text: Giant tree frogs are the largest known tree frogs. Each one can grow up to 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) long. Sticky pads on their fingers and toes help them climb trees. They lay their eggs in the water (at bottom). Tadpoles hatch from the eggs, gradually grow legs, and then move to land and become adult frogs.


text: Sewage sludge and crude glycerine were co-digested in the mesophilic digester of Hoogstraten wastewater treatment plant. Additions of up to 1 kg of crude glycerine/(m³ reactor).(day) were done without significant operational problems. At higher dosage, severe digester foaming was observed. Methane production during co-digestion was up to 20% higher than what would be expected based on the digester input. Compared to the period before glycerine dosage, every tonne of added crude glycerine resulted in a surplus methane production of 489 Nm³. The theoretical methane production from the used crude glycerine was 341 Nm³ per tonne. The difference is explained by a higher sewage sludge degradability during co-digestion with glycerine. Glycerine dosage can remedy the lowered specific biogas yield of sewage sludge in Flanders and consequently enhance green electricity production.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Free Shipping on Most Orders Over $79
Learn More: | Eco-Friendly Manufacturing | Inside Swift Filter | Compare Swift Filter to OEM
Nearly all households today have a refrigerator, and a good portion of those refrigerators have built-in water and ice filtering systems. Think about how many times a day you fill your glass with ice or water from your fridge.
Swift Green Filters has made a commitment to produce water filtration products that offer customers a healthy and environmentally-friendly alternative to other carbon filters. Swift Green is committed to providing products that provide better water for a better planet...and a better economy. Fresh Water Systems offers Swift Green Filters as a safe and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional carbon filters.
Get Your Replacement Swift Green Filter Now
What Makes Swift Green Filters Eco-Friendly?
For many years, conventional water filters have used carbon as a filter media. Carbon does a great job at filtering. But the usual manufacturing process for carbon is a source of pollution because the wood, coal, or peat that becomes the carbon is charred in an open pit. Compare the two different manufacturing processes below:
Conventional Carbon-Based Refrigerator Water Filters
1. Mine the bituminous coal from underground sources that are not renewable and are depleting.
2. Open pit charring used to carbonize the coal. This process creates methane, CO2, and other gases that are released into the atmosphere.
3. The carbon is mixed with 18% thermoplastic binders.
4. The carbon is then extruded in different forms based on its application.
5. The carbon block is placed inside of a plastic water filter housing, which is then sealed.
Swift Green's Eco-Friendly Coconut Active Carbon Refrigerator Water Filters
Because natural resources are limited and are being depleted, Swift Green has implemented a new step-by-step eco-friendly approach to the carbon manufacturing process.
1. Coconuts, which are a renewable resource, are harvested from trees.
2. Coconuts are then taken to a plant where they are charred in an oven. As a by-product of this process, methane and VOC gases are captured and converted into thermal energy. As a result, no polluting chemicals are released into the air.
3. The coconut shell carbon is then mixed with only 8% thermoplastic binders.
4. The charred coconut carbon shells and binders are heated at 1652 degrees and rotated in a rotary kiln, producing active carbon.
5. The active carbon is placed and sealed inside Swift Green's BPA-free plastic water filter housing.
See Swift Green Eco-Friendly Replacement Water Filters
OEM vs. Swift Filter -- The Proof is Inside
We cut the Swift Green filter and the OEM filter apart to show you how Swift Green Filters meet or exceed the OEMís specifications.
1. Swift Green Filters use the same exact filter head design as the OEM replacement filter. This guarantees a perfect fit in your existing refrigerator.
2. The Swift Green carbon block is larger than the OEM. There is a noticeable color difference because Swift Green only uses 8% plastic binders, compared to 18% by other manufacturers. Using fewer binders, coupled with 100% coconut shell carbon, allows for maximum contaminate adsorption.
3. The Swift replacement filter housing body has the same exact dimensions as the OEM filter, ensuring perfect fit into any style refrigerator.
More Benefits of Swift Green Filters:
 - The only aftermarket filter to use contaminant / BPA-free plastics
 - Filter housings are tested to withstand 3 times the average home pressure
 - The only refrigerator filter in the world to use 100% pure coconut carbon
 - Coconut carbon has 50% more micro-pores than any other carbon, giving it the unique ability to capture and hold contaminants. Coconut carbon polishes the taste of water, giving it a super-clean taste
 - The only aftermarket filters to receive the Water Quality Association's (WGA) prestigious Gold Seal approval
Comparison Between GE MWF and Swift Green SGF-G9 Refrigerator Filter
Cost & Performance Contaminants & Benefits
Filter: $20.63Chlorine
Certification: WQABad Taste & Odors
Per Gallon: $.06Sediment
Capacity: 300 gallonsEco-Friendly
Cost & PerformanceContaminants & Benefits
Filter: $30.92Chlorine
Certification: NSFBad Taste & Odors
Per Gallon: $.10Sediment
Capacity: 300 gallonsEco-Friendly:


Hartog, Dirckalso spelled Dirk Hartog or Dyrck Hartoochz ( flourished 1616Dutch explorer who made the first recorded exploration of the western coast of Australia.
Traveling an eastward route from Amsterdam around the Cape of Good Hope to Java, Hartog sighted and explored the western Australian coastline. He landed (October 1616) and spent three days exploring a desolate offshore island that he named for himself. To mark his landing, he left a flattened pewter plate, inscribed with the details of the visit, nailed on a post on the northern end of the island, now called Cape Inscription. In 1696 another Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh, landed on Dirk Hartogs Island, found Dirck's Hartog's plate, replaced it with a newly inscribed dish, and sent the original to Amsterdam, where it can now be seen in the Rijksmuseum.
Until the 19th century the coast of Australia parallel to Dirk Hartogs Island was called Eendrachtsland, in honour of the explorer's ship, Eendracht.


text:
ikala lagoons are two of the three key lagoons located within the Bundala Ramsar wetlands.
The Maduru Oya Dam is an irrigation dam built across the Maduru Oya. The embankment dam measures 1,090 m (3,580 ft) in length, 41 m (135 ft) in height, and creates the Maduru Oya Reservoir. The reservoir has a catchment area of 453 km2 (175 sq mi) and a storage capacity of 596,000,000 cubic metres (2.10×1010 cu ft)
|This article about a dam or floodgate in Asia is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


Quick Answer: Can My Parents Kick Me Out At 16?
How do you disown a minor?
In most states, you have to be over 16 to pursue emancipation..
At what age is a parent not legally responsible?
Can I lock my 17 year old out of the house?
Can my parents kick me out at 16 UK?
How can I get kicked out of my house at 16?
In order to be emancipated and be able to move out at age 16, you will need to prove to the court that you have a source of income. It's important to keep in mind that minors fall under specific child labor laws, which prevent teens from working long hours. Find a safe place to live.
At what age can I kick my teenager out?
18When a child turns 18, a parent's legal obligation to financially support their child ends. While a parent's love may be unconditional, parents of minor children are obligated to house, feed, and pay for their children's needs. But when a child turns 18, parents can, in fact, legally evict their child.
Can I throw my son out at 16?
In the case of children between the age of 16 and 18, parental responsibility ends if the child marries. … Therefore, if either of you do have parental responsibility for this boy, it would be inadvisable to throw him out. Clearly the current situation is unsustainable and you all need help of some kind.
Can my mom kick me out if I pay rent?
Your parents can't kick you out. They may evict you though. If they live at your place, they can evict you for any reason. If you do not live with them, they must follow the Anti-eviction statute for grounds for removal.
How can I live alone at 16?
As a minor, you can: But if you are at least 16 years old, the court may order that you are allowed to live independently. The court decides what supervision you need. CHIPS cases are usually filed by the county, after child protection investigates. Ask your parents to sign a Delegation of Parental Authority (DOPA).
What can legally do at 16 UK?
Can your parents kick you out at 16?
Is it illegal for my parents to kick me out?
Parents have no obligation to provide support to adult children. As a result, they can kick you out with no notice.
Can you live alone at 16 with parental permission?
Legally you can live outside your parents' home if it is not otherwise against the law, in the absence of you being emancipated. If your parents ensure all your expenses are covered and therefore they do not engage in child neglect, you may be able…
Can a teenager move out at 17?
What rights do 16 year old parents have?
What do you do if your parents kick you out at 16?
Go talk to a caseworker or school counselor. Tell them that you want to be emancipated from your parents. They will get you a lawyer and start the process. Find family and friends who will allow you to stay on their sofa.
Can your parents disown you?
Once your children come of age, you are free to disown them. A parent can financially and emotionally cut off his own children with legal impunity. … Namely: People have a right to disown. Passing a law saying, "You have to stay in touch with your parents" or "You can't disinherit your kids" just seems tyrannical.
Can I move out at 14?


