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Budget cuts pressuring rad-hard designers to maintain quality while cutting costsStory
June 03, 2014
A lack of new programs and delayed funding for others has created a demand in military space circles to extend the life of platforms and look for ways to reduce funding in less critical systems by pursuing more commercial parts and manufacturing processes. Meanwhile, high-speed processors are creating thermal management challenges for radiation-hardened Integrated Circuit (IC) designers.
Budget constraints put in place by military leaders on Earth over the last few years are finally affecting the designs of satellites and other spacecraft at the component level. The long life cycles of space products typically lag behind terrestrial systems by about two to five years just due to the rigorous qualification requirements for electronics in the high radiation environments of space. The uncertainty about what will be funded in the long run is also making it difficult for suppliers to plan future development strategies.
While some programs such as NASA deep space missions and manned spacecraft platforms will still require the utmost in radiation-hardening of their electronic components, military leaders are crunching numbers to see where they may able to get by with less protection in less critical applications. This puts pressure on radiation-hardened (rad-hard) electronics suppliers to find ways to meet these cost reduction demands while maintaining the reliability of their parts for space missions.
"The overall market is down from the last couple of years primarily due to the poor financial situation in the U.S. and Europe," says Larry Longden, Vice President and General Manager for Microelectronics at Maxwell Technologies in San Diego, CA. "This situation has led the U.S. to cut most major space programs and the associated new technology developments. This will have a long-term negative impact on the U.S. space market."
"We are seeing related rad-hard budget pressures for military space satellites," says Siobhan Dolan, Vice President of Business Development, Commercial Air/Space at Microsemi Corp. in Aliso Viejo, CA. (See Figure 1.) "They want longer life out of their existing designs as new funding for new programs is reduced or delayed. In the past, designs were typically required to last for 15 years, but now military program managers want to extend them as long as 18 years. That puts pressure on the component and system suppliers to guarantee technology can reach those expectations, particularly for military systems looking for an extension of legacy designs. The component manufacturers need to provide a higher level of radiation guarantee and prove it."
"Sequestration is still in place and funding for many programs is being delayed," says Doug Patterson, Vice President of Military & Aerospace Business Sector at Aitech Defense Systems in Chatsworth, CA. "Many of the big primes are buying components for prototyping designs via their internal research and development dollars. Classified programs are still steady, with many programs let years ago moving into production. Full production essentially means one or two satellites."
NASA funding also is not expected to increase for some time. The President's Fiscal Year 2015 total budget request for NASA – $17.460 billion – is essentially flat from last year's request of $17.646 billion in 2014. It is not forecasted to exceed $18 billion until 2019 when NASA expects it to be $18.169 billion.
Engineers at Aeroflex Microelectronics Solutions also are seeing activity in the classified markets as well as in commercial telecommunications satellites and civil platforms, says Tony Jordan, Vice President of Product Marketing and Applications Engineering at Aeroflex Microelectronics Solutions in Colorado Springs, CO. "Classified programs are moving along with good activity in hosted payloads, where a box rides on the satellite as a secondary payload. The hottest area for us is still our standard products such as microprocessors, memory, serial bus products, voltage supervisors, power conversion, etc.
"Commercial weather needs seem to be heading down the host payload approach as well, leveraging commercial satellites as host for weather instruments that will deliver data for forecasting models," he continues. "These instruments are built by commercial companies leveraging technology, developed by the government, to gather weather forecasting data. There are a couple initiatives in this area regarding instruments and hosted payloads."
"While [Low Earth Orbit] LEO missions may have more latitude in being able to accept lower level radiation performance, they typically have shorter lifetimes," Dolan says. "We see most of our high-tech military customers and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) telecommunication missions require minimum 100 krad-type radiation performance guaranteed as mission life is typically getting longer."
Figure 1: The GPS III satellite from Lockheed Martin makes uses of radiation-hardened electronics for its payload and control systems. Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman, whose Astro Aerospace business unit supplies self-deploying, monopole JIB antennas for the satellite.
(Click graphic to zoom)
"A communications satellite being sent up for 10 to 15 years still needs full space-qualified parts, but for shorter life platforms even NASA is looking to do more with less," Patterson says. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been flying 30 krad Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) boards in satellite experimental platforms for years, he adds.
Reducing costs while maintaining reliability
"The budget-constrained environment is forcing program managers to look closely at each program and try to be smarter about which really needs megarad or 100 krad protection and which ones might get by with, say, 30 krad protection such as unmanned platforms with shorter mission times," Patterson continues. "This can result in huge savings."
"I think there are two changes that are occurring in the market," Longden says. "First, programs are faced with reduced budgets which has led to many customers reducing the quality level of products that they are procuring for space systems. Second, due to reduced program budgets and the need to perform more data processing in space there has been an increase in the number of programs requiring higher processing performance such as is available from our SCS750 Single Board Computer (SBC)."
"I think the most demand is for lower radiation [like VPT's] SV series because of the cost differentials," says Leonard Leslie, Manager of Space Programs at VPT in Blacksburg, VA. "When some customers really sit down and run the numbers they discover they don't need higher radiation levels for total dose and SEE performance in certain applications. However, not every application or program falls in one camp or the other. For example, unlike general satellite applications, launch vehicles have no total dose requirements, but have a high single event requirement. Each application and mission is different.
"We still get orders for programs with high radiation requirements, but the majority fall typically in the 30 krad(Si) range. Our SV series devices are generally qualified to 30 krad(Si) and we do offer models that are not rad-tested for prototyping. For full up requirements we have the SVR families qualified to 100 krad(Si) and 85 MeV-cm2/mg SEE performance with displacement damage performance. Those parts are tested for high radiation environments and designed with more stringent worst-case analysis because in general they are used for longer missions in high-radiation environments." (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2: VPT's SVR series products are qualified to 100 krad(Si) and 85 MeV-cm2/mg SEE performance with displacement damage performance.
(Click graphic to zoom by 1.9x)
"Our customers are putting intense pressure on us to find innovative ways to deliver space-quality product at lower costs," Patterson says. "We answer this by offering three different grades of product. For labs and for prototyping purposes we have a 100 percent software compatible product, followed by an intermediate degree conduction-cooled series of 3U CompactPCI qualified for extreme temperatures via upscreening methods. For those users who want all the bells and whistles and need a fully rad-hard product, our flight-qualified series is available at a much higher cost than the intermediate option. We offer the intermediate grade for customers who want to save money but still want reliability."
Aitech's next generation SP0 3U CompactPCI product now features a PowerPC 8548 processor. Radiation testing on the board has been completed and the SP0 is now qualified for 100 krad(Si) LEO, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and GEO. Testing has begun for deep space mega-rad environments, Patterson says. "The next generation of the company's computer for space applications will have a serial VPX architecture with a processor that is yet to be determined. It will be a multicore processor, but there is still work to do as well as some preliminary testing. Patterson says he expects the product to be available sometime in 2015. The 3U form factor is the perfect size for the growing number of small satellite applications and their payloads, he adds.
For the next generation of Maxwell's space SBC product "we are currently evaluating market needs for high-speed processing, high-speed data throughput, and standardization efforts to select the next generation of high-speed interfaces," Longden says. (See Figure 3.) "We are currently developing a new model of our SCS750 that will include two full speed SpaceWire ports capable of simultaneous, bi-directional communication. In the component area we have just introduced new products" in Maxwell's Rad-Pak technology: the 512Mb NOR Flash; a 16-bit, 200kSPS, analog-to-digital converter; a 16-bit, 30MSPS, digital-to-analog convert


