Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Christian Generosity in I Corinthians 16:1-4
Christian Generosity
I Corinthians 16:1-4
The Church is the priority beneficiary and benefactor of Christian generosity. Therefore Christians should primarily give to and through the Church.
 1. Christian generosity prioritizes the needs of the saints.
 1. 16:1--"the collection for the saints"
 2. Christian generosity is the responsibility of each church and all churches.
 1. 16:1--"as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.
 2. 2 Cor. 9:1-2
 3. Christian generosity prioritizes church giving over all other types of giving.
 1. 16:2--"On the first day of the week.
 4. Christian generosity should be considered an act of worship.
 2. What makes giving an act of worship?
 1. Response to the grace of God. 2 Cor. 8:6-7
 1. God's grace provides the money to give.
 2. God's grace provides the will to give.
 2. Expression of trust. 2 Cor. 8:5
 3. Expresses and elicits praise and thanksgiving. 2 Cor. 9:12-15
 4. Magnifies the sacrificial work of Christ. 2 Cor. 8:8-9; 9:15
 5. Christian generosity is the responsibility of each Christian and all Christians.
 1. 16:2--"each of you should set aside"
 6. Christian generosity should be planned.
 1. 16:2--"first day of the week
 1. Regular or consistent
 2. Frequent
 7. Christian generosity should be proportionate to prosperity.
 1. 16:2--"as he may prosper"
 2. Christian generosity is the purpose of prosperity. 2 Cor 9:8-11
 3. The example of the Macedonians. 2 Cor. 8:3, 12
 1. Gave within their means--gave what they could afford.
 2. Gave beyond their means--went without some things in order to afford more.
 3. Cannot give what you do not have (12).
 8. Christian generosity should not be or feel forced.
 1. 16:2--"No collecting after I come"
 2. 2 Cor. 9:5-- "Ready as a willing gift, not an exaction."
 3. 2 Cor. 8:7-- "Act of [God's] Grace"
 4. 2 Cor. 8:8 -- "not as a command"; "to prove...your love is also genuine."
 5. 2 Cor. 9:7-- "Not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
Here is a link to a printable version of this post for use in Bible studies or Sunday Schools:
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April 1, 2002 - Register-Guardian: Friendship reaches across the ocean
Peace Corps Online: Directory: Sierra Leone: Peace Corps Sierra Leone : The Peace Corps in Sierra Leone: April 1, 2002 - Register-Guardian: Friendship reaches across the ocean
By Admin1 (admin) on Tuesday, April 09, 2002 - 12:39 pm: Edit Post
Friendship reaches across the ocean
Read and comment on this story from the Register-Guardian on the friendship developed over 20 years between Timothy Meinzen of Eugene, OR and Bai Edward Fornah of Sierra Leone (shown above 20 years ago and below this year) at:
Friendship reaches across the ocean*
Friendship reaches across the ocean
By REBECCA NOLAN The Register-Guard
The story of Bai Edward Fornah's journey from war-torn Sierra Leone to a secluded Eugene cul-de-sac is a story of survival, courage, unrelenting optimism and the goodness and generosity of the human heart.
It is also a story about a friendship, a bond 20 years in the making, between Fornah and a one-time Peace Corps volunteer turned high school teacher, Timothy Meinzen of Eugene, who answered an old friend's call for help from half a world away.
Fornah, 31, survived being abandoned by his parents, drug and alcohol addiction and a brush with death when rebels swept through his village, raping, killing and maiming its occupants.
But it took an act of kindness from Meinzen and members of Eugene's Our Redeemer Lutheran Church to help him escape the violent African nation, travel to America and eventually win the chance to study at Eugene Bible College.
The beginning
In 1983, at the age of 22, Tim Meinzen moved into an 8-by-10-foot room on the back porch of a house in Gerihun, in southern Sierra Leone. A recent college grad from Illinois, he and 30 other Peace Corps volunteers were undergoing six weeks of language training before they were released out into the country.
The village children were attracted to the strangers, and Meinzen noticed one boy in particular, a small boy, about 12 or 13 years old, who went by the nickname Edison Dee. It was Edward Fornah. The pair became fast friends.
"He exuded this boyish joy," said Meinzen. "And he had just a little bit of mischief in him."
When the time came for Meinzen to move to his permanent post in Kwellu Junction, he asked Fornah to come along as his translator and cultural guide. In exchange, Meinzen would pay his school fees.
"I was happy to go," said Fornah, whose mother had disappeared and whose father had left the children with their grandmother to seek work in the diamond mines.