Researchers hope their findings will help men who may have heard that they're supposed to be thinking about sex all day to feel normal.
ma8in Yuri Arcurs shutterstock_77179885.jpg
A study of college students may help dispel the idea that men think about sex every seven seconds. According to the findings, it's more like once every hour.
The men in the study reported thinking about sex an average of 19 times a day. If they were really thinking about sex every seven seconds, that would be over 8,000 times in a 16-hour waking day. Women in the study reportedly had sex on their mind only ten times a day. So according to the study, men do think about sex twice as often as women.
The study did not address how often subjects actually had sex -- just how often they thought about it. These are self-reported findings, but who ever lies about sex?
The study also looked at how often the students thought about other biological needs. Once again men had food (18 times a day compared to 15) and sleep (11 times a day compared to 8.5) on their minds more often than women. So men do seem to be a bit closer to their caveman roots.
The study also found that when it comes to thinking about sex, there's no such thing as one size fits all. People varied widely in how often their mind was on it. The high for men was 388 thoughts per day while the low was just one thought. Women ranged from one thought to 140 per day.
The study looked at 283 college students aged 18-25. One hundred sixty three were women and 120 were men. They all recorded how often they thought about sex, food, and sleep each day for one week, using a golf tally counter.
The best predictor of how often people thought about sex was not whether they were male or female, but how comfortable they were with sexuality. The more comfortable they were, the more they thought about sex.
The researchers hope the findings will ease the fears of men who might have heard that they're supposed to be thinking about sex every seven seconds and feel substandard because they don't. And they also hope it will help women who think about sex more often than their peers be more comfortable with themselves.
An article on the study appears in the Journal of Sex Research.
Image: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock.
This article originally appeared on, an Atlantic partner site.


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See previous blog article: Patient Identity Matching. IHE has a set of profiles all focused on Patient Identity Matching. Each has their focus. There is also recorded webcasts available for replaying, and presentations available for download.
To Centralize or not:
To start, XCPD assumes that the implementation of a centralized source of patient demographics, identifiers or record locations is unacceptable. This is a fundamental assumption because if a centralized source of these types of information is acceptable there are many more effective means of solving the problems XCPD solves. For instance, if all demographics can be sent as feed transactions to a central patient matching engine, like a PIX Manager, then a PIX or PDQ Query is much more effective at finding patient identifiers and correlating patients than any deployment of XCPD. In fact, XCPD was created only because there were countries which felt that collecting demographics for all the patients in a country or region into one system would be dangerous. So XCPD is only appropriate when it is used to link communities that are not closely tied and have only limited governance, in particular, are not willing to feed all patient demographics to a single, central server, or even a small number of duplicated central servers.
To Federate or not:
The challenges are: what is a "reasonable number" and how do we encourage centralized approaches in every place where it makes sense. XCPD does not design the architecture; that is for organizations, nations, and regions to do. XCPD, plus many other IHE profiles and healthcare standards, can work together to allow interoperable participation in whatever the architecture turns out to be.
Once we have agreed that a wholly centralized source of patient matching is not acceptable – due to policy or security/privacy concerns or others – application of XCPD can begin.
XCPD is written to be flexible in its requirements. During the development of XCPD organizations throughout the world expressed requirements to the IHE team and these requirements were designed in as optional behavior. For instance:
- We want to use a national patient identifier instead of demographics.
- We want to only pull data, never support other peer networks to pull data from us.
- We want to restrict the demographics shared in a query/response due to privacy concerns.
- We want to restrict the number of matching responses due to privacy concerns.
- We want to collect patient record locations for selected patients and make that list available for other communities in order to enable efficient searching for the patients we select.
- We want to return multiple potential matches so that a local decision can be made for patient safety reasons.
- We want to avoid returning multiple potential matches due to privacy concerns but would like to request additional demographics to aid in disambiguation.
- We need to provide a cache value for matched patient matches to allow for refresh of that information.
- We need to revoke prior matched patient due to policy, consent or demographic changes.
- We need asynchronous behavior.
- We want to have enough security and privacy context to make an access control decision that respects the patient consent directives
Because of all this optional behavior, XCPD cannot be effectively implemented out of the box. An organization must first understand the environment in which it will be deployed, the balance of risks organizations are willing to accept (e.g. false negative/false positive criteria), and how the mitigations necessary for unacceptable risks should be applied to the optional behavior of XCPD.
Modes of Operation:
There are a few modes of operation of XCPD to allow for different types of typical interactions:
- Demographic Query and Feed mode: This is the base mode and allows the initiator to both feed knowledge or a local patient as well as query for a match at the responder site. This mode allows both sides of the transaction to learn about matching patients.
- Demographic Query only mode: Here we see a simple demographic query, asking only for the responder to provide a match to a local patient. This mode does not allow responder to know about a match with the initiator's patient. This satisfies the requirement for nodes that will not support other peer network pull requests.
- Shared/national Patient Identifier Query and Feed: This mode includes in the query only identifiers, no demographic data is shared.
XCPD asynchronous behavior:
The XCPD Patient Discovery transaction, the base transaction discussed here, supports three interaction modes each of which satisfies a different interaction environment. The chapter references given are within the XCPD supplement.
the SOAP request and response are carried in one TCP/IP connection
Response is expected in very short timeframe, e.g. less than 60 seconds
where the WS-Addressing support for "replyTo" is used to return the response through a separate TCP/IP connection
Response is expected in short timeframe, e.g. less than 60 minutes
where the request is decoupled from the reply so each are a separate SOAP interaction (Section 22.214.171.124)
Response is expected to have lengthy delay, e.g. more than 60 minutes
XCPD as a Record Locator Service (RLS):
A challenging requirement addressed by XCPD is the ability to use XCPD as a form of Record Locator Service. There are several capabilities built into XCPD which enable this functionality. But, as with everything else in XCPD, the architecture for doing this is not spelled out by XCPD since a variety of architectures may be desired. Instead there are hooks within XCPD which enable the capability to be designed. The particular capabilities for enabling this functionality are:
- Carry senders homeCommunityId and local patient identifier in the request (see 126.96.36.199.2.4)
- Carry responders homeCommunityId in response (see 188.8.131.52.2.4)
- Specify support for Health Data Locator in response (see 184.108.40.206.2.5)
- Specifies the "Patient Location Query" optional transaction
See the Patient Identity article for a short explanation of Security Considerations. The shorter is that XCPD uses SOAP, and therefore can be grouped with XUA. Thus there is plenty of security/privacy information available for a Privacy and Security decision to be made. Thus things like Privacy Consent can be enforced right away at Patient Identity discovery.
XCPD is just a profile from IHE, in order to understand how it works and determine the scalability of the solutions that it enables one must include specific Policies, operational environment factors, application workflow, functionality, and safety/security/privacy. There likely is no perfect solution, the problem of patient identity discovery is a very hard one. If you can centralize or have a unified Identity, then that is a solution that is going to be far more efficient.
A more detailed and specific examination of the way that the NwHIN Exchange uses this profile is at NwHIN-Exchange use of XCPD for Patient Discovery. This shows some of the ways that an operational environment can constrain XCPD, and some of the ways that one can get in trouble.
Obligatory disclaimer by Karen regarding IBM: "The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions."