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Lord William Montagu Douglas Scott
|This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2008)|
Lieutenant-Colonel Lord William Walter Montagu Douglas Scott MC (17 January 1896 – 30 January 1958) was a Scottish aristocrat and politician.
The 2nd son of John Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch, he was educated at Eton College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the 10th Hussars. Promoted Lieutenant in 1915, he won the Military Cross in 1918 and was shortly afterwards promoted Captain. From 1925 to 1926 he was ADC to the Governor-General of Canada. He retired in 1927. He rejoined the Army in the Second World War, serving in Italy and reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
In 1937 he married Lady Rachel Douglas Home (10 April 1910 – 4 Apr 1996), younger daughter of Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home. The couple had one son and four daughters, and lived at Eildon Hall, St Boswells, Roxburghshire.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord William Montagu Douglas Scott
|Parliament of the United Kingdom|
Earl of Dalkeith
|Member of Parliament for Roxburgh and Selkirk
Archibald James Florence Macdonald
|This article about a Conservative Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom born in the 1890s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Research studying the brain can be slow, complex, and costly, often requiring the efforts of many scientists and institutions to advance progress. To meet the challenges posed—and promises offered—by brain science, representatives from Australia, Japan, Korea, and the US have declared an intent to create an International Brain Initiative. This initiative comes out of a meeting held recently at the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra, Australia.
In the declaration of intent, which scientists are calling the "Canberra Declaration," the signatories agreed to ally with one another to maximize efficiency and impact; combine perspectives from multiple stakeholders, including government, academia, and industry; and commit to sharing data when possible.
One particularly unique focus of the initiative is on the ethics of brain data research:
"The initiatives therefore commit to collaborate in the fields of neuro-ethics, agency, responsible data stewardship, and cerebral privacy protection. They also commit to engage in a meaningful dialogue with citizens, patients, and all relevant communities to understand their concerns and communicate transparently on the opportunities and challenges arising," reads the declaration.
The initial members of the International Brain Initiative are the Australian Brain Alliance, the Japan Brain/MINDS Project, the Korea Brain Initiative, the EU Human Brain Project, and the US Brain Initiative, according to the Kavli Foundation, which supports the US Brain Initiative.
Read more about the US Brain Initiative in the APS Observer by clicking here.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Dreibelbis Farm, Virginville, held its first event of 2014 and its first winter event this past weekend with a presentation of 18th century Pennsylvania German ice harvesting.
"Obviously we're fighting the elements right here," said Mark Dreibelbis. "This ice storm put a real wrench in our plans."
Having the cold weather was great for the ice part of the demonstration, but made the usual driveway and parking at the historic Dreibelbis farm a sheet of ice. The Virginville Grange kindly donated their parking lot so that attendees could park and walk what used to be part of the railroad to the meeting place for the demonstration. Most of the guests were in snow boots and a few even had walking poles to make it through the ice covered snow.
"This is the first time we've done a winter activity here and we certainly haven't done ice harvesting before," said Dreibelbis.
As attendees gathered around the fire and looked over photos, brochures and tools displayed, Dreibelbis gave a brief history of the farm and spoke about the Dreibelbis Farm Historical Society. Guests were also able to enjoy hot chocolate before and after the presentation.
"All the ice tools have been on the farm here," explained Dreibelbis who thanked others who also loaned a few tools for the demonstration. "Really you could go back to the 1860s and the Civil War and start farming with all of the equipment here."
In the past, PA German settlers in the area would be preparing to make use of the ice at this time in order to preserve food during the warmer months. The demonstration took place at a pond located on the property that was frozen with about five inch thick ice.
"This was about the hardest job on the farm, harvesting the ice," said Dreibelbis. "Between sawing these blocks, hoisting them out, loading the wagon, bringing them up here and stacking them."
Dreibelbis used the various tools that were needed to harvest the ice as he explained the process.
"If it snows on the ice, you've got to go down there with a shovel and get that snow off as the ice is accumulating so it gets thick enough," explained Dreibelbis. "Minimum was eight inches. They liked it more like 16 to 20, even 22 inches thick. The bigger the block the more efficient it was to harvest."
The first thing that the settlers would do is line the ice with a tool pulled by horses so that the blocks would be the right size. Then they would chisel a hole and start using the large hand saw.
"It was a tremendous amount of work," said Dreibelbis.
Once the piece of ice was free floating, a pike (a long stick) was used to push the block over and then the ice would be grabbed with ice thongs.
After the explanation and some demonstrations with volunteers from the audience, the group trekked down to the pond to watch Dreibelbis start harvesting the ice. The crowd gathered around and on the ice. Some even took their own turn sawing through the thick ice. Once the ice was free, the demonstration continued by hauling the ice to the ice house and loading it in.
"We pre-harvested some ice," said Dreibelbis earlier in the presentation. "We got luck. These huge icebergs floated up from the Maidencreek on the back bank."
Attendees young and old had fun taking part in what was an annually chore for PA German settlers in the 18th century. Even the snow and ice covered trails on the property could not keep visitors away nor the threat of more snow and a few flurries that day.
For more information on the historic Dreibelbis Farm and upcoming events, visit _URL_.
Check out videos of the demonstration at _URL_ and follow The Item on Twitter @hamburgitem.

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


text:
Montana State Legislature
Agency: Department of Public Health & Human Services
*Navigate the categories below for more information about DPHHS
The mission of the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) is to improve and protect the health, well-being, and self-reliance of all Montanans. DPHHS administers a wide spectrum of programs and services including: public assistance, Medicaid, foster care and adoption, nursing home licensing, long-term care, aging services, alcohol and drug abuse programs, mental health services, vocational rehabilitation, disability services, child support activities, and public health functions such as communicable disease control and preservation of public health through chronic disease prevention.


"deviation" statement give details about the
 deviation.
 The argument string is an absolute schema node identifier (see
 Section 6.5).
 Deviations define the way a device or class of devices deviate from a
 standard. This means that deviations MUST never be part of a
 published standard, since they are the mechanism for learning how
 implementations vary from the standards.
Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 102]
RFC 6020 YANG October 2010
 Device deviations are strongly discouraged and MUST only be used as a
 last resort. Telling the application how a device fails to follow a
 standard is no substitute for implementing the standard correctly. A
 device that deviates from a module is not fully compliant with the
 module.
 However, in some cases, a particular device may not have the hardware
 or software ability to support parts of a standard module. When this
 occurs, the device makes a choice either to treat attempts to
 configure unsupported parts of the module as an error that is
 reported back to the unsuspecting application or ignore those
 incoming requests. Neither choice is acceptable.
 Instead, YANG allows devices to document portions of a base module
 that are not supported or supported but with different syntax, by
 using the "deviation" statement.
7.18.3.1. The deviation's Substatements
 +--------------+----------+-------------+
 | substatement | section | cardinality |
 +--------------+----------+-------------+
 | description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
 | deviate | 7.18.3.2 | 1..n |
 | reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
 +--------------+----------+-------------+
7.18.3.2. The deviate Statement
 The "deviate" statement defines how the device's implementation of
 the target node deviates from its original definition. The argument
 is one of the strings "not-supported", "add", "replace", or "delete".
 The argument "not-supported" indicates that the target node is not
 implemented by this device.
 The argument "add" adds properties to the target node. The
 properties to add are identified by substatements to the "deviate"
 statement. If a property can only appear once, the property MUST NOT
 exist in the target node.
 The argument "replace" replaces properties of the target node. The
 properties to replace are identified by substatements to the
 "deviate" statement. The properties to replace MUST exist in the
 target node.
Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 103]
RFC 6020 YANG October 2010
 The argument "delete" deletes properties from the target node. The
 properties to delete are identified by substatements to the "delete"
 statement. The substatement's keyword MUST match a corresponding
 keyword in the target node, and the argument's string MUST be equal
 to the corresponding keyword's argument string in the target node.
 The deviates's Substatements
 +--------------+---------+-------------+
 | substatement | section | cardinality |
 +--------------+---------+-------------+
 | config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
 | default | 7.6.4 | 0..1 |
 | mandatory | 7.6.5 | 0..1 |
 | max-elements | 7.7.4 | 0..1 |
 | min-elements | 7.7.3 | 0..1 |
 | must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
 | type | 7.4 | 0..1 |
 | unique | 7.8.3 | 0..n |
 | units | 7.3.3 | 0..1 |
 +--------------+---------+-------------+
7.18.3.3. Usage Example
 In this example, the device is informing client applications that it
 does not support the "daytime" service in the style of RFC 867.
 deviation /base:system/base:daytime {
 deviate not-supported;
 }
 The following example sets a device-specific default value to a leaf
 that does not have a default value defined:
 deviation /base:system/base:user/base:type {
 deviate add {
 default "admin"; // new users are 'admin' by default
 }
 }
 In this example, the device limits the number of name servers to 3:
 deviation /base:system/base:name-server {
 deviate replace {
 max-elements 3;
 }
 }
Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 104]
RFC 6020 YANG October 2010
 If the original definition is:
 container system {
 must "daytime or time";
 ...
 }
 a device might remove this must constraint by doing:
 deviation "/base:system" {
 deviate delete {
 must "daytime or time";
 }
 }
7.19. Common Statements
 This section defines substatements common to several other
 statements.
7.19.1. The config Statement
 The "config" statement takes as an argument the string "true" or
 "false". If "config" is "true", the definition represents
 configuration. Data nodes representing configuration will be part of
 the reply to a <get-config> request, and can be sent in a
 <copy-config> or <edit-config> request.
 If "config" is "false", the definition represents state data. Data
 nodes representing state data will be part of the reply to a <get>,
 but not to a <get-config> request, and cannot be sent in a
 <copy-config> or <edit-config> request.
 If "config" is not specified, the default is the same as the parent
 schema node's "config" value. If the parent node is a "case" node,
 the value is the same as the "case" node's parent "choice" node.
 If the top node does not specify a "config" statement, the default is
 "true".
 If a node has "config" set to "false", no node underneath it can have
 "config" set to "true".
7.19.2. The status Statement
 The "status" statement takes as an argument one of the strings
 "current", "deprecated", or "obsolete".
Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 105]
RFC 6020 YANG October 2010
 o "current" means that the definition is current and valid.
 o "deprecated" indicates an obsolete definition, but it permits new/
 continued implementation in order to foster interoperability with
 older/existing implementations.
 o "obsolete" means the definition is obsolete and SHOULD NOT be
 implemented and/or can be removed from implementations.
 If no status is specified, the default is "current".
 If a definition is "current", it MUST NOT reference a "deprecated" or
 "obsolete" definition within the same module.
 If a definition is "deprecated", it MUST NOT reference an "obsolete"
 definition within the same module.
 For example, the following is illegal:
 typedef my-type {
 status deprecated;
 type int32;
 }
 leaf my-leaf {
 status current;
 type my-type; // illegal, since my-type is deprecated
 }
7.19.3. The description Statement
 The "description" statement takes as an argument a string that
 contains a human-readable textual description of this definition.
 The text is provided in a language (or languages) chosen by the
 module developer; for the sake of interoperability, it is RECOMMENDED
 to choose a language that is widely understood among the community of
 network administrators who will use the module.
7.19.4. The reference Statement
 The "reference" statement takes as an argument a string that is used
 to specify a textual cross-reference to an external document, either
 another module that defines related management information, or a
 document that provides additional information relevant to this
 definition.
Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 106]
RFC 6020 YANG October 2010
 For example, a typedef for a "uri" data type could look like:
 typedef uri {
 type string;
 reference
 "RFC 3986: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax";
 ...
 }
7.19.5. The when Statement
 The "when" statement makes its parent data definition statement
 conditional. The node defined by the parent data definition
 statement is only valid when the condition specified by the "when"
 statement is satisfied. The statement's argument is an XPath
 expression (see Section 6.4),