"In Africa, people have dreams for their children, but they can't make them come true because of financial handicap," he said. A lucky few are "adopted" by wealthy relatives or friends who give them a push toward a better, more secure life.
When Meinzen and Fornah arrived at the five-room house where they would live for the next two years, two other boys joined them. They formed a family of sorts, sharing chores, meager meals of rice and sauce, and stories about life in their respective cultures.
During the day, Meinzen taught agricultural science and Bible class to students who had no books. As a Peace Corps volunteer, he helped build a school library and started a rabbitry to add protein to the local diet.
He considered the boys family, but Fornah was always his "No. 1 son" and younger brother.
The dark years
When Meinzen returned to the United States in 1985, he delivered Fornah back to his grandmother. The teen was devastated at the departure of his friend.
"That was the worst part of my life," he said. "I had nobody to love me or to care for me. I became involved in some bad games."
He started dancing at nightclubs, drinking and smoking marijuana.
He wrote to Meinzen often, but never spoke of his troubles or his dangerous lifestyle.
Then, in 1990, he had a revelation.
"Someone told me about Jesus," Fornah said. He converted from his native Islam to Christianity. "I wrote to Tim that I was saved."
Three years later, he enrolled in Bible college in the coastal city of Freetown, where his desire to serve others led him to wash the clothing of the pastors and professors. His earlier life of frivolity had left him penniless, so he slept in a classroom and wore the same shirt and trousers every day.
When government officials learned Fornah had not paid his school fees, he was forced out of the college. But the pastors and professors whose clothing he had washed lobbied the college board to waive his tuition. They agreed.
Three years later, he graduated and became a youth pastor and musician in Bo, an inland village where his sister lived with her family.
He helped counsel other young people trapped in a cycle of addiction and poverty.
A brutal war
Sandwiched between Guinea and Liberia on the West African coast, Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest countries. Life is often brutal in a country, about the size of North Carolina, where 68 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and the average life expectancy is 45.6 years.
Civil war broke out in 1991 between the government and the rebel Revolutionary United Front, or RUF. In the ensuing years of violence, tens of thousands were killed, and fully one-third of the country's population fled to neighboring nations.
In the chaos, rebels roamed the country, abducting, raping and killing civilians. A favored technique of terror was to amputate the limbs of villagers with axes and machetes.
"They would ask if you want long sleeve or short sleeve," Fornah said, and the amputation would be at the wrist or above the elbow.
Fornah's father, who had abandoned the family for the diamond mines, was murdered by rebels who cut him limb by limb.
On Jan. 6, 1999, the rebels arrived in Bo. They forced their way into the home of Fornah's sister, where they terrorized the children and threatened to kill her husband. Four men raped Fornah's sister.
Fornah led the family into the bush, where they hid from the rebels for days. But Fornah's responsibilities as a pastor forced him to return the next day.
He scraped together some money in the hopes that, should the rebels return, he could buy his life.
They did return, but the money was not enough to appease the rebel leader. He ordered Fornah to stand and cocked a G3 automatic combat rifle at him. He told Fornah, "You're going to die."
"I was speechless," Fornah said. "I started praying."
But for unexplained reasons, the man did not shoot Fornah. He gestured at the other men and said, "Let's go."
Escape from hell
After two days of traveling by truck and by boat, seeing dead bodies everywhere, he arrived in Freetown and called Meinzen.
"I said, 'You have to get me out of this country, man,' " Fornah said. He needed $400 to get to Ghana, where he had family.
Meinzen, by then a husband, father and a teacher at Pleasant Hill High School, had been following the conflict in the news and on the Internet. With the help of his brother and his friend Pat Anderson, Meinzen wired the money to Sierra Leone.
Fornah traveled by sea and road to Ghana, somehow avoiding the armed bandits who roamed the countryside robbing travelers. When he arrived after three days, he immediately registered in a missionary training program.
He paid only a fraction of the fees upfront.
He called Meinzen again. This time, the congregation at Our Redeemer raised more than $500 to pay the tuition.
A year later, Fornah asked Meinzen to bring him to America.
At first, Meinzen was pessimistic about the chances, but Fornah knew it could happen. He was right.
The congregation came through once again, raising $1,000 through church activities. Another group, the Aid Association for Lutherans, matched the amount. Congregant Gayle Dorn volunteered to pay a year's tuition at Eugene Bible College.
Fornah, a single male with no marketable skills, managed to get a three-year student visa after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He landed in Portland last Monday night. The journey was his first by plane.
