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The principal responsibilities include ownership of the Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) deposition process and tools with the goal of meeting and/or exceeding operational metrics including but limited to yield, throughput, and cycle time metrics. The position will also require the development and implementation of process controls and improvement actions. Reports directly to the Senior Vice President, Operations.
Essential Job Functions
Identify which variables in the OLED deposition process (organic deposition, seal, thin films) affect the performance of the end product and determine what changes to make to the process to improve product performance while also maintaining or improving other in line metrics such as yield and cycle time.
Reports and follows up on out of control occurrences with the support of other process owners and the quality organization, and plans and coordinates the efforts to identify root causes and the deployment of corrective actions using techniques such as DMAIC or others as applicable.
Will lead process definition, process improvement, and yield improvement activities for the manufacturing process.
Works closely with the other process owners and the equipment-engineering group to coordinate and monitor the process compliances and address both process and equipment related issues as required.
Will be part of the manufacturing process engineering team and will participate in the in the transfer of new processes to the production line as well as the selection, installation, and qualification of new equipment.
Leadership Responsibility
The position is non-managerial, but may require the leading of small groups of engineers and/or manufacturing technicians.
Required to interact and work closely with other departments including engineering, manufacturing, equipment maintenance, quality, product development, R&D, and finance.
Qualifications
Minimum BS in engineering, physics, material science, or related engineering discipline.
4+ years semiconductor or and/or OLED manufacturing industry production experience desired.
This position requires proficiency with statistical engineering methods, statistical process control, problem solving, and a thorough understanding of manufacturing processes, equipment operation, and maintenance requirements.
Experience with thermal evaporation, sputter techniques, thin films deposition, and other semiconductor processing techniques is desired.
Required to work in clean room environment and follow and enforce clean room practices and procedures.
Shift flexibility may be required to support 24x7 production team along with other engineers. | https://careers-councilofindustry.icims.com/jobs/2778/manufacturing-process-engineer/job |
Convert to Image Directory
This article describes how to use the Convert to Image Directory component to help convert image dataset to Image Directory data type, which is standardized data format in image-related tasks like image classification in Azure Machine Learning designer.
How to use Convert to Image Directory
Prepare your image dataset first.
For supervised learning, you need to specify the label of training dataset. The image dataset file should be in following structure:
Your_image_folder_name/Category_1/xxx.png Your_image_folder_name/Category_1/xxy.jpg Your_image_folder_name/Category_1/xxz.jpeg Your_image_folder_name/Category_2/123.png Your_image_folder_name/Category_2/nsdf3.png Your_image_folder_name/Category_2/asd932_.png
In the image dataset folder, there are multiple subfolders. Each subfolder contains images of one category respectively. The names of subfolders are considered as the labels for tasks like image classification. Refer to torchvision datasets for more information.
Warning
Currently labeled datasets exported from Data Labeling are not supported in the designer.
Images with these extensions (in lowercase) are supported: '.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png', '.ppm', '.bmp', '.pgm', '.tif', '.tiff', '.webp'. You can also have multiple types of images in one folder. It is not necessary to contain the same count of images in each category folder.
You can either use the folder or compressed file with extension '.zip', '.tar', '.gz', and '.bz2'. Compressed files are recommended for better performance.
Note
For inference, the image dataset folder only needs to contain unclassified images.
Register the image dataset as a file dataset in your workspace, since the input of Convert to Image Directory component must be a File dataset.
Add the registered image dataset to the canvas. You can find your registered dataset in the Datasets category in the component list in the left of canvas. Currently Designer does not support visualize image dataset.
Warning
You cannot use Import Data component to import image dataset, because the output type of Import Data component is DataFrame Directory, which only contains file path string.
Add the Convert to Image Directory component to the canvas. You can find this component in the 'Computer Vision/Image Data Transformation' category in the component list. Connect it to the image dataset.
Submit the pipeline. This component could be run on either GPU or CPU.
Results
The output of Convert to Image Directory component is in Image Directory format, and can be connected to other image-related components of which the input port format is also Image Directory.
Technical notes
Expected inputs
|Name||Type||Description|
|Input dataset||AnyDirectory, ZipFile||Input dataset|
Output
|Name||Type||Description|
|Output image directory||ImageDirectory||Output image directory|
Next steps
See the set of components available to Azure Machine Learning. | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/component-reference/convert-to-image-directory |
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
BACKGROUND
1. Field
2. Description of Related Art
SUMMARY
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0172299, filed on Dec. 16, 2016 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a movable object and a method for controlling the same.
A movable object may be defined as an apparatus that can move from a one location to another. The movable object may move between first and second locations by using at least one moving means, e.g., a wheel, a rail, or a mechanical foot for walking, provided in the movable object. The movable object may collect external information by using a sensor and then move according to the collected information. Alternatively, the movable object may travel according to a user's command, which is input through an additional operating means.
A movable object may be any of a variety of apparatuses capable of moving. Some examples of a movable object include vehicles, carts, a variety of construction equipment, robot cleaners and toy cars. Other examples include wheeled medical equipment, and robots used in the household, industrial, medical or military purposes, e.g., an automated guided vehicle (AGV).
An aspect of the present disclosure to provide a movable object capable of quickly and accurately estimating and determining a current position, and a method for controlling the same.
In an aspect, a method for controlling a movable object may involve acquiring virtual data representing distances between each of a plurality of positions within an area and surfaces in the area, in a plurality of directions, respectively, based on a map of the area. An algorithm may be executed that outputs positions corresponding to the virtual data. Actual distance data between the movable object and a plurality of surfaces in the vicinity of the movable object may be acquired. An actual position of the movable object may then be estimated corresponding to the actual distance data by executing the algorithm using the actual distance data. The movable object may be controlled based on the estimated actual position.
The acquisition of the virtual data for at least one position of the positions may involve performing a ray casting in a horizontal plane about 360 degrees of the at least one position on the map.
The algorithm may be a machine learning algorithm that learns positions corresponding to the virtual data applied as input data. The algorithm may comprise at least one of deep neural network (DNN), convolution neural network (CNN), recurrent neural network (RNN), deep belief neural network (DBN), and deep Q-networks.
The execution of the algorithm may include converting the virtual data into processable data and performing a machine learning in which the processable data is input and at least one position corresponding thereto is output.
In another aspect, a movable object may comprise a storage storing a map of an area; a data collector acquiring actual distance data between the movable object and a plurality of surfaces in the vicinity thereof, in a plurality of directions, respectively; a processor executing instructions for: acquiring the actual distance data from the data collector; acquiring virtual distance data representing distances between each of a plurality of positions within an area and surfaces in the area, in a plurality of directions, respectively, based on the map; executing an algorithm that outputs positions corresponding to the virtual data; and estimating an actual position of the movable object corresponding to the actual distance data by executing the algorithm using the actual distance data.
FIGS. 1 to 12
Hereinafter, embodiments of a movable object will be described with reference to .
FIG. 1
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is a block diagram illustrating a movable object, , according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Movable object may include a processor , a storage , a data collector , a communicator and a driver . Movable object may be an object capable of moving from a certain location to another location according to a user's control or a predetermined setting. Movable object may be a vehicle, a cart, a robot, construction equipment, etc., among other non-limiting examples of movable objects discussed above.
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The processor , the storage , the data collector , and the driver are electrically connected to one another and configured to transmit and/or receive data with each other. Such data communication may be over a data bus or a circuit embedded in the movable object . Alternatively, the processor , the storage , the data collector , and the driver may transmit and/or receive data by using a wireless communication network, e.g., WIFI, WIFI Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC) or CAN communication.
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The processor is configured to control the overall operation of the movable object . For example, the processor may receive data collected by the data collector and perform a variety of determinations related to the operation of the movable object based on the received data. The processor may generate a control signal corresponding to the determined operation and transmit the generated control signal to the driver . Accordingly, the processor may control the movable object to move, rotate, or stop according to the determination.
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According to an embodiment, the processor may determine an “actual position” of the movable object . The actual position of the movable object may be an absolute or relative position in which the movable object is located at a point of time in which the processor determines a position of the movable object . The position in which the movable object is located may be defined in a variety of methods, and may be defined as a location of a reference point of movable object , e.g., a center point, a front end, a rear end or an arbitrary point of movable object . According to the performance of the processor or the location determination method, there may be a difference between the position of the movable object determined by the processor , and a position in which the movable object is actually located.
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Storage stores a machine learning algorithm (hereafter, just “learning algorithm” ) which is an artificial intelligence type computer program executed by processor . According to an embodiment, the processor may determine a current position of the movable object by using actual data provided by the data collector and executing the learning algorithm . Here, “actual data” refers to data that is directly acquired from items (objects and surfaces) present in the environment outside of the movable object . Each instance of the actual data (interchangeably referred to herein as “actual distance data”) may represent a distance between the reference point of movable object and a surface in the environment in a line of sight in a particular direction.
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For example, the processor may apply the actual data to the learning algorithm and acquire position information corresponding to the actual data, e.g., the coordinates based on a Cartesian coordinate system, using the learning algorithm , thereby determining the actual position of the movable object . In this case, the position information corresponding to the actual data may be determined as the actual position of the movable object .
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According to an embodiment, the processor may directly acquire the learning algorithm and determine the actual position of the movable object by using the directly acquired learning algorithm .
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Particularly, the processor may call a map stored in the storage , and acquire at least one instance of “virtual data” from at least one point of the called map . “Virtual data” refers to data that is acquired by calculation using the map , without measuring the data from the environment outside movable object . More specifically, virtual data for a particular position within an area defined by the map may represent distances, in different respective directions, between that position and surfaces in the area. In one example, processor acquires the virtual data by using a ray casting over 360 degrees in a horizontal plane, on at least one point in the map.
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When the virtual data is acquired, the processor may perform machine learning by inputting the acquired virtual data to a certain algorithm . Algorithm , like learning algorithm , is computer program code executed by processor . According to the result of the machine learning, the processor may acquire/train the learning algorithm . Herein, the learning algorithm is said to be “acquired” or “trained” when the learning of the positions corresponding to the input virtual data is completed, such that no further learning is necessary. The learning algorithm may be temporarily or persistently stored in the storage .
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More specifically, the machine learning performed by the learning algorithm is a learning that enables the learning algorithm to determine a position corresponding to virtual data when the virtual data is applied as input data. Once trained, the algorithm is able to output an estimated position that matches specific input data. In this manner, when the actual position of the moving object is unknown and actual data is later applied to the learning algorithm as the input data, the algorithm may output an estimated actual position corresponding to the actual data. That is, the learning algorithm may determine that the actual data closely matches virtual data that it previously correlated with a particular position. Learning algorithm can thereby estimate the actual position corresponding to the actual data through prior knowledge of that position previously corresponding to the virtual data closely matching the actual data. As a result, an estimated position of the mobile object may be quickly obtained.
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According to another embodiment, the processor may determine the actual position of the movable object by executing the learning algorithm transmitted from an external server or a terminal device (not shown) via a communicator .
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When the actual position of the movable object is determined, the processor may determine a sequential operation of the movable object based on the determined actual position. For example, the processor may generate a control signal to allow the movable object to move in a predetermined direction or towards a target point, based on the actual position, and the processor may transmit the control signal to the driver .
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The processor may be implemented by using Central Processing Unit (CPU), Micro Controller Unit (MCU), or Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). A detailed operation of the processor will be described later.
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The storage may temporarily or persistently store at least one of the various programs and data required for the operation of the processor . The storage may include a main storage and auxiliary storage. Storage may be implemented by a semiconductor storage medium, e.g., random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), or flash memory, a magnetic disk storage medium, e.g., a hard disk, a magnetic drum storage medium or an optical recording medium.
FIG. 1
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As illustrated in , the storage may store the learning algorithm . Learning algorithm may be comprised of computer code constructed by machine learning, where the machine learning may employ at least one of a deep neural network, convolution neural network, recurrent neural network, deep belief neural network, and a deep Q-neural network.
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According to embodiments, the storage may further store at least one of the map and the algorithm . Map represents information related to a certain area arranged in a predetermined format. The area may be or include an inner space of a building. Some examples of buildings include various facilities or structures, e.g., detached houses, apartment houses, commercial buildings, factories, hospitals, schools, or warehouses. In addition, the area may include roads, underground walkways or pedestrian overpasses. The area may be defined differently according to the type of the movable object . For example, when the movable object is a robot cleaner, the area may include the inner space of the detached house and the apartment houses. As another example, when the movable object is an automatic guided vehicle, the area may include the inner space of the factories. According to embodiments, the map may be a two-dimensional map or a three-dimensional map and may be stored in any suitable format understandable by processor (e.g. while executing learning algorithm ) to identify the boundaries of the structures thereof.
FIG. 2
FIG. 3
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is a view illustrating an example of map , which has a map area . The white areas of map may represent positions to which the movable object is allowed to move, and the shaded areas represent positions to which the movable object is not allowed to move. Positions may include an inner space of a room and a corridor. Positions may include a variety of structures forming the buildings, e.g., a column or a wall. Positions may further include points in which a certain structure or equipment, e.g., a machine or furniture, is installed. An example unit area is further described below in connection with .
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The map may be transmitted to the processor in response to a call command, and provide information related to a space in which the movable object is present. According to an embodiment, the processor may acquire virtual data based on the received map .
FIGS. 2 and 3
FIG. 3
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Referring to , the map may include a sub-map covering a plurality of unit areas (only one of which is shown in ). Unit area represents a region defined by dividing the entire area of the map according to a predetermined standard. The unit area may be variously defined according to the operation of the user, a designer, or the processor . The unit area may be defined in various ways according to an object illustrated by the map , e.g., the type of building. For example, when acquiring virtual data by using the map about a detached house, each room, living room, kitchen or bathroom of the detached house may be defined as one of the unit areas
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The algorithm may be used to generate the learning algorithm . According to an embodiment, the algorithm may include machine learning algorithms. The algorithm may be stored in the storage in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable program.
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The learning algorithm may be generated via execution of the algorithm through the use of machine learning by using the virtual data. The learning algorithm may be generated by the processor , or by a separate server external of the movable object . For example, the processor or the server may generate and train the learning algorithm by applying the virtual data to the stored algorithm at least once. Once generated, learning algorithm may be stored in the storage .
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The algorithm or the learning algorithm may be implemented by using at least one of deep neural network (DNN), convolution neural network (CNN), recurrent neural network (RNN), deep belief neural network (DBN), and deep Q-networks.
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The above-described map and/or the algorithm may be stored in a storage provided in the external server of the movable object , without being stored in the storage of the movable object . According to an embodiment, the external server may generate the learning algorithm by using the map and the algorithm . The processor may transmit a request for providing the learning algorithm to the external server via the communicator , and receive the learning algorithm via the communicator .
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The data collector may be configured to collect data related to the environment of the movable object . Such data may include data related to items (objects and surfaces) present in the vicinity of the movable object .
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The data collector may detect items actually present outside of the movable object , so that the movable object acquires the actual data. The data collector may output an electrical signal corresponding to the detection result. The output electrical signal may be transmitted to the processor , which generates corresponding data to be stored in storage .
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The data collector may collect the data related to the environment of the movable object by using electromagnetic waves, light waves, sound waves and/or ultrasonic waves. Examples of such electromagnetic and light waves include visible light, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, radio waves, X-rays, gamma rays, microwaves, or extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic. Data collector may be implemented by using a predetermined sensor, e.g., a conventional camera, an infrared camera, an obstacle detection sensor or a distance sensor, but is not limited thereto. Therefore, the data collector may be implemented by using a data collection device of various types or structures.
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According to an embodiment, the data collector may be a two-dimensional sensor or a three-dimensional sensor. When the data collector is a two-dimensional sensor, the data collector may acquire data related to all or some of items present in the same plane. When the data collector is a three-dimensional sensor, the data collector may acquire data related to all or some of items present in a space within a certain range, and may provide depth information for the respective items.
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The driver is driven according to the control of the processor to allow the movable object to perform an operation corresponding to the control of the processor . For example, the driver may be implemented by using a motor or an actuator. The driver may be connected to at least one wheel to rotate the at least one wheel according to the control of the processor . Therefore, the driver may allow the movable object to move from a certain position to another position or the driver may allow the movable object to pivot at a certain point.
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The communicator (which is optional and may therefore be omitted in some embodiments) is configured to perform the communication with an external communication means, e.g., a communication module provided in the server. As needed, communicator may transmit at least one of the actual data acquired by the data collector , the virtual data acquired by the processor , the map , the algorithm and the learning algorithm , to the server. The server may transmit a variety of data, which is transmitted from the movable object , to a second movable object (not shown) to allow the second movable object to be operated through use of the actual data, the virtual data and/or the learning algorithm that were transmitted by communicator .
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In some cases, communicator may receive at least one of the map , the algorithm and the learning algorithm from the server. In this case, the learning algorithm may be a learning algorithm acquired by another movable object or the server.
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Hereinafter, an example operation in which the movable object determines its position will be described in detail. The example is based on an embodiment in which the processor acquires the learning algorithm , determines the position of the movable object based on the learning algorithm , and controls the driver according to the determined position. However, as mentioned above, in other embodiments the learning algorithm may be acquired by a separate server or a second movable object.
FIG. 4A
FIG. 4A
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is a view illustrating an example of virtual data. Processor may read out map data of the complete area of map , or of just a part (sub-map) of map stored in the storage and acquire or compute virtual data related to the read-out map data, as illustrated in . The virtual data for a given position may be line of sight distances between the given position and respective surfaces (interchangeably, “targets”) defined by map or , in different directions, respectively.
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The virtual data may be defined and illustrated by coordinates based on the Cartesian coordinate system, a spherical coordinate system or a polar coordinate system. In either case, the virtual data may be given to a virtual relative distance between a position of the target present in the map and and a position in which the movable object is present.
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According to an embodiment, the processor may acquire the virtual data related to all areas of the map , or may acquire the virtual data related to some area of the map . Acquiring the virtual data related to all areas of the map may be done substantially simultaneously. Alternatively, the virtual data may be acquired in a sequence.
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When the processor acquires the virtual data related to all areas of the map , the processor may sequentially acquire virtual data related to the map about all of the unit areas , from the map . The processor may then combine the virtual data related to the acquired map , to obtain all the desired virtual data.
FIGS. 3 and 4
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As illustrated in , when the processor acquires the virtual data related to the map on the map , the processor may call the map about at least one unit area from the storage and set a reference position (P) on the called map in a random manner or according to a predetermined setting by the user or the designer. Accordingly, the processor may acquire the virtual data based on the setting reference position (P).
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FIG. 4A
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According to an embodiment, the processor may acquire the virtual data by using ray casting. Ray casting is a method for virtually detecting a target, which is the shortest distance to a surface and blocks the path of the light in the path of the light, in a state in which light beams are irradiated in the space. For example, referring to , the ray casting may be performed such that a pixel value is sequentially acquired from a pixel present in the path of the light from the light source, when it is assumed that light beams are irradiated from a light source, which is disposed in a reference position (P), in a first direction (d) in the space forming a plurality of elements, e.g., a plurality of pixels. When the acquired pixel value is within a certain range, a pixel corresponding to the acquired pixel value may be detected, thereby acquiring coordinates of the pixel
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FIG. 4A
The processor may detect the pixel by using the above mentioned method, so as to detect the virtual data . In this case, the virtual data may be the acquired pixel itself, or the virtual data may include the coordinates of the acquired pixel . In addition, the virtual data may be an image formed by the combination of the acquired pixel , as illustrated in .
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The above mentioned ray casting may be performed in the path of the light in a plurality of directions (d to d). For example, when the pixel in the first direction (d) is detected, the ray casting may be sequentially performed in a second direction (d) and thus a pixel in the second direction (d) may be detected. In this case, an angle (θ) between the first direction (d) and the second direction (d) may be defined by the user, the designer, or the processor .
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Sequentially, the ray casting may be performed in a third direction (d), and thus a pixel in the third direction (d) may be detected. An angle (θ) between the second direction (d) and the third direction (d) may be defined by the user, the designer, or the processor . The angle (θ) between the second direction (d) and the third direction (d) may be the same as or different from the angle (θ) between the first direction (d) and the second direction (d).
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When the ray casting is performed in all directions with respect to the reference position (P), the plurality of pixel values to may be acquired, as illustrated in . A group of the acquired plurality of pixel values to or a group of coordinates of each of the plurality of pixel values to may form the virtual data .
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The number of the obtained pixels to may be different according to the size of the angle (e.g. θ and θ) between each ray cast. For example, when the angle (θ and θ) between each direction (d to d) is defined as the same angle θdef, the number of the acquired pixel to may be given as 360/θdef. For example, when the angle (θ and θ) is 1 degree, the instances of the acquired virtual data may be 360.
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As described above, the acquisition of the virtual data may be performed in each unit area , and when the number of unit areas in the entire map is N, the total number of the virtual data acquired in the entire map may be given as N*360/θdef.
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That the ray casting is sequentially performed in the plurality of directions (d to d) may correspond to a case in which the movable object , to which the data collector , e.g., a camera is installed to face a certain direction, is virtually pivoted while acquiring image data about the vicinity thereof. In this case, the angle (θ and θ) between each direction (d to d) may correspond to a virtual direction angle. When the ray casting is performed in all directions, the movable object may be virtually pivoted while acquiring image data about the vicinity thereof. When the angle (θ and θ) between each direction (d to d) is defined as θdef, a virtual rotation (θrotation) of the movable object may be any one of 0 (zero) to 360−θdef.
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As mentioned above, as the processor acquires the plurality of pixels to , the processor may acquire the virtual data about all areas or at least one unit area in the map . In addition, the processor may acquire the virtual data by using various methods considered by the designer.
FIG. 4B
is a view illustrating a binary image acquired based on the virtual data.
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When the virtual data is acquired, the processor may convert the obtained virtual data into processable data that is processable by the algorithm . When the virtual data about at least one unit area is acquired, the processor may convert the acquired virtual data to the processable data corresponding to the virtual data . When N*360/θdef of the virtual data is acquired, N*360/θdef of the processable data may be acquired.
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FIG. 4B
According to an embodiment, the processable data may include binary data , as illustrated in . For example, when the virtual data is acquired in the image type, the processor may convert a part in which the pixel to is present, into 1 (one) and convert a part in which the pixel to is not present, into 0 (zero), thereby acquiring binary data, e.g., a binary image , corresponding to the virtual data . According to embodiments, the processor may convert a part in which the pixel to is present, into 0 (zero) and convert a part in which the pixel to is not present, into 1 (one), thereby acquiring binary data, e.g., a binary image , corresponding to the virtual data . Since the binary image has 0 (zero) and 1, the binary image may be relatively easily processed by the processor .
FIG. 5
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is a diagram illustrating an example of a neural network, which is exemplified as a convolutional neural network Processor may execute algorithm to perform the learning by inputting the acquired binary image (or data representing the binary image ) and the reference position (P) corresponding to the acquired binary image , to the algorithm , e.g., a convolution neural network algorithm , so that the acquired binary image corresponds to the coordinates of the reference position (P) in which the ray casting is performed. For example, the processor may execute the convolution neural network algorithm to perform the learning so that, when input values to the convolution neural network algorithm represent the acquired binary image , the coordinates of the reference position (P) corresponding to the acquired binary image becomes an output value. Accordingly, the learning algorithm may be trained.
FIG. 5
27
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
1
2
a
As illustrated in , the convolution neural network algorithm may include at least hidden layers l, l, and l. At least one of hidden layers l, l, and l may include convolution layers c and c, and pooling layers s and s.
1
2
1
2
25
a
Convolution may be performed in the convolution layers c and c. Accordingly, a feature map may be acquired in the convolution layers c and c. By the convolution process, the input binary image may be transformed and thus the size, e.g., the resolution, thereof may be reduced.
1
2
10
25
1
2
a
In the convolution layers c and c, a convolution kernel, which is defined by the processor , may be applied to the input binary image or entire or part of image, which is acquired by a sub-sampling performed in the pooling layers s and s. Accordingly, a new pixel value may be calculated. Therefore, the feature map may be acquired by the calculated pixel value.
25
a
For example, when at least one area among the plurality of elements (e.g., pixels) forming the binary image is selected, values, which correspond to at least two elements corresponding to the selected at least one area, may be summed or weighted summed, and thus a result value corresponding to the at least one area may be determined. By repeating the same process, a result value corresponding to the plurality of areas may be determined and thus the feature map may be acquired by combining the result values. In this case, the selected at least one area may be overlapped. In other words, the elements included in any one selected area may be included in another selected area.
1
2
The feature map may be transmitted to the pooling layers s and s. The transmitted result value may be in the form of a two-dimensional matrix. According to embodiments, an activation function may be further applied to the acquired feature map.
1
2
1
2
In the pooling layers s and s, the feature map may be relatively further reduced. In the pooling layer s and s, at least one of the feature map may be selected and the sub-sampling may be performed based on the value of the plurality of elements (e.g., pixels) in the at least one area. For example, the sub-sampling may be performed by average pooling, i.e., calculating an average of the value of the plurality of elements in the at least one area, or by max pooling, i.e., selecting a value corresponding to a certain reference among the value of the plurality of elements, e.g., a maximum value.
1
2
2
2
2
Result data acquired by the sub-sampling in the pooling layer s and s may be transmitted to another layer I. In the other layer I, the convolution and the sub-sampling may be performed on the result data transmitted to the other layer I, again.
1
2
1
2
3
3
The acquired result data through the convolution layer c and c and the pooling layer s and s may be transmitted to a feedforward layer I. The result data may be used as an input value of the feedforward layer I.
3
3
According to an embodiment, the acquired data may be recognized and/or classified in the feedforward layer I. The feedforward layer I may include a fully connected neural network. The fully connected neural network may include a plurality of neurons, and at least two neurons in the plurality of neurons may be connected to each other so that an input and an output are fully connected.
3
26
1
25
a.
The output of the feedforward layer I may be given as the coordinates of the reference position (P) corresponding the binary image
3
According to an embodiment, the feedforward layer I may be implemented by using regression method, e.g., linear regression or logistic regression.
25
3
1
2
1
2
3
25
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1
28
a
a
Therefore, the input binary image may be input to the feedforward layer I after being reduced by the convolution layer c and c and the pooling layer s and s, and the feedforward layer I may be formed so that the binary image corresponds to the coordinates of the reference position (P). Accordingly, the learning algorithm may be trained.
24
23
24
1
2
3
10
28
24
26
1
a
As mentioned above, when the plurality of virtual data , e.g., N*360/θdef virtual data, is acquired by the ray casting in the plurality of unit areas , each virtual data may be substituted to the hidden layers l, l and l, simultaneously or sequentially, and thus the processor may acquire/train the learning algorithm which performs learning to allow the plurality of virtual data to correspond to the coordinates of the plurality of reference positions (P).
28
20
The learning algorithm may be stored in the storage , as described above.
28
1
28
28
1
The acquisition of the learning algorithm may be performed before the movable object acquires the actual data. In addition, the learning algorithm may be periodically updated or continually updated at any time. The update of the learning algorithm may be performed after the actual data is acquired or the position of the movable object is determined based on the actual data.
FIG. 6
FIG. 7
FIG. 8A
is a first view illustrating an example in which the movable object acquires the actual data, and is a second view illustrating an example in which the movable object acquires the actual data. is a view illustrating an example of the actual data.
FIGS. 6 and 7
1
40
1
1
40
1
31
1
a
As illustrated in , in a state in which the movable object is placed in any one space , when an actual position acquisition process of the movable object starts, the movable object may collect information related to a target present in the vicinity of the movable object by using the data collector provided in the movable object .
40
1
1
40
a
a
The target present in the vicinity of the movable object is defined in various ways according to the space in which the movable object travels. For example, the target may include inner walls or outer walls of buildings, columns, doors, furniture, door sills, pipes, various electronic products, machines, and various workpiece and/or various items capable of occupying the space.
1
31
11
33
11
33
40
40
2
FIG. 8A
FIG. 8A
a
a
When the actual position process is started, the movable object may control the data collector to face a certain direction (d) and then to stop; and collect actual data related to the certain direction (d). The actual data may be the same type of data as the virtual data, as illustrated in . For example, the actual data may be implemented by a group of points having the coordinates corresponding to position of each target , as illustrated in . The coordinates of each point may represent a relative position of the target in the vicinity with respect to the actual position (p) corresponding to the origin.
1
33
11
1
33
11
12
1
11
31
1
33
12
31
FIG. 6
FIG. 7
FIG. 6
FIG. 7
In one embodiment, the movable object may acquire actual data related to a single direction (d), as illustrated in . In another embodiment, the movable object may acquire actual data corresponding to a plurality of directions (d and d), as illustrated in . For example, the movable object may acquire the actual data related to the single direction (d) by using the data collector , as illustrated in , and sequentially, the movable object may acquire the actual data related to another direction (d) by using the data collector , as illustrated in .
11
1
3
1
31
12
35
10
3
31
1
12
33
11
12
Particularly, for example, after acquiring the actual data related to one direction (d) is completed, the movable object may rotate by a predetermined angle (Θ) in a predetermined direction (a) so that the data collector faces another direction (d). The rotation may be performed by the operation of the driver according to the control of the processor . When the rotation by the predetermined angle (Θ) is completed, the data collector of the movable object may start to collect actual data related to a new direction (d). Accordingly, it may be possible to collect the actual data related to the plurality of directions (d and d).
1
1
33
1
FIG. 7
According to embodiments, the movable object may repeatedly perform the operation illustrated in , and thus the movable object may acquire actual data related to all directions about the vicinity of the movable object .
10
1
1
31
31
10
1
1
33
11
31
10
1
1
33
11
12
The processor of the movable object may determine whether to rotate the movable object according to a data collection range of the data collector . When the data collection range of the data collector , e.g., an angle of view, is sufficiently wide, the processor may control the movable object so that the movable object acquires the actual data about a single direction (d). When the data collection range of the data collector is small, the processor may control the movable object so that the movable object acquires the plurality of actual data corresponding to the plurality of directions (d and d).
31
1
33
According to an embodiment, the data collector may be implemented using an omni-directional camera. In this case, the movable object may acquire the actual data about all directions, in a stopped state, without the rotation.
FIG. 8B
FIG. 8A
FIG. 8B
33
33
35
35
is a view illustrating a binary image acquired based on the actual data. As illustrated in , when the actual data is acquired, the acquired actual data may be converted into the processable data , as shown in . The processable data may include binary data, e.g., a binary image.
33
35
24
25
33
35
33
a
The conversion from the actual data to the binary data may be performed as the same method as the conversion from the virtual data to the binary data . In other words, a value of 1 (one) may be assigned to each point of the actual data and a value of 0 (zero) may be assigned to other points (i.e., except for the point having the value of 1), thereby acquiring the binary data corresponding to the actual data .
10
35
28
1
The processor may input the acquired binary data to the learning algorithm so as to acquire information related to a position of the movable object . Such information may be expressed by predetermined coordinates, wherein the predetermined coordinates may be defined by an axis of coordinates that is set with respect a predetermined origin.
35
33
28
1
35
28
26
1
25
10
1
33
a
As mentioned above, when inputting the binary data , which is acquired based on the actual data , to the learning algorithm , information related to the position of the movable object corresponding to the binary data may be output, since the learning algorithm learns to acquire the coordinates of the reference position (P) corresponding to the input binary image . Therefore, the processor may acquire the information related to the position of the movable object corresponding to the actual data .
FIG. 9
FIG. 10
is a graph illustrating a relationship between an angle and a distance to a target, which are acquired based on the actual data, and is a graph illustrating a relationship between an angle and a distance to a target, which are acquired based on the virtual data.
10
100
33
1
The processor may determine an actual relative position of a robot cleaner with respect to an actual position, based on the actual data . The actual relative position may include information (g) related to the relationship between an angle (θ) and a distance (r) to a target.
FIG. 9
3
2
1
3
22
1
3
21
1
3
21
10
21
1
As shown in , a relative position of a certain position (p, not shown) with respect to the position (p, not shown) in which the movable object is placed, may be expressed by coordinates on the x-axis and y-axis, or an angle (θ) and distance (r). That is, the relative position of the certain position (p) may be defined by an angle (θ) between a line (d) connecting the position (p) in which the movable object is placed, to the certain position (p), and the reference direction (d), and a distance (r) between the position (p) in which the movable object is placed and the certain position (p). The reference direction (d) may be arbitrarily defined by the user, the designer or the processor . For example, the reference direction (d) may be the front side of the movable object .
10
3
10
1
3
33
FIG. 9
The processor may convert the coordinates of the certain position (p) into an angle (θ) and a distance (r), by converting the rectangular coordinate system to the polar coordinate system. Accordingly, the processor may acquire a relationship (g) between the angle (θ) and the distance (r) about the certain position (p). Each point in the actual data may be expressed in the form of graph by using the angle (θ) and the distance (r), as illustrated in .
10
24
1
In addition, the processor may determine a virtual relative position from the virtual data . The virtual relative position may include a distance between a target present in the map, and an arbitrary position on the map (i.e., a position in which the robot cleaner is assumed to be virtually present). The virtual relative position may include an angle between directions about a target present in the map, with respect to the reference direction.
10
2
24
33
10
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2
24
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33
1
100
The processor may acquire a relationship (g) between an angle and a distance about the virtual data in the same method as the method for acquiring the relationship between angle (θ) and the distance (r) about the actual data . In this case, the processor may select a single position in the map and and acquire an angle and a distance about a target with respect to the selected single position on the map and , thereby acquiring the relationship (g) between an angle and a distance about the virtual data . A single position on the map and may be the same as a position in which the actual data of the movable object is acquired, i.e., a position in which the movable object is currently present.
2
24
FIG. 10
The relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the virtual data may be expressed in the form of graph, as illustrated in .
FIG. 11A
FIG. 11B
is a first view illustrating a difference between a relationship between an angle and a distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and a relationship between an angle and a distance which are acquired based on the virtual data. is a second view illustrating the difference between the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 11A
FIG. 11B
1
33
2
24
1
33
24
33
4
24
1
33
2
24
Referring to , the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the virtual data may be not identical to each other. When the movable object acquires the actual data related to a direction different from a case of acquiring the virtual data , the actual data may be dislocated by a certain angle (θ) with respect to the virtual data , as illustrated in . Therefore, the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the virtual data may be not identical to each other.
FIG. 12A
FIG. 12B
is a third view illustrating the difference between the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the virtual data. is a fourth view illustrating the difference between the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the virtual data.
1
10
1
33
2
24
1
10
FIG. 12A
In order to measure a direction angle of the movable object , the processor may shift at least one of the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the virtual data , with respect to an axis indicating an angle, e.g., the X-axis, as illustrated in . The direction angle may indicate that how much angle is different between a direction to which the front portion of the movable object faces and the reference direction. The reference direction may be arbitrarily defined by the user, the designer and/or the processor .
FIG. 12B
1
33
2
24
1
33
2
24
10
1
33
2
24
1
As illustrated in , while shifting the at least one of the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the virtual data , when the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data are identical with each other, the processor may determine a shift degree of the at least one of the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the virtual data , and determine an angle corresponding to the shift degree, thereby determining the direction angle of the movable object .
1
33
2
24
1
33
1
When the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data and the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data are identical with each other, as the relationship (g) between the angle and the distance about the actual data is shifted to the right side of the graph by a certain angle, e.g., 80 degrees, it may be determined that the movable object is rotated by a certain angle, e.g., 80 degrees.
10
1
Therefore, the processor may determine the rotation direction and the rotation degree (i.e., rotation angle) of the movable object .
FIGS. 13 to 19
Hereinafter a robot cleaner will be described as an example of the movable object with reference to .
FIG. 13
FIG. 14A
FIG. 14B
FIG. 14A
FIG. 13
132
is a perspective view illustrating a robot cleaner according to an embodiment, is a plan view illustrating an internal structure of the robot cleaner according to an embodiment, and is a bottom view illustrating the robot cleaner according to an embodiment. illustrates that a dust collecting box of is separated from the robot cleaner.
FIGS. 13 to 14B
In , with respect to the center of the robot cleaner, a direction in which a suction portion is formed may be defined as a front direction and a direction opposite to the front direction may be defined as a rear direction. When the robot cleaner operates in a conventional manner, a direction adjacent to the ground may be defined as a lower direction, and a direction opposite to the lower direction may be defined as an upper direction. One direction of a line perpendicular to a line connecting the front direction to the rear direction may be defined as the left direction and a direction opposite to the left direction may be defined as the right direction. In addition, a lateral direction may be defined to include at least one of the left direction and the right direction.
FIGS. 13 to 14B
100
101
100
101
As illustrated in , the robot cleaner may include a body forming an appearance of the robot cleaner . The body may be formed by a single external case or more than two external case, which are combined with each other.
101
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130
The body may include a first body formed in the front side and a second body formed in the rear side of the first body . The first body and the second body may be integrally formed or alternatively, the first body and the second body may be separately manufactured and then coupled to each other. When the first body and the second body are separately manufactured and then coupled to each other, a connecting member connecting the first body to the second body may be formed between the first body and the second body .
110
100
According to an embodiment, a variety of components may be provided in the first body , wherein the components are configured to collect a variety of information related to the driving of the robot cleaner or configured to collect the dust on the ground.
110
110
110
The front surface of the first body may be formed in a predetermined shape to suction the dust in the vicinity of a target while in contact with the target, e.g., a wall placed in the front side and the lateral side with respect to the driving direction. For example, when viewing the front surface of the first body in the upper direction, the first body may be formed in the rectangular, circular, or oval shape.
199
110
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100
118
119
A bumper may be coupled to the front side of the first body to mitigate the noise and shock generated when the robot cleaner collides with the wall during the robot cleaner drives. A buffer member may be additionally coupled to the bumper to support the damping.
112
111
110
112
138
138
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110
a
An inlet port to which the dust gathered by a brush module is suctioned may be provided on the lower surface of the first body . The dust suctioned via the inlet port may be transmitted to the inner space of a dust collecting portion by passing through at least one tube . The inlet port may be extended from the left direction to the right direction of the first body .
111
110
111
The brush module may be provided on the lower surface of the first body to collect the dust on the ground, wherein an external surface of the brush module is provided with a plurality of protrusions with a certain length.
111
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b
a
b
b
a
a
b.
The brush module of the first body may include a rotary member pivotable with respect to a certain shaft and at least one protrusion formed in a certain shape on an outer circumferential surface of the rotary member . The rotary member may be formed along the longitudinal direction of the inlet port formed in the lower surface of the first body . The protrusion may be formed by using a rigid material and/or a flexible material, and the protrusion may sweep the dust on the ground according to the rotation of the rotary member
111
111
110
112
b
The brush module may move the dust on the ground in at least one direction of the rear direction and the upper direction according to the rotation of the rotary member so that the dust on the ground is suctioned into the inside of the first body through the inlet port .
117
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117
111
At least one guide flow path guiding the dust to the brush module may be provided in the lower end portion of the first body for improving the suction force. The guide flow path may be formed in the front side of the brush module .
116
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100
116
FIG. 15
A charge terminal charging the robot cleaner may be provided in the lower end portion of the first body . When the charge terminal is coupled to a terminal formed in a docking station (not shown), the robot cleaner may be electrically connected to the docking station, and the commercial current supplied to the docking station may be transmitted to the power source (refer to ) of the robot cleaner via the charge terminal .
130
100
According to an embodiment, in the second body , a portion for storing the collected dust or for controlling a variety of operations related to the robot cleaner may be provided.
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A drive module driving the body may be provided in the second body . The drive module may include a first driving wheel and a second driving wheel for driving the body. Each driving wheel and may be rotatably coupled to opposite sides of the second body to be rotatable in a certain direction R, R, R, and R. For example, when the first driving wheel may be installed on the left direction of the second body and the second driving wheel may be installed on the right direction of the second body .
151
152
The first driving wheel and the second driving wheel may be rotated in the same direction or opposite directions.
151
11
152
22
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100
151
152
12
21
For example, when the first driving wheel is rotated clockwise (R) at a predetermined angular speed, as seen from the left direction and the second driving wheel is rotated clockwise (R) at the same angular speed, as seen from the right direction, the second body may be rotated at a certain position and thus the robot cleaner may be rotated in the position without changing the position. When the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel are rotated in opposite directions (R and R), the operation may be performed, the same as mentioned above.
151
11
152
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130
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12
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130
100
For example, when the first driving wheel is rotated clockwise (R) at a predetermined angular speed, as seen from the left direction and the second driving wheel is rotated counterclockwise (R) at the same angular speed, as seen from the right direction, the second body may be moved backward. In contrast, when the first driving wheel is rotated counterclockwise (R) and the second driving wheel is rotated clockwise (R), the second body may be moved forward. Accordingly, the robot cleaner may be moved in the front direction or the rear direction.
151
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152
FIG. 10
The first driving wheel and the second driving wheel may be rotated according to the drive of a driver and (refer to ) corresponding to the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel .
130
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101
139
In the second body , at least one roller may be installed to support the rotation movement of the body . The roller may be implemented by using a spherical member configured to be rotatable by 360 degree.
139
130
For example, the roller may be provided on the lower surface of the second body .
139
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139
a
b
a
b
According to an embodiment, the roller may include a first roller and a second roller , wherein the first roller and the second roller are provided on different positions.
139
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100
139
110
130
100
a
b
Particularly, for example, the first roller may be installed in the rear side of the lower surface of the second body so as to support the robot cleaner from the rear side, when moving and/or rotating. The second roller may be installed in between the first body and the second body so as to support the robot cleaner from the front side or the vicinity thereof, when moving and/or rotating.
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a
b
a
b
a
b
a
b
a
b
The first roller and the second roller may be coupled to a position to support the center of gravity of the body . In this case, the rollers and may be installed in a position such that a distance from the position in which the rollers and are installed to the first driving wheel and a distance from the position in which the rollers and are installed to the second driving wheel are the same. When the rollers and are installed as mentioned above, the driving load generated during the driving of the body may be minimized.
121
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100
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121
122
FIG. 15
FIG. 5
At least one of an input (refer to ) receiving a certain command from a user, e.g., a button or a knob, and a display (refer to ) displaying a state of the robot cleaner or providing a variety information to a user may be provided on an upper surface of the second body . The input and the display may be omitted according to embodiments.
FIG. 14A
135
130
100
Referring to , a substrate may be installed in the inside of the second body for various kinds of electronic controls of the robot cleaner .
135
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135
FIG. 15
FIG. 15
FIG. 15
A variety of components may be installed on the substrate to perform the function of a controller (refer to ), a ROM/RAM (refer to ), or a storage (refer to ). For example, at least one semiconductor chip, circuit and/or a related component serving as the controller , and a component such as a communication chip and an antenna serving as a communicator may be installed on the substrate .
123
130
123
138
As needed, a power source may be installed in the inside of the second body to supply the power for controlling the support body. According to an embodiment, the power source may be disposed in the rear side of the dust collecting portion .
123
101
According to an embodiment, the power source may include a battery, wherein the battery may be a secondary battery that is rechargeable. When the body is coupled to the docking station separately provided, the battery may be charged by the commercial power supplied from the docking station.
138
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132
The dust collecting portion storing the dust may be provided in the inside of the second body . The dust collecting portion may include a suction motor providing the power for suctioning the dust and the dust collecting box storing the suctioned dust.
FIG. 13
132
130
132
132
132
As illustrated in , the dust collecting box may be provided such that at least one portion thereof is exposed to the outside. In this case, an opening may be formed on the external case of the second body corresponding to the upper surface of the dust collecting box . According to embodiments, a case configured to be openable may be further coupled to the opening. In addition, the external case of the dust collecting box may be formed of a transparent material, e.g., glass or synthetic resin. Accordingly, the user may check the amount of the dust stored in the dust collecting box with naked eyes.
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132
The dust collecting box may be provided such that a user can detach the dust collecting box from the second body . For this, a gripping portion having a certain shape may be installed in the dust collecting box . The gripping portion may be installed on one surface of the dust collecting box , which is exposed to the outside.
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132
A blowing fan may be further provided in the dust collecting box to suction the dust and move the dust to the inside of the dust collecting box . The blowing fan may start to rotate according to an operation of the suction motor , and thus the dust may be suctioned to the inside of the dust collecting box according to the rotation of the blowing fan and then stacked in the inside of the dust collecting box .
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100
190
The suction motor may be coupled to the lateral surface of the dust collecting box . The suction motor may include a DC motor, AC motor, a brushless DC motor (BLDC motor) or a linear induction motor. The suction motor may allow the robot cleaner to gather the dust on the ground by starting the operation according to the control of the controller .
151
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152
The first driving wheel and the second driving wheel may be disposed on opposite lateral surfaces of the dust collecting box and the suction motor , and thus the dust collecting box , the suction motor and each driving wheel and may be disposed in parallel with the transverse direction of the body.
170
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According to an embodiment, the data collector may be further installed in at least one upper surface of the first body and the second body .
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190
The data collector may detect an object present in at least one direction among the front, lateral and rear direction of the robot cleaner . In this case, data acquired by the data collector may be actual data related to the vicinity of the robot cleaner . The actual data acquired by the data collector may be transmitted to the controller through at least one circuit or wire.
170
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170
170
The data collector may be implemented by using a visible light camera, an infrared camera, an obstacle sensor or a distance sensor, which are configured to collect information related to a certain direction. In this case, the visible light camera, the infrared camera, the obstacle sensor or the distance sensor may be installed in at least one of the first body and the second body to image an image about the front direction or to detect an object in the front direction. According to embodiments, the data collector may be implemented by using an omnidirectional camera, and when the data collector is an omnidirectional camera, the omnidirectional camera may be installed in one position for properly acquiring an image in all directions.
FIG. 15
Hereinafter a control flow of the robot cleaner will be described with reference to .
FIG. 15
is a control block diagram illustrating the robot cleaner according to an embodiment.
FIG. 15
100
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193
195
As illustrated in , the robot cleaner may include the controller , the ROM/RAM and the storage .
190
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The controller may be configured to control a variety of operations related to the robot cleaner . The controller may be implemented by using a central processing unit (CPU), and a micro controller unit.
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The controller may receive data, i.e., actual data, which is actually collected by the data collector , from the data collector , and determine a position and a direction of the robot cleaner based on the actual data.
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According to an embodiment, the controller may input the actual data to the algorithm stored in the ROM/RAM and the storage , and acquire information related to the position corresponding to the actual data, e.g., coordinates, thereby determining an actual position of the robot cleaner in the driving space.
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According to an embodiment, the controller may acquire a relationship between a direction angle based on the virtual data, and a distance between the robot cleaner and a target, from the virtual data. The controller may acquire a relationship between a direction angle based on the actual data, and a distance between the robot cleaner and a target, from the actual data. Therefore, the controller may acquire information related to an orientation to which the robot cleaner actually faces, based on the difference between the relationship based on the virtual data and the relationship based on the actual data. A target may include a wall, furniture or a structure. The direction angle of the robot cleaner may include an angle between a certain direction defined by the designer and a direction to which the front portion of the robot cleaner faces.
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The controller may receive data related to the map from the ROM/RAM and the storage , and acquire the virtual data from the data related to the map. The controller may allow a certain algorithm to perform the learning by substituting the virtual data, which is sequentially acquired, to the certain algorithm . The certain algorithm may be the machine learning algorithm. The machine learning algorithm may include at least one of deep neural network (DNN), convolution neural network (CNN), recurrent neural network (RNN), deep belief neural network (DBN), and deep Q-networks.
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The detail operation of the controller has been described through the processor , as mentioned above. Hereinafter a detail description will be omitted.
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The ROM/RAM and the storage may temporarily or non-temporarily store a variety of information related to the operation of the controller and provide data which is requested by the controller , according to the control of the controller . Therefore, the ROM/RAM and the storage may assist the operation of the controller . The ROM/RAM may include a semiconductor storage medium. The storage may include a semiconductor storage medium, a magnetic disk storage medium or a magnetic drum storage medium.
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According to an embodiment, the storage may store the algorithm . The algorithm may be an algorithm in which the learning is performed, and/or an algorithm in which the learning is not performed. The storage may further store a map (not shown), which is needed to acquire the virtual data.
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The controller , the ROM/RAM and the storage may be implemented by using a semiconductor chip and a related component installed on the substrate .
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The robot cleaner may further include the communicator . The communicator may receive a variety of information related to the operation of the robot cleaner , from an external computing device (not shown) or other robot cleaner (not shown), or transmit information related to the operation of the robot cleaner , to the computing device or other robot cleaner. The computing device may include at least one of a desk top computer, a smart phone, a table PC, a lap top computer, and a server computer.
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According to an embodiment, the robot cleaner may receive information related to the map and the algorithm. The robot cleaner may receive the learning algorithm . In addition, the robot cleaner may transmit the directly acquired map or the learning algorithm to the computing device or the robot cleaner.
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The robot cleaner may transmit the actual data to the computing device and other robot cleaner. In this case, the computing device and other robot cleaner may determine at least one of the actual position and the actual direction of the robot cleaner by using the actual data. The robot cleaner may receive at least one of the actual position and the actual direction of the robot cleaner , which is determined by the computing device and other robot cleaner, via the communicator . The controller may determine the operation of the robot cleaner based on at least one of the received actual position and actual direction of the robot cleaner .
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According to an embodiment, the robot cleaner may include a first driver , and a second driver .
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The first driver and the second driver may generate a driving force for an operation of the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel , and directly or indirectly transmit the generated driving force to the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel . For this, the first driver and the second driver may be directly connected to the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel , or the first driver and the second driver may be mechanically connected to the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel through a gear.
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The first driver and the second driver may be implemented by using at least one of a motor or an actuator. Motor may include a DC motor, AC motor, a brushless DC motor (BLDC motor) or a linear induction motor, but is not limited thereto. The motor may be implemented by using a variety of types of driving devices considered by the designer.
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As needed, the robot cleaner may further include a first drive detector and a second drive detector . The first drive detector and the second drive detector may be implanted by using a rotary encoder or a potentiometer.
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The first drive detector and the second drive detector may detect the operation of the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel , respectively, and then transmit the detection result to the controller . The controller may control the first driver and the second driver based on the received detection result. For example, when an electrical signal corresponding to a rotation angle of the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel , is output from the first drive detector and the second drive detector , the controller may receive the electrical signal output from the first drive detector and the second drive detector and determine the rotation angle of the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel . When the determined rotation angle corresponds to a predetermined rotation angle, the controller may transmit a control signal to the first driver and the second driver so that the first driving wheel and the second driving wheel stop their rotation.
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The input may receive a variety of commands from a user, and the display may visually provide a variety of information to a user.
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The input may receive at least one of a map related to a driving area in which the robot cleaner is to drive, and the algorithm, which is used for the learning. The input may be implemented by using a variety of input terminals, e.g., a physical button, a touch button, a touch screen, a joy stick, a track ball, or a universal serial bus (USB).
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The display may display information related to the map used for the acquisition of the virtual data and a variety of information related to the operation of the robot cleaner , e.g., whether to learn, or whether the learning is completed. The display may be implemented by using a certain display panel, e.g., liquid crystal display (LCD). In addition, the display may be implemented by using an illumination device, e.g., light emitting diode (LED). When the input employs a touch screen, a separate display may be omitted.
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The power source , the suction motor and the data collector have been described, and thus a detail description thereof will be omitted.
Hereinafter an example of process of determining a position of the robot cleaner will be described.
FIG. 16
FIG. 17
FIG. 18
FIG. 19
is a view illustrating a driving path of the robot cleaner, and is a view illustrating an example in which the position of the robot cleaner is arbitrarily changed. is a view illustrating a process in which the robot cleaner acquires the actual data, and is a view illustrating an example of an operation of the robot cleaner after acquiring the actual data.
FIG. 16
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As illustrated in , the robot cleaner may drive in a cleaning space according to a predetermined driving pattern. The predetermined driving pattern may be defined or determined by the user, the designer or the controller . According to the predetermined driving pattern, the robot cleaner may drive in a meander-line pattern, a zig-zag pattern, a spiral pattern, a circular or rectangular pattern, or a combination thereof.
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In addition, the robot cleaner may drive in various patterns according to the determination of the user, the designer or the controller .
FIG. 17
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As illustrated in , the position of the robot cleaner may be arbitrarily changed by the interference. For example, a user may move the robot cleaner from one position in a driving pattern , to one position except for the driving pattern.
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In response to the movement to the new position , the robot cleaner may start an operation to determine the new position . Particularly, the controller of the robot cleaner may transmit a control signal to the data collector to allow the data collector to be started so as to determine a current position of the robot cleaner . Therefore, the data collector may collect information related to the vicinity of the robot cleaner , e.g., an image or a detection result.
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FIG. 18
In this case, the controller may transmit the control signal to the first driver and the second driver so that the robot cleaner is rotated in a certain direction (a) in the new position , as illustrated in .
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According to an embodiment, according to the control of the controller , the robot cleaner may be rotated by a certain angle (θrobot) and then stopped. Particularly, when the robot cleaner is rotated by the certain angle (θrobot), the controller may transmit a control signal to the first driver and the second driver so as to stop the first driver and the second driver . Accordingly, the operation of the driving wheels and may be stopped and thus the robot cleaner may be rotated by the certain angle (θrobot) and then stopped. Whether the robot cleaner is rotated by the certain angle (θrobot) or not, may be determined based on the output signal of the first drive detector and the second drive detector .
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In response to the stop of the rotation of the robot cleaner , the data collector may collect actual data related to the front side of the robot cleaner through the reception of the visual light or the transmission and reception of the infrared light about the front side.
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When the data collection of the data collector is completed, the robot cleaner may be rotated by a certain angle (θrobot), again and then stopped. When the robot cleaner is stopped, the data collector may collect data, again. The above mentioned process may be repeated by a number of times according to the determination of the user, the designer or the controller . As needed, the robot cleaner may be rotated by approximately 360 degrees or 360−θrobot degrees, and the data collector may repeatedly collect data by 360/θrobot times. In this case, the data collector may collect data related to all directions in the vicinity of the robot cleaner .
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When the data collector is an omnidirectional camera, the robot cleaner may not need to rotate at a position, which is newly changed, to acquire the actual data about all directions. In this case, while the robot cleaner maintains in the stopped state in the position , the data collector may collect the actual data by imaging about all directions.
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The controller may apply the acquired actual data to a pre-learned algorithm , and acquire information, e.g., coordinates, related to the position of the robot cleaner corresponding to the actual data, from the learning algorithm . The learning algorithm may be acquired prior to the driving of the robot cleaner . Alternatively, the learning algorithm may be acquired by at least one of the robot cleaner , the computing device and other robot cleaner, according to embodiments. Accordingly, the controller may determine the current position of the robot cleaner .
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According to the above mentioned method, when the robot cleaner determines the new position , it may be not required that the robot cleaner is moved to an additional position. In other words, according to the conventional manner, e.g., local re-localization and global re-localization, it may be required that the robot cleaner is moved to estimate a position to which the robot cleaner is moved, but according to the above mentioned method, the movement of the robot cleaner may be not required. Therefore, since it is possible to omit the unnecessary movement of the robot cleaner , the robot cleaner may more quickly recognize the position to which the robot cleaner is moved. The robot cleaner may determine a next operation based on the recognized moved position , and thus it may be possible to improve the efficiency of the operation.
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When the current position of the robot cleaner is determined, the controller may control the robot cleaner according to at least one of the user selection, a predetermined setting and a random determination of the controller .
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For example, the controller may control the robot cleaner so that the robot cleaner returns to the position , which is an original position before moving. In addition, for another example, the controller may control each component of the robot cleaner so that the robot cleaner further performs a remaining operation of the driving pattern in the moved position . For another example, the controller may set a route to an initial destination, which is intended by the robot cleaner , from the current position , and control the robot cleaner so that the robot cleaner moves to the initial destination according to the set route. In addition, the controller may determine a new driving pattern started from the newly determined current position and generate a control signal for each component of the robot cleaner according to the newly determined driving pattern.
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Hereinbefore, the robot cleaner has been described as an example of the movable object . However, the movable object may be not applied to only the robot cleaner . The movable object may be applied to a variety of movable apparatus, e.g., vehicles, carts, a variety of construction equipment, robot vacuum cleaner, toy cars, medical equipment, robots used in the industrial, medical or military purposes, in the same manner or in a partially modified manner.
FIGS. 20 and 21
Hereinafter a method for controlling the movable object according to an embodiment will be described with reference to .
FIG. 20
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is a first flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the movable object according to an embodiment. When the movable object starts to move (), the movable object may call the map ().
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Sequentially, the movable object may acquire the virtual data from the called map (). For example, the movable object may acquire the virtual data through the ray casting method. In this case, the movable object may perform the ray casting about the plurality of directions and thus the movable object may acquire the virtual data related to a number of points in the map.
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When the virtual data is acquired, the movable object may convert the virtual data to the processable data (). The processable data may include a binary image. For example, the movable object may acquire the processable data by converting an image about each image acquired by the ray casting, into a binary image.
304
The movable object may apply the processable data to the algorithm (). The algorithm may include a separate algorithm for the machine learning, e.g., deep neural network, convolution neural network, recurrent neural network, deep belief neural network, and deep Q-neural network.
305
Therefore, the movable object may acquire the algorithm which performs the learning based on the virtual data ().
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The learning algorithm may be stored in the storage in the movable object ().
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The above mentioned calling map step and acquiring learning algorithm step ( to ) may be directly performed by the movable object or a device other than the movable object, e.g., a computing device or other movable object.
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Some steps among the above mentioned calling map step and acquiring learning algorithm step ( to ) may be performed by the movable object or other step may be performed by a computing device or other movable object.
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In addition, the plurality of movable objects may perform the above mentioned calling map step and acquiring learning algorithm step ( to ) by having the communication with each other. For example, the plurality of movable objects may perform the above mentioned steps ( to ) on a certain area assigned to each movable object. Particularly, any one movable object may perform the above mentioned steps ( to ) on a part area on the entire map, by acquiring the learning algorithm and another movable object may perform the above mentioned steps ( to ) on other part area, by acquiring the learning algorithm.
When the learning algorithm is acquired, as mentioned above, the movable object may use the learning algorithm to determine an actual position of the movable object.
FIG. 21
310
is a second flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the movable object according to an embodiment. In this method, firstly, the movable object may perform the operation and the driving ().
311
The position of the movable object may be moved to an arbitrary position during the movable object drives (). For example, the movable object may be moved from an expected position to other position, by the user.
312
When the movable object is moved to other position, the movable object may collect the actual data in the moved position (). The collection of the actual data may be performed by using a visible light camera, an infrared camera, an obstacle detection sensor or a distance sensor. The visible light camera or the infrared camera may be implemented by employing a camera having a certain angle of view. The visible light camera or the infrared camera may be an omnidirectional camera.
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When the actual data is collected (), the movable object may acquire information related to the actual position, and information related to a direction angle of the movable object, that is information about a direction to which the movable object faces, through an additional process (, , , and ).
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FIG. 20
According to an embodiment, the movable object may substitute the acquired actual data into the learning algorithm acquired at the step of ().
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By using the learning algorithm, the position information corresponding to the actual data may be acquired, and thus the movable object may determine an actual position of the movable object ().
320
The movable object may acquire the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target, from the actual data and the virtual data ().
302
FIG. 20
The virtual data may be acquired from the map. As needed, the movable object may acquire the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target, by using the virtual data acquired at the step of . The movable object may additionally acquire the virtual data from the map through the ray casting method, and acquire the relationship between the angle and the distance to the target based on the virtual data.
321
Sequentially, the movable object may acquire a direction angle of the movable object based on the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the actual data and the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the virtual data ().
When the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the actual data is identical to the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the virtual data, the movable object may determine that the direction angle of the movable object is identical to the direction angle at the acquisition of the virtual data, as predetermined. For example, when the direction angle at the acquisition of the virtual data is defined as 0 (zero) degree, the rotation angle of the movable object may be determined to be 0 (zero) degree.
When the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the actual data is not identical to the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the virtual data, the movable object may shift at least one of the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the actual data, and the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the virtual data. During shifting, when the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the actual data is identical to the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the virtual data, the movable object may determine a shift degree of at least one of the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the actual data and the relationship between an angle and a distance to a target acquired from the virtual data. The movable object may determine an angle corresponding to the shift degree so as to determine the direction angle of the movable object.
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The determination of the actual position of the movable object ( and ) and the acquisition of the direction angle of the movable object ( and ) may be performed, simultaneously or sequentially. When performing sequentially, the determination of the actual position of the movable object ( and ) may be performed prior to the acquisition of the direction angle of the movable object ( and ), or the acquisition of the direction angle of the movable object ( and ) may be performed prior to the determination of the actual position of the movable object ( and ).
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When the actual position and the direction angle of the movable object is acquired and determined ( and ), the movable object may perform the operation according to the acquired and determined actual position and the direction angle of the movable object ().
For example, the movable object may return to the position before the arbitrary change. In this case, the controller may generate a control signal based on the actual position and the direction angle of the movable object and the position before the arbitrary change, and transmit the generated control signal to each component of the movable object. Accordingly, the movable object may move from the position after the change, to the position before the change. For another example, the movable object may determine the actual position and the direction angle of the movable object, as a start point of the new driving pattern, and start the driving from the actual position and the direction angle of the movable object. For another example, the movable object may reset a route from the actual position of the movable object to an initial destination and start the driving along the reset route.
FIGS. 20 and 21
The method for controlling the movable object illustrated with reference to may be applied to a method for controlling the robot cleaner in the same form or in a partially modified form. In addition, the above mentioned method for controlling movable object may be applied to a method for controlling a vehicle, a cart, various construction equipment, a toy car, a medical apparatus, and industrial, medical or military robots in the same form or in a partially modified form.
Methods for controlling the movable object according the above-described embodiments may be implemented using a program executed by a variety of computer means. The program may include program instructions, data files, and data structures as itself or a combination therewith. The program may be designed or manufactured by using higher level code executed by the computer by using an interpreter, as well as by using a machine code that is produced by a compiler. In addition, the program may be particularly designed to implement the control method of the above mentioned movable object or may be implemented by using various functions or definitions that are well-known and available to a person of ordinary skill in the computer software field.
Programs for implementing the method for controlling the movable object may be recorded on a non-transitory recording medium readable by a computer. The recording medium readable by a computer may include various types of hardware devices capable of storing a particular program executed in response to a call from a computer, e.g. magnetic disk storage media such as a hard disk or a floppy disk, optical media such as a magnetic tape, a compact disc (CD) or a DVD, magneto-optical media such as a floptical disk, and semiconductor memory devices such as ROM, RAM, or flash memory.
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It is noted that elements described above such as any of the communicator , data collector , processor , storage or driver may be, or form part of, an integrated circuit. Any of these elements such as the communicator may alternatively termed a communicator circuit, circuitry, or the like.
Hereinbefore a variety of embodiments of the movable object and the control method of the movable object are described, but the technology is not limited thereto. A variety of embodiments may be implementable by those skilled in the art by modification based on the above mentioned embodiments may correspond to the above mentioned movable object and the control method of the movable object. For example, when the above-mentioned techniques are executed in a different order from the above-mentioned method, and/or the above-mentioned components such as system, structure, device and circuit are coupled or combined in a manner different from the above-mentioned method or replaced or substituted by other components or equivalents, the same or the similar result as the above-mentioned movable object and control method of the movable object may be achieved and those may correspond to an example of the above-mentioned movable object and control method of the movable object.
As is apparent from the above description, it may be possible to more quickly and accurately estimate and determine the position in which the movable object is currently placed, as compared to prior art techniques.
Moreover, if the movable object is moved to an arbitrary position by the user or is moved outside while the movable object performs the autonomous navigation, the movable object may quickly and accurately determine a position to which the movable object is moved. Thus, the movable object may more suitably determine an operation, which is to be performed by the movable object from the newly determined position.
Further, when the movable object is disposed at an arbitrary position, the movable object may quickly and accurately determine its current position without an additional operation such as moving to another position.
Although a few embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and/or other aspects of the disclosure will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
FIG. 1
is a block diagram illustrating a movable object according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2
is a view illustrating an example of a map.
FIG. 3
is a view illustrating a portion of the map.
FIG. 4A
is a view illustrating an example of the virtual data.
FIG. 4B
is a view illustrating a binary image acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 5
is a diagram illustrating an example of a neural network.
FIG. 6
is a first view illustrating an example in which the movable object acquires the actual data.
FIG. 7
is a second view illustrating an example in which the movable object acquires the actual data.
FIG. 8A
is a view illustrating an example of the actual data.
FIG. 8B
is a view illustrating a binary image acquired based on the actual data.
FIG. 9
is a graph illustrating a relationship between an angle and a distance to a target, which are acquired based on the actual data.
FIG. 10
is a graph illustrating a relationship between an angle and a distance to a target, which are acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 11A
is a first view illustrating a difference between a relationship between an angle and a distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and a relationship between an angle and a distance which are acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 11B
is a second view illustrating the difference between the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 12A
is a third view illustrating the difference between the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 12B
is a fourth view illustrating the difference between the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the actual data, and the relationship between the angle and the distance which are acquired based on the virtual data.
FIG. 13
is a perspective view illustrating a robot cleaner according to an embodiment.
FIG. 14A
is a plan view illustrating an internal structure of the robot cleaner according to an embodiment.
FIG. 14B
is a bottom view illustrating the robot cleaner according to an embodiment.
FIG. 15
is a control block diagram illustrating the robot cleaner according to an embodiment.
FIG. 16
is a view illustrating a driving path of the robot cleaner.
FIG. 17
is a view illustrating an example in which the position of the robot cleaner is arbitrarily changed.
FIG. 18
is a view illustrating a process in which the robot cleaner acquires the actual data.
FIG. 19
is a view illustrating an example of an operation of the robot cleaner after acquiring the actual data.
FIG. 20
is a first flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the movable object according to an embodiment.
