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LTAD - Long Term Athlete Development
What is Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD)?
LTAD is a training, competition, and recovery program. It establishes guidelines for coaches, athletes, administrators, and parents in all areas, including planning, training, competition, and recovery. It takes into account the ever-changing competitive program and the overall demands on the athletes. Long-term athlete development is also about identifying potential and providing appropriate developmental pathways for that potential to be fully realized. It is about ensuring that everyone who wants to learn sport has the opportunity. … The best sport development programs have a long-term vision, adapt and account for the rates at which an athlete matures rather than planning programs based solely on chronological age, are athlete centered, coach driven, but strongly supported by administration, sport science, and sponsors.
Robertson and Way - 2005
To learn more about Canada's generic LTAD model please visit Canadian Sport For Life.
TSN feature blogger, Jason Devos, discusses the Canadian Soccer Association's implementation of Long Term Player Development and has some very interesting commentary on people's reaction to their plan!
LTAD soccer video and how it benefits youth athletes and soccer.
Competition is a Good Servant but a Poor Master
By: Istvan Balyi & Richard Way
"Competition is a critical issue in all sports, especially team sports. Unfortunately, the system of competition in many sports was never properly designed; it simply 'evolved' on an improvised basis without consideration for the sport science of athlete development. Now many competition schedules are considered part of the tradition of certain sports, and these habitual patterns are passionately adhered to."
Early Specialization can Cause Injuries & Burnout
Costly dreams: Young athletes risk injury and burnout. Parents put their kids in danger by encouraging sports specialization at an early age, experts say.
By Yvonne Zacharias, Post Media News
A Sport Parent's Guide
Canadian Sport for Life
Sports and physical activity play an important role in our children's healthy growth and development, but in recent times physical activity has suffered serious decline among Canadian children. The goal of this booklet is to help you understand the needs of young athletes and what may be done to promote their best interests in staying active and healthy.
Physical Literacy - Video
LTAD with Dr. Steve Norris - Video


are the fit of the bag, what clothing one wears to bed, and the type of sleeping pad used. All of these factors play key roles in calculating real world performance. Wind and dampness are additional factors that can greatly affect a quality night's sleep.
My research seems to indicate that the EN standard for sleeping bag temperature rating is helpful, but only if used properly. My take is that one must understand the rating system, specifically the range of ratings, and then use it as a baseline to compare sleeping bags against each other. Reality means that it might take a few failures on our end before we find a bag that is tailored to how we sleep and intend to use it.
My conclusion is that we need to look at a sleeping bag as part of a total sleeping package. This package should include several factors, but starts with the combined performance of the sleeping bag and the mattress pad. Continuing down this path, it is critical to evaluate the fit of the bag. To tight and you compress the insulation and reduce its insulating capabilities. To loose and energy is wasted heating the dead space.
Another component of the sleeping system is clothing. Is there a dedicated set of sleep clothing, or do you utilize part of your outerwear to dial your system in? The final piece of the puzzle is the style of shelter (i.e tent, tarp, hammock, bivy, etc.) as the EN testing process assumes the sleeping bag is used in a tent. All of these factors combined make up your total sleeping package.
 - Sleeping Bag
 - Mattress Pad
 - Overall fit of the bag
 - Clothing worn in the bag (or not)
 - Shelter Style
As we build this package it is easy to see the potential for variances. Each trip might require a custom tailored total sleep package based on the multiple variables each adventure requires. The weather and altitude are examples of external variables to consider as we build our system. Using the results of the tests, and comparing how manufactures use these results, helps us understand the baseline upon which to build a system. Nights in the bag prove our system and help us to better understand how the sleeping bag temperature rating can work for us, and in the conditions we use our system in.
In a follow up article I will explain how I used the results of my research to build my different sleep systems and how I tailor each of them to the adventure at hand.
You can comment on this article or ask Matt questions here. (Be sure and subscribe to that thread at "Thread Tools" top of post to receive a notification when part II publishes.)


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Faulty 14 Volt Power Module
14 Volt Power Module harness is open or shorted
14 Volt Power Module circuit poor electrical connection
Engine Light ON (or Service Engine Soon Warning Light)
The ECM uses two circuits to control and monitor the state of the 14V power module, often referred to as the accessory DC power control module.
The status circuit functions much like the F Terminal circuit on a generator equipped vehicle. A high side driver in the 14V power module applies a duty cycled voltage to the ECM. The duty cycle indicates 14V power module internal temperature and operational condition. The ECM will detect faults on the 14V power module status circuit when the vehicle is ON.

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


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Where is it?
Lundys Lane is an unincorporated area along Route 18 in Elk Creek Township, east of Albion and south of Cranesville.
What's the story?
The decisive Battle of Lake Erie -- famously led by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry in 1813 during the War of 1812 -- is well-known throughout the region. But lesser-known is one of the bloodiest land battles of the war, waged on July 25, 1814, at Lundy's Lane (sometimes referred to as "Lundy" or "Lundys") in Ontario. It was during this battle near Niagara Falls, between the evenly matched British and American forces, that 1,731 soldiers were killed or wounded, according to online encyclopedia Brittanica.com.
It was this battle, too, that received a local tribute. A few decades after the clash -- in a part of Elk Creek Township that is nearly 140 miles by land from the battle site -- a new post office south of Cranesville was built to accommodate a growing population. Maj. James Fleming, a veteran of the War of 1812 and a local resident, is credited with naming that area Lundys Lane.
-- Lindsey Poisson

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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The violence risk appraisal guide (VRAG) is an actuarial instrument that assesses the risk of further violence among men or women who have already committed criminal violence. On average, it has yielded a large effect in the prediction of violent recidivism in more than three dozen separate replications, including several different countries, a wide range of follow-up times, several operational definitions of violence, and many offender populations. It is the most empirically supported actuarial method for the assessment of violence risk in forensic populations.
The VRAG is a 12-item actuarial instrument that assesses the risk of violent recidivism among men apprehended for criminal violence. It was developed on 618 male violent offenders assessed pretrial in a secure psychiatric hospital; about half of them returned later for treatment, whereas the others were imprisoned. Most of the approximately 50 variables considered for the VRAG had predicted criminal or violent recidivism in previous research, and a few were nominated by clinicians. All variables were scored from institutional records by researchers blind to outcomes and were from four domains: childhood history, adult adjustment, referral offense details and circumstances, and assessment results. The outcome was whether, according to criminal records, there was a criminal charge for subsequent violence in an average of 7 years' access to the community; 31% of the offenders met this recidivism criterion.
Many candidate variables predicted recidivism, but multiple regression selected the best combination for the VRAG. Several steps maximized the likelihood that the VRAG's predictive validity would replicate— requiring that each item uniquely predict violence, ensuring the inclusion of items from all four domains, and requiring that items predict recidivism in each of several subsamples (randomly selected halves, treated and imprisoned subjects) plus the entire sample. Item weights were based on the bivariate relationship between each item and recidivism. The VRAG items in descending order of the weights are the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, elementary school maladjustment, a diagnosis of personality disorder, age (negatively related), having been separated from one or both parents prior to 16 years of age, failure on a prior conditional release, nonviolent offense history, never having married, a diagnosis of schizophrenia (negatively related), victim injury in the referral offense (negatively related), alcohol abuse, and not having a female victim in the referral offense. The VRAG can be used when as many as 4 items are missing and scored by prorating.
The VRAG predicted violent recidivism in the development sample with a high degree of accuracy— the area under the relative operating characteristic (ROC) was.76. (The ROC area is a measure of effect size equivalent to the common language effect size— the probability with which a randomly chosen violent recidivist will have a higher score than a randomly chosen nonrecidivist.)
The original sample (plus additional men who had not been released at the time) was followed again at 10 years' average opportunity. The violent recidivism rate was.43 and the ROC area.74. There have been more than 36 replications with non-overlapping samples, and the VRAG's average ROC area is.72—a large effect by conventional standards. Under optimal conditions (high reliability; not dropping, replacing, or modifying items; fixed and equal follow-up durations), the VRAG yields ROC areas of approximately.85. The VRAG has been shown to generalize across outcomes (number of violent re-offenses, institutional violence, very serious violence, self-reported violence, general recidivism, overall severity of violent recidivism, rapidity of violent failure), follow-up times (12 weeks to 10 years); countries (seven in North America and Europe), and offender populations (mentally disordered offenders, sexual aggressors, violent felons, developmentally delayed sex offenders, emergency psychiatric patients, wife assaulters, and juvenile offenders). Some data suggest the VRAG predicts violence among women, but there are few studies on this.
The VRAG scores range from -26 to +38; the mean in the development sample was 0.91 (SD = 12.9), and the standard error of measurement was 4.1. Each score has been associated with one of nine categories, each with a known likelihood of violent recidivism in 7 years and increasing linearly from 0% in the lowest category to 100% in the highest. There are also norms for 10 years of opportunity. Each VRAG score is associated with a particular percentile so that the violence risk of an individual assessee is evaluated according to his or her standing relative to a large sample of violent offenders. Replications of the VRAG have generally reported that the obtained rates of violent recidivism matched the predicted likelihoods for each category. If the average score of the sample is similar, the follow-up duration is approximately the same as for the norms, and the outcome is operationalized similarly.
The recommended basis for scoring the VRAG for research and individual assessment is a comprehensive psychosocial history addressing childhood conduct, family background, antisocial and criminal behavior, psychological problems, and details of offenses. Adequate psychosocial histories include more than past and present psychiatric symptoms and rely on collateral information (i.e., material gathered from friends, family, schools, correctional facilities, the police, and the courts). Scoring the VRAG is not a clinical task in its typical sense because it does not require contact between the assessor and the person being assessed. Nevertheless, compiling the required psychosocial history clearly is a clinical task, and expertise is required to score VRAG items from psychosocial histories.
The VRAG scores are static inasmuch as they do not change with time or treatment (although they might change when rescored after offenders commit further violent offenses). Current research is aimed at identifying which changes in personal characteristics or circumstances make a valid additional contribution to the assessment of violence risk based on static variables. At this point, however, no such "dynamic" variables have been identified in assessing which offenders are at risk of committing violence. There is some evidence that they might aid in predicting when violence is imminent. In concurrent testing, actuarial tools such as the VRAG have consistently outperformed structured and unstructured clinical judgment. Although requiring resources and expertise, the VRAG is the most accurate and empirically supported actuarial method for assessing the risk of violent recidivism in forensic populations.
- Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., & Quinsey, V. L. (1993). Violent recidivism of mentally disordered offenders: The development of a statistical prediction instrument. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 20, 315-335.
- Quinsey, V. L., Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., & Cormier, C. A. (2006). Violent offenders: Appraising and managing risk (2nd ed). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- Rice, M. E., & Harris, G. T. (1995). Violent recidivism: Assessing predictive validity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 737-748.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