"If I go to Bible college, I can do for myself," Fornah said. "If I don't go home with money, I want to bring something else. I can speak to the government if I am intellectually sound.
"My home is full of crooks. There is nobody who can stand and say, 'This is no good,' " he said.
On Easter Sunday, Bai Edward Fornah addressed the congregation at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, thanking them for the "smiles and your welcome and your financial support."
"I am happy that I am here with you," he told the crowd. "You've done so much that you think you have not done."
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Service; COS - Sierra Leone
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How to Eat Mochi
Japan has a wide range of exotic foods that foreign visitors are sure to enjoy. Mochi is certainly a popular treat.
Mochi, also known as rice cakes, are something of a delicacy in Japan. Mochi can also be eaten in a range of different ways depending on the context - it can be eaten in ceremonies and functions, such as in New Year ceremonies.
But how exactly do you eat mochi?
Safety Precautions
Before we go on with the different types of mochi, let's just make one quick note - take little bites and make sure that you chew the mochi thoroughly before you swallow.
If you don't follow this advice, it can sometimes result in the mochi getting stuck in your throat as it is quite sticky.
As a Dessert
Mochi is most commonly eaten as a dessert, and boy are there a lot of desserts!
First of all is Daifuku. This translates to 'big' (Dai) and 'luck' (Fuku). This is a little round mochi, and inside of it is a filling that's usually sweet. Azuki red bean paste is just one example of a filling.
Kinako Mochi is also pretty intriguing. This is made out of mochi and roasted soy flour. It's a sweet treat with a delectable texture that you're sure to enjoy.
You can also get something called Ichigo Daifuku. Ichigo translates to 'strawberry.' As the name suggests, it's pretty similar to daifuku but the strawberry part is the important thing to remember. It tastes very sweet and yet is rather chewy thanks to the mochi part.
Mochi ice cream is also pretty popular. It's a little ball of mochi and it has a filling inside. That's right, ice cream! This is any sugar lover's dream. Before eating, allow the mochi ice cream to warm up for a couple of minutes so the dough can return to normal before you eat. This will make it much easier to bite. You can even add mochi ice cream to other desserts and dishes such as espresso or ice cream sandwiches.
In a Dish
Mochi is most commonly known for its function in various desserts, but did you know that it can also be used in various dishes?
For instance, it is sometimes used in Zoni. This is a soup that is traditionally eaten on New Year's Day.
So the next time that you are interested in some Japanese cuisine, you should certainly try mochi! This delicious food is truly something to enjoy when you visit Japan.
We hope you like it!


Preventing injury in sporting dogs
Preventing injury in sporting dogs
Practice makes perfect—and possibly for fewer injuries. By discussing with owners the right conditioning tailored to dogs based on the activity they participate in, you can prolong your patients' healthy participation in canine sports.
Apr 01, 2012
Recently, sporting events for dogs and their owners have increased in number and popularity, with more than 940,000 entries in 2,461 American Kennel Club-sponsored agility trials recorded in 2010 alone.1 The North American Flyball Association registers more than 16,000 dogs a year in their events, and no breed or age restrictions are placed on the canine participants.2
Many pet owners enroll their dogs in sporting activities without prior knowledge of the sport and what injuries can occur, as outlined in the previous article, "Sporting dog injuries." Unfortunately, there is scant research on the risks to dogs engaging in these sports and on what is required to prevent injuries. But much research involving people and horses has been performed and can be extrapolated to dogs to help us educate owners and trainers and prevent injury in sporting dogs. By preventing injury, our goal is also to sustain performance and allow dogs to participate in sports for many years.
In people, maintenance of fitness is often defined as at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a day.3 Fitness in dogs has not been fully defined, and no physiologic studies have adequately determined canine fitness. But the required fitness level of a sporting dog depends on the sport it engages in and should be adapted to the amount of exertion, agility, and endurance required for the sport.4 A dog's training should reflect that effort and try to mimic the conditions as much as possible—this concept is termed specificity.4 The intensity and duration of exercises will vary depending on the sport the dog is training for.
Sled dogs must have high endurance and strength to pull a sled many hours over long distances and rough terrain. They must be exercised for extended periods every day and be required to strengthen muscles as well, so swimming would not be an appropriate exercise since it would not place the stress and strain on the musculoskeletal system that a sled would.
Herding dogs, similar to sled dogs, must have endurance for the long arduous task ahead.
Search and rescue
Search and rescue dogs must have endurance similar to that of sled dogs, while being able to navigate in never-before-experienced conditions. They must also have excellent balance to remain uninjured in conditions in which their safety may be in jeopardy.
Racing and coursing
Racing and coursing dogs can be subject to stress fractures since they often race on hard surfaces without shock absorption and always in the same direction on a circular or oval track.5 People participating in sprinting or military training can also experience stress fractures and muscle or tendon injuries by running on hard surfaces for extended training periods without proper orthotics.6,7
The skills racing greyhounds require are speed and strength. The large muscles needed for high speed have limited insertion to bones and tendons and, as such, can have the strength of force to rupture the relatively small tendons and origins to bones that attach to them, resulting in serious injury. Examples of common injuries in racing greyhounds include gracilis muscle and tensor fascia lata rupture.4,8
Field trials and hunting
Field trial dogs also require speed and strength, but agility is important as well to navigate the unpredictable terrain. They must also be acclimated to the environment or they risk suffering from severe dehydration and heat stroke. Hunting dogs often travel long distances but need only short bouts of strength, so their training should be geared toward sprinting, keeping in mind the difficult terrain they often face.
1. Flyball is a relay sport in which dogs on a team sequentially run down a series of jumps, hit a box to release a ball, catch the ball, and finally run back over the jumps to the starting line.
Flyball dogs require strength for the speedy navigation of the jumps, but they also must practice regularly to prevent injury. These dogs must be taught how to hit the platform and catch the ball in a manner that will not predispose them to chronic overuse injuries.4 Teaching them a "swimmer's turn," in which they hit the platform with their forelimbs to release the ball but push off the platform with their hindlimbs to reverse direction, may prevent forelimb injury that can result from twisting and pushing off the platform with the forelimbs (Figure 1).4
Agility dogs must be able to sprint and make sharp turns (balance) and, of course, be agile to run the course without injury. These skills require not only strength but also excellent balance and proprioception to prevent injury.


text:
DPI Water is administering metering projects to improve measurement of water extraction from the state's surface and groundwater sources.
These projects will help meet the requirements of the National Framework for Non Urban Water Metering to ensure non-urban water meters comply with metering standards.
As part of the projects, new meters will be installed or existing water meters will be replaced or upgraded with high accuracy, low maintenance telemetry-equipped meters.
The new meters will allow water users and the DPI Water to better monitor and manage water extraction according to entitlements using real-time readings.
The water savings gained from more accurate measurement of water usage will help to protect and improve the security of water entitlements as well as the long-term sustainability and health of rivers and aquifers.
NSW metering projects commenced or completed are summarised below.
The NSW Metering Project will assist the installation or upgrade of meters to regulated, unregulated and groundwater water sources in the southern valleys of the NSW Murray Darling Basin. The project will create efficiency gains through better matching of extractions to water releases and allocations.
- Find out more about the NSW Metering Project
Completed in June 2011, the NSW Office of Water installed and upgraded water metering systems for licensed water users in the Bega Bemboka valley.
- Find out more about the Bega Bemboka Metering Project
The NSW Office of Water installed and upgraded water metering systems for licensed water users in the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment as part of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River Recovery Project.
- Find out more about the Improving Hawkesbury-Nepean Water Balance Accounting Project

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


text:
Pengaruh Umur Pohon Tetua dan Jumlah Buku Stek Cabang terhadap Pertumbuhan Bibit Jarak Pagar (Jatropha curcas L.).
MetadataShow full item record
The research was conducted in February-July 2010 in the greenhouse and in the seed science and technology laboratory of agronomy and horticulture department, leuwikopo, Bogor Agriculture University,. The aim of this research to know the effect of mother plant age, internode numbers of stem cutting, and interaction on growth of seedling-stem cutting of Jatropha curcas Linn. Research method applied Randomize Complete Block Design with two factors, namely mother plant age (U) (U1=2 year, U2=3 year, and U3=4 year) and internode numbers (B) (B1= 10 internode, B2= 15 internode, and B3= 20 internode) with three replicates. The result showed that there are effects of mother plant age, internode numbers, and their interaction on growth of seedling-stem cutting of Jatropha curcas Linn. The mother plant age for the best sprout length, leaf length, and leaf width are 4 year and 2 year. The best internode numbers for the best sprout number are the 20 and 15 internode. Interaction between mother plant age and the best internode numbers according to the plant height parameter is mother plant age 4 year with 20 internode.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Priority Information Used for the Processing of Japanese Sentences: Thematic Roles, Case Particles or Grammatical Functions?
Japanese sentence processing
The present study investigated scrambling effects on the processing of Japanese sentences and priority information used among thematic roles, case particles and grammatical functions. Reaction times for correct sentence decisions were significantly prolonged for scrambled active sentences with transitive verbs in the first experiment and with ditransitive verbs in the second experiment. Errors were made with scrambled sentences more than canonical sentences in both experiments, which suggested that scrambling effects were apparent in active sentences. Passive sentences in the third experiment indicated that canonical order defined based on case particles, not thematic roles, was more quickly and accurately identified than scrambled order. Potential sentences in the fourth experiment and causative sentences in the fifth experiment indicated that the processing of scrambled sentences based on grammatical functions, but not on case particles, required longer reaction times and resulted in higher error rates than canonical sentences. Consequently, scrambling effects in the present study indicated that neither thematic roles nor case particles can provide fully-satisfactory information for canonical phrase order, and that only grammatical functions offer satisfactory information in all types of sentences.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
Copyright (c) 2005 Springer "The original publication is available at _URL_"


text:
, Tesla Day. Some organizations celebrate Tesla Day informally on 10 July. However, The Tesla Memorial Society wrote letters to several officials asking to commemorate 10 July as international Nikola Tesla Day.
Six generation units with a combined capacity of 1650.5 MW that makes it the largest power facility in the former Yugoslavia. TPP Nikola Tesla A was first synchronised on March 27, 1970. It has two chimneys: one with a height of 220 metres and a second with a height of 150 metres.
This dynamics appears to be a derivative of what Tesla commented, and although it is not mentioned by him, it is a logical next step to explain the thermodynamics in the system.
TPP Nikola Tesla operates its own railway with over 100 km rail tracks total. The railway is used for coal transport from the mines to the power plants. It is independent from the national rail freight transport company Srbija Kargo.
Google honored Tesla on his birthday on 10 July 2009 by displaying a Google Doodle in the Google search home page, that showed the G as a Tesla coil.


text:
Is there always an influence of shoal size on predator hunting success?
Article first published online: 19 APR 2005
Journal of Fish Biology
Volume 52, Issue 3, pages 494–501, March 1998
How to Cite
Krause, J., Ruxton, G. D. and Rubenstein, D. (1998), Is there always an influence of shoal size on predator hunting success?. Journal of Fish Biology, 52: 494–501. doi: 10.1111/j._PHONE_.1998.tb02012.x
- Issue published online: 19 APR 2005
- Article first published online: 19 APR 2005
- (Received 9 June 1997, Accepted 23 September 1997)
- shoaling behaviour;
- predation risk;
- attack distance;
- Ambloplites rupestris;
- Semotilus atromaculatus
Theoretical and empirical studies predict that there should be a decrease in hunting success of predators with increasing prey group size. Most of these studies investigated situations in which predator and prey were in full view of each other before, during and after an attack. In this study, single rock bass Ambloplites rupestris were given an opportunity to launch surprise attacks at shoals of creek chub Semotilus atromaculatus that ranged in size from two to 13 fish. There was no significant influence of either shoal size or attack distance on predator success rate and no significant relationship between attack distance and shoal size. Furthermore, it was found that the leading fish of a shoal was attacked significantly more often than fish in other shoal positions, indicating that predation risk was not shared equally among shoal members. Also, leading fish in larger shoals (eight to 13 fish) were not more likely to survive a predator attack than ones in small shoals (two to seven fish).The consequences of these results are discussed in the general context of antipredator benefits of grouping.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.3 Deployment Planning Guide
Maintaining Data Consistency
Consistent data assists LDAP client applications in locating directory entries. For each type of information that is stored in the directory, select the required object classes and attributes to support that information. Always use the same object classes and attributes. If you use schema objects inconsistently, it is difficult to locate information.
You can maintain schema consistency in the following ways:


Debugging Server Starts
If a server isn't starting, the first thing to run is the server log command. It will show you the console log for that server. Note, this dumps the entire log file to the console, which may be very large. We recommend using the tail or --follow tricks below.
server log
server log serverName
Tailing and Following logs
If the log is very large, use the tail command to just see the last few lines of it.
server log | tail
server log | tail lines=100
To get a live stream of the console log from a running server, use the --follow flag and the command will continue streaming new lines to the console until you press Ctrl-C to stop.
server log --follow
You can also look at your server's access log (if enabled) and rewrