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by A.M. Reinhorn, R.E. Valles-Mattox and S.K. Kunnath
The Loss Assessment of Memphis Buildings (LAMB) project is one of the major research projects funded by NCEER. The immediate goal of the project is to assess probable losses and risk levels for specific building types in the Memphis area. However, the long term goal of the project is to develop a unified methodology that can be used for other building types, in other geographical regions. This project studies the response of non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings and unreinforced masonry buildings. The LAMB project integrates research efforts in structures and systems, seismic hazard and ground motions, geotechnical engineering, risk and reliability, and socioeconomic aspects. Questions and comments should be directed to Andrei Reinhorn, University at Buffalo, at _PHONE_; email: _EMAIL_.
In this article, the performance of a four story building, designed without seismic provisions, is studied when subjected to different intensities of ground motion. The seismic demand in the structure is determined in two ways:
The latter technique was recently developed by the authors (Reinhorn et al., 1996). The deformation demands imposed by the earthquakes are compared to the ultimate deformation capacities, to translate response quantities to damage indices, and the latter to damage states.
The structure described herein was selected as a typical low-rise reinforced concrete building for the Memphis area. The structure, part of the University of Memphis campus, was designed in the mid 1960's without seismic provision, as were most buildings in the area. The four story reinforced concrete structure is used as a classroom building. Plan dimensions, typical at all floors, are 197 feet by 95 feet (60 m x 29 m), with a typical story height of 12 feet (3.66 m) as shown in figure 1. The structural system consists of a ribbed slab supported by columns and shear walls.
Typical column dimensions used in the building are 2 ft. 6 in. (76 mm) by 1 ft. (30.5 mm) columns closely spaced in the perimeter of the building, and 18 in. by 18 in. (46 x 46 mm) in the interior. Similarly, two beam types can be identified: one for the exterior frames, and a second one for the interior frames. All beams, or " slab bands" as referred to in the initial design, are 17 in. (43 mm) deep. The shear walls, delineating the elevator and stairs, have a constant thickness of 1 ft. (30.5 mm) throughout the height of the building. Figure 2 shows elevations of the three frame types identified in the longitudinal (north-south) direction. For a more detailed description of the building, see Valles et al. (1996a).
|Table 1: Story heights and weights for half of the case study building|
To evaluate the seismic response of the building, the computer program IDARC (version 4.0) was used (Valles et al., 1996b). A two dimensional model for the structure was used since no significant torsional amplifications were expected due to the symmetry of the building. Furthermore, only half of the building was modeled in either direction, thus, all results reported consider only half of the actual building. The story weights and story heights for half the building are summarized in table 1.
The lateral loads in the system are mostly carried by the shear walls, due to their higher stiffness, as compared to the column-beam frame action. Nevertheless, the model includes the other frames to ensure that the imposed displacement profile will not threaten the vertical load capacity of the structure. Since the limit state in the building can be reached either by a high force demand in the shear walls, or a significant displacement demand in the moment resisting frames, all structural elements were included. The moment-curvature capacity curves for each structural element were automatically generated by IDARC (Valles et al., 1996b), using the fiber model capabilities.
The Memphis metropolitan area is located in the Mississippi embayment, near the epicenters of the New Madrid series of earthquakes. Attenuation relations for the area have been developed by Nuttli and Hermann (1984). Ground motions for the site, corresponding to different earthquake magnitudes, stress drop, and epicentral distances, were generated by the seismic hazard and geotechnical task group of the LAMB project. The records were generated by combining a deterministic and a probabilistic approach (Horton, 1994). A total of 200 records were generated for the area, out of which five were selected to represent five ground motion intensities, with peak ground accelerations (PGA) of 0.1g, 0.2g, 0.3g, 0.4g, and 0.5g.
Time-History Analysis Response
The structure was subjected to the five earthquake motion accelerations selected. Figure 3 presents the maximum displacements, interstory drifts, and story shears experienced by the structure (NS direction), and for each earthquake intensity. The integration time step for the 0.4g and 0.5g accelerations had to be reduced, since the motion induced significant inelastic excursions in the structural elements.
The nonlinear pushover analysis, or collapse mode analysis, is a simple and efficient technique to study the response of a building. The pushover analysis is carried out by incrementally applying lateral loads, or displacements to the structure. The sequence of component cracking, yielding, and failure, as well as the history of deformations and shears in the structure, can be traced as the lateral loads (or displacements) are monotonically increased (see figure 4). Furthermore, strength and service limit states, such as the failure of an element, the formation of a collapse mechanism, etc., can be identified.
The results from pushover analyses are often presented in graphs that describe the variation of the story shear versus story drift, for an inter-story description of the capacity, and base shear versus top displacement, for a global description. The capacity curve determined from a pushover analysis is influenced by the lateral force (displacement) distribution used to load the structure. The force distribution for pushover analysis was determined as follows:
where VB is the base shear, m is the story mass, is the mass-normalized mode shape, is the participation factor, srss is the root sum of squares superposition, are spectral ratios which can be approximated (see Reinhorn et al., 1996). The same distribution can be simply approximated by the design code distribution:
where h is the height to the story weight, and W and k are a power to simulate the complex behavior described by Equation 1.
Figure 5 shows the overall capacity curves for a constant (k=0), linear (k=1), and parabolic (k=2) distribution. The first shear wall failure, as well as the response obtained from time-history analyses, are shown in figure 4. The capacity curve for k=1 (linear) was found to capture the results from the time history analyses in the deformation range before the first shear wall failure.
Simplified Elastic and Inelastic Response Evaluations
In the simplified design or evaluation process, the capacity of a structure is estimated, and compared to the demand loads. The response is estimated at the intersection of a capacity and a demand curve. The method is an extension of the capacity spectrum method proposed by Freeman (1994). The force deformation capacity curves are determined from pushover analysis. The elastic demand curve is determined from an elastic spectral analysis, modified to account for the hysteretic energy dissipation.
The elastic response evaluation method considers the use of an equivalent linear system to estimate the nonlinear response along with an equivalent damping ratio representing the hysteretic behavior (see figure 6). A summary of different methods to determine the equivalent damping ratio is presented by Iwan and Gates (1979). The average stiffness and energy method seems to give the smallest percentage of error for various ductility ratios (Iwan and Gates, 1979). For this method, the critical damping ratios are defined according to:
The idealized bilinear pushover capacity curve is superimposed with the equivalent linear demand curves. The point where the ductility along the capacity curve coincides with the equivalent ductility of the intersecting demand curves yields an estimate of the inelastic response.
For the inelastic response evaluation method, inelastic spectral curves are generated using a bilinear model for the structure (Reinhorn et al., 1996). The response of the bilinear single-degree-of-freedom system is obtained for a given value of the post-yielding stiffness (), and for different values of the force reduction factor, R, defined as the ratio of the elastic, Ve, to the yield, Vy, force capacity of the system. The point where the demand curve, corresponding to the actual value for R, intersects the capacity curve, is the actual inelastic response of the bilinear structure (figure 7).
The procedure described for an SDOF system can be extended to multi-story buildings by modifying the capacity curve to an equivalent SDOF system. The response can be evaluated considering the overall building response, or the interstory response. In the former case, the top displacement versus base shear is used to characterize the capacity, while in the latter case, the story drift versus story shears are used. Both evaluations are important, since the overall response provides an estimate of the global performance, while the story evaluation will detect undesirable weak stories. Actual overall pushover results (T and Vb) are modified to an equivalent


@ARTICLE{Pietrucha-Urbanik_Katarzyna_Analysis_2017, author={Pietrucha-Urbanik, Katarzyna and Tchórzewska-Cieślak, Barbara and Papciak, Dorota and Skrzypczak, Izabela}, volume={vol. 43}, number={No 4}, journal={Archives of Environmental Protection}, howpublished={online}, year={2017}, publisher={Polish Academy of Sciences}, abstract={The main goal of this work is to show the new approach to determining safety technological levels (SLs) in terms of water quality and its chemical stability, as well as issues of water corrosion properties in water distribution systems (WDSs), due to the fact that water supply pipes are prone to corrosion. In the paper the methodology of determining the risk associated with threat to technical infrastructure was considered. The concept was studied on the basis of real operational data from the water treatment plant. The probability of exceeding the individual parameters for WTPI is slightly larger than for WTPII, which means that this water treatment process may cause lack of chemical stability in the water supply network. Operators should anticipate in the process of designing water distribution system, using proper materials, as to ensure an adequate level of safety from the water source to the water recipient. It should be noted that it is necessary to adjust the material of internal installation of water supply networks to the parameters of the water. At present, there are no correlations between the designing step and water parameters. It was concluded that to protect the water supply infrastructure, which belongs to critical infrastructure, water company should put more emphasis on distribution of stable water that has not potentially corrosion properties. Some suggestions were made for the protection of WDS and to ensure safety of system functioning and long-term usability of water pipes.}, title={Analysis of chemical stability of tap water in terms of required level of technological safety}, type={Artykuły / Articles}, URL={_URL_ doi={10.1515/aep-2017-0043}, keywords={chemical stability of water, corrosion indices, technological safety, risk criteria}, }


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Picture of Dr. Stephen Babcock with his butterfat tester.
Dr. Stephen Babcock pictured with a butterfat tester
Dr. Stephen Moulton Babcock (_PHONE_), a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, invented a test in 1890 that permitted farmers to measure the fat content of their milk. This enabled them to systematically produce cream, butter, cheese, ice cream, and other dairy products that met specific market standards. He is shown in this photograph in the mid-1920's, with a butterfat tester.
Mining, Logging, and Agriculture|
The Rise of Dairy Farming
|Creator: ||Diemer, Melvin E.
|Pub Data: ||Original photograph in the visual materials collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.
|Citation: ||Diemer, Melvin E. Untitled photograph of Dr. Stephen Babock in the visual materials collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.
Online facsimile at:
Visited on: 5/25/2013

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Here's what it looks like:
// Example One function triangle(a,b): function sqroot(x): return Math.pow(x,.5) return sqroot( a*a + b*b )
// Example Two for var i=0; i<5; i++: var el = document.getElementById("el"+i) if count % 2 == 0: el.innerHTML = "Hello" else: el.innerHTML = "World"
// Pyscript function triangle(a,b): if a > 0 && b > 0: function sqroot(x): if x > 0: return Math.pow(x,.5) else: return 0 return sqroot( a*a + b*b ) else: return 0
How Do I Get It?
to your
- Put your pyscript code in a
Pyscript is really just a proof of concept. It has a set of unit tests, and as you can see not all functionality is completed yet. Anonymous inline functions do not work, there is no robust handling of indentation, and a number of features (like switch) do not work. But, the whole thing is open source so you can get involved.


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Glossary of Karst and Cave Terms
Based on "A Lexicon of Cave and Karst Terminology with Special to Environmental Karst Hydrology" EPA/600/R-02/003, 2002, EPA: Washington, DC., Speleogenesis Glossary includes 2699 cave & karst terms
1. A proportionality constant relating hydraulic gradient to specific discharge which for an isotropic medium and homogeneous fluid, equals the volume of water at the existing kinematic viscosity that will move in unit time under a unit hydraulic gradient through a unit area measured at right angles to the direction of flow . 2. The volume of water that will move through a medium in a unit of time under a unit hydraulic gradient through a unit area measured perpendicular to the direction of flow . 3. The ability of a rock unit to conduct water under specified conditions . It is typically expressed as gpd/ft2, ft/day, or m/day.

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


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Wooden Table chairs
There are a few considerations to think about though before you buy your first toddler table and chairs. A few factors you should take into account are the kids table set shape, color, and material type. All of these factors can affect how your child uses their new kids table set. For instance, a wooden kids table will be much different for your child to use than a plastic table set with a bench because the plastic materials are generally much more colorful which creates a much different environment for your child to enjoy than just a wood table. So we will try to go over these differences so you can find the best option for your child.
Kids Table Shape
The easiest way to increase the fun of your kids table set is to change the shape of your table. Kids table and chair sets can come in a myriad of shapes ranging from round to a triangle shape. The table shape you choose really depends on how you think your child will be using their table. If they tend to have friends over often than a circular or square table is a good choice so everyone can sit around the table evenly. If you want a table to keep everyone on one side of the table facing mostly the same direction, then maybe a half circle shaped toddler table is more appropriate.
Kids Table Color
Kids table and chairs can come in plenty different colors. For contrasting bright rooms, you could use a kids table and chair set with dark tones to make the table set stand out. If you have a dedicated kids room you may want to have your children's table and chair set blend in with the room. In this case, a brighter colored kids table set would be more appropriate. And since toddler table and chairs can come in colors ranging from bright red to black, to light blue, you will always have options to choose from for your child.
Kids Table Material
When it comes to picking out the right material for your toddler table and chairs picking the material that is most fun for your child is always exciting. To start kid's wooden tables and chairs are the most popular type. The reason for this is wooden kid's tables are very durable and resistant to chipping or staining. Of course, there are other options to choose from besides a kids wooden table and chairs set. The next most popular material is plastic because it is a colorful material that is light and easy to move. So your child can enjoy their children's table no matter where they choose.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Navigation of a boat requires that you know the regulations for all of the waterways. Boat navigation is typically done by using a combination of buoys and daymarks. However, when a waterway you want to navigate is unfamiliar a navigation chart can be used.
Familiarize yourself with the waterway that you want to navigate. This can be a river channel, an inland lake or out in the ocean. Learn the types of markers that you can use to find your bearings. Markers that are used on bodies of water include buoys and daymarks
A buoy is a navigation aid that is designed to float on water. They are available for navigation, mooring and fishing. Only navigation buoys are used to aid the navigation of your boat.
When you return from a trip to the dock or port the position of the buoys is important. You will need to stay to the port side of a green buoy and to the starboard side of a red buoy
A daymark is a numbered marker that is mounted on a piling. A red colored daymark is a triangle shape with an even number. A green colored daymark is a square shape with an odd number. These are placed in shallower water than buoys.
Daymarks have the same navigation rules as buoys. A red daymark needs to be on the port side or your boat and a green daymark on the right.
The symbols found on a navigation chart are used to indicate degrees, minutes and seconds for latitude and longitude. The top and bottom of a navigational chart will have the latitude and longitude. Degrees in latitude are found on the left and right sides of the chart.
One minute of latitude on a navigational chart is equal to 1 nautical mile.


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Dryad
Data from: General models for the spectra of surface area scaling strategies of cells and organisms: fractality, geometric dissimilitude, and internalization
Cite this dataset
Okie, Jordan G. (2012). Data from: General models for the spectra of surface area scaling strategies of cells and organisms: fractality, geometric dissimilitude, and internalization [Dataset]. Dryad. _URL_
Abstract
Surface areas and volumes of biological systems—from molecules to organelles, cells, and organisms—affect their biological rates and kinetics. Therefore, surface-area-to-volume ratios and the scaling of surface area with volume profoundly influences ecology, physiology, and evolution. The zeroth-order geometric expectation is that surface area scales with body mass or volume as a power law with an exponent of two-thirds, with consequences for surface-area-to-volume (SA:V) ratios and constraints on size; however, organisms have adaptations for altering the surface area scaling and SA:V ratios of their bodies and structures. The strategies fall into three groups: (i) fractal-like surface convolutions and crinkles; (ii) classic geometric dissimilitude through elongating, flattening, fattening, and hollowing; and (iii) internalization of surfaces. Here I develop general quantitative theory to model the spectra of effects of these strategies on SA:V ratios and surface area scaling, from exponents of less than two-thirds to superlinear scaling and mixed-power laws. Applying the theory to cells helps quantitatively evaluate the effects of membrane fractality, shape-shifting, vacuoles, vesicles, and mitochondria on surface area scaling, informing understanding of cell allometry, morphology, and evolution. Analysis of compiled data indicates that through hollowness and surface internalization eukaryotic phytoplankton increase their effective surface area scaling, attaining near-linear scaling in larger cells. This unifying theory highlights the fundamental role of biological surfaces in metabolism and morphological evolution.
Usage notes


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A click heatmap is valuable in revealing the effectiveness of links throughout your site.
Whether a link is part of the main navigation, text content, or a multi-step form, you need to know whether it helps or hinders usability.
On our home page, the links in the main navigation receive the most clicks. You can tell because there are clear areas of hot (white) activity. However, there are also areas where it doesn't make sense to have clicks. This happens because visitors are confused or have an expectation that something is clickable (for more information) when, in reality, it isn't.
In our page, the call-to-action buttons are the main focus. We want people to click them. If other text or areas are a distraction, it kills our conversion rate. Part of great design is making sure that a page has everything you need and nothing more.
Although our pages have a lot of elements, they used to be much more complex. We spent time running A/B tests to determine the optimal layout that balances clicks to the locations that we want.
We recommend you look at your click heatmaps and see if they make sense, too.
Here are some questions to ask:
- Do important page elements have click activity?
- Do unimportant page elements have click activity?
- Are there certain elements, relative to others, that receive more activity? Is there a good reason for this?
- Do you need to reorganize/reorder the links in your main navigation to draw focus/attention?
- Do form fields receive equal amounts of click activity? Or, are there certain fields where there is considerable drop off?


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Dendritic cells (DC) are potent APCs that sample Ags from the surrounding environment and present them to naive T cells using cell surface Ag-presenting molecules. The DC in both lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues express high levels of CD1, a cell surface glycoprotein capable of presenting lipids and glycolipids to T cells. Distinct group 1 CD1 isoforms (CD1a, -b, -c) in man are known to traffic to different parts of the endocytic system where microbial Ags may be sampled. Guinea pigs are the only known rodent species that express the group 1 CD1 proteins. Therefore, we examined the expression and trafficking of guinea pig CD1 (gpCD1) isoforms on isolated DC. Confocal microscopy using mAbs specific for individual gpCD1 isoforms revealed differential trafficking of two distinct CD1b isoforms within DC. Colocalization of MHC class II was observed with the gpCD1b1 isoform, consistent with localization in the late endosomes of DC. In contrast, the gpCD1b3 isoform lacks an endosomal sorting motif and remains on the cell surface. Following incubation with Mycobacterium tuberculosis lipoarabinomannan, colocalization of endocytosed lipoarabinomannan with the gpCD1b1 isoform was observed but not with the gpCD1b3 isoform, which remained primarily on the cell surface. These data demonstrate that guinea pig DC express CD1 isoforms with unique trafficking patterns that recapitulate the patterns seen for human CD1 isoforms. This suggests evolutionary pressure for a conserved mechanism in mammals that allows CD1 to sample lipid Ags from various subcompartments of the endocytic system.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy


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The contribution of sewer leakage to urban groundwater recharge remains poorly characterised. There has been a tendency to focus on estimating leakage from pipe network characteristics rather than its impact on the receiving environment. Indeed, pipeline leakage simulation models are frequently used to analyse sewage systems and optimise maintenance efforts. Here a mass balance approach employing groundwater geochemistry is presented to estimate sewer leakage rates; this is done using depth-specific groundwater quality measurements from multilevel monitoring piezometers, specially installed in the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer underlying Doncaster (UK). The results show that leakage rates from the foul sewage system are up to 10% of flow per annum (30–40% of urban recharge) and highlight the utility of groundwater quality monitoring (in particular depth-specific sampling) as an alternative means to assess sewage ingress to urban groundwater
To submit an update or takedown request for this paper, please submit an Update/Correction/Removal Request.