not lead to a new theorem: as long as the set evolution is smooth, the f and Df are just a special case where f:\Bbb{R}^n\rightarrow\Bbb{R}^1 and even though actually computing everything from the geometric perspective can be interesting, the result stays the same.
in order to move into truly new territory, we need to consider alternative definitions, other measures of change, other types of spaces. An example might be the following:
Suppose that X is a metric space and f:X\rightarrow \Bbb{R}. Suppose that \gamma:\Bbb{R}\rightarrow X is continuous and is a geodesic in the sense that for any three points in \Bbb{R}, s_1 < s_2 < s_3, we have that \rho(\gamma(s_1),\gamma(s_3)) = \rho(\gamma(s_1),\gamma(s_2)) + \rho(\gamma(s_2),\gamma(s_3)).
(1) for any two points in the metric space there is a gamma containing both points and
(2) for all such \gamma, g_{\gamma} \equiv f\circ\gamma is differentiable
(3) and \frac{|g_{\gamma}(s)|}{|f(\gamma(s))|} \leq \lambda
then, we have that
-\lambda \rho(x_1, x_0) \leq \ln\left(\frac{|f(x_1)|}{|f(x_0)|}\right) \leq \lambda \rho(x_1,x_0). (14)
And, again we get the same type of result for this case as we got in the Euclidean cases above.
(Exercise) Prove Equation (14).
(Remark) We start with any metric space and consider curves \gamma:[a,b]\subset\Bbb{R}\rightarrow X for which
l(\gamma)\equiv\sup_{\{\{s_i\}_{i=1}^{n}| a = s_1 \leq s_2 \leq... \leq s_n = b\}} \sum_{i=1}^{n-1} \rho(\gamma(s_{i}),\gamma(s_{i+1})) \leq \infty.
We call such curves rectifiable. We can always reparameterize such curves by arclength, so that \gamma(s) = \gamma(s(t)), t\in[0,l(\gamma)] and l([\gamma(s(d)),\gamma(s(c))] ) = d-c. We will assume that all curves have been reparameterized by arclength. Now define a new metric
\tilde{\rho}(x,y) = \inf_{\{\gamma | \gamma(a) = x\text{ and }\gamma(b) = y\}} l(\gamma).
You can check that this will not change the length of any curve. Define an upper gradient of f:X\rightarrow \Bbb{R} be any non-negative function \eta_f:X\rightarrow \Bbb{R} such that |f(y) - f(x)| \leq \int_{\gamma} \eta_f(\gamma(t)) dt.
Now, if \frac{|\eta_f(x)|}{|f(x)|} \leq \lambda, we again get the same sort of bounds that we got in equation (14) if we replace \rho with \tilde{\rho}. To read more about upper gradients, see Juha Heinonen's book Lectures on Analysis in Metric Spaces.
While there are other directions we could push, what we have looked at so far demonstrates that productive exploration can start from almost anywhere. While we encounter no big surprises in this exploration, the exercise illuminates exactly why the result is what it is and this solidifies that understanding in our minds.
Generalization is not an empty exercise — it allows us to probe the exact meaning of a result. And that insight facilitates a more robust, more useful grasp of the result. While some get lost in their explorations and would benefit from touching down to the earth more often, it seems to me that in this day and age of no time to think, we most often suffer from the opposite problem of never taking the time to explore and observe and see where something can take us.
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FundsIndia explains: What is benchmark?
March 21, 2016. Mutual Fund Research Desk
Do you remember back in school, when you went back to your parents with your exam results? If it was a particularly hard paper and you scored 60%, your first line of defence would be to bring up the toughness of the paper. Then you may have backed this up by saying that most of your friends scored lower or that the class topper, who scored 68% wasn't very far off from your own score. You would have called it unfair if your parents didn't listen to your arguments and chastised you for your low marks.
Man with magnifying glass looking for coinsNow think about your large-cap mutual fund that is down 8.7% in the one-year period. Would it now be fair to say it is a bad fund? Like you measured your performance against your classmates, a mutual fund's performance should also be compared to a standard. That standard is called the fund's benchmark.
What is it?
By simple definition, a benchmark is a yardstick or standard against which something can be measured. For a fund, the benchmark is a stock market or bond market index whose returns the fund aims at beating.
For example, if the fund is a large-cap equity fund, it will choose a large-cap index as its benchmark. This can be the Sensex, the Nifty 50, or the BSE 100 or the Nifty 100. An MIP will have the CRISIL MIP Blended index as its benchmark. So taking the above example – the fund that lost 8.7% would be perfectly good if its benchmark lost 11.8%. Because an index is a nothing but a collection of stocks and securities, remember that the benchmark can also incur losses.
Why is it useful?
The benchmark is useful in two ways. The first way is as explained above – it is the standard to which a fund is held and its performance measured. The benchmark gives meaning to a fund's returns. A fund has performed well if it beats its benchmark consistently. A fund's performance will come in by its stock selection and its sector weightage relative to its benchmark.
The second way a benchmark is useful is that it gives an idea of where a fund invests, or the type of portfolio it will have. Consider SBI Bluechip and Franklin India Bluechip. They are both large-cap funds. SBI Bluechip's benchmark is the BSE 100 and the Franklin fund's benchmark is the Sensex. The BSE 100 (which represents the top 100 stocks by market capitalisation) is broader than the Sensex (which represents the top 30 stocks by marketcap).
Thus, Franklin India Bluechip is more constrained in where it can invest and will have much larger stocks in its portfolio than SBI Bluechip. Sometimes, large-cap funds can have even broader benchmarks such as the BSE 200, meaning that the universe of stocks the fund can invest in is that much more. Similarly, Birla Sun Life Dynamic Bond index is benchmarked against the CRISIL Short Term Bond index, suggesting that it will more or less stick to instruments with a short maturity profile.
Note that a fund can and does deviate from its benchmark. It can, for example, have stocks outside the benchmark index or have different sector weights. What the benchmark does is broadly indicate how the fund's portfolio will be.
So next time, don't dismiss the benchmark. Use it!
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FAST & SLOW RELEASE PHOSPHORUS
Phosphorus [P] Release over Time
As a % of Total P
The above graph has been created to give a visual indication of how the phosphorous [P] in the Guano Gold® product is released into the soil medium.
A laboratory experiment was conducted by SWEP to try and replicate the way, over time, the soil around the plant's root zone changes due to growth of the plant and exudates secreted by the plant roots.
The first reading of 40% is the amount of P released instantly once Guano Gold-Kwik Start® is exposed to a 2% citric soluble solution. This equates to 5.5kg per 10kg of P private. The citric soluble solution was then increased by 0.5% gradients. This increase is an indicator to the time that P becomes available after sowing or top dressing. The time would be influenced by soil temperature, type of crop and other soil chemistry, however the graph gives a fair indication of the P release, so it can be used as a tool by farmers and agronomists to predict release of phosphorous.
In individual farming situations, overall the graph indicates 80% of the applied P is released over the crop cycle with 40% of that being quick and the remaining P as shown by the graph constantly drip feeding into the soil.
Taking this information and applying to a cropping program if 10kg of P is required per hectare for a crop then 90kg of Guano Gold-Kwik Start® would supply this amount of P and provide 2.5 kg/hectare of carryover residual P into the next crop.


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Not a teacher. 'I was told...' is a passive sentence and 'They told me...' is a active sentence. If you want to change 'They told me...' into passive sentence, write 'I was told...'. But if you want to change 'I was told...(by sb)' into active sentence, 'They told me...' is just the answer when somebody=them.
- For Teachers


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Park HyattZanzibar reflects the intimate and understated elegance of thePark Hyatt brand while embracing the rich culture.This is the 36th Park Hyatt hotel worldwide, Park HyattZanzibar is situated on the beachfront in Stone Town, the historical center of the city and a designated UNESCO Heritage site.
As the cultural heart of Zanzibar, little has changed in Stone Town over the last 200 years. The town's unique blend of Arabic and African cultural influences originate from the 19th century when Zanzibar Island served as a center for the trade of spices.
During this period, Zanzibar, also known as the "Spice Island," was the most important trading hub along the east coast of Africa. Today, the streets of Stone Town are filled with rich aromas of spices, perfumes and local handcrafts. Architecture is a blend of Arab, African, European, Persian and Indian styles with reddish coral stone the predominant building material used. Finely crafted decorative wooden doors are one of the prominent features of Stone Town architecture.
Park Hyatt Zanzibar is housed in two buildings, one of them Mambo Msiige, a UNESCO heritage building steeped in history, grace and mystique with roots dating back to the 17th century.
Mambo Msiige is a typical Zanzibari mansion and an architectural gem, featuring intricate carvings and centered around a peacefulcourtyard.
The name alone meaning "not to be copied or imitated," embraces true uniqueness.The new and purposefully built Zamani Residence of the hotel connects to Mambo Msiige, designed to blend a contemporary charm structure while embracing Swahili culture with a blend of Arab, Persian, Indian and European influences.
Park Hyatt Zanzibar's guestrooms are a true home away from home with spaces to relax.Park Hyatt Zanzibar features 67 spacious guest rooms, including 11 suites.Oceanfront rooms feature spectacular views of Dhow Harbour and the Indian Ocean.
A perfect blend of contemporary style, modern technology, timeless regional accents and sheer luxury, all guestrooms reflect thePark Hyatt brand's intimate elegance, providing an ideal place to stay for discerning business and leisure travelers.
These suites are light and airy and feature carefully chosen sand colours with soft sage and moss accents.
Guests are led into the elegant bedroom with high, dark brown-beamed ceilings, featuring classical four-poster bed. A unique and elegant bathroom with wooden shutters and a separate tub and double rain shower offer romantic views across the Indian Ocean.
Park Hyatt Zanzibar's Zamani Residence offers a unique dining concept, featuring a range of authentic cuisines catering to all tastes.
Zamani Residence includes a Library with Veranda, a Living Room and a Dining Room with an outdoor terrace, and a residential style kitchen, the design is relaxed and comfortable, featuring eclectic interiors and designed to create a homely feel.
For those in search of rest and relaxation, guests are able to retreat to the tranquil sanctity of the hotel'sAnantaraSpa and indulge in a selection of body treatments, massages and personal services within the spa's hair salon.
Guests can also enjoy the exclusive oceanfront infinity pool is the ideal place to enjoy a morning swim, relax in the sunor invigorate after a day exploring Stone Town.
The stunning pool is 18 meters long, surrounded by comfortable lounge chairs and breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean and dhow harbours.
Zanzibar Town 4255
+255 24 _PHONE_


