable component using radio communication or optical communication. Wearable component can relay the control data from remote computer system or use software to determine the control settings. Wearable component can also relay a portion or all of the data from the implanted component to the remote computer system . If only a portion of the data is relayed, this portion can be a compressed version of the signal or a processed version where the processing can be similar to that described above. The radio communication can be UWB radio, a commercial radio format such as 802.11a,b,g or other point-to-point radio technology. The optical communication can be near infrared light transmitted transcutaneously through the skin. The transmission can be analog or digital M-ary signals including binary. The transmission can be at other light wavelengths which are efficiently transmitted through the skin. Further, the transmission through the skin could be performed using acoustical energy in the form of analog or digital M-ary signals including binary. Such acoustical communication can be performed with a carrier frequency of between 1 and 50 Mhz or alternately using acoustical pulses of short duration encoding the information using pulse width, pulse position or pulse amplitude modulation.
1004
1
16
1010
1
16
1012
1010
1012
Signal receiver can comprise preamplifiers (PREAMP–PREAMP) attached to neural sensors (NS–NS) for receiving electrical-based neural signals from the subject. Preamplifiers can filter and amplify the neural signals detected by neural sensors .
1004
1014
1010
1014
1004
1016
1018
1016
1018
Signal receiver can also comprise a reference signal selection component attached to preamplifiers . Component can comprise multiplexers and/or differential amplifiers for selecting an appropriate reference signal. Signal receiver can also comprise a high pass filter and low pass filter for providing filtering to the neural signals. Filters and can pass all of the neural signal components (20–8000 Hz) or can pass a portion of the signal that allows for optimal spike detection and sorting.
1006
1020
1004
1006
1022
1024
1024
1024
1026
1008
1026
1002
Implanted module can include an analog processor for receiving and processing the signals from signal receiver . Implanted module can also include an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter for converting the signal into a digital representation of the neural signal for receipt by a processor . Processor can further process the digital signal by detecting or sorting spikes, processing spikes on a single channel by binning or some other integrating process, and combining information across neural signals to generate control signals. Processor can also prepare the digital signal for transmission as described herein by a wireless telemetry module to wearable component . Wireless telemetry module can transmit a representation of the neural signal to remote computer system for further processing.
1008
1000
1008
1008
1006
1006
1008
1026
Wearable component can be worn directly over implanted component as would be suitable for optical or acoustic transmission. Additionally, wearable component can be worn directly over or nearby if radio transmission is used. According to one embodiment, wearable component can be positioned in a helmet worn over implanted module . The components of implanted module can also be wired subcutaneously such that a transmitter can reside in another region of the body and the wearable component can be positioned over the transmitter in that region. According to one embodiment, several neural signal receiver modules can be placed near the electrodes and the transmitter placed subcutaneously near the pectoral region of the chest. These modules can be connected together using subcutaneous wires tunneled inside the body. The wearable relay system can be placed in a vest or jacket with telemetry module positioned over the implanted transmitter module.
1002
1028
1002
1030
1002
Remote computer system can include a processor, memory, and a telemetry component for receiving and processing the transmitted signal from antenna . Computer system can further process the signal as described herein and display the received neural signal and any results of processing the neural signal to an operator on a display . Computer system can also process the signals as described above to derive control signals to control a prosthetic device or other devices as described above.
FIG. 11
1100
1102
1102
1100
1102
1106
1104
1108
Referring to , a schematic view of a neurochip including a wireless telemetry module implanted subcutaneously in communication with a wearable component positioned outside the skin and adjacent neurochip . Wireless telemetry module can comprise a neural signal transmitter for transmitting conditioned neural signals. Wearable component can comprise a neural signal receiver for receiving the conditioned neural signals.
1102
1104
436
402
404
1104
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FIGS. 4A and 4B
FIGS. 4A and 4B
FIGS. 4A and 4B
Wireless telemetry module and wearable component can communicate control signals to a control module, such as control module shown in , for controlling various components of signal conditioner module, such as signal conditioner module shown in , and an A/D converter module, such as converter module shown in . Wearable component can transmit control signals to neurochip via a transmitter . The control signals can originate from a processor in wearable component running an algorithm as described below, or can relay the control information from a remote processor under operator control or under the control of an algorithm. Wearable component can also receive data signals from neurochip via a transmitter and process or compress the data signals. Wearable component can also transmit the modified data to a remote receiver for further processing and for device control.
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The control signals can be generated by a processor that examines the neural signals to determine the usefulness of a given signal. If a given signal is considered useful, for example because it contains characteristic spikes as determined by an operator or an algorithm, then the control signals which control the power to that channel are enabled and the control signals which control the multiplexer and A/D converter are enabled to sample and convert the given channel. Also, if a channel is enabled, the control signals controlling the amplification and filtering are manipulated to provide an optimized neural signal for later detection and sorting. For instance, the gain can be adjusted by an operator or an algorithm such that the amplitude of the largest spikes fill ⅔ of the A/D converter input range. Similarly, the filter setting can be optimized by an operator or an algorithm to give a characteristic neural waveshape. The control signals can be generated by an analog or digital processor that is located in neurochip , located in the implanted signal processor, one of the wearable components or in the remote signal receiver. They could originate from a processor performing an algorithm as described, or could be controlled through the processor by an operator. Wireless telemetry module can comprise a control receiver for receiving the control signals. Wearable component can comprise a control transmitter for transmitting control signals to control receiver .
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Wearable component can subcutaneously transmit power to neurochip . Wearable component can comprise a power/clock transmitter for transmitting power and a clock signal electromagnetically to wireless telemetry module . Wireless telemetry module can comprise a power/clock receiver for receiving the power and clock signal from power/clock transmitter . The clock signal can be important when there is more than one neural signal receiver, as spikes obtained from different anatomical locations need to be synchronized to a single clock source. The clock source can be generated by a processor or IC in wearable component or in a remote receiver.
FIG. 12
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Referring to , a schematic view of a neural spike detector, generally designated , according to one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Neural spike detector can include an analog sampler for receiving the analog conditioned neural signals of a single neural sensor from a signal receiver. Analog sampler samples the conditioned signal N times and stores the N samples. Neural spike detector can include a counter and control logic module , decoder , and control logic/memory module for controlling sampling. Module can be operable to receive a clock signal input for synchronization with a signal receiver or neural spike processor. In one embodiment, the N samples are stored in analog form such as by a low leakage capacitor. Alternatively, the N samples can be stored in digital form. Neural spike detector can include a buffer array having N buffers for buffering and driving each of the N samples. Neural spike detector can also include an analog processor for receiving the N samples from buffer array . In one embodiment, analog processor combines the N samples by implementing a scaling (gain) and summing algorithm. Alternatively, the N samples can be combined using gain and/or power operations known to those of skill in the art. Analog processor characterizes the results of the operations using a comparison to threshold levels in the processor and output to a logic state machine . Logic state machine determines whether a neural spike has been detected. On the detection of a spike, the N samples in buffer array can be passed to an output spike formatter for transmission for further processing, such as spike sorting and interpretation. The output of output spike formatter is the N samples stored in buffer array and M samples that are immediately following the N samples. The M samples can be used for further characterizing the neural spike. In one embodiment, the sampling rate is 40 kHz, N is 8, and M is 32. Control logic/memory module can control operation of analog processor and logic state machine .
FIG. 13
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Referring to , a schematic view of a neural spike detector, generally designated , according to one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Neural spike detector can include an analog-to-digital converter for receiving the analog conditioned neural signals of a single neural sensor from a signal receiver. Analog-to-digital converter can convert the conditioned neural signal into a digital representation. Neural signal detector can also include a digital processor for detecting neural spikes in the neural signal. In one embodiment, neural spikes are detected by (1) sampling the conditioned signal; (2) combining the samples; (3) comparing the combined samples to predetermined thresholds; and (4) determining whether a spike has been detected based on the comparison in step (3). Digital processor can transmit samples of a neural spike to an output spike formatter for transmission to a device for further processing.
FIG. 14
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Referring to , a schematic view of a signal transmitter, generally designated , according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Signal transmitter is advantageous because signal transmission includes UWB transmission, wherein data is transmitted only when a neuron spike is detected on any of the input neural signals from neural sensors (NS–NS) . UWB transmission saves significant power consumption. Signal transmitter includes an asynchronous wideband protocol having channel identifiers and time stamp coding so that when a spike is detected on any one channel the time and source can be uniquely identified.
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Signal transmitter can include signal conditioners and neural spike detectors . Each neural sensor can be connected to one of signal conditioners for providing filtering and amplification to the detected neural signals. Signal conditioners can be connected to neural spike detectors . Neural spike detectors are operable to detect a neural spike on the conditioned neural signal and transmit a pulse signal on the detection of a neural spike. Neural spike detectors can generate a UWB pulse sequence consisting of pulses of approximately one nanosecond in duration on the detection of a neural spike.
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Generally spike signal trains have a repetition rate of between approximately 10 and 50 Hertz and spike duration of between approximately 1 and 2 milliseconds. Thus, there is significant dead time between the neural spikes allowing all of the spike information about one spike to be transmitted before another spike on the same channel occurs. The wide band nature of signal transmitter is generated from the very narrow (˜1 nanosecond) digital pulse signals that are generated and transmitted to an antenna driver and antenna .
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Signal transmitter can include a collision detector and separator component for preventing any overlap of neural spike pulses occurring simultaneously from all of neural spike detectors . On the detection of an overlap, component queues the pulses and transmit the pulses to channel identifiers . Channel identifiers can replace each pulse with a generated channel identification code having m bits for indicating the origin neural sensor . The channel identifier encoder that creates a unique digital code (m bits in length) for each channel is provided by the equation 2=n.
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The digital data generated by component is summed together and transmitted to a sync pulse generator . Generator interleaves a period sync pulse with the data pulses. The sync pulse can keep the signal receiver, described below, and signal transmitter in synchronization. The sync and data pulses can then be convolved with the signal generated by a VCO . The resulting signal is transmitted to antenna driver and antenna for transmission. The pulsewidth of the baseband signal determines how many VCO cycles will be transmitted per symbol. In this embodiment, each sync and data pulse is represented by half cycles of the VCO waveform, but can also be increased by integer multiples for improved symbol recover rate in the presence of noise within the signal receiver.
FIG. 15
FIG. 14
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Referring to , a schematic view of a signal receiver, generally designated , and a spike processor, generally designated , according to one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Signal receiver can receive signal from signal transmitter of . Signal receiver can include a linear amplifier matching filter for receiving the transmitted signal. The received signal is passed to a sync waveform correlator and peak detector for recovering the delay/timing of each transmitted frame resulting in a pulsed waveform. The pulsed waveform is transmitted to channel data correlators for identifying the time when the data is recovered. Next, channel spike recovery components convert the channel-encoded signals to the actual single pulse output. The individual outputs are then sent to a spike processor for processing into control signals.
It will be understood that various details of the invention may be changed without departing from the scope of the invention. Furthermore, the foregoing description is for the purpose of illustration only, and not for the purpose of limitation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Exemplary embodiments of the invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
FIG. 1
is a schematic view of a neural signal system according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2
is a flow chart of a process for neural spike detection according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3
is a graphical view of simulation results of the input signal and output signal of a neural spike detector according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 4A and 4B
are a schematic views of a signal receiver having 16 channels according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5
is a schematic view of a signal conditioner module following a neural sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 6A and 6B
FIG. 5
are graphical views of actual and measured phase and gain responses of the embodiment of the present invention described with regard to ;
FIG. 7
is a schematic view of a signal receiver having 16 channels according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8
is a schematic view of a preamplifier of signal conditioner module configured with an associated capacitor of a capacitor module according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9
is schematic view of a signal receiver having 32 channels and communication with a remote computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 10
is a schematic view of a signal receiver having 16 channels and communication with a remote computer system according to another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 11
is a schematic view of a neural spike detector according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 12
is a schematic view of a neural spike detector according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 13
is a schematic view of a signal transmitter according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 14
is a schematic view of a signal receiver and a spike processor according to one embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 15
is a schematic view of a signal receiver and a spike processor according to one embodiment of the present invention. | |
Getting anxious around flying in an airplane is not unusual, but Jennifer Lawrence’s reaction to that fear is particularly intense.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence talked about her fear of not being able to control herself and gave the example of how she feels when she flies.
“I’ve recently had problems with plane anxiety and it’s really similar,” she said of the extremely raw, emotional acting required of her in her new movie Mother! “I’m not afraid of the airplane, I’m afraid of me on the airplane and losing control of myself.”
More: How to Zap the Fear of Flying
Turns out, her fear is not that far-fetched. She then admitted to standing up mid-flight and warning other passengers of what she perceived to be impending doom.
“You know when they hit an air pocket and it feels like you’re falling? I did it on a night flight one time: “We’re going down! It’s coming down!,” she said.
One time she went even further.
“I tried to jump out of an Air France flight once,” she told the magazine. “I can’t believe I didn’t get arrested. I got really claustrophobic and I had to get out.”
More: 3 Myths About Airline Travel You Shouldn’t Buy Into
Lawrence is hardly alone in her fears: Approximately 25 percent of Americans experience some nervousness around flying, while around 6.5 percent have aviophobia, an extreme fear of flying, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. | https://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1136190/j-laws-plane-anxiety/ |
Mabon is the time of the second harvest, and of thanksgiving.
At the time of the autumn equinox, there are equal hours of light and dark. It is a time of balance, and while summer is ending, the winter is approaching. This is a season in which farmers are harvesting their fall crops, gardens are beginning to die, and the earth gets a bit cooler each day. Let’s look at some of the ways that this second harvest holiday has been honored around the world for centuries.
- In China, the moon’s birthday falls around the time of the autumn equinox. Special holiday birthday cakes are baked with flour from harvested rice, and families gather together to honor the moon. It is believed that flowers will fall from the sky on the night of the moon’s birthday, and those who saw them fall would be blessed with great abundance.
- Many English counties still observe Michaelmas, which is the feast of St. Michael, on September 29. Customs included the preparation of a meal of goose which had been fed on the stubble of the fields following the harvest (called a stubble-goose). There was also a tradition of preparing special larger-than-usual loaves of bread, and St. Michael’s bannocks, which was a special kind of oatcake.
- Long before the Pilgrims arrived in the New World, the Native peoples of North America celebrated the harvest with thanksgiving festivals in the autumn. This typically included lots of meat and grains to eat. Games and activities were held, and it was also useful as a time of matchmaking between neighboring villages.
- In some Germanic countries, people worried about the fate of their grain harvest. If there was a great deal of wind during the harvesting season, it could be because Odin wanted a share of the crop. To keep him happy, a few spare sacks of flour were emptied into the wind.
- The Yoruba people of Nigeria had a celebration in October to celebrate the yam harvest. Dances were held to honor the ancestors, and to bid farewell to those who might have died in the past year. Yams were offered to dancers in hopes that a fertile crop would appear next year. Interestingly, studies have shown that women who consume a lot of yams (real African yams, not sweet potatoes) are statistically more likely to conceive twins, so there is certainly a link between yams and fertility symbolism!
- The Iroquois people celebrated a Corn Dance each fall. This was a way to give thanks for the ripening of the grain — songs, dances and drumming were part of the celebration. Naturally, food played an important part as well, including corn bread and soup.
- For the ancient Druids, the fall equinox was Alban Elfed. Many contemporary Druids celebrate this as at time of balance and thanksgiving. | https://witchesofthecraft.com/2012/09/19/mabon-celebrations-around-the-world/ |
A Brief History of Valentine’s Day
Every year, on February 14th, lovers come together to celebrate romance in the name of St. Valentine. But who was the mysterious St. Valentine and how did he manage to inspire an entire day dedicated entirely to love? Find out how this tradition came about and how it’s managed to survive for centuries in our brief history of Valentine’s Day.
The Mythology of St. Valentine
The story of who St. Valentine really was is one surrounded by mystery. What we do know is that the mythology contains references to both Christian and ancient Roman traditions, but it still begs the question: who was St. Valentine? At least three saints named Valentine or Valentinus – all of whom were martyred – are recognised by the Catholic Church and there are many legends surrounding these saints.
One such legend is that Valentine was a priest who served during 3rd century Rome and performed marriages for young lovers in secret even though it had been outlawed by Emperor Claudius II who wanted young men to be soldiers instead of husbands. When Valentine’s dedication to love was discovered, he was put to death by the orders of the Emperor.
Lupercalia: A Pagan Festival in February
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in mid-February to commemorate the death of St. Valentine, others believe that it was strategically placed during the month of February by the Catholic Church to sanctify the pagan celebration of Lupercalia – much like how online betting has to be approved by government. Celebrated on February 15th, Lupercalia was a fertility festival celebrated in the name of Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and brothers Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.
During the festival, after a series of religious rites, the young women of the city would place their names in a large urn, after which the city’s bachelors would draw a name. The pair would then spend the next year together and these pairings often ended in marriage.
Evolving into a Day of Romance
While Lupercalia may have survived the initial rise of Christianity, it was ultimately outlawed at the end of the 5th century by Pope Gelasius as it was deemed ‘un-Christian’ and the 14th of February was officially declared St. Valentine’s Day.
However, the day only began being associated with love much later and it was believed in France and England during the Middle Ages that February 14th was the beginning of the birds’ mating season which added to the idea of a day of romance. However, Valentine’s greetings did not become popular until after 1400 and the oldest known Valentine is a poem penned by Charles, Duke of Orleans in 1415 to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.
The Tradition of Valentine’s Cards Begins
By the 18th century, the celebration of Valentine’s Day was incredibly popular and people exchanged small gifts and handwritten notes. Today, approximately 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making it the 2nd most popular card-sending holiday – surpassed only by Christmas.
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History of Valentine’s Day
The world celebrates Feb. 14 as Valentine's Day. It is also celebrated as lover’s day by exchanging candies, flowers and gifts between couples in love. It was originated in the 5th century in Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop. The history of Valentine's Day remains fuzzy and there are different stories about who actually Valentine was.
A group of historians suggest that Valentine was a priest in Rome serving under the reign of Emperor Claudius II during the third century, approximately 270 AD. During this period, the Emperor Claudius II prohibited marriage for young men, saying that the unmarried soldiers are more capable. But Valentine secretly continued to perform marriage ceremonies, but was finally apprehended by the Claude and he ordered to put him to death. So as a regard for him, February 14 is celebrated as Valentine’s Day.
What did the Church curb the celebration of Lupercalia festival?
However, some believe that the Valentine’s Day celebration was an effort made by the Church to prevent the celebration of pagan Lupercalia festival which was held on February 15. The celebration featured a lottery in which every young man will pick out a girl’s name from the jar in random and they would become partners until the festival gets over. Sometimes this pairing lasted for an entire year, and often, they fall in love and marry later.
In order to prevent this erotic festivity, the pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome encouraged the participants to substitute the names of saints. Then, for the next twelve months, the participants were to follow the principles represented by the saint whom they had chosen. Pope Gelasius announced Feb. 14 as Valentine’s Day in the year around 498 AD. The festival of Lupercalia was considered illegal and non-Christian. As a result many of the young Roman men were not too pleased with this new rule.
Thus the early Christians priests tried to modulate the sexual nature of Lupercalia by turning the “festival into a ceremony of love. Instead of the pagan god Lupercus, the Church looked for a saint of love as a substitute. They considered Valentine as an appropriate choice who had been beheaded by Emperor Claudius, in the year 270.
Do you know the story behind the Saint Valentine?
During the reign of Emperor Claudius II, Rome was involved in many bloody and unnecessary battles. At that time Claudius found difficulty in getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He felt that Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result he banned marriage from his empire. But Valentine secretly continued to perform marriage to young men and women who came to him. When Claudius found out Valentine’s activity, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death for secretly conducting several marriages.
During his days of imprisonment Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. His great love miraculously cured her blindness before his death. Before he was taken to his death, he signed a farewell message to her, “From your Valentine”. The phrase has been used on his day ever since.
Thus the Church has chosen the single Valentine against the pagan goddess Juno. As Valentine was martyred on February 14, the Church could also prevent the celebration of Lupercalia on February 15. Valentine was a pure man in the art of love. To make the Holy saint more attractive for fans, the Church may have overstated his life. The records no longer exist since it happened long ago. | https://www.woman24.net/history-of-valentines-day/ |
24-hour airport shuttle service is available. Fees may apply. Contact the property in advance to get details.
Required at check-in
- Credit card, debit card, or cash deposit required for incidental charges
- Government-issued photo ID required
- Minimum check-in age is 18
- If you require a visa to enter the country, your property may be able to help with the supporting documents needed to obtain one *
Russian citizens: Adults (aged 14 and over) must present a valid internal passport at check-in (international Russian passports and driver's licenses are not accepted). Birth certificates must be presented for all Russian children (aged under 14) at check-in. If a Russian relative or legal guardian (rather than a parent) is traveling in Russia with a child under 14, that relative or legal guardian is also required to present documentation certifying authority to accompany child at check-in. Foreign citizens: Adults and children must present a valid passport, visa, and migration card at check-in.
Travelling with others
Children
- One child (12 years old and younger) stays free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding
Pets
- Pets not allowed
Internet
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
Transport
Transfers
- Train station pick-up
Parking
- Self parking *
Payment types at the property
- Cash
In the hotel
- Buffet breakfast daily (surcharge)
- Restaurant
- Bar/lounge
- 24-hour room service
- 24-hour fitness facilities
- Full-service spa
- Spa treatment room(s)
- Steam room
- Sauna
- Business centre
- Meeting rooms
- Conference centre
- 24-hour front desk
- Concierge services
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Laundry facilities
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Luggage storage
- Multilingual staff
- Porter
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Year Built – 2015
- Lift
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Designated smoking areas (fines apply)
- Library
- Television in common areas
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
- Wheelchair-accessible path of travel
- English
- Russian
In the room
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Air conditioning
- Minibar
- Espresso maker
- Bathrobes
- Slippers
- Hypo-allergenic bedding available
- Pillow menu
- Turndown service
- Premium bedding
- Individually decorated
- Private bathroom
- Bathtub or shower
- Bidet
- Designer toiletries
- Hair dryer
- 42-inch LED TV
- Pay movies
- Satellite TV channels
- DVD player
- Desk
- Free newspaper
- Free WiFi
- Phone
- Cookware, dishware and utensils
- Free bottled water
- Daily housekeeping
- In-room safe
Special features
Spa
StandArt SPA has 3 treatment rooms. Services include massages. The spa is equipped with a sauna, a steam room, and Turkish bath/hammam.
The spa is open daily.
DiningYURA Restaurant - This fine-dining restaurant specializes in Modern European cuisine and serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and light fare. Guests can enjoy drinks at the bar.
StandArt Hotel Moscow. A Member of Design Hotels’s small print
Also known as
- Standart Hotel Moscow
- Standart Hotel
- Standart Moscow
- StandArt Hotel Moscow. A Member of Design Hotels Moscow
- StandArt Hotel Moscow. A Member of Design Hotels Hotel Moscow
Policies
If you require a visa to enter the country, your property may be able to help with the supporting documents needed to obtain one. To learn more, you can reach out to the property via the contact details included on your booking confirmation. The property may charge for this assistance, even if you end up cancelling your reservation. All arrangements are solely between the property and yourself.
Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms.
Some facilities may have restricted access. Guests can contact the property for details using the contact information on the booking confirmation.
Reservations are required for massage services and spa treatments and can be made by contacting the property before arrival at the number on the booking confirmation.
Optional extras
Self parking costs RUB 2500 per day
Rollaway beds are available for RUB 2500.0 per night
Buffet breakfast is offered for an extra charge of RUB 2250 for adults and RUB 1125 for children (approximately)
Airport shuttle service is offered for an extra charge of RUB 7800 per vehicle
Train station pick-up service is offered for an extra charge
We have included all charges provided to us by this property. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the unit you book.
Recent reviews
Superb 9.2 From 222 reviews
Very modern, clean and Centrally located place. Nice bar with friendly staff
Not impressed by the work done on the top floor making a lot of noises... I was expecting StandArt to offer me a new room but unfortunately this seems to be too much to ask! Not to mentioned the fire alarm at 6am...
Perfect service and perfect location. The best hotel in Moscow from my point of view
As always very good Location is the best value for money
Fantastic location. Comfortable, well equipped, and designed rooms. Staff were friendly, helpful, and accomodating. I would definitely go back and highly recommend the Standart Hotel Moscow. | https://au.hotels.com/ho515279/ |
WELCOME to the events page for the Loyola University Graduate Student Organization (GSO).
It was great meeting a number of you at our events this past year. The GSO is not hosting activities or events over the summer, but we welcome your suggestions and ideas for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Grad Friday Information:
Grad Friday is your place to check for events going on specifically for graduate students at Loyola. It began as an idea by the Graduate Student Organization to plan one Friday event a month, but has evolved to include a compilation of interesting programs, events, speakers, and other happenings that would be of interest to graduate students any day of the week.
Click the "Suggest an Event" link below to share your ideas. Watch for our monthly newsletter from your program director, or on this page.
Have any questions or ideas for a future event? Contact us at [email protected], or use the Suggest an Event form. | https://www.loyola.edu/department/graduate-students/events |
Computational Analysis becomes ever more important for the advancement of personalized medicine. Bioinformatics accelerate the patient-centric molecular characterization of diseases and lead to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms thus facilitating the development of novel drugs. Progress in Artificial Intelligence has a strong impact on clinical decision making in diagnosis and treatment. Nowadays, collection of huge amounts of data in the clinic and the lab is straight forward. However, the challenge lies within the analysis to draw the right conclusion from this big data.
This symposium gives researchers, developers and students from the fields of (bio)medicine and (bio)informatics the chance to discuss recent challenges in an interdisciplinary setting and brings together players from research and industry.
Gain insights into the role of biomedical informatics in pharmaceutical companies and get to know the latest developments in image analysis for diagnosis. Discuss methods, findings and the latest bioinformatical approaches. Connect to other researchers and entrepreneurs in the field and explore regional job opportunities. | https://bioinformatik.de/de/veranstaltungen-3/766-biomedical-informatics-symposium-june-20,-2018.html |
Abstract In decision making under risk, do consumers evaluate intangible, experiential options in a choice set in the same way they evaluate tangible, material options? Prior research on prospect theory, typically using either monetary or material objects as choice options, demonstrates that consumers are risk averse for choices involving gains, with a fairly robust tendency to favor a more certain outcome even when that outcome is less desirable. The present research focuses on decision making under risk for experiential options (from movies to concert tickets to hotel stays)—identifying choices between experiential options as a realm in which prospect theory's pattern of risk aversion is weakened and sometimes reversed. Across six studies, this research demonstrates that consumers are more risk seeking for experiential choices and thus more likely to prefer more desirable options, even options that are less certain. Further, the stronger personal connection fostered by experiential (vs. material) choice options mediates risk‐seeking preferences. This work demonstrates a moderator for prospect theory and investigates the tendency toward increased risk seeking among experiential options, in this paper termed a “go big or go home” strategy. Conversely, consistent risk aversion is evidenced for choices involving material options (from clothing to accessories and furniture). | https://psychsource.bps.org.uk/details/journalArticle/11140723/Go-big-or-go-home-Risk-seeking-for-experiential-choices.html |
The Spring Hope Board of Commissioners discussed a rash of public complaints directed at two young skateboarders during the board's Dec. 7 meeting.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Should town leaders be concerned about skateboarders riding on Spring Hope's streets? To share your views, comment below or email [email protected].
Enterprise readers shared their views on the newspaper’s editorial, “Skateboarding is not a crime, Spring Hope.”
Would we rather have them dealing drugs, vandalizing buildings, jeering at passersby? Would we rather our youth stay indoors, out of sight, glued to their phones? Have they damaged any property? Did they unlawfully engage or threaten a member of the public or our police officers? Surely they would have been charged if so. Do folks realize that some of our youth actually use skateboards as transportation? A lot better than walking. There may be more to the story than I know, but if not, perhaps it might be time for grown-ups to take a deep breath. Just my opinion, no hate to anyone.
Jim Jackson
Via Facebook
Now when these individuals get hurt or killed because of their actions, no one needs to say anything to the police about not “doing their job”! They are clearly trying to prevent someone from getting hurt or worse, but all that is happening is they are getting thrown under the bus! My suggestion: Walk one day in these officers’ shoes and maybe you will get to see just the level of BS they endure to protect and serve our community. It’s really a damn shame that this is even an issue that needs discussing!
Spring Reed Toney
Via Facebook
I saw one of the skateboarders hit the railroad tracks on Walnut today — almost stumbled and a dump truck was headed right for him. I just wish they did not skateboard in traffic. I would hate to see someone hurt.
Nancy House Perry
Via Facebook
Maybe supporting the police should start with the editor. I hope WRAL never has to interview him after a fatality for his editorial, basically giving carte blanche to the skateboarders with Rule No. 11.
Robin Lea
Via Facebook
I grew up in this town. I have lived here for 40 years. When I was growing up, I was able to ride my bike anywhere I wanted. Sidewalks, roads, etc. Nothing was ever said ‘cause this town was not full of old, stuffy people with so many opinions. I understand if the skateboarders are doing something they should not; then yes, say something to them, but if they are not harming themselves or others, leave them be. This day and time, Spring Hope does not have a lot to offer the kids and teens who grow up here. If the town was not so stuffy and didn’t want the town to stay the same, then maybe our kids would have more to do. Think of our young adults and the kids growing up here now. The times have changed. Spring Hope needs to change with those times.
Amy Whitley
Via Facebook
These wet blankets would lose their minds if they lived in Kill Devil Hills where adults and kids get around on skateboards. Vote ‘em out now — because with everything going on, if this is what they are worried about, they can kick rocks.
Garrett W. Driver
Via Facebook
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More than two dozen North Carolina cities and towns pay lobbyists to advocate for their interests in...
Our Opinion: Constitution Day celebrates principles that define America
It’s invoked in immigration debates, campus speaker controversies, gun law logjams, copyright clashe...
Local News
Pumpkin Festival fun set for this weekend
SPRING HOPE — Thousands of attendees are expected to celebrate the harvest season this year at the 4...
Brock Equipment technician earns top service award
BAILEY — Irrigation systems and technology company Reinke has recognized Brock Equipment’s Patrick L...
Word Tabernacle opens Impact Academy preschool
ROCKY MOUNT — The Impact Academy’s August grand opening launched a new opportunity for local student... | https://restorationnewsmedia.com/enterprise/news/talk-back:-skateboarders-elicit-strong-reactions-13400 |
Jennie MullNative of New England, and all around Earth lover, Jennie is a positive role model for her fellow skaters and students. She studies environmental science, Spanish, and writing. Her interest in writing clearly paid off, as Jennie’s essay was one of the best we received this year. If you've been paying attention, you've probably seen Jennie skate alongside her fellow Mulls in the Worble's videos.
Derek RobisonWhen he’s not skating or snowboarding around Salt Lake City, Derek is working hard on his own nonprofit Pushing Ahead and chipping away at a master’s degree in social work. He’s also got a solid strategy for success, as he first started with an associates degree, then transferred to the University of Utah to continue his studies.
Giammarco Turriziani ColonnaEvery crew needs at least one physicist. Giammarco’s passion for physics brought him from Italy to West Texas to study at Texas Tech University. He was the primary filmer for his local crew Banda Della Maiala and now works on videos with the Depot DIY crew—he even had a full part in their last one. His PhD in physics at Texas Tech is focused on calculations in relation to neutron stars.
Jhanaiya Smith-ButlerJhanaiya is heavily involved in the women’s skate community of New York City, particularly in the Bronx. She’s growing the scene and setting a solid example, having fun and progressing on her own board. Originally from South Carolina, this New Yorker is studying the trifecta of sociology, art and economics.
Maddy BrownMaddy just graduated from the University of Washington, but continues to move forward in pursuing a PhD in mathematics. When she isn’t studying, teaching or skating, she’s volunteering with Skate Like a Girl and contributing directly to her local scene around Seattle.
Max DublerMax is a pioneer as a skateboarder, writer and traveler. He used to be a pro longboarder and also shot photos and wrote for various downhill mags. With his studies he seeks to understand the urban environment and make our world easier to navigate for skaters and pedestrians alike. He’ll help build new skateparks and skateable projects in the future. Max is a proud representative of the LGBTQ+ community as well. Give him a follow and check out his rad photos.
Chakkrapun “Tay” SrikuttamartOriginally from Thailand and raised in Tampa, Tay has found his current home in Eugene at the University of Oregon. Studying architecture, he hopes to make more skate-friendly public spaces. A Washington-Jefferson Skatepark local and co-founder of an art gallery in his area, he sets an example for what skaters can accomplish on top of just busting hammers in the streets.
Ha Vet NyugenVet is from Hanoi, Vietnam but now resides in Vallejo, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. Given her childhood experiences with lacking medical facilities, she was inspired to become a Doctor of osteopathy in order to help people in need of good healthcare. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she has helped her skateboarding community through multiple organizations along the West Coast.
Zul TinarbukoAnother one of our international scholarship recipients, Zul came from Indonesia to the United States to better experience skate culture and to learn more about media production during his MFA classes. Through his studies at Ohio University, he is looking forward to bringing his new skills back home to contribute even further to a rich skateboarding community in Yogyakarta.
More Information about CSEF
The College Skateboarding Educational Foundation provides a brand new opportunity for skateboarders to build better futures for themselves. Regardless of financial assets or personal networks, everyone deserves a chance at pursuing a college education. Skateboarders are no exception. Through CSEF’s scholarship fund, skateboarders all over the country will be given essential assistance with completing their goals in school and in life.
Go here to donate or learn more about CSEF.
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4/16/2010
Krook3d Spring RefresherKrooked's spring refresher is here, check out the Shmoo Duex series, lImited edition Gonz board and the new Krook3d trailer with Brad Cromer.
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4/15/2010
Jaws Independent FootageJust when you thought you saw enough of Jaws this week Independent brings you some more sick footage.
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4/15/2010
Don't Miss It!Oj has a new trailer for their upcoming video.
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4/15/2010
Black Label Crew at PHXAMBlack Label put up a clip of their guys at Phoenix Am last weekend.
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4/15/2010
Ambiguous OC BlogAmbiguous has a new blog post up with Alex Schmidt skating some OC spots. | https://www.thrashermagazine.com/articles/2020-csef-skateboarding-scholarship-recipients/ |
Description:
This course is specifically designed for students who are struggling in reading. Struggling is usually defined as scoring below the 25th percentile on the MAPS test or scoring below a passing score on a series of scientifically-based measures. The class will focus on fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition. However, we will be working on the key concepts and skills needed to bring the students up to grade level. This will be done with computer-based activities as well as research-based reading tasks. The classes are small enough that small group and individual instruction will be available to the students.
Course Standards:
Since the objective of the course is to bring the student up to their current grade level, standards at all previous grade levels may be touched upon. The purpose of this class is to meet the student where they are and help them grasp the underlying reading concepts.
Textbooks:
N/A
Materials Needed: One folder, lined notebook paper, pencils, erasers
Grading:
The following grade scale is used to convert percentage grades to letter grades:
A+ 99% or higher C 76% - 81%
A 95% - 98% C- 73% - 75%
A- 93% - 94% D+ 70% - 72%
B+ 90% - 92% D 67% - 69%
B 87% - 89% D- 65% - 66%
B- 85% - 86% F 64% or lower
C+ 82% - 84%
If a student has completed all homework assignments during the unit and has successfully completed the additional, assigned learning tasks in the identified areas of weakness, he/she may retake an assessment over those specific learning targets not yet mastered.
No bonus points or extra credit assignments will be offered or included in the grade. If the student fails to complete and submit assignments as required and to teacher/school expectations, consequences such as teacher detention, teacher docs, etc. will be issued.
Participation & Attendance:
Participation will be based in part on the duration of the assigned computer-based trainings. Students will be expected to be engaged in the assigned activities whether they are computer-based or within a small group setting. For paper-based activities, students will be expected to complete the assignment in class where specific guided help is available. However, the student may take the assignments home to complete for a grade when necessary.
Students are responsible for any and all missed work due to absences. Students will need to check with Mr. Marks to obtain make-up assignments. Students will have as many days to make up the work as days they are absent. Work not completed by that time can be completed following the guidelines for missed or late work.
Links (as available) to the computer-based applications will be available on my teacher webpage, so that students may access these from home or other locations. In this way, they can make up missing assignments or work to improve their grasp of the concepts. | https://www.campbell.k12.ky.us/olc/1279/page/66869 |
Is it truly tough to come across a good research paper author? Yes, certainly it is indeed an extremely complicated process to write an adequate term paper. As a matter of fact, research paper writers should have broad understanding of different topics in addition to the ability to write in a very clear and concise way. To give you a better idea, let’s take a look at a few of the key things which you ought to be looking out for when hiring a research writer. Bear in Mind, when you are making your decision, these are some of the most important Things Which You should keep in mind:
If you’re thinking about submitting your research papers to a college or other academic institution, then you should definitely consider this factor. You will need to ensure that your term papers will be approved by your potential employer. You do not wish to waste your time and effort just to submit a bad term paper. Be certain you locate a term paper author who’s skilled in submitting his job to academic associations and institutions.
Once you are sure about the degree of academic eligibility of the research papers which you’ve written, you will need to learn whether or not they are written well. This can be a tricky situation to evaluate since you might not be able to read their job when you’ve written it. Consequently, you want to have some should i trust evolutionwriters confidence that you are employing a writer who’s well-experienced within the specialty. Additionally, you need to ensure you are picking a writer that has a fantastic reputation in the industry.
To have the ability to select a professional research paper writer, you will need to take into account the expertise and abilities he or she owns. It is better if you’re able to ask your potential research papers writer for a sample of their work. This can allow you to evaluate their writing style and allow you to determine whether or not you would be able to acquire a suitable output from them.
You will need to hire a writer that you’re comfortable with and who you feel comfortable composing with. This is because there might be times when you need to edit your job. In this circumstance, you need to be confident that the writer can handle this procedure well. And is a good communicator as well. Make sure your study papers are in great shape before you sign them and commit them to paper.
Finally, you will need to guarantee the author provides you with comments on her or his prior research papers. So that you can assess their skills and expertise. You also need to know how long he or she has been composing for different academic institutions, to be able to make sure you are receiving quality outputs. You should make certain the writer understands that you want to be in touch with him or her all the time as he or she is doing the editing process. These are some of the important aspects that you ought to look for when choosing a fantastic research paper writer. | https://announcements.lcsda.org/tips-on-hiring-a-great-research-paper-writer/ |
Research Interests:
The main focus of the Subramanian Lab is to understand how chromosomes are accurately segregated during cell division. Chromosome mis-segregation can lead to aneuploidy and consequently cancer. It can also lead to conditions such as Down’s syndrome where an abnormal chromosome copy number following meiosis causes developmental defects. In order to be able to devise effective therapeutic strategies against the myriad of disorders that errors in chromosome integrity and copy number can cause, it is essential to study and fully dissect the process of chromosome segregation.
We are mainly interested in the regulation and function of centromeres, originally defined by Walther Flemming as the ‘primary constrictions’ on chromosomes. Centromeres play a key role in assembling kinetochores that attach to spindle microtubules to ensure accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis. Interestingly, centromeres are thought to be epigenetically inherited, as DNA sequence is neither necessary nor sufficient for centromere function. The Subramanian lab aims to answer the fundamental questions: what dictates the formation of a centromere, and how is it epigenetically inherited? Our current efforts are focussed on dissecting the mechanisms by which highly conserved centromere-specific proteins including Mis18, HJURP and associated factors mediate the establishment of a specialized chromatin state at centromeres, through the assembly of the centromere-specific histone protein CENP-A. We primarily use the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as our model organism of choice. Given the high level of conservation of centromere architecture and centromere proteins, future projects will involve translation of our findings from fission yeast into other model organisms. | https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/staff/lakxmisubramanian.html |
Recent progress in next-generation sequencing has greatly facilitated our study of genomic structural variation. Unlike single nucleotide variants and small indels, many structural variants have not been completely characterized at the nucleotide resolution. Deriving the complete sequences underlying such breakpoints is crucial for not only accurate discovery, but also the functional characterization of altered alleles. However, our current ability to determine such breakpoint sequences is limited because of challenges in aligning and assembling short reads. To address this issue, we developed a targeted iterative graph routing assembler, TIGRA, which implements a set of novel data analysis routines to achieve effective breakpoint assembly from next-generation sequencing data. In our assessment using data from the 1000 Genomes Project, TIGRA was able to accurately assemble the majority of deletion and mobile element insertion breakpoints, with a substantively better success rate and accuracy than other algorithms. TIGRA has been applied in the 1000 Genomes Project and other projects, and is freely available for academic use.
From the abstract, it seems like an interesting paper. Wish we could say more, but the paper is locked up right now. We do not understand what pleasure these researchers get in doing all these hard work and locking up their papers in inaccessible journals.