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Results: For patient sera investigated for HIT antibodies, a weak-positive result (0.40–less than 1.00 OD units) in either EIA indicated a low probability (less than or epual to 5%) of a strong-positive SRA; the risk increased to approximately 90% with an OD greater than or equal to 2.00 units. Quantifying the EIA–SRA relationship for 1553 referred patient sera, we found that for every increase of 0.50 OD units in the EIA–IgG, the risk of a strong-positive SRA result increased by OR = 6.39 [95% confidence interval (CI), 5.13, 7.95; P less than 0.0001]. For every increase of 1.00 OD units in the EIA–IgG, the risk increased by OR = 40.81 (95% CI, 26.35, 63.20; P less than 0.0001). Conclusions: The probability of HIT antibodies (strong-positive SRA result) inferred by a positive PF4-dependent EIA varies considerably in relation to the magnitude of the EIA result, expressed as OD values. In our laboratory, the probability of HIT antibodies being present reached greater than or equal to 50% only when the OD level was greater than or equal to 1.40units.
In the concluding paragraph the term "HIT antibodies" means truly functional antibodies, thus predictive of HIT.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Interpreting HIT antibody results
When evaluating patients for heparin induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) we commonly order two tests: antibodies to heparin-platelet factor 4 complex and a serotonin release assay (SRA). Both tests are sensitive but the antibodies are nonspecific. Invariably the antibodies come back first. If they come back positive you're faced with a dilemma: should you go ahead and treat or wait for the more specific SRA result? According to a study in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis the magnitude of positivity of the antibody result, expressed as optical density, correlates well with strong SRA positivity, thus predicting true HIT:


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GenTeal gel is an artificial tear gel used to lubricate the surface of the eye. This study will evaluate the effect of GenTeal gel on comfort following LASIK surgery. Participants will be asked to come to the clinic for three regularly scheduled visits after LASIK surgery: Day 1 (one day after LASIK surgery), Day 7 (one week follow-up), and Day 30 (one month follow-up). Participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding eye comfort during each follow up visit. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups, one of which will receive Genteal Gel four times a day for five days prior to surgery. The other group will receive no preoperative gel or lubricant, which has been our standard approach for many years.
Full Title of Study: "Efficacy, Tolerability and Comfort of GenTeal and GenTeal Gel, (0.3% Hypromellose) in the Pre- and Post- Operative Treatment of Patients Undergoing LASIK Surgery"
- Study Type: Interventional
- Study Design
- Allocation: Randomized
- Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
- Primary Purpose: Treatment
- Masking: Single (Investigator)
- Study Primary Completion Date: October 2009
LASIK (Laser Keratomileusis in Situ) is a frequently performed procedure to reduce the refractive error of the eye so as to minimize the subsequent need for eyeglasses or contact lenses. The procedure requires the creation of a superficial corneal flap, usually with an instrument known as a microkeratome. During the creation of the flap with a microkeratome, the corneal epithelium is typically subjected to sliding stresses which occasionally cause disruption of the epithelial surface, a complication with potentially serious adverse effect on the post operative visual acuity. As well, shortly before the creation of the flap, the patient is often dilated and invariably treated with topical anesthetics. These agents, and their preservatives, can have a negative effect on corneal epithelial integrity, right before the epithelium must withstand the passage of the microkeratome. Therefore, it is imperative that the epithelium be in the best possible condition prior to the LASIK procedure. For this reason, ocular lubricants may be used for a period of time prior to surgery in order to maximize epithelial health. In the immediate post-operative period the bond between the newly created flap and the underlying corneal stroma is weak, and the epithelium has just been subjected to the pharmacologic and mechanical stresses noted above. It is imperative that the surface continuity of the epithelium between the edge of the flap and the surrounding surface be restored as rapidly as possible, as reestablishment of an intact epithelial surface minimizes the risks of flap shift, epithelial ingrowth, and infection. For all these reasons, it is a generally accepted standard of care to use aggressive ocular lubrication during the post-operative period in order to maximize the speed of epithelial recovery. GenTeal Lubricant Eye Drops and GenTeal Gel, (0.3% hypromellose, Novartis Ophthalmics, Basel, Switzerland) provide a natural alternative to preservative-free treatments, with a sodium perborate preservative system and long-lasting action due to the carbomer gelling agent. The perborate preservative, which breaks down to water and oxygen on the ocular surface, essentially delivers a preservative-free lubricant to the eye. This makes the GenTeal products attractive agents for use in the LASIK perioperative period.
- Drug: 0.3% hypromellose
- 0.3% hypromellose four times a day for 5 days prior to LASIK surgery
Arms, Groups and Cohorts
- Experimental: Lubricant
- Patients scheduled to receive LASIK surgery and randomized to receive 0.3% hypromellose ophthalmic solution prior to surgery.
- No Intervention: No Lubricant
- Patients scheduled to receive LASIK surgery and randomized to receive no intervention of 0.3% hypromellose ophthalmic solution prior to surgery
Clinical Trial Outcome Measures
- Epithelial Healing After Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) Surgery
- Time Frame: Day 1, End of Week 1
- Assess whether preoperative GenTeal Gel enhances epithelial healing after LASIK surgery within the first post-operative week, compared to control (no preoperative lubricant). Healing of the area of the cornea covering the radius of the sectioned into clock hours 0 – 12 where 0 hours equals no healing and 12 hours equals complete healing.
- Post Operative Pain Level
- Time Frame: Day 1, End of Week 1
- Assess whether preoperative GenTeal Gel alleviates post operative pain in LASIK surgery patients compared to control (no preoperative lubricant) as measured by patient completion of the Universal Pain Assessment Tool (moderate), a ten point scale with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain possible. Data on the level of pain only in the right eye will be collected.
- Tolerability and Alleviation of Post-operative Pain in LASIK Surgery
- Time Frame: Week 1 post surgery
- A comparison of subjective comfort level defined as tolerability and alleviation of post-operative pain experienced as a result of post-operative application of GenTeal drops. Subjective pain level was measured on a 10 point likert scale where 0 = no pain and 10 = worst pain possible. A lower score at Week 1 as compared to Day 1 was considered improved. A same score or higher at week 1 as compared to day 1 was considered no improvement.
Participating in This Clinical Trial
1. Age 18 – 60 2. Both sexes 3. Any race 4. Seeking LASIK surgery at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG)/Eye Care One 5. Meeting all established criteria for appropriateness for LASIK established by MCG/Eye Care One Exclusion Criteria:
1. Any corneal pathology including scars, prior herpes keratitis, prior corneal transplant 2. Any immunocompromised state including diabetes mellitus, cancer, HIV infection, or Hepatitis B or C. 3. Failure to meet all established criteria for appropriateness for LASIK established by MCG/Eye Care One
Gender Eligibility: All
Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 60 Years
Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Lead Sponsor
- Augusta University
- Provider of Information About this Clinical Study
- Principal Investigator: David Bogorad, Professor and Vice Chairman, Director, Refractive Surgery Service, Department of Ophthalmology – Augusta University
- Overall Official(s)
- David D Bogorad, M.D, Principal Investigator, Augusta University
Samuel MA, Kaufman SC, Ahee JA, Wee C, Bogorad D. Diffuse lamellar keratitis associated with carboxymethylcellulose sodium 1% after laser in situ keratomileusis. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2002 Aug;28(8):1409-11.
Clinical trials entries are delivered from the US National Institutes of Health and are not reviewed separately by this site. Please see the identifier information above for retrieving further details from the government database.


