text:
Lifecycle Cost of Quality In Major and Mega Projects and Turnarounds
Poor project quality can cost its owners billions of dollars on a single project – and that is just to get it completed. Post-project costs from poor project quality can plague a facility for its entire lifetime. Using the Lifecycle Cost of Quality model, these costs can be calculated, trouble spots identified, and steps taken to ensure they do not occur on future projects. When possible, leading indicators are identified so that issues can be addressed on projects that are underway. Owner Cost of Poor Project Quality No project is immune to issues and the larger the project, the larger the potential issues. Although smaller in scale, turnarounds suffer the same issues but are more sensitive to schedule delays. Owners hire good engineering and construction contractors to perform the work and the project team purchases equipment from qualified vendors – yet issues persist, and the costs are almost always paid by the owner. Money paid for overruns provides no benefit to the owner, impacts future investments, and causes reluctance to start new projects. The cost of poor project quality can be so large it impacts corporate stability and regional economies. Research shows that:
- 86% of infrastructure megaprojects have cost overruns. Overruns average 30% of the estimated cost.
- 64% of oil and gas megaprojects have cost overruns. Overruns average 59% of the estimated cost.
- 67% of power and utilities megaprojects have cost overruns. Overruns average 35% of the estimated project cost.
- 90% of infrastructure megaprojects overrunning schedule targets by an average of 20%
- 73% of oil and gas megaprojects overrunning schedule targets by an average of 30%
- 54% of power and utilities megaprojects overrunning schedule targets by an average of 2-3 years.
- What is project Lifecycle Cost of Quality? The sum of what is spent to achieve quality during the project (the Price Of Conformance – POC) plus the costs associated with poor quality during and after the project (the Price Of Non-Conformance – PONC). The goal is to find a balance between POC and PONC that reduces total costs associated with quality.
- How does Lifecycle Cost of Quality (LCoQ) differ from typical Cost of Quality (CoQ) measurements? LCoQ is a holistic measure undertaken by owners of a good, service, or project to determine all their costs associated with the quality of the purchase whereas CoQ is the total of providers (manufacturer, service provider, contractor, etc.) costs associated with quality. Good quality costs less than poor quality for the owners and providers.
- Why are post-project costs considered part of the cost of poor project quality? Many of the issues experienced by an operating facility were built into the facility during the project phase. For example, underpowered equipment or pipe stresses due to construction errors can cause ongoing issues for the facility including downtime and repairs. These costs would be attributable to project quality.
- How can studying past project outcomes improve current and future projects? By identifying issues from past projects, steps can be taken to ensure they do not happen again. It may also show where a small additional planned investment can save major costs later in the facilities life – helping to reduce overall costs associated with quality.
- Will this increase the quality team budget for a given project? A LCoQ analysis will right-size the POC budget. The overall goal is to reduce POC along with PONC. Analyzing past projects provides clear areas for improvement and the value of that improvement. If LCoQ shows that increasing the quality team's budget in an area will likely generate a strong return on investment, that would be a recommendation along with specific information on where their efforts should be targeted.


Scripts
contig_stats.pl
contig-stats.pl is a Perl script that will automatically describe features of a sequence assembly.
makereads.py
Randomly generates reads to aid in the testing of alignment programs. Reads are made from randomly reading chunks from the input fasta sequence. Can simulate heterozygous/polyploid reads, as well as paired-end reads.
BPstats.py
Performs and outputs various statistical tests for each contig in a GSS basepile output. it is assumed that the information for each contig is 1000 bases long.
gapstrip.py
Removes all of the gaps (i.e. '-') that are common (i.e. at the same index) to all of the sequences in an aligned FASTA file. By default, the first sequence is considered the reference and is excluded from the analysis, but the number of sequences that are treated as such can be changed.
sumqual.py
A script used in conjunction with the free aligners NUCmer and the free short read assembler YASRA. Creates a file with a similar to the format to that of the .qual file YASRA outputs, except each base can have multiple sets of quality values.
runyasra.py
Runs the free short read aligner YASRA and organizes its output into a folder. Links to the input data are also saved in the output folder.
alignreads.py
A pipeline for combining the free aligner NUCmer and the free short read assembler YASRA so full alignments can be made with one command. Alignreads uses the following scripts from the Liston lab: runyasra.py, sumqual.py, and qualtofa.py.
Note: For use with the older versions of YASRA.


Cold Wave - News Makers
A cold wave is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24 hour period requiring substantially increased protection to agriculture, industry, commerce, and social activities. The precise criterion for a cold wave is determined by the rate at which the temperature falls, and the minimum to which it falls. This minimum temperature is dependent on the geographical region and time of year. Source: Wikipedia < Read less Read more >
Cold Wave


text:
|Breast Cancer Screening for First Nations in Manitoba (Canada)|
Improving equitable access to Breast Cancer Screening for First Nations in Manitoba (Canada)
Imagine you are a woman living in the Canadian province of Manitoba as part of the First Nations indigenous population. Living in the rural North you have to travel long distances to access medical services. The costs for traveling in the North are very high. There are known benefits to screening for breast cancer. However, given your socio-economic barriers, how and when could you find the time to get screened for breast cancer?
What's the issue? Breast cancer in a Canadian First Nations Population
Within Manitoba there is a significant population of indigenous people in the northern part of the province. In 1996, 128,910 Aboriginal people lived in Manitoba, accounting for 11.7% of Manitoba's total population. The Aboriginal proportion of the population has been increasing rapidly over the past 20 years.1 Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Manitoba women and the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women. From 1995 to 2004, the incidence of cancer among First Nations women doubled, from 178/100,000 to 391/100,000. During the same time, the incidence of cancer among non-First Nations women increased by just 1.5%.2
Research to Practice: Making Breast Cancer Screening Mobile
Manitoba has a publicly funded Breast Screening program which operates in four cities and towns. Breast cancer screening with a mammogram, a specialized x-ray of the breasts, is a way of detecting cancer. Access to breast cancer screening plays a major role in the timely detection and treatment of cancers in women. Monitoring breast screening participation rates showed the inequities for northern and rural women and the mobile program was introduced to address the disparities.
Ensuring Canada's First Nations have access to breast cancer screening, specifically the "geographically isolated" Manitoban Aboriginal women, and adapting it to cultural context is an example of how investment in research for health can be beneficial in promoting health equity with regards to gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Mobile screening units have been created to reach women who live outside of the four cities and towns housing the screening program. To date, mobile screening programs operate in over 80 rural and northern communities every year and in 10 Winnipeg city locations.
The breast screening program works with First Nation communities to address cultural issues. The program developed posters that include aboriginal women and invitation letters are translated when needed. The local health workers arrange the appointments as some women don't have phones. The clinics are advertised over the local community radio station and the local health workers often visit women to explain the program.
This example makes clear that to achieve health equity, access to the products of research, such as cancer screening technologies, need to consider the social determinants of health. Outreach initiatives should be culturally appropriate, as shown in the example of the Aboriginal Cancer Strategy.3 The guiding principles include a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual approach to health in conjunction with a grass-roots approach that gives voice to the community.
What next: Improving Access to Breast Cancer Screening by Promoting Innovation
Despite the universal screening program, access remains a challenge. For example, mobile units have rigid schedules making it difficult to switch dates when bad winter weather or equipment failure interrupt schedules and it is not always possible to accommodate changes. The mobile unit may not return for another year or two, leading to wide variability in the use of mammograms among eligible Manitoba women. In the two year period from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004, just 60% of women aged 50 to 69 years had a mammogram. Women in the rural south were most likely (63%), and women in the north were least likely (53%), to have had a mammogram. In fact, all Regional Health Authorities in the rural south had higher participation rates in mammography than did Winnipeg (59%).4
These differences in breast screening participation can be related to income, jobs, children, high travel expenses and long travel times due to an inadequate infrastructure that make it difficult for northern women to travel, especially from isolated communities in the North. Thus, even reaching a mobile screening unit is perceived as an obstacle for some women. Also, competing socio-economic health issues and immediate needs such as daily bread and shelter are often considered more important. In addition, some women have family members affected by breast cancer. Such bias sometimes results in increased likelihood towards cancer screening, but sometimes also in aversion due to fear.
It is in the hands of the community health workers to raise awareness. The challenge for research is to find ways to expand equitable access to breast cancer screening for all under-screened indigenous women. This can be achieved by enhancing the favorable balance between the benefits and risks of screening and by finding ways to make the units more mobile and flexible. Looking into the future, new technologies such as more compact digitalized mammography or blood testing for cancerous cells should be at the forefront.
For further information:
Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Lake Weatherford (Trinity River Basin)
Lake Weatherford is located seven miles east of Weatherford in Parker County, on the Clear Fork Trinity River, a tributary of the Trinity River. Lake Weatherford is owned and operated by the City of Weatherford and serves primarily as a water supply source for municipal and industrial uses. Construction on Weatherford Dam began in June of 1956, with deliberate impoundment and completion of the dam occurring in March of 1957.
In 1993 the service spillway was modified to repair flood damages and increase the overall spillway capacity. The dam crest was raised 3 feet to an elevation of 917.0 feet above mean sea level. A new service spillway inlet consisting of a four-fingered radial labyrinth crest was constructed and connected to the existing 9-foot square discharge conduit. The crest of this service spillway is at an elevation of 896 feet above mean sea level. The second stage emergency spillway channel at an elevation of 906 feet was widened to a total length of 1,400 feet. According to TWDB 2008 survey, at the top of conservation pool elevation, 896 feet above mean sea level, the lake has a surface area of 1,112 acres and contains 17,812 acre-feet of water. This reservoir controls a drainage area of about 109 square miles.