How Did Mount Rushmore Get Its Name and Who Was Mount Rushmore Named After?
Rushmore wasn't the guy who carved the mountain.
After gold was discovered in South Dakota in 1874, the Sioux tribes that lived there were forced out, and prospectors and a smattering of tourists and curiosity-seekers moved in.
In 1885, a New York attorney named Charles Rushmore was riding through the area on a guided horseback tour and asked the name of the mountain.
His guide teased the city slicker: "Hell, it never had a name, but from now on we'll call the thing Rushmore."
Strangely enough, the name stuck.
The lawyer Rushmore, by the way, never abandoned his rocky namesake, he was one of the first to donate a large sum of money toward carving the mountainside.
 1. kailey says
 yea some guy said that he went to see mount rushmore in 1919 but the funny part is is the mountion was not built till 1927….
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^\xi$.
Since $\tfrac 1 2$ is less than the critical probability for oriented bond percolation in two dimensions $\approx.633$, a theorem of Licea-Newman-Piza applies and there is a rigorous lower bound $$\xi \ge 1/3$$ for your model. (cf. Theorem 4.3 in Howard - Models of First-Passage Percolation)
Suppose that $\gamma_n = \gamma^-_n \cup \gamma^+_n$ (i.e. the geodesic $\gamma_n$ meets the origin), so that $$2^\xi n^\xi \approx d(\gamma_n) = \max\{d(\gamma^-_n), d(\gamma^+_n)\} \approx n^\xi, $$ which suggests a contradiction since $2^\xi > 1$ by the lower bound $\xi \ge 1/3$.
Here's why it doesn't work. The exponent $\xi$ is precisely defined as the minimal power of $n$ such that the following hold: $$\lim_{n\to\infty} \mathbb P\left[d(\gamma^\pm_n) \le n^\xi \right] = 1 \qquad \mathrm{and} \qquad \lim_{n\to\infty} \mathbb P\left[d(\gamma_n) \le (2n)^\xi \right] = 1.$$ Since the $\approx$ signs above are really inequalities, there is no contradiction above.
share|improve this answer
That's very interesting. I did not know that there is a (provable) lower bound for xsi and this certainly looks very relevant. (In fact stronger than my question...) – Gil Kalai Apr 28 '10 at 6:08
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Here is a sketch of a germ of an idea that might work. But don't take it too seriously.
Consider the space $E_k$ of grid paths from $(0,0)$ to $(2k+1,0)$ with nonnegative $x_2$-coordinate and Euclidean length $2k+3$. Associate such paths with functions in the obvious way. Now there are $\binom{2k+2}{2}$ such paths, $2\binom{k+1}{2}$ (i.e., proportionally just less than one half) of which contain the middle edge. Now there exists an assignment of edge lengths and corresponding coefficients $\{a_j\}_{j=1}^k \in \{0,1\}^k$ s.t. the sum $\gamma = \sum_{j=1}^k a_j \gamma_j$ is a shortest path (provided we require a nonnegative $x_2$-coordinate).
If the $a_j$ and $\gamma_j$ are selected uniformly at random, then the probability that the middle edge will be contained in $\gamma$ is asymptotically $2^{-k/2}$.
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Talking about naive attempts, I thought maybe a simple solution along these lines could be found, but I couldn't:
I denote by $p_k(n,2r)$ the probability that a shortest path from the origin to $(n,2r)$ contains the segment $(\lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor,k)$ to $(\lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor +1,k)$. A simple observation is that $p_k(n,2k)=p_k(n,0)$ (consider reflecting the path on the line $y=k$ in the region $x > \lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor$). The idea is to show that $p_k(n,2k)$ is close to $p_0(n,0)$ for small $k$. One can do this maybe by considering a new rectangular grid spanned by $(1,\frac{2k}{n})$ and $(-\frac{2k}{n},1)$ (with suitable edge weight distribution) and trying to find the new $p_0'(n,0)$ which should be a good approximation of $p_k(n,2k)$.
Now if one can find a slowly decreasing function $f$ so that $p_k(n,2k)\approx f(p_0(n,0))$ in the range, say $|k|\le \sqrt{n}$ then $$1=\sum_{k=-\infty}^{\infty}p_k(n,0)=\sum_{k=-\infty}^{\infty}p_k(n,2k)\approx \int_{-\sqrt{n}}^{\sqrt{n}}f(p)dp \geq c\sqrt{n}p_0(n,0)$$ for some constant $c$. If $\lim_{n\to \infty}p_0(n,0)>0$ then the above inequality is obviously false for large enough $n$.
ETA: I realize this approach works if we were able to prove $$\liminf_{n\to \infty} p_{0}(n,0)=\liminf_{n\to \infty} p_k(n,0)$$ for any fixed $k$.
share|improve this answer
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UPDATE: Fixed typing error in 2nd paragraph (greater than -> less than or equal to)
UPDATE2: Fixed typing errors pointed out by Gil Kalai
UPDATE3: I put off the detailed version from my webpage
UPDATE4: The solution is wrong, as pointed out to me by Nathanaël Berestycki. It is of course not enough to consider only the path that goes directly from the origin to (n,0). I didn't read the problem properly. Sorry.
I don't know whether this problem is still open, but I think I have found an elementary proof for the original question. It is almost too simple to be true, but I don't see any mistake. Here's the sketch:
All numbers here are natural numbers between $0$ and $n$, and $n$ is sufficiently large. Fix a (large) $K$. Let $x_l$ be the smallest $x < n/3$, such that for all $1\le j \le K$, the length of the path $(x,0)\rightarrow (x,j) \rightarrow (x+K,j)$ is less than or equal to the length of the path $(x,0)\rightarrow (x+K,0)$. The arrow indicates that we take the direct path. For definiteness, set $x_l = \lfloor n/3 \rfloor + 1$ if such a number does not exist, but note that it exists with probability going to one as $n\rightarrow \infty$. Note further that since we took the smallest $x$ with the above property, conditioned on $x_l$, the lengths of the edges to the right of the vertical line $x=x_l+K$ are still independent, of the same law as before, and independent of the configuration to the left of this vertical line.
Now define $x_r$ by mirroring the above definition at the line $x=n/2$ (the largest $x>2n/3$, such that....)
Then, the paths $(x_l+K,j)\rightarrow(x_r-K,j)$ are independent for $0\le j\le K$, hence, with probability going to $K/(K+1)$, there exists $1\le j \le K$, such that the path $(x_l+K,j)\rightarrow(x_r-K,j)$ is shorter than $(x_l+K,0)\rightarrow(x_r-K,0)$.
Combining the above observations, with probability $K/(K+1) + o(1)$, there exist $x_l < n/3$, $x_r>2n/3$ and $1\le j \le K$ such that the path $(0,0) \rightarrow (x_l,0)\rightarrow (x_l,j)\rightarrow (x_r,j) \rightarrow (x_r,0) \rightarrow (n,0)$ is shorter than the path $(0,0) \rightarrow (n,0)$. Letting first $n\rightarrow \infty$, then $K\rightarrow\infty$ finishes the proof.
share|improve this answer
Dear Pascal, it is a bit too sketchy for me to follow but it looks promising! (Also I supppose the vertical line is x=x_l+K). – Gil Kalai Sep 25 '11 at 13:26
_USER_: Thanks for having a look at the proof and pointing out the typos. I'd be glad to write down a detailed version, if the problem still interests you. – Pascal Maillard Sep 25 '11 at 17:22
Dear Pascal, yes definitely it is an interesting problem on its own, several people tried to prove it (including us) and it has some applications regarding geodesics in the random metric described by FPP. – Gil Kalai Sep 25 '11 at 19:51
Dear Pascal, the conjecture is from 2002 by Benjamini, Schramm and myself in the paper cited in the question itself.front.math.ucdavis.edu/0203.5262. It is mentioned at the bottom of page 2 and the top of page 5. Actually on page 5 a slightly stronger version that we needed is mentioned and maybe your method apply there too. –


text:
See Mormon Film: Key Films of the Second Wave
This film has one of the longest genealogies in LDS cinema: The original source is obviously the Book of Mormon. After Orson F. Whitney's 1888 manifesto calling for increased "Home Literature" among the Latter-day Saints, Elder B. H. Roberts adapted these stories into a moralizing serialized novella that ran in the "Contributor" in 1889. In 1902 Orestes Utah Bean adapted this into a stage play, which was quite popular with Latter-day Saints, though probably not as popular with general audiences as LDS rhetoric may have implied.
Since the 1910s LDS film distributor and producer Lester Park had desired to make an LDS-themed feature film, and with the coming of synchronized sound at the end of the 20s he saw an adaptation of "Corianton" as an ideal, proven property. With his brothers he founded the Corianton Corporation; he secured use of the Tabernacle Choir for the soundtrack, and proceeded with production, done lavishly in the style of the popular 1920s Biblical epics.
Despite troubled finances caused by the onset of the Great Depression (and the subsequent missing of the projected release date of April 6, 1930, the Church's centennial), the corporation managed to complete the picture and preview it to an audience in early 1931. After this, however, the film did not to our knowledge enter general or limited release. Park left LDS filmmaking and the film was lost for many decades. The Corianton Corporation was suspended on April 4, 1932 for failure to pay taxes.
In 2004 BYU Motion Picture Archivist James V. D'arc located a damaged 16mm print of the film, and digital restoration work was completed in early 2006.