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One of the Oldest in Charleston
The graveyard of Circular church is likely the oldest English burial ground still in existence in Charleston. While many gravestones have disappeared, over 500 remain, with about 730 individuals named on those stones. Another 620 persons are named in church records with indications they were most likely buried in the graveyard.
Statistics for gravestones currently in the graveyard:
- Earliest unmarked grave: 1695
- Earliest inscribed gravestone: 1729
- Number of burials before 1776: 150
- Number of burials for people who were born before 1800: 450
The oldest gravestones are made of slate and were shipped from carvers in New England. These slates with images and medallion portraits have been called by one writer "an extraordinary and irreplaceable legacy of our artistic and cultural past." According to one gravestone historian, there are more of these unusual 18th century slate stones in this graveyard than anywhere else in the country. Our challenge is to preserve and maintain these historic artifacts.
The evolution of gravemarker artwork over the years reflects the changing attitudes toward death more graphically than do the inscriptions.
|Markers in the 1600s typically were inscribed with stark skull-and-crossbone markings, the ancient symbol of death.|
By the early 1700s, when John Vanderhorst was buried in the church graveyard, ideas were changing.
Although skulls were still in plain evidence, the crossbones were beginning to be replaced by wings and the resulting image was being called "death's head." So, although the skull continued to emphasize death, the wings were introducing the idea of flight from the Earth or life after death.
As the years passed, the sculptors emphasized life more and more, and death less and less. At first they began softening the skulls' appearances by adding upper lips and eyebrows, and later they even began adding noses and mouths.
In the early stages of this change, beginning around 1730, the sculptors inserted the mouth between the skull's nose and teeth. And although the teeth were retained, they were dropped down so they looked more like high collars or disfigured chins.
Still later, around 1740-45, the teeth disappeared from the skulls altogether. The wings remained, however, and at that point the skulls lost all their harshness. Instead they looked more like angels' faces -- and in fact, that's about what they were. They weren't even called skulls any longer, but "soul effigies" because they represented departing souls.
The major contribution of the eighteenth century to American gravestone art was portraiture. The term "portraiture" is used in gravestone studies to mean natural representations of the deceased (although whether the carver attempted to capture an individual likeness rather than simply to represent a type is a question that is still being studied). While there are many examples of portraiture in Circular's churchyard, none have been located in any other South Carolina or Georgia towns.
Enough Roman-style portraits exist in Charleston to suggest that, by the mid-1700s, Americans were beginning to identify themselves culturally with the Romans. This bust of Solomon Milner (_PHONE_), which has been called "the most notable and best preserved example of neoclassicism from 18th-century Charleston," reflects the popularity of this style.
Henry Simonds (d. 1695)
Henry Peronneau (d. 1743)
Major Anthony Toomer (d. 1798)
David Ramsay (d.1815)
Arthur Peronneau (d. 1774) in Hutson-Peronneau Vault
Richard Hutson (d. 1795) in Hutson-Peronneau Vault
You can also read more about the history of Circular Church.
Our historic church is as vibrant in the present as it has been in the past. We invite you to learn about present-day Circular, by exploring the rest of our website, watching our video on YouTube, liking us on Facebook, and joining us in worship on Sunday morning (11 a.m., or 10:15 a.m. from June to Labor Day).
For additional information about Circular and its historic graveyard, read Joanne Calhoun's book, The Circular Church, Three Centuries of Charleston History, published by _URL_ in 2008 (and available locally and online). You can also access our records, which are housed at the South Carolina Historical Society. We also encourage you to visit the Association for Gravestone Studies, which promotes the study of gravestones from historical and artistic perspectives, expands public awareness of the significance of historic gravemarkers, and encourages individuals and groups to record and preserve gravestones.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Simple information searches -- name lookups, word searches, etc. -- are often implemented in terms of an exact match criterion. However, given both the diversity of homophonic (pronounced the same) words and names, as well as the propensity for humans to misspell surnames, this simplistic criterion often yields less than desirable results, in the form of reduced result sets, missing records that differ by a misplaced letter or different national spelling.
This article series discusses Lawrence Phillips' Double Metaphone phonetic matching algorithm, and provides several useful implementations, which can be employed in a variety of solutions to create more useful, effective searches of proper names in databases and other collections.
This article series discusses the practical use of the Double Metaphone algorithm to phonetically search name data, using the author's implementations written for C++, COM (Visual Basic, etc.), scripting clients (VBScript, JScript, ASP), SQL, and.NET (C#, VB.NET, and any other.NET language). For a discussion of the Double Metaphone algorithm itself, and Phillips' original code, see Phillips' article in the June 2000 CUJ, available here.
Part I introduces Double Metaphone and describes the author's C++ implementation and its use. Part II discusses the use of the author's COM implementation from within Visual Basic. Part III demonstrates use of the COM implementation from ASP and with VBScript. Part IV shows how to perform phonetic matching within SQL Server using the author's extended stored procedure. Part V demonstrates the author's.NET implementation. Finally, Part VI closes with a survey of phonetic matching alternatives, and pointers to other resources.
Part I of this article series discussed the Double Metaphone algorithm, its origin and use, and the author's C++ implementation. While this section summarizes the key information from that article, readers are encouraged to review the entire article, even if the reader has no C++ experience.
The Double Metaphone algorithm, developed by Lawrence Phillips and published in the June 2000 issue of C/C++ Users Journal, is part of a class of algorithms known as "phonetic matching" or "phonetic encoding" algorithms. These algorithms attempt to detect phonetic ("sounds-like") relationships between words. For example, a phonetic matching algorithm should detect a strong phonetic relationship between "Nelson" and "Nilsen", and no phonetic relationship between "Adam" and "Nelson."
Double Metaphone works by producing one or possibly two phonetic keys, given a word. These keys represent the "sound" of the word. A typical Double Metaphone key is four characters long, as this tends to produce the ideal balance between specificity and generality of results.
The first, or primary, Double Metaphone key represents the American pronunciation of the source word. All words have a primary Double Metaphone key.
The second, or alternate, Double Metaphone key represents an alternate, national pronunciation. For example, many Polish surnames are "Americanized", yielding two possible pronunciations, the original Polish, and the American. For this reason, Double Metaphone computes alternate keys for some words. Note that the vast majority (very roughly, 90%) of words will not yield an alternate key, but when an alternate is computed, it can be pivotal in matching the word.
To compare two words for phonetic similarity, one computes their respective Double Metaphone keys, and then compares each combination:
- Word 1 Primary - Word 2 Primary
- Word 1 Primary - Word 2 Alternate
- Word 1 Alternate - Word 2 Primary
- Word 1 Alternate - Word 2 Alternate
Obviously if the keys in any of these comparisons are not produced for the given words, the comparisons involving those keys are not performed.
Depending upon which of the above comparisons matches, a match strength is computed. If the first comparison matches, the two words have a strong phonetic similarity. If the second or third comparison matches, the two words have a medium phonetic similarity. If the fourth comparison matches, the two words have a minimal phonetic similarity. Depending upon the particular application requirements, one or more match levels may be excluded from match results.
The.NET implementation of Double Metaphone is very similar in design and use to the C++ implementation presented in Part I. To use the.NET implementation, simply add the Metaphone.NET.dll assembly to your project's references in Visual Studio. NET, import the
nullpointer.Metaphone namespace into the source files, and instantiate the
ShortDoubleMetaphone classes, for string and unsigned short Metaphone keys, respectively.
For example, to compute the Metaphone keys for the name "Nelson", code similar to that listed below may be used (C# code listed; the.NET implementation is callable from VB.NET, J#, and all other.NET languages):
DoubleMetaphone mphone = new DoubleMetaphone("Nelson");
Note that the Metaphone keys are obtained via the
As with the C++ implementation, an existing instance of a
ShortDoubleMetaphone class can be used to compute the Metaphone keys for a new word, by calling the
DoubleMetaphone mphone = new DoubleMetaphone();
As with all of the implementations presented in this article series, a sample application—CS Word Lookup--written in C# is presented to demonstrate the use of the.NET implementation. CS Word Lookup uses a
Hashtable collection class to map Metaphone phonetic keys to an
ArrayList class, containing the words which produce the said Metaphone keys.
While the.NET CLR performs reasonably well, it must be stated that the C++ implementation of Double Metaphone will likely perform significantly faster than the.NET version, due primarily to the fact that the C++ version judiciously avoids memory allocation and buffer copies, while the.NET implementation is unable to avoid such constructs. The ambitious reader is encouraged to optimize the.NET implementation, perhaps through the use of the
unsafe keyword, to perform direct memory access, at the expense of CLR compliance.
This brief article introduced the author's.NET implementation of Double Metaphone, including code snippets and a brief discussion of performance issues. Continue to Part VI for a review of alternative phonetic matching techniques, and a list of phonetic matching resources, including links to other Double Metaphone implementations.
- 7-22-03 Initial publication
- 7-31-03 Added hyperlinks between articles in the series
My name is Adam Nelson. I've been a professional programmer since 1996, working on everything from database development, early first-generation web applications, modern n-tier distributed apps, high-performance wireless security tools, to my last job as a Senior Consultant at BearingPoint posted in Baghdad, Iraq training Iraqi developers in the wonders of C# and ASP.NET. I am currently an Engineering Director at Dell.
I have a wide range of skills and interests, including cryptography, image processing, computational linguistics, military history, 3D graphics, database optimization, and mathematics, to name a few.


text:
Multi-farm collaborative CSA
(Community Supported Agriculture)
Featuring four local farms in Nevada County
*First Rain Farm
*Starbright Acres Farm
*Feeding Crane Farm
When you purchase a share in our community supported agriculture program (CSA) you are supporting your farmers by providing up front capital for the start of the season. As your farmers, we then provide you with a seasonally-changing box of the freshest produce each week.
Learn a little about each farm below. You can find out more about First Rain Farm by clicking on the
"Our Story" tab at the top of the page.
Feeding Crane Farm is family farm project growing a wide array of vegetables at 1400 feet in the Sierra foothills. We strive to grow our produce in a manner that maximizes nutrition for people while improving the health of the ecosystem in which we farm and providing a secure livelihood for ourselves and the people who work with us. We use an evolving array of organic practices to build soil, increase productivity, and increase the nutrient density of our produce.
Bluebird Farm is owned and operated by Malaika Bishop. Malaika has been active in the local farming and food movement for over a decade and many of you might know her from her involvement with Sierra Harvest. In her second full year of running her own farm, Malaika is managing two farm locations, one on Cement Hill road at the Jacobson Dude Ranch and the other at the Sierra Friends Center (formally known as Woolman) off Jones Bar road. Bluebird farm will be contributing regular salad offerings for the CSA as well as an assortment of other crops.
In addition to vegetables, Bluebird farm is offering a flower share where you can treat yourself or a loved one to a generous weekly bouquet of flowers all season long. Flower share members will receive the best of what is in season from the 150 unique varieties of flowers growing in our ½ acre field. In the spring, you will enjoy rare spring beauties grown under cover, like ranunculus, Icelandic poppies and tulips and in the summer and fall dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers, snap dragons, marigolds and so much more. Pick up your flowers Wednesdays with your veggie box at First Rain Farm or Starbright Acres Farm. If you are interested in spring flowers or greens like salad mix, spinach, and arugula during the months that CSA is not running, please sign up directly at _URL_
Summer/Fall Flower Share: 12 weeks July-Sept $282.80 You will get the best of the main flower growing season, with all the summer stunners like dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers, and dozens more.
Sunflower Share: 12 weeks July-Sept $167.70 Get a fresh bunch of stunning sunnies every week for 12 weeks.
*These prices include sales tax
Starbright Acres Family Farm produces certified organic nutritious, delicious, planet friendly food for our local community. Ken & Aleta Barrett and their two children founded Starbright Acres Family Farm in 2010 with the concept of growing a commercially and financially viable quantity of produce in a semi-urban setting. They now sell over $100,000 of certified organic produce per acre in cultivation. 90% is sold within 10 miles of the farm. Starbright Farm also supports our local food network by hosting field trips, getting involved with local schools & agricultural programs, selling vegetable starts, and sharing farming knowledge with community members. Nutritious, delicious, planet friendly food - Eat right at Starbright!
* 21 weeks, June 7th-October 25th 2023
* $32 per week for a season total of $672
*Over the course of the season you will receive over 40 different produce varieties
*Pick-up every Wednesday between the hours of 4-7pm
1. First Rain Farm, 19832 Rector Rd. Nevada City, CA
2. Starbright Acres Farm 12575 Polaris Dr.Grass Valley, CA
Flowers from Bluebird Farm are currently available as a weekly add-on option.
*Summer/Fall Flower Share - July-September - $282.80
*Sunflower Share - July-September - $167.70
Add-On possibilities :
We are exploring the possibility of offering freshly baked bread, locally produced canned goods, and locally grown mushrooms as additional add-on options. Please provide your input on the form below.
Please sign up below. Once we receive your CSA registration form we will send you an invoice
within a few days.