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


Are these sentences interchangeable?
 1. I think I have left my keys at home.
 2. I must have left my keys at home.
 For example: If somebody asks us "where have you left your keys?" which answer would be correct to this question, 1 or 2? and why?
 - 2
 What does Cambridge dictionary tell you about the verb must? What does it mean in English? When you understand that, you'll be able to answer your own question! I think I have expresses uncertainty. What does I must have express? The two expressions are close in meaning, but not interchangeable. I think I left my keys at home means that I'm not sure where I left them. I must have left my keys at home means that I know where I left them. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Sep 12 '16 at 8:35
 - 4
 _USER_.E.Dant - Cambridge says: We use must have + ed form to talk about deductions in the past. It always refers to deduction, not obligation. – Mehrdad Moshaver Sep 12 '16 at 8:45
 - 1
 _USER_ I think this question has potential. Please remember to include more details with every post, like your thoughts on the matter and any research you have done. Specifically, I recommend that include the text from the Cambridge dictionary in your post and explain why you think 2 is equivalent to 1. Also, have a look through past questions on must have. You might find useful information, if not the answer to your question. – Em. Sep 12 '16 at 9:06
 - 1
 Your first sentence is speculation. You are pretty sure, but not fully sure, that you left your keys at home. You think, which means: Think. v. : to believe that something is true, that a particular situation exists, that something will happen, etc.--Webster's. So you believe they are at home. To say this, you use a noun clause as a direct object of the verb "think": (that) I have left my keys at home. [To be continued in my next comment] – Arch Denton Sep 12 '16 at 9:38
 - 1
 In the second, using the helping verb must which means, —used to say that something is very likely--Webster's. in your verb phrase "must have left" is saying, "I likely have left my keys at home." Why is it likely? Why is it likely they are at home and nowhere else? Because there is a reason, of which in the first sentence there is no reason or inferred reason, being inferred using the word "must." [Con't] – Arch Denton Sep 12 '16 at 9:40
We can consider the usage naively, in terms of the speaker's intent, and as perceived by the hearer.
Naively, the first is deduction (due to think) or speculation (due to the lack of explicit facts), while the second expresses certainty (due to must).
In terms of intent, the first expresses uncertainty and the second expresses a form of certainty. The following definitions support this.
I think so 1 a. used for saying that you are not completely certain about something: 'Is James coming tonight?' 'I think so, but I'm not sure.' - Macmillan Dictionary
Must 1 used for saying that you think something is probably true because nothing else seems possible: They must have got lost or they'd be here by now. - Macmillan Dictionary
However, the reasoning assumed for must is often weak or absent in conversational use of the term. When absent, this use borders on false bravado.
To the hearer, then, both can be perceived to be uncertain, but in different ways.
Nevertheless, the terms are not interchangeable because the intent and connotations they convey are different.
I think I left my keys at home.
I must have left my keys at home.
Neither of those phrases has an "exact" meaning. The first talks about what you think may be true. A thought can just pop into our heads. The second talks about what you have concluded to be true. Conclusions take at least a little bit of reasoning.
We use "must" after we have eliminated some possibilities, for example, they're not in your other pocket either, and not in your brief case, and you don't remember locking the front door on your way out of the house. You'd probably remember locking the door if you had done so, and so the keys must still be inside the house.
Either one of those statements would be a grammatical response to the question "Where have you left your keys?" So would "It's none of your business, dude, where I left my keys."
X must Y means for some reason, X believes that Y is true or had been true and X is unaware of any reason to the contrary.
Valid reasons include:
 - logical inevitability: *John turned left so he must be at Mike's house (Mike lives down that street.)
 - you did something or saw something previously and have received no evidence to the contrary since then: "My keys must be in my top drawer (You put them there earlier)"
 - something bad will happen and the speaker/writer is sure you want to avoid it: "You must pay your rent."
 - a really strong version of should: "You must come over and play this game sometime."
 - sometimes used to issue commands. "You must put my keys away next time!"
X think(s) Y just means that X believes Y is true or had been true, but is leaving open the possibility he/she may be wrong.
My keys must be in the car. (For example, I am remembering that I left them there)
I think my keys are in the car. (I'm not really sure where they are but I'm saying this is likely.)
The right answer depends on how confident you are that Y is true. Must means you are very confident, think means you are not completely confident.
 - 1
 I would say there's a third option with even more certainty: "My keys are in the car". And in fact, that's what I would use in your first case (if I remember that they're there, then I am sure that they are there). I feel the "must" case does include a slight lack of confidence, because you've arrived at the conclusion by eliminating alternatives but don't have any direct evidence for that case itself. (E.g. your keys aren't in your pocket or on the table, and you had them when you got in the car, so you can't think of any other place they could reasonably be.) – Andrzej Doyle Sep 12 '16 at 15:12
 - 2
 Yes, it's counterintuitive to native speakers, but must actually adds uncertainty. – snailplane Sep 13 '16 at 8:06
 - Interesting, not a way of looking at it that I ever considered before. – LawrenceC Sep 13 '16 at 12:45
 - Andrzej's comment is fascinating, and I've never seen it discussed here. It certainly could be incorporated in your answer. For clarity though _USER_ - it's the construction must have that adds uncertainty, especially in things like I must have left my keys somewhere. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Sep 15 '16 at 21:45
 - _USER_.E.Dant That is not correct. You may be interested in reading a book on this subject before commenting further, for example Geoffrey Leech's Meaning and the English Verb. – snailplane Sep 15 '16 at 22:45
Your Answer


Milan Escape Room
Milan Escape for Students
A teaching escape room in Milan for school trips (primary, lower and upper secondary)
Offering play rooms suitable for children of all ages, Trap Milano is a great venue for city trips or extra-curricular activities for pupils from primary through to high school.
 If you are organizing a school trip to Milan or want more information, please write to us at or click the button below.
Escape room in Milan for schools and students: why should you try it?
Escape rooms are popular with adults and also children from primary through lower and upper secondary school who love playing at detectives, explorers and investigators.
 An escape room is an ideal activity for school trips and outings: it's a team game that requires cooperation, communication and collaboration, as well as observation skills and quick-thinking.
 It's not only fun, it's also constructive, helping to train the mind and hone logical-deductive reasoning.
Children enjoy the group side of it, in an "all for one" spirit. Participants have to work together to decipher clues, solve puzzles and find a way out of the secret room.
 Trap Milano's secret rooms are studied in detail to create unique and fascinating settings: the labyrinthine interiors of an Egyptian pyramid, a ghost pirate ship, a mysterious house in the woods, a remote scientific base at the edge of the world… players have to work together to complete the narrative plot and spend an alternative and constructive afternoon, learning through play!
Discover the Escape Rooms in Milan to organize a school outing with one or more classes, or contact us for more information!
Escape Room for children of all ages, how does it work?
Solve a mystery, hunt for clues and figure out how to use the information collected to overcome a challenge: to do so, students are required to use their intuition, logic, time management and problem solving skills to achieve a common goal: escape.
Participants have the help of a Game Master, the rooms require no physical effort, just comfortable clothing and a willingness to put yourself to the test.
 The game is designed to give everyone the chance to be an active part of the plot, no one excluded.
The maximum number of participants varies from room to room, from a minimum of 7 to a maximum of 13 in "Pirate Cave", one of the most popular rooms, along with "The Pyramid".
 For large groups we can run multiple game sessions at the same time:
 Trap Milano can host a maximum of 48 players at the same time across both venues (and up to 26 players at a single venue).
Contact us to organize an escape room for your school: we have the expertise to design something really special and turn your school trip into a memorable event!
Why is the Escape Room a learning experience?
It encourages collaboration and listening skills.
It hones reasoning and problem solving skills.
It forges cooperation and communication between students.
Fun guaranteed for all students!
Do you want to organize a school outing to Escape Room in Milan?
Contact us