FIG. 21
is a second flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the movable object according to an embodiment. | |
For the 250th birthday of Joseph Fourier, born in 1768 in Auxerre, France, this MDPI Special Issue will explore modern topics related to Fourier Analysis and Heat Equation.
Modern developments of Fourier analysis during the 20th century have explored generalizations of Fourier and Fourier-Plancherel formula for non-commutative harmonic analysis, applied to locally-compact, non-Abelian groups. In parallel, the theory of coherent states and wavelets has been generalized over Lie groups. One should add the developments, over the last 30 years, of the applications of harmonic analysis to the description of the fascinating world of aperiodic structures in condensed matter physics. The notions of model sets, introduced by Y. Meyer, and of almost periodic functions, have revealed themselves to be extremely fruitful in this domain of natural sciences.
The name of Joseph Fourier is also inseparable from the study of the mathematics of heat. Modern research on heat equations explores the extension of the classical diffusion equation on Riemannian, sub-Riemannian manifolds, and Lie groups. In parallel, in Geometric Mechanics, Jean-Marie Souriau interpreted the temperature vector of Planck as a space-time vector, obtaining, in this way, a phenomenological model of continuous media, which presents some interesting properties.
A last comment concerns the fundamental contributions of Fourier analysis to quantum physics: Quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.
The content of this Special Issue will highlight papers exploring non-commutative Fourier harmonic analysis, spectral properties of aperiodic order, the hypoelliptic heat equation, and the relativistic heat equation in the context of Information Theory and Geometric Science of Information. | http://forum.cs-dc.org/topic/632/special-issue-mdpi-joseph-fourier-250th-birthday-modern-fourier-analysis-and-fourier-heat-equation-in-information-sciences-for-the-xxist-century/1 |
Overview: Mercury pollution and its hazards have not yet been addressed in Bangladesh. Mercury is being imported; however, the country does not dispose of specific data on the quantity of mercury being imported, Mercury containing products, the use of such Mercury in various industrial process or the release sources of Mercury. To identify the national mercury sources, Bangladesh is developing a Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA) that includes a national inventoy, a legal assessment, an awareness-raising campaign and an action plan. The MIA will provide acurate information regarding the mercury sources and future plans to comply with te Minamata Convention. | http://mercury.unitar.org/site/country/BGD |
2 edition of numerical method of calculating plastic strains in strain-hardening materials found in the catalog.
numerical method of calculating plastic strains in strain-hardening materials
Palle Thoft-Christensen
Published
1962
in København : [ ], 1962
.
Written in English
Edition Notes
|Statement||by P. Thoft-Christensen.|
|Series||Bulletin - Structural Research Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark ; no. 16|
|Classifications|
|LC Classifications||MLCM 83/4327 (T)|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||64 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.|
|Number of Pages||64|
|ID Numbers|
|Open Library||OL4440415M|
|LC Control Number||79101741|
For materials following the power law, the true strain at the Ultimate Tensile Strength is equal to n. when you plot the log-log plot, use data points after the yield point (to avoid elastic points) and before instability (necking).. A material that does not show any strain hardening (n=0) is classed as perfectly plastic. Such a material would show a constant flow stress irrespective of strain. nis the strain hardening exponent (slope of the line). The total true strain is given by: This type of true stress-true strain relationship is often referred to as the Ramberg-Osgood relationship. Value of n gives a measure of the material’s work hardening behavior. K and n for some engineering alloys are also given in Table A n e p E K.
6Elasticity is a form of materials response that refers to immediate and time-independent deformation upon loading, and complete and instant recovery of the original geometry upon removal of the load. For science point of view: what makes materials strong →helps us to design a better new one Learn basic concepts for metals, which have the simplest behavior Return to it later when we study ceramics, polymers, composite materials, nanotubes Chapter 6 2 .
Strain hardening is closely related to fatigue. Example, bending the thin steel rod becomes more difficult the farther the rod is bent. This is the result of work or strain hardening. Strain hardening reduces ductility, which increases the chances of brittle failure. 11 years ago Source: Strength Of Materials class (Civil Technology Yr 1). In order to observe the behavior of a material under various conditions of strain‐hardening, copper bars were tested in tension, in compression and in torsion. The results of the different tests were plotted on the same set of coordinates as a means of correlation. The shearing stress in the octahedral planes was used as ordinates and the corresponding Cited by:
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Direct and synthetic studies of the early interruption behaviour of an orifice arc
The impact of the growth of large, multistate banking organizations on community bank profitability
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Monitoring the environment impacts of waste composting plants.
The Ladybird key words reading scheme.
A numerical method for slip-line field analysis of rigid perfectly plastic material is presented. The method formulates the analysis of metal forming operations as constrained optimization : Sergei Alexandrov.
A new experimental/numerical method to identify post-necking strain hardening phenomena in ductile sheet metal is presented. The identification of the post-necking strain hardening behaviour is based on the minimization of the external and the internal work in Cited by: 1. The cyclic strength coefficient K’ and the cyclic strain hardening exponent n’ are related by Equation Instead of using the nonlinear least-squares method (Langlais and Vogel, ) for the Masing equation, Equationthe fitting procedure illustrated here is to use the linear least-squares analysis to fit the entire range of the logarithms of stress and plastic strain data.
The determination of material strength coefficient and strain hardening constant by inverse method Article in Journal of Materials Processing Technology (5). In physics and materials science, plasticity, also known as plastic deformation, is the ability of a solid material to undergo permanent deformation, a non-reversible change of shape in response to applied forces.
For example, a solid piece of metal being bent or pounded into a new shape displays plasticity as permanent changes occur within the material itself. Work hardening, also known as strain hardening, is the strengthening of a metal or polymer by plastic hardening may be desirable, undesirable, or inconsequential, depending on the context.
This strengthening occurs because of dislocation movements and dislocation generation within the crystal structure of the material.
Many non-brittle metals with a. strain-hardening material can be found in reference 6 for a special type of stress-strain law. This report presents a relatively simple solution to the elastic-plastic torsion problem for strain-hardening materials.
Use is made of the method of successive elasticFile Size: KB. Meaning of Strain hardening is self explanatory.
It means that the material becomes hard and strong once it is strained. Let us look at following stress-strain curve: As we can see that a body is loaded from point O beyond its yield limit (until i. If true stress is plotted against true strain, the rate of strain hardening tends to become almost uniform, that is, the curve becomes almost a straight line, as shown in Figure 1.
The gradient of the straight part of the line is known as the strain hardening coefficient or work hardening coefficient, and is closely related to the shear modulus.
Perfectly plastic materials follow Hook's law upto the limit of proportionality. The slopes of stress-strain diagrams in compression and tension i.e.
the values of Young's modulus of elasticity of the material, are equal. Also the values of yield stresses in tension and compression are equal. The strains upto the strain hardening in tension andFile Size: KB.
WK 1. Scope. This test method uses tensile testing to measure the strain-hardening modulus from the stress-strain curve above the natural draw ratio on stress-rated polyethylene materials intended for pipe manufacturing.
The intent of this test method is to use the measured value of strain-hardening modulus to provide information about the slow crack. For many materials, the r value remains constant over the range of plastic strains up to the maximum force applied to the specimen.
For some sheet materials, however, the r value varies with the applied axial strain. For such materials, you should report the as-tested strain level. Becu s erolled sh tm ldevl-oppl an risotopy(ch teitic. crack tip elastic–plastic fields, as a function of load configuration, geometry, monotonic and cyclic strain hardening behavior, and constraint effects have been subject of intensive study.
Behavior of the crack tip in the plastic zone for strain hardening materials under small-scale yielding for symmetric. Mechanics of plasticity for finite deformations, applied on strain hardening materials is mathematically very difficult to deal with. In technical respect, however, the subject is rather important, especially in the case of metal processing.
This Thesis tries to develop a relatively simple method of calculating these : E. Mot. Simplified Inverse Method for Determining the Tensile Strain Capacity of Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites Shunzhi Qian1 and Victor C. Li2 Received 11 Decemberaccepted 27 April Abstract As emerging advanced construction materials, strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCCs) have seen increasing.
Gaussian Treatment of Strain Hardening. A traditional interpretation of the polymeric strain hardening is the equilibrium theory and the theory of entropic elasticity which assumes that sub chains can move freely between crosslinks (Gaussian distribution).
2 The true stress-strain curve after yielding can then be described by 3,4. σ true = σ y + G P (λ 2 - λ-1). elastic-plastic models parameter calculations. The hardening curve is also required. This is a plot of true stress versus true plastic strain, which is sampled to reduce the number of data points and then used in tabular form within elastic-plastic materials models.
More information on the hardening curve can be obtained by clicking on the link File Size: 1MB. SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER Spatial free plastic forming of slenderparts—numerical approaches for strain-hardening material M Thalmair1 and H Lippmann 2* 1AGCO GmbH and Company KG, Marktoberdorf, Germany 2Lehrstuhl fu¨r Werkstoffkunde und Werkstoffmechanik, Technische Universita¨tMu¨nchen, Garching, Germany Abstract: A new metal forming process is described.
a level corresponding to plastic ßow. A t higher strains, the stress increases again as the chain molecules orient, in a process known as Òstrain hardening.Ó The balance of strain softening and strain hardening is critical in determining mate-rial properties suc h a s toughness.
P olymers that exhibit greater strain hardening,suc h a s. will use offset method to define a yield strength Some ductile materials do not have linear relationship between stress and strain, we call them nonlinear materials σ σy ε or % offset σ ε σ= f (ε) Elastic-plastic Materials Stress-strain for structural steel will consist of elastic and perfectly plastic Size: KB.
Strain hardening is a phenomenon whereby the strength of a ductile metal increases when it is plastically deformed. The increase in strength is accompanied by a reduction in ductility. The strain hardening exponent is a material constant which app.
The purpose of the present article is to theoretically calculate the strain-hardening exponent and the strength coefficient of metallic materials. For this purpose, two equations are used. The first one correlates the strain-hardening exponent and the strength coefficient with the yield stress-strain behavior, while the other one correlates the fracture strength and the Cited by: of cementitious strain hardening materials only the stress-strain curve up to the localization point is of technical interest.
If, in spite of that, the softening curve of strain hardening cementitious materials needs to be determined, the authors refer to a previously proposed two-step method involving bending tests of. | https://goxazewuto.hankins-farms.com/numerical-method-of-calculating-plastic-strains-in-strain-hardening-materials-book-11245xu.php |
Exclusive: SocGen mulls up to 700 job cuts - union sources
French bank Societe Generale may cut between 600 and 700 jobs as part of a broader cost-cutting drive in the face of stagnant growth in its home market, three union sources told Reuters on Friday.
SocGen management met with unions on Wednesday to discuss the proposals, which have not yet been finalized, the sources said.
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The cuts, which will largely target back office staff in IT and compliance roles, will be partly offset by up to 100 new jobs created elsewhere, they added.
"There will be 600 to 700 job cuts at SocGen's central offices," one of the sources said. "Nothing is finalized but the proposals are fairly advanced."
SocGen employs 154,000 people worldwide, with 8,340 in its central administration department.
A SocGen spokeswoman said the bank would seek to avoid forced layoffs and that it was "premature" to discuss reorganization plans when they had not been finalized.
She added that SocGen would favor internal redeployment and voluntary departures where there was the need to cut staff.
CGT union representative Michel Marchet said management had presented "several" different projects and that final numbers would not be revealed until the end of 2013.
"There was a meeting, management presented a number of proposals," said Marchet.
SocGen pledged in February to cut costs over the next three years with a reshuffled management team and promised to put in place a revamped structure, without giving numbers or targets. | https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/exclusive-socgen-mulls-up-to-700-job-cuts-union-sources |
NextSense Institute offers a variety of real-time, online, and in-person courses to take your professional education strategy to the next level. Browse our offerings below.
In 1988, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch established a scholarship fund aimed at developing expertise in, and knowledge of, deafness.
Today, NextSense, as the trustee, awards this scholarship every two years.
Early childhood, educational, and health professionals are invited to apply for a scholarship to:
Studies must be undertaken at a Masters or PhD level at a tertiary institute in Australia.
Offer holders for the Master of Disability Studies in the deaf/hard of hearing specialisation are invited to apply.
Value: based on the needs of the applicant up to a maximum value of $5,000 per year for a two-year master's course and $10,000 per year for a two-year PhD research.
Eligibility: open to offer holders from an Australian university in the relevant fields.
Selection criteria: the scholarship is awarded based on need, relevance, quality of the study or research and overall contribution to advancing education in the field of deafness and hearing loss.
Selection process:
Applications for 2022 open Monday 20 December 2021 and close 5pm, Friday 18 March 2022.
There are two application forms on this page. To apply for the scholarship, you only need to fill out one form.
If you are a Masters student, please fill out the Masters Coursework application form.
If you are a PhD student, please fill out the PhD application form. | https://www.nextsense.org.au/professional-development/the-elisabeth-murdoch-scholarship |
The importance of breeding heritage breed chickens to ensure the birds retain their historically beneficial traits is outlined in the article Heritage Chicken Breeding: Why Not to Rely on Chicken Hatcheries. If you wish to embark upon breeding your own flock, you have several options for how you manage the breeding project. Here, I describe and illustrate the three-clan system I use to breed my Icelandics (a landrace breed I have been working with for several years). You may conclude that a similarly managed breed improvement project is within your capabilities as well.
A clan-mating system starts by assigning initial breeding stock to separate “clans” or “families.” The minimum number of clans is three — four or even five would be possible with more management input.
Imagine that we have six breeding birds at the start, three hens and three cocks. We assign each hen and each cock to one of three clans — assume we call them Red, Green and Blue (in that order). We might have good reason for assigning breeding stock to one clan rather than another, but the initial assignment can be entirely arbitrary. Once assigned, however, each bird remains in its designated clan for life.
All the birds can be managed as one undifferentiated flock until we prepare for the breeding season, at which time we isolate the breeding hens and cocks by clan. We mate cock and hen of the same clan together in the first breeding season only.
When the chicks hatch, assign them all to the clan of their mother. I indicate clan assignment by toe-punching each chick — that is, by punching a hole in the webbing between the toes, with the exact location of the punch coded for a specific clan. If well made, the punch is permanent — the clan assignment is for life.
When we prepare for the next breeding season we again isolate all the hens by clan — all the Red hens together, all the Green hens together, and all the Blue hens together. But in this breeding season — and in all future breeding seasons — we place cocks with hens of “the next clan over”: Red cocks mate Green hens, Green cocks mate Blue hens, Blue cocks mate Red hens. As long as we continue to follow this pattern, there will never be a single mating between siblings or half-siblings.
Now it’s apparent why I emphasized that chicks are assigned to the clan of their mother: In this second breeding season, chicks hatched from Red hens, for example, have a Blue cock as sire. But all chicks from Red-hen eggs get toe-punched as Red clan.
Though clan mating may be confusing at first, it comes down to two very simple rules: (1) Chicks are always assigned to, and remain in, the clan of their mother. And (2) after the first season, cocks always mate hens “one clan over.” Cocks and hens of the same clan do not mate (thus never Red cock to Red hen), and cocks never mate hens other than “the next clan over” (thus Red cock to Green hen, but never Red cock to Blue hen).
A final important point to note: Rigorous selection is as much the key to success in a clan-mating system as in any other approach to breed improvement. In this case, however, selection for best traits takes place within the clan. Imagine that we’ve already selected our best Red cockerel to serve in the next breeding season, and now it’s time to select our best Green cockerel. But our very best Green cockerel is not as good as one of the “leftover” Red cockerels. In this case we would forgo selecting the clearly superior Red cockerel, and select the best-we-have Green cockerel to maintain the integrity of our mating system.
Visit my website for a more detailed description of this three-clan system.
Harvey Ussery is the author of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock (Chelsea Green, 2011). Harvey's goal for 30 years, working with dozens of heritage breeds of chickens, ducks, and geese, has been to integrate his flocks into the total food production endeavor and make them more independent of purchased inputs. Find him online at The Modern Homestead, and read all of his MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here. | https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/raising-chickens/how-to-breed-chickens-zmbz16amzkon |
“The Silence of ‘Others’” documents the lived experience of young Muslims in Western countries. By studying their experiences, it is an attempt to decipher how various issues—social, political, legal, cultural and economic—are fuelling the alienation of Muslim youth.
I am not a Muslim but the ceaselessly deepening chasm between Muslims and non-Muslims concerns me immensely. As a teenager, I spent countless afternoons playing cricket in the courtyard of a large Mosque in India. Even today, some of my closest friends are Muslims. And alongside the many Muslims in America and Europe, I share a common socio-political history and the broader experience of being an immigrant. Their struggles with identity or belongingness are very much like my own.
Therefore, it pains me to observe how an unhealthy obsession with the “war against terror” has given birth to a perpetual climate of paranoia and xenophobia. And how a resentful minority section of Muslim youth in the West has begun to heed the pied pipers of Islamic jihad.
Of course, expert solutions are being offered on how to effectively “integrate” young Muslims in Western societies, but I think it is more important to analyze why has the need arisen to “integrate” people who were born and belong to these countries. It is important to understand what factors persuade young Muslims to adopt an isolationist or radical approach to the place of their birth.
Since 2012, I have been documenting how religious discrimination coupled with other issues—ethnic profiling, institutional racism, poverty, dilapidated housing, high unemployment, rampant crime and drug abuse—contribute to the disillusionment and alienation of young Muslims in France. My work observes how everyday events influence the “lived experience” of young Muslims.
I photograph my subjects at their homes and on the streets. Rejecting the clutter of reductive assumptions and prevalent stereotypes—like veils, beards, skullcaps, prayers, Mosques, animal slaughters, Eid hugs—I am attempting to document what it truly means to be a young Muslim in the West. I am photographing their activities, behaviors, hidden emotions, personal opinions, private lives and public interactions. I believe that these photographs can help bring forth an understanding of how Muslim youths view their personal identity, democratic citizenship, social relationships, political participation, economic equality and most importantly, their wellbeing. | https://www.lensculture.com/articles/bharat-choudhary-the-silence-of-others |
Noise protection measures at workplaces, in residential rooms etc.
Protection against noise pollution is an important task. Pursuant to Federal Law No
A subsection on workplace noise protection should be included in design documentation’s sections “Labour conditions” and “Production management”.
The objectives of the noise protection measures are as follows:
- Identify sources of excessive noise;
- Measure workplace noise levels (in a public building or at a residential area);
- Develop noise protection measures.
Specific activities include:
- Noise level measurements;
- Stock-taking of noise sources;
- Calculation of noise proliferation without acoustic protection measures;
- Development of a noise protection plan and its approval by the customer;
- Calculation noise proliferation taking into account the proposed acoustic protection measures.
Previous projects for which SHANECO developed noise protection activities include: | http://shaneco.ru/eng/services/environmental-design/558/ |
Spaceflight Insider
Second group of names approved for features on Pluto
A composite of images collected by New Horizons’ instruments during the spacecraft’s July 2015 Pluto flyby, this annotated map shows the newly-approved names in yellow and the ones approved in 2017 in white. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Ross Beyer
A second set of names for features on Pluto, already used informally by members of NASA’s New Horizons mission, has received formal approval by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the organization that names celestial objects and their features.
Submitted by the New Horizons mission, these 14 names honor pioneering explorers on Earth, space missions, scientists and engineers who have studied Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, and underworld mythology. Like the first set of 14 names for various features on Pluto’s surface, which were approved in 2017, all of these came from a 2015 public naming campaign organized jointly by the New Horizons mission, the SETI Institute, and the IAU.
That campaign, titled “Our Pluto,” established a list of themes for names to be assigned to features on Pluto, Charon, and the system’s four small moons in advance of the July 2015 Pluto flyby. Themes for surface features on Pluto included names for the underworld from various world mythologies; gods, goddesses, and dwarfs associated with the underworld; heroes and other explorers of the underworld; writers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt; and scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Participants could vote for names from a list of nominations suggested by the organizers or nominate a name of their choosing under the established categories.
In 2018, the IAU approved a set of names submitted by the New Horizons mission for features on Charon, which had also been selected via the public campaign. Themes for features on the large moon included destinations and milestones of fictional space and other exploration; fictional and mythological vessels of space and other exploration; and fictional and mythological voyagers, travelers, and explorers.
Tombaugh Regio, the name assigned to Pluto’s iconic heart feature, was among the initial set of names approved in 2017, in honor of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh. The new list of names includes Lowell Regio, given to a large region above the heart feature, in honor of Percival Lowell, who founded the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered in 1930, and initiated the search for a planet beyond Neptune in the early 1900s.
The following names were approved for Pluto’s many regions, mountain ranges, craters, valleys, and plains:
Alcyonia Lacus, a possible frozen nitrogen lake on Pluto’s surface, is named for the bottomless lake in or in the vicinity of Lerna, a region of Greece known for springs and swamps; the Alcyonian lake was one of the entrances to the underworld in Greek mythology.
Elcano Montes is a mountain range honoring Juan Sebastián Elcano (1476–1526), the Spanish explorer who in 1522 completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth (a voyage started in 1519 by Magellan).
Hunahpu Valles is a system of canyons named for one of the Hero Twins in Mayan mythology, who defeated the lords of the underworld in a ball game.
Khare crater honors planetary scientist Bishun Khare (1933–2013), an expert on the chemistry of planetary atmospheres who did laboratory work leading to several seminal papers on tholins – the organic molecules that probably account for the darkest and reddest regions on Pluto.
Kiladze crater honors Rolan Kiladze (1931–2010), the Georgian (Caucasus) astronomer who made pioneering early investigations the dynamics, astrometry and photometry of Pluto.
Lowell Regio is a large region honoring Percival Lowell (1855–1916), the American astronomer who founded Lowell Observatory and organized a systematic search for a planet beyond Neptune.
Mwindo Fossae is a network of long, narrow depressions named for the Nyanga (Eastern Dem. Rep. Congo/Zaire) epic hero who traveled to the underworld and after returning home became a wise and powerful king.
Piccard Mons is a mountain and suspected cryovolcano that honors Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), a 20th century inventor and physicist best known for his pioneering balloon flights into Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Pigafetta Montes honors Antonio Pigafetta (c. 1491–c. 1531), the Italian scholar and explorer who chronicled the discoveries made during the first circumnavigation of the Earth, aboard Magellan’s ships.
Piri Rupes is a long cliff honoring Ahmed Muhiddin Piri (c. 1470–1553), also known as Piri Reis, an Ottoman navigator and cartographer known for his world map. He also drew some of the earliest existing maps of North and Central America.
Simonelli crater honors astronomer Damon Simonelli (1959–2004), whose wide-ranging research included the formation history of Pluto.
Wright Mons honors the Wright brothers, Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912), American aviation pioneers credited with building and flying the world’s first successful airplane.
Vega Terra is a large land mass named for the Soviet Vega 1 and 2 missions, the first spacecraft to fly balloons on another planet (Venus) and to image the nucleus of a comet (1P/Halley).
Venera Terra is named for the Venera missions sent to Venus by the Soviet Union from 1961–1984; they included the first human-made device to enter the atmosphere of another planet, to make a soft landing on another planet and to return images from another planetary surface.
Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne University’s Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazine’s guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD. | |
To predict the quality of an optical system we need to simulate the effects of aberrations and diffraction. Aberrations can be calculated by tracing rays from a source point through a digital model of the system and evaluating the spot size of these rays on the detector. For a system without aberrations, the rays will intersect at a single point. However, the real spot size will be larger due to diffraction. This increase in size is due to the wave nature of light, which cannot be fully captured by regular ray-tracing methods. This thesis presents two ray-tracing methods that can simulate wave-optical effects by initiating secondary rays at diffracting surfaces. The first method uses rays to transport the Wigner distribution function. The second method combines the Huygens-Fresnel principle with ray tracing. The methods, particularly the latter, can be used to assess the quality of an optical system, especially when the system has multiple diffracting surfaces. | https://research.tudelft.nl/en/publications/ray-based-methods-for-simulating-aberrations-and-cascaded-diffrac |
“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult” is a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Initiative is when a thought is connected to action. It is when you think of something and then actually do something. So many people have ideas, a lesser number of individuals act on those ideas. When to start practicing initiative is when we are young.
How can young people show initiative? Here are a few examples:
- brushing your teeth keeps your teeth healthy
- exercising keeps your body strong
- eating healthy keeps you healthy
- studying can improve your mind
As a parent we can use the word “initiative” so that the child understands what they are doing and can then apply it later to other goals they may have. When the student gets older and has a report due in two weeks, they will understand that ‘initiative’ will get them started on the report early, instead of waiting until the night before.
Initiative can be shown in any goal that we might set for ourselves. Our goals though, need to be S.M.A.R.T., so that when we do show initiative, we stay motivated to complete our goal. When setting goals for ourselves or our family we will be sure that they are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound.
Young or old, begin with yourself by taking action in your personal life. Once you have initiated some good habits there – you are ready to initiate actions to help others. | https://www.balancedlifeskills.com/2016/01/12/teach-children-initiative/ |
Prestigious Enterprise Company is currently seeking an IT Network Security Manager. Candidate will lead a team of the IT Security Engineers The position provides managerial expertise to deliver security controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability for the IT environment. The role also consists of applying core knowledge and skills to coach and mentor team members in the quality analysis, design, testing and deployment of standard security controls within the enterprise network to protect data, information systems, and networks from threats.
This position will require management over the designing complex IT security design solutions with engineering responsibility for Threat Management (Firewall, Content Filtering, Intrusion Detection/Prevention, Encryption, Anti-Virus, Malware, etc.), Vulnerability Management (Infrastructure and Application), and Identity and Access Management initiatives and administrative solutions and processes for IT projects, services and business partners for the enterprise.
Responsibilities:
Manage the design, build, test, improve and support the IT risk and security infrastructure by:
Responsible for core risk and security processes and ensures that they are robust, sustainable, consistent, secure and scalable across the organization This is to be achieved by meeting the following requirements:
Interacts proactively with business partners by providing IT security engineering services by:
Engages with projects, services and suppliers to provide risk advisory services assessing security requirements and articulates necessary security controls to be implemented by:
Qualifications:
This position requires a high level of knowledge of IT Risk Management and security engineering leadership practices, procedures and infrastructure integration in a large organization. The incumbent must have experience knowledge with articulating security solutions that mitigate risk into statements that are clearly understood by technology peers and IT leadership. Must have strong analytical, interpersonal, multi-tasking, negotiations, project management and communication skills (written and verbal). The incumbent must have several years of hands on experience in IT risk and security functions planning, implementing and managing enterprise security strategies and technologies. | https://www.dice.com/jobs/detail/796766b0c35f6867b5b347a81c57ff06 |
Jul 01 2021 - OrionW
The Monetary Authority of Singapore issued a circular advising financial institutions of the technology and cyber security risks associated with public cloud services. The circular focuses on identifying and managing the risks associated with the adoption of public cloud services and serves as a reminder that financial institutions are ultimately responsible for managing these risks.
Read more
Jan 25 2021 - OrionW
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has revised the Technology Risk Management Guidelines applicable to financial institutions and their third party service providers. The revised Guidelines highlight MAS's increased expectations for cybersecurity controls and their importance in a financial institution's technology development and delivery lifecycle.
Read more
Jan 11 2021 - OrionW
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has launched a second public consultation on the draft Code of Practice for Competition in the Provision of Telecommunication and Media Services. The Draft Code contains IMDA proposals that seek to harmonise and streamline existing Codes of Practice for competition in the telecommunications and media markets.
Read more
Jan 08 2021 - OrionW
The Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Bill was read in Singapore's Parliament for the first time on 4 January 2021. The Bill is part of the Government's efforts to encourage the wider digitalisation of commercial and legal documents and would bring trade documents representing transferable rights or obligations, such as bills of lading, warehouse receipts, negotiable instruments, and documents of title, under the Electronic Transactions Act. If passed, the Bill will pave the way for faster document processing, lower costs, and lower risks of fraud.
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Nov 25 2020 - OrionW
The Monetary Authority of Singapore proposes to require financial institutions to strengthen their processes for verifying the identity of their customers in non-face-to-face situations. The proposed Notice on Identity Verification aims to address global risks from the increasing number of cyber attacks. | https://www.orionw.com/blog/news/category/regulation |
Production Technology of Fruit Crops in Wasteland
This book includes comprehensive, latest and balanced information about waste lands, selection of fruit crops for waste lands and development through fruit cultivation in its first and second chapters. The third to twenty eighth chapters cover the scientific horticultural practices of growing fruit crops in the waste lands. These chapters give a detailed information about different aspects including origin, distribution, importance, soil and climatic conditions, propagation techniques, varieties, cultivation practices, crop protection measures, harvesting and post harvest management of different fruit crops for tropical, subtropical, arid and semi-arid areas. Appendices provide concise information about classification, edible part, propagation methods and nutritive values of different fruits. This book intends to serve the needs of students, extension workers, researchers and planners, as well. | https://www.bagchee.com/books/BB70662/production-technology-of-fruit-crops-in-wasteland- |
To make ends meet and earn a living, individuals work in a variety of jobs; some are lucky enough to have satisfying, well-paying positions, while others have jobs but are dissatisfied with them, and still, others are unemployed but seeking a well-paying job.
Here’s some excellent news for you. If you are seeking a job in Bolivia or looking for a better job, or even if you have a job but want a change of scenery or working environment, you have come to the correct spot.
Anyone with the right skills can find excellent employment opportunities in Bolivia.
In this essay, I will provide a list of probable Bolivia Jobs employment opportunities that a job seeker might explore.
It provides you with the option to see whether Bolivia has any job openings that match your professional requirements.
Finding a job doesn’t have to be an arduous task, and obtaining a new job doesn’t have to be difficult.
Obtaining a job in Bolivia is much like getting a job anywhere else; all you need is the relevant knowledge and qualifications.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you will be able to discover the occupations or career prospects that are most suitable for your skills.
Bolivia’s Labor Market
The oil and gas sector accounted for 8.7% of GDP and 55% of total exports in 2014. In recent years, the industry has supplied more than a third of the Treasury’s revenue. Bolivia is also a big silver producer.
The Bolivian economy has been dominated by mineral processing (particularly oil refining) and agricultural product preparation.
Major investments were made in the processing of soybeans, textiles, wood goods, and soft drinks in the early twenty-first century.
Despite its natural riches, the country’s economic progress has been hampered for a number of reasons, including political instability and high inflation rates. Bolivia’s economy has always been based on a single product.
Bolivia has various industries that play a big part in the economy, including manufacturing, mining, textiles, and services, all of which provide a large number of job prospects for job seekers.
Bolivia’s Employment Rates
Bolivia’s unemployment rate rose to 75.20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 73.60 percent in the third quarter.
According to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts, Bolivia’s employment rate is predicted to reach 69.90 percent by the end of this quarter.
From 1999 to 2021, Bolivia’s employment rate averaged 65.68 percent, with a peak of 75.20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 and a low of 59.40 percent in the fourth quarter of 2000.
Bolivia’s Unemployment Rate 1991 – 2020
Below is an indicator that provides data for Bolivia from 1991 to 2020.
The average value for Bolivia from 1991 to 2020 was 2.89 percent with a minimum of 2.02 percent in 2014 and rose to a maximum of 7.9 percent in 2020.
The world average in 2020 was 8.49 percent recorded for 181 countries. Check out global rankings for that indicator
The unemployment rate is generally defined as the number of unemployed people as a percent of the labor force. The labor force there includes the people who are either employed or unemployed that is, those who don’t have a job and are responsible enough to take one. The labor force does not include people who are not looking for a job like children, and the retired.
Source: theglobaleconomy
Recruitment Agencies in Bolivia
1. Agencia De Empleos Sarita
Gat Bolivia
MultiHogar “San Miguel”
Edificio Cabildo
British Embassy
Bolivia Jobs Sites
1. jobboardfinder.com
2. millionmakers.com
3. jobisland.com
4. WeXpats
5. Visahunter
6. oneworld365
7. tiptopjob
8. Joblist
Requirements For Bolivia Jobs
- An application that has been completed and signed
- Their passport must be valid for at least six months.
- If their employment is in a high-risk location, they must provide proof of yellow fever vaccination.
- Documentation proving employment, such as a corporate invitation and other supporting documents,
- Their INTERPOL police record, as well as criminal and police records from their previous place of residence,
- A medical certificate is required.
- A picture for a passport
- Any other documentation required by the consulate
The employee will not be able to begin working in Bolivia until they have obtained the necessary visa.
Some personnel enter the country on a temporary residence visa and then alter their status with the help of an attorney.
To do so, the attorney must collaborate with the Department of Immigration to get the necessary documentation on behalf of the employee.
Some overseas workers require an international identity card for actions such as opening a bank account. Only a limited number of visas allow international personnel to receive these documents.
When it comes to expatriates visiting Bolivia, your nationality and the sorts of activities you want to do will influence whether you may travel legally as a business visitor or whether you need to seek work authorization.
If you are unsure about the particular sorts of activities that constitute a business or job, please consult with your immigration attorney.
Conclusion
This page provides the essential information you’ll need to land a job in Bolivia, as well as available positions and other useful information. | https://recruitson.com/bolivia-jobs/ |
THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD
The Shenandoah Valley Workforce Development Board (SVWDB) was established in 2000 to provide oversight and administration of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in the Shenandoah Valley. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act guides the delivery of workforce development programs for adults, dislocated workers and youth throughout the United States, with the intent of establishing and maintaining an effective network of resources for businesses, workers and career seekers.
Our regional board is one of 15 workforce boards throughout Virginia serving the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, Waynesboro and Winchester, and the counties of Augusta, Bath, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah and Warren.
Five Pillars
The SVWDB acts as a catalyst to provide seamless services among various workforce programs and provides community leadership around workforce issues. In this capacity, the SVWDB assumes five strategic roles:
Convener to bring together business, education, economic development, organized labor, and community and faith-based organizations to focus on regional workforce issues.
Workforce Analyst to research, disseminate, understand and act as the repository for current labor market and economic information and trends.
Broker to bring together systems to solve problems or broker new relationships with businesses and workers.
Community Voice to advocate for the importance of workforce policy, providing perspective about the need for skilled workers.
Capacity Builder to enhance the region’s ability to meet workforce needs of local employers, develop workers and build a stronger community.
Our Mission
Collaboration is at the core of the Shenandoah Valley Workforce Development Board’s (SVWDB) mission, working with a wide-range of regional and state partners to offer a variety of services such as employment information, career development training opportunities, easy access to support programs, and self-directed job search/job posting options, on the job training, work experiences, worker training and other business services.
Fast Facts
The SVWDB is an incorporated 501c (3) non-profit organization serving 10 counties and 6 cities.
The SVWDB and related workforce initiatives are overseen by a Board of Directors and operates under the direction of a Chief Elected Officials Consortium.
The SVWDB is funded through the U.S. Department of Labor and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), discretionary grants, community block grants, and leveraged resources. SVWDB has written over $19,000,000 in proposals which have been awarded for additional workforce initiative funding.
MEET OUR TEAM
The Shenandoah Valley Workforce Development Board is made up of a strong team of local elected officials, seasoned workforce, economic development and business professionals. | https://vcwvalley.com/about/ |
Related articles
Symptoms of dehydration can include thirst, headache, dry mouth and eyes, dizziness, tiredness and dark coloured urine. Often, feeling thirsty is the last symptom of dehydration and irritability and tiredess can come first.
People are also considered to be dehydrated if they urinate less than four times a day.
Symptoms of severe dehydration can include low blood pressure, a weak pulse or rapid heart rate and feeling confused.
Diabetes.co.uk said: “If you feel thirsty all the time or your thirst is stronger than usual and continues even after you drink, it can be a sign that not all is well inside your body.”
Symptoms of diabetes
Fri, August 19, 2016
Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 3.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 500,000 who are living undiagnosed with the condition.
People should be aware signs and symptoms of diabetes are not always obvious and the condition is often diagnosed during GP check ups.
GETTY
Symptoms of diabetes: Type 2 diabetes can be linked to lifestyle
If you feel thirsty all the time it can be a sign that not all is well inside your body
If our blood glucose levels are higher than they should be for prolonged periods of time, the kidneys will work to get rid some of the excess glucose from the blood and excrete this as urine.
While the kidneys filter the blood in this way, water will also be removed from the blood and will need replenishing and this is why we tend to have increase thirst when blood sugar levels are too high.
Drinking water can help to rehydrate the blood.
However, the body also draws available sources of water from the body - which can include saliva, tears and taking water stored in cells in the body.
This is why we may experience a dry mouth and dry eyes when our blood glucose levels are high.
If we do not have access to drink water, the body will find it difficult to pass glucose out of the blood via urine.
Excessive thirst - which is also called polydipsia - and increased urination - also known as polyuria - are classic diabetes symptoms.
Other symptoms include urinating more often than usual - particularly at night. This can be triggered by excess glucose in the blood which interferes with the kidney’s ability to concentrate urine.
Tiredness, itching around the penis or vagina and slow wound healing are also symptoms of the disease. | |
Cambridge English Teaching Qualifications have achieved wide recognition and acceptance by constantly evolving to reflect and encourage good practice in language teaching and teacher training. As part of that evolution, this framework has been developed to help explain clearly to teachers and their employers how our teaching qualifications map onto a core syllabus of competencies and how teachers are supported by our increased range of professional development opportunities.
help teachers and their employers to think about where to go next and identify development activities to get there.
The framework describes teacher competencies across four stages, and five aspects of teacher knowledge and skill (categories), and is a profiling grid rather than a performance assessment tool (see North 2009). It is intended to show stages of a teacher’s development at any one point in time, rather than provide a description of ‘a good teacher’. This approach recognises that teachers’ development over time is not predictable or defined by years of experience only, and that most teachers’ development will be ‘jagged’ (Rossner 2009:5), in that, across the categories, teachers will be at different stages at any one time. As their professional needs change, the profile will help them to identify their development priorities.
The framework is underpinned by evidence from the extensive written records of teacher assessments from around the world to which Cambridge English Language Assessment has access. These include assessors’ reports of lesson observations on pre-service (CELTA) and in-service (ICELT and Delta) courses, as well as detailed background documents in the form of assignments (CELTA and ICELT) and portfolios of work (ICELT and Delta) which demonstrate the processes that teachers go through when planning and reflecting on their teaching. This unique resource has provided us with detailed descriptions of classroom practice at different stages of teachers’ careers. Equally importantly, these assessment reports reflect the realities of teaching and learning in many different contexts, which are in turn reflected in the design of the framework. The development of the framework has also been informed by theory, in particular a wide-ranging review of current teacher education literature, as well as input by external consultants. This research-based approach has been complemented by the parallel development of an edited volume on assessment in teacher education Assessing language teachers’ professional skills and knowledge in the series ‘Studies in Language Testing’ (Wilson and Poulter, forthcoming). The levels and categories of the framework have also been informed by a review of the CELTA, ICELT and Delta syllabuses, which are themselves supported by a substantial body of information about their application in practice from the statistical analysis of both candidate information and examination results, and the detailed annual reports by the Chief Assessors and Chief Moderators for each qualification.
Learning and the Learner: Ellis (2009) and Graves (2009) emphasise the importance of knowledge of the principles of second language acquisition (SLA) and general theories of learning and of application of this knowledge to the teaching context (see also Popko 2005).
Planning language learning. Lesson planning (individual and series of lessons) is a key teaching competency, and is included in most teacher training programmes. At higher levels of teacher development, this will involve reasoning skills and decision-making during the lesson (Roberts 1998), which are likely to be ‘deliberate practice’ (Tsui 2003) as teachers develop more sophisticated routines from experience. Both Graves (2009) and Roberts (1998) also emphasise the need for teachers to understand principles of curriculum, syllabus and course planning.
Using language learning materials and resources. The importance of evaluating, selecting, adapting and using learning materials is well documented (see Tomlinson 1998), and is included in most practical teaching guides (e.g., Ur 1991, Harmer 2007).
Managing language learning. Classroom, or interaction, management, is widely recognised as a crucial aspect of effective teaching, and is given prominence in practical teaching guides and teacher training syllabuses. Here this includes: ‘creating and maintaining a constructive learning environment’, ‘using differentiation strategies’, ‘setting up and managing classroom activities’ and ‘correcting learner language’. Error correction is viewed as essential in language teaching (see e.g., Ellis 1994, Lightbown & Spada 2006).
Teaching language systems. It is widely recognised that second/foreign language learning in the classroom is enhanced by explicit attention to language systems (Batstone & Ellis 2008, Ellis 2006, Spada & Lightbown 2008).
Teaching language skills. It is generally accepted that language use is best promoted by skills development, and that knowledge of language systems alone is not sufficient (Skehan 1998; Spada & Lightbown 2008).
Assessing language learning. ‘Assessment literacy’ (Stiggins 1995), the conscious understanding of principles of assessment, as well as the necessary skills to design, mark and give feedback on effective tests, is recognised as a vital competency, and both Coombe, Al-Hamsy and Troudi (2009) and Harmer (2007) see it as a key component of in-service language teacher education.
Language Ability: It is acknowledged that a certain level of language ability is required in order to teach language effectively, as well as to communicate with other professionals as appropriate; however, any minimum language level required of the teacher is likely to vary depending on the teaching context and language levels of the group of learners being taught (see CEFR levels for guidance on language proficiency). A teacher’s linguistic competence and their language awareness are separate constructs (Andrews 2007) and one does not necessarily presuppose or predict the other; such that a teacher with high-level linguistic proficiency may have basic language awareness, and vice versa.
Language Knowledge and Awareness: As well as linguistic competence, Freeman, Orzulak and Morrisey (2009) see knowledge about how language is used as vital to effective language teaching. Andrews (2007) and Bartels (2009) also emphasise the importance of knowledge about language (KAL), an important aspect of which has been shown to be teachers’ knowledge of terminology for describing language (Andrews 1997, Andrews & McNeil 2005, Borg 1999).
Professional Development and Values: Professional development is widely viewed as creating a platform for teacher learning (Harmer 2007), and it is generally accepted that reflective skills are key in enabling teachers to evaluate their teaching and identify areas for improvement (Korthagen 2001, Richards & Farrell 2005, Russell 2005). Recent work on teacher cognition (Borg 2006) also suggests that conscious and guided reflection on teacher beliefs is an essential tool for promoting teacher learning (Richards, Gallo & Renandya 2001). ‘Practitioner knowledge’ (Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler 2002; Johnson 2009) has been legitimised by the following: reflective teaching (Wallace 1991; Farrell 2007), action research (Burns 2009), experimental teaching (Allwright & Hanks 2009) and teacher research (Freeman 1998) – and is now seen as a key element of the knowledge base of teacher education (Borg 2006; Barduhn & Johnson 2009). A range of these different research activities has also been shown to be valuable in promoting teacher learning (Borg 2013; Wallace 1996). The role of a teacher in the 21st century is increasingly seen as involving the ability to work in a team and collaborate with colleagues and also to work within an institution taking on different roles and responsibilities where necessary (Darling-Hammond 2006; Freeman et al 2009; Leung 2009).
While factors such as specific qualifications obtained, training undertaken, number of hours/years of formal teaching experience or degree of language proficiency are all important, they may not necessarily be directly related to a particular level of competence and are, therefore, not specified in the framework as such.
There is no support in the literature on teacher expertise for a definite number of stages or levels of teacher development; indeed, it is widely accepted that learning to teach is ongoing and there is no ‘terminal competence’ (Graves 2009). However, the four stages identified for the framework – Foundation, Developing, Proficient and Expert – map a ‘discernible developmental trajectory’ (Graves 2009) and reflect the career development of many teachers as well as their self-assessments of their own competence. Despite the lack of consensus as to what defines different stages of teacher development (Katz & Snow 2009, Murray 2001), research into ‘teacher expertise’ does suggest noticeable differences between ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ teachers: with ‘novice’ being more concerned with control, while ‘experts’ have more developed routines (Tsui 2003, 2009). Studies of ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ teachers suggest that teacher expertise involves the development of schemata/routines based on extensive experience of classrooms and learners, which ‘expert’ teachers rely on unconsciously for much of their instructional decisions (Bereiter & Scardamalia 1993; Tsui 2003).
A central point to emerge from recent teacher cognition research is that teachers’ thinking and behaviour are guided by a set of personal, practical, systematic, dynamic and often unconscious beliefs (Borg 2006). This suggests that ‘the process of learning to teach is not a linear accrual of various aspects of teaching, but rather a gradual process of proceduralising aspects of formal and experiential knowledge gained from teacher education and classroom experience mediated by beliefs and contextual constraints’ (Phipps 2010:23). In this framework, the four stages represent bands of increasing competence, which can be characterised by a gradual increase in understanding, applied with more and more sophistication, using a wider range of techniques across a more complex range of situations and contexts. A detailed teacher profile has been developed to exemplify each of the levels across each of the four categories and 36 components of the framework.
Professional Standards for Teachers (PST), Dept. for Education, UK. This framework, used for inspection and performance management purposes in the primary/secondary sector, no longer refers to different levels (Department for Education 2013).
Competency Framework for Teachers (CFT), Dept. of Education and Skills, Western Australia. This aims to describe dimensions of effective teaching as ‘a reference point for professional reflection, discussion and action’ (Department of Education and Skills 2004:iii), although it is also used for performance management purposes, and distinguishes between three different ‘phases’ of teachers’ career development.
Framework for Teaching, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), USA. This ‘identifies those aspects of a teacher’s responsibilities that have been documented through empirical studies and theoretical research as promoting improved student learning’ (Danielson 2008), is organised according to four levels of teacher competence, and is intended to be used for self-assessment and reflection by teachers.
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Australia. This is ‘a public statement of what constitutes teacher quality’ (APST 2011), is organised according to four levels and is also intended to be used for self-reflection purposes.
CAELA Framework for Professional Development, Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC. This was produced in 2010 to help ‘improve the provision of teacher education programmes and facilitate learner progress through a systematic, coherent, and sustainable professional development effort’ (Center for Adult English Language Acquisition 2010:6). There is no reference to different levels of teacher competence.
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), USA. This framework was developed for all subjects including ‘English as a New Language’, which targets ‘early adolescence through young adulthood’, namely ages 11–18 (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 2010). It is used mainly for inspection purposes, but also includes space for teachers to conduct their own reflection prior to inspection, and does not distinguish between different levels of teacher competence.
BALEAP Competency Framework for Teachers of English for Academic Purposes, UK. This was designed in 2008 in order to: ‘support the professional development of EAP teachers within institutions; accredit individual teacher portfolios as evidence of professional achievement; EAP teacher recruitment; course design for teacher training in EAP; and course accreditation for teacher training in EAP’ (BALEAP 2008:2). There are no levels of teacher competency, but it is underpinned by a theoretical background (see Alexander 2010).
British Council CPD Framework for Teachers of English, UK. This has been developed in order to help teachers to plan their own career development and choose the most appropriate professional development activities to suit their needs (British Council 2011), and outlines a series of teacher competencies across six distinct levels. Further background rationale is provided (British Council 2012) which attempts to define the different levels, and provides guidance to teachers in how best to define their own level.
EAQUALS’ (Evaluation and Accreditation of Quality in Language Services) Profiling Grid was intended to be used prior to inspections and accreditation visits to enable managers within an organisation to profile their teachers (Rossner 2009). The successor to this grid, the European Profiling Grid (EPG), which was developed and validated as part of an EU co-funded project involving 11 partner organisations in 10 countries, outlines a range of descriptors for language teachers across six phases of teacher development (European Profiling Grid 2013). The development of the framework has clearly been informed by theory (see North & Mateva 2005, North 2009, Rossner 2013), and is by far the most elaborate and comprehensive of all the frameworks reviewed here. Moreover, it is intended to apply to teachers of any European language, and is available in 11 as well as in Chinese. An interactive version of the EPG, the e-Grid, is available online. It is complemented by the more detailed Eaquals Framework for Language Teacher Training and Development (Eaquals 2013).
An important feature of this Cambridge English Teaching Framework is the provision of guidance to teachers in how to self-assess their CPD needs and how to improve their own competencies by selecting appropriate CPD activities. Self-assessment is an important element of professional development (Freeman et al 2009, Katz & Snow 2009), so it is important to provide guidance and training to intended users of the framework in how to use it for their own professional development. This guidance will be provided initially by a questionnaire, which teachers will be able to complete online, in order to establish their current level of competencies with regard to this framework.
Alexander, O (2010) The Leap into TEAP: the role of the BALEAP competency framework in the professional development of new EAP teachers, paper presented at IATEFL ESP SIG/Bilkent University Conference, Ankara, June 2010.
Allwright, D and Hanks, J (2009) The Developing Language Learner: An Introduction to Exploratory Practice, London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Andrews, S (1997) Metalinguistic knowledge and teacher explanation, Language Awareness 8, 147–161.
Andrews, S (2007) Teacher Language Awareness, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Andrews, S and McNeil, A (2005) Knowledge about language and the ‘good language teacher’, in Bartels, N (Ed.) Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education, New York: Springer, 159–178.
Barduhn, S and Johnson, J (2009) Certification and professional qualifications, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 59–65.
Bartels, N (2009) Knowledge about Language, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 125–134.
Batstone, R and Ellis, R (2008) Principled grammar teaching, System 36, 194–204.
Bereiter, C and Scardamalia, M (1993) Surpassing Ourselves, Peru, IL: Open Court.
Borg, S (1999) The use of grammatical terminology in the second language classroom: A qualitative study of teachers’ practices and cognitions, Applied Linguistics 20(1), 95–126.
Borg, S (2006) Teacher Cognition and Language Education, London: Continuum.
Borg, S (2013) Teacher Research in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burns, A (2009) Action research in second language teacher education, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 289–297.
Coombe, C, Al-Hamsy, M and Troudi, S (2009) Foreign and second language teacher assessment literacy: issues, challenges and recommendations, Research Notes 38, Cambridge: UCLES, 14–18.
Danielson, C (2008) The Handbook for Enhancing Professional Practice: Using the Framework for Teaching in your School, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Darling-Hammond, L (2006) Powerful Teacher Education, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Ellis, R (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: OUP.
Ellis, R (2006) Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective, TESOL Quarterly 40(1), 83–107.
Ellis, R (2009) SLA and teacher education, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 135–143.
Farrell, T (2007) Reflective Language Teaching, London: Continuum.
Freeman, D (1998) Doing Teacher Research: from Inquiry to Understanding, Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Freeman, D and Johnson, K (1998) Reconceptualising the knowledge base of language teacher education, TESOL Quarterly 32(3), 397–417.
Freeman, D, Orzulak, M and Morrisey, G (2009) Assessment in second language teacher education, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 77–90.
Graves, K (2009) The curriculum of second language teacher education, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 115–124.
Harmer, J (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.), Harlow: Pearson.
Hiebert, J, Gallimore, R and Stigler, J (2002) A knowledge base for the teaching profession: What would it look like and how can we get one? Educational Researcher 31(5), 3–15.
Johnson, K E (2009) Trends in second language teacher education, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20–29.
Katz, A and Snow, M (2009) Standards and second language teacher education, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 66–76.
Korthagen, F (2001) A reflection on reflection, in Linking Practice and Theory: The Pedagogy of Realistic Teacher Education, Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, 51–68.
Leung, C (2009) Second language teacher professionalism, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 49–58.
Lightbown, P and Spada, N (2006) How Languages are Learned, Oxford: OUP.
McKay, P (2006) Assessing Young Learners, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murray, F B (2001) The over-reliance of accreditors on consensus standards, Journal of Teacher Education 52(2), 211–222.
North, B (2009) A Profiling Grid for Language Teachers, International Meeting on Training, Quality and Certification in Foreign Language Teaching, Siena, February 2009.
North, B and Mateva, G (2005) A Profiling Grid for Language Teaching Professionals, EAQUALS.
Pennington, M (1996) The ‘cognitive-affective filter’ in teacher development: Transmission-based and interpretation-based schemas for change, System 24(3), 336–350.
Phipps, S (2010) Language Teacher Education, Beliefs and Classroom Practices, Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing.
Popko, J (2005) How MA TESOL students use knowledge about language in teaching ESL classes, in Bartels, N (Ed.) Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education, New York: Springer, 3879–403.
Richards, J and Farrell, T (2005) Professional Development for Language Teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J, Gallo, P and Renandya, W (2001) Exploring teachers’ beliefs and the processes of change, PAC Journal 1(1), 41–58.
Roberts, J (1998) Language Teacher Education, London: Arnold.
Rossner, R (2013) ‘Assessing Language Teacher Competences – Why and How?’ in Powell-Davis, P and Gunashekar, P (2013), English Language Teacher Education in a Diverse Environment (British Council).
Russell, T (2005) Can reflective practice be taught? Reflective Practice 6(2), 199–204.
Skehan, P (1998) A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning, Oxford: OUP.
Spada, N and Lightbown, P (2008) Form-focused instruction: Isolated or integrated? TESOL Quarterly 42(2), 181–217.
Stiggins, R (1995) Assessment literacy for the 21st century, Phi Delta Kappan 77(3).
TESOL (2002) Standards for P-12 ESL Teacher Education Programs, Alexandria, VA.
Tomlinson, B (Ed.) (1998) Materials Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tsui, A (2003) Understanding Expertise in Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tsui, A (2009) Teaching expertise: approaches, perspectives and characterizations, in Burns, A and Richards, J (Eds) Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 190–198.
Ur, P (1991) A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallace, M (1991) Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallace, M (1996) Structured reflection: The role of the professional project in training ESL teachers, in Freeman, D and Richards, J (Eds) Teacher Learning in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 281–294.
Wilson, X and Poulter, M (forthcoming) Assessing language teachers’ professional skills and knowledge, Sudies in Language Testing volume 42, Cambridge: UCLES/Cambridge University Press. | https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/blog/how-and-why-the-framework-was-developed/ |
Engineers from BAE Systems together with students from Cranfield University, have revealed a new technology concept – named Adaptable UAVs – which can alternate between the two different flight modes in the same mission. When in rotary wing mode the UAVs can be launched and recovered from battlefields and docked on a special pole.
The Adaptable UAVs are a hybrid between fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, and would use adaptive flight control and advanced navigation and guidance software, which would allow the aircraft to benefit from the greater speed and range afforded to fixed-wing aircraft, before alternating to rotary-wing mode to hover and achieve vertical take-off and landing. This novel technology could allow UAVs to better adapt to evolving future battlefield situations and through working together in a swarm, tackle sophisticated air defences, as well as operating in complex and cluttered urban environments.
In the rotary wing mode of flight, the Adaptable UAVs can be easily and safely launched and recovered using a range of vehicles in dangerous environments that might be cluttered by personnel, other aircraft or vehicles. The pole constrains the lateral or sideways movement of the UAV when being launched or recovered so strong winds cannot dislodge them and avoids any damage to personnel nearby. This is particularly important when recovering a UAV to the aft of a ship or a land vehicle. The pole’s gyro-stabilised element also ensures that it remains upright independently of the host vehicle’s orientation, which may be rolling if on a ship, or in the case of a land vehicle driving up or down a slope at the time of the launch or recovery.
Cranfield University is one of BAE Systems Strategic University Partners. Research staff and students have explored a range of UAV technologies including research into adaptive flight control and advanced navigation and guidance software.
BAE Systems has developed some of the world’s most innovative technologies and invests in research and development to generate future products and capabilities. The Company has a portfolio of patents and patent applications covering approximately 2000 inventions internationally. | http://www.defense-unmanned.com/article/2823/bae-unveils-futuristic-dual_mode-drone-concept.html |
Students ask: What should I do when I keep working and working, but I don’t seem to get anywhere?
Thrashing is a term borrowed from computer science, referring to what happens when a computer’s virtual memory is over-used. The process of shifting information into and out of main memory (a.k.a. paging) consumes disproportionate resources, impairing performance severely.
This is arguably analogous to a psychologist’s view of human ‘processing’, with a distinction between ‘working memory’ and ‘long-term memory’. The efficiency of reasoning (‘processing’) is governed by having access to information in working memory, and by how effectively that information is ‘chunked’ in memory, and hence how much information is accessible. Researchers ‘thrash’ when they are overloaded, reducing their ability to process effectively, so that their concerted efforts don’t appear to yield progress. Unlike computers, ‘thrashing’ in people is exacerbated by emotional responses, including anxiety or fear of failure.
So what to do about it?
First, be able to recognise it…
…then, make a change.
Recognition:
Thrashing is the sensation of ‘working at working’ rather than ‘getting work done’. As researchers, we get into this state when we are bogged down, with too much information to manage, too many tasks to complete, and often a lack of clarity about what matters most. Recognising – while avoiding an emotional reaction – that one is not making progress is an important skill.
Change:
Thrashing does not improve by persisting with the same routine. In fact, persisting can make things worse. So, change is needed. A colleague of mine, a ferociously productive professor of ‘guru’ status, used to take a walk as soon as he detected himself thrashing, even if it was only to get up from his desk and walk around the building. My productivity increased as soon as I followed his example.
What interventions tend to help? Change is needed at different levels:
1. immediate (to break the cycle);
2. beyond-this-moment (to shift into a more productive frame); and
3. longer term (to help avoid or at least moderate thrashing in the future).
Here are some suggestions about how to stop ‘thrashing’. (It’s not an exhaustive list, so if you have a way of dealing with it, why not leave a comment?)
1. Break the cycle:
- stop – take some time for yourself
- change mode – shift from writing to reading, or from reading to hygiene, or from research to cooking…
- change setting – e.g., go to a park or a café café – there’s a reason so many authors hang out in coffee bars, and it isn’t just for free wi-fi
- take a walk – get away from the problem, stretch your limbs, improve your circulation – and allow your mind to shift to background processing
- exercise – taking a break and shifting from mental to physical activity can be mentally liberating
- have a conversation – this is a form of mode change that often shifts blockages; whether it’s a quick chat with your supervisor or with another student, or a bit of amusing banter with a friend, a conversation can provide an insight or a reassurance that makes all the difference
2. Reduce the immediate load – make the work more tractable
- narrow the focus — use a ‘divide and conquer’ approach to split the most important tasks into smaller, more easily accomplished sub-tasks)
- switch to a simpler, achievable task — working on another task for which you are more likely to meet your objectives not only gets you thinking about something new, but provides a sense of accomplishment that will help your self-confidence. When you have succeeded there, return and reassess your first task. (I often run two tasks in parallel, so that when I get stuck on one, I can shift across and make progress on the other.)
3. Develop practices and awareness that will help in the longer term
- mindfulness
- building in time for regular exercise
- find your ‘something else’ – as a colleague once phrased it, ‘You need two passions in order to complete a PhD, and only one of them can be your research.’ Having ‘something else’ to turn to provides useful contrast and relief.
Changing tasks to occupy your attention with something other than the immediate problem allows the mind to do some ‘background processing’ of that problem. Sometimes the initial break is enough in itself to let a solution surface, an understanding to coalesce, or an alternative approach to pop up.
“The term thrashing denotes excessive overhead and severe performance degradation or collapse caused by too much paging. Thrashing inevitably turns a shortage of memory space into a surplus of processor time.” (p. 915 in Denning, Peter J. (1968). “Thrashing: Its causes and prevention” (PDF). Proceedings AFIPS, Fall Joint Computer Conference. 33: 915–922. Retrieved 2012-02-15.)
Miller, George A. (1956). “The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information”. Psychological Review. 63 (2): 81–97. doi:10.1037/h0043158
This text is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Images are ©Marian Petre; if you want to re-use any cartoons, please contact me. | https://pragmaticphd.com/thrashing/ |
April 15 – World Art Day. It’s also Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday.
World Art Day (World Art Day) is celebrated annually on April 15. It was established by the International Arts Association (IAA) and first celebrated in 2012.
The idea of an international day dedicated to all the visual arts was first expressed at the 17th General Assembly of the International Art Association, held in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. It was proposed by the representative of Turkey and supported by delegates from France, China, Cyprus, Sweden, Japan, Slovakia, Mauritius, and Norway.
April 15 was chosen as the date because that day in 1452 was born Leonardo da Vinci, an outstanding Italian artist. Despite the fact that he considered himself first of all a scientist and then an artist, his contribution to the development of fine arts is undeniable. Da Vinci was chosen as a symbol of peace, freedom of expression, tolerance, brotherhood, and multiculturalism, as well as the connection of art with other areas of human activity.
Events dedicated to World Art Day include art exhibitions, conferences, open days in museums, etc. The holiday is actively supported by online media, in particular, the Google Art Project online platform.
We would like to celebrate this day differently. Now we can only observe art online. And also – read and reread the quotations of the greats.
Where the spirit does not drive the hand of the artist, there is no art. Where the thought does not work with the hand, there is no artist, – Leonardo da Vinci.
The pen is just a seismograph of the heart. They can register earthquakes, but not predict them,– Franz Kafka
The movie is not a piece of life, it’s a piece of the pie, – Alfred Hitchcock.
With the push of a button, everyone is happy. But pressing the button is not a photo, – Peter Lindberg.
Art is a terrible disease, but you can’t live without it yet, – Salvador Dali.
How much in the art of beauty! Whoever remembers all that he has seen will never be left without food for thought, will never be truly alone, – Vincent van Gogh.
Art is the most expressive of all known forms of individualism, – Oscar Wilde.
Art is the exception to the unnecessary, – Pablo Picasso.
Painting is a discreet art, and in this, I think her considerable dignity, – Eugène Delacroix.
There’s no room for moralizing in my films. I’m a storyteller, not a moralist, – Quentin Tarantino. | https://usaartnews.com/news/world-art-day-2020 |
Recently, the IRS clarified whether employees are taxed for receiving cash rewards and reimbursements from their employers for participating in wellness programs. In CCA 201622031, the IRS ruled that an employee must include in gross income (1) employer-provided cash rewards and non-medical care benefits for participating in a wellness program and (2) reimbursements of premiums for participating in a wellness program if the premiums were originally made by salary reduction through a Section 125 cafeteria plan.
In CCA 201622031, the taxpayer inquired whether an employee’s income includes (a) employer-provided cash rewards or non-medical care benefits, such as gym membership fees, for participating in a wellness program; and (b) reimbursements of premiums for participating in a wellness program if the premiums were originally made by salary reduction through a cafeteria plan. The IRS ruled that Sections 105 and 106 do not apply to these rewards and reimbursements, which are includible in the employee’s gross income and are also subject to employment taxation. | https://twrblog.com/2016/05/27/wellness-program-cash-rewards-and-salary-reduction-premium-reimbursements-taxable/ |
Premier Insurance is always looking forward in highlighting its primary objective in short period of time both effectively as well as efficiently. With its expert team members, it has always put forward an effective approach in satisfying to its customers.
Our trained and experienced hands have made us approach in such a height that with us you can go on with shoulders by shoulder as an effective team for the benefits of each other, with customer benefits the first & utmost priority.
Our team focuses on meeting the market requirements with the customers being happy with our services and providing the feedbacks to climb the height of success in the insurance business being the top insurance agents nationwide with a large number of our valued customers whose needs are always a priority for us. | http://premier-insurance.com.np/well-trained-and-well-focussed/ |
Introduction {#section1-JMECD.S20377}
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Medical and health care-related education is currently changing. Since the advent of adult education, educators have realized that learners need to see the relevance and be actively engaged in the topic under study.^[@bibr1-JMECD.S20377]^ Traditionally, students in health care went to lectures and then transitioned into patient care as a type of *on-the-job* training. Medical schools have realized the importance of including clinical work early and have termed the mixing of basic and clinical sciences as *vertical integration.*^[@bibr2-JMECD.S20377]^ Other human health-related fields have also recognized the value of illustrating teaching points with actual cases or simulated cases. Using clinical cases to aid teaching has been termed as case-based learning (CBL).
There is not a set definition for CBL. An excellent definition has been proposed by Thistlewaite et al in a review article. In their 2012 paper, a CBL definition is "The goal of CBL is to prepare students for clinical practice, through the use of authentic clinical cases. It links theory to practice, through the application of knowledge to the cases, using inquiry-based learning methods".^[@bibr3-JMECD.S20377]^
Others have defined CBL by comparing CBL to a similar yet distinct clinical integration teaching method, problem-based learning (PBL). PBL sessions typically used one patient and had very little direction to the discussion of the case. The learning occurred as the case unfolded, with students having little advance preparation and often researching during the case. Srinivasan et al compared CBL with PBL^[@bibr4-JMECD.S20377]^ and noted that in PBL the student had little advance preparation and very little guidance during the case discussion. However, in CBL, both the student and faculty prepare in advance, and there is guidance to the discussion so that important learning points are covered. In a survey of students and faculty after a United States medical school switched from PBL to CBL, students reported that they enjoyed CBL better because there were fewer *unfocused tangents.*^[@bibr4-JMECD.S20377]^
CBL is currently used in multiple health-care settings around the world. In order to evaluate what is now considered CBL, current uses of CBL, and evaluation strategies of CBL-based curricular elements, a literature review was completed.
This review will focus on human health-related applications of CBL-type learning. A summary of articles reviewed is presented with respect to fields of study, delivery options for CBL, locations of study, outcomes measurement if any, number of learners, and level of learner\'s education. These findings will be discussed. The rest of this review will focus on expanding on the article summary by describing in more detail the publications that reported on CBL. The review is organized into definitions of CBL, comparison of CBL with PBL, and the advantages of using CBL. The review will also examine the utility and usage of CBL with respect to various fields and levels of learner, as well as the methods of implementation of CBL in curricula. Finally, the impact of CBL training on patient and health-care outcomes will be reviewed. One wonders with the proliferation of articles that have CBL in the title, whether or not there has been literature defining exactly what CBL is, how it is used, and whether or not there are any advantages to using CBL over other teaching strategies. The rationale for completing this review is to assess CBL as a discrete mode of transmitting medical and related fields of knowledge. A systematic review of how CBL is accomplished, including successes and failures in reports of CBL in real curricula, would aid other teachers of medical knowledge in the future. Examining the current use of CBL would improve the current methodology of CBL. Therefore, the aims of this review are to discover how widespread the use of CBL is globally, identify current definitions of CBL, compare CBL with PBL, review educational levels of learners, compare methods of implementation of CBL in curricula, and review CBL reports on outcomes of learning.