text:
Best practices can be defined as the systems, procedures and policies that are regarded by peers in the construction industry as leading to an ideal outcome, to the point where they become widely accepted standards for the industry.In the past decade there has been a dramatic shift in best practices to incorporate new technology, and these changes have also affected how construction projects are managed and procured. The construction industry in the United States has spearheaded many of these new developments in best practices, setting an example for industries in other parts of the world.As a firm dedicated to continual improvement, Adelhardt Construction is committed to implementing the well-established best practices for the construction industry while also quickly integrating new best practices as they become available.
Below is an overview of their importance, with an overview of safety best practices as one example.
Why best practices are essential in the construction industry
Although it can be argued that best practices are a core requirement for the success of any large industry, best practices are without a doubt an essential component of the vast and impactful construction industry.
The construction industry employs approximately 7-8% of the workforce in the United States. Best practices, when properly implemented and accepted on a national level, result in an improvement in the efficiency of the construction industry as a whole and higher revenues. Any increase in revenue for the construction industry leads to beneficial effects on the economy with higher employment rates.
Best practices in the construction industry cover several different business aspects that include sustainable construction, procurement, risk management, zero accident techniques, safety and health, supply chain management, benchmarks, materials management and more.
An Example – Safety best practices
Safety is unquestionablyone of the most important business practices in the construction industry, and there are a wide range of best practices that have been adopted to ensure that construction projects are completed in the safest manner possible for workers and the public. Although a wide range of highly evolved best practices have been adopted by the industry, the reality is that construction still has one of the highest rates of injury and death compared to many occupations.
One common best practice is to provide specific safety training programs for each construction project, and for each individual worker's role on the project. This is in addition to any certifications that may be required for a particular worker's job on the project, as well as general safety training that employees may be obligated to participate in. Adelhardt Construction stays up-to-date with the latest safety best practices based on OSHA standards and also commonly trains workers on a project by project basis.
Construction firms that implement safety best practices fare better
The Construction Industry Institute (CII) found that firms that implement safety best practices fare almost seven times better than firms that don't. Other best practices for risk management and procurement are just as important to the success of a firm.
Case studies have found that construction companies can save tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each year just from the implementation of the latest best practices. It is essential for firms in the modern construction industry to implement the latest best practices from organizations like the Construction Industry Institute (CII), as well as any OSHA or federally and locally mandated best practices, in order to stay competitive, ensure profitability, improve project outcomes, and reduce liability.
Adelhardt Construction is a general contracting, construction management, design/build, and consulting firm serving New York, New Jersey,Connecticut.


text:
The structure of the mechanical three-roller symmetrical bending machine is three-roller symmetrical, the upper roller in the central symmetrical position of the two lower rollers for vertical lifting movement, through the screw screw female worm drive and obtained, the two lower rollers for rotary movement, through the output gear of the reducer and the lower roller gear meshing, for rolling plate to provide torque. The disadvantage of this machine is that the plate end needs to be prebent by other equipment.
The upper roller of hydraulic three-roller symmetrical bending machine can be lifted vertically, and the hydraulic transmission of vertical lifting can be obtained by the hydraulic oil acting on the piston rod in the hydraulic cylinder; The lower roller is driven by rotation and provides torque for the plate by engaging the output gear of the reducer. The lower roller has a supporting roller and can be adjusted.
Three roller plate machine in operation, if the following problems, should be immediately shut down:
1. The temperature of the bearing seat of the winding machine is too high.
2, rolling machine smoke white.
3. Strong vibration of three-roll plate rolling machine.
4. Sudden increase of noise or abnormal sound.
During the application of the three-roller plate machine, regular maintenance and inspection are required. Once the equipment is found to be faulty, the power supply should be cut off in time, and the repair can be put into use.


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ASP.NET MVC:Why does the CheckBoxFor render an additional input tag and how can I get the value using the FormCollection
I needed to create a check box and bind the model to the check box. Assume instead of the model value im just assigning false as the value. Code given bellow.
The output of the HTML being generated is shown above. I do understand why the hidden check box is put by the razor view engine. My question is if the value is false then the check box visible should be value="false" (unchecked).
Why it has put value="true" (checked). Same applies for the checkboxfor helper. What is wrong or could you explain how to implement this?
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marked as duplicate by Øyvind Knobloch-Bråthen, Mark, Robert Koritnik, NULL, Linger Nov 16 '12 at 14:05
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
You should consider passing the value via the model:
_USER_.CheckBoxFor(model => model.abcd)
If you need to set it to be 'false' then you can do this by setting the abcd property to false in the Controller before returning the View.
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Checkboxes don't have different checked/unchecked values, they only have a checked value. If you understand why razor outputs the hidden field then you understand this.
Imagine for a second that it did have value='false'. What would happen when you checked the checkbox? Would you expect the value to change? (hint: you shouldn't). You'd have a checked checkbox with value='false'. What does that even mean? Then, upon posting, you would post false as your value, and that would be nonsense.
So. Checkbox value attributes don't change. If you need to write code that uses the value, don't look for its value, look for whether or not it's checked.
share|improve this answer
So if i need the checkbox to be checked and unchecked based on the true or false that we pass eg _USER_.CheckBox("abcd",false) what should i do? Since i couldnt get what i wanted from your answer. – Desmond Nov 16 '12 at 9:01
_USER_ A checkbox inputs "checked" state is a separate property from its value. Notice that if you check and un-check a textbox the value property does not change, however the browser sees whether the checkbox is checked or not and if it's checked it posts the input name/value, if it's not checked it does not post anything at all. Hence why there's automatically a 2nd hidden input field with value set to false created, so if user checks the checkbox the server will receive two key/value pairs for both inputs, true and false and it will accept true in this case, if one just false. – LaserBeak Nov 17 '12 at 6:41
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Gallery: What's brewing inside Microsoft Research?
The Family Archive uses touchscreen technology to allow people to explore family photos and souvenirs.
At the bottom of the screen is a box labelled with a particular holiday. The user has "tipped" the box over using the touchscreen, spilling the photos onto the surface. They can then look through the photos and enlarge them to get a better look.
The idea is for people to be able to explore their pictures in a more interactive way rather than going through files on a PC.
Photo credit: Tim Ferguson/