text:
François-André Danican Philidor
Portrait from L'analyze des échecs. London, second edition, 1777.
|Full name||François-André Danican Philidor|
|Born||September 7, 1726
|Died||August 31, 1795
François-André Danican Philidor (September 7, 1726 – August 31, 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique. He was also regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book Analyse du jeu des Échecs was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century, and a well-known chess opening and a checkmate method are both named after him.
Musical family
François-André Danican Philidor came from a well-known musical family, which included:
- Jean Danican Philidor (c. 1620–79), André Danican Philidor's grandfather, was a musician at the Grande Écurie (literally, the Great Stable; figuratively, the Military Band) in Paris. The original name of his family was Danican (D'Anican) and was of Scottish origin (Duncan). Philidor was a later addition to the family name. Jean Danican Philidor was given the nickname of Philidor by Louis XIII because his oboe playing reminded the king of an Italian virtuoso oboist coming from Siena named Filidori.
- Michel Danican (died c. 1659), André Danican Philidor's great-uncle, was a renowned oboist and, together with Jean Hotteterre, coinvented the oboe by modifying the shawm so that the bore was narrower and the reed near could be held near the end by the player's lips.
- André Danican Philidor (c. 1647–1730), François-André Danican Philidor's father, was also known as Philidor l'ainé (Philidor the Elder). He was an oboist and crumhorn player. He was a member of the Grande Écurie military band and later performed at the Court, at the Royal Chapel, in the employ of Louis XIV.
- Jacques Danican Philidor (1657–1708) was the younger brother of André Danican Philidor (Philidor the Elder) and, being a musician, too, was logically known as Philidor le cadet (Philidor the Younger).
- Pierre Danican Philidor (1681–1731), also a musician, was the son of Jacques Danican Philidor.
- Anne Danican Philidor (1681–1728) was François-André Danican Philidor's oldest brother. Anne Danican Philidor is best remembered today for having founded the Concert Spirituel, an important series of public concerts held in the palace of the Tuileries from 1725 to 1791.
François-André Danican Philidor was born to his father's second wife, Elizabeth Le Roy, whom he wed in 1719 when she was 19 years old and he 72. When François-André was born, his father was 79 years old; he died 4 years later and left his son fatherless.
Music career
Philidor joined the royal choir of Louis XV in 1732 at the age of six, and made his first attempt at the composition of a song at the age of 11. It was said that Louis XV wanted to listen to the choir almost every day, and the singers, while waiting for the king to arrive, played chess to relieve their boredom; this may have sparked Philidor's interest in chess.
From around 1740 he lived and worked in Paris as a performer, teacher and music copyist. He was the teacher of the Bohemian composer and pianist Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith. During this time he met Diderot, who calls him 'Philidor le subtil' in Le neveu de Rameau. He spent much of the period 1745–54 in London after a concert tour of the Netherlands collapsed, and moved in the same circles as Dr Johnson and Dr Burney. He returned to the French capital in 1754, although his music was found by some to be too Italianate (as a result of his travels). However he scored several triumphs at the fair theatres, starting with Blaise le savetier in 1759. His three most successful works were Le sorcier (1764), Tom Jones (after Henry Fielding, 1765), and Ernelinde (1767).
For a time Philidor was among the leading opera composers in France, and during his musical career produced over 20 opéras comiques and two tragédies-lyriques. He also wrote secular cantatas and motets.
Chess career
Philidor started playing regularly around 1740 at the chess Mecca of France, the Café de la Régence. It was also there that he famously played with a friend from 'New England', Mr. Benjamin Franklin. The best player in France at the time, Legall de Kermeur, taught him. At first, Legall could give Philidor rook odds, a handicap in which the stronger player starts without one of his rooks, but in only three years, Philidor was his equal, and then surpassed him. Philidor visited England in 1747 and decisively beat the Syrian Phillip Stamma in a match +8 =1 −1, despite the fact Philidor let Stamma have White in every game, and scored all draws as wins for Stamma. The same year, Philidor played many games with another strong player, Sir Abraham Janssen, who was then the best player in England, and with the exception of M. de Legalle, probably the best player Philidor ever encountered. He could win on an average one game in four off Philidor, at even terms; and Philidor himself declared that he could only give to Janssen the pawn for the move.
In 1754, Philidor returned to France, after nine years of absence spent mostly in Holland and England. He was now a much stronger player, having successfully played with opponents of the calibre of Philip Stamma and Abraham Janssen, but, as G. Allen reports in The life of Philidor, it was not until his match with de Legal in 1755 that he can be considered the strongest player in the world.
When Philidor left Paris, in 1745, although he had for some time been playing even games with M. de Legal... he had not ceased to recognize his old master as still his master and superior. But nine years of practice, with a great variety of players, had authorized him to look for neither superior nor equal; and when, in 1755, a match was arranged between the pupil and his master, who was still at the height of his strength, the result placed the crown firmly and indisputably upon the head of Philidor.
In 1771 and 1773 Philidor made brief stays in London to play at the Salopian coffee-house, Charing Cross and at the St James Chess Club. In 1774 the Parloe's chess club, on St James street, in London, was created and Philidor obtained a remuneration as a chess master every year, for a regular season from February to June. Philidor stayed faithful to this agreement until the end of his life and he was replaced by Verdoni only after his death. It is rightly in this place Philidor encountered Mr. George Atwood, famous mathematician and physician, lecturer at Cambridge University. In an article of J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson, devoted to George Atwood, there is the following passage:
Atwood was a renowned amateur chess-player and among other opponents played games against the famous French player Philidor, who was regarded as the unofficial world champion.
H E Bird records:
Of the players who encountered Philidor, Sir Abraham Janssens, who died in 1775, seems to have been the best, Mr. George Atwood, a mathematician, one of Pitt's secretaries came next, he was of a class which we should call third or two grades of odds below Philidor, a high standard of excellence to which but few amateurs attain. One of most interesting features of Atwood as a chess player is that he recorded and preserved some of his games, an unusual practice at that time. These records have survived, among them the last games that Philidor played which were against Atwood at Parsloe's Club in London on 20 June 1795.
In England, Philidor astounded his peers by playing three blindfold chess games simultaneously in the chess club of St. James Street in London on 9 May 1783. Philidor let all three opponents play white, and gave up a pawn for the third player. Some affidavits were signed, because those persons who were involved doubted that future generations would believe that such a feat was possible. Today, three simultaneous blindfold games would be fairly unremarkable among many chess masters. Even when he was in his late years, when he was 67 years old (1793), he played and won two blindfold games simultaneously in London.
Philidor, both in England and France, was largely recognized in each of his fields and got a lot of admirers, protectors and also friends, like were the French philosophers Vol


text:
SIO is the three-letter acronym for the Super I/O integrated circuit. For general information about this type of device, consult this page: Super I/O - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
On the 8 Series boards, an eSIO device is utilized, the Nuvoton NCT6683D. An eSIO device is an SIO device that contains an embedded microprocessor (known as a dedicated microcontroller). This architecture allows both traditional and nontraditional SIO functions to be fully or partially implemented in firmware. This allows more sophisticated capabilities to be (cost-effectively) implemented than would be possible using only discrete circuitry. In the NCT6683D parts utilized on the 8 Series boards, Intel worked with Nuvoton to implement a custom firmware package for the device that allows Intel Quiet System Technology (Intel® QST) to be utilized. Intel® QST provides sophisticated fan speed control algorithms that can dramatically improve overall system acoustics and psychoacoustics while still ensuring proper temperatures. To better understand psychoacoustics, consult this page: Psychoacoustics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Because the eSIO device contains a microcontroller, it can run hotter than traditional SIO devices. As a result, a temperature sensor was included in the device so that the temperature of the eSIO device itself can be monitored and managed by the Intel® QST algorithms. Because a heatsink is not typically installed on this device, its idle temperature is a little higher than most other motherboard devices. A reading of 48°C is perfectly normal, as is a reading of 65°C or even 70°C in stressful conditions. These higher readings in stressful conditions are actually the result of heat bleeding from other devices near the eSIO and increasing its temperature. To put it all in perspective, a critical temperature for this device is way up at 95°C. By default, the Intel® QST algorithms are configured to keep this device at or below 85°C.
Thanks Mr. Scott for the detailed explanation and assurance that SIO temp is normal and nothing to panic.
I have also noticed that the RAM voltage fluctuates between 1.480 and 1.510 volts (every 3 seconds) on this DH87RL - that's a 0.030 volt variance.
Is this also normal?. The ram is configured with XMP profile and the corsair vengeance ram has a full compatibility with i3/i5/i7 processors.
I have DH77DL, DH67CL, DH77EB boards and all of them report a constant 1.50 volts. I am using the same corsair vengeance ram (2 x 8GB Sticks) 1600Mhz on all of the systems. They are all working perfectly for the last 3 years.
Yes, this is perfectly normal and expected.
The AtoD (Analog to Digital) converter used in the NCT6683D eSIO supports a limited voltage range. For most voltages, this means that the least-significant bit (LSB) of a reading represents 0.016v. It would thus not be unexpected to see variances in readings of +/- 0.016v as the voltage hovers between adjacent readings. Some voltages must be scaled down (using a resistor pair) to fit within the limited voltage range of the AtoD and then, when readings are taken, the readings will need to be scaled back up to the proper voltage range. For the 12.0v sense, a scaling factor (multiplier) of 12 is required. This means that the LSB represents 0.192v. For the 5.0v sense, a scaling factor of 5.02 is required. This means that the LSB represents 0.08032v. For the CPU Input and Memory voltages, a scaling factor of 1.5 is required. This means that the LSB represents 0.024v.
Please note that these scaling factors are specific to the NCT6683D eSIO device and the resistor network used on the 8 Series boards. On 7 Series and older boards, the scaling factors are different; specific to the particular SIO device and the resistor network used on the board in question.
P.S. To be complete, for those folks that have DZ87KLT-75K boards, there are an additional 9 CPU voltages monitored. For the CPU Core 0-3, CPU Graphics and CPU Ring voltages, a scaling factor of 1.5 is required. The CPU System Agent, CPU I/O and CPU PLL voltages need no scaling factor.
I thought that this was worth also mentioning...
As you might imagine, most of the general-purpose monitoring applications (CPUID's HW Monitor and PC Wizard applications, Open HW Monitor, Hmonitor, HWiNFO32/64 and many others) have problems accurately displaying voltage sensor readings on many boards (not just Intel's). This is due to the fact that they do not know (a) what sensors in the SIO/eSIO are used for what voltages and (b) what the resistor network is that is utilized on the board. Before I retired, one of the things that I did at Intel was to attempt to communicate this information to these software vendors. I was successful in getting a couple of these software vendors to build tables into their applications so that they can get this right. The best example is the AIDA64 application, which perfectly handles all of the Intel Desktop Boards and those NUCs that were released before I retired (and hopefully those after if my former co-workers have kept up this process). It is thus my top recommended application. I also worked with Alfredo Milani-Comparetti, the author of the SpeedFan application. At the time of my retirement, he was very close to having all of the Intel Desktop Boards handled, as well as some of the NUCs. Speedfan is thus my second-most recommended application.
P.S. I am probably going to get a bunch of nastigrams from some of the authors for these other applications. If they have handled this issue, sorry for not pointing it out accurately; I don't spend a lot of time regularly trying out any new versions of these applications...