Methods {#section2-JMECD.S20377}
=======
A literature search was completed using an OVID© database search with PubMed as the database, 1946 to August 1, 2015. The search key words were "Case Based Learning, Medical Education". Investigational Review Board declined to review this project as there were no human subjects involved and this was an article review. A total of 360 articles were retrieved. Articles were excluded for the following reasons: unable to find complete article on the search engine OVID, unable to find English language translation, article did not really describe CBL, article was not medically or health related, or article did not describe human beings. Articles that originated in another language but had English language translation were included.
After excluding the articles as described, 70 of these articles were selected to review for location of study, description of CBL used, human health care-related fields of study, number of students if available, topics of study, method of delivery, and level of student (eg, graduate or undergraduate). Students were considered undergraduate if they were considered undergraduate in their field. For example, medical students were considered undergraduate, because they would still have to undergo more training to become fully able to practice. If the student was in the terminal degree, then that was considered a study of graduate students. For example, nutrition students were listed as graduate students. CBL encounters for both residents and independent practitioners who were in their final training prior to practice were listed as graduates. Residents were listed under graduate medical education. If a group had already graduated, they were listed as graduates. For example, MDs who participated in a continuing medical education (CME)-type CBL were listed as graduate type of student. Articles that did not list the total number of students were included, as one of the purposes of this review was to discover how widespread the use of CBL was globally, and what types of students and types of delivery were used. By including descriptive articles that were not specific, the global use of CBL could attempt to be assessed. Including locations of studies would then help decide whether CBL was isolated from the Western countries or has it truly spread around the world.
In order to review how CBL was used, in addition to where it was used, the method of delivery was assessed. Method of delivery refers to how the total educational content was delivered. Articles were reviewed for description of exactly how material was imparted to learners. Since many authors described their learning methods in detail, an attempt was undertaken to classify these methods. Method of delivery was classified as follows: live was considered a live presentation of the case, this could be a description, a patient, or a simulated patient. Computer or web based meant that the case and content were web based. Mixed modalities meant that more than two modalities were used during presentation. For example, if an article described assigned reading, lectures, small group discussions, a live case-based session, and patient interactions, then that article would be described as mixed modalities.
Method of evaluation of the educational intervention was also reviewed. The multiple ways in which the interventions were evaluated varied. A survey of how the learners viewed the intervention was frequent. Tests of knowledge gained were frequent, and these ranged from written, to oral, to Observed Skills Clinical Examination (OSCE). Another way by which CBL intervention knowledge was evaluated was review of practice behavior in clinicians. These multiple ways to evaluate the introduction of CBL into a curriculum are summarized in a table.
Results are presented in simple frequencies and percentages. SPSS (Statistical Program for the Social Sciences, IBM) version 22 was used for analysis.
Results {#section3-JMECD.S20377}
=======
All continuously inhabited continents had studies on CBL ([Fig. 1](#fig1-JMECD.S20377){ref-type="fig"}). North America is represented with the most with 54.9% of articles, followed by Europe (25.4%) and Asia, including India, Australia, and New Zealand (15.5%). South America had 2.8% and Africa had 1%.^[@bibr5-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr6-JMECD.S20377][@bibr7-JMECD.S20377][@bibr8-JMECD.S20377][@bibr9-JMECD.S20377][@bibr10-JMECD.S20377][@bibr11-JMECD.S20377][@bibr12-JMECD.S20377][@bibr13-JMECD.S20377][@bibr14-JMECD.S20377][@bibr15-JMECD.S20377][@bibr16-JMECD.S20377][@bibr17-JMECD.S20377][@bibr18-JMECD.S20377][@bibr19-JMECD.S20377][@bibr20-JMECD.S20377][@bibr21-JMECD.S20377][@bibr22-JMECD.S20377][@bibr23-JMECD.S20377][@bibr24-JMECD.S20377][@bibr25-JMECD.S20377][@bibr26-JMECD.S20377][@bibr27-JMECD.S20377][@bibr28-JMECD.S20377][@bibr29-JMECD.S20377][@bibr30-JMECD.S20377][@bibr31-JMECD.S20377][@bibr32-JMECD.S20377][@bibr33-JMECD.S20377][@bibr34-JMECD.S20377][@bibr35-JMECD.S20377][@bibr36-JMECD.S20377][@bibr37-JMECD.S20377][@bibr38-JMECD.S20377][@bibr39-JMECD.S20377][@bibr40-JMECD.S20377][@bibr41-JMECD.S20377][@bibr42-JMECD.S20377][@bibr43-JMECD.S20377][@bibr44-JMECD.S20377][@bibr45-JMECD.S20377][@bibr46-JMECD.S20377][@bibr47-JMECD.S20377][@bibr48-JMECD.S20377][@bibr49-JMECD.S20377][@bibr50-JMECD.S20377][@bibr51-JMECD.S20377][@bibr52-JMECD.S20377][@bibr53-JMECD.S20377][@bibr54-JMECD.S20377][@bibr55-JMECD.S20377][@bibr56-JMECD.S20377][@bibr57-JMECD.S20377][@bibr58-JMECD.S20377][@bibr59-JMECD.S20377][@bibr60-JMECD.S20377][@bibr61-JMECD.S20377][@bibr62-JMECD.S20377][@bibr63-JMECD.S20377][@bibr64-JMECD.S20377][@bibr65-JMECD.S20377][@bibr66-JMECD.S20377][@bibr67-JMECD.S20377][@bibr68-JMECD.S20377][@bibr69-JMECD.S20377][@bibr70-JMECD.S20377][@bibr71-JMECD.S20377][@bibr72-JMECD.S20377][@bibr73-JMECD.S20377][@bibr74-JMECD.S20377][@bibr75-JMECD.S20377]^
Level of education was undergraduation in 45 (64%) articles and graduation in 24 (34%) articles, with one article having both levels. One study with both faculty and residents was considered as a type of graduate education. The types of fields of study varied ([Fig. 2](#fig2-JMECD.S20377){ref-type="fig"}). The most represented field was medicine including traditional Chinese medicine, with articles also on nursing, occupational therapy, allied health, child development, and dentistry. The number of students ranged from 7 to 3105 and the mean number of students was 214. One study reported on the use of teams of critical care personnel, in which it was mentioned that there were three persons per team usually. Thus, the number of students was multiplied: 40 teams x 3 = 120 in total. The total number of students were 9884 from the 46 papers that explicitly stated the number of students.
{#fig1-JMECD.S20377}
{#fig2-JMECD.S20377}
{#fig3-JMECD.S20377}
Methods of delivery also varied ([Fig. 3](#fig3-JMECD.S20377){ref-type="fig"}). The most common method of delivery was live presentation (49%), followed by computer or web based (20%) and then mixed modalities (19%). Method of evaluation or outcomes was studied ([Fig. 4](#fig4-JMECD.S20377){ref-type="fig"}). Survey (36%), test (17%), and test plus survey (16%) were the top three methods of evaluation of a CBL learning session. Lesser in frequency was review of practice behavior (9%), test plus OSCE (9%), and others. Review of practice behavior could include reviewing prescription writing, or in one case reviewing the number of adverse drug events reported spontaneously in Portugal.^[@bibr65-JMECD.S20377]^
Discussion and Review {#section4-JMECD.S20377}
=====================
CBL is used worldwide. There was a large variety of fields of medicine. The numbers reported included a wide range of number of learners. Some studies were descriptive, and it was hard to know exactly how many students were involved. This problem was noted in another recent review.^[@bibr3-JMECD.S20377]^ CBL was used in various educational levels, from undergraduate to graduate. The number of students ranged from very small studies of 7 students to over 3000 students. The media used to deliver a CBL session varied, from several live forms to paper and pencil or internet-based media. The outcomes measurement to review if CBL sessions were successful ranged from surveys of participants to knowledge tests to measures of patient outcomes. In order to further analyze the worldwide use of CBL, the articles are reviewed below in more detail.
Definition of CBL {#section4a-JMECD.S20377}
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CBL has been used in medical fields since at least 1912, when it was used by Dr. James Lorrain Smith while teaching pathology in 1912 at the University of Edinburgh.^[@bibr63-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr68-JMECD.S20377]^ Thistlewaite et al^[@bibr3-JMECD.S20377]^ pointed out in a recent review of CBL that "There is no international consensus as to the definition of case-based learning (CBL) though it is contrasted to problem based learning (PBL) in terms of structure. We conclude that CBL is a form of inquiry based learning and fits on the continuum between structured and guided learning." They offer a definition of CBL: "The goal of CBL is to prepare students for clinical practice, through the use of authentic clinical cases. It links theory to practice, through the application of knowledge to the cases, using inquiry-based learning methods."^[@bibr3-JMECD.S20377]^
{#fig4-JMECD.S20377}
Another pathology article from Africa, describing a course in laboratory medicine for mixed graduate medical education (residents) and CME for clinicians, defines CBL: "Case-based learning is structured so that trainees explore clinically relevant topics using open-ended questions with well-defined goals."^[@bibr7-JMECD.S20377]^ The *exploring* that students or trainees do factors into other definitions. In a dental education article originating in Turkey, the authors remark: "The advantages of the case-based method are promotion of self-directed learning, clinical reasoning, clinical problem solving, and decision making by providing repeated experiences in class and by enabling students to focus on the complexity of clinical care."^[@bibr8-JMECD.S20377]^ Another definition of CBL was offered in a physiology education paper regarding teaching undergraduate medical students in India: "What is CBL? By discussing a clinical case related to the topic taught, students evaluated their own understanding of the concept using a high order of cognition. This process encourages active learning and produces a more productive outcome."^[@bibr13-JMECD.S20377]^ In an article published in 2008, regarding teaching graduate pharmacology students, CBL was defined as "Case-based learning (CBL) is an active-learning strategy, much like problem-based learning, involving small groups in which the group focuses on solving a presented problem."^[@bibr45-JMECD.S20377]^ Another study, which was from China regarding teaching undergraduate medical student\'s pharmacology, describes CBL as "CBL is a long-established pedagogical method that focuses on case study teaching and inquiry-based learning: thus, CBL is on the continuum between structured and guided learning."^[@bibr63-JMECD.S20377]^ It is apparent that the definition requires at least: (1) a clinical case, (2) some kind of inquiry on the part of the learner, which is all of the information to be learned, is not presented at first, (3) enough information presented so that there is not too much time spent learning basics, and (4) a faculty teaching and guiding the discussion, ensuring that learning objectives are met. In most studies, CBL is not presented as free inquiry. The inquiry may be a problem or question. Based on the fact that a problem is expected to be solved or question answered, the information covered cannot be completely new, or the new information must be presented alongside the case.
A modern definition of CBL is that CBL is a form of learning, which involves a clinical case, a problem or question to be solved, and a stated set of learning objectives with a measured outcome. Included in this definition is that some, but not all, of the information is presented prior to or during the learning intervention, and some of the information is discovered during the problem solving or question answering. The learner acquires some of the learning objectives during the CBL session, whether it is live, web based, or on paper. In contrast, if all of the information were given prior or during the session, without the need for inquiry, then the session would just be a lecture or reading.
Comparison of CBL and PBL {#section4b-JMECD.S20377}
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CBL is not the first and only method of inquiry-based education. PBL is similar, with distinct differences ([Fig. 5](#fig5-JMECD.S20377){ref-type="fig"}). In many papers, CBL is compared and contrasted with PBL in order to define CBL better. PBL is also centered around a clinical case. Often the objectives are less clearly defined at the outset of the learning session, and learning occurs in the course of solving the problem. There is a teacher, but the teacher is less intrusive with the guidance than in CBL. One comparison of CBL to PBL was described in an article on Turkish dental school education: "... CBL is effective for students who have already acquired foundational knowledge, whereas PBL invites the student to learn foundational knowledge as part of researching the clinical case." Study, of postgraduate education in an American Obstetrics and Gynecology residency, describes CBL as "CBL is a variant of PBL and involves a case vignette that is designed to reflect the educational objectives of a particular topic."^[@bibr54-JMECD.S20377]^ In an overview of CBL and PBL in a dental education article from the United States, the authors note that the main focus of PBL is on the cases and CBL is more flexible in its use of clinical material.^[@bibr16-JMECD.S20377]^ The authors quote Donner and Bickley,^[@bibr70-JMECD.S20377]^ stating that PBL is "... a form of education in which information is mastered in the same context in which it will be used ... PBL is seen as a student-driven process in which the student sets the pace, and the role of the teacher becomes one of guide, facilitator, and resource ... (p294)." The authors note that where PBL has the student as the *driver*, in CBL the teachers are the drivers of education, guiding and directing the learning much more than in PBL.^[@bibr16-JMECD.S20377]^ The authors also note that there has not been conclusive evidence that PBL is better than traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) and has been noted to cover less material, some say 80% of a curriculum.^[@bibr71-JMECD.S20377]^ It is apparent that PBL has been used to aid case-related teaching in medical fields.
{#fig5-JMECD.S20377}
Two studies highlight the advantages and disadvantages of CBL compared with PBL. Both studies report on major curriculum shifts at three major medical schools. The first study, published in 2005, reported on the performance outcomes during the third-year clerkship rotations at Southern Illinois University (SIU).^[@bibr19-JMECD.S20377]^ At SIU, during the 1994--2002 school years, there was both a standard (STND) and PBL learning tract offered for the preclinical years, years 1--2. During the PBL tract, basics of medicine were taught in small group tutoring sessions using PBL modules and standardized patients. In addition, there was a weekly live clinical session. The two tracts were compared over all those years with respect to United States Medical Licensing Exam© (USMLE) test performance on Steps 1 and 2, and also overall grades and subcategories on the six third-year clerkships. So the two tracks had differing years 1--2 and the same year 3. Results noted that the PBL track had more women and older students, so these variables were set out as covariates analyzing other scores. Comparing the PBL versus STND tracks, USMLE scores were statistically equal over the years 1994--2002. PBL was 204.90 ± 21.05 and STND was 205.09 ± 23.07 (*P*, 0.92); Step 2 scores were PBL 210.17 ± 21.83, STND 201.32 ± 23.25 (*P*, 0.15). Clerkship overall scores were overall statistically significantly higher for PBL tract students in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry (*P* = 0.02, *P* \< 0.001, respectively) and statistically not different for other clerkships. Clerkship subcategory analysis demonstrated statistically significantly higher scores for PBL tract students in clinical performance, knowledge and clinical reasoning, noncognitive behaviors, and percent honors grades, with no difference in the percentage of remediations. The school decided to switch to a single-tract curriculum after 2002. The problems noted with the PBL curriculum involved recruiting PBL faculty and faculty acceptance of student interactions, and also assessment issues. Faculty had to be trained to teach in PBL, which was time consuming and interfered with the process of learning by students. In addition, some faculty felt that the teachers should determine the learner\'s needs and not vice versa. The PBL assessment tools were novel and not immediately accepted by the faculty.^[@bibr19-JMECD.S20377]^ Other schools noted similar problems with PBL: it is different than LBL, and difficult to teach, as it is extremely learner centered. Learning objectives are essentially generated by the student, making faculty control over learning difficult. At this school, the difficulties in using PBL contributed to its abandonment as a stand-alone curriculum tract.
The difficulties in using PBL were associated with changes in other medical schools. Two medical schools in the United States, namely, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Davis, changed from a PBL method to a CBL method for teaching a course entitled *Doctoring*, which was a small group faculty led course given over years 1--3 in both schools.^[@bibr4-JMECD.S20377]^ Both schools had a typical PBL approach, with little student advance preparation, little faculty direction during the session, and a topic that was initially unknown to the student. After the shift in curriculum to CBL, there were still small group sessions, but the students were expected to do some advance reading, and the faculty members were instructed to guide or direct the problem solving. Since in both schools the students and faculty had some experience with PBL before the shift, a survey was used to assess student and faculty experiences and perceptions of the two methods. Both students and faculty preferred CBL (89% of students and 84% of faculty favored CBL). Reasons for preference of CBL over PBL were as follows: fewer unfocused tangents (59% favoring CBL, odds ratio \[OR\] 4.10, *P* = 0.01), less busywork (80% favoring CBL, OR 3.97 and *P* = 0.01), and more opportunities for clinical skills application (52%, OR 25.6, *P* = 0.002).^[@bibr4-JMECD.S20377]^ In summary, these two reports indicate that while a case-oriented learning session can prepare students for both tests of knowledge and also clinical reasoning, PBL has the problems of difficult to initiate faculty or teachers in teaching this way, difficult to cover a large amount of clinical ground, and difficulty in assessment. CBL, on the other hand, has advantages of flexibility in using the case and offers the same reality base that offers relevance for the adult health-care learner. In addition, CBL appears to be accepted by the faculty that may be practicing clinicians and offers a way to teach specific learning objectives. These advantages of CBL led to it being the preferred method of case-related learning at these two large medical schools.
Advantages of CBL and deeper learning {#section4c-JMECD.S20377}
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Another touted advantage of CBL is *deeper learning.* That is, learning that goes beyond simple identification of correct answers and is more aligned with either evidence of critical thinking or changes in behavior and generalizability of learning to new cases. Several articles described this aspect of CBL. One article was set at a tertiary care hospital, the Mayo Clinic, and was a teaching model for quality improvement to prevent patient adverse events.^[@bibr33-JMECD.S20377]^ The students were clinicians, and the course was a continuing education or postgraduate course. The authors in the Quality Improvement, Information Technology, and Medical Education departments created an online CBL module with three cases representing the most common type of patient adverse events in internal medicine. The authors use Kirkpatrick\'s outcomes hierarchy to assess the level of critical thinking after the CBL intervention. Kirkpatrick\'s outcomes hierarchy is based on four levels: the first, reaction of learner to educational intervention, the second, actual learning: acquiring knowledge or skills, the third, behavior or generalizing lessons learned to actual practice, and the fourth, results that would be patient outcomes.^[@bibr72-JMECD.S20377]^ The authors note that as one moves up this hierarchy, learning is more difficult to measure. A survey can measure hierarchy level 1, a written test, and level 2. Behavior is more difficult but still able to be measured. The authors measured critical thinking in physicians, taking their Quality Improvement course by measuring critical reflection by a survey. The authors constructed a reflection survey, which asked course participants about items constructed to assess their level of reflection on the cases. Least reflective levels consisted of habitual action, and most critically, reflective items asked physicians if they would change the way they do things based on the cases. The results of their intervention showed that physicians had the lowest scores in reaching the higher levels of reflective thinking. However, the reflection scores were shown to be associated with physicians' perceptions of case relevance (*P* = 0.01) and event generalizability (*P* = 0.001). This study was the first to evaluate physician\'s reflections after a CBL module on adverse events. The assumption is that deeper learning will be more likely to lead to behavioral changes.
Another attempt to measure deeper learning was reported from a dental school in Turkey.^[@bibr8-JMECD.S20377]^ The authors compared a CBL course with an older LBL course from the previous year by using "SOLO" taxonomy, developed by Biggs and Collis.^[@bibr73-JMECD.S20377]^ SOLO taxonomy rates the learning outcomes from prestructural through extended abstract. For example, in unistructural, the second item of SOLO, items could be "define", "identify", or "do a simple procedure", whereas in the "extended abstract" level, the items are "evaluate", "predict", "generalize", "create", "reflect", or "hypothesize" in higher mental order tasks.^[@bibr8-JMECD.S20377]^ A post-test was used to measure the responses on the test. The test questions were assigned to SOLO categories. In the first three categories of SOLO taxonomy questions, there was no statistical difference in scores between LBL and CBL groups. In the last two or higher categories of questions based on SOLO taxonomy, there was a statistically significant increase in the scores for relational and extended types of questions for the CBL group (*P* = 0.014 and 0.026, respectively). This review shows a benefit in higher level learning using a CBL program. Again, the assumption is that by inducing higher order mental tasks, deeper learning will occur and behavioral change will follow.
Two other studies discussed the levels of thinking and preparation for practice. One study compared students in interdisciplinary (ID) versus single-discipline students (SD; clinical anatomy) in a Graduate School for Health Sciences in Missouri, U.S. The two groups had slightly different cases. The ID group had complex ID cases and answered multiple choice questions about the cases. The SD group had cases in their discipline and answered multiple choice cases around the case. The assessment tool was the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. The mean scores of both groups were not statistically different. However, ID students who scored below the median on the pretest scored significantly higher on the posttest. While this study set out to compare the differences in SD vs ID teaching using CBL, it also compared the effects of an ID course on critical thinking and it appears to be synergistic with improving scores for students who started below the median on testing. This is important in education programs, because while mean scores may not rise, if less students are scoring lower, then less students will fail the course and have to repeat.
The second paper that attempted to measure higher learning outcomes queried dental school graduates who had completed a CBL course during their dental school training.^[@bibr22-JMECD.S20377]^ The survey was designed to assess the CBL curriculum with respect to actual job requirements of practicing dentists. The graduates spanned 16 years, from 1990 to 2006, and the survey was conducted in 2007--2008. The response rate was 41%. The findings were that the CBL course was associated with positive correlations in "research competence", "interdisciplinary thinking", "practical dental skills", "team work", and "independent learning/working". Other items including "problem-solving skills", "psycho-social competence", and "business competence" were not scored as highly with respondents. This article measured self-reported competencies and not the competencies as assessed by independent observers. However, it does attempt to link CBL with the actual practice with which it was attempting to teach, which is one of the generally accepted benefits of CBL.
In summary, CBL is defined as an inquiry structured learning experience utilizing live or simulated patient cases to solve, or examine a clinical problem, with the guidance of a teacher and stated learning objectives. Advantages of using CBL include more focusing on learning objectives compared with PBL, flexibility on the use of the case, and ability to induce a deeper level of learning by inducing more critical thinking skills.
Uses of CBL with respect to various fields and various levels in health-care training {#section4d-JMECD.S20377}
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CBL is used to impart knowledge in various fields in health care and various fields of medicine. The findings in this review showed that articles demonstrated the use of CBL in medicine,^[@bibr2-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr4-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr5-JMECD.S20377][@bibr6-JMECD.S20377][@bibr7-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr9-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr10-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr12-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr13-JMECD.S20377][@bibr14-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr18-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr19-JMECD.S20377][@bibr20-JMECD.S20377][@bibr21-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr24-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr25-JMECD.S20377][@bibr26-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr30-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr33-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr34-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr36-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr37-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr39-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr40-JMECD.S20377][@bibr41-JMECD.S20377][@bibr42-JMECD.S20377][@bibr43-JMECD.S20377][@bibr44-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr46-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr48-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr49-JMECD.S20377][@bibr50-JMECD.S20377][@bibr51-JMECD.S20377][@bibr52-JMECD.S20377][@bibr53-JMECD.S20377][@bibr54-JMECD.S20377][@bibr55-JMECD.S20377][@bibr56-JMECD.S20377][@bibr57-JMECD.S20377][@bibr58-JMECD.S20377][@bibr59-JMECD.S20377][@bibr60-JMECD.S20377][@bibr61-JMECD.S20377][@bibr62-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr64-JMECD.S20377]--[@bibr65-JMECD.S20377][@bibr66-JMECD.S20377][@bibr67-JMECD.S20377]^ dentistry,^[@bibr8-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr15-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr16-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr22-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr23-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr28-JMECD.S20377]^ pharmacology,^[@bibr11-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr27-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr29-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr35-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr45-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr63-JMECD.S20377]^ occupational and physical therapy,^[@bibr31-JMECD.S20377]^ nursing,^[@bibr5-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr21-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr38-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr47-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr51-JMECD.S20377]^ allied health fields,^[@bibr32-JMECD.S20377]^ and child development.^[@bibr17-JMECD.S20377]^
Eighteen fields of medicine were seen in this review, from internal medicine and surgery to palliative medicine and critical care ([Fig. 2](#fig2-JMECD.S20377){ref-type="fig"}, "fields of study"). Several articles highlight ID care or interprofessional care. A 2011 article in critical care medicine demonstrated the utility of both simulators and CBL on behaviors in critical situations of critical care teams of physicians and nurses.^[@bibr5-JMECD.S20377]^ Palliative care^[@bibr21-JMECD.S20377]^ and primary care^[@bibr51-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr59-JMECD.S20377]^ articles also reported on using a CBL course for learning with physicians and nurses. An article from the United Arab Emirates discussed how CBL better prepared participants for critical situations as well as basic primary care.^[@bibr59-JMECD.S20377]^
CBL is also used in various levels, including undergraduate education in the professions, graduate education, and postgraduate education. One field that uses CBL for all levels is surgery. Several articles describe surgical undergraduate medical education. One article describes using a paper and pencil plus live review sessions on improving student knowledge as tested by a standardized test in surgery.^[@bibr6-JMECD.S20377]^ Another paper from Germany describes initiation of a CBL curriculum for medical students and lists the pitfalls in establishing this curriculum.^[@bibr26-JMECD.S20377]^ A third undergraduate paper in a medical school course in surgery describes utilizing CBL and a more structured curriculum to aid in knowledge gains. A study utilizing both surgical simulators for laparoscopic procedural skills and CBL for clinical knowledge and reasoning demonstrates learning enhancement using CBL in surgical residents, or graduate surgical training.^[@bibr20-JMECD.S20377]^ In this study, scores in both procedural ratings during surgery for residents and also knowledge scores when presented with complications from surgery both rated higher in the CBL-enhanced course. Graduate use of CBL in surgery is frequent. CME courses are taught in trauma, which features lectures, skill stations, and simulation-based CBL.^[@bibr74-JMECD.S20377]^ Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) certification is required for all surgeons who practice in a designated trauma center in the United States.^[@bibr74-JMECD.S20377]^ In addition, the American College of Surgeons publishes a self-assessment course entitled "SESAP" or Surgical Education and Self-Assessment Program, which is a web or CD-ROM course that is largely case based, with commentaries.^[@bibr75-JMECD.S20377]^ These two courses are widely available and are constantly revised to reflect new advances in patient care research. The use of CBL programs was employed in undergraduate and graduate including postgraduate fields in this review.
Use of CBL in rural and underserved areas {#section4e-JMECD.S20377}
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One practical use of CBL is to use CBL to enhance knowledge in rural or underserved areas. An excellent example of CBL is the Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) program in Arizona and Utah states, United States.^[@bibr10-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr12-JMECD.S20377]^ This program was based on the Project ECHO program initially devised at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in 2003.^[@bibr10-JMECD.S20377]^ In Arizona and Utah, the CDC helped fund a program to teach primary care providers and also provide access to specialist to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. The primary aim was to increase treatment, as new drugs have become available, which are highly effective in treating HCV. The program works by recruiting primary care physician to participate. An initial teaching session is held on site at the health-care clinic in the rural or underserved area. Then, the provider teams are asked to participate in "tele ECHO" clinics in which participants present cases and have experts in HCV treatment comment. There are also educational sessions. Ninety providers participated, with 66% or 73% being primary care providers in rural or community health centers and not at universities. Over one and a half years, 280 patients were enrolled with 46.1% starting treatment. Other patients were likely not able to be treated, as their laboratory values indicated advanced liver disease. The percentage starting treatment was more than twice as many as expected to receive treatment prior to the project, based on historical controls. In addition to showing how CBL can impact rural medical care, this study is an example of learning assessment measured in patient outcomes.
A second CBL project was used in the United Arab Emirates to train rural practitioner\'s vital aspects of primary and emergency care using a CBL project.^[@bibr60-JMECD.S20377]^ The learners were able to provide feedback to the teachers as to the topics needed. This demonstrates the potential for interaction between teachers and learners using CBL, as it is a practical way to teach active practitioners. A third demonstration of using CBL in rural areas is in a report on teaching laboratory medicine in Africa.^[@bibr7-JMECD.S20377]^ In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is low trust in laboratory medicine services due in part to lower the quality of laboratories. This problem directly impacts patient care. Multiple international agencies are assisting the clinical laboratories in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to improve the quality of service. According to this report, the quality problem has led to decreased trust in laboratory medicine in the region. The course, given at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, was initiated to provide knowledge and also increase trust in laboratory medicine. The participants were 21 residents (graduate medical education), 3 faculty members, and 4 laboratory workers. The course was structured with both lectures and cases. Students were given homework for the differing cases. The assessments were both knowledge gains and also surveys of satisfaction for the course. Ratings on the survey were by ratings on a Likert scale of 1 (least valuable) to 5 (most valuable). Regarding the methods of delivery, the CBL sessions were rated highest with 85% of learners rating them as most valuable. In all, 81% rated case discussions as most valuable. Lectures received the most valuable rating by 65%. On the 12 question pre-/posttest, the mean score rose and also the number of questions answered correctly by the majority of learners.^[@bibr7-JMECD.S20377]^ These reports from three continents demonstrate that CBL is a practical way to impart knowledge in a diverse range of topics to clinicians who may be remote from a medical university.
Delivery of CBL: implementation and media {#section4f-JMECD.S20377}
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As illustrated in the above examples of use of CBL in rural settings, CBL use is varied as to the delivery method and implementation. Several articles demonstrate the importance of preparation for use in CBL. As many practitioners and students in all fields likely have more experience with LBL, participating in a course with CBL requires a different strategy and mindset in order to reach learning objectives. Preparation of both students and teachers in a CBL format is also very important for success. Two studies highlight the preparation and implementation of CBL: one not as successful as the other. In a qualitative study of introducing a new CBL format series to undergraduate medical students based in Sweden, the authors found that preparation of both students and faculty was likely inadequate for complete success. This study, held at the Karolinska Institutet, described the implementation of a CBL format for learning surgery during a semester course. All LBL classes were replaced with CBL sessions. The authors noted that at this time, there were organizational obstacles to starting a CBL course: lack of time and funds for faculty training. As such, faculty training was delayed and decreased. The study was a survey of five students and five faculty, who were picked from larger pools. There was a lot of criticism by students that the CBL needed more structure, or that the faculty often turned the CBL session more into a lecture session. The faculty described problems with getting the students to engage, and also with the lack of preparation for teaching in that format. Still, the overall impression was that CBL could increase interactive learning for this level of student.^[@bibr26-JMECD.S20377]^ This study demonstrates how lack of adequate preparation can impact a CBL experience for both faculty and students.
Another article demonstrated the differences in student motivation for autonomous learning, which was different, depending on how CBL was introduced. In a study of child development students in Sweden, there were four group methods to compare how students learned, depending on how CBL was introduced. The four groups were as follows: (1) LLL or all lecture, (2) CCCC or all CBL, (3) LCLC in which lecture and CBL were alternated in each session after the introduction, and (4) LLCC, in which there were three sessions with all lectures, two mixed lecture plus CBL, and two CBL only lectures to finish. There was a knowledge pretest and post-test to assess what the authors call *prior knowledge* (pretest) and achievement (posttest). Student motivation for learning was assessed by means of a modified *Academic Self-Regulation Scale.*^[@bibr76-JMECD.S20377]^ The results were that achievement scores and also autonomous motivation were both the highest in the LLCC group, or the group in which CBL was introduced after LBL. The authors conclude that students are more prepared for CBL after some foundational knowledge is imparted. These two articles demonstrate that both teacher and student preparation is necessary for a successful CBL learning encounter.
Use of CBL to impact patients and measurement of results {#section4g-JMECD.S20377}
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As described earlier, the Kirkland model of learning and assessment of outcomes includes assessment of the results of the training as its final method of assessing an intervention. In other words, how did the training impact patient care or its surrogate marker? Four recent studies illustrated how CBL can impact patient care.^[@bibr10-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr12-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr40-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr54-JMECD.S20377],[@bibr69-JMECD.S20377]^ The first, already described, is the Project ECHO for HCV treatment, which resulted in 46.1% of patients in the areas affected being started on treatment, and a large proportion of those treated being started on the newer antivirals. The second study was a study on practices by primary care physicians on treating diabetic patients. In this study, 122 primary care physicians (Family and Internal Medicine) at 18 sites were divided into three groups to enhance diabetes care. Group A received surveys and no intervention and served as a control group; group B received Internet-based software with three cases in a virtual patient encounter. The cases had simulated time and could include laboratory and medication orders and follow-up visits. After the cases, the physicians received feedback in the form of what an expert would do. Group C received the same CBL as group B with the addition of 60 minutes of verbal feedback and instruction from a physician opinion leader. The authors were able to obtain clinical data for the results. The results were that group B had a significant decline in hemoglobin A1C measures, the most common means of assessing glucose control over time in diabetics, while groups A and C did not. Groups B and C had a significant decline in prescribing metformin in patients with contraindications also. This demonstrates favorable clinical results using a CBL intervention.^[@bibr40-JMECD.S20377]^ The third was a study to institute chlamydia screening in offices. While the intervention did not globally increase chlamydia screening, the impact was that there was less of a decay on chlamydia screening in the intervention groups.^[@bibr54-JMECD.S20377]^ The last study demonstrated a CBL study in Portugal, which demonstrated an increase in reporting of adverse drug events after a CBL intervention in a study population of over 4000 physicians.^[@bibr69-JMECD.S20377]^ These four articles describe the use of CBL to impart medical knowledge and the use of patient outcomes to assess that learned knowledge. This is the ultimate test of learning for health-care practitioners: knowledge that improves patient care.
Limitations of this Review {#section5-JMECD.S20377}
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This review was an attempt to classify a term, *case-based learning*, which is used frequently. In reviewing articles, this term was used as a search term. It is possible that articles written which would fit the definition of CBL but were termed differently by the individuals writing that article might have been missed. In addition, foreign language articles were not retrieved if there was not an English translation. There may be additional articles that would be instructional in other languages. The higher number of articles retrieved from North America may be biased by using a United States database. In an attempt to describe the various articles, which were termed *case-based learning*, the methods of delivery and evaluation were described in terms familiar to medical personnel. In the learning situation, these terms might be describing slightly different experiences. For example, several articles described the use of an observed skills examination to evaluate the learner; this examination was classified as "observed skills clinical examination or OSCE". These *OSCEs* might have been more, or less, stringent. In defense of the search strategy, since the objective of the article was to write about what is currently considered *case-based learning*, this item was used as the search term. In order to classify and further define what exactly is CBL and how it is used, putting into discrete categories the described methods of delivery and evaluation was necessary, or else the review would reduce to a listing of separate articles without being able to provide a meaningful commentary.
Conclusions {#section6-JMECD.S20377}
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CBL is a tool that involves matching clinical cases in health care-related fields to a body of knowledge in that field, in order to improve clinical performance, attitudes, or teamwork. This type of learning has been shown to enhance clinical knowledge, improve teamwork, improve clinical skills, improve practice behavior, and improve patient outcomes. CBL advantages include providing relevance to the adult learner, allowing the teacher more input into the direction of learning, and inducing learning on a deeper level. Learners or students in health care-related fields will one day need to interact with patients, and so education that relates to patient is particularly relevant. Relevance is an important concept in adult education. CBL was found to be used in all continents. Even limiting the search to English and English translations, articles were found on all continuously inhabited continents. This finding demonstrates that the use of CBL is not isolated to Western countries, but is used worldwide. In addition, based on the number and variety of fields of medicine and health care reported, CBL is used across multiple fields.
In reviewing the worldwide use of CBL, several constants became apparent. One is that this involves a case as a stimulant for learning. The second is that advance preparation of the learner is necessary. The third is that a set of learning objectives must be adhered to. A comparison with PBL across several articles revealed that most teachers who use CBL, in contrast to PBL, need to get through a list of learning objectives, and in so doing, must provide enhanced guidance to the learning session. That adherence to learning objectives was evident in most articles. There were varied methods of delivery, depending on the learning situation. That is one of the practical aspects of learning sessions termed case-based learning or CBL. The teachers used cases within their realm of teaching and adapted a CBL approach to their situation; for example, live CBL might be used with medical students, video cases might be used with practitioners. CBL differs from PBL in that it can cover a larger amount of topics because of the stated learning objectives, and guidance from the teacher or facilitator who does not allow unguided tangents, which may delay covering the stated objectives. Contrasting CBL with CBL, in PBL, the focus is on the process of learning as much as the topic, whereas in CBL, the learning objectives are stated at the outset, and both learners and teachers try to adhere to these. Because there are stated objectives at the outset of the learning experience in CBL, these objectives can be tested to see if they are met. These tests of knowledge were explored as methods of evaluation, which varied.
The methods of evaluation ran the range of Kirkpatrick\'s hierarchy of learning. One of the important aspects of CBL which was explored was that perhaps CBL could induce learning on a deeper level. And so going up the hierarchy of learning, some evaluations were simple surveys of the learners/and or the teachers on how they liked the CBL intervention. Some were tests of knowledge or skills learned. A few studies evaluated practice behavior; that is, going beyond knowledge learned into what behaviors that knowledge induced. The last hierarchy was how the knowledge learned from CBL affected actual patients: a few studies revealed that patient outcomes were affected positively from CBL. Thus, published studies of CBL spanned the hierarchy of learning, from opinions of the activity to actual patients affected by the learning of practitioners.
In summary, CBL was found to be practiced worldwide, by various practitioners, in various fields. CBL delivery was found to be varied to the situation. Methods of evaluation for CBL included all the steps on Kirkpatrick\'s hierarchy of learning and demonstrated that CBL could be shown conclusively to produce deeper learning.
To repeat the definition included earlier in this review, CBL is a form of learning that involves a clinical case, a problem or question requiring student thought, a set of learning objectives, information given prior and during the learning intervention, and a measured outcome.
CBL imparts relevance to medical and related curricula, is shown to tie theory to practice, and induce deeper learning. CBL is practical and efficient as a mode of teaching for adult learners. CBL is certain to become part of every medical and health profession\'s curriculum.
Author Contributions {#section7-JMECD.S20377}
====================
Conceived the concepts: SFM. Analyzed the data: SFM. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: SFM. Made critical revisions: SFM. The author reviewed and approved of the final manuscript.
**Peer Review:**Four peer reviewers contributed to the peer review report. Reviewers' reports totaled 779 words, excluding any confidential comments to the Academic Editor.
**Competing Interests:**Author discloses no external Funding sources.
**Funding:**SFM has been selected as a local site primary investigator for a study of a new tissue insert for use in surgical repair of ventral hernia. The study is sponsored by BARD-Davol Inc.
Paper subject to independent expert single-blind peer review. All editorial decisions made by independent Academic Editor. Upon submission manuscript was subject to anti-plagiarism scanning. Prior to publication all authors have given signed confirmation of agreement to article publication and compliance with all applicable ethical and legal requirements, including the accuracy of author and contributor information, disclosure of Competing Interests and Funding sources, compliance with ethical requirements relating to human and animal study participants, and compliance with any copyright requirements of third parties. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
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Plymouth's streets are busier than they have been for weeks as the lockdown restrictions have been eased, starting today.
Today is the first day of the new and revised lockdown that Boris Johnson announced on Sunday evening.
A timelapse video shows the streets of Plymouth Hoe, the Barbican and further as people head out to enjoy the sunshine - and they're busier than they have been since the lockdown began on March 23.
Photos taken yesterday afternoon, before the restrictions were lifted, showed Plymouth's waterfront buzzing with people queuing for coffee and ice cream, with car parking spaces full up.
Today, the streets of Plymouth seem to be busier than they have been during the lockdown, but people appear to be following social distancing guidelines.
The new guidance brought into effect by the government allows people to enjoy unlimited exercise, and have the opportunity of meeting with one person from another household, so long as social distancing is maintained.
The advice came as the UK's COVID-19 death toll in all settings surpassed 40,000.
The new lockdown guidelines also allow people to drive to beauty spots for exercise, which has lead to many of the parking spaces on Plymouth's waterfront being filled today.
This comes as today it was announced that police have been told they have “no powers” to enforce two-metre social distancing in England.
Fresh guidelines issued by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council urges officers to only enforce what is written in law and that “Government guidance is not enforceable, for example two-metre distancing, avoiding public transport or the wearing of face coverings in enclosed spaces”.
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The new advice, set out in a document published and sent to police officers around the country comes after the Prime Minister announced changes to the lockdown restrictions that have come into place today, Wednesday, May 13.
Following the Prime Minister's speech on Sunday evening, Devon and Cornwall Police added a statement to their website, informing people that their approach to policing the response to the coronavirus outbreak is likely to change in many ways.
The statement reads: "Following the Prime Minister’s message to the country, we recognise these changes will alter our approach to policing the response to COVID-19. We will be working through these changes in the coming days and will update our Frequently Asked Questions as soon as possible." | https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/driving-through-plymouth-day-one-4130604 |
New debt statistics show that the composition of long term debt inflows in 2011 follows pre-crisis patterns.
Debt statistics are central to understanding the impact of the financial crisis; the World Bank's International Debt Statistics provides a detailed picture of debt flows of 128 developing countries. Now that the 2013 edition has been released, and as a member of the team that put it together, I thought I would look back at what the data tell us actually happened to international debt flows to developing countries before and after the recent financial crisis.
The financial crisis reaffirmed the volatile life cycle of capital flows. In the early 2000s, as developing economies became more attractive for foreign investment, private capital debt flows surged rapidly into these economies, while official creditors maintained a slower pace. In 2007, private financial flows were dominant and represented 90 percent of long term debt inflows into the developing economies.
What changed during the 2009 crisis?
According to International Debt Statistics 2013 data, debt inflows from private creditors declined by 30 percent in 2009. This phenomenon was experienced throughout all regions and likely reflects the contraction in both the demand and the supply of capital. The demand for loans was depressed by the downturn, as private sector activity slowed down due to the unfavorable economic situation. On the supply side, lending activity from banks and others in the financial sector was constrained by uncertainty and other factors.
Since private creditors were reluctant to provide further liquidity to many economies, governments started to compete strongly with the private sector for resources. Official creditors increased lending to developing economies by 50 percent, with the multilateral lenders as the major source of financing - the data shows that financing of governments by multilateral creditors was twice as much in 2009 compared to 2008. About 86 percent of the disbursements (some $30 billion) were provided by the World Bank (IBRD and IDA) and the IMF. Overall, debt inflows from official creditors increased from around 10 percent in the pre-crisis period to around 24 percent afterward, while private capital flows declined.
..and the financial crisis aftermath
The latest data, from International Debt Statistics 2013, show that there are good signs of recovery in the private sector; the situation appears to have reversed again, with lending composition back to pre-crisis patterns. Private inflows showed signs of recovery in 2010, and then re-gained their pre-crisis share in 2011. And official creditors slowed their pace of lending to governments. The share of private inflows rose to 87 percent in 2011, compared to 76 in 2009.
Promising economic growth in many developing countries, especially in the East Asia and Pacific region, increased the willingness of international banks to invest in these economies. The data shows that in 2011 around 66 percent of the inflows into developing countries was commercial lending, mainly to private sector. In addition to commercial loans, the private sector created more liquidity by issuing bonds, which reached the highest inflows in the last decade.
For more detailed country by country data on the structure of debt and its development, access to the International Debt Statistics database is provided free of charge as part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative. Prefer a paper copy? Download the full report in PDF format. | http://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/node/563 |
Data Protection Compliance Statement
This is a Data Protection Compliance Statement adopted by Pinnacle Investigations.
Pinnacle Investigations needs to collect and use certain types of information about people with whom it deals in order to operate. These include current, past and prospective employees, suppliers, clients/customers, and others with whom it communicates. In addition, it may occasionally be required by law to collect and use certain types of information of this kind to comply with the requirements of government departments for business data, for example. This personal information must be dealt with properly, however it is collected, recorded and used – whether on paper, in a computer, or recorded on other material – and there are safeguards to ensure this in the Data Protection Act 1998.
We regard the lawful and correct treatment of personal information by Pinnacle Investigations. as very important to successful operations, and to maintaining confidence between those with whom we deal and ourselves. We ensure that our organisation treats personal information lawfully and correctly.
To this end we fully endorse and adhere to the Principles of Data Protection, as enumerated in the Data Protection Act 1998.
Specifically, the Principles require that personal information:
Shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless specific conditions are met;
Shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes;
Shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed;
Shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
Shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes;
Shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under the Act;
Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
Shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.
Therefore, Pinnacle Investigations will, through appropriate management, strict application of criteria and controls:
Observe fully conditions regarding the fair collection and use of information;
Meet its legal obligations to specify the purposes for which information is used;
Collect and process appropriate information, and only to the extent that it is needed to fulfil operational needs or to comply with any legal requirements;
Ensure the quality of information used;
Apply strict checks to determine the length of time information is held;
Ensure that the rights of people about whom information is held, are able to be fully exercised under the Act. (These include: the right to be informed that processing is being undertaken, the right of access to one’s personal information, the right to prevent processing in certain circumstances and the right to correct, rectify, block or erase information which is regarded as wrong information.);
Take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard personal information;
Ensure that personal information is not transferred abroad without suitable safeguards.
In addition, as part of this Data Protection Compliance Statement Pinnacle Investigations will ensure that:
There is someone with specific responsibility for data protection in the organisation. (Currently, the nominated person is Paul Newton);
Everyone managing and handling personal information understands that they are contractually responsible for following good data protection practice;
Everyone managing and handling personal information is appropriately trained to do so;
Everyone managing and handling personal information is appropriately supervised;
Anybody wanting to make enquiries about handling personal information knows what to do;
Queries about handling personal information are promptly and courteously dealt with;
Methods of handling personal information are clearly described;
A regular review and audit is made of the way personal information is managed;
Methods of handling personal information are regularly assessed and evaluated;
Performance with handling personal information is regularly assessed and evaluated.
Data Protection Compliance Statement & Data Protection Policy
In some cases we may profile subjects names through the live credit databases that we have access to.
This may leave "footprints" under the search purpose that the client has provided to us on the subject's credit file on Credit Reference Agency Database(s). It is always recommended therefore that the client has the consent in the original agreement. However there are exceptions in cases where it is considered not applicable. Eg. Public Interest and other DPA Exemptions. (Section 29 and 35).
If the clients instruction is a trace and dependent upon the information we obtain from these databases, this will then determine what further enquiries are appropriate. Such as obtaining telephone numbers from addresses at which we believe the subject may be or have been located. We may also utilise other publicly available databases and/or Registries that we feel would be of value in this enquiry. E.g. The Family Records Office, Land Registry, Gazette, Electoral Roll etc. etc.
Once this research has been completed we may then conduct enquiries by telephone at and around the locations identified. At no stage will we divulge to a third party any personal data relating to the Data Subject and all enquiries will be discreet.
For the avoidance of doubt the instructions are accepted on the basis that our services are conducted under the direction of the client and as such we are deemed the Data Processor and the client, and/or the principal, is deemed Data Controller. If the subject of enquiry should contact us regarding any search we will refer them to the client as we will have forwarded our report to them and we will hold no additional information/data. We will hold data for not longer than necessary which in most cases will be no longer than 6 months, unless instructed to do so by the Data Controller.
Whatever the instruction, we confirm that no part of this enquiry will be sub-contracted to any other agent without the clients prior approval. We also confirm that no information concerning the Data Subject given to us by yourselves, or obtained during the course of this enquiry, will be used for any other purpose.
At all stages of enquiries we recognise that we are acting as the clients Data Processor, and as such we will comply totally with the Data Protection Act and the guidelines contained within the 8 Principles.
Code of Ethics of our Trade Association
We Pledge
To perform all professional duties in accordance with the highest moral principles and never be guilty of conduct which will bring reproach upon the profession of the Investigator sector and The Association of British Investigators.
To verify the credentials of clients and that they have lawful and moral reasons to instruct an investigation.
To respect the privacy of clients and their lawful confidence.
To ensure that services are adequately secure to protect privacy and to guard against inadvertent disclosure of private information.
To ensure that all employees and other persons paid to assist an investigation adhere to this Code of Ethics and to accept responsibility thereof.
To conduct all investigations within the bounds of legality, morality and professional ethics.
To respect the best interest of our clients by maintaining the high standard of proficiency and reporting to our clients all the facts ascertained whether they be advantageous or detrimental, and nothing be withheld from the clients save by the dictates of law.
To work together with all members of our Association towards the achievement of the highest professional objectives of the Association and to observe the precepts of truth, accuracy and prudence.
Code of Practice of our Trade Association
Each member shall comply with this Code and any other Guidance issued by the ABI from time to time.
1) All Transactions
a) Each member shall conduct its business lawfully, comply with all relevant UK legislation and judicial decisions and trade fairly and responsibly.
b) Each member shall also comply with Debt and Debt Collection Guidance as published by the Office of Fair Trading from time to time.
c) Each member shall act responsibly and with integrity in the day-to-day conduct of it business. For example:
i. Provide adequate training for members of its staff, bringing to their attention the principles of this Code and requiring them to carry out their duties in accordance with it. Also, ensure continuous and appropriate training of staff in respect of current legislation and best practice.
ii. Follow where appropriate any requests conveyed to the members by the Council of the Association from the enforcement authorities.
iii. Follow where appropriate any guidance notes issued by the Council of the Association.
iv. Notify the Association of any matters, which might adversely affect the reputation of the industry or of the Association.
d) Each member shall:
i. Comply with all relevant legislation revisions, updates and amendments.
For example:
The Administration of Justice Act 1970 Section 40
The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (and regulations thereunder)
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
The Race Relations Act 1976
The Data Protection Act 1998
The Consumer Protection Act 1987
The Criminal Justice Act 1995
Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1994
Business Names Act 1985
Companies Act 1985 (as amended 1989)
Human Rights Act 1998
Mental Health Act 1983
Money Laundering & Proceeds of Crime Act
Debt Arrangement and Attachment Act (Scotland) 2002 and subsequent regulations
This list is not exhaustive.
ii. Use plain English in all communications.
iii. All correspondence must show the full business address, telephone number and email address, where used.
iv. In all contacts by staff or agents, ensure that the member’s identity is clearly disclosed.
v. Ensure by continuously examining its debt collection procedures and those of any third parties it employs that they conform to the highest ethical standards.
vi. All members have a duty to ensure that their agents, sub contractors and subsidiaries comply with the Association’s Code and Guidelines.
vii. Comply with all reasonable requests by consumers, clients, or their appointed third parties for information concerning their agreements and accounts.
viii. All members shall ensure that the Association’s Code is available on their own websites. They shall further ensure that a copy of the code is supplied promptly to any debtor on request.
2) Confidentiality
Members must keep in strict confidence any information supplied by consumers or others, except where disclosure is authorised by the consumer or others or permitted or required by law.
3) Debt Collection & Default Guidelines
The following list of guidelines is intended as an indication of procedures to be adopted by members. It is not intended as an exhaustive directive to members.
Moreover the effectiveness of collection techniques and procedures depends on the circumstances applying at the time collection is attempted and so cannot be regulated in an absolute manner. Nevertheless, the Association expects compliance with the guidelines and any member not so complying will have to give a justifiable reason for not-complying in the event of a complaint being received by the Association.
In attempting to carry out collection in default of payment, members of the Association should:
a) Not use oppressive or intrusive collection procedures.
b) Not bring unreasonable pressure to bear on the consumer/debtor in default of payment.
c) Not act in a manner in public intended to embarrass the debtor.
d) Be circumspect and discreet when attempting to contact the debtor whether by telephone, or by personal visit, with due regard to OFT Guidelines.
e) Ensure that all attempted contacts with debtors are made at reasonable times and at reasonable intervals.
f) Unless instructed otherwise, accept all reasonable offers by debtors to pay by instalments provided acceptable evidence of non-ability to pay is given.
g) Unless otherwise instructed by the debtor, not discuss with or disclose to any third parties especially neighbours, relatives, or employers the consumer’s indebtedness.
h) Not use improper means to obtain the telephone number or address of a debtor. (Improper in this connection would refer to actions in breach of legislation described in para. 1) d.i. above or in breach of the Association’s Code’s.)
i) Not pressurise debtors to sell property or to raise funds by further borrowing.
j) Not falsely imply by written or verbal means that criminal proceedings will be brought nor that civil action has been instituted in default of payment nor should members falsely state or imply that a judgement or document of debt (Scotland) has been obtained against the debtor.
k) Ensure that collectors who use pseudonyms can be identified within the member’s organisation.
l) Take all possible steps to verify that the person being pursued is, in fact, the debtor.
m) To have due regard to and deal sensitively with individuals where evidence has been given, or is apparent, that the individual is incapacitated by mental or physical disability.
n) When dealing with fee charging debt advisory services, follow the Office of Fair Trading Guidelines on Debt Management.
o) Members shall offer maximum co-operation with local consumer advisers or other intermediaries consulted by the consumer/debtor.
p) Encourage consumers/debtors in financial difficulties to inform members of their difficulties and then to respond sympathetically and positively on the evidence provided.
q) Take into consideration before determining whether to enforce repayment all information supplied in relation to the reason for non payment, which may include The Common Financial Statement, or the consumer/debtors future ability to repay. If the consumer/debtor has disclosed multiple debt problems, inform them of the availability of advisory services. Provide in all relevant correspondence the name or designation of a specially trained member of staff who may be contacted regarding financial difficulties.
r) Where a debt, or the sum owed has been disputed promptly supply information to the debtor in support of the claim. Where no information has been supplied by the creditor promptly obtain the required support, or failing that cease collection action.
4) Conduct Regarding Clients
Each member shall:
a) Safeguard the security of collected monies.
b) Account to their clients at least once a month, or as otherwise agreed by their client.
c) Inform their clients of the true rates of charges for services rendered.
d) Ensure that by prior arrangement clients are able to visit their premises for the purpose of auditing and checking their accounts.
e) Conduct its business under a name, title or style which will not confuse or mislead clients, creditors, consumers or members of the public, or which will not imply any association with other organisations or persons, which do not exist.
f) Not approach, induce or persuade staff in the employment of a client to join the members organisation, although nothing in this clause will prohibit the engagement by a member of such an employee where a bona fide application is made.
5) Complaints
a) Each member shall have in place adequate processes to deal with consumer or client complaints, this must contain the following minimum procedure:
i. The management level at which complaints are handled.
ii. The time frame in which complaints are handled.
iii. The remedy, if the complainant is not satisfied.
iv. Complainants must be advised that one of the remedies is referral of the complaint to the Association where appropriate.
b) Members shall deal with complaints speedily, responsively, in a user-friendly fashion and at an appropriate management level.
c) Member’s complaints procedures must be made available to the complainant or his/her advisor on request.
d) If a complaint is made to the Association in relation to dealings with a member of the Association, the Association will deal with the complaint in accordance with the published complaints procedure.
6) The Association
a) Each member shall provide to the Council, on request, references and proof of financial solvency.
i. Members who are not required to file annual returns or accounts must provide the Association annually with a Certificate Solvency based on their last available audited accounts and signed by their Auditor.
ii. Notwithstanding the above, each member shall have their accounts audited by a firm of qualified accountants.
b) The Association shall monitor the compliance of members with the Code and shall each year publish a report of the number and types of complaints received.
c) Any instance of non-complying shall be drawn to the attention of the member concerned. In the event of continued non-compliance or of a serious breach, the Disciplinary Committee will take such action as it deems appropriate, including a warning or recommendation of expulsion of the member concerned from membership. In the event of expulsion the Association will send a report to the Office of Fair Trading.
d) Membership of the Association entitles the member to display an approved trade association symbol thereby indicating their adherence to this Code of Practice.
e) Each member must inform the Association of all Trading Names in use. | https://www.pinnacle-investigations.co.uk/dpa-compliance-ico-notified/ |
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Test for absolute value of coefficient
After running a simple linear regression I estimate a coefficient beta. I want to test the null that the absolute value of beta is less than or equal to 3. Does any one know how to perform that test? Thanks very much!
Laurie
Thread
Jul 16, 2014
Replies: 0
Forum: | http://www.talkstats.com/search/2776110/ |
Being both mentally and physically healthy is essential to overall well-being. Recovering from a mental health challenge is a process that involves hope, action, problem-solving, and tapping into or building up your support system. Many people benefit from the support of a professional who can work closely with them in the recovery process, but there are also self-help tools available for managing symptoms and making progress toward recovery. Even seemingly small steps can help give you hope that things will get better.
When addressing a mental health challenge, you can take several practical steps to begin feeling better. There are also many resources available to support you in your recovery, including a variety of brief self-assessments.
Try to work these general self-care practices into your daily routine:
- Walk, jog, or work out within your physical limits. Physical activity can improve your mood and help you sleep better.
- Eat healthy meals regularly. Good nutrition helps your body and your mind.
- Get a good night’s sleep. Getting quality sleep can help you feel better.
- Practice relaxation and stress management techniques. Meditation, prayer, or a stress-free hobby can help focus your mind.
Try to avoid unhealthy ways of coping, which may actually make your situation worse, by taking these steps:
- Limit how much and how often you drink alcohol.
- Avoid illegal drug use.
- Take prescription or over-the-counter medications only as directed by your doctor.
- Avoid risky behaviors, such as gambling and reckless driving.
Practice these specific skills to help you cope with challenging situations:
- Use grounding and relaxation techniques. A shower, deep breathing, or time in a quiet place to collect your thoughts can help relieve stress and get you through difficult moments.
- Learn what triggers your bad feelings and make a plan for how to handle them.
- Take advantage of online tools and mobile apps to check yourself and guide you through immediate steps to manage what you’re experiencing.
Reach out to your family, friends, or other Veterans to help you feel less isolated and improve your overall well-being:
- Participate in clubs or hobbies focused on something that you enjoy.
- Connect with Veterans’ groups or other social organizations,
- Volunteer in your community. Recognize that you have valuable experiences and abilities that can make a difference in the lives of others.
- Talk to other Veterans or friends and family with experiences similar to yours.
Be willing to let others know how you feel and to ask for support. Seeking information, advice, or options for tackling the challenges that affect your health, daily activities, or relationships can be a good first step. Consider connecting with:
- Your doctor. Ask if your doctor has experience treating Veterans or can refer you to someone who does.
- A mental health professional, such as a therapist.
- Your local VA Medical Center or Vet Center. VA specializes in the care and treatment of Veterans.
- A spiritual or religious adviser
OTHER RESOURCES
In addition to the above, there may be additional Federal, State and Local Government resources for you.
Go to our Landing Page and check all the boxes of issues you want the help you've Earned. Enter your zip code in the box at the bottom, press "search" and you will see the Local Community service providers for your issues, in additional to your local VSO and other government resources.
Be sure to check off the "Claims and Appeals" box to maximize your compensation and benefits for yourself and your loved ones.
It's your turn to get your best life back! You've EARNED it with your service! | http://www.knowavet.org/self-help-2/ |
Occupational science is an interdisciplinary field in the social and behavioral sciences dedicated to the study of humans as occupational beings. As used here, the term "occupation" refers to the goal-directed activities that characterize human time use over the span of each day and over the course of lifetimes. Occupational science was founded in 1989 by Elizabeth Yerxa at the University of Southern California, and was based on the earlier works of Mary Reilly . Occupational science now includes university-based academic programs leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field. Disciplines within which occupational scientists can be found include architecture, engineering, education, marketing, psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, occupational therapy, leisure science, public health, and geography. There are several national, regional and international societies dedicated to promoting the evolution of this specialized area of human science. Academic journals containing content relevant to occupational science include the Journal of Occupational Science, OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, and various occupational therapy journals. | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Occupational_science |
We love to fill our lungs with deep breaths of fresh air... but not when the air is laced with car and truck exhaust. We love to lose ourselves in the simple mantra we repeat with every couple of strides... but can’t when the honk of a horn or the ring of a bicycle bell constantly interrupts it. We love the satisfaction of accomplishment as kilometres rush by under sneakered foot... but hate when it’s the same kilometre run over and over again in a tiny loop. We are the runners of Central Nagoya and we long for something more.
Well, there is.
For 8 years, I ran on the back streets of Nishi-ku, dodging speeding cars and traffic lights. I ran on the sidewalks around Nagoya Castle, trying to see only the swans and cherry blossoms while ignoring the forgotten cars and homeless. I ran on the 2-kilometre cycling path of Shonai Ryoukuchi Park, pretending that it wasn’t already the eighth time I had passed the tennis courts. Then, last December, I decided it was time for a change: I took my sneakers out of town.
If you enjoy running as much as I do, I suggest you do the same.
And as it turns out, you do not have to venture very far. From Fushimi Station in Nagoya, ride a Toyota-bound train on the Tsurumai line for about thirty minutes, until you are out of town. (A word to the wise: if the train you hop on terminates at Akaike, worry not; the next one along will take you the rest of the way.) Get off at Komenoki Station, a developing little patch of land just outside of Nagoya that will soon enjoy its very own AEON shopping centre, and walk south for one kilometre. There is a traffic light just before the MINISTOP. Hang a left there, climb the stairs at the far end of the parking lot, and once at the top of the rise a deep blue blanket of water will stretch out before you, beckoning.
Built in 1961, Aichi Ike (pond) is a regulatory reservoir for the Aichi municipal water supply, as well as a regular paradise for runners. Strap on your sneakers and do some pre-run stretching on the large paved area at the entrance. Take a deep breath of fresh air and push the start button on your chronograph at the 0.0km marker. Then, off you go, enjoying the well-maintained jogging/walking course that winds, bends, and zigzags around the so-called pond (it seems big enough to be called a lake, but, hey, I am no geographer).
The 7.2-kilometre course is perched upon a small rise and, apart from the few corporate buildings (DENSO and NEC), the tallest things around you are a variety of trees that line the course on one side, including one small alcove of tall bamboo. As a result, the blue sky above is clean, comforting, and most importantly—vast.
Due to the lack of cars and trucks, the only sound you will hear is that wonderful mantra you have missed for so long and maybe the occasional “Ohayogozaimasu” from passers-by.
Plus, if 7k is a bit far for you or you are just the type that likes to pause to take in the scenery, benches and chairs from which you can soak up the colours and scents of nature are set up along the path. If you are like me, however, and train for half-marathons, a mere three laps will do it for you and still leave you wanting to go around again.
So, now that the marathon season in Aichi is pretty much over (approx. October-April) it is time to put yourself into training mode. It is time to bring that 50-minute 10 down to a 45-minute 10, or the 2-hour half down to an hour forty-five. It is time to get out there and run.
And Aichi Ike is where runners go to run.
Where Runners Go—additional information
If you are looking to extend your marathon season and are willing to travel beyond the borders of Aichi, there are numerous road races, trail runs, and marathons throughout the summer and early fall in surrounding prefectures, such as Nagano, Ishikawa, and Tokyo.
If you are new to the Japanese marathon system, there are two websites that you will need to bookmark on your PC.
http://www.runnet.jp
This website, as its name implies, is focused directly on running. It is littered with advertisements. However, it provides not only information and registration for almost every race in Japan, but also a race calendar for those who sign up (for free), so you can track all the marathons you’ve registered to run. It is only in Japanese (mostly kanji), so those unilingual runners among us will need a hand interpreting the registration forms.
http://www.sportsentry.ne.jp
The layout of Sports Entry is a little easier on the eyes and most of the buttons are labelled with English or katakana, so even if you do not possess a 2-kyu certificate, you should be able to utilise the site. Sports Entry has information on and registration for a wide variety of sports, including marathons, duathlons, and triathlons. Keep in mind though that Sports Entry does not have access to as many events as Runnet, so it is wise to keep both sites bookmarked.
Whichever site you decide to use, remember one more thing: marathons and road races in Japan are not like the ones we enjoy overseas where one may walk up on race day and register without hassle. Registration deadlines here are usually a month before race day and sometimes even earlier. So if you are planning a run in July, you’d be wise to get to signing up right away! | http://centraljapan.jp/living_details.php?id=2 |
Today marks another observance of World Environmental Day. Established by the United Nations, World Environment Day highlights the need to protect the health of our environment. Since 1974, this day has been celebrated annually on June 5.
It is important as it provides an opportunity to involve all stakeholders- civil society, businesses, and governments in preserving and enhancing the environment. This year’s World Environment Day’s theme is biodiversity. Biodiversity is the foundation that supports all life on land and below water. Human actions have accelerated climate change and pushed nature beyond its limit. If we continue on this path, biodiversity loss will have severe implications for humanity, including the collapse of food and health systems.
How healthy is the environment?
In just over a generation, the world has witnessed a 60% decline in wildlife across land, sea, and freshwater and is heading towards a shocking decline by 60% in 2020 if current trends continue.
Scientists say 30% of the disease burden of children is due to environmental factors. The Global Environmental Outlook report proves that the overall condition of the global environment continues to deteriorate, driven mainly by population growth, urbanisation, economic development, technological change, and climate change. Data gathered from the report shows that an estimated 6 to 7 million deaths annually are caused by air pollution. 29% of all lands are now degradation hotspots. There is a likelihood of witnessing the sixth mass species extinction in the planet’s history. Also, 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year because of the mismanagement of domestic waste in the coastal areas. An even sad statistic is that polluted drinking water and inadequate sanitation causes approximately 1.4 million human deaths annually.
These irreversible impacts are mostly yielded from human activities. Environmental policies have played their role but the environmental problems remain complex and require system-oriented efforts at a large scale. Considering the rate at which policies are reversing climate and environmental damage, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement are unlikely to be achieved by 2030.
To achieve global environmental progress, there is a need for collective efforts from all stakeholders. Also, technology can be used in our favour.
Many sectors of society are shifting to renewable energy and more sustainable practices. The digital revolution is helping reduce paperwork hence saving the trees and helping with deforestation. With companies like Uber and Airbnb, fewer people are buying or using cars. Online streaming services are also helping reduce the environmental footprints of the entertainment industry. Also, technology is helping improve environmental monitoring. The use of drones, information systems, etc.