A little more from the supplement -
TIGRA is a computer program that performs targeted local assembly of structural variant (SV) breakpoints from next generation sequencing short-read data. It takes as input a list of putative SV calls and a set of bam files that contain reads mapped to a reference genome such as NCBI build36. For each SV call, it assembles the set of reads that were mapped or partially mapped to the region of interest (ROI) in the corresponding bam files. Instead of outputing a single consensus sequence, tigra attempts to construct all the alternative alleles in the ROI as long as they received sufficient sequence coverage (usually >= 2x). It also utilizes the variant type information in the input files to select reads for assembly. Tigra is effective at improving the SV prediction accuracy and resolution in short reads analysis and can produce accurate breakpoint sequences that are useful to understand the origin, mechanism and pathology underlying the SVs. | https://homolog.us/blogs/bioinfo/2013/12/10/tigra/ |
Cook TR, Gubiani R, Ryan PG, Muzaffar SB. Group foraging in Socotra cormorants: A biologging approach to the study of a complex behavior. Ecol Evol. 2017;7:2025--2038. <https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2750>
1. Introduction {#ece32750-sec-0001}
===============
Many predator species aggregate at the intraspecific level for the purpose of foraging, a phenomenon known variously as communal foraging, cooperative foraging, social foraging, or more generally as group foraging. For group foraging to be an evolutionarily advantageous strategy, its benefits should outweigh the costs of increased competition for food resulting from aggregation (for a review, see Beauchamp, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0005){ref-type="ref"}). Despite its obvious relevance to different fields of ecology, the study of group foraging in predators remains challenging. This is due to the study model itself, which may comprise anything from half a dozen to billions of individuals interacting closely in space and time (e.g., Creel & Creel, [1995](#ece32750-bib-0024){ref-type="ref"}; Duffy, [1983](#ece32750-bib-0025){ref-type="ref"}; Radakov, [1973](#ece32750-bib-0059){ref-type="ref"}). Furthermore, foraging groups tend to target prey that aggregate in vast numbers. Thus, following the behavior of each animal individually within the flock, herd or school would seem virtually impossible. Additionally, groups form and feed in areas usually inaccessible to the human eye. Consequently, most studies have used a modeling approach (e.g., Bhattacharya & Vicsek, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0008){ref-type="ref"}; Giraldeau & Caraco, [2000](#ece32750-bib-0033){ref-type="ref"}; van der Post & Semmann, [2011](#ece32750-bib-0056){ref-type="ref"}; Silk, Croft, Tregenza, & Bearhop, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0068){ref-type="ref"}), or to a lesser extent an experimental approach (Bijleveld, van Gils, Jouta, & Piersma, [2015](#ece32750-bib-0009){ref-type="ref"}; Carthey & Banks, [2015](#ece32750-bib-0017){ref-type="ref"}; Ekman & Hake, [1988](#ece32750-bib-0029){ref-type="ref"}; Fernández‐Juricic, Siller, & Kacelnik, [2004](#ece32750-bib-0031){ref-type="ref"}; Saino, [1994](#ece32750-bib-0064){ref-type="ref"}), but there are few field studies (Brown, [1988](#ece32750-bib-0014){ref-type="ref"}; Creel & Creel, [1995](#ece32750-bib-0024){ref-type="ref"}; MacNulty, Smith, Mech, Vucetich, & Packer, [2012](#ece32750-bib-0045){ref-type="ref"}).
Seabirds are an interesting group for the study of group foraging because, in many species, individuals aggregate year round, whether on land (breeding and roosting) or at sea (rafting and foraging) (Schreiber & Burger, [2002](#ece32750-bib-0066){ref-type="ref"}). Hence, in such species, important benefits are expected to compensate the costs of coloniality (e.g., competition for partners or breeding space, and transmission of disease) and of foraging (intraspecific competition for food). Benefits are thought to include increased knowledge about location and quality of foraging grounds, via public information and local enhancement (e.g., Buckley, [1997](#ece32750-bib-0016){ref-type="ref"}; Danchin & Wagner [1997](#ece32750-bib-2000){ref-type="ref"}; Bairos‐Novak, Crook, & Davoren, [2015](#ece32750-bib-4000){ref-type="ref"}), and increased success of prey capture, via depolarization of fish schools under the combined attack of many individuals (Wilson, Ryan, James, & Wilson, [1987](#ece32750-bib-0084){ref-type="ref"}). Group‐foraging seabird species, such as the Guanay cormorant (*Phalacrocorax bougainvillii*, Weimerskirch, Bertrand, Silva, Bost, & Peraltilla, [2012](#ece32750-bib-0080){ref-type="ref"}) or the Cape cormorant (*Phalacrocorax capensis*, Cook et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0020){ref-type="ref"}), tend to specialize on shoaling prey, usually small epipelagic fish, but also on krill, as in the case of the short‐tailed shearwater (*Puffinus tenuirostris*, Hunt, Coyle, Hoffman, Decker, & Flint, [1996](#ece32750-bib-0039){ref-type="ref"}) or murres (*Uria* spp., Hunt, Harrison, Hamner, & Obst, [1988](#ece32750-bib-0040){ref-type="ref"}). These seabirds may aggregate into foraging flocks of up to several hundred thousand individuals (Gould, Forsell, & Lensink, [1982](#ece32750-bib-0034){ref-type="ref"}), suggesting they rely on extremely high prey densities. This dependency on an important and highly concentrated biomass of "forage fish" is considered one of the causes of the decline of several bird species, due to competition with pelagic fisheries (Hobday, Bell, Cook, Gasalla, & Weng, [2015](#ece32750-bib-0038){ref-type="ref"}). A better understanding of the processes underlying group foraging in seabirds is thus needed.
Studying group foraging in seabirds is typically complex, not just because of the number of individuals involved, but also because individuals typically forage out of human sight, that is, out to sea and often underwater. Until recently, observations of seabird aggregations were rendered possible primarily with the use of aerial‐based (e.g., Buckland et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0015){ref-type="ref"}; Certain & Bretagnolle, [2008](#ece32750-bib-0018){ref-type="ref"}) or vessel‐based (e.g., Duffy, [1989](#ece32750-bib-0026){ref-type="ref"}; Ronconi & Burger, [2009](#ece32750-bib-0061){ref-type="ref"}) surveys. Such studies are essential in understanding which species aggregate and where, and in flock size estimation. However, they only give a snapshot of the behavioral processes under way at the time of the survey (but see Piatt, [1990](#ece32750-bib-0054){ref-type="ref"}). They also may introduce an observational bias as some species may be attracted by the vessel, depending on its type and activity (Bodey et al., [2014](#ece32750-bib-0011){ref-type="ref"}). Underwater filming can provide detailed understanding of the interactions between a flock and a bait ball (Thiebault, Semeria, Lett, & Tremblay, [2016](#ece32750-bib-0074){ref-type="ref"}). Yet, the logistical constraints and observational biases inherent in this method limit its more general use. Radar has the potential to follow flocks and even individual birds over an extended time frame; however, species identification may be uncertain, and surveillance range is limited to ca 10 km (Gauthreaux & Belser, [2003](#ece32750-bib-0032){ref-type="ref"}).
Recently, animal‐attached remote sensing, otherwise known as "biologging" (Ropert‐Coudert & Wilson, [2005](#ece32750-bib-0062){ref-type="ref"}), has enabled the description of fine‐scale behavior in free‐ranging animals. Although biologging cannot replace at‐sea surveys for studying some of the behavior of seabirds at foraging grounds or for estimating the size of aggregations, it provides high‐resolution behavioral observations and enables following birds individually, over several days, something which surveys cannot do. Miniaturized electronic devices recording behavior have already been used to study group foraging in some seabird species. Time--depth recorders have shown that penguins feeding on pelagic prey sometimes dive synchronously (Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}; Takahashi, Sato, Nishikawa, Watanuki, & Naito, [2004](#ece32750-bib-0070){ref-type="ref"}; Tremblay & Cherel, [1999](#ece32750-bib-0076){ref-type="ref"}), thus confirming observations that penguins may forage in flocks (Wilson, Wilson, & McQuaid, [1986](#ece32750-bib-0085){ref-type="ref"}) and simultaneously revealing a coordinated underwater foraging behavior based on constant visual contact between birds. Acting as a unit, birds are capable of depolarizing the fish school, thus presumably reducing its coordinated antipredator behavior and potentially facilitating prey capture (Wilson et al., [1987](#ece32750-bib-0084){ref-type="ref"}). Miniaturized cameras mounted on pursuit‐diving species have allowed further investigation of the relationship between predator foraging success and predator group size (Takahashi, Sato, Naito, et al., [2004](#ece32750-bib-0069){ref-type="ref"}). Some penguins may experience an equivalent or higher foraging success when foraging alone on a fish school than when foraging as a group on the same resource (Sutton, Hoskins & Arnould [2015](#ece32750-bib-5000){ref-type="ref"}). Therefore, in some cases, the benefits of group foraging may derive more from an increased probability of detecting prey by associating with conspecifics than from an increased prey capture rate. GPS tags deployed on penguins have shown that the duration of association between individuals is highly variable (Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}). Some birds leave the colony together and spend the entire foraging trip in close association, whereas others only meet up briefly at foraging patches, with birds already at sea possibly attracting new birds to active foraging areas. Publicly relayed information regarding the location of food patches is presumably more important in flighted species, however, because the probability of detecting another bird increases with altitude. Cameras mounted on Cape gannets (*Morus capensis*) have shown how the presence of other seabirds nearby causes birds to change course during flight, decreasing the time to first prey encounter (Thiebault, Mullers, Pistorius, & Tremblay, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0073){ref-type="ref"}; Thiebault & Tremblay, [2013](#ece32750-bib-0075){ref-type="ref"}; Thiebault, Mullers, Pistorius, Meza‐Torres, et al., [2014](#ece32750-bib-0072){ref-type="ref"}; Tremblay, Thiebault, Mullers, & Pistorius, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0079){ref-type="ref"}). Hence, on a small scale, individuals may not be looking for the prey itself as much as using local enhancement as a mechanism guiding their movement patterns.
Biologging has thus proven to be an efficient (and cost‐effective) tool for studying group foraging in penguins and gannets. However, more biologging studies are needed for a more general understanding of group foraging across different seabird taxa. Cormorants, for example, are a family represented by several species that rely on group foraging (Nelson, [2006](#ece32750-bib-0050){ref-type="ref"}; Orta, [1992](#ece32750-bib-0051){ref-type="ref"}). We studied the vulnerable Socotra cormorant (*Phalacrocorax nigrogularis*), a species endemic to the Arabian Gulf known for large at‐sea aggregations (Jennings, [2010](#ece32750-bib-0041){ref-type="ref"}), but for which there is little information on its foraging behavior. We used a biologging approach to study group foraging in this species by deploying GPS and temperature--depth recorders on breeding adults, thus accurately measuring their behavior in three dimensions and with detailed temporal resolution.
2. Materials and Methods {#ece32750-sec-0002}
========================
2.1. Study area {#ece32750-sec-0003}
---------------
Fieldwork was performed on Siniya Island (25°37′N, 55°37′E; Figure [1](#ece32750-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}a,b). Siniya is an island that is part of a more extensive system of islands and lagoons dominated by mangroves (*Avicennia marina*) and hosting other emblematic bird species, such as the greater flamingo (*Phoenicopterus roseus*). Although it is a major breeding locality for the Socotra cormorant, an important refuge for other terrestrial and marine wildlife and one of the last undisturbed coastal ecosystems of the Emirates, Siniya, and its attending habitat is threatened by human development (Sheppard et al., [2010](#ece32750-bib-0067){ref-type="ref"}).
{#ece32750-fig-0001}
2.2. Study model {#ece32750-sec-0004}
----------------
The Socotra cormorant is an average‐sized flighted pursuit‐diving seabird endemic to the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is declining and classified as vulnerable (BirdLife International [2012](#ece32750-bib-0010){ref-type="ref"}). About 33,000 pairs breed annually from September--December on Siniya, making it one of the three most important breeding localities for this seabird (Muzaffar, unpublished data). Little is known about its foraging ecology. At‐sea observations have described large aggregations of individuals foraging communally (Jennings, [2010](#ece32750-bib-0041){ref-type="ref"}; Figure [1](#ece32750-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}c,d). Dietary analyses at the colony have shown that Socotra cormorants forage on shoaling fish, mainly anchovy (*Encrasicholina* spp.), bluestripe herring (*Herklotsichthys quadrimaculatus*), and African sailfin flying fish (*Parexocoetus mento*), suggesting little overlap with local fisheries (Muzaffar et al., [2016](#ece32750-bib-0049){ref-type="ref"}).
2.3. Deployment of data loggers {#ece32750-sec-0005}
-------------------------------
We studied adult Socotra cormorants breeding on Siniya between 11 and 26 November 2012, and 10 and 19 November 2013. Within the colony, study nests were chosen as far from one another as possible in order to avoid multiple disturbances to any one study bird. Birds were captured by the feet on their nest using nooses triggered from a distance. Each noose was set around the edge of the nest, which is a cup built in sand. Birds were captured during the late incubation/hatchling stage because eggs and hatchlings (naked altricial chicks younger than 2 weeks old, following Gubiani, Benjamin, & Muzaffar, [2012](#ece32750-bib-0036){ref-type="ref"}) are not in danger of being caught in the noose, while older chicks may accidently become snared because of their larger size. Culmen and tarsus of adults were measured using a Vernier caliper. Adult wing length (flattened chord) was measured with a stopped ruler. Adults were weighed inside a bag using a spring balance to the nearest 10 g: average adult body mass was 1.52 ± 0.15 kg (range: 1.30--1.82 kg). Study birds were 70% females and 30% males (Table S1).
GPS loggers and temperature--depth recorders (TDRs) were deployed simultaneously on a total of 20 birds (11 in 2012 and nine in 2013). The GPS loggers were attached to coverts of the lower back using Tesa tape No. 4651 (Beiersdorf AG, Hamburg) following Wilson et al. ([1997](#ece32750-bib-0083){ref-type="ref"}), while TDRs were attached under the three central rectrices with Tesa tape. GPS loggers were CatTrack 1 models (Catnip Technologies Ltd, Hong Kong) encased in a heat shrink tube. They weighed 19 g, measured 1 × 2.5 × 4.5 cm, and recorded position with an accuracy of \~10 m in field conditions. TDRs were Cefas G5 models (Cefas Technology Ltd., Lowestoft). They weighed 2.7 g, measured 0.8 × 3.1 cm, and recorded temperature and depth with an accuracy of 0.1°C and 0.5 m. Combined weight of both loggers represented 1.4 ± 0.1% (range: 1.2--1.7%) of the study birds\' body mass, which is below the threshold of 2--3% recommended for flying birds (Phillips, Xavier, & Croxall, [2003](#ece32750-bib-0053){ref-type="ref"}). In order to optimize the trade‐off between recording duration, battery life, and data resolution, GPS loggers were programmed to sample every 20 s and to stop recording at night when birds were at the colony and inactive. TDRs were programmed to continuously record depth and temperature at an interval of 1 s. Birds were recaptured and data loggers retrieved after 2--5 days, depending on the timing of visits to island and duration of GPS batteries. All procedures complied with the guidelines of the Ministry of Environment and Water and the United Arab Emirates University\'s Animal Ethics Committee.
2.4. Analysis of tracking data {#ece32750-sec-0006}
------------------------------
GPS data were analyzed in ArcGIS 10.2 for desktop (Esri^®^ ArcMap^™^ 10.2.0). A foraging trip was defined as beginning when a bird left the colony for the sea and ending when it returned to the colony. Maximum foraging distance from the colony was calculated as the maximum distance in a straight line reached during a trip. Path length was measured as the sum of distances between all successive GPS points during a trip. Ground speed was calculated as the instantaneous speed between two successive GPS points. Based on the frequency distribution of ground speeds, we established a cutoff value at 15 km/hr to discriminate between flying and nonflying behavior (Figure S1). It was not possible to detect short flights because of the sampling rate of the GPS. Therefore, short flights were determined in MultiTrace (Jensen Software Systems, Laboe, Germany) using the temperature data recorded by TDRs. Following Tremblay, Cherel, Oremus, Tveraa, and Chastel ([2003](#ece32750-bib-0077){ref-type="ref"}) and Tremblay, Cook, and Cherel ([2005](#ece32750-bib-0078){ref-type="ref"}), these flights were detected to the nearest second based on the temperature contrast between air and water. Flight onset was associated with the windchill effect on the wet temperature sensor when birds left the water surface, and flight end was determined by the sudden temperature increase when birds alighted on the water surface (Figure S2). This was confirmed by similar temperature variations recorded in long flights detected by GPS.
Timing of dives was used to determine dive coordinates from tracking data. Due to the difference between GPS and TDR sampling intervals and loss of positional information when birds were submerged, dives were assigned the closest recorded GPS position, but only if this position was recorded ≤2 min from when the dive occurred, a threshold short enough to exclude significant movements of birds (Cook et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0020){ref-type="ref"}). An analysis of the density distribution of dives was conducted in R 3.0.3 (R Core Team [2014](#ece32750-bib-0058){ref-type="ref"}) using ks, the kernel smoothing package (Duong, [2007](#ece32750-bib-0027){ref-type="ref"}) which implements diagonal and unconstrained data‐driven bandwidth matrices (smoothing parameters) for kernel density estimation.
2.5. Analysis of foraging area consistency {#ece32750-sec-0007}
------------------------------------------
One way to explore the extent to which birds forage consistently in the same area is to calculate the distance between foraging areas of birds that are known to have foraging trips which overlap in time. Because average foraging trip duration was ca 4 hr (Figure S3), birds that left the colony ≥4 hr apart were less likely to have foraging trips which overlapped in time. Furthermore, frequency distribution of time of departure from the colony was trimodal, with a peak at 8, 12, and 15 hr (Figure S3). We therefore divided days into three 4‐hr periods (6--10 hr, 10--14 hr, and 14--18 hr) and then calculated, for each trip, the distance in foraging area location (computed as the barycenter of the positions of all foraging dives recorded during the trip) between all birds that left to sea during the same period. In order to explore consistency in foraging area over time, we also calculated the distance between foraging locations of birds for foraging trips on the same day and from 1 day to the next.
2.6. Analysis of foraging interactions {#ece32750-sec-0008}
--------------------------------------
Further detailed analysis of group foraging was carried out by studying interactions between individuals at sea. For this, we measured how closely birds interacted in a subset of eight bird "pairs" (12 individuals) when the foraging path of both pair members was almost perfectly superimposed. For each pair, we calculated the distance between birds at any given time, but only when both pair members were at sea. A bird could join its matching pair member (assumed to be in a flock) after the latter had already been foraging for several minutes or hours. We therefore focused on the distance between birds when they were presumed to be interacting within the group. We called this distance intraflock association distance (IFAD). Calculation of IFAD started arbitrarily when birds were within 1 km of each other for the first time and ended when they were within 1 km of each other for the last time.
2.7. Analysis of dive data {#ece32750-sec-0009}
--------------------------
Time--depth data were analyzed in MultiTrace‐Dive (Jensen Software Systems, Laboe, Germany). After correcting for the drift of the depth sensor (zero‐offset correction), dives were considered to occur when depth was ≥0.2 m. Dive duration was calculated between the start and the end of the dive. Maximum dive depth was the maximum depth reached by the bird during the dive. Postdive interval (surface recovery phase) was defined as the time between the end of the dive and the start of the next dive, unless a flight was detected in between, in which case the postdive interval ended when the flight began (Tremblay et al., [2005](#ece32750-bib-0078){ref-type="ref"}). Intervals \>100 s (3.2%) were not considered to represent postdive surface recovery/predive preparation events, but other surface activities (Tremblay et al., [2005](#ece32750-bib-0078){ref-type="ref"}) due to a break in the distribution of postdive intervals (Figure S4). Descent and ascent phases took place between the start of the dive and the start of the bottom phase and between the end of the bottom phase and the end of the dive, respectively. The start and end of the bottom phase were determined when vertical transit rates were ≤0.25 and ≥0.25 m/s, respectively (Kato, Ropert‐Coudert, Grémillet, & Cannell, [2006](#ece32750-bib-0042){ref-type="ref"}). In order to account for the effect of windchill on the temperature sensor during flights preceding dives, water temperature was defined as maximum water temperature recorded during a dive.
Dive shape was determined visually in MultiTrace‐Dive. Because dive shape depends on the scale at which the dive profile is being observed, dive shapes were determined at all times with the graph window showing 10 min on timescale and 20 m on vertical scale (or 10 m when dives were \<10 m) (Cook et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0020){ref-type="ref"}). Dive shapes were placed into four categories: flat‐bottomed dives, V‐shaped dives, parabola‐shaped dives, and irregular dives (Cook et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0020){ref-type="ref"}; Wilson, Culik, Peters, & Bannasch, [1996](#ece32750-bib-0082){ref-type="ref"}). Time--depth profiles of birds that were at sea together were graphically superimposed to assess whether they dived synchronously. Synchronous diving has been detected in small groups of diving penguins and is believed to increase foraging efficiency of birds feeding off shoaling prey (Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}; Takahashi, Sato, Nishikawa, et al., [2004](#ece32750-bib-0070){ref-type="ref"}; Tremblay & Cherel, [1999](#ece32750-bib-0076){ref-type="ref"}).
2.8. Statistics {#ece32750-sec-0010}
---------------
We performed linear mixed‐effects model in R using the "nlme" package. We first tested the effect of year on foraging parameters, setting bird as a random effect. Year was first set as a covariate, but was dropped from the final model as it had no effect. Different foraging parameters tested included time of trip start, time of trip end, trip duration, maximum linear distance to colony, path length, bearing, time flying per trip, time at the sea surface per trip, time diving per trip, number of dives per trip, maximum dive depth, dive duration, postdive interval, and maximum water temperature during dive. Because gender can have an effect on activity rhythms in some cormorant species (Cook, Lescroël, Cherel, Kato, & Bost, [2013](#ece32750-bib-0022){ref-type="ref"}), we also tested the effect of sex on time of departure from the colony. Using the same model framework, we then tested the effect of trip phase (outbound or inbound) on four variables (log‐transformed): phase duration, proportion of phase time spent on and under the water surface, flight speed, and average bird velocity (linear distance between the starting and ending points of the phase/phase duration). Eventually, we tested the effect of time (trip order and day) on the distance (log‐transformed) between the barycenter of foraging dive locations on successive trips.
Data are graphically presented as mean ± standard deviation per data interval (bin), but all regressions were fitted on the raw data. In the text, results are reported as mean ± standard deviation.
3. Results {#ece32750-sec-0011}
==========
3.1. General foraging behavior {#ece32750-sec-0012}
------------------------------
The 20 study birds completed 50 foraging trips and 5,225 dives over the two study periods. Foraging trip parameters are summarized in Table [1](#ece32750-tbl-0001){ref-type="table-wrap"}. Detailed individual foraging parameters are presented in Tables S2--S4.
######
Summary of foraging trip parameters of Socotra cormorants breeding on Siniya Island (*n* = 50 trips)
Mean *SD* Min. Max.
------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- ------- ------- -------
Individual trips per day 1.1 0.3 1 2
Dives per trip 104.5 52.7 1 240
Foraging flights[a](#ece32750-note-0002){ref-type="fn"} per trip 27 13 1 68
Daily time diving (hr) 0.8 0.3 0.20 1.7
Daily time on sea surface (hr) 1.7 0.8 0.6 3.6
Daily time flying (hr) 1.9 0.9 0.3 4.6
Trip departure time (hr:min) 11:05 02:38 06:22 16:27
Trip return time (hr:min) 14:58 02:29 09:25 18:25
Trip duration (hr) 3.7 1.5 0.9 7.4
Max. distance to colony (km) 32.6 20.2 2.8 63.9
Foraging path length (km) 80 45.3 7.5 157.1
Flight speed (km/hr) 45.2 10.6 15 89.2
Flights occurring between the first and the last dive of a trip.
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Birds foraged up and down the coastline, following two main bearings of 45° and 235° (Figure S5), never venturing farther than 18 km offshore (Figure [2](#ece32750-fig-0002){ref-type="fig"}a). Geographic coordinates were determined for 95% of dives. Birds dived almost exclusively over seafloor depths ≤20 m (Figure [2](#ece32750-fig-0002){ref-type="fig"}b). Kernel density plots show that most dives occurred in waters ≤10 m deep and that birds concentrated their foraging effort just southwest of the colony, between Siniya Island and Ajman, and 40--50 km to the northeast, around Ras al Khaimah (Figure [2](#ece32750-fig-0002){ref-type="fig"}c). Year had no effect on foraging parameters (Table S5). Sex had no effect on time of bird departure from the colony (*df* = 18, *t* = 0.02, *P* = .982), with 63% of males and 57% of females departing before noon.
{#ece32750-fig-0002}
Foraging trips were typically composed of an outbound commuting phase from the colony to the foraging ground, a foraging phase with intense diving activity and an inbound commuting phase from the last foraging dive back to the colony (Figure [3](#ece32750-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"}a). The outbound phase lasted longer (1.3 ± 0.7 hr) than the inbound phase (0.9 ± 0.5 hr) (*df* = 73, *t* = 2.11, *P* = .038), while the foraging phase lasted 1.7 ± 1 hr on average. Birds landed more often on the sea surface during the outbound (4.1 ± 4.8 landings per trip) than during the inbound (1.6 ± 4.9 landings per trip) phase. They also dived occasionally during the outbound phase (but not during the inbound phase): such dives were considered to be prospective dives, as opposed to the foraging dives characterizing the foraging phase (Figure [3](#ece32750-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"}a). Prospective dives were present in 49% of trips (6 ± 10 dives per trip), amounting to 0.05% of all dives carried out by birds (foraging dives added to 97 ± 50 dives per trip). Birds spent more time at the sea surface and underwater during the outbound phase (42.3 ± 25.9%) than during the inbound phase (17.8 ± 17.2%) (*df* = 73, *t* = 5.99, *P* \< .0001), a proportion that was 82.8 ± 10.8% during the foraging phase. Bird instantaneous flight speed was significantly slower during the outbound phase (45.4 ± 7.1 km/hr) than during the inbound phase (48.6 ± 6.1 km/hr) (*df* = 73, *t* = −2.4, *P* = .018), while it was an average of 34.7 ± 6.0 km/hr during the foraging phase. As a result of these differences, bird velocity was 11 km/hr slower on average during the outbound than during the inbound phase (*df* = 73, *t* = −4.92, *P* \< .001) (Figure [3](#ece32750-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"}b). Bird velocity during the outbound phase increased linearly with trip departure time (Figure [3](#ece32750-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"}c).
{#ece32750-fig-0003}
3.2. Foraging area consistency {#ece32750-sec-0013}
------------------------------
Foraging behavior of individual birds was recorded over 1--4 consecutive days. Most study birds carried out trips on days when other study birds were also at sea: 90%, 56%, 48%, 38%, and 26% of foraging trips occurred on days when at least 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 birds were at sea, respectively.
The distance in the barycenter of foraging dive positions increased from 0.5 to 5 km between birds which left the colony simultaneously (within 5 min of each other) or within 1 hr of each other. This distance increased from 5 to 6 km for a 1--2‐hr difference in departure time and stabilized around 6 km for a 2--4‐hr difference in departure time (Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}a,b). Birds carried out a maximum of two trips daily (Table [1](#ece32750-tbl-0001){ref-type="table-wrap"}). We calculated the distance between the barycenter of foraging dive positions of successive trips in the same day and the distance between the barycenter of foraging dive positions of the first trip on day 1 and the following days (Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}c). There was no statistical difference in distances between foraging area positions of trips belonging to the same birds or to different birds (*df* = 386, *t* = −0.17, *P* = .865). The average distance between barycenter of dive positions of first and second trips on the same day was 10 km. This distance increased to 32 km between the first trip of day 1 and day 2 (*df* = 384, *t* = 9.25, *P* \< .001), 47 km between the first trip of day 1 and day 3 (*df* = 384, *t* = 12.24, *P* \< .001), and 52 km between the first trip of day 1 and day 4 (*df* = 384, *t* = 10.41, *P* \< .001).
{#ece32750-fig-0004}
3.3. Foraging interactions {#ece32750-sec-0014}
--------------------------
Birds that departed to sea within a few minutes or hours of each other foraged over the same grounds, sometimes associating closely with each other in space and time (Figures [5](#ece32750-fig-0005){ref-type="fig"} and [6](#ece32750-fig-0006){ref-type="fig"}). The mean intraflock association distance (IFAD) for eight bird "pairs" (1,784 distances calculated) was 285 ± 235 m (range 8--1,380 m; Figure [7](#ece32750-fig-0007){ref-type="fig"}). Maximum flock width on the sea surface was therefore considered to be ca. 1.4 km. However, 87% of the time spent by birds in the flock was spent in IFADs \<500 m, suggesting the core of flocks was no wider than 0.5 km. Intraflock associations lasted for an average of 2.2 ± 0.8 hr. During group foraging, birds interspersed their dives with many foraging flights (flights occurring between the first and the last dive of a trip): on average one foraging flight for every 3.7 ± 2.2 dives. Foraging flights lasted 33 ± 29 s (Figure S7).
{#ece32750-fig-0005}
{ref-type="fig"}a) between Socotra cormorants (white star: Siniya colony; filled circles: dives). (a) Path taken by the flock: the journey comprised 1) a southwesterly outbound phase involving drifting at the sea surface (b) followed by prospective foraging (c), 2) a southeasterly foraging phase with serial diving (d), and 3) a northeasterly inbound phase. (b) Raft formation: the flock, constituted by one or several rafts, was joined separately by birds 27 and 31. Birds drifted at the sea surface following a northeasterly coastal current (birds 27 and 31 drifted for 43 and 12 min, with a speed of 0.41 and 0.39 m/s and a bearing of 80° and 60°, respectively). (c) Prospective group foraging: Birds 27 and 31 closely associated within the flock. After a short dive bout (starting 15:09), this phase was characterized by flights alternating with short periods at the sea surface (e). Surface periods were presumably intended for exploration by birds of the water column for fish, either visually by submergence of the head or by shallow diving, as in bird 31. (d) Intensive group foraging: birds dived serially within one long bout. The dark circle represents the hypothesized maximum width of the flock at the sea surface (f). After the last dive, birds flew back to the colony simultaneously at an average speed of 44 km/hr (no stopover). (e) Dive profiles of birds during the prospective (c) and intensive (d) group‐foraging phases. Temperature profiles (gray lines) indicate the position of flights (for detail, see Figure S2). Synchronous diving was not detected in these two study birds, although they clearly dived in a coordinated manner. They carried out a comparable number of dives (94 and 115 dives by birds 27 and 31, respectively), which became shallower as the flock progressed toward the shore, suggestive of benthic diving, in accordance with bird dive depth and local bathymetry (a). Benthic dives were occasionally interspersed with shallower pelagic dives. Furthermore, birds undertook a comparable number of short flights between dives: 23 and 27 flights by birds 27 and 31, respectively, each lasting 0.5 ± 0.5 min. (f) Distance between birds within the flock: between the first and the last dive of the trip, birds were distant by 341 ± 196 m on average (range: 27--1,030 m)](ECE3-7-2025-g006){#ece32750-fig-0006}
{#ece32750-fig-0007}
3.4. Diving behavior {#ece32750-sec-0015}
--------------------
Dive parameters are summarized in Table [2](#ece32750-tbl-0002){ref-type="table-wrap"}. Birds dived to shallow depths, with 22% and 92% of dives carried out to depths ≤2 and 15 m, respectively (Figure [8](#ece32750-fig-0008){ref-type="fig"}a). Accordingly, dive durations were short, with 67% of dives ≤30 s and 93% ≤45 s (Figure [8](#ece32750-fig-0008){ref-type="fig"}b). Dive duration increased linearly with maximum dive depth (Figure [8](#ece32750-fig-0008){ref-type="fig"}a). Frequency distribution of dive durations peaked for dives lasting 15--30 s and then decreased. Concomitantly, the dive duration/postdive interval ratio peaked for dives lasting 15--30 s, before decreasing (Figure [8](#ece32750-fig-0008){ref-type="fig"}b). Birds therefore favored a diving behavior that maximized the proportion of time spent underwater relative to the proportion spent at the surface. Dive profiles were parabolic (9.1%), V‐shaped (27.2%), irregular (28.2%), and flat‐bottomed (35.4%). No sign of synchronous diving was detected. Average maximum water temperature was 27.5 ± 0.9°C (Figure S8).
######
Summary of dive parameters of Socotra cormorants breeding on Siniya Island (*n* = 5,525 dives)
Mean *SD* Min. Max.
---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------
Max. dive depth (m) 6.9 5.0 0.2 24.3
Dive duration (s) 24.1 13.2 2 76
Descent duration (s) 6.2 4.0 0 26
Descent rate (m/s) 0.93 0.35 0.01 3.07
Bottom duration (s) 12.2 8.7 0 50
Ascent duration (s) 5.7 3.8 0 25
Ascent rate (m/s) 1.04 0.43 0.01 2.94
Postdive interval (PDI, s) 12.5 14.4 0 100
Dive duration/PDI 3.6 3.5 0.03 59
Max. dive temperature (°C) 27.5 0.9 23.8 29.5
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
{#ece32750-fig-0008}
4. Discussion {#ece32750-sec-0016}
=============
To understand the benefits of group foraging in seabirds, we need to understand how they forage, in particular what strategies they use to locate and secure their prey. Using GPS and temperature--depth recorders deployed simultaneously on breeding individuals, we successfully identified some of the processes underlying group foraging in Socotra cormorants. Results suggest that the benefits stemming from this behavior should be increased likelihood of prey detection and capture.
4.1. Evidence of group foraging {#ece32750-sec-0017}
-------------------------------
Because Socotra cormorant study nests were dispersed across the colony, study birds were not neighbors and likely not related. We therefore considered that the distance between nests had no influence on the probability that two study birds had of leaving the colony together and, consequently, of commuting toward the same foraging grounds (Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}). Assuming that every nesting bird in the colony went to sea once a day, that partners alternated nest attendance, and that the number of breeding pairs in the colony was ca 33,000 (S.B. Muzaffar, unpublished data), we estimated the number of birds at sea at any time to be around 33,000 (excluding nonbreeders). Hence, assuming there is more than one suitable foraging ground in the area at any given moment, the theoretical probability (*P*) that two study birds that were at sea at the same time would visit the same grounds by chance was very low (*P *= \[2/33,000\] × \[1/32,999\] = 1.8 × 10^−9^). Yet, this probability was virtually 100% in our study, as shown by the average distance between the foraging area positions of all birds departing from the colony together (0.5 km, Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}a,b) or within 1 hr of each other (5 km, Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}b). This was further illustrated by the overlap between tracks of birds that were at sea at the same time (Figures [5](#ece32750-fig-0005){ref-type="fig"} and [6](#ece32750-fig-0006){ref-type="fig"}). These results demonstrate three things: (1) Birds aggregated at sea and foraged together, most likely in one large flock (up to 33,000 individuals, excluding nonbreeders), (2) they commuted to foraging grounds using social information, and (3) they foraged roughly over the same area throughout the day. In group‐foraging Socotra cormorants, the whole colony can be seen as working together as a single social unit.
4.2. Advantages of group foraging for prey detection {#ece32750-sec-0018}
----------------------------------------------------
Adequate foraging grounds of Socotra cormorants were likely discovered through the effect of the multitude of eyes scanning the water surface (Fernández‐Juricic, Erichsen, & Kacelnik, [2004](#ece32750-bib-0030){ref-type="ref"}). Opportunistic field observations show that in the morning, birds aggregate on the beach near the colony until they eventually depart *en masse*. Such groups comprise members of both sexes, contrary to some cormorant species where foraging groups can be sex specific (Cook et al., [2013](#ece32750-bib-0022){ref-type="ref"}). A massive raft comprising thousands of birds floating on the water surface may also be found close to the colony. This raft eventually takes off as one large flock and heads down the coast in loose formation. The flock is made up of scattered multiple lines of 10--50 birds flying in half‐V formations (an asymmetrical version of the V formation) often just above the water surface presumably in order to reduce flight expenditure (Tanida, [2001](#ece32750-bib-0071){ref-type="ref"}; Portugal et al., [2014](#ece32750-bib-0055){ref-type="ref"}; Figure [1](#ece32750-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}c). It is probable these individual streams of birds scan different parts of the water surface and recruit other birds of the flock through local enhancement when food is discovered (Bairos‐Novak et al., [2015](#ece32750-bib-4000){ref-type="ref"}). In such a system, an individual\'s connectivity to others (social network) is likely to be a crucial part of the process of relaying information (Aplin, Farine, Morand‐Ferron, & Sheldon, [2012](#ece32750-bib-0002){ref-type="ref"}). Waters of the Arabian Gulf are relatively transparent, so spotting a school of fish in shallow waters from the air would seem relatively easy at close range. While commuting, Socotra cormorants may occasionally prospect the deeper part of the water column by landing, diving, and taking off again (Figure [6](#ece32750-fig-0006){ref-type="fig"}c). Seabirds may also rely on the presence of other species to locate fish schools (Tremblay et al., [2014](#ece32750-bib-0079){ref-type="ref"}). Other abundant local predators that depend on the same resource include the finless porpoise (*Neophocaena phocaenoides*), the Indo‐Pacific humpback (*Sousa chinensis*), and Indo‐Pacific bottlenose (*Tursiops aduncus*) dolphins and the lesser crested (*Thalasseus bengalensis*), bridled (*Sterna anaethetus*), and white‐cheeked (*Sterna repressa*) terns (Behrouzi‐Rad, [2013](#ece32750-bib-0006){ref-type="ref"}; Braulik et al., [2010](#ece32750-bib-0013){ref-type="ref"}).
Searching behavior during the outbound phase translated into relatively slower bird flight, more frequent stopovers, and a higher proportion of time spent at the sea surface than during the inbound phase. As a consequence, Socotra cormorants had a higher average velocity during the inbound phase (Figure [3](#ece32750-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"}b). Newly departing birds most likely retraced the location of the foraging flock at sea based on the bearing of incoming birds (e.g., Greene, [1987](#ece32750-bib-0035){ref-type="ref"}; Machovsky‐Capuska, Hauber, Libby, Amiot, & Raubenheimer, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0044){ref-type="ref"}; Thiebault, Mullers, Pistorius, Meza‐Torres, et al., [2014](#ece32750-bib-0072){ref-type="ref"}). During the noon shift, opportunistic observations from within the colony suggest that leaving and incoming birds departed and returned in groups of 10--50 individuals over period of about 2 hr. Bird average velocity during the outbound phase increased over the day (Figure [3](#ece32750-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"}c), lending support to the hypothesis that Socotra cormorants are slower at reaching foraging grounds in the early morning, when prey is still not located, than later during the day, when birds are informed on the location of the food patch by returning birds. Hence, the foraging flock, once it is established at sea in the morning, functions as a focal point, attracting and losing birds throughout the day, suggesting some degree of fission--fusion dynamics between individuals (Aureli et al. [2008](#ece32750-bib-1000){ref-type="ref"}). The core position of the flock shifted somewhat over time (by up to 10 km, Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}a,b), with birds presumably keeping track of the fish school through the effect of numbers. It is unclear whether there is a link between the position of foraging grounds in the morning and on the following days. The distance between the two increased over time, pointing to some element of memory guiding the choice of morning foraging area. However, if present, the role of this memory seems to disappear entirely after 2 days (Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}c), suggesting a relatively short lifetime of local productive areas.
4.3. Advantages of group foraging for prey capture {#ece32750-sec-0019}
--------------------------------------------------
Socotra cormorants target anchovy, bluestripe herring, and African sailfin flying fish in the eastern Arabian Gulf (Muzaffar et al., [2016](#ece32750-bib-0049){ref-type="ref"}). Assuming they ate mainly anchovy (Muzaffar et al., [2016](#ece32750-bib-0049){ref-type="ref"}), the total fish consumption of Socotra cormorants from Siniya Island (including nonbreeders) during a breeding season amounted to 5,078 tonnes (range: 3,506--7,263 tonnes) or 47 tonnes per day on average (range: 33--68 tonnes) (Appendix S1). Considering the geographic consistency of the foraging area throughout the day, these results imply that the fish school (or schools) exploited by cormorants on a daily basis are of considerable size. Evidence suggests that anchovies, sardines, and herrings migrate slowly during the breeding period in a roughly east‐to‐west direction along the United Arab Emirates coastline (Ministry of Climate and Environment, unpublished data). Thus, during the breeding period, schools of small forage fish would be consistently abundant within the foraging range of Socotra cormorants.
If Socotra cormorants split school formations and disperse the fish too much, foraging is no longer cost‐efficient (Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}). Cormorants must therefore concentrate fish schools, something which is facilitated by the effect of bird numbers (Allee, Emerson, Park, Park, & Schmidt, [1949](#ece32750-bib-0001){ref-type="ref"}; Ryan, Edwards, & Pichegru, [2012](#ece32750-bib-0063){ref-type="ref"}). The proximity of the seafloor (Figure [2](#ece32750-fig-0002){ref-type="fig"}c) can also help herd the fish. In view of the diversity of dive profiles, cormorants used the entire water column, carrying out dives pelagically and epibenthically (Cook et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0020){ref-type="ref"}), while fish were trapped between the surface and the nearby seafloor. In the example in Figure [6](#ece32750-fig-0006){ref-type="fig"}, birds moved progressively toward the shoreline, pushing schools into shallower and shallower waters. At sea, Socotra cormorants carried out one foraging flight for every four dives on average (Figure S2), meaning they were constantly on the move, even if these flights were short (30 s on average). By comparison, a solitary benthic foraging species like the Crozet shag (*Leucocarbo melanogenis*) carries out one foraging flight for every 33 dives (Cook, Cherel, & Tremblay, [2006](#ece32750-bib-0019){ref-type="ref"}). In view of their average flight speed (45 km/hr), these short hops allowed Socotra cormorants to move forward by 400 m each time, thus constantly keeping up with the flock (Figure [7](#ece32750-fig-0007){ref-type="fig"}). This behavior can be compared to a conveyor belt, with birds continuously catching up with the moving flock and overtaking birds that are still under water (van Eerden & Voslamber, [1995](#ece32750-bib-0028){ref-type="ref"}). Schools of small pelagic fish typically travel at 0.4--1.9 m/s (e.g., Misund, Fernö, Pitcher, & Totland, [1998](#ece32750-bib-0048){ref-type="ref"}; Misund et al., [2003](#ece32750-bib-0047){ref-type="ref"}; Peraltilla & Bertrand, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0052){ref-type="ref"}). In comparison, mean instantaneous ground speed of Socotra cormorants during the foraging phase was 2.1 ± 0.3 m/s, matching the speed of fish schools. Fish may also use the coastal current for some form of passive transport. In the example in Figure [4](#ece32750-fig-0004){ref-type="fig"}a, the time lag between the position of dives during the morning and the afternoon trips would translate into prey moving at 0.3 m/s, which is close to the 0.4 m/s current calculated that same day using birds as drifter buoys (Figure [6](#ece32750-fig-0006){ref-type="fig"}b) and in accordance with the known direction of the coastal current in the area (Pous, Lazure, & Carton, [2015](#ece32750-bib-0057){ref-type="ref"}). Underwater, cormorants swim at 1.5--2.5 m/s (Cook, Kato, Tanaka, Ropert‐Coudert, & Bost, [2010](#ece32750-bib-0021){ref-type="ref"}). Fish may increase speed during burst swimming in order to escape a predator; however, they cannot sustain this for long and will quickly get exhausted (van Eerden & Voslamber, [1995](#ece32750-bib-0028){ref-type="ref"}).