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The acoustic propagation characteristics of a finite one-dimensional water-glass phononic crystal (PC) are studied using the Schlieren visualization method, which is fast and non-invasive. The band structures of this PC are measured experimentally with continuous acoustic waves incident on it using the Schlieren method, and the results are highly consistent with the theoretical calculations. The dynamic acoustic field in the PC at different frequencies is imaged and the resonance phenomena in the components of the PC are observed. The results show that the Schlieren method is an effective means of studying the interactions between acoustic waves and PCs.
The Shock Wave Refraction in Supersonic Planar Mixing Layers
ZHANG Yun-Long, WANG Bing, ZHANG Hui-Qiang
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 084701 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/084701
Abstract PDF(pc) (768KB) ( 301 )
We analyze the shock wave refraction in a spatially developing shocked mixing layer by means of direct numerical simulation. Both regular and Mach reflections can occur depending on the relative strength of the induced shock wave over the vorticity of interacting vortex in the mixing layer. The stronger incident shock wave frequently refracts Mach reflection. The shock polar diagram is used to determine the shock wave refraction patterns. Moreover, the vortices are deformed and compressed by the shock wave, and their vorticities are increased. The interaction of shock wave and coherent structure can be helpful to enhance the mixing process.
PHYSICS OF GASES, PLASMAS, AND ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
Self-Adjusting Characterization for Steady-State, Direct Current Cathode-Dominated Glow Discharge Plasmas at High Pressures
DING Fang, ZHENG Shi-Jian, KE Bo, TANG Zhong-Liang, ZHANG Yi-Chuan, YANG Kuan, XIE Xin-Hua, ZHU Xiao-Dong
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 085201 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/085201
Abstract PDF(pc) (1222KB) ( 243 )
A steady-state, direct-current high-pressure CH4-H2 glow discharge in a cup-shaped cathode parallel to anode configuration is investigated by using their VI characteristics and CCD images. The discharges display an abnormal glow feature, and an expansion of a negative glow is observed on the cathode sidewall with the increasing discharge current. There exists a dependence of voltage on gas pressure for different fixed currents. The voltage decreases with gas pressure initially, and then increases conversely, which is correlated with the glow states of the cathode sidewall. This study exhibits a self-adjusting characterization for plasmas in cathode fall, which is important for maintaining steady-state, abnormal glow discharge in a relatively high pressure range.
Numerical Examination of the Effects of Ion Thermal Flow on Plasma Sheath Characteristics
Mansour Khoramabadi, S. Farhad Masoudi
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 085202 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/085202
Abstract PDF(pc) (869KB) ( 397 )
The effects of ion thermal flow on the electric and hydrodynamic characteristics of a plasma sheath are examined using a multi-fluid model. In comparison with cold plasma, ion pressure is modeled by a power law dependence on the ion density in warm plasma. The pressure force on the ion depends on the ion density, ion temperature, and a nearly constant parameter called the ion polytropic coefficient. Two well-known quantities for this coefficient, γi =1 and 3, are considered, corresponding to isothermal and adiabatic flows, respectively. The numerical calculations show that increasing the ion temperature decreases the sheath thickness and increases the ion impact energy and ion saturation current at the wall. The ion polytropic coefficient has the same effect as the ion temperature and intensifies the ion temperature effects.
Laser Diagnostics of Combustion Enhancement on a CH4/Air Bunsen Flame by Dielectric Barrier Discharge
ZHANG Shao-Hua, YU Xi-Long, CHEN Li-Hong, ZHANG Xin-Yu
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 085203 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/085203
Abstract PDF(pc) (1971KB) ( 375 )
We investigate plasma-assisted combustion for premixed CH4/air Bunsen flames. Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is employed to produce non-equilibrium plasma for combustion enhancement. The transient planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique of CH and OH radicals is used to image reaction zones for enhancement measurement, and the emission spectra of the Bunsen flame are monitored to explore the kinetics mechanism. From the drift of radicals in PLIF images, the quantitative enhancement of plasma on the flame velocities of premixed methane/air flames is experimentally measured, and the data show that the flame velocities are increased by at least 15% in the presented equivalence ratio range. Furthermore, the well analyzed emission spectra of the Bunsen flame (300–800 nm) with/without DBD reveal that the emissions as well as the concentrations of the crucial radicals (like C2, CH, OH etc.) in combustion all are intensified greatly by the discharge. In addition, the appearance of excited spectral bands of N2 and N2+ during discharge indicates that the premixed gas is also heated and ionized partially by the DBD.
CONDENSED MATTER: STRUCTURE, MECHANICAL AND THERMAL PROPERTIES
A Novel Fabrication Method for Flexible SOI Substrate Based on Trench Refilling with Polydimethylsiloxane
ZHANG Cang-Hai, YANG Yi, WANG Yu-Feng, ZHOU Chang-Jian, SHU Yi, TIAN He, REN Tian-Ling
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 086201 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/086201
Abstract PDF(pc) (643KB) ( 288 )
Flexible arrays based on the flexible connection of double layers are demonstrated. Flexible sensor arrays are highly desired for many applications. Conventional flexible electronics are implemented by directly fabricating them on organic flexible substrates such as polyimide or polyethylene terephthalate, or forming on rigid substrates and then transferring them onto elastomeric substrates. For the first time, a novel process method based on trench refilling with polydimethylsiloxane to make flexible arrays is proposed. In this method, the sensors are directly fabricated on islands of the final bulk silicon. The performance of the sensor will not to be effected by bending and stretching operations. A one-dimensional flexible array shows good flexibility. Since the flexibility process is the last fabrication step, this method is compatible with many micro-electro-mechanical system fabrication technologies and has good yield.
Numerical Investigation of the Slow Acoustic Wave Modes in a One-Dimensional Phononic Crystal Plate
ZHANG Xu, AN Zhi-Wu
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 086301 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/086301
Abstract PDF(pc) (526KB) ( 469 )
The propagation of Lamb waves in a two-layered free standing plate composed of a one-dimensional photonic crystal thin layer coated on uniform substrates of different thicknesses is investigated numerically by the finite element method. We concentrate on the theoretical demonstration of the existence of very slow group velocity at the nearly flat band in specially designed phononic crystal plates and show that the group velocity can be tuned from positive to negative gradually as the thickness of the substrate layer increases. Potential applications in new acoustic devices are described.
Ground State Property of a One-Dimensional Bose–Hubbard Model Using Time-Evolving Body Decimation
OUYANG Sheng-De, LIU Jing, XIANG Shao-Hua, SONG Ke-Hui
Chin. Phys. Lett. 2013, 30 (8): 086701 . DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/30/8/086701
Abstract PDF(pc) (754KB) ( 880 )
We study the ground state property of the one-dimensional Bose–Hubbard model using an imaginary time evolving body decimation algorithm. The single-particle density matrix is numerically calculated for a Mott insulating system and a superfluid system separately. By plotting the chemical potential versus the filling n=N/L for U/J=20 and U/J=0.1, we identify the Mott gap for U/J=20 in filling n=1. Lastly, we investigate the occupation number of the Bloch state with quasimomentum for a system deep in the Mott phase and in the superfluid phase respectively. The results indicate Bose condensation in the quasimomentum space.
CONDENSED MATTER: ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE, ELECTRICAL, MAGNETIC, AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES
Reduction of Efficiency Droop and Modification of Polarization Fields of InGaN-Based Green Light-Emitting Diodes via Mg-Doping in the Barriers
ZHANG Ning, LIU Zhe, SI Zhao, REN Peng, WANG Xiao-Dong, FENG Xiang-Xu, DONG Peng, DU Cheng-Xiao, ZHU Shao-Xin, FU Bing-Lei, LU Hong-Xi, LI Jin-Min, WANG Jun


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Can anyone point to an article or code samples anywhere on how to provide BOTH editing AND range selection in a TStringGrid?
Yes, I KNOW there are third-party grids that do this, but it's frustrating that the built-in grid lacks this basic capability.
It's pretty normal to expect to be able to both edit a cell in a grid, and also to select a range of cells such as for a Copy operation.
As delivered, TStringGrid doesn't do that. It's either/or. In fact, the docs tell us about the grid Options, "When goEditing is included in Options, goRangeSelect has no effect".
However, it looks like it may be possible to do editing and rangeselects in a TStringGrid anyway!!! Through careful use of the mousedown, mouseup, selectcell and exit events, you can get dang close by switching editing elements on and off at the right times. But I still don't have it perfect, and that only covers mouse use, not keyboard changes.
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1 Answer 1
I have not used the TStringGrid for this, so I can't provide a specific answer. But am I right in assuming you can manually (in code) start a cell being edited? That link implies it is possible even if the grid doesn't have goEditing included in its Options. (See below to work around this if this is not true.)
If so, I'd suggest the following approach:
Combined selection and edit behaviour
I find this is a good, Windows-standard-behaviour sort of approach:
 - Leave the grid in selection mode, so mouse and keyboard interaction selects cells
 - Trigger a cell being edited yourself, based on certain criteria (I think you are on the way to doing this from what you said in your last paragraph.) There are common ways to trigger editing, and the following criteria are what my programs follow when they do something similar with other controls:
 - Selection is normal. Ie, click to select, click and drag to multi-select, use the keyboard arrows and Shift or Control to select, etc.
 - A cell enters edit mode when either:
 1. A cell is selected and the user presses Enter or F2 (F2 is the standard "Rename" or "Edit" shortcut, which works in a number of programs)
 2. The user "slow-double-clicks" on a cell - ie, slow-double-clicks to select and edit, or clicks again, after a pause, on an already-selected cell. This mimics Explorer's behaviour, where if a file is selected and you later click on it, it enters the inline edit/rename mode. To implement this, record when a cell was last clicked (and selected.) If it is clicked again, and if the time is greater than GetDoubleClickTime then they have clicked twice, slowly, and enter edit mode. This allows you to distinguish between the first click to select, a double-click (to perform some kind of action), and a slow second click, to enter edit mode.
 I also tend to check the mouse position, so that if an object is slow-double-clicked and it wasn't first selected (ie, this both selects the object and then enters edit mode) I verify the mouse hasn't moved very much. I use GetSystemMetrics to find the double-click distance, and check that the slow double click was within this box. (Because it's not a true doubleclick, I actually check the distance times 2. My action code is:
 const int iMAX_MOVE_AMOUNT = ::GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYDOUBLECLK) * 2; (sorry, C++ not Delphi, but should be convertable easily enough!)
 but I'm actually not certain if this is completely and utterly 100% to Windows guidelines. In practice users find it works as they expect, though.)
That should let you change between selecting and editing at the appropriate times with both the keyboard and the mouse.
Miscellaneous thoughts
You may find some of this is cleaner and easier to implement by subclassing TStringGrid and creating a new component. That will allow you to implement this in normal code and override the inbuilt behaviour (rather than event handlers) while keeping it invisible to the form code. It will also give you lower-level access to the mouse events or Windows messages than are exposed simply through events such as OnMouseDown. Finally, if there are problems with showing the editor when goEditing is included in Options, this will allow you to change that behaviour. You could also add your own events if you want your code to respond to certain things happening, such as creating an OnBeginEdit event, say.
Creating your own components is normally regarded as an advanced Delphi topic, but it's actually remarkably easy once you know how! This site has a few good topics that will introduce you to the subject in general, and if you go this route and encounter problems, Stack Overflow is of course a good place to ask questions :) The Embarcadero Delphi » VCL » Writing Components newsgroup / forum is also an excellent resource, in fact possibly even better than SO for this specific topic.
Hope that helps!
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text:
The Special Operations Division trains and responds to emergency hazardous materials incidents, technical rescues, and the rescue of all incident victims. It also responds to disasters and assists other local emergency responders.
As a result of countywide strategic planning, Wylie is primarily concerned with two specialties: Water Rescue and Hazardous Materials response. Although these are our primary areas of concern, attention is given to all areas of specialized response. Current plans call for other agencies throughout Collin County to focus on other specialty areas, with hazardous materials being a joint effort among all agencies.
Special operations is a multi-faceted section and has management responsibilities for the following programs:
- Hazardous Materials
- Swift Water/Dive Rescue
- Specialized/Technical Rescue


Elastic Beanstalk is a one-stop shop for Ruby on Rails developers to publish their apps. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to first commit your app to AWS CodeCommit so that you can then publish over to EB.
There are a lot of steps so here's a high-level overview:
 - Create a Group and attach policies that grant you access to CodeCommit.
 - Add users to the group.
 - Create a CodeCommit repository.
 - Configure your local computer to work with AWS.
 - Create a local profile on your computer to connect to your CodeCommit repo (using Git).
Managing Users & Access
Step 1 - Create a Group
Groups are utilities that help you establish permissions to a group of users. As a first step, visit the Groups section within Identity and Access Management (IAM) console and create a new group.
Select Create a new Group
Step 2 - Attach Policies to Your Group
Once you've created a group, you'll need to grant access. Here are a few policies I offer to CodeCommit contributors.
 - AWSCodeCommitFullAccess offers full access to CodeCommit.
 - IAMSelfManageServiceSpecificCredentials allows developers a way to authenticate using git credentials.
 - IAMUserSSHKeys enables users to authenticate using SSH credentials.
 - IAMReadOnlyAccess provides IAM read-only access.
This is what your group should look like.
CodeCommit Groups
Source: Setting Up Code Commit
Step 3 - Create a user
If you haven't created a user yet, visit IAM on AWS console and create a new user with Access Keys.
Create a new user
Step 4 - Add users to your group
The next step is to add your users to this specific group using the IAM AWS console.
Managing CodeCommit
Step 5 - Create a CodeCommit Repo
You will need to make sure that you've created a repository for your code. Visit the CodeCommit section of the AWS Console to create your git repo.
Create Repo
Make sure you get the URL of the repo. It will look something like this:
Configuring Your Local Environment
The first step to configuring your local environment is to install the AWS client libraries. In order to keep things up-to-date and organized, I use Homebrew to manage my libraries. If you're not familiar with Homebrew, I suggest you How to Install AWS Client using Homebrew.
Step 6 - Download AWS Client
Once you've installed homebrew, download the AWS commnd-line interface.
brew install awscli
Step 7 - Download AWS Elastic Beanstalk Client
Amazon Web Services offers multiple command-line clients. Now that you've installed awscli it's time to install Elastic Beanstalk command-line interface
brew install awsebcli
Managing User Profiles
Step 8 - Managing User Profiles
You first need to make sure that you've configured your AWS client account by creating a user profile.
Read this tutorial for further instructions.
Spelling it out, you will actually need to create two users.
The first user is your IAM user account (which we completed in steps 1-4). The second user is your git user. You create a git user account by visiting User > myuser > Security Credentials.
The url looks like this with changes to MY_REGION and MY_USER_NAME.
At the bottom of the Security Credentials tab, you will find a section where you can create a git user.
Git username
Managing Git
Step 9 - Configuring Git
Once you've created a user profile, then you can connect it to Git using the credential helper.
The AWS credential helper will connect your CodeCommit Profile
git config --global credential.helper '!aws --profile myawsprofile codecommit credential-helper $@'
Tell AWS that you want to use HTTPS instead of git.
git config --global credential.UseHttpPath true
Step 10 - Download your repo
git clone _URL_
Troubleshooting Mac OS X
If you run into a problem like this and you're on a Mac, it probably has to do with Apple's Keychain Access. I suggest you use SSH (instead of HTTPS) to log in.
fatal: unable to access '_URL_ The requested URL returned error: 403
READ the section Steps to Clone Your Repository.
Clone your repo.
You can get your public SSH key to upload by typing:
nano ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
or you may have created a custom RSA public key.
If you do not have an RSA public key, then read Step 3 from this AWS Doc
This will configure your system using awsebcli.
nano eb init
Your Public key will likely be stored here.
nano ~/.ssh/aws-eb.pub
nano ~/.ssh/config
Host git-codecommit.*.amazonaws.com
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/codecommit_or_name_you_picked
Publish to Elastic Bean Stalk
In Part 2, we'll focus on how to publish from CodeCommit to Elastic Beanstalk.


text:
spikenard (spĪkˈnärd) [key], name for several plants. The biblical spikenard, or nard, was a costly aromatic ointment, preserved in alabaster boxes, whose chief ingredient is believed to have been derived from Nardostachys grandiflora (or N. jatamansi ), a plant of the family Valerianaceae (valerian family). Such was the precious box of ointment that Mary Magdalen broke over Jesus' feet. The American spikenard, or Indian root, is Aralia racemosa, of the family Araliaceae (ginseng family). The fragrant rhizome of both of these plants is still sometimes used medicinally. The false Solomon's seal, of the family Liliaceae (lily family), is sometimes called wild spikenard. Spikenards are all classified in the division Magnoliophyta but differ in the classes, orders, and families to which they belong.
More on spikenard from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Plants


text: The Taunton River is the longest un-dammed coastal river in New England. With a watershed area encompassing approximately 562 square miles, it is the second largest watershed in Massachusetts. It is also one of the flattest, with only a twenty-foot elevation drop along its forty-mile main stem length. The basin contains 108 sub-watersheds and encompasses all or part of 43 municipalities. The water balance in a watershed describes the natural equilibrium of inputs and exports of water. Alterations to the natural water cycle occur primarily as a result of the human necessities of water supply withdrawals, wastewater discharges, and stormwater management that change the volumes and rates of water exchange between precipitation, surface water, groundwater and the atmosphere. A water budget tool was developed for this study to evaluate the hydrologic impacts associated with water supply withdrawals, wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff associated with land uses. The method uses a mass balance approach that accounts for net changes in groundwater recharge as it relates to base flow to streams and wetlands on an annual basis. It estimates stream base flow changes resulting from water withdrawal, water transfer, wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff associated with different land uses. The tool was originally developed as a spreadsheet pilot study, and then converted to a GIS-based script capable of automating the procedure for all 108 subwatersheds. The water balance tool revealed that many sub-watersheds in the upper Taunton Watershed are highly out of balance compared to natural conditions as a result of water transfers. The tool can also be used to evaluate alternative management scenarios such as changes in wastewater collection systems, water conservation measures to reduce water withdrawal volumes and improved stormwater management.