Commutative Algebra 27
Free Modules
All modules are over a fixed ring A.
We already mentioned finite free modules earlier. Here we will consider general free modules.
Definition.
Let I be any set. The free A-module on I is a direct sum of copies of A, indexed by i\in I:
A^{\oplus I} := \oplus_{i\in I} A.
More generally, an A-module M is free if M \cong A^{\oplus I} for some I. Note that M is finite free if we can pick I to be finite.
Exercise A
Prove that if A is a non-trivial ring and A^n \cong A^m, then n = m. [Hint: pick a maximal ideal of A; reduce this to a statement in linear algebra.]
For each i\in I, let
e_i := ( \ldots, 0, 0, \overbrace{1_A}^{i\text{-th coord}}, 0, 0, \ldots)\in A^{\oplus I}
which takes zeros at all entries except i, where it takes 1_A.
Why do we use the direct sum and not the product? Well, the direct sum allows us to have the following nice properties. Following the case of linear algebra, we define:
Definition.
Let M be an A-module. A collection of elements (m_i)_{i\in I} of M is said to be linearly independent over A, if for any distinct i_1, \ldots, i_n \in I,
a_1, \ldots, a_n \in A, \ a_1 m_{i_1} + a_2 m_{i_2} + \ldots + a_n m_{i_n} = 0 \implies a_1 = a_2 = \ldots = a_n.
If (m_i) is linearly independent and generates the whole module, we call it a basis of M.
The following result comes at no surprise.
Proposition 1.
The (e_i) form a basis of A^{\oplus I}, called the standard basis.
M is free if and only if it has a basis indexed by I.
Proof
Easy exercise. ♦
The free module also satisfies the following universal property.
Universal Property of Free Module.
Let M be an A-module, and \nu : I \to M be a set of elements in M, indexed by I; we write m_i := \nu(i) \in M. Then there is a unique A-linear map
\psi : A^{\oplus I} \to M, \quad \psi(e_i) = m_i.
Note
In other words, we have a bijection of sets:
\begin{aligned} \mathrm{hom}_{A\text{-}\mathbf{Mod}}(A^{\oplus I}, M) &\stackrel \cong\to \mathrm{hom}_{\mathbf{Set}}(I, M), \\ \psi &\mapsto (i \mapsto \psi(e_i)).\end{aligned}
Exercise B
 - Prove the universal property.
 - Prove that \psi is surjective if and only if the (m_i)_{i\in I} generate M.
This universal property is a special case of adjoint functors in category theory, which we will see later.
blue-lin
Projective Modules
One can imagine projective modules as a generalization of free modules. Geometrically, if we think of modules over a coordinate ring k[V] as vector bundles over V, then projective modules correspond to locally trivial bundles. To get acquainted with this concept, first we give the abstract definition before going through its implications.
Recall that for any A-module M, the functor \mathrm{Hom}_A(M, -) is left-exact.
Definition.
The module M is said to be projective if \mathrm{Hom}_A(M, -) is exact.
Thus, M is projective if and only if: for any surjective f:N_1 \to N_2, the map f_* : \mathrm{Hom}_A(M, N_1) \to \mathrm{Hom}_A(M, N_2) is surjective. Equivalently, any g : M\to N_2 lifts to some h : M\to N_1 such that f\circ h = g:
projective_module_cd
Note
We only demand existence, not uniqueness, of h, i.e. this is not a universal property.
Lemma 1.
A free module is projective.
Proof
Without loss of generality let M = A^{\oplus I} and g : M \to N_2 be an A-linear map. Let n_i' = g(e_i) \in N_2, where e_i \in M are elements of the standard basis. Since f is surjective, for each i\in I there exists n_i \in N_1 such that f(n_i) = n_i'. By the universal property of the free module, there is a unique h:M\to N_1 which maps e_i\mapsto n_i for each i\in I. Then (f\circ h)(e_i) = f(n_i) = n_i' = g(e_i). Hence f\circ h = g. ♦
blue-lin
Splitting Lemma
Recall that for a submodule N\subseteq M we do not have M \cong N \oplus (M/N) in general. However, suppose we can find another P\subseteq M such that:
N + P = M, \quad N \cap P = 0,
then we get an isomorphism N \oplus P \cong M by mapping (x,y) \mapsto x+y. The proof for this is a straight-forward exercise.
Splitting Lemma.
Suppose we have the following short exact sequence of A-modules.
0 \longrightarrow N \stackrel f\longrightarrow M \stackrel g\longrightarrow P \longrightarrow 0.
If there is an A-linear map i : P\to M such that g\circ i = 1_P, then N \oplus P \cong M by mapping (x,y) \mapsto f(x) + i(y).
Note
For any A-modules N and P, we always have the canonical sequence
0\longrightarrow N \stackrel f\longrightarrow N\oplus P \stackrel g \longrightarrow P \longrightarrow 0, \quad f(n) = (n, 0),\ g(n, p) = p.
The map i(p) = (0, p) then satisfies g\circ i = 1_P. The splitting lemma effectively states the converse: existence of such an i means the exact sequence is isomorphic to this form.
Proof
Note that since g\circ i is injective so is i. Now we prove the following:
M = f(N) + i(P), \quad f(N) \cap i(P) = 0.
For the first claim, let m\in M and p = g(m) \in P. Let m' = i(p). Note that g(m - m') = p - gi(p) = 0 so we have m-m' = f(n) for some n\in N. This gives m = f(n) + m' = f(n) + i(p).
For the seecond claim, suppose f(n) = i(p) for some n\in N and p\in P. Then p = g(i(p)) = g(f(n)) = 0. ♦
Exercise C
Prove the other splitting lemma: if there is an A-linear map j : M\to N such that j\circ f = 1_N, then N\oplus P \cong M.
blue-lin
Projective vs Free
The splitting lemma gives us the following classification of projective modules.
Theorem 1.
An A-module M is projective if and only if there exists an A-module N such that M\oplus N is free.
Furthermore, if M is finitely generated and projective, we can pick N such that M\oplus N is finite free.
Proof
Consider the equivalence in the first statement.
(⇒) Let M be projective. Pick any generating subset S\subseteq M (e.g. the whole module) which gives a surjective f: A^{\oplus S} \to M mapping e_s \mapsto s. If M is finitely generated, we pick S to be finite. Since M is projective, the identity map 1_M : M\to M lifts to a map h: M \to A^{\oplus S} such that f\circ h = 1_M. By the splitting


text: Background: Faithful and accurate and successful cardiac biomechanics simulations require patient-specific geometric models of the heart. Such simulations can be performed using high-order partial differential equation solvers, such as finite element methods. Since cardiac geometry consists of highly-curved boundaries, the use of high-order meshes that consist of both curved and straight elements would ensure that the various curves and features present in the cardiac geometry are preserved and well-captured in the corresponding mesh. Moreover, high-order partial differential equation solvers will yield more accurate solutions when paired with high-order meshes. Methods: Here we propose a novel, direct method for generating high-order curvilinear tetrahedral meshes from clinical quality medical images using an advancing front approach. Our method takes a high-order surface mesh as input and generates a high-order volume mesh directly from that curved surface mesh. We employ our method to generate several second-order meshes of cardiac boundary representations for various left ventricle myocardia obtained from magnetic resonance images (MRI). Results: We use scaled Jacobian and equiangular skewness to assess the quality of our meshes. Acceptable scaled Jacobian values range from -∞ to 1, with values near 1 indicating the best quality. Equiangular skewness ranges from 0 to 1, where values closest to 0 indicate the best quality. The minimum scaled Jacobian for our meshes ranges from 0.106-0.123, whereas the maximum equiangular skewness values range from 0.879-0.919. Furthermore, our high-order cardiac meshes do not contain inverted elements and feature the high quality necessary for use in finite element simulations. Conclusion: Our method yields high-quality mesh elements at the time of mesh generation with minimal post-processing. We will extend our method to generate cardiac meshes that include additional features, such as the cardiac fiber architecture along with the myocardium, and demonstrate the mesh use for various cardiac biomechanics simulations.


Reaching Consensus: A Problem Rather Than a Solution
Published by : Louis G. Larochelle
Reaching Consensus: A Problem Rather Than a SolutionOften, when a customer has to change supplier or must make an additional investment, his first impulse is to talk about it to his entire team. This is a frequent situation that puts representatives in a bad position.
In fact, the search for consensus makes the sales process more cumbersome and can even be detrimental to the project.
Here are some ways to avoid finding yourself in such a position.
Get the client to reflect
When a prospect wishes to obtain a consensus from his entire team, you should start off by getting him to think about a few things. Here are some questions I suggest you ask:
 - What will happen if others do not agree with the project?
 - Why do you seek consensus?
 - Have decisions always been made this way?
 - If so, did the project in question proceeded or failed?
These questions will help the decision-maker understand that just because a decision is made by consensus does not mean that it necessarily is the best decision. Moreover, if the project expands unnecessarily, there is a good chance that no decision will be taken at all.
Avoid intermediaries
When you adopt a consultative approach with a client, you make him realize the value of a solution to a specific problem. This value is perceived by only one person: your customer.
Since he is already aware of the value of that solution, you must trigger a decision as quickly as possible.
You should not assume that once you have convinced one person, he or she will be able to convince others. It is a very dangerous risk you should avoid at all cost.
If your client wants to involve intermediaries, ask them the following questions:
 - Who will make the final decision?
 - If you need to consult other people, what are you going to tell them?
 - How have they reacted in the past?
 - If they do not agree, what will you do?
 - If you maintain the status quo, what will happen?
When consensus is sought, the sales cycle stretches and the risk of failure increases tenfold. Thus, your client must understand that working with intermediaries is not in his best interest.
Limit the number of people involved
To avoid this problem, some representatives are tempted to meet all stakeholders at the same time. It is best to avoid this strategy.
Limit the number of people in attendance when you have a first base meeting. Otherwise, you will have to question each person to understand their motivations and perceptions. The more people there are, the more colossal, if not impossible, the task is.
It is always preferable to talk only to decision-makers. On the other hand, if you have to meet a large number of people, allow plenty of time. The degrees of influence vary, so be sure to question each person individually.
A group meeting necessarily involves the presence of purchasing people. You will quickly find yourself talking about supply or prices when truly the timing is not adequate at this stage of the sales process.
It is only when you present your solution and define its technical characteristics that it is justified to meet a larger number of people. This means you should only meet with a larger attendance after the business discussion that allowed you to obtain essential information from the customer, such as his real problem and the reason for buying.
Keep in mind
By delegating and democratizing decision-making, business leaders are falling into major traps. Rather than minimizing risk, decision-makers complicate the situation.
Reaching at any cost a consensus for a purchase decision results in losing control of the sales process. The outcome: no decision will be taken. The client must have the courage to make decisions, especially if it is a strategic decision for his organization. Nonetheless, it is up to the representative to make him see the situation from a win-win perspective.
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Louis G. Larochelle
Free Playbook - Baseline Selling Methodology: A Step-by-Step Walk-Through