characters that will all be used for training. Our Personalization feature is complex and offers a variety of different modules that enable a person to optimally tune the recognizer. We are proud to announce that Personalization will be available for all Vista languages and all new Windows 7 languages. We encourage you to use this feature to improve your recognition accuracy.
We continue to work on improving our recognizers which also means that we are incorporating our customers feedback through online telemetry (anonymously, privately, voluntary, and opt-in). In Windows Vista we released a new feature called "Report Handwriting Recognition Errors", which gives people the opportunity to submit those ink samples that the recognizer did not recognize correctly. After the person has corrected a word in the Tablet Input Panel (TIP), we enable a menu that allows a person to send the misrecognized ink together with its corrected version to our team.
Here is a screenshot of what our error reporting tool looks like:
Figure 4: With "Report Handwriting Recognition Errors" people can choose which of the misrecognized ink samples they want to submit.
Figure 4: With "Report Handwriting Recognition Errors" people can choose which of the misrecognized ink samples they want to submit.
We receive approximately 2000 error reports per week. Each error report is stored in our database before we analyze it and use it to improve our next generation of recognizers. As you can imagine, real world data is extremely helpful because it is only this type of data that can reveal shortcomings of our recognizers.
We value and appreciate every single error report. Keep sending us your feedback, so that we can use it to improve the magic of our present and future recognizers.
Thank you,
– Yvonne representing the handwriting recognition efforts
Leave a Comment
 - Please add 7 and 6 and type the answer here:
 - Post
 - And what are the improvements in Windows 7?
 - Nice!
 Now i wont tablet PC :D
 Example new dell latitude Xt2
 _URL_
 - Handwriting works amazingly well on Tablet PCs, but a major problem I'm having with pen input (atleast on my HP Tablet PC) is terrible calibration and a no reliable way to improve calibration. The pointer will often be half a centimeter off from the point where the pen tip is touching the screen. In addition, at different positions on the screen, the calibration is correspondingly better or worse. Now, perhaps this is more of a hardware issue (which Microsoft has less control over), but it would be great if some kind of better calibration tool came with Windows 7 (there is one that I believe came with HP on my machine but it only had 4 calibration points on it and more often than not ruins calibration even more than it already is). The more calibration points on this tool the better--I wouldn't mind pecking away at the screen every once in a while if I could enjoy a realistic "pen and paper" experience.
 - Impressive. My nasty handwriting may actually be usable.
 I take it that you're planning on releasing updates for the recognition if you're setting up an opt-in feedback service?
 - After years of using the pen, I find it serves me better focus on where the cursor is rather than where the pen tip is. It's never more than a mm off for me anyway, so it's not too much of a hardship.
 Although I should mention there is a better calibration tool with Windows 7 that uses 16 points, but I haven't noticed an appreciable difference due to it.
 - Thanks for the excellent write up.
 What about the new Math Input Panel new to Windows 7? Is there any overlap in how it was created? If so, is there a broader tool/API that could be created which Microsoft and third parties could use to create other recognition sets?
 - Too cool!
 AND FINALY! NORWEGIAN IS GOING TO BE SUPPORTED! :D Therefore, I must get a tabletPC at once Windows 7 get's released ^^,
 Great improovemnts!
 - I think I have a lot of "bad habits" when it comes to pen input in Windows -- my first pen input device was an HP iPaq 3850 running PocketPC 2002. I learned to make my L's as curly-L's, even though I don't do that normally -- it increased recognition.
 After reading this post I just went and did about half of the handwriting exercises. Hopefully this will help my Win7 tablet with my URL entry in non-IE browsers. :D
 Wonderful post! I'm incredibly interested in this sort of thing, so I really appreciate your time writing this up Yvonne. Also thanks to Steven for posting it. :)
 - Pretty awesome, now if I only had a tablet/convertible PC myself.
 I'm wondering though, you said that the recognizer will use the language that your spellchecker uses to improve the recognizers accuracy. How does this work of you would use 2 languages at the same time? Let's say I'm making lecture notes, which are given in Dutch in my case, but have to use quite some English words while doing so. Wouldn't using 2 languages at the same time decrease accuracy in this case? Or is the recognizer intelligent enough to know that you are not consistently using the same language in that same piece of text?
 I have to admit though, I'm really interested in buying myself a nice tablet/convertible laptop in the future and this post made me even more eager to have one.
 - I have to say - the handwriting recognition software in Windows is excellent.
 I actually found a very interesting use: when I was taking Chinese class in school, a tablet PC was by far the best way of using a dictionary to find the meaning and pronunciation of a character. By hand this requires looking the character up by radical and stroke count (a laborious process by any standard) - writing the character on screen with a tablet PC was massively easier (and worked incredibly well).
 Perhaps you should advertise tablets to students studying east asian languages?
 - bdodson, I'm learning chinese too and have had the same idea about using Chinese (mandarin) character recognition: using OneNote to practice writing them down and using recognition to see if I've done so correctly :)
 - @bdodson & @lozmatic -- Hey, I did the same thing!
 During my first demo of the new recognizers I even got a chance to write a little "show off" by writing a bit of Russian (a very little bit).
 --Steven
 - <pedant mode="on">Since when were 'USA' and 'UK' languages? Surely you mean English with USA or UK spelling & grammar?</pedant>
 - Off topic
 _URL_
 Smile :D
 - Very interesting and very impressive!
 What about Speech and Narrator?
Page 1 of 2 (28 items) 12


text:
The Habsburg Empire May Be Dead, but its Honest Bureaucracy's Legacy Lives On
When I think Habsburg Empire, I think of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination famously marked the beginning of World War I and less famously, the decline of the empire itself until its dissolution in 1918. However, the silhouette of the empire still marks a psychologically different part of Europe, according to research by Sascha Becker and Ludger Woessmann. In their 2011 short paper, The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long-Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy, (summarized here) they compared levels of trust on opposite sides of the long-gone Habsburg Empire border within five countries. Surprisingly, they found that the border was still meaningful. Within the border, firms and people have higher trust in courts and police. Outside the border--specifically in regions that were once part of the Ottoman empire--levels of trust are relatively lower. Historians have described the Habsburg bureaucracy as "fairly honest, quite hard-working, and generally high-minded" (Taylor 1948). According to Becker and Woessman, this lies at the root of the higher trust levels.
Taylor, AJP (1948), The Habsburg Monarchy _PHONE_: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, Penguin Books (reprint 1990)


Did You Know | History
Divers Uncover Treasure In Ancient Ship Graveyard
Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities - B. Mentogiannis / G. Koutsouflakis
Archaeologists from Greece and the United States have joined forces for a very unique treasure hunt.
Like other projects, researchers are digging through rubble and dirt for artifacts, but their work begins at least 60 feet underwater.
The object of their years-long search are wrecked ships, which crashed by the dozens in the straits around the Fourni island chain.
And the reason for all the interest in these ships is the artifacts they still carry.
The Ships' Graveyard
Shipwreck artifacts
Almost 60 wrecked ships lie in the waters around Fourni.Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities / B. Mentogiannis
Since archaeologists began searching the Fourni islands for ships in 2015, they have uncovered 58 wrecks.
They say that two ancient trade routes once cross paths in waters surrounding the 13 small island, and the heavy traffic is one explanation for all the ruined ships.
Ships carried goods like wine and food around Fourni from as far away as the Black Sea, Spain, and Egypt, but an unlucky few ended their journey 130 feet below the waves.
Fourni islands
Dangerous conditions (and pirates) may have caused so many ships to crash.Karelj - Wikimedia
"It is not a coincidence that a large number of the wrecks have been found in those passages," George Koutsouflakis, one of the dive's leaders, told Reuters.
"If there is a sudden change in the wind's direction, and if the captain was from another area and was not familiar with the peculiarities of the local climate, he could easily end up losing control of the ship and falling upon the rocks."
Other researchers say the large volume of ships probably attracted pirates, who could be responsible for a few of the sunken ships.
Whatever the cause, shipwrecks were once so common around Fourni that two of the small islands are still named Anthropofas, meaning "man-eater."
Designer Lamps And Other Treasures
Amphorae jars
Amphorae, ceramic jars used to hold food and liquid, are the most common antiques of Fourni's ships.Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities / B. Mentogiannis
Of the five ships most recently discovered and explored by the archaeologists, the oldest date back to the fourth century B.C., while others are from the sixth century A.D.
Even "modern" ships from the 18th and 19th century were discovered under the waves.
While these ships are newly discovered, the divers say there is evidence their cargo has already been looted - or salvaged - long ago.
Of the more than 300 artifacts brought to the surface from these ships, a group of designer lamps might be the most fascinating.
ancient lamp
These ancient lamps are stamped with their designer's names.Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities / G. Koutsouflakis
The ceramics from Corinth are stamped on the bottom with the names of their designers, Octavius and Lucius.
Experts from Greece's Culture Ministry have reason to believe that the pair may have been slave workers, who eventually won their freedom and opened a workshop.
Mainly, archaeologists find ceramic jars called amphorae used to carry food and liquids inside the wrecked ships.
Archaeologists ancient Greece
Researchers hope a museum will collect the Fourni artifacts.Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities / G. Koutsouflakis
While old fish sauce may not sound so exciting to you, learning more about the trade routes that connected the ancient world is a big deal for these researchers.
"The excitement is difficult to describe," Dr. Pete Campbell said.
"I mean, it was just incredible. We knew that we had stumbled upon something that was going to change the history books."
There are hopes to build a new museum for the Fourni artifacts, so people from around the world will get to learn more about them.
[H/T: Reuters]
What do you think of these new discoveries?