Does preoperative percutaneous biliary drainage reduce operative risk or increase hospital cost?
H. A. Pitt, A. S. Gomes, J. F. Lois, L. L. Mann, L. S. Deutsch, W. P. Longmire
Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review
Abstract
Despite recent advances in perioperative support care, surgery for obstructive jaundice is still associated with significant morbidity and mortality. For this reason, preoperative percutaneous transhepatic drainage (PTD) has been recommended for these patients. This method of management, however, has only been supported by retrospective and nonrandomized studies. Therefore, a prospective, randomized study was performed to determine the effect of preoperative PTD on operative mortality, morbidity, hospital stay, and hospital cost. Thirty-day mortality was 8.1% among 37 patients undergoing preoperative PTD, compared to 5.3% for 38 patients who went to surgery without preoperative drainage. Overall morbidity was also slightly, but not significantly, higher in patients who underwent preoperative PTD (57% versus 53%). However, total hospital stay was significantly longer (p < 0.005) in the PTD group (31.4 days versus 23.1 days). The cost of this excess hospitalization and the PTD procedure at our university medical center was over $8000 per patient. The authors conclude that preoperative PTD does not reduce operative risk but does increase hospital cost and, therefore, should not be performed routinely.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)545-553
Number of pages9
JournalAnnals of surgery
Volume201
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1985
ASJC Scopus subject areas
 - Surgery
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Does preoperative percutaneous biliary drainage reduce operative risk or increase hospital cost?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
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Quick Tip: Understanding Multi-Value Data and the Databus
Quick Tip: Understanding Multi-Value Data and the Databus
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I saw a question in the forums around multi-value data and how someone could pass multi-value data in to a runbook via the Initialize Data activity. I was going to answer the question there but thought it would be better to post an article to reach a broader audience. When dealing with published data on the databus, it's helpful to know exactly how multi-value data is produced and consumed so you can plan your runbooks accordingly. Actually, it's kind of simple once you understand it.
First of all, when I say multi-value data, the term refers to multiple occurrences of an activity's property or properties. You can think of this as a table, an array, or a collection, whatever suits you best. For example, if you ran the PowerShell command:
get-childitem C:\
You would get back a collection of objects, each with several properties. This is multi-value data. You can handle multi-value data in two ways: (1) You can leave it as it is in "collection" form (which is the default behavior), or you can (2) flatten it into a long string of delimited values (like a comma-delimited list).
The way you choose to handle multi-value affects the way the subsequent activities in the runbook are run. If you choose the default behavior, then the next activity will be run one time for each "row" in the data. If you choose to flatten the multi-value data, then the next activity only runs once, but usually you'll have to do your own parsing of the data to pull out relevant values.
Now here's the important part: multi-value data exists only in the activity that created it. Huh? What does that mean? It means that when an activity is triggered, it is triggered by a single instance of the data generated from an activity. Multi-value data in its true "collection" form is never sent to an activity. The next activity is triggered with a single value of that multi-value data. Therefore, the only way to pass in an entire collection of data is to have it flattened in some form first. There is no way to pass in an existing collection of multi-value data because every activity expects to receive a single item.
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Leave a Comment
 - Which activities produce multi-value data? Doesnt appear to be documented. I noticed that using the Query WMI activity seems to produce flattened data with no delimiter, even if the query produces multiple results.


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"audio" Element
Reference Number: AA-01569 Views: 4346 0 Rating/ Voters
<audio>

Description
The audio element supports the insertion of recorded audio files in conjunction with synthesized speech. The audio element may be empty. If the audio element is not empty then the contents should be marked-up text to be spoken if the specified audio document is not available.
The result of this will be either; the referenced audio file is played, or the alternate text (if any is specified) will be rendered.
Version 10.5
Note that this documentation refers to LumenVox version 10.5 only. Prior versions had inconsistent support for audio formats. The previous behavior when using TTS2 would mix the specified audio file with synthesized text if any was contained within the tag, looping the audio shorter than the duration of the synthesized text audio. In addition, TTS2 expected the input audio format to match the requested synthesis format -- i.e. if 8kHz aLaw was requested, it expected a wav file containing audio in aLaw format.
Syntax

<audio
src = "src" >
 child elements
</audio>

Attributes

Attribute

Description

src

Points to the location of the audio file. mandatory field

Parent
<audio>, <emphasis>, <p>, <prosody>, <s>, <speak>, <voice>
Children
<audio>, <break>, <desc>, <emphasis>, <mark>, <p>, <phoneme>, <prosody>, <say-as>, <sub>, <s>, <voice>
Limitations/Restrictions
The value of the src attribute may refer to a local filepath(e.g. "file://c/audio/prompt.wav") or a remote HTTP location (e.g."http:// _URL_ /audio/prompt.wav").
The audio file format should be 16-bit 16 KHz PCM format only. This will be internally converted as needed to the target format.
If the referenced audio file cannot be accessed, the alternate child content will be rendered. If the referenced audio can be accessed, it will be played, and the alternate text will not be used.
The value of src is affected by the value of <speak>element xml:base attribute.
If the value of <speak> element xml:base attribute is"file://c/audio" and the value of <audio> element src is "test.pcm" themodified audio file will be found in "file://c/audio/test.pcm".
In order for the value of src to not be affected by the value of <speak> element xml:base, you should use an absolute URL -- e.g. "http://remote-host/path/to/audio.wav" or "file://path/to/audio.wav"
If <speak> element xml:base attribute value is"file://c/audio" and <audio> element src is "@file://c/audio2/test.pcm", the referenced audio file will be found in "file://c/audio2/test.pcm".
Example

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<speak version="1.0" xmlns="_URL_
 xmlns:xsi="_URL_
 xsi:schemaLocation="_URL_
 _URL_
 xml:lang="en-US"
xml:base="_URL_
<!-- Empty element -->
 Please say your name after the tone. <audio src="beep.wav"/>
 <!-- Container element with alternative text -->
 <audio src="prompt.pcm">What city do you want to fly from?</audio>
 <audio src="welcome.wav">
 <emphasis>Welcome</emphasis> to the Voice Portal.
 </audio>
</speak>


Selway River Recession Analysis
Selway River Recession Analysis
This graph represents a recession analysis for the Selway River near Lowell.
The above analysis is based on 12 years of data between _PHONE_. Often the Selway River has multiple peaks, so this analysis is based on only when stream is receding. Increases in streamflow were ignored or if stream was not decreasing. If rain event or additional snowmelt generated a streamflow increase, the rising part of hydrograph was ignored, and only the recession flow was used to determine average recession rates.
Analysis is a guide to assist with recession flow determination, results vary and depend upon future streamflow peaks and past, current and future climatic conditions (additional rain and / or extreme hot or cool air temperatures).
To use: if today's mean daily flow is 15,000 cfs (Day 12) and launch date is 13 days out, flow may be just over 5,000 cfs (Day 25) on launch date. If a streamflow increase occurs between now and launch date, start over when stream starts receding.


text:
In Vienna's fourth district there is a short passage that takes you from the Operngasse to the Naschmarkt area. This passage has the peculiar name of "Bärenmühldurchgang" (something like "Bear mill passage" in English). Why this name? According to a famous legend, one day in the late 17th century the owner of a mill (there were a couple of mills along the Vienna river at that time) was going about his daily job when suddenly he was attacked by a black bear. Seeing this, the miller's servant jumped out of a window on top of the bear and, after fighting it with his bare hands, the servant saved the life of his employer. The legend also tells us that years after this event, the servant managed to own a restaurant, which he obviously named "Zum Schwarzen Bären" ("To the black bear" in English).
Is this a true story? We don't know about the servant fighting the bear, but the mill and restaurant apparently did exist. And bears were spotted in some areas of today's Vienna's still in the early 18th century. Regardless, the legend makes for a good story!(Cr).


text:
One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
A mother (often used as a respectful form of address for a woman).
- 'Mama Mata feared they might not live much longer.'
- 'I prayed to Surya, the Sun God, and to Durga Mata, the Holy Mother.'
- 'The inspiration for it was his mother, who believes all Goddesses are different shapes of the same Mata.'
- 'He introduced the dignitaries to the mammoth crowd one by one, each of them rising from their seats to acknowledge the audience and to bow to the Mata.'
- 'Mama Mata's presents to her cousin and nephew were given to demonstrate her attachment to them and to incur obligation.'
Via Hindi from Sanskrit mātā 'mother'.
Top tips for CV writingRead more
In this article we explore how to impress employers with a spot-on CV.


text:
The Museum was created in 1772 by Charles III of Spain as the Gabinete Real de Historia Natural, changing names several times until its current denomination. The museum originally hosted a collection donated by a spanish merchant, Pedro F. Dávila. In 1867, some facilities were separated to give birth to other museums (Archeology, Botanic Garden, Zoologic Garden). In 1987 the museum was restructured and grown with funds from two smaller museums.
Some of the more relevant components of the Museum collections are:
Image:Elefante disecado MCNM.jpg|African ElephantImage:Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Madrid)-Sala de Historia Natural.jpg|Section of Natural HistoryDiplodocus and other fossilsImage:Iberomesornis-model.jpg|Section of Natural HistoryIberomesornis... Read More


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The SHA-1 Hash Function
In this blog post, we are going to explore a core concept of the "Git" Technology :
the SHA-1 Hash function.
Briefly, any file in a computer can be thought of as a series of bytes, each of which is 8 bits. If you put these bytes from left to right, all files can be thought of as very large numbers represented in binary (base-2) format. Cryptographers have come up with a very interesting function called SHA-1 which has the following curious property: any binarynumber, up to 264 bits, can be rapidly mapped to a 160 bit (20 byte) number that we can visualize as a 40 character long number in hexadecimal (base-16) format. Here is an example using node's crypto module:
sha-1-hash-function
The point is that, even binary numbers which are very close, map to completely different 20 byte SHA-1 values, which means SHA-1(x) is very different from most "normal" functions like cos(x)
SHA-1 Hash function
Because a hash can be assumed to map 1-to-1 to a file, rather than conveying the full file's contents to distinguish it, you can just use the hash. Indeed, you can just use a hash to uniquely identify any string of bits less than 264 bits in length.
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text:
February 26, 2024Unveiling the Hidden Hurdles of Automotive Part Manufacturers See the article
One of the major factor that is often dismissed, but can have significant impact on the total measuring time, is the sensibility of surface finishes from 3D scanners. When talking about automated inspection solution, cycle time is always a key metric in the choice of a new technology. However, to calculate the true cycle time of a process correctly, it's not enough to look only at the measurement rate of 3D scanners.
For operators on the shop floor, the most impactful parameter of their performance is a combination of the measurement rate with scanning area. Studying these two parameters at the same time give users a realistic 3D scanning experience. Once you know accurately how much time it takes to scan 1 square meters, it's much easier to scale that efficiency for several part type and families.
What are your main productivity issues
on your automated quality control process?
However, to calculate the true cycle time for a complete operation, it's critical to measure the time required to prepare the part and to clean it after the measurements. In fact, knowing if a part needs to be painted or if it requires powder to cover the surface finish is also a key factor in evaluating what to choose as 3D metrology technology as it will require human resources to complete theses additional operations.
Typically, area-based scanner or structured light 3D scanners are extremely sensitive to surface finish. The volumetric accuracy is often directly affected if users scan black, white, or shiny material. To avoid such impact to the scanner performances, it sometimes requires preparing the part before scanning it. When doing such preparation, it's important to remember that cleaning the part after will also be required, both manual operations that need to be carried out within the production cycle time. When keeping up with production pace is not possible, moving to better technology may be interesting.
These days, the best 3D scanners in the world can deal with different surface materials and surface finishes without having to apply any powder or paint before launching the acquisition. Not only do they provide the best 3D scanning experience (points per second combined with scanning area), it's the best solution to tackle various part sizes, shapes, and surface finishes.