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text:
Comparative Levels of Water and Air Pollutants in Kigali City and Kitabi and Benefits of Cleaner Energy-Biodiesel in Rwanda
To compare both levels of water and air pollutants in Kigali city and Kitabi and benefits/disadvantages of the fuel types (gasoline, diesel and biodiesel) that are used in Rwanda, a parallel study on water and air pollution was conducted in Kigali city and Kitabi-Nyamagabe District during the January-July 2013 period. All vehicles entering Kigali City via Giticyinyoni, Nyacyonga, Gahanga and Rugende axes and the total number of motor vehicles in Rwanda were recorded. Carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and opacity are the main emissions parameters measured at the Rwanda National Police Motor-vehicle Inspection Centre. The air quality parameters measured include HCl, NO2, NO3, SO2, H2S, TVOC, O3, CO and CO2 while quality of rain water harvested from the study sites was determined by measuring pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand, organic matter, sulfates, aluminum, copper, iron, manganese, cadmium, chromium, lead, sodium, and oils and grease. Kigali capital city suffers tremendous pressure of increasing population accompanied with the rapid increase in the number of vehicles which emit 526327.1 tons of CO2 year-1, 18405.5 tons of CO year-1 and 354967.0 m3 of unburned hydrocarbons year-1. Using 100% biodiesel reduced emission of CO by 50% and opacity by 76.9%, while using a 50% biodiesel blend or biodiesel-diesel mixture (B50) reduced CO by 35.2% and opacity which is strongly correlated with properties of particulate air pollutants by 71%. In Kitabi area, HCl, N02, TVOC, 03, CO2, NO3, SO2 and CO were reduced by 76.6%, 54.6%, 74.8%, 72.7%, 100%, 100% and 100% as compared with Kigali city respectively. Levels of acidic air pollutants (SO2 and NO2) are negatively correlated with rain water acidity (pH) levels (SO2: r = 0.787; NO2: r = 0.734) implying, therefore, that atmospheric deposition of strong acids or acidic pollutants lowers the water pH levels or increase water acidity. Reductions in atmospheric deposition of strong acids and other toxic pollutants may result in some improvements in the acid-base status of some water bodies which can lead to increased growth conditions for various organisms. The use of cleaner energies (i.e. biodiesel) therefore, may be a practical option of controlling emissions or managing air pollution causes. More detailed studies, however, are needed to determine the contribution (quantitative and qualitative) of each source of pollutants to both air and water pollution in Rwanda and identify other key emission control measures to be undertaken. Also efficiency of photosynthetic process of trees that are commonly planted in Kigali city needs urgent investigation.
- Comparative Levels of Water and Air Pollutants in Kigali City and Kitabi and Benefits of Cleaner Energy-Biodiesel in Rwand.pdf (262.1 KB)
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text:
Eco friendly Rubber Developed By Karnataka Boys – Wins Google Award
Karnataka teens – Aman KA and also AU Nachiketha Kumar have created an eco-friendly & economical process of coagulating rubber making use of "bimbli" extract, an accomplishment that has actually gotten them the National Geographic Explorer Award by Google.
The idea, says Aman, germinated from a story narrated by his mom on just how his grandpa (who remained in the rubber business for over 40 years) would certainly maintain seeking alternatives when he ran out of formic acid, an important active ingredient in the coagulation of rubber latex to make sheets.
"We took bimbli fruit. Its scientific name is Averrhoa bilimbi. We removed its juice and also added 60 ml of it to a one-liter tray of rubber latex. We discovered that bimbli sped up the procedure of coagulating rubber latex by 10 hrs. While it normally takes formic acid near 16 hrs for the process, it took bimbli extract only six hrs," Aman told PTI.
"Not just the process got faster, the rubber sheets produced were of far much better top quality than sheets made making use of formic acid," stated 16-year-old Kumar who comes from Uppinangady village in Karnataka.
According to Kumar, "generally after the coagulation process is over, the trays in which rubber sheets are formed are left with a recurring solution of formic acid which is frequently gotten rid of right into the soil. Since the option is very acidic, it depletes the soil and makes it unsuitable for agriculture in the long-run."
"Bimbli additionally gets rid of making use of any of these chemicals like para-nitrophenol (utilized to provide shade to the sheets) and also forms a natural coagulant. The same procedure that calls for 100 ml of formic acid can be executed with just 60 ml of non-toxic bimbli remove, therefore lowering the cost," he said.
The duo is amongst 6 victors who have actually been granted by Google at its "Scientific research Fair" in various groups. The fair which was launched last year had 24 finalists from 14 countries around the world.
Various other reward victors include an Ireland local that wants to conserve seas by drawing out hazardous microplastics from wastewater; a trainee from Indonesia who laid out to locate budget-friendly, non-invasive methods for participants of her community to check their blood glucose levels; a Turkish scientific research enthusiast who discovered a method to harness energy from tree vibrations; and also a Russian student who wished to discover a much better means to help those with impaired hearing connect with the globe around them.


Tagged spa design
Spa Designs Around the World
Ahhh, who doesn't like a day at the spa? While spas offer patrons the chance to escape and experience utter bliss with a utopia-like atmosphere, aesthetically, spas offer more than basic relaxation and practicality. In fact, a spa design concept begins and ends with the notion of promoting general well-being.
The best spa designs around the world enhance and benefit physical, emotional and mental states. But how exactly can a spa design concept accomplish such a feat?
A Mainstream Industry Rooted in Culture
When taking a look at current trends in spas designs around the world, it helps to view design concepts from a historical perspective.
Here's a fun fact: The word "spa" is actually an acronym from the Latin phrase 'Salus per Aquam,' which means 'Health from Water.'
Historically, spas were naturally forming water springs that were used to aid in the healing process. Some of the oldest references of spas are found to be dated back to 370 B.C. In all that time, spas have not lost their fundamental purpose of promoting holistic medicine and wellbeing.
Fast forward 2000 years, spas are at the forefront of the holistic health and wellness movement. And spa design concepts seem to embody the assertion that nature heals.
Spa Designs Around the World
If spas are developed as wellness centers, architecture and design also enhance this setting through the use of clean lines, warm color palettes, and geometrical shapes often found in nature. Some of the most notable designs in the spa industry indicate just how entrenched 'natural healing' concepts have been incorporated.
In order for the spa guest to have an instant feeling of relaxation, they need to step into a harmonious space. In linking all senses, décor, color, sounds and scents each play their own role in telling the story of the spa and help to set the ambiance and experience.
From spa design concepts that enhance their natural environment to quiet havens in bustling cities, these designs are some of the most prolific within the spa industry.
Arclin TFL's Cognac and Alabama Cherry look modern and clean when paired with white.
Victorian Architecture
Paying homage to ancient Rome and even taking elements from the ancient Egyptians, Victorian Architecture is both grand and eclectic. Its use for practicality is minimal, favoring beauty instead. For spas, elements of wood and stone are often used. Ancient Roman baths are considered the cornerstone of these spa settings. Asymmetrical lines and ornate accents are emphasized to promote grandeur while still remaining humble in other aspects.
Taking a look at St. Pancras Spa at the Renaissance Hotel in London, these design concepts are incorporated and anything but subtle. For color, a peacock theme and colored accents establish notions and motifs of eternal life and rejuvenation.
Nature as Inspiration
Other spa design concepts utilize nature as continued inspiration. In mimicking the environment from which they derived, these spas exemplify elements of their surroundings and usually remain minimalistic. Focal points are live plants, enhancing the spas restorative journey. In addition, warm woods and neutral linens are used. Bamboo, similarly, sets a tone for Eastern-inspired spa designs.
The Aman Spa located in Canyon Point, Utah is a beautiful design inspired by its natural surroundings. The region's ancient Navajo landscapes stay firmly in place as the focal point of the spa design concept. The architecture is bold, albeit simplistic, and properly juxtaposes the smooth curves of the background while upholding the elegance of modern spas.
Modern & Worldly Elements
Spa Design with Calm Horizon by Arclin TFL
This eclectic, modern spa design can be replicated with Arclin TFL's rustic weathered Calm Horizon, which has great fidelity and color. See Calm Horizon here. HR Maple is also a classic choice that allows design elements, like these teal built-ins, to pop.
Uniquely designed spaces often incorporate a multitude of design concepts. Some select from modern or contemporary details, such as geometric lines, neutral tones, and bold pieces. Worldly aesthetics can include inspiration from various areas around the globe or region-specific accents. For instance, beach themes can be inspired by Thailand and the Asia Pacific, Caribbean roots or South American heritage.
Galgorm Resort & Spa located in Ballymena, Northern Ireland is a breathtaking spa design combining elements of various design aesthetics. Outwardly facing, dark woods and exposed weather bricks make up much of the façade. Inside, comfortable hanging pod chairs and pendant lights, plus adornments of vibrant colors, create an uplifting atmosphere while still remaining comforting and relaxing.
Arclin Design for Natural Accents
Arclin's decorative TFL overlays are the perfect backdrop or complement to many furniture choices or design highlights in a spa environment. Why TFL? Our environmentally-friendly products provide easy maintenance that makes them at home in any space and our broad range of palettes ensures TFL fits beautifully in luxury-minded designs. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help with upcoming spa designs.


Botanical expedition
Summary
A botanical expedition is a scientific journey or voyage designed to explore the flora of a particular region. The expedition could be specifically designed for exploring the flora, or this could have been a part of studying the natural history of the region. A naturalist or botanist was charged with drawing and describing the flora, collecting specimens of unknown plants in a plant press, and identifying potential economically important plants.[1] On botanical expeditions funded by governments, the plants were often collected by the person in the field, but described and named by a government sponsored scientists at botanical gardens and universities. For example, many of the species collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition were described and named by Frederick Traugott Pursh.[2]
References
 1. ^ Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment, Daniela Bleichmar, University of Chicago Press, 2012
 2. ^ "Frederick Traugott Pursh (_PHONE_)". Plantsystematics.org. Retrieved 2013-08-29.