text:
Five Must-Visit Cathedrals in Portugal: Architectural Marvels and Historical Gems
Introduction Portugal, a country steeped in history and culture, is home to some of the most magnificent cathedrals in Europe. From the northern regions to the sun-drenched south, these cathedrals are not just places of worship but also repositories of art, history, and architectural brilliance. Here are five cathedrals in Portugal that are a must-visit for their historical and architectural significance.
1. Sé de Lisboa (Lisbon Cathedral) The Sé de Lisboa, or Lisbon Cathedral, is a formidable fortress-like Romanesque cathedral in the heart of Lisbon. Built in 1147 on the site of a former mosque, it has undergone various renovations over the centuries, incorporating Gothic and Baroque elements. The cathedral houses significant religious artifacts and offers a glimpse into Portugal's religious history.
2. Sé de Porto (Porto Cathedral) Perched on a hill overlooking the city, the Sé de Porto is one of the city's oldest monuments. This Romanesque cathedral, with its stunning Gothic cloisters and Baroque loggia, dates back to the 12th century. The intricate azulejos (traditional Portuguese tiles) that adorn the cloisters are particularly noteworthy.
3. Sé de Braga (Braga Cathedral) The Sé de Braga, known as the oldest cathedral in Portugal, is a must-visit for its historical and religious significance. Founded in the 11th century, this cathedral has undergone numerous architectural changes, displaying Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, and Baroque styles. Its chapels, organs, and tombs are of particular interest.
4. Sé de Évora (Évora Cathedral) A prime example of Gothic architecture in Portugal, the Sé de Évora, built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, dominates the cityscape of Évora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its imposing exterior gives way to a stunning interior with a beautiful choir and an impressive collection of ecclesiastical art.
5. Sé de Coimbra (Coimbra Cathedral) The Sé de Coimbra, or Old Cathedral of Coimbra, is one of the most important Romanesque buildings in Portugal. Constructed in the 12th century, during the reign of Portugal's first king, Afonso Henriques, it resembles a fortress church and is renowned for its beautiful cloisters and the Renaissance-style Capela de São João Baptista.
Conclusion Visiting these cathedrals offers a journey through various architectural styles and periods, reflecting Portugal's rich and diverse history. Each cathedral is a treasure trove of art, with intricate carvings, stunning azulejos, and valuable religious artifacts. Whether you are an architecture enthusiast, a history buff, or a spiritual seeker, these cathedrals in Portugal promise a deeply enriching experience.
Visitor Tips While exploring these cathedrals, visitors are encouraged to respect the sanctity of these places. Appropriate attire and behavior should be observed, and photography rules should be followed. Many of these cathedrals charge a small fee for entry or certain sections, which goes towards their maintenance and preservation.
Unforgettable Experiences with Portugal Magik Tours
Exploring Portugal with Portugal Magik Tours is an unforgettable experience that offers a perfect blend of luxury, comfort, and cultural immersion. Known for their exceptional service and attention to detail, Portugal Magik Tours specializes in crafting tailor-made itineraries that cater to the unique interests of each traveler. Whether it's a deep dive into the rich history of Lisbon, a scenic coastal drive along the Algarve, or a culinary adventure in Porto, their knowledgeable guides ensure a personal and insightful journey. The company's commitment to providing exclusive access to some of the country's hidden gems and local experiences adds a special touch, making each tour not just a trip, but a collection of memorable stories and insights.
Catering to Diverse Interests and Ensuring Comfort
One of the standout features of Portugal Magik Tours is their ability to cater to a wide range of interests and preferences. From history enthusiasts to wine connoisseurs, from families with young children to couples seeking a romantic getaway, their tours are designed to meet the specific needs of each group. The comfort and convenience of travelers are paramount, as evidenced by their use of luxury vehicles and the flexibility to adjust itineraries on the go. Their emphasis on small, private tours guarantees a more intimate and engaging experience, allowing travelers to explore Portugal at their own pace, with the full support and expertise of the company's dedicated team. Choosing Portugal Magik Tours means choosing a travel experience that is as enriching as it is enjoyable, creating lasting memories in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.


Analysis of Chinese Consumer Attitudes in the Premium Car Segment in Chinese First Tier
Questionnaire Design
The design of the questionnaire will focus on two parts.
The first part which will be the central part will include about 10 questions in which the respondents will provide their opinions and the decisions on the cars they chose and the reason they prefer one car to the other. There will be 3 multiple choice questions. The 10 questions are close-ended since they would take less time to answer and would also be easy to respond to. The approach would also help in the minimizing of errors and also make it easier to make comparison and tabulation analysis. Besides, the questionnaire will use the Linkert scaled question where the respondents were asked to rate the satisfaction towards a given car and the significance the place on easy factor in making any future purchases. The scale would range from 1 to 5 where 1 is very dissatisfied while 5 means very satisfied. The decision to use this scale is because it has been used by the researcher to analyze consumer attitudes for over three decades.
The second part of the questionnaire will focus on the demographic. At this stage, the respondent would be required to provide information about their income, gender, household, educational level, occupation, and employer category.
The behavior of car purchases
I am researching cars for my research thesis. The questionnaire comprises of about 18 questions and would not take more than 15 minutes of your time. I am from () University.
 1. Is there a car(s) in your family
Yes (I am the owner)/ belongs to a family member
Yes (It is a company vehicle)
 1. What do you use the car for most of the time
Personal use
Family use
 1. What was the purchase price for the car? Indicated if it was brand new or second hand.
 2. What Brand is your car
☐Volkswagen ☐ Volvo ☐ Audi ☐ Chrysler ☐ Cherry
☐Mazda ☒ Hyundai ☐ Toyota ☐Honda ☐ Lexus
☐ Ford ☐ Mazda☐ Nissan
☐ Others
 1. Indicate the time it took from initial idea to the time of purchasing of the car
☒Less than 2 weeks ☐ 2 -4 weeks ☐ 5 -12 weeks
☐ 12 – 36 weeks ☐ more than 36 weeks
 1. How important was the decision to purchase the car
☐ Very unimportant ☐ fairly unimportant ☐ neither
☐ fairly important ☐ Very important
 1. Did the family play any role in the purchase of the vehicle
☐ Agree ☐ Disagree
 1. What role did you play in the purchase of the car?
☐I make my personal decisions
☐I am part of making the decisions
☐I am one of the decisions makers, but I do not play a decisive role
☐The arrangements are made by other people
 1. How are you involved in the process of buying a car and choosing the model?
The decision to by a new car
The budgeting dictions
The intimal choice of the brands
Contacting car dealers
Collection of information on the models and brands
Visiting dealers
Bargaining on the price
The final decision to by the car
 1. Gender
Male Female
 1. Age
☐ 19 years and below ☐20-29 ☐30-39 ☐40-49 ☐above 50
 1. Could you provide your monthly household income ()
Bellow 10000 10000-19999 20000-29999 30000- 39999
40000-49999 above 50000
 1. Enumerate the number of people that are in your household (refer to yourself and the ones you live with)
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐More than five
 1. Please provide information about your current levels of education
☐Junior high school
☐Senior high school/technical/professional
 1. What is your current occupation level?
☐Employed full time
☐Employed part-time
 1. What is the usage of the current
 Never Less than 1/ week 1-2 weeks 3-4/week Almost everyday
To work
Social activities
Picking up family members
Business reception
Drive between cities
 1. What your overall satisfaction with the current car
 Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied Very satisfied
 1. in regards to the following to the following to the following aspects, what is your satisfaction with the current car.
 Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied Very satisfied
Value for money
Fuel consumption
Comfort in riding
Interior and Equipment
Interior design
After sale maintenance
Environmental friendly
The following part will be broken down into two pieces. The first part will discuss the demographics and the second part will look at the buyer's decisions and the reason for the various buying choices.
Profile of the respondents
There were 120 male respondents and 80 female respondents that account for 60 percent for male respondents and 40 percent for the female respondents. About the age of the respondents, 70 percent of the respondents were below the age of 50 years. Majority of the people were between the ages of 21 to 30 years. The result from the monthly income showed that about 70 percent of the respondents have a household income of below 20,000.
Further, the survey showed that there were 150 employed individuals with almost 80 percent of them being in full-time employment.
Car ownership
The survey also showed that almost all respondents had cars. The number of respondents that had cars was 160. Of the individual that had cars, 58 percent 95 out of the 160 had their cars. Twenty-four percent of the remaining individuals had their vehicles registered in company names, while the remaining 12 percent of the response with cars had them rejiggered with other family members.
In terms of car usage, 39 percent of the respondents use the car for personal needs, 35 percent use them for family purposes, 21 percent use them for business purposes. Besides, 0ver 95 percent of the respondents opted to buy new cars as opposes t about 5 percent that by second-hand vehicles.
In regards to the time, it takes for one to decide to purchase a ca, it emerged that most of the respondents took about 3 to 36 weeks to make the decisions on buying a car.
Most of the people decide to buy a car as essential or somewhat important. Of the respondents, about 65 percent thought it is totally important, while about 30 percent would think it not so important.
The relationship between the time of purchase and purchase time
In the study one thing seem to come out is that there is a close relationship between the time taken to buy care and the importance of the decision. In the cases were the choices so important so much time is also taken. Besides, in the cases where the division is so important, there is the involvement of the family members and other individuals.
In the study, there is also so much involvement of the individual the purchase process. About 89 percent of the participants are involved in the purchase divisions. Next individuals were included in the initial model and braid followed by the visiting of the dealers at 88 percent and finally the final division at 87 percent.
The study sought to find out how satisfied individuals are with the current cars that they are using. The focus was on different characteristics of the vehicle as shown in the interview. The results show that the level of satisfaction is relatively high. About 60 percent of the respondents pointed out that there were reasonably satisfied with the current cars.
Besides, the study showed that the consumers were focused on the value of money in the cars that they were buying. Considering that most of the consumer are middle-class income earners, the cost for many was one of the essential aspects that made the deciding the car buy.
One thing that seems evident for the car consumer behavior in China is that most of the consumer was young people who are aged below the age of 50. The aspect that these people focused on when buying cars is the issue of value for money. Besides, these people buy cars for personal use. Therefore, the focus of an individual seeking to venture into this market is to provide cars that are good for personal use and are not expensive. This population is not focused so much on luxury but rather convenience.