Number" speech required pattern="[0-9]{16}" onspeechchange="pickValidCardNumber">
 </form>

Turn-by-turn navigation
HTML:
 <script type="text/javascript">
 var directions;
 function handleSpeechInput(event) {
 var results = event.target.results;
 if (results) {
 var dest = results[0].interpretation.destination;
 directions = getDirectionsTo(dest); // Get directions from database/server.
 speakNextInstruction();
 }
 }
 function speakNextInstruction() {
 var instruction = directions.pop();
 // (Use <audio> tag or a TTS API to speak the instruction)
 // Start a wait/notify mechanism to speak next instruction later.
 }
 </script>
 <form>
 <input speech grammar="grammar-nav-en.grxml" onspeechchange="handleSpeechInput">
 </form>

English SRGS XML Grammar (grammar-nav-en.grxml):
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!DOCTYPE grammar PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD GRAMMAR 1.0//EN"
 "_URL_
 <grammar xmlns="_URL_ xml:lang="en"
 xmlns:xsi="_URL_
 xsi:schemaLocation="_URL_
 _URL_
 version="1.0" mode="voice" root="nav_cmd"
 tag-format="semantics/1.0">
 <rule id="nav_cmd" scope="public">
 <example> navigate to 76 Buckingham Palace Road, London </example>
 <example> go to Phantom of the Opera </example>
 <item>
 <ruleref uri="#nav_action" />
 <ruleref uri="builtin:search" />
 <tag>out.action="navigate_to"; out.destination=rules.latest();</tag>
 </item>
 </rule>
 <rule id="nav_action">
 <one-of>
 <item>navigate to</item>
 <item>go to</item>
 </one-of>
 </rule>
 </grammar>

Speech shell
This uses an SRGS grammar to declare the commands that are supported, and use SISR sematics so that the JavaScript code does not have to care about the language-specific representation.
Other similar examples: Speech-controlled E-mail client.
HTML.
 <script type="text/javascript">
 function doCommand(event) {
 var command = event.target.value;
 if (command.action == "call_contact") {
 var number = getContactNumber(command.contact);
 callNumber(number);
 } else if (command.action == "call_number") {
 callNumber(command.number);
 } else if (command.action == "calculate") {
 say(evaluate(command.expression));
 } else if {command.action == "search") {
 search(command.query);
 }
 }
 function callNumber(number) {
 window.location = "tel:" + number;
 }
 function search(query) {
 // Start web search for query.
 }
 function getContactNumber(contact) {
 // Get the phone number of the contact.
 }
 function say(text) {
 // Speak text.
 }
 </script>
 <form>
 <input speech grammar="commands.grxml" onspeechchange="doCommand">
 </form>

English SRGS XML Grammar (commands.grxml).
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!DOCTYPE grammar PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD GRAMMAR 1.0//EN"
 "_URL_
 <grammar xmlns="_URL_ xml:lang="en"
 xmlns:xsi="_URL_
 xsi:schemaLocation="_URL_
 _URL_
 version="1.0" mode="voice" root="command"
 tag-format="semantics/1.0">
 <rule id="command" scope="public">
 <example> call Bob </example>
 <example> calculate 4 plus 3 </example>
 <example> search for pictures of the Golden Gate bridge </example>
 <one-of>
 <item>
 call <ruleref uri="contacts.grxml">
 <tag>out.action="call_contact"; out.contact=rules.latest()</tag>
 </item>
 <item>
 call <ruleref uri="phonenumber.grxml">
 <tag>out.action="call_number"; out.number=rules.latest()</tag>
 </item>
 <item>
 calculate <ruleref uri="#expression">
 <tag>out.action="calculate"; out.expression=rules.latest()</tag>
 </item>
 <item>
 search for <ruleref uri="_URL_
 <tag>out.action="search"; out.query=rules.latest()</tag>
 </item>
 </one-of>
 </rule>
 </grammar>

3 Scope
This section is non-normative.
This specification is limited to extending existing HTML elements with attributes and methods for allowing speech input. Speech recognition grammars are specified using SRGS and semantic interpretation of hypotheses are specified using SISR.
The scope of this specification does not include providing a new markup language of any kind.
The scope of this specification does not include defining or interpreting any definition or interpretation of dialog management instructions
The scope of this specification does not include interfacing with telephony systems of any kind.
4 Security and privacy considerations
 1. User agents must give the user an obvious indication when audio is being recorded.
 2. The user agent may also give the user a longer explanation the first time speech input is used, to let the user now what it is and how they can tune their privacy settings to disable speech recording if required.
 3. To minimize the chance of users unwittingly let web pages record speech without their knowledge, implementations must abort an active speech input session if the web page lost input focus to another window or to another tab within the same user agent.
Implementation considerations
This section is non-normative.
 1. Spoken password inputs can be problematic from a security perspective, but it is up to the user to decide if they want to speak their password.
 2. Speech input could potentially be used to eavesdrop on users. Malicious webpages could use tricks such as hiding the input element or otherwise making the user believe that it has stopped recording speech while continuing to do so. They could also potentially style the input element to appear as something else and trick the user into clicking them. An example of styling the file input element can be seen at _URL_ The above recommendations are intended to reduce this risk of such attacks.
5 API Description
5.1 Extending HTML elements
The API adds a set of new attributes and methods to HTMLInputElement and HTMLTextAreaElement.
 interface HTMLInputElement : HTMLElement {
 ...
 // speech input attributes
 attribute boolean speech;
 attribute boolean continue;
 attribute DOMString grammar;
 attribute short maxresults;
 attribute long nospeechtimeout;
 // speech input event handler IDL attributes
 attribute Function onspeechchange(in SpeechInputResultCollection results);
 attribute Function onspeecherror(in SpeechInputError error);
 // speech input methods
 void stopSpeechInput();
 void cancelSpeechInput();
 };

The speech attribute indicates to the user agent that it should accept speech input for that element. This attribute is applicable for HTMLInputElement in the following states:
The continue attribute indicates that audio recording must continue until the user explicitly stop recording using the speech input UI. If this attribute is not set, recording must stop automatically when end of speech or silence is detected in the audio.
The grammar attribute gives the address of an external application-specific grammar, e.g. "_URL_ The attribute, if present, must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. The implementation should use the grammar to guide the speech recognizer. Implementations must support SRGS grammars and SISR annotations.
The maxresults attribute specifies the maximum number of items that the implementation should place in the results sequence. If not set, the maximum number of elements in the results sequence is implementation dependent.
The nospeechtimeout attribute specifies the time in milliseconds to wait for start of speech, after which the audio capture times out. If not set, the timeout is implementation dependent.
The speechchange event is dispatched when a set of complete and valid utterances have been recognized. This event bubbles. A complete utterance ends when the implementation detects end-of-speech (regardless of the value


Abstract
We present a new algorithm for transposing sparse tensors called Quesadilla. The algorithm converts the sparse tensor data structure to a list of coordinates and sorts it with a fast multi-pass radix algorithm that exploits knowledge of the requested transposition and the tensors input partial coordinate ordering to provably minimize the number of parallel partial sorting passes. We evaluate both a serial and a parallel implementation of Quesadilla on a set of 19 tensors from the FROSTT collection, a set of tensors taken from scientific and data analytic applications. We compare Quesadilla and a generalization, Top-2-sadilla to several state of the art approaches, including the tensor transposition routine used in the SPLATT tensor factorization library. In serial tests, Quesadilla was the best strategy for 60% of all tensor and transposition combinations and improved over SPLATT by at least 19% in half of the combinations. In parallel tests, at least one of Quesadilla or Top-2-sadilla was the best strategy for 52% of all tensor and transposition combinations.
Article
pdf
BibTeX
@article{mueller2020transposition,
 title={Sparse Tensor Transpositions},
 author={Suzanne Mueller and Peter Ahrens and Stephen Chou and Fredrik Kjolstad and Saman Amarasinghe},
 journal={ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures},
 year={2020},
 month={July}
}


text:
Stream and Download
In this interactive, students use logic and mathematical skill to place animals at the correct points on a Cartesian graph representing the cardinal directions. Then, they use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the distances between points. The riddles in the interactive, including one requiring an understanding of rate, have randomized values so that students can place points at different locations and calculate different distances. The activity provides a review of concepts related to determining the distances between points on a Cartesian graph using the Pythagorean theorem and a response sheet to help students work with the interactive. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.