This may cause the user some unpleasantness by leaving the printer in an undefined state, but perhaps less than if the driver tries to print to the end of the line, while the ribbon or paper is jammed. If your target printer has a means of resetting itself with a serial port command at this time, you would want to send the reset command before the control routine returns.
A possible source of problems under MultiFinder is that the printer driver is a shared resource, and so it is highly unlikely that the printer driver's close routine will ever get called when an application exits. This means that the serial port might get left open, and the user can't use it for something else. For this reason, the driver doesn't maintain any storage, and closes the serial port before it returns. Each screen dump or high-level printing job is handled separately, and everything is cleaned up afterwards. This means that if the user changes printers, or wants to use a terminal program on the same serial port after she is done printing, then she won't have any problems doing so.
Finally, there is one more source of errors, if the programmer decides to use "PrintTraps.h" instead of "Printing.h." This is best explained by the the Alert box:
My copy of the printer file uses "PrintTraps.h" because (a) it is strictly for my personal use, and (b) I use the newest system file I can get at all times. If you want to write a printer file for commercial use, then "Printing.h" is highly recommended. Using "Printing.h" adds about 2k to the size of the complete printer file. If you plan to write a printer file for a color device which uses Color QuickDraw, or need any features in System 4.1 for any other reason, then you might as well go ahead and use "PrintTraps.h."
Background Printing: Working with MultiFinder
The default idle procedure used when high-level printing is active calls WaitNextEvent() if the trap is implemented, and SystemTask() and GetNextEvent() otherwise. This allows a user to put a printing application into the background under MultiFinder, and allows desk accessories to continue running under UniFinder. Combined with the asynchronous method of writing to the serial port, this gives the user use of the machine when the serial driver is waiting to send characters. In the screen dump above, the Finder is printing the directory of the "src" folder to the DMP-110 printer, and ResEdit is running in the foreground. Performance of ResEdit is just fine under these conditions. This is not the scheme that Apple has chosen to use for background printing, but pending documentation of Apple's scheme it is an acceptable alternative.
One problem with this scheme is that most applications will put up a dialog box when printing similar to the Finder's, above. MultiFinder doesn't like to swap out an application when the front window is a dBoxProc type of window. Changing the procID of the Finder's printing dialog box to documentProc allows the user to freely swap the Finder in an out of the foreground while printing, and the Finder doesn't know a thing about it! Setting the "Can Background" bit in the application's 'SIZE' resource is also necessary to an older application to be given background time if you swap it out while printing.
Printing speed seems to be about the same under these conditions as it is with the printing application in the foreground or operating without MultiFinder. With asynchronous writes, and the limiting factor being the speed of the print head, there is usually a lot of free time available when printing.
The driver's procedure for dumping the screen does not call WaitNextEvent(), for the simple reason that allowing the user to move windows around would really muck up the output!
BitMap to Dot-Matrix: Nuts and Bolts
This section shows how I transform a QuickDraw BitMap to a series of graphics codes which my printer can understand. It is necessarily device-dependent. Your output format may vary, depending on the characteristics of your printer, but your input will be the same if you are talking to a black-and-white printer. Writing a printer file for a color printer is "left as an exercise for the reader."
The DMP-110 accepts high-resolution printing codes in the following format. A two-byte escape code is used to signal high-resolution graphics. This is followed by another two-byte code which tells it how many columns to print. Each 16-dot column is specified by a two-byte code. In order to print n columns of graphical data we send the two-byte graphics code, two-bytes to specify n columns, and then n*2 bytes of graphical data. There are 959 possible 16-dot columns on one line, for a printable width of just under eight inches.
The first byte specifies the top eight dots, and the second specifies the bottom eight dots. The low-order bit in the first byte is on if the top dot in the first column is to be printed, off otherwise. The high-order bit in the first byte is responsible for the eighth dot in the first column. The second byte in the two-byte sequence accounts for the ninth through sixteenth dots in the first column. This is continued until 2*n bytes are sent, with the last byte specifying the bottom eight dots in the last dot-column. There is also a four-byte sequence for positioning the print head at any of the possible 959 printing positions.
Because of the way the 68000 series processors store numeric quantities in RAM, the first or top dot corresponds to the eighth bit in the first byte sent, which is the least significant bit. This is very important to remember because the Toolbox Utilities routines which are used to move bits around access them in the opposite order. In order to copy a bit from a BitMap into a dot-position in the first or any other column, we have to take into account the logical bit-reversal which occurs during this process. A sixteen pixel deep Rect in the source BitMap is copied to an output buffer for the DMP-110 in the following fashion.
A double loop loops over the dot-columns to be printed, up to 959 in number. Two inner loops fill the top and bottom bytes with bits from the source BitMap. A QuickDraw BitMap consists of bytes which are laid on their sides, so that the first pixel in the first row is specified by the first bit in the data pointed to by the baseAddr field of the BitMap. This bit is mapped to the least significant bit in the first byte in the output buffer. In the scheme used by the Toolbox Utility routines, the first bit in the source BitMap is mapped to the eighth bit in the output buffer. The seventh bit in the first output byte comes from the first bit in the second row of the source BitMap. The first inner loop fills the first output byte with the first bits from each of the first eight rows in the source BitMap, and the second inner loop uses the first bits from the ninth through sixteenth rows of the BitMap to fill the second output byte. The outer loop continues until all of the dot-columns in one 16-dot high printing row have been filled.
Landscape style printing should be easier to implement. If the BitMap is scanned in the correct direction then bits within bytes will not have to be moved around, but only whole bytes.
A number of schemes may be used for sending the output buffer to the printer at this point. The entire row of graphics codes might be sent at one time, simplifying the computation. If, however, the output page will contain many white areas, it is advantageous to reposition the print head during printing so as to skip over white areas. The DMP-110 requires four bytes to position the head, and two bytes to print a single blank column. Accounting cost in terms of number of bytes sent through the serial port, if we skip over three blank columns we win, if we skip over two columns we break even, and if we skip over one column, we lose. How to optimize the printing process is harder to figure out for a whole row, but it is probably correct to assume that white columns will be grouped together, and that some improvement is to be expected by skipping over any blank dot-column. The printing head is then positioned before the next non-blank printing area. More improvement might be expected by skipping over only blank dot-columns where they are grouped, but at the expense of having to write more code.
A BitMap is printed in this scheme by first breaking it up into areas which are sixteen pixels deep. Each such area is converted and sent to the printer, followed by a carriage return and a high-resolution graphics linefeed. By looping over the whole BitMap, an exact image of the BitMap is made on paper.
This general scheme will work for any dot-matrix printer which accepts byte codes to specify a dot-column, if it is first modified to use the device-dependent protocol needed by the printer. Changes to this source code to work with another printer should involve changing escape codes and reworking the BitMap translation routines only.
First, look in the printer manual to determine how many vertical dots are printed in each dot-column. This determines how many rows of the source BitMap may be printed at once.


moving gates
Manual release system for automatic gates

Before motors are installed, the geometry of a system is checked to ensure smooth, unobstructed movement of the gates. Swing gate need to move freely on their hinges and a sliding gate must run smoothly along its track.

Gate safety can comprise of a combination of physical guarding, photocells, safety edges, electric gate motors with obstacle detection, signage that explains safe operation of the gates and manual release systems.

All electric gate installations should have a manual release system. This allows the gates to be disconnected from the gate motors. They can then be moved by hand in the event of a power failure, breakdown or in an emergency.

All users of the gates should be taught how the manual release system works and where the manual release key is kept.

What Keeps Automatic Gates Working Safely?

One of the simplest ways to ensure on-going safe operation of automated gates, within the parameters established through a safety audit, is to keep them working at their best. Electric gates should ideally be serviced annually or twice a year depending on how frequently they are used and what safety devices have been installed. Due to the importance of their correct operation, photocells and safety pressure edges should be regularly checked.

Maintaining automatic gates
The individual components that make up a gate automation system are varied and often complex. Electric motors or hydraulic drives operate gears connected to arms or brackets fixed to your gates. Modern electronics are used in control panels, photocells, loop cards, safety edges, access control system and transmitters and receivers.

It doesn't matter what combination of sliding or swing gates, control panels, motor voltages, safety devices and access control is used. Maintenance is vital to ensure that automated gates work smoothly and safely, and to reduce the possibility of expensive and time-consuming automatic gate system breakdowns.

The frequency of maintenance for any gate system may be affected by the frequency of use of the gates.

Electric gates that are opened and closed all day long are more prone to wear-related issues than gates that open once or twice a day. But gates that aren't used for a few days at a time may need more servicing that focusses on keeping components moving freely.

Location of a gate automation system may play a part in determining how much servicing is required. If the gates are near the coast, strong winds and salt spray from the sea can reduce service intervals.

But the essence of good gate breakdown preventative maintenance is a service from an experienced gate installer at least once every year.

Ideally, the gate engineer who installed a new gate automation system will advise on the level of servicing. For anyone who has moved into a house with automated gates and is unsure about their service history, calling a qualified local gate engineer is a wise move. They will be able to assess the overall condition of the gate automation system and carry out any required servicing and maintenance work.

A good electric gate engineer will carry out regular maintenance that includes:
 - Inspecting the physical integrity of the gates
 - Checking the correct operation of hinges and stops, and lubricating where required
 - Checking the whole automation system for correct operation
 - Cleaning and lubricating areas where metal moves over metal
 - Checking and testing all cable connections to ensure nothing is coming loose
 - Checking and testing electronic equipment for the presence of pests such as slugs, spiders and insects which can damage circuit boards and affect photocell operation
 - Checking all enclosures and cable entries for any signs of water ingress
 - Testing all safety devices, obstacle detection systems and warning devices for correct and safe operation
 - Cleaning underground boxes
 - Lubricating arm linkages
 - Ensuring underground boxes have sufficient drainage to prevent motors from sitting in water for more than half an hour
 - Testing manual release systems and cleaning and lubricating as required
 - Checking, cleaning, adjusting and lubricating sliding gate wheels and rollers if required
 - Checking end stops and racking to ensure secure fitting
 - Checking all access control devices function appropriately including radio controls, keypads, intercoms etc.
 - Checking and topping up oil levels of any hydraulic operators if required
 - Checking the area around hydraulic operators for signs of leakage.

There are also a few things owners of gate automation systems can do themselves to help reduce maintenance requirements. Manual release devices should be operated three or four times every year to keep the mechanism from seizing due to lack of use.

The area around automated gates should be kept clean and free from debris, loose stones and any snow and ice. In areas prone to slug damage slug traps, pellets or slug wool can be used to keep slugs away from vulnerable electronic circuit boards. Gravel laid below the control box will also help to deter slugs.

Summary

Gate automation provides a convenient and stylish way of having beautiful gates at the entrance to your home without the hassles of operating them manually. They make a great first impression for visitors and provide a secure environment for the family away from the dangers of local roads.