There are 11 other file types using
the COD file extension!
empty icon.cod - Forecast Plus file
empty icon.cod - FORTRAN program compiled code file
cod icon.cod - 3GPP AMR interface format 2 audio data
empty icon.cod - Forte Agent char map
empty icon.cod - Atlantis Word Processor encrypted document
empty icon.cod - Blackberry compiled Java code
empty icon.cod - Microsoft C compiler output
empty icon.cod - dBASE template source
empty icon.cod - StatPac Gold data file
empty icon.cod - SWAT input control file
empty icon.cod - UUPC code definition table file
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COD file extension - Microsoft Multiplan file
What is cod file? How to open cod files?
File type specification:
Various data file type icon Various data file type
The cod file extension is associated with Multiplan. Multiplan was an early spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft. Known initially by the code name "EP" (for "Electronic Paper"), it was introduced in 1982 as a competitor for VisiCalc.
The .cod files contain data used by the application.
The default software associated to open cod file:
Multiplan picture or screenshot
Microsoft Corporation logoMultiplan Multiplatform software
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Microsoft Corporation
Multiplan was an early spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft. Multiplan was released first for computers running CP/M operating system, later for MS-DOS, Xenix, Commodore 64, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Radio Shack Model II, Apple II, and Burroughs B-20 series.
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Comparative Study of Magnetic Pc-Type Pulsations between the Low-Latitudes and the High-Latitudes ( I ) -Statistical Features of PcI Pulsations-
Toya, T., Kuwashima, M., Kawamura, M., Fukunishi, H. & Ayukawa, M.
Statistical features of Pc 1 pulsations were studied on the basis of data obtained at a low-latitude station, Memambetsu in Japan and at a high-latitude station, Syowa Station in Antarctica for the period of February, 1977 to January, 1978. The low-latitude Pc 1 shows marked differences from the high-latitude one in diurnal and seasonal variations of frequency of occurrence, mean and repeating periods, and dependencies on general geomagnetic activity (Dst and Kp). The source region associated with the low-latitude Pc 1 seems to be located more earthward in the magnetosphere than that associated with the high-latitude one.
Copyright (c) 2014 Kakioka Magnetic Observatory, Japan Meteorological Agency. All Rights Reserved.


Sharing property with the elderly
Sharing property with the elderly
Sharing a property with an elderly relative may seem to be the perfect answer to rising property prices, and concerns over care for the elderly, but people contemplating such an arrangement should be aware of the legal and practical problems which may arise. There are a number of different ways to share property, but an equal number of pitfalls, whether legal, financial or relating to tax.
Some preliminary considerations
Whatever arrangement is under consideration it is important for there to be frank discussions beforehand about how the relationship will work. Issues which need to be covered include:
 - How will bills be paid - by whom and in what proportions?
 - What facilities will be provided - are there any "rules" about use of rooms?
 - What level of support will be provided to the elderly person - for example, companionship; preparation of meals; laundry; shopping
 - When will the relationship come to an end, for example, due to the increasing needs of elderly person or a breakdown in the personal relationship?
 - If there are to be financial consequences, either during the elderly person's lifetime, or on death, then these need to be discussed with other family members, particularly those who may be expecting to inherit
Options for sharing property
Some of the more common options for sharing property are:
1. The Elderly Person Moving in with Relatives
In many ways, this is the simplest solution. Although no legal documentation is necessary, it may be helpful to draw up a licence recording some of the issues referred to above, particularly covering the circumstances in which the elderly person is to move out. The position may be complicated if the elderly person originally owned the house and gifted it to the relatives now living there, or if a capital contribution is made e.g. to pay off the mortgage. Professional advice should be sought in such circumstances.
2. Building a "Granny flat"
Extending an existing property to build a "granny flat" is more complicated both in terms of the planning and building regulation consent which is likely to be required, and the financing of the extension. If the elderly person contributes towards the cost, then is this a loan, or gift, or is the elderly person to have ownership of part of the property?
If the older person gains an interest in the property, then what will happen if the property has to be sold, e.g. in the event of financial problems or divorce? There may also be an issue if the elderly person needs to move into a care home, and the local authority carries out a financial assessment. For all these reasons it is important that appropriate legal documentation is drawn up to reflect the nature of the financing.
Different inheritance tax (IHT) consequences flow depending on the nature of the financial contribution. If the elderly person has a share in the property then it will form part of their estate on death; and this may also be the case if the money is a gift (if the gift with reservation of benefit rules are deemed to apply).
3. Moving into the Elderly Person's house
Younger people may decide to move into an elderly relative's house on the understanding that they will provide certain care services, in return for a share in the property, either immediately or on death. Whatever arrangement is reached should be documented properly, in order to ensure that it is enforceable and to avoid adverse tax consequences. It is advisable that other family members are involved in discussions and are happy with what is proposed. Some of the potential problems are:
 - A gift by the older person will still be subject to IHT until they have survived 7 years since the date of the gift
 - If an older person moves into a care home shortly after making the gift, then the local authority may seek to claw it back to form part of the estate
 - A "promise" to leave property to someone after death which is not reflected in a will may be enforceable - but it gives rise to complicated legal and factual arguments
4. Joint Purchase of Property
Sometimes both parties may decide to sell their properties and buy a new home in which they can all live, thus saving the costs of running two households and enabling some element of care and support to be provided to the older party. In these cases, it is important to identify who will own the property i.e. whether the older person is making a gift or loan of the money, or whether all contributing parties will be co-owners.
As mentioned previously if the money is intended as a gift it will be exempt from inheritance tax provided the donor lives for 7 years. If the money is a loan, then it remains part of the older person's estate for IHT purposes. If the parties are to be co-owners, then a declaration of trust needs to be drawn up recording their percentage interests in the property.
It is particularly important in these circumstances to document what will happen if any of the family relationships involved break down.
How we can help
We can advise on the drafting of loan documents, licences or declarations of trust necessary to record the parties' intentions, and on the tax consequences of what is involved, as well as the impact on any assessments which the local authority may carry out.


text:
Ardeola is the official scientific journal of the Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO/Birdlife), and it has been published since the Society's foundation in 1954. Ardeola has expanded his scope recently to provide a renewed forum for publication of studies on all aspects of ornithology, carried out both in Spain and elsewhere. Papers dealing with ornithology in the areas of Mediterranean climate and in the Neotropics, as well as with the conservation of birds and their habitats, are especially acknowledged.
Ardeola is issued twice at a year (currently June and December, one volume per year), but from 2017 onwards will be published on January and July. The main body of the journal is composed by original articles and short notes. Papers should be in English, with abstracts also in Spanish. The editorial staff will promote rapid publication of peer-reviewed manuscripts. Ardeola also publishes the official list of Spanish Rarities and the Checklist of Spanish names of the birds of the world, as well as reviews of most of the books received in the library of SEO/BirdLife and Spanish summaries of the papers dealing with ornithology in areas of Mediterranean climate which are published in other scientific journals. (more....)
NOTE: If you have problems to display PDf documents: Update Adobe Reader here
|© SEO/BirdLife, 2010. Contact and use policy.|


📤 Drawer View is a custom UI component replication of Apple's Apple Music player and Shortcuts components view (also can be seen in Maps app).
drawer-view is availabe via CocoaPods
pod 'drawer-view', '~> 1.0.1'
You can always use copy-paste the sources method 😄. Or you can compile the framework and include it with your project.
📺 Demo
Please wait while the.gif files are loading... (they are about 25Mb)
🍱 Features
 - Easy to use
 - You only need to instantiate a class called DrawerView and add your UI components.
 - Flexible API
 - Includes a number of customization points that allows to decorate the DrawerView as you'd like.
 - Callbacks
 - You can use built-in callbacks in order to integrate animations or get the state changes.
 - Behavior
 - You may tell the component to close the drawer when the device is rotated or user interacts with the child components.
 - Autolayout
 - You don't need to do anything related to autolayout - the component properly handles all the changes. The only thing you need to do is to add your UI components and make sure that aulayout constraints are properly setup for them.
📚 Code Samples
The most simple instantiation: you only need to provide the superview:
let _ = DrawerView(superView: view)
You can specify how much space will be between top anchor of the DrawerView and the superview by setting topLayoutGuidePadding property and how tall the DrawerView will be when it is closed by setting closedHeight property:
let _ = DrawerView(topLayoutGuidePadding: 100, closedHeight: 82, superView: view)
You can specify blur effect and its type. It will be animated alongside with the drawer view. There are several styles for blur:
let _ = DrawerView(blurStyle:.light, superView: view)
By default the DrawerView will include a visual indicator called LineArrow. LineArrow is an indicator that decorates the view and helps a user with interaction. You can change the properties of the indicator by setting its height, width and color:
let _ = DrawerView(lineArrow: (height: 8, width: 82, color:.black), superView: view)
// Or you can set 'nil' in order to turn the indicator off
You can change the behavior of the component when a device is rotated. By default the DrawerView will not be closed when a device is rotated. However, you can change this behavior:
drawerView.closeOnRotation = true
You can programmatically change the state of the component:
drawerView.change(state:.open, shouldAnimate: true)
By default, interactions with the child views don't affect the DrawerView anyhow. However, you can change this behavior and allow the DrawerView to be dismissed when one of the child views are interacted:
drawerView.closeOnChildViewTaps = true
There is an animation closure that is used to animate the external components alongside with the DrawerView:
drawerView.animationClosure = { state in
 switch state {
 case.open:
 someOtherView.alpha = 1.0
 case.closed:
 someOtherView.alpha = 0.0
You can optionally specify a completion closure that gets called when animation is completed:
drawerView.completionClosure = { state in
 switch state {
 case.open:
 case.closed:
The third and final callback closure can be used to get DrawerViewstate changes:
drawerView.onStateChangeClosure = { state in
 state ==.closed? showDialog() : doNothing()
Also there are many other properties that be customized:
drawerView.cornerRadius = 60
drawerView.animationDuration = 2.5
drawerView.animationDampingRatio = 0.9
drawerView.shadowRadius = 0.25
drawerView.shadowOpacity = 0.132


text:
Benefits of Depositing Data
One of the major goals of NACJD and its sponsors is
to support the analysis of existing data. The criminal justice field as
a whole benefits when professional researchers test each other's conclusions - verifying, refining or
refuting original findings. This is one reason why the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Office
of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) require that their grantees deposit data sponsored by these agencies
Sharing of data also fosters the development and testing of new conclusions, as data collected for one
purpose can be used to pursue inquiries not addressed by the original investigators. Indeed,
depositing files produced from the analysis of
existing data is also encouraged.
Archiving data affords multiple benefits to the investigator:
- The investigator's study is described on the NACJD website.
- NACJD distributes the data and supporting documentation to interested users, freeing investigators
from using their own time and resources to do so and permitting other researchers to reanalyze the data.
- Once the data are archived and available, the investigator is no longer responsible for maintaining
permanent backups of the data he or she collected.
- The investigator and his or her colleagues can assist each other in future research projects by
sharing the archived data and documentation over a wide variety of computer platforms.
Preparing Research Files for Deposit
NACJD urges researchers to begin their archiving strategy as they begin their research. The National Institute of Justice's
Program provides much useful information about things to consider. ICPSR, NACJD's parent organization, has also prepared valuable
guidelines for data management.
NACJD encourages researchers to deposit computer-readable data with NACJD for long-term preservation
and for use in analysis by other social science researchers. The following information will assist in the
preparation of data for deposit.