Oticon More 2-R Mini RITE Hearing Aid
Oticon More 2-R Mini RITE Hearing Aid
Oticon More 2-R Mini RITE Hearing Aid
Regular price $2,995.00 Sale price $7,800.00 Unit price per
New Oticon More 2-R is the brands latest Advanced rechargeable hearing aid released onto the Australia market in January 2021. Just one step down from the top end premium More 1. They feature a highly sophisticated and powerful chip platform designed to preserve the finer details in the sound scene providing More of the natural information and cues to help improve speech understanding and minimise listening effort even in complex listening environments with competing background noise.
Oticon's latest hearings aid is called Oticon More and builds upon its predecessor the very successful Oticon Opn S. Opn introduced the Open Sound Navigator platform on their Velox chip designed to preserve the sound scape naturally to support the way our brains Orientate, Focus and Recognise sounds. They then introduced the Velox S platform that added Open Sound Optimiser ™purported to be a "pro-active" feedback cancelling system that could very quickly cancel feedback (annoying whistles and squeaks) within 90ms-1.
New Oticon More hearing aids contain their latest Polaris ™ Chip platform which give you a a clear, complete and balanced sound scene with acoustic richness and finer details. This supports the Oticon Brain Hearing™ philosophy of making it as effortless as possible for your brain to make sense of sound.
Oticon More assists the brain in processing sounds
Rechargeable Oticon More
Oticon research showed that by preserving the sound scape naturally and rapidly attenuating competing noise "between words" they can improve speech intelligibility and reduce listening effort to a greater extent than conventional approaches taken by other hearing aid manufacturers.
How Hearing Loss Effects the Brain
Oticon continues to further their research into how the brain makes sense of sound and develop their hearing aids to best to support these brain processes. They patented the term Brain Hearing ™ to describe these processes and has been the foundation of their research for more than 30 years. The philosophy is that hearing happens in the Brain. It is not a simple sense but a very complex cognitive process. We know that hearing loss is not just a loss of audibility but also comes with a loss of speech understanding and creates distortion problems especially in noisy situations. This is because hearing loss impacts the quality of the sound the brain has to work with.
Our brains are plastic and do adapt to this lower quality of information or under-stimulation, however there are ramifications and consequences. The listener has to work harder to make sense of sound. Hearing loss therefore can be described as a bio-psycho-social problem. Biological in that we know there's a change to biological function, but also Psycho-Social changes in that untreated hearing loss can lead to a change in a persons' behaviour. Such as avoidance of environments where you know you'll have difficulties hearing such as social gatherings or any competing noise environments. Such avoidance behaviours can lead to a sense of social isolation. This can lead to depression and in the long run accelerated cognitive decline.
Providing the Brain with the right types of Amplification.
 Oticon's ultimate goal is make it as easy as possible for the brain to make sense of sound. Extensive research has enabled Oticon to bring to market a unique combination of technologies that all work to reduce listening effort and provide the right conditions for the brain. In spite of modern chip sets and sound processing technologies available today, the brain can still be considered to be the most sophisticated sound processor that exists. This is because the brain has the ability to navigate in simple environments as well complex environments with many different types of sounds being present. It can choose where and when to focus and which sounds to attend. It can choose to push some sounds into the background whilst focusing on which sounds are relevant. This happens seamlessly as the sound situation changes. Important for both social activities as well as for safety.
New Scientific Discoveries:
It is believed that the brain needs access to all sounds and not just speech to work in a natural way. According to Oticon research there are two auditory cortex sub-systems with different functions that are always working together to make sense of sound. Overall hearing ability can depend on how well they work together. These two systems are the Orient sub-system and the Focus sub-system. The Orient system is constantly scanning all surrounding sounds to make a complete picture of the sound scape. Whilst the Focus system is supporting us to determine which sounds we actually focus on whilst determining which sounds we push into the background. We know these subsystems exist based on measurements from new scientific and imaging techniques techniques including Magneto-Encephalography (MEG), Deep Electrodes (EcoHG/sEEG), Electro Encephalography (EEG). Two independent studies have shown the existence of these two sub systems within the Auditory cortex of the brain.
The Orient Sub-System of Neural Sound Processing
The Orient stage of sound processing within the brain is considered crucial in creating a full sound scene representation within the brain to then identify what it wants to focus on. This decision can only be as good and as accurate as the information that is delivered to the Orient sub-system itself. In this earlier stage of sound processing the entire sound scene is being represented in the brain. The Orient system needs to receive a good neural code to create a good auditory overview and separate sounds out to determine what's going on in the surroundings. It also creates an auditory foreground and background and starts to identify what to focus on and listen to. It provides the brain with the best conditions on which to focus on and listen to.
The Focus Sub-System of Neural Sound Processing
In the focus sub-system which is a later stage of sound processing, only the sounds that the listener attends to is strongly represented in the brain. This allows us to focus on a point of interest, form auditory objects out of the different sound characteristics available. Allows us to focus our attention on the sounds we want to attend to whilst filtering out unwanted or irrelevant sounds. These systems work continuously together to maintain our focus on what is presently most important. Although we can maintain focus on a particular sound the brain intentionally distracts itself four times a second checking in on the rest of the environment sound scene. This allows us to switch attention if something more important suddenly appears in the sound scene.
The Workload on the Brain
When these systems are working well together it frees up other cognitive processes to work optimally. One can more easily recognise other sounds, store and recall information and perform executive functioning such as being able to respond to what is taking place or been said.
Irrespective of the quality of the signal the brain is receiving it will always try to match it with information stored in its long-term memory. It does this to make meaning of the sound. Clear sensory information makes for easier matches and more effortless conversation. However, when the sound is changes or distorted the sensory information is no longer clear. This can result from hearing loss and competing noise. The brain cannot as easily match the acoustic information with information stored in the long-term memory and so making sense of the sound requires a lot more effort. Selective attention allows our Auditory system to effectively filter out sounds and even enhance our perception of sounds of interest which is called Sustained Attention. Our ability to focus in on something for a longer period of time. These two sub-systems help us separate out sounds and focus in on what we are interested in. To gather meaning of what's heard also need to recognise sounds which make use of available working memory in the brain and extract meaning. Also requires working with other important cognitive capacities such as attention switching,,memory recall. Also other senses play a role at this level of processing including visual input. These higher cognitive processes also influence the Orient and Focus stages.
Hearing Loss makes it more difficult to Orient & Focus:
Hearing loss resulting from changes in the cochlear result in a loss of spectral and temporal resolution diminishing the quality of the neural code being delivered. The ability to selectively switch attention is also slowed down. The increased cognitive load to follow results in less capacity left over.
Oticon indicates that studies are showing the brain needs full access to the sound scene to prioritise what it attends to and what it filters out. Attention is more like a filter that takes in all available sensory input and prioritises what is being attending to and processed and what is filtered out. Oticon argue that conventional hearing aid technology uses a focus approach including the use of directional microphone systems, speech reduction and gain reduction methods of feedback elimination and indicates such methods restrict information being delivered to the brain and does not help form a complete sound scene therefore does not best support the way the brain naturally processes sound. Oticon indicates that inadequate treatment of a hearing problem in turn results in a brain problem. Consequences of untreated hearing loss include; 1. Increased listening effort, 2. Increased Cognitive Load, 3. Re-organised brain functionality, 4. Accelerated cognitive decline, 5. Accelerated brain volume shrinkage.
Brain problems can therefore turn into life problems. Risk of dementia is from untreated hearing loss is increased 5 fold for severe hearing loss. Associations between hearing loss and balance disorders.
Research indicates that all these conditions associated with untreated hearing loss are modifiable risk factors that are potentially reversible. A study showed that approximately 40% of dementia cases can be explained by modifiable risk factors. Livingston et al. showed in 2017 that in mid-life hearing loss represented the greatest modifiable risk factor in onset of dementia being 8%. Even at mild levels hearing loss has been documented increase the risk of developing dementia in the long term and the worse the hearing loss the


Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am trying to measure PCIe Bandwidth on ATI FirePro 8750. The amd app sample PCIeBandwidth in the SDK measures the bandwith of transfers from:
 1. Host to device, using clEnqueueReadBuffer().
 2. Device to host, using clEnqueueWriteBuffer().
On my system (windows 7, Intel Core2Duo 32 bit) the output is coming like this:
Selected Platform Vendor : Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device 0 : ATI RV770
Host to device : 0.412435 GB/s
Device to host : 0.792844 GB/s
This particular card has 2 GB DRAM and max clock frequency is 750 Mhz
1- Why is bandwidth different in each direction?
2- Why is the Bandwdith so small?
Also I understand that this communication takes place through DMA, so the Bandwidth may not be affected by CPU.
share|improve this question
What CPU are you using? The CPU can often times bottleneck the PCIe transfer if it's bad enough. – KLee1 Oct 11 '12 at 17:03
the transfer is taking place through DMA, (the buffers are always pinned before this transfer), how does that matter whether CPU is bad or good – gpuguy Oct 11 '12 at 23:18
Your GPU is on a x16 lane.. right? – Thomas Oct 12 '12 at 2:52
yes, its on x16 lane – gpuguy Oct 12 '12 at 4:54
What is your system memory's speed? If under Windows Vista or greater, go into your command line and type "winsat mem". I mean, it should be more than that, but you never know.. – Thomas Oct 16 '12 at 12:02
1 Answer 1
This paper from Microsoft Research labs give some inkling of why there is asymmetric PCIe data transfer bandwidth between GPU - CPU. The paper describes performance metrics for FPGA - GPU data transfer bandwidth over PCIe. It also includes metrics from CPU - GPU data transfer bandwidth over PCIe.
To quote the relevant section
'it should also be noted that the GPU-CPU transfers themselves also show some degree of asymmetric behavior. In the case of a GPU to CPU transfer, where the GPU is initiating bus master writes, the GPU reaches a maximum of 6.18 GByte/Sec. In the opposite direction from CPU to GPU, the GPU is initiating bus master reads and the resulting bandwidth falls to 5.61 GByte/Sec. In our observations it is typically the case that bus master writes are more efficient than bus master reads for any PCIe implementation due to protocol overhead and the relative complexity of implementation. While a possible solution to this asymmetry would be to handle the CPU to GPU direction by using CPU initiated bus master writes, that hardware facility is not available in the PC architecture in general. '
The answer to the second question on bandwidth could be due units of data transfer size. See figs 2,3,4 and 5. I have also seen graphs like this at the 1st AMD Fusion Conference. The explanation is that the PCIe transfer of data has overheads due to the protocol and the device latency. The overheads are more significant for small transfer sizes and become less significant for larger sizes.
What levers do you have to control or improve performance?
Getting the right combo of chip/motherboard and GPU is the H/W lever. Chips with the max number of PCIe lanes are better. Using a higher spec PCIe protocol, PCIe 3.0 is better than PCIe 2.0. All components need to support the higher standards.
As a programmer controlling the data transfer size, is a very important lever.
Transfer sizes of 128K - 256K bytes get approx 50% of the max bandwidth. Transfers of 1M - 2M bytes get over 90% of max bandwidth.
share|improve this answer
Your Answer