The huge variety of gate styles and colours ensures that gates that compliment any house are available. Modern manufacturing techniques mean that corrosion-resistant materials like aluminium are available in gate forms that mimic wood or iron gates at prices comparable to the originals.

Gate safety is widely understood amongst qualified engineers. Fears that automatic gates are dangerous can be put aside by ensuring that automated gate systems are designed, installed and maintained by professional installers.

Automatic gates

3 Comment(s)
Ava Murphy:
24/04/2018, 06:20:59 AM
Reply
It did catch my attention when you talked about how aluminum gates require less maintenance and are lighter than wooden or iron gates. My husband and I are planning to install a gate automation system in our house, so we're looking for the best material for it. We're both busy, so we only want to choose an automatic gate that will not demand heavy maintenance. Thanks for sharing this.
shalomsystem:
15/05/2018, 05:59:26 AM
Reply
Thanks for posting the useful information to my vision. This is excellent information,.
Rhianna Hawk:
13/08/2018, 04:30:20 PM
Reply
I figured that opening and closing an automatic gate all day would cause more wear, but I didn't realize that not using a gate for days at a time would be a problem. My husband and I have a new home with a gate, and we usually just have to leave it open all the time so he doesn't have to get out of the car to open and close it, so an automatic gate would be handy. We'd use it fairly regularly, as he goes to work and I take the other car for groceries, but I don't think we'd end up opening and closing it more than four times a day on average, so I don't think wear or idleness would be a huge issue for us as long as we kept it maintained properly.
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Hawaiian values
THEME: A Sense of Place: Sustainable Living Is Rooted in a Deep Knowledge of Place and Self
STRAND: Values
Key Concepts
Apply the principles and practices of aloha 'āina, mālama 'āina, kuleana, lōkahi, etc. in the garden on a regular basis.
Appraise the impact of practicing these values regularly on self, garden, and community.
Use the language and values of aloha 'āina, malama 'āina, kuleana, lōkahi, etc. to inform daily garden practices and activities.
Research in Hawaiian Planters, and 'Ōlelo No'Eau
Describe how the kapu system affected resource distribution and populations (plant, animal, and human) over time.
Cite evidence about the kapu system as a source of resource management.


text:
Yesterday I responded to novelist Laurie Halse Anderson's question about whether John Adams actually wrote about 1777 as "the year of the hangman." I quoted Adams's words from over a decade later indicating that unspecified, untraceable "Tories" had said that 1777 "had three gallowses in it, meaning the three sevens."
However, Adams didn't write "the year of the hangman," and neither did anyone else I can find in the 1770s. The label doesn't appear the Archive of Americana database of period newspapers and pamphlets. Nor is it in the Adams family letters, the George Washington Papers, and the other digital databases I usually check for period usage.
In fact, the earliest use of that phrase for 1777 that I found through Google Books is Lynn Montross's The Reluctant Rebels: The Story of the Continental Congress, _PHONE_, published in 1950. That book includes a chapter titled "Year of the Hangman," and at one point says, "It was the year of the hangman, and the gallows jokes exchanged in the State House were not so humorous after the imprisonment of [Richard] Stockton..."
As far as I can tell, Montross coined that phrase; I haven't uncovered an earlier usage. He didn't say the words came from 1777, only that it reflected how the Patriots saw their situation that year. But then the same words appeared in other books, with the growing implication that it was a genuine period phrase:
- The 1966 Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, edited by Mark Boatner, included an entry on "Hangman, year of the."
- One part of The River and the Rock: The History of Fortress West Point, _PHONE_, authored by Dave Richard Palmer in 1969, carried that title.
- The phrase "year of the gallows" comes from a character's mouth in Thomas Fleming's 1976 novel Liberty Tavern.
- John S. Pancake's 1777: The Year of the Hangman (1977) quotes Adams's original letter to explain its subtitle.
- Gary Blackwood's The Year of the Hangman (2002) is an alternate history marketed to teen-aged readers.
- The strategy game shown above, designed by Ed Wimble, is "an operational study of the campaign for Philadelphia."
- Most recently, Glenn F. Williams's award-winning military history Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois was published in 2005.


text:
HARMFUL METHODS – is our companion page in opposite to Basic Standards. It's where we explain and dispel myths that cause damage to grave markers. In this section we explain some of the most commonly used harmful methods being used in cemetery preservation and restoration. I have often said, there are many more don'ts to preservation than do's. Again, it's always about doing what is best for the cemetery or grave marker. These 4 areas cover the things that cause the most permanent damage. Quite often many people are simply unaware they are doing harm. We hope this section gives you the knowledge needed so your preservation effort is both successful and long lasting for generations to come.
The 4 basic areas of destructive practice that are seen most often.


Analytical Theory
Linear shallow-water wave theory applied to step topography
A planar monochromatic wave, hI incident on a ridge, produces a transmitted wave, hT and a reflected wave, hR
The dispersion relation is w / k = c where c = square root(gh) for normal incidence
The transmissivity is defined as the ratio of amplitudes T = | AT | / | AI |
Effects of Cross-Ridge Phase q = kL
Minimum transmission (Tmin) occurs when q = 90°, 270°, 450°,...
100% transmission occurs when the cross-ridge phase shift q = kL is exactly q = 180°, 360°,...
Effects of Ridge Depth on Transmissivity
The actual transmissivity is close to Tmin when q < 90°, i.e. for ridges that are narrower than a quarter wavelength as computed from the ridge-top depth h
At higher frequencies w, rapid fluctuations occur between and T=Tmin << 100% as w varies (T~100% when e << 1 is a highly idealized result)
Smoothing Smith/Sandwell Topography
 2-D orthogonal wavelet transform (LA8) was performed on the gridded topography
 The shorter-scale wavelet amplitudes were then set to zero with a tapered cutoff in scale
 Finally, the amplitudes were back-transformed to produce the smoothed topography


text:
This page draws together table tennis-related information for all of Special Olympics. The coaching materials and other links will help you get a good sense of how this sport contributes to Special Olympics.
About Table Tennis
Every athlete aims in passing the ball to the opponent side of the table over the net, striking it with a Table Tennis racquet.
Table Tennis is a fast sport that requires excellent coordination of hands and eyes. Special Olympics athletes share the essential elements of force and ability so that they can play Table Tennis. Apart from the traditional events, Special Olympics competition includes individual skill events that allow the athletes to work and compete in basic skills of table tennis. The development of these basic skills is necessary for the athletes to take part in the events. These skills include bounce of the ball with the racket, volley and backhand.
The Table Tennis Coaching Guide
Special Olympics coaching guides are the key source of coaching information for our volunteer coaches worldwide. The guides are written by experts in the sport who understand that people with intellectual disabilities need extra time and attention to master new skills. The guides are helpful to anyone teaching a sport but are especially valuable when coaching Special Olympics athletes.


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Careers | Investors
High-Sensitivity Image Processing Cameras
High-sensitivity image processing cameras are essential for achieving a quality video image with low image noise even in poor lighting conditions.
High-sensitivity machine vision cameras can work in a variety of fields, including high-speed applications and security tasks during nighttime hours where the lighting is poor. The cameras are either outfitted with CCD or CMOS sensors.
What exactly are high-sensitivity cameras?
A golf ball hit onto the green, where the grass is kept short, is easy to see. If the ball lands on the fairway, where the grass grows somewhat longer, then it's still fairly visible. If it lands in the tall grass of the rough, though, it becomes hard to see or even find
What exactly are high-sensitivity cameras? Carrying this analogy over to the world of image processing cameras and image data, the height of the grass corresponds to the 'noise' produced during the capture of light as images.
The higher the grass, the harder it is to see the ball; the stronger the noise, the tougher it is to decipher the real signal. Where there is little noise (in our analogy: the grass is mowed), then the object (ball) is easy to detect. If the camera delivers a 'noisier' image, then the object essentially disappears from view. The weaker the background signals, the simpler it is to find the ball.
The 'detection threshold', meaning the point after which the ball can no longer be detected in the grass, is by definition reached when the grass is as tall as the ball itself. Similarly, the object in the image data can still (barely) be differentiated from the noise signal if the noise is as large as the signal. The ratio of signal to noise is called the signal-to-noise ratio. At the detection threshold described above it totals 1. The higher the signal-to-noise ratio, the better the object can be detected.
High-sensitivity image processing cameras: colibri with flower
Each signal created on the camera's sensor by an object reflects how much light strikes the pixels of the camera. In low light, this signal is very weak. The electronics within the camera are engineered to boost even a weak signal, allowing it to be effectively digitized and transmitted. There's only one catch: Alongside the desired signal, any disruptive noise from the camera is also magnified in the process. The Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is not altered by the boosting.
This is especially critical for high-sensitivity machine vision cameras, as they work with strong signal amplification. To achieve good resolution even when an image is strongly amplified, the SNR on these cameras must be engineered to be as high as possible. For this reason good camera design works to keep the noise as low as possible. A camera with strong base signal noise performance provides a good signal-to-noise ratio, which in turn makes the objects easier to identify.
One crucial factor in establishing a high signal-to-noise ratio is the ability of a sensor to convert the light as efficiently as possible into electrical signals. The Quantum Efficiency (QE) describes how many electrons are created from how many photons. Modern sensors for example can create 60 electrons from 100 photons. That corresponds to a QE of 60%. Due to continuous improvements in sensor technology higher QE's of 70% will be possible.
Have questions about our high-sensitivity image processing cameras?
We'd be glad to help you determine which camera would work for your application.