In Myanmar, the government in collaboration with UNDP and Inle Lake Management Authority sought the need for a monitoring system and database to provide a platform for the public to access the socio-economic database of the Inle Lake region and give stakeholders the needed information to develop and conserve the lake.
The Bewsys team was involved in the design and development of the system. Through this system, the Government of Myanmar can sustainably contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), specifically clean water and sanitation, climate action, life below water, and partnership for the goals.
Technology is effective in the fight for a healthy and improved environment. Considering the global crisis the world is facing today, we need to be more intentional about how we live and the daily activities we are involved in. | https://www.bewsys.com/resources/technology-for-advancing-environmental-protection-in-myanmar |
When an individual is embraced, the legal relationship between that private and birth parents and other individuals is modified. In numerous states, adoption produces brand-new lineage that basically replaces a person’s natural family for his/her adoptive family. Questions regarding the rights of extended family members to children who were adopted out of the family frequently occur in the will and estate location of law.
Intestate Succession
If there is no will when somebody dies or if the will is declared invalid, the guidelines of intestate succession use to determine who stands to inherit. These guidelines are various in each state, however they normally provide a greater percentage of the decedent’s estate to close relative including the surviving partner and kids and after that move on to other family members depending on who endured the decedent, such as moms and dads, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Intestate succession laws usually mention that adopted children are treated in the very same way as biological children are. This often consists of extended family, such as grandparents.
Intestate Inheritance from Biological Parents
Generally, state probate laws specify that a child who was adopted does not have a right to inherit from his or her biological parents. Biological moms and dads can provide for the child they put for adoption by stating such in their wills. These rules extend to other lineal loved ones, such as grandparents.
Inheritance from Child
Similarly, the Uniform Probate Code mentions that the birth parent does not deserve to inherit from the embraced child unless the parent dealt with the child as his/her own and did not decline to financially support the child. The embraced parents typically have the right to acquire from the child.
Intestate Inheritance from Adopted Parents
Adopted children normally have the very same rights to acquire from their adoptive parents as biological kids do through the process of intestate succession. This best extends to other lineal family members, consisting of grandparents.
Extension of Intestacy Rights
Alaska, Illinois, Idaho and Maine enable inheritance rights to continue after adoption if this is stipulated to in the adoption decree. Some states permit the adopted child to still inherit from the birth moms and dads even though the birth parents can not acquire from the adopted child. Additionally, some jurisdictions enable the embraced child to inherit from another lineal relative if they maintained a familial relationship after the adoption was finalized.
Unmentioned Child
If an embraced child was unintentionally excluded of a will, such as by being adopted after the will was made and the will was never ever customized, a separate set of laws uses. Depending upon state law, the adopted child might have the same share as the other kids who were included in the will. | http://www.criminal-defense-attorney-usa.com/rights-of-lineal-relatives-after-adoption/ |
20171010
Divorce Is Genetic, Runs In Some Families – New Research
A lady or guy with divorced or separated parents may likely suffer same fate if care is not taken. That is to say, children of divorced parents are more likely to get divorced when compared to those who grew up in loving two-parent households.
According to a study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Lund University in Sweden, this is caused by genetics and not psychological factors.
The researchers analysed Swedish population registries and found that people who were adopted resembled their biological but not adoptive parents and siblings in their histories of divorce.
“We were trying to answer the basic question: Why does divorce run in families?” Across a series of designs using Swedish national registry data, we found consistent evidence that genetic factors primarily explained the intergenerational transmission of divorce,” said Jessica Salvatore, an assistant professor at VCU.
“By recognising the role that genetics plays in the inter-generational transmission of divorce, therapists may be able to better identify more appropriate targets when helping distressed couples.
“Focusing on increasing commitment or strengthening interpersonal skills may not be a particularly good use of time for a therapist working with a distressed couple.
“At present, the bulk of evidence on why divorce runs in families points to the idea that growing up with divorced parents weakens your commitment to and the interpersonal skills needed for marriage.
“However, these previous studies haven’t adequately controlled for or examined something else in addition to the environment that divorcing parents transmit to their children: genes.
“For example, other research shows that people who are highly neurotic tend to perceive their partners as behaving more negatively than they objectively are [as rated by independent observers].
“So, addressing these underlying, personality-driven cognitive distortions through cognitive-behavioral approaches may be a better strategy than trying to foster commitment.”
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1. A recent trio of dental treatment claims (Ramdhean v Agedo (2020), Breakingbury v Croad (2021) and Hughes v Rattan (2021)) have all resulted in findings that a dental practice (or its owner) owes a non-delegable duty of care to the end user. Consequent to these decisions and the related High Court decisions of Razumas v Ministry of Justice (2018) and Hopkins v Akramy (2020), there is now greater clarity around the circumstances in which a non-delegable duty of care is owed to the recipient of healthcare services, and by whom, and this clarity is to be welcomed.
2. In this article I shall summarise in brief the law regarding non-delegable duties, take a tour through some of the leading cases involving non-delegable duties in healthcare settings, and extract what I regard as the decisive factors in determining whether a non-delegable duty is owed, and by whom.
Non-delegable duties of care: the law 3. As will be familiar, a non-delegable duty is a personal duty, not just to take reasonable care in performing work, but to procure the reasonable performance of work delegated to others. It is thus an exception along with vicarious liability to the general rule that the law of negligence is fault-based. Importantly for our purposes it enables a litigant to bring their claim against (typically) a large corporate entity when the tortfeasor himself is un-insured or under-insured. Conversely it exposes such an entity to significant liability risks; these risks can be minimised by ensuring that any independent contractors are financially sound and covered by adequate insurance, and that any contract contains a suitable indemnity clause.
4. The landmark case of Woodland v Swimming Teachers Association and ors UKSC 66; A.C. 537 gives the legal test for a non-delegable duty to arise at common law. Lord Sumption, giving the leading judgment, stated that the starting point was a relationship between the two parties giving rise to a positive duty on the part of the defendant to protect a particular class of persons (including the claimant) against a particular class of risks. At paragraph 23 he identified the five defining features of a non-delegable duty. Imposition of such a duty would also need (paragraph 25) to be fair, just and reasonable, although the Supreme Court
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Medical Law Briefing December 2021
in Armes v Nottinghamshire County Council UKSC 60; A.C. 355 at paragraph 36 has clarified that this threshold is met if the five defining features are satisfied.
5. Lord Sumption’s five defining features are these (paragraph 23):
“(1) The claimant is a patient or a child, or for some other reason is especially vulnerable or dependent on the protection of the defendant against the risk of injury. Other examples are likely to be prisoners and residents in care homes.
(2) There is an antecedent relationship between the claimant and the defendant, independent of the negligent act or omission itself, (i) which places the claimant in the actual custody, charge or care of the defendant, and (ii) from which it is possible to impute to the defendant the assumption of a positive duty to protect the claimant from harm, and not just a duty to refrain from conduct which will foreseeably damage the claimant. It is characteristic of such relationships that they involve an element of control over the claimant, which varies in intensity from one situation to another, but is clearly very substantial in the case of schoolchildren.
(3) The claimant has no control over how the defendant chooses to perform those obligations, ie whether personally or through employees or through third parties.
(4) The defendant has delegated to a third party some function which is an integral part of the positive duty which he has assumed towards the claimant; and the third party is exercising, for the purpose of the function thus delegated to him, the defendant’s custody or care of the claimant and the element of control that goes with it.
(5) The third party has been negligent not in some collateral respect but in the performance of the very function assumed by the defendant and delegated by the defendant to him.”
6. The duty owed by a hospital to its patients is identified in Woodland as a paradigmatic example of a common law non-delegable duty (along with that owed by an education authority to its pupils and by an
employer to its employees): paragraph 34. This remark, although strictly obiter, reflects obiter dicta to the same effect in numerous earlier decisions by appellate courts, beginning with Gold v Essex County Council 2 K.B. 293, 301. For example, the House of Lords in X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council 2 A.C. 633 noted, “It is established that those conducting a hospital are under a direct duty of care to those admitted as patients to the hospital”, and the Court of Appeal in Farraj v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust EWCA Civ 1203; 1 W.L.R. 2139 noted, “…I shall assume that a hospital generally owes a non-delegable duty to its patients to ensure that they are treated with skill and care…”
7. A non-delegable duty may alternatively arise pursuant to statute, in which case it is determined according to normal principles of statutory interpretation. In Armes the Supreme Court found that a local authority did not owe a non-delegable duty to children in its care whom it had placed with foster carers pursuant to section 21 of the Child Care Act 1980. The provision stated, “A local authority shall discharge its duty … by boarding him out [i.e. placing him with foster carers]”. It was held that the local authority’s duty was limited to arranging for, and then monitoring, the provision of care.
8. Other decisions regarding the interpretation of written duties (whether statutory or contractual) include:
Myton v Woods (1980) 79 LGR 28: statute provided that the local education authority “shall make arrangements for the provision of transport”. The defendant was not liable for the negligence of the taxi firm which it had contracted with. Wong Mee Wan v Kwan Kin Travel Services Ltd 1 WLR 38: a contract for a package tour of China included undertakings that the defendant would provide (and not merely arrange) particular services. The defendant was accordingly under a duty to ensure that said services were provided with reasonable skill and care.
Are detainees owed a non-delegable duty in respect of their medical care?
Page 2
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Medical Law Briefing December 2021
9. Prisoners are a category of persons identified by Lord control/placing, and the care inherent in that relationship.
Sumption as being vulnerable or dependent on the That facet can be easily seen in a hospital, as regards
Defendant’s protection, such as to satisfy the first of healthcare a patient gives himself over to the hospital for
PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCEthe five defining features in Woodland. If the statutory the very purpose of healthcare. Or as Lord Sumption put it
scheme gives the Defendant responsibility for all at the claimant, as well as being in the target’s care
aspects of the Claimant’s imprisonment, including should be “receiving a service which is part of the
medical care, then a Court is likely to find that a non- institution’s mainstream function” . To similar effect is
delegable duty is owed, applying the five-stage test in Baroness Hale’s point at and also that the
Woodland.
conundrum in the Woodland case resulted from
“outsourcing of essential aspects of [public authorities’]
10. Morgan v Ministry of Justice EWHC 2248 functions”.
(QB) is a High Court decision preceding Woodland. The 151. Here the reasoning breaks down in the current case:
Claimants contended that a non-delegable duty was the reason for the prisoner being in the hands of the prison
owed by the Ministry of Justice (“MOJ”) (the state is not for, and does not comprehend, healthcare.
department in charge of prisons) to the deceased (a Healthcare is not (at least since 2003) part of the prison
prisoner) in respect of medical care provided at the institution’s mainstream (or essential) function…
prison. At the material time, the local Primary Care …
Trust (“PCT”) was responsible for providing medical 153. Turning to this case there is a statutory duty
care under the statutory scheme; it had previously been regarding custody and maintenance. Those are duties
the responsibility of HM Prison Service. The PCT which the Defendant has to fulfil. Neither of those are in
provided medical care through Ellesmere Medical question in the complaints made. There is a statutorily
Practice. Supperstone J determined that the MOJ’s derived common law duty as to accessing healthcare.
duty was limited to a duty to provide access to Again that is not relevant, as I have found above. But the
healthcare, rather than a duty to provide healthcare. provision of healthcare forms no part of the statutory or
common law duty. That is the duty of the PCT and its
11. Razumas v Ministry of Justice EWHC 215 subcontractors…”
(QB); P.I.Q.R. P10 is a High Court decision on
similar facts, made following the case of Woodland. The 13. She commented that it was proper for
Claimant, then a prisoner, received negligent medical consideration to be given to the existence of a common
care at a time after, pursuant to a statutory regime law non-delegable duty (i.e. applying the five defining
change, responsibility for healthcare at the prison had features in Woodland) following changes to the
been transferred from the MOJ to the local PCT. As in statutory scheme: paragraph 157. Expressed
the case of Morgan, the Judge found that the MOJ’s differently, this means that it is appropriate to consider
duty was limited to providing access to healthcare whether a non-delegable duty arises at common law
provided by the PCT (or an entity contracted by the unless such a duty either arises from the statute or is
PCT). There was thus no non-delegable duty owed by ruled out by the statute.
the MOJ to provide reasonable medical care. The
Defendant accepted (paragraph 139) that it had owed a 14. Nyang v G4S Care and Justice Services Limited and ors
non-delegable duty in respect of medical care prior to EWHC 3946 (QB) and GB v Home Office
the statutory change, at which time medical care had EWHC 819 (QB) share a similar factual matrix and were
been the responsibility of the prison.
both endorsed by Cockerill J in Razumas.
12. In applying the Woodland judgment to the facts in Razumas, Cockerill J reasoned as follows:
“150. … there is a nexus between the control of the claimant by the target and the purpose of that
15. In Nyang the Claimant received negligent medical treatment while detained in an immigration removal centre. The centre was operated entirely by the First Defendant, G4S, pursuant to a contract with the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The
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Medical Law Briefing December 2021
relevant Detention Centre Rules required the First anr EWCA Civ 641; 3 W.L.R. 469 was
Defendant to have a medical practitioner and injured because of negligent care in a hospital in
healthcare team available for the detained persons. The
PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCEFirst Defendant conceded (paragraph 96) that it owed a
Germany. The First Defendant, the Ministry of Defence (“MOD”), was under a duty to arrange medical care for
non-delegable duty to detainees in respect of their servicemen and their dependants (a category which
medical care. Although not part of the ratio of the case, included the Claimant). At the material time it had
this is undoubtedly the correct outcome, based on the subcontracted the provision of secondary care to
five Woodland criteria, considering that the Claimant hospitals in Germany, having run its own military
was a detainee and that secondary legislation assigned hospitals in Germany in the past. The Claimant’s
responsibility for medical care (along with all other argument that the MOD owed a non-delegable duty to
aspects of detention) to those operating the centre.
provide reasonable medical treatment to servicemen
and their dependants was rejected. The MOD’s sole
16. The facts in GB were almost identical, save that the duty was to arrange for medical care, and this duty had
Claimant sued the Home Office, and not Serco, the been discharged. The Court held (obiter) that if the
private company which the Home Office had engaged MOD had been running the hospital, it would have
to operate the relevant immigration removal centre. owed a non-delegable duty (paragraph 63).
Coulson J found, applying the Woodland criteria, that a
non-delegable duty was owed by the Home Office in 19. The case of Farraj v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust and
respect of healthcare provided to detainees at the anr EWCA Civ 1203; 1 W.L.R. 2139
centre. In the author’s view this is a puzzling concerned Claimants who instructed the First
conclusion: from the facts given, it appears that the Defendant to conduct DNA sampling of foetal tissue.
Home Office delegated all its responsibility for the The First Defendant contracted with a laboratory which
immigration centre to Serco. As such, and considering cleaned and cultured the sample, returned it to the First
the cases in the section below, it is unclear how an Defendant, and negligently failed to inform it of
antecedent relationship (the second defining feature in concerns that the sample contained no foetal tissue.
Woodland) could have existed between the Claimant The Claimants on appeal contended that the First
and the Defendant Home Office.
Defendant owed a non-delegable duty in performing
the sampling task.The Court of Appeal rejected this
What if the parties’ only connection is that D arranged submission, finding (obiter) that a Trust would owe a
the provision of healthcare for C?
non-delegable duty to a patient admitted to its hospital
17. I have considered the position of detainees for treatment, but (the judgment’s ratio) that the
receiving medical treatment who are reliant on the provision of diagnostic services from a distance to
Defendant for all other aspects of their detention. I someone not already a patient was significantly
turn now to those cases in which the only connection different and gave rise to no such duty.
between the Claimant and Defendant is the
Defendant’s duty to arrange (or provide) medical care, 20. Hopkins v Akramy and ors EWHC 3445 (QB);
and any such care is in fact provided by a different legal Q.B. 564 postdates the Woodland case. The
entity. It is understandably much more difficult to Claimant was severely injured due to allegedly
establish a non-delegable duty in these circumstances. negligent medical treatment provided at an NHS out-
In the author’s view the Courts are reluctant to find a of-hours clinic. The out-of-hours clinic had been run by
statutory non-delegable duty except on the clearest a private company, pursuant to a contract between the
wording; a non-delegable duty is also unlikely to arise company and the local PCT. The PCT’s duty was to
at common law because of the difficulty in establishing “provide” or “secure provision of” primary medical
an antecedent relationship.The claimants in the cases services (section 83(1) of the NHS Act 2006, as it then
below all failed to establish a non-delegable duty.
was); the statute allowed it to provide the services itself
or make appropriate arrangements for their provision
18. The Claimant in A (A Child) v Ministry of Defence and (section 83(2)). The Claimant contended that the PCT
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Medical Law Briefing December 2021
was under a statutory (alternatively, common law) nondelegable duty to provide reasonable medical care. HHJ Melissa Clarke ruled that on the statutory wording the provision of medical care was delegable, and that the PCT had discharged its duty to “secure the provision of” primary medical care by entering a contract with the private company. The existence of a statutory delegable duty ruled out an equivalent non-delegable duty at common law.
Does a medical practice owe a non-delegable duty to its patients? 21. It is perhaps not surprising, after reflecting on the numerous judicial obiter dicta to the effect that a hospital owes a non-delegable duty to its patients, that a non-delegable duty is owed by a medical practice (or its owner) in the equivalent surgery setting. But it is notable and brings clarity to this area of the law that a trio of first instance decisions (two of them in the County Court) have recently been handed down with exactly this ratio.
22. In Ramdhean v Agedo and anr (county court, unreported) the Claimant was referred by her usual dental practice to another dental practice (The Forum Dental Practice Limited, the Second Defendant) for a particular dental procedure. The Second Defendant engaged a self-employed dental surgeon (Dr Agedo, the First Defendant), to perform the procedure, in fulfilment of its own contractual obligations to the local PCT, from which it made a profit. Its contract with the PCT required the Second Defendant to provide personal dental services and to comply with various terms and conditions relating to the employment or engagement of dental practitioners.
23. It was the Claimant’s case that the First Defendant performed the procedure negligently and that the Second Defendant owed her, as its patient, a nondelegable duty to provide reasonable dental care. The Second Defendant was uninsured for clinical negligence claims, although it had sufficient assets to meet the present claim. HHJ Belcher concluded, paying close attention to the contract between the Second Defendant and the PCT, in paragraphs which merit reading in full, that the Claimant was a patient of the Second Defendant in a way that she was not a patient of the PCT (paragraphs 36-37):
“36. I am not satisfied that the “passing on of arrangements” is the same for the PCT and for FDPL [the Second Defendant]. Whilst the PCT has a duty to provide or secure the provision of primary dental services within its area, because it chose to secure that provision through FDPL, the PCT never accepted the Claimant as a patient. The PCT entered into a contract with FDPL under which FDPL was to provide the dental services. In doing so, the PCT was complying with its duty to secure the provision of primary dental services. I cannot see why that arrangement should not fall within the general rule that the duty to take reasonable care may be discharged by entrusting the performance of a task to an apparently competent independent contractor. The PCT did not undertake the care, supervision and control of the patient in this case.
37. FDPL did accept the Claimant as a patient. Whilst Dr Jackson tried to suggest that FDPL’s function was merely administrative, merely passing the patient onto Dr Agedo, I am entirely satisfied that the Claimant was a patient of FDPL. The services under IMOS [the contract between D2 and the PCT] were clearly to be provided by the Contractor, that is FDPL [12/179-187; Clauses 40 730]. The IMOS recognises that FDPL will have to employ or otherwise engage dental practitioners to perform the dental services. That is inevitable given that FDPL is a company. The IMOS contains terms and conditions relating to those performing the services and conditions for their employment or engagement, and expressly permits subcontracting of clinical matters [12/197-203; Clauses 178-201]. The IMOS also impose positive obligations on FDPL, such as, for example, ensuring that any dental practitioner performing services under the IMOS was maintaining and updating his skills and knowledge in relation to those services he was performing [12/201, Clause 195]. Whilst Dr Jackson plainly did not understand this to be an obligation on FDPL, that is beside the point. What it does illustrate is that, on any view, FDPL was not (or should not have been) the simple administrative referral service which Dr Jackson sought to suggest.”
24. HHJ Belcher proceeded to find that Woodland’s five defining features were met: paragraphs 39-47.
25. Breakingbury v Croad (county court, unreported) has similar facts and is considered in more detail by Katie Ayres in her article here. In finding that a non-
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delegable duty was owed by the owner of the practice, the Judge noted that it was the practice (and not the individual dentists) which contracted with the Dental Health Board, that the Claimant made payment to the practice, and that the Claimant did not choose which dentist she saw.
26. The same conclusion was again reached on very similar facts by the High Court in the decision of Hughes v Rattan EWHC 2032 (QB). The Claimant attended a dental practice owned by the Defendant. She contended that she had received negligent treatment from four dentists working at the practice, three of whom were self-employed. A contract between the Defendant and the local PCT required the Defendant to provide primary dental services and contained detailed terms and conditions, including regarding the employment and engagement of dental practitioners. Profits were shared between the Defendant and the dental practitioners he engaged or employed. In finding that a non-delegable duty was owed, Heather Williams QC placed weight on inter alia the following facts:
The practice held C’s dental records and arranged her appointments; D decided whether the dental services he had contracted with the PCT to supply would be provided by himself, his employees, associates or sub-contractors; Pursuant to his contract with the PCT, D agreed to a series of obligations relating to patients of the practice; C was treated at the practice’s premises, using equipment, nursing staff and other facilities provided by D.
Conclusion 27. Whether the recent dental treatment cases in fact represent a significant extension of the law regarding non-delegable duties is arguable. They are perhaps better regarded as the inevitable consequence of the Supreme Court’s Woodland decision, with its conclusion that the duty owed by a hospital to its patients was a paradigmatic example of a non-delegable duty. One point they do bring home is that the Courts will take the same approach to all forms of medical treatment. In the setting of a typical dental surgery in which a
Medical Law Briefing December 2021
patient principally engages with the practice, the practice is subject to detailed requirements by the commissioning NHS trust, and the practice provides the necessary premises and equipment a non-delegable duty is likely to arise.
28. Of Lord Sumption’s five defining features of a nondelegable duty, the one most difficult to square with the existence of a non-delegable duty in the dental treatment cases is, in the author’s view, the second: the antecedent relationship, independent of the negligent act itself. The claimants received no dental care directly from the defendant, but only from the (allegedly negligent) self-employed dentists to whom they were assigned. What was the basis for the decision that there was an antecedent relationship between the claimant and the defendant, placing the claimant in the defendant’s care? In answer, it is observed that the facts relied upon to demonstrate an antecedent relationship are diverse: inter alia that the claimant was regarded as belonging to the practice, a significant proportion of the payment went to the practice, the claimant had limited choice of which dentist she saw, and the practice agreed to a series of obligations in respect of its patients. “Antecedent” does not equate to “pre-existing”.
29. The best explanation, though, is given in Ramdhean at paragraph 42:
“… In Woodland the claimant was in the actual charge or care of the lifeguard and swimming teacher at the time of the incident in the swimming pool. However, she was also in the actual charge or care of the school, and thus of local authority responsible for the school. The two are not mutually exclusive. The question is not whether the Claimant was in the care of the First Defendant (which she undoubtedly was), but whether she was in the actual care of FDPL [the practice]. If I ask myself “Did FDPL undertake the care, supervision and control of the Claimant as its patient?”, I conclude that it clearly did. In my judgment, FDPL has undertaken to care for the Claimant, albeit the IMOS permits that to be by way of employing dentists, or otherwise engaging their services, including by way of subcontracting.”
30. This analysis underlines the point made by Lady Hale in Woodland, that the five defining features are
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Medical Law Briefing December 2021
not to be treated as set in stone. Rather than taking the purposes of the Act. The reasoning in Morgan was
features at face value, litigators should focus their attention in this setting on whether the claimant can
PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCEproperly be considered a “patient” of the practice.
criticised by Coulson J in GB v Home Office at - but endorsed by Cockerill J in Razumas v MOJ at . Notably these factors also point in favour of a practice being vicariously liable for negligent medical treatment by
self-employed dentists it has engaged. 31. Drawing together the dissimilar contexts above in
which a non-delegable duty to provide healthcare may
arise, it is striking that (a) there will usually be a direct About the Author
relationship between the claimant and the defendant,
and (b) the defendant will be bound (whether by statute Susanna Bennett was called to the Bar in 2017. She
or contract) to provide healthcare, whilst entitled to specialises in clinical negligence, while also acting in
delegate the task.
personal injury cases, inquests, and solicitor’s
negligence cases. Her clinical negligence work covers a
Subsequently overturned on unrelated grounds. The point was also decided under the Crown Proceedings Act, the MOJ being the Crown for the
broad range of cases including dental negligence, strokes cases, cancer cases, and cases concerning end of life care. | https://globalmediagroup.org/medical-law-briefing-december-2021.html |
Who was Frederick Douglass?
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ISU Extension and Outreach, in partnership with the Iowa DNR is offering a ladies' night out event in Elgin where women will have the opportunity to meet and get to know other female woodland enthusiasts in their area. The event will feature local female speakers who will talk about the roles they have played in conservation and managing woodlands in northeast Iowa. Speakers include Jenna Pollock, Director of Clayton County Conservation, and four local female woodland owners. Women will get to enjoy a meal together and share conversations about each other's experiences. The night will wrap up with a brief introduction to management resources and assistance programs by Emma Kerns, Forestry Specialist with the Iowa DNR and the Wildlife Management Institute.
This event is part of a new program called the Women's Woodland Stewardship Network (WWSN) that seeks to empower women to become more involved in woodland stewardship and forestry-related activities in Iowa. The program will support women by giving them the knowledge to be active in woodland management decision-making and by expanding their connections with other women who own or have influence over woodlands in Iowa.
This is a free event with required registration. Registration will be limited to the first 20 people. To register, please contact Deb Kahler at [email protected] or 563-425-3331 by midnight on Thursday, November 4th. | https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/womens-woodland-stewardship-network-ladies-night-out |
Genomics, Human Behavior, and Social Outcomes • October 12, 2021
This is the first in a series "Genomics in Society: New Developments, New Questions: Discussions with Journalists" hosted by Hastings Center, in partnership with the Center for ELSI Resources & Analysis (CERA) of four online discussions to inform journalists about the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of new research in genomics; discuss story ideas on genomics and its ELSI issues; and connect journalists and ELSI experts and resources.
New research on genomic influences on human traits such as intelligence, educational attainment, household income, and sexual behavior is newsworthy and of high public interest. But covering the research findings can be a minefield. The findings are prone to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. And they are already being misused by individuals and groups seeking to justify racist and other biases. The need for responsible journalism about genomics research is greater than ever. How should scientists and journalists work together to report on the findings of this research to the public?”
- Moderator: Amy Harmon, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the New York Times covering the intersection of science and society.
- Panelist: Erik Parens, a principal investigator of “Wrestling with Social and Behavioral Genomics” and a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center
- Panelist: Melinda Mills, a genetic scientist at the Sociogenome Project and director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS), University of Oxford
- Panelist: Arbel Harpak, Assistant Professor of Population Health and Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin
Please see links to the transcript and associated resources for this talk in the upper right corner of the page.
Related events (information and registration will be sent out before the event- please email [email protected] with any questions)
- Genomics, Human Behavior, and Social Outcomes – Watch the recording
- Law Enforcement and Genetic Data – Watch the recording
- Precision Medicine Research, “All of Us”, and Inclusion – Watch the recording
- Addressing Racism in Medical Research and Publishing – November 30
Beginning in 2021, The Hastings Center will offer an annual “bioethics for journalists” discussion series. It is supported by the Callahan Public Programs, named in honor of Daniel Callahan, co-founder of The Hastings Center. Each year, Hastings will join forces with a prominent partner to bring the most cutting-edge ethical issues in science and health to journalists. | https://elsihub.org/video/genomics-human-behavior-and-social-outcomes |
Starting in October, the Army will begin awarding promotion points to technicians who earn civilian technical certifications directly related to their trade. This includes automotive mechanics, HVACR technicians, and electronics repairmen. An Army technician can earn 10 points for each certification, up to a maximum of 50 points. The Army currently promotes its soldiers to junior grade noncommissioned officers using a scoring system, which allows them to earn and compile points for such areas as education, awards, special achievements, and performance.
According to the U.S. Army, national skill standards have become an important component of its personnel professional development models. For example, the Ordnance Corp’s welding courses were recently recognized by the American Welding Society, the machinist course was recognized by the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, and all electronics training has been approved by the Electronics Technician Association.
Still in the works is the accreditation of all automotive training under Automotive Service Excellence’s (ASE’s) Continuing Automotive Service Education (CASE) program and the HVAC training under the Partnership For Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration accreditation (PAHRA), of which North American Technician Excellence (NATE) is a partner. Individuals under the Montgomery G.I. Bill can be reimbursed for taking a NATE test. | https://www.achrnews.com/articles/91020-army-recognizes-trade-certifications |
How do I reset my contrast to default settings?
Right click on desktop> Select Personalize> Select Themes> Select Theme settings> choose themes other than high contrast themes. You may also search in Cortana search bar “High Contrast” to check the settings.
How do I adjust contrast on Windows 8?
Adjusting contrast in Windows 8
- Open the Charms bar.
- Click Settings.
- Select Ease of Access.
- Under High Contrast, click the button to turn High Contrast mode on or off.
How do I reset the default color scheme in Windows 8?
Colors: Windows lets you tweak your desktop’s colors and sounds, sometimes into a disturbing mess. To return to the default colors and sounds, right-click your desktop, choose Personalize, and choose Windows from the Windows Default Themes section.
How do I get my screen back to normal color?
Use color correction
- Open your device’s Settings app .
- Tap Accessibility. Text and display.
- Tap Color correction.
- Turn on Use color correction.
- Choose a correction mode.
How do I change Windows default settings?
To reset Windows 10 to its factory default settings without losing your files, use these steps:
- Open Settings.
- Click on Update & Security.
- Click on Recovery.
- Under the “Reset this PC” section, click the Get started button.
- Click the Keep my files option.
- Click the Next button button.
Why is my brightness not working Windows 8?
In the Device Manager window, look for Monitors, then right-click the monitor and select Uninstall. Be sure to also check the Remove driver option. Once removed, click the Scan for hardware changes icon. Doing so should bring the brightness settings back.
How do I turn the brightness up on Windows 8?
- Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Settings. (If you’re using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Settings.)
- Tap or click Brightness or Screen (depending on the features of your PC) and make the change you want.
How do I restore my Windows 8 desktop?
Solution
- To open System Restore: • Open Control Panel (view by large icons). Click Recovery, then click Open System Restore to open System Restore. Proceed to step 2. •
- Click Next.
- Choose a restore point and click Next.
- Click the Finish button.
- Click Yes to confirm.
How to turn on high contrast in Windows 8 / 7?
Method 3: Turn On / Off High Contrast in Windows 8 / 7. Right click on an empty part of the desktop to bring up a menu and then select Personalize. Scroll down to the “Basic and High Contrast Themes” section and choose the theme of your choice. If you want to turn off high contrast, choose the theme under either “Aero themes” or “Basic themes”.
How to change high contrast display mode back to normal?
-The “Personalization” screen opens; on the “Windows Default Themes (3)” section, (bottom left), click the first theme which has a little flower. That’s it ! high contrast mode is turned off and you return your display to normal. Easy isn’t it?
How to change the theme in Windows 8.1?
Windows 8.1: High Contrast Theme. If your Windows 8 tablet is running out of battery or you need better screen readability when you use it under direct sunlight, you can switch from a normal modern theme to a high contrast theme. 1. First, move your mouse to the bottom or upper-right of the screen to show the Charm bar, and choose Settings.
Is there a way to increase contrast in Linux?
Adjusting contrast in Linux. There are command line tools to adjust the contrast of your screen such as xgamma and xcalib. These can be used to fine-tune any reductions in your screen’s default contrast level. To increase contrast above defaults, most window managers offer a high-contrast theme which can make your screen easier to see. | https://corporatetaxratenow.com/how-do-i-reset-my-contrast-to-default-settings/ |
This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0130203, filed on Sep. 30, 2021, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
1. Field
2. Description of the Related Art
present disclosure relates to a control unit and a substrate treating apparatus including the same. More particularly, it relates to a control unit applicable to a facility used for manufacturing a display device, and a substrate treating apparatus including the same.
When performing a printing process (e.g., RGB Patterning) on a transparent substrate to manufacture a display device such as an LCD panel, PDP panel, LED panel, etc., a printing equipment having an inkjet head unit may be used.
SUMMARY
The inkjet head unit may include a plurality of nozzles to discharge ink onto the substrate. However, if even one nozzle among the plurality of nozzles is defective, the print quality of the substrate may be deteriorated, which may result in material/time waste.
The replacement timing of the conventional inkjet head unit depends on a manual provided by the manufacturer. However, since the performance degradation point of the inkjet head unit may vary depending on the use environment, degradation of the inkjet head unit performance cannot be predicted by the above method, and accordingly, it is difficult to prevent deterioration in print quality in advance.
A technical object of the present disclosure is to provide a control unit capable of predicting the life of an inkjet head unit and maximizing its life to be used, and a substrate treating apparatus including the same.
The objects of the present disclosure are not limited to the objects mentioned above, and other objects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.
One aspect of the control unit according to the present disclosure for achieving the above technical object performs maintenance of an inkjet head unit for discharging a substrate treatment liquid onto a substrate and comprises a count module for counting the number of discharges for each nozzle of the inkjet head unit, a comparison module for comparing the number of discharges with a reference value to determine whether the number of discharges is equal to or greater than the reference value, and an evaluation module for evaluating whether a life of the inkjet head unit has reached a usable life based on whether the number of discharges of each nozzle is equal to or greater than the reference value.
Wherein the count module counts the number of discharges based on whether a voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element involved in operation of a nozzle.
Wherein the piezoelectric element is provided in the same number as the nozzle, and the count module counts the number of discharges based on whether a voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element in a corresponding relationship to the nozzle.
Wherein the reference value is related to at least one of a print quality for the substrate and a nozzle that does not participate in printing the substrate.
Wherein the reference value is related to the print quality, the reference value is a usage amount of a nozzle related to a case where a stain is formed on the substrate, or a usage amount of a nozzle related to a case where flatness of a layer formed on the substrate by print does not meet criteria.
Wherein when the reference value is related to a nozzle that does not participate in printing the substrate, the reference value is a usage amount of a defective nozzle determined as defective.
Wherein the defective nozzle is related to at least one of satellite discharge, non-discharge, and discharge position inaccuracy.
The control unit of claim comprises any one of a memory module for storing the reference value, an input module for inputting the reference value, and a communication module for receiving the reference value from an outside, wherein the reference value is provided to the comparison module through any one of the memory module, the input module, and the communication module.
Wherein the evaluation module compares the number of nozzles having the number of discharges equal to or greater than the reference value with a reference number to evaluate whether a life of the inkjet head unit reaches a usable life.
If the number of nozzles is equal to or greater than the reference number, the evaluation module evaluates that a life of the inkjet head unit has reached a usable life, and requests replacement of the inkjet head unit that has reached a usable life.
Wherein the control unit allows a nozzle with a relatively small usage amount based on a usage amount for each nozzle to participate in printing the substrate.
The control unit further comprises an extraction module for extracting a nozzle with a relatively small usage amount based on a usage amount for each nozzle, and a control module for controlling the extracted nozzle to participate in printing the substrate, wherein the extraction module and the control module operate when it is evaluated that a life of the inkjet head unit has not reached a usable life.
Wherein the extraction module extracts a nozzle with a usage amount less than or equal to a reference amount, or extracts a nozzle with the smallest usage amount.
Wherein the control unit determines whether the number of discharges matches the number of times voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element involved in operation of the nozzle.
Wherein the control unit determines whether a match is made based on whether a nozzle normally discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate when a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element.
The control unit further comprises an imaging module for capturing a space between a nozzle and the substrate using a camera sensor, and a treating module for determining whether a nozzle discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate based on image information obtained through capturing.
Wherein the imaging module captures the space when a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element.
Another aspect of the control unit according to the present disclosure for achieving the above technical object performs maintenance of an inkjet head unit for discharging a substrate treatment liquid onto a substrate and comprises a count module for counting the number of discharges for each nozzle of the inkjet head unit, wherein the count module counts the number of discharges based on whether a voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element involved in operation of a nozzle, a comparison module for comparing the number of discharges with a reference value to determine whether the number of discharges is equal to or greater than the reference value, and an evaluation module for evaluating whether a life of the inkjet head unit has reached a usable life based on whether the number of discharges of each nozzle is equal to or greater than the reference value, wherein the control unit allows a nozzle with a relatively small usage amount in printing the substrate based on a usage amount for each nozzle, wherein the reference value is related to at least one of a print quality for the substrate and a nozzle that does not participate in printing the substrate.
One aspect of the apparatus treating apparatus according to the present disclosure for achieving the above technical object comprises a process treating unit for supporting a substrate while the substrate is treated, an inkjet head unit including a plurality of nozzles and for discharging a substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate through the plurality of nozzles, a gantry unit for moving the inkjet head unit, a substrate treatment liquid supply unit for supplying the substrate treatment liquid to the inkjet head unit, and a control unit for performing maintenance of the inkjet head unit, wherein the control unit comprises a count module for counting the number of discharges for each nozzle of the inkjet head unit, a comparison module for comparing the number of discharges with a reference value to determine whether the number of discharges is equal to or greater than the reference value, and an evaluation module for evaluating whether a life of the inkjet head unit has reached a usable life based on whether the number of discharges of each nozzle is equal to or greater than the reference value.
The substrate treating apparatus further comprises a camera sensor for capturing a space between the at least one nozzle and the substrate when at least one of the plurality of nozzles discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate.
The details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and/or other aspects will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
1
FIG.
is a diagram exemplarily showing the structure of a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
2
FIG.
is a first exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
3
FIG.
is a second exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
4
FIG.
is an exemplary diagram for describing a function of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
5
FIG.
is a third exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
6
FIG.
is a fourth exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and
7
FIG.
is a reference diagram for describing the effect of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Advantages and features of the present disclosure and methods of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described below, but may be implemented in various different forms, and these embodiments are provided only for making the description of the present disclosure complete and fully informing those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains on the scope of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.
When an element or layer is referred as being located “on” another element or layer, it includes not only being located directly on the other element or layer, but also with intervening other layers or elements. On the other hand, when an element is referred as being “directly on” or “immediately on,” it indicates that no intervening element or layer is interposed.
Spatially relative terms “below,” “beneath,” “lower,” “above,” and “upper” can be used to easily describe a correlation between an element or components and other elements or components. The spatially relative terms should be understood as terms including different orientations of the device during use or operation in addition to the orientation shown in the drawings. For example, when an element shown in the figures is turned over, an element described as “below” or “beneath” another element may be placed “above” the other element. Accordingly, the exemplary term “below” may include both directions below and above. The device may also be oriented in other orientations, and thus spatially relative terms may be interpreted according to orientation.
Although first, second, etc. are used to describe various elements, components, and/or sections, it should be understood that these elements, components, and/or sections are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, or section from another element, component, or section. Accordingly, the first element, the first component, or the first section mentioned below may be the second element, the second component, or the second section within the technical concept of the present disclosure.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing the embodiments and is not intended to limit the present disclosure. In the present disclosure, the singular also includes the plural, unless specifically stated otherwise in the phrase. As used herein, “comprises” and/or “comprising” refers to that components, steps, operations and/or elements mentioned does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps, operations and/or elements.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein may be used with the meaning commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. In addition, terms defined in a commonly used dictionary are not to be interpreted ideally or excessively unless clearly defined in particular.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and in the description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the same or corresponding components are given the same reference numbers, regardless of reference numerals in drawings, and an overlapped description therewith will be omitted.
The present disclosure relates to a control unit that predicts the life of an inkjet head unit and maximizes its life to be used, and a substrate treating apparatus including the same. Hereinafter, the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to drawings and the like.
1
FIG.
is a diagram exemplarily showing the structure of a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
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The substrate treating apparatus treats a substrate G (e.g., a glass substrate) used for manufacturing a display device. The substrate treating apparatus may be implemented as an inkjet facility for jetting a substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G using the inkjet head unit , and in particular, it may be implemented with a circulation system inkjet facility to prevent a nozzle from clogging by the substrate treatment liquid. The substrate treating apparatus may be provided as, for example, a quantum dot (QD) color filter (CF) inkjet system.
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FIG.
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Referring to , a substrate treating apparatus may comprise a process treating unit , a maintenance unit , a gantry unit , an inkjet head unit , a substrate treatment liquid supply unit and a control unit (or controller) .
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The process treating unit supports the substrate G while the PT operation is performed on the substrate G. The process treating unit may support the substrate G using a non-contact method. The process treating unit may support the substrate G by levitating the substrate G in the air using, for example, air. However, the present embodiment is not limited thereto. The process treating unit may support the substrate G using a contact method. The process treating unit may support the substrate G using, for example, a support member having a seating surface provided thereon.
On the other hand, the PT operation refers to the printing treatment of the substrate G using the substrate treatment liquid, and the substrate treatment liquid refers to a chemical solution used to print the substrate G. The substrate treatment liquid may be, for example, QD ink including ultrafine semiconductor particles.
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When the substrate G is supported by using air, the process treating unit may include a first stage and an air hole .
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The first stage serves as a base, and is provided so that the substrate G can be seated thereon. The air holes may be formed passing through the upper surface of the first stage , and a plurality of air holes may be formed in the PT zone on the first stage .
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The air hole may inject air in the upper direction (the third direction ) of the first stage . The air hole may levitate the substrate G seated on the first stage through the air hole .
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FIG.
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Meanwhile, although not shown in , the process treating unit may further include a gripper. The gripper is for preventing the substrate G from being separated from the first stage when the substrate G moves along the longitudinal direction (the first direction ) of the first stage . The gripper can hold the substrate G to prevent it from being separated from the first stage , and when the substrate G moves, the gripper may slide along a guide rail (not shown) while holding the substrate G.
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The maintenance unit measures a discharge position (i.e., a spot) of the substrate treatment liquid on the substrate G, whether the substrate treatment liquid is discharged, and the like. The maintenance unit may measure the discharge position of the substrate treatment liquid, whether the substrate treatment liquid is discharged, etc. with respect to each of the plurality of nozzles provided in the inkjet head unit , and provide the obtained measurement result to the control unit .
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The maintenance unit may comprise, for example, a second stage , a third guide rail , a first plate, a calibration board and a vision module .
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Like the first stage , the second stage serves as a base and may be disposed in parallel with the first stage . The second stage may be provided to have the same size as the first stage , but may be provided to have a size smaller or larger than that of the first stage . The second stage may include an MT zone thereon.
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The third guide rail guides the movement path of the first plate . The third guide rail may be provided on the second stage along the longitudinal direction (the first direction ) of the second stage as at least one line. The third guide rail may be implemented as, for example, an LM guide system (Linear Motor Guide System).
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FIG.
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Meanwhile, although not shown in , the maintenance unit may further comprise a fourth guide rail. Like the third guide rail , the fourth guide rail guides the movement path of the first plate , and may be provided on the second stage along the width direction (second direction ) of the second stage as at least one line. The fourth guide rail may also be implemented as an LM guide system like the third guide rail .
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The first plate moves on the second stage along the third guide rail and/or the fourth guide rail. The first plate may move in parallel with the substrate G along the third guide rail , and may approach or move away from the substrate G along the fourth guide rail.
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The calibration board is for measuring the discharge position of the substrate treatment liquid on the substrate G. The calibration board may be installed on the first plate including an align mark, a ruler, and the like, and may be provided along the longitudinal direction (first direction ) of the first plate .
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The vision module acquires image information on the substrate Gin order to measure the discharge position of the substrate treatment liquid, whether the substrate treatment liquid is discharged, and the like. The vision module may include an area scan camera, a line scan camera, and the like, and may acquire image information on the substrate G in real time. Meanwhile, the vision module may obtain and provide information on the calibration board as well as information on the substrate G on which the substrate treatment liquid is discharged.
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The vision module may be provided on the side or below the gantry unit to capture the substrate G or the like. The vision module may be installed, for example, to be attached to a side surface of the inkjet head unit . However, the present embodiment is not limited thereto. The vision module may be provided on the first plate . Meanwhile, a plurality of vision modules may be provided in the substrate treating apparatus , and may be fixedly installed or movably installed.
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The gantry unit supports the inkjet head unit . The gantry unit may be provided above the first stage and the second stage so that the inkjet head unit can discharge the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G.
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The gantry unit may be provided on the first stage and the second stage with the width direction (the second direction ) of the first stage and the second stage as the longitudinal direction. The gantry unit may move in a longitudinal direction (first direction ) of the first stage and the second stage along the first guide rail and the second guide rail Meanwhile, the first guide rail and the second guide rail may be provided outside the first stage and the second stage along the longitudinal direction (the first direction ) of the first stage and the second stage .
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FIG.
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Meanwhile, although not shown in , the substrate treating apparatus may further include a gantry moving unit. The gantry moving unit moves the gantry unit along the first guide rail and the second guide rail The gantry moving unit may be installed inside the gantry unit and may include a first moving module (not shown) and a second moving module (not shown). The first moving module and the second moving module may be provided at both ends within the gantry unit , and may slidably move the gantry unit along the first guide rail and the second guide rail
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The inkjet head unit discharges the substrate treatment liquid on the substrate G in the form of droplets. The inkjet head unit may be provided on the side or below the gantry unit .
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At least one inkjet head unit may be installed in the gantry unit . When a plurality of inkjet head units are installed in the gantry unit , the plurality of inkjet head units may be arranged in a line along the longitudinal direction (the second direction ) of the gantry unit .
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The inkjet head unit may move along the longitudinal direction (the second direction ) of the gantry unit to be located at a desired point on the substrate G. However, the present embodiment is not limited thereto. The inkjet head unit may move along the height direction (the third direction ) of the gantry unit , and also may rotate clockwise or counterclockwise.
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Meanwhile, the inkjet head unit may be installed to be fixed to the gantry unit . In this case, the gantry unit may be provided to be movable.
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FIG.
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Meanwhile, although not shown in , the substrate treating apparatus may further include an inkjet head moving unit. The inkjet head moving unit linearly moves or rotates the inkjet head unit . When the substrate treating apparatus is configured to include a plurality of inkjet head units , the inkjet head moving unit may be provided in the substrate processing apparatus corresponding to the number of the inkjet head units to independently operate the plurality of inkjet head units . Meanwhile, a single inkjet head moving unit may be provided in the substrate processing apparatus to uniformly operate the plurality of inkjet head units .
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FIG.
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Meanwhile, although not shown in , the inkjet head unit may include a nozzle plate, a plurality of nozzles, a piezoelectric element, and the like. The nozzle plate constitutes the body of the inkjet head unit . A plurality of (e.g., 128, 256, etc.) nozzles may be provided in multiple rows and columns at regular intervals below the nozzle plate, and the piezoelectric element may be provided as many as the number corresponding to the number of nozzles in the nozzle plate. When the inkjet head unit is configured as described above, the substrate treatment liquid may be discharged onto the substrate G through the nozzle according to the operation of the piezoelectric element.
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Meanwhile, the inkjet head unit may independently control the discharge amount of the substrate treatment liquid provided through each nozzle according to a voltage applied to the piezoelectric element.
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The substrate treatment liquid supply unit supplies ink to the inkjet head unit . The substrate treatment liquid supply unit may include a storage tank and a pressure control module
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The storage tank stores the substrate treatment liquid, and the pressure control module controls the internal pressure of the storage tank The storage tank may supply an appropriate amount of the substrate treatment liquid to the inkjet head unit based on the pressure provided by the pressure control module
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The control unit is to perform maintenance on the inkjet head unit . The control unit corrects a substrate treatment liquid discharge position of each nozzle provided in the inkjet head unit , or detects a defective nozzle (i.e., a nozzle that does not discharge the substrate treatment liquid) among a plurality of nozzles to perform a cleaning operation on the defective nozzle based on the measurement result of the maintenance unit . To this end, the control unit may control the operation of each component constituting the substrate treating apparatus .
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The control unit may be implemented as a computer or a server, including a process controller, a control program, an input module, an output module (or a display module), a memory module, and the like. In the above, the process controller may include a microprocessor for executing a control function for each component constituting the substrate treating apparatus , and the control program may execute various treatment of the substrate treating apparatus according to the control of the process controller. The memory module stores programs for executing various treatment of the substrate treating apparatus according to various data and treating conditions, that is, treating recipes.
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In order to prevent deterioration of the print quality of the substrate G due to a defective nozzle, it is necessary to predict the life of the inkjet head unit . When the case where there are simply many defects in the print result is the replacement timing of the inkjet head unit , or the case where the nozzle out continuously increases during the NJI (Nozzle Jetting Inspection) process is the replacement timing of the inkjet head unit , it may be difficult to prevent in advance that a defective nozzle is used in printing the substrate G.
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In this embodiment, in order to solve this problem, the life of the inkjet head unit can be predicted using the control unit , and the inkjet head unit can be used to maximize its life based on the prediction result. Hereinafter, such a role of the control unit will be described in detail.
2
FIG.
is a first exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
2
FIG.
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According to , the control unit may include a count module , a comparison module , a memory module , and an evaluation module .
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The count module functions to count the number of discharges for each nozzle constituting the inkjet head unit .
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As described above, the inkjet head unit may include a nozzle plate, a plurality of nozzles, a piezoelectric element (or a piezo element), and the like. Here, the piezoelectric elements are provided to correspond to the number of nozzles, and each nozzle may discharge the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G according to the operation of the piezoelectric elements in the corresponding relationship. That is, the number of discharges of each nozzle may be counted based on whether a voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element in the corresponding relationship.
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In this way, the count module may count the number of discharges for each nozzle based on the number of times voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element in a corresponding relationship.
Meanwhile, even though a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element, the nozzle may not discharge the substrate treatment liquid due to a program error or the like. In this case, the number of times the voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element and the number of discharges of the nozzle do not match each other, so that the number of discharges of the nozzle may be counted inaccurately.
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FIG.
The substrate treating apparatus may further include a camera sensor in consideration of the above case, and the control unit may further include an imaging module and a treating module as shown in .
3
FIG.
is a second exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
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FIG.
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FIG.
The camera sensor may captures the substrate treatment liquid discharged onto the substrate G by the nozzle as shown in . For this purpose, the camera sensor may be disposed to caputre the space between the nozzle of the inkjet head unit and the substrate G. is an exemplary diagram for describing a function of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
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The imaging module may control the camera sensor . The imaging module may control the camera sensor so that the camera sensor captures the substrate treatment liquid discharged onto the substrate G by the nozzle .
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The imaging module may control the camera sensor when the nozzle discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G. Specifically, the imaging module predicts that when a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element in corresponding relationship to the nozzle , the nozzle discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G. Based on the prediction, it may control the camera sensor .
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In this embodiment, when the camera sensor captures the space between the nozzle and the substrate G under the control of the imaging module to obtain image information, it can be determined whether the number of discharges of the nozzle is accurately counted using the image information.
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The treating module can determine whether the nozzle normally discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G based on the image information acquired by the camera sensor under the control of the imaging module .
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When a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element , the nozzle in a corresponding relationship to the piezoelectric element discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G according to the operation of the piezoelectric element , and the camera sensor may capture the substrate treatment liquid falling onto the substrate G. Therefore, the substrate treatment liquid should appear in the image information acquired by the camera sensor . The treating module may determine whether the nozzle normally discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate Gin consideration of this point.
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After determining whether the nozzle normally discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G, the treating module may determine whether the number of discharges of the nozzle is accurately counted.
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When the nozzle normally discharges the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G, the number of times a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element and the number of discharges of the nozzle match with each other. Accordingly, in this case, the treating module may determine that the number of discharges of the nozzle is accurately counted.
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On the other hand, when the nozzle does not normally discharge the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G, the number of times voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element and the number of discharges of the nozzle do not match. Accordingly, in this case, the treating module may determine that the number of discharges of the nozzle is not accurately counted.
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Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, in order to increase the image acquisition rate of the substrate treatment liquid falling onto the substrate G, the camera sensor may continuously capture images at regular time intervals. In this case, the camera sensor may continuously capture images from the point in time when the nozzle discharges the substrate treatment liquid to the point in time when the substrate treatment liquid arrives on the substrate G.
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Meanwhile, the treating result of the treating module may be provided to the evaluation module , and the evaluation module may utilize the treating result of the treating module when evaluating the life of the inkjet head unit .
2
FIG.
It will be described again with reference to .
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The comparison module functions to compare the number of discharges of the nozzle with a reference value. The comparison module may determine whether the number of discharges of the nozzle is equal to or greater than a reference value through the comparison. The comparison module may perform the comparison after receiving the number of discharges of the nozzle from the count module .
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The memory module functions to store a reference value. When comparing the number of discharges of the nozzle with the reference value, the comparison module may read the reference value from the memory module and then perform the comparison. Receiving the number of discharges of the nozzle from the count module and reading the reference value from the memory module may be performed simultaneously, but either one may be performed first.
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The reference value may be determined in advance based on a user experiential replacement cycle and stored in the memory module . Here, the user experiential replacement cycle refers to a case, in which the quality of the final printing result for the substrate G is poor, a case, in which there are many nozzle outs, and the like.
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After the substrate G is printed using the plurality of nozzles of the inkjet head unit , the printing result of the substrate G may be inspected. At this time, if the printing result of the substrate G meets the criteria, the printing result of the substrate G is determined as good, and if the printing result of the substrate G does not meet the criteria, the printing result of the substrate G may be determined as defective.
As the frequency of use of the nozzle increases, the nozzle may fail to discharge a specified amount of the substrate treatment liquid onto the substrate G, or may discharge the substrate treatment liquid outside a designated position on the substrate G due to particles accumulating therein. In this case, the printing result of the substrate G does not meet the criteria, and thus the printing result of the substrate G may be determined as defective. In this embodiment, it is possible to identify how many times the nozzle is used when the printing result of the substrate G becomes poor, and determine the value as a reference value.
On the other hand, in this embodiment, it is also possible to identify how many times the nozzle is used when the flatness of the layer formed on the substrate G does not meet the criteria through printing, or when problems such as stains occur on the substrate G, and determine the value as a reference value.
Meanwhile, as described above, as the frequency of use of the nozzle increases, particles are accumulated therein, and problems such as satellite discharge, non-discharge, and poor discharge position accuracy may occur. In this embodiment, such a nozzle is defined as a defective nozzle, and when the substrate G is printed, the nozzle may not be allowed to participate in printing. In the present embodiment, a case in which the nozzle does not participate in printing the substrate G is defined as nozzle out.
In the inspection process, it is possible to identify how many times the nozzle is used when the nozzle is nozzle out. In this embodiment, the value may be determined as a reference value.
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FIG.
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Although not shown in , the substrate treating apparatus may include a separate inspection apparatus. The determination of the reference value may be performed by a separately provided inspection device as described above.
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FIG.
As described above, after reading the reference value from the memory module , the comparison module may compare the number of discharges of the nozzle with the reference value. However, the present embodiment is not limited thereto. After receiving the reference value through the input module , the comparison module may compare the number of discharges of the nozzle with the reference value, or after receiving the reference value through the communication module , the comparison module may compare the number of discharges of the nozzle with the reference value. is a third exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
2
FIG.
It will be described again with reference to .
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The evaluation module functions to evaluate the life of the inkjet head unit based on the comparison result of the comparison module .
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The comparison module may compare the number of discharges of the nozzle with the reference value to determine for each nozzle constituting the inkjet head unit whether the number of discharges of the corresponding nozzle is equal to or greater than the reference value. Based on the comparison result of the comparison module , the evaluation module may extract a nozzle that has discharged the substrate treatment liquid more than a reference value from among the nozzles constituting the inkjet head unit
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If a nozzle that has discharged the substrate treatment liquid more than a reference value is extracted from among the nozzles constituting the inkjet head unit , the evaluation module may calculate the number of the nozzle that has discharged the substrate treatment liquid more than the reference value (that is, the nozzle having the number of discharges equal to or greater than the reference value). The evaluation module evaluates whether the life of the inkjet head unit has reached the usable life by comparing the calculated value and the reference value (i.e., the reference number) when the number of nozzles whose number of discharges is equal to or greater than the reference value is calculated.
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When it is determined that the calculated value is equal to or greater than the reference value, the evaluation module may evaluate that the life of the inkjet head unit has reached the usable life. In this case, the evaluation module may instruct the administrator to replace the inkjet head unit . Meanwhile, when it is determined that the calculated value is less than the reference value, the evaluation module may evaluate that the life of the inkjet head unit has not reached the usable life.
In the above, the reference value may be determined in advance, and the number of nozzles may correspond thereto.
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Meanwhile, the evaluation module may evaluate whether the life of the inkjet head unit has reached the usable life by simply comparing the calculated value with the reference value, but is not limited thereto. After calculating ration of the calculated value, that is, the proportion of nozzles having the number of discharges equal to or greater than the reference value among all the nozzles constituting the inkjet head unit , the ratio of the calculated value may be compared with the reference ratio to determine whether the life of the inkjet head unit reaches the usable life.
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In the above case, when it is determined that the ratio of the calculated value is equal to or greater than the reference ratio, the evaluation module may determine that the life of the inkjet head unit has reached the usable life, and in this case, it may instruct the administrator to replace the inkjet head unit . On the other hand, when it is determined that the ratio of the calculated value is less than the reference ratio, the evaluation module may determine that the life of the inkjet head unit has not reached the usable life.
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On the other hand, the control unit implements equalization of the number of discharges by participating the nozzles having a relatively small usage amount in the printing the substrate G based on the usage amount for each nozzle (that is, the number of discharges of the nozzles counted by the count module ). Accordingly, the life of the inkjet head unit may be maximized. Hereinafter, this will be described.
6
FIG.
is a fourth exemplary diagram schematically illustrating an internal module of a control unit constituting a substrate treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
510
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The extraction module functions to extract a nozzle having a relatively small usage amount from among the nozzles constituting the inkjet head unit based on the usage amount for each nozzle.
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The extraction module may randomly extract nozzles having a usage amount equal to or less than a reference amount when extracting a nozzle having a relatively small usage amount. Alternatively, the extraction module may sequentially extract from the nozzle with the least usage amount.
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The control module functions to control the nozzle extracted by the extraction module to be used when the substrate G is printed. The control module may arrange the nozzles in the order extracted by the extraction module , and may control the nozzles to be used in printing the substrate G according to the arrangement order.
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The functions of the extraction module and the control module may be operated separately from the functions of the comparison module and the evaluation module . However, the present embodiment is not limited thereto. The above functions of the extraction module and the control module may be performed after the evaluation function of the evaluation module .
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7
FIG.
7
FIG.
For example, if it is determined by the evaluation module that the life of the inkjet head unit has not reached the usable life, the extraction module and the control module may sequentially perform the above functions. According to this embodiment, with these functions of the extraction module and the control module , as shown in , it is possible to equalize the number of discharges for each nozzle, and accordingly, the effect of maximizing the usable life of the inkjet head unit can be obtained. is a reference diagram for describing the effect of the present disclosure.
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FIGS. to
Various functions of the control unit have been described above with reference to . These functions of the control unit may be provided as a computer program, and the computer program may be mounted on a microprocessor in the control unit and operated by the microprocessor.
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The present disclosure relates to a software implementation of a method for predicting and maximizing the life of the inkjet head unit . In the present disclosure, the number of discharges of each nozzle constituting the inkjet head unit may be counted and utilized for maintenance of the inkjet head unit .
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In the present disclosure, the number of discharges of each nozzle constituting the inkjet head unit is recorded in SW to predict the usable life of the inkjet head unit , and the substrate G is printed by reflecting the usage amount of each nozzle. Accordingly, the usable life of the inkjet head unit may be maximized.
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According to the present disclosure, by recording and recognizing the number of discharges for each nozzle of the inkjet head unit , the life of the inkjet head unit can be recognized, and by participating more a nozzle with a small number of uses in generating an image, that is, printing the substrate G, and accordingly, the usable life of the inkjet head unit can be maximized.
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In the present disclosure, the substrate treatment liquid discharge of the inkjet head unit of the inkjet facility (that is, the substrate treating apparatus ) can be carried out by a printing command and a spitting command of the pattern SW. When printing/spitting command, since it has print image and used/unused nozzle information, it is possible to count the number of discharges of each nozzle. In the above, the spitting command is to discharge for a predetermined time at a predetermined frequency after setting the nozzle to be used, and the printing command is to send an image having printing information for each nozzle to the head driver to discharge it.
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In the present disclosure, by counting the number of discharges of each nozzle, it is identified whether it approaches the physical life provided by the head maker, or approaches the user experiential replacement cycle due to an increase in defects (defective printing quality), an increase in nozzle outs, etc., and then it can predict the life of the inkjet head unit and prepare for its replacement in advance. In addition, by generating a print image using a nozzle having a relatively low usage amount by identifying the usage amount for each nozzle, the life of the inkjet head unit can be maximized through equalization of the number of discharges and used.
In summary, the features of the present disclosure can be summarized as follows.
First, by recording the number of times each nozzle of the inkjet head is used in SW, the usable life of the head can be predicted and prepared.
Second, it is possible to maximize the usable life of the head by considering the usage amount for each nozzle and reflecting it in image generation.
Although embodiments of the present disclosure have been described with reference to the above and the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art, to which the present disclosure pertains, can understand that the present disclosure may be practiced in other specific forms without changing its technical concept or features. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are illustrative in all respects and not limiting. | |
One of the few benefits of aging is that people around you come to expect a curmudgeonly rant every now and then – even during the holidays. So it’s in that spirit that I’d like to share a few thoughts about the perils of relying on written customer surveys when assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your products or services, or when trying to understand the determinants of peoples’ behavior.
First, an example…
It just so happens that the vendor providing much of our web hosting sends us a follow-up survey each time we interact with their customer service department. The surveys are always the same, asking that we rate our experience on a scale of 1-5 across a number of service dimensions – thoroughness, politeness, promptness, etc. We’ve all received these at some point or another, right?
Here’s why I hit “delete” the instant I spy one in my email inbox.
I have very specific, very actionable feedback that I’d love to share with this particular vendor. Acting on it would involve a fairly trivial modification to their software’s user interface, making it much easier and faster for small business operators like me (their core customer) to navigate. I’m pretty sure the change would also eliminate a large number of costly calls from frustrated customers each quarter. The problem is, there’s no way to share my suggestion via the survey.
Sure, I could search the company’s website for a customer service email address or call them again and wait on hold. (Another benefit of aging – I kind of like their hold music.) But like most small business owners, there are too few hours in my day. So it’s relegated to, oh, number 794 on my list of top 795 things to do. Besides, is it rational to believe that the organization behind such an inane survey would act on my suggestion, even if I went to the trouble? Probably not.
Bottom line: opportunity missed. Meanwhile, my vendor’s competitors are busy finding new ways to improve their products and services, and I have yet another reminder that it’s time to look around for alternatives.
Let’s get something straight: written surveys can be very useful for collecting demographic information about our customers and (arguably) for identifying glaring problem areas with products and services. But more often than not, they just induce a sense of complacency. In the absence of negative feedback, we assume we’re doing all right – and that’s a very dangerous assumption.
Here’s why I consider written surveys to be the enemy of smart marketing professionals:
1. The omission trap.
Surveyors rarely ask all of the right questions. And customers rarely take the time to sufficiently explain their answers or to volunteer unsolicited information. According to Richard C. Whiteley, author of The Customer Driven Company, only 4% of dissatisfied customers complain, but 65-90% of them will never buy from you again. Yikes!
2. The ambiguity trap.
It’s next to impossible to write questions that require no clarification for 100% of the survey population. We live in a diverse society, and our own unique circumstances color how we experience the world around us — including how we write survey questions.
3. The interpretation trap.
Researchers can’t accurately interpret every word a customer writes down. They’ll interpret answers based on what they meant by their questions, but customers are individuals; they mean many different things by their answers.
When you rely exclusively on written surveys, you arm yourself with – at best –incomplete information. To quote Whiteley, “you’re asking your customers to paint a picture of their experience but handing them a coloring book and telling them to stay within the lines.”
So what SHOULD you do to collect meaningful information from your customers?
Next time I’ll cover why oral surveys – especially those conducted by a third party – produce far more information. I will also discuss the importance of observing your customers “in the wild” – i.e., interacting with your product or service in the real world – and how to go about it. | http://alteractionconsulting.com/marketings-public-enemy-1/ |
Is Winesburg College real?
Winesburg, Holmes County, Ohio, an unincorporated community. Winesburg College, the fictional setting for Philip Roth’s 2008 novel Indignation.
What is the theme of Winesburg, Ohio?
Winesburg, Ohio is a compilation of short tales written by Sherwood Anderson and published as a whole in 1919. The short tales formulate the common themes for the novel as follows: isolation and loneliness, discovery, inhibition, and cultural failure.
What is there to do in Winesburg, Ohio?
Best Things To Do in Winesburg, Ohio
- Buckin Ohio. 4.8 (171 Votes)
- River Greens Golf Course. 4.5 (13 Votes)
- Amish Country Theater. 4.7 (12 Votes)
- Escape Room Downtown. 4.6 (6 Votes)
- Gospel Hill Ministry. 4.7 (18 Votes)
- Zion Reformed Church. 5 (15 Votes)
- Wilderness Center Inc. 4.8 (13 Votes)
- Downtown Canton. 4.4 (10 Votes)
How many pages is Winesburg, Ohio?
140
Product Details
|ISBN-13:||9781420974652|
|Publisher:||Neeland Media|
|Publication date:||09/10/2021|
|Pages:||140|
|Product dimensions:||5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.33(d)|
Where was indignation filmed?
College of New Rochelle
‘Indignation’ filming at College of New Rochelle.