is the natural log, which equals an implied probability of acute triangle-formation of about 7.9 percent. (Who knew that natural logs are a great way to solve stick problems?) Guy also provided this illustration of the curvy areas we calculated:
No. 4: We're back to three dimensions again for the final question. This solution furthers the solution from problem No. 2, the way that solution No. 3 furthers solution No. 1. Laurent explained his solution this way:
We'll solve this problem the same way we solved No. 2, but we'll replace the triangle inequalities with the acute triangle inequalities. As in No. 2, we end up with a three-dimensional volume rather than a two-dimensional area. For simplicity again, we'll assume that c is the largest length, which accounts for one-third of all possibilities.
Laurent provided a lovely illustration of this volume:
Our answer will ultimately be three times the area of this shape (this shape only accounts for stick c being longest, and two identical shapes will be generated for stick b being longest and stick a being longest).
Our solution lies in the filled-in parts of that shape. While this looks complicated, the curved surface inside that area has the equation c^2 = a^2 + b^2, which is, conveniently, the equation of a right circular cone! So we can calculate the volume of the region of interest by subtraction. It's ⅓ of the volume of the cube minus ¼ of the volume of the cone. (One-third because we're considering only one out of three scenarios, the one where c is longest. And ¼ because the cone's base is ¼ of a circle.) The total probability is three times this volume, because we must account for the remaining identical pieces. The final answer is 3(1/3 − 1/4 ( \pi/3 ) ) = 1 − \pi/4 or about 0.2146. So the probability of forming an acute triangle with three randomly chosen lengths is about 21.5 percent.
Want to submit a riddle?
Email me at _EMAIL_.
Footnotes
 1. Important small print: For you to be eligible, I need to receive your correct answer before 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Have a great weekend!
 2. The diagram for Riddler Express depicts three rectangles, one on top of another, all aligned on their left edges. The top rectangle is 24 square inches and 4 inches tall. The middle rectangle is 34 square inches and three inches wider than the one above it. The bottom rectangle is 44 square inches and 2 inches wider than the the middle rectangle. How tall is the bottom rectangle?
 3. The diagram for Riddler Classic depicts a grid of four rectangles, with one corner of each meeting at a single point in the center. The top two rectangles are aligned along the top edges, the left two along the left edges, and the bottom two along the bottom edges. The bottom two rectangles together are 14 inches long. The left two rectangles together are 11 inches tall. The top left rectangle is 32 square inches, the top right is 34 square inches and the bottom right is 45 square inches. What is the area of the rectangle in the lower left?
Oliver Roeder was a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight.
Comments


text:
- Author(s): PAOLO COLLA, FILIPPO IPPOLITO, KAI LI
- Published: Sep 10, 2013
- Pages: 2117-2141
- DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12052
This paper examines debt structure using a new and comprehensive database on types of debt employed by public U.S. firms. We find that 85% of the sample firms borrow predominantly with one type of debt, and the degree of debt specialization varies widely across different subsamples—large rated firms tend to diversify across multiple debt types, while small unrated firms specialize in fewer types. We suggest several explanations for why debt specialization takes place, and show that firms employing few types of debt have higher bankruptcy costs, are more opaque, and lack access to some segments of the debt markets.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text: Tak has just returned from the Models in Population Dynamics and Ecology (MPDE) conference in Marseille, which was held over 5th-9th September at the Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM) at Aix-Marseille University. During the conference, Tak presented two new Markov Chain models describing how species abundances fluctuate under environmental variation. The models are novel in that they can be analysed to derive exact expressions for species richness and community abundance, allowing investigation of how these quantities change with increasing environmental variation, for example due to global climate change. Determining changes in richness and abundance is important because they are fundamental drivers of ecosystem functioning. In addition to presenting this work, Tak also took the opportunity to learn more about some of the latest developments in theoretical population biology and ecology, and connect with other researchers in this area.


text:
You've probably seen the modern TVs with dynamic backlight called Ambilight, developed by Philips. The essence of its work is to highlight the space behind the TV in different combinations of colours, depending on the events happening on the screen.
PaintPack vs Ambilight
A new development called PaintPack is presented. This model is intended to implement the same idea as the technology of Ambilight, but allows to «light around» any computer monitor. A device called PaintPack is a simpler version in a small box with ten cable-trains, which have bright LEDs at the ends. These LEDs are placed evenly around the perimeter of the back of the monitor, and provide illumination in accordance with what is happening at the moment on the screen. The second more advanced equivalent of Ambilight – is light-line PaintPack with 30 LEDs connected in separate blocks for a few pieces for easy placement on the screen, and create a more vibrant and detailed lighting. This is many times lower than the price of TVs with Ambilight, and at the same time you buy a device that can be easily removed and connected to various monitors when necessary.
PaintPack — for novice and professionals
Using PaintPack module presents no difficulties, even for someone with minimal computer skills. It is enough to place the LEDs on the back of the monitor, connect the module to one of the USB-connector and install software, which comes in a package.
To fix the LED, manufacturer provides special care of the two-sided sticky tape. Program to control the backlight of the monitor is completely free to download. You can find detailed instructions about what and in what sequence should be done for correct installation and configuration of device. Thus, PaintPack module can be set up and configured by any newcomer, who at least once installed a program on his own, and knows the location USB-connector on computer.
Quick guide for installation and configuration of the module PaintPack
The module PaintPack provides a special application that is available for free download on the Website of the manufacturer. The program is updated periodically by adding new features to it.
Once the program is successfully established, you need to attach the device to the rear monitor, approximately in the centre. Then stick the LEDs, they can be arranged in any order or depending on the availability of free space. The main condition for placement of LEDs – it even distribution along the perimeter of the head and the location at a distance from the wall at 15-30 centimeters.
For most users software settings by default will be enough, which were originally put up by the manufacturer. If there is a need to do the fine tuning of the LEDs, then it needs to run the previously installed program. In the window, select the item with the settings on your monitor and see the capture region for different LEDs. Set each LED opportunity to shine a white light or display a different colour depending on what is happening on the screen. With simple removal of ticks LEDs can be disabled individually. The lights can be tested and user will enjoy watching movies or videos, playing games and other computer entertainment. Especially nice PaintPack shows its abilities in movies with such moments as explosions or dynamic car chases.
Backlight module is unique device in its kind. Even at many Chinese factories by producing electronic devices, such PaintPack is still unknown. Nevertheless, module PaintPack can be a nice gift for the advanced computer user.


text:
Measure change in capacitance.
Detect human presence and touch from behind several millimeters of material, or detect change in water levels from the outside of a plastic container. This library is meant to help determine change in relative capacitance for the reasons above, and not for calculating exact capacitance. Relative capacitance is found by measuring how long it takes for an Arduino send-pin to charge a receive-pin to HIGH (in microseconds).
|Filename||Release Date||File Size|


text:
: the caste title Gounder and the clan name, example Perungudi. Nowadays it is common for people not to use any of these titles. So a Konguvel, son of Shanmuganathan, of say Erode, would call himself Konguvel Shanmughanathan, instead of the traditional Erode Perungudi Konguvel Gounder. This practise is of very recent origin though. Wife or child takes the given name of the husband or father (Usha married Satish, and may therefore be called Usha Satish or simply S. Usha). In many communities, especially Christian, names are formed by the given name as the first name, the family name and house name as the middle name(s) and the father's/husband's given name as the last name. Thus, the last name changes with each generation. The house name would also change as generations move out of their consanguineal family homes with the changing ownership of property upon the death of the patriarch. The Dravidian movement in the beginning of 19th century was instrumental in knocking off the concept of surnames in Tamil Nadu. Since many companies in the industrially rich Tamil Nadu managed to filter candidates just by looking at their names, the movement went on to such an extent that surnames/castenames were simply refused at primary school levels. The movement went so active that even Streets, roads and galis where names with caste name was published, road-tar was applied on caste names. For instance in a Ranganatha Mudaliar street, the
Mudaliar name was struck off with tar, leaving the street as Ranganathan Street. Similar was the case with almost all castes, Now it's hard to find a Mudaliar, Nadar, Pillai,
Goundar, Iyer, Chettiar etc in any public display. Only on arranged marriages, people feel proud to publish their caste names. In cases where people arrange their own marriages (intercaste / inter religion), the caste name almost vanishes. Hence the famous "ETHIRAJA MUDALIAR College" in Chennai is simply "ETHIRAJ COLLEGE" or "Kamaraja nadar road" is simply "Kamaraj road". This is being welcome my politicians from UP, Bihar etc.
Jains generally use Jain, Shah, Firodia, Singhal or Gupta as their last names. Sikhs generally use the words Singh ("lion") and Kaur ("princess") as surnames added to the otherwise unisex first names of men and women, respectively. It is also common to use a different surname after Singh in which case Singh or Kaur are used as middle names (Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Surinder Kaur Badal). The tenth Guru of Sikhism ordered (Hukamnama) that any man who considered himself a Sikh must use Singh in his name and any woman who considered herself a Sikh must use Kaur in her name. Other middle names or honorifics that are sometimes used as surnames include Kumar, Dev, Lal, and Chand.
The modern day spellings of names originated when families translated their surnames to English, with no standardization across the country. Variations are regional, based on how the name was translated from the local language to English in the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries during British rule. Therefore, it is understood in the local traditions that Agrawal and Aggarwal represent the same name derived from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab respectively. Similarly, Tagore derives from Bengal while Thakur is from Hindi-speaking areas. The officially-recorded spellings tended to become the standard for that family. In the modern times, some states have attempted at standardization, particularly where the surnames were corrupted because of the early British insistence of shortening them for convenience. Thus Bandopadhyay became Banerji, Mukhopadhay became Mukherji, Chattopadhyay became Chatterji etc. This coupled with various other spelling variations created several surnames based on the original surnames. The West Bengal Government now insists on re-converting all the variations to their original form when the child is enrolled in school.
Javanese people are the majority in Indonesia, and most do not have any surname. There are many individuals who have only name, such as "Suharto" and "Sukarno". These are not only common with the Javanese but also with ethnic groups who do not have the tradition of surnames. If, however, they are Muslims, they might opt to follow Arabic naming customs.
Many surnames in Ireland of Gaelic origin derive from ancestors' names, nicknames, or descriptive names. In the first group can be placed surnames such as McMurrough and McCarthy, derived from patronymics, or O'Brien and O'Grady, derived from ancestral names.
Gaelic surnames derived from nicknames include Ó Dubhda (from Aedh ua Dubhda - Aedh, the dark one), O'Doherty (from dochartaigh, "destroyer" or "obtrusive"), Garvery (garbh, "rough" or "nasty"), Manton (mantach, "toothless"), Bane (bán, "white", as in "white hair"), Finn (fionn, "fair", as in "fair hair"), and Kennedy (cinnéide, "ugly head").
In contrast to England, very few Gaelic surnames are derived from placenames or venerated people/objects. Among those that are included in this small group, several can be shown to be derivations of Gaelic personal names or surnames. One notable exception is Ó Cuilleáin or O'Collins (from cuileann, "Holly") as in the Holly Tree, considered one of the most sacred objects of pre-Christian Celtic culture. Another is Walsh (Breatnach), meaning Welsh.
In areas where certain family names are extremely common, extra names are added that sometimes follow this archaic pattern. In Ireland, for example, where Murphy is an exceedingly common name, particular Murphy families or extended families are nicknamed, so that Denis Murphy's family were called The Weavers and Denis himself was called Denis "The Weaver" Murphy. (See also O'Hay.)
For much the same reason, nicknames (e.g. the Fada Burkes, "the long/tall Burkes"), father's names (e.g. John Morrissey Ned) or mother's maiden name (Kennedy becoming Kennedy-Lydon) can become colloquial or legal surnames. The Irish family of de Courcy Ireland became so-named to distinguish them from their cousins who moved to France in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In addition to all this, Irish speaking areas still follow the old tradition of naming themselves after their father, grandfather, great-grandfather and so on. Examples include Mike Bartly Pat Reilly ("Mike, son of Bartholomew, son of Pat Reilly"), John Michel John Oge Pat Breanach ("John, son of Michael, son of young John, son of Pat Breanach"), Tom Paddy-Joe Seoige ("Tom, son of Paddy-Joe Seoige"), and Mary Bartly Mike Walsh ("Mary, daughter of Bartly, son of Mike Walsh"). Sometimes, the female line of the family is used, depending on how well the parent is known in the area the person resides, e.g. Paddy Mary John ("Paddy, son of Mary, daughter of John"). A similar tradition continues even in English-speaking areas, especially in rural districts.
Some Irish surnames can be mistaken for non-Irish. Anglicization of many surnames has been so thorough that bona-fide Irish names such as Crockwell and Harrington appear to be English. Other Irish names can appear to be German (Bruder), Italian (Costello), or even Polish (Comiskey).
i, ian, deh, dust, fard, far, ju, iya, nia, nizhad (or nejad), oo, par, parast, pour, rad, vand, vard, yar, zadeh, zad, zand
Sometimes name of cities or towns are attached as the last word in the family name such as: Tehrani, Shirazi, Esfahani, Tabrizi, Zanjani, Angurani, Samani, Farahani
Some common Persian last names are: Afsar, Agassi, Alivandi, Alizadeh, Amanpour, Ansari, Anvari, Ariani, Arki, Ashtari, Azria, Bahari, Bahrami, Bakhtiari, Bateni, Bozorgi, Dashti, Davoodi,, Ebadi, Elmi, Emami,Esfahani, Fakoor, Farahani, Feiz, Firozi, Gharani, Gharibpour, Ghasemi, Golzari, Hosseini, Kalbasi, Karimi, Kashani, Kiani, Kiyanfar, Kiyanpour, Loghmani, Mehranzadeh,Milani, Mirzapour, Motallebzadeh, Najafi, Nakhudeh, Niyazfar, Omidifar, Ovisi, Ovasi, Rabiee, Rahimi, Rastinpour, Rezaei, Rouzrokh, Samani, Sarafpour, S


text:
Here is the example, which is right?
It's important he know this.
It's important he knows this.
It's important he has known this.
or, those above all right, but express different meaning.
The third form of the sentence could be grammatically correct but expresses an unlikely thought, implying he no longer knows this, but it is currently important that he knew it some time in the past. It seems to be motivating the listener to take some action to ensure that the person who currently may not know it, did know it in the past. This is impossible without time travel.
The final "s" in "knows" is third person not plural, mainly because plurality applies to nouns not verbs I suppose.
As for the subjunctive: I can't do better than point you at Wikipedia's article
Grammar Monster suggests "Through common usage, the non-subjunctive forms of verbs are gradually replacing the subjunctive forms."


text:
The working principle of the central feeding system lies in that the vacuum conveying mode is adopted, and the plastic raw material is transported from the storage tank to the central dehumidification drying system through a centralized pipeline system, and then the dried raw materials are delivered to each injection molding machine. Its use to prevent dampness and drying of the resurgence of raw materials, and ensure that the entire system of air to feed raw materials, so that it is for injection molding workshop plastic products designed to produce a feeding equipment. Then the central feed system can solve any problems? Let's look together:
1, Due to the continuous development of society, the amount of material used in different workshops is not the same, and the central feeding system can design different optimized installation schemes according to different workshops and different supply materials.
2, the central feeding system can reduce a lot of labor costs, because it is simple to operate, as long as a few people can control the entire injection molding plant, it can also reduce other auxiliary equipment, thus saving electricity maintenance costs.
3, the central feed system has an independent centralized dust recovery system, cleaning more convenient, environmental effects can reach the requirements of dust-free operation, but also can reduce noise, can be very good to reduce the pollution of injection molding plant to maintain the production workshop Clean, and establish a modern factory management image.
4, the central feeding system can automatically feed more raw materials to the multi-room any injection molding machine equipment, where you can complete a number of tasks, such as raw materials, color processing, drying and proportionate crushed recycling material utilization, at the same time It can implement a high degree of automation and control, monitoring, etc., can well meet the production needs of the workshop, improve operational efficiency.
Through the above introduction, we all know that the central feeding system can solve a lot of feeding problems, so its role in the production of plastic products workshop can not be ignored.


text:
Fort Chambly is located at the edge of the Richelieu River, at the foot of the Chambly rapids. Built in 1711, this imposing stone fortification protected New France from a potential British invasion.
During the War of 1812, the British Army built an important military complex on the site. The fort has resisted the upheavals of history and remains a valued reminder of the French presence in North America.
Restored by Parks Canada, Fort Chambly now houses exhibitions showcasing key moments in the history of New France.
A Fort at the Foot of the Rapids
Watch the video in the Multimedia Gallery


.34.3 does not happen. Here is the precise result.
Lemma 36.34.4. Let $f : X \to S$ be a morphism of schemes. Let $x \in X$ be a point with image $s \in S$. Assume
 1. $f$ is smooth at $x$,
 2. the residue field extension $\kappa (s) \subset \kappa (x)$ is separable, and
 3. $x$ is not a generic point of $X_ s$.
Then there exists an affine open neighbourhood $U \subset X$ of $x$ and an effective Cartier divisor $D \subset U$ containing $x$ such that $D \to S$ is smooth.
Proof. Write $k = \kappa (s)$ and $R = \mathcal{O}_{X_ s, x}$. Denote $\mathfrak m$ the maximal ideal of $R$ and $\kappa = R/\mathfrak m$ so that $\kappa = \kappa (x)$. As formation of modules of differentials commutes with localization (see Algebra, Lemma 10.130.8) we have $\Omega _{X_ s/s, x} = \Omega _{R/k}$. By assumption (2) and Algebra, Lemma 10.138.4 the map
\[ \text{d} : \mathfrak m/\mathfrak m^2 \longrightarrow \Omega _{R/k} \otimes _ R \kappa (\mathfrak m) \]
is injective. Assumption (3) implies that $\mathfrak m/\mathfrak m^2 \not= 0$. Thus there exists an element $\overline{h} \in \mathfrak m$ such that $\text{d}\overline{h}$ is nonzero. Choose a lift $h \in \mathcal{O}_{X, x}$ of $\overline{h}$ and apply Lemma 36.34.1. $\square$
The subscheme $Z$ constructed in the following lemma is really a complete intersection in an affine open neighbourhood of $x$. If we ever need this we will explicitly formulate a separate lemma stating this fact.
Lemma 36.34.5. Let $f : X \to S$ be a morphism of schemes. Let $x \in X$ be a point with image $s \in S$. Assume
 1. $f$ is smooth at $x$, and
 2. $x$ is a closed point of $X_ s$ and $\kappa (s) \subset \kappa (x)$ is separable.
Then there exists an immersion $Z \to X$ containing $x$ such that
 1. $Z \to S$ is étale, and
 2. $Z_ s = \{ x\} $ set theoretically.
Proof. We may and do replace $S$ by an affine open neighbourhood of $s$. We may and do replace $X$ by an affine open neighbourhood of $x$ such that $X \to S$ is smooth. We will prove the lemma for smooth morphisms of affines by induction on $d = \dim _ x(X_ s)$.
The case $d = 0$. In this case we show that we may take $Z$ to be an open neighbourhood of $x$. Namely, if $d = 0$, then $X \to S$ is quasi-finite at $x$, see Morphisms, Lemma 28.28.5. Hence there exists an affine open neighbourhood $U \subset X$ such that $U \to S$ is quasi-finite, see Morphisms, Lemma 28.53.2. Thus after replacing $X$ by $U$ we see that $X$ is quasi-finite and smooth over $S$, hence smooth of relative dimension $0$ over $S$, hence étale over $S$. Moreover, the fibre $X_ s$ is a finite discrete set. Hence after replacing $X$ by a further affine open neighbourhood of $X$ we see that $f^{-1}(\{ s\} ) = \{ x\} $ (because the topology on $X_ s$ is induced from the topology on $X$, see Schemes, Lemma 25.18.5). This proves the lemma in this case.
Next, assume $d > 0$. Note that because $x$ is a closed point of its fibre the extension $\kappa (s) \subset \kappa (x)$ is finite (by the Hilbert Nullstellensatz, see Morphisms, Lemma 28.19.3). Thus we see $\Omega _{\kappa (x)/\kappa (s)} = 0$ as this holds for algebraic separable field extensions. Thus we may apply Lemma 36.34.2 to find a diagram
\[ \xymatrix{ D \ar[r] \ar[rrd] & U \ar[r] \ar[rd] & X \ar[d] \\ & & S } \]
with $x \in D$. Note that $\dim _ x(D_ s) = \dim _ x(X_ s) - 1$ for example because $\dim (\mathcal{O}_{D_ s, x}) = \dim (\mathcal{O}_{X_ s, x}) - 1$ by Algebra, Lemma 10.59.12 (also $D_ s \subset X_ s$ is effective Cartier, see Divisors, Lemma 30.18.1) and then using Morphisms, Lemma 28.27.1. Thus the morphism $D \to S$ is smooth with $\dim _ x(D_ s) = \dim _ x(X_ s) - 1 = d - 1$. By induction hypothesis we can find an immersion $Z \to D$ as desired, which finishes the proof. $\square$
Lemma 36.34.6. Let $f : X \to S$ be a smooth morphism of schemes. Let $s \in S$ be a point in the image of $f$. Then there exists an étale neighbourhood $(S', s') \to (S, s)$ and a $S$-morphism $S' \to X$.
First proof of Lemma 36.34.6. By assumption $X_ s \not= \emptyset $. By Varieties, Lemma 32.25.6 there exists a closed point $x \in X_ s$ such that $\kappa (x)$ is a finite separable field extension of $\kappa (s)$. Hence by Lemma 36.34.5 there exists an immersion $Z \to X$ such that $Z \to S$ is étale and such that $x \in Z$. Take $(S' , s') = (Z, x)$. $\square$
Second proof of Lemma 36.34.6. Pick a point $x \in X$ with $f(x) = s$. Choose a diagram
\[ \xymatrix{ X \ar[d] & U \ar[l] \ar[d] \ar[r]_-\pi & \mathbf{A}^ d_ V \ar[ld] \\ S & V \ar[l] } \]
with $\pi $ étale, $x \in U$ and $V = \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$ affine, see Morphisms, Lemma 28.34.20. In particular $s \in V$. The morphism $\pi : U \to \mathbf{A}^ d_ V$ is open, see Morphisms, Lemma 28.34.13. Thus $W = \pi (V) \cap \mathbf{A}^ d_ s$ is a nonempty open subset of $\mathbf{A}^ d_ s$. Let $w \in W$ be a point with $\kappa (s) \subset \kappa (w)$ finite separable, see Varieties, Lemma 32.25.5. By Algebra, Lemma 10.113.1 there exist $d$ elements $\overline{f}_1, \ldots , \overline{f}_ d \in \kappa (s)[x_1, \ldots , x_ d]$ which generate the maximal ideal corresponding to $w$ in $\kappa (s)[x_1, \ldots , x_ d]$. After replacing $R$ by a principal localization we may assume there are $f_1, \ldots , f_ d \in R[x_1, \ldots , x_ d]$ which map to $\overline{f}_1, \ldots , \overline{f}_ d \


text:
Springfield Schools Trying To Cut $4.5M Annual Utility Bill
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - Five Springfield schools that made small changes to reduce energy use saved the district $16,000 last year.
The voluntary effort at Field, Harrison, Parkview, Rountree and Wilson's Creek schools was a preliminary trial in an energy efficiency plan the district is putting together.
the five schools did such things as turning off lights, unplugging appliances and programming room temperatures. Some schools removed appliances such as microwaves and coffee pots from classrooms.
The Springfield News-Leader reports the long-term plan will include shutting down unused buildings during the summer, designing new schools or additions to use less energy, and upgrading the 61 existing school buildings.
The district has been trying to reduce its annual $4.5 million utility bill for several years.


text:
Annual Meeting Researchers to Explore Global Attitudes on Science
In a new meta-analysis comparing the public's perception of science across 40 nations, researchers have found extensive areas of similarity in how people think of science, particularly regarding the broader issues such as whether science and technology improve the quality of life.
"There's very little cross-cultural variation. This was a surprise," said Nick Allum of the University of Surrey, who will present the results of his study at a symposium entitled "What People Around the World Think and Know About Science," to be held at the 2005 AAAS Annual Meeting.
The primary focus of Allum's study, which took into account the results of some 200 surveys of the public perception of science, was to measure the correlation between the public's knowledge of science and their embrace of it, a relationship that has been fiercely contested.
The kind of cross-cultural similarities that Allum and his colleagues discovered are at least half the reason why social scientists from Europe, Latin America, Asia and North America will gather at the AAAS meeting to share their latest work.
"A discussion like this allows us to start developing more coherent theories to explain public attitudes about science, rather than ending up with piecemeal results that don't really link," said Allum. "Together, we can see if there are some areas on which we at least partially agree, so we can move on."
Another objective of the symposium is quite the opposite to tease out the particularities in how different cultures regard science.
For instance, in a presentation entitled "Americans May Love Science, But They Don't Know Much About It," Melissa Pollak of the National Science Foundation explores the science illiteracy of the U.S. public as compared to other developed nations. More than a century after Darwin, Pollak said, there is "a stark difference in the responses to the evolution question in the United States," as compared to Europe, where most people surveyed say they accept evolution as fact.
Pollak, a senior analyst in the NSF's Division of Science Resources Statistics, said she is personally concerned with rampant misunderstanding of science in this country, in people's not knowing how science works and with belief in such phenomena as psychic powers.
"Not to spoil anyone's enjoyment of an entertaining television show 'The Medium', but if you really believe that this person has psychic ability, then I see that as something society should be concerned about." Pollak said. "I personally feel there's a role for the scientific community in combating some of these beliefs."
Another particularity of Americans' attitudes toward science and technology is their basic lack of objection to new technologies, such as the genetic modification of food which Europeans are more likely to reject.
Edna Einsiedel of the University of Calgary will unveil the results of a first-ever survey examining North Americans' level of acceptance of cutting-edge technologies such as pharmacogenetics, otherwise known as "personalized medicine," and nanotechnology, which involves the construction of tiny structures and devices by manipulating individual molecules and atoms for diverse uses in medicine, computing and other fields. Nanotechnology has provoked some concern among scientific experts about the release of the manufactured molecules into the environment.
Einsiedel's survey asks 1,000 U.S. residents and 2,000 Canadians if they are aware of nanotechnology, whether they perceive it as beneficial and whether they are confident it can be safely regulated. She strongly advocates such assessment of public views early on in a technology's development.
"[Early input] allows identification and understanding of public concerns, helps to identify the factors that might explain these concerns and provides opportunities for these views to be accounted for in the design, control and monitoring of the technology," Einsiedel said.
Allum agrees that the public's awareness and level of acceptance of a new technology is crucial and supports media training for scientists "to make them seem more human."
"It's important for scientists to make clear what the aims and objectives of their work are, rather than just the science of it," Allum said.
For Carmelo Polino of RICYT (the Ibero-American Network of Science and Technology Indicators), bringing the public into the loop on science and technology presents an opportunity to improve the lives of millions. His organization has explored public attitudes about science in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Spain in order to produce comparable indicators at the regional level. His presence at the symposium represents the first time that Latin American countries have been brought into a worldwide forum focused specifically on the topic of surveys on the public perception of science.
Polino contends that in Latin America knowing how the public views science and knowing how to communicate to the public about scientific advances could determine whether science and technology will ever receive the political support and resources needed to aid a country's development and raise its citizens' standard of living.
"In this context, the scientific community in Latin America cannot ignore the cruel fact that millions of people are marginalized and live and die in the most abject poverty. Amid such desperate circumstances, science and technology can be transformed into future options," Polino said. "Knowing the public's perception of science could help develop more efficient strategies for mass communication, with the goal of having more and better science."
For background information on public perceptions of science:
18 February 2005


text: A classic of reportage, Oranges was first conceived as a short magazine article about oranges and orange juice, but the author kept encountering so much irresistible information that he eventually found that he had in fact written a book. It contains sketches of orange growers, orange botanists, orange pickers, orange packers, early settlers on Florida's Indian River, the first orange barons, modern concentrate makers, and a fascinating profile of Ben Hill Griffin of Frostproof, Florida who may be the last of the individual orange barons. McPhee's astonishing book has an almost narrative progression, is immensely readable, and is frequently amusing. Louis XIV hung tapestries of oranges in the halls of Versailles, because oranges and orange trees were the symbols of his nature and his reign. This book, in a sense, is a tapestry of oranges, too—with elements in it that range from the great orangeries of European monarchs to a custom of people in the modern Caribbean who split oranges and clean floors with them, one half in each hand.


text:
Subject and Keywords:
The author of the article asks the question whether there is still space for codes in the form in which they were created in the nineteenth century. The conditions for the creation of codes have changed. Lawyers do not require codes in order to completely regulate a given field of social life. The occurrence of decodification is very strong. Lack of cooperation between legal science and the courts makes it difficult to create new codes. However, in the author's opinion, codes can still play an important and symbolic role. The most important function of codes is to create the axiological foundations of a given branch of law.


Is This the New iPhone Screen Technology?S
There are plenty of rumors circulating about a super-thin screen for the new iPhone which could boost battery life. Now, an Apple patent has appeared which describes exactly the kind of screen technology the rumors have been speculating about.
Apple Insider points out a new Apple patent which describes different ways in which the top, glass layer of a touchscreen can be removed by combining the liquid crystal and touch sensing elements into a single structure—commonly referred to as in-cell technology. From the patent filing:
In contrast, because the IPS embodiments discussed... can use the same electrodes used for display control and touch sensing, higher touch resolution can be obtained with little to no additional cost. Alternatively, a number of touch pixels can be grouped to produce a combined touch signal with a lower resolution.
We've already pointed out that the new iPhone may well use Sharp's own in-cell IGZO display technology. Already available, the IGZO screens are thinner, because they use smaller transistors, allowing more light to pass through. In turn that means they use fewer LEDs, and therefore take up less space and consume less power.
Of course, whether or not the new iPhone will use an in-cell screen—let alone the technologies discussed in this patent—is up for debate. But the fact that the patent discusses combining in-cell technology with the displays currently used in the iPhone 4S prompts pause for thought. Either way, we don't have too long to wait now before we find out. [Apple Insider]