text:
March 1, 2023
As part of the County of Ventura's ongoing commitment to addressing climate change impacts and enhancing wildlife habitat, the County launched a new Environmental Grant Program last November. Schools, nonprofits, and community organizations were asked to apply for up to $15,000 in funding to implement shovel-ready projects or activities that support wildlife habitat restoration, species conservation, environmental education and stewardship, and/or address climate change impacts.
The Environmental Grant Program's goal is to engage more people by reaching out and funding organizations that may not typically qualify or have difficulty competing for traditional grant programs. "We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to participate including children, people with diverse backgrounds and abilities and income levels because we all have a role to play in being good environmental stewards." said Linda Parks, former District 2 Board of Supervisor.
The County received 43 applications for project proposals located all over the Ventura Region and requesting funding from ~$300 to $15,000. Applicants ranged from grass roots community groups and high school environmental clubs to well-established local nonprofits environmental organizations. Majority of the applications focused on environmental education and habitat restoration projects that were committed to environmental diversity, equity, and inclusion, and removing barriers and providing access to underrepresented communities.
A Grant Selection Committee was formed with individuals from local non-profits and partner agencies to score and rank the applications based on ten criteria. This resulted in four applications being awarded funding from the new Grant Program. The funded applicants represent a grass roots collective advocating for open space and three nonprofits focused on conservation, watershed protection, and creating access watersheds and open space for underrepresented communities. Funding from the Grant Program should help some impacts felt by these organizations from the recent January storms that resulted in widespread damage across Ventura County, especially to the region's watersheds.
Since the County received so many exciting applications, it was very difficult to rank them. Thus, County staff are looking for additional sources of funding to potentially award a couple of smaller grants. County staff is also working to connect grant applicants with funding opportunities outside of the County's Environmental Grant Program. Lastly, through administering the Environmental Grant Program, County staff were able to learn about organizations that are doing important work to address climate change impacts and enhancing wildlife habitat. The Grant Program has helped the County connect with these organizations as well as introduce organizations that are doing similar work in hopes of creating future collaborations on project proposals.
The four Environmental Grant funded projects will have a year to complete their work. County staff looks forward to seeing their progress and learning more about each organization. For more information about the County of Ventura's sustainability efforts, please visit sustain.ventura.org.


Salmon: Correcting the Record
It wasn't that long ago Dr. Sanjay Gupta told audiences that farmed salmon was "injected" with dye. He later devoted an extraordinary amount of time and research into an expose for 60 Minutes about farmed salmon where he explained that the dyed salmon narrative was simply a myth that needed rebutting:
 - Some people use that as a point to criticize farmed salmon that there are these artificial dyes—"It's not accurate to call these artificial dyes. I think people conjure up this image of the farm salmon being injected with something that causes it to turn that pink color. That's not what's happening here. It's a much more natural occurring process where the farmed salmon eat a type of food that causes a reaction in the body, just like the wild salmon does, and that causes that more pinkish color."
While we take our hats off to Dr. Gupta for correcting the record and doing it in a science-based manner, we also have to say good job to Cooks Illustrated. The venerable cooking magazine made the very same mistake Gupta once did but has done a service to its readers by also correcting the record:
 - In our March-April 2017 issue, we state that farmed salmon is "dyed pale pink by synthetic astaxanthin and carotenoid pigment in [the] feed." To be clear, farmed salmon is not dyed. The pinkish color of the flesh is created by compounds in the feed. A similar process occurs in wild salmon, which get their pink color from eating shrimp and other sea creatures rich in carotenoids.
Getting accurate information out about the food we all eat is important. Misinformation, especially about healthy food like salmon, can actually hurt public health. Whether its chefs or doctors who are helping to set the record straight they should be applauded.


can we measure TTL output using a multimeter
Discussion in 'The Projects Forum' started by rudy123, Aug 6, 2014.
 1. rudy123
 Thread Starter New Member
 Mar 24, 2014
 Hi, i am working on a pen wand scanner (MSH-119) project. The output of the scanner is TTL data. My question is: can we measure the TTL output using a multimeter? I tried it but the output is always 5v (because I connect a pull up resistor 5.1k between the power and the TTL output) no matter where I place the tip of the pen on.
 2. Papabravo
 Feb 24, 2006
 It is better to use an oscilloscope. That way you can measure the on and off times of the signals and actually see the bits. A multimeter can tell you if the output is beating up and down or it is fixed at a high or low level.
 3. DickCappels
 Aug 21, 2008
 Yes, I used to do this regularly before I bought a scope for my second home. I still do it occasionally because its often more convenient than waiting for the scope to boot up.
 If the logic signal is faster than the meter's response time (usually on the order of half a second, depending upon the particular meter) the voltage you measure will be the logic high voltage times the duty cycle. In your present case, this applies if the pullup resistor has a low enough resistance for the signal to faithfully switch while driving the capacitance of the meter leads and meter input.


text:
Study and development of an air conditioning system operating on a magnetic heat pump cycle (design and testing of flow directors).
- Wang, Pao-Lien
- Sep 1, 1992.
- Physical Description:
- 1 electronic document
- Restrictions on Access:
- Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
- This report describes the fabrication, design of flow director, fluid flow direction analysis and testing of flow director of a magnetic heat pump. The objectives of the project are: (1) to fabricate a demonstration magnetic heat pump prototype with flow directors installed; and (2) analysis and testing of flow director and to make sure working fluid loops flow through correct directions with minor mixing. The prototype was fabricated and tested at the Development Testing Laboratory of Kennedy Space Center. The magnetic heat pump uses rear earth metal plates rotate in and out of a magnetic field in a clear plastic housing with water flowing through the rotor plates to provide temperature lift. Obtaining the proper water flow direction has been a problem. Flow directors were installed as flow barriers between separating point of two parallel loops. Function of flow directors were proven to be excellent both analytically and experimentally.
- Other Subject(s):
- NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
- Document ID: _PHONE_.
Accession ID: 93N19407.
Univ. of Central Florida, NASA(ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program; p 483-500.
- No Copyright.
View MARC record | catkey: _PHONE_


text:
You're invited to join our BioBlitz activities where you are welcome to explore our protected forests, rivers and fields to monitor species of trees, flowers, birds and more! At our events, you can also learn more about climate change and what you can do about it, while learning about what you can do in your own backyard to help our Moraine!
You can explore our Moraine using our interactive map. You can also learn more about wild and at-risk species here on the Moraine, and about the habitats where they thrive. Start your virtual tour of our beautiful Moraine, and we hope it inspires you to get outside on our Moraine soon!
Your Land Trust is a group of citizens and neighbours working together to protect and steward Moraine properties for our collective benefit. Click below to find out why we do what we do and meet our dedicated staff and our fabulous volunteer Board of Directors. If you're interested in how we do what we do, you can check out our impact and finances, while reviewing our past newsletters and reports. For teachers who want to expand their knowledge we have tons of resources for you too!


text:
Did you know that newborn babies have the most water? An average newborn is roughly 75% water, a level that decreases as we age, dropping to about 50% for an elderly person.
The amount of water inside the body throughout the course of its life also varies depending on what shape that body is in. The more muscular a body is, the more water it contains. Conversely, the more fat there is in a body, the less water there is, because the water-content of fat is low. Our vital organs, like the brain, lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys, contain between 65% to 85% water*, while bones contain around 30%.