What is indignation movie about?
As the Korean War rages on, Marcus, the only son of a middle-class Jewish family, escapes from enlistment thanks to university. His introversion and atheism will soon put him out of college.
Indignation/Film synopsis
What is a grotesque in Winesburg Ohio?
The grotesques in Winesburg, Ohio are a group of small town people who clang to the traditional beliefs and could not adopt themselves to the transitional society. The major reasons for their grotesqueness lie not only in neurosis but also in the industrial alienation. Key words: grotesqueness, alienation, neurosis.
What is Enoch Robinsons grotesque?
As Anderson says, Enoch “couldn’t understand people and he couldn’t make people understand him.” Therefore Enoch has locked the door of his rented room and peopled his isolation with phantom creatures of his imagination; he is isolated by his art arid with his art; he is another lonely grotesque.
What is the zip code for Winesburg Ohio?
44624
44690
Winesburg/Zip codes
How long does it take to read Winesburg, Ohio?
The average reader will spend 3 hours and 29 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). In this moving collection of interrelated stories, Ohio-born Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) illuminates the loneliness and frustration — spiritual, emotional and artistic — of life in a small American town.
Where was Winesburg, Ohio written?
According to Anderson’s account, the first of the stories that became Winesburg, Ohio (probably “The Book of the Grotesque”) was composed, on the spur of the moment, in the middle of the night, probably while he was staying on the third floor of a rooming house at 735 Cass Street in Chicago: “…it was a late fall …
Is Indignation based on a true story?
It turns out, though, that Indignation is not based on a true story. In fact, Roth drew from his life and his experiences in the ’50s as a college student at Bucknell when writing Indignation. | https://www.heyiamindians.com/is-winesburg-college-real/ |
The days are shorter, the leaves are turning colors, and the temperature is falling (well, we live in Texas so maybe not that last part). With the change in the season comes a change in routine – school starts, sports seasons pick-up and before you know it, it’s the holiday season. That first sign of change comes with football season. If you’re like me, football is in your blood and the weekend revolves around sports and tailgates. For some people, they throw their willpower out of the window and tailgating (or other parties) becomes an excuse to eat anything and everything. But, just because we are spending more time in front of the T.V. and around game-day foods doesn’t mean we need to put our health and fitness goals on the sideline. For many people, learning to eat mindfully removes the stress of eating at social events, and helps them keep their health and fitness in check.
What does it mean to eat mindfully? Mindful eating means being more aware of the entire eating experience: physical hunger; what you’re eating; why you’re eating; the taste, smell, feel, sight and sound of the food; your satiety; and how the food makes you feel. It also means focusing on the eating experience without judgement. Eating mindfully takes time and practice – there is no right or wrong way to do it, but it does help you stay in control of your eating experience and your health overall. So, where do you begin? A good place to start is to learn how to assess hunger and satiety. The hunger scale is a scale of 1-10 that helps you become more in tune with your physical hunger cues. As children, we are usually in tune with these cues. But, as we grow up, our eating becomes restricted due to time constraints, busyness or dieting, and we begin to tune these cues out.
Use this hunger scale during your next social event to help you enjoy your food and eat more mindfully. Evaluate where you are on the scale before you eat; check in a few times while you’re eating, and re-evaluate when you’re done eating. | http://www.texinsfitness.com/new-blog-1/2018/9/25/september-blog-post |
To better understand how Scopus helps to support research and development outcomes, and pass that information along to you, we recently surveyed R&D organizations that use Scopus.
Whether to stay abreast of scientific developments, develop new ideas quicker, keep ahead of the competition, or find key experts and opinion leaders, organizations have found Scopus enables their R&D researchers to overcome industry challenges.
In this post, we focus on 2 key ways Scopus is making a difference for researchers in the R&D industry.
“We were faced with a technical problem where we didn't have the competencies internally.
Last year, we introduced a library of video and written case studies in which university leaders from around the world share how they are using Scopus, SciVal and Pure to answer pressing challenges faced by their researchers and research managers.
SciVal In Their Words: Yao-Ting Sung, Executive Vice President of National Taiwan Normal University, on using SciVal to help broaden the university’s strategic vision.
SciVal In Their Words: Jeffrey J.P. Tsai, President of Asia University, on using SciVal to promote international collaboration.
SciVal In Their Words: Tao-ming Cheng, President of Chaoyang University of Technology, on using SciVal to improve institutional rankings.
Scopus is experiencing issues which, at times, may result in search functionality to become temporarily disabled.
It is possible that this problem may continue during the holiday period while we work to resolve it.
“Compare journals” has been renamed to “Compare sources”.
“Add search field” is now represented by a “+” button. Click on this to add an additional search field. To remove additional search fields you can click the “-“ button.
The “limit to” section is now hidden by default. You can click on the “Limit” drop down link to display the date range (inclusive) and document type filters.
The subject areas in the “limit to” section have been removed. As default, all subject areas will be used when doing a search. You can still filter on subject areas after you have done a search using the refine panel on the left hand side. | https://blog.scopus.com/posts/check-correct-submit-how-to-ensure-accuracy-in-your-scopus-author-profil?page=6 |
Over the years, I have been excavating my life in search of who I really am. Not what I do, not who my friends are, not what I want to do, but who I am. I have read some wonderful books like, The Power of Habit , by Charles Dunigg. He teaches us though powerful scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. The book breaks down habits as it relates to individuals, successful organizations and societies. It is an excellent read. One of the most powerful books I have read is, Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer. Although I read it years ago, I still refer to it to be sure I'm staying the course. Palmer invites us to listen to our inner teacher, who constantly "taps us on the shoulder" to illuminate our true pathway toward vocation. He says that "true self, when violated, will always resist us, sometimes at great cost, holding our lives in check until we honor its truth. In this post, I challenge you to take some quiet time and look over your life. Is there CONGRUENCY in what the inner teacher teacher is saying, or do you need a "tap on the shoulder" to redirect your course. Some people spend their lives in vocations that are incongruent with who they really are. How do you determine your true path? Ask the questions of yourself and give yourself time to answer. Palmer references a wonderful poem, "Now I Become Myself" by May Sarton, who was on a quest for vocation:
Now I become myself.
It's taken time, many years and places.
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces...
I encourage you to take the time to ask yourself, What Is you life speaking?
STYLE
DISCOVER YOUR STYLE PERSONALITY
I often marvel at those who are sartorially elegant. They seem to have an impeccable flair for style. Those like June Ambrose, Anna Wintour, First Lady Michelle Obama, Cary Grant and Jackie O. Many years ago, I discovered the various style types- Classic, Romantic, Glamorous, and Trendy. I have consulted with many clients to help them identify their style and stick with it- no matter what the trends. Styles change, but your life speaks of a certain style that helps brand who you are. Do you prefer bold colors, soft lines, large patterns, muted tones. You may have different looks depending on how you feel, but I encourage you to peruse magazines, window shop, think of your style icon who comes close to your style personality and create a look that is unique to you-your signature style that differs from all the rest. I am a trendy classic. Yes, you can be a blend of two. It mirrors my love for the vintage and traditional. What's your style PERSONALITY? | http://www.thetotalyouimage.com/blog-1/2015/8/19/what-is-your-life-speaking |
Models should continue to utilize and improve high-impact educational practices, but do so in a way that is purposeful and integrative, providing students with multiple opportunities to improve their skills.
Earlier in this report we summarized the high-impact educational practices promoted by AAC&U: First Year Seminar and Experiences, Common Intellectual Experiences, Learning Communities, Writing-Intensive Courses, Collaborative Assignments and Projects, Undergraduate Research, Diversity and Global Learning, Service Learning and Community-Based Learning, Internships, and Capstone Courses and Projects. According to reports conducted by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) students typically participate in fewer than two of the high-impact educational practices. AAC&U has done its own studies and found that, on average, students engage in between 1 and 2 (1.3) HIP. (Schneider, Liberal Education, 2015, p. 10). Although data on CSB/SJU students is not available, we expect that the number is much higher here, as many of these practices are already embedded in our curriculum.
But student exposure to some of these practices, such as writing-intensive courses or courses with collaborative assignments, is often assumed and not assured. This is a situation that is typical of curricula based on a distributional/elective model. Derek Bok confirms this in his book, Higher Education in America: "For example, faculties assume that students will develop oral communication skills and acquire an adequate civic education simply by completing the four-year undergraduate program, or that competence in moral reasoning or expository writing can be attained in a single course, or that the capabilities (along with other aims, such as development of 'global awareness' or quantitative skills) will be achieved if the faculty is urged to incorporate the necessary material into their existing courses" (2013, p. 174). These assumptions need to be challenged.
In addition to offering high-impact practices, we need to make certain that students have multiple, repeated opportunities to practice them. Research also shows that high-impact practices are most desirable when eight key elements are featured:
As noted earlier, one of the strengths of the CSB/SJU Common Curriculum is its heavy reliance on high-impact practices. We feel the HIPs should also be a feature of a revised curriculum design, with assurances that students have encounter these practices in their coursework throughout their years in college. Reform efforts should also focus on enhancing the two HIPs not currently emphasized in the Common Curriculum-Common Intellectual Experiences and Learning Communities. In the feedback provided to CCVC, faculty requested more opportunities to include these kind of learning experiences in their coursework.
Models should consider alternatives to the distribution or "cafeteria style" model of General Education.
The Irvine Group, a collection of former university and college presidents and chancellors, released a report summarizing their review of reforms in the 1980s, stating: "Over the past decade, undergraduate renewal has relied on curricular patterns that have not worked well. Outmoded distribution requirements, for example, where students select courses from broad academic fields have failed to accomplish what is intended. These courses amount to electives, not general education. For too many undergraduates, their educations do not fit into a coherent whole, and the distribution of courses is more frequently the result of campus political considerations than of educational ones" (cited in White 1994, p. 171). Although the Irvine Group reached its conclusions a quarter of a century ago, many general education programs-including ours-- still adhere to a distribution model "organized mainly as an a la carte menu of disconnected survey courses" that "falls far short of its intended horizon-expanding purposes...students too often find that their broad or general learning is fragmented, incoherent, and frustrating" (Schneider, "Foreword," 2015, p. v).
We agree that a "check the box" system, which students are eager to finish quickly in their first two years of college, "too often results in uncoordinated coursework that does not directly address student's interests and needs, does very little to develop proficiencies necessary either for work or for citizenship, and is unclear about results" (General Education Maps and Markers, 2015, p. 6). Therefore, we encourage modelers to construct a curriculum that moves away from this approach if possible.
Authors of models are expected to demonstrate how their curriculum designs fulfill the learning outcomes discussed by the faculty and approved by the Joint Faculty Senate. At the 2014 Fall Faculty Workshop, we asked participants to describe the features of a CSB/SJU graduate. In their own reform process, authors Roseanne M. Mirabella and Mary M. Balkun asked a similar question: "Rather than focusing on content, we decided to focus on student outcomes, posing the question that would guide our work over the course of seven years: 'What do we want our students to become?' This broad question permitted faculty to engage in conversations about general education and the purpose of a liberal arts education without raising concerns about departmental courses or hires" (2011, p. 217).
At Alverno College, "the general education program is better seen less as a distribution system of content arranged as a compromise among competing academic interests, and more as a way to arrange the teaching and assessment of student learning outcomes that we think are crucial" (Riordan and Sharkley 2010, p. 203). We think the same type of conversation is possible at CSB/SJU, and we expect those who design curriculum models will be guided by the learning outcomes approved by the faculty.
Curriculum designs should make the General Education program more coherent, intentional, and cumulative.
At the 2014 Fall Faculty Workshop, Lee Knefelkamp pointed out that students often perceive general education as a "collecting of dots" experience rather than a "connecting the dots" experience. In a candid assessment of the undergraduate general education requirements at his own university, professor Mark Bauerlin framed it this way: "Let's be honest about how it appears to 19-year-olds. They see such an 'array' [of general education courses] as merely a bunch of random, disconnected courses outside their major. The courses they finish don't cohere into a 'core' or a 'common experience.' They're just a bunch of heterogeneous hoops to pass through" (quoted in Gaston 2015, p. 12). While the current Common Curriculum is focused on course collecting, the new general education program should be focused on making connections.
In the literature on reform, it is widely argued that a general education curriculum should be coherent and integrative. For example, Paul Gaston writes in 2015: "Students must be able to understand how its different elements fit together, how they contribute to degree-level learning outcomes, and how they offer preparation for further study and career advancement. As general education enables students to demonstrate assessable proficiencies, cumulative understanding, and improved discernment, students will stop thinking of their general education requirements as something to 'get out of the way' and perceive them instead as a means to achieving genuine intellectual growth" (p. 17) Bobby Fong concurs, arguing in his essay, "Liberal Education in the 21st Century": "...liberal education is not achieved by taking any number of classes, but rather by intentionally patterning courses of study that link and synthesize ways of knowing and doing" (2004, p. 12).
A curriculum that places students on intentional pathways to growth will prepare them better for meeting the challenges they will face after they graduate. "A further accomplishment, which every institution would surely hope for, would be that students experience those discrete classes not as isolated and unrelated experiences but as integral parts of a coherent whole," writes Marc Lowenstein. "Students who achieve this can understand the ways in which these parts complement, contrast with, and support each other and how they all contribute to a meaningful understanding of the world. These students will also be more intentionally aware of the transferrable skills their institutions want them to develop but which are often lost sight of amid a focus on content in their courses. The integrated overview and enhanced intentionality, furthermore, create the best possible platform for a lifetime of learning since they provide a context for new experiences and ideas as they are encountered" (2015, p. 121).
There are a number of possible ways "connections" can be made in the general education curriculum:
a) Make General Education Coherent by Scaffolding Courses.
Curricular pathways should be established that are intentional, sequential, and scaffolded to allow students to enhance their skills as they progress through the curriculum.
The Common Curriculum has two "bookend" experiences-FYS and the Ethics Common Seminar. What happens in between is often random, with little intentionality or developmental logic. Instead, courses should be arranged in purposeful, sequential pathways that allow for repeated practice of core skills and proficiencies.
General education programs like the Common Curriculum are often arranged as a collection of single course experiences, but the literature discourages this approach. "The underlying approach to general education learning reflected in the inoculation model of the last century-if students need to write, take a writing course; if students need ethical reasoning, take a philosophy course; if students need global understanding, take a course with an international focus-is no longer adequate," Terrel L. Rhodes writes in General Education and Liberal Learning in 2010. "The research on cognitive development, deep learning, and mastery supports the value of intentional approaches to learning that are iterative, recurring, incremental, and progressively more challenging as students move through their educational careers. There are benefits to approaches that provide students with multiple opportunities to apply their learning to new, unscripted problems, and that are scaffolded in ways that allow students to develop their skills and abilities in intentional ways" (p. 5).
In the Common Curriculum, we assume students practice writing, discussion, and oral communication skills beyond FYS but nothing in the design of the curriculum assures proficiency in these skills. This is the same situation Portland State University faced before they redesigned their general education curriculum. "When our students reach the upper-division level, we expect them to have been prepared through their lower-division work to be able to frame questions, identify and examine relevant original source materials, and produce a paper, project, or experiment which demonstrates advanced academic ability," writes Charles R. White. "Yet, our upper division courses are filled with nonmajors seeking to fulfill the distribution requirements but often without sufficient background to grasp the material and meet the performance standards expected. While many of our students do remarkably well, we faculty often express dissatisfaction with the performance of our students. Students, on the other hand, express dissatisfaction, frustration, fear, and occasional anger that they seem to have missed something important along the way and are not always able to meet the expectations placed upon them" (1993, p. 169).
If the curriculum was scaffolded so that students had repeated, multiple opportunities to practice skills and habits of mind, at carefully sequenced and ratcheted levels of challenge, then students could be better prepared for advanced coursework. This point is emphasized by Ann S. Ferren in her article, "Intentionality," in 2010: "Strong programs...emphasize above all student understanding of the scaffold of learning built through a sequence of related courses and cumulative experiences" (p. 29). Karen Maitland Schilling and Dwight Smith suggest: "Increasingly, faculty members are recognizing the importance of 'scaffolding' in the design of curricula. Teachers of writing have long argued that the complex skills and competencies required by a new century develop only through incremental emphasis, but we have come to realize that all essential learning develops most fully through work that is cumulative, integrative, and reflective...Dated notions of specific outcomes attached to 'my course' for 'my students' have in strong programs given way to emphases on partnering to achieve a cumulative impact" (2010, p. 34). The research demonstrates that students benefit from programs that scaffold learning opportunities over time. After initial exposure to a particular learning objective or proficiency, students have additional opportunities for practice, reflection, revision, feedback, and improvement. This may require that students complete coursework that addresses each learning outcome more than once.
b) Integrate General Education with the Majors.
More explicit connections should be made between general education requirements and the major. General education should be integrated with the majors.
General education and the major are often seen as separate programs. Instead, revised curriculum designs should seek ways to integrate general education and the major. General education courses "must prime the student for the learning major programs offer. Similarly, the major must act in concert with general education by placing value on general education proficiencies and by enabling students to continue to develop those proficiencies" (Gaston 2015, p. 17). That way, general education programs are not solely responsible for the development of student skills.
Explicit connection between general education courses and the major is consistent with the previous point of intentionality and sequential learning. As students "develop in stages and move from lower to higher levels of intellectual development," they accumulate deeper knowledge and master skills that require them "to connect and transfer learning from one assignment, course, or experience to others in a learning progression. Therefore, some ability to synthesize learning across disciplines, across general education and the major, and between the curriculum and the cocurriculum is needed" (Sopper 2015, p. 143).
Also, when general education learning outcomes are connected to majors, students begin to appreciate the relevance and importance of their general education coursework. Peggy Maki explains in 2010: "Orienting students to general education outcomes and continuing to connect students to these outcomes in their major programs of study contribute to students' ownership of this core learning, as well as to their deepened understanding of the relevance of general education" (p. 46).
However, a "connection" should not be assumed simply because a department offers a course that serves both as an introductory course to the major and as a disciplinary designation in a general education curriculum. Increasingly, scholars of general education have questioned this approach. In his article, "Tensions and Models in General Education Planning," Robert R. Newton argues: "The curriculum is drawn from the disciplines because the disciplines contain the knowledge future citizens will require. But rather than, for example, giving students a rigorous introduction to basic chemistry, a general education course should develop an understanding of what chemistry is, how it interprets and shapes the modern world, and what critical challenges it poses to humanity. The objective is not to train a scientist but to educate graduates with the scientific literacy essential to be effective citizens" (2000, p. 175). Many outside programs have policies that prevent departments from counting introductory courses to the major as general education requirements. For example, at Temple University, general education courses may not be required introductions to a specific major or minor. (At Temple, a Gen Ed course may be accepted by a major or minor to fulfill elective requirements.) General education models should consider ways to integrate general education and the major but may need to reconsider the logic of disciplinary requirements, especially those met by introductory courses to a major.
c) Establish "Interdisciplinary Concentrations."
Connections should be made across disciplines, especially through "interdisciplinary concentrations" or thematic clusters.
SD2020 calls for the development of "interdisciplinary concentrations" of courses linked thematically by topic across a variety of disciplines. The literature often refers to these course groupings as "thematic clusters," and they are promoted as effective ways to enhance interdisciplinary learning. For example, Charles R. White writes: "The research supports an interdisciplinary, thematic approach, more tightly structured clusters of courses, and an interdisciplinary core, use of mentored clusters, extension throughout the four years, linkage of the program to articulated goals" (1994, p. 191).
Generally clusters function as groups of 3-4 courses that focus on a single topic approached from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. At Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU), a private liberal arts university in Lincoln, Nebraska, faculty recently replaced many of the old distribution requirements in their general education program with an integrated core in which students complete two course "threads." Part of their "Archways" program, each thread is a series of three courses linked by a common theme of significance. For example, at NWU there is a "global warming" thread that includes courses in Biology, English, and Political Science. "While the individual courses are still based in discrete disciplines, the connections between these disciplines are made explicit as students approach the same issue in each class with a different set of perspectives and problem-solving tools" ("An Integrative Approach," 2013, par. 2).
Santa Clara University (SCU) has "Pathways," which include thematically linked courses across the university's curriculum. The process begins at the end of the sophomore year. Twenty-four Pathways are offered, on topics ranging from Sustainability, Applied Ethics, the Digital Age, Beauty, and Democracy. Students complete a selection of four Pathway courses, with no more than two from the same discipline. At SCU, Pathway courses can overlap with other general education requirements or requirements for the major or minor. In addition, students are asked to complete a reflective essay on their own, demonstrating how they have integrated ideas from the various courses ("Encouraging Integrative Learning," 2013).
CCVC sees thematic clusters as a way of connecting disciplines with the general education curriculum in ways that encourage and support interdisciplinary cooperation. The instructors of these courses can work together to set objectives for the clusters that advance student understanding of a particular issue, question or topic. Surprisingly, this is often overlooked, even in programs that have clusters in their curricula. A general education task force at Penn State University recently conducted a benchmarking activity to determine how a range of institutions used "themes" in their general education programs. Although their search was not exhaustive, they only discovered one program (at Appalachian State University) that appeared to mandate that faculty teaching within a theme had to work together to ensure integration among courses (a feature we believe is critical to the success of the clusters).
While clusters offer the opportunity for team-teaching, this would not be necessary for them to be successful, as long as faculty development funds were available so instructors of courses in the cluster had opportunities to work with each other to plan the design and integration of the clusters. Clearly, the development of "interdisciplinary concentrations" at CSB/SJU is an opportunity to make our general education program distinctive.
d) Demonstrate Integrative Learning Through "Signature Work."
Students can demonstrate Integrative Learning and Problem-Based Inquiry through "Signature Work."
The focal point of AAC&U's LEAP Challenge is the "Signature Work" project. With Signature Work, each student accomplishes a project on a significant problem over the course of a semester or longer. Signature Work can be a research project, a capstone experience, a service learning project, or another form.
These are the characteristics of Signature Work projects:
As noted earlier, the Common Curriculum already utilizes many high-impact practices such as experiential learning. Beyond the general education requirements, students participate in capstone courses and have internships. However, AAC&U's goal is to make Signature Work "essential and expected, rather than available and optional." Also, AAC&U envisions Signature Work as more purposefully integrative and interdisciplinary, and involving substantial writing and reflection.
One interesting possibility is to make Signature Work projects a feature of the new "interdisciplinary concentrations" mentioned above and required by SD 2020. These clusters of courses could be arranged so students are expected to produce a significant written essay that incorporates each of the disciplinary perspectives covered in the cluster. Each student might then be expected to deliver a public presentation of the results of the project, demonstrating how she or he integrated the various perspectives as they examined a significant problem. The work could then be part of the student's e-portfolio. (For an example of how Signature Work could be incorporated into a general education curriculum, see Appendix G, "Sample Guided Pathway with Signature Work.")
e) Improve Connections with Activities Outside the Classroom.
Improved connections should be encouraged between events and activities outside the classroom and the General Education program, including reflection on Fine Arts Experiences in general education courses.
Often, the general education curriculum is designed in isolation without considering its linkage to the co-curriculum, but this contravenes the advice of the literature. In their article, "Learning Outside the Box: Making Connections Between Co-Curricular Activities and the Curriculum," Myra Wilhite and Liz Banset describe the importance of linking the co-curriculum to the curriculum: "Students have much to gain from the integration of co-curricular activities into the curriculum. In out-of-class experiences, students tend to take greater responsibility for their own learning; they learn from one another as well as their instructors. In addition, co- curricular activities promote personal growth, physical and mental health, academic achievement, social and cultural awareness, and help students formulate short- and long-range goals" (1998-99, par. 7). There are diverse co-curricular activities and services at CSB/SJU, including athletics, counseling, career services, student activities, campus recreation, intercultural and international student services, campus ministry, upward bound, orientation, health promotion, campus conduct, student human rights, the Institute for Women's Leadership, and the Men's Development Institute, as well as numerous academic events.
Even within the curriculum, the Fine Arts Experience (FAE) requirements are not always integrated into coursework. There are not enough opportunities for students to discuss their FAE experiences and make connections with course material. Students resent requirements without purpose, as indicated in the student feedback received. If students had to reflect on these experiences in the context of a course, it is likely they would understand their relevance and importance.
While there are numerous strengths of CSB/SJU co-curricular programming, there needs to be more purposeful and intentional integration of all activities in the general education curriculum, including the speakers, conferences, and other academic events that occur outside of the classroom. In the feedback provided to CCVC, students expressed interest in having these activities better integrated in their coursework.
While the composite academic profile of new entering CSB and SJU students has been stable in recent years, many of the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of our new students have changed, according to an environmental scan completed by the CSB/SJU Strategic Directions Council in preparation for SD 2020. According to the report, the most notable change has occurred in enrollment of students of color. In fall 2013, students of color comprised 18% of all new students at CSB and 16% of new students at SJU, the highest number and proportion ever at each institution. Since fall 2009, the number of new students of color has nearly doubled at CSB, and increased by two-thirds at SJU (Strategic Directions 2020 Environmental Scan, p. 12).
As noted in the Strategic Directions 2020 Environmental Scan, new students of color at CSB and SJU "are significantly more likely than their peers to come from families without a college experience. In fall 2013, 42% of all new entering students of color came from families where neither parent had any education beyond high school. Only 40% of all new students of color indicated that at least one of their parents had earned a bachelor's degree, compared to 80% of new white students. In part a reflection of lower levels of family educational attainment, students of color at CSB and SJU also are highly overrepresented among lower income students. There are wide gaps in entering test scores, as well. The average ACT composite score for new students of color at CSB and SJU in fall 2013 was 22.5, compared to 26.1 among white students" (p. 12).
While the composition of our student body is changing, we have not made corresponding changes in our general education requirements. This is unfortunate, given the intersection of equity-related issues and general education pedagogy and delivery. As the AAC&U contends,
"General education programs should advance practices and policies that are aimed at achieving the full spectrum of learning outcomes for all students regardless of their backgrounds" (GEMs p. 3). Keith Witham and his colleagues point out, "we cannot address equity in higher education separately from core educational design. Rather we must make equity a key framework for any reform-one that is explicitly and deliberately wedded to the goals for educational excellence and student achievement" (2015, p. 1). In particular, we must "consider the ways in which the content of our general education curriculum empowers students who have experiences marginalization and instills in all students the knowledge, values, and ideals that are crucial to counteract the economic and racial polarization that threatens our nation" (2015, p. 1).
For example, research shows that racial and ethnic minorities, as well as first-generation college students, often do not participate in as many high-impact educational practices as majority students (Finley and McNair 2013). Data on the participation and success rates of CSB/SJU students of color and first-generation students, especially in relation to HIPs, FYS, and the Common Curriculum, needs to be generated. Fortunately, the colleges have made a commitment in the strategic plan to provide opportunities to historically underserved students. SD 2020 states: "Secure new resources to ensure that students of all means are able to participate in study abroad, internships, student research, service learning and co-curricular activities." In addition to resources, we need to consider how curriculum design can affect the participation and performance of these students.
Models should have an assessment plan to demonstrate that students have achieved the learning outcomes.
CSB/SJU has made efforts to assess our general education requirements. Results from the 2013 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement indicate that, when compared to students at institutions in the same Carnegie classification, our First-Year students' average evaluation of the collaborative learning environment and the quality of interactions were significantly higher. On the other hand, when compared to their peers at similar institutions within the same Carnegie class, the average of our Fourth-Year students' evaluation of effective teaching practices was significantly lower. The CLA has been administered at CSB/SJU every year since 2007-2008. In the 2009-2010, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013 administrations, our institutional value-added scores were lower than our peer CLA institutions. In the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2010-2011 administrations, our institutional value-added scores were higher than our peer CLA-comparison institutions. In addition, continuous progress is being made, though assessment workshops and faculty and staff research, to measure student learning in the experiential, gender, and intercultural courses of the Common Curriculum.
However, the process for assessment of the Common Curriculum needs to be reconsidered. In the report of the Comprehensive Evaluation Visit to St. John's University, October 13-15, 2008, for the Higher Learning Commission, the evaluators recognized the difficulty of assessing the Common Curriculum learning goals: "While the new Common Curriculum has learning outcomes, based on interviews and a review of the outcomes, the team believes that many of them are too broad to be measured effectively. The team recommends that the institution develop a process for assessing the Common Curriculum in a way that more clearly measures student learning and then use that information to improve student learning" (p. 15, the same quote is in CSB report). As models of curricular reform are developed, efforts should be taken to ensure that they are supported by sound assessment practices. Some faculty have adverse reactions to assessment efforts, but as Jeremy D. Penn points out in his article, "The Case for Assessing Complex General Education Learning Outcomes," "Demands for accountability are not always unreasonable" (2011, p. 12).
Fortunately, much work has already been done to make the assessment of general education learning outcomes more reasonable. For example, the AAC&U has collaborated with faculty from over 100 member institutions to create VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) that enable instructors to measure and document student accomplishment on 16 learning outcomes: inquiry and analysis, critical thinking, writing, integrative learning, oral communication, information literacy, problem solving, teamwork, intercultural knowledge, civic engagement, creative thinking, quantitative literacy, lifelong learning, ethical reasoning, global learning, and reading. The VALUE rubrics help institutions assess accomplishments across stages that are developmentally more challenging as the students progress through the curriculum. "VALUE represents, in my view, a real breakthrough in the assessment of college student learning," writes John Sullivan. "Such a system of learning outcomes assessment can provide continuous improvement in student and institutional performance, while at the same time providing the evidence of student learning that those who finance and subsidize American higher education-families, government, and charitable donors-deserve" (2015, par. ). For an example of one of these rubrics, see Appendix K.
While attending the 2015 AAC&U Institute, CCVC members were introduced to e-portfolios as a tool used by many institutions to collect assessment data and to enable students to compile the work they have done to meet the learning outcomes of a general education program (Chen 2015). E-portfolios are "digital repositories of student learning artifacts selected by the students themselves" (Peden 27). While new to us, the use of e-portfolios is a national trend that offers student opportunities to integrate the learning they have achieved over their college career, in multiple disciplines and in the cocurriculum. Ryan McLawhon and Loraine H. Phillips describe the benefits of e-portfolios in The Journal of General Education in 2013: "Aside from reforming the curriculum and undergraduate experience, the use of e-portfolios is also an option for looking at across-discipline learning outcomes in general education. With e-portfolios, students have the opportunity to reflect on their work, and instructors can assess whether certain general education learning outcomes have been demonstrated based on the students' work" (p. 206). Writing in Liberal Education in 2015, Wilson Peden emphasizes the value of e-portfolios in promoting reflective thinking on the part of students about how they will or have fulfilled the general education learning outcomes: "As they select representative learning artifacts, students must think deeply about the college's learning outcomes, the degree to which they have achieved these learning outcomes, and which assignments are representative of these achievements...Like capstone projects, e-portfolios facilitate integrative thinking, prompting students to draw together strands of learning from a range of disciplines and from the cocurriculum" (p. 27).
We are similarly enthusiastic about the potential of e-portfolios but agree with the literature that the emphasis should not be on presenting student accomplishments to employers. Rather, students should use e-portfolios as "tools for personal reflection in their learning" (Peden 2015, p. 28). With the proper training beginning in FYS, students could learn to archive work, select work samples, and begin the process of reflecting on their work in a way that demonstrates they are intentional and reflective about their learning and self-aware of the transformation facilitated by the general education program.
Models should consider the re-branding of general education and the "Common Curriculum."
At the same time or following adoption of a curricular model, a name should be given to the general education program that better describes its features, components, or purposes. Currently, although its name suggests common experiences, the "Common Curriculum" is largely a distribution model and students can move through it in very different ways. Also, as currently named, the Common Curriculum may be a recruiting liability. Admissions staff told CCVC that prospective students and their parents often perceive the "Common Curriculum" to be ordinary (and potentially irrelevant). The current "branding" of the Common Curriculum encourages questions about how quickly the requirements can be completed or how many college preparatory courses can substitute for general education requirements. The term Common Curriculum suggests that our program is like every other general education curriculum.
Admittedly, the terms used in the general education literature are not inspiring either. Eric R. White reports this problem in 2013: "Starting with the words that have been used to identify that part of the curriculum beyond the major, the challenges are obvious. The term general education is so vague that it defies definition and actually invites criticism. Liberal studies, as an alternative, has proved unworkable in an era when new meanings that are less than positive have been applied to the word liberal. Even the terms core and distributional provide little insight into the nature of this part of the curriculum. Breadth versus depth also shortchanges general education, since depth has become the endgame and breadth has been reduced to superficiality" (p. 139). Still, we believe our general education program could have a name that is more accurate and that communicates distinctiveness.
Finally, one of the assumptions we are making is that proposed design changes to the general education program do not make it impossible for students to graduate in four years. Model designers should keep in mind that the general education program will not be able to accomplish everything-this is why the program must be integrated with the majors, so that the burden of providing high-impact practices does not fall solely upon the general education program. | https://www.csbsju.edu/ccvc/task-force-report/vision-and-design-principles |
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The Weekend Warrior on… finding your best side for race pics
Brunty ponders the perils of finding your best side as you pass the event photographer
27 April 2017 at 14:00
What it's like to race Kona for the first time
British age-grouper Gail Wilkinson recounts the 2014 race – pushes, punctures and all…
07 October 2016 at 07:00
Blog: Chris Arthey at The London Triathlon
Chris Arthey and his wife Denise were involved in a horrific road accident in 2008 that claimed both their left legs. Fast forward eight years and both lead full and active lives, giving motivational talks while Chris regularly takes on endurance events with the aid of a prosthetic. Here's his report from the London Triathlon back in August...
04 October 2016 at 14:55
ÖtillÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly: a competitor's adventure of a lifetime
With only 10 days’ notice, 220 Triathlon Editor Helen Webster finds herself tied to a Swedish man and about to attempt 37.5km of tough trail running and choppy sea swimming. Here’s how she got on…
21 June 2016 at 17:49
Chrissie Wellington on... Budget triathlon gear
"Ultimately, you compete using your heart and your head, not your wallet," says Britain's four-time Kona champ
The Weekend Warrior on… When to wear race t-shirts
Witnessing a t-shirt-wearing faux pas, Brunty turns into a sartorial sage
11 May 2016 at 09:35
(4)
Race Report - The Grantham Triathlon
After weeks of below-par temperatures, the sun finally made an appearance for the second weekend of May... just in time for the Grantham Triathlon in Lincolnshire! Jane Taylor talks us through her race, where she managed to scoop 1st place in her age-group...
10 May 2016 at 12:52
Ulverston Triathlon race report - Eli Thorogood
The last time Eli Thorogood was involved in triathlon was when she travelled with the Welsh team to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow! We caught up with Eli after finishing 2nd at the Ulverston Triathlon in her first race back since taking a break from the sport...
07 April 2016 at 11:57
Blog: Triple Brutal Triathlon
A month on from arguably the toughest triathlon in the UK, James Page details the trials and tribulations of competing in the Triple Brutal Extreme - that's 7.2 miles of swimming, 336 miles of cycling and a 78 mile run in the heart of Snowdonia!
28 October 2015 at 15:35
Conquering Ötillö, the Swimrun World Championships
Rosemary Byde was worried she'd bitten off more than she could chew when she signed up for the mammoth-distance Ötillö Swim run event in Sweden. Read how she got on below...
05 October 2015 at 15:06
Game on at the Perranporth Extreme Surf Triathlon 2015 (blog)
Age-grouper Tim Green gets into the swing of Cornish living by entering his local triathlon – sea swells and all
10 September 2015 at 11:36
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Race day arrives for age-grouper Andrew Keetley on his long-distance initiation, and it proves a day of extremes…
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(2)
An eight-year-old's account of becoming a triathlete (blog)
Leo Riggs recounts this year's baptism-by-tri, from his debut in Dorset to a birthday aquathlon, jellyfish blooms and more
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Going back for more at the Triple Brutal Extreme Triathlon (blog)
After completing a double-iron distance triathlon, UK age-grouper James Page is having a crack at Snowdonia’s whopping Triple Brutal Extreme next month
18 August 2015 at 14:38
Obstacle course racing - a triathlete’s tale (blog)
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Overcoming fuelling struggles at Ironman UK for an epic finish – blog
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(1)
The Weekend Warrior on… Finding new triathlon adventures
Following an eye-watering cycling incident, our man Brunty decides it’s time for something a little different... | http://www.220triathlon.com/blog/2/ |
Use the filter menu and interactive map to explore the past competitions offered and grants awarded through the Environmental Literacy Program.
To learn more about project findings and outcomes, view the summaries of our grantees’ summative evaluation reports.
Resilience from the Youth Up
As climate impacts ratchet up across the United States, the Great Lakes region tends to fly under the national radar. While the Great Lakes do not experience hurricanes, rising sea levels, or large-scale wildfires, the local climate has become increasingly erratic in recent years. The region, however, is one of the most unprepared in the country to cope with these impacts. A recent Grosvenor report (2014) on climate resilience among 50 global cities ranked Detroit last among 11 U.S. cities for adaptability and only better than three cities for overall resilience, which incorporates both climate vulnerability and adaptability factors. Of U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents, Detroit has the highest percentage of African-American residents (80.7%, U.S. Census 2016). Still recovering from bankruptcy, the city also has a 39% poverty rate, which impacts over 56% of children (ibid). These socio-economic factors, coupled with other environmental justice concerns, such as a centrally located incinerator and an asthma rate of 15.5% among adults resulting in over 3,000 hospitalizations annually, make Detroit residents particularly vulnerable to climate impacts. This project will address the urgent need to increase resilience by working with high school students and teachers in Detroit and southeast Michigan to increase their awareness of climate change and develop projects that help their schools and neighborhoods become resilient to increased occurrence and intensity of heat waves, storm events, and flooding. Using NOAA assets, including GLISA localized climate data and Sea Grant outreach and education expertise, high school students and teachers will partner with climate scientists to explore local climate impacts firsthand and to develop resilience strategies and projects that protect vulnerable households and neighborhoods and contribute to broader sustainability initiatives. The City of Detroit seeks this involvement as it ramps up a new Office of Sustainability and seeks proposals to develop the city's first Sustainability Framework. The effort is a partnership with EcoWorks, Great Lakes Integrated Sciences + Assessments (GLISA), Michigan Sea Grant (MISG), Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS), Eastern Michigan University, Civic Research Services, Inc., and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In each of the next three years, 200 students from various high schools in the Detroit and Ypsilanti areas will participate in weekly activities related to the grant. The four primary objectives of the program include: 1) Engage students in assessing and quantifying climate vulnerabilities of their schools, neighborhoods, and surrounding community. 2) Using a place-based education (PBE) model, prepare educators to engage students in creating plans and completing projects that increase community resilience. 3) Empower high school students to teach residents about local climate impacts and increase understanding of resilience strategies to mitigate extreme weather events or other environmental hazards. 4) Contribute to the completion and implementation of local sustainability and climate action plans in Southeast Michigan.
Building and Distributing SciGuides and Science Objects
In 2004, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) embarked on a cooperative agreement with the NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS) to develop a series of education products for teachers corresponding to topics aligned to NOAA’s mission. The products--called Science Objects and SciGuides--address teacher professional development needs, and provide classroom resources. The agreement includes both evaluative components and a means for dissemination. The topics are drawn from science education standards, specifically a draft Oceans map AAAS produced that is modeled after the benchmark maps found in the Atlas of Science Literacy (2001). The topics are also informed by the National Science Educations Standards (1996). The topics were selected to support the curriculum at the high school level. These topics were in turn aligned to science research produced by NOAA scientists. Several months after the cooperative agreement was formalized, NSTA and the NOAA Office of Education and Sustainable Development agreed to a work order to produce a single SciGuide at the middle school level that will draw on topics found in the AAAS Weather and Climate map. Production for this SciGuide is due to start in June 2005 and will be completed in November 2005. To ensure topic choices, NSTA standards experts proposed a list from which to choose. Its experts also concentrated their analysis of the maps to the grade bands that interested each line office – high school for the NOS and middle school for the OESD. The universe of topics is far from exhausted. NSTA would like to expand on these partnerships to plan, implement, and evaluate two additional Science Objects and two SciGuides at the middle level, which will be disseminated through two Symposia that take place at NSTA conventions in fall 2006 and spring 2007. The additional development will fill in two of the gaps left open in the maps, and equip even more science educators to better teach the science of the NOAA, namely oceans, coasts, charting and navigation, weather, energy flow through an ecosystem, and climate. This partnership will bring NSTA educational professionals and master teachers together in an ongoing working relationship with NOAA scientists, writers, content experts, and communications professionals.
Multicultural students At Sea Together -3 (MAST-3)
The primary goal of MAST-3 is to increase the diversity of students, particularly those from underrepresented groups, electing careers in NOAA related marine sciences. This is done through a multidisciplinary program that engages students in NOAA-related marine research, and explores marine policy, the heritage of African Americans and Native Americans in the coastal environment, and seamanship. MAST students use the Chesapeake Bay to understand efforts to protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management. To do this, Hampton University has formed partnerships with various NOAA labs/sites, several university laboratories, the USEPA, various museums, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the menhaden fishing industry.
Educational Applications of the National Maritime Center Science on a Sphere
This project is developing and implementing a strong environmental literacy and science education program to accompany NOAA's Science on a Sphere® (SOS) at The National Maritime Center's Nauticus museum. The program will use the SOS as a focal point to support learning about global oceanic and atmospheric circulations and their effect on local environments. The team is creating real-time global displays of environmental phenomena for the SOS from the expansive University of Wisconsin environmental satellite database. Computer visualization systems and user-driven interactive displays will allow viewers to move from global scale to regional and local scale in order to explore specific features of the phenomena being visualized and to understand them in greater detail. The displays will be integrated with high quality education materials that are aligned with national standards and specifically address the NOAA Education Strategic Plan. The teaming of the University of Wisconsin, Hampton University, and the National Maritime Center offers the opportunity to expose students from ethnic minority groups to various NOAA career paths and help produce graduates with solid technical backgrounds. | https://www.noaa.gov/office-education/elp/grants/awards?f%5B0%5D=%3AButler%20University&f%5B1%5D=%3AResearch%20Foundation%20of%20CUNY%20/%20Brooklyn%20College&f%5B2%5D=%3ASeattle%20Aquarium&f%5B3%5D=field_ela_state%3AMichigan&f%5B4%5D=field_ela_state%3AVirginia&f%5B5%5D=field_fiscal_year%3A2005&f%5B6%5D=field_fiscal_year%3A2018 |
Difference between revisions of "Revolution Engine"
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|Revolution Engine|
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|Author(s)||Technik|
|Type||Game engine|
|Version||0.4alpha1|
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|Peripherals|
Revolution Engine is the very First homebrew 3D Game Engine for Wii. It is directly based on GX without any GL wrapper or anything similar. Natively designed for Wii, is capable of generating best homebrew graphics ever seen on this games console.
Introduction
This is not a game itself, but a library you can use to make your own 3D games for Wii in a very easy way
History
This project started in the early 2008, in a spanish forum. The idea was about creating a complete game engine that almost anyone can easily use to quickly create amazing games. Core ideas that have always lead this project are:
- Ease of use
- Taking advantage of hardware to improve performance
- High quality graphics and effects
First release of Revolution engine was in July 2008, with a very limited number of features. But as new versions arise, features get multiplied and engine becomes a useful tool, capable of so many things.
Version 0.4
Revolution Engine 0.4 is the first mature version of the engine, and so the first version published here at wiibrew. It's being released through various steps for better feedback, and for creating a better result for the final release. This is why revolution engine 0.4 is released in alpha versions before being complete.
Current Features
Revolution Engine 0.4 alpha 1 Supports: | http://www.wiibrew.org/w/index.php?title=Revolution_Engine&diff=prev&oldid=63594 |
University of Chicago shows.
In a study of first- and second-graders, Sian Beilock, professor in psychology, found that students report worry and fear about doing math as early as first grade. Most surprisingly math anxiety harmed the highest-achieving students, who typically have the most working memory, Beilock and her colleagues found.
“You can think of working memory as a kind of ‘mental scratchpad’ that allows us to ‘work’ with whatever information is temporarily flowing through consciousness,” Beilock said. “It’s especially important when we have to do a math problem and juggle numbers in our head. Working memory is one of the major building blocks of IQ.”
Worries about math can disrupt working memory, which students could otherwise use to succeed. Beilock and other scholars have studied this impact of anxiety on working memory on older students, but her current work is the first to explore the impact on students as they begin school.
Bradley expert: not surprised
Greta Francis, PhD, said she is not surprised that math anxiety might be felt among students this young. "Math is part of the curriculum for all young children, so it makes sense that even young children could have math anxiety," said Francis, who is the associate director of Bradley Schools, a division of Bradley Hospital.
Francis did not see evidence that math anxiety might be increasing, but rather pointed out that investigators are now looking at younger population. "For example, Young, Wu, and Menon from Stanford University also did a study of the neurobiological basis of math anxiety in young children," Francis said, "and they noted that most previous research on math anxiety had focused on adolescents and adults."
More than hurting math
The team showed that a high degree of math anxiety undermined performance of otherwise successful students, placing them almost half a school year behind their less anxious peers, in terms of math achievement.
Less talented students with lower working memory were not impacted by anxiety, because they developed simpler ways of dealing with mathematics problems, such as counting on their fingers. Ironically, because these lower-performing students didn’t use working memory much to solve math problems, their performance didn’t suffer when worried.
“Early math anxiety may lead to a snowball effect that exerts an increasing cost on math achievement by changing students’ attitudes and motivational approaches towards math, increasing math avoidance, and ultimately reducing math competence,” Beilock wrote.
The study
For the study, the researchers tested 88 first-graders and 66 second-graders from a large urban school system. The students were tested to measure their academic abilities, their working memory and their fear of mathematics. They were asked, on a sliding scale, how nervous they felt to go to the front of the room and work on a mathematics problem on the board.
Beilock has another article on the subject: “Math Anxiety, Who Has it, Why it Develops and How to Guard Against it,” published in the current issue of Trends in Cognitive Science (Tics). The article, co-written with UChicago postdoctoral scholar Erin Maloney, points out that math anxiety has a variety of sources. “Its development is probably tied to both social factors, such as a teachers’ and parents’ anxiety about their own math ability and a student’s own numerical and spatial competencies,” they write. Beilock is also the author of Choke, What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting it Right When you Have To, is one of the nation’s leading experts on the power of anxiety to undermine performance across a wide variety of fields from test taking, to public speaking, to your golf score.
Strategies for students
Greta Francis offered the following advice for parents who might want to ensure that their children reduce any math anxiety. "Removing time pressures (like timed tests) and rewarding accuracy rather than speed can be a way of reducing anxiety," she said. "This could be particularly beneficial for young children who are just starting to learn basic math skills. With extreme or incapacitating forms of math anxiety, cognitive behavioral treatment approaches that work for other types of anxiety may be helpful." For an online source of tips and strategies regarding anxiety, Francis recommends parents check out www.effectivechildtherapy.com.
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...(accurately, as it were) to be "helpers" endowed with a special amount of altruism are exceedingly vulnerable to the affective (emotional) simulation of the accomplished agent.
< br /> Empathy is fostered in the activist through the expression of quite visible affects. The presentation of tearfulness, sadness, longing, fear, remorse, and guilt, may induce in the helper-o riented activist a strong sense of compassion, while unconsciously enhancing the activist's narcissistic investment in self as the embodiment of goodness. | https://bookchain.cash/txid/2adbe9332347d2237fbd47662c9c3e9fccc3d77e9095409cc7943d9c8a585601 |
The fire at Trump Tower that killed a 67-year-old art dealer was accidental and caused by overloaded power strips, the FDNY confirmed on Monday.
The 4-alarm blaze broke out in a 50th floor apartment on April 7, creating a harrowing scene of smoke billowing out from the president’s New York residence. Todd Brassner, a longtime resident of the building and well-respected art dealer, died of smoke inhalation.
There were no smoke detectors in the apartment, according to the FDNY.
According to the Department of Buildings, apartment owners in older buildings like Trump Tower are responsible for ensuring that smoke alarms are working.
The floor also didn’t have a sprinkler system, and was not required to.
New York City requires sprinklers in residential buildings with at least four units constructed after 1999 — or buildings with three or more units if they were built in or after 2008, according to the Department of Buildings. Construction on Trump Tower was finished in 1983, according to The Trump Organization.
The building, which houses the president’s primary, private residence on the top three floors and offices on some of the lower floors, must install sprinklers in all commercial spaces by July 1, 2019, according to the city Department of Buildings.
NYC, in your inbox.
Alison covers law enforcement and breaking news. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, and has a master’s degree from Northwestern University and bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. | |
The Greeley Company was delighted to share its insights about how to best prepare for and cope with changes in the survey process as State Agencies and Accreditation Organizations resume CMS survey activities. The following is our response to questions posed during the September 30 webinar.
Hospitals have faced a considerable number of challenges during the pandemic, from managing shrinking margins to adapting to “surge standards of care.” Responding to regulatory and accrediting agency activities has not been one of these concerns, but as surveying activities resume, quality and safety scrutiny will be higher than ever in the days and months ahead. While hospitals cannot afford the cost […]
As healthcare becomes more and more integrated through consolidation, acquisitions, and mergers, one of the most difficult challenges for a system or network to achieve is a highly effective system-wide criteria based privileging methodology. Greeley experts Sally Pelletier, Chief Credentialing Officer and Frances Ponsioen, Advisory Consultant identify strategies for optimizing privileging performance across an integrated delivery system below. Step 1: […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center May 29, 2020 On May 27, 2020, The Joint Commission (TJC) announced that it will begin returning to survey activities in the month of June (visit The Joint Commission’s website to view the official announcement). But, what will that mean? What will surveys look like? Which surveys will come first? How, specifically, […]
Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center April 23, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many challenges for healthcare organizations across the country. Many organizations have been forced to activate their Emergency Operations / Emergency Response Plans (hereafter EOP) as they face a growing number of patients with COVID-19. What does the activation of an EOP mean for the Medical Staff Services […]
Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center April 16, 2020 We are experiencing significant changes in healthcare as a result of COVID-19 and it’s not just been about patient care but also administrative changes, specifically changes to regulatory requirements. On April 15, 2020, the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) announced through their NPDBD Insights that they are waiving all query fees beginning […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center April 13, 2020 In the event of an incident causing a large influx of inpatients into a healthcare organization, contingency actions outlining alternatives to usual staffing plans should be developed. The primary focus when implementing alternative staffing actions is patient safety. Alternatives to regular staffing plans will differ dependent upon the specific […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center April 7, 2020 During national or local “disasters” hospitals may face overwhelming inpatient volumes for which usual emergency management plan activities may be stressed. The following are considerations for guidelines of various activities necessary to expand capacity in order to effectively cope with incident-related surge inpatient volume. In many cases these considerations […]
Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center April 6, 2020 On March 18, 2020, The Joint Commission published in their Standards FAQ’s the allowance of an automatic extension of medical staff reappointment and re-privileging beyond the 2-year period under certain conditions, specifically a national emergency that has been officially declared. It is incredibly rare for The Joint Commission to allow for an […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center April 6, 2020 The following is a brief summary of the process for obtaining pandemic-related waivers of federal requirements. Follow the links at the end of this post for additional details. What is an 1135 Waiver? There are many different ways to gain relief from a regulatory requirement. The 1135 Waiver is […]
Considerations for Emergency Preservation and Conservation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) During A Pandemic
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center March 27, 2020 The following recommendations are culled from CDC and other expert resources as healthcare organizations struggle to cope with shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). These recommendations will vary over time and will be based on the health of the supply chain. The following measures are aimed at ensuring the […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center March 25, 2020 All healthcare personnel understand the risk of COVID-19 and the need to use PPE. But Stanford has found that there may be a population of healthcare providers that are under additional risk for COVID-19; these individuals are proceduralists and the OR staff involved in endoscopic endonasal surgeries. Please see […]
Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center March 25, 2020 As healthcare organizations continue to evolve their workplace environment to accommodate COVID-19 demands, so must the way in which medical services professionals communicate with others regarding the credentialing and privileging process. New remote work models require us to look at how we communicate to multiple customers in multiple locations in an effective […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center March 24, 2020 As part of our COVID-19 blog series, on March 17, 2020 we covered a host of regulatory and accreditation issues that arose as survey agencies reacted to COVID-19. In this post we will dig a little deeper into implications for EMTALA during the pandemic. EMTALA and COVID-19 A CMS […]
Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center March 24, 2020 Faced with a global pandemic, hospitals across the country have activated their Emergency Operations Plan. Healthcare’s responsibility to patient safety has never been more important as we face a significant crisis, one that requires everyone to be vigilant and responsible. Last week, the President passed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations […]
Click here to visit our COVID-19 Resource Center Amid ongoing concerns regarding the containment of the COVID-19 virus and a continued focus on hand hygiene, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has enacted provisions for temporary compounding of hand sanitizer by pharmacists in State-licensed pharmacies and Federal facilities. However, the compounding of hand sanitizer must be in strict accordance with […]
The Boy Scout motto of “be prepared” resonates strongly for healthcare organizations at the time of a disaster. Hospitals need to have a well-defined procedure for when non-privileged practitioners need authorization to provide patient care when the hospital has activated its Emergency Operations Plan. Recognizing that an organization’s routine credentialing and privileging process is not a practical manner to expeditiously […]
CMS and The Joint Commission recently issued a string of notifications to the healthcare industry in response to the novel COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak. This blog post will cover the highlights of their updates, however we recommend that you visit the CMS and Joint Commission website for the full communication. The Joint Commission In its March 9, 2020 communication, the Joint […]
The following is an excerpt from the Q&A following our Insights webinar, “Meeting The Joint Commission’s New Perinatal Safety Standards” hosted by Bud Pate and Lisa Eddy, Senior Consultants with The Greeley Company. To watch the free on-demand recording of the webinar, please click here. Q: Does the criteria for cases to be reviewed need to be spelled out in […]
Avoiding patient harm has been healthcare’s goal from the days of Hippocrates. Yet achieving this goal remains elusive. Despite years of attention to the Universal Protocol, patient identification, escalation of clinical concerns, medication reconciliation and other thoughtful approaches to patient safety, there is little evidence that the incidence of harm has diminished. Greeley will describe the organizational capabilities necessary to […]
The Greeley Company was delighted to share its insights about how to best prepare for and deal with CMS and accreditation findings in hospitals in the coming year. The following is our response to questions posed during the November 6 webinar presented by the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Watch the On-Demand Webinar > Q: Can you offer some concrete […]
This post is an insightful Q&A with Greeley’s Senior Advisory Consultant, Kim Wilson, MS, BSN, RN. Q: Do you think electronic health records (EHRs) are clinically useful? A: There’s a lot of factors that contribute to the usefulness of an Electronic Health Record (EHR). Overall, we’ve come a long way from the old paper charts that often hid out among […]
In the last decade alone, Greeley has educated over 11,000 physicians and hospital leaders through our Physician and Hospital Leadership Education national seminars. In anticipation of our upcoming events in Phoenix, AZ and Boca Raton, FL we have expanded our educational offerings to include four new programs. These programs cover critical issues in today’s evolving healthcare environment, such as moving […]
Do you need assistance in creating an effective credentialing policy for returning practitioners? Contact us: 888.749.3054 Is your facility open to working with clinicians who seek to return to practice after an extended voluntary absence from patient care? Do you have consistent policies for addressing requests from practitioners to expand/change their scope of practice and refresh skillsets they have not […]
What are the Odds of a Medicare Deficiency after a Joint Commission Survey? Your hospital has a 50-50 chance of being in serious trouble when the survey team walks out of your door at the end of your next full Joint Commission survey. That means half of accredited hospitals will also need to prepare for a Medicare Deficiency Follow-up Survey […]
On May 23, 2019 The Greeley Company held a national online webcast covering the Physician Burnout Epidemic. (View this free webinar.) This post is an insightful Q&A with Greeley’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rick Sheff, on his approach to addressing physician burnout. Physician burnout is an epidemic, and like most epidemics, there isn’t one simple solution. However, the Greeley Company […]
The Greeley Company held a national online seminar covering the top 20 Joint Commission and the top 22 CMS citations in recent years. This post covers the questions posed by the webinar audience, along with Greeley’s response.
Question: Surveyors have cited us for standards, such as contracted services, and are inconsistent with content of this webinar…. Is this where negotiation with surveyor is necessary?
Question: Should screening for suicidality be documented for all patients or only if certain criteria are met?
Question: Can you go into more detail about what the regulations require for medication storage. In our facility, pharmacy insists that any and all medications be locked unless under 24/7 observation.
Question: Does food storage include staff refrigerators or only refrigerators with patient items?
Question: You said that orders for non-violent restraints no longer need to be renewed every 24 hours?
The Joint Commission’s “Enhanced Survey Process” Puts a Microscope on the Sterilization/Disinfection Cycle
Four steps healthcare organizations can take to meet the scoring revisions
If hospital survey results during the past year are any indication, 2019 should be a very busy and challenging year for hospitals across the country.
Joint Commission representatives have begun emphasizing the need for an additional “NFPA Time Out” for some surgical cases.
Hospitals seem to have a season for everything. There are preparations and protocols and promotions for the onset of tourist- and flu-seasons.
Among the topics slated for “enhanced” attention during Joint Commission surveys are high-level disinfection and sterilization, which continue to be problematic for hospitals across the country.
If you are looking to make a change at your hospital to define or revise the way you do or should be doing things, be sure you understand whether the change should be made in policy, procedure, or guideline, or to what extent in each.
There are two types of recommendations that can come out of a mock survey: good recommendations and unhelpful recommendations.
If your hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC), your CEO recently received a letter.
No more Mr. Niceguy. It started as “better guidance” for prescribers as concerns mounted that the over-prescription of opioid pain…
As more states legalize marijuana, more physicians have begun recommending cannabis to their patients for the management of pain, nausea, anxiety, and loss of appetite.
If you are still using “laundry list” privileging as opposed to core privileging, you are likely struggling to perform meaningful OPPE and FPPE. If a laundry list for a typical specialist includes 60-80 privileges, how do you determine current competence for each?
Hospitals and medical staffs all too often experience predictable areas ….
If you are still using “laundry list” privileging as opposed to core privileging, you are likely struggling to perform meaningful OPPE and FPPE.
Is your organization struggling with physician engagement — getting physicians on the organized medical staff on board with scheduling imperatives, quality and cost initiatives, and management expectations?
Every organization has struggled at one point or another to fill this key and complex role. It takes time to find a great Chief Medical Officer.
In recent weeks (months?!), there’s been a lot of discussion relative to the identification and mitigation of risks in the environment relating to the management of behavioral health patients.
Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions for your medical staff services team for 2018? Here are some resolutions Greeley helped clients make and achieve for 2017.
Co-Author: Sally Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS Are your patients and practitioners protected in the ambulatory environment?
The most recent data shows unemployment among salaried employees at hospitals is flat-lining at 1.4 percent and turnover in healthcare
Can you connect these dots to suboptimal financial performance in your organization?
Cultural Challenges Integrating Physicians with Hospitals and Systems More than half of physicians practicing in the United States
Cultural Challenges Integrating Physicians with Hospitals and Systems More than half of physicians practicing in the United States
ATTENTION In-House Counsel and MSPs: Do these negligent credentialing scenarios sound familiar?
Age catches up with all of us, but in medicine, it’s catching up with some more than others.
According to a 2016 survey, as many as 58 percent of physicians in the United States are employed by a hospital or physician group.
By now everyone should be well aware that two categories of standards rise to the top in the volume of regulatory findings. These are Environment of Care and Infection Prevention and Control. One standard in particular receives a lot of citations varying widely in range: Joint Commission Infection Prevention and Control standard IC.02.02.01. However, while a variety of findings roll […]
You may have heard in passing that the FDA banned the use of powdered gloves in January 2017 due to patient and employee safety. You may have moved on thinking the use of these antiquated gloves was not an issue for you. Think you are safe? Who uses or orders powdered gloves anymore? Think again. Powdered gloves still exist. One […]
Summary: The Greeley Company’s consulting model is intended to help hospitals and their affiliated Medical Staffs build and strengthen effective leadership and oversight processes. We teach and reinforce the Greeley Medical Staff Leadership Model and the Framework for Sustained Compliance to help hospitals attain and maintain lasting and value-driven improvements to safety, experience and efficiency. We also recognize The Joint […]
How to clarify Don’t get hung up on the clarification format. Sometimes explanations don’t fit well into the Joint Commission’s “who, when, what, how, and why” outline and your explanation won’t be clear.
Rumor has it that the Joint Commission removed the option to clarify survey findings. This rumor is not true.
The Joint Commission has proposed some changes to it’s national patient safety goal for suicide prevention.
As you might know, The Greeley Company assists organizations of all sizes and types with their important external peer review needs.
Over time, The Joint Commission (TJC) has intermittently circled back to the processes organizations use to manage Life Safety Code (LSC) issues during construction
A key way to propel our hospital data to the next level of usefulness is to consider where our “red lines” are.
I always look forward to the mail on Friday because it usually includes the latest issue of People Magazine.
The song remains the same – only the tempo has changed! As we head toward the promise of a very different 2017 regulatory landscape under a new President
The Greeley Company is well known for our national physician and hospital leadership seminars.
January is a time when many of us reflect on the happenings of the previous year and will set new goals for 2017.
As hospitals form more expansive networks, small inefficiencies in individual credentialing processes compound and become increasingly disruptive at the system level.
External Peer Review (EPR) typically is thought of as the review of a medical record for individual cases in which concerns have been raised regarding the quality or appropriateness of care.
Medical staff services departments might need interim staffing assistance at any point for a variety of reasons.
Think you have your physician peer review covered? Before you answer “yes,” consider: Would you rate your peer review as highly efficient, fair, and effective?
Over 500 healthcare executives and industry leaders from across the country will gather November 7-9 at the Swissotel
As The Greeley Company continues our work with hospital and system administrators and physician leaders in this unprecedented time of change in healthcare
Dan Nielsen, former healthcare executive turned speaker and author, conducted several enlightening interviews at the 2016 Becker’s Hospital Review Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Another NAMSS conference has come and gone. This is an event that many of us look forward to every year—a chance to see old friends and meet new
The Greeley Company is looking forward to participating in the National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) 40th Educational Conference and Exhibition,
Administrators at a 300-bed tertiary healthcare facility brought in consultants from The Greeley Company to help guide them through a compliance remediation program.
The Greeley Company is pleased to release the fourth and final part of our new guidebook, The Greeley Guide to External Peer Review.
in May and June, The Greeley Company released the first two parts of our four-part new guidebook,
For those of you who closely follow the ebb and flow of the physical environment regulatory compliance season, 2016 has been an unusually busy year
Last month, The Greeley Company released the first of our four-part new guidebook, The Greeley Guide to External Peer Review.
The increasing spotlight on quality and safety issues in healthcare has made peer review more important than ever.
The number of employed practitioners at your hospital is increasing. Provider enrollment with the managed care payers is time-consuming and long delays are being encountered. A significant loss of revenue has been incurred over the last year due to the inability to bill for patient care services while your practitioners waited to be credentialed by the payers.
If you were among the healthcare leaders who participated in the recent Becker’s Hospital Review Annual Meeting in Chicago
Today, Tuesday May 3, 2016, CMS announced the full adoption of the provisions of the 2012 edition of NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, effective July 5, 2016.
Greeley to Sponsor George W. Bush Keynote Address and Present at Becker’s Hospital Review 7th Annual Meeting
Over 1,500 healthcare executives and industry leaders from across the country will gather later this week, April 27-30, at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago,
The considerable length of time it can take to credential and enroll practitioners in health care networks
“Stop the line” is a very familiar term to me, through my years of experience in the hospital setting.
My colleagues from The Greeley Company and I hope that you’re enjoying this holiday season and feeling energized for the New Year!
A little over a week ago, I had the “NAMSS experience.” This year’s conference theme was about embracing change.
A regional hospital with 350+ beds and a physician group practice of approximately 20 physicians plus allied health practitioners had tried to collaborate multiple times for more than ten years.
How to Manage Temporary Privileges to Mitigate Risk and Protect Patients Thursday
The Chief Executive Officer/General Counsel and Credentials Chair of a 25-bed, physician-owned surgical hospital engaged The Greeley Company about conducting a gap analysis between their existing processes and leading practices, with the goal of making improvements based on Greeley methodologies.
Recent public statements by CMS representatives have raised questions about the mechanism a hospital should use to authorize/approve temporary privileges.
As my Greeley colleagues and I continue our work with hospital administrators and physician leaders nationwide in this unprecedented time of change in healthcare
During a July 2014 Joint Commission survey, one of CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Medical Center’s specialty hospitals experienced some specific compliance challenges related to their core privileging forms.
Historically, the medical staff services department has operated behind the scenes in healthcare organizations,
t should come as no surprise that nine out of the 10 most frequently cited standards during 2014 TJC surveys were directly applicable to the management of the physical environment.
After performing some random credentialing file reviews, a multi-entity health system of 200+ beds that is part of a larger academic
The Greeley Company is looking forward to participating this week in the Becker’s Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting, May 7-9 at Swissotel, Chicago, IL.
We have all had beliefs we held to be true, only to find out at some point in the future that those beliefs were myths.
The Greeley Company’s Chief Credentialing Officer, Sally Pelletier, was recently interviewed for the following story on physician imposters in Becker’s Hospital Review:
The imperative in healthcare today is to rapidly and significantly improve quality and reduce costs.
A contractor is building several new homes in my community. I have been watching the excavation and grading of the property, the concrete basements being poured and the walls going up. | https://greeley.com/blog/ |
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment in favor of defendant online travel companies (OTCs) for alleged violations of local tax laws. The district court had held that the OTCs were not liable for collecting occupancy taxes.