text:
Where is Sydney's main water catchment area?
Sydney is the largest city in Australia, with over 4.6 million people and covering over 12,000 square kilometers. Because Sydney is settled in a Coastal Basin, it must get the majority of its fresh water from rivers and lakes inland. Any area where the landscape collects water without human intervention is called a Catchment; the Sydney Catchment Authority is the agency tasked with protecting, managing, and operating the various catchment areas around the city.
The SCA is a New South Wales government agency, and it operates the largest fresh water catchments. In managing the natural landscape, the SCA has built several dams which allow the natural water flow to collect into man-made lakes, thus ensuring a greater natural supply of water in times of need.
Collecting water from five rivers into a natural ravine, the Warragamba Dam creates Lake Burragorang in Australia, with about 9,051square kilometers of water storage. From the SCA website:
Lake Burragorang is the largest urban water supply in Australia, containing four times the volume of water of Sydney Harbour. It provides about 80 per cent of the water supply for nearly four million people in the Sydney region.
As well as supplying fresh water to three filtration plants, the Warragamba Dam contains a 50 megawatt hydroelectric power station, which operates only when the lake is at a high level.
Properly maintaining catchment areas is of vital importance to the well-being of Australian citizens. Without a reliable and healthy source of fresh water, living conditions would be worse and agriculture would suffer. As of 2006, Australia used 493 litres of water per person per day, the second highest water usage in the world. Fresh water is a vital resource and the SCA is dedicated to keeping Sydney's Water Catchment areas intact, productive, and secure.


at {0} and that {f(0)=0}. Then {f} satisfies a Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz inequality if there exists a differentiable function {\kappa:[0,r]\rightarrow {\mathbb R}} on some interval {[0,r]} with {\kappa'>0} and {\kappa(0)=0} such that
\displaystyle \|\nabla(\kappa\circ f)(x)\|\geq 1
for all {x} such that {f(x)<r}.
Informally, this definition ensures that that one can "reparameterize the range of the function such that the resulting function has a kink in the minimum and is steep around that minimum". This definition is due to the above paper by Kurdyka from 1998. In fact it is a slight generalization of the Łowasiewicz inequality (which dates back to a note of Łojasiewicz from 1963) which states that there is some {C>0} and some exponent {\theta} such that in the above situation it holds that
\displaystyle \|\nabla f(x)\|\geq C|f(x)|^\theta.
To that that, take {\kappa(s) = s^{1-\theta}} and evaluate the gradient to {\nabla(\kappa\circ f)(x) = (1-\theta)f(x)^{-\theta}\nabla f(x)} to obtain {1\leq (1-\theta)|f(x)|^{-\theta}\|\nabla f(x)\|}. This also makes clear that in the case the inequality is fulfilled, the gradient provides control over the function values.
The works of Łojasiewicz and Kurdyka show that a large class of functions {f} fulfill the respective inequalities, e.g. piecewise analytic function and even a larger class (termed o-minimal structures) which I haven't fully understood yet. Since the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz inequality allows to turn estimates from {\|\nabla f(x_k)\|} into estimates of {|f(x_k)|} it plays a key role in the analysis of descent methods. It somehow explains, that one really never sees pathological behavior such as infinite minimization paths in practice. Lately there have been several works on further generalization of the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz inequality to the non-smooth case, see e.g. Characterizations of Lojasiewicz inequalities: subgradient flows, talweg, convexity by Bolte, Daniilidis, Ley and Mazet Convergence of non-smooth descent methods using the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz inequality by Noll (however, I do not try to give an overview over the latest developments here). Especially, here at the French-German-Polish Conference on Optimization which takes place these days in Krakow, the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz inequality has popped up several times.
There are several answers to the following question:
1. What is a convex set?
For a convex set you probably know these definitions:
Definition 1 A subset {C} of a real vector space {V} is convex if for any {x,y\in C} and {\lambda\in[0,1]} it holds that {\lambda x + (1-\lambda)y\in C}.
In other words: If two points lie in the set, then every convex combination also lies in the set.
While this is a "definition from the inside", convex sets can also be characterized "from the outside". We add closedness as an assumption and get:
Definition 2 A closed subset {C} of a real locally convex topological vector space {V} is convex if it is the intersection of closed halfspaces (i.e. sets of the form {\{x\in V\ :\ \langle a,x\rangle\geq c\}} for some {a} in the dual space {V^*} and {c\in {\mathbb R}}).
Moreover, we could define convex sets via convex functions:
Definition 3 A set {C\subset V} is convex if there is a convex function {f:V\rightarrow {\mathbb R}} such that {C = \{x\ :\ f(x)\leq 0\}}.
Of course, this only makes sense once we have defined convex functions. Hence, we could also ask the question:
2. What is a convex function?
We can define a convex function by means of convex sets as follows:
Definition 4 A function {f:V\rightarrow{\mathbb R}} from a real vector space into the real numbers is convex, if its epigraph {\text{epi} f = \{(x,\mu)\ :\ f(x)\leq \mu\}\subset V\times {\mathbb R}} is convex (as a subset of the vector space {V\times{\mathbb R}}).
The epigraph consists of the points {(x,\mu)} which lie above the graph of the function and carries the same information as the function.
(Let me note that one can replace the real numbers here and in the following with the extended real numbers {\bar {\mathbb R} = {\mathbb R}\cup\{-\infty,\infty\}} if one uses the right extension of the arithmetic and the obvious ordering, but we do not consider this in this post.)
Because epigraphs are not arbitrary convex sets but have a special form (if a point {(x,\mu)} is in an epigraph, then every {(x,\lambda)} with {\lambda\geq \mu} is also in the epigraph), and because the underlying vector space {V\times {\mathbb R}} comes with an order in the second component, some of the definitions for convex sets from above have a specialized form:
From the definition "convex combinations stay in the set" we get:
Definition 5 A function {f:V\rightarrow {\mathbb R}} is convex, if for all {x,y\in V} and {\lambda\in [0,1]} it holds that
\displaystyle f(\lambda x + (1-\lambda)y) \leq \lambda f(x) + (1-\lambda)f(y).
In other words: The secant of any two points on the graph lies above the graph.
From the definition by "intersection of half spaces" we get another definition. Since we added closedness in this case we add this assumption also here. However, closedness of the epigraph is equivalent to lower-semicontinuity (lsc) of the function and since lsc functions are very convenient we use this notion:
Definition 6 A function {f:V\rightarrow{\mathbb R}} is convex and lsc if it is the pointwise supremum of affine functions, i.e., for some set {S} of tuples {(a,c)\in V^*\times {\mathbb R}} it holds that
\displaystyle f(x) = \sup_{(a,c) \in S} \langle a,x\rangle + c.
A special consequence if this definition is that tangents to the graph of a convex function lie below the function. Another important consequence of this fact is that the local behavior of the function, i.e. its tangent plane at some point, carries some information about the global behavior. Especially, the property that the function lies above its tangent planes allows one to conclude that local minima of the function are also global. Probably the last properties are the ones which give convex functions a distinguished role, especially in the field of optimization.
Some of the previous definitions allow for generalizations into several direction and the quest for the abstract core of the notion of convexity has lead to the field of abstract convexity.
3. Abstract convexity
When searching for abstractions of the notion of convexity one may get confused by the various different approaches. For example there are generalized notions of convexity, e.g. for function of spaces of matrices (e.g. rank-one convexity, quasi-convexity or polyconvexity) and there are also further different notions like pseudo-convexity, invexity or another form ofquasi-convexity. Here we do not have generalization in mind but abstraction. Although both things are somehow related, the way of thinking is a bit different. Our aim is not to find a useful notion which is more general than the notion of convexity but to find a formulation which contains the notion of convexity and abstracts away some ingredients which probably not carry the essence of the notion.
In the literature one also finds several approaches in this direction and I mention only my favorite one (and I restrict myself to abstractly convex functions and not write about abstractly convex sets).
To me, the most appealing notion of an abstract convex function is an abstraction of