text:
- It is not possible to clone Lonesome George now, but other endangered animals have been successfully cloned.
- In the future, cloning and further studying Lonesome George might be possible, so scientists are focusing on preserving his tissues now.
- Biobanks known as "frozen zoos" hold tissues and other remains of certain endangered animals.
The recent death of Lonesome George, the famed Galapagos tortoise believed to be the last representative of his subspecies, has many experts wondering how we should try to save other endangered and at-risk animals.
Cloning is one option. While cloning methods for reptiles are not as advanced as those for mammals, scientists also say they face other incredible obstacles.
"At the most, I could envision one male turtle of this subspecies cloned in future or maybe two males, but where are you going to get a female?" asked Martha Gomez, a senior scientist with the Audubon Nature Institute, which has one of the world's few "frozen zoos."
Frozen Zoos stockpile biological materials from a wide variety of rare and critically endangered species. The biological material is usually composed of gametes (sperm and egg cells), embryos, tissue samples, serum and other items. Together, they represent a bank vault of irreplaceable genetic information that can be preserved for possibly hundreds of years or more. In most cases, the materials are stored in holding tanks filled with liquid nitrogen.
Oliver Ryder, director of genetics at the San Diego Zoo, spoke to Discovery News as his team was racing to the Galapagos Islands to help preserve the tissues of Lonesome George. The San Diego Zoo operates one of the other few frozen zoos.
"This is an extremely urgent matter," Ryder said. "We had planned to meet in the Galapagos in two weeks to discuss preservation of the tortoises there. It is a bitter irony that Lonesome George died before we could even finish setting up the plans. It underscores the importance of preserving such animals."
"We are facing some logistical problems now, but we don't want to look back with 'what if's,'" he added. "This may be the only chance we'll have to preserve, document and study this tortoise subspecies."
Ryder believes discussions of cloning Lonesome George are premature at this point. Before that takes place, he thinks more must be learned about this particular tortoise's physiology and reproduction. Studying Lonesome George's remains may also help to reveal how tortoises often live to advanced ages, information that could one day lead to breakthroughs in extending human lifespans.
For cloning, researchers are focusing more on "species where we have detailed knowledge of their reproductive biology," Ryder said. That is one reason why cats, dogs and mice were among the first animals to be cloned. Scientists are now working to clone endangered relatives of such animals, in hopes of releasing those individuals into the wild to strengthen natural populations.
Earlier this year, Gomez and her colleagues successfully cloned endangered black-footed cats. An endangered wild ox, called a gaur, and a banteng (wild cattle) have also been successfully cloned. Work is underway to clone and otherwise increase the population of Sumatran rhinos, which presently number only about 200-300 in the wild.
While one healthy clone is an interesting novelty, clones must also be able to reproduce in order to be fully successful. Gomez said that kittens of cloned wild cat parents have died "due to problems with nuclear programing," but some normal kittens have resulted and continue to thrive.
Both she and Ryder say that there is no international policy calling for cloning and preservation of highly endangered species. Instead, isolated facilities and the work of dedicated individuals are responsible for the successes.
"The effort needs to be more widespread and organized," Gomez said.
Through published papers and talks, Ryder and his colleagues have repeatedly called for an organized global effort. It would need an "overarching international body" on par with UNESCO, he believes.
"The first step is saving tissue samples, as we're in the process of doing for Lonesome George," he said. "But we who are among the forefront would like to train others to establish frozen zoo biobanks in other countries."
"I am confident that one day such an international structure will come together, bringing in other conservation work, such as preserving habitat," Ryder concluded. "It's poignant to lose a subspecies like that of Lonesome George. People in the future will be looking back at us, wondering why we didn't act sooner."


text:
Author(s): Enoka RM, Semmler JG, Taylor AM, Hunter SK, Kornatz KW
This paper examines the physiological mechanisms responsible for differences in the amplitude of force fluctuations between young and old adults. Because muscle force is a consequence of motor unit activity, the potential mechanisms include both motor unit properties and the behavior of motor unit populations. The force fluctuations, however, depend not only on the age of the individual but also on the muscle group performing the task, the type and intensity of the muscle contraction, and the physical activity status of the individual. Computer simulations and experimental findings performed on tasks that involved single agonist and antagonist muscles suggest that differences in force fluctuations are not attributable to motor unit twitch force, motor unit number, or nonuniform activation of the agonist muscle, but that they are influenced by the variability and common modulation of motor unit discharge in both the agonist and antagonist muscles. Because the amplitude of the force fluctuations does not vary linearly with muscle activation, these results suggest that multiple mechanisms contribute to the differences in force fluctuations between young and old adults, although the boundary conditions for each mechanism remain to be determined.


.Net, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, C#, Database, Example Connection, Programming, SQL, Web Development, WebForms
C# Example Code to Save and Resize Images from your Database to a System Folder
In this example I will show how to use C# in a WebForm to read out a series of pictures from a database table, resize the pictures to a standardized width, and then to save each image as a JPEG to a folder on your local file system. The code assumes that the pictures are coming from your database as JPEG format images, but you can easily adjust the code to dynamically save each image by its type if you have this data stored in your database.
Step-by-Step Code Walkthrough
To start, we set up a SQL connection to the database, and then loop through the results using a DataReader. Each image from the SQL Server database is read out of the database as a byte array, which is then converted to an Image object so that we can better manipulate it in code:
imagedata = (byte[])reader[0];
System.Drawing.Image tmpOriginalImage = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(new System.IO.MemoryStream(imagedata));
Once we have the original image from the database, we want to standardize the width. In this example we will standardize each variable-sized image to 140 pixels wide. This naturally also involves adjusting the height of each image by the same aspect ratio. The scale of adjustment is calculated as:
double dblScaleImg = (double)intDesiredWidth / (double)tmpOriginalImage.Width;
Now that we have the scale, we will set up an empty BitMap image container with the correct dimensions for the image that we want to create and save:
Graphics tmpGraphics = default(Graphics);
 Bitmap tmpResizedImage = new Bitmap(Convert.ToInt32(dblScaleImg * tmpOriginalImage.Width), Convert.ToInt32(dblScaleImg * tmpOriginalImage.Height));
 tmpGraphics = Graphics.FromImage(tmpResizedImage);
So far so good! But now comes the most important part; resizing the original image into our new image container with minimal distortion. To do so we can set a number of different image scaling options that are described in detail in this article on MSDN. In our code example we will use the HighQualityBilinear scaling option, which is appropriate for handling images that are scaled or rotated:
tmpGraphics.InterpolationMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBilinear;
Now that our graphics object is properly set up, and our scaling dimensions are ready to be calculated, we set the original Image from our database into our new graphics object:
 tmpGraphics.DrawImage(tmpOriginalImage, 0, 0, tmpResizedImage.Width + 1, tmpResizedImage.Height + 1);
That completes our task of creating a new, standard-sized image from our original database object. The final step is to save our new image to our file system:
 System.Drawing.Image imageOut = tmpResizedImage;
 imageOut.Save("C:\\PicturesFolder\\testImage" + counter + ".jpg", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);
As you can see, once you are familiar with the concepts and libraries, manipulating images in C# is quite straightforward. Have a look below at a fully functioning example of the concepts we just stepped through.
The Example Code
Here is a functional example of a simple ASP.NET WebForm with a button control on it. When the user clicks the button, a method is called which contains the script to save images from a database table to a folder on the local file system. As I mentioned, the process also involves resizing each image to a standardized width and corresponding height based on the image's original aspect ratio.
<%@ Page Language="C#" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web.Configuration" %>
<%@ Import Namespace = "System.Data" %>
<%@ Import Namespace = "System.Data.SqlClient" %>
<%@ Import Namespace = "System.IO" %>
<%@ Import Namespace = "System.Drawing" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "_URL_
<script runat="server">
 protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
 string strConn = "uid=MyUserId;pwd=MyPassword;server=MyPictureServer;database=MyDatabaseName;Connect Timeout=600";
 SqlConnection conn = null;
 SqlCommand cmd = null;
 Int32 counter = 0;
 byte[] imagedata = null;
 Int32 intDesiredWidth = 140;
 try
 {
 conn = new SqlConnection(strConn);
 cmd = new SqlCommand();
 cmd.Connection = conn;
 cmd.CommandText = "SELECT MyPictures FROM MyDatabaseTable WHERE SomeConditions=True";
 cmd.CommandTimeout = 30;
 cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
 conn.Open();
 SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
 if (reader.HasRows)
 {
 while (reader.Read())
 {
 imagedata = (byte[])reader[0];
 System.Drawing.Image tmpOriginalImage = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(new System.IO.MemoryStream(imagedata));
 double dblScaleImg = (double)intDesiredWidth / (double)tmpOriginalImage.Width;
 Graphics tmpGraphics = default(Graphics);
 Bitmap tmpResizedImage = new Bitmap(Convert.ToInt32(dblScaleImg * tmpOriginalImage.Width), Convert.ToInt32(dblScaleImg * tmpOriginalImage.Height));
 tmpGraphics = Graphics.FromImage(tmpResizedImage);
 tmpGraphics.InterpolationMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBilinear;
 tmpGraphics.DrawImage(tmpOriginalImage, 0, 0, tmpResizedImage.Width + 1, tmpResizedImage.Height + 1);
 System.Drawing.Image imageOut = tmpResizedImage;
 imageOut.Save("C:\\PicturesFolder\\testImage" + counter + ".jpg", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);
 counter++;
 }
 }
 reader.Close();
 }
 catch (Exception ex)
 {
 }
 finally
 {
 if (cmd != null) cmd.Dispose();
 if (conn != null)
 {
 conn.Close();
 conn.Dispose();
 }
 }
 }
</script>
<html xmlns="_URL_
<head runat="server">
 <title></title>
</head>
<body>
 <form id="form1" runat="server">
 <div>
 <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" onclick="Button1_Click" Text="Button" />
 </div>
 </form>
</body>
</html>
4 thoughts on "C# Example Code to Save and Resize Images from your Database to a System Folder"
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text:
2. Create the practice ticket using the Google form. putting the CEH v11 old exam's question and answer.
Follow the customized Google form's configuration
- Random give the question when you attend the simulate practice testing.
- Random give the answer option when you attend the simulate practice testing.
- Using the segment configuration for each question. It can be reviewed for mobile phone or PC's browser
(2-1) Collect the mail notification and then do the more and more practice.
3. Audit the CEH v11 old exam's question and its answer
4. After pr acting the simulate test, analysis the failed item again.
1. Answer each question is greater than 50 seconds. Don't answer the question very soon. Because of you might see the new question.
2. CEH v11 exam will change the question every 3rd week per month. Thus, when you got the old exam's question and its answer. Please take or re-take your exam quickly.
Hit rate of old CEH v11 exam questions:
Answer correct rate:


text:
(full paper is archived in the Miller Library)
Title: Morphological, taxonomic and distributional differences between three sand-lobed colonial ascidians (Aplidium arenatum, P. prpoinquum, and Synoicum parfustis) in Monterey Bay
Student Author(s): Mulroy, William F.
Faculty Advisor(s): Abbott, Don
Location: Final Papers Biology 175H
Date: June 1981
Abstract: The similarities in external morphology and distribution have made distinction between Aplidium arenatum, Aplidium propinqum and Synoicum parfustis diffficult in the field and laboratory. Quantitative differences have been found between the species in: height and area of the lobe top; the shape, color, and clustering of lobes; the number of systems per lobe; the number of zooids per lobe; the number of zooids per system; zooid size; the number of rows of stigmata; the number of developing embryos in the atrium; and habitat.