text:
3 BEVERAGES THAT WEAKEN SKIN ELASTICITY
Dermatologists have identified three beverages that can weaken skin elasticity in people over 40.
Alcohol is one of the drinks that can weaken skin elasticity. It dehydrates the skin and causes inflammation, which can lead to wrinkles and sagging skin.
Coffee is another drink that can weaken skin elasticity. It contains caffeine, which can dehydrate the skin and cause wrinkles.
Sugary drinks are also bad for skin elasticity. They can cause inflammation and damage collagen, which is essential for skin elasticity.
Dermatologists recommend drinking plenty of water to keep the skin hydrated and healthy.
Other drinks that are good for skin elasticity include green tea, which contains antioxidants that can help protect the skin from damage, and bone broth, which is rich in collagen.
In addition to drinking the right beverages, it's important to eat a healthy diet and protect the skin from the sun to maintain skin elasticity.
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Artillery Row
Braving the woke mob is a prisoner's dilemma
Nicholas Shackel, a Professor of Philosophy at University of Cardiff, explains how to turn the prisoner's dilemma into the free speaker's game
In a discussion with Eric Weinstein, Douglas Murray said that if everyone stood up to the woke mob then its power would be broken. True, but there is a reason everyone doesn't: braving the woke mob is a prisoner's dilemma and consequently the rational choice is to keep quiet. This week, Eton beak Mr Knowland didn't realise that he was Head Master Mr Henderson's fellow prisoner.
A prisoner's dilemma is the name for a certain pattern that one may be confronted with in choosing under uncertainty where the outcome depends on both your choice and someone else's. Such patterns are called games in rational decision theory and this one gets its name from the choice that may face criminals.
The only solution to the prisoner's dilemma is to change the game by changing the outcomes
You and your fellow thief have been arrested and are questioned separately. You are both made the following offer: if you confess and your fellow doesn't, you will go free; if you don't but your fellow does, you'll go to prison for 16 years. If you both confess, you'll both get a reduced sentence of 8 years. If neither confesses then they will only be able to convict you on a lesser charge and you'll both go to jail for 4 years. You have no means of communication with your fellow thief. Plainly, you prefer freedom (A) to 4 years jail (B), which you prefer to 8 years jail (C), which in turn you prefer to 16 years jail (D). Moreover, in each case, since you prefer none to 4 and 4 to 8, you prefer none to 8, and so on, which means you satisfy the rational requirement of having transitive preferences.
We assume everyone involved is rational, so that they will choose to do what they prefer. So, what really matters here is the pattern of preference. Here is a table that shows the pattern, where the left-hand column lists your actions, be Silent or Confess, and the top row is your fellow's actions. In the body of the table the first outcome is yours and the second is your fellow's.
You can do nothing about what your fellow thief will do and you do not know what he will do. If he remains silent, since you prefer A to B, you prefer to confess. If he confesses, since you prefer C to D, you again prefer to confess. So, whatever he does, you prefer to confess. So you confess.
This reasoning is in accord a principle of rational decision called dominance. If there is a single choice which you prefer, whatever choice your partner makes, that choice is called the dominant choice and dominance says you should choose it.
The temptation at this point it to think about loyalty and threats. And that is quite correct, but the important thing to realise is that such moves are not, strictly speaking, solutions to prisoner's dilemma but ways of changing the game. For if loyalty and threats change your choice, they change outcomes by making confession worse than 16 years jail, for example, by calling confessors snitches and adding assassination to the outcome. This gives us an entirely different pattern and therefore an entirely different game:
Now, whatever your fellow thief does, you prefer to remain silent, so you remain silent.
There is a literature that attempts to prove it to be rational for both to remain silent but all such attempts amount to covert changes of the game. The criminals are right: the only solution to the prisoner's dilemma is to change the game by changing the outcomes, and so to prevent it being played against you by the police. That is why we strengthen the game by offering you witness protection: provided there is inadequate loyalty, it removes the threat and confines the outcomes to the question of freedom and jail alone. This is why it is important to ensure the outcomes are fully specified.
Strictly speaking, our analysis has confined itself to two people. From hereon, and without going into the additional complications needed for the strict treatment of many people, I shall be taking advantage of an ambiguity, that you may be individual or several and so may your partners. As will become evident, the pattern is sustained over pairs of peoples just as well as over pairs of people.
Now let us consider braving the woke mob. We all know the rules now: if you stand up, you'll be mobbed on Twitter, you will be vilified publicly, the lying slanders may be believed and your reputation destroyed, and you may lose your job. But exactly what the outcome will be also depends on how others act.
Democracy has freed us to take the transgressors to their inquisition in 280 characters
If you Stand on your own and those who are your partners chicken out, you will be the Heretic cast out. If you Chicken out while leaving, or even throwing, your Stand-up partner to the mob, you are safe or (thanking the mob, with perhaps some hesitations over their tone) Virtuous in your superior woke orthodoxy. If you and your partners all chicken out, checking your privilege and confessing to your sin, you are an orthodox Sinner who may hope for redemption. If you and your partners Stand together, you will be vilified as Blasphemers but may escape the penalties of heresy. So anyone standing up faces the unbeliever's dilemma:
Currently, our society has decided to reward people with this preference order: the Virtuous (A) are better than Sinners (B) are better than Blasphemers (C) are better than Heretics (D). On this ordering, the unbeliever's dilemma is the prisoner's dilemma. If the other stands, you prefer to chicken out and if they chicken out you prefer to chicken out, so whatever they do, you prefer to chicken out and chickening out is dominant.
This is the game Mr Knowland and Mr Henderson played: Mr Knowland Stood and Mr Henderson Chickened out and displayed his woke Virtue, and our society ruled the first the Heretic and the second the Virtuous. Of course, it is a little more complicated than that, but we know the list of recent players of this game. Whilst there are many who disagree with the naming and ordering of outcomes, it remains the case that the heretics were all successfully slandered, anathematised and lost jobs and the various authority figures they played the game with, being at best the useful idiots of the woke, Chickened out and displayed their woke virtue.
What needs to happen is for the game to be changed to the free speaker's game:
You may think it obvious what this game prescribes, but again, it all depends on the preference order. The religious have always, and, as we have just seen, continue to identify the truth seeker with the blasphemer and heretic and the dogmatist with the virtuous, which leaves us all chickening out with the dogmatists. The religious then add the extra burdens to the outcomes to get to the unbeliever's dilemma as a prisoner's dilemma.
We face the woke prisoner's dilemma and it remains rational to chicken out
The historical precedents do not give grounds for optimism about such a change: from Socrates' apology on, the record shows the religious imposing the prisoner's dilemma on the would-be free speaker. Nevertheless, were it to be widely recognised that this, rather than the woke prisoner's dilemma, is the true game to be played, Mr Henderson would have to resign. Unfortunately, so would the various authorities across the country, who have played this game for their own purposes. They are skilled at trimming and don't care to distinguish the falsehoods of the woke creed from the moral truths there are about freedom and equality. Whilst that remains the case, we face the woke prisoner's dilemma and it remains rational to chicken out.
Interestingly enough, the righteous also face a dilemma. Let us join them. All around us we see, or perhaps seek out, wilful transgression. Democracy has freed us to take the transgressors to their inquisition in 280 characters. You may Damn them or Bewail your injury. If you call down damnation but your partners bewail, you will have shown your partners to be Saintly Victims at the price of being a Bully. If you and they bewail, lacking the revelation of the transgressor's sin, you are merely Whiners. If, however, you and they call down damnation, you are the Virtuous joined in the righteous defence of the wronged. Thus we have the dilemma of the righteous:
Saints are better than the Virtuous, who are better than Whiners, who are better than Bullies. On this preference order, the dilemma of the righteous is, once more, a prisoner's dilemma. If your partner damns, you prefer to be a Saint than Righteous, so you bewail, and if your partner bewails, you prefer to be a Whiner than a Bully, so you bewail. So whatever your partner does you prefer to bewail, so you bewail. How is it, then, that the righteous ever turn damnation into a joint venture?
Of course, for any of the righteous who would rather bully than whine, and who are impatient of sainthood, they will prefer to damn whatever their partners do, so that might explain it. But unless there are enough of them, they are in danger of appearing as no more than a gang of extremist thugs. Few are willing to view or show themselves in that light and in general the righteous aspire at least to


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Tutorial
Setup Visual Monitoring of InfluxDB Time Series Data in Grafana
Here's a step-by-step beginner's guide to setup visual monitoring of InfluxDB time series data in Grafana.
LHB Community
In an earlier article about monitoring, I described how install and configure Grafana. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to install and use one of the most famous open source time series databases in Grafana. It's called InfluxDB and it is growing super fast in the last few years with infrastructure and application monitoring and IoT monitoring and analytics.
Influx Db Engine
Time Series Database Popularity by DB-Engines
What is a time series database?
A time series database (TSDB) is a database with a goal to store information over time. To give some examples of information to record over time, sensor data, application performance monitoring, network data, and many other types of analytics data can be stored and use the resources and the advantages of InfluxDB.
A TSDB has some characteristics that make it unique from other databases. These include time-stamp data storage and compression, data life cycle management, data summarization, ability to handle large time series dependent scans of many records, and time series aware queries.
Installing InfluxDB on Linux
This section will show how to install InfluxDB version 1.7 on your Linux distribution. You can find the instructions on the official downloads page as well.
On Ubuntu & Debian based Linux distributions, use the following commands one by one:
wget _URL_
sudo dpkg -i influxdb_1.7.10_amd64.deb
On Red Hat & CentOS based Linux distributions, use the following commands one by one:
wget _URL_
sudo yum localinstall influxdb-1.7.10.x86_64.rpm
Prerequisite: Bring your data to the databse
Remember that Grafana works on various database (InfluxDB in this case here). It's your responsibility to bring this data to the database so that it logs the information you want to monitor in the InfluxDB. This is not the focus of this article, but you can use a lot of languages and other tools to populate your tables.
By the way, in InfluxDB, we don't have tables, they are called measurements. For example, any back-end language can be used to interact with the sensor or any other device you're capturing information to store in the database. You can use Node.js, Python, Java and so on.
Here is a list of InfluxDB API client libraries.
Using InfluxDB in Grafana
Luckily, Grafana comes with a powerful plug-in to import and use InfluxDB. The plug-in includes a custom query editor and supports annotations and query templates.
Add data source
For those who don't like the to write commands to make things work, I have a good news for you. With Grafana, you don't need to access terminal to configure anything. I'll put some pictures to show how to include your InfluxDB in Grafana:
The first step is to add the database in the configuration area.
Add Database
Add Database
Click on the green bottom to add data source:
Influxdb Configuration
Influxdb Configuration
Choose InfluxDB:
Databases
Databases
Complete all the information about your database to Grafana be able to access it correctly.
Add Influxdb 01
Add Influxdb 01
Finish to complete the information and click on the Save & Test button.
Add Influxdb 02
Add Influxdb 02
To give a more detailed explanation, the next table has more information about each field on this step.
Name Description
Name The data source name. This is how you refer to the data source in panels and queries.
Default Default data source means that it will be pre-selected for new panels.
Url The HTTP protocol, IP address and port of your InfluxDB API (InfluxDB API port is by default 8086)
Access Server (default) = URL needs to be accessible from the Grafana back-end/server, Browser = URL needs to be accessible from the browser.
Database Name of your InfluxDB database
User Name of your database user
Password Database user's password
HTTP mode How to query the database (GET or POST HTTP verb). The POST verb allows heavy queries that would return an error using the GET verb. Default is GET.
If you did all these steps right, a successful message is shown on the screen.
Configure a Dashboard with InfluxDB Metrics
At this stage, the difficult part is already done. All you need to do is use your creativity to create beautiful and useful dashboards with all your metrics from the database.
Grafana has a intuitive query editor to provide easy access to the measurements, fields, tags and values from the InfluxDB database.
You can access the InfluxDB editor under the metrics tab when you are in the edit mode of the Graph or Singlestat panels. Enter edit mode by clicking the panel title, and clicking Edit. The editor allows you to select metrics and tags.
Query Editor
Query Editor
Now it's up to you, put your hands on the code and start to monitor something of your interesting. I suggest to begin with something easy, like a simple computer, a thermal sensor, etc. To end this topic, here is a fancy and complete dashboard with some metrics about a server monitoring.
Dashboard Example
Dashboard Example
To have more ideas, visit Grafana Labs and visualize all the contribution of the community. Many users share their work there.
I hope you liked this quick little setup guide. Feel free to share your feedback in the comment section.
This article is written by Marcelo Melo and edited by Abhishek Prakash.
LHB Community