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Fascinating Bird Facts for the Birder in All of Us
There are more than 2,000 species of birds in North America, and they all have fascinating characteristics.
Fascinating Bird Facts for the Birder in All of Us
There are about 10,0000 bird species in the world, about 2,000 of which live in North America. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. Northern Cardinals, Bald Eagles, American Robins and Red-Winged Blackbirds are just some of the unique species of bird that you'll find flying around North America.
Elementary school taught us that birds fly south for the winter and migrate north during the summer months. But what else do we know about specific bird species in the United States, Mexico and Canada? Here are 35 facts about North American birds and insight on where to find them. Grab a pair of binoculars, and let's go bird watching!
The American Flamingo Can Live Up to 60 Years
There are six species of flamingos on the planet, but the American Flamingo is the largest of them all. They can grow to 5-feet tall and weigh up to 8 pounds. They also have a life span of between 40 to 60 years — one of the longest for birds.
American Flamingos are the only species of flamingo found in North America, and they like to hang out in the tropical Caribbean islands.
American Robins Migrate in Huge Flocks
The American Robin is a common bird species throughout North America. They like to live where humans reside (cities, farms and suburbs) and forage in open lawns.
If you live in the United States, you may find this bird in your backyard searching for earthworms or pecking at your bird feeder! Look to the sky during fall and spring as they migrate in huge flocks — as many as 60,000 at a time! — at speeds up to 35 mph.
There Are 50 Sparrow Species in North America
If you thought Robins were common, there are about 50 species of sparrows across North America! Some North American species include the Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow and Lake Sparrow. Most sparrows are 5- to 7-inches long with camouflaged colored feathers of brown, black and gray.
They're also super social! You can find sparrows throughout the central and southern United States.
North America Boasts More Than 50 Species of Warblers
While we're at it, there are about 50 species of warblers in North America. They're known for being a common songbird throughout the United States. Warblers are tiny, colorful and hard to spot but very loud when they sing.
They like to perch on treetops and hang out in woody areas across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Mourning Doves Can Raise Up to 6 Broods a Year
So, how did they get their name? You may recognize their cry being a bit "mournful." It sounds like oowoo-woo-woo-woo … you've probably heard it before.
They like to hang out in open areas, rather than forests, across the United States. The Mourning Dove can raise about six broods a year, more than any other native bird. Oh yeah, they have a lot of babies.
A Chickadee Has a Very Specific Alarm Call
The chickadee is named for its call, which makes a "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" sound. Apparently, the number of "dees" depends on the predator that they're alarming their fellow birds about.
They like to splash in water, so they'll fly over to a birdbath if your garden has one. Chickadees are energetic and friendly little birds that call Canada or west of the Rocky Mountains home. They are cavity-nesting birds, meaning they wouldn't say no to a birdhouse with the proper dimensions.
The Northern Cardinal Is the State Bird of Seven States
Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia are lucky to call the Northern Cardinal their state bird. These birds are also popular mascots of professional, collegiate and high school sports teams throughout the United States.
The Northern Cardinal is an avid singer and songwriter, with the ability to sing more than 24 song variations! Plus, they sing different song variations depending on their geographical location. You can spot them throughout the U.S. into Mexico and as far south as Central America.
Bluebirds Don't Migrate South for the Winter
A bluebird's diet depends on the season. They like to eat a variety of snails, grubs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, ants, spiders and other insects — definitely not picky eaters. Bluebirds stay in their range year-round, meaning they don't migrate during the winter. So, when insects are less abundant during the winter, bluebirds happily feast on fruit.
If you have a bird feeder, add live or dried mealworms to get a bluebird's attention. There are Eastern Bluebirds (pictured) that call east of the Rocky Mountains home, and there are Western Bluebirds that call west of the Rocky Mountains home.
Wrens Need Houses
Wrens prefer a roof over their heads rather than an open patio nest setting. They are cavity-nesting birds, so they build nests, lay eggs and raise young inside sheltered chambers such as a tree trunk or birdhouse. Wrens are competitive when it comes to real estate. They'll aggressively chase away other birds who try to invade their enclosed nesting site.
Wrens find homes in a range of unusual places such as garden pots, mailboxes, drainpipes and boots left outside. You'll spot wrens across North America, but they particularly like woodland areas.
You Can Tell the Chipping Sparrow Apart From Other Sparrows Because of Its Dark Eyeliner
If you're struggling to tell the difference among sparrows in your backyard or garden, look at their eyeliner. The Chipping Sparrow has a distinct black winged eyeliner look, while others have brown or grey eyeliner and a hint of eye shadow.
You can spot Chipping Sparrows in woods, orchards and farms across Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Blue Jays Can Mimic Hawk Calls
Blue Jays are cheeky little birds. They like to play a game of "how-well-can-you-mimic-that-hawk?" They mimic Red-Tailed Hawks and Red-Shouldered Hawks to scare other birds away from food, which may confuse a birdwatcher.
Blue Jays have powerful vocal cords that can create squeaking, croaking and rattling sounds. This loud, colorful, and unmistakable bird can be found in backyards across the eastern United States.
The Atlantic Puffin Can Carry a Dozen Fish in Its Mouth
Atlantic Puffins are cute little oddballs that like to go cast fishing. They hang out in cold coastal waters off the coast of Maine or eastern Canada. Puffins swim underwater to find food and often come up with 12 tiny fish in their mouth to bring home for dinner. (We're talkin' super tiny fish, like this.)
While they do most of their foraging within 50 feet underwater, they can dive up to 200 feet! When it's time to fly, they can reach speeds of up to 55 mph!
The Bald Eagle Is the Emblem Bird of the United States
The majestic Bald Eagle became the symbol of the United States in 1782. After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had the daunting task of creating a seal for the new nation. But they were unsuccessful in their creative efforts.
In 1782, Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson stepped up to suggest the Bald Eagle as the symbol of the United States. Congress loved it, and since then, the brave bird appears on government-related items and buildings. If you're lucky, you can spot Bald Eagles along rivers and reservoirs scattered across the United States, but they're most prominent in Alaska and the east coast of Canada.
The Barn Owl Attracts Global Superstition
Spotting a Barn Owl in England is an omen of death. This is partly because Shakespeare wrote in "Macbeth" that "it was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman which gives the sternest goodnight." And in Central and South America, spotting a Barn Owl during the daytime foreshadows the death of a friend or relative.
But those are just superstitions! Seeing a Barn Owl is actually a good sign in North America. Farmers like finding them in their barns because they eat mice and rats. Barn Owls call East and West Coast farmland of North America home.
The Calliope Hummingbird Is the Smallest Bird in North America
The smallest bird in North America is the Calliope Hummingbird. This little guy grows to about 3-inches long and weighs about one-tenth of an ounce.
They don't like the cold, so they'll migrate each year from Canada to Mexico. You can spot them during migration as they like to stick their beaks in flowers to drink nectar and eat insects.
Golden Eagles Are the Largest Hunting Birds in North America
The wingspan of a Golden Eagle can reach up to 7 feet, making it the largest hunting bird in North America. That impressive wingspan allows these magnificent birds to fly, dive and grab prey at speeds of up to 200 mph.
You can spot them in the western parts of the United States.
Ravens Can Mimic Humans
We know that parrots mimic humans, but did you know that ravens (in captivity) can be chatterboxes? They're great at mimicking human speech and other miscellaneous sounds. Wild ravens mimic other animals (usually predators) to — get this — attract them to carcasses that they're unable to break open on their own. How clever is that?! Scientists


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Grouper is an enterprise access management system designed for the highly distributed management environment and heterogeneous information technology environment common to Universities. Operating a central access management system that supports both central and distributed IT reduces risk.
Why Use Grouper?
- Coordinated Collaboration Grouper helps collaboration happen. You can set up groups, roles, and permissions for many purposes, such as populating and administering standing committees, ad hoc research teams, departments, or classes. Key collaborative applications -- mailing lists, wikis, calendars, etc. -- can use this group, role, and permission information to make authorization decisions.
- Single Point of Control When using Grouper, once a person is added or removed from a group, the group-related privileges are automatically updated in all of your collaborative applications. Grouper allows efficient management of the membership roster at a single point.
- Who Can Use Grouper? Anyone needing to manage group access to resources can use Grouper -- from accountants to zoologists. A researcher might create a group and enable members to participate on an email list or view a web site. Students might use Grouper to set up and manage groups for similar applications as they work together on shared projects and class work. Your IT staff can delegate group management and enable those leading collaborations to set up and manage their own groups.
Partnering with thesince 1998, consists of a group of U.S. and international higher-education IT architects. The group was formed to investigate the creation of a national interoperable identity and access management infrastructure for the U.S. research and education community that would fit into a global context. To do this, MACE developed an interoperable identity and access management architecture model and worked to provide functionality important to higher education but missing from the marketplace or open source offerings. Grouper was developed from this effort.
The Grouper Project has received funding and development resources from
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No. OCI-_PHONE_, OCI-_PHONE_, and OCI-_PHONE_
- Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (UK)
- University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, University of Washington, University of Memphis, University of Bristol (UK)
- Lower cost & time to deliver new services
- Simplify management by using the same group or role in many places and automating changes to access privileges as a person's roles change
- Empower the right people to manage access, taking central IT out of the loop
- Increase transparency and auditability - see who can access what with a report rather than a fire drill
- Grouper integrates with almost any existing access management infrastructure
- Supportive community of Grouper users worldwide See deployment stories and resources shared on the Grouper wiki.
- Online Library of Grouper Training Videos available on the wiki.
Grouper is open-source software licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. See _URL_ for a copy of this license.
Where can I find Grouper Training?
Why should I use groups in my IAM infrastructure?
What problems does Grouper solve?
Who manages all of these groups?
Where can I find the answer to technical questions?
Who are the Grouper developers?
How do I get on the Grouper-Users email list?
How does Grouper enhance collaboration?
How does Grouper help the IT staff?
What do I need to have in place?
To implement Grouper, you need to have:
- an institutional identity management system and a model for how privilege management fits in.
- a good relationship with key stakeholders across campus to develop the policy and business rules associated with groups and related authority issues.
- the resources to implement and support the model.
Where can I find more information about identity management?
Report Grouper Security Concerns here.
Software release v2.1.5 [20-May-2013]
Grouper v2.1.5 includes 11 fixes and improvements over v2.1.4
Grouper v2.1.4 includes 19 fixes and improvements over v2.1.3
Grouper v2.1.3 includes 20 fixes and improvements over v2.1.2
Grouper v2.1.2 includes 10 fixes and improvements over v2.1.1
Grouper v2.1.1 includes 31 fixes and improvements over v2.1.0
Grouper v2.1.0 includes 55 fixes and improvements over v2.0.3
For more information, as well as downloads of prior releases, visit the.
- Grouper Installer v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) (jar only) - Designed to get a working demo up and running quickly. Contains the Grouper API, UI, WS, loader (daemons), a demo database, a database engine, tomcat, and ant. All you need is Java 6+ JDK. Note: this is new and experimental.
- v2.1 Release Notes - Highlights of the v2.1 release, upgrade instructions, and detailed log of changes.
- Grouper API Binary v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) - Binary release of the Grouper Application Program Interface and associated utilities. Cf. Getting started with the Grouper API Binary Distribution
- Grouper API Source v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) - Contains the full source for the Grouper Application Program Interface, Grouper Shell, and other associated utilities.
- Provisioning Service Provider v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) - Binary provisioning plugin for Grouper. More provisioning software for Grouper is available in Maven
- Grouper UI v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) - Contains the full source for the Grouper Administrative and Lite User Interfaces.
- Grouper WS v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) - Contains the full source for the Grouper Web Services Interface.
- Grouper Client v2.1.5 (.tar.gz) - Client for Grouper LDAP and Web Services, in binary form. Grouper Client v2.1.5 source is also available.
- Contributed Software
- Provided by the Grouper community, in addition to the above core Grouper products.
- Grouper Voot Connector - NOTE: This has NOT been fully tested. Please confirm to your satisfaction that it meets your needs before deploying in a production environment.
As an open source project, support is provided by means of the Grouper documentation wiki and open mailing lists. Grouper implementers are urged and welcome to subscribe to the following list names:
- Grouper-Announce mailing list, for important annoucements around security and releases.
- Grouper-Users mailing list, which is an open support forum for deployment issues.
- Grouper-Developers mailing list, for those interested in discussion of development issues.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to pubsympa at internet2 dot edu with the following message in the subject:
"subscribe ListName FirstName LastName"
Grouper is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. See _URL_ for a copy of this license.
Development of this software was supported with funding from Internet2, the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, University of Washington, University of Memphis, University of Bristol (UK), the NSF Middleware Initiative (NSF 02-028, Grant No. OCI-_PHONE_, Grant No. OCI-_PHONE_, OCI-_PHONE_, and OCI-_PHONE_), and JISC. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).