What Happens When Pregnant Women Eat More Animal Protein
Are high-protein diets during pregnancy healthful or harmful? That question was answered about 40 years ago in the infamous Harlem Trial of 1976: a "randomized controlled trial of nutritional supplementation pregnancy, in a poor black urban population in the United States." The study, which I discuss in my video The Effect of Animal Protein on Stress Hormones, Testosterone, and Pregnancy, "was begun when protein was commonly assumed to be deficient in the diet of the poor." Had researchers actually analyzed their diets before they started, they would have realized that this wasn't true, but why let facts get in the way of assumptions? So, the researchers split poor black pregnant women into three groups, each receiving one of the following treatments: (1) an extra 40 grams of animal protein a day, which is essentially a couple cans of Ensure, (2) an extra 6 grams of animal protein, or (3) no extra protein. Then they sat back and watched what happened. The high-protein group suffered "an excess of very early premature births and associated neonatal [infant] deaths, and there was significant growth retardation" in the babies who survived. More protein meant more prematurity, more deaths, and more growth retardation, which you can see reflected in the chart at 1:00 in my video.
What's more, animal protein intake during pregnancy has been associated with children becoming overweight later in life and getting high blood pressure. The "offspring of mothers who reported eating more meat and fish had higher systolic blood pressure" in adulthood. This was part of another failed dietary intervention trial in which mothers were advised to eat a pound of meat a day. The increased weight gain and high blood pressure may be due to the obesity-causing chemical pollutants in the meat supply, as I've discussed in my video Animal Protein, Pregnancy, and Childhood Obesity, or the animal protein-induced rise in the growth hormone IGF-1. Or, it could be due to a steroid stress hormone called cortisol.
As you can see in the chart at 2:01 in my video, a single meal high in animal protein can nearly double the level of the stress hormone in the blood within a half hour of consumption, much more than a meal closer to the recommended level of protein. When subjects are given a meal of crab, tuna fish, and cottage cheese, the stress hormone level shoots up. If they're instead given some barley soup and a vegetable stir-fry on rice, the stress hormone level goes down after the meal, as you can see at 2:27 in my video. Imagine eating meat-fish-dairy meals day after day. Doing so "may chronically stimulate" our stress response axis "and increase the release of vasoactive hormones" that could increase our blood pressure. And, all that extra cortisol release has been linked to increased risk for elevated blood levels of insulin, triglycerides, and cholesterol.
When men on a high-protein diet, "such as meat, fish, poultry, egg white," were switched to a high-carb diet of bread, vegetables, fruit, and sugary junk, their cortisol levels dropped about a quarter within 10 days. At the same time, their testosterone levels shot up by about the same amount, as you can see at 3:09 in my video. High-protein diets suppress testosterone. That is why, if men eating plant-based diets begin to eat meat every day, their testosterone levels go down and some estrogens actually go up, and that's why bodybuilders can get such low testosterone levels. It's not the steroids they're taking. If you look at natural bodybuilders who don't use steroids, there is a 75 percent drop in testosterone levels in the months leading up to a competition. Testosterone levels were cut by more than half, which is enough to drop a guy into an abnormally low range, as you can see at 3:47 in my video. It's ironic that they're eating protein to look manly on the outside, but it can make them less and less manly on the inside. And, from an obesity standpoint, in general, a drop in testosterone levels may increase the risk of gaining weight and body fat. What does cortisol have to do with weight?
There's actually a disease caused by having too much cortisol, called Cushing's syndrome, which can increase abdominal obesity. Even in normal women, though, chronic stress and chronic high cortisol levels can contribute to obesity. What's more, if they're pregnant, high-meat and low-carb diets may increase cortisol levels in the moms, which can lead to inappropriate fetal exposure to cortisol, which, in turn, can affect the developing fetus, resetting her or his whole stress response thermostat and leading to higher cortisol levels in later adult life. This can have serious, life-long health consequences. Every maternal daily portion of meat and fish was associated with 5 percent higher cortisol levels in their children as much as 30 years later, though green vegetable consumption was found to be protective. Higher meat consumption, such as three servings a day compared to one or two, was associated with significantly higher cortisol levels, but eating greens every day appeared to blunt some of that excess stress response, as you can see at 5:12 in my video.
As well, the adult children of mothers who ate a lot of meat during pregnancy don't only have higher stress hormone levels, they also appear to react more negatively to whatever life throws at them. Researchers put them through the Trier Test, which involves public speaking in front of a panel of judges, following by a live math exercise. You can see in my video at 5:36 a chart comparing the stress hormone responses in those whose moms ate less than two servings of meat per day, about two servings a day, or about two to three servings a day. Note that before the test started, the cortisol levels of the two groups eating less meat started out about the same, but their exaggerated cortisol response was laid bare when exposed to a stressful situation. The real-world effects of this are that after that sort of test, when people are given their own private snack buffet with fruits and veggies versus fatty, sugary, comfort foods like chocolate cake, guess who may eat less of the fruits and veggies? Those who have high chronic stress levels. "Cortisol has been implicated as a factor in motivating food intake" even when we aren't really hungry.
It's no surprise then that a woman's animal protein intake during pregnancy may lead to larger weight gain for her children later in life—and maybe even for her grandchildren. "Remarkably, recent evidence suggests that the long-term consequences of adverse conditions during early development may not be limited to one generation, but may lead to poor health in the generations to follow, even if these individuals develop in normal conditions themselves." Indeed, the diet of a pregnant mother may affect the development and disease risk of her children and even her grandchildren. Ultimately, these findings may shed light on our rapidly expanding epidemics of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
Whoa, there was a lot to unpack! Rather than break it up, since so much of it was tied together, as you could see, I compiled everything into this one, heftier piece. You may want to read this a second time and watch the video to absorb it all.
For more on how a woman's diet during pregnancy can affect her children, see Maternal Diet May Affect Stress Responses in Children and Animal Protein, Pregnancy, and Childhood Obesity.
Protein is such a misunderstood nutrient. For more information, check out:
In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.
PS: If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to my free videos here and watch my live presentations:
Why Drinking Diet Soda Makes You Crave Sugar
Recommendations on limiting sugar consumption vary around the world, with guidelines ranging from "[l]imit sweet desserts to one every other day" to "[k]eep sugar consumption to 4 or less occasions per day." In the United States, the American Heart Association is leading the charge, "proposing dramatic reductions in the consumption of soft drinks and other sweetened products" and recommending fewer than about 5 percent of calories a day from added sugars, which may not even allow for a single can of soda.
Why is the American Heart Association so concerned about sugar? "Overconsumption of added sugars has long been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease," meaning heart disease and strokes. We used to think added sugars were just a marker for an unhealthy diet. At fast-food restaurants, for example, people may be more likely to order a cheeseburger with their super-sized soda than a salad. However, the new thinking is that the added sugars in processed foods and drinks may be independent risk factors in and of themselves. Indeed, worse than just empty calories, they may be actively disease-promoting calories, which I discuss in my video Does Diet Soda Increase Stroke Risk as Much as Regular Soda?.
At 1:14 in my video, you can see a chart of how much added sugar the American public is consuming. The data show that only about 1 percent meet the American Heart Association recommendation to keep added sugar intake down to 5 or 6 percent of daily caloric intake. Most people are up around 15 percent, which is


text:
Multichannel Sampling of Signals With Finite Rate of Innovation
In this letter, we present a possible extension of the theory of sampling signals with finite rate of innovation (FRI) to the case of multichannel acquisition systems. The essential issue of a multichannel system is that each channel introduces different unknown delays and gains that need to be estimated for the calibration of the channels. We pose both the synchronization stage and the signal reconstruction stage as a parametric estimation problem and demonstrate that a simultaneous exact synchronization of the channels and reconstruction of the FRI signal is possible. We also consider the case of noisy measurements and evaluate the Cramér-Rao bounds (CRB) of the proposed system. Numerical results as well as the CRB show clearly that multichannel systems are more resilient to noise than the single-channel ones.
- URL: _URL_
- URL: _URL_
Record created on 2012-10-25, modified on 2016-08-09