Once fish have been aggregated, however, they are better protected from Socotra cormorants due to the "predator confusion effect," which makes it difficult for the predator to visually pick out individual prey within the large swirling mass of flashing fish (Milinski & Heller, [1978](#ece32750-bib-0046){ref-type="ref"}) and to the "many‐eyes effect" (Lima, [1995](#ece32750-bib-0043){ref-type="ref"}), which increases the speed of response of prey to predator attack via propagation of escape waves across the school (e.g., Radakov, [1973](#ece32750-bib-0059){ref-type="ref"}; Axelsen, Anker‐Nilson, Fosum, Kvamme, & Nottestad, [2001](#ece32750-bib-0003){ref-type="ref"}; Gerlotto et al. [2006](#ece32750-bib-3000){ref-type="ref"}; Herbert‐Read, Buhl, Feng, Ward, & Sumpter, [2015](#ece32750-bib-0037){ref-type="ref"}; Rieucau, Holmina, Castilloc, Couzind, & Handegarda, [2016](#ece32750-bib-0060){ref-type="ref"}). Birds must therefore disorganize the fish school sufficiently to reduce its coordinated antipredator behavior. Socotra cormorants targeted dives lasting around 15--30 s, a duration range yielding the highest values of dive‐to‐surface ratio (Figure [8](#ece32750-fig-0008){ref-type="fig"}b). Such a strategy is termed "optimal breathing" (Cook, Lescroël, Tremblay, & Bost, [2008](#ece32750-bib-0023){ref-type="ref"}) and is related to the uptake rate of oxygen in birds during postdive intervals, which should have been fastest precisely after dives lasting around 15--30 s. Such dives depleted only the respiratory tract oxygen, but not the blood hemoglobin and skeletal muscle myoglobin stores, which take longer to replenish (Cook et al., [2008](#ece32750-bib-0023){ref-type="ref"}). As a result, Socotra cormorants maximized time foraging underwater proportional to time at the surface, which is time lost to foraging. Given an average dive‐to‐pause ratio of 3.6, the proportion of birds underwater was 72%. This means that for an actively foraging flock of 44,550 birds (composed of half of the breeding adults and half of the nonbreeders from Siniya, Appendix S1) and assuming a flock diameter of 500 m (Figure [7](#ece32750-fig-0007){ref-type="fig"}), the average density of birds underwater was 0.16 birds/m^2^. Although this result corresponds to a situation of maximum possible number of birds in the flock, it illustrates the magnitude of the phenomenon. It suggests that fish schools were under continuous harassment by birds, which would have the effect of disorganizing school cohesiveness and facilitating prey capture (Wilson et al., [1987](#ece32750-bib-0084){ref-type="ref"}). Hence, in this case, the constant successive attacks of birds likely increased individual prey intake rate compared to that acquired through solitary foraging (Thiebault et al., [2016](#ece32750-bib-0074){ref-type="ref"}). In view of the dive profiles (Figure [6](#ece32750-fig-0006){ref-type="fig"}e), birds did not appear to dive in synchrony (Saino, Fasola, & Waiyaki, [1995](#ece32750-bib-0065){ref-type="ref"}). Synchronous diving necessitates visual coordination between divers, which would be difficult in a group of such size. In penguins, synchronous diving occurs in small groups (Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}) but disappears when the group becomes larger, as birds lose contact under water (Wilson et al., [1986](#ece32750-bib-0085){ref-type="ref"}; but see Ryan et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0063){ref-type="ref"}).
5. Conclusions {#ece32750-sec-0020}
==============
Our data lend support to the hypothesis that aggregation in seabirds leads to a faster discovery of food patches and, through local enhancement, to an efficient transfer of information about patch location (e.g., Boyd et al., [2016](#ece32750-bib-0012){ref-type="ref"}; Buckley, [1997](#ece32750-bib-0016){ref-type="ref"}; Thiebault, Mullers, Pistorius, & Tremblay, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0073){ref-type="ref"}; Weimerskirch, Bertrand, Silva, Marques, & Goya, [2010](#ece32750-bib-0081){ref-type="ref"}). Our data also support the hypothesis that prey capture is facilitated during group foraging, via a combination of prey herding and school disorganization (e.g., Berlincourt & Arnould, [2014](#ece32750-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}; Thiebault et al., [2016](#ece32750-bib-0074){ref-type="ref"}; Tremblay & Cherel, [1999](#ece32750-bib-0076){ref-type="ref"}; Wilson et al., [1987](#ece32750-bib-0084){ref-type="ref"}). Field studies of group foraging are challenging, but biologging represents an efficient and cost‐effective solution. Understanding the mechanisms underlying group foraging in seabirds is important not only from an evolutionary perspective, but also from a conservation perspective. If forming large groups is important to forage successfully, seabirds that have undergone a decline in numbers may face difficulty in securing prey efficiently, thus further increasing the threat to their species (Ryan et al., [2012](#ece32750-bib-0063){ref-type="ref"}).
Conflict of Interest {#ece32750-sec-0022}
====================
None declared.
Supporting information
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Click here for additional data file.
We thank the Ministry of Environment and Water for logistical support. All procedures were approved by the Ministry of Environment and Water and the United Arab Emirates University\'s Animal Ethics Committee protocol no. A18‐12. Permission to work on Siniya Island was provided by the Municipality of Umm Al Quwain. We are grateful to Richard Sherley for help using the ks package in R. Special thanks to Thomas Brom for writing an R script for distance analysis and for positive feedback during the preparation of the article.
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Among the many recipes that Sage Patanjali prescribes in his system of yoga for the control of the mind, a masterstroke is given in a single aphorism as a prescription for every type of mental modification when he says, tatpratiṣedhārtham ekatattvā abhyāsaḥ (I.32): The practice of one reality checks the movement of the mind. It means that the movement of the mind is due to its weddedness to various realities, and not to one reality. Ekatattva is one truth, one being, one substance, one reality – anything that is single and comprehensive. The practice of one reality is the ultimate remedy for all psychological modifications. But, as far as the human mind is concerned, there is no such thing as one reality. The human mind sees many realities and, therefore, it has manifold approaches to the various forms of reality which it sees in the world.
The mind moves only to realities, and never to unrealities. There is no such thing as the mind getting attracted to unreal things. Anything that it considers to be real becomes the object of its consideration and action. The subsequent transcendence of a particular concept of reality does not in any way affect the mind from getting interested in whatever level of reality it considers valuable at a given moment in time. In every stage of life the mind is confronted only by realities, because should it be convinced that its perceptions or cognitions are unreal, it will not bother itself about them. A reality is that which can fulfil a particular need at a given time; whether or not it is is ultimately real is a different question altogether. A thing may not be ultimately real, and yet it may be real enough to satisfy a particular requisition of the mind under a given condition.
Sometimes we have false illnesses which can be set right by false remedies. The remedy and the illness should be of the same category. In dream, we may sometimes feel very hungry. It is possible that even after a heavy dinner, we may dream of hunger when we go to bed. Is this hunger in the dream real, or is it unreal? If it is unreal, we would not feel it. Why would we feel it if it is unreal? So when it is felt, it is real. We may have lunch in a dream. Is this lunch real, or is it unreal? If it is unreal, it cannot appease the hunger of the dreaming individual. We have a dream hunger, appeased by a dream lunch. The hunger in dream cannot be called real if we compare it with the waking state, nor can we regard the lunch that we have in dream as real when compared to the waking lunch. But that is a different matter; we are not asked to compare here. We have to take things as they are. The condition of the mind in dream, which makes it feel an intense hunger, is commensurate with the nature of the food that is given to it in that very same dream condition. The dream food can satisfy the dream hunger because they are in the same space-time level; they are not in different degrees of reality.
We should not compare the dream experience with the waking experience. There is happiness and sorrow in dream, as well; we can be overjoyed, or be in deep grief. Why should we be in joy or the state of grief in dream when the causes thereof are unreal? All the causes of experience in dream can be regarded as unreal, as we would all say, when comparing those experiences with the waking state. But if they are unreal, we will not experience them at all. The very fact that we experience them shows that we have drawn them to our consciousness and made them a part of our being.
So, the real is a peculiar set-up of affairs, a condition or an environment which acts upon a particular state of mind and produces a particular type of experience. If in great fright we jump over a piece of rope thinking it is a snake, we may start perspiring and have tremors in the body. A false snake can create real perspiration. Although on a later comparative experience the snake might have been found to be unreal, when we perceived something to be a snake, at that particular moment of perception it was real enough to create a reaction in our physiological and psychological system. The mind has so many realities of this type in the world of experience, and because different realities satisfy different needs of the mind, it goes to these realities. We should not ask here whether this particular reality is ultimately real, because we are not concerned with it, and the mind is not going to accept this argument. The mind is not concerned with ultimate realities. It is concerned with realities as it sees them, conceives them and experiences them. So we can understand the reason why the mind is drawn towards objects which it considers as real.
Patanjali's point is that as long as diverse realities are cognised by the mind, it is impossible to withdraw the mind from them, because the mind has already been convinced that they are realities and, therefore, it has to relate itself to these realities in a particular manner. There is no question of control of the mind as long as there are realities which are multifarious in character. The rays of the mind, which go out in the form of cognition, can be drawn back and the energy of the mind is conserved – but this can be done only when there is a flowing of the mind towards a single reality. Our difficulty is that there is no such thing as a single reality in this world. Where is that One Reality, of which Patanjlai speaks or advises? Every reality is as good as any other reality, under different conditions. The One Reality of which Patanjali speaks, and of which yoga speaks in general, is that transcendent comprehensiveness where the lower realities are subsumed so that the mind will not find a need to go to the lower levels because of the satisfaction it achieves through contact with the higher real.
The question may be asked, what is the higher real and what is the lower real? Here again, we have the analogy of the comparative reality between dream and waking. A beggar who has very little to eat in his waking state will not be sorry that he has missed his beautiful dinner in dream. Let us suppose a beggar was dreaming that he was an emperor, and a delicious meal was served to him in his dream palace, and suddenly he awakens to the discovery that he is a beggar on the street. Will he feel sorry and cry, "Oh, what has happened to me? I was an emperor. I was enjoying my life, but now I have become a beggar. It would be better to go back to that condition of emperorship." The beggar will not be grieved over his waking from dream. He will not think that he has lost something valuable, though it is true that he has lost a great thing – that he has lost his kingdom, wealth and joys and is now sitting on the street like a beggar. From a certain viewpoint, it is a loss. But the beggar would rather be on the street with a crumb of bread in the waking condition than to be rejoicing in emperorship in dream. This is because a higher degree of reality is experienced by his consciousness during waking.
What satisfies us is not dinner, or lunch, or a kingdom, but the degree of consciousness that is experienced. This is a very subtle point which we should not miss in our analysis. If a kingdom, retinue, army, dinner, lunch and what not can satisfy a person, then a dream kingdom would be much better than a waking state beggarship – it would be better to go on sleeping and dreaming about emperorship than to live as a beggar in the waking state. But he would rather be a beggar in the waking state than be sleeping and dreaming of emperorship. The penury and hardship of the beggar in the waking condition does not in any way make that condition inferior to the dreaming state, notwithstanding the fact that in dream he had an imaginary kingdom to experience and enjoy.
The consciousness that is experienced in the waking state is superior in its degree or quality to the one that we are subjected to in dream. We are happy that we are awake, and what we are associated with is a different and secondary matter. The mere fact of getting up from sleep is a joy, because we feel that we are in a state which can be called a reality of a higher degree and inclusiveness than the lower one, which is dream. Ekatattva, or one reality, is that in which all of the lower values are included in a higher degree of comprehensiveness, just as the waking consciousness includes within itself all of the values of the dream world. Instead of contemplating upon the diverse values of the dream world, one would be content to restrict one's attention to the greater values of the waking life, because they include the lower values of dream. Although it is true that a comparison can be made between the dream life and the waking life and we feel satisfied that waking values are higher than dream values, there is no reality superior to the realities that are experienced in the waking world and, therefore, any further comparison becomes difficult. We are in a waking world, and we have not seen anything superior to this. This is the final thing that we have seen.
Thus, any further comparison to a still higher degree of reality – superior to the waking one – is unthinkable to us human beings. But we sometimes find ourself in moods which give us inklings of the fact that there are things higher than what we see with our eyes. If there are not things higher than what we experience through the senses, why is it that we feel restlessness in our life? Why are we not content with things in this world? What is it that makes us feel that there should be something else, something different than what we are experiencing at present? The universal restlessness and anxiety, and the hope that is experienced by every human mind should be indicative of the presence and the possibility of something superior to the present sensory experiences.
There cannot be hope or aspiration if something higher does not exist. It is the existence of something higher than all empirical life that draws us towards itself in a process called psychological aspiration or expectation of a better condition. Every day we expect a better state. Even a person sunk in sorrow imagines that tomorrow will be better, and that his condition may perhaps improve. It is rare to find people who are so pessimistic as to think that everything is dead wrong, and tomorrow will perhaps be worse than today. There is always a hope: "After all, tomorrow will be better. Conditions will improve, things will be better and I shall be happier." This hope is but a symbol, a significance of the existence of a condition superior to the present one. That superior condition is naturally inclusive of all the lower values. When we get something higher, we do not think of the lower – not because we have lost the lower, but because in the higher we have found all that was in the lower.
For the purpose of controlling the mind, we have to adjust ourself to the concept of a higher reality. That is what is meant by ekatattva abhyasah, by which there is pratisedha or checking of the modifications of the mind. The introduction of the concept of a higher reality into the mind can be done either by logical analysis or by reliance upon scriptural statements. Great texts like the Upanishads, the Vedas and such other mystical texts, proclaim the existence of a Universal Reality which can be reached through various grades of ascent into more and more comprehensive levels. The happiness of the human being is not supposed to be complete happiness.
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and the Taittareya Upanishad we have, for instance, an enumeration of the gradations of happiness, which is a wonderful incentive for the mind to concentrate on higher values. In the Taittariya Upanishad we are told that human happiness is the lowest kind of happiness, and not the highest happiness, as we imagine. We think that perhaps we are superior to animals, plants and stones, etc., and biologists of the modern world are likely to tell us that we are Homo sapiens, far advanced in the process of evolution, perhaps having reached the topmost level of evolution. It is not true. The Upanishad says that we are in a very low condition.
Essentially, the Upanishad tells us that all of the happiness of mankind put together is but a jot – only a drop. Let us imagine the state of happiness of a healthy, young individual who is the king of the whole world. We know that there is no such person as a king of the whole world, yet let us imagine such a person who is the emperor of the whole world. No one is in opposition to this emperor. He is vibrantly healthy and youthful, and has all the powers of enjoyment. Everything in the world is under him. What is his happiness? The happiness of this emperor of the entire world can be regarded as the lowest jot of happiness.
One hundred times the happiness of the emperor of this world is the happiness of the pitris, another level which is superior to the physical world. One hundred times the happiness of the pitris is the happiness of the gandharvas, who are celestial musicians in a world which is still higher than that of the pitris. One hundred times the happiness of the gandharvas is the happiness of the celestials in heaven – the devas, as we call them. One hundred times the happiness of these celestials is the happiness of Indra, the king of the gods. One hundred times the happiness of the king of the gods is the happiness of the preceptor, the Guru of the gods – Brihaspati. One hundred times the happiness of Brihaspati is the happiness of Prajapati, the Creator – Brahma. One hundred times the happiness of Brahma the Creator is the happiness of Virat, the Supreme. Beyond that is Hiranyagarbha, and beyond that, Ishvara, and beyond Ishvara is the Absolute.
So where are we in this scheme? What is our happiness? It is the happiness of a cup of coffee, cup of tea, or a sweet – which has no meaning compared to these calculations of astounding existences which are transcendent to human comprehension. When I say a hundred times, it is not merely a mathematical increase of the quantity of happiness; it is also a corresponding increase of the quality of happiness. As mentioned earlier, the quality of happiness in waking life is superior to the happiness in dream; it is not merely quantitative increase, but is also a qualitative increase. The joy of waking life is greater and more intense than the quality of joy in dream. So these calculations given in the Upanishad mean an increase of happiness one hundred times, both in quantity and in quality, so that when we go to the top, we are in an uncontrollable ecstasy of unbounded bliss.
The mind can be brought to concentrate itself upon higher degrees of reality through the reading of scriptural testimony, which can be corroborated by the inductive logic and deductive reasoning, etc. of our own analytical power. Sruti and yukti, as the great masters tell us, should both come to our aid in bringing the mind to a point of concentration on a higher reality than what it is experiencing now through the senses.
The urge that we feel from within to acquire more and more things, and to enjoy greater and greater degrees of happiness, is an insignia of the existence of such states where we can have that type of experience. An intellectual urge, moral urge, spiritual urge and aesthetic urge are all indications of the presence of certain values which cannot be comprehended at present by the powers of sense and reasoning. There is an irresistible desire to ask for more and more, and we cannot ask for more and more unless this 'more' exists. We will not ask for an empty thing. The idea of the more cannot arise in a mind which has not sensed the presence of that 'more' in some subtle manner. The mind has various levels of perception. Although through the conscious level it cannot directly perceive the existence of these higher levels of reality, it can sense the presence of these higher realities through other forms of apparatus that it has within, and it is due to the action of these inward sensations that it feels agonised and restless in any given condition of lower experience.
If we are not possessed of even the least tendency to recognise a higher value of life, we will be happy – we will be perfectly contented. It is the impact of a higher state of life upon the present condition of existence that is the cause for our unhappiness and restlessness. If that impact were not to be there at all, there would be no contact between the present state of existence and the future possible state. When this contact is not there, there will be no asking for it, no aspiration for it, no feeling about it and, therefore, no unhappiness about the present state of affairs. So, we should be perfectly contented, but we are not; we are unhappy. We do not want the present condition to continue because we feel that there is inadequacy, shortcoming and all sorts of ugliness which we want to overcome and rectify, but which we cannot execute and achieve unless a higher condition does exist, and becomes practicable.
This is the conclusion arrived at by certain faculties of prehension which are operating in the subtle layers of the mind, invisible even to the mind itself in its conscious level. In our own six-foot bodily individuality, we have possibilities of the whole cosmic experience in a minute, microscopic form. The seeds of universal powers and achievements are hiddenly present in the cells of our own individual body. The vast tree of cosmic experience, the blossoming of universal realisation, is latent as a seed in the very fibre of our present individual existence. It is this that occasionally makes us brood over the possibilities of higher achievements in life and never allows us to rest contented with what we are at present. So, by these methods of self-analysis and study of scriptures, etc., we should be able to bring the mind back from its concentration on diverse realities of the sense-world and fix it upon a higher reality so that its distractions get lessened as much as possible.
A distraction is the attention of the mind on diversity. Concentration is the withdrawal of the mind from diversity, and its attention bestowed upon a more unifying system of values. As we go higher and higher, the diversities become less and less. They all get included in a more comprehensive system, which includes all of the diversities which the mind originally perceived as independent existences. This is how the mind can be brought from its usual meanderings in the world of sense and made to concentrate itself on higher realities. By educative methods it has to be told, again and again, that a higher plane does exist and is implicit in one's own experience. It is not outside; it is hidden, latent potential, and it can be manifest by proper methods.
Infinity is hidden in every grain of sand. It can be directly contacted by the mind, by the application of suitable methods or techniques. These techniques are nothing but the affirmation of Reality in every particular form of reality, which in ordinary life is mistaken for an absolutely independent existence. These so-called absolutely independent existences called realities, which attract the mind in different directions, are aspects of a more comprehensive system which includes these realities.
Therefore, it would be profitable for the mind to pay attention to this higher system, rather than to pay attention to a single, isolated individuality which it has misconstrued as a whole reality by itself. No particular individual, nothing that is isolated, can be regarded as an entire reality. It is only an aspect or a face of reality and, therefore, it is not advantageous to the mind to engage itself entirely in any kind of action in respect of that particular form of reality. It is disadvantageous, because a part cannot give the whole.
It is, therefore, essential for the mind to affiliate itself with the characters of larger wholes, so that in these larger experiences it not only gains greater control over the environment and its own self, but also experiences a greater intensity of happiness, which follows automatically with the experience of larger dimensions of being. | https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/patanjali/raja_24.html |
Neurocutaneous melanocytosis presenting in a teenager: A case report and review of the literature.
Neuro cutaneous melanocytosis (NCM) is a non-familial, congenital disorder characterized by multiple congenital nevi and brain or leptomeningeal abnormal melanin deposits. Here, we present an adult onset NCM. A 17-year-old boy presented with headache and double vision for 1 month. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed hydrocephalus and abnormal meningeal hyper intensities in supra and infratentorial regions predominantly in the posterior fossa. Para medullary region showed an 11×10 mm nodular contrast enhancing nodule. Resection of an intramedullary central nervous system lesion revealed melanoma while skin biopsy was benign melanocytic nevus. As per Kadonaga and Frieden criteria, a diagnosis of NCM was made. Planned for craniospinal irradiation by three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy with a dose of 36 Gy, in 18 fractions (2 Gy/fraction and 5 days in a week) along with steroids however patient progressed and developed quadriplegia with intradural metastasis.
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Unemployment and underemployment
What are underemployment and unemployment?
Underemployment happens when a job does not make full use of an employee’s abilities. This could include not providing them with enough hours, such as making them work part-time hours while they prefer to work full-time. The person may also be overqualified for the position and unable to put their expertise or abilities to use in their current position. Employees who are unemployed may have to perform multiple jobs to cover their living needs.
Unemployment occurs when a person is actively looking for work yet goes for an extended period of time without being hired. These people want to work but are unable to do so due to a lack of jobs in their industry, a lack of qualifications for open positions, or too much competition from other unemployed people.
Types of underemployment
Overqualified
Employees that are overqualified have greater talents or a higher education level than their work requires. An employee with a law degree, for example, would be overqualified if they worked at a retail business. They are unable to apply their complete knowledge and skills in their current position.
Manning, for example, earns a Bachelor’s Degree in Software Engineering. However, he discovers that there are no current job openings. Because software engineering jobs require at least three years of experience, he works as a waiter instead of looking for work in the industry he studied in college.
Overstaffed
A corporation may hire more workers than it requires. As a result of this arrangement, a company may have several employees working part-time hours rather than fewer employees working full-time. Companies may see a drop in sales, forcing them to reduce staff hours in order to save money. Businesses with strong seasonal sales, such as retail businesses, may face this all year. Overstaffing in an industry can occur as a result of older personnel refusing to retire or the popularity of a certain field of study.
Technological changes
Changes in technology are a common cause of underemployment. As technology improves, machines may eventually replace humans. Automation has an impact on a wide range of industries, including individuals who work in warehouses and banks. For example, the advent of ATMs reduced the necessity for bank tellers by allowing customers to withdraw money from a machine rather than waiting in line to speak with a teller. Employee hours are reduced or eliminated entirely in this case.
How to avoid underemployment?
1. Create a job search strategy
Consider developing a job search plan based on your previous experience and talents, as well as your future career goals. This technique might assist you in determining the type of career you will love and flourish in. Make a list of the job titles, industries, business names, and areas where you want to work. Jobs that you apply for should include the majority of these characteristics so that you have a better chance of enjoying your work and putting your skills to use.
2. Consider vocational training
Making yourself more desirable to an employer based on your further training is one strategy to lower your odds of underemployment. If an employer reviews resumes and notices that five candidates have the same degree, they may contact the one with greater experience.
3. Gain more work experience
Recent college grads may struggle to compete for a job with a huge number of applications. Gaining relevant experience to boost employability is one approach to become more competitive. For instance, if you want to work as an intern at a law firm, you could join a debate team. This can demonstrate to the company that you are actively working on the skills required for the job.
4. Improve your resume
A great CV might increase your chances of getting the job you want. You can edit your resume to include all of your relevant skills and experiences. Each time, try to adapt your resume to the position you’re applying for by incorporating keywords from the job description. Personalizing your application helps demonstrate why you are qualified for each position and boost your chances of being interviewed.
5. Network
Networking with others is one technique to increase your chances of working full-time hours. You could go to networking events to meet new individuals who can help you find work. They may also be aware of open employment that match your qualifications and education. | https://cuitutorial.com/courses/data-base/lessons/unemployment-and-underemployment/ |
Transitioning a Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) premature infant from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to home is a very stressful task for parents. Few studies examined the needs of parents of VLBW infants during the transition; moreover, even less is known about technology development strategies that aim to increase the parenting confidence. In this study, we used Bandura's self-efficacy theory as a framework to understand ways to develop successful interventions for parents of VLBW infants. The self-efficacy theory posits that parenting behavior and the quality of care can be improved by supporting the four major sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and physiological responses. We describe self-efficacy theory and its role in the development of technology interventions to support parents of NICU infants using a case study, called NICU-2-HOME. | https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/self-efficacy-theory-as-a-framework-for-interventions-that-suppor |
As we pick up the pieces of the shattered economy, the route to the Great Transition becomes clear: we need to recapture and democratize money as a lever for resource allocation and collective power.
A quick survey of the GTI scenarios and the world around us will show that we slid from Conventional Worlds to Barbarization in the first three months of 2020. The threat of a Breakdown loomed amidst the economic fallout of the pandemic: over 40 million people unemployed in the US, for long food distribution lines, and homeless people put in parking lots for proper distancing. At the onset of summer, escalating violence bared the ugly teeth of Fortress World, as police across the country took violent actions against peaceful protesters and accelerationist provocateurs turned our cities into war zones.
We are in the middle of an enormous change.
Business closures, supply chain breakdowns, crumbling collateral, and vast new sovereign debt all form the winds of a perfect economic storm. Here in Vermont, the college system alone will need a bailout of $25 million, almost equal to its annual appropriation. Multiply that by all the colleges and universities in the world, and you get one small piece of the big picture. States and cities that rely on income, sales, and meals taxes are already going broke; we can add their annual budgets to the money needed for bailouts.
Homeowners, tenants, and business owners are not paying rents, mortgages, and other debts. Student loans are not being paid back. The real estate under it all is for sale, including traditional institutions like colleges, churches, and commercial centers in downtowns. All this adds up to the conditions for a monetary meltdown like none we have ever seen.
If countries retreat from international agreements as quickly as people locked down at the threat of contagion, we could see the return of hyperinflation, deflation, and/or devaluation of major world currencies like the dollar. As we pick up the pieces of the shattered economy, the route to the Great Transition becomes clear: we need to recapture and democratize money as a lever for resource allocation and collective power.
Lights in the Darkness
Amidst the ever-present threat of collapse, we need to find new ways to exchange goods and services with each other when money is scarce or unreliable. Time banks, for example, allow people to trade using time instead of money. Here in Central Vermont, the Onion River Exchange has been operating for over ten years. Such time banks have been flourishing all over the world.
The practice of business barter is not new: the Wir banking system in Switzerland, for instance, has been running a commercial barter currency for almost ninety years. It is easy for two contractors to trade with each other, but if a contractor wants to trade with someone who supplies agricultural amendments, Wir can help facilitate the transaction.
During the pandemic, mutual aid networks have blossomed all over the world. People have been pooling resources, volunteering time, and helping their neighbors through the crisis. What if these networks could be the foundation for basic income and provisioning for people without a reliance on money? Digital currency platforms like those developed by the Mutual Aid Network could help us accomplish that.
Special-purpose currencies also have an essential role to play in this rethinking of money and exchange. One of the beauties of special-purpose currencies is that we can value things according to what our community thinks are important instead of what the financial markets prefer. The arts can be supported through an arts currency; ecological practices can be supported with currencies based on carbon reductions, damage remediation, water conservation, and waste cleanup. Having different kinds of money for different kinds of transactions makes a lot more sense on a finite planet than the one-size-fits-all system we have now.
Eco-Communalism
Here in Cabot, Vermont, you can see the tiny spring flowers of Eco-communalism taking hold. Our ecovillage has weathered the storm of the pandemic largely by being far enough away from urban areas or tourist hubs. We have ramped up our food production, doubled the size of our community garden, taken on sixty new chickens, planted mushrooms, and increased our greenhouse space. We are working hard to relocalize all aspects of our lives.
We are already simultaneously in the Breakdown, Fortress World, and Eco-Communalism, depending on where and how you live. My view is that a way of life more in harmony with nature is absolutely necessary for survival. The Great Transition is not a scenario; it is an imperative. If in the time of pandemic you are doing a lot less of what you thought was your “normal” life and are constrained and frustrated, you probably need to find a different way of life, if you still can. If, like people living in ecological intentional communities, you are doing a lot more of your “normal” life, or your life hasn’t changed all that much, the Great Transition is alive and well where you are. It is a choice that is possible to make. We need a lot more people to make it. | https://countercurrents.org/2020/09/confronting-collapse/ |
So often when I am running a coaching skills workshop, a manager will say to me: “I don’t have time to coach. Using a coaching approach takes longer and we are all so time pressured”. I empathise with them. Our working world becomes increasingly pressured and in my own coaching practice I see managing this pressure as a regular topic.
However, by not using a coaching approach we are also not solving the pressure problem. If we don’t focus on helping employees to learn to solve their own problems, and if we let opportunities to help them be independent and capable individuals go by, then the questions, advice-seeking and requests for help in problem-solving will come back to us as managers, keeping us in a circle of busyness.
So what happens if we take a different approach? See a coaching approach as a mindset shift rather than something extra to do. Taking a mindset shift is not something extra in the long run, although in the short term we might have to notice our own tendencies.
There are two main shifts we can make to help become coaching managers.
Firstly, we can simply choose to move from ‘tell’ to ‘ask’. In their research Losada and Heaphy (2004) found that teams which had a balance of telling vs. asking performed better than teams who took a more telling approach. Note the balance between telling and asking - this is not to say that managers should move completely to ask. When someone asks us a question at work, simply holding a habit of mind to ask first, before telling, we are already employing a coaching approach. To do this will simply involve noticing our inclination to ‘tell’. To see telling as quicker.
Secondly, we can change the way we think about our employees. In her book “Mindset”, Carol Dweck (2006) describes what she calls Growth Mindset as the belief that our success is based on hard work and learning – the more effort we invest, the more we will succeed. For example, this goes together with the belief that intelligence can be developed. Another type of mindset is Fixed Mindset, the belief that no matter how hard you work, some things cannot be learned, and so there’s no point trying.
To use a coaching approach as a manager means to see your employees as capable individuals, whose ability to learn is even greater than what they believe for themselves. It means making a perspective shift, see questions not as problems that need to be solved, but as opportunities to help someone grow and develop.
This is beneficial not only to the individual, but also to the team and the organisation. People who are learning and growing will be able to contribute more to the organisation's performance. One of the characteristics of the “Learning Organisation” (Peter Senge, 1990) is continuous individual and team self-improvement. Especially today, to stay competitive in business means to foster innovation and continuously transform.
Managers have a responsibility to help their team develop and grow at work – and a coaching approach is an essential ingredient in that journey.
Make coaching skills part of your professional development plan. Book a call with us or join Jean Balfour for a virtual preview session of our Coach Certification Programme. Reserve your complimentary seat here! | https://baileybalfour.com/blog-how-do-I-find-time-to-coach.htm |
The tattoo script inspired Keepsake™ family has five members that can be combined to provide a range of creative options. Rich with OpenType features including discretionary and contextual alternate characters and ligatures, and other stylistic alternates. Each face includes three options for every capital letter and multiple lowercase options. All five fonts support Latin, Eastern European and Baltic languages. Other features include four decorative elements, and optional old-style figures accessible by supporting application’s OpenType menu. | https://www.fonts.com/font/aerotype/keepsake/story |
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Secretary
Role
Responsible for accurately documenting the official actions and maintaining official business records; position is required by law.
Key Responsibilities
Serve as the official League business recorder with primary responsibility for taking minutes of all board meetings, at the annual meeting, and at any general meeting when League business is conducted. Maintain minutes and records to document official League business and recall as needed.
General
The minutes are the record of League policy making. They remind board members present of decisions made and actions to be taken. Minutes let absent members know what happened at the meeting and tell future interested people why certain decisions were made and what the League’s reasoning was at the time. They are our official record, are posted on our website and filed with the University of Oregon Knight Library Special Collections.
- Take minutes at all decision-making meetings of the board and at the annual meeting.
- Maintain all board meeting attendance records.
- Distribute minutes in a timely fashion.
- Submit all written reports and minutes with corrections to staff for our records.
Specific
- Attend meetings promptly; if unable to attend, arrange for a substitute.
- Take attendance.
- Identify board members in minutes by name.
- Record motions verbatim, with name of mover and vote count.
- Give a sense of discussions, especially when they are controversial.
- Attach reports (including consensus reports) to minutes as needed.
- Send minutes to staff.
- Participate in board discussion and votes.
- Work with the president to see that annual meeting minutes and year-end reports are filed with staff.
More opportunities with League of Women Voters of Oregon
No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.
About League of Women Voters of Oregon
Location:
1330 12TH ST SE STE 200, SALEM, OR 97302, US
Mission Statement
League of Women Voters of Oregon works to encourage active and informed participation in government and to increase understanding of major policy issues. The League seeks to empower citizens to understand governmental issues and to participate in the political process. We seek to provide balanced, accurate, nonpartisan information to all Oregonians.
Description
Members of the LWV, an active group of women and men of all ages and backgrounds, work on issues that make a difference locally, statewide, and nationally. You too can help make democracy work. | https://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp3549348.jsp |
What is Plantar Fasciitis?
Plantar Fasciitis is an irritation of the plantar fascia – a band of tissue that extends from the heel bone (called the calcaneus) to the ball of the foot.
It supports the foots natural arch and stretches mildly whenever the foot bears weight. This condition can be painful when walking or standing and can often limit physical activities that involve running, jumping and large amounts of pressure to the feet.
Depending on the severity and pain related to plantar fasciitis, our pain management doctors may perform procedures and physical therapy to reduce and relieve foot pain.
Note from the Doctor
A vertebroplasty is a great option and can offer beneficial results in restoring function and pain relief.
Phoenix
Mesa/Gilbert
Central Phoenix
Get in Touch
1301 E McDowell Rd., #100
Phoenix, AZ 85006
off of 13th St. and McDowell Rd.
4860 E. Baseline Rd, #103
Mesa, AZ 85206
off of Pierpont Dr. and Baseline Rd.
8805 N 23rd Ave., #120
Phoenix, AZ 85021
off of 23rd Ave. and Dunlap Rd. | https://www.arizonapaintreatmentcenters.com/plantar-fasciitis |
In this paper we study conformity tendencies in SG&A (Selling, General and Administrative expenses) reporting from a mimetic imitation perspective. We explore intra-industry conformity tendencies in reported SG&A relative to sales over a ten-year period among a sample of US firms. We measure conformity by comparing a firms SG&A profile against a reference group of industry model firms. Results suggest that a firms imitation of successful firms SG&A profiles is determined by the tendency of other industry members to imitate those reference models. Moreover, results suggest that the mimetic process is strengthened with higher environmental uncertainty and that large auditor networks function as facilitators for this type of socially-based imitation behavior. Different modes of trait imitation in SG&A reporting seem to coexist as long as the reference groups are defined in terms of size and profitability.
Language
English
Source (series)
Research paper / UA, Faculty of Applied Economics ; 2006:032
Publication
Antwerp
:
UA, Faculty of Applied Economics
,
2006
Volume/pages
49 p. | https://repository.uantwerpen.be/link/irua/62675 |
How De Zerbi used his ‘lure and exploit’ ideology to punish Potter at the AMEX – tactical analysis
Gameweek 14 of the English Premier League brought us a very interesting clash between Brighton and Chelsea, the match which can also be called ‘the Brighton derby’ as the former coach of the club came back to American Express Community stadium for the first time after he left the Seagulls in September.
Roberto de Zerbi succeded Graham Potter and kept the fire crackling with his modern ideas and attitude, and the game was perceived as one of the most awaited by the whole of the footballing world before the weekend.
The first half surely was the time when Brighton was the better team and created an impassable gap between the two teams. But even though the result on the scoreboard wrote 3-0 and it pictured that the Blues were dominated during the first 45 minutes, that wasn’t the whole truth about the game. They had their moments and could’ve got themselves a better situation if they managed to exploit their good situations with a greater quality of execution.
This tactical analysis will show you how the home team overpowered their opponents using the trademark Roberto de Zerbi tactics and got the best out of utilising numerical and spacial superiorities. Also, it will be an analysis of how the away team could’ve gotten more out of the game if they managed to solve some of the positive settings in their favour.
Lineups
After embracing the 3-at-the-back formation in his first bunch of games as a Brighton head coach, De Zerbi decided to switch to his more familiar back four for the game against Chelsea and it came out lucrative for them. The centre-back duo was made up of Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster who played as the first-line playmakers in front of Robert Sánchez. Pascal Gross was initially set on the right-full-back position, but his role varied throughout the match.
Pervis Estupinan and March were the men providing their team with width, whilst the inner and central corridors were in the control of Alexis Mac Alister, Adam Lallana and the former Manchester United target Moisés Caicedo.
The main striker for Brighton was Leandro Trossard, who was set on the top of the lineup and was in charge of opening the paths of progression for his team.
Potter went into the game with a hybrid formation that was more role-dependent than positionally fixed. The back three in his setup was built up of Marc Cucurella, Thiago Silva and Trevoh Chalobah, and the midfield was filled in with the four roaming midfielders embodied in Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Conor Gallagher, Mateo Kovačić and Mason Mount. Christian Pulišić provided width on the right flank, and the left-hand side was covered by either Kai Havertz or Raheem Sterling, who rotated on occasions, with one always staying wide and the other being set in the striker position.
Brighton’s concept of “lure to exploit”
De Zerbi’s change in formation brought to light some of the ideas he got most famous for as his team could finally play some of his most used patterns from his former clubs. The Italian is the impersonation of the “brave football” concept that tends to call out the opposition to press high while staying calm under pressure in front of his own goal in order to open the space on the far half of the pitch to exploit it once the play switches there.
With that idea in mind, Brighton entered the game against Chelsea. They set their organizational structure in a 1-4-2 formation, waiting for the opponents to push higher.
Because of the wide back-four and narrow midfield-two, the most important paths for ball progression were initially opened and the centre-backs have had an open space in front of them to go for vertical passes for the players dropping down the half-space.
The idea that builds on the first action is the low drop of Trossard who initially positions himself really close to one of the Blues’ centre-backs. Once he locked down the defender onto himself, he then tried to lure him out of his position in order to open up the space for potential exploitation.
If Trossard (or any other attacker that played the role of “the bait” in similar scenarios) managed to get the ball, he time and again had his future solutions secured with the two midfielders providing a first-touch passing option and took care of the area closest to the position of the ball. We can also see that in the picture above, with two home-team players being closest to potentially getting the ball in the zone around the referee.
The striker with the defender on his back always had multiple options for progression/securing possession and that’s what created the necessary space/time superiority for De Zerbi’s men. The main threat they were planning on emitting came out of the second-line run-ins, either through the inner corridor or by the cut-in runs from the flank to the abandoned area.
This setting happened very commonly, especially in the first half and that’s what created the biggest gap between the two teams as their fast attackers/wide players timed their runs very precisely and managed to utilize their individual quality in the team-created superiorities coming out of their tactics.
Gross’ hybrid positioning
The one idea that created the difference along with the firstly described “lure and exploit” one was the unconventional role of Brighton’s Pascal Gross. The German was initially set on the right-back position, but his role differed according to the phase of possession his team was in. If they played out of the back trying to call the opposition higher, he’ll be flanked in his spot and provided width (which can best be seen in the first two pictures of the analysis). But, if Brighton managed to overpower the first line of opponent’s pressure, and came to build up closer to the halfway line, Gross’ position would change and he’d become an additional midfielder.
As it is said, the German’s positioning came in handy for De Zerbi in many different ways first of which is the providing of more security in the central area of the pitch and the latter one being the progression asset.
From these scenarios, Gross can play the role he’s familiar with the most as he’s undoubtedly the best when used as the midfielder. Once he gets enough space and time – which he has as is shown in the picture – he can deliver very rationally yet can play very smart passes in order to stretch the pitch or exploit his teams’ superiorities.
Along with that, when he got noticed, he made sure that his team gets the best out of it as he played as a silent conductor, orchestrating down which paths the game should be played with him not being as involved in possession but only opening the passing lanes with his positioning.
Even though the German’s positioning came out beneficial for Brighton in possession, they had some problems once their passes were intercepted and Gross was still inverted. That opened the space on the right-back position for the Chelsea players to exploit and they managed to do so in both halves of the game but the execution, once they got the ball in these situations, lacked in quality.
Once the game was fast-paced and Brighton’s lines got a bit more stretched, the away team had their chances and could’ve benefited from the space that was left for them to use it. Their positioning in these situations was very good, but the finishing of the actions wasn’t, so they came out empty-handed.
Chelsea’s offensive setup and Brighton’s pressing game
Even though the result suggests differently, Chelsea had their moments and was a fair rival to Brighton. The home team managed to create more beneficial situations and picked the lock of their rival’s system a bit better which lead them to win the three points, but Potter’s men also had proper intentions only not the concentration and the tools to get something more out of the matchup.
The Blues went for a 3-2-2-3 formation in possession, cleverly structuring their team and making the passing network as usable as possible. They put their opponents into struggle time and again because of this and some of their good tactical efforts would go under the radar because of the result on the scoreboard.
Their intention to position wide players very close to the bylines was the key to chance creation because they engaged the closest defenders and set their focus on the flank players which left a lot of room between centre-backs and full-backs.
Once the space was open, which can be seen in the image above, Chelsea went for in-depth passes towards the players running in from the flanks. Brighton had their issues and got lucky in solving them because their opponents’ finishing wasn’t top-notch.
The best way to prevent Chelsea from utilising their good offensive structure was to press high and leave Potter’s team with no good and easy vertical passing lanes which would open the pitch for them and set them in positions from which they’d have their options planned out. Brighton pressed in a 1-3 structure, orienting their pressing narrowly and compactly.
Once they cut the options for Chelsea with their man-marking high-press, they moved together to lure them into organised pressing traps. Their team shifting closed the passing lanes towards the area from which the ball has come and left the ball carrier to only play it down a singular path.