solid angle
What an Eclipse can teach us about our EDS Detectors
Shawn Wallace, Applications Engineer, EDAX
A large portion of the US today saw a real-world teaching moment about something microanalysts think about every day.
Figure 1. Total solar eclipse. Image credit-nasa.gov
With today's Solar Eclipse, you could see two objects that have the same solid angle in the sky, assuming you are in the path of totality. Which is bigger, the Sun or the Moon? We all know that the Sun is bigger, its radius is nearly 400x that of the moon.
Figure 2. How it works. Image credit – nasa.gov
Luckily for us nerds, it is also 400x further away from the Earth than the moon is. This is what makes the solid angle of both objects the same, so that from the perspective of viewers from the Earth, they take up the same area in the sphere of the sky.
The EDAX team observes the solar eclipse in NJ, without looking at the sun!
Why does all this matter for a microanalyst? We always want to get the most out of our detectors and that means maximizing the solid angle. To maximize it, you really have two parameters to play with: how big the detector is and how close the detector is to the sample. 'How big is the detector' is easy to play with. Bigger is better, right? Not always, as the bigger it gets, the more you start running in to challenges with pushing charge around that can lead to issues like incomplete charge collection, ballistic deficits, and other problems that many people never think about.
All these factors tend to lead to lower resolution spectra and worse performance at fast pulse processing times.
What about getting closer? Often, we aim for a take-off angle of 350 and want to ensure that the detector does not protrude below the pole piece to avoid hitting the sample. On different microscopes, this can put severe restrictions on how and where the detector can be mounted and we can end up with the situation where we need to move a large detector further back to make it fit within the constraining parameters. So, getting closer isn't always an option and sometimes going bigger means moving further back.
Figure 3. Schematic showing different detector sizes with the same solid angle. The detector size can govern the distance from the sample.
In the end, bigger is not always better. When looking at EDS systems, you have to compare the geometry just as much as anything else. The events happening today remind of us that. Sure the Sun is bigger than Moon, but the latter does just as good a job of making a part of the sky dark as the Sun does making it bright.
For more information on optimizing your analysis with EDS and EBSD, see our webinar, 'Why Microanalysis Performance Matters'.
Solid Angle Tool
Dr. Patrick Camus
Principal Product Developer, EDAX
It recently was brought to my attention that there is a solid angle (SA) calculator on the web. It is provided by Dr. Nestor Zaluzec of Argonne National Lab. It can be found at :
_URL_
This web site is of interest to me and many of our customers and potential customers because the SA of your EDS detector is a measure of its efficiency in detecting X-rays. A large SA detector will provide a higher detection rate of X-rays than a smaller SA detector.
Historically, the SA of a detector was approximated by the simplistic equation SA = A / d2 where A is the active area of the detector and d is the detector to sample distance. For small detectors at large distances, this approximation is quite good. However, for large area detectors (which are currently quite popular) and for most TEM applications (which use very short values for d), this simple equation is not valid. This web site is very useful because it provides a much more accurate calculation for the solid angle for any detector size and position. In addition, it can accurately predict values when the additional geometric complication of an off-axis detector is required.
I will use this web site to compare a few representative geometries of SA calculations for round EDS detectors. The web site also has the capability of calculating the SA for rectangular and annular detectors, but I will leave those examples for the user.
In the first example, a typical SEM geometry will be examined where 10 mm2 and 30 mm2 detectors are compared. Most designs for these detectors have the same d, for instance 45 mm in this example.
Using these values, simplistic and calculated SA values can be found.
d (mm) A (mm2) Simple SA (msR) Calculated SA (msR)
45 10 5 5
45 30 15 15
In this example, both SA methods provide the same values. There is no primary benefit to using the calculation method.
The next example is for a TEM geometry for 10 mm2 and 30 mm2 detectors are compared. The primary differences to the SEM example are that (1) d=10 which is significantly shorter than for the SEM geometry, and (2) the axis of the detector does not point to the sample. This geometry is very typical for TEM that have a side entry mount location. In addition, this geometry also needs a take-off angle, for which 20 degrees is used.
Using these values, simplistic and calculated SA values can be found.
d (mm) A (mm2) Simple SA (msR) Calculated SA (msR)
10 10 94 88
10 30 282 249
In this example, the simple SA method over estimates the true SA values by 7% and 13% for the 2 detectors. SA values for TEM geometries should not be reported using the simple method but should always use the more accurate calculated method.
A final example shows a practical application of the SA calculations in comparing potential EDS detector geometries. When comparing detectors and considering SA values, the A is not always the primary consideration for the efficiency because the d term can have a significant effect. This usually occurs when the tubing for the detectors is not the same and the d must increase for a fatter mounting tube to avoid hitting any item with in the SEM chamber, usually the pole piece. This example compares a 60 mm2 in a small diameter tube mounted at 40 mm and an 80 mm2 detector in a larger diameter tube that must be mounted at a larger d of 50 mm.
Using these values, simplistic and calculated SA values can be found.
d (mm) A (mm2) Simple SA (msR) Calculated SA (msR)
40 60 36 36
50 80 32 31
Firstly, the values provided by the 2 calculation methods are essentially the same (within round-off errors) for both detectors. Intuition would indicate that the larger 80 mm2 detector should provide the greater SA value. However, the increased d actually reduces its SA value to less than that for the smaller 60 mm2 detector.
Solid angle values for EDS detectors are an indication of the X-ray detection efficiency of the system. A web site is available to calculate the values very accurately once the detector geometry is defined. Comparisons of detector geometry can aid a customer in selecting the best detector for their application.


text:
12 s.c.h. post-baccalaureate supplemental
- EDUC 3328 Foundations of Bilingual Education OR
- EDUC 5328 Bilingual Education: Principles & Curr.
- EDUC 3329 OR EDUC 5329 Methodology of Second Language Teaching
- EDUC 4328 Teaching Spanish Language Arts in the Bilingual Classroom OR
- EDUC 6328 Methodology in Reading/Language Arts in Bilingual Education
- EDUC 4329 Teaching Content Areas in the Bilingual Classroom OR
- EDUC 6329 Methodology in Content Area Instruction in Bilingual Education
- Hold standard or provisional Texas teaching certificate.
- Pass Texas Oral Proficiency Test (TOPT) or other specified test required in Spanish.
- One year's experience on a permit in an approved elementary Bilingual Classroom.
- Pass Bilingual TExES.
All coursework taken for certification must equal or exceed an overall grade point average of 2.5 on a 4-point scale, with no grade lower than a "C".


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In relational world we have Foreign Keys to reference other entities. But how do document-oriented databases like MongoDb, CouchDb, RavenDb implement references among entities?
Update. StackExchange related example. We have Question entity and its tags. Each tag, is a separate entity so it has its properties (for example, description). How can I reference tags for some Question?
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2 Answers
up vote 5 down vote accepted
You can do the same thing as in RMDBs, you reference by identifiers. I use MongoDB, so we can talk about this from that point.
 _id: ObjectId('tag id'),
 tag_name: "nosql",
 tag_description: "blahblah'
Then in the Post
 _id: ObjectId('post id'),
 tags: [
 ObjectId('tag1 id'),
 ObjectId('tag2 id')
 title: "title",
 // etc..
When you load a Post object you can either pull your tags documents as well, or you can pull them from cache. Often you use a ODM (instead of ORM) and it can often handle these references for you. For example, in Mongoid for Rails, you would just say :has_many :tags and it would figure out the rest for you. When you call post.tags it would just return an array of the tags associated with post.
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Does this give the constraint a foreign key gives in a RDBMS? What happens if the tag document is deleted? – johannes Aug 26 '12 at 22:41
There are no constraints. The application will have to deal with that. – Travis Aug 27 '12 at 12:29
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Easy; they don't.
If you want join abilities, you have to implement them in your client code. Some of these APIs do it a little easier by defining a 'Key' type that makes it easy to store and use references, but you have to do a second fetch to get the referenced entity.
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Could you please clarify how I can solve a task which I added to Update by document-oriented database? – Idsa Oct 9 '11 at 13:09
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Your Answer


iofunc_ocb_free()
Deallocate an iofunc Open Control Block's memory
Synopsis:
#include <sys/iofunc.h>
void iofunc_ocb_free( iofunc_ocb_t * ocb );
Arguments:
ocb
A pointer to the iofunc_ocb_t structure for the Open Control Block that was created when the client opened the resource.
Library:
libc
Use the -l c option to qcc to link against this library. This library is usually included automatically.
Description:
The iofunc_ocb_free() function returns the memory allocated to an iofunc OCB to the free store pool. This function is the complement of iofunc_ocb_calloc().
If you've overridden the definition of iofunc_ocb_calloc(), you should also override the definition of iofunc_ocb_free() to correctly handle the release of the memory. This is because the iofunc_ocb_calloc() function uses an internal memory management function to allocate the memory, and the default iofunc_ocb_free() function also uses this internal function to deallocate memory. Therefore, you can't mix internal memory management functions (_scalloc() and _sfree()) with user-level memory management functions (calloc() and free()).
Note: You should fill in the attribute's mount structure (i.e., the attr->mount pointer) instead of replacing this function.
If you specify iofunc_ocb_free() and iofunc_ocb_calloc() callouts in the attribute's mount structure, then you should use the callouts instead of calling the standard iofunc_ocb_free() and iofunc_ocb_calloc() functions.
Examples:
See iofunc_ocb_calloc().
Classification:
QNX Neutrino
Safety:
Cancellation point No
Interrupt handler No
Signal handler Yes
Thread Yes