text:
Recoding the Matrix: How Maestral Leveraged a Traditional Structure to Develop a New Approach to Learning", authored by our US Head of Business Development, Frank Torres, drew a sensible analogy between Mistral's Practice Groups (PGs) and Chapters and Guilds of Spotify. In this article, PGs were defined as follows:
Since the publish date, the post has inspired curiosity and raised questions about how the PGs generally compare to classical departments as organizational units.
This article, apart from organizational aspects, aims to address PGs' technical perspectives too, so that readers can get clearer insights into what PGs stand for and how they fit into building and sharing knowledge at Mistral.
Practice Groups Overview
Staying close to the Spotify comparison, Mistral Practice Groups represent a unique intersection between Chapters and Guilds. Like Chapters, PGs are formed around shared competencies, and like Guilds, they are fully open to all employees.
What really separates PGs from classical departments in organizational and technical terms?
Google Dictionary (Oxford Languages) defines a department as
A division of a large organization such as a government, university, or business, dealing with a specific area of activity.
Although Practice Groups resemble classical departments in some respects, a high degree of flexibility and ad-hoc ephemeral nature are the key differentiators that make us agile and competitive as an organization in every aspect.
Whatever their form, size, function, or established processes, departments still represent traditional, conservative organizational structures.
As such, departments suit well any administration, they recall and refer to the traditional leadership styles, rigid protocols of communication and decision making, i.e., the traditional leadership styles dating back to the "industrial era". Overall, they are characterized by inflexible communication channels, the sluggish pace of delivery, and often unnecessarily sizeable hierarchies too.
It is little to say that exactly those characteristics bring avail and frustration to many IT organizations that want to stay competitive in the ever-changing tech markets. They cry for organizational changes and re-structuring. Mistral sympathized from the early days and wanted to build a faster-moving, and continuous flow of relevant pool of knowledge potential available in a lickety-split, right here and nowPGs were established.
Mistral Practice Groups Characteristics and Activities
Mistral continuously explores specific tech-related topics and areas, and with PGs, it is possible to generate and share the knowledge within the company. Depending on the specific topic/area, PGs may be either short/long term groups, small, medium, or large multi-functional teams.
On that account, the organizational style dubbed Practice Groups was established, serving us as mini hubs of excellence — not as a substitute for classical departments, but rather as an innovative form of teams' organization.
What makes PGs unique is their capacity to be assembled on an ad-hoc basis, do the work, and disband them, once the goals and objectives are reached.
Research, certification (part of the Technology Partnerships initiative), Learning Path design, (part of the Professional Development Plan initiative), progress monitoring meetups, reporting, and monthly newsletters cover the range of main activities aiming at continuous education of people and overall standardization of business processes.
Each PG is led by a Lead, has one or multiple Advisors, with as many members, goals, and objectives as needed. PG Leads are responsible for planning, organizing, and steering various annual and quarterly activities.
PG Advisors assist Leads, support PG members, and the overall organization of groups and activities.
Employees take part (membership) in at least one Practice Group, but depending on their interests and preferences, they can join other Practice Groups too. (Employees can leave groups as well, in case they show no more interest.)
Continuous education is a cornerstone of Mistral's growth, and only through PGs, it is available to everyone in the organization. Be it days or week-long workshops, weekly Lunch & Learn sessions (some sessions being open to the public, too), or events with external guests and lecturers, the schedule is available through the public PG calendar. In addition to the calendar, timely announcements precede each session, so everyone is informed about the events.
Mistral's primary PGs are:
- Product & Project Management
- Design (UI/UX)
- Data Science & Analytics
- Quality Assurance
There are also certain subgroups dubbed "secondary" on account of being organized around more specific topics and areas. For example, Backend PG has several subgroups organized around programming languages such as C#, Java, Rust, and GoLang, while Ruby disbanded because of the low market demand. On the other hand, subgroups such as SQL and Python represent the intersection of interests of both Backend and Data Science & Analytics PGs. Some of the disbanded PGs are also Blockchain and IoT (Internet of Things) — but only temporarily.
PGs set the foundation for capability development at Mistral, and as such, they enable organic growth and expansion of knowledge and skills within the organization. Mistral has found a way to battle-test and optimize its approaches, overcome obstacles, and converge applying various product and software development methodologies in a way that best fits both specific, domestic needs and international market demands.


_open( fsl_db * const db, char const * dbFile,
 int openFlags );
/**
 Closes the given db handle and frees any resources owned by
 db. Returns 0 on success.
 db. This is a no-op if db is NULL.
 If db was allocated using fsl_db_malloc() (as determined by
 examining db->allocStamp) then this routine also fsl_free()s it,
 otherwise it is assumed to either be on the stack or part of a
 larger struct and is not freed.
 If db has any pending transactions, they are rolled
 back by this function.
*/
FSL_EXPORT int fsl_db_close( fsl_db * db );
FSL_EXPORT void fsl_db_close( fsl_db * const db );
/**
 If db is an opened db handle, this registers a debugging
 function with the db which traces all SQL to the given FILE
 handle (defaults to stdout if outStream is NULL).
 This mechanism is only intended for debugging and exploration of
 how Fossil works. Tracing is often as easy way to ensure that a
 given code block is getting run.
 As a special case, if db->f is not NULL _before_ it is is
 fsl_db_open()ed, then this function automatically gets installed
 if the SQL tracing option is enabled for that fsl_cx instance
 before the db is opened.
 This is a no-op if !db or db is not opened.
*/
FSL_EXPORT void fsl_db_sqltrace_enable( fsl_db * db, FILE * outStream );
FSL_EXPORT void fsl_db_sqltrace_enable( fsl_db * const db, FILE * outStream );
/**
 Returns the row ID of the most recent insertion,
 or -1 if !db, db is not connected, or 0 if no inserts
 have been performed.
*/
FSL_EXPORT fsl_id_t fsl_db_last_insert_id(fsl_db *db);
FSL_EXPORT fsl_id_t fsl_db_last_insert_id(fsl_db * const db);
/**
 Returns non-0 (true) if the database (which must be open) table
 identified by zTableName has a column named zColName
 (case-sensitive), else returns 0.
*/
FSL_EXPORT char fsl_db_table_has_column( fsl_db * db, char const *zTableName,
 char const *zColName );
FSL_EXPORT bool fsl_db_table_has_column( fsl_db * const db,
 char const *zTableName,
 char const *zColName );
/**
 If a db name has been associated with db then it is returned,
 otherwise NULL is returned. A db has no name by default, but
 fsl_cx-used ones get their database name assigned to them
 (e.g. "main" for the main db).
*/
FSL_EXPORT char const * fsl_db_name(fsl_db const * db);
FSL_EXPORT char const * fsl_db_name(fsl_db const * const db);

/**
 Returns a db name string for the given fsl_db_role value. The
 string is static, guaranteed to live as long as the app. It
 returns NULL (or asserts in debug builds) if passed
 FSL_DBROLE_NONE or some value out of range for the enum.
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+
 The fsl_stmt counterpart of fsl_db_malloc(). See that function
 for when you might want to use this and a caveat involving the
 allocStamp member of the returned value. fsl_stmt_finalize() will
 free statements created with this function.
*/
FSL_EXPORT fsl_stmt * fsl_stmt_malloc();
/**
 ATTACHes the file zDbName to db using the databbase name
 zLabel. Returns 0 on success. Returns FSL_RC_MISUSE if any
 argument is NULL or any string argument starts with a NUL byte,
 else it returns the result of fsl_db_exec() which attaches the
 db. On db-level errors db's error state will be updated.
*/
FSL_EXPORT int fsl_db_attach(fsl_db * db, const char *zDbName, const char *zLabel);
FSL_EXPORT int fsl_db_attach(fsl_db * const db, const char *zDbName,
 const char *zLabel);
/**
 The converse of fsl_db_detach(). Must be passed the same arguments
 which were passed as the 1st and 3rd arguments to fsl_db_attach().
 Returns 0 on success, FSL_RC_MISUSE if !db, !zLabel, or !*zLabel,
 else it returns the result of the underlying fsl_db_exec()
 call.
*/
FSL_EXPORT int fsl_db_detach(fsl_db * db, const char *zLabel);
FSL_EXPORT int fsl_db_detach(fsl_db * const db, const char *zLabel);
/**
 Expects fmt to be a SELECT-style query. For each row in the
 query, the first column is fetched as a string and appended to
 the tgt list.
 Returns 0 on success, FSL_RC_MISUSE if !db, !tgt, or !fmt, any
 number of potential FSL_RC_OOM or db-related errors.
 Results rows with a NULL value (resulting from an SQL NULL) are
 added to the list as NULL entries.
 Each entry appended to the list is a (char *) which must
 be freed using fsl_free(). To easiest way to clean up
 the list and its contents is:
 @code
 '''
 fsl_list_visit_free(tgt,...);
 @endcode
 '''
 On error the list may be partially populated.
 Complete example:
 @code
 '''
 fsl_list li = fsl_list_empty;
 int rc = fsl_db_select_slist(db, &li,
 "SELECT uuid FROM blob WHERE rid<20");
 "SELECT uuid FROM blob WHERE rid<20


Start
2019-03-25 05:00 AKDT
Kattis Set 10
End
2019-04-01 01:29 AKDT
The end is near!
Contest is over.
Not yet started.
Contest is starting in -583 days 21:17:41
Time elapsed
164:29:59
Time remaining
0:00:00
Problem A
Birds on a Wire
/problems/birds/file/statement/en/img-0001.jpg
Photo by Tarik Browne
There is a long electrical wire of length $\ell $ centimetres between two poles where birds like to sit. After a long day at work you like to watch the birds on the wire from your balcony. Some time ago you noticed that they don't like to sit closer than $d$ centimetres from each other. In addition, they cannot sit closer than 6 centimetres to any of the poles, since there are spikes attached to the pole to keep it clean from faeces that would otherwise damage and weaken it. You start wondering how many more birds can possibly sit on the wire.
Task
Given numbers $\ell $ and $d$, how many additional birds can sit on the wire given the positions of the birds already on the wire? For the purposes of this problem we assume that the birds have zero width.
Input
The first line contains three space separated integers: the length of the wire $\ell $, distance $d$ and number of birds $n$ already sitting on the wire. The next $n$ lines contain the positions of the birds in any order. All number are integers, $1\leq \ell , d\leq 1\, 000\, 000\, 000$ and $0\leq n\leq 20\, 000$. (If you have objections to the physical plausibility of fitting that many birds on a line hanging between two poles, you may either imagine that the height of the line is 0 cm above ground level, or that the birds are ants instead.) You can assume that the birds already sitting on the wire are at least 6 cm from the poles and at least $d$ centimetres apart from each other.
Output
Output one line with one integer – the maximal number of additional birds that can possibly sit on the wire.
Sample Input 1 Sample Output 1
22 2 2
11
9
3
Sample Input 2 Sample Output 2
47 5 0
8