Creating a high-intense deficit setup for the opponent in a very dangerous area, prevented Chelsea from progressing with the plan vertically and going into more organized positional attacks more commonly. The away team had their game under control when the pressure was lower, and when they were allowed to move forward in a more well-thought manner, but De Zerbi’s pressing structure came in the way of doing that more often.
Conclusion
Roberto de Zerbi’s trademark in possession solutions and ideas panned out very profitable for Brighton in Potter’s return to the south of the country. The concept of “lure and exploit” created a lot of trouble for Chelsea’s defensive compactness and opened plenty of space for the home team to take advantage of. Also, the hybrid positioning and changes in Brighton’s formation that happened with Pascal Gross in the main role were an unsolvable obstacle for Potter and lead the home team into very beneficial isolations and space/time superiorities.
This tactical analysis has shown how the Seagulls came out as winners out of this fixture, and how they embodied most of the signature tactics their new coach brought to England, but also how the away team had the proper ideas to make the game more interesting, only lacking the quality to take more out of it which made them go home empty-handed. | https://totalfootballanalysis.com/match-analysis/premier-league-202223-brighton-vs-chelsea-tactical-analysis-tactics |
‘Your creative self is my main concern’.
Veronique Maria
The context for my work as an artist’s mentor and creativity coach is always going to be about strengthening your relationship with your creative self. ‘Your creative self is always going to be my main concern’.
I work holistically. When we work together we will be considering how all aspects of your life effect your relationship with your creative self. I want you to be able to confidently trust yourself, open yourself up to what is most fundamentally you, live out of that place in all situations, and, as a result, be able to fully embrace creative freedom.
Creativity isn’t confined to people who are working in areas of the arts. We are all born as creative beings. Many of my clients do happen to work in the area of the arts (in live-art, performance, and dance, music, film, and fine art, craft, design and architecture etc), but working in an arts industry isn’t a prerequisite for working with me. What’s much more important is your desire to create a closer, deeper, more intimate connection to your creative self.
HOW THE MENTORING WORKS
We generally start with an informal video call. This gives us an opportunity to find out a bit more about each other, ask questions and decide whether or not we’d like to work together.
Having established a desire to work together we then make a commitment to meet, on line, on a regular basis. This is usually weekly at first and consists of a programe of 12 x 60 minute sessions.
In addition to committing to 12 weekly sessions lasting one hour each, it’s important to allow some additional time and space for tasks and exercises each week. These support the work we do in the sessions and will vary according to the needs and time availability of each individual. I’ll be available to support you and answer your questions between sessions via email and text throughout the mentoring period.
Fine tuning the connection you have with your creative self involves heightening your sensitivity to your intuition and inner wisdom, increasing awareness of your blocks and resistances and generally paying very close attention to your patterns of behaviour and mind states. Practices and processes that support this work will vary with each individual and might include meditation and mindfulness, deep listening and dialogue, journaling, walking, singing and sensing into your body. Dreaming is important too so we might explore day dreaming, night dreaming and lucid dreaming, as appropriate.
Each person’s needs are different so this work is not prescriptive. Also, our abilities and focus can change as we go along. It can sometimes feel as if we’re dancing in the dark so trust is vitally important, as is the ability to get out of our own way. Gaining these skills and abilities can take time, patience and persistence. It’s totally worth investing in this work of course, because once you’re more closely aligned to your creative self you’ll feel much calmer, clearer, and more focused in your life. You’ll be more at peace with yourself, and more purposeful and well. Life will just seem so much easier all round.
I want to help you ‘come home’ to yourself, feel settled, secure, and confident in your life choices both in the short term; day to day, and in the long term too. I want to help you to be more sure of yourself in every sense of the meaning. This work is not restricted to ‘the studio’, ‘the music room’, the ‘writers desk’. This work will impact and effect every aspect of your life so be prepared for challenge, change and discovery. | https://veroniquemaria.co.uk/coaching-mentoring/ |
Une Éclipse by Raphaël Haroche
Raphaël Haroche, more popularly known by his first name, is no stranger to writing. France’s beloved singer-songwriter is already internationally known as both a successful musician, having won the 2006 NRJ Music Award for Francophone Male Artist of the Year, and a Prix Goncourt winner for his debut collection of short stories, Retourner à la mer (2017). Now, he’s back with another set of short stories that celebrate and mourn the spectrum of human emotions and quotidian experiences – from romantic ruptures to revisiting repressed memory fragments associated with past trauma. Une Éclipse tackles heavy subject matter through intimate first-person narratives – revealing the innermost neuroses of his characters.
His standout chapters include Une éclipse, Aida, and Les Règles du tennis. The opening chapter, Une éclipse, reads like a short film, offering glimpses into precise moments of a married couple’s tense relationship full of suspicion and doubt. We don’t know if what we’re witnessing is real or speculation and paranoia on behalf of the male narrator. His wife had already cheated on him before… Would she be capable of doing it again? Aida addresses sexual exploitation, abusive power dynamics, and repressed memories. The child-adult narrator recounts his fragmented memories and secrets with confusion and shame, while also reflecting on his experiences as an adult and other survivors’ experiences of extraterrestrial visitation and alien abductions. Tennis fans will appreciate the chapter, Les Règles du tennis, which is full of references to Roland Garros and The Big Four. It also treats the subject of loss in various forms – including death and coming to terms with one’s unsuccessful tennis ambitions. Haroche has a knack for using humor to relay trauma and shock: “It takes a lot of ashes to make a coach,” his narrator remarks nonchalantly. Une Eclipse also anticipates readers’ attempts (admittedly mine) to psychoanalyze the writer. It closes with a hilarious interview including questions on extraterrestrial experiences, Michel Houellebecq, The Spice Girls, and Haroche’s mother-in-law.
The twelve disparate chapters and stories make Une Éclipse an easy subway read for the commute to or from work. It’s also an opportunity for fans of singer-songwriter Raphaël and lovers of his hit songs (“Caravane,” “Schengen,” “Le Vent de l’hiver”) to discover his literary talent. Readers who are already familiar with Haroche’s writing will be eager to re-experience his gift for transforming the banal into unsettling and absurdist portraits.
Une Éclipse by Raphaël Haroche, Gallimard.
Click here to purchase the book with us. | https://www.albertine.com/staff-picks/une-eclipse-by-raphael-haroche/ |
Marginalized is to be on the periphery, or the fringe, or the edge or the margin of a group, a community, a company or corporation, a society, a country or the global society. Marginalized can be applied to an individual, a group, community, a company, a corporation, a society or a country. Marginalized is the product or result of marginalization.
Marginalization is the process or mechanism of putting or pushing or placing an individual, a group, a community, or society, or company, or society or country on the fringe, the edge, the periphery or the margin relative to power or position or status or resources, culture or belief, or geography or history or some other criterion.
Marginal is the condition of being of lesser importance, or of lesser regard, or of lessor resources, or of lesser power, or of lesser culture or of lesser belief or some combination of these ascriptions.
Marginality is the experience or treatment or vulnerabilities of being marginal or marginalized.
Marginalized, Marginalization, Marginal and Marginality are to be contrasted with their opposites in meaning: Centralized, Centralization, Central and Centrality. To be explicit Centralized, centralization, central and centrality refer to the product, process, condition or experience of being main or prime or key or core, or center.
Marginalized, Marginalization, Marginal and Marginality and Centralized, Centralization, Central and Centrality are different perspectives or aspects of the same social phenomenon of society: diversity and differences in human populations and societies.
Sources of Diversity and Differences
The two principal sources of human diversity and differences are first, the seamless but differentiated stages of the human life cycle for baby to old person and second the wide array and range of endowments with respect to sex, size, speed, strength, intelligences, imaginations, pigmentation and so many others. None of these in and of itself is either central or marginal although each is range of difference. All can function in mutual dependence.
The Cause of Marginalization and centralization
Human beings are social animals that live in groups. Further, adaptive advantage of the species resided in living in groups. While solitary human survival is possible, it is humans who have lived in groups who have continued the species. Group giving requires structure. In order to give structure to group living it was necessary to accord greater value and worth to some aspects of the diversity and some differences in the array of endowments. Accordingly, value and worth produces inequality and the consequence of inequality is marginalization and centralization of individuals and groups.
The Inherent and Permanent Flaw in Structure of Marginality and Centrality
The structure of any group or society is inevitably based on a combination in equalities that cannot be permanently or absolutely justified because they are arbitrary and largely the results of the accidents of birth, current and historical. The consequences are that marginalization and centralization is never of a single dimension or at single level. Individuals and groups are invariably marginalization or centralized on multiple dimensions and not consistently. A simple example is that of individuals and groups being doubly or triply or quadruple marginalized in relation to race, sex, age and religion. Also, an individual could be centralized in the household and doubly marginalized in the workplace. But neither race or sex or age or religion can be absolutely or permanent justified as bases of centralization and marginalization.
The result is that what bases are used to establish structure in society at any point is time will be contested successfully at some subsequent point in time. The structure of human society and marginality and centrality are periodically negotiated and re-negotiated.
Common Features of Marginality and Centrality
The following are common features of the conditions of Marginality and Centrality:
- Neither is permanent nor absolute both can be changed
- Neither is a social disease nor a fatal social condition. Both are social facts of society
- Neither is the determinant nor final an arbiter of individual becoming. Both have obstacles and pitfall that can be overcome.
- Neither is a justification for evil. Both can be the inspiration and source for good.
- Both are largely attributions of birth and therefore challenges with which individuals and groups must contend.
The Dynamic Relationship between Marginalization and Centralization
Marginalization and Centralization are dynamic processes involving the centralized and the marginalized. Both the marginalized and the centralized possess human agency. The ways in which centralized and marginalized people interact varies in time and in different places. Context is critical to understanding their dynamic relationship.
Tendencies of Centralization and Marginalization
By conventional wisdom centralization is positive and marginalization is negative. However, each has tendencies that are positive and negatives. Here is negatives of centralization is contrasted with the positives of marginalization.
- The centralized tends to become comfortable because they enjoy the best that there is to offer. The marginalized tend to become competitive and strong in coping with less.
- The centralized tend to become complacent in the belief that their advantage will continue. The marginalized tend to become creative and forward thinking in order to change their situation.
- The centralized tend to become corrupt by nepotism, cronyism and other practices that generate incompetence by giving advantages to those who do not merit such and are often not capable. The marginalized tend to develop competence by embracing merit because they must be better in order in order to survive.
- The centralized then to become conservative. They continue to hold on to practices, procedures, and policies that are outmoded or outlived their usefulness and relevant. The marginalized tend to become innovative, inventive and risk takers because they have little to lose.
- The centralized tend to depend of force, sometime illegally applied, laws that are immoral and practices that are unjust thus undermining the moral standing. The marginalized tend to develop moral courage, eloquence in moral suasion and as a result moral standing as they contest the injustices and immoralities of the centralized, some of who become outraged with their own group. | https://errolmiller.com/marginalized-and-marginalization/ |
Very little small-group training focuses on the end of a group. For obvious reasons, the hope is that your group will remain strong and vibrant for a long time. At the same time, all groups will end, and it's important to do so in a healthy way.
This Training Tool is designed to help you determine if it's time to end and, if it is, how to end in a positive way. Use this resource on your own, with a group of leaders, or as the basis for your next training event.
For a free sample from this resource, read Celebrate the End.
Leader's Guide
Overview
When Your Small Group Becomes a Burden
Leaving your group is an option, but it should be your last resort.
By Sam O'Neal
Is It Time to Break Up?
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Ask these questions to determine if it may be time to split up, bring in new people, or focus on a new purpose.
By Keith Wright
Four Symptoms of Dying Groups
Should you work through them or abandon ship?
By Joel Comiskey
Stepping Down from Leadership
The why and how of removing yourself from small-group leadership
By Heather Zempel
Stop Burnout from Happening
Take stock of your health, check in with others, and be willing to take a break.
By Allen White
Is It Time to Call It Quits?
Check your symptoms and discover your options.
Compiled by the editors of SmallGroups.com
Healthy Endings
Preparing Your Group for Ending and Multiplying
Throughout the life of your group, you'll need to cast a vision for why groups end.
By Rick Howerton
When Comfort Becomes a Bad Thing
What to do when you've been together too long
By Diana Bennett
Principles of Group Closure
Good endings can make for good beginnings in the future.
By Randall S. Brenton
Celebrate the End
Activities to bring closure and build excitement for the future
By Peri Gilbert
Cutting the Cord
How to successfully birth a new small group from an existing one
By Eric Metcalf
Resources
Total number of pages - 26
You have permission to make up to 1,000 copies of this resource within your local church. | https://www.smallgroups.com/training-tools/w/when-and-how-to-end-well.html |
Kingdoms rise and fall, and people come and go. In the old times, nations were well established and kingdoms were better defined. But with the current state of things, such ways of law are transient. Tribalism rules and groups of savages can overrun the poorly united groups calling themselves nations. Somethings change, and other things don't.
Old World Rule
The world was much more clearly defined then, with continents being ably grouped and people finding their neighbors to be the same as themselves. Order was kept by larger nations who kept populations of creatures like gnolls and goblins at a minimum. It's not that different from a typical history lesson of medieval powers with a smattering of colonialism and imperialism.
Autocratic Systems
Autocratic governments have seemingly the most simple of politics. They are strictly hierarchical, with a narrow top-down structure. Most forms of monarchies are classified under this label.
- Centralized Powers
Whether it is a monarchy or dictatorship, the structures of an autocracy are fairly simple. There is a concentration of power at the top of the hierarchy, which makes all the decisions and has all the power. There are instances where there is a legislative or judicial body that impedes, but these are few and far between. This minority is usually of the constitutional variety.
- Militaristic Types
Nation states like Hocheim or Toryu were largely militaristic. They focused on aggressive policies that expanded their reach on their respective territory. However, Hocheim was unable to expand far beyond the Igdrys Scepter due to the orcs and giants who ruled the mountains. They then attempted to conquer the Sarushian Isles, but the many tribes proved a challenge to tame. Toryu militarized but was largely unable to conquer much land on the Dasoon mainland, especially when Jjan and Ba Xin united.
Militaristic nations usually have a great emphasis on military power and harsh rule of law. Betterment of welfare depends on the state of military forces. Therefore, security of the nation comes first before certain civilian concerns. Most monarchies or dictatorships conduct themselves as such. Hocheim is a kingdom over a confederacy of tribes, and Toryu is ruled by an emperor Typically there is either one or two nexuses in these systems where the power is concentrated. They have the final say over legislative bodies beneath them, and command direct control of the military.
One of the cons with this system is mainly the lack of development in other areas of the country. The focus on military power sometimes leaves communities underdeveloped and things like education and the arts underfunded. Another problem is the concentration of power in the military. There are some famous coups conducted by powerful generals that successfully usurped power from nobles. While no kingdom on record was ever overthrown by this, militaristic nations always need to be on guard for such traitors. This risk is particularly dangerous for mercenary countries whose armies have connections to many foreign bodies and are therefore sometimes funded to conduct a coup.
Aristocracy
Literally "rule by the best," aristocracies formed typically out of power vacuums from the fall of autocracies. Some are more organic, formed from the heads of a large community to help make choices.
- Nobility
One of the less popular forms of aristocracy was rule by feudal lords who were endowed status by birthright. This structure sometimes occurs in monarchies, but the nobility have power and status possible on an equal level to the crown. This makes for a larger group of leaders who hold similar powers. The lords in these instances usually had their own armies, meaning they could wage war with the king if needed. They also usually held large tracts of land tended by serfs who lived off them in exchange for protection.
- Oligarchic Republic
A republic was a system of representation less common but more popular for common folk as an aristocracy. The ruling caste was composed of several representatives from different groups. They convened to make important decisions for the society as a whole throughout times of the year. There were no known democratic republic states.
- Military Juntas
- Kingdoms like Preius were ruled by a group of military powers as opposed to a centralized king figure. The power is dispersed evenly among the four generals, affording a myriad of powers. They share a zeal for the use of force to establish legitimacy, but this does not necessarily make them violent.
- Tribal Systems
- There are many nomadic groups throughout the world, and most of them operate under some form of oligarchy. If the tribe is nomadic, they most commonly are spread out over an area. These groups convene in set locations in intervals to discuss issues among their clans. Stationary tribes usually have an upper crust of chiefs who all share equal power over important societal aspects. They make decisions as a group on all facets of the tribe life.
- Technocracy
- Technocrats are basically experts. Such societies are usually merit or result-based. Those who prove themselves the most able or most intelligent usually gain power rather easily. This is one of the rarer forms of governance, as technocrats are highly specialized and therefore this forms control silos at the top of their hierarchy. Usually, strong coordination is needed between them to ensure harmonious efforts.
- Expanse
Aristocracies are one of the more expansive forms of governance, and are usually found in nations with large areas of territory and many, many splintered groups. So a nation formed of multiple princedoms is classified under such.
Mixed Systems
Some nations are not fully realized in any one specific aspect of rule. For example, a nation with a bicameral state of rule has two apexes of equal power rather than one. They have aspects of aristocracy, autocracy, and even possibly some democracy.
- Managerial State
Nations like Ba Xin have a state which manages most aspects of life. They are not focused in any one area like in a military autocracy, and they manage all facets of society, from education to childbirth and business. This requires a large expansive system and is therefore often apportioned out to people who know the way things work in localities. While there is a central emperor along with his court of esteemed judges, the villages have their own headmen who are locally more respected than the distant capital and its officials. This form of laxer rule is beneficial for controlling large areas with different cultures and making them subservient towards the central crown. However, it has the same problems of decentralization as an aristocracy of nobility. But for Ba Xin in particular this is mitigated through their standardized education system so as to lessen the chance of dissidents. Officials from the capital are also sent on frequent and random intervals to check on the locality and are allowed to use force if necessary to remove rogue leaders.
- Multifaceted
Mixed systems have a great deal of reach and versatility, mainly in the lower branches of power. Some villages in Jjan and Reza are democratic and elect their leaders under the watchful eye of the central government. This is not to say sometimes the main governance does not have a hand sometimes in manipulating elections. Due to the vast network necessary to operate this kind of system, officials usually have to be both technocrats and influencers. There is a lot of emphasis in education to raise the most versatile of people so they can be moved to other areas of government and perform just about anywhere.
Shard Ne'Vaal Rule
Governance changed drastically with the Gorge destroying the Old World. As people tried to put back their lives, despair and cynicism changed the political arena into one that was even more hostile and toxic than before. Alliances are almost never heard of, and people play vicious games for any shred of power. Because that could be the difference between life and death in a new dog-eat-dog world.
- Control Systems
The two main systems of governance in civilization left in the world are pretty much just authoritarian and oligarchic. | https://dandwiki.com/wiki/Politics_and_Governance_(Shard_Ne%27Vaal_Supplement) |
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The invention relates to a system and method for alerting a driver that the visual perception of a pedestrian may be difficult. More particular, the system and method generate a global clutter score and a local pedestrian clutter score, processes both the global clutter score and local pedestrian clutter score so as to calculate a pedestrian detection score, wherein the driver is alerted when the pedestrian detection score is outside of a predetermined threshold.
Pedestrian perception alert systems utilizing three dimensional features are known in the art. However, three dimensional detection systems require the use of range sensors such as radar, sonar, laser or the like. Further, three dimensional detection systems require robust computing platforms capable of fusing the three dimensional data with a two dimensional video camera image.
Pedestrian detection utilizing two dimensional video image analyses is also known. However, current analysis of two dimensional pedestrian detection systems are configured to process the two dimensional image so as to ascertain the presence of a pedestrian. Upon detecting a pedestrian, the two dimensional pedestrian detection systems will identify the location of the detected pedestrian and/or alert the driver. However, without additional three dimensional features, current systems may provide a lot of false positives. Further, current two dimensional pedestrian detection systems do not address the difficulty that a driver may have in visually perceiving a pedestrian. Thus, by alerting the driver that visual perception is difficult, the driver may be able to ascertain with better certainty, whether a pedestrian detection alert is a false positive.
Further, current two dimensional pedestrian detection systems do not take into account pedestrian behavior as a factor for generating a clutter value. Though it is known to project the movement of a pedestrian in subsequent video image so as to facilitate the detection of a pedestrian in two dimensional space, current systems do not consider how the movement or location of a pedestrian affects a driver's ability to see the pedestrian.
Accordingly, it remains desirable to have a system and method for alerting the driver in instances where visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult. Further, it remains desirable to have a system and method utilizing two-dimensional video imagery for alerting the driver in instances where visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult. Further, it remains desirable to have a system and method wherein pedestrian behavior is calculated into determining the difficulty of perceiving a pedestrian.
A pedestrian perception alert system and a method for issuing an alert to a driver are provided. The system and method are configured to issue an alert in real-time where a driver's visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult. The pedestrian perception alert system includes a video camera, a processor, and an alert. The video camera is configured to capture two dimensional video images. The alert is configured to issue a warning that it is difficult to visually perceive a pedestrian within the driving environment. The processor is in electrical communication with the camera.
The pedestrian perception alert system further includes a Pedestrian Detection Unit ("PDU"), Global Clutter Analysis Unit ("GCAU"), and Local Pedestrian Clutter Analysis Unit ("LPCAU"). The PDU is configured to analyze the video image to detect a pedestrian. The GCAU is configured to generate a global clutter score of the video image. The global clutter score measures the clutter of the entire video image. The LPCAU is configured to generate a local pedestrian clutter score. The local pedestrian clutter score measures the clutter of each of the pedestrians detected in the video image.
In operation, the PDU detects a pedestrian in the video image, and the processor subsequently initiates both the GCAU and the LPCAU. The processor process the global clutter score and local pedestrian clutter score so as to generate a pedestrian detection score. The processor is further configured to actuate the alert when the pedestrian detection score is outside of a predetermined threshold.
The pedestrian perception alert system may further include a Saliency Map Generating Unit ("SMGU"). The SMGU is configured to process the video image and extract salient features from the video image. The processor is further configured to actuate the LPCAU so as to process the extracted salient features when generating the local pedestrian clutter score. The local pedestrian clutter score is processed with the global clutter score so as to calculate a pedestrian detection score. The salient features may include pedestrian behavior, such as pedestrian motion. The pedestrian behavior may be further predicated upon the environment surrounding the pedestrian.
The pedestrian perception alert system may further include a Pedestrian Group Analysis Unit ("PGAU") configured to detect a group of pedestrians and assign a perception difficulty value to the group of pedestrians. The PGAU analyzes individual pedestrian interaction within the group of pedestrians, and the interaction of one group of pedestrians with respect to another group of pedestrians so as to determine the impact the group of pedestrians may have on the driver's ability to visually perceive the group or an individual pedestrian within the group.
A method for issuing an alert in real-time when a driver's visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult is also provided. The method includes the steps of providing a video camera, an alert, and a processor. The video camera is configured to capture video image. The alert is configured to issue a warning that a pedestrian within the driving environment is difficult to visually perceive. The processor is in electrical communication with the camera.
The method further includes the steps of providing a Pedestrian Detection Unit ("PDU"), a Global Clutter Analysis Unit ("GCAU"), and a Local Pedestrian Clutter Analysis Unit ("LPCAU"). The PDU is configured to analyze the video camera image to detect a pedestrian. The GCAU is configured to generate a global clutter score. The global clutter score is a measurement of the clutter of the entire video image. The LPCAU is configured to generate a local pedestrian clutter score. The local pedestrian clutter score is a measurement of the clutter of each of the pedestrians detected in the video image. The processor process the global clutter score and local pedestrian clutter score so as to generate a pedestrian detection score. The processor is further configured to actuate the alert when the pedestrian detection score is outside of a predetermined threshold.
The method further includes the step of providing a Saliency Map Generating Unit ("SMGU"). The SMGU is configured to process the video image and extract salient features from the video image. The processor is further configured to process the extracted salient features with LPCAU so as to generate the local pedestrian clutter score. The local pedestrian clutter score is processed with the global clutter score so as to calculate a pedestrian detection score. The salient features may include pedestrian behavior, such as pedestrian motion. The pedestrian behavior may be further predicated upon the environment surrounding the pedestrian.
The method may further include the step of providing a Pedestrian Group Analysis Unit ("PGAU") configured to detect a group of pedestrians and assign a perception difficulty value to the group of pedestrians. The PGAU analyzes individual pedestrian interaction within the group of pedestrians, and the interaction of one group of pedestrians with respect to another group of pedestrians so as to determine the impact the group of pedestrians may have on the driver's ability to visually perceive the group or an individual pedestrian within the group.
Figure 1
is a perspective view showing the system employed in a natural driving environment;
Figure 2
is diagram of the system;
Figure 3
is a perspective view showing the operation of an embodiment of the GCAU populating a luminance variation matrix;
Figure 4
is an illustration showing the operation of an embodiment of the PCGU utilizing a pedestrian mask;
Figure 5
is an illustration of the operation of an embodiment of the PCGU applying a cloth mask;
Figure 6
is an illustration of the operation of an embodiment of the LPCAU generating a background window and a detected pedestrian window;
Figure 7
is chart showing the global pedestrian clutter score and local pedestrian clutter score for a corresponding driving scene;
Figure 8
is a diagram of a system showing the input of the SMGU, and PGAU to generate a pedestrian detection score;
Figure 9
is an example of a saliency map; and
Figure 10
is a diagram showing the steps of a method for issuing real-time warning when a driver's visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult.
Figure 1
With reference first to , a pedestrian perception alert system 10 according to an embodiment of the invention is provided. The pedestrian perception alert system 10 is configured to issue an alert in instances during real-time environment where a driver's visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult. Thus, by alerting a driver that a pedestrian is difficult to visually perceive, the driver may adjust his/her driving behavior. Further, the pedestrian perception alert system 10 may be further incorporated with an autonomous control system wherein vehicle movement is further restricted, or in the alternative, the autonomous control system may be configured to take control of the vehicle in instances where it is difficult for a driver to visually perceive a pedestrian. The pedestrian perception alert system 10 may be further advantageous in that the driver may be able to ascertain whether a pedestrian detection is a false positive.
The pedestrian perception alert system 10 may be integrated into an automotive vehicle 100. The pedestrian perception alert system 10 includes a video camera 12 configured to capture video images. The pedestrian perception alert system 10 further includes an alert 14, and a processor 16. The alert 14 is configured to issue a warning that the pedestrian is within the driving environment, and is visually difficult to perceive. The alert 14 may be disposed within the cabin space of the vehicle, and may be a visual notification such as a light, or an audible signal such as a chime, or a series of chimes. The processor 16 is in electrical communication with the video camera 12 and is configured to process the video image utilizing analysis units, as described below, so as to issue a warning to the driver.
Figure 1
Though shows the video camera 12 mounted to the underside of a rearview mirror, it should be appreciated that the video camera 12 may be mounted elsewhere. Further, multiple video cameras 12 may be used to provide 360 degree coverage of the natural driving environment. In such an embodiment, it should be appreciated that the processor 16 may be further configured to fuse the video image caught by each video camera 12 so as to build a 360 degree view of the natural driving environment. In one embodiment, the video camera 12 is a high resolution camera configured to capture a 122 degree camera view, record 32 frames per second at 1280x720 resolution, commonly referenced as the DOD GS600 Digital Video Recorder ("DVR"). The video camera 12 may include other features such as GPS antenna 12a for obtaining geographic location, and a gravity sensor 12b for sensing motion.
Figure 2
With reference also to , an overall diagram showing the operation of the pedestrian perception alert system 10 is provided. The system 10 captures video image, measures the global clutter of the image, processes the image to detect a pedestrian, utilizes pedestrian contour and color clustering to verify that the detected pedestrian is indeed a pedestrian, and then measures the clutter of the pedestrian. Features such as the pedestrian contour, and color of the cloth may also be used to measure the clutter. The output is a measurement of the difficulty a driver may have of visually perceiving the detected pedestrian within the driving environment. A more detailed description is provided below.
The pedestrian perception alert system 10 further includes a Pedestrian Detection Unit ("PDU") 18, a Global Clutter Analysis Unit ("GCAU") 20, and a Local Pedestrian Clutter Analysis Unit ("LPCAU") 22. The PDU 18, GCAU 20, and LPCAU 22 may be manufactured as firmware with protocol configured to be processed and actuated by the processor 16. The firmware may be a separate unit disposed with other electronics of the vehicle.
The PDU 18 is configured to analyze the video camera 12 image to detect a pedestrian. The PDU 18 may use input such as the geographic location of the vehicle gathered by the GPS antenna 12a, or motion input gathered by the gravity sensor 12b to perform pedestrian detection. The processor 16 actuates the PDU 18 wherein the PDU 18 analyzes predetermined frames to determine if a pedestrian is present in the natural driving environment. For instance, the PDU 18 may be configured to identify regions of interests within each frame, wherein the background of the frame is eliminated so as to focus processing and analysis on the regions of interest. The PDU 18 may then apply pedestrian feature matching, to include size, motion and speed, height-width ratio and orientation.
The PDU 18 notifies the processor 16 in the event a pedestrian is present within the natural driving environment. The processor 16 then actuates both the GCAU 20 and the LPCAU 22 upon notification from the PDU 18. The GCAU 20 is configured to generate a global clutter score 24. The global clutter score 24 is a measurement of the clutter of the entire video image. The LPCAU 22 is configured to generate a local pedestrian clutter score 26. The local pedestrian clutter score 26 is a measurement of the clutter of each pedestrian detected in the video image. The processer 16 is further configured to process both the global clutter score 24 and local pedestrian clutter score 26 so as to generate a pedestrian detection score 28. The pedestrian detection score 28 is the difference between the global clutter score 24 and local pedestrian clutter score 26. The pedestrian detection score 28 measures the difficulty of visually seeing a pedestrian based upon both the amount of clutter in the driving environment and the clutter of the detected pedestrian with respect to the clutter in the environment. For use herein, the term clutter refers to a combination of foreground and background in a view that provides distracting details for some individuals who are unable to detect object(s) from its background. The processor 16 is further configured to actuate the alert 14 when the pedestrian detection score 28 is outside of a predetermined threshold.
GEC
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The GCAU 20 measures the overall clutter score of the entire video image based upon the edge density, luminance variation and chrominance variation of the video image to calculate the global clutter score 24. The global clutter score 24 may be expressed as follows:
where ρ is the edge density, σ is the luminance variation and σ is the chrominance variation. α > 0 and β >0 are feature weights.
The edge density may be calculated by applying a detector, such as a Canny detector, with fixed threshold range to detect an edge and to compare the edge density of various frames of the video image having different driving scenarios, illumination and weather conditions. For example, the lower threshold may be set to 0.11 and the upper threshold may be set to 0.27. To replicate the low pass characteristic of human vision, a 7x7 Gaussian filter is applied to each video frame processed by the Canny detector so as to remove excess high frequency image components to which human vision is not sensitive. It should be appreciated that the dimensions provided herein are used for processing the dimensions and resolution of the video image captured by the DOD GS600 Digital Video Recorder, and that the dimensions may change to correspond to dimensions of resolution of the video image captured by the camera. The edge density is calculated as the ratio between the number of edge pixels and the total number of pixels within the frame of the video image.
Figure 3
Luminance variation is measured globally. Luminance variation measures the luminance change of the entire video image 200. For example, the GCAU 20 may include a sliding window 34 and a luminance variation matrix 36, as shown in . The luminance variation matrix 36 is dimensioned the same size as the video frame. When using a DOD GS600 Digital Video Recorder, a 9x9 sliding window 34 is slid across the frame of the video image so as to calculate a standard deviation of luminance value within the sliding window 34 with respect to the same space of the luminance variation matrix 36. The standard deviation for a particular area of the video frame is entered into the corresponding position of the luminance variation matrix 36. The global luminance variation is calculated as the mean value of the populated luminance variation matrix 36.
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The chrominance variation is calculated using two chrominance channels, "a" and "b". The chrominance variation is calculated by determining the standard deviation for each respective channel. The global chrominance variation may be calculated as follows:
where σ is the global chrominance variation, σ is the chrominance variation of channel "a," and σ is the chrominance variation of channel "b."
The global clutter score 24 may be outputted as a weighted sum of the edge density, luminance variation, and chrominance variation. The edge density, luminance variation, and chrominance variation may be evenly weighted, with each selected at 1/3 weighted value. The resultant global environmental clutter score may be scaled and normalized to a value between 0 and 1 such that the higher score means higher clutter.
Figure 4
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With reference now to , an illustrative diagram showing the operation of a Pedestrian Contour Generation Unit ("PCGU") 30 is provided. As discussed above, the LPCAU 22 processes edge density of the detected pedestrian, edge distribution, local luminance variation, local chrominance variation, mean luminance intensity, and mean chrominance intensity to calculate the local pedestrian clutter score 26. The PCGU 30 is configured to generate a pedestrian mask 32, which may be used to obtain edge density, edge distribution, local luminance variation, local chrominance variation, mean luminance intensity and mean chrominance intensity of the detected pedestrian. The pedestrian mask 32, shown as a dashed silhouette of a pedestrian, is a constructed image of the pedestrian based upon features commonly associated with a pedestrian. The pedestrian mask 32 may include the contours of the pedestrian which are applied to the detected pedestrian so as to verify that the detected pedestrian is indeed an actual pedestrian. It should be appreciated that these features may vary based upon the location of the pedestrian within the driving environment, and/or the time at which the PCGU 30 is actuated, may be used to generate the pedestrian mask 32, and to refine the pedestrian mask 32 through subsequent video frames so as to ensure accuracy of the verification process. Thus, by continuously refining the pedestrian mask 32 through iteration, the pedestrian mask 32 is deformable model 40, as indicated by the quotation marks surrounding the pedestrian mask 32 shown in . The deformable mask is applied around the pedestrian contour 38. Energy minimization may be used to evolve the contour 38. The energy function may be expressed as follows:
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Where the first two integrals stand for the internal energy which control the contour 38 smoothness and the third integral is the external energy which evolves the contour 38 to the object. C'(s) is the tangent of the curve and C''(s) is normal to the curve. The edge detector function may be defined as:
where is a Gaussian smooth filter and Δ is the image gradient. The generated contour 38 defines the pedestrian mask 32 which may be used by the LPCAU 22 to compute pedestrian clutter features, to include local pedestrian luminance variation and local pedestrian chrominance variation.
Figure 5
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With reference now to , an illustrative diagram showing the operation of an embodiment of the PCGU 30 is provided. The PCGU 30 may be further configured to generate a cloth mask 42. The cloth mask 42 may be used to replicate a human visual attention model by providing a cloth region that is homogenous in both color and luminance intensity, wherein the cloth region may be compared with the background so as to simulate the human visual attention model. The cloth mask 42 is generated by K-mean color clustering based cloth region segmentation which is subsequently applied to the detected pedestrian to segment the cloth region. For instance, K color subsets are generated to minimize the within-cluster distance: Where S = {S,...S is the k clusters, 1(x,y) is the chrominance pixel value and µ is the mean value of each cluster. The cloth mask 42 is then formed as an intersection of the pedestrian mask 32 by active contour 38 and cloth region derived from K-mean color clustering algorithm. The LPCAU 22 is further configured to process the pedestrian mask 32 and the cloth mask 42 so as to compute the local pedestrian clutter score 26. Accordingly, the local pedestrian clutter score 26 may include features of shapes associated with the pedestrian which may be affected by movement of the pedestrian, the location of the pedestrian, and the color of the pedestrian's clothes.
Figure 6
With reference now to , the LPCAU 22 may be further configured to generate a background window 44 and a detected pedestrian window 46. The background window 44 is a portion of the video image having a predetermined dimension of the environment surrounding the detected pedestrian. The detected pedestrian window 46 is a portion of the video frame dimensioned to capture the image of the detected pedestrian. For example, the background window 44 may be at least twice the area of the detected pedestrian window 46. The LPCAU 22 is further configured to determine the ratio between the number of edge pixels and the total number of pixels within both (1) the detected pedestrian window 46 and (2) the background window 44, and absent the detected pedestrian window 46, so as to calculate an edge density for a pedestrian.
The edge density may be calculated in a similar manner as the edge density for the global environment. For instance, the edge density of the background window 44 and the detected pedestrian window 46 may be calculated by applying a detector for removing excess high frequency image components with fixed threshold range to detect an edge and to compare the edge density of background window 44 with respect to the detected pedestrian window 46. The fixed threshold range and the detector may be selected based upon factors such as the dimensions of the detected pedestrian window 46 or the background window 44, the resolution of the video image, processing capabilities of the processor 16, and the like. For example when detecting the edge density of the detected pedestrian window of a video image taken by the DOD GS600 Digital Video Recorder, the lower threshold may be set to .11 and the upper threshold may be set to .27. To replicate the low pass characteristic of human vision, a 7x7 Gaussian filter is respectively applied to the detected pedestrian window 46 or the background window 44processed by a Canny detector so as to remove excess high frequency image components to which human vision is not sensitive. Likewise, the edge density of the detected pedestrian window 46 may be calculated by applying a Canny detector with fixed threshold range to detect an edge and to compare the edge density of detected pedestrian window 46. Again, detecting the edge density of the detected pedestrian window of video image taken by the DOD GS600 Digital Video Recorder, the lower threshold may be set to 11 and the upper threshold may be set to .27. To replicate the low pass characteristic of human vision, a 7x7 Gaussian filter is applied to the detected pedestrian window 46 processed by the Canny detector so as to remove excess high frequency image components to which human vision is not sensitive.
The LPCAU 22 is configured to calculate an edge distribution of the background window 44 and the detected pedestrian by determining the histogram of edge magnitude binned by the edge orientation for both (1) the detected pedestrian window 46 and (2) the Isolated Background Window, wherein the Isolated Background Window is the background window 44 minus the detected pedestrian window 46. The edge distribution is a feature which may be used to calculate the local pedestrian clutter score 26. The edge distribution is also useful to help verify that the detected pedestrian is in fact a pedestrian.
The LPCAU 22 may be configured to calculate the local luminance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within a region defined by the subtraction of the pedestrian mask 32 from the background window 44 (the "Maskless Background Window"). The LPCAU 22 utilizes a sliding window 34 and a mask luminance variation matrix 36. The mask luminance variation matrix 36 is dimensioned the same size as that of the pedestrian mask 32 so as to calculate the luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32. When calculating the luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32, a sliding window 34 is slid across the pedestrian mask 32 so as to calculate a standard deviation of luminance value within the sliding window 34 with respect to the same space of the mask luminance variation matrix 36. The standard deviation for a particular area of the pedestrian mask 32 is entered into the corresponding position of the luminance variation matrix 36. The luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32 is calculated as the mean value of the populated mask luminance variation matrix 36.
Likewise, a sliding window 34 and a Maskless Background Window Luminance (the "MBWL") variation matrix 36 is provided. The MBWL variation matrix 36 is dimensioned the same size as the Maskless Background Window so as to calculate the luminance variation of the Maskless Background Window. When calculating the luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32, sliding window 34 is slid across the Maskless Background Window so as to calculate a standard deviation of luminance value within the sliding window 34 with respect to the same space of the MBWL variation matrix 36. The standard deviation for a particular area of the Maskless Background Window is entered into the corresponding position of the MBWL variation matrix 36. The luminance variation of the Maskless Background Window is calculated as the mean value of the populated MBWL variation matrix 36.
σ
c
=
,
σ
a
2
σ
b
2
+
c
a
b
The LPCAU 22 may be further configured to calculate the local chrominance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within Maskless Background Window. As with computing global chrominance, the computation of local chrominance variation is calculated using two chrominance channels, "a" and "b" for both the pedestrian mask 32 and the Maskless Background Window. The chrominance variation is calculated by determining the standard deviation for each respective channel. The local chrominance variation may be calculated as follows:
where σ is the global chrominance variation, σ is the chrominance variation of channel "a," and σ is the chrominance variation of channel "b."
LPC
=
-
,
1
dist
T
B
‖
‖
dist
T
B
dist
The LPCAU 22 may be further configured to calculate the mean luminance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and a region generated by subtracting the cloth mask 42 from the background window 44 (the "Cloth Maskless Background Region"). The LPCAU 22 may also calculate the mean chrominance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and Cloth Maskless Background Region. The LPCAU 22 may calculate the local pedestrian clutter using features described above, that is the: (1) calculated edge density and edge distribution; (2) the local luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32 and the Maskless Background Window; (3) the local chrominance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within Maskless Background Window; (4) the mean luminance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and also of the Cloth Maskless Background Region, and (5) the mean chrominance intensity of the cloth mask 42 and the Cloth Maskless Background Region. For instance, the local pedestrian clutter (the "LPC") score may be calculated by computing the above referenced figures in the following formulation: where T is a dimensional feature vector of the pedestrian area and B is a corresponding dimensional feature vector of the background area, wherein the features are the calculated edge distribution, the local luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32 and the Maskless Background Window, the local chrominance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within Maskless Background Window, the mean luminance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and also of the Cloth Maskless Background Region, and the mean chrominance intensity of the cloth mask 42 and the Cloth Maskless Background Region. measures the distance between the two vectors, which may be measured using Euclidean distance. The local pedestrian clutter score 26 is normalized to a value between 0 to 1, wherein the higher the local pedestrian clutter score 26, the more cluttered the pedestrian is, and thus the more difficult it is for a driver to perceive the pedestrian from the environment.
Figure 7
With reference now to , a chart and accompanying view of the driving environment is provided. The chart includes both the global clutter score 24 and the local pedestrian clutter score 26, each of which were computed in accordance with the details provided herein. Image 4 and 5 are of the same environment with a global clutter score 24 of 0.307. The global clutter score 24 provides reasonable reference to the global clutter level although they are not very discriminative while comparing some similar driving scenes. However, the local pedestrian clutter score 26 reflects the difficulty of pedestrian perception quite well compared to the global clutter score 24. The images indicate that (1) low contrast image tends to have lower global clutter score 24, such as night image (Image 1 with global clutter score 24 of 0.116) and image with excessive glares and reflections (Image 2 with a global clutter score 24 of 0.220); (2) color saliency is the most important factor that may affect the local pedestrian clutter score 26, e.g., Image 6 has the lowest local pedestrian clutter score 26 (0.527) due to its highly saturated and discriminative pants color compared to the neighborhood area; and (3) local pedestrian clutter could be a better indicator and reference for pedestrian perception difficulty in naturalistic driving scenarios. For example, even though Image 1 has the lowest global clutter score 24 (0.1 16), it is the most difficult to detect the pedestrian in dark clothing due to its high local pedestrian clutter score 26 (0.928).
The pedestrian perception alert system 10 processes both the global clutter score 24 and the local pedestrian clutter score 26 so as to calculate a pedestrian detection score 28. The pedestrian detection score 28 may be calculated by simply determining the difference between the two scores, wherein the alert 14 is actuated when the pedestrian detection score 28 is outside of a predetermined threshold, or above a desired value. In another embodiment the global clutter score 24 or the local pedestrian clutter score 26 is weighted based upon the environment such that one of the scores factors more heavily in calculation of the pedestrian detection score 28.
As stated above, the pedestrian perception alert system 10 includes a PDU 18. The PDU 18 is configured to process two dimensional video to detect a pedestrian. In one embodiment, the PDU 18 is configured to execute a first detection method 48 or a second detection method 50 based upon the probability of a pedestrian appearance within the video image. The first detection method 48 is executed in instances where there is a low chance of pedestrian appearance and the second detection method 50 is executed in instances where there is a high chance of pedestrian appearance.
th
The PDU 18 may determine a probability of a pedestrian appearance based upon the time of day, geographic location, or traffic scene. Alternatively, the PDU 18 may process a look-up table having pre-calculated or observed statistics regarding the probability of a pedestrian based upon time, geographic location, or traffic scene. For illustrative purposes, the look-up table may indicate that there is a five (5) percent probability of a pedestrian at 3:22 a.m., on December 25, in Beaverton, Oregon, on a dirt road. Accordingly, as the probability of a pedestrian appearance in the driving scene is relatively low, the PDU 18 executes the first detection method 48.
The first detection method 48 is configured to identify a region of interest within the video image by determining the variation between sequential frames of the video image. The PDU 18 identifies a region of interest in instances where the variation between sequential frames exceeds a predetermined threshold. The first detection method 48 further applies a set of constraints, such as pedestrian size, shape, orientation, height-width ratio and the like, to each of the regions of interest, wherein each region of interest having a requisite number of constraints is labeled as having a pedestrian.
The second detection method 50 is configured to determine regions of interests within the video image by detecting vertical edges within the frame. The PDU 18 identifies a region of interests in instances where the vertical edge has a predetermined characteristic. The second detection method 50 further applies a feature filter, illustratively including, but not limited to, a Histogram of Oriented Gradient detector to each region of interest, wherein each region of interest having a requisite number of features is labeled as having a pedestrian.
Figure 8
With reference now to , the pedestrian perception alert system 10 may include additional units configured to calculate a pedestrian detection score 28. As shown, the pedestrian detection score 28 may be computed using the global clutter score 24, saliency measure, location prior, local pedestrian clutter score 26, pedestrian behavior analysis, and group interaction. The Factors may be processed together by the processor 16 to generate a Probabilistic Learned Model (the "PLM") which may be further processed so as to generate a pedestrian detection score 28. The PLM stores the Factors over time and calculates the pedestrian detection score 28 based in part upon the learned influence one Factor may have upon the other Factor. Thus, the PLM is helpful in refining and providing an accurate pedestrian detection score through learned experiences.
Figure 9
The pedestrian perception alert system 10 may further include a Saliency Map Generating Unit ("SMGU") 52. The SMGU 52 is configured to process the video image and extract salient features from the video image. The SMGU 52 is directed to replicating the human vision system wherein between the pre-attention stage and the recognition state task and target functions of the human vision system are completed. The SMGU 52 computes and generates a task and target independent bottom up saliency map using saliency computation approaches currently known and used in the art, illustratively including the saliency map shown in . The map shows strong connected edges of the image above. Specifically, the region with high salient features has high intensity. The processor 16 processes the extracted salient features and provides the salient features to the LPCAU 22 so as to generate a local pedestrian clutter score 26. The salient features may include, but are not limited to: (1) edges of the image; and (2) connecting edges of the image.
The pedestrian perception alert system 10 may be further configured to process pedestrian behavior to calculate the pedestrian detection score 28. Pedestrian behavior may include how the pedestrian motion affects the perception difficulty of the driver, and may be further used to verify pedestrian detection. Pedestrian behavior may also be examined in the context of the environment. Wherein pedestrian behavior includes analyzing the location and status of the appearing pedestrians, including standing, walking, running, carrying objects, etc., the perceived pedestrian clutter determined/calculated by the environment surrounding the pedestrian. For instance, the SMGU 52 may be programmed with the behavior of a pedestrian at an urban cross walk, or on a side walk adjacent a residential street.
The pedestrian perception alert system 10 may further include a Pedestrian Group Analysis Unit ("PGAU") 54 configured to detect a group of pedestrians and assign a perception difficulty value to the group of pedestrians. The PGAU 54 analyzes individual pedestrian interaction within the group of pedestrians, and the interaction of one group of pedestrians with respect to another group of pedestrians. For the within group interaction case, pedestrians located close within the scene with similar behavior pattern, e.g. standing/crossing/walking in the same direction, may grouped by the viewer so that the clutter score of an individual pedestrian within the group will be limited to describe the pedestrian perception difficulty. Accordingly, a high cluttered pedestrian would be much easier to detect if he/she were grouped by the viewer into a group with much more salient pedestrians. The PGAU 54 utilizes group pedestrians' characteristics combined with individual pedestrian clutter features in judgment of visual clutter.
With respect to the analysis of the between group interactions, the PGAU 54 accounts for the fact that the perception of a pedestrian may also be affected by other pedestrians or distracting events/objects existing in the same scene. For example, a moving pedestrian may distract driver's attention more easily relative to a static pedestrian, and a dashing vehicle or bicycle may catch the attention of driver immediately. The PGAU 54 may utilize learned behavior of pedestrians in group interactions to calculate the pedestrian detection score 28.
Figure 10
Figure 8
With reference now to , a method for issuing alert 14 in real-time when a driver's visual detection of a pedestrian is difficult is also provided. The method includes the steps of providing a video camera 12, an alert 14 and a processor 16. These steps are referenced in as 110, 120, and 130 respectively. The video camera 12 is configured to capture video image. The alert 14 is configured to issue a warning that the pedestrian within the driving environment is difficult to visually perceive. The processor 16 is in electrical communication with the camera and processes the video image.
The method further includes detecting a pedestrian in the video image 140, measuring the clutter of the entire video image 150, measuring the clutter of each of the pedestrians detected in the video image 160, calculating a global clutter score 170, calculating a local pedestrian clutter score 180. The method 100 proceeds to step 190 wherein the global clutter score and local pedestrian clutter score are processed so as to calculate a pedestrian detection score, and in step 200 the method issues a warning when the pedestrian detection score is outside of a predetermined threshold so as to notify the driver that visual perception of a pedestrian is difficult.
The method 100 may utilize the PDU 18, GCAU 20, and LPCAU 22 as described herein so as to detect a pedestrian, measure global clutter and pedestrian clutter, and calculate a global clutter score and a local pedestrian clutter score. The PDU 18 analyzes the video camera 12 image to detect a pedestrian. The GCAU 20 generates the global clutter score 24 which measures the clutter of the entire video image. The LPCAU 22 generates the local pedestrian clutter score 26 which measures the clutter of each of the pedestrians detected in the video image.
The both the GCAU 20 and the LPCAU 22 are initiated when the PDU 18 detects a pedestrian in the video image. The GCAU 20 and the LPCAU 22 may calculate a respective global clutter score 24 and local pedestrian clutter score 26 as described herein. The method proceeds to the step of processing the global clutter score 24 and local pedestrian clutter score 26 so as to generate a pedestrian detection score 28, and actuating the alert 14 when a pedestrian detection score 28 is outside of a predetermined threshold.
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The method may further include step 210, a generating a pedestrian mask 32. The PCGU 30 may be configured to generate the pedestrian mask 32. The pedestrian mask 32 is a constructed image of the pedestrian based upon features commonly associated with a pedestrian. The pedestrian mask 32 includes the contour of the pedestrian which are applied to the detected pedestrian so as to verify that the detected pedestrian is indeed an actual pedestrian. It should be appreciated that these features may vary based upon the location of the pedestrian within the driving environment, and/or the time at which the PCGU 30 is actuated, may be used to generate the pedestrian mask 32, and to refine the pedestrian mask 32 through subsequent video frames so as to ensure accuracy of the verification process. Thus, by continuously refining the pedestrian mask 32, the pedestrian mask 32 is a deformable model 40 which is applied around the pedestrian contour 38. Energy minimization may be used to evolve the contour 38. The energy function may be expressed as follows:
where the first two integrals stand for the internal energy which control the contour 38 smoothness and the third integral is the external energy which evolves the contour 38 to the object. C'(s) is the tangent of the curve and C''(s) is normal to the curve. The edge detector function may be defined as:
G
σ
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where is a Gaussian smooth filter and Δ u is the image gradient. The generated contour 38 defines the pedestrian mask 32 which may be used by the LPCAU 22 to compute pedestrian clutter features, to include local pedestrian luminance variation and local pedestrian chrominance variation.
The method may include utilizing edge density, luminance variation and chrominance variation of the video image to calculate the global clutter score 24 and edge density of the detected pedestrian, edge distribution, local luminance variation, local chrominance variation, mean luminance intensity, and mean chrominance intensity to calculate the local pedestrian clutter score 26. The pedestrian detection score 28 is the difference between the global clutter score 24 and local pedestrian score.
Edge density may be calculated by removing high frequency image components and subsequently determining a ratio between the number of edge pixels and the total number of pixels within the video frame. The method may utilize a sliding window 34 and a luminance variation matrix 36 dimensioned the same size as the video frame, to calculate the luminance variation, wherein the GCAU 20 is configured to slide the sliding window 34 across the entire video frame so as to calculate a standard deviation of luminance value within the sliding window 34. The luminance variance may be calculated by entering the standard deviation for a particular area of the video frame into the corresponding position of the luminance variation matrix 36, and calculating the mean value of the luminance matrix. The chrominance variation may be calculated using two chrominance channels as described above.
The global clutter score 24 may be outputted as a weighted sum of the edge density, luminance variation, and chrominance variation. The edge density, luminance variation, and chrominance variation may be evenly weighted, with each selected at 1/3 weighted value. The resultant global environmental clutter score may be scaled and normalized to a value between 0 and 1 such that the higher score means higher clutter.
LPCAU 22 may be further configured to generate a background window 44 and a detected pedestrian window 46. The background window 44 is a portion of the video image having a predetermined dimension of the environment surrounding the detected pedestrian. The detected pedestrian window 46 is a portion of the video frame dimensioned to capture the image of the detected pedestrian. For example the background window 44 may be at least twice the area of the detected pedestrian window 46. The LPCAU 22 is further configured to determine the ratio between the number of edge pixels and the total number of pixels within both (1) the detected pedestrian window 46 and (2) the background window 44 and absent the detected pedestrian window 46, so as to calculate an edge density for a pedestrian.
The LPCAU 22 is configured to calculate an edge distribution of the background window 44 and the detected pedestrian by determining the histogram of edge magnitude binned by the edge orientation for both (1) the detected pedestrian window 46 and (2) the Isolated Background Window, as defined herein. The edge distribution is a feature which may be used to calculate the local pedestrian clutter score 26. The edge distribution is also useful to help verify that the detected pedestrian is in fact a pedestrian.
The LPCAU 22 may be configured to calculate the local luminance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within a region defined by the subtraction of the pedestrian mask 32 from the background window 44 (the "Maskless Background Window"). The LPCAU 22 utilizes a sliding window 34 and a mask luminance variation matrix 36. The mask luminance variation matrix 36 is dimensioned the same size as that of the pedestrian mask 32 so as to calculate the luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32. When calculating the luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32, a sliding window 34 is slid across the pedestrian mask 32 so as to calculate a standard deviation of luminance value within the sliding window 34 with respect to the same space of the mask luminance variation matrix 36. The standard deviation for a particular area of the pedestrian mask 32 is entered into the corresponding position of the luminance variation matrix 36. The luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32 is calculated as the mean value of the populated mask luminance variation matrix 36.
Likewise, a sliding window 34 and a MBWL variation matrix 36 is provided. The MBWL variation matrix 36 is dimensioned the same size as the Maskless Background Window so as to calculate the luminance variation of the Maskless Background Window. When calculating the luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32, sliding window 34 is slid across the Maskless Background Window so as to calculate a standard deviation of luminance value within the sliding window 34 with respect to the same space of the MBWL variation matrix 36. The standard deviation for a particular area of the Maskless Background Window is entered into the corresponding position of the MBWL variation matrix 36. The luminance variation of the Maskless Background Window is calculated as the mean value of the populated MBWL variation matrix 36.
σ
c
=
,
σ
a
2
σ
b
2
+
c
a
b
The LPCAU 22 may be further configured to calculate the local chrominance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within Maskless Background Window. As with computing global chrominance, the computation of local chrominance variation is calculated using two chrominance channels, "a" and "b" for both the pedestrian mask 32 and the Maskless Background Window. The chrominance variation is calculated by determining the standard deviation for each respective channel. The global chrominance variation may be calculated as follows:
where σ is the global chrominance variation, σ is the chrominance variation of channel "a," and σ is the chrominance variation of channel "b."
LPC
=
-
,
1
dist
T
B
‖
‖
dist
T
B
dist
The LPCAU 22 may be further configured to calculate the mean luminance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and a region generated by subtracting the cloth mask 42 from the background window 44 (the "Cloth Maskless Background Region"). The LPCAU 22 may also calculate the mean chrominance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and Cloth Maskless Background Region. The LPCAU 22 may calculate the local pedestrian clutter using features described above, that is the: (1) calculated edge distribution; (2) the local luminance variation of the pedestrian mask 32 and the Maskless Background Window; (3) the local chrominance variation within the pedestrian mask 32 and also within Maskless Background Window; (4) the mean luminance intensity within the cloth mask 42 and also of the Cloth Maskless Background Region, and (5) the mean chrominance intensity of the cloth mask 42 and the Cloth Maskless Background Region. For instance, the local pedestrian clutter (LPC) score may be calculated by computing the above referenced figures in the following formulation:
where T is a dimensional feature vector of the pedestrian area and B is a corresponding dimensional feature vector of the background area. measures the distance between the two vectors, which may be measured using Euclidean distance. The local pedestrian clutter score 26 is normalized to a value between 0 to 1, wherein the higher the local pedestrian clutter score 26, the more cluttered the pedestrian is, and thus the more difficult it is for a human to perceive the pedestrian from the environment.
As stated above, the method includes the step of providing a PDU 18 to detect a pedestrian. In one embodiment, the PDU 18 is configured to execute a first detection method 48 or a second detection method 50 based upon the probability of a pedestrian appearance within the video image. The first detection method 48 is executed in instances where there is a low chance of pedestrian appearance and the second detection method 50 is executed in instances where there is a high chance of pedestrian appearance.
th
The PDU 18 may determine a probability of a pedestrian appearance based upon the time of day, geographic location, or traffic scene. Alternatively, the PDU 18 may process a look-up table having pre-calculated or observed statistics regarding the probability of a pedestrian based upon time, geographic location, or traffic scene. For illustrative purposes, the look-up table may indicate that there is a five (5) percent probability of a pedestrian at 0322 AM, during December 25, in Beaverton Oregon, on a dirt road. Accordingly, as the probability of a pedestrian appearance in the driving scene is relatively low, the PDU 18 executes the first detection method 48.
The first detection method 48 is configured to identify regions of interests within the video image by determining the variation between sequential frames of the video image. The PDU 18 identifies a region of interests in instances where the variation between sequential frames exceeds a predetermined threshold. The first detection method 48 further applies a set of constraints, such as pedestrian size, shape, orientation, height-width ratio and the like to each of the regions of interest, wherein each region of interest having a requisite number of constraints is labeled as having a pedestrian.
The second detection method 50 is configured to determine regions of interests within the video image by detecting vertical edges within the frame. The PDU 18 identifies a region of interests in instances where the vertical edge has a predetermined characteristic. The second detection method 50 further applies a feature filter, illustratively including, but not limited to, a Histogram of Oriented Gradient detector, to each region of interest, wherein each region of interest having a requisite number of features is labeled as having a pedestrian.
The method may include the processing of additional features to calculate a pedestrian detection score 28. As shown, the pedestrian detection score 28 may be computed using the global clutter score 24, saliency measure, location prior, local pedestrian clutter score 26, pedestrian behavior analysis, and group interaction, (each referenced hereafter as a "Factor" and collectively as the "Factors"). The Factors may be processed together by the processor 16 to generate a Probabilistic Learned Model (the "PLM") which may be further processed so as to generate a pedestrian detection score 28. The PLM stores the Factors over time and calculates the pedestrian detection score 28 based in part upon the learned influence one Factor may have upon the other Factor. Thus, the PLM is helpful in refining and providing an accurate pedestrian detection score through learned experiences.
Figure 9
The method may further include the step of providing a Saliency Map Generating Unit ("SMGU 52"). The SMGU 52 is configured to process the video image and extract salient features from the video image. The SMGU 52 is directed to replicating the human vision system wherein between the pre-attention stage and the recognition state task and target functions of the human vision system are completed. The SMGU 52 computes and generates a task and target independent bottom up saliency map using saliency computation approaches currently known and used in the art, illustratively including the saliency map shown in . The map shows strong connected edges of the image above. Specifically, the region with high salient features has high intensity. The processor 16 processes the extracted salient features and provides the salient features to the LPCAU 22 so as to generate a local pedestrian clutter score 26. The salient features may include, but are not limited to: (1) edges of the image; and (2) connecting edges of the image.
The method may further include step 220, processing pedestrian behavior to calculate the pedestrian detection score 28. Pedestrian behavior may include how the pedestrian motion affects the perception difficulty of the driver, and may be further used to verify pedestrian detection. Pedestrian behavior may also be examined in the context of the environment. Wherein pedestrian behavior includes analyzing the location and status of the appearing pedestrians, including standing, walking, running, carrying objects, etc., the perceived pedestrian clutter determined/calculated by the environment surrounding the pedestrian. For instance, the SMGU 52 may be programmed with the behavior of a pedestrian at an urban cross walk, or on a side walk adjacent a residential street.
The method may further include step 230, analyzing individual pedestrian interaction within the group of pedestrians, and the interaction of one group of pedestrians with respect to another group of pedestrians to calculate the pedestrian detection score. A Pedestrian Group Analysis Unit ("PGAU 54") is configured to detect a group of pedestrians and assign a perception difficulty value to the group of pedestrians. The PGAU 54 analyzes individual pedestrian interaction within the group of pedestrians, and the interaction of one group of pedestrians with respect to another group of pedestrians. For the within group interaction case, pedestrians located close within the scene with similar behavior pattern, e.g., standing/crossing/walking in the same direction, may grouped by the viewer so that the clutter score of an individual pedestrian within the group will be limited to describe the pedestrian perception difficulty. Accordingly, a high cluttered pedestrian would be much easier to detect if he/she grouped by the viewer into a group with much more salient pedestrians. The PGAU 54 utilizes group pedestrians' characteristics combined with individual pedestrian clutter features in judgment of visual clutter.
With respect to the analysis of the between group interactions, the PGAU 54 accounts for the fact that the perception of a pedestrian may also be affected by other pedestrians or distracting events/objects existing in the same scene. For example, a moving pedestrian may distract driver's attention more easily relative to a static pedestrian, and a dashing vehicle or bicycle may catch the attention of driver immediately. The PGAU 54 may utilize learned behavior of pedestrians in group interactions to calculate the pedestrian detection score 28.
Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings and may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described while within the scope of the appended claims. | |
Article 123 out of 1759
Tai chi may cut the number of falls and the risk of a traumatic death experienced by older people, say academics.
The ancient Chinese martial art tai chi is focused on flexibility and whole body coordination that promotes a harmonized motion in space. Evidence, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, reveals tai chi significantly reduced the rate of falls by 43 per cent compared with other interventions in the short term (less than one year) and by 13 per cent in the long term (more than a year).
Previous research has shown that tai chi is an effective exercise to improve balance control and flexibility in older individuals. Rafael Lomas-Vega, PhD from of the University of Jaén in Spain searched for relevant studies and identified 10 trials analysing the effect of tai chi versus other treatments (such as physical therapy and low intensity exercise) on risk of falls in at-risk and older adults.
Regarding falls that cause injuries, he found some evidence that tai chi reduced risk by 50 per cent over the short term and by 28 cent over the long term.
“Tai chi practice may be recommended to prevent falls in at-risk adults and older adults,” said Professor Lomas-Vega, about the findings published this week online called 'Tai chi for risk of falls. A meta-analysis.'
“The length of the interventions ranged from 12- 26 weeks. The frequency of the one-hour sessions ranged from one to three times per week.
“Due to the small number of published studies, further research is needed to investigate the effect of tai chi on injurious falls and time to first fall.”
One third of people in Britain over the age of 65 living at home will have at least one fall a year and half of these will have more. Around 700,000 people are admitted to hospital each year to mend a broken hip.
Though tai-chi is commonly practiced on a daily basis by older people across China and Japan and has been used for well over 1,000 years, the ancient practice, which combines deep breathing and slow, gentle movements, has not been adapted widely by those aged over-65 in Britain. | https://www.homecare.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1586714/Tai-chi-could-prevent-older-people-from-suffering-fatal-falls |
Arguing that group psychotherapy is a particularly effective method of treatment for psychotic patients, Group Psychotherapy of the Psychoses draws together the world's leading exponents in a comprehensive exploration of theory and practice.
The contributors consider the development of the study of psychosis as well as the more recent advances in assessment, diagnosis and group treatment, covering such topics as:
conceptual schema and models of the psychosesvariations of group therapy approaches and their effectivenessinterpretations and interventions with clientscoping with countertransference, counteridentification and counterresistancemultimodal treatment and the importance of contexttraining and supervisionproblems peculiar to groupstreatment in a therapeutic community.
from the publisher's website
Table of Contents
Foreword, Howard Kibel.
Part 1: Background and Theory1. Introduction, Malcolm Pines, Group Analytic Practice and Victor L. Schermer, psychologist, Philadelphia.2. Psychosis from a Group Perspective, Marvin R. Skolnick, George Washington University Medical School.3. Splitting and Disavowal in Group Psychotherapy of Psychosis, Nicolas Caparros, psychoanalyst, Madrid.4. A Biography of Psychosis: Individuals, Groups and Institutions, Salamon Resnik, psychoanalyst, Paris.
Part 2: Technical Aspects of Group Psychotherapy5. Group Therapy with Schizophrenic and Bipolar Patients: Integrative Approaches, Nick Kanas, Department of Psychiatry, University of California.6. The Therapist's Role in the Group Treatment of Psychotic Inpatients and Outpatients: A Foulkesian Perspective, Ivan Urlic, Psychiatric Clinic, Clinical Hospital, Split.7. Resistance, Empathy and Interpretation with Psychotic Patients, Stanley Schneider, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.8. The Group as Therapist for Borderline and Psychotic Patients, Rachael Chazan, Faculty of Psychotherapy, Tel Aviv Medical School.9. Supportive-Expressive Group Psychotherapy with Chronic Mental Illness, including Psychosis, Tetsuro Takahashi, psychoanalyst, Glenn Lipson, clinical and forensic psychologist and Lane Chazdon, Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas.10. Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy with Chronically Mentally Ill Women, Lawrence L. Kennedy, Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas, Susan Bach, Community Psychiatric Clinic, Seattle, Shauna Corbin, Southdown Institute, Ontario, Mary Ann Abbott, clinical psychologist and Bette Ferbrache, Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas.11. Clinical Interventions in Group Psychotherapy, Raman Kapur, Queen's University, Belfast. Part 3: Training, Supervision and Countertransference.12. Supervision of Group Psychotherapy with Chronic Psychotic Patients, Eugene Della Badia, Horsham Clinic and Pennsylvania Hospital.13. Psychotherapy Training for Nurses as Part of a Group Psychotherapy Project: The Pivotal Role of Countertransference, Dianne Campbell Lefevre, Anglia Polytechnic University. Part 4: Adjunctive Treatment, Setting and Context.14. The Role of Assessment and Pharmacotherapy in Group Psychotherapy for Psychosis, Alan M. Gruenberg, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia and Reed D. Goldstein, Pennsylvania Hospital.15. The Therapeutic Community and Schizophrenia, Geoffrey P. Pullen, Littlemore Hospital, Oxford.16. Confusions in a Therapeutic Milieu, Joseph H. Berke, Arbours Centre, London.17. Voluntary Work in the Area of Mental Health: The Voluntary Worker's Role in a Therapeutic Centre in Florence, Gianni DiNorscia and Walter Romeo.
References.Index. | https://www.cavershambooksellers.com/search/1853025844 |
As a legal practitioner here at Stowe Family Law LLP, specialising particularly in private cases involving children, I am always conscious at this time of the year that the Christmas period can be very difficult for some families: particularly if they are separated and the parents can’t agree on arrangements for their children over the festive season.
Christmas is traditionally a time for families so it’s only natural for parents to want to spend time with their children and enjoy and celebrate the festivities with them. However, for those families in which the parents have separated, resolving disputes over the time each parent gets to spend with the children can be very difficult.
It is an incredibly busy time of year, with all the festive preparations to contend with and of course the inevitable Christmas shows, nativity plays and parties.
There is a great deal to be said for planning well ahead and trying to reach an agreement with the other parent about arrangements over the Christmas period. The earlier this can be done the better given the demands on everyone’s time during these very busy few weeks.
If it becomes clear that an agreement cannot be reached then early action should ensure there is enough time to try and resolve the problems you’re facing by discussion, negotiations, mediation, family counselling or as a last resort an application to court for a child arrangements order under the Children Act 1989.
In many cases when child arrangements break down at the last minute just before Christmas, there just isn’t enough time left for a referral to mediation or counselling with any hope of a satisfactory solution being found before the big day. There may not even be enough time for the courts to hear the matter, no matter how keen the parents may be.
If proceedings are necessary then do remember that the Courts are always very busy and are even more so during the Christmas period. Then there is the Christmas break itself to take into consideration. So the earlier the application to court can be made the better and the more chance there will be of securing a hearing date prior to the Christmas holidays.
Thinking ahead and seeking advice early on will increase your chances of sorting things out and reaching an agreement before Christmas Day, with all its expectations, arrives. If you manage to do so, you’ll have a far more enjoyable time on the 25th. | https://www.stowefamilylaw.co.uk/blog/2017/12/15/christmas-family-conflict/ |
Main Purposes:
Responsible for carrying out first off and last off quality checks to company and ISO 9001 standards and specific customer requirements.
Determine quality metrics and ensure they meet the required tolerances.
Main Duties (including supervisory and direct responsibilities):
Perform quality inspection and pre work requirements on work in-progress and finished products inc Initial Sample Inspection Reports (ISIR’s) to customer requirements on a continual basis. You will ensure the appropriate procedures, standards and specifications are being adhered to as per the Quality Management System (QMS) and customer requirements.
Carry out dimensional and visual inspections during the production process and on final inspection
Communicate all inspection reports with the production managers / supervisors responsible for the areas being inspected and report any non-conformances in line with the Company NCR process.
Support Compliance Manager to improve company efficiencies and reduce non-conformance in line with the Company KPI targets
Inspect purchased parts and materials for conformity to standards, specifications, and processing requirements.
Conduct first article inspection of parts, assemblies, equipment, and tooling.
Assist with root cause analysis and problem-solving activities on the shop floor,
Effectively use various measuring equipment to inspect machined components. Ensure all measuring equipment is maintained in line with the calibration system
Calibrate measuring equipment and measuring testing variables
Observe the methods and equipment manufacturing employees use during production and giving them advice to correct errors and increase efficiency
Have a good knowledge of industry standards in relation to finishes and acceptable tolerances.
In conjunction with the Compliance Manager, perform root cause analysis, development of corrective action strategies
Support the Compliance Manager in the efficient running of the QMS System and attainment of ISO and CE accreditations and to conform to individual customer quality standards.
Generate Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) reports in accordance with the required standards
Identify continuous improvement opportunities and progress related actions
Personal Qualities, Skills, Experience and Educational Requirements:
Previous quality inspection experience in a manufacturing environment (desirable in a fabrication environment)
Proficient in the understanding of engineer, fabrication, laser and paint / finish production methods/process
Experience using calibrated inspection measurement tools such as micrometers, verniers etc.
Ability to read, interpret and work directly from engineering drawings
Have awareness of how to conduct First Article Inspections. | https://adslaser.co.uk/vacancy-quality-inspector/ |
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
0001 1. Field of the Invention
0002 The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices, more particularly to a method and system for controlling and maintaining an effective channel length in a semiconductor device by adjusting ion implant conditions derived from a fed-forward measurement of the gate electrode.
0003 2. Description of Related Art
0004 Over the years, in order to keep up with modern technology, it has been indispensably necessary to reduce semiconductor device size as well as enhance performance thereof. Semiconductors which have been decreased in size over the years have included, but are not limited to, field effect transistors (FETs), metal oxide semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs), complementary metal oxide silicon FETs (CMOS FETs), and the like. However, in decreasing feature sizes of the modern semiconductors, the bearable error of feature size control tolerances have also been reduced. As feature size control tolerances decrease, the ability to produce FETs with smaller specifications becomes increasing difficult, and as such, the normal random variances produced by such FETs provides undesirable semiconductor circuits.
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0005 In a conventional semiconductor, such as a FET, current flows along a semiconductor path called a channel. FIG. 1A illustrate a typical example of a CMOS device comprising an NFET and a PFET , while FIG. 1B illustrates the left half NFET and the right half PFET superimposed. As further illustrated, the conventional CMOS FET has a gate electrode having a gate width . The gate electrode may be offset by a variety of spacers, such as, spacers , , and , whereby the spacer may define an ion implantation mask for creating a lightly doped drain (LDD) region , or an extension of the NFET , while spacer may define an ion implantation mask for creating a LDD region of the PFET . Spacer may define an ion implant mask of both FETs for creating a source region and drain region of the substrate for both FETs. The gate electrode lies over a thin gate insulator film , wherein the gate is positioned above and between shallow trench isolation regions (STI). Therebetween the shallow trench isolation regions lies LDD regions and , whereby the region of substrate located between LDD regions and , under the gate electrode , constitutes the channel. As will be recognized, when the gate electrode is turned on, a depletion zone forms in the channel whereby the region of substrate surface under the gate electrode , between edges of the depletion zone , is called an effective channel length of the FET.
0006 In a FET, any variation between a desired gate electrode width and the actual formed gate electrode width has a first-order effect on the effective channel length, while the effective channel length has a first-order effect on the drive current of the FET. Likewise, the drive current of the FET has a first-order effect on the speed of the resultant circuit having an effect on the maximum clocking frequency. As will be recognized, a circuit's value, performance, and consumer desirability are typically determined by the maximum clocking frequency of the resultant circuit. Thus, the effective channel length of a FET affects the resultant circuit's overall performance, value, and desirability. Therefore, as feature sizes of the modern semiconductors continue to decrease, and therewith the control of the tolerable feature error, any variation between a desired gate electrode width and the actual, as-formed gate electrode affects the underlying effective channel length, thus affecting the clocking frequency to provide a circuit having decreased value and desirability.
0007 Therefore, a need exists in the art to control the effective channel length to provide a manufacturing process that provides FETs, and thus circuits, to meet desired specifications. Prior art is aimed at controlling the effective channel length using Rapid Thermal Anneal (RTA) or drive-in process steps, whereby any variation of the actual gate electrode from the ideal gate electrode may be corrected by adjusting RTA time or temperature using a downstream process. However, adjusting RTA time or temperature using downstream processes can be problematic with other device parameters including overlap capacitance, increasing the thermal budget, and affecting both NFET and PFET as well as all dopant simultaneously, for example. As a result of modern semiconductors having smaller effective channel lengths, and thus being at an increased sensitivity to overlap capacitance due to the associated reduced tolerable feature error and thermal cycle budget, adjusting RTA time or temperature using downstream processes is not ideal for controlling a smaller effective channel length in modern semiconductors.
0008 Prior art is also directed to controlling the effective channel length by correcting for variations in the gate electrode using techniques such as photolithography, polysilicon reactive ion etching (RIE), and the possible use of hardmasks for gate definition. For example, prior art is directed to techniques of controlling gate width variations by photolithography to reactive ion etching RIE whereby a measurement of the photoresist mask width determines an adjustment to the RIE etch-bias to control the gate width. However, as gate width dimensions continue to shrink to sub-quarter micron in modern semiconductors all available etch-bias may be used in achieving such sub-lithographic dimensions, thereby leaving no available etch-bias for later adjustments to control the smaller effective channel lengths in modern semiconductors.
0009 Thus, as the gate electrodes of modern semiconductors continue to shrink to sub-quarter micron, typically less than 0.25 m, it is becoming more difficult to effectively and efficiently control the associated smaller effective channel lengths, and thus more difficult to provide fast, reliable, and desirable semiconductors. Therefore, a need continues to exist in the art to provide improved systems and methods of forming, controlling and maintaining smaller effective channel lengths in modern semiconductors.
0010 Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method of forming and controlling an effective channel length in a semiconductor.
0011 Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved system and method for compensating for gate electrode width deviation from target.
0012 It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for controlling channel length or other device parameter by compensating for gate electrode width deviation from target.
0013 Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved semiconductor, such as a FET, having a gate width less than about 0.25 m which exhibits improved yield and performance.
0014 It is another object of the present invention to provide a more reliable, efficient, effective, and desirable FET.
0015 Still another object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing process that decreases variance of one or more device parameters while simultaneously increasing product yield thus decreasing scrap.
0016 Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
0017 The above and other objects and advantages, which will be apparent to one of skill in the art, are achieved in the present invention which is directed to, in a first aspect, to a method and system of forming a semiconductor device, such as a FET, MOSFET, and CMOS, whereby a gate electrode is provided over a substrate and subsequently a dimension of the gate electrode is determined. The determined dimension of the gate electrode is then fed forwarded to a feed-forward controller wherein an ion implant recipe, including ion implant recipe comprising n-type and p-type impurities, is determined based on the gate electrode dimension, which when implanted into the substrate defines the doped regions of the substrate while simultaneously controlling the correlating semiconductor parameters of the substrate.
0018 Preferably, the gate electrode may include polysilicon, antimony, arsenic, boron, carbon, germanium, selenium, sulfur, tellurium, gallium arsenide, and indium antimonide. The dimension of the final gate electrode is determined whereby such dimensions preferably include gate electrode width, gate electrode height, gate electrode length, gate electrode sheet resistance, gate electrode sidewall profile, and mixtures thereof. The ion implant recipe is in the feed forward controller based on the fed-forward gate electrode dimension. The determined ion implant recipe is then implanted into the substrate to define the doped regions of the substrate, preferably the halo, lightly doped drain (LDD) extensions, source and drain regions, and mixtures thereof, while simultaneously controlling correlating semiconductor parameters of the substrate including the effective channel length, overlap capacitance, cut off frequency, switching time, and mixtures thereof.
0019 The present invention compensates for both gate electrode dimensions which are larger than a desired gate electrode dimension, as well as gate electrode dimensions which are smaller than a desired gate electrode dimension. Furthermore, both the larger and smaller gate electrodes are compensated for in a single ion implantation process based on a single measurement of the gate electrode.
0020 In the present invention, the step of determining the ion implant recipe may comprise comparing the determined dimension of the gate electrode with a desired dimension of the gate electrode within the feed-forward controller. An ion implant condition adjustment of an ideal ion implant recipe is then determined based on any difference between the determined dimension of the gate electrode and the desired dimension. Subsequently, the ion implant recipe is determined base on the ion implant condition adjustment of the ideal ion implant recipe within the feed-forward controller. In the present invention, the ion implant condition adjustment of the ideal ion implant recipe may be determined using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) or Design Of Experiments (DOE) model.
0021 In an embodiment of the present invention, the ion implant recipe may be selected from a set of pre-qualified ion implant recipes from within the feed-forward controller, whereby the selected ion implant recipe compensates for any perceived deviation in the determined dimension of the gate electrode from a targeted dimension of the gate electrode.
0022 Alternatively, the ion implant recipe determined within the feed-forward controller may be a unique ion implant recipe which when implanted into the substrate compensates for any perceived deviation in the determined dimension of the gate electrode from a targeted dimension of the gate electrode. In the embodiment where the ion implant recipe comprises a unique ion implant recipe, the unique ion implant recipe is determined using a model of the semiconductor parameters based on the implantation of a nominal ion implant recipe and any calculated deviation between the determined gate electrode dimension and the targeted dimension of the gate electrode.
0023 In the present invention, the feed-forward controller may further include a detuning means selected from the group consisting of filtering, estimation, and smoothing algorithms. Such detuning means prevents the feed-forward controller from reacting to measurement noise.
0024 Furthermore, in the present invention, the semiconductor parameters of an NFET and a PFET may be formed and controlled simultaneously by a single step of implanting the determined ion implant recipe derived from the single gate electrode dimension. Such semiconductor parameters of the NFET and the PFET may be adjusted by differing ion implant dosages and energies based only on such single step of implanting the determined ion implant recipe derived from the single gate electrode dimension.
0025 In a preferred embodiment, a gate electrode width is determined and forwarded to the feed-forward controller for determining the ion implant recipe based on the gate electrode width which is then implanted into the substrate to define the doped regions of the substrate while simultaneously controlling an effective channel length of the semiconductor. A lightly doped region or Halo region may be implanted into the substrate prior to doping the portion of the substrate using the adjusted ion implant recipe. In such an embodiment, the gate electrode width is determined using a mechanical measuring technique selected from the group consisting of scanning electron microscopy, reflectance measurements, atomic form microscopy, image shearing, and mechanical measurement. Alternatively, the gate electrode width may be determined using a non-mechanical measuring technique selected from the group consisting of estimation, inference, and assumption based on predetermined gate electrode width of a second, similar gate electrode.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
0026 The features of the invention believed to be novel and the elements characteristic of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The figures are for illustration purposes only and are not drawn to scale. The invention itself, however, both as to organization and method of operation, may best be understood by reference to the detailed description which follows taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
0027FIG. 1A is an illustrative schematic of a CMOS circuit having two components, in particular an NFET device and PFET device.
0028FIG. 1B is an illustrative schematic of the CMOS of FIG. 1A having the left portion of the NFET and the right portion of the PFET devices superimposed.
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0029FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view of step of the present invention of forming a final gate electrode having gate electrode width.
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0030FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of step of the present invention illustrating measuring the gate electrode width, or critical dimension (CD), of the gate electrode formed in step of FIG. 2A.
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0031FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of steps and of the present invention illustrating forming a gate electrode, whereby the gate electrode may have a notched base profile, and subsequently measuring the gate electrode width of the notched base gate.
0032FIG. 3 illustrates a partial flow-chart of an exemplary high-level process flow of the present invention for forming and controlling an effective channel length by ion implantation which compensates for any deviation between an ideal or desired gate electrode width and the actual, as-formed gate electrode width.
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0033FIG. 4 is a partial flow-chart of the exemplary process of FIG. 3 illustrating exemplary sub-steps of step wherein the gate electrode width measurement is fed-forward to a feed-forward controller for determining an adjusted ion implant recipe R based on the fed-forward measurement of the gate electrode width for controlling the effective channel length of the semiconductor.
0034FIG. 5 illustrates the results of a design of experiments (DOE) of a halo implantation in accordance with the present invention.
0035FIG. 6 illustrates a semiconductor FET having a controlled effective channel length forming and controlling by ion implantation which compensates for any deviation between an ideal or desired gate electrode width and the as-formed gate electrode width made by the exemplary high-level process flow of FIGS. 3 and 4.
0036FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a graphical representations of variance comparisons of controlling an effective channel length in accordance with the present invention as shown in FIG. 7A which has a distribution with less variance thus being closer to a targeted effective channel length, in comparison to an effective channel length after implantation of the nominal ion implantation as shown in FIG. 7B having a larger variance thus being further from a targeted effective channel length.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
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0037 In describing the preferred embodiment of the present invention, reference will be made herein to FIGS. A-B of the drawings in which like numerals refer to like features of the invention. Features of the invention are not necessarily shown to scale in the drawings.
0038 The present invention discloses the use of ion implant recipe changes to control the effective channel length or other semiconductor device parameters including, for example, drive current, overlap capacitance, cut off frequency, switching time, and the like. In accordance with the present invention, a gate electrode is formed over a substrate and a dimension of the formed gate electrode is determined, whereby the dimensions include gate electrode width, gate height, gate length, gate sheet resistance, gate sidewall profile, and the like. Once the dimension of the gate electrode is determined, it is fed forward to a feed-forward ion implant control operations wherein any variation in the gate electrode dimension is compensated for based on a target or ideal of such gate electrode dimension. A recipe is determined in the feed-forward ion implant controller, and such recipe is then implanted into the substrate to define and form the doped regions of the substrate including the halo, lightly doped drains(LDD) extension, source and drain regions. In implanting the adjusted ion implantation to define such regions, the semiconductor parameters including the effective channel length, overlap capacitance, cut off frequency, switching time, and the like are simultaneously formed and controlled by such adjusted ion implantation of the doped regions of the substrate.
0039 In the preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a method and system for forming and controlling the effective channel length in a semiconductor device, such as a field-effect transistor (FET). In accordance with the preferred embodiment, the effective channel length of the semiconductor may be controlled by an ion implant recipe implantation step derived from a calculation based on a measurement of the gate electrode. Preferably, a final gate electrode is formed over a substrate, and then a dimension of the final gate electrode is measured, preferably the gate electrode width is measured. The gate electrode measurement is fed-forward to an ion implant controller wherein ion implant conditions are determined using the measurement of the gate electrode width. The ion implant conditions determined within the feed-forward ion implant controller compensate for any deviation in the effective channel length from a targeted or ideal effective channel length of the semiconductor. The ion implant conditions are used to determine, select or generate an ion implant recipe based on the fed-forward gate electrode measurement within the ion implant operations controller. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the ion implant recipe is an adjustment of the nominal ion implant dopant conditions which, when implanted into the semiconductor defines the doped regions, i.e. the halo, LDD, source and drain, and any other doped regions of the semiconductor, thereby simultaneously forming and controlling the effective channel length. The adjusted ion implant recipe based on the fed-forward measurement of the gate of the present invention both forms and regulates the effective channel length of the semiconductor by removing any perceived deviation in the actual, as-formed gate electrode from an ideal gate electrode to provide the semiconductor device with improved speed and performance yields.
0040 Preferably, the measurement of the gate electrode is determined after forming and etching the gate electrode, thereby measuring a dimension of the final gate electrode, such as the final gate electrode width. Furthermore, in accordance with the present invention, the effective channel length of the NFET and PFET devices may be formed and controlled simultaneously, or independently of each other thereby adjusting the NFET and PFET channel lengths independently with different ion implant dosages to provide the ability to match the NFET and PFET devices together, or alternatively to strengthen or weaken the NFET and PFET devices independently.
0041 The present invention may be better understood in accordance with the description of the preferred embodiment below. In accordance with the present invention, the measurements of the gate electrode comprise those measurements including the gate electrode width (the critical dimension or CD), the gate height, gate length, gate sheet resistance, gate sidewall profile, and mixtures thereof. The term doped regions of the substrate comprise doped regions including the halo regions, lightly doped regions (LDD) regions, the source and drain regions, and mixtures thereof. Further, the parameters of the semiconductor which may be controlled in accordance with the present invention comprise those parameters including the effective channel length, overlap capacitance, cut-off frequency, switching time, and mixtures thereof. As will be recognized, other gate electrode measurements as known and used in the art may be determined to dope other known regions of the substrate thereby defining correlating known semiconductor parameters in accordance with the description of the present invention.
0042 As will be recognized by one skilled in the art, the present invention may be used to form a variety of semiconductor devices such as, for example, a FET, MOSFET, CMOS, and the like, as well as semiconductors having p-channels or n-channels which may be formed independently of each other, or alternatively, simultaneously. The present invention advantageously allows the NFET channel length and the PFET channel length to be adjusted by differing ion implant dosages, energies, and the like, based only on the same measurement of the gate electrode.
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0043 In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 2A, an initial gate electrode is formed over a substrate having a dielectric layer thereover, and subsequently etched to provide a final gate electrode over the dielectric layer . The substrate may comprise a silicon substrate, silicon SOI, SiGe (silicon germanium) and the like, having the dielectric layer deposited thereover a surface thereof comprising a dielectric material including an oxide, thermally grown silicon dioxide, spun-on resin, fluorinated SCO, silk, polyimide, and the like. A gate material include polysilicon, antimony, arsenic, boron, carbon, germanium, selenium, sulfur, tellurium, gallium arsenide, indium antimonide, the oxides of most metals, and the like, is deposited over the gate dielectric layer by known techniques to form an initial gate electrode. The initial gate electrode is then patterned and etched using techniques as known and used in the art, including etching, photolithography, RIE processes, hardmask processes, damascene processes, and the like, thereby defining and forming the final gate electrode , as shown in FIG. 2A. In the present invention, the final gate electrode may be provided with a variety of profiles as known and used in the art, including vertical walls, a notched base profile as illustrated in FIG. 2C, and the like. See FIG. 2A-C.
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0044 In the preferred embodiment, a final polysilicon gate electrode is provided thereover a dielectric layer over a silicon substrate , whereby the polysilicon gate electrode is positioned thereover and between shallow trench isolation regions of the substrate . See FIG. 2A.
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0045 After the final gate electrode is formed, a non-destructive measurement M of the actual, as-formed final gate electrode is determined as illustrated by step within the dashed lines of FIGS. 2B and 2C. In accordance with the present invention, the critical dimension measurement M of the gate electrode is defined as the measurement of the dimension of the gate electrode including, gate electrode width, gate height, gate length, gate sheet resistance, gate sidewall profile, and the like. In the preferred embodiment, a non-destructive measurement M of the gate electrode width is determined whereby the gate width is determined at a bottom surface of the gate, or at the contact area where a surface of the gate electrode meets the dielectric layer . The non-destructive gate electrode width measurement M may be determined directly or indirectly. In the preferred embodiment, in determining the measurement M of the gate electrode width in step , such measurement M may be determined directly using mechanical measurement techniques as known and used in the art including, for example, measuring the gate width at the surface of the gate electrode directly contacting the dielectric layer using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), reflectance measurements, interference measurements, mechanical measurement techniques, image shearing, and the like.
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0046 Alternatively, step of determining the non-destructive measurement M of the gate electrode width may be determined non-directly using non-mechanical measurement techniques including estimating, inferring, assuming, and the like, the width of the gate electrode at the surface of the gate electrode directly contacting the dielectric layer using a known measurement M of a previously measured critical dimension of a second gate electrode which is substantially similar in dimensions or related to the desired gate electrode being measured. Thus, the measurement of the gate electrode width may be determined directly or indirectly by inferring or assuming the gate electrode width measurement. Preferably, step comprises directly measuring the non-destructive critical dimension, or measurement M by measuring the gate electrode width at the surface thereof which directly contacts the dielectric layer using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereby such gate electrode width M may range from about 20 nm to about 500 nm, more preferably from about 50 nm to about 150 nm.
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0047 Thus, as discussed above and as illustrated in more detail in the exemplary high-level process flow of the preferred embodiment in FIG. 3, step defines the final gate electrode , and subsequently, a measurement M of the final gate electrode is measured and/or determined in step whereby such measurement is used to provide subsequent control of the effective channel length, as well as other device parameters as discussed above, by implanting adjusted doped regions of the substrate, such as the halo, LDD, source and drain regions, and the like. After the measurement M of the gate electrode is determined, FIG. 3 illustrates feeding forward the measurement M to a downstream feed-forward controller (FFC) which compares the measurement M to the desired target and subsequently determines a recipe adjustment to the ion implant process. In the above step, the feed-forward controller may include the feed-forward controllers as known and used in the art such as, for example, factory control inventory software. The ion implant tools may include those as known and used in the art including, for example, the E220 distributed by Varian, Inc., of Glouchster, Mass. In accordance with the present invention, the present invention may be employed using varying dimensions of the gate electrode including gate electrode width, gate height, gate length, gate resistance, gate sidewall profile, and the like, whereby such dimensions may be fed-forward to known ion implant operations controllers which are adapted to adjust such dimensions for providing adjusted ion implant recipes, which when implanted into the substrate, define the doped regions of the substrate, thereby simultaneously forming and controlling semiconductor device parameters correlating to such varying dimensions of the gate electrode including the effective channel length, overlap capacitance, cut-off frequency, switching time, and the like. Preferably, the gate electrode measurement M of step is fed forward to a feed-forward controller for determining an adjustment to ion implant conditions of the substrate which define the doped regions of the substrate while simultaneously controlling the effective channel length of the semiconductor.
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0048 In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the measurement M is input into the feed-forward controller in step along with a desired effective channel length target (Y) and optionally a set of predetermined, pre-qualified ion implant recipes R1, R2 . . . Rn, sub-steps and respectively of the feed-forward control step . See FIGS. 3 and 4. Subsequently, in step , the measurement M of the gate electrode is provided into a model , processed within the model , and the processed output compared to the desired effective channel length target (Y) for selecting, determining, or calculating ion implant conditions whereby such ion implant conditions are used for selecting, determining, or calculating an ion implant recipe R which sets the ion implant conditions of the doped portions of the semiconductor such that the effect of ion implantation of the recipe R in step compensates for any perceived deviation in the critical dimension measurement of the final gate electrode from a targeted critical dimension measurement of a desired final gate electrode. The process model controller of step may determine a unique adjusted ion implant recipe R or may select a prequalified adjusted ion recipe R from the set of pre-qualified recipes R1R2Rnin sub-step of the feed-forward control step for subsequent implantation of the doped regions of the substrate. See FIG. 4.
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0049 In doing so, the feed-forward controller of step is adapted to have input into the feed-forward controller the perceived critical dimension deviation while also being adapted to output a qualified ion implant recipe R that has the effect of regulating the effective channel length, or other device parameters including, drive current, cut-off frequency, switching time, and the like in the presence of such perceived critical dimension deviation or other gate dimension measurements. Thus, the adjusted ion implant recipe R of the present invention is a modification of the nominal ion implant conditions which compensates for the as-formed, final gate dimensions which, when implanted into the substrate in step define, control, and regulate the effective channel length by removing any perceived deviation in the determined gate electrode width.
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0050 Adjustments to the ion implant conditions in step may include, for example, the ion implant dosage, ion implant energy, ion implant tilt, and the like, whereby the ranges of such adjustments may range from about 50% to about 50% of the nominal ion implant conditions, preferably from about 10% to about 10% of the nominal ion implant conditions. In accordance with the present invention, the specific range of the adjustments to the ion implant conditions depends on both the particular ion implantation as well as the ion implant parameters. Preferably, the ion implant recipe R of the doped regions implanted in step include adjusted ion implants of the halo, LDD, and source and drain regions of the substrate, implanted therebetween the shallow trench isolation regions , to form and control the effective channel length or other device parameters as discussed above.
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0051 As illustrated in more detail in FIG. 4, step of feeding forward the critical dimension measurement M to the process model feed forward controller may further include a plurality of sub-steps such as sub-steps -. Preferably, once the critical dimension measurement M is fed-forward in step , a best estimate of the true critical dimension measurement M of the gate electrode is determined based on the nominal critical dimension measurement M in sub-step . In the preferred embodiment, the best estimate of the true gate electrode width of sub-step is determined based on the width measurement of the final gate electrode . In determining the best estimate of the true critical dimension, the measured critical dimension measurement M may be taken as an accurate reflection of the true gate electrode dimension, such as an accurate reflection of the true gate electrode width. Alternatively, the best estimation of the true critical dimension may be determined by filtering and/or estimation techniques as known and used in the art including, for example, using detuning variables of a known measurement of the noise and/or process noise such as Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE), Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), or Bayesian Estimation Theory, and the like, for example. Preferably, such proper filtering and/or estimation techniques as known and used in the art are employed in the present invention to prevent the feed-forward ion implant controller from reacting with such measurement noise and/or process noise, thereby allowing the feed-forward ion implant controller to provide an accurate adjustment to the ion implantation recipe. For example, proper filtering and estimation techniques may be used to correct critical dimension measurements M which inaccurately incorporate too large a random noise variable. In the preferred embodiment, the best estimation of the true critical dimension of the measurement M may require filtering whereby recipe selection is used as a filtering mechanism as discussed further below.
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0052 After the measurement M of the gate electrode width has been filtered to determine the best estimate of the true critical dimension measurement M in sub-step , the best estimate of the true critical dimension measurement is input into sub-step to determine an estimation of a resultant effective channel length should be nominal ion implant recipe be used, or a model of the effective channel length using the best estimate of the true critical dimension measurement. (See FIG. 4.) In doing so, the best estimate of the true critical dimension measurement M is used to determine a compensating ion implant recipe of the doped regions using known techniques. A model of the effective channel length based upon a set of ion implant recipe conditions is then determined using modeling techniques as known and used in the art including Response Surface Methodology (RSM), Design Of Experiments (DOE), and the like. In doing so, the best estimate of the resultant effective channel length in sub-step indicates any deviations in the final gate electrode from a targeted final gate electrode, preferably any deviations in the final gate electrode width from target. It may be determined that the actual, as-formed gate electrode width of the gate being measured is larger, i.e. wider, than the ideal gate width, or alternatively the gate width measurement may be smaller, i.e. narrower, than the ideal gate width. Thus, it may be determined in sub-step of step that the critical dimension M of the final gate electrode width may not be equivalent to a desired or ideal gate electrode width thereby requiring correction.
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0053 Subsequently, deviations of the critical dimensions of the gate electrode from target are corrected by inputting the targeted or ideal effective channel length target Y (target) into the feed-forward controller in sub-step of step . The estimated effective channel length measurement of sub-step is then deducted or subtracted from the targeted or ideal effective channel length Y (target) of sub-step by known techniques to obtain a deviation from the target or ideal effective channel length Y of the semiconductor. The deviation from the targeted or ideal effective channel length Y is then input into sub-step for determining an inverse model of the ion implant conditions of the doped regions of the substrate which represents an adjustment, or correction, of the ion implant conditions R of the ideal ion implant recipe. Thus, the determined final gate width measurement of sub-step , requiring correction, may be corrected in step by adjusting the ion implant dose and/or energy of the doped regions, by the ion implant condition adjustment R, of the substrate thereby correcting any variations in the final as-formed gate width from target, whereby once such adjusting ion implant dose and/or energy is implanted into the substrate, it simultaneously defines such doped regions of the substrate while controlling the effective channel length of the substrate.
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0054 In the present invention, the ion implant condition adjustment R of the ideal ion implant recipe may be determined or calculated using a model of the ion implant conditions to effective channel length, for example. (See FIG. 5). As illustrated in FIG. 5, the ion implant condition adjustment R of the ideal ion implant recipe may be determined or calculated using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), or alternatively a Design Of Experiments (DOE) model process performed on a microprocessor for the effect of Halo ion implantation on a device drain saturation current, Idsat, as a function of implant dosage changes. Device current is highly correlated to the effective channel length, whereby any change in current reflects a similar change in the effective channel length. In the experiment of FIG. 5, wherein the actual gate width is larger or wider than the ideal gate width, an ion implant recipe with a lower dose and/or energy may be calculated or selected to buy back an improvement in the Idsat, thus resulting in a faster FET that will otherwise be too slow without the ion implant adjustment. Alternatively, if the gate width is smaller or narrower than the ideal gate electrode, the implant can be adjusted with a higher dosage and/or energy reducing the Idsat and thereby increasing the channel length. As illustrated in the example of determining the ion implant condition adjustment R of the ideal ion implant recipe in FIG. 5, if the gate electrode width measurement M is larger than desired, a split may be selected for providing a lower dose and/or energy thus buying back an improvement in Idsat therein correcting for the larger or wider gate electrode width measurement than a desired or ideal gate width. Therefore, the inverse of the Design of Experiments model of FIG. 5 may be used to determine or calculate R.
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0055 Subsequently, the ion implant recipe R is selected, generated, calculated, or determined in sub-step . In the present invention, sub-step of determining, calculating, and/or selecting the ion implant recipe R may be performed by a variety of techniques as known and used in the art. In one embodiment of sub-step of the present invention, the parameters of the adjusted ion implant recipe R may be determined, calculated, and/or selected in sub-step based on the adjustment of the ion implant conditions R in combination with the nominal ion implant recipe. For example, if the nominal energy is 75 KeV and R is determined to be 5 KeV, then the new recipe R would have an energy of 80 KeV. The adjusted ion implant recipe R is implanted into the substrate in step to form and control the effective channel length. See FIG. 4.
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0056 Alternatively and preferably, the ion implant recipe R is selected in sub-step of the present invention from the set of pre-determined, pre-qualified recipes in sub-step for controlling and forming the effective channel length of the preferred embodiment. As such, an ion implant recipe or parameter, in sub-step of the feedforward step , may be selected from the plurality of pre-qualified recipes R1, R2, . . . Rn or parameters whereby each pre-qualified ion implant recipe has a known effect on the effective channel length as compared to the nominal ion implant recipe. In the preferred embodiment, sub-step selects an ion implant recipe from the set of pre-qualified ion implant recipes R1R2Rnwhich most closely matches the ion implant condition adjustment R to obtain an effective channel length as close to the ideal effective channel length as possible. For example, if the nominal recipe is 75 KeV and R is determined to be 5 KeV and the recipe choices are 69 KeV, 75 KeV, and 81 KeV, the closest recipe to the nominal recipe which does not exceed the ideal recipe may be selected. Alternatively, the recipe with the smallest magnitude delta, 81 KeV, may be selected. Still further, the desired recipe may be selected based upon the particular conditions for controlling and forming the particular semiconductor parameters including the effective channel length, overlap capacitance, cut-off frequency, switching time, and the like
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0057 Subsequently in step , as illustrated in FIG. 4, once the ion implant recipe R has been determined the recipe R is subsequently implanted into the doped regions of the substrate by known techniques including, for example, Focused Ion Beam (FIB), and the like. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the ion implant recipe is an adjustment of the nominal ion implant dopant conditions which, when implanted into the semiconductor defines the doped regions, i.e. halo regions and , LDD regions and , and source and drain regions and , thereby simultaneously forming and controlling the effective channel length or other device parameter. See FIG. 6. As discussed above, when the final polysilicon gate electrode is turned on, a depletion zone forms in the channel there-under the gate whereby the length of substrate surface under the gate electrode , between edges of the doped regions of the substrate, is the effective channel length of the FET. The adjusted ion implant recipe based on the fed-forward measurement of the gate of the present invention both forms and regulates the effective channel length of the semiconductor by removing any perceived deviation in the actual, as-formed gate electrode from an ideal gate electrode to provide the semiconductor device with improved speed and performance yields. The present invention may be used for implanting both p-channels and n-channels using ions including n-type dopants such as phosphorus, arsenic, gallium, antimony, or alternatively a p-type dopants including boron, Indium, and the like. Thus, the present invention provides for a variety of ion implant recipes having different dosages, energies of various ions, or impact angle adjustments, thereby allowing for modification, adjustment, or regulating of the implant conditions before implantation of the doped regions of the substrate for the purpose of controlling the effective channel length or other device parameters including drive current, cut off frequency, switching time, and the like.
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0058 As illustrated in the variance comparisons of FIGS. A-B, the present invention of compensating for the determined critical dimension M by providing an adjustment to the nominal ion implantation conditions of the doped regions of a semiconductor based on a fed-forward measurement of the gate electrode provides a manufacturing process where the effective channel lengths of the FETs, circuits, and chips have a distribution with less variance as shown in FIG. 7A. That is, the distribution is thinner in comparison to the distribution of the effective channel length after implantation of only the nominal ion implantation, or the ion implantation recipe that would be implanted into the substrate without the use of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 7B. In the present invention, the amount of variance reduction from the feed-forward control is determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, the variance of the measurement tool, the variance of the gate definition process, the variance of the ion implant tool, and the like. It is known to one skilled in the art that feed-forward control systems may increase the output variance under certain, undesirable conditions unless proper tuning variables are designed into the system or employed. Thus as indicated by the thinner distribution in FIG. 7A, the present invention overcomes the prior art by providing an effective channel length with reduced variance, thereby providing a manufacturing process with higher yield, less scrap, and higher profits.
0059 As the tolerances of the modern semiconductors continue to shrink, the yield or percentage of efficient and reliable semiconductors, having controlled effective channel length, drive current, cut off frequency, switching time, and the like, produced by conventional methods decreases, thus decreasing profits. For example, formation of a modern smaller semiconductors having gate electrode less than 0.25 m by conventional methods may produce an actual gate CD which is smaller than the desired gate CD, thereby providing the resultant semiconductor with decreased reliability, and thus decreased value. Alternatively, the actual gate CD may be larger than the desired gate CD, thereby providing the resultant semiconductor with decreased speed, and thus decreased value.
0060 The present invention overcomes the prior art by providing an improved method of forming and controlling semiconductor parameters including effective channel length, drive current, cut off frequency, and switching time, using a measurement of the gate electrode to calculate an ion implant recipe adjustment of the doped regions of the substrate before such doped regions are implanted into the substrate, thereby providing such semiconductor parameters with less variance and providing higher yield and less scrap which results in increased profits. The present invention also overcomes the prior art by providing a method of defining, forming and controlling the channel length of NFET and PFET devices independently rather than conventional techniques, such as adjusting RTA conditions which adjust NFET and PFET channel lengths simultaneously which provide unmatched NFET and PFET devices, as well as limit the ability to drive the devices independently if desired. Additionally, the present invention provides a method of controlling the effective channel length by compensating for gate electrodes which are either too wide or too narrow to the ideal gate electrode measurements in a single process or step, rather than requiring an additional step, such as, an additional etch trim step for controlling the effective channel length, for example. Furthermore, the present invention provides a method to increase manufacturing process capability by compensation for perceived deviations. The present invention also provides a manufacturing process that provides an effective channel length distribution with reduced variance, therefore more product is within the desired specifications, thereby providing both increased yield and profits as well as decreased scrap.
0061 While the present invention has been particularly described, in conjunction with a specific preferred embodiment, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will embrace any such alternatives, modifications and variations as falling within the true scope and spirit of the present invention. | |
Kan and Lii Kan and Lii have been an important part of qigong training for many generations. Kan represents water and Lii represents fire. Therefore kan is yin, lii is yang. It is believed by qigong practitioners that everyone has excess yang energy and this is why there are so many yin oriented qigong exercises. The exception is if someone is sick then they may have excess yin. Excess yang is thought to play a large role in the aging process. If you can prevent excess yang you can slow down the aging process living stronger and healthier life.
- Author: Sifu Jeff
- Category: Uncategorized
How to use visualization in meditation
Visualization An essential step for developing the right mindset with your meditation practice is to learn how to use a visualization practice. The use of visualization will help you find the right mental space for the most success with your meditation practice. Visualization and imagery will be used most of the time in these 3 ways 1- internal visualizations 2- external visualizations and 3- setting goals. In order to be successful with visualization and improve your mental imagery first you will need to develop deeper levels of concentration. To enhance your concentration you will want to set a time to practice. Having a consistent practice time will allow you to focus all of your energy and you will see the best results. That said, as you improve this skill you will find it easier to do. If you are working on a project or have a competition coming up, the more you can see your self succeeding and performing at your highest level, the more likely it is to happen. When you design your practice sessions, it is good to set a time limit. If you do not set time limits for your practice, especially in the beginning, it can be easy to get distracted. You may worry about interfering with other things you need to accomplish. If you just […]
- Author: hefe14
- Category: Uncategorized
How is Meditation different from concentration or self-hypnosis? | http://meditation-insights.com/time-day-meditate/ |
Research Interns – China Practice
Rhodium Group is recruiting Research Interns to join the company’s China Practice teams for a term of three months, starting in June 2022 through September 2022. Interns will be managed out of our NYC or D.C. offices, and have the option to work in-office, hybrid, or remotely.
Interviews will begin March 7th.
Position Description
Rhodium is looking for talented interns to join our world-class team of researchers on China’s economy and global footprint. With a focus on China’s policies and their global impact, you will support the team’s efforts in producing cutting-edge research on China by contributing to data collection and analysis, policy monitoring, written reports, and other key deliverables.
For more information, you can view a recording of our internship information session, available here.
Position Responsibilities
Three Rhodium China Practice teams are recruiting for interns. Please specify in your cover letter which of these topics and teams appeal most to you and why.
The research intern for the China Projects team will take on long-form studies on China’s economy and global footprint. Interns can expect to touch a wide range of topics, including:
- Macroeconomic analysis exploring broad economic policy trends
- Sector-specific analysis diving deep into industries and companies
- Emerging market investment and financial flows (including development and commercial finance), including economic and political risks and impacts
- China’s decarbonization strategies and their impact on broader economic and societal outcomes
- Broad measures of national power and technological competitiveness
The China Markets Research team analyses short-term and long-term developments in China’s economy and financial markets for a global base of institutional investors. This team is looking for interns with a particular interest and skillset in:
- Monetary and exchange rate policy
- China’s real estate market
- Domestic and international operations of China’s financial system
Rhodium’s China Corporate Advisory team supports multinational corporations with best-in-class China analysis. This team is looking for an intern to work on short-form research tailored to our corporate clients. Interns will be working on a range of topics, including:
- China Economic and Policy Developments: Intern will help the team evaluate the trajectory of Chinese economic policymaking in key areas and support related data compilation and analysis
- US-China and EU-China relations: Intern will monitor and analyze political and economic developments in the US-China or EU-China relationship
- Chinese Technology Policy: Intern will monitor and analyze developments in Chinese technology policy, potentially including data regulation, antimonopoly, and semiconductor industry policy
- China’s New Energy and Climate Policies: Intern will track and evaluate Chinese climate policies and related industry dynamics (US or EU time zone working hours)
Qualifications
Attractive candidates will have the following qualifications:
- A current student or recent graduate of an undergraduate or graduate degree program in international economics, international affairs, China/Asia studies, political economy, data science, or related fields
- Some initial work experience with applied policy and economic research preferred but not essential
- A research interest and developing expertise in China’s economy and economic policies
- Ability to conduct research and autonomously produce quality work
- Ability to communicate clearly and effectively both within the firm and externally
- Either native speaker-level English skills and strong Chinese language proficiency or native speaker-level Chinese with working proficiency in English. Ideal candidates can read and interpret China’s policies, press conferences, data, reports, media, and research
Location and Travel Requirements
All interns will work remotely and report to managers in US time zones.
Compensation, Benefits and Recruiting Process
Internships will be paid. Rhodium Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong commitment to fostering an environment that promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. | https://rhg.com/job/research-interns-china-practice/ |
This is a Square / Strange Loop 2012
‘Strange Loop’ resulted from research carried out as a bursary artist at DanceDigital. It was supported by DanceDigital, Arts Council England and a number of Individuals who contributed to the project through the crowd funding platform WeDidThis.
‘Strange Loop’ uses live video projection in performance. The work was inspired by MC Escher’s Impossible Buildings. The first section is a play on perspective. It shows the translation of space from the real three-dimensional space to the flattened two-dimensional projection. The dancers interact with the tape lines as though they are the lines of a square. In the second section the dancers are caught up in a dialogue with the projection, which is a delayed video of their live movement. They appear to be instructing each other, instructing the projection and then taking instructions from their projection. The aim of this section was to create a loop whereby the projection could appear to be interacting with the live dancers in the present even though the movement was captured in the past. It is an attempt to re-dress the question of control, so that the projection isn’t merely a reaction to the dancer’s actions, but is actively engaged and, to some extent, in control of the live action. | https://margueritegalizia.com/2016/01/29/this-is-a-square-strange-loop-2012/ |
Libraries are repositories for humanity's knowledge; they are our past, our present, and our future. They are much more than storehouses for books, and include many other forms of data. The information available in libraries must be accessible to all people, regardless of education, age, or economic status. Retrieval of particular types of information requires specialized knowledge and database searches that are beyond the capabilities of many users, and particularly of undergraduates starting their university careers. Librarians need to share that knowledge with users, instructing them on how to use electronic resources and the Internet so they can do research on their own, while pointing out the limits and problems associated with electronic research.
With the rise of modern technology, the logistics of the workplace changed forever. New rules are needed to govern behaviour, and to develop procedures for librarians on the frontlines. As Hans Jonas states in The Imperative of Responsibility, "modern technology has introduced actions of such novel scale, objects, and consequences, that the framework of former ethics can no longer contain them" (Jonas 1984,34). This essay will provide an overview of a few ethical dilemmas facing libraries and librarians, and try to find out if Lee Finks' concerns are still valid today. Since confidentiality is so important and fundamental in any discussion of ethics, and its promotion, maintenance, and preservation the custodial duty of every library employee, it will be considered an underlying and presumed practice.
Technological innovation, for example, is enabling us to create "brave new worlds"... But automated environments are unfamiliar worlds. Our old intuitive habits of evaluation, which are adequate for determining what is best in traditional worlds, are inadequate in new and different settings (Severson 1995,13).
Since it is often only librarians who have the skills to access information from specialized databases, it is important that librarians keep ethics in the forefront. Jane D. Schweinsburg stresses that it is critical that information professionals share their knowledge with patrons. If not, a rift will develop between those who have the power to obtain information and those who don't (Schweinsburg 1995,331). Along with the latest technologies come questions of user fees and problems associated with fair and equal rights to information. Librarians also need to make sure that the information and services offered to users are current, timely, and of the highest quality possible. Collaborate and communicate with library vendors to make sure that the library has the best resources available (Mintz 1991). The user is relying on the information to be accurate and from a reliable source.
In 1991, Lee W. Finks wrote about the need for librarianship to develop a new code of ethics. In 1995, the ALA did just that. A perusal of the code leads to the conclusion that perhaps not all of his concerns were incorporated. Essential to Finks' thesis is the belief that a code of ethics for librarians and information professionals must not be a hollow statement written to satisfy the public or library boards. It must embody the principles and convictions that librarians have historically considered of value, and should "focus on the way we do our work and whether or not we perform in a way that can honestly be called professional" (Finks 1991, 84). Furthermore, as Johan Bekker points out, since society judges a profession by its individual members, all members must follow a clearly defined set of ethical standards (Finks 1991,85). In particular, ethical issues related to selection of materials and intellectual freedom should be carefully considered by librarians (Finks 1991,89).
Intellectual freedom hinges on the assumption that individuals choose the path their inquiries take, but this is often a false assumption. How each selection is made in the process of providing information involves a value judgement (Schweinsburg 1995,34). Librarians often decide the direction an inquiry takes, not the patron, and therefore, it's important that librarians try not to let their personal ideologies interfere with their professional activities. Invariably, the client has no way to judge whether the librarian has acted unethically (Finks 1991,85). Professional codes require librarians to remain neutral and to provide the information a client requests. Librarians should set aside their assumptions and prejudices to make sure they won't destroy the fundamental principle that underlies librarianship: the social obligation to allow access to all perspectives. This also has serious and considerable consequences for the selection of materials.
In Professional Awareness of the Ethics of Selection, Schweinsburg addresses the issue of selection in libraries and writes, "the fact that librarians must examine and select the materials for their collection may make them de facto censors" (Schweinsburg 1995,34). Bekker stresses that selection must be free of censorship and undertaken for library users, not based on any personal preferences (Finks 1991,87). Hauptman correctly points out that these decisions are becoming more important as the price of books and other materials continue to rise, and because libraries face frequent budget cuts. He cautions librarians to avoid censorship and duplication of reference materials (Hauptman 1990,17). Lack of money has always been an issue for libraries, but the problem is exacerbated when so much has to be spent keeping up with new technologies, and meeting public demands. What responsibilities do libraries have to society?
Many ethical conundrums are faced every day in reference work. How they are dealt with can have serious repercussions for both individuals and society. Robert Hauptman brought some of these issues to the forefront when he carried out an unobtrusive experiment in an effort to see how reference librarians respond to questions of an ethical nature (Hauptman 1990,15). In 1975, he visited thirteen libraries and asked various reference librarians to provide him with information for building a bomb, a bomb big enough to blow up a suburban home. Not one librarian refused his request. Herein lies the dilemma for people working on reference desks everywhere: do they blindly serve clients, discounting any moral obligation to their communities and society, or is it their primary duty to think of the collective good?
Hauptman calls it the "dubious professional commitment to dispense information" (Hauptman 1990,15). If there is any reason to suspect foul play or if you believe any physical harm could come to somebody by providing information to a person who just walked in off the street, then the onus is on you, the reference librarian, to refuse the request. As Hauptman put it, "whenever there is a direct conflict between professional ethics and societal good, the latter must take precedence" (Hauptman 1990,16). Bekker also has strong views concerning where librarians' priorities should lie, stressing "that the professional's first ethical imperative should be altruistic service to the client," however, he does agree that vocational ethics should take precedence, so it is a librarian's duty to protect society first (Finks 1991,85). If librarians have a code of ethics with clearly laid out guidelines, any information query can be denied with justification.
In Information Ethics: Freedom, Democracy, Responsibility, Martha M. Smith points out that this is not a new debate. As far back as the early years of the Library Journal (founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey), ethical dilemmas generated controversy (Smith 1993,7). Subjects range from wartime issues concerning information about the 'enemy' to how librarians should answer legal and medical questions. Hauptman reminds us that there is a very thin line between providing a patron with information and giving them advice, especially for special librarians working in law and medical libraries. Not only is it ethically reprehensible to give out advice, it's illegal. Librarians who do it can be held liable (Hauptman 1988). The best course of action is to recommend that the patron seek the services of a professional. Reference librarians will always have dilemmas to work through, and will be expected to make difficult decisions on a daily basis. They will have to be accountable.
Accountability includes concern for society, but also whether individual patrons are being treated with respect and in an ethical manner. David A. Tyckoson maintains that librarians must first be accountable to the patron, and then, to other librarians, administrators, and the profession as a whole (Tyckoson 1992,151 55). Ethical guidelines obviously need to be established and regularly monitored. In particular, Canadian libraries should seriously discuss developing a framework that addresses the concerns brought forth by Finks and Bekker, one that incorporates the realities of a digital world. The code developed in 1975 is vague and lacking in conviction. Libraries have seen many changes in the last twenty years. That should be enough to propel the Canadian Library Association (CLA) to adopt a new code of ethics.
Arguments have been made that sanctions need to be written into a new code of ethics to make sure librarians behave ethically (Rathbun 1993,11). Gene D. Lanier discusses how a code can be enforced when ethics are so subjective (Lanier 1993,9). He believes that codes should incorporate a series of rules for librarians to follow in the face of "moral questions raised by the diverse applications and growing technological sophistication of computers" (Lanier 1993,10). Lanier thinks libraries of higher standards are possible, if administrators practice and insist on exemplary behaviour from all staff (Lanier 1993,10). In light of all discussed, the ethical codes in use are obviously inadequate, especially when one considers the impact of modern technology on libraries and their staff. Since the future is so unpredictable, a more frequent review of ethical codes is in order, along with the development of swifter adoption procedures. Why is all this so important?
Because librarians possess valuable knowledge, skills, and experiences badly needed in a world of people who must come to terms with the power of information in their lives. We know that free access to information preserves democratic ideas, that information resources must be managed with care, and that the human spirit depends upon remembering the past, sharing the present in community, and dreaming about the future (Smith 1993,4).
Finks, Lee. 1991. Librarianship Needs a New Code of Ethics. American Libraries, Vol. 22, pp. 84-92.
Hauptman, Robert. 1988. Ethical Challenges in Librarianship. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
Hauptman, Robert. 1990. Ethical Concerns in Librarianship: An Overview. In Information Ethics, ed. by Anne Mintz, pp. 14-23. Jefferson: McFarland.
Jonas, Hans. 1984. The Imperative of Responsibility. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Lanier, Gene D. 1993. ALA's Committee on Professional Ethics: An Insider's View. North Carolina Libraries, Vol. 51, No. l, pp. 9-10.
Mintz, Anne. 1991. Ethics and the News Librarian. Special Libraries, Vol. 82, No. 1, pp.7-11.
Rathbun, Susan R. 1993. Ethics Issues in Reference Service: Overview and Analysis. North Carolina Libraries, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 11-14.
Schweinsburg, Jane D. 1995. Professional Awareness of the Ethics of Selection. Journal of Information Ethics, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 33-41.
Severson, Richard. 1995. The Recovery of Ethics in Librarianship. Journal of Information Ethics, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 11-15.
Smith, Martha M. 1993. Information Ethics: Freedom, Democracy, Responsibility. North Carolina Libraries, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp.4-8.
Tyckoson, David A. 1992. Wrong Questions, Wrong Answers: Behavioral vs. Factual Evaluation of Reference Service. The Reference Librarian, Vol. 38, pp. 151-155. | http://www.moyak.com/papers/ethics-librarianship.html |
Controversy surrounds the death penalty. This is the harshest of sentences and is usually reserved for individuals who have been convicted of a capital crime. However, deeming somebody guilty enough for the death penalty is not an easy consideration. It would be wrong to accuse someone and execute that person since it would be an infringement of their moral and ethical rights. Thus, the death penalty has plenty of things going against it and covering those in a high school level essay should be handled with prudence.
You could focus on writing the paper in a way that reflects how the death penalty poses a serious issue for religious figures, civil rights organizations and other individuals who oppose this severe punishment. You need to explain how the death penalty comes with certain religious and ethical baggage and it would be wrong to simply dismiss them without a clear understanding of the subject.
There are lots of people who are in favour of the death penalty while others stand against it staunchly. This is due to the fact that the punishment tends to violate the constitutional right of the convicted person as a human being. This is a barbaric form of cruelty against any living human and may be classified as a heinous act that goes against the base instincts of humanity. Moreover, it tends to defy numerous religious conventions. You could focus on whether it is right to play God in your writing.
You can state in your paper how the law of the land is not always as clear-cut and just as it appears to be. There are a lot of discriminatory factors involved that may lead to a certain bias against the convicted individual. The path the law takes is not immune to outside factors. Normally, an objective view is required but it is clear that it is not always the case. Your essay may explain how subjectivism affects the punishment that is meted out to the individual.
While researching for your paper, you will find that many civil rights unions have voiced their opinions against the death penalty. Try to figure out their motivations. The common argument is that even though the person is guilty for murder, it would not be unjust to punish him/her with a sentence that is considerably less harsh. A death penalty is no guarantee that the crime would not be repeated in future. | https://postmodernclog.com/simple-directions-for-crafting-an-essay-about-death-penalty.php |
ACT-SA decries gaps in Zimbabwe's anti-graft laws
THE Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-SA) has expressed concern over gaps that still exist in the enforcement of Zimbabwe's anti-corruption laws and policies.
In a statement yesterday, Act-SA said the existing laws were sometimes selectively enforced as there were "untouchables" who were exempted from scrutiny because of their high-profile positions.
ACT-SA, in a civil society shadow report presented to the United Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) implementation review process in Zimbabwe's second cycle, said most of the country's anti-corruption laws were not being implemented, hence the proliferation of corruption cases.
"However, despite having several anti-corruption laws, policies and institutional arrangements in place, their effectiveness becomes questionable considering the ever-increasing cases of corruption," part of the report read.
The report also flagged lack of political will and inadequate resources deployed to anti-corruption institutions as significant drawbacks in fostering effective corruption prevention and an effective stolen asset recovery regime.
"The Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission Act [Chapter 9:22] are among some of the existing laws," ACT-SA official Obert Chinhamo said.
"Furthermore, Zimbabwe developed the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (2018–2020) that identified corruption as one of the national challenges that require attention. In addition, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and the Office of the Auditor-General carry out system reviews and audits that unearth corruption and other irregularities. However, ACT-SA is concerned that recommendations from the Auditor-General have largely been ignored and thus, the integrity of public accounting is not preserved. The audits are largely perceived as merely academic with no meaningful policy reforms. Whilst the current Auditor-General has done commendable work; there have been delays in finalising audit reports. The Audit Office Act [Chapter 22:18] requires the Auditor-General to examine public accounts and thereafter submit a report to the Finance minister no later than June 30 of each year. However, at the time of publishing the ACTSA report, the 2019 audit report was yet to be finalised. The failure to timeously produce an audit report compromises principles of public finance management and limits the effectiveness of audits as an intrinsic tool in the detection and deterrence of resource abuse, and is important in identifying corruption risks and vulnerabilities in public finance."
Chinhamo red-flagged the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan for 2020-2024, launched on July 11 last year, saying it was crafted without input from civil society groups.
ACT-SA recommended a more robust framework for the prevention of corruption within the private sector.
"The existence of cartels in the fuel sector and monopolies in the pharmaceutical industry serve to drive up the costs of basic goods, which adversely affect the general population. The fact that Sakunda and GreenFuel (Pvt) Limited enjoy a monopoly in the fuel sector is indicative of the need for more robust policy and legislation on private sector corruption regarding monopolies in the different sectors." | |
In this series of posts, Swedenborg’s theory of correspondences has been shown to have interesting applications for helping us to better understand the quantum world.
In part I, we learned that our mental processes occur at variable finite intervals and that they consist of desire, or love, acting by means of thoughts and intentions to produce physical effects. We in turn came to see the correspondential relationship between these mental events and such physical events that occur on a quantum level: in both cases, there will be time gaps between the events leading up to the physical outcome. So since we find that physical events occur in finite steps rather than continuously, we are led to expect a quantum world rather than a world described by classical physics.
In part II, we saw that the main similarity between desire (mental) and energy (physical) is that they both persist between events, which means that they are substances and therefore have the capability, or disposition, for action or interaction within the time gaps between those events.
When we realize we want something, the next step is to work out how to do it. We first think of the specific objective and then of all the intermediate steps to be taken in order to achieve it. We may also think about alternative steps and the pros and cons of following those different routes. In short, thinking is the exploration of “possibilities for action.” As all of this thinking speaks very clearly to the specific objective at hand, it can be seen as supporting our motivating love, which is one of the primary functions of thought. A focused thinking process such as this can be seen, simplified, in many kinds of animal activities.
With humans, however, thinking goes beyond that tight role of supporting love and develops a scope of its own. Not only do our thoughts explore possibilities for action, but they also explore the more abstract “possibilities for those possibilities.” Not only do we think about how to get a drink, but we also, for example, think about the size of the container, how much liquid it contains, and how far it is from where we are at that moment! When we get into such details as volume and distance, we discover that mathematics is the exploration of “possibilities of all kinds,” whether they are possibilities for action or not. So taken as a whole, thought is the exploration of all the many possibilities in the world, whether or not they are for action and even whether or not they are for actual things.
For physical things (material objects), this exploration of possibilities is spreading over the possible places and times for interactions or selections. Here, quantum physics has done a whole lot of work already. Physicists have discovered that the possibilities for physical interactions are best described by the wave function of quantum mechanics. The wave function describes all the events that are possible, as well as all the propensities and probabilities for those events to happen. According to German physicist Max Born, the probability of an event in a particular region can be determined by an integral property of the wave function over that region. Energy is the substance that persists between physical events, and all physical processes are driven by energy. In quantum mechanics, this energy is what is responsible for making the wave function change through time, as formulated by the Schrödinger equation, which is the fundamental equation of quantum physics.
Many people who have tried to understand the significance of quantum physics have noted that the wave function could be described as behaving like a non-spatial realm of consciousness. Some of these people have even wanted to say that the quantum wave function is a realm of consciousness, that physics has revealed the role of consciousness in the world, or that physics has discovered quantum consciousness.
However, using Swedenborg’s ideas to guide us, we can see that the wave function in physics corresponds to the thoughts in our consciousness. They have similar roles in the making of events: both thoughts and wave functions explore the “possibilities, propensities, and probabilities for action.” They are not the same, but they instead follow similar patterns and have similar functions within their respective realms. Thoughts are the way that desire explores the possibilities for the making of intentions and their related physical outcomes, and wave functions are the way that energy explores the possibilities for the making of physical events on a quantum level.
The philosophers of physics have been puzzled for a long time about the substance of physical things, especially that of things in the quantum realm. From our discussion here, we see that energy (or propensity) is also the substance of physical things in the quantum realm and that the wave function, then, is the form that such a quantum substance takes. The wave function describes the shape of energy (or propensity) in space and time. We can recognize, as Aristotle first did, that a substantial change has occurred when a substance comes into existence by virtue of the matter of that substance acquiring some form. That still applies to quantum mechanics, we now find, even though many philosophers have been desperately constructing more extreme ideas to try to understand quantum objects, such as relationalism or the many-worlds interpretation.
Secrets of Heaven is the New Century Edition translation of Swedenborg’s Arcana Coelestia.
Howard Robinson, “Substance,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance.
Thomas Ainsworth, “Form vs. Matter,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/form-matter/.
Michael Epperson, “Quantum Mechanics and Relational Realism: Logical Causality and Wave Function Collapse,” Process Studies 38.2 (2009): 339–366.
J. A. Barrett, “Quantum Worlds,” Principia 20.1 (2016): 45–60. | https://blog.beginningtheisticscience.com/2017/03/using-swedenborg-to-understand-quantum_34.html |
In the era of the processed and artificial, the natural often represents a step of well-being for many people. Returning to ancestral traditions is what many people are doing and we want to accompany them on their way. That is why we offer you this collection of books on medicinal plants in PDF format, with very valuable information on their use.
However, with the technological advances in food and pharmacy, along with the change in eating habits, the practice of consuming healing herbs was left aside. Today many want to rescue it and, if you want to know more, our compendium of books on medicinal plants in PDF format, will come in handy.
The preparation and consumption of different plants to alleviate ailments is a very old tradition, since nature has always had healing power. Nowadays, there have been studies that contemplate its use for the treatment of specific diseases, although most of them are not conclusive.
For the most conservative, the medicinal use of plants should be considered as non-medical treatments, whose efficacy is not proven. However, there is a whole community of researchers and individuals who already use medicinal herbs for specific pathologies.
These plants are used for both physical ailments and mood disorders. It is necessary to be well informed of what properties and benefits they provide for each case, since the idea is to use them effectively and appropriately.
In general, they are used to prepare infusions. However, it is also common to include them in food preparations and others for the preparation of supplements. The important thing is to always have the correct information and to consult both the supplier and the doctor you trust.
There are more than 20 books of medicinal plants in PDF format that we offer for your research. You can download them for free from this section.
Here we present our complete selection of Medicinal Plants books:
6) A Guide to Medicinal Plants of Appalachia
Arnold Krochmal, Russell S. Walters, Richard M. Doughty
13) Nature’s Pharmacy, Our Treasure Chest: Why we must conserver our natural heritage
Emily Roberson
14) A Comprehensive Review on Medicinal Plants as Antimicrobial Therapeutics: Potential Avenues of Biocompatible Drug Discovery
Uttpal Anand, Nadia Jacobo-Herrera, Ammar Altemimi
15) The use of medicinal plants to prevent COVID-19 in Nepal
Dipak Khadka, Man Kumar Dhamala, Feifei Li
18) Medicinal plants: Past history and future perspective (Article)
Fatemeh Jamshidi-Kia, Zahra Lorigooini, Hossein Amini-Khoei
19) Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) As a Valuable Medicinal Plant (Article)
Jalal Bayati Zadeh, Nasroallah Moradi Kor and Zahra Moradi Kor
20) General overview of medicinal plants A review (Article)
Refaz Ahmad Dar, Mohd Shahnawaz and Parvaiz Hassan Qazi
Here ends our selection of free Medicinal Plants books in PDF format. We hope you liked it and already have your next book!
If you found this list useful, do not forget to share it on your social networks. Remember that “Sharing is Caring”.
Do you want more Alternative Therapy books in PDF format? | https://www.infobooks.org/free-pdf-books/alternative-therapy/medicinal-plants/ |
Questions tagged [harmony]
For questions about the "vertical" aspects of music and how to build and study them.
925 questions
5
votes
2answers
120 views
What is a Diatonic tendency tone?
"In the four-part writing of diatonic seventh chords the fifth may be omitted, in which case the doubled note in a four-part texture should not be a tendency tone. The most common doubling is the root....
3
votes
1answer
28 views
Is there a particular reason why the progression I - II4/2 - V6/5 - I was such a popular opening progression for Baroque keyboard preludes?
I'm currently reading John Mortensen's wonderful book on keyboard improvisation. (See this link here.) In the chapter on figuration preludes he states that the progression I - II4/2 - V6/5 - I was a ...
12
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6answers
1k views
Melody using a different scale than the bassline - what is it called?
Since I only know some very rudimentary terms in music theory, I don't know what it's called when one does the following to create a sort-of interesting sound. Suppose I'm playing the piano, using my ...
1
vote
1answer
35 views
How to negatively harmonize a major key into different modes other than Aeolian (minor) mode? (T7i inversion)
The T7i inversion transforms a major key into its parallel minor (Aeolian mode). How do I transform a major key into other modes? Are there inversions other than T7i?
5
votes
3answers
654 views
Is there a rational method to find out which minor scale sounds best in a given situation?
By rational I mean a method that doesn't entirely depend on one's subjective aesthetics, but rather one that has some kind of system behind it. The obvious rule that you should use the ascending ...
0
votes
1answer
77 views
B major to D major modulation ideas
I am new into jazz and I need some advice. I have a simple chord progression (triads) B major to D major. I want to write a nice "solo" over it. I need some harmonic help in order to play some ...
9
votes
3answers
672 views
Jazz piano: chords and melody in right hand. How?
Aiming for being capable of playing solo and in ensemble, a jazz pianist is exposed to the following: Bass player is playing the root tones, hence the pianist can play rootless When playing alone or ...
1
vote
3answers
76 views
Question about playing over chord changes, go to next chord
In music theory there is a process for going to the next chord that involves playing a note just before the next chord that resolves to a chord tone of the upcoming chord. However this messes up my ...
4
votes
4answers
226 views
Why aren't those consecutive fifth?
Here below is a sequence of chords C-G-C-E -> G-G-B-D in which, following the teacher who wrote it, there is no consecutive fifths. (source) Why aren't C-G -> G-D, respectively present in those ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
Rewriting slash chords with chromatic descending bass
I am trying to transcribe a chord progression that appears here (timestamp 0:44). I'm having trouble naming some of the chords below. I think the last two are correct, and function as the ii-V of B ...
4
votes
1answer
55 views
Blues harmony: readings to learn more [closed]
Reading from similar posts in this site I understood that the standard harmony tools can't explain the typical blues sound made by dominant 7 -chords progressions. But it's clear that these ...
1
vote
4answers
97 views
Jazz piano: problem remembering harmony, melody is fine
In my quest to become a general jazz pianist I practice jazz standards. Having several years experience with violin, a melody instrument, I have no trouble learning and remembering melodies but the ...
1
vote
2answers
59 views
“Maybe tomorrow - Stereophonics”, is my analysis right?
I'm an amateur, self tought, musician whos's struggling to learn music theory without knowing solfège. I'm trying to make harmonic analysis of easy pop tunes to practice and learn. This song in ...
5
votes
5answers
476 views
Is it possible to state whether someone is singing in tune?
I have a recording of a vocalist accompanied by guitar. The vocalist claims not to have a good voice but swears he is "singing in tune". Is there anyway to determine if this is true and, if in this ...
1
vote
3answers
105 views
Question about Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond Take Five
I’m trying to decode "Take Five" and so far I have (for my version) it in the key of F with one flat (B-Flat) and the initial phrase (A Section) is based on a D minor which is the natural minor 6th of ...
3
votes
4answers
115 views
Why do you think many people are drawn to a tonal center?
so im trying to answer this question for my music teacher and i'm trying to do research of it, but she hasn't been very specific with the question...any help?
3
votes
2answers
72 views
What makes Beethoven’s False Picardy Third so convincing?
So, there’s one aspect of Beethoven’s style that I personally, haven’t been able to write convincing examples of. That would be the False Picardy Third. To clarify, this is what I mean by False ...
1
vote
5answers
141 views
Does there exist a way of notating ones own harmonic language?
It's quite clear to most that certain artists have a distinct sound. While a lot of it may be down to production elements and instrument choice, there can really be no denying that their personal ...
-2
votes
2answers
56 views
Isn't more comfortable to play Cmaj7 chord's root position 1245 instead of 1235 fingers on piano?
As I saw in Youtube and in various websites that Cmaj7 root fingering should be 1235, but for me it would look like more logical to play 1245. Because when I play on RH 1235, my wrist goes to left. ...
4
votes
0answers
22 views
How to complete a scale harmonization using Quantz' Versuch
In Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen several harmonic/melodic skeletons are presented as the basis of melodic embellishment. Here are four which cover significant ...
2
votes
1answer
60 views
How to know if I sing in tune? [duplicate]
I try to sing and to hear my records but I don't know if I sing almost in tune or completely out of tune? How would I know? I will show you several records, can you give me points to improve on? ...
2
votes
4answers
77 views
Help naming/analyzing sus chord and possible secondary dominant
I'm having trouble figuring out how to name the chord in the third measure below. I initially guessed G7sus2 which would make a recognizable IV-V-I cadence, but then I am unsure how to analyze the ...
21
votes
8answers
2k views
Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
Quarantine has allowed ample time for musical exploration. I'm a classically trained pianist studying music in college, and I'm using this extra time to be immersed in and learn how to play the blues. ...
0
votes
1answer
75 views
Writing down chord names and understanding their function in an example
I've been trying to learn more about music theory by transcribing songs. I am not bad at writing down the notes, but have a lot of trouble understanding the chords/harmony. Below is a sketch of one ...
0
votes
1answer
32 views
Minor Harmony doubts [duplicate]
I've tried written a little chorale in four parts using minor harmony (Bb minor). Established that for sure I have done several harmonic errors in terms of parts motion in the sense of traditional ...
1
vote
1answer
33 views
Little minor parts motion exercise (Exercise 1 from chapter 4 Piston)
I’m studying some minor harmony and I’ve done this little exercise with all chords in root position My question is: since In a minor setting you have multiple choices about triads (whether you are ...
0
votes
1answer
57 views
Adding tension to V7 chord
I understand that the V7 chord contains two tendency tones (^4 and ^7), which for a tritone in major keys. The ^4 forms a dissonance with the bass and the ^7 tends strongly to move to ^8. For these ...
2
votes
2answers
105 views
Help with understanding the theory behind this chord progression - James Blunt
I cannot find an answer to some of the chord relations that are present in this song, so any assistance would be great! Particularly in reference to the harmony and theory behind the progression. The ...
6
votes
1answer
82 views
Counterpoint with more than 4 parts
In Rachmaninoff Prelude in B Minor Op. 32 No. 10 I've noticed that not all voices are 4 parts. In fact I've noticed that in 19th century and 20th century music there's more than 4 parts in a harmony. ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
Harmony analysis of Bach's first prelude?
I am currently trying to analyze the harmony in Bach's first prelude from the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. To do this, I identify the chords, the inversions, borrowed chords, the melody, ...
5
votes
5answers
359 views
Can an Augmented triad be called a Quartal chord?
Since a Quartal chord can be defined as diminished, perfect or augmented fourths, can an augmented triad be analysed as a quartal chord with stacked diminished fourths enharmonically? Also is the ...
1
vote
0answers
51 views
Stepwise bass movement/intermediate (passing) harmony technique
A song I like adds great motion to an otherwise simple progression by adding passing tones in the bass line, leaving the other harmonies unaltered. Please see the following transcription: I am ...
5
votes
1answer
195 views
Is this cross relationship of the seventh degree in minor key harmony OK for 18th century style?
Some background. The following is from Gjerdingen, Music in the Galant Style, it's a kind of harmonic sequence called a monte. I'm using it for a model... ...to make a piano drill using full octave ...
1
vote
0answers
56 views
Harmony of the Jazz Pianist Chris Anderson [closed]
Chris Anderson is a jazz pianist that I came across recently and has caught my attention. His sense of harmony when voicing a tune is really extraordinary. I have found very little information on how ...
1
vote
2answers
32 views
How did counterpoint, harmonic rhythm, and thoroughbass interact in the late-Baroque instrumental fugal style?
It may be considered common knowledge that frequent root changes, i.e., a fast harmonic rhythm, usually cause a piece to be perceived as being more purely "harmonic" and less polyphonic in nature. (...
1
vote
1answer
52 views
is fourth to fifth in parallel motion permittable in satb?
I am currently working out some SATB composition and I am wondering a bit about the alto-tenor part. There is fourth to fifth in parallel motion in the first measure. Is this permitted in strict SATB?...
2
votes
2answers
69 views
How does reharm work in jazz
Ive heard a lot about reharminzation however i am kinda confused now because it appears as though you can basically reharmonize any note with a chord as long as the chord fits that note. Which i ...
2
votes
4answers
112 views
The initial phrase in Mozart's Alla Turca
In the initial phrase, if I just saw the melody, I would have been sure that, in the third full measure, the melody switches to (V). Yet the accompaniment stays firmly in (i) and it sounds great. Does ...
1
vote
3answers
75 views
Chromatic parallel six-three chords
I am trying to follow Aldwell and Schachter’s analysis of Chopin’s Impromptu, Op. 29. I wanted to learn about chromatic voice leading techniques, but I ended up getting stuck simply with their ...
1
vote
2answers
48 views
How exactly do the rules of traditional voice leading apply to broken chords?
In Gore Ouseley's Treatise on Harmony (p. 194 of the 1868 edition), the author states: When chords are broken, care must be taken, first, that every note requiring any fixed progression or ...
3
votes
2answers
169 views
Advice for a budding musician trying to understand composition and music theory
So I have been producing music for around 2 years now, and am an avid listener to many genres of music. I have never been taught music or music theory, but used youtube to get a fundamental albeit ...
23
votes
9answers
7k views
Why does Bach sometimes end with flat 7ths?
I've been studying the Bach inventions, and I see a common patterns in the first 3 inventions: They tend to include the flat 7ths in the very end. Examples: C major: D major: E♭ major: From a ...
2
votes
2answers
68 views
Has harmony/melody technique regressed in popular music? [closed]
Whenever I watch videos of producers creating songs it just doesn’t seem like much thought is put into the chord progression and melody. It pretty much seems like everyone does the basic pick a scale -...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
Why does this chord sound like a very tense C minor when it isn't spelt like C minor at all?
So I have listened to Gustav Holst's The Planets before, especially the first movement, Mars. And in Mars I hear an outright rhythmic and harmonic war. And at the ending I hear a lot of tense C chords ...
2
votes
2answers
56 views
Is functional harmony considered homophonic?
Sorry if this is an obvious question, but I just want to clear this up. As far as I understand about voice leading, there are essentially two main types. Homophony and polyphony. Functional harmony ...
3
votes
2answers
98 views
Why is the false relation of the tritone objectionable in V-IV but less so in IV-V?
In strict counterpoint, it is forbidden to have a B in one voice and then, in the very next chord, an F in another voice, or vice versa. This is called the false relation of the tritone. George John ...
1
vote
3answers
79 views
What determines the function of a chord?
I’ve been trying to learn about functional harmony and I keep asking myself the above question. Each chord seems to have a general function (with exceptions) within scales, but why is that so? Were ...
1
vote
1answer
71 views
Associating modulations with emotions
I once read a book (pdf) from imslp or forgottenbooks that was about composition (or harmony), and it had a list of every possible modulation and its emotional association. For example, Up a perfect ...
1
vote
2answers
123 views
What is wrong with this homemade modes chart?
What may you see right or wrong with this homemade modes chart? This chart is supposedly read vertically. There are definitely some parts I don’t understand I’m just wondering about if it’s Accuracy.
4
votes
1answer
240 views
Help with non-diatonic chords in All the Things You Are
The harmony for All the Things You Are seems mostly straightforward, but I'm stuck on a few bars struggling to see where the following non diatonic chords come from. The chords are: C+7 in bar 24, D♭... | https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/harmony?tab=Newest |
Heritage, world travel, natural materials and a West African vision take form in the work of multidisciplinary artist Malene Barnett. Expressing the modern black experience within her art, Barnett uses both her work and influence to create and improve discourse on marginalisation within the arts.
Founding the Black Artists + Designers Guild, Barnett offers a platform for black design professionals, providing exposure as well as demonstrating the (often unacknowledged) stark differences and nuances to be found within them. This global collective of independent black creatives serves to take charge of their continued misrepresentation, whilst the online directory allows artists to find each other, for collaborations to flourish, and, of course, for recruitment opportunities.
Brooklyn-based Barnett is masterful in many disciplines, crafting unique handwoven rugs, mixed media paintings, sculptural vases and vessels, and, to our delight, ceramic tiles. Read about her most recent project, Redemption, here.
Her work is best explained in her own words: “My art pays homage to my ancestors. From the local potter and textile weaver to the woodcarver, a dedication to both craft and purpose kept cultural traditions alive and created legacies that continually drive me to push storytelling through my works in clay. My connection to clay is a spiritual one. Unlike other mediums I’ve used in the past, clay carries flexibility in both surface and form, leaving traces of fingerprints to follow the making-process.”
Black Artists + Designers Guild
Malene Barnett
A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, November 2020. | https://diaryofatileaddict.com/2020/11/11/artist-brooklyn-based-barnett/ |
At Eastgate Manor, the work we do and the services we offer reflect the things we believe in.
Our Mission
Eastgate Manor is dedicated to providing individual attention to all members of our community. We are committed to the promotion of individuality for each senior we serve.
Our Vision
Eastgate Manor is guided by the principle that our key partners will experience a sense of community and ownership. We foster an environment that motivates every individual to achieve their own sense of satisfaction as well as a personal quality of life.
Our Values
Partnership Committed and trusting relationships are essential with each of our key partners for the success of our community.
Trust Every partner in our community is entitled to receiving respect. Our approach to addressing personal needs will always reflect our commitment to preserving trust.
Choice Choices provide a maximum number of opportunities to celebrate independence and growth. All of our partners are participants in the decisions pertaining to, and development of, their experiences within our community.
Innovation Quality of, and satisfaction with, life are achieved by responding to changing needs, creating new solutions, developing new partnerships and embracing challenge.
Growth Continuous learning and providing growth opportunities are vital to the human spirit.
Celebration Small and large achievements are cause for celebration. Recognition of accomplishments strengthens our community and enhances an individual’s sense of purpose. | https://www.eastgatemanor.com/mission-vision-and-values/ |
Jordan’s MB Warns Against Curbing Freedoms, Pressures on Islamists
Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Shura Council demanded, in its third ordinary round, allowing public freedoms, and repealing laws that restrict freedoms, topped by the laws of public gatherings, preaching and jurisprudence; it called also for developing the election law in order to expand the popular participation, specially on the level of parties and mainstream political, social and national powers.
The council demanded, in statement issued on Sunday, a copy of which was obtained by Ikhwanweb, a commitment to holding the parliamentary elections on time, because this is a national and constitutional right, and necessary for the full national progress and reform; it called for improving the living conditions of citizens and curbing corruption and price hikes.
Regarding the government’s recent targeting of the Engineers Syndicate fund, the MB Shura council demanded the government to keep away from syndicates affairs and funds and not to curb powers of their public institutions in elections and oversight, acts which, the council sees, are another form of targeting national successful institutions that are a role model that prove the Jordanians’ ability to attain progress and development if appropriate atmospheres of freedoms are afforded.
The council demanded also the regime to keep away from voluntary actions, specially the society of the Islamic center, which, it sees, is still used as a pressure card to politically target and besiege the effective popular powers, topped by the Islamic movement, and the successful voluntary social work that provides great services to the society.
It called on all official and popular sides to fight all operations of economic, cultural and social normalization with the Zionist entity in state and society institutions, specially in school text books, and media that spread vice and immorality among both sexes. It calls on all citizens, whatever their attitudes and affiliations, to resist such serious phenomena and projects.
Concerning the Palestinian cause, the council warned of the imminent dangers against the Noble Al Aqsa Mosque, due to the Zionist official and popular conspiracies, confirming that there are continuous and actual dangers targeting it and it demanded the government to take more serious and effective measures, the least of which may be severing the political relations with this enemy; it also demanded the Islamic and Arab governments to reconsider the path of settlements and agreements with this usurping entity, and severe all relation with it to defend the Nation’s holy places and dignity.
The council tackled also the fierce attack launched by the Egyptian authorities against members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group in Egypt, demanding the Egyptian government to immediately release political detainees, specially those affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, and to stop launching crackdowns against the group, which- it said- has been sacrificing itself for Egypt and its dignity, and has been defending the causes of the Nation, topped by Palestine; it adds that Egypt can’t assume its role of leading the Nation towards liberation, prosperity and unity while it is launching such an oppressive attack against the Muslim Brotherhood.
The MB Shura Council condemned the US- Ethiopian intervention in Somalia, confirming that the Somalis have the right to resist this invasion, and called on all factions to close ranks on the bases of liberation, improvement and Islamic Arab identity.
“While condemning all forms of violence that target innocent civilians, and disintegrate the society, the council calls on Islamic and Arab governments to quickly conciliate with their peoples, and give them their rights to participate in the public life, power and to carry out their duties of protecting the nation’s dignity, independence and interests” said the MB Shura Council, adding that the government”s real legitimacy stems from carrying out these duties and abiding by these principles, not through forming alliances with the enemies of the nation against reputed fellow patriots.
On the international level, the council condemned the US-led coalition’s aggression in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia and everywhere, confirming that it is fully supporting peoples’ right in resistance, and calling for forming an international coalition that consists of the rejectionist countries which are negatively affected by the US one-sided hegemony over the world; the council promises that there is a near ray of hope at the end of the tunnel for the Arab and Islamic Nation”. | https://ikhwanweb.com/jordans-mb-warns-against-curb/ |
together a range of resources to assist.
We have set out below some of the most common questions we are being asked by franchisors and franchisees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ACCC has indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic franchisors should adjust fees so that franchisees are not paying for services that they are not receiving.
In addition franchisors should consider whether they can cancel or suspend any services (such as marketing) so that the savings can be passed on to franchisees.
The government has also indicated that franchisors should be working with franchisees to waive, reduce or defer franchise fees while businesses are affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
However, while there has been the suggestion that franchisors should be working to waive, reduce or defer franchise fees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no legislative amendments requiring franchisors to do so.
A franchise agreement can only be terminated in accordance with the agreement and the Franchising Code of Conduct (the Franchising Code).
The Franchising Code sets out special circumstances which may allow a franchisor to terminate a franchise agreement immediately.
If the franchisor is terminating the franchise agreement for breach such as non-payment, the franchisor must provide the franchisee with a breach notice in which the franchisor must:
-tell the franchisee they are in breach;
-tell the franchisee what is required to remedy the breach; and
-allow the franchisee a reasonable time to remedy the breach.
The Franchising Code provides that a reasonable time is no more than 30 days.
Generally, if the breach notice is valid and the franchisee does not remedy the breach within the reasonable period allowed, a franchisor can terminate the franchise agreement.
However, there is an overarching obligation in the Franchising Code requiring both the franchisor and the franchisee to act in good faith. Even if a franchisor complies with the breach provisions set out in the Franchising Code, given the extraordinary circumstances, termination during the COVID-19 pandemic may be a breach of the good faith obligation.
While the franchisor and franchisee can agree to make changes to a franchisee’s product or service offering, the franchisee does not have to agree to such a change.
If the franchisee does not agree to change the products or services offered, the franchisor cannot charge the franchisee any additional fees for the changed product or service.
The National Cabinet announced the Commercial Leasing Code of Conduct (the Code of Conduct) on 7 April 2020.
One of the principles under the Code of Conduct is that landlords must offer tennants proprotionate reductions in rent payable in the form of waivers and deferrals based on the reduction of the tenants trade during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent period.
Not all States and Territories have adopted all of the principles set out in the Code of Conduct.
In Victoria, the Commercial tennancy relief scheme includes negotiation of rental waiver or deferral if the tenant has suffered a reduction in trade due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In South Australia the COVID-19 Emergency Response (Commercial Leases No 2) Regulations 2020 provide that landlords and tenants must negotiate in good faith taking into account the principals in the Code of Conduct.
In Western Australia a code of conduct is being developed based on the Code of Conduct to provide a framework for negotiations to be carried out in good faith between landlords and tenants to agree on rent relief measures.
In NSW landlords are prohibited from taking or continuing any legal action against a tenant on grounds of a breach of the lease for failure to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic period, unless the landlord has complied with certain conditions set out under the Regulation, including:
-engaging in good faith negotiations with the tenant in relation to renegotiations of the rent; and
– having regard to the economic impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic and the leasing principles set out in the Code of Conduct.
You need to be aware of the relevant legislation in your State.
In it’s COVID-19 information release, the ACCC highlighted the need for franchisors to be aware of their obligation to act in good faith during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While “good faith” is not defined in the Franchising Code the elements required for good faith are generally considered to be
Honesty
Fairness
Not acting arbitrarily
Co-operating to achieve the purpose of the franchise agreement
Reasonableness
Having regard for the interests of the other party.
However, a party is not required to act in the interests of the other party at the expense of its own interests.
It is accepted that conduct is prohibited where it harms the franchisee but it is not necessary for the protection of the franchisor’s interests.
When considering whether a franchisor is acting in good faith, the ACCC suggests that potential questions to ask include:
Is the franchisor making timely decisions?
Is the franchisor consulting with franchisees regarding issues or proposed changes?
Is the franchisor imposing conditions on franchisees that are not necessary to protect its interests?
Is the franchisor genuinely attempting to resolve the dispute?
Is the franchisor acting for some ulterior purpose?
–Know the current state of your business
Financial statements should be up to date and budgets should be prepared so that you can make an informed decision of what steps the business will take at each stage. For example, some businesses have decided that it is not profitable to reopen during stage 1 of the 3 stage plan, due to the limit on consumer numbers.
Before any decision is made on whether to open your business, you will need to consider the terms of any franchise agreement under which the business is operated.
In a franchise system, the ACCC has indicated that it expects franchisors to be continuously reviewing the franchise system’s processes and supply arrangements, making adjustments, and being flexible with requirements to help ensure its franchisees’ businesses remain viable.
If suppliers approved by the franchisor are not able to meet your needs, follow the process set out in the franchise agreement to seek approval of alternate suppliers.
You should think about how to re-establish connections with those consumers who may have developed new habits during the COVID-19 restriction period.
Some businesses have attracted customers during the COVID-19 restriction period that they would not otherwise have attracted. In these circumstances, consideration should be given to whether the business is able to retain these customers as the 3 stage plan is implemented.
Other businesses have adapted and changed the products and services they provide to customers. In these circumstances consideration should be given to whether any resources need to be diverted to these new offerings.
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10 min read The Franchising Code of Conduct (the Franchising Code) includes an obligation that the franchisor and the franchisee act in good faith in their dealings with the other party. The obl…
Franchising – The ACCC has released information for businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, including information for franchisors and franchisees
The implementing of the Federal Government’s 3 Stage plan will not mark an immediate return to the “old normal”. Moving forward into such an uncertain world requires a detailed relaunch plan. …
Disclaimer
The information in this article is general in nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any person or other entity. Although we do our best to provide timely and accurate information, we do not guarantee that the information in this article is accurate or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. | https://www.haarsma.com.au/covid-19-and-franchising/ |
Tuesday, 21 January 2020
While many of us are settling back into the start of the year at work, a team of Oceans Institute researchers are getting ready for a ground-breaking second expedition to the depths of the ocean off Western Australia.
The Great Australian Deep Sea Coral and Canyon Adventure is the first ever deep sea exploration of the Bremer and Leeuwin submarine canyon systems, south east and south west of Albany in WA’s Great Southern region.
Led by UWA’s Dr Julie Trotter and Dr Paolo Montagna from the Institute of Polar Science (IPS) in Italy, the team has been granted a rare opportunity to launch a deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from aboard the oceanographic research vessel RV Falkor , which has been provided by the philanthropic Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI).
Using an array of cutting-edge and traditional oceanographic instruments and equipment, the scientists will study the deep sea canyons in unprecedented detail.
“The ROV will give us the first images of deep sea ecocsystems in the canyons, and will provide the team with the opportunity to collect samples such as deep-sea corals,” Dr Trotter said.
“Big picture goals are to track changes in the ocean-climate systems that have occurred in these waters in time and space. These will provide a better understanding of the impact of increasing anthropogenic-driven climate change and the long-term 'natural' variability of the ocean-climate system.”
Local schools are being invited to participate in a unique public outreach program including an onboard, live-feed video program, as part of the expedition between 26 January and 26 February 2020.
In addition, Australian marine and landscape artist Angela Rossen, an Honorary Research Associate at UWA’s School of Biological Sciences and OI member, will join the researchers and crew onboard as artist-in-residence to capture her own unique perspective on the ocean research mission.
To find out more about the expedition, including who’s involved on the research team, please see the dedicated webpage or contact Dr Julie Trotter on +618 6488 3925. | https://www.news.uwa.edu.au/archive/2020012111820/rov/oi-team-prepare-expedition-epic-proportions/ |
Restricting access to abortion threatens women’s lives – Study
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Restricting access to abortion by law does not reduce the number of abortions but only increases the risks to lives of women and girls, a new study published on Thursday by The Lancet publication has revealed.
According to the study, 25.5 million unsafe abortions were carried out yearly between 2010 and 2014 worldwide, with 97 per cent occurring in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The study which was carried out by World Health Organisation and the Guttmacher Institute said countries such as Nigeria which have anti-abortion law raise the health risk for women because most of the abortions there were illegal and often done by untrained personnel.
“In countries where abortion is completely banned or permitted only to save the woman’s life or preserve her physical health, only one in four abortions were safe; whereas, in countries where abortion is legal on broader grounds, nearly nine in 10 abortions were done safely.
Restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions”, it stated.
Abortion is illegal in Nigeria unless to save the life of the mother. This has made many women consult quacks and at times trained medical personnel who do the job clandestinely.
According to experts, unsafe abortion occurs when a pregnancy is terminated either by persons lacking the necessary skills/information or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both.
According to the study, almost one-third (31 per cent) of abortions were “less safe”, meaning they were performed either by a trained provider using an unsafe or outdated method such as “sharp curettage”, or by an untrained person even if using a safe method like misoprostol, a drug used for many medical purposes, including to induce an abortion.
“About 14 per cent were “least safe” abortions provided by untrained persons using dangerous methods, such as introduction of foreign objects and use of herbal concoctions.
“Deaths from complications of unsafe abortion were high in regions where most abortions happened in the least safe circumstances. Complications from “least-safe” abortions can include incomplete abortion (failure to remove all of the pregnancy tissue from the uterus), haemorrhage, vaginal, cervical and uterine injury, and infections,” the study stated.
The study called for less restrictive laws on abortions as this will go a long way in saving women’s lives and also encourage women who have to perform the act seek the help of trained officers.
Bela Ganatra, lead author of the study and a scientist in the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, said increased efforts are needed, especially in developing regions, to ensure access to contraception and safe abortion.
“When women and girls cannot access effective contraception and safe abortion services, there are serious consequences for their own health and that of their families.
“This should not happen. But despite recent advances in technology and evidence, too many unsafe abortions still occur, and too many women continue to suffer and die.”
Ms. Ganatra said to prevent unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, countries must make supportive policies and financial commitments to provide comprehensive sexuality education; a wide range of contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception; accurate family planning counselling; and access to safe, legal abortion.
All rights reserved. This material and any other material on this platform may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, written or distributed in full or in part, without written permission from PREMIUM TIMES. | |
EPEE members continuously raise awareness about the need for a robust market surveillance framework for Europe.
Market surveillance is essential in ensuring that products on the EU market are compliant with the existing legislation and that EU policy delivers on climate & energy objectives in reality. With a new set of EU rules on compliance and enforcement, the EU is asking Member States to improve checks on products entering the EU market and foster more cooperation among national market surveillance authorities to the benefit of consumer safety and compliant businesses.
EPEE welcomes these new rules and is committed to contributing to a better functioning market surveillance across the EU.
EPEE actively support EU Projects working on Market Surveillance on Ecodesign, such as the Ecopliant Project and the EEPliant Projects.
EPEE actively advocates for more harmonized EU action on Market Surveillance. Together with like-minded associations, it developed a Joint Industry Call for Action on Market Surveillance in Europe.
We regularly organise events to further promote Market Surveillance – whether it is on Ecodesign or other key legislation such as F-gas. | https://www.epeeglobal.org/market-surveillance/ |
At least once a week, clients ask us questions along the following lines: someone filed a police report against me, will I be arrested? When will I be charged? Will the police come looking for me? I didn’t do anything wrong, so when will the police tell me the case is closed? These questions are all normal to ask.
The path from a police report to criminal charges is often a long road, especially when the allegations involve felonies. If a felony is committed in front of a police officer, an arrest can be made on the spot without an arrest warrant. If, however, an alleged crime occurs behind closed doors, police will generally investigate and then obtain an arrest warrant. Why don’t police arrest suspects immediately after a police report is made? Police understand that they cannot arrest without the requisite probable cause, so they typically wait until a case is built before escalating the matter.
Waiting in Limbo
In our practice, representing college students and professionals facing allegations of sexual misconduct, it’s not uncommon for our clients to live in limbo for months, even upwards of a year, before knowing whether a prosecution will take place. This period of uncertainty is agonizing, but can prove to be invaluable for purposes of building a defense. With lawyers in place, evidence can be collected before it disappears and witnesses can be interviewed before memories fade. Doing nothing during the period of limbo is a gamble we don’t like to take. We push to do everything we can to investigate and try to convince law enforcement officers and prosecutors that criminal charges should not be filed against our client.
Understanding the Criminal Justice System
So how are criminal charges filed? Felony charges begin with a charging instrument called an indictment. Again, a mere police report generally isn’t enough to obtain an indictment. Instead, police must gather evidence that is presented to a grand jury to convince the grand jury that it’s reasonably likely that the suspect in question actually committed the crime. Rarely do grand juries not issue indictments after a case is presented, which is why it’s so important to avoid having a case presented to a grand jury if at all possible.
What happens once a criminal indictment is filed? It depends. Some jurisdictions issue indictments with arrest warrants. In these situations, rarely do police drive around actively looking for the defendant to arrest him. Rather, if police come into contact with the defendant, regardless of the circumstances, the defendant can be arrested. If a suspect knows of the indictment, he can voluntarily surrender to begin court proceedings. A voluntary surrender always bodes better for a defendant than an arrest, which is another reason why it’s so important to secure legal representation early in the investigative process. Jurisdictions that don’t issue an arrest warrant typically issue a summons, which directs the defendant to appear in court on as specific date.
No News is Good News!
If an extended period of time passes without hearing from the police, be grateful. There’s something to the adage “no news is good news.” Rarely do law enforcement agencies send out letters saying “sorry to have bothered you, case closed!” Instead, some cases can just die on the vine. | https://studentdefense.kjk.com/blog/2019/03/01/will-i-be-arrested/ |
Places to stay in Dorintosh, Saskatchewan
We currently have 15 accommodations in and around Dorintosh with other regional listings available for Bed & Breakfasts, RV parks, Hotels, Motels and other properties. You can filter listings by the available types:
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Dorintosh is a village in Saskatchewan located on Route 4 and close to Meadow Lake Provincial Park.
Wondering where to stay? Accommodations in the region are primarily limited to Campgrounds and RV parks. If you are travelling in the area, Dorintosh is located close to Salt Creek, Laurie Lake, de Balinhard Lake, Matkin Lake and Hub Lake.
Hungry from travelling? Try checking here for Dorintosh dining.
Not the town you are looking for? Try our Town Search, or use the Advanced Google Search above.
Selected and best reviewed properties in Dorintosh
Other local Dorintosh information.
- Longitude: -108°37'40.359
- Latitude: 54°21'16.050
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Dorintosh is close to: | https://staycanada.ca/saskatchewan/dorintosh/ |
Showing results by author "D. K. Holmberg"
After killing one of the Elvraeth to save his friends, Rsiran finds a measure of peace, but fears that it will be short lived. When attacked using knives he forged, he is pulled into a struggle that he wants nothing to do with. Worse, friends have secrets they do not share, secrets that could place both he and Jessa in danger. Finding answers sends him Sliding throughout the city and beyond, testing his ability all while trying to understand the secret of the alloy that might be the key to their safety.
Forced into the heart of the Aisl Forest, Rsiran and the guilds regroup and try to find a way to reclaim the city from Venass and the Elvraeth council. Rsiran has stopped the production of shadowsteel, but Venass still possesses dangerous weapons, and what's more, one of the great crystals remains missing. Forced into an alliance with the mysterious Carth in order to find the crystal, they make new allies and discover the means to reclaim the city, but will it be too late?
Trapped by Venass. Tormented by the Forgotten. And both desire the very ability that allowed his escape. Chased through the city by someone able to influence his Sliding, Rsiran and his friends prepare for the next attack, uncertain whether the Forgotten or Venass will move first. When Rsiran learns that his sister was abducted, he must decide whether to help a family that abandoned him. If he does not, Alyse might suffer a fate worse than any torment he has already endured.
Rsiran now understands that he can use not only the arcane power of lorcith, but also that of heartstone. This ability makes him powerful, perhaps too powerful for some. Others know of his ability and seek to use him. After Brusus is attacked, Rsiran makes a decision that requires an unlikely ally, and brings him to dangerous Thyr, where the Scholars of Venass offer their aid, but for a price. But the scholars want Rsiran for the same reason as the Forgotten.
The powerful draasin - elemental creatures of fire not seen for a thousand years - have returned. Not all are convinced they should have been freed. As Tan struggles to learn earth shaping, he discovers dangerous fire shapers from Incendin have come to Ethea. When the city is attacked by the draasin, Tan must use his connection with them to learn why. Doing so leads him from the city and forces him to once more face the terrible shapers of Incendin, but this time bound to the draasin for help.
Chenir has allied with the kingdoms. The great serpent has bonded to the lisincend. And the ancient draasin, Asboel, lies injured. Tan enters the Fire Fortress seeking an alliance with the lisincend. Doing so requires him to attempt a shaping he isn't certain he can control, and this time without his draasin for help. The Par-shon attack has reached the mainland, pushing through Chenir, as the final battle with the unstoppable Utu Tonah approaches. Survival hinges on old friends and a new connection, but can Tan control enough power to defeat him?
No longer forced to hide his ability, Rsiran now Slides openly throughout the city as he helps it recover from the recent attack. Requirements of his time continue to mount, not only as he tries to help his friends, but new responsibilities to the guild force him to interact with the Elvraeth, where he discovers the uneasy alliance that exists between the guilds and the council. When one of the great crystals goes missing, that alliance is tested, and the quest to find the crystal leads him to realize a secret long hidden.
The barrier has fallen. The king is gone. Tan has secured the artifact, but now the Fortress of Fire in Incendin burns more brightly than it has in a generation. To master his connection to the elementals, Tan needs to rediscover knowledge about the elemental power that has been lost for centuries. When the draasin bonded to him is injured, Tan must rely on everything he's learned to save him and discovers a new threat to the kingdoms more powerful than anything he's ever faced.
AUTHOR REPEATS HIMSELF TOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tan now serves as Athan. The remaining draasin have bonded. Elle and all of Doma have been saved. And Par-Shon has been defeated. Tan knows the victory is short lived. Par-Shon knows how to obscure their shapers, and they could hide anywhere. When Tan discovers Par-shon shapers within the kingdoms, a dangerous and wild elemental is released. As Tan tries to defend his bonds, he learns the terrible history of this elemental, one that the draasin would hide from him.
The archivists are defeated, but their plan was already set in place. A new lisincend has emerged, more dangerous than before. Incendin still possesses the powerful artifact. And a spirit shaping placed on the king must be released. Tan has potential to be a warrior shaper - one who can shape all the elements - but shaping doesn't work for him the same as with other shapers. While he struggles to control his new magic, his friends work to free the king from the spirit shaping.
War is coming to the kingdoms. Tan now knows that a threat greater than Incendin exists, one he suspects will require ancient enemies to forge an uneasy alliance. He must use the control he's gained over shaping to rescue a friend, protect the draasin, and convince the kingdoms of the true danger, or everything he knows will be destroyed.
Jasn, a warrior known as the Wrecker of Rens, seeks vengeance for the loss of his beloved to the deadly draasin during the Endless War, wanting nothing more than to sacrifice himself in the process. When an old friend offers a dangerous chance for him to finally succeed, the key to understanding what he finds requires him to abandon all that he believes. Ciara, a water seeker of Rens living on the edge of the arid waste, longs for the strength to help her people.
Fresh off a victory against the Forgotten, and with unexpected allies, Rsiran knows that the war is far from over. An attack on someone close to him in the city leads to a search for answers, and he once again must confront the secrets hidden by his family. When he discovers a part of his people's history long forgotten, he realizes it might hold the key to what Venass really wants...and possibly the means to stopping them.
As Endric continues his search for the traitor Urik, a new threat emerges, one that demands the attention of the Denraen. Now an officer, Endric should be a part of the planning, but the general seems determined to keep him from it. Endric searches for information that might help him understand, and as he finally thinks he’s getting close to discovering word on Urik, he’s sent from the city on what appears nothing more than a pointless mission. When an asset he cares for goes missing, Endric betrays the Denraen to go after them.
Roelle leads the Magi north to discover the secrets of the northern warriors known as the Antrilii. What she discovers forces her to question the role the Magi play in the world as she begins to realize how far they have drifted from their Founders. Rumors out of the north are much worse than she could ever imagine, and her mage warriors might be key to stopping a threat the world hasn't seen in 1,000 years.
Endric wants only to serve, but he's destined to lead. As the second son of the general of the Denraen, Endric wants only to fight, not the commission his father demands of him. When a strange attack in the south leads to the loss of someone close to him, only Endric seems concerned about what happened. All signs point to an attack on the city, and betrayal by someone deep within the Denraen, but his father no longer trusts his judgment. | https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=D.+K.+Holmberg |
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<ul><li><p>1</p><p>Chapter 1: Introduction</p><p>This dissertation will describe the mathematical modeling and development of an innovative,three degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator. The new device, which has been named the CarpalWrist, has evolved from the initial stages of invention and concept development, throughtheoretical modeling, design, and prototype fabrication. The work presented in this dissertationis both unique and complete; unique in its creation of a kinematic model of a fundamentally non-traditional robotic wrist structure, and complete in that the model provides the informationneeded for design, development, and application in a wide variety of manipulator tasks at alllevels of performance. Furthermore, while the kinematic and dynamic modeling presented in thisdocument are specific to the new Wrist device, the modeling and analysis techniques haveapplications in other areas of parallel kinematics and robotics. In this respect, while the focusand intent of this report is to fully describe the theoretical modeling of a specific, parallelmanipulator, it will also serve as a fundamental example of analytical treatment techniques forgeneral parallel manipulators.</p><p>1.1 Background in Robotics</p><p>Flexible automation systems, or robotics, are becoming an increasingly important tool in thisage of competitive, technology-driven production. Many industries are introducing robots intotheir operations to remain competitive and maintain flexibility over shorter product life cycles.Donald Vincent, executive vice president of the Robotics Industries Association pointed to thegrowth in demand of package handling among food and pharmaceutical manufacturers, saying,the speed of robots are able to justify cost, The food processing industry is driven by speed,and robots have the speed to do product handling,(http://www.industr.net/discussions/robotics2.htm). Increasingly, companies are choosing robotsto work with or replace automation equipment for these high-speed tasks when they becomemore complex.</p><p>As demands on production, quality, and assembly in manufacturing settings and fullyautonomous capabilities in remote settings are increased, manipulator technology must advanceto meet these needs. Developments in the area of computer control and electrical sensorytechnology have been the most visible, allowing manipulators to become prominent inmanufacturing settings and in replacing humans in service tasks. Meanwhile, R&D in the area ofrobot mechanics, particularly in developing new kinematic structures, has received much lessattention. The vast majority of robotic architectures currently in use were developed in the1970s. However, advances in robot mechanics with improved manipulator structures are criticalto increasing the bounds on manipulator performance.</p></li><li><p>Stephen L. Canfield Chapter 1: Introduction 2</p><p>1.2 Robot Mechanics</p><p>Robot mechanics deals with the many aspects of kinematic and dynamic modeling, hardwaredesign, actuation, and control. Manipulator kinematics is the study of the motion of themanipulator without reference to forces, i.e., the motion resulting from the kinematic constraints.Manipulator dynamics incorporates the kinematic model to relate robot motion to input forces.Other areas of robot mechanics include the following topics: mechanical design of themanipulator components, selecting suitable forms of actuation, meeting the available powersupply, selecting joint and transmission elements, designing tool mounting capabilities, andproviding protection from the operating environment.</p><p>1.2.1 Manipulator Kinematics and Dynamics</p><p>The fundamental task of a robot is to position and orient a tool in a specified manner. Positionand orientation, taken together will be referred to as pose. The architecture of a roboticmanipulator is selected and designed based on its ability to meet the tool-pose requirements. Themost common manipulator architecture is a serial structure, a structure which consists of a seriesof actuated joints, (rotary and/or linear), forming one path between the tool and ground. To fullyposition and orient a rigid body in space, a six-degree-of-freedom (dof) task, requires a six-degree-of-freedom manipulator. Many tasks require less than six degrees of freedom, however.Therefore such tasks do not require a full six dof manipulator for operation. For example, taskswhich employ an axis-symmetric tool do not require roll orientation. Some tasks require simplepointing orientation, a two-degree-of-freedom task, or spatial point positioning, a three-degree-of-freedom task. In some cases, a two or three dof manipulator will be used as modular sub-components in a larger manipulator system. For example, many six dof serial manipulatorsconsist of two sub-structures; a three dof arm used to position the tool, and a three dof wrist usedto orient the tool.</p><p>The mathematical model of each particular manipulator must be developed in order to providethe necessary control of the device. The mathematical model provides a mapping from the inputspace (also called joint space) to the output space (called tool space) of the manipulator. Theinput space consists of a set of coordinates that represent the controlled or actuated joints in themanipulator. The output space consists of a set of coordinates, typically a standardizedcoordinate set such as Cartesian coordinates and Euler angles, that describe the position andorientation (pose) of the tool. This mapping is referred to as kinematic position analysis. Whenthe mapping proceeds from the input space to find the output space coordinates, it is termedforward kinematics. When the mapping proceeds from the output space to input spacecoordinates, it is termed inverse kinematics. For many serial manipulators this mapping isprocedural, following the conventional Denavit-Hartenberg notation (1955) to describe themanipulator through a set of transform equations (Craig, 1989). Parallel manipulators result inhighly non-linear kinematic position mappings. However, the mapping, once known, isperformed as in all manipulators. The inverse kinematics or output to input space mapping is ofmost importance in manipulator control. Here, the output space is known from the desired</p></li><li><p>Stephen L. Canfield Chapter 1: Introduction 3</p><p>manipulator task and the inverse mapping generates the necessary input space parameters forcontrol. To generally locate a rigid tool in space requires six independent parameters. Therefore,a fully general manipulator would be a six-degree-of-freedom (dof) device with sixindependently actuated joints. A manipulator with more than six degrees of freedom couldaccomplish the same task and would be termed redundant. A manipulator may also span only apart of the six degree of freedom space, for example, a three degree-of-freedom manipulator thatprovides orientation only, or conversely a three degree-of-freedom manipulator that providesposition only.</p><p>Velocity analysis follows directly from position analysis. As in the position problem, thevelocity or instantaneous kinematics takes the input velocity vector and maps it into the outputvelocity vector through a linear coefficient matrix, referred to as the Jacobian of the manipulator.This analysis is important in defining the size and quality of the available workspace of themanipulator. The available workspace is limited by singularities, and its quality is measuredwith a mathematical definition for dexterity. A manipulator exhibits a singularity when it losesone or more output degrees of freedom. Singularities become important when they exist withinthe kinematic workspace (the workspace defined by availability of kinematic position solutions),because they cause difficulties in kinematic control and limit range of applications. In addition tolosing a degree of freedom, the dexterity of the manipulator, (a function of manipulator positionand velocity direction) may show large variations throughout the workspace, demonstrating apoorly dexterous manipulator. Both the singularity and dexterity analyses are derived directlyfrom the system Jacobian.</p><p>Finally, a dynamic analysis provides a third mapping between the input actuator torques andthe resulting manipulator position, velocity, and acceleration parameters. In practice, a dynamicanalysis relates the applied input forces to output inertial forces through the equations of motion.Equations of motion can be generated using various approaches. Newtons Laws and EulersRotational Equations, DAlamberts Principle, and Hamiltons Principle are common approachesfor dynamic problems (Meirovitch, 1970, Kane, 1972). Further, the coordinate system used todescribe the kinematics can be selected from either canonical forms, such as joint-spacecoordinates, or described using screw-system kinematics. Regardless of the dynamic approach orcoordinate system used for analysis, the results lead to equations of motion which are unique tothe physical device. Selection of approach and coordinates are important in deriving in equationsthat are tractable for manipulation, calculation, and that provide insight to the physical system.</p><p>Like the position mapping, the manipulator dynamics can be considered two directional: one amapping which solves the forces required for manipulator motion, called the inverse dynamicsproblem, and one solving for manipulator motion given the input system forces, called the timeresponse or forward dynamics problem. The inverse dynamics are necessary in control, when themanipulator trajectory is given and force requirements from the motors are needed. Thisproblem is also useful in dynamic stress analysis. The time response or forward dynamicsproblem creates a simulation model of the device which can be used in advanced modeling,analysis, and in creating high-level controllers. In both analyses, the results of a dynamic</p></li><li><p>Stephen L. Canfield Chapter 1: Introduction 4</p><p>modeling become important when the manipulator is intended for high-speed operation ormoving a massive payload, resulting in significant inertial loading.</p><p>1.3 Robot Architecture</p><p>The kinematic architecture of robotic manipulators can be classified as either serial or parallel(or a hybrid of the two). The serial architecture is predominantly used in application for anumber of reasons. In many ways, it resembles the human arm and is therefore an intuitiveconcept. It has advantages such as a large workspace or range of motion. Most importantly, theserial architecture is relatively straightforward to model mathematically. For these reasons, themajority of research into the mechanics of robotics has been in serial devices. However, theserial architecture contains limitations that can only be partially improved through advancedactuation and controls technology. One limitation in particular is the single load-bearing pathconnecting the tool to ground.</p><p>An alternative, but much less common architecture for a robotic manipulator is the parallelstructure. The key feature of this architecture is the multiple load-bearing paths that connect thetool to ground. Much like a truss is important in civil structures because of its high rigidity andhigh strength-to-weight ratio, parallel manipulators provide the same advantages in systemswhere accuracy and inertial forces are of primary importance. One common example of aparallel manipulator is the variable-geometry, octahedral truss, a special type of Stewartsplatform, that is used frequently to provide base actuation in motion-capable flight simulators.Primary reasons for a lack of development of parallel-architecture manipulators arecomplications in modeling and analysis and the limited range of motion common to most paralleldevices. Parallel architecture manipulators provide the possibility of improving manipulatorstructures if the necessary kinematics can be developed.</p><p>1.4 Robotic Wrists</p><p>Most manipulator systems can be considered as two distinct parts, an arm used to position anda wrist used to orient. There are many reasons for using this arm-wrist combination. First, thiscombination tends to decouple robot positioning and orienting functions. Second, thiscombination casts the robot into a form that is guaranteed to have a closed-form kinematicsolution when the wrist motion is spherical (i.e., it provides orientation about a fixed point)(Craig, 1989). Not only does a closed-form position solution allow real-time control of themanipulator, it simplifies the kinematics which aids in motion control activities such as pathplanning and singularity avoidance. Third, this arrangement is conceptually intuitive and isreadily adaptable to a great number of applications, since it approximates the human arm.Fourth, it helps reduce redundancy in the system and, therefore, helps eliminate singularities.</p><p>While the arm and the wrist are both necessary and both involve complex design issues, thewrist poses the greatest design complexity to engineers. The wrist must provide orientationabout multiple axes, move about some center position, work in a relatively small envelope, anddo this all while manipulating the entire system payload.</p></li><li><p>Stephen L. Canfield Chapter 1: Introduction 5</p><p>Robotic wrists are typically two or three degree-of-freedom (dof) devices, depending on theirapplication requirements. General manipulators possess six dof, since complete pose control of atool in space requires six parameters, three to provide position and three to provide orientation.In these cases, the wrist provides the three orientation components. Many practical robotic tasksrequire only five degrees of freedom at the output tool, for example when the tool isaxisymmetric. The orientation provided in this case may be called pointing pose, since only twopointing orientational parameters are needed. This is common in tasks such as arc welding,spot welding, drilling, grinding, spray painting, and scanning operations.</p><p>1.5 Origins of the Carpal Wrist</p><p>The Carpal wrist concept evolved from work in the area of variable-geometry trusses, andother spatial parallel mechanisms. In particular, a spatial mechanism constant velocity couplingcalled the Velocity-True Coupling (VTC), (Canfield and Reinholtz, 1995, Canfield, Salernoand Reinholtz, 1994, 1995) provided a basis for the Carpal Wrist work. The characteristics ofsymmetry and simplicity in the all-revolute Velocity-True Coupling design were seen as positivecomponents for industrial application. The mobility of the Velocity-True Coupling allowedorientation about a fixed center. The need for improved robotics in industry and the versatility ofparallel mechanisms combined to give rise to the Carpal Wrist concept.</p><p>The Carpal Wrist has a spatial, parallel-architecture consisting of three symmetric 5-revolutechains connecting the ground (basal) to output (distal) plate (Fig. 1.1). This concept providesseveral inherent design advantages, including:</p><p> A high strength-to-weight ratio, high rigidity, and improved dynamic characteristics Durabili...</p></li></ul>
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Introduction and Kinematic Modeling - and Kinematic Modeling ... car-like Robotics 1 2 . Wheeled mobile ... Kinematic model of WMR
Nonlinear kinematic tolerance analysis of planar ... paper presents a nonlinear kinematic tolerance analysis algorithm for planar me- ... also referred to as tolerance chain or stack-up anal-ysis, | https://vdocuments.net/chapter-1-introduction-or-spatial-point-positioning-this-mapping-is.html |
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The use of the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) for life threatening ventricular arrhythmias is standard therapy, in large part because clinical trials data have consistently demonstrated its superiority over medical treatment in preventing sudden cardiac death.1 This success prompts closer examination and refinement of quality of life (QOL) outcomes in ICD patients. Although no universal definition of QOL exists, most researchers agree that “quality of life” is a generic term for a multi-dimensional health outcome in which biological, psychological, and social functioning are interdependent.2 To date, the clinical trials demonstrating the efficacy of the ICD have focused primarily on mortality differences between the ICD and medical treatment. While the majority of the QOL data from these trials is yet to be published, many small studies are available for review and support the concept that ICD implantation results in desirable QOL for most ICD recipients.3 In some patients, however, these benefits may be attenuated by symptoms of anxiety and depression when a shock is necessary to accomplish cardioversion or defibrillation. This paper reviews the published literature on QOL and psychological functioning of ICD patients and outlines the clinical and research implications of these findings.
QUALITY OF LIFE AND THE ICD: PATIENT REPORTS
Definitive conclusions about QOL differences between patients managed with an ICD and those treated with antiarrhythmic drugs are difficult to make in the absence of large, randomised, controlled trials. Available evidence indicates that ICD recipients experience a brief decline in QOL from baseline but improve to pre-implant levels after one year of follow up.4 The largest clinical trial data published in final form is from the coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) Patch trial which randomised patients to ICD (n = 262) versus no ICD (n = 228) while undergoing CABG surgery.5 In contrast to May and colleagues,4 data from this trial indicate that the QOL outcomes (mental and physical) for the ICD patients were significantly worse compared to patients with no ICD. Subanalyses revealed that there was no difference in QOL for non-shocked ICD patients versus no ICD patients. These results indicated that the ICD group who had received shocks was responsible for the significantly worse mental and physical QOL outcome scores between the groups. Collectively, these data suggest that the experience of shock may contribute to psychological distress and diminished QOL. Figure 1 details the psychological continuum a patient may experience secondary to shock.
Other investigators have examined patients with ICDs and compared them to patients with permanent pacemakers. Very few consistent differences can be demonstrated between these two populations. For example, Duru and colleagues6 found no differences in QOL score, anxiety or depression when comparing ICD patients with and without shock experience and pacemaker patients. ICD patients with a shock history were more likely to report limitations in leisure activities and anxiety about the ICD, but they also viewed the ICD as a “life extender”. Herbst and colleagues7 recently compared the QOL and psychological distress of four patient groups: ICD only (n = 24) v ICD plus antiarrhythmic drug (n = 25) v antiarrhythmic drug only (n = 35) v a general cardiac sample (n = 73). QOL was assessed using the short form 36 (SF-36) and three supplementary scales examining sleep, marital and family functioning, and sexual problems. Comparisons were made between ICD groups and drug groups. Results indicated that there were no significant differences on the 11 QOL scales, even after controlling for age, sex, disease severity, and duration of treatment. However, significant differences were found in drug groups versus no drug groups, such that the drug treated group consistently reported greater impairment in physical functioning, vitality, emotional, and sleep functioning, as well as psychological distress. Collectively, these results suggest that QOL is maintained in ICD treated groups, while antiarrhythmic drug treatment is associated with diminished QOL and increased psychological distress.
In contrast, others have compared ICD patients to either antiarrhythmic drug treated patients or a cardiac reference group and have not found significant differences between these treated groups. For example, Arteaga and Windle8 compared three groups: ICD (n = 45), medication (n = 30), and reference group (n = 29) on QOL and psychological distress. No significant differences were observed on measures of QOL and psychological distress between the treated groups, although psychological distress was associated with lower QOL for all groups. Younger patients and patients with greater cardiac dysfunction reported reduced QOL. Similarly, Carroll and colleagues9 compared cardiac arrest survivors who received either an ICD or medications and found no significant differences in QOL. Herrmann and associates10 also compared QOL between a group of ICD and general coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and found no significant differences on measures of QOL. Moreover, ICD patients reported significantly lower levels of anxiety than the CAD reference group.
A US national survey of ICD patients and spouses (NSIRSO) parts 1 and 211 examined global QOL and psychosocial issues in 450 patients. Approximately 91% of ICD recipients reported desirable QOL, either better (45%) or the same (46%) following implantation. However, a small group of ICD recipients (approximately 15%) reported significant difficulty in emotional adjustment. Younger patients (50 years of age and under) reported better general health, but worse QOL and emotional functioning than each of the other age groups studied. ICD shock history did not have a significant effect on any of the global outcome ratings. The spouses and partners of these recipients (n = 380) provided convergent validity of the recipients' reports; no significant differences were found between raters on the 10 most common concerns. Of note, frequent ICD shocks, younger age, and being female were associated with increased adjustment difficulty. The results of these two surveys suggest that ICD recipients derive significant health related QOL benefits from ICD therapy, although some (approximately 10–20%) experience difficulty. This percentage is consistent with the expected rates of distress in comparable medical populations.
RETURN TO WORK AS A QOL PROXY
An objective index of QOL is the ability to return to work. ICD recipients have favourable return to work rates in currently available studies. The largest such study (n = 101) indicated that 62% of patients had resumed employment.12 Those who returned to work were more educated and less likely to have a history of myocardial infarction. No significant differences were found between those who returned to work and those who did not on measures of age, sex, race, functional class, ejection fraction, extent of CAD, reason for ICD, or concomitant surgery. Similar results were obtained from a sample of young ICD patients in which 10 of the 18 were gainfully employed; eight of those had returned to the same job that they held before implantation.13 These results suggest that the majority of ICD patients who wish to return to work are capable of doing so.
INCIDENCE AND IMPACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES
The typical ICD recipient must overcome both the stress of experiencing a life threatening arrhythmia and the challenge of adjusting to the ICD. Anxiety is particularly common, with approximately 24–87% of ICD recipients experiencing increased symptoms of anxiety after implantation and diagnostic rates for clinically significant anxiety disorders ranging from 13–38%.3 The occurrence of ICD shocks is generally faulted for this psychological distress, but its causal influence is confounded by the presence of a life threatening medical condition. Depressive symptoms reported in 24–33% of ICD patients are consistent with other cardiac populations.3
ICD related fears are universal and may be the most pervasive psychosocial adjustment challenge ICD patients face. Psychological theory suggests that symptoms of fear and anxiety can result from a classical conditioning paradigm in which certain stimuli or behaviours are coincidentally paired with an ICD shock and are thereby avoided in the future. Because of fear of present and/or future discharges, some patients increasingly limit their range of activities and inadvertently diminish the benefits of the ICD in terms of QOL. Pauli and colleagues14 examined the anxiety scores of ICD patients and found that anxiety was not related to ICD discharges but was highly related to a set of “catastrophic cognitions”. Patients with high anxiety scores tended to interpret bodily symptoms as signs of danger and believed that they had heightened risk of sudden death. In addition, catastrophic cognitions were associated with anxiety scores consistent with the scores of panic disorder patients and different from the scores of the healthy volunteer sample. These results suggest that psychosocial interventions that utilise cognitive–behavioural protocols will likely prevent and/or reduce anxiety problems regardless of shock exposure by changing catastrophic thinking and over-interpretation of bodily signs and symptoms. Figure 2 illustrates a hypothesised interrelationship between shocks, psychological distress, and QOL based on the available research.
Uncertainty related to illness has been demonstrated to be important and related to QOL and psychological functioning in ICD patients.9 The uncertainty of life with a potentially life threatening arrhythmia and an ICD may lead patients to resort to a “sickness scoreboard” mentality, by which they view the frequency of ICD shocks as indicative of how healthy they are and as predictive of their future health.3 In general, outcomes based on the frequency of shocks alone are not a valid indicator of health. ICD shocks can be triggered by both ventricular arrhythmias, for which the device was implanted, and supraventricular arrhythmias, which it was not meant to treat. Shocks for either arrhythmia feel the same to the patient but do not necessarily indicate a decline in health.
EFFECT OF SHOCK ON QOL
Credner and her colleagues defined an “ICD storm” as ≥ 3 shocks in a 24 hour period. She found that approximately 10% of their sample of 136 ICD patients experienced an ICD storm during the first two years following ICD implantation.15 Moreover, the mean (SD) number of shocks for this group of storm patients was 17 (17) (range 3–50; median 8). The experience of an ICD storm may prompt catastrophic cognitions and feelings of helplessness. These adverse psychological reactions have been linked in initial research as prospective predictors for the occurrence of subsequent arrhythmias and shocks at one, three, six, and nine month intervals, leading the researchers to conclude that “negative emotions were the cause, rather than a consequence, of arrhythmia events”.16 Although additional research focusing on a wide range of potentially identifiable “triggers” of arrhythmias is needed, this initial research indicates that reducing negative emotions and psychological distress may also decrease the chances of receiving a shock.
The literature defines specific risk factors for poor QOL and psychosocial outcomes for ICD patients that include, but extend beyond, simple shock experience. ICD patients who are younger—defined in the literature as < 50 years of age—have increased psychological distress.17 ICD patients who do not understand their device and their condition often experience difficulties making lifestyle adjustments. Similarly, ICD patients that have the additional stressors such as loss of job or loss of role functioning often experience psychosocial difficulties that warrant additional professional attention and referral. Table 1 details additional suspected risk factors from the general cardiac literature that can serve as markers for psychosocial attention.
CLINICAL AND RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS RELATED TO QOL
Psychosocial and QOL interventions for ICD patients
Table 2 details each of the studies available that used psychosocial intervention for ICD patients. General methodological problems are consistent across studies. Firstly, the studies report on very limited sample sizes and incur a resulting low statistical power. Secondly, most of the studies were conducted using a support group format, which typically involves a participant led, unstructured approach rather than a professional led, structured approach. Although the participant led approach has some merit, such as a high level of involvement for some members, this approach often does not involve sufficient factual and objective information to produce measurable change. Instead, this approach tends to focus predominantly on the emotional aspects of the illness. In contrast, professional led groups tend to focus more on strategy and skill building rather than simply the expression of emotion. Taken together, the methodologic flaws of most of these interventions limit their utility in gauging the potential of professional led, structured cognitive–behavioural psychosocial intervention.
Support groups are a popular adjunctive treatment for ICD patients because they provide an efficient conduit for patient education spanning the biopsychosocial domains.2 The active ingredients of support groups probably centre on the universality of many patient concerns and the sharing of information and strategies to deal effectively with these concerns. We suggest that support groups are a valuable but not necessarily sufficient means of providing psychosocial care for all ICD patients. Some patients will need more individualised, tailored cognitive–behavioural or pharmacological interventions to address more completely their psychosocial needs. As noted above, professional led groups are preferable because a systematic presentation of information via selected expert speakers and a broad based curriculum could be designed for maximal benefit for the majority of participants. Certainly patient stories or testimonials can also play a regular role, but that is a process that can occur both formally and informally during the meetings among group members. The majority of the groups are maintained by ICD health professionals with a strong commitment to psychosocial care. There is no formula on how to structure support groups for maximal effectiveness, but they remain important in the care of ICD patients as one of a set of strategies to improve the psychosocial care of ICD patients.
The most significant study of psychosocial interventions for ICD patients involved a randomised controlled methodology to reduce psychological distress.18 Individual cognitive–behavioural therapy was used to reduce psychological distress in newly implanted ICD patients to determine if such treatment would also reduce arrhythmic events requiring shocks for termination. These investigators randomised 49 ICD patients to active treatment versus no treatment. The treatment consisted of an individual therapy session at pre-implant, pre-discharge from the hospital, consecutive weeks for four weeks, and then sessions at routine cardiac clinic appointments at one, three, and five months post-implantation. They found that active treatment patients reported less depression, less anxiety, and less general psychological distress than the no treatment group at nine month follow up evaluations. These results suggest that more systematic interventions for new ICD patients would likely produce optimal psychological and QOL outcomes. Although this study did not include information about the cost effectiveness of the intervention, it is reasonable to assume that psychological intervention delivered in this manner would likely be at least cost-neutral if it prevented more expensive hospitalisations, additional medications, and unnecessary accessing of care. Future research on psychosocial interventions should provide further information about the costs of their interventions for closer cost effectiveness analysis.
Clinician readiness for psychosocial interventions
The realistic probability of practising cardiologists and nurses having the time or skills necessary to provide such extensive psychosocial interventions is small. We surveyed physicians and nurses (n = 261) to rate their views of specific ICD patient outcomes, common daily life problems for ICD patients, and their own comfort in managing these concerns.19 The majority of ICD patients experience desirable QOL, emotional wellbeing, and family functioning post-implantation, as viewed by health care providers. However, healthcare providers reported that approximately 10–20% of ICD patients were significantly worse in these areas post-implantation. The most common problems for ICD recipients in daily life included driving restrictions/limitations, coping with ICD shocks, and depression. Health care providers generally reported the most comfort handling traditional medical issues (that is, 92% of the sample reported comfort in managing patient adherence concerns), and the least comfort in managing emotional wellbeing issues (for example, only 39% of the sample reported comfort in managing depression and anxiety symptoms). These results are somewhat disconcerting when we consider that our previous work also showed that ICD patients were equally likely to seek discussion about emotional issues with health care providers (37%) as they were with family and friends (36%).11 Our survey of health care providers also found that the majority believed that their ICD patients wanted more information to help them cope with or adjust to their ICD (91%) and that they believed that education as an intervention would be effective (83%).
Discomfort while addressing psychosocial issues for cardiology practitioners is not surprising and most likely reflects lack of training and experience in behavioural medicine and psychology. We have suggested the “Four A's checklist” to detect and manage psychosocial issues in ICD clinics: ask, advise, assist, and arrange referral.17, 20 The first step is to ask the patient about their ICD related concerns in an effort to define accurately their perceived problem. In table 3, we have provided sample diagnostic questions that can assist the clinician and yield sufficient diagnostic precision.21 Secondly, the healthcare provider can advise the ICD patient on the common challenges that lie ahead and how to manage these concerns via supportive communication. The healthcare provider should take care to respect the coping style and adjustment difficulties of each patient. Thirdly, the provider can assist the patient by addressing the immediate concerns of the patient, normalising the most common challenges, educating the patient about their device, and provide brief problem solving. Finally, the health care provider should arrange a consultation for those recipients who would benefit from speaking with a mental health specialist. ICD recipients should be told that anxiety and depression are common and expected side effects for many medical patients including ICD patients, and for that reason, attending to the psychosocial aspects of adjustment is part of the overall treatment strategy. This rationale of a “stress management” based approach is broadly acceptable to most patients.
CONCLUSIONS
The ICD is the treatment of choice for life threatening arrhythmias. The QOL data from these trials, which focused primarily on mortality, now warrants equal scrutiny. All available data suggest that the ICD will achieve comparable if not better QOL than alternative treatments. Future research must place greater emphasis on ICD specific and arrhythmia specific measures that may be more sensitive to more changes in outcome. Measurement and interventions should focus on patient acceptance of the device. Interdisciplinary studies that include cardiology, psychology, nursing, and cardiac rehabilitation specialists are needed to guide best clinical practice. The reputation of the ICD as a “shock box” is a significant source of anxiety to potential patients. Today, third generation ICDs are much improved in their sensing and tiered therapy options to reduce shocks and their resulting distress. Despite improvements in therapy such as antitachycardia pacing, ICD patients are likely always to need some attention to psychological adjustment. We suggest that routine consideration of psychosocial needs be integrated into the clinical care of ICD patients worldwide. | https://heart.bmj.com/content/87/5/488 |
Known as:
Cascarilla officinalis
, Quinquina officinalis
National Institutes of Health
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Cinchona officinalis bark extract
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2019
2019
Pharmacognostic and Physico chemical standardization of Cinchona officinalis Linn.f
F. A. Mir
,
Zakir Hussain Khanday
,
+4 authors
R. K. Manchandana
Journal of Applied and Advanced Research
2019
Corpus ID: 104424372
Cinchona officinalis Linn.f. is commonly known as Crown bark in English belongs to family Rubiaceae. Stem bark of C. officinalis…
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2019
2019
The Antidiabetic Effectivity of Indonesian Plants Extracts via DPP-IV Inhibitory Mechanism
E. Setyaningsih
,
F. Saputri
,
A. Mun'im
Journal of Young Pharmacists
2019
Corpus ID: 196528071
Background: Nature provides a rich source of antidiabetic medicines. More than 1.200 plants have been reported to have anti…
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2016
2016
In vitro germination and shoot proliferation of the threatened species Cinchona officinalis L (Rubiaceae).
Rosa Armijos-González
,
C. Pérez-Ruíz
Journal of Forestry Research
2016
Corpus ID: 38956553
Cinchona officinalis (Rubiaceae) is an endemic species of the Loja Valley in southern Ecuador with medicinal uses. Because of…
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2013
2013
Antimalarial potential of China 30 and Chelidonium 30 in combination therapy against lethal rodent malaria parasite: Plasmodium berghei
A. Rajan
,
U. Bagai
Journal of complementary & integrative medicine
2013
Corpus ID: 11834128
Abstract: Homeopathy is a therapeutic method based on the application of similia principle, utilizing ultra-low doses of…
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2013
2013
A preliminary investigation of anticholinesterase activity of some Iranian medicinal plants commonly used in traditional medicine
S. Jazayeri
,
Arash Amanlou
,
Naghmeh Ghanadian
,
P. Pasalar
,
M. Amanlou
DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
2013
Corpus ID: 9727090
BackgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of some commonly used herbal medicine in…
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2011
2011
Antimalarial medications from native remedy
Hanna Kalotka-Kręglewska
2011
Corpus ID: 54955476
Quinine is the first antimalarial medication known for centuries. The article presents the history of Quinine and its advanced…
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Review
2008
Review
2008
Tropical American Plants in the Treatment of Infectious Diseases
Lana Dvorkin-Camiel
,
J. Whelan
Journal of dietary supplements
2008
Corpus ID: 7924811
The increasingly diverse U.S. immigrant populations and the growing use of medicinal herbs create a need for health care…
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2003
2003
Image of Illustration of Cinchona officinalis 200 ; Cinchona officinalis L.; Quinine
W. Woodville
2003
Corpus ID: 227740992
Highly Cited
1999
Highly Cited
1999
Alkaloid production by a Cinchona officinalis 'Ledgeriana' hairy root culture containing constitutive expression constructs of tryptophan decarboxylase and strictosidine synthase cDNAs from…
A. Geerlings
,
D. Hallard
,
A. Martínez Caballero
,
I. Lopes Cardoso
,
R. van der Heijden
,
R. Verpoorte
Plant Cell Reports
1999
Corpus ID: 22875395
Abstract Cinchona officinalis 'Ledgeriana', former called Cinchona ledgeriana, hairy roots were initiated containing constitutive…
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1942
1942
L'arbre à quinquina : son écologie ; état de la culture
R. Musset
1942
Corpus ID: 162849532
Musset Rene. L'arbre a quinquina : son ecologie ; etat de la culture. In: Annales de Geographie, t. 51, n°285, 1942. pp. 64-67.
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, | https://www.semanticscholar.org/topic/Cinchona-officinalis/1785254 |
During 1957 representatives of six European countries signed the Rome agreement, which establishes the European Economic Union. The Rome agreement foresees the elimination of commercial barriers between the participating countries. Together with that are established unified import duties, as well as common trade policy. To put it shortly, the main objective of the new union was to establish gradually homogeneous common (inter-European) market.
Fifty years after the creation of EC and almost sixteen years after the formation of EU with the Maastricht agreement now the member countries are 27.
The fundamental principals from time of the establishment of EC are the free movement of goods and services, labor and capital - and all that part of the vision of building a unified market.
During all the years of its existence EC succeeded to build a wall between internal Union economic policy and the same policy towards the rest of the World. At present on a European level a strongly protectionist trade policy is carried out and on the other - policy of pressure to implement the ideas of the so called tax harmonization.
Generally, what is understood as tax harmonization could be defined as a process of standardizing the tax policies in the EC, directed against the countries outside the union and/or standardizing the tax policies inside community. Such policies include the tax rates themselves, as well as the tax regulations, which define the various types of procedures and channels for levying and collection.
The idea of tax harmonization became again the topic of the day after the joining of the 10 new member-countries to EU. Some of the old members felt threatened by the fact that the new member countries could offer better and more competitive conditions to business and as a result a large number of companies will swiftly switch to the new situation and could make decisions to move their businesses in a country providing better conditions for realization.
Somewhere among the hundreds of different directives and policies of the EU among some economists (predominantly liberal) sneaks the idea for the so called tax competition. Simply said, this is implementing tax policies through market mechanisms, where the tax burden is reduced significantly and reaches an optimal level. Competition effectively defines the working mechanisms of the free market not only for the private companies, but for the governments, which are forced to compete among themselves for "customers" (either corporate or private persons). Competition has the same effect on governments as that on the private businesses. Through the "invisible hand" of the market, the governments will be forced to become more effective and more responsive to the preferences of their "customers". This will guarantee the right of choice of the separate company or individual between the various alternative policies and everybody will have the opportunity to make his objective choice on the basis of personally weighted net utilities whether to live and work in a given country or region. In addition, all of this will lead to implementing more precise budgetary policy in every country and/or region on both parts - revenue and expenditure.
Tax competition is an instrument to encourage people to elect its government based on easy to measure practical criteria and thus to a large extend overcomes "the deficit of democracy", which exists in the contemporary political systems. With his vote for a specific tax policy or disagreement with it and moving the business from one region to another, this will force the governments to face the consequences of the policies implemented, which at the end will save the taxpayer from becoming a victim of the system. All this is directly related to the fact, that with its introduction the contemporary tax systems are related to coercion. In other words, when the people are paying their taxes voluntarily one could be confident more of them will attempt to optimize the amount of money for them. In order to keep or attract new taxpayers (and) investors, the governments will have to offer innovative and more effective services to their "customers". That is why it is said, that "competition is a very significant process of discovery and unsurpassed machine for growth".
--------------------
* This article was published for the first time in the newspaper "Dnevnik" on 4th December 2007. | https://ime.bg/en/articles/tax-harmonization-or-tax-competition/ |
In June 2013, when a cloudburst caused devastating floods and news of the calamity was projected into living rooms across the country, among the others, a young girl, Renuka Gawali, from Pune was deeply shaken. This little girl decided to do something for the people affected by the tragedy.
After seeing local kids from the mountain region donating all the money they had in their piggy banks, Renuka felt inspired and expressed to her parents a plan to collect funds for Uttarakhand. Her parents readily agreed. Renuka, whose father worked as a security guard at University of Pune, then went on a collecting spree. Urging her neighbors, friends, and teachers to donate, she also broke her own piggy bank to fill up the donations. Eventually, she handed over collections of over Rs. 2600 to her principal who promised her that the money would be sent to Uttarakhand.
Around the same time, Gokul, a seven year old from Tiruchy, Tamil Nadu, was arranging for 25 kgs of rice to be sent to Uttarakhand. After learning about the Uttarakhand disaster in his tuition class, he convinced his shopkeeper father to give him a bag of rice that he could send to the victims. Later, Gokul received small amounts of funds from his friends who broke open their piggy banks. He bought rice, biscuits, and candles and arranged for them to be sent to the flood affected persons.
In September 2015, a nine-year-old girl, Rashika Joshi, handed over her piggybank to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saying that her “savings” could be used to help drought-hit farmers.
In December 2015, after unprecedented rainfall caused severe flooding in Tamil Nadu, a five-year-old girl Anahita Rathore handed over her piggybank to Collector Jayashree Kiyawat so that the money she had saved could help in the relief operation of flood victims.
Besides these examples, there are numerous instances of children being kind and showing compassion for others, even in everyday life, and not in just catastrophic or post disaster situations. The parents and teachers of all these children played an important role.
To help your children grow into a worthy human being, start them young. Inculcate in them the habit of giving and empathy towards others. Give them simple and easy to understand real-life illustrations such as this one:
Imagine you have only one chapati with you and a really hungry beggar child comes near you, looking at you, what would you do? Turn away or share a part of your chapati? The latter is the right thing to do and it shows true kindness and empathy.
Some more ideas that can help achieve this are listed here:
- Donate toys
Ask your child/children to select some toys that are no longer in use. Initially the child may be reluctant to part with them. Explain to them the importance of sharing and giving. Tell them how happy it would make the underprivileged children to now own a toy of their own (even if it’s not new). Wrap the toys in shiny new gift paper. Take your children with you when you go to distribute the toys.
· Be a blood donor
Talk to your children about why you choose to donate blood and what you hope it will accomplish by doing so. Take your children with you so that they can understand firsthand the experience of giving.
· Extend a helping hand to your neighbors
Little things like carrying the old neighbor’s grocery bags up the staircase or helping them move heavy furniture or sending food across to the ailing neighbor can mean a lot. Involve your children in such activities too.
· Save for charity
Create a charity jar to be used by the family when allowances are distributed. Invite children to share some of their allowance with others through donating to the jar. As the jar fills, decide as a family where to contribute the contents. You may choose to save a whale, buy gloves for needy children, or contribute to a cancer charity among others. Read about various charities on the Internet and share this information with your children to help them make an informed decision.
By implementing some of these ideas or others like them, you will be teaching your children that charity is not reserved only for emergencies. You will be helping them appreciate that reaching out to others in need is a way of life, rather than a moment in time when a catastrophic disaster occurs. Remember, while you are giving to others, you are giving your children important messages about your beliefs concerning the spirit of giving. | https://zenparent.in/parenting/the-number-one-thing-that-will-guarantee-happiness |
The centromere is a region on chromosomes with a special sequence and structure. The centromere plays a role in cellular division and the control of gene expression.
Function
A centromere functions in sister chromatid adhesion, kinetochore formation, pairing of homologous chromosomes and is involved in the control of gene expression.
A centromere is the region where sister chromatids join in the double chromosomal structure during mitosis, prophase and metaphase. The centromere is also where kinetochore formation takes place: proteins bind on the centromeres that form an anchor point for the spindle formation required for the pull of chromosomes toward the centrioles during the anaphase and telophase of mitosis.
Aberrant centromeric function can lead to improper chromosomal alignment and segregation, resulting in aneuploidy and conditions such as Down syndrome.
The centromeric sequence
In most eukaryotes, the centromere has no defined DNA sequence. It typically consists of large arrays of repetitive DNA (eg, satellite DNA) where the sequence within individual repeat elements is similar but not identical. In humans, the primary centromeric repeat unit is called α-satellite (or alphoid), although a number of other sequence types are found in this region. However, in budding yeasts the centromere region is relatively small (about 200 bp DNA) and contains two highly conserved DNA sequences that serve as binding sites for essential kinetochore proteins.
Inheritance
Epigenetic inheritance plays a major role in specifying the centromere in most organisms. The daughter chromosomes will assemble centromeres in the same place as the parent chromosome, independent of sequence. However, there must still be some original way in which the centromere is specified, even if it is subsequently propagated epigenetically.
Structure
The centromeric DNA is normally in a heterochromatin state, which is probably essential for its function. In this chromatin, the normal histone H3 is replaced with CENP-A, a centromere-specific variant (in S. cerevisiae, but similar specialized nucleosomes seem to be present in all eucaryotic cells). The presence of CENP-A is believed to be important for the assembly of the kinetochore on the centromere and may play a role in the epigenetic inheritance of the centromere site.
In the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe (and probably in other eukaryotes), the formation of centromeric heterochromatin is connected to RNAi*. In nematodes such as Caenorhabditis elegans, some plants, and the insect orders Lepidoptera and Hemiptera, chromosomes are "holocentric", indicating that there is not a primary site of microtubule attachments or a primary constriction, and a "diffuse" kinetochore assembles along the entire length of the chromosome.
Centromeric aberrations
In rare cases in humans, neocentromeres can form at new sites on the chromosome. This must be coupled with the inactivation of the previous centromere since chromosomes with two functional centromeres (Dicentric chromosome) will result in chromosome breakage during mitosis. In some unusual cases human neocentromeres have been observed to form spontaneously on fragmented chromosomes. Some of these new positions were originally euchromatic and lack alpha satellite DNA altogether.
Related links
External links
- Report about Nature Genetics article that centromere of rice genome carries active genes
- * Science. 2002 Sep 13;297(5588):1818-9. | https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Centromere |
This research looks into the procurement of furniture in the Chapman University residence halls. In total, Chapman currently owns over 2,500 bed frames and mattresses, 2,600 desks and chairs, and 2,300 dressers, among hundreds of other pieces. The purpose of this research is to evaluate whether or not there are more sustainable and environmentally friendly options for the procurement of furniture. The research has concluded that there are multiple areas of improvement in the current procurement process. The first is that all future furniture should be purchased from the same company within the same line. Each residence hall has a different finishing on the furniture with the pieces also coming in slight variations of size. As a result, furniture cannot be shared or reused across buildings. By purchasing from the same line each time, furniture will eventually be identical across buildings which will allow for a single storage space that all replacement pieces can come from. The furniture company recommended by the research is Sustainable Furniture Inc. They offer the “Sustainable Service Program” which will remove Chapman’s old furniture, reclaim the material, and re-manufacture it to new furniture. Secondly, old carpeting should be replaced using carpet tiles. While there are challenges that come with carpet tiles such as fading, the company Interface has tiling options that would not show signs of fading in the older tiles. While Chapman is certainly improving in terms of sustainability, furniture procurement is one area that has many options for eco-friendly advancement.
Comments
Presented at the Spring 2018 Student Research Day at Chapman University.
Recommended Citation
Coleman, Hailley, "Procurement of Residence Hall Furniture" (2018). Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters. 280. | https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cusrd_abstracts/280/ |
What is the clear definition of evolution ?
Give a basic definition of evolution
As defined by the urban dictionary, evolution is the descent with modification from preexisting species : cumulative inherited change in a population of organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms : the process by which new species or populations of living things develop from preexisting forms through successive generations
Basic Definition of Evolution: That everything in the Universe, including Life on this planet, evolves or changes over time, particularly, over Geologic or Cosmological time of millions and billions of years, when it becomes very evident. It evolves ALL the time, except it may not be perceived by the human eye. | https://web2.0calc.com/questions/what-is-the-clear-definition-of-evolution |
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