text:
Global Wind Tunnel Market to Reach US$ 4.2 BN by 2031, driven by the Rising Demand for Wind Tunnels in Aerospace and Military: Global Insight Services
New York, November 2022: According to a new research study by Global Insight Services (GIS), the wind tunnel market is expected to grow rapidly over the next 10 years to reach a value of more than US$ 4.2 billion by 2031.
Wind tunnels are enormous air-filled tubes that are used to simulate the interaction of air with an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Wind tunnels are used by researchers to understand more about how an aircraft will fly. Wind tunnels are used by NASA to test scale models of aircraft and spacecraft. Some wind tunnels are large enough to house full-scale vehicle replicas. The wind tunnel moves air around an object to make it appear to be flying. Wind tunnels evolved alongside the development of the airplane. During WWII, large wind tunnels were constructed. During the Cold War, wind tunnel testing was regarded as critical to the development of supersonic aircraft and weapons.
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Global Wind Tunnel Market: Market Drivers and Trends
Rising demand for wind tunnels in aerospace and military is projected to have a long-term impact on the industry. As these aircrafts are typically bare in severe weather, wind tunnels are frequently utilized for testing aircraft in the aerospace and defense application market. This, in turn, is predicted to increase the growth of the wind tunnel market between 2022 and 2031.
Furthermore, rising demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the military and commercial sectors, as well as the construction of next generation high-speed aircraft, missiles, and railways, are likely to drive the global wind tunnel market forward.
Global Wind Tunnel Market: Market Restraints and Challenges
One of the negative elements limiting market growth is the high cost of wind tunnel installation and maintenance. Another hurdle that could stymie the global wind tunnel market's growth is the usage of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) testing as a replacement for wind tunnel testing which is cheaper and quicker. While CFD may resolve turbulence, it does so in an abstract manner, whereas wind tunnels can directly resolve unstable gusts and eddies. As a result, CFD study often focuses on average hourly or 10-minute wind speeds rather than peak gust circumstances. These are the key restraints for the wind tunnel market.
Global Wind Tunnel Market Report Findings
The horizontal segment is likely to hold the major share of the market in 2021
Based on alignment, the wind tunnel market is bifurcated into horizontal & vertical. The horizontal segment led the market in 2021 and is expected to continue to dominate over the forecast period. Horizontal wind tunnels include aeroacoustics, aerodynamic, and climatic wind tunnels used in a variety of industries including aerospace and defense, racing championships, transportation, and building construction and wind energy. These products comprises of larger share in terms of revenue and quantity. So, it can be said that horizontal segment is going to dominate the market during the forecast period.
The subsonic segment is likely to hold the major share of the market in 2021
Based on airspeed type, the wind tunnel market is segmented into supersonic, subsonic, transonic and hypersonic. The subsonic segment maintained its dominance in 2021 and is likely to continue to lead the market during the forecast period. The demand for commercial airplane and automotive testing services is driving this industry. Subsonic wind tunnels are also used for aerodynamic testing in racing championships. The reason for this is that they reduce velocity while increasing pressure, which is required for usage in heavy equipment and applications.
The aerospace & defense segment is likely to hold the major share of the market in 2021
Based on application, the wind tunnel market is segmented into aerospace & defense, adventure sports, automotive and transportation. Aerospace and Defense application segment dominated the market in 2021, and this trend is projected to continue over the forecast period. The increased use of wind tunnels for testing aircraft used for aerospace and defense applications, as these aircraft are often subject to extreme environmental conditions, can be attributed to the segment's expansion.
The Asia Pacific region is accounted for the majority of market share in 2021
Region-wise, it is studied across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Asia Pacific led the global market in 2021 and is expected to do so throughout the projected period. Countries such as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia are the region's growth engines, investing heavily in indigenous development projects to engineer various sorts of new and novel aircraft for commercial and defense applications, as well as the improvement of electric automobile vehicles. China has significantly increased its spending on the development of new and innovative systems for the aerospace and defense industries, as well as the automotive industry. This, in turn, is expected to fuel the region's expanding demand for wind tunnels and wind tunnel testing services. Furthermore, countries such as Japan, India, and South Korea are investing considerably in the development of rail, automotive, and maritime infrastructure, all of which are in high demand for wind tunnel testing applications.
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The key players studied in the global wind tunnel market are as Aerolab (U.S.), Aiolos (Canada), Boeing(U.S.), ETW GmbH(Germany), Horiba Ltd(Japan), Lockheed Martin Corporation(U.S.), Mahle GmbH(Germany), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd(Japan), Rail Tec Arsenal(Europe), and RUAG(Switzerland).
Global Wind Tunnel Market: Recent Developments
- September 2022, Mahle has launched a large-scale, global solar programme to provide energy from its own production to its locations.
- March 2021, RUAG created and tested wind tunnel models to simulate new turbofan and propeller technologies. This effort contributes to a greener future for the aviation sector.
- March 2021, Rail Tec Arsenal intended to expand its Climatic Wind Tunnel Vienna tests. Workarounds and increased space needs for such testing are always increasing.
Global Wind Tunnel Market Report Coverage
- The report offers a comprehensive quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of the current global wind tunnel market outlook and estimations from 2021 to 2031, which helps to recognize the prevalent opportunities.
- A thorough analysis of market trends and restraints is provided.
- Region-wise, as well as country-wise conditions are broadly evaluated in this report.
- The forecasts in this report are made by examining the recent trends along with future global wind tunnel market potential from 2021 to 2031 in terms of revenue.
- Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis, COVID-19 impact analysis, Russia-Ukraine war impact, and PESTLE analysis of the global wind tunnel market are also analyzed.
- Major players in the market are profiled in this report and their key developmental strategies are studied in detail. This will provide an insight into the competitive landscape of the global wind tunnel market industry.
Global Wind Tunnel Market Segmentation
By Airspeed Type
- Aerospace & Defense
- Adventure Sports
- North America
- The U.S.
- Rest of Europe
- Asia Pacific
- South Korea
- Rest of Asia-Pacific
- Rest of the World
- Latin America
- Middle East
- Aerolab (U.S.)
- Aiolos (Canada)
- ETW GmbH(Germany)
- Horiba Ltd(Japan)
- Lockheed Martin Corporation(U.S.)
- Mahle GmbH(Germany)
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd(Japan)
- Rail Tec Arsenal(Europe)


text:
The city of Holtville, or Holton as it was first called, was founded by W.F. Holt and incorporated in 1908. Holt was a banker from Missouri who moved to the west for health reasons. Mr. Holt had a vision of what the mperial Valley would become, and in the process he was the first to envision a town east of the Alamo River.
In 1903, the city of Holtville was born. Construction of the new town was slow in the beginning because of a town policy which only allowed brick construction. On June 20, 1908 the city of Holtville was incorporated. The city of was designed so that businesses faced Holt Park, which formed a town square. Holt Park is the focus for the city of Holtville which boasted large, lush shade trees, and the City Hall building which is a two story structure that was built in the center of the Park. There have been several changes in Holt Park but it still remains the gem of the city. At one time, the Park even had a monkey cage and a fish pond. However, what remains today is a time capsule which is to be opened in the year 2015. The Time Capsule Opening is scheduled for July 2026
Fire has been a major tragedy to the city of Holtville.
In the 60's, the Holtville Unified School District, which consisted of a 2-story structure, was destroyed by a fire. A theater that once graced Main Street was also destroyed by fire in the 1970's. The Business District was also destroyed by fire in the 1980's.


text: The golden trout is a colorful salmonid native to the High Sierras of California, transplanted into high mountain lakes all across the west. It is a western species of salmonid that resembles, in many ways, a juvenile rainbow trout. In fact, some scientists consider it a subspecies of rainbow, while others maintain that its ability to breed true in mixed-species environments means it is a distinct species. The differences are significant, however. Goldens tend to live at high elevations and in pristine waters, often above 10,000 feet. It is marked by "parr marks" - vertical black blotches that other species of salmonid lose when they transform from juvenile parr into adult trout. The butter-gold color can be very striking.


What Is Screen Mirroring?
Share media from a smart device to a TV for better viewing
Screen mirroring technology allows you to switch the media that's playing on your smaller Android, Windows, or Apple device to a larger one, such as a television or media projector, wirelessly. You can mirror personal photos, music, videos, games, and more, including content from the internet or an app like Netflix or YouTube.
The protocol used to wirelessly mirror one screen to another is called Miracast, a word you might encounter as you learn more about the technology.
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What is Screen Mirroring?
Connect Your Phone or Other Device to a TV
To use screen mirroring, both devices have to meet a few minimum requirements. Your phone or tablet must support mirroring and be able to send out data. The TV or projector must also support screen mirroring and be able to capture and play that data.
To find out if your phone or tablet supports mirroring, refer to the documentation or perform an internet search. Note that you might also have to enable the Miracast or Screen Mirroring feature in Settings, so keep an eye out for that too. You may even be able to show your phone screen on your computer.
As for a television, there are two broad technologies. You can mirror to either a newer, smart TV or projector that has screen mirroring built-in or you can purchase a media streaming device and connect it to an available HDMI port on an older TV. Because the data arrives wirelessly and over your home network, that TV or you must configure the media stick to connect to that network as well.
Compatibility Issues When You Mirror a Screen
Not all devices play well together. You can't just mirror any phone to any TV screen or somehow connect a phone to a TV using a magic app and force it to work. Just because both devices support screen mirroring doesn't mean anything either; the devices also have to be compatible with each other. This compatibility is where problems often arise.
As you might suspect, devices from the same manufacturer generally are compatible with each other. For instance, you can share media from a newer Kindle Fire tablet to Amazon's Fire TV easily. They're both made by Amazon and designed to work together. And, since Fire devices use the Android operating system, many Android-based phones and tablets are compatible as well.
Likewise, you can mirror media from your iPhone to an Apple TV. Apple made both, and they are compatible with each other. The Apple TV works with iPads too. However, you can't stream media from an Android or Windows device to an Apple TV.
It's essential to know that Apple doesn't play very well with others when it comes to mirroring media.
Other devices like Google's Chromecast and Roku's media devices also have limitations, as do smart TVs in general, so if you're in the market for a mirroring solution, take into consideration what you'll be streaming from before you purchase something to stream to.
Explore Mirroring Apps
When you play media on your smartphone or tablet, you use an app. Perhaps you watch cable-based movies using SHO Anytime and live TV using Sling TV. Maybe you listen to music with Spotify or watch how-to videos with YouTube. These apps support screen mirroring.
Take a minute to test it out. Here's how to explore your media apps in very general terms:
 1. Open an app on your device that lets you view media.
 2. Play any available media in that app.
 3. Tap the screen and tap the mirroring icon that appears there.
 4. If you have a device available to mirror to (and it's turned on and ready to use), you'll see it listed there.
The Screen Mirroring Experience
Once you're watching your media via screen mirroring, you'll use the controls on your phone or tablet to control it. You can fast forward and rewind, pause, and restart, provided the app and the media allow for it. It's unlikely you'll be able to control the television itself, though; keep the remote handy that works the volume.