It is common practice for OTCs such as Priceline.com, Expedia, and Travelocity (which were among the lawsuit’s defendants) to provide discounted hotel room rates to customers by contracting with hotels for rooms at “wholesale” rates and then booking rooms for customers on their websites at a marked-up “retail” rate that is above the wholesale rate but below the market rate. Most states allow cities and counties to assess an occupancy tax upon the persons reserving those hotel rooms. The hotel operator is required to collect and remit the tax. Eleven localities in Ohio (including cities, townships, and a county) sued the OTCs, arguing that the companies were required to remit a guest occupancy tax on the higher retail rate the companies charged customers. OTCs have traditionally remitted tax based on the contractual wholesale room rate that the hotels charged the companies. In essence, the point at issue was whether OTCs must collect and remit occupancy tax on their profit margin.
The district court held that the OTCs had no obligation to collect the guest taxes because they were not among the three types of entities designated by the localities’ tax ordinances as responsible for doing so: operators (proprietors of the hotel, whether in the capacity of owner, lessee, licensee, or any other capacity, and managing agents of hotels); vendors (persons who own or operate a hotel and who furnish lodging); or hotels (establishments kept, used, maintained, advertised, or held out to the public to be a place where sleeping accommodations are offered to guests). The court found that the tax ordinances were specifically concerned with the amount paid to the hotel for lodging and did not apply to the amount paid for service or booking fees, nor for the cost of using the online services. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment.
On a related issue, the district court held that the OTCs were required to remit any amounts that they did collect as a tax. Thus, a portion of the amounts collected from customers under the description “taxes and service fees” should be remitted. However, the court determined (and the Sixth Circuit affirmed) that there was not sufficient evidence to suggest that OTCs collected money for taxes that they had not remitted as a tax.
While the courts held for the OTCs in this situation, OTC litigation continues in courts nationwide with mixed results. This is due to slight differences in statutory language and interpretation, creating different judicial conclusions (see, e.g., District of Columbia v. Expedia Inc., No. 2011 CA 2117 (D.C. Super. Ct. 9/24/12), holding some of the same OTCs liable for sales taxes because the D.C. statute does not require a hotel room seller to be the party furnishing the room). States and cities more than likely will amend their statutes to include OTCs. As a result, OTCs are seeking a federal exemption from collection of state and local occupancy tax on profit margin.
City of Columbus, Ohio v. Hotels.com, L.P., No. 10-4531/4545 (6th Cir. 9/10/12), aff’g No. 3:05-CV-7443 (N.D. Ohio 11/18/10)
By Karen M. Cooley, CPA, MBA, instructor of
accounting, and Darlene Pulliam, CPA, Ph.D.,
Regents Professor and McCray Professor of Business, both of the
College of Business, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas. | https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2012/dec/occupancy-taxes.html |
BACKGROUND
SUMMARY
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A head-worn display (or a head-mounted display) is a display device worn on the head of a user. A head-worn display may include one or more display optics positioned in the field of view of one or both eyes of the user. A head-worn display having display optics positioned in the fields of view of both eyes of the user may be referred to as a stereoscopic head-worn display.
In one aspect, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a head-worn display. The head-worn display may include at least one processor configured to determine a location of the head-worn display with respect to a real-world environment and to generate a conformal indicator conforming to an element in the real-world environment. The head-worn display may also include at least one display in communication with the at least one processor. The at least one display may be configured to display the conformal indicator generated by the at least one processor to a user.
In a further aspect, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a head-worn display. The head-worn display may include at least one processor configured to determine a location of the head-worn display with respect to a real-world environment and to generate a conformal indicator conforming to an element in the real-world environment. The head-worn display may also include a stereoscopic display in communication with the at least one processor. The stereoscopic display may be configured to display the conformal indicator generated by the at least one processor to a user, wherein the conformal indicator is displayed at a stereoscopic depth conforming to the element in the real-world environment.
In another aspect, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a head-worn display. The head-worn display may include at least one processor configured to: determine a location of the head-worn display with respect to a real-world environment; generate a conformal indicator conforming to an element in the real-world environment; and generate a non-conformal indicator unconstrained by elements in the real-world environment. The head-worn display may also include a stereoscopic display in communication with the at least one processor. The stereoscopic display may be configured to display the conformal indicator and the non-conformal indicator generated by the at least one processor to a user, wherein the conformal indicator may be displayed at a stereoscopic depth conforming to the element in the real-world environment, and wherein the non-conformal indicator may be displayed at an adjustable stereoscopic depth.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the inventive concepts disclosed and claimed herein. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the inventive concepts and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles and features of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
FIGS. 1-13
100
Embodiments in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to augmented reality head-worn displays. Referring generally to , a series of diagrams illustrating augmented reality depictions that may be presented to a user (e.g., an aircraft pilot) using an exemplary head-worn display configured in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein is shown.
FIG. 2
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100
The term “augmented reality” refers to a live view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements may be augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated graphics or data input. For instance, as shown in , a pilot may be able to view the real-world environment through the head-worn display . It is noted that the real-world environment may be viewed directly, where the head-worn display may utilize a substantially transparent display substrate that allows the pilot to see the real-world environment through the transparent display substrate. Alternatively, the real-world environment may be provided to the pilot indirectly, where the head-worn display may utilize one or more cameras to obtain live views of the real-world environment and display the live views to the pilot via the head-worn display . It is contemplated that a head-worn display configured in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein may implement either approach without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
FIG. 2
FIG. 3
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Also shown in are some exemplary graphics/data elements , , and that may be generated by the head-worn display . For example, a computer-generated graphical depiction of the real-world environment may be displayed to provide supplemental information about the real-world environment . The graphical depiction may include, for example, one or more wireframe maps, topographic maps, territorial boundaries, flight restriction indicators, obstacle indicators, airport indicators, landing pad indicators, wind direction indicators, traffic, weather radar returns (e.g., weather, ground mapping, turbulence, lightning), and sensor information including enhanced vision sensors as well as other types of indicators that may help the pilot better understand the real-world environment . It is noted that in certain instances, the graphical depiction of the real-world environment may be more informative than the pilot's own visual of the real-world environment , especially when operating at night or during low visibility situations (as shown in ).
100
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102
FIGS. 2-13
FIGS. 2-13
It is contemplated that the head-worn display may utilize a variety of techniques to correlate the graphical depiction with the real-world environment to increase the integrity of the augmented reality depiction. For instance, by determining the position/orientation of the aircraft (e.g., using various positioning systems available on the aircraft) and the position/orientation of the head-worn display (e.g., using one or more head trackers that can track the head position of the pilot) relative to the aircraft, the head-worn display may be able to generate a simulated view that precisely depicts the real-world environment from the perspective of the pilot. This simulated view may be further processed to provide a stereoscopic view (having slightly different renderings for the left and the right eyes), which may then be displayed using the head-worn display to augment the pilot's view of the real-world environment . It is noted that because stereoscopic views are not readily presentable in the accompanying figures, only two-dimensional representations of such stereoscopic views are provided in . It is contemplated that the two-dimensional representations provided in are merely exemplary and are not meant to be limiting.
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It is also contemplated that the head-worn display may provide other types of computer-generated graphical depictions in addition to the graphical depictions described above. For example, the head-worn display may be configured to provide a graphical depiction of a flight path and one or more virtual panels .
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It is noted that the virtual panel may be designed to simulate one or more conventional control/display panels (e.g., multi-function displays) that the pilot may be familiar with. It is also noted that the virtual panel may be designed to be customizable, providing the pilot abilities to modify the layout and/or functionalities provided by the virtual panel . It is further noted that the virtual panel may be configured to support one or more means of data input. For example, the virtual panel may be controlled using voice command or speech recognition. Alternatively and/or additionally, the virtual panel may behave as a virtual touch screen that can be controlled using hand tracking or gesture recognition. In another example, eye tracking techniques may be utilized to allow the pilot to control the position of a cursor using his/her eyes and then use a selector (e.g., a button, a voice command or the like) to execute an operation based on the position of the cursor. Eye tracking techniques may also be utilized to enable automatic calibration of the head-worn display and zooming operations, where the center point of the zooming operation may be determined based on the detected eye position. It is to be understood that the virtual panel may be configured to support other means of data input without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
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FIGS. 2 and 3
FIG. 4
FIG. 5
It is also to be understood that the virtual panel may be fixed to a particular location to simulate a behavior that is consistent with conventional fight deck multi-function displays. For instance, as shown in , the virtual panel may appear to be centrally located when the pilot is looking down at the flight deck in the direction of travel. However, as the pilot turns his/her head to the left () or to the right (), the virtual panel may stay at its original position instead of following the pilot's head movements. It is contemplated that an option may be provided to the pilot to either enable or disenable locking of the virtual panel .
FIGS. 2-5
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Also shown in is another optional feature that may enhance the viewing experience of the virtual panel when enabled. More specifically, it is noted that the virtual panel may be configured to always face the pilot at a predetermined viewing angle with respect to the pilot's line of sight. For instance, the virtual panel may always be rendered normal to the pilot's line of sight, which may be appreciated in various operating conditions.
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FIG. 6
FIG. 7
It is contemplated that certain head-worn displays configured in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be further configured to provide a primary flight display (PFD). As shown in , the PFD may start to appear as the pilot starts to lift his/her head up and look away from the virtual panel . It is noted that the PFD may include an attitude indicator, which may give the pilot information about the aircraft's pitch and roll characteristics as well as the orientation of the aircraft with respect to the horizon. In certain implementations, the horizon represented in the PFD may conform to the actual horizon (as it would be seen by the pilot). As the pilot continues to lift his/her head up (as shown in ), the position of the horizon represented in the PFD may be adjusted accordingly.
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It is to be understood that the PFD may be configured to display other types of indictors as well. For example, the PFD may include an airspeed indicator, an altitude indicator, a vertical speed indicator, and/or a heading indicator. It is to be understood that the list of indicators that may be provided by the PFD is merely exemplary and is not meant to be limiting. It is contemplated that the specific layout of the PFD may vary without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
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FIG. 8
It is contemplated that the PFD may be disengaged manually and/or automatically. For instance, the PFD may be manually disengaged in response to a user-initiated command. Alternatively and/or additionally, the PFD may be conditionally disengaged when it is determined that the PFD is interfering with what the pilot intends to see. For example, the PFD may be disengaged when the pilot starts to look down into the flight deck (as shown in ), which may indicate that the pilot intends to see the virtual panel (or other instruments provided within the cockpit) instead of the PFD . The PFD may also be disengaged when the pilot turns toward the direction of his/her co-pilot, or turns toward any direction that may be defined to conditionally disengage the PFD .
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It is contemplated that various other techniques may also be utilized to help determine whether to conditionally disengage the PFD . For instance, face recognition or other detection techniques may be utilized to recognize a situation where the pilot intends to see an object different from the PFD , which may prompt the head-worn display to temporarily disengage the PFD . It is to be understood that other detection techniques may also be utilized to help make the determination without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. For example, if the PFD appears to overlap with the virtual panel , and if the virtual panel is deemed more important than the PFD should they overlap, the PFD may be disengaged accordingly when an overlap occurs. It is to be understood that similar techniques may be utilized in reversed manners to help determine whether and when to conditionally engage the PFD without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
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It is contemplated that, in certain implementations, the head-worn display may be further configured to communicate with various types of sensors and/or detection devices (e.g., radars) onboard the aircraft, providing the head-worn display abilities to receive and display additional information regarding the real-world environment . For instance, the head-worn display may be configured to receive weather information in real-time, and if a particular weather pattern is of a concern, an alert (which may include data indicating its position, movement, intensity and the like) may be displayed at a location that correlates with that particular weather pattern in the real-world. Similarly, the head-worn display may receive information regarding an object (e.g., a landing destination, an obstacle, an oil platform, a search and rescue target or the like) from one or more radars (e.g., the weather radar or the like) onboard the aircraft, cross-reference the received information with information obtained from other sensors (e.g., location sensors or the like) if available, and display an indicator or symbology to help the pilot locate the object with improved data reliability. The head-worn display may also be configured to receive traffic information from one or more detection/communication devices in real-time and display an alert (which may also include data indicating its position, direction, speed and the like) that correlates with a traffic of concern.
FIG. 9
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is an illustration depicting an exemplary alert that may be provided by the head-worn display to identify an object of concern (e.g., a flying object, a weather pattern or the like). It is to be understood that the alert may be displayed in various different manners without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. For instance, the alert may be displayed in a particular color or at a particular brightness setting. Additionally and/or alternatively, the head-worn display may take advantages of the stereoscopic nature of the view and present the alert at a particular depth (e.g., rendering the alert as a three-dimensional element) to visually indicate the importance of the alert .
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FIGS. 9 and 10
It is contemplated that other techniques may also be utilized to visually indicate the importance of the alert . For example, the alert may be associated with a movement (e.g., in the x-, y-, and/or z-direction) to act as a rapid attention gathering mechanism. As shown in , the depth of the alert (as it appears in a three-dimensional space) may change, which in turn may draw the attention of the pilot. In another example, shadows may be added to the alert and/or the object of concern to provide additional cue of depth and/or altitude. It is contemplated that other two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional visual effects not explicitly mentioned above may also be utilized to visually indicate the importance of the alert without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
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It is also to be understood that similar visual effects may be applicable to other display elements provided by the head-worn display without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. For example, if it is determined that the aircraft is flying too close to the ground or too close to a restricted area, one or more relevant portions of the graphical depiction (e.g., the wireframe as depicted in the figures) may be associated with one or more visual effects to indicate the potentially dangerous situation. Similarly, if it is determined that the aircraft is flying too fast, for example, the airspeed indicator of the PFD may be associated with one or more visual effects to alert the pilot.
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FIGS. 6 and 7
It is further contemplated that the head-worn display may also take advantages of the stereoscopic nature of the view for de-cluttering purposes. For instance, referring back to the PFD shown in , while the horizon indicator represented in the PFD may conform to the actual horizon (such an indicator may be referred to as a conformal indicator), some other indicators represented in the PFD may be unconstrained by real-world elements, and they may be referred to as non-conformal indicators. In certain implementations, conformal and non-conformal indicators may be displayed at different stereoscopic depths to help reduce clutter.
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More specifically, conformal indicators (e.g., including the horizon indicator and the wireframe map) may have stereoscopic depth settings that match their real-world counterpart. For instance, the horizon indicator provided by the PFD may be presented at infinity and the wireframe representation of a mountain may be presented at a stereoscopic depth that appears to conform to the relative distance from the mountain to the aircraft. Non-conformal indicators, on the other hand, may be displayed at stereoscopic depth settings that are not necessarily tied to any real-world elements. For instance, one or more non-conformal indicators (e.g., the virtual panel ) may be presented at a stereoscopic depth that is much closer than infinity. It is contemplated that presenting conformal and non-conformal indicators in this manner may be appreciated because humans have a natural ability to filter items that are not presented in the depth (focal) plane of our eyes, yielding the feeling of a less cluttered display without actually removing any display elements.
100
It is also contemplated the stereoscopic depth of non-conformal indicators may be configured to be adjustable in certain implementations. For instance, suppose that an altitude indicator is typically presented at a stereoscopic depth that is much closer than infinity, meaning that the altitude indicator may not be clearly visible to the pilot if the pilot is searching for an airport at a distance (i.e., the focal plane of the eyes of the pilot is at a distance). Now suppose that the altitude of the aircraft has dropped below a certain level that requires immediate attention from the pilot, the stereoscopic depth of the altitude indicator may be adjusted to match the focal plane of the eyes of the pilot (which can be detected using one or more sensor(s) positioned with in the head-worn display ), providing an effective mechanism to bring the altitude indicator into focus and to quickly draw the attention from the pilot.
100
100
It is to be understood that the head-worn display may take advantages of the stereoscopic nature of the view to provide other display features as well. For example, in certain implementations, information regarding traffic, weather, terrain and the like may be presented in a stereoscopic (or layered) map to give an additional perspective to conventional two-dimensional maps. In another example, a stereoscopic (or three-dimensional) route map may be provided to show waypoints at their corresponding altitudes. It is contemplated that the stereoscopic nature of the head-worn display may be utilized to provide other display features not specifically described above without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
FIGS. 11-13
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Referring now to , a series of diagrams illustrating augmented reality depictions that may be presented to help the pilot complete a checklist is shown. The checklist may include, for example, a pre-flight checklist, an emergency (e.g., engine fire) checklist, as well as various other types of checklists. For illustrative purposes, suppose that the current action in the checklist requires the pilot to push a button that is located outside of the field of view of the pilot, the head-worn display may display an arrow that points toward the location where the button is located. The pilot may follow the arrow and turn toward the direction as indicated by the arrow , and once the button comes into the field of vision of the pilot, the head-worn display may stop displaying the arrow .
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FIG. 12
FIG. 13
The head-worn display may subsequently identify the correct button A (among one or more similar buttons on the flight deck) that needs to be pushed according to the action specified in the checklist . This may be accomplished using computer vision and/or other detection techniques. Alternatively and/or additionally, the location of the button A may be pre-recorded in a database, which may be utilized to help locate the button A when needed. Regardless of the specific implementation of the detection technique, however, once the head-worn display detects the location of the button A, the head-worn display may display a location indicator around the button A (as shown in ) to help the pilot correctly identify that button A. shows the pilot pushing and holding the identified button A for a period of time specified in the checklist .
FIGS. 11-13
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100
It is to be understood that the scenario depicted in are merely exemplary and the visual aids (the arrow and the location indicator ) depicted herein are not meant to be limiting. It is contemplated that the checklist , the arrow , and the location indicator may be displayed differently than the depictions presented in the figures without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. It is also contemplated that the head-worn display may present other types of augmented reality depictions without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
100
100
It is noted that head-worn displays configured in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be appreciated in various operating environments, including rotary wing applications. A rotary wing aircraft often cannot install a head up display, nor would it be feasible as the rotary wing aircraft may not always traverse in a forward direction, meaning that the symbology provided by the head up display may not be conformal. Head-worn displays configured in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein may provide a better alternative to head up displays, with lowered cost, improved field of view, and abilities to provide stereoscopic depictions.
FIG. 14
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Referring now to , a simplified block diagram depicting a head-worn display is shown. The head-worn display may include a data interface configured to facilitate data communications with electronic systems and/or devices onboard an aircraft via one or more wired or wireless communication interfaces. The head-worn display may also include one or more sensors and/or cameras configured to facilitate the various types of detection and tracking techniques previously mentioned. The head-worn display may further include one or more processors configured to process the data received from the data interface and the one or more sensors and/or cameras . The one or more processors may be further configured to generate graphics or data input that can be used to augment the real-world environment, which may then be provided to one or more display optics of the head-worn display as previously described. It is contemplated that the one or more processors may be implemented as dedicated processing devices, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or various other types of processors or processing devices. It is contemplated that the one or more display optics may be implemented utilizing various types of two-dimensional, three-dimensional, as well as stereoscopic display technologies.
It is to be understood that the augmented reality depictions described in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein are not limited to stereoscopic head-worn displays. A head-worn display that only has display optic(s) positioned in the field of view of one eye may also be configured to provide some of the augmented reality depictions described above. Furthermore, it is contemplated that the augmented reality depictions described above may be integrated into a synthetic vision system (SVS) without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
100
It is also to be understood that the specific references to aircraft and aircraft-specific functions in the examples above are merely exemplary and are not meant to be limiting. It is contemplated that head-worn displays configured in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be utilized stand-alone or onboard various types of vehicles, including airborne, land-based, and maritime vehicles, without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
It is to be understood that embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be conveniently implemented in forms of a software, hardware or firmware package. Such a package may be a computer program product which employs a computer-readable storage medium including stored computer code which is used to program a computer to perform the disclosed function and process of the present invention. The computer-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, any type of conventional floppy disk, optical disk, CD-ROM, magnetic disk, hard disk drive, magneto-optical disk, ROM, RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, magnetic or optical card, or any other suitable media for storing electronic instructions.
It is believed that the inventive concepts disclosed herein and many of their attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction, and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the broad scope of the inventive concepts or without sacrificing all of their material advantages. The form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof, it is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The numerous objects and advantages of the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be better understood by those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying figures in which:
FIG. 1
is an illustration depicting head-worn displays configured to be utilized inside an aircraft;
FIG. 2
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by a head-worn display according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concepts disclosed herein;
FIG. 3
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display during low visibility situations;
FIG. 4
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein a virtual panel is rendered to appear at a fixed location;
FIG. 5
is another illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein the virtual panel is rendered to appear at the fixed location;
FIG. 6
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein a primary flight display is conditionally engaged;
FIG. 7
is another illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein the primary flight display is conditionally engaged;
FIG. 8
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein the primary flight display is conditionally disengaged;
FIG. 9
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein an alert is displayed;
FIG. 10
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein the alert is displayed at varying stereoscopic depths;
FIG. 11
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein a checklist is displayed;
FIG. 12
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein a visual aid is displayed to help a user complete the checklist;
FIG. 13
is an illustration depicting an augmented reality depiction provided by the head-worn display, wherein the user uses the visual aid to complete an action specified in the checklist; and
FIG. 14
is a block diagram depicting a head-worn display according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. | |
“This reissue of Fusion and Thesis, the two albums the new Jimmy Giuffre 3 made in 1961, prior to their breakthrough and breakup in 1962, is nothing short of a revelation musically. Originally produced by Creed Taylor, who was still respectable back then, the two LPs have been complete remixed and remastered by ECM proprietor and chief producer Manfred Eicher and Jean Philippe Allard and contain complete material from both sessions resulting in one new track on Fusion and three more on Thesis. The music is Giuffre at his finest -- at that point, finding a language with his two collaborators, pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow (who hadn't made the permanent switch to electric then) -- that was outside even the avant-garde at the time, yet in the tradition enough for some listeners and critics to be able to hold onto as modern jazz.
Both recordings make use of a profound use of subtlety in gesture -- this is more true of Giuffre and Bley than Swallow, but without a drummer, the guy had a tough gig to hold down -- and a creative use of space, one that allowed for a free contrapuntal interplay between musicians while keeping their distance in order to keep the music in front of them. In other words, space was used as a way to communicate what not to do rather than what to play. While most improvisations did stick to ideas based on chord changes, there are moments, many of them on Thesis, where the formal structures slipped into the ether and gave way to an improvisation that used silence as a cue to innovate and improvise (check "Carla," "Sonic," and "Flight" on Thesis, and "Venture" and "Cry, Want," on Fusion).” – AllMusic
“A true arbiter the chamber jazz idiom before it even was one, clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre was brought back to vivid life in this much-needed ECM rescue. Engaging a then-acoustic Steve Swallow on bass and a gushing Paul Bley on piano in a twofold session of ruffled play for Verve (who showed no signs of reissuing these great works), Giuffre brought his signature silken tone to an ephemeral trio whose tuneful interactivity made for gobs of affirming music. In a wonderful encapsulating essay, Steve Lake tells us that the group had by this point reached a state of free jazz that dove past the blaring expectations of its current fashion and headed straight into the instincts beating quietly below.
We hear all of this and more from breath one in the album’s first half. While its title, Fusion, may sound tongue-in-cheek by today’s standards, Lake reminds us that the term had “nobler connotations” back then, bespeaking something tactile and ahead of its time. A couple of Carla Bley tunes stand out. Of the former, “Jesus Maria” would still the heart of a demon. With a clear and present lyricism, it traipses its way into the mind and redecorates our expectations of what a clarinet can sound like. The rest of Fusion comes from Giuffre, whose own compositions reveal a musician bent on practicing what he preaches. The lilting energy of “Cry, Want” fans its wonders like a deck in a magician’s hands, distracting us with its melody (the card we’ve been forced to pick) in lieu of a desired effect. Even more evocative is “Afternoon,” which imagines sunlit streets, walks hand in hand, and the carefree pleasures of a life given to the moment. “Brief Hesitation” is a slightly halting piece, with more enviable tone from Giuffre, who seems to grow with every breath. For all the reasons above, “Trudgin’” is, to borrow from an infamous Saturday Night Live sketch, positively scrumtrulescent and a personal favorite of the collection.
Honorable mention must also be given to Swallow, whose sheer percussiveness in tracks like “Scootin’ About” and “Venture” is so astute that, at times, one almost hears the cymbals of an absent drum kit.
The companion album, Thesis, again sports another pair of Carla Bley classics. The first, “Ictus,” sets a more freely flowing tone for this set’s second half. The fluid interplay between Bley and Giuffre is pure and subtle magic. From songs by Carla to one about, we arrive at “Carla,” penned by former husband Paul. From Giuffre’s delicate arpeggios to the confident bass support and attuned pianism, this one plunks us right into the spirit of things and is a perfect little thing. Other notables include “Whirrrr,” which puts one in mind the whirligigs of childhood, and the dynamic spread of “The Gamut.” Gordon Jenkins gets a treatment in “Goodbye,” which boasts some downright totemic interactions between Bley and Swallow and piercing overtones from Giuffre, while “That’s True, That’s True” brings dreamy groove back into style. “Me Too” feels like a lost cut from Fusion, and its sprightly energy contrasts whimsically with “Herb & Ictus,” a studio outtake that offers an endearing look at the camaraderie behind the scenes.
Giuffre’s vision spoke in shapes and colors. It was, in a word, painterly. This being my first Giuffre experience, it is one I will always treasure. Warmly recorded and remastered, it is a testament to the communicative skills and equity of the 1960s greats. The music on this essential set is sure to be forever relevant as long as there are those who listen to jazz.” – ECM Reviews
Musicians:
Tracklist:
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Fusion
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A1
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Jesus Maria
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6:13
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A2
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Emphasis
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4:12
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A3
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In The Mornings Out There
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6:50
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A4
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Scootin' About
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3:35
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B1
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Cry, Want
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5:08
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B2
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Brief Hesitation
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4:15
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B3
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Venture
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3:51
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B4
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Afternoon
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5:10
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B5
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Trudgin'
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4:33
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Thesis
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C1
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Ictus
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2:44
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C2
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Carla
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4:35
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C3
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Sonic
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4:44
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C4
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Whirrrr
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4:54
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C5
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That's True, That's True
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4:41
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D1
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Goodbye
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4:56
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D2
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Flight
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3:21
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D3
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The Gamut
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4:37
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D4
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Me Too
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5:03
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D5
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Temporarily
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6:09
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D6
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Herb & Ictus
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0:44
Item description:
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Artist:
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Title:
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1961
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Label:
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Format:
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2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered
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Pressing:
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Germany
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Release Date:
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1992
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Genre:
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Jazz
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Style:
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Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
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Catalog No:
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ECM 1438/39 / 849 644-1
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Condition: | https://theanalogvault.com/products/jimmy-giuffre-3-1961 |
We begin with the 120 volt 1.5kW circuit. Generally, there are 2 main controls (switches) in the loop that operate the heater. These include the thermostat (temperature knob) and high limit (also a temperature sensing switch, designed to trip at a certain high temperature is usually 120 degrees) In hot tubs built in the late 80's on a pressure switch or flow switch, may be present as well. 240 volt hot tubs require a heavy duty relay or contactor to handle the voltage required by the heater and maybe to activate the low speed pump.
The black wire indicates the path of the voltage. It is your hot wire in to the heater junction box. The voltage path is: 1. To the thermostat 2. Out of the thermostat and into the high limit 3. Out of the high limit and to the element. 4. The red wire exiting the box is used to activate the low speed pump in some systems. The neutral (white) goes directly to the element and ties with one of the indicator light wires. Obviously the green goes to ground. It's important to note that this path is the same no matter what color the wires are. For some reason some thermostats will have a factory red and a factory black. The electricity still follows the same path. This type of thermostat is just an open or closed switch (also known as a single pole switch).
Power passes through it if it's closed and doesn't if it's open. The wire going to the high limit is still following the same electrical path if it's black or red. Electricity doesn't care what color the wire is.
Note that the red wire to the low pump still resides on the downstream side of the high limit. This allows the pump to be activated first so that the pressure switch will close allowing the voltage to go through to the element.
The pressure switch is there as a safeguard to assure water flow before allowing the heater to fire. I call it a conditional switch. The condition of water flow must be present before the switch will close.
Many times just opening your heater junction box (with the power off of course) will be quite illuminating. If water comes pouring out you have a problem! Element replacement may be necessary! If your controls are corroded or wires are burnt or melted the fix could be as simple as replacing a burnt wire.
This can happen when there are low voltage situations (not a dedicated line) or loose screws, wire nuts not tight, or loose connectors. When replacing a wire be absolutely sure it is of the right size to carry the current you are sending through it.
120 volt heaters at 1.5 kW draw 12 amps and wires should be #12 minimum and copper! Lamp cord is not acceptable! 240 volt elements at 6 kW draws 24 amps and should have a minimum wire size of #10.
240 volt heaters utilize a contactor that may or may not be present in the heater junction box. It is often located in the controller box. Convertible 120/240 volt controls also use this method.
The contactor is there to send power to the heater element after power makes the loop through the controls.
This allows for the use of smaller wire sizes through the control loop since they will only be operating the coil of the contactor.
This is referred to as pilot duty as the smaller wires through the controls only activate the coil of the contactor. The heavy current will flow through the contactor points and utilize larger wires on the path to the element when the coil of the contactor is energized.
If upon opening your heater you find two small wires through the thermostat and two more small wires through the high limit, with two heavier wires to the element this will be a pilot duty situation and a contactor will be involved somewhere.
The control loop is the same: T-stat, high limit, pressure switch (or flow switch) and then to the contactor coil. When the T-stat is engaged, the low pump activated and all other switches are closed you will hear the heavy click of the contactor being pulled closed as the heater activates.
There are often extra wires present on both the coil and the high current sides of the contactor.
Neutrals are often bunched together on the coil connector.
Tracing the hots is the key to finding out what you want to know.
Follow that wire back to it's source. Find out what the source is.
It's called seat of the pants trouble shooting. In the process you'll find out how the pump comes into the heater equation.
It will be there I promise you! You may have another relay there for the sole purpose of turning on the low pump. | http://spas.forumotion.com/t50-spa-heater-circuits |
Gordon Louis Gehrt, Greenwood, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Gehrt, Neillsville, claimed as his bride, Miss Virginia Mae Wehrman, Greenwood, daughter of Otto Wehrman, Loyal, at a 2 o’clock nuptial service Saturday afternoon, May 15, at Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church, Greenwood.
Robert Unger sang “Oh Promise Me” and “The Lord’s Prayer” during the double-ring ceremony at which the Rev. Charles Koch was the officiant. The church was decorated with yellow and white spring flowers for the occasion.
A floor length frock, white net over satin, was selected by the bride. A sequin trimmed Peter Pan collar topped the lace bodice of the gown, which had lace sleeves. Lace inserts adorned the skirt in the front and at the sides. The sequin theme was repeated on the crown to which the fingertip veil was attached. White rosebuds were fastened in the streamers, falling from the bridal bouquet, yellow roses surrounding a white orchid.
Attending the newlyweds were Mr. and Mrs. Albert Wehrman, Loyal, brother and sister-in-law of the bride, as best man and matron of honor, respectively, and Mr. and Mrs. Evertt Gehrt, Loyal, cousin of the groom, the groomsman and bridesmaid, respectively.
Mrs. Wehrman and Mrs. Gehrt were attired identically, the former in orchid and the latter in pale green. The gowns were net over satin with lace boleros. Each had a floral headpiece, and their bouquets were red roses interspersed with mums.
About 35 guests, members of the immediate families and close friends, were served a 4 o’clock supper that afternoon at the Albert Wehrman home at Loyal. In the evening, a dance was held at the Silver Dome Ballroom.
The bride, a 1949 graduate of Greenwood High School, is employed at the Farmers Store in Greenwood, where she and her husband will make their home. He is employed by the Fred Post Company, Owen.
Out of town wedding guests included Mrs. Steve Checky, West Allis; Miss Ida Wehrman, Mr. and Mrs. Arno Wehrman, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Tatalovich and daughter, Susan, and Leo and Henry Wehrman, Milwaukee, and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Gehrt, Wisconsin Rapids.
The newlyweds have returned from a several days’ honeymoon spent in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
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The Mystery Behind Friday The 13th
Today is Friday the 13th!
A day that has been long associated with bad luck and superstition. For some people today is the creepiest day on the calendar.
Well, whether you believe in bad luck or not, there have been lots of superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th. Even the number 13 itself has always been associated with bad luck since the dawn of time. As irrational as it may appear, superstitions can sometimes add meaning to unexplainable mysterious happenings around us. Though this is not intended to encourage superstition, the point here is to draw attention to the beliefs around us, however, Friday the 13th has traditionally been regarded as an eventful or unlucky day in Western mythology.
The real Friday the 13th panic started in the 20th century. Many attribute the day to Thomas Lawson’s novel “Friday, the Thirteenth,” in which a stockbroker purposely crashes the stock market on this day. Even the New York Times was among the first media outlets to highlight the superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th a year later, in 1908.
Then came creepy horror films like the “Friday the 13th” franchise, however, the success of this later in the 1980s contributed to the cultural phenomenon behind this day.
Over the years, Friday the 13th, the unlucky day has always been cemented in pop culture and the hearts of horror fans. On the other hand, the connection between the 13th and Friday bringing misfortune still needs to be made more evident. Its popularity is often associated with its use in literary works.
While no historical evidence supports the superstition, folklore historian Donald Dossey believes it is rooted in Norse Mythology, while others associate it with Jesus Christ’s Last Supper. The number 13th person at the table was Judas, who betrayed Jesus.
Some unsettling events that occurred on Friday the 13th include March 13, 2020, which could be considered the first official day of the pandemic, various planes disappearing and crashing on this day, the bombing of Buckingham Palace during WWII, and the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. In addition, the largest passenger ship ever wrecked, the Costa Concordia, sank into the ocean. Kansas experienced record-breaking amounts of rain and flooding. The Bhola cyclone killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh, bushfires in Australia, and Buffalo, New York, was hit by a freak blizzard, to name a few.
This day is so popular that there’s a phobia associated with it, the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Those afraid of Friday the 13th will face it at least three times a year. | https://guardian.ng/life/whatsnew-entertainment-celebrity-gist-and-so-on/the-mystery-behind-friday-the-13th/ |
Previous: CNRS Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris.
Current professional interests
Most of my current work deals with Constraint Programming languages, from their fine relationship with mathematical logic (including linear logic), to new proof methods, type systems, new execution models (combining constraint propagation with state change) and new applications. Since 2002 I investigate formal tools for Systems Biology.
Former professional interests
Logic and Computation, automated deduction and design of high-level programming languages. | http://rewerse.net/members/fages_francois/index.html |
By Daniel Smith, Nurse Practitioner, St. Francis – Emory Healthcare, Columbus, Georgia First, I want to share a little personal background about myself. I am an openly gay man who fully came out at the age of 38. I am a nurse practitioner and have been practicing since 1997. Through the years I have witnessed...
Celebrating and reflecting on the Fourth of July
July 2, 2021
Independence Day, also known as the Fourth of July, marks the anniversary of the United States declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1776. The Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, was signed by representatives of the 13 original colonies. Historians have disputed whether Congress actually signed the Declaration...
What Juneteenth Means to Me
June 19, 2021
By Rex Everett, Vice President, TeamHealth Business Development My introduction to Juneteenth happened during my first year in healthcare management in 1980. I was transferred from Atlanta to Houston as a housekeeping supervisor in one of Houston’s largest hospitals. My director informed me that we usually have a lot of staff “call-in” to celebrate Juneteenth...
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Celebrating Juneteenth
June 18, 2021
By Michael Wiechart, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Juneteenth is widely recognized as a celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States, but there is more to the story. It actually recognizes the day, June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger and the Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas, with...
Recognizing LGBTQ+ Pride Month
June 1, 2021
By Paula Dearolf, TeamHealth Executive Vice President of Revenue Cycle Operations Every year, Pride Month occurs in June to recognize the influence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people around the world. It is an opportunity to educate people about issues facing this community. The month of June is significant to commemorate the...
Honoring those who have given their life this Memorial Day
May 28, 2021
By Jason Powell, Manager, Recruitment Operations/Residency Relations, and Co-Chair, TeamHealth Veterans Affinity Group As we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend, the members of the TeamHealth Veterans Affinity Group would like to take a moment to remember those who have given their life in military service. We also thank the veterans who served alongside them...
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Recognizing Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
April 30, 2021
By Joe Chow, MD, MBA, President, TeamHealth Ambulatory Care, and Medical Director, AccessNurse May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which celebrates the contributions and achievements of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. This includes people from Asia, Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the...
Celebrating Diversity in Healthcare
April 16, 2021
Diversity and inclusion are essential aspects of any industry. However, the significance of diversity in healthcare is paramount. As defined, diversity goes beyond race and ethnicity. Instead, it extends to all
Celebrating Diversity at TeamHealth
March 31, 2021
By Eric Norman, TeamHealth Chief Human Resources Officer Celebrate Diversity Month Started in 2004 to recognize and honor the diversity surrounding us all, Celebrate Diversity Month is celebrated in April. By recognizing differences and similarities during this month, we can gain a better understanding of each other and develop a deeper appreciation for the... | https://www.teamhealth.com/blog/tag/diversity-and-inclusion/ |
Imagine a virtual library, with no long rows of books, no comfy chairs, no friendly staff to help you check out and no children’s play area.
Instead the “library” would consist of a tax-funded Internet portal providing access to thousands of the latest ebooks and online magazines. Programming staff could continue to offer programs wherever people gather — at parks, family centres and so on — while library-owned internet kiosks might be placed at various locations around the community.
Not your cup of tea? Try these ones:
Imagine a library that doesn’t just provide access to books and online information, but that facilitates collaboration among community members and creation of new knowledge sources in an infinite variety of formats.
Imagine a library that is a leader in environmental sustainability, advocates for socially excluded communities, supports community economic development and is a partner is broader community development initiatives.
Sound better?
The current model of library service is threatened on numerous fronts.
Fraser Valley Regional Library’s Scott Hargrove eloquently articulates this, “For the first time, libraries face strong competition in traditional core service areas — including lifelong learning, community programming and access to both content and information, to name a few. … It could be argued that the competition is doing a better job, at a lower cost. Given the environment of fiscal restraint in which we currently live, is it any wonder that our funders, communities and our profession itself are looking at the relevance of library services with a sharply critical eye?”
The Royal Society of Canada has also weighed in: “[We are] concerned that many of Canada’s rural public library boards may lose their ability to provide even minimal services. The reason is simple; books and other library material are migrating to the digital world and small, poorly funded rural libraries cannot, on their own, support either the technology or the cost of digital collections.”
It is time that we rethink our role, to evaluate what is really important to us, to reflect critically on our ability to meet changing needs, to be visionary and to be unafraid to change.
As a passionate advocate of libraries and lifelong lover of books and learning, I am excited by the challenges ahead. It is important to me that my children and grandchildren have the same free and universal access to information and knowledge that I and generations before me had. To ensure this, we need to embrace the future and the changing needs of our community.
The transformation process must be guided by the people who live in the community, both those who use the library and, critically, those who do not. We need to hear from all of you.
Over the next few months, I and members of the staff and library board will be out in the community asking you these difficult questions. We’ll be on the street, at the community complex, at the farmer’s market and fall fair, and more.
You can take an online survey and learn more about the challenges facing libraries and the ways that some libraries are rising to these challenges by visiting www.libraryrethink.ca. Survey forms are also available at the library as well as at the area reading centres in Crawford Bay, Riondel and Yahk.
Aaron Francis is the chief librarian at Creston Valley Public Library. He is currently reading The Quiet Girl by Peter Høeg. | https://www.todayinbc.com/opinion/the-book-drop-creston-valley-public-library-surveying-community-to-understand-needs/ |
Support to accelerate the pace of research and discovery
London, U.K. March, 28, 2022. Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today launched a package of valuable Clarivate resources of software tools, information and insights to support displaced researchers from Ukraine. The resource center also contains news and content to help raise the profile, knowledge and understanding of Ukraine across the world. The launch of these resources follows the statement made by Clarivate, that it will cease all commercial activities in Russia, issued March 11.
A dedicated online resource center will provide immediate access to the following solutions and content, as Ukraine seeks to accelerate the pace of their research and discovery.
- ProQuest Books curated 200+ titles focused on Ukraine, available now with unlimited access via the latest Open Access Complete collection on Ebook Central. This growing list of interdisciplinary titles covers subjects such as humanities, social science, business and STEM from a wide and growing number of supportive publishers including Taylor and Francis, McGill Queens, Greenhaven, Rosen, Springer Nature, Wolters Kluwer Law International, CEU Press, Cavendish Square, ABDO, Peter Lang, University of Nebraska Press, Harvard University Press, Jagiellonian University Press, L’Harmattan, and more.
- A new displaced researcher program to ensure continued access to the Web of Science™ for researchers and students affiliated to Ukrainian institutions, who do not have their usual IP range access to the citation index. As the world’s most trusted publisher-independent global citation database, it is home to an unrivalled breadth of world-class research literature linked to a rigorously selected core of journals. Continued access will enable Ukrainian researchers to track ideas across disciplines and time from almost 1.9 billion cited references from over 171 million records. Clarivate is providing extended roaming access and offering accounts for researchers to ensure continued access to provide immediate assistance to the Ukrainian research community.
- All higher education institutions in Ukraine will be able to freely access the RapidILL interlibrary loan system created by Ex Libris. It will enable all researchers to have the ability to access the collections of a global community of knowledge from more than 500 libraries. With many researchers, librarians and students unable to reach their university buildings; RapidILL will enable them to access materials quickly and easily from their new remote locations.
- Clarivate is making its authoritative, editorially-independent news, analysis and commentary on the Ukraine crisis available to the global academic research community. Articles from journalists at Research Professional News will be free to read globally, to help the academic community understand the impact of Russia’s invasion on international research partnerships and funding. It also includes guidance on how they can support researchers affected by the conflict, by Oksana Seumenicht, a co-founder of the Ukrainian Academic International Network.
Jerre Stead, Executive Chair and CEO at Clarivate said, “I am extremely proud that Clarivate responded rapidly and decisively to join the wide international response to show support for Ukraine. We share the world-wide concerns for Ukraine, now and in the future, and recognize the role we can play in supporting them to accelerate the pace at which they can research and develop, in order to innovate.”
Clarivate continues to support calls for a cease-fire, the end to hostilities, the protection of civilians, and a negotiated settlement to peacefully resolve any differences and to avoid further needless devastation and loss of life for the Ukrainian people.
About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a global leader in providing solutions to accelerate the lifecycle of innovation. Our bold mission is to help customers solve some of the world’s most complex problems by providing actionable information and insights that reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing inventions in the areas of Academia & Government, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Professional Services and Consumer Goods, Manufacturing & technology. We help customers discover, protect and commercialize their inventions using our trusted subscription and technology-based solutions coupled with deep domain expertise. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.
Media Contact:
Lisa Hulme, Head of Global External Communications, | https://clarivate.com/news/clarivate-commits-to-standwithukraine-with-launch-of-resource-center-for-displaced-researchers/ |
Using Ozone Therapy to Reduce Oxidative Stress Associated with Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy
Significant advances in the treatment of cancer have increased the number of cancer survivors while also allowing survivors to live longer and with overall improved quality of life. However, these treatments have also resulted in an increase in the number of survivors now living with their debilitating side effects, the most prominent being chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).
According to the American Cancer Society, CIPN often occurs when nerves located outside the brain and spinal cord are damaged as a result of chemotherapy treatments. One of the many symptoms associated with CIPN is chronic oxidative stress, which results in a significant increase in free radicals and proinflammatory cytokines throughout the body. Common side effects of CIPN include dysesthesias, pain, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and fatigue.
It’s estimated that up to 85% of cancer patients are treated with neurotoxic chemotherapy, and up to 100% of those treated with platinum-based drugs (such as cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin), develop CIPN. Not only does CIPN significantly affect a patient’s quality of life, should it develop during cancer treatment, the condition often interrupts and/or delays scheduled chemotherapy sessions.
This review, authored by Clavo et al., examines current cancer treatments potential mechanisms that could result in CIPN, summarizes current CIPN prophylactic and treatment approaches introduce and describes the role of ozone therapy in modifying oxidative stress and inflammation (with a specific focus on how it relates to CIPN), and summarizes experimental and clinical trials using ozone therapy to address the symptoms of CIPN.
Through the course of their review, the authors conclude that while there are several medications and therapies designed to address the inflammation and oxidative stress associated with CIPN, the results of their effectiveness in achieving the desired and/or intended effect(s) have been inconclusive. As a result, the authors conclude that prophylactic and therapeutic approaches to CIPN continue to be limited in both numbers and efficacy.
Ozone therapy is the process of introducing ozone gas into the body to treat an existing disease or medical condition. According to a study published in Medical Gas Research, ozone, when introduced into the body, creates higher concentrations of red blood cells, increases oxygen levels in the body, and produces an anti-inflammatory response. This process, when used to treat CIPN, is thought to be potentially effective in addressing the symptoms of the condition by inducing adaptive responses of tissues within the body.
The authors conclude their review by describing their current research examining the effect of ozone therapy on the analytical and symptomatic evolution of patients with CIPN. Specifically, this research will explore whether or not a relationship exists between the basal levels in oxidative stress parameters, including hyperspectral imagines (HSI), and the quality of life and symptoms self-reported by patients. The authors also call for further research to better understand the role of oxidative stress in CIPN as well as the clinical role of its modulation. | https://stemedix.com/tag/chemotherapy/ |
Here begins the online component of our European History Class!
What is the purpose of the site?
The purpose of the site is to provide a low-stakes environment to practice analyzing sources, critiquing arguments, and deepening research, or in other words to practice making history.
Why do I need to use the site?
Our class is not just limited to the classroom space but is a part of a wider, global context. As such, we need to practice writing and developing history. Hence, you will need to use the site in order to find links and work on some assignments.
What can I find here?
First, you will be able to discover more content and supplements to our class. You will see practical examples how to implement and practice history in the real world. Second, you will have a single place to find class resources and websites. Periodically, I will review websites that are designed to practice writing history. I will also dedicate a section to links, a central location to find other helpful and important links.
How do I make this site useful?
To make the most of this resource, use the links and supplemental information to help learn more about the background and content of our course. The blog entries will provide additional information and resources to learn more about topics that we touch on in the class. Use the links to help discover more resources and materials for projects and additional research. Make comments and engage with the material by providing your own insights and research. Use class prompts and interesting readings, images, or other media to write your own posts and articles.
For the class, use the website in order to learn more and deepen your knowledge on topics from the class, use the site to find links and resources for the course, practice using resources by writing your own guest posts. | http://practicinghistory.com/hello-world/ |
Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre in the Wirral has become a Centre of Excellence.
Background
Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre is an extended school providing fully inclusive and integrated services for children from birth to 4 years and their families, with 195 children on roll at the time of the assessment. The Centre is open from 8 am to 6 pm on week days, 50 weeks of the year. The Centre developed from a maintained nursery school, Early Excellence Centre and Phase 1 Children’s Centre. In 2015, Leasowe was de-designated as a children’s centre and now provides family services through an SLA with Wirral Council. The Governing Body oversees all the services delivered through an integrated approach. The good progress children make and strong partnerships with families is underpinned by a close working relationship with a range of teams within the Centre and partner agencies, as observed during the assessment.
Context
The Leasowe estate that surrounds LNSFC is a strong and supportive community in an isolated position, bounded by the Wirral coast, motorway and light industrial development and benefits from a good range of community facilities. The cohort of children has significantly changed over the last 6 years, with a significant increase in numbers of children with complex needs due to earlier intervention through extending the provision for 2 years old funded children and higher numbers of children with SEND referred to LNSFC from other agencies such as health, local authority and partner settings where they feel they lack the expertise to meet the needs of children.
Inclusion is at the Heart
Inclusion is a natural part of what happens on a daily basis at LNSFC. Everyone I spoke to during the assessment from staff, volunteers, governors and parents were happy to share their extremely positive feelings about LNSFC and celebrate its vision as a superbly inclusive and successful setting and referencing frequently that they feel part of ‘The Leasowe Family’.
Unique Culture and Ethos
During the assessment I was able to experience the unique culture and ethos of this as a truly outstanding setting. This is clearly encapsulated in everything that happens here, as a school, as a family Centre and as a vibrant part of the local community.
Vision Statement
Their vision statement: Every Child, ready for school, Every Family, welcomed and valued, One Community, one voice, strong and united, clearly demonstrates everything the setting, its staff and governors believe in and strive to achieve on a daily basis. This was clearly seen on numerous occasions during the assessment in interactions between staff and children and between staff and staff and between staff and parents. It was clear to see in classrooms and outside in their superb and extensive outdoor learning environments which includes a great Forest School staffed by two well qualified practitioners that the children regularly use, as evidenced from the group of children using it during the assessment. They were fully kitted out in waterproofs provided by the school, actively engaged and thoroughly enjoying their outdoor learning; with interactions amongst children and between children and staff. This inclusion pervades every part of the school and is truly ingrained in every fibre of its being. I was impressed by the enthusiastic and happy children and by the shared inspirational and aspirational vision not only of the Headteacher and the Senior Leadership Team but by all of the staff employed or volunteering in the setting, who are committed to inclusion in its broadest and best sense at all times in their hectic and often long day.
Adult Volunteering Programme
LNSFC has a well-established adult volunteering programme that supports adults working in the school and can then lead to qualifications through the onsite adult learning hub and employment in the school as practitioners. The school should be congratulated on this supportive and inclusive programme that not only helps children within the setting but supports adults into employment. This inclusive approach is also encapsulated by the SENCO who recently was put up for an award by CAMHs – The Child and Young Persons Mental Health Award as recognition for her work in this arena and was ‘Highly Commended’. She also recognised that the setting was receiving a higher number of children with additional needs and that they needed to alter their provision to ensure that they were included and made appropriate progress. Therefore, through research, she identified the needs and set up a new provision this year that caters for the needs of this group – The Octopus Room. She has also worked on a new assessment tool as the current tool used was not subtle enough to measure the complex needs of the children. It will be interesting to see how both the Octopus room and the assessment tool develop. It is a great credit to the SENCO and the inclusiveness of the setting that such innovative practice is encouraged and developed to meet need. This sits alongside the use of Narrative immersion in LNSFC that, through dramatic play, children are given the chance to imagine and recreate experience. Stories that teach children about themselves and their families, human relationships and the world around them a key attribute at this age.
Happy Children
It is clear to see that the children really enjoy coming to Leasowe Nursery School. There is a superb sense of care and nurture within the LNSFC and the community surrounding the school, where every member is valued for who they are and what they might become. From when they enter children make good progress and even excellent progress at times. Teachers plan very carefully to identify and meet the needs of all children utilising the skills of the support staff that are highly skilled and work as key professionals alongside teachers and Family centre staff. There are superb relationships between children and the staff and every member of staff is a positive role model for children. There is very much a family feel to the school and its community, with superb systems in place to support the children and their families. LNSFC ‘knows itself’ really well and has the highest expectations of all its members.
Adults Feel Valued
Adults employed at LNSFC feel valued not only by the Senior Leaders in the school but by the children and their parents. Again, I saw evidence of this on numerous occasions in classrooms and in outdoor learning areas. Everyone works closely together as a team, support for children in the classroom and the outside learning environments is exceptional. Physical access in and around the school is excellent. The building is clean and well decorated, the outside area is free of litter and is very well resourced with good quality teaching and learning materials and children were seen to be able to access all of the resources they needed for their learning, socialising and play.
Exceedingly Positive Parents
Parents spoken to during the assessment were exceedingly positive about the setting and felt LNSFC was excellent at identifying need and intervening at an early stage to ensure issues are resolved, a fantastic accolade for the setting. Parents felt that it is an open and honest place, where they feel comfortable, listened to and valued and where not only will children be supported but they know they will be supported as a family. It was very clear that they felt the LNSFC is an exceptionally inclusive environment for their children and that they would not consider any other setting. They said that they always receive a very warm welcome and that staff are willing to discuss any issues and support their children. School communication with them is very good and the school is proactive in letting them know how well their child is doing without them having to ask for the information all the time. In fact, there are multiple opportunities for families to visit the school and see their children’s work. The school places the highest value on the relationship it forms with the families it serves, as it realises the benefits of engagement for their children and their families. An example of this is the Craft and Chat group, a group of parents who meet regularly once a week at the school. They are involved in crafting and chat about issues in their lives or about what is happening locally and through this supportive process are able to move forward with community issues. They also support the school with fundraising and are a catalyst for consultation and feedback on issues that the school need parental feedback on. I had an informative and interesting discussion with the group during the assessment and it is clear to see that they are highly supportive of the school and all agreed that it is a superbly inclusive place that supports their children and the community as a matter of course and often go beyond what is expected to support them. As a Nursery School and Family Centre they should be justifiably proud of their work in this respect. However, they also share this expertise via Early Year Quality (EYQ) training that was established in 2013, by both Leasowe and Ganneys Meadow Nursery Schools and Family Centres. Both settings understand the complexities of developing Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision for children from birth to five years and are therefore well placed to offer a wide range of training to those schools and EYFS setting providing care and learning opportunities. Their trainers and advisors are knowledgeable and skilled in all aspects of early years child development. They bring a wealth of experience as practitioners and are up to date with current research and practice in their field of expertise. EYQ have a training suite at both centres to facilitate training opportunities. This is a great example of an outstanding setting using its expertise to provide training for other settings.
Highly Effective Governors
School governors are highly effective and a stable group with a wide-ranging skill set that effectively supports the Headteacher and Senior Leaders in providing a superbly inclusive provision for the children and families. They visit the setting as often as possible and are well informed about the work of LNSFC and the progress that the children are making. Governors support the school effectively and are knowledgeable about the strategic plans for the school. They understand their role and use this to drive and hold staff accountable for the progression of the children. They are well trained and knowledgeable about the school and provide both support and challenge to the school. They know that their contributions are valued by the school.
Ofsted
LNSFC was deemed as ‘Good’ during their most recent Ofsted inspection in November 2014 with leadership and management graded as ‘Outstanding’, where Ofsted stated, ‘An inspirational headteacher, very effectively supported by a talented staff team and a knowledgeable and dedicated governing body, is driving the school forward. Outstanding leadership of the provision for disabled children and those who have special educational needs, and excellent leadership of teaching by the recently appointed senior teacher combine to give enormous momentum to the school’s rate of development. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement from the evidence seen during learning walks and discussions with all stakeholders during the assessment. In fact, I would say that since this inspection LNSFC has continued to progress and is now outstanding across the board. Leadership here is inspirational and aspirational, that sits alongside professional, highly motivated and enthusiastic staff with a great passion for teaching, for supporting and developing their children and their families and the community that they serve.
The Heart of the Community
LNSFC is at the very heart of its community as evidenced throughout the assessment from multiple discussions and conversations with staff, parents, governors and volunteers who spoke about the superb inclusive ethos of the school. Inclusion is not an additional part of the setting, seen as an add on but is ingrained in the very ethos and culture at the heart of the setting and part of everything that happens, where staff, governors, children, external agencies and parents work in partnership to ensure the best for all. As you walk into LNSFC you are enveloped by their extremely welcoming, friendly atmosphere, where they make the most of their building and their extensive and well maintained outdoor learning areas. LNSFC is a place where everyone involved is listened to and valued. It was clear to see that all children, staff members, parents and visitors feel that they belong to The LNSFC community. This was reinforced time and time again during the assessment in all areas of the setting and in discussions with all stakeholders. A particular aspect of this is the fact that Wirral Lifelong and Family Learning Services also has a base within the LNSFC building that offers free or affordable qualification-based courses and workshops to local people aged 19+. Thus, it is accessible to parents and families within the local community and has allowed adults volunteering in the setting to gain qualifications and then employment within the school and locally. This is a great advantage for the community and demonstrates the unique but superbly inclusive nature of LNSFC.
Bespoke Package of Care and Support
Set alongside the Commissioned Services Team (CST) that was part of the Phase 1 Children’s Centre on site and for the last three years the 4 Early Childhood Family Workers have been part of the Family Centre and provide a suite of bespoke packages of care and support for families in the locality and are often the lead professionals on TAFs etc. With their vast knowledge and understanding of local services they can also signpost parents and families to other professionals not directly linked to their expertise but speeding up the process for the parents/families in need. A great example of a superb inclusive provision with a local community catering for the needs of the community.
There is a calm but vibrant feel to the setting within an enjoyable, happy, nurturing and purposeful learning environment that sets the tone for teaching, learning and play. In my opinion, from the evidence of the assessment, the emotional and educational support for all children and the staff is an outstanding feature of LNSFC and is a key element in its success and why it is valued not only by the local community, but by the staff and the children. The staff regularly go beyond what is expected to ensure successful outcomes for the children and families. Staff morale is exceptionally high and excellent relationships were evident throughout the visit between staff, children, parents and governors. There is very much a family feel to the setting where everyone works to support each other to achieve the best for themselves and the children and families in their care.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
Want more information on the IQM Award? Click here to request your free IQM information pack. | https://iqmaward.com/news/leasowe-nursery-becomes-a-centre-of-excellence/ |
Our Reasons Why, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and we could have written a blog on some of the great work and successes that Akari and our Partners are having, but instead we wanted to make it personal and tell you our reasons why. As inclusion and diversity are at the core of our values and vision at Akari, we asked some of the team why accessibility is important to them:
Exec Team
“My brother was in his late teens before he was officially diagnosed with dyslexia, before then, there was no additional support available to him, no extra time for exams, he had a constant fear that he wasn’t good enough and was told he wasn’t trying hard enough. He spent most of his years going through school believing he wasn’t as smart as his peers, wasn’t as capable or able to achieve his goals.
But we knew differently. Kieran is a bright, ambitious, caring and brave young guy with a wicked sense of humour. He is fully capable of achieving what he sets his mind to. He wants to join Police Scotland and work towards creating a safer environment for the community we live in, he’s tenacious and I know they will be lucky to have him onboard, because he will get there.
We will never know everyone’s reasons why accessibility is important to them. All our lives are diverse and by creating a culture and community of inclusion we enable equal access and equal opportunities. We have a responsibility in this innovative industry to level the playing field for everyone, to raise awareness of accessibility and create solutions that allow us all to achieve what we set our minds to, regardless of your background, where you come from, or your circumstances.
I’m incredibly proud working with a team that believe in accessibility being at the forefront of what we do, creating a digitally inclusive environment where we can all thrive.”
~ Kim
“Accessibility and inclusion by definition are about things being easy to use, reaching everyone and including all and that seems like an easy thing to achieve.
As a mother to an amazing thirteen year old boy who is bright, games mad, book mad, loving, clever, a bit of a smart ass and yes also on the autistic spectrum, accessibility matters to me because it works to make the world the way it should be. It levels the playing field and stops us defining people by their perceived disabilities and allows everyone to access what they need, on their terms and in their own way.
I fully believe everyone and every organisation wants to be inclusive but many don’t know where to start. That’s where days like Global Accessibility Awareness Day change the game. They start the conversation and help us understand and recognise the importance of inclusivity by design.
One of the quotes of the day so far for me has been by Adi Latif from Ability Net. ‘You’re not born disabled, you’re made disabled.’ With the technology we now have, we are now in the unique position to ensure that inclusivity and accessibility become part of everyone’s way of working.”
~ Mags
Sales & Marketing Team
“With a background in inclusion and community development I have witnessed first hand the impact of poverty, inequality, discrimination and exclusion in some of the most deprived areas of Scotland. However, I have also been privileged enough to witness the opportunities created when these barriers are removed, and the accomplishments achieved when individuals are given the choice to participate.
Experts in the field of technology have the creative solutions to give people this choice; ensuring that accessibility is access for everybody.”
~ Natalie
“Accessibility might feel like the latest in a long line or buzzwords, though seeing how small steps that make the world more accessible, makes me believe that we’re past buzzword territory. From Microsoft devoting their Super Bowl advertising to the subject to a string of new and promising books, I’m excited to see how the tech world embraces accessibility, hopefully, helping to create a more equal world for us all in the process.
Accessibility is important to me because I believe in equality, I believe we all do better and we achieve more when we all have the ability to succeed. I’m glad to see that we’re moving towards a world where accessibility and diversity are important and not just tokenistic phrases thrown around by businesses.”
~ Alice
Technical Team
“Accessibility is personally important to me because it gives anybody the opportunity to use modern technology no matter the circumstances. This means everyone has equal opportunities to use today’s technology and with the breadth of products Microsoft have for all, there are no boundaries for people anymore.”
~ Jack
“Living with dyslexia it can be increasingly difficult to keep up with simple reading and writing tasks. It is comforting to know there are people working hard across the world innovating, building and developing applications and software to help with the struggles we face on a day to day basis. Having not discovered I had dyslexia until in secondary school it would have done me the world of good to have accessibility features and tools when I was much younger and could have prevented the feeling of exclusion when I came to reading and writing tasks. Accessibility Becomes a big help and can take much of the strain off with simple features such as a coloured background having a massive impact.”
~ Richard
“Having a son who is on the Autism spectrum, accessibility is really close to my heart. Feeling that every change we make in our personal and working lives to make the world a more accessible place brings me closer to being confident about him having all the tools at his fingertips to succeed and make his own mark.
Accessibility, being In the IT and technology field, is super important to how I approach and design our products and solutions. Within todays modern world everyone should have the right to partake in technology. Every new products or services should be built to ensure that it is accessible to everyone who wants to use it or needs it to make their life’s inheritantly better.
Even the small changes make a powerful difference. For me, learning a new technology shouldnt require years of training, you should be able to pick it up and get to grips with it within a few hours and with technology leaders driving the accessibility message from the front this has become a reality in the way technology is evolving.
It’s a great time for everyone and it’s a great time to be in the IT business.”
~ David
“Accessibility is extremely important in today’s modern workplaces down to the fact that everyone should feel included, valued and sought after both in and out of work – regardless of any disability. Access in the workplace for those with disabilities means that those who it affects feel included and not as if they cannot do their job to a sufficient degree down to something “holding them back.” Its about a relaxed, inclusive and supportive approach to make sure everyone in the workplace feels valued and appreciated; as well as helping everyone do their job to the best of their ability.”
~ Euan
Get in touch to discuss what accessibility means to you and your team, and what organisations can do to create a more connected and inclusive society. | https://akari.io/2019/05/16/reasons-why/ |
Protection of consumer data in the cloud features highly in the Australian Computer Society’s (ACS’s) call for submissions on the federal government-backed Consumer Cloud Protocol (CCP).
That protocol grew out of the government’s May 29 launch of its National Cloud Computing strategy, and has been tasked to the ACS for management. The key goal of the CCP, according to the ACS, is “to encourage greater take-up of cloud services…by ensuring potential users of cloud services are well informed on issues such as privacy, data security, data ownership and other matters that need to be considered when choosing a cloud provider.”
Once complete, the ACS-backed protocol will be promoted to cloud providers, who will be encouraged to sign up to show their support for and adherence to its principles. The protocol is expected to be complete by year’s end.
The release of an ACS discussion paper will prompt discussions around the proposed protocol.
That paper focuses on potential reasons why cloud computing takeup is lagging, noting that a lack of cloud uptake so far suggests ongoing “concerns around issues such as privacy and security” amongst consumers and small businesses. These are best addressed through education and a self-regulatory industry regime that provides consumers “with clear and straightforward guidance on what to expect” from cloud providers.
“The ACS view is that any cloud protocol for Australia must avoid further regulatory complexity, jurisdictional variation, anti-competitive outcomes and overly prescriptive disclosure requirements,” the paper’s authors write, adding that a range of existing protections already provide adequate security controls and guidelines.
“Domestic protections for consumers are readily available and explicable,” the paper says, while noting the grey areas when these protections are applied to overseas-hosted cloud services. “Consumers need to understand that redress is still available under Australian legislation against cloud providers operating in Australia even if those providers do not have data centres on Australian soil.”
Amongst the recommended code provisions are guidelines requiring cloud providers to publish details of their corporate identity; explicitly spell out the ownership of uploaded data; indicate which security protocols they follow or are accredited to; tell customers in which country their data is being hosted; clarify methods for accessing stored data during and after the delivery of a service; explain the backup procedures in place to protect customer data; and spell out options for service level agreements and support.
Other provisions address areas such as vendor lock-in and exit strategies; provisions for data portability and understanding of data formats in use; clarification of data-breach and business continuity procedures; and explanation of the circumstances under which the cloud provider will make customer data available to law enforcement agencies.
Submissions on the discussion paper will be accepted until close of business on Monday, August 5.
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Have an opinion on security? Want to have your articles published on CSO? Please contact CSO Content Manager for our guidelines. | https://www.cso.com.au/article/520935/_data_security_features_heavily_acs_call_consumer_cloud-protection_feedback/ |
Malignant pleural mesothelioma, the most common type of mesothelioma, can spread to the brain, albeit rarely. This aggressive cancer generally spreads across the lungs and to other areas in and around the chest cavity instead of metastasizing to distant regions of the body. It is rare for mesothelioma to spread to the brain, but there have been some cases in medical literature, including studies in the Sept. 2013 issue of the Journal of Surgical Case Reports and Sept. 2014 issue of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Doctors so often diagnose mesothelioma only after it has advanced, and the disease spreads quickly. As a result, mesothelioma or a related complication often takes the life of the patient before their cancer can spread to the brain or other organs or body parts. When the cancer does spread to the brain, this often represents the very latest stages of the disease when the patient is already considering or receiving palliative care.
Mesothelioma Spreads to the Brain in About 3% of Cases
In the vast majority of cases, pleural mesothelioma progresses by spreading across the pleura and then to other local organs and structures. Because it spreads quickly and widely throughout the chest cavity before symptoms appear, mesothelioma diagnoses commonly occur at stage 4 of the cancer. At this point, doctors cannot treat the disease with surgery.
Two types of cells can form tumors in metastatic mesothelioma: epithelial cells or sarcomatoid cells. The cell type does not play a major role in how doctors treat the cancer, but it can play a role in how the disease progresses. Doctors can generally treat epithelial tumors with greater success. At the same time, sarcomatoid cell tumors stand a greater chance of spreading to the brain.
Still, according to the 2017 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, mesothelioma spreads to the brain much less commonly than many other types of cancer. In general, between 9% and 17% of all cancers that spread metastasize to the brain. In malignant pleural mesothelioma, brain metastasis occurs in about 3% of cases.
Mesothelioma: a Deadly Cancer Even Without Spreading to the Brain
A metastasis to the brain indicates the progression of a disease and a very poor prognosis in malignant mesothelioma. Regardless of whether mesothelioma spreads to the brain, patients with a malignant pleural mesothelioma diagnosis endure a five-year survival rate of just 10%, according to the American Cancer Society. However, patients with distant metastases, including the brain, suffer a survival rate of only 7% five years after diagnosis.
Unfortunately, even when doctors use surgery and chemotherapy, the mean survival time for patients with mesothelioma falls short. This includes:
- Mean survival for those with only local spread of mesothelioma: between a year and three years.
- Mean survival for those with more advanced disease and distant spread: eight to 14 months.
Despite this poor prognosis for patients with the condition, many people opt for treatment. Some fight the disease through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. In many cases, though, supportive or palliative care may represent a better option. With this type of treatment, the doctors aim to relieve symptoms, extend your life, and maintain a high quality of life. Palliative and supportive treatments include:
- Pain management
- Supplemental oxygen therapy
- Pulmonary therapies
These treatments do not offer a cure, nor do they attempt to beat the disease. Instead, they help to prevent complications, reduce suffering, and stop side effects.
For a free legal consultation, call (800) 217-6099
Filing a Claim for Compensation If You Have a Pleural Mesothelioma Diagnosis
Many mesothelioma patients file a lawsuit or take other steps to recover a payout from the asbestos company that profited by exposing them to their deadly fibers. This may include receiving a settlement from an asbestos trust fund or taking their case to court and fighting for an award.
Depending on the facts of your case, the evidence available to document your condition, and the health of the applicable asbestos trust fund, you may recover compensation for the additional pain and suffering you experienced when your cancer spread to your brain.
Working with an attorney may make it easier to build a stronger case for compensation.
Talk to a Mesothelioma Attorney About Your Case
If you or a loved one has a mesothelioma diagnosis and a history of asbestos exposure, from the team at Pintas & Mullins Law Firm wants to talk to you about your case today. Perhaps you can pursue a settlement or award to cover some of the costs of your treatment and case, as well as related expenses.
We do not shy away from tough cases, and we will file a claim with an asbestos trust fund or file a lawsuit, if necessary, to pursue the compensation you need. At the same time, we believe you should not have to pay anything out of pocket or upfront. We do not charge our clients anything until after we settle your case, then we take our fee from the settlement before we disburse your funds.
We will review your case and explain your options. Call Pintas & Mullins Law Firm today at (800) 307-3113. | https://www.pintas.com/lung-cancer/does-mesothelioma-spread-to-the-brain/ |
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-11390
For citation please use:
For citation please use:
|Main Title:||Improving Trace Link Recovery using Semantic Relation Graphs and Spreading Activation|
|Author(s):||Schlutter, Aaron|
Vogelsang, Andreas
|Type:||Conference Object|
|References:||10.14279/depositonce-7776|
10.14279/depositonce-9772.2
10.14279/depositonce-10207.2
|Language Code:||en|
|Abstract:||[Context & Motivation] Trace Link Recovery tries to identify and link related existing requirements with each other to support further engineering tasks. Existing approaches are mainly based on algebraic Information Retrieval or machine-learning. [Question/Problem] Machine-learning approaches usually demand reasonably large and labeled datasets to train. Algebraic Information Retrieval approaches like distance between tf - idf scores also work on smaller datasets without training but are limited in considering the context of semantic statements. [Principal Ideas/Results] In this work, we revise our existing Trace Link Recovery approach that is based on an explicit representation of the content of requirements as a semantic relation graph and uses Spreading Activation to answer trace queries over this graph. The approach generates sorted candidate lists and is fully automated including an NLP pipeline to transform unrestricted natural language requirements into a graph and does not require any external knowledge bases or other resources. [Contribution] To improve the performance, we take a detailed look at five common datasets and adapt the graph structure and semantic search algorithm. Depending on the selected configuration, the predictive power strongly varies. With the best tested configuration, the approach achieves a mean average precision of 50%, a Lag of 30%, and a recall of 90%.|
|URI:||https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/handle/11303/12581|
http://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-11390
|Issue Date:||16-Feb-2021|
|Date Available:||12-Feb-2021|
|DDC Class:||006 Spezielle Computerverfahren|
|Subject(s):||traceability|
trace link recovery
natural language processing
spreading activation
semantic relation graph
information retrieval
NLP
|License:||http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/|
|Proceedings Title:||27th International Working Conference on Requirement Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ 2021)|
|Appears in Collections:||FG IT-basierte Fahrzeuginnovationen » Publications|
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Items in DepositOnce are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. | https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/handle/11303/12581 |
These awards recognize a planner member and a supplier member who has made significant contributions to the meetings industry and is an outstanding representative of this profession. Nominees will be considered for professional experience, involvement in MPI (either locally or on a regional / national level), industry engagement, community involvement and by recognition of their peers.
This award recognizes new members to our chapter (within the last two years) who have stepped up in chapter involvement, grown their professional experience, are involved in their local community, and through recognition of their peers.
This award, given by the President at his/her choice, recognizes an engaged member who has contributed significantly to the chapter in the current fiscal year. Their contribution.may include inspiring other members, creating new initiatives or acting as a catalyst to bring positive results.
We are extremely proud to announce that MPI Heartland Chapter has been awarded the 2019 Chapter Merit Award for Education Satisfaction and 2019 Top Performing Chapter from MPI Global. These awards celebrate the value and quality of the educational environment brought to life by our board and our amazing volunteers as well as achieving high performance on key metrics, showing a positive impact on membership, and meeting global compliance requirements.
To be recognized with these awards is an honor that we would not be able to do without all of our members, thanks you! | https://www.mpi.org/chapters/heartland/get-involved/heartland-awards-program |
1.1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a chimeric protein containing an intramolecular chaperone (IMC) like sequence linked to a target protein. In particular, the invention relates to a chimeric protein containing an IMC like sequence linked to an insulin precursor. The present invention also relates to a process for obtaining a correctly folded insulin-precursor-containing chimeric protein, comprising, inter alia, contacting an incorrectly folded chimeric protein containing an IMC like sequence linked to an insulin precursor with at least one chaotropic auxiliary agent. The present invention further relates to an assay for screening an amino acid sequence for the ability to improve folding of an insulin precursor using a chimeric protein containing an IMC like sequence linked to an insulin precursor.
1.2. Background Art
1.2.1. Intramolecular Chaperones and Protein Folding
Molecular chaperones are defined as a class of proteins that assist correct folding of other polypeptides but are not components of the functional assembled structure (Shinde and Inouye, TIBS, 1993, 18:442-446). Intramolecular chaperones (IMCs) are part of the precursors of the target proteins to be folded and in their absence the target protein molecules do not have enough information for proper self-folding (Inouye, Enzyme, 1991 45:314-321). Unique features of IMCs include: a) the IMC and the target protein are linked by a peptidyl bond forming a single polypeptide; b) the IMC is absolutely required for the formation of active conformation of the target protein, but not required for the function of the target protein; c) upon completion of the protein folding, the IMC is removed either by autoprocessing or by another endopeptidase; d) the IMC does not function as a catalyst, i.e., one IMC molecule is able to refold only one molecule of the target protein; and e) the IMC is a highly specific “tailor-made” polypeptide which works only for the target proteins (Inouye, Enzyme, 1991, 45:314-321).
Recently, it has been shown that an IMC or propeptide can help the target protein fold intermolecularly, i.e., the IMC or propeptide is not linked to the target protein via a peptidyl bond, but rather is added to the folding reaction as a separate peptide (U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,021). However, it is noteworthy that the propeptide used in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,021 is the natural propeptide of the target protein or a propeptide of a polypeptide that has the same function of the target protein and the polypeptide also has an amino acid sequence that is similar to the target protein. In addition, the intermolecular reaction described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,021 must be carried out in a buffered ionic aqueous medium favoring hydrophobic interaction.
Examples of IMCs include the propeptides of subtilisin, α-lytic protease, carboxypeptidase Y and ubiquitin (Shinde and Inouye, TIBS, 1993, 18:442446). Certain characteristics of an IMC sequence of subtilisin include: a) the IMC contains a higher percentage of charged amino acid residues than the target protein; b) the distribution of these charged residues within the IMC is extremely uneven, i.e., the N-terminal half contains more positively charged residues than negatively charged residues and the C-terminal half contains more negatively charged residues than positively charged residues; c) Ser and Thr residues within the IMC are also unevenly distributed; d) the IMC contains a reactively high content of aromatic residues, and e) the IMC contains a hydrophobic sequence of 9 residues (Inouye, Enzyme, 1991, 45:314-321). A similar bias towards charged residues is also observed in α-lytic protease and carboxypeptidase Y (Inouye, Enzyme, 1991, 45:314-321).
1.2.2. Amino Acid Sequence of Mature Human Growth Hormone
The amino acid sequence of mature human growth hormone (hGH) is disclosed in Ikehara et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1984, 81:5956-5960. There is no suggestion in the art that mature hGH or any portion thereof can function as an IMC or propeptide. Actually, mature hGH or any portion thereof can not be considered a propeptide at all because by definition, any pre, pro, or prepro sequence is removed from a mature sequence.
1.2.3. Human Insulin Structure
Insulin is a well-defined peptide with known amino acid sequence and structural characteristics (Watson et al., Recombinant DNA—A Short Course; Scientific American Books, W. H. Freeman Co., New York, 1983, pp. 231-235; Norman and Litwack, In Hormones, Academic Press, New York, 1987, pp. 264-317). This hormone consists of two separate peptide chains which are the A chain (21 amino acids) and the B chain (30 amino acids) joined by disulfide bridges as indicated in FIG. 1B. Proinsulin is the biological precursor of insulin and is a single peptide chain formed when the A and B chains are connected by the C peptide (FIG. 1A).
1.2.4. Human Insulin Produced by Recombinant Methods
Human insulin was the first animal protein made in bacteria in a sequence identical to that of the human pancreatic peptide (Watson et al., Recombinant DNA—A Short Course: Scientific American Books, W. H. Freeman Co., New York, 1983, pp. 231-235). The first successful expression of human insulin in laboratory was announced in 1978 and human insulin was approved as a therapeutic drug in 1982 (Johnson, Science, 1983, 219:632-637).
1.2.4.1. Two-Chain Method
According to this method, each insulin chain is produced as a β-galactosidase (β-gal) fusion protein in separate fermentations using E. Coli transformed with plasmids containing a DNA sequence encoding the A or B chain of human insulin, respectively. The products are intracellular and appeared in prominent cytoplasmic inclusion bodies (Williams et al., Science, 1982, 215(5):687-689). Recombinant proteins produced in E. Coli usually represent 10-40% of the total protein (Burgess, Protein Engineering; Oxender, D. L., Fox, C. F., Eds.; Alan R. Liss, Inc.; New York, 1987; pp. 71-82.).
Once removed from the inclusion bodies, chemical cleavage by CNBr at the Met residue between the β-galactosidase and the A or B chain, followed by purification, gave separate A and B peptides. The peptides are then combined and induced to fold at a ratio of 2:1 of A-B chain (S-sulfonated forms) in the presence of limited amounts of mercaptan in order to obtain an active hormone (Chance et al., In Peptides: Synthesis-Structure-Function, Rich D. M. Gross, E., Eds., Pierce Chemical Co., Rockford, Ill. 1981, pp.721-728, Frank and Chance, In Quo Vadis? Therapeutic Agents Produced by Genetic Engineering, Joyesuk et al., Eds., Sanoff Group, Toulouse-Labege, France, 1985, pp. 137-148). After 24 h, the yield is approximately 60% based on the amount of B chain used (Chance et al. In Insulins, Growth Hormone and Recombinant DNA Technology, Raven Press, New York. 1981, pp. 71-85; Johnson, Fluid Phase Equilib., 1986, 29: 109-123). Goeddel et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 1979, 76(1):106-110, obtained similar results with 20% of the total cellular protein expressed as either the A or B chain fusion protein. Subsequent folding of S-sulfonated chains give 50-80% correct folding.
The large size of the β-gal fusion protein limits yields since the fusion protein of β-gal (−1000 amino acids) and insulin A or B chain (21 or 30 amino acids, respectively) became detached from the cell's ribosome (premature chain termination during translation and therefore yields incomplete insulin peptides (Burnett, Experimental Manipulation of Gene Expression, Inouye, Ed., Academic Press, New York, 1983, pp. 259-277; Hall. Invisible Frontiers—The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1987). A key improvement to this approach is the use of the tryptophan (Trp) operon in place of the lac operon (β-gal system) to obtain a smaller fusion protein. The Trp operon consists of a series of five bacterial genes which sequentially synthesize the enzymes responsible for the anabolism of tryptophan. One of these enzymes, Trp E, has only 190 amino acids compared to β-gal's 1000 amino acids. The Trp E gene followed by genes for the A or B chains of insulin has the added advantage of enhancing fusion protein production from 5-10% to 20-30% of the total protein (Hall, Invisible Frontiers—The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1987) since the Trp promoter is a strong promoter in E. Coli. This leads to at last 10-fold greater expression of polypeptide when compared to the lac (i.e., β-gal) system (Burnett, Experimental Manipulation of Gene Expression, Inouye, Ed., Academic Press, New York, 1983, pp. 259-277). The Trp operon is turned on when the E. Coli fermentation runs out of tryptophan (Hall, Invisible Frontiers—The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. 1987; Etienne-Decent, In Genetic Biochemistry: From Gene to Protein, Ellis Horwood Limited, Chichester, U.K., 1988, pp. 125-127). This characteristic is beneficial during fermentation since cell mass can first be maximized. Then, when appropriate, the cell's insulin production system can be turned on by allowing the fermentation media to become depleted in Trp.
After fermentation is completed, the cells are recovered and disrupted. The cell debris is than separated from the inclusion bodies, and the inclusion bodies are dissolved in a solvent, although specifics are not known (Wheelwright, Protein Purification, Oxford University Press; New York, 1991, p. 217). Inclusion bodies are sometimes dissolved in 6 M guanidine HCl and 0.1 mM dithiothreitol (Burgess, Protein Engineering, Oxender and Fox, Eds., Alan R. Liss, Inc., New York, 1987, pp. 71-82). Next, the Trp-LE-Met-A chain and the Trp-LE-Met-B chain undergo a CNBr cleavage to release the A and B insulin chains. Further modifications of the A and B chains include oxidative sulfitolysis, purification and combination to produce crude insulin. This crude insulin is subjected to ion exchange, size exclusion, and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP HPLC) to produce the purified recombinant human insulin (Frank and Chance, Munch Med. Wschr. 1983, 125(Suppl. 1):514-520).
1.2.4.2. Proinsulin Method (Intracellular)
Human insulin can also be made with recombinant microorganisms that produce intact proinsulin instead of the A or B chains separately (Kroeff et al., J. Chromatogr, 1989, 481:45-61). Initially, mRNA is copied into cDNA, and a methionine codon is chemically synthesized and attached to the 5′ end of the proinsulin cDNA. The cDNA is inserted into a bacterial gene in a plasmid vector that is introduced and then grown in E. Coli. Proinsulin can be released from the bacterial enzyme (β-gal) fragment (or alternatively from the Trp-LE/Met Proinsulin (Trp proinsulin) by destroying the methionine linker. The proinsulin chain is subjected to a folding process to form the correct intramolecular disulfide bridges, and the C peptide can then be cleaved with enzymes to yield human insulin (Frank and Chance, Munch Med. Wschr., 1983, 125(Suppl. 1):514-520). In comparison, the two-chain method previously described is more complex.
Dorschug et al. constructed recombinant plasmid encoding fusion proteins containing a mini-proinsulin (B-Arg-A), expressed the fusion proteins in E.coli (inclusion body) and yeast (secreted), prepared correctly folded mini-proinsulin via BrCN cleavage and oxidative sulfitolysis, and converted the correctly folded mini-proinsulin into human insulin by treatment with trypsin and carboxypeptidase B (EP 0,347,781 B1; IL 9,562,511 B and AU 611,303 B2).
Tottrup and Carlsen, Biotechnol. Bioeng, 1990, 35:339-348 used the yeast system in an optimized batch-fed fermentation, yields of the fusion protein of superoxide dismutase-human proinsulin (SOD-PI) were reported to be 1500 mg/L. SOD-PI would be the starting material for the production of recombinant human insulin; yields of the final product have not been reported.
Recently, Castellanos-Serra et al., FEBS Letters, 1996, 378:171-176 expressed in E. Coli a proinsulin fusion protein carrying a modified interleukin-2 N-terminal peptide (1-22 amino acid residues) linked to the N-terminus of proinsulin by a lysine residue. The chimeric proinsulin was isolated from inclusion bodies, refolded via oxidative sulfitolysis, and then converted into the correctly fusion proteins insulin by prolonged reaction with trypsin and carboxypeptidase B. The IL2-proinsulin fusion can be folded correctly without first removing the IL2 fragment, thus eliminating the cyanogen bromide and the associated purification steps. However, the step of oxidative sulfitolysis and the associated purification steps cannot be avoided by the use of IL2-proinsulin fusion protein.
1.2.4.3. Proinsulin Method (Secreted)
Villa-Komaroff et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S., 1978, 75(8):3727-3731 were first to describe a secretion system for human proinsulin in E. Coli. Thim et al. constructed recombinant plasmids encoding fusion proteins containing a modified yeast mating factor α I leader sequence and an insulin precursor (Thim et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1986, 83:6766-6770). The leader sequence serves to direct the fusion protein into the secretory pathway of the yeast cell and to expose the fusion protein to the Lys-Arg processing enzyme system. Partial processing also occurred at one or both dibasic sequences between B and A chains within proinsulin and other insulin precursors containing a short spacer peptide (containing 6 or more amino acid residues) in place of the C peptide. In contrast, no processing was observed in the absence of a spacer peptide in the insulin precursor molecule, e.g. B-Arg-Arg-A (where A and B are the A and B chain of human proinsulin, respectively). This type of single-chain insulin precursors could enzymatically be converted into insulin by treatment with trypsin and carboxypeptidase B Diers et al., Drug Biotechnology Regulations (Scientific Basis and Practices), Chiu and Gueriguian, Eds., Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1991, pp. 167-177, describe the unfolded peptide as a leader or prosegment, next a Lys-Arg sequence, the B chain (amino acids 1-29), a short peptide bridge, followed by the A chain (amino acids 1-21). In this precursor, amino acid 29 of the B chain of insulin is connected to amino acid 1 of the A chain by a short connecting peptide containing one basic amino acid adjacent to the A chain. Human insulin is produced through transpeptidation followed by hydrolysis of the ester bond formed. Several chromatography steps follow for further purification.
1.2.5. Folding of Insulin Precursors
Human insulin is a protein possessing two amino acid chains of 51 amino acid residues in all. Six cysteine residues are present in the two amino acid chains, which in each case two cysteine residues being linked to each via a disulfide bond. Statistically, there are 15 possibilities of forming disulfide bridges within one human insulin molecule. However, only one of the 15 possibilities exists in biologically active human insulin with the following disulfide bridges: 1) A6-A11; 2) A7-B7; and 3) A20-B19.
The formation of the disulfide bridges which are present in human insulin is effected by way of an intermediate, with the cysteine residues of the human insulin being provided with a sulfur protective group, e.g., with a S-sulfonate (—S—SO3−) group (EP 0,037,255). In addition, pig proinsulin in which the cysteine residues are present as thio residues (—SH) has been used to obtain proinsulin possessing correctly linked cysteine bridges (Biochemistry, 1968, 60:622-629). Obermeier et al. described a process for obtaining proinsulin possessing correctly linked cysteine bridges from a corresponding proinsulin amino acid chain at a concentration of 0.05 to 0.3 g per liter in the presence of mercaptan, chaotropic auxiliary agents and hydrophobic absorber resins (U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,049). The step of oxidative sulfitolysis is eliminated in the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,049. However, the insulin protein can only be folded at a low concentration, which greatly diminishes the commercial value of this process. In addition, the use of large amount of mercaptan and hydrophobic absorber resins increase process complexity and down-stream purification costs. From the disclosure of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,049, it is unclear whether the benefit of eliminating the step of oxidative sulfitolysis step will outweigh the increased down-stream purification costs.
Citation of references hereinabove shall not be construed as an admission that such references are prior art to the present invention.
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What’s a Battle of the Books?
Boulder Valley School District presents “Battle of the Books”, a Quiz Bowl Style Competition for students in grades 3-12. When students enroll in the battle, they commit to working with a school team to read books from the 2016-2017 Battle of the Books list , or click on Battle of the Books at the top of the catalog to reserve your copy! You can find out more by emailing BVSD. Get a copy of the reading list and get started!The goal of Battle of the Books is to teach students how to work together in a group for a common goal, expose them to award-winning pieces of literature, and encourage a high volume of reading inside and outside of the classroom. Yes, it is a competition, but the purpose is to foster a love of reading!
The list includes ten books of various levels of difficulty for each grade level. Students can read the books independently, as part of a school group, or with an adult. Some titles are also available as audio books.
Students can then compete in teams at the school to answer questions about the books. In April, each school sends one team per participating grade level to compete in the district Battle of the Books in the spring.
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Using stem cells in medicine can feel like miracle work since the process by which the cells travel, settle down, take their final form, and begin participating as a part of a larger system is still very much a mystery. Scientists working at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Stem Cell Research Program wanted to see what stem cells actually do during their lifetime so they developed a technique to actually see the cells working inside the body.
The body in question is that of a zebrafish, a transparent animal that’s popular in laboratory studies. The stem cells were genetically altered to produce green fluorescent protein (GFP) that can be seen under a microscope. By following the green dots the researchers were able to track the steps stem cells take and how they interact with and adapt to the tissue already living at their destination point.
Here’s an animation the group created that pulls together the various new pieces of knowledge the new imaging technique has revealed: | https://www.medgadget.com/2015/01/imaging-of-transparent-live-fish-reveals-secrets-of-stem-cells.html |
Amber Kay Hardy, 30, of Northfield has been charged with two felony counts of robbery after a woman was robbed and dragged through the parking lot of the Pine City Walmart.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Pine County Court, on Jan. 1 at 11:19 p.m. Pine County 911 dispatchers received a call of a possible robbery at the Walmart in Pine City.
A deputy spoke to the victim, a woman in her 70s. The victim said that she had been walking out to her car with a bag containing her groceries and saw someone standing near her car as she got close to it. There was another car stopped nearby so she didn’t think much of it. She said when she put her groceries down to unlock her car, the person came around the front of her car, grabbed her purse and tried to run off with it.
The victim still had a hand on her purse and tried to hold onto it, but the person was pulling so hard that she was being dragged behind and she fell to the ground. The person continued to drag her and the purse after she fell.
A car pulled up and the person started getting in the car, so the victim let go of her purse so she would not be further injured.
The victim had a bloody nose and soreness in her arms, neck, back, knees, and hands as a result of the incident.
Witness descriptions
The deputy spoke to two witnesses who had come to the aid of the victim. They both stated that they didn’t see the beginning of the incident, but saw the victim being dragged across the parking lot, and then saw someone wearing a light-colored cap get into a vehicle that took off. They both went to help the victim.
The vehicle was described as a maroon sedan, possibly a Buick, with a license plate containing the numbers 517.
An alert was put out to neighboring agencies to be on the lookout for the vehicle. An officer with the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office located a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle shortly thereafter southbound on Forest Boulevard in Harris.
Vehicle searched
In the car were a driver and three passengers. The front passenger met the physical description of the suspect and was identified as Hardy. During a search of the vehicle, a light-colored stocking cap was found underneath the front passenger seat where Hardy had been sitting. Inside the stocking cap were items that belonged to the victim, including a credit card in her name. An almost empty wallet was found in the driver’s door panel. The victim’s distinctive Winnie the Pooh purse was located inside the vehicle.
One of the passengers told officers that Hardy was supposed to be picking up a moneygram at Walmart but she never went inside. He said she told them to park in a handicapped spot and she got out and was walking between the cars. He said he saw Hardy struggling with a woman and saw the woman fall down. Hardy got back into the car with a purse and she did not have a purse before that. He said they started driving south and Hardy and the driver were arguing.
The driver admitted that she had been in Pine City at the Walmart. She said she told Hardy to give the purse back but Hardy told her to drive so she did. She said she was scared of Hardy.
Video footage
Video footage of the incident shows the victim exiting the Walmart and walking to her car with her purse and a bag of Walmart merchandise.
As she nears her vehicle, footage shows the Buick driving slowly forward in the parking spot and the front passenger exiting the vehicle. The passenger approaches the victim and they are visibly struggling. The passenger starts pulling the victim toward the Buick. The victim falls to the ground near the Buick and the passenger quickly opens the door to the Buick and gets inside with the purse. The Buick immediately leaves the parking lot.
Hardy charged
Hardy has been charged in Pine County Court with one felony count of aggravated robbery and one felony count of simple robbery. The maximum sentence for aggravated robbery is 25 years in prison or $35,000 fine or both. The maximum sentence for simple robbery is 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both. | http://www.pinecitymn.com/crime/suspect-charged-after-walmart-parking-lot-robbery/article_f4db6aa8-33bb-11ea-abc2-670a13a2283b.html |
Welcome to Special Areas!
Erik Siuta- PE
I am very excited to be joining the Brandywine family for the 2020-2021 school. This will be my 16th year as an educator and first year teaching PE. I have been a 4th grade teacher at Daves Creek Elementary for the previous six years and am looking forward to this new journey as a Physical Education Teacher. Outside of teaching I enjoy spending time with my wife and two dogs, working out, coaching boys basketball at South Forsyth High School, and helping coach my nieces travel basketball teams. Health and fitness have always been a passion of mine and I can't wait to share that passion with the students at Brandywine
480242 [email protected] Libby Romig- Science
I am so happy to be starting my 31st year of teaching and I am thrilled to be the Science Lab teacher at Brandywine Elementary. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Georgia and I am certified to teach Pre-K through 5th Grade. I have taught every grade level and have taught STEM/Science Lab for the last 8 years. My husband, Herb, and I have been married for 38 years and we live across from Lake Lanier in Cumming. We have 2 daughters that were UGA graduates and are married and have one son each! I have the cutest 2 grandsons- Asher and Smith- that are the loves of my life. I will be sharing my love of Science and Math with your students this year and we will have fun discovering new things by staying curious and trying new things!
Brandywine ES’s Science Lab provides all students with inquiry-based enrichment, the opportunity to engage in globally relevant activities, and the development of literacy skills (gathering information, making inferences, organizing and explaining information) found in every other content area. Depending upon grade level, student investigations incorporate a hands-on weather station, a cooperative garden (seasonal herbs, vegetables, shiitake mushroom inoculation), animal life cycles (chicks, butterflies, other insects), and additional STEM investigations into physical and earth science.
480454 [email protected] Katie Smith- Music
I am so excited to be starting my fifth year as Brandywine’s music teacher and my 13th year as a music educator! I grew up playing organ, clarinet, piano, and saxophone. I went to The Ohio State University on a clarinet scholarship, where I received my Music Education degree. I have a Masters of Educational Leadership and an Educational Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I love being able to share my love and knowledge of music with others! If you were to walk into a music classroom at Brandywine, you could expect to see anything from singing, playing a variety of instruments, learning about beat and rhythm, to learning about the history of music. What is so cool about teaching a performing arts class is that all other subjects are naturally incorporated into music. Music is essentially learning another language! I want all of my students to be challenged, but to also find a love for music.
480115 [email protected] Bobbi Rice- Advanced Strategies Lab
The Advanced Strategies Lab offers our students a hands on educational approach to explore, discover, invent and create using every day materials (recyclables), Legos, and strategic games. Students learn the fundamentals of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math by engaging in experiments and engineering challenges while developing their ability to problem solve and work collaboratively with each other!
When introduced into the learning environment, Lego bricks naturally engage elementary students and boost their motivation. It’s through these active, engaging encounters that the foundation for lifelong learning takes shape. The hands-on solutions ignite children’s natural desire to explore and discover. Students are more effectively engaged in the language of thinking while developing and improving their problem solving, communication and collaboration skills in all areas of STEM.
Critical thinking and strategic games created by Thinkfun and Mindware (Q-bitz, Scramblitz, Flip 4, and Qwirkle) provide a fun and exciting way to engage in friendly competition while developing visual dexterity and basic math concepts.
The Advanced Strategies Lab is also a tool that provides ample opportunities for collaboration with classroom teachers in order extend, enhance and enrich learning experiences in regular classrooms. The children will also have access to technology and be able to continually develop their keyboarding skills and develop coding and basic programming skills through sites such as Code.org.
480450 [email protected] Elaine Heath- Health and PE
My name is Elaine Heath and I am very excited to be joining the Brandywine Family in Health/PE. I have taught for 21 years and am very passionate about health and physical education. I received my Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Specialist Degree all from the University of Georgia and love cheering on the Dawgs! My husband Robert and I have lived in Forsyth County for the past 13 years and absolutely love it! We have 2 sons, Wyatt and Ford, along with our 2 cats, Rocket and Cupid. Wyatt will be joining Brandywine as a 4th grader and Ford as a 2nd grader this fall. I am so excited to be having my boys and me all at the same school! In my spare time, I love hiking, going to the lake, and spending time with my family. I am looking forward to being a Badger and can’t wait to meet everyone! | https://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/domain/4603 |
Statistics on the long-term outcomes for former foster children are, unfortunately, bleak. While some youth “beat the odds”, far more struggle compared to their peers on measures related to educational attainment, employment, poverty, homelessness, health care, early pregnancy, and involvement in the criminal justice system.
However, recently enacted federal legislation, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, provides an opportunity to help these youth better bridge the transition to adulthood. The new law also provides an opportunity for states to make certain improvements in the foster care system, including better services for older children that can begin to turn around these statistics
For instance, research from the Chapin Hall Center at the University of Chicago indicates that:
- Only one to 10 percent of former foster children graduate from college compared with about 30 percent in the general population of young people;
- Only about two-fifths of Midwestern youth who “aged out” of foster care were employed by age 19 compared with nearly three-fifths of the general population, and over three-quarters of those who had worked in the past year earned less than $5,000;
- Approximately one in seven youth experienced homelessness after aging out of foster care;
- About one-third of former foster youth studied suffered from mental health problems such as PTSD, substance abuse, and depression; and
- Almost half of the young women in a Midwestern study had been pregnant by age 19, which was twice that of their peers.
Click here for related child welfare research from Chapin Hall.
Furthermore, a recent article in the New York Times highlighted the fact that, not surprisingly, former foster youth struggling to make it on their own are yet another group hit particularly hard by the current recession.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act provides, among other things, federal matching funds for states that choose to offer foster care services up to the age of 21 and additional supports for children who age out of the foster care system. Research suggests that youth who continue to receive services during this period tend to fare better than those who do not, and that providing these services also saves money in the long run, yielding an approximately two to one return on the investment.
Click here for an FAQ on the young adult provisions of the Fostering Connections law.
We hope Nebraska chooses to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by this new law. This spring, Appleseed worked with Senator Campbell to introduce an interim study to examine the implementation of the law in Nebraska and we hope this study will present a forum for the state to examine the full range of its mandatory and optional provisions.
The transition to adulthood can be a precarious period for many young people, even in a good economy. But for former foster children who may not have other resources to fall back on, it can be even harder. We have an opportunity now to help ease this transition and create a more positive future for our youth and for our state. | https://neappleseed.org/477 |
In Genesis (9:20-28) , an incident is related concerning Noah, whereby Noah plants a vineyard after descending from the ark, and becomes drunk and uncovered. However, in verse (9:23) Shem and Yaphat (Noahs sons) cover their father, and are thus blessed.....Rashi comments (9:23) that Shems descendents (the Jewish people) merited the Mitzvah of Tzizit.(Refer to Medrash Tanchuma siman 15,Parshat Noah and Medrash Rabbah , Bereshis 31:6)......A question can be asked, how is the Mitzvah of Tzizit an appropriate reward for Shem? What is it about Tzizit that make it worthy, in our eyes atleast, as something worthwhile or special?
Perhapes this question can be answered as follows: The reward given to Shem for his rightousness is that through the wearing of the Tzizit, Shems descendents (the Jewish People) will never be found in such a state Noah was in after being intoxicated with wine.Noah had debased himself by allowing himself to be unconciously uncovered, thus making himself open to violation.A human being should never be so intoxicated to the extent that total unconciousness prevailes. This is surely an invitation to sin.......Tzizit has the ability to rescue the wearer from such a unworthy predicament. This is indeed a very gracious reward given to Shem.....The Tzizit remind the Jew of his commitment towards holiness ,as exhibited by the 613 commandments. By looking at the Tzizit, it jolts the Jew into realizing his status as a member of a "holy nation". | http://www.shemayisrael.com/parsha/katz/archives/shelach60.htm |
Relief Spending, Personality, and PlanningBy Sarah Fallaw on May 27th, 2020 in Current Events, Studying the Wealthy
The long-term consequences of the global economic shut-down are, at least for now, unknown. But we can see some short-term implications that should cause us to pause, reflect, and plan when it comes to our future financial state, even if we outsource the financial planning task to others. For example, unemployment levels in the United States have spiked in a manner that many would have previously declared nearly impossible. Businesses of all sizes and shapes are starting to declare for bankruptcy protection, and some will be closing their doors for good. Educational systems are struggling with the uncertainty of how to continue instruction in a lingering pandemic situation. All of this has the potential to lead to a fairly dire economic situation.
How do successful household CFOs respond to this economic chaos in the short-term and the inescapable reality of lingering uncertainty for the long-term? One competency of wealth building comes to mind in particular. Planning and monitoring personal finances are critical competencies of those who build and sustain wealth over time. Recall from The Millionaire Next Door that those who are adept at accumulating wealth (i.e., prodigious accumulators of wealth or “PAWs”) spend significant amounts of time monitoring their investments and planning for future financial decisions. In our research for The Next Millionaire Next Door, these findings were supported: a full 64% of PAWs report agreement with the statement “I spend a lot of time planning my financial future.” Only 49% of under accumulators of wealth (or “UAWs”) agree with this statement. Those who monitor and plan their finances tend to have a higher net worth than those who forego those behaviors, regardless of income level or age.
But even the most skilled household CFOs are having difficulty right now seeing through the haze of our current economic conditions to anticipate what the future may hold. While the future is always to some extent uncertain, it is even more so today. For those who exhibit millionaire-next-door-type characteristics, the most common reaction in this type of environment is caution and a “tightening of the belt.” This prudent attitude and behavior tends to lead to short-term behavior that prepares for the worst-case scenario, maximizing the probability of long-term survival (financial or otherwise).
This data begs the question: What about those who are more inclined to focus on the short term, or that show a propensity to enjoy prolific consumption and spending money? Do prolific shoppers read the headlines alluded to above the same way as those who tend to be more frugal? How is the UAW’s reaction to the current economic environment different than the PAW’s? We have seen some amount of data and anecdotal evidence indicating that, at the beginning of this crisis, some amount of prudence and caution set in. As this crisis progresses and we all become somewhat accustomed to a new normal, some of us may begin seeking a return to life as we knew it. Recent news reports indicate that shopping for entertainment (dubbed “relief spending”) is not only chewing through our budgets but also consuming any surplus that may arrive in the form of stimulus/relief checks. Thus it appears that while some of the household leadership team may be engaged in the prudent and cautious efforts of stockpiling cash and attending to the details of finances, others may be looking to online retailers to ease their anxiety. As an example, consider the analysis from Walmart’s CEO recently:
“Call it relief spending, as it was heavily influenced by stimulus dollars, leading to sales increases in categories such as apparel, televisions, video games, sporting goods and toys . . . .” [Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon]
Of course, depending on the financial stability of the household, this so-called “relief spending” could have the opposite psychological effect. While we may gain some short-term pleasure by buying something new, the long-term effects of relief spending may leave us less prepared than before for whatever crisis comes next.
Depending on your perspective, geographic location, or other level of experience with the Coronavirus and its health- or economic-related outcomes, the current situation may not appear to be as dire as it seems to others. Regardless of whether COVID-19 has struck your ZIP code or city in a significant way, the state of the financial world is changing. The good news is that there are key characteristics that can help lead our households through the crisis. As the household CFO, if you tend to have a financial personality that aligns with prudent spending and a focus on the long-term, the chances of success increase. If not, consider adopting some of the millionaire-next-door type behaviors and attitudes, even if only during this season, to ensure your household is prepared for the increased unknown.
6 responses to “Relief Spending, Personality, and Planning”
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We are saving more money than ever. I feel absolutely horrible for those out of work or who have had their hours cut. We have, for the most part, really watched our spending and continued to use a monthly budget to guide us. The budget has helped us to prosper and we will continue to make one every month! My son graduated high school this month and, unfortunately, we didn’t get to take the trip we promised him. We also didn’t spend money on yard signs announcing his graduation. Instead we are saving that money because we know we will still go on that trip, but it will have to be delayed. And we are all OK with that.
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SW Airlines cancelled our trip to Hawaii and gave us credit for our next trip. I have a senior this year so maybe a trip to be scheduled next summer. I’m glad though I can set aside the funds for the unknown. I’m fortunate to be an Essential Worker as are my older two children. COVID-19 was a blessing. My renter was able to stay in the US 3 more years from 2021. She is also an Essential Worker. It meansxthe ability to save more. No job is guaranteed but we are grateful. Stimulus funds assisted in paying forward monthly expenses to be prepared for any storms ahead.
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Very good summary of the problems created by the stimulus program.
The extra money was used by most of the people who got the money to buy things that didn’t help the economy very much.
Now we will have problems
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For us(my wife and I) we added to our “go to hell fund” with the stimulus money. We are both lucky that we are still working. With all the upheaval the virus has caused being cautious with spending is something we thought to be a good idea. Great post! Thank you
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My stimulus money made up for the two weeks I was considered “nonessential” and on furlough, so it was distributed toward household expenses, investments and funding my HSA just as a paycheck would have been. In fact, because I wasn’t commuting to work, my living expenses were cut nearly in half during the shutdown and I leveraged my time off into some freelance projects that ended up paying me more than I expected. I may be one of a handful who end up better off in 2020.
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As a massage therapist who is a sole proprietor, I made the difficult decision to close my practice during the pandemic. Because I am frugal and keep 2 years expenses in my bank account it was no hardship and I was able to continue to invest at my regular rate. This year I passed the 1 million net worth mark. These books were a huge part of making that possible!!! Thank you! | https://www.themillionairenextdoor.com/2020/05/relief-spending-personality-and-planning/ |
Welcome of 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program for September – Internal Controls
It is a new month and a new topic for 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. In September, I will consider internal controls. I am pleased to welcome back Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (AMI) as this month’s sponsor of the podcast series. For compliance officers with a legal background, internal controls are perhaps the least understood component of a best practices compliance regime. However, have no fear as by the end of September you will have a full grounding in internal controls.
Over this series, I will discuss internal controls from a variety of angles. From the key internal controls for compliance, to mapping your internal controls, to the COSO 2013 Internal Control Framework to some of the top failures around internal controls in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance Programs. So, join me every weekday at noon in the month of September to learn more about internal controls and how to implement them into your compliance program.
What specifically are internal controls in a compliance program? Internal controls are not only the foundation of a company but are also the foundation of any effective anti-corruption compliance program. The starting point is the FCPA itself, which states the following:
Section 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act (15 U.S.C. § 78m(b)(2)(B)), commonly called the “internal controls” provision, requires issuers to devise and maintain a system of internal accounting controls sufficient to provide reasonable assurances that—
(i) transactions are executed in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization;
(ii) transactions are recorded as necessary (I) to permit preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles or any other criteria applicable to such statements, and (II) to maintain accountability for assets;
(iii) access to assets is permitted only in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization; and
(iv) the recorded accountability for assets is compared with the existing assets at reasonable intervals and appropriate action is taken with respect to any
differences ….
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in the FCPA Resource Guide, 2nd edition, stated:
Internal controls over financial reporting are the processes used by companies to provide reasonable assurances regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements. They include various components, such as: a control environment that covers the tone set by the organization regarding integrity and ethics; risk assessments; control activities that cover policies and procedures designed to ensure that management directives are carried out (e.g., approvals, authorizations, reconciliations, and segregation of duties); information and communication; and monitoring.
…the design of a company’s internal controls must take into account the operational realities and risks attendant to the company’s business, such as: the nature of its products or services; how the products or services get to market; the nature of its work force; the degree of regulation; the extent of its government interaction; and the degree to which it has operations in countries with a high risk of corruption.
Perhaps the best definition I have ever heard came from Jonathan Marks, Partner at Baker Tilly US, LLP, who defined an internal control as an action or a process of interlocking activities designed to support the policies and procedures detailing the specific preventative, detective, corrective, directive and corroborative actions required to achieve the desired process outcomes or objectives. This, along with continuous auditing, continuous monitoring and training reasonably assure:
- The achievement of the process objectives linked to the organizations objectives;
- Operational effectiveness and efficiency;
- Reliable (complete and accurate) books and records (financial reporting);
- Compliance with laws, regulations and policies;
- The reduction of fraud, waste and abuse; which
- Aids in the decline of process and policy variations leading to more predictive outcomes.
Cited with approval of Jonathan Marks
COSO, in its 2013 publication entitled “Internal Controls – Integrated Framework”, defined internal controls as “a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management, and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives relating to operations, reporting, and compliance.” More specifically, internal controls are, according to COSO:
- Geared to the achievement of objectives in one or more categories – operations, reporting, and compliance
- A process consisting of ongoing tasks and activities – a means to an end, not an end in itself
- Effected by people – not merely about policy and procedure manuals, systems, and forms, but about people and the actions they take at every level of an organization to affect internal control
- Able to provide reasonable assurance – but not absolute assurance, to an entity’s senior management and board of directors
- Adaptable to the entity structure – flexible in application for the entire entity or for a particular subsidiary, division, operating unit, or business process
The Integrated Framework goes on to note, “This definition is intentionally broad. It captures important concepts that are fundamental to how organizations design, implement, and conduct internal control, providing a basis for application across organizations that operate in different entity structures, industries, and geographic regions.”
The whole concept of internal controls is that companies need to focus on where the risks are, whether they be compliance risks or other, and they need to allocate their limited resources to putting controls in place that address those risks, and in the compliance world, of course, your two big risks are the assets or resources of a company. Not just cash but inventory, fixed assets etc., being used to pay a bribe, and then the second big element would be diversion of company assets, such as unauthorized sales discounts or receivables and write offs, which are used to pay a bribe.
As an exercise, I suggest that you map your existing internal controls to the Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program or some other well-known anti-corruption regime to see where control gaps may exist. This will help you to determine whether adequate compliance internal controls are present. From there you can move to see if they are working in practice or “functioning.” Internal controls will only become more important in FCPA enforcement. In this chapter, you will learn how to get ahead of the curve.
This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at [email protected]. | http://fcpacompliancereport.com/2020/09/welcome-31-days-effective-compliance-program-september-internal-controls/ |
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's thoughts
on the British Labour Party's Medium
Term Growth Strategy, from the Guardian
A Chance to Grow on Richer Soil
At the heart of the debate about modern theories of growth is a simple
contention: while crude, free-market dogma has failed Britain, good government
intervention can make a difference.
Labour's New Economics is based on a clear analysis of Britain's industrial
decline--that our shrunken industrial base is now too weak to sustain high
levels of growth. It is underpinned by an explanation of this lack of capacity,
namely that investment in industry, people, and infrastructure has been
too low for too long.
The New Economics also explains the Tories' ideological failure. For
them, opportunity means the absence of government. Instead of acknowledging
the necessity of active government, fifteen years of laissez-faire
short-termism has discouraged long-term investment in industry, skills,
and technology.
Labour's new approach has a prescription for change. Government cannot
be a substitute for the market, but government cannot abandon its responsibilities
to the economy. A partnership economy means government and industry working
together to boost investment, which is the key to growth. Government intervention
is essential if we are to achieve the investment we need in education, innovation,
infrastructure, and industry.
That is what endogenous growth theory means, as I first argued a year
ago in a pamphlet entitled How We Can Conquer Unemployment. For economic
growth is not, as the old classical appoach argued, largely determined by
factors beyond the influence of government.
But the Tories have not and will no learn from the experience of other
countries or from their own failure. The economy, starved of long-term investment,
with too few successful firms and not enough skilled workers, does not have
the capacity to sustain anything other than sluggish growth. And it is why
every British boom soon becomes a painful bust.
Mass unemployment, rising poverty, higher taxes, inflationary difficulties--all
these are symptoms of this deeper structural weakness which plagues the
British economy. Until a British government begins to take is responsibilities
seriously, high unemployment and another boom-bust cycle are likely to be
the pattern of the future.
For it is the shrunken capacity of the British economy that explains
why unemployment remains well above 2.5 milllion and has never fallen below
1.5 million since 1979. It is this shrunken capacity and the resulting slow
growth that explains why we had a record trade deficit thorughout the recession,
and why we cannot afford the public services we need.
The government's best forecasts for growth in the 1990s amount to a mere
1.6 percent per year. Growth during this decade will thus be even slower
than the 1.7 percent per year since 1979, the lowest average since the second
world war.
The Tories will choose to measure growth rates over years that suit them.
But the stop-go nature of the British economy means that, whenever they
proclaim another economic miracle, people throughout the country fear for
their jobs.
Last month's interest rate increase was a perfect illustration of the
Chancellor's policy failure. Mr. Clarke tried to claim that the increase
was a reflection of the economy's strength. The fact that he was forced
to raise interest rates to choke growth so early into the recovery--even
though output is barely back to its 1990 peak, investment remains depressed,
and unemployment is still very high--shows how serious the capacity constraint
on growth has become.
The publications of the minutes between the Chancellor and the Governor
o fthe Bank of England have since shown that the Chancellor went into the
meeting with 11 different reasons why he did not want to raise rates. But
he left the meeting convinced by the Governor that he could no keep inflation
under control, in the face of rising skills shortages and inflationary bottlenecks,
without choking the economy. Even the current sluggish recovery is too strong
for the weakened British economy to bear.
Clarke is discovering that an expansion of demand alone cannot deliver
the growth, jobs, and public services that we need. Policies to expand demand
can only succeed if there is room to grow. Inflation is merely a symptom
of the lack of growth capacity. Expanding the supply side capacity is therefore
crucial if we are to sustain higher rates of growth than the Conservatives
without accelerating inflation. There are no quick fixes--merely expanding
demand will not solve the problem of undercapacity, as Nigel Lawson showed
in the 1980s. Instead, the same policies which can cure the long-term problem
of inflation are also the policies which can deliver higher growth and lower
unemployment. Labour's New Economics means attacking the problems of slow
growth, high unemployment, and rising inflation at source, by rebuilding
Britain's industrial capacity and curing the structural weakness in the
economy.
Labour's New Economics demonstrates that we can only solve the twin problems
of unemployment and inflation through new partnerships between government
and business to boost investment in industry, skills, and infrastructure.
On spending, the policy challenge is not how to cut public expenditure all
round but how to raise the levels of public and private investment. And
across the sweep of economic departments, the issue is not a choice between
government subsidizing industry and government doing nothing, but instead
how govenrment and business working in partnership can create long-term
growth.
These are the new dividing lines in British politics. The divide is one
not just between issues of economic competence but also of social justice.
For Labour's New Economics is also a new Fairness Agenda suited to the demands
of the modern economy in which we live. Long-term unemployment and low pay
in work are the most important new sources of poverty and unfairness in
Britain. Which is why policies to boost economic growth and reequip the
workforce with skills are the route to economic efficiency and social justice.
And it's why we need a reshaped welfare state, underpinned by a minimum
wage, to support independence in work rather than dependence on benefit.
In short, economic prosperity and soical justice are intimately linked
and cannot be separated. The Tories do not understand the proper role of
government in a modern economy, which is why they have failed to deliver
either. Labour, however, can deliver both. No one doubts that it is Labour
which stands for a fairer society, and good and efficient public services.
But what the New Economics demonstrates is that today it is Labour, and
not the Tories, which is truly the party of economic competence.
| |
Who is the father of western medicine?
The founding father of western medicine, was a Greek physician Hippocrates who is important in the pages of history. His significant contribution to the establishment of the Hippocratic School of Medicine revolutionized the state of medicine in Greece and around the world.
Hippocrates had a different perspective and opinion of thought. The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of the remaining 60 medical manuscripts of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Oath for the medicos. As a result, the Hippocratic corpus reveals much of his philosophy of human life and body. Furthermore, Hippocrates took medicine in a new direction by emphasizing the scientific approach and promoting rational thinking.
Early life of Hippocrates
The Greek physician Soranus provided an early biography of Hippocrates, which details the life of the famous physician of the time. The father of medicine was a generational drug enthusiast who inherited much of his knowledge from his father and grandfather; and mingled with people like Democritus and Georgia to study science further. Hippocrates also trained under the Thracian physician Herodicus of Celimbria at Asclepion of Cos.
Plato recognized Hippocrates as the ‘Asclepiad of Cos’ who taught medicine throughout his life and also attributed a sense of respect to the father of modern medicine. He recognized Hippocrates as a physician. The “Hippocratic Corpus” is the work of art that inspired medical science to flourish. Historians estimate that it contains about 19 authors with various creation dates and subject matter.
Hippocrates made some stellar contributions to the field of medicine. The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of his medical work and findings and has contributed to the development of medical science. The father of medicine propounded the theory of the four humours. Hippocrates, his work and findings have helped advance anatomy, physiology, surgery, and pharmacy. The father of medicine taught generations how to be courageous and determined by personal beliefs.
Also Read: What is the probability of making an even number? Explanation
Who is called the father of western medicine?
Answer- Hippocrates is called the father of western medicine / modern medicine / ancient medicine.
What is the Hippocratic Oath?
Answer- The Hippocratic Oath is the ethical code that medical practitioners follow to uphold the integrity of human life. The oath is mentioned prominently in the Hippocratic Corpus and has become a testament to humanity and moral ethics. Practitioners who take an oath are bound to determine beneficial treatments with their best judgment. | https://tfiglobalnews.com/2023/01/15/who-is-the-father-of-western-medicine-short-biography/ |
FIELD
The present disclosure relates to spectroscopy, and in particular to techniques for prediction of characteristic spectra from structural descriptions of materials for material characterization.
BACKGROUND
Plastic products are predominantly single-use and frequently not recycled. Annual production of plastic worldwide is approximately 350 million tons, of which approximately 10% ends up being recycled, 12% is incinerated, and the remainder (78%) accumulates in landfills or the natural environment, where it takes nearly 500-1,000 years to degrade. Plastic production is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050. Recycling processes depend on accurate material characterization, sorting, and decomposition yield prediction.
Vibrational spectroscopy is one approach to characterize the interaction of matter with light, and affords a technique for identifying a material by a unique pattern of spectral features. Covalent bonds between constituent atoms in a molecule absorb infrared (IR) radiation at characteristic frequencies. The different vibrations of the different functional groups in the molecule give rise to spectral features, such as peaks and bands, of differing intensity. Another factor that determines the feature intensity in infrared spectra is the concentration of molecules in the sample. As a result, many materials exhibit a characteristic absorbance pattern in the infrared spectrum, which can be measured by spectroscopy and can be used to identify the material. Identification of materials by IR spectroscopy forms the foundation of many analytical techniques in materials processing, such as material sorting. For example, an unidentified material is characterized by IR radiation to generate a characteristic absorbance spectrum, which is then compared to a library of characteristic absorbance spectra for known materials to find a match. The match involves evaluating a fit across multiple features in terms of both energy and intensity. In some cases, as when intensity-calibrated instruments are used, the composition of the unidentified material can also be determined from IR spectroscopy. Unfortunately, chemical spectral databases typically contain data for pure substances or precisely quantified mixtures of industrial or scientific importance. Contaminated materials and complex blends are less frequently included. When characteristic spectra are unavailable, prediction of chemical composition of non-standard materials, such as waste materials, becomes much more difficult.
SUMMARY
Techniques are provided (e.g., a method, a system, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code or instructions executable by one or more processors) for predicting vibrational spectra of molecular components incorporated in waste materials, using machine learning (ML) models implemented in deep learning networks.
In particular, techniques may be directed to generating encoded representations of chemical structures from text strings including structural information for constituent materials making up a waste material. The techniques may include one or more ML implementations including, but not limited to, natural language processing (NLP) using one or more approaches for sequence encoding. The ML implementations may be trained to predict latent chemical bond information describing spectroscopically active bonds in a material. The latent chemical bond information, in turn, may be mapped to spectrum information by a mapping function.
In some embodiments, a method is provided for generating spectroscopic data. The method includes inputting, by a computing device, a text string comprising a structural representation of a material to an encoder of a natural language processing (NLP) model implemented with a deep neural network. The method includes generating, using the encoder of the NLP model, an encoded representation of the text string. The text string may include latent chemical bond information of the material. The method includes mapping, by the computing device, the encoded representation including the latent chemical bond information to a spectrum array, the spectrum array including predicted spectroscopic data of the material. The method also includes outputting, by the computing device, the spectrum array.
In some embodiments, the method also includes receiving a chemical identifier of the material and accessing, from a database of structural representations, the text string using the chemical identifier. The text string may be or include a SMILES string. The NLP model may be or include a recurrent neural network model or a transformer model.
In some embodiments, the text string is a first text string, the material is a first material, the encoded representation is a first encoded representation, and the spectrum array is a first spectrum array, and the method includes inputting a second text string including a structural representation of a second material to the encoder of the NLP model, the second material including an additive. The method includes generating, using the encoder of the NLP model, a second encoded representation of the second text string including latent chemical bond information of the second material. The method includes mapping the second encoded representation to a second spectrum array including predicted spectroscopic data of the second material. The method includes generating a combined spectrum array using the first spectrum array and the second spectrum array. The method also includes outputting the combined spectrum array.
In some embodiments, the method also includes processing the encoded representation to select an incomplete subset of the latent chemical bond information. Mapping the encoded representation may include mapping the incomplete subset of the latent chemical bond information to a plurality of characteristic features in the spectrum array.
In some embodiments, the predicted spectroscopic data of the material comprises predicted wavelength and intensity information of a plurality of spectral features corresponding to the latent chemical bond information.
In some embodiments, the method also includes obtaining a plurality of chemical structure strings and a plurality of corresponding spectrometry data. The method also includes pre-processing the plurality of spectrometry data, wherein the pre-processing comprises (i) identifying a plurality of bonds in the plurality of chemical structure strings, and identifying one or more bands of interest in each spectrometry data set; and (ii) labelling a plurality of spectral features in each band of interest with chemical bond information corresponding to the plurality of bonds identified in the plurality of chemical structure strings. The method also includes inputting a batch of chemical structure strings from the plurality of chemical structure strings into the encoder of the NLP model in a training process. The method also includes adjusting weights and biases of the encoder in response to the training process. The method also includes repeating the inputting and adjusting, and estimating using other batches of chemical structure strings until (i) a predetermined number of batches of chemical structure strings are processed or (ii) all the chemical structure strings are processed.
In some embodiments, the method also includes multi-dimensional vector of wavelength and intensity describing a characteristic spectrum of the material outputting the spectrum array to a material characterization system of a chemical recycling process, enabling the material characterization system to identify the material as an input feedstock.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a system including one or more data processors. In some embodiments, the system includes a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and/or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein. Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and/or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein.
The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Thus, it should be understood that although the present claimed subject matter has been specifically disclosed by embodiments and optional features, modification and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
illustrates an example workflow for predicting characteristic spectra of a material, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2
illustrates an example workflow for training and using an encoder in an artificial neural network to predict characteristic spectra, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 3
illustrates predicting a characteristic spectrum of a polymer using an encoder of a recurrent neural network in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 4
illustrates an example workflow for generating a latent representation of a linear alkyne from an input representation, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 5
illustrates an example flow describing a method for generating a predicted spectrum of a material, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 6
is an illustrative architecture of a computing system implemented as some embodiments of the present disclosure.
In the appended figures, similar components and/or features can have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type can be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
I. Introduction
II. Techniques for Prediction of Characteristic Spectra of Materials
III. System Environment
IV. Additional Considerations
The ensuing description provides preferred exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the preferred exemplary embodiments will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing various embodiments. It is understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims.
Specific details are given in the following description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.
Also, it is noted that individual embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart or diagram may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations may be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in a figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.
Mechanical recycling, which describes physical processing to reuse or reform waste materials, is limited in its applicability to mixed, composite, and contaminated waste streams. For example, mechanical recycling typically employs mechanical separation and reformation processes that are insensitive to chemical contaminants and may be unable to modify the chemical structure of waste material. Chemical recycling may resolve the limitations of mechanical recycling by breaking the chemical bonds of waste materials into smaller molecules. For example, in the case of polymeric materials, chemical recycling may provide an avenue to recover oligomers, monomers, or even basic molecules from a plastic waste feedstock. In the case of polymers, chemical recycling processes may include operations to depolymerize and dissociate the chemical makeup of a complex plastic product, such that by-products can be up-cycled into feedstocks for new materials.
While example embodiments described herein center on polymeric materials or organic chemical materials, these are meant as non-limiting, illustrative embodiments. Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to such materials, but rather are intended to address material processing operations for which a wide array of materials serve as potential feedstocks for a material recycling and/or up-cycling process. Such materials may include, but are not limited to, metals, glass, bio-polymers such as ligno-cellulosic materials, visco-elastic materials, minerals such as rare earth containing materials, as well as complex composite materials or devices.
Elements of chemical recycling may permit a material to be repeatedly dissociated into primary feedstock materials. In this way, rather than being limited by chemical structure and material integrity to a limited number of physical processes, as in mechanical recycling, the products of chemical recycling may include basic monomers (ethylene, acrylic acid, lactic acid, vinyl, etc.), feedstock gases (carbon monoxide, methane, ethane, etc.), or elemental materials (sulfur, carbon, etc.). As such, chemical recycling may permit improved implementation of reuse and recycling strategies based on chemical conversion of a waste material.
Successful implementation of chemical recycling may rely at least in part on accurate identification of waste feedstocks by spectroscopic characterization. Vibrational spectroscopy is one approach to characterizing the interaction of matter with light, and affords a technique for identifying a material by a characteristic pattern of spectral features. Chemical spectral libraries or databases typically contain data for pure substances or precisely quantified mixtures. While characteristic spectra may suffice to identify the core components of a high-purity waste material, the presence of contaminants or additives may interfere with spectroscopic characterization. Furthermore, some less commonly used materials, contaminated materials, and blends are less frequently included in spectral libraries or databases. When characteristic spectra are unavailable, prediction of chemical composition of non-standard materials, such as waste materials, becomes much more difficult.
As used herein, a spectrum can describe an emission spectrum or an absorbance spectrum. An emission spectrum can show radiation intensity as a function of wavelength, as generated by measuring radiation output by a radiation source. By contrast, an absorbance spectrum describes an intensity of absorption of radiation by a material as a function of energy, which can be expressed as frequency, wavelength, wavenumber, or energy, and can correspond to radiation reflected or transmitted by the material. In the context of chemical spectral libraries or databased described above, absorbance spectra can describe the characteristic pattern of spectral features for non-emissive materials.
The correct identification of waste material components is of importance, at least because the presence of some additives or contaminants may render a waste material unsuitable for chemical recycling. For example, halogen-containing materials, such as chlorinated or fluorinated polymers, may produce corrosive byproducts during some chemical recycling processes, which may damage or destroy chemical recycling units. In this way, providing accurate predictions of characteristic spectral data when standard data are unavailable may permit improved identification of waste materials, and thus improved implementation of chemical recycling.
Machine learning (ML) approaches described herein provide a solution to the paucity of characteristic spectral information available for waste materials. Characteristic spectra for arbitrary waste materials are predicted by training an ML model to generate chemical bond information for spectroscopically active bonds and resonant modes. Predicted characteristic spectra, in turn, are used to identify real-world waste materials received at material processing facilities or to design tailored sensor devices for specific waste materials.
The techniques described herein improve recycling processes by providing predicted spectra that in turn permit the characterization of waste materials and the optimization of spectroscopic sensor designs for improved sorting, process design, and process optimization techniques. While prediction of characteristic spectra is possible from first principles, for example, by deriving resonant frequencies for bonds making up a chemical or by manual identification of spectroscopically active bonds, the implementation of ML approaches provides improved predictions. For example, derivation from first principles may be limited to simple materials without additives or impurities, while both analytical and manual approaches typically suffer from lack of scalability and a limited ability to predict interaction terms, such as interference and non-linear effects (e.g., non-adherence to the Beer-Lambert assumption). For example, first principles approaches involve non-linear growth in complexity with increasing molecule size and, as such, become computationally unfeasible to populate libraries of spectra for large molecules. By contrast, the ML approaches disclosed herein do not solve energy equations, but instead use standard structure string data, such as SMILES or InChI representations, as an input to a natural language processing (NLP) model, from which any number of predicted spectra may be generated for molecules of arbitrary size. Furthermore, while standard structure strings may lack structural specificity, with multiple different strings describing the same structure, such ambiguity is a strength of NLP approaches developed to process linguistic syntax. These ML approaches also address a limitation of conventional recycling methods that typically are devised to process relatively pure waste streams, with minimal contaminants.
One illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to a system that includes one or more data processors and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform actions including inputting a text string comprising a structural representation of a material to an encoder of a natural language processing (NLP) model implemented in a deep neural network. The actions include generating, by the NLP model, an encoded representation of the text string comprising latent chemical bond information of the material, revealing, among other information, spectroscopically active bonds in the material. The latent chemical bond information includes information that is not described explicitly in the text string, including, but not limited to, covalently bonded hydrogen, structural conformations, or vibrational motion. The actions include mapping the latent chemical bond information to a spectrum array, the spectrum array including predicted spectroscopic data of the material such as energy or intensity information for characteristic spectral features of the material. Mapping may include several different approaches including, but not limited to, input/output mapping from a vector of bond multiplicity to the spectrum array, or ML approaches such as a sequence-to-sequence model. The actions may also include outputting the spectrum array. Uses of the spectrum array include, but are not limited to, populating a library for identification of unidentified materials in a sorting process or configuring sensor devices for application in recycling facilities.
Advantageously, these techniques can overcome the computationally intensive problem of first principles prediction, and provide accuracy and efficiency of predicting features of a characteristic absorbance spectrum directly from a structural representation of a material. The improved prediction of characteristic absorbance spectra that utilizes a machine learning component in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein, greatly increases the number of combinations of materials that can be accurately identified by rapid spectroscopic measurement using customized IR sensors.
As used herein, the terms “substantially,” “approximately” and “about” are defined as being largely but not necessarily wholly what is specified (and include wholly what is specified) as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. In any disclosed embodiment, the term “substantially,” “approximately,” or “about” may be substituted with “within [a percentage] of” what is specified, where the percentage includes 0.1, 1, 5, and 10 percent. As used herein, when an action is “based on” something, this means the action is based at least in part on at least a part of the something.
FIGS. 1, 2 and 5
FIGS. 1, 2, and 5
FIGS. 3 and 6
FIGS. 1, 2, and 5
depict simplified flowcharts depicting processing performed for prediction of an characteristic spectrum of a material according to various embodiments. The steps of may be implemented in the system environments of , for example. As noted herein, the flowcharts of illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical functions. It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combination of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
FIG. 1
FIG. 1
100
100
102
104
106
102
102
105
illustrates an example workflow for predicting characteristic spectra of a material, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in , the workflow is subdivided into sub-processes including encoder verification , encoder training , and spectrum prediction . Encoder verification includes various steps to train the encoder to process structural string representations of materials and to predict latent chemical bond information describing the materials, to be used to predict the characteristic spectra. As part of the encoder verification , at step , a plurality of chemical structure string data sets are obtained comprising structural representations of materials. In some embodiments, the plurality of chemical structure string data sets are obtained by a computing device from one or more private or public database sources, such as PubChem, ChemSpider, Reaxys, or the NIST. The private or public database sources may be a centralized, standards compliant, data repository for chemical structure data, including chemical identifiers or identification numbers, such as CAS numbers, chemical structures according to various structural representation formats, and supporting spectral evidence. Spectral evidence may include standard, uncalibrated, or intensity-calibrated vibrational spectra, such as FTIR-ATR spectra collected from pure-control samples or standard composites.
Numerous standard approaches exist for representing a chemical structure as a string. For example, the simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES) is a specification in the form of a line notation for describing the structure of chemical species using short ASCII strings. SMILES strings are non-unique representations of a chemical structure, which permits a single chemical to be represented by a number of equally valid SMILES strings. SMILES strings can be derived algorithmically from a graph-representation of a chemical structure, such as those stored in chemical structure databases. In a first step, hydrogen atoms are removed from the structure and cycles are broken and represented as branches or sub-branches. Numerical suffix labels indicate nodes forming the termini of the broken cycles. Branching is indicated using parentheses, with nested parentheses used for sub-branches. In graph-based procedures, a SMILES string can be derived by identifying symbol nodes encountered in a depth-first tree traversal of a chemical graph.
FIG. 4
6
10
6
6
In an illustrative example, as described in more detail in reference to , below, the chemical named 1-hexyne, a linear unsaturated alkyne with a structure CH, can be represented by a SMILES string as “CCCCC#C.” As can be seen from the example, a SMILES string, as well as other structural representations (e.g., “InChI=1S/C6H10/c1-3-5-6-4-2/h1H,4-6H2,2H3”), may represent some structural information implicitly. For example, in the SMILES string representation of 1-Hexyne, hydrogen information, such as the number of hydrogens per node, is implied by the case of the node (e.g., “C” vs. “c”) and the letter representing the element, from which valence information may be inferred. In the case of carbon, for example, the sequence “CC” implies three hydrogen atoms bonded to each carbon atom, the two carbon atoms sharing a single covalent bond. As another example, the sequence “CCC” implies only two hydrogen atoms bonded to the central carbon atom, and “c1ccccc1” implies only a single hydrogen atom bonded to each carbon, where the lower case indicates a cycle and the implied aromaticity leads to the prediction of a benzene CHstructure.
110
FIGS. 2-3
At step , a batch of the chemical structure string data may serves as an input to an encoder/decoder model making up a sequence-to-sequence model. The encoder, as described in more detail in reference to , may form a part of the techniques described herein to predict characteristic spectra of materials, such as waste materials, for which spectral databases lack information. The batch may be selected from the plurality of chemical structure data sets by various approaches. For example, the plurality of chemical structure data sets may be pre-processed to filter materials of limited significance for materials processing facilities, such as proteins and other biological molecules. As another example, the batch of chemical structure string data may be selected to exclude data for complex materials, such as co-polymers or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
FIG. 2
As described in reference to , below, a sequence-to-sequence model, implemented with an artificial neural network, such as a recurrent neural network (RNN) model or a transformer model with feed-forward neural network layers, may generate an encoded representation from an input chemical structure string. In some embodiments, the encoded representation can represent latent chemical bond information implied by the structural representation. In comparison to a sequence-to-sequence model for bi-directional translation of natural language, referred to as an NLP model, the encoder of an NLP model may generate a multiset of words including multiplicity information, as well as other latent information, such as weights or attention parameters. In the example of the NLP model, the encoded representation can represent a multi-dimensional vector representing the multiplicity of words from the input sequence as part of a vocabulary of words recognized and understood by the NLP model. In this way, the decoder of the sequence-to-sequence model can input the encoded representation and output a translated sequence of a different length. The translation may be predicted based on training the decoder in tandem with the encoder, to tune weights and biases of constituent cells making up the NLP model and/or to increase the vocabulary. Furthermore, by implementing short-term and long-term memory, more impactful words (e.g., subjects, verbs, objects, negations, etc.) are “remembered” or retained by the NLP model, while less impactful words are “forgotten” or not retained. Training the encoder or the decoder may include repeating the inputting and adjusting, and estimating using other batches of chemical structure strings until (i) a predetermined number of batches of chemical structure strings are processed or (ii) all the chemical structure strings are processed.
102
6
14
6
12
The chemical structure strings making up the batch of chemical structure string data can similarly be used to develop a vocabulary of chemical bond information, as part of training the encoder to treat chemical structure strings as a natural language. As an illustrative example, a variable-length string made up of the nodes and explicit bond information of a material (e.g., in a SMILES string) may be inputted to the encoder of the encoder/decoder to generate an output string. The encoder can generate an encoded representation as a fixed-length multidimensional vector of bond multiplicity, order, and structural position in reference to a starting point. In addition to the nodes, the encoded representation can include latent chemical bond information, such as information about hydrogens or cycles, as described above. While not focused on spectroscopically active bonds during encoder verification , verification of the encoder by string-to-string translation serves to develop the bond vocabulary and to train the encoder to identify and predict latent chemical bond information. As an illustrative example, an untrained encoder may be unable to distinguish between a SMILES string for hexane (CH), “CCCCCC,” and that for cyclohexane (CH), “C1CCCCC1,” where the numerical indicators represent opening and closing nodes for the cycle. From this example, it can be seen again that hydrogen information is not explicitly described in SMILES strings, and, as such, the encoder may be trained to predict correct latent chemical information by generating an encoded representation.
115
In step , the output of the encoder/decoder may be used to verify the accuracy of the encoder. Verification can include multiple possible approaches, including, but not limited to, training the decoder to recover the original structure sting used as an input to the encoder. As an example, a SMILES string may be used as the input to the encoder/decoder and the verification may include comparing the output to the input to verify accurate recovery. Verification may include a binary accuracy assessment, such as a true/false distinction, or it may include error propagation techniques to identify the source of error in the sequence encoder. In some embodiments, the encoder/decoder can generate outputs in alternative standard formats as an approach to verifying that the encoder is accurately predicting latent chemical bond information. For example, the output of the decoder may be a structure string describing hydrogens, stereochemistry, or other latent information not explicitly described in the input string. Verification, therefore, may include comparing the output string to the corresponding input string in the alternative structural representation format. As an illustrative example, hexane in SMILES string notation is: “CCCCCC,” whereas the corresponding InChI format string is: “InChI=1S/C6H14/c1-3-5-6-4-2/h3-6H2,1-2H3,” which includes the information about hydrogen number and structure that is implicit in the SMILES notation. As will be described in more detail below, accurate prediction of characteristic spectra implicates additional latent information, such as predictions of spectroscopically active bonds, bond motion (e.g., stretch, scissor, bend, etc.), and characteristic bonds that can be used to distinguish one material class or specific material from another.
104
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105
FIG. 4
Illustrated as part of encoder training , the encoder may be trained to predict latent chemical bond information implicit in the chemical structure strings that imparts spectroscopic features and characteristics to a material class or a constituent material of the material class. In step , a plurality of chemical structure string data sets may be obtained with labeled spectrometry data. While the plurality of chemical structure string data sets may be different from the data obtained as part of step , as described above, the data obtained for the purpose of encoder verification may also include spectrometry data and, as such, may be used for the purpose of encoder training as well. The labeled spectrometry data may include vibrational spectra of a plurality of materials. The labels may include metadata, such as structure string information, material classifications, or unique numerical identifiers (e.g., CAS numbers). In some embodiments, the spectrometry data describe characteristic spectral features, for example, a pattern of peaks or bands in an absorbance spectrum by which a material can be identified. As described in more detail in reference to , below, the features may be formed by bonds between various atoms, between different types of bonds, or by different types of bond motion, as well as other factors.
In some embodiments, the plurality of chemical structure string data sets may correspond to multiple material classes. In the case of polymeric materials, for example, monomer chemical structure strongly influences the characteristic spectrum of the overall material. As such, a class of polymers including variants on a basic polymer backbone, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, or polyvinyl, may be identified by the characteristic features of the monomer. Structures such as sidechains, functional groups, or copolymers, may add features or modify the features produced by the polymer backbone. In this way, the specific features may distinguish a specific material from the class type and allow the encoder to be trained to separate those features.
Class-level identification may permit coarse sorting of materials as, for example, during intake of waste materials for a chemical recycling process. By contrast, fine sorting based on material-specific features can be used, among other applications, to reject some forms of the base material from others based on process restrictions of a chemical recycling process. As an illustrative example, cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) is a thermosetting resin with three types of cross-linking: peroxide cross-linking, radiation cross-linking, and silane cross-linking. The polymer can be effectively recycled when the cross-linking points are decomposed chemically, but is not directly mechanically recycled, due in part to its phase-transition properties. Low density polyethylene (LDPE), by contrast, may be recycled mechanically because it presents different thermal properties that allow it to be melted and reformed without chemical decomposition. In this example, cross-linking extent is detectable in vibrational spectra, at least because spectra for LDPE and XLPE include different and distinguishable features. Furthermore, where some features are shared between LDPE and XLPE spectra, relative intensity of shared features may differ between the two materials. The example of LDPE and XLPE demonstrates that two polymers of similar monomer chemistry, differing mainly in hydrogen content that is included latent chemical bond information omitted from structural representations, may be treated differently by chemical recycling processors and may be detected by their characteristic spectra.
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At step , encoder training includes pre-processing and other data preparation steps applied to the plurality of chemical structure string data sets obtained at step . For a spectrum of the labeled spectrometry data, pre-processing includes identifying bands of interest for the material described by the spectrum. Bands of interest describe a wavelength range of a spectrum within which characteristic features are found for the material. For example, as described in reference to , an FTIR absorbance spectrum will include various features, of which some will describe a specific material, some will be characteristic of a class of materials, while others will be common instrument artifacts, such as a feature introduced by carbon dioxide in air, commonly detected at 2341 cm. Pre-processing of spectral data can include the characteristic features as the bands of interest. Pre-processing can also include labelling features, such as peaks or bands, for use during training, such as supervised training or by reinforcement learning.
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As shown in steps , , and , in some embodiments, the encoder training includes, for each input (X), performing a feed-forward pass on each intermediary layer (e.g., LSTM cells, hidden layers, fully connected layers, etc.) of the encoder to compute the outputs of each layer, then at the output layers to obtain a final output (X′). This is illustrated at step , which encompasses a process of generating a plurality of spectrum prediction data using pre-processed chemical structure string data as inputs to the verified encoder. Encoder training may also include, at step , evaluating a loss function. Evaluating the loss function may include measuring a deviation between the final output (X′) and the input targets (X), e.g., using a loss function such as squared root or mean-squared error, and calculating an error value for one or more nodes, cells, neurons, or layers within the encoder-decoder network. Evaluating the loss function may include back propagating each error value back through the encoder starting from the final output (X′) until each node, cell, neuron, or layer has an associated error value which roughly represents its contribution to the final output (X′) and calculating a gradient of the loss function using the associated error values.
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At step , weights and biases of the encoder-decoder network may be adjusted in response to the first training process. In some embodiments, adjusting the weights and biases includes feeding the gradient of the loss function calculated in step into an optimization process, which updates or adjusts the weights and biases for the one or more nodes, cells, neurons, or layers in an attempt to minimize the loss function. Accordingly, as the encoder is trained, the nodes, cells, or neurons in the intermediate layers organize themselves in such a way that the different nodes, cells, or neurons learn to recognize different characteristics of the total input space. After training, when an arbitrary input pattern is present which contains noise or is incomplete, the nodes, cells, or neurons in the hidden layers of the network will respond with an active output if the new input contains a pattern that resembles a feature that the individual nodes, cells, or neurons have learned to recognize during their training. Optionally, the first training process may further include a pre-training process to determine initial weights and biases for the one or more nodes, cells, neurons, or layers that approximate the final solution to avoid potential problems with the backpropagation of the error values. In certain embodiments, as when the output spectrum data is generated using a decoder, the encoder and the decoder may share weights and biases, use different sets of weights and biases, or include a combination of similar and different weights and biases.
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Optionally, encoder training may include the output steps of spectrum prediction, whereby the encoded representations generated by the encoder are mapped to spectral features. In such cases, the predicted spectral features may be compared to labeled spectra in the training data. Accuracy and error information may therefore describe additional aspects including, but not limited to, wavelengths of characteristic features, the relative intensity of the features, or peak-width (e.g., full-width at half max (FWHM)).
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In some embodiments, the trained encoder is applied to arbitrary chemical structure strings as part of the spectrum prediction process. At step , chemical structure strings may be obtained from the public or private libraries described above in reference to step , from entries lacking a standard FTIR spectrum or labeled spectral feature data. In some embodiments, the chemical structure strings can be grouped according to material classification. Grouping may be based, in some cases, on metadata or by pre-processing, and may permit improved prediction through correlation with the bands of interest, described above, for the corresponding group. Grouping may also help elucidate material classifications for which the encoder training may be improved, for example, as part of reinforcement learning or model validation. Advantageously, grouping or other data preparation approaches may also permit the encoder to learn to predict spectra for more complex materials, such as block copolymers, metalorganic complexes, or biopolymers, such as ligno-cellulosic materials. The differentiation between material classifications and constituent materials within material classifications by spectral information is described in more detail in subsequent paragraphs.
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At step , the structure strings are input to the encoder, as described in more detail in reference to , below. In short, inputting a structure string can include describing each character (e.g., node, bonds, branch indicators) in the structure string as an input state to a discrete cell of the encoder. In some embodiments, the output state of each cell is an encoded representation including latent chemical bond information, based in part on the input state and the output state of the preceding cell. In the context of a sequence encoder, the output state is a hidden state. At step , the final output state of the encoder, generated by the terminal cell of the encoder includes latent chemical bond information for the entire chemical structure string and, as such, can be used to predict spectral features resulting from a holistic understanding of the chemical structure of the material. At step , the final output state of the encoder may serve as the encoded representation to be used for mapping onto spectral features, as described in more detail below, in reference to . Mapping may include a simple input/output mapping, for example, by mapping the encoded representation to an array of spectral features and intensities, thereby producing a multi-dimensional array of feature position in terms of wavelength as well as relative intensity, normalized to the intensity of the most prominent feature.
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Once generated, the predicted spectrum may be output as part of step . Outputting may describe automatic operations of a computer system that include various uses of the predicted spectrum. For example, step may include storing the predicted spectrum in a library of material spectra, to be used as a reference for identifying waste received at materials recycling facilities. Similarly, the predicted spectra may serve as inputs to other systems, such as a sensor system configured to interrogate and characterize diverse materials. Step may be implemented in the framework of chemical recycling or material processing systems. For example, the predicted spectrum may be output to a material characterization system to be used in sorting materials. The predicted spectrum may be used to identify a material class, such as a polymer type, as an initial, or “coarse” sorting of materials. The predicted spectrum may be used to distinguish a material from other materials within the same class, as a secondary, or “fine” sort. The predicted spectrum may include information permitting a material characterization system to identify additives or impurities and, as such, may be used to screen materials for impurities and thereby prevent impurities from entering the chemical process units making up the chemical recycling system.
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illustrates an example workflow for training and using an encoder in an artificial neural network to predict characteristic spectra, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The blocks included in the workflow represent operations that may be implemented by a computer system as autonomous or semi-autonomous processes. For example, the workflow may include obtaining an input string from a chemical string database . As described in reference to , the chemical string database may include standard information databases storing chemical structure strings for large numbers of chemicals relevant to chemical recycling processes. The input string can serve as an input to an encoder forming part of a sequence-to-sequence model . The sequence-to-sequence model can be an example of the encoder/decoder network described in reference to . In some embodiments, the encoder and a decoder are NLP models implemented as recurrent neural network models or transformer models.
An RNN is a neural network with loops in it, allowing information to persist. Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks are a special kind of RNN, capable of learning long-term and short-term dependencies (e.g., the gap between where relevant information was discovered in the network and the point where the relevant information is needed in the network to predict the next object). As used herein, a “long short term memory cell” is a unit of a recurrent neural network comprising multiple interacting layers that can keep a piece of information for long or short periods of time during work and protect the gradient inside the cell from detrimental changes during the training. For example, a LSTM cell may comprise three gates (input, forget, output), and a cell unit. The gates may be configured to use a sigmoid activation, while input and cell state may be transformed with the hyperbolic tangent, or tanh function. As used herein, a “gradient recurrent unit cell” is a unit of a recurrent neural network that modulates the flow of information inside the unit, however, without having a separate memory cell. The activation of the GRU cell at time t is a linear interpolation between the previous activation and the candidate activation where an update gate decides how much the unit updates its activation, or content. This procedure of taking a linear sum between the existing state and the newly computed state is similar to the LSTM cell. The GRU cell, however, does not have any mechanism to control the degree to which its state is exposed, but exposes the whole state each time.
A transformer model is a deep learning model that can take an input (typically sequential data such as natural language text) in the form of a sequence of vectors, and converts the input data into a vector called an encoding, and then decodes the vector back into another sequence. The encoder portion includes a set of encoding layers that processes the input iteratively one layer after another. Similarly, the decoder portion includes a set of decoding layers generating an output sequence, using the output of the encoder as an input. The output of the encoder portion contains latent information from the input sequence that permits the decoder portion to generate the output sequence. Transformer models may be trained using semi-supervised learning, such as multi-stage training procedures involving unsupervised pre-training followed by supervised fine-tuning. Pre-training may include a much larger training dataset than what is used for fine-tuning, as when labeled training data is less readily available.
Each encoder layer generates encodings from input embeddings. Embeddings are vectors generated from the input vectors by the first encoder layer of the encoder portion. In the context of structural representations of materials, the inputs could be vector representations of individual nodes or structural characters, such as a letter indicating an element, a bond indicator, a parenthesis, or a punctuation mark. Each encoder layer receives a list of vectors (either the input sentence or an embedding, depending on the position of the encoder layer in the encoder stack) that it processes by passing the vectors into a self-attention layer, followed by a feed-forward neural network. The output of the feed-forward neural network is passed into the subsequent encoder layer and to the corresponding decoder layer, as described below. The output of the final encoder layer of the encoder portion is passed to each layer of the decoder portion. The encodings also contain positional information describing the order of each input vector in the input sequence, such as the position of constituent words in a natural language sentence. The positional information permits the encoder to account for ordering of the sequence components.
The general process undertaken by each self-attention layer includes (i) taking in an input including a list of fixed-length vectors (the input can be an embedding or an encoder output); (ii) splitting the input into a set of query, key, and value matrices by multiplying the input by a set of weight matrices, where each set includes a query weight matrix, a key weight matrix, and a value weight matrix; (iii) calculating an equivalent number of attention matrices using the query, key, and value matrices for each set of weight matrices; and (iv) concatenating the attention matrices to produce the output of the attention layer. The output of the attention layer is a matrix including a vector for each entry in the input sequence. This matrix serves as the input of the feed-forward neural network. Furthermore, at each sub-layer, residual connections and sub-layer normalization operations can be implemented to reduce the difficulty of training the layers.
Decoder layers implement similar structures to those described above in reference to encoder layers. For example, a decoder layer includes a self-attention layer and a feed-forward neural network. The decoder layers take in encodings from the final encoder layer as an input into the self-attention layer, as well as the output of the corresponding encoder layer into an additional encoder-decoder attention layer (e.g., the first encoder layer passes its output to the second encoder layer and the first decoder layer). To focus the decoding layer on the relational structure of the input, the “encoder-decoder attention” layer works just like the self-attention layer of the encoder portion, except that the query matrices are produced from the preceding decoder layer, while the key and values matrices are produced from the output of the final encoder layer.
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In various embodiments, the encoder maps a variable-length source sequence such as the input string to an encoded representation , which includes a fixed-dimensional vector representation, and the decoder maps the encoded representation back to a variable-length sequence, such as an output chemical structure string .
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The sequence-to-sequence model may comprise the encoder including a recurrent neural network of LSTM cells or GRU cells or a stack of encoder layers within a transformer. In some embodiments, the encoder portion takes the input string (a variable-length source sequence), which in step is a string from a batch of chemical structure string data of the verification data set, and maps the input sequence to the encoded representation (fixed-dimensional vector representation) of the sequence. In certain embodiments, the encoded representation of the input sequence may include a n-dimensional vector of the batch of latent chemical bond information from the data set.
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The encoder may include a bidirectional RNN or a bidirectional transformer. Unlike feed-forward models, bidirectional models utilize both the previous and future context, by processing the data from two directions with two separate hidden layers. One layer processes the input sequence in the forward direction, while the other processes the input in the reverse direction. The output of a current time step is then generated by concatenating a vector from each hidden layer. Accordingly, for every point in a given sequence, the encoder portion has complete, sequential information about all points before and after it, and is capable of reading the input sequence , one time step at a time, to obtain the encoded representation . Also, because the encoder portion is free to use as much or as little of this context as necessary, there is no need to find a (task-dependent) time-window or target delay size.
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While the encoder has been described at some length and with some particularity with respect to the sequence-to-sequence model including an RNN or stack of encoder layers within a transformer and a decoder portion including an RNN or stack of decoder layers within a transformer, it is not intended to be limited to only those embodiments. Instead, it should be understood the sequence-to-sequence model described herein is an exemplary embodiment, and that the encoder is to be construed in the broadest sense to include variations of the specific design and/or performance need described herein, as well as other variations that are well known to those of skill in the art. In some embodiments, the encoder-decoder network is an ensemble of neural networks that includes at least two neural networks combined to create a learning paradigm or model to solve the problem of predicting a characteristic FTIR absorbance spectrum from chemical structure string data. For example, significant improvement in performance has been seen when multiple (up to 50) neural networks are trained with the encoder-decoder architecture described herein. In certain embodiments, the ensemble is implemented using a specific number and/or type of neural networks from a possible pool or group of neural networks. The results from training each of the neural networks (i.e., the component predictions) may then be combined using plurality voting or majority voting for classification tasks, and averaging or weighted averaging for regression tasks.
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As described above, model verification may include comparing the output string to the input string , as part of training the encoder portion of the sequence-to-sequence model to process the input string and predict latent chemical bond information. Verification can include a simple comparison of the strings, conversion of strings to vector representation and determining a difference vector, or other approaches to verifying accuracy. In some embodiments, the output string may take the form of a different structural representation, in which case the sequence-to-sequence model may be said to be acting as a bi-directional translator between two representation formats for the same chemical structure (e.g., SMILES and InChI). In some embodiments, verification is iterative, such that encoder/decoder training may be applied to the sequence-to-sequence model . Training the sequence-to-sequence model may include, but is not limited to, providing additional input strings, batches of input strings, or re-introducing the same input string as part of training the encoder .
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In some embodiments, the encoder is trained using a training data set including labeled characteristic spectra of materials collected from a database of spectral information. Encoder training may include training the encoder to predict latent chemical bond information that maps to characteristic spectra for material classifications, a specific material, contaminants, additives, or other levels of characterization, corresponding to the intended use of the encoder . Encoder training may also include vocabulary building operations to help the encoder learn to identify bonds and structures from structural representations in the training data set . The concept of vocabulary, originating in NLP treatments of human language, in this context refers to training the encoder to identify spectroscopically active bonds either explicitly stated or implied in a structural representation.
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As opposed to spectroscopic measurements of real-world samples, predicted spectra may include a reduced feature-set to facilitate identification of a given material, rather than reproducing the exact spectrum of the material. For example, a trained encoder may be configured to predict chemical bond information that maps to characteristic spectral features descriptive of the class of a material based on its chemical structure string (e.g., polymer type). The trained encoder may also be configured to predict the chemical bond information that maps to specific identifying spectral features descriptive of the material, from which the material can be distinguished from other materials of the same class. As an illustrative example, polyethylene-type polymers may be functionalized with different side-chains or functional groups, such that an absorbance spectrum of a functionalized polymer can contain features introduced by the polymer backbone, which will be common to all polyethylene-type polymers, as well as features specific to the side-chains or functional groups. In some embodiments, therefore, the trained encoder is trained to predict those features that would distinguish one polymer from another within a specific polymer type, as well as distinguishing one polymer type from another.
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The system implementing the trained encoder may obtain sample data from which to generated encoded representations . The sample data can be categorized by material classification, for example, when the trained encoder has been trained to predict spectra for materials within a specific material classification. The sample data can be obtained from material databases, such as those described above in reference to , for example, where the entry for the material lacks a characteristic spectrum. Once generated, the encoded representation may serve as an input to a mapping function.
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Mapping describes various operations including, but not limited to, input/output mapping using vector operations, machine learning models implemented in artificial neural networks trained to generate predicted spectral features from the encoded representation , or pre-processing operations to reduce the size of the encoded representation . For example, the pre-processing operations can select an incomplete subset of the latent chemical bond information to isolate particular resultant features for a given application, such as distinguishing the material class of the material or identification of the material from others in the same class.
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The product of mapping includes an output spectrum , which can be represented as a spectrum array object. The output spectrum , as an array of data including wavelength and intensity information and other metadata, may take various forms, including, but not limited to, a data file stored in a library of predicted spectra, a visualization file including graph data for the predicted spectrum, or other data format that can be used to configure a sensor to identify the material from which the output spectrum was predicted. In this way, multiple output spectra may be generated and stored to populate the library of predicted spectra using the same trained encoder , a detailed example of which is described in reference to , below.
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illustrates predicting a characteristic spectrum of a polymer using an encoder implemented in an artificial neural network, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As an illustrative example of the techniques described in reference to , describes an encoder receiving as an input string a structure string describing a chemical structure of a monomer unit of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET is a commodity material that makes up a large portion of plastic waste and is one of the most recycled thermoplastics, having the number “1” as its recycling symbol. PET is thoroughly characterized and its multiple different grades and forms are described in chemical databases. PET is illustrated in , however, because the structure of the PET monomer includes hydrogen atoms, branches, an aromatic cycle, and, as such, the corresponding structure string (e.g., a SMILES string, as shown in ) includes uppercase nodes, lowercase nodes, branch characters, cycle terminus numerals, bond characters, and punctuation to indicate specific group configurations.
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In some embodiments, the order of characters in the structure string references an arbitrary starting node. In the case of the structure of PET, the starting node is the left-most oxygen atom within the monomer unit. As previously described, SMILES strings omit hydrogen atoms, and, as such, the structure string does not include “H.” For the input to the encoder , each character or numeral can be provided as an input state to cell of the encoder , which may include an arbitrary number of cells corresponding to the variable length of the input string . As described previously, the encoder may be an implementation of an RNN, for which the cells may include LSTM cells or GRU cells, among other approaches to context-sensitive sequence encoding.
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Each cell receives an input state, a cell state , and a hidden state from a preceding cell in the neural network. For the first cell of the cells , corresponding to a first time step in terms of memory, an initial cell state and initial hidden state are provided to the first cell. LSTM cells and GRU cells differ in that GRU cells do not pass a cell state . The hidden state passed to the subsequent cell facilitates information retention and provides the capability for the encoder to identify latent chemical bond information. For example, hydrogen information can be predicted based on the information of a node itself, such as valence states of the element represented in the node. In contrast, cycles and branches may involve retention of information, such as ring terminus numerals, across multiple cells. For the encoder of , the ring opening numeral “1” will be separated by the ring closing numeral “1” by six cells , some receiving nodes and others receiving branch indicators, bond indicators, etc.
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In some embodiments, the final hidden state of the encoder , “hn,” serves as the encoded representation that can be used to generate the spectrum of the material. The final hidden state may be selected to include all structural information and to reduce the likelihood that a final operator is omitted that could affect the predicted features. Selecting the final hidden state as the encoded representation may be substituted by a preceding hidden state in some cases, as when the spectrum string includes nodes that would be absent in a material form of the chemical. For example, the structure includes an oxygen atom that would be absent in the polymerized form of PET. As such, the encoder may output an encoded representation from the second-to-last node, “C,” rather than the last node, “O,” such that the spectrum represents the polymer form rather than the monomer form. Prior to mapping , the encoded representation may be processed to reduce the amount of data included in the encoded representation, as an approach to reduce the complexity of mapping .
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The spectrum can be or include a multi-dimensional vector representation of spectral features of an absorbance spectrum, which can be visually represented as a series of peaks, bands, or lines on a pair of axes describing wavelength, wavenumber, or other energy unit against relative intensity. The mapping may include estimations of peak width and other distributive effects, such that the spectrum describes a continuous curve, thereby predicting a characterization measurement of the structure . Mapping , shown in as a simple vector product between a vector of bond multiplicities and a vocabulary of wavelengths, can generate the output spectrum from the encoded representation . While the operation shown is a simple input/output mapping using vector operations, other information and operations may be included. For example, mapping may include multi-dimensional vectors including both wavelength and intensity information, interaction terms to compensate for the effects of additives and contaminants on output spectra, and multiple operations in sequence, as when combining multiple encoded representations to generate spectrum features for a composite material as a combined spectrum (e.g., as a combined spectrum array of data describing characteristic spectral features of the materials making up the composite). In some embodiments, the mapping is implemented by a decoder network, as described previously in reference to encoder verification. For example, a decoder network may be trained to receive the encoded representation as a fixed-length input and output a variable length sequence including the spectral features of the predicted spectrum . Training the decoder network can include the same or similar approaches described above in reference to verifying and training the encoder . In this way, the encoder can be implemented as part of a sequence-to-sequence model trained to predict spectral features from structure strings.
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To facilitate mapping and to more accurately predict the spectrum , the encoder may be trained to infer bonds or orientations in the structure that are absent from the structure string . Latent chemical bond information may have a more significant influence on the spectral features included in the spectrum than the nodes that are included in the structure string . As described below, the latent chemical bond information may map to a large portion of the features that appear in a characteristic spectrum.
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illustrates an example workflow for generating a latent representation of a linear alkyne from an input representation, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the context of the NLP models described thus far, the workflow describes the concept of latent representations and mapping in terms of an example chemical, 1-hexyne, having an unsaturated linear structure (CH). As illustrated in , the characteristic spectrum of 1-hexyne includes six spectral features , each labeled with the respective bond vibration giving rise to the absorbance of IR radiation at a characteristic wavelength. It should be noted that the characteristic spectrum omits multiple features of the actual spectrum of 1-hexyne and is not reproduced exactly to scale. As such, the spectral features are not labeled with a specific wavelength or relative intensity. In a spectral database, a characteristic spectrum will typically describe the peak position of the spectral features, as well as other spectral characteristics, such as a qualitative intensity value. In the interest of simplicity, omits such information in favor of focusing on the contribution of latent chemical bond information to the characteristic spectrum .
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To demonstrate the importance of latent chemical bond information for predicting the spectral features , an structural representation may include only the information conforming to a standard format. For example, a structure string in SMILES format for 1-hexyne may include only information about nodes and non-single bonds, making the structural representation , “CCCCC#C.” It can be seen in the characteristic spectrum , however, that three of the six spectral features are attributed to carbon-hydrogen bonds in various forms of vibrational motion, such as rocking motion, scissoring motion, or stretching motion. In this way, the structural representation omits information about hydrogen covalent bonds that are significant for predicting the spectral features .
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To accurately predict the spectral features , the structural representation is expanded to describe latent representations . For example, the latent representations may include structural bonds and/or spectroscopically active bonds . As vibrational spectroscopy measures covalent bonds, the structural bonds may include implied information about single bonds that is omitted from the structure string . For example, the string “CCCCC#C” implies five carbon-carbon single bonds, “C—C” along with the triple bond “C#C.”
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From the structural bonds , further latent chemical bond information may be predicted, for example, based on the valence state of the carbon atoms. Since carbon atoms form four covalent bonds, the remaining available valence electrons may be populated with covalently bonded hydrogen atoms. As illustrated, the spectroscopically active bonds include at least a portion of the structural bonds , as well as hydrogen covalent bonds, such as “H—C#C,” “H—C—H,” “H—C,” and “H—C—C.” To correctly populate the hydrogen atoms and covalent bonds, the structure of the molecule is be predicted from the structure string based, for example, on assumptions implicit in the structural representation . For example, in SMILES strings, a node is covalently bonded to the node preceding it and following it. Where the node is followed by a closing parenthesis or is at the end of the structure string , the node is bonded to the preceding node, with other bonding left implicit. In this way, the latent representation , such as the spectroscopically active bonds , include information not only based on the nodes themselves, but also on the sequence of the nodes in the structure string. As an illustrative example, the terminal carbon atom in 1-hexyne is bonded to three hydrogen atoms, which are not restricted in their motion in the same way as the two hydrogen atoms bonded to a middle-carbon atom. Such structural differences, as well as the constrained motion of the “C#C” triple bond, give rise to the spectral features . While omitted from the spectral features in the interest of simplicity, carbon-carbon bonding can sometimes be observed in FTIR spectra. For this reason, the structural bonds are included in the spectroscopically active bonds , although this is not always the case.
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From the spectroscopically active bonds , as part of the latent representations , the output mapping can be predicted. As shown in the characteristic spectrum , the spectral features result from at least a portion of the spectroscopically active bonds . The output mapping , therefore, relies not on the structural representation , but rather on the latent representation , because the latent representation includes implicit information about chemical structure, covalently bonded hydrogen atoms, and constraints on bond motion. This latent chemical bond information is used to arrive at the wavelengths , for example, of the predicted spectral features of the output mapping .
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illustrates an example flow describing a method for generating a predicted spectrum of a material, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As described in reference to , one or more operations making up the method may be executed by a computer system in communication with additional systems including, but not limited to, characterization systems, network infrastructure, databases, and user interface devices. In some embodiments, the method includes operation , where the computer system inputs a structural representation of a material to an encoder model. The structural representation can be or include a structure string, which can be a SMILES string, an InChI string, or another standard text string format for representing the chemical structure of a material. As described above, the structural representation may leave at least some chemical bond information as implicit information. For example, a SMILES string excludes covalently bonded hydrogen atoms from the structural representation.
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The encoder model may include an NLP model implemented in an artificial neural network. The encoder model may form part of a transformer model or an RNN model configured to generate a fixed-length encoded representation of the structural representation. The RNN model may incorporate LSTM cells or GRU cells that may be trained in multiple approaches. In some embodiments, encoder verification may include training the encoder as part of a sequence-to-sequence model that also includes a decoder. The decoder may also form part of a transformer model or an RNN model. In some embodiments, the encoder/decoder may be trained to translate one structural representation to another, such as from one structure string format to another structure string format, to verify that the encoder is predicting latent chemical bond information correctly. As described in reference to , such an approach may permit training and tuning of the encoder in addition to training the encoder to identify spectroscopically active bond information.
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The method also includes operation , where the computer system generates the encoded representation of the structural representation. The encoded representation includes latent chemical bond information, including information about spectroscopically active bonds, some of which may have been implicit in the structural representation. The encoded representation is be a fixed-length multi-dimensional vector and may include information about bond multiplicity, specific to node identity. The length of the encoded representation may correspond to a bond vocabulary developed during encoder training and verification, where the encoder has been trained to predict bonds from the structural representation. The encoded representation may therefore include integer bond multiplicity information for bonds predicted to be incorporated in the structure of the material. For an encoder model using an RNN, the encoded representation can be a hidden state of one of the cells making up the RNN, for example, to account for the entire structure, the final hidden state can be outputted as the encoded representation. That being said, when a monomer is represented in the model input, one or more nodes may correspond to groups that are absent from the polymer unit. In such cases, the encoded representation can be generated from the hidden state outputted by an intermediate cell, before the final cell that receives the terminal node as its input state.
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The method also includes operation , where the computer system maps the encoded representation to a spectrum. In some embodiments, the mapping may be a simple input/output mapping, but may also include implementations of the decoder as part of a sequence-to-sequence model. For example, the NLP approach to mapping may provide additional information, resulting from training the encoder and the decoder together to predict spectral features from the structural representation. For simple input/output mappings, however, the spectrum can be generated by vector operations performed on the encoded representation, such as a vector product between the fixed-length vector making up the encoded representation and an array of wavelength-intensity values corresponding to a bond vocabulary from which the encoded representation includes bond multiplicity values.
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The method also includes operation , where the computer system outputs the spectrum. Outputting the spectrum may describe various operations, such as storing the spectrum in a library of predicted spectra, to populate the library with spectra for which measured spectra are unavailable. Similarly, the output spectra may be outputted for use to configure a sensor or detector system to identify a material.
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is an illustrative architecture of a computing system implemented as some embodiments of the present disclosure. The computing system is only one example of a suitable computing system and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the present disclosure. Also, computing system should not be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in computing system .
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As shown in , computing system includes a computing device . The computing device can be resident on a network infrastructure such as within a cloud environment, or may be a separate independent computing device (e.g., a computing device of a service provider). The computing device may include a bus , processor , a storage device , a system memory (hardware device) , one or more input devices , one or more output devices , and a communication interface .
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The bus permits communication among the components of computing device . For example, bus may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures to provide one or more wired or wireless communication links or paths for transferring data and/or power to, from, or between various other components of computing device .
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The processor may be one or more processors, microprocessors, or specialized dedicated processors that include processing circuitry operative to interpret and execute computer readable program instructions, such as program instructions for controlling the operation and performance of one or more of the various other components of computing device for implementing the functionality, steps, and/or performance of the present disclosure. In certain embodiments, processor interprets and executes the processes, steps, functions, and/or operations of the present disclosure, which may be operatively implemented by the computer readable program instructions. For example, processor can retrieve, e.g., import and/or otherwise obtain or generate absorbance spectra, encode each absorbance spectrum, append a set of metadata features to each absorbance spectrum or an encoded vector for each absorbance spectrum, and decode each encoded vector. In embodiments, the information obtained or generated by the processor , e.g., the absorbance spectra, the encoded vectors, the decoded vectors, etc., can be stored in the storage device .
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The storage device may include removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer readable media, such as, but not limited to, non-transitory machine readable storage medium such as magnetic and/or optical recording media and their corresponding drives. The drives and their associated computer readable media provide for storage of computer readable program instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for operation of computing device in accordance with the different aspects of the present disclosure. In embodiments, storage device may store operating system , application programs , and program data in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.
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The system memory may include one or more storage mediums, including for example, non-transitory machine readable storage medium such as flash memory, permanent memory such as read-only memory (“ROM”), semi-permanent memory such as random access memory (“RAM”), any other suitable type of non-transitory storage component, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, an input/output system (BIOS) including the basic routines that help to transfer information between the various other components of computing device , such as during start-up, may be stored in the ROM. Additionally, data and/or program modules , such as at least a portion of operating system , program modules, application programs , and/or program data , that are accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processor , may be contained in the RAM. In embodiments, the program modules and/or application programs can comprise, for example, a processing tool to identify and annotate spectrum data, a metadata tool to append data structures with metadata, and one or more encoder networks and/or encoder-decoder networks to predict spectra, which provides the instructions for execution of processor .
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The one or more input devices may include one or more mechanisms that permit an operator to input information to computing device , including, but not limited to, a touch pad, dial, click wheel, scroll wheel, touch screen, one or more buttons (e.g., a keyboard), mouse, game controller, track ball, microphone, camera, proximity sensor, light detector, motion sensors, biometric sensor, and combinations thereof. The one or more output devices may include one or more mechanisms that output information to an operator, such as, but not limited to, audio speakers, headphones, audio line-outs, visual displays, antennas, infrared ports, tactile feedback, printers, or combinations thereof.
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The communication interface may include any transceiver-like mechanism (e.g., a network interface, a network adapter, a modem, or combinations thereof) that enables computing device to communicate with remote devices or systems, such as a mobile device or other computing devices such as, for example, a server in a networked environment, e.g., cloud environment. For example, computing device may be connected to remote devices or systems via one or more local area networks (LAN) and/or one or more wide area networks (WAN) using communication interface .
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As discussed herein, computing system may be configured to train an encoder-decoder network to predict an characteristic spectral features from a structural representation of a material obtained as a structure string. In particular, computing device may perform tasks (e.g., process, steps, methods and/or functionality) in response to processor executing program instructions contained in non-transitory machine readable storage medium, such as system memory . The program instructions may be read into system memory from another computer readable medium (e.g., non-transitory machine readable storage medium), such as data storage device , or from another device via the communication interface or server within or outside of a cloud environment. In embodiments, an operator may interact with computing device via the one or more input devices and/or the one or more output devices to facilitate performance of the tasks and/or realize the end results of such tasks in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In additional or alternative embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with the program instructions to implement the tasks, e.g., steps, methods and/or functionality, consistent with the different aspects of the present disclosure. Thus, the steps, methods and/or functionality disclosed herein can be implemented in any combination of hardware circuitry and software.
In the preceding description, various embodiments have been described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore, well-known features may have been omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the embodiment being described.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a system including one or more data processors. In some embodiments, the system includes a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and/or part or all of one or more processes and workflows disclosed herein. Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and/or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein.
The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims. Thus, it should be understood that although the present disclosure has been specifically disclosed by embodiments and optional features, modification and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
The description provides preferred exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the preferred exemplary embodiments will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing various embodiments. It is understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims.
Specific details are given in the description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, specific computational models, systems, networks, processes, and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments. | |
Addressing priorities is essential for the success of water and sanitation projects, especially in resource-limited communities. In order to quickly assess a resource-limited community's priorities and sanitation needs, sanitation implementers often rely on a single method for priority assessment without understanding its effectiveness, such as its ability to identify the greatest number of unique and most important priorities. To increase the sector's exposure to and understanding of more comprehensive and qualitative priority identification methods, this paper compares three qualitative priority identification methods: interviews, focus groups, and photovoice. Each method was used to identify community priorities (e.g., jobs, electricity) and sanitation priorities (e.g., cost, cleanliness) in twenty communities in India. A cross-case comparison of the three methods for both community and sanitation priorities found that interviews identified the greatest number of unique priorities and most important priorities. Since many respondent attributes are expected to impact a method's effectiveness, the impact of each respondent's sex and community role (leader, member, sanitation system manager) was also evaluated. Regardless of method, community members voiced more priorities, including more of the most important priorities, than community leaders or sanitation system managers. Leaders and system managers, as well as males and females, identified similar numbers of unique and most important priorities. These results are in contrast with current practice and support the use of interviews and the inclusion of community members during priority identification efforts. Environmental engineers, researchers, government agencies, and sanitation implementers can use these results to better identify priorities, which, if addressed, can increase community acceptance and ultimately minimize project failure. | https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/ew/c8ew00391b |
SCARBOROUGH — Maine is in the midst of a housing crisis, say many local and state officials. Housing prices have increased over the past few years, a situation made worse by the pandemic.
The lack of workforce housing in Maine has affected businesses’ ability to attract applicants. Recently, many local companies have seen an increase in applicants who have accepted employment, only to decline after an unsuccessful search for workforce housing within Cumberland and York counties.
The lack of affordable housing in Cumberland County has made it a challenge to retain younger people who have recently graduated from college in the area, some business owners say.
Representatives from Zoom Drain, a sewer and drain home service company, say that the business is growing and is growing quickly, but the lack of nearby affordable housing has made it difficult to employ help.
“We are currently trying to hire for multiple positions, with upwards of 10 openings available,” said Sam Marcisso at Zoom Drain. “We are having a hard time filling those positions, and on multiple occasions, the travel time for the applicants/interviewees from their homes is the reason. They live too far away to make it feasible and so far away because of the housing prices in the greater Portland area. Approximately half of our staff have a 30-plus minute drive, with two being 50-plus (in) each direction. We have had a few applicants who said the drive from their homes would be too long. When asked if they had thought about relocating, they responded saying they would if they could afford to move closer. The willingness is there, but the housing for them is not. I have also had existing, and potential employees say they could not find anything available that would fit their needs.”
The Swanson Group LLC is a local CPA firm based in Westbrook, Maine, an accounting firm, and is currently having the same issue.
“During COVID, we had several staff looking to purchase first-time homes, and the entry-level house price began to rise during this timeframe,” said Tabitha C. Swanson of The Swanson Group. “The next noticeable point for us happened this fall; our industry is challenged to find candidates entering the workforce. We had a candidate moving here from New York; he was first delayed by two weeks due to the inability to find affordable housing. He then officially reached out to say he couldn’t locate affordable housing and had to turn down the opportunity. Recently we have had two staff level employees searching for an affordable house, neither of them has yet obtained it and are still searching. These are young professionals with entry-level pay (one of them is looking for a roommate to share the costs with). They tell me about wait lists at the affordable housing that they expect an 18-month wait and looking at properties that are disasters and overpriced. If our entry-level staff are having difficulties, I cannot imagine how difficult it is for those without college degrees and professional careers.”
Braincube is a fast-growing tech company that’s based in Portland, and France. The company offers an average salary 40 percent higher than the median area salary, but prospective employees still cannot find affordable housing. There just isn’t enough inventory, said Braincube representatives.
While successful in filling positions, the company “is struggling to find housing for those who we’ve succesffully hired,” said Braincube representatives. “People are really happy to move to Maine but the challenges have been identifying housing for them.”
“We’ve had to get creative to solve it (the housing problem),” Becky Brown of Braincube said. “Braincube’s HR department is actively working to create solutions by touring five prospective housing locations and calling 20 location companies to source housing for their incoming employees. They’ve also created an internal network of housing which includes passing down apartments from employee to employee; subletting or leasing units to other employees. Currently — they have eight employees committed to work, and every single one has a challenge finding housing. Currently, three apartments are being passed down, and two interns are staying in Airbnb’s because of no short-term rentals.”
“It’s really caused people to take longer to start employment because they can’t find housing to move here,” Brown said. “We’ve had to re-examine our salaries, hybrid work policies, expand how we recruit, and more. We plan to hire around 10 more people over the next year. “
A current Downs resident Murphy Crowell looked for months before finding a condominium he and his growing family could afford in the Cumberland and York counties areas before finding a place in the Downs. For months Crowell had to commute from New Hampshire to Maine for his job.
“Workforce housing is important for people to have a place to live and be able to boost the Maine economy by employing people and having an affordable place to live and not being housebroken on a mortgage on top of that,” said Crowell. “I was a commuter from New Hampshire up here until we were able to find a place, but I was commuting an hour each way, and it was terrible dealing with traffic. I wasn’t able to find anything close by, so the lack of housing impacted me for almost six months.”
At the Scarborough Town Council meeting held on July 20, the council passed a second and final vote to amend the town zoning ordinance to include a workforce housing definition.
“We have had an item related to workforce housing moving through our processes in Scarborough,” said Town Council chair John Cloutier. “In particular, we have been working to define what exactly ‘workforce housing’ means from an ordinance perspective. This will allow for special treatment of this new ‘class’ of development when the situation warrants in the future. We relied upon our Housing Alliance to draft recommended language, and have since held a first reading, public hearings at both the Planning Board and Town Council levels.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors. | https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/29/the-lack-of-workforce-housing-in-maine-is-impacting-many-local-businesses-and-residents/ |
Research related to the analysis of living structures (Biomechanics) has been carried out extensively in several distinct areas of science, such as, for example, mathematics, mechanical, physics, informatics, medicine and sports. However, for its successful achievement, numerous research topics should be considered, such as image processing and analysis, geometric and numerical modelling, biomechanics, experimental analysis, mechanobiology and Enhanced visualization, and their application on real cases must be developed and more investigation is needed. Additionally, enhanced hardware solutions and less invasive devices are demanded. On the other hand, Image Analysis (Computational Vision) aims to extract a high level of information from static images or dynamical image sequences. An example of applications involving Image Analysis can be found in the study of the motion of structures from image sequences, shape reconstruction from images and medical diagnosis. As a multidisciplinary area, Computational Vision considers techniques and methods from other disciplines, like from Artificial Intelligence, Signal Processing, mathematics, physics and informatics. Despite the work that has been done in this area, more robust and efficient methods of Computational Imaging are still demanded in many application domains, such as in medicine, and their validation in real scenarios needs to be examined urgently. Recently, these two branches of science have been increasingly seen as being strongly connected and related, but no book series or journal has contemplated this increasingly strong association. Hence, the main goal of this book series in Computational Vision and Biomechanics (LNCV&B) consists in the provision of a comprehensive forum for discussion on the current state-of-the-art in these fields by emphasizing their connection. The book series covers (but is not limited to): • Applications of Computational Vision and Biomechanics • Biometrics and Biomedical Pattern Analysis • Cellular Imaging and Cellular Mechanics • Clinical Biomechanics • Computational Bioimaging and Visualization • Computational Biology in Biomedical Imaging • Development of Biomechanical Devices • Device and Technique Development for Biomedical Imaging • Experimental Biomechanics • Gait & Posture Mechanics • Grid and High Performance Computing on Computational Vision and Biomechanics • Image Processing and Analysis • Image processing and visualization in Biofluids • Image Understanding • Material Models • Mechanobiology • Medical Image Analysis • Molecular Mechanics • Multi-modal Image Systems • Multiscale Biosensors in Biomedical Imaging • Multiscale Devices and BioMEMS for Biomedical Imaging • Musculoskeletal Biomechanics • Multiscale Analysis in Biomechanics • Neuromuscular Biomechanics • Numerical Methods for Living Tissues • Numerical Simulation • Software Development on Computational Vision and Biomechanics • Sport Biomechanics • Virtual Reality in Biomechanics • Vision Systems •Image-based Geometric Modeling and Mesh Generation • Digital Geometry Algorithms for Computational Vision and Visualization In order to match the scope of the Book Series, each book has to include contents relating, or combining both Image Analysis and mechanics.
Get the table of contents of every new volume published in Lecture Notes in Computational Vision and Biomechanics. | https://www.springer.com/series/8910 |
Places of Archaeological Interest
The archaeological Survey of India, during the archaeological exploration of the Ghaggar valley in Sirsa District in 1967-1968, nearly 54 sites,yielding the painted grey, black and Red, Black Slipped, Grey and Red wares and those belonging to Rang Mahal Culture were discovered. No Harappan settlement, however, could be located. Sites yielding Rang Mahal Pottery were found to be situated in close proximity of the Ghaggar.
Among the painted grey ware settlement, a mound locally called LAHORONWALI THERI at Rania deserves special mention. The painted grey ware types found here mainly comprised dishes and bowls. Pottery of the later periods was also collected from this site. Besides, two mounds at Sikanderpur from where stone slabs having marks of Iron dowels were found can be ascribed to Rang Mahal Culture. A few more archaeological sites were identified in the district. The more important one’s are described below :-
Arnian wali (Tehsil Sirsa)
It is situated 8 KMs South of Sirsa on Sirsa Bhadra Road. A mound measuring nearly 4 Acres and approximately 10 Feet high lies 400 Meters North of the village. It has yielded fragments of pottery of early history and medieval times.
Sikander Pur (Tehsil Sirsa)
Located about 12 KMs East of Sirsa, the village is approached by a link Road from Sirsa – Fatehabad Road. The site, which has two mounds, ONE KM apart, is located about 1.6 KMs North-East of the villages and is nearly 30 Feet high. Heavy Stone Slabs and a sculpture of Indra, specimens of a temple of early medieval times were found from the site. A sculpture of an “Ekmukha Linga” of Shiva belonging to early medieval times has also been discovered. The specimen represents Shiva both in his human as well as Phallic form. A Sculpture of Indra recovered from the site is fine specimen representing two armed Indra as Dikpala. Another sculpture of Indra with his consord belonging to the early medieval times has also been found. The site has also yielded Rang Mahal and medieval wares.
Suchan (Tehsil Sirsa)
Located about 16 KMs East of Sirsa, the site has yielded fragments of Pottery of Rang Mahal and early medieval wares. | https://sirsa.gov.in/tourist-packages/ |
Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ACSs) can face unique challenges in creating patient loyalty according to Jim HIggins, founder and CEO at Solutionreach. In his latest article on Becker's Hospital Review, Jim talks about these unique challenges and how ASCs can use personalized communication to build relationships with patients.
"It’s not enough that ASCs are generally a more affordable and convenient alternative to a hospital. Patients also want a positive patient experience that comes through a connection with their provider," says Higgins in the article. The best way to provide this experience is to use the tools in patient communication software to offer personalized communication to each patient. Not only will the patient see better health outcomes, the practice will also benefit from the financial impacts of focusing on the patient experience."
Find out more by reading the entire article on Becker's Hospital Review. | https://www.solutionreach.com/resources/news/read-enaging-patients-with-personalized-communication-on-beckers |
Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD), giving us an important opportunity to acknowledge the devastating impact elder abuse can have on an individual’s life, and reflect on what we can and should do as a society to better respond to elder abuse.
Late last year, the long-awaited National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study was released, giving Australians a clearer picture of what has historically been hidden behind closed doors.
In addition to providing a greater understanding of the scale and characteristics of the issue, the Prevalence Study also highlights what we have long known and embraced through our Health Justice Partnerships: that health workers are often on the frontline in identifying and responding to elder abuse.
This WEAAD, we’re sharing three little known facts about elder abuse in Australia.
1. Elder abuse is more common than most people think
One in six older Australians have experienced elder abuse, including psychological, physical, financial, sexual abuse and neglect.
This means an estimated 600,000 Australians aged 65 and older experienced elder abuse over the 12 months of the study. This figure likely underestimates the total number because the study excluded people with reduced cognitive or physical capacity, and people who live in aged care.
2. Older people mostly experience elder abuse from the people they are closest to
The Prevalence Study has also demonstrated what a complex and nuanced phenomenon elder abuse can be. It found that half of all elder abuse is perpetrated by a family member, with the predominant relationship being intergenerational and familial.
Children, partners of children, and grandchildren together account for almost a third of elder abuse experienced, and 1 in 10 perpetrators are intimate partners. Friends, acquaintances, and neighbours are also significant among perpetrator groups.
3. Health care workers are the critical link between older people and the help they need
Most people who experience abuse do not seek any help at all. The majority deal with it alone, or with the help of a family or friend. Of the older people experiencing elder abuse who do seek help, about 66% of them do so from a health care worker: a nurse, doctor, social worker, or mental health professional.
Elder abuse can often be addressed through legal support: for example by ensuring someone you trust is appointed Power of Attorney to make decisions that benefit you and protect your rights; or by helping you rewrite your Will to protect your assets.
That’s one of the key reasons that we partner with health professionals in hospitals and community health clinics to deliver our services to older people. Through this specialised and holistic Health Justice Partnership (HJP) model, we are working alongside the services older Australians regularly access, allowing us to better identify legal need and connect more older people with free legal help.
We also provide a supported environment for health professionals to learn how to identify the subtle signs of elder abuse, and work with our lawyers to provide a coordinated and sensitive multi-disciplinary response
This WEAAD, we give thanks to our health partners, and acknowledge the critical role that health workers play in protecting older people from abuse. | https://justiceconnect.org.au/fairmatters/bringing-the-legal-and-health-sectors-together-to-respond-to-elder-abuse/ |
This study aims to understand the effects of recent tree encroachment on plant richness and diversity of Sphagnum-dominated bogs isolated in an agricultural landscape. A nested paired sampling design was used to compare plant species richness and beta diversity between open and forested habitats of 14 bogs in southern Québec, Canada. We evaluated the impact of tree encroachment at regional and local scales (between and within bogs, respectively). Tree basal area, canopy openness and stand age were evaluated in forested habitats. We used permutation paired sample t-tests to compare species richness between open and forested sites. Beta diversity was calculated as between-site similarities in composition, and differences were evaluated using tests for homogeneity in multivariate dispersion. Forested habitats had greater species richness than open habitats due to enrichment by facultative and non-peatland species as well as by mid- and shade-tolerant vascular plants. At both scales, this species enrichment was associated with flora differentiation (increase of beta diversity), although at regional scale, this was true for bryophytes only. Tree basal area had a positive influence on forested habitats species richness. These compositional changes are expected to increase similarity between bog flora and upland vegetation, and consequently decrease regional diversity.
KeywordsBeta diversity Biotic homogenization Multivariate dispersion Species richness Species turnover Tree encroachment
Notes
Acknowledgements
This research received financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery grant to S. Pellerin: RGPIN-2014-05367 and M. Poulin RGPIN-2014-05663) and the Québec Centre for Biodiversity Science. We are grateful to all landowners, including the Government of Québec, Nature Action and Transport Canada, who allowed us to conduct field sampling on their lands. Our thanks to numerous field assistants, P. Legendre and S. Daigle for statistical advices and K. Grislis for linguistic revision. | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13157-018-1122-6 |
Individual words or incomplete phrases, considered by themselves, are neither true or false to say in aristotle’s worldview, science.
As aristotle stresses these are the incomplete actualities belonging to these potentialities let’s get physical: aristotle’s natural philosophy. 5 in chapter 2, froeb explains that the one lesson of business is that, wealth is created when assets move from lower to higher-valued uses.
Faith and reason traditionally, faith john hick, in faith and knowledge yet the best explanation for it is still a darwinian worldview. 196 is aristotle’s philosophy anthropocentric a biocentric defense of the aristotelian philosophy of nature a s m anwarullah bhuiyan1 abstract.
Between aristotle and the welfare state the establishment not wrong but incomplete influence in informing polanyi’s worldview.
For aristotle, a speaker's ethos was a rhetorical strategy employed by an orator is the fact that either because of contradictory action or incomplete.
Aristotle student of plato, expert in biology, physics, metaphysics politics, ethics nicomachean ethics how can we live the best life virtue ethics teleological –aims at a final purpose. The word friendly relationship as it is used today carries a wide semantic scope with tonss of definitions c s lewis coined the term “verbicide” to specify the debasement of word. Aristotle's categories is a singularly the most real entities in aristotle's worldview say something that is incomplete — to complete it requires.
The word friendship as it is used today carries a broad semantic range with dozens of definitions cs lewis coined the term “verbicide” to define the degradation of word meaning over time. Steel cage death match: plato vs aristotle in the arena of truth touch etc) reveals only a fallen, shadow, incomplete versions of this ideal truth. Why did aristotle's physics prevail for so long this is all incomplete and so the first big point is that aristotle's worldview is very different.
2018. | http://wspaperbsuk.locksmith-everett.us/aristotles-incomplete-worldview.html |
A RAPD marker specific for the G genome of wheat was identified. The corresponding 1171-bp DNA sequence was cloned and analyzed. Screening of the database did not reveal any homologies with the known plant DNA sequences. Using the primers specific to the flanking regions of the marker sequence, PCR analysis of the polyploid wheat species and the diploid species of the section Sitopsis was carried out. In addition, using the cloned sequence as a molecular hybridization probe, RFLP analysis of the genomic DNA of these species was performed.
Russian Journal of Genetics – Springer Journals
Published: Oct 18, 2004
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Catastrophic Plate Tectonics and the Ice Age
Flood secrets long buried reveal fascinating confirmation for the Genesis account. Where did the water come from to Flood the entire earth? Did the plates move rapidly and break apart during the Flood? Was there really a Pangea? Where did all of the water go post-Flood? And why was there an ice age?
Other episodes in this series:
Summary of Megasequences across North America and the Global Flood
Summary of Megasequences across Africa and the Pre-Flood World
Dinosaur Evolution and the Fossil Record
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TESTIMONIALS
What Will Be Your Legacy?
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TESTIMONIALS
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The Holy Grail of Dinosaurs?
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for permanent employment in our Hyvinkää office to work in our challenging and interesting customer projects. Your primary workplace will be our customer’s premises in Hyvinkää. The offered role is equally suitable for a more junior or senior applicant; you will receive a thorough orientation at the beginning of your employment.
Main responsibilities:
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Working with local business units to create and manage their local planner tools
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Understanding and translating local requirements into product-oriented data designs
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Working with the customer’s business units and global stakeholders to ensure compliance for product data and configuration, and related processes
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Managing the translations and product data localizations together with the customer’s local business units
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Participating to documentation of definitions, process flows and standards
Vaatimukset
Prerequisites for selection:
-
A suitable educational background (either BBA or Engineer)
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Applicable work experience (i.e. summer jobs and internships)
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Ability to work and communicate fluently in English
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Ability to start within one (1) month at the latest
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Basic HTML skills
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Basic Excel skills
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Ability to work proactively and independently
Beneficial for selection:
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Knowledge of product data and related solutions
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Knowledge of business processes
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Facilitation, communication and presentation skills
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Data management skills and accuracy
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Understanding of system integrations
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Quality management of outputs know-how
Muuta
We offer you:
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A position in an international and well-recognized company
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Challenging, interesting and diverse work tasks
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Opportunities to develop and advance
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A relaxed and low hierarchy work environment
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Competitive benefits
Our constantly growing customer base in Finland already includes multiple Nordic large companies. Our domestic operations are expanding continuously and thus we’re also able to offer our employees more opportunities.
Are you interested to work in Europe’s leading technology consulting and design company? If so, submit your application and resume (salary expectation included) at the latest by 20th October 2019. Take note that we’ll start the interview process during the application period and prefer swift hires. For additional information, please contact Business Manager Jarkko Rissanen, Tel. +358 40 641 6130.
Alten Finland is one the largest engineering and design companies in Finland. ALTEN Finland employs over 600 experts in 11 different locations and is part of the ALTEN Group which in turn employs over 34 000 experts in 25 different countries. We offer custom-made solutions in engineering and design - complete service and care packages to fit our customers' every need. | https://www.alten.fi/career/705-product-configuration-specialist/ |
Here are some of the photos that were shared with us for this week’s #TBT.
1.
Lil Nas X shared this too adorbs selfie he took of himself back in 2010, when he was 11 years old:
2.
In celebration of the release of the trailer for Scream 5, Drew Barrymore shared this behind-the-scenes clip of her filming the original back in 1996:
3.
Emma Bunton (aka Baby Spice) celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of — arguably — the Spice Girls’ best song, “Say You’ll Be There,” by posting this photo of herself taken on the set of the music video for it:
4.
In honor of her longtime friend MC Lyte’s 51st birthday, Janet Jackson shared this photo of the two of them in 1993:
5.
Tori Spelling remembered Luke Perry on what would’ve been his 55th birthday by sharing this photo of the two of them in the early ’90s:
6.
RuPaul posted this clip of herself posing during a photo shoot in the early ’10s:
7.
In honor of the fifth anniversary of her winning RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2, Alaska Thunderfuck shared this screenshot from the moment she was crowned:
8.
Emily Hampshire posted this photo of herself and Annie Murphy:
9.
Justin Theroux celebrated the 20th anniversary of Mulholland Drive by sharing a couple of photos taken during the filming of it:
10.
Ahead of the release of Dune next Friday, Kyle MacLachlan shared this photo of himself taken for the 1984 original:
11.
Zach Braff shared this clip of himself in the 1990 short-lived The Baby-Sitters Club HBO series:
12.
Reese Witherspoon shared these photos from when she was part of the Sundance Filmmakers Lab in 1994:
13.
Ahead of Rainn Wilson’s appearance on her and Angela Kinsey’s Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer posted this photo of the two of them together in the early ’00s:
14.
Amanda Seyfried remembered the W magazine photo shoot she and Justin Timberlake did to promote their 2011 movie, In Time:
15.
Jake Gyllenhaal participated in the 🚩🚩🚩 meme by posting some pics of his more, um, forgotten roles and captioned it with, “‘This role would be perfect for Jake Gyllenhaal.’ 🚩🚩🚩🚩”:
16.
Kacey Musgraves shared this photo of herself in full yee-haw garb in the ’90s after her album, Star-Crossed, was excluded from the Country category by the Grammys:
17.
And lastly, Paul McCartney remembered John Lennon on what would have been his 81st birthday by sharing this photo of the two of them during their Beatles days in the early ’60s: | https://007unleashed.com/celeb-tbt-photos-from-this-week-oct-14/ |
View:
Images:
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M
Celebrities born on June 18
The list "Celebrities born on June 18" has been viewed 35,718 times.
This list has
2,392 members
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Celebrities born in June
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Richard Madden
British actor
3
0
rank
#1
·
WDW
316
10
47
Richard Madden (born 18 June 1986) is a Scottish actor. Born and raised in Renfrewshire near Glasgow, Madden rose to prominence in 2011 for his portrayal of Robb Stark in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones. In 2018, he gained acclaim for his performance as a war veteran and Principal Protection Officer in the BBC thriller series Bodyguard, for which he won a Golden Globe Award.
Scottish male Shakespearean actors
·
20T
British male Shakespearean actors
·
56T
Scottish male video game actors
·
23T
Kenan Imirzalioglu
Turkish actor
2
0
rank
#2
·
WDW
473
481
45
Kenan İmirzalıoğlu (born 18 June 1974) is a Turkish actor and former model. İmirzalıoğlu appeared in the action films Son Osmanlı Yandım Ali (The Last Ottoman: Knockout Ali) and Kabadayı (For Love and Honor). He returned to television in 2009 with the series Ezel and also starred in the action film Ejder Kapanı (Dragon Trap) directed by Uğur Yücel.
Golden Butterfly Award winners
·
103T
21st-century Turkish male actors
·
72T
Turkish male television actors
·
296T
Blake Shelton
American singer
4
0
rank
#3
·
WDW
189
15
68
Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The now Platinum-certified debut album also produced two more top 20 entries ("All Over Me" and "Ol' Red").
21st-century male singers
·
6,386T
Singers from Oklahoma
·
220T
People from Ada, Oklahoma
·
49T
Willa Holland
American, Actress
3
0
rank
#4
·
WDW
477
23
92
Willa Holland is an American actress and model. She is known for her roles as Kaitlin Cooper in the Fox teen drama The O.C., Agnes Andrews in The CW series Gossip Girl, Aqua in Kingdom Hearts, and Thea Queen / Speedy in Arrow.
Actresses of Dutch descent
·
51T
Actresses of British descent
·
497T
Female models from California
·
330T
Joshua Dun
American musician
1
0
rank
#5
·
WDW
33
2
18
Joshua William "Josh" Dun (born June 18, 1988) is an American musician. He is currently the drummer for the band Twenty One Pilots.
American male trumpeters
·
659T
21st-century American drummers
·
530T
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
·
42T
Melanie Iglesias
Model,
2
0
rank
#6
·
WDW
282
4
11
Melanie Iglesias (born June 18, 1987, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American model and actress. After being voted Maxim's "Hometown Hotties" winner in 2010, she has been featured in magazines such as World's Most Beautiful, Esquire, and Vibe.
Female models from New York (state)
·
189T
American actresses of Filipino descent
·
95T
Actresses of Italian descent
·
660T
Isabella Brewster
American, Casting Director
1
0
rank
#7
·
WDW
51
7
16
Cora Skinner
American, Model (Adult/Glamour)
1
0
rank
#8
·
WDW
340
10
8
Cora Skinner (born June 18, 1985) is an American glamour model and actress.
Actresses from Alexandria, Virginia
·
10T
Female models from Virginia
·
19T
Legends Football League players
·
23T
Dominique Simone
American, Pornstar
1
0
rank
#9
·
WDW
17
21
19
Domonique Simone (born June 18, 1971 in Valdosta, Georgia) is an African-American adult actress.
20th-century African-American women
·
4,051T
21st-century African-American women
·
3,678T
21st-century African-American people
·
4,925T
Paul McCartney
English rock musician
2
0
rank
#10
·
WDW
2k
117
191
Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and record and film producer who gained worldwide fame as co-lead vocalist and bassist for the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history. After the group disbanded in 1970, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine.
People from Peasmarsh
·
7T
21st-century English composers
·
64T
People from Speke
·
4T
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