The Dark UI Side: Why People Love Dark Themes
The Dark UI Side: Why People Love Dark Themes
Designing for the user is a practice widely accepted and followed in the design community, and while it seems to be a fairly straightforward declaration, diving into it proves that that task is substantially more daunting than it seems.
Users everywhere have different tastes, different expectations, different reactions to certain stimuli, different environments et al, and when these factors come into play, the playing field gets more complex.
However, first impressions are lasting ones, and one of the first observations that the user makes, immediately after clicking the icon, is the theme of the app, i.e., whether it follows Light UI principles or Dark UI ones. Depending on a number of factors, the app's theme may appeal to the users or furrow their brows, and in the case of power users, it's more often the former than the latter. Why, you ask? Well, here are the major factors,
Dark interfaces, for the most part, sport white text and icons on dark gray or black surfaces, and the subsequent contrast ratio proves to be easy on the eyes, especially on AMOLED displays with black pixels being turned off, allowing for "infinite contrast". As a result, the readability of interfaces becomes vastly easier, reducing the amount of strain that the retinas are subjected to, proving especially beneficial in dark environments and at night, since unnecessary dilation of the pupils can prove strenuous over longer periods of time when constantly switching between a dark room and the bright screen, and is also one of the factors behind the belief that using screens just before heading to bed may interfere with your sleep cycles.
When questioned regarding their staunch support of all things Dark UI, numerous users also cited aesthetics as one of the deciding factors behind their preference. From adjectives like "sleek" and "cool" to "serious" and "pleasing", the general consensus was that dark interfaces are miles ahead in the aesthetics department, at least among power users. When pressed for more details pertaining to what held the aesthetic appeal, a few users also went on to associate it with fictional digital and sci-fi interfaces, pointing out the scores of homescreen themes that derived inspiration from them.
Coming as no surprise in the age of battery saving, from users with devices sporting AMOLED displays, one of the major reasons why power users lean towards Dark interfaces, especially completely black ones like TRDS, is the advantages they hold in terms of battery consumption. These displays can turn off individual pixels, as opposed to whole backlight powering the pixel matrix in LCD displays, thereby significantly reducing power consumption with most of the screen being off, a technique infamously used by Active Display.
The other side of the fence
While Dark UI has its own set of doggedly loyal supporters, especially among power users, the droves on the other side are increasing day by day, their numbers seeing a sharp upturn since the launch of Material Design, and not without reason. Supporters of light interfaces opine that light text on dark backgrounds often causes afterimages and banding (and the infamous "purple ghosting" of AMOLED screens), often hampering readability and interfering with the user's sight, and a good number even state that light interfaces seem more natural and in sync with the paper paradigm.
Do you agree with the above arguments? Or are you a firm believer in the Dark Side? Sound off in the comments section below!
About author
Faiz Malkani
Faiz Malkani


text:
Groups in Kentucky and around the country are calling for the winner of next month's presidential election to hold a summit on climate change during his term's first 100 days.
The National Climate Summit 2013 Coalition has unveiled a petition signed by more than 1,600 people calling for the summit. The coalition cites recent examples of climate fluctuations, like hotter average temperatures and heavier-than-usual rainfall, and says it's necessary that the presidential candidates commit to finding solutions.
Both President Obama and Mitt Romney avoided talking about climate change during last night's debate. Analyst have suggested that both have more to lose than win by addressing the subject, as they could alienate key swing state voters they're both vying for.


thank you
Vidmore Screen Recorder 1.1.16
file size: 1.64 MB
Do you have trouble in downloading some video or audio files?
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Trial Period:
30 Days
Support URL:
If you are looking for a solution to this problem, Vidmore Screen Recorder is your best choice. With it, you are able to record the video and audio files you could not download. And you could select the area you want to record according to your need.
Key functions:
1. Record video and audio files Vidmore Screen Recorder is good at recording any video and audio files that you could not download or you want to convert the format of them. With this powerful recording software, you could save any precious video or audio files as you like. In addition, the audio recorder function also allows you to record the system and microphone sound.
2. Record GIF Vidmore Screen Recorder could also be a GIF converter, it enables you to save the recorded videos or screenshot as GIF format.
3. Trim recordings If you want to cut the recorded part after your finish the recording, please do not worry, the trim function could help you solve this problem. You could choose the start and end time for your recorded clip rather than recording it again.
4. Editing function With the powerful editing function, you could add text, arrows and shapes to your recording or screenshot. What is more, you could also set video format, video codec and video quality as you like. In addition, adding mouse click and mouse area effects while recording is also possible.


text:
The John Hancock Center for Youth and Family Ministry, located on the campus of La Sierra University, is a research and resource center providing support to youth ministry professionals, and parents worldwide. The Hancock Center was established in direct response to recommendations from the Valuegenesis research taskforce.
Following the comprehensive Valuegenesis inquiry into the formation of faith, values and commitment among Adventist youth, the Project Affirmation Taskforces formulated clear recommendations for immediate planned change. They called their recommendations "Imperatives for Action." These visions of a more effective church included an unprecedented call for the establishment of youth ministry centers to support and expand the educational efforts of the union and local conference youth ministry leadership. The recommendations concluded with this clear call: "In response to the need to renew professional and volunteer youth ministry, we recommend that youth ministry resource and research centers be established."
On May 23, 1991 the La Sierra University Board of Trustees voted the establishment of the center as an official university entity and approved the commencement of both fund-raising and educational activities. The John H. Hancock Center for Youth Ministry had come into being.
To provide national leadership and resources to aid those working with Adventist youth and young adults in better understanding them, and the effects of the home, church, and school on their faith maturity, and values development.
To provide statistical based resources and training to parents, pastors, and educators as they help youth and young adults to develop a high level of mature faith, and solid core values


text:
Hands-on Ningen Gakki Japanese Toy Turns Friends into Instruments
A new Japanese toy wants you to slap your friends to make music. The Ningen Gakki musical device by toy company Takara Tomy turns the human body into an instrument when you tap, poke, squeeze and slap other players.
The Ningen Gakki — which means "human instrument" in Japanese — is shaped like a miniature person (4.25 inches by 3.75 inches by 1 inch) and has metal sensors on its hands and feet.
The concept blends sensor technology and music with social interaction. When any two of the four electrodes are touched, the device creates a sound and the current is conducted through the players' bodies. The sounds are determined by where you touch the skin, so poking someone on the nose will create a different sound than slapping someone highfive.
The device, which takes 2 AAA batteries, is easy to use, but since its instructions are only in Japanese, a few trial-and-error attempts are needed to figure out what exactly you're doing.
Here's how it works: After hitting the "on" button and sitting through the extremely high-pitched "hello!" and greeter song, users can select one of three different modes: song mode, sound effect mode and drums mode. Hitting the "OK" button confirms the selection.
Although this sounds pretty self-explanatory, it's difficult to navigate between the modes and determine why the device is playing songs, making noises and showing drum beats before you've even started. Be warned that the Ningen Gakki previews your selection with sound before you start, so even when you think you've already begun, the device may still be feeling things out.
Song mode allows players to pick from one of 10 songs. Although its fun to tap along to songs you may know — each touch advances the song one note — this mode doesn't leave much room for creativity. Whether you tap someone on the hand or poke their nose, the song and notes are predetermined, so it limits experimentation.
However, the sound effect mode takes the device to the next level, allowing users access to 30 different sounds to play from, from animal noises to doorbells. Each varies depending on which body part is touched.
But perhaps the most dynamic and exciting feature is drums mode, which allows the body to become a drums set. Depending on where and how quickly a hit is made, drums mode allows players to create beat-box sounds and full rhythm songs as different body parts are touched.
We found that the Ningen Gakki is most fun when more people are playing at once. In fact, not everyone has to be touching the sensors to create sounds. As long as two people are touching the sensors simultaneously, others can form a large circle around the two and still play.
For example, if someone is touching the arm or leg of a person who is touching a sensor, and then another person is hooked onto that person and so on, a full circle can be made and the current can be conducted throughout everyone's bodies.
To shut off the device — or after it's been idle for a few minutes — the Ningen Gakki will say so long and power down. If you can get past its excruciatingly high-pitched voice, the Ningen Gakki can make an interesting bizarre toy for an ice breaker or a party.
Article provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to Laptopmag.com.
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- 7 Quirky Gadgets for the Home
- 10 Profound Innovations Ahead


text: This work analyzes, in the first part, the close and strong existing bonds between Bioethics and Law from the same dawn of birth of this new interdisciplinary liason, and the growing interweaving that takes place in the scientific community between Bioethics, Medicine and Law. This phenomenon is related both to the "medicalization of life", and to the "juridification of the society". In this context, health is ethically and legally understood as a fundamental value, recognized and protected by the law, and necessarily grants the same to the right to life. Assuming this premise, the author reviews the phenomenon of the progressive "juridification" of Bioethics, without disregarding to observe the ambivalence of that process, with its lights and shadows. He proposes to articulate Bioethics and Law resorting to philosophy of the human rights as the "bridge of communication" between both, and mentions the fruitful work of Argentine jurisprudence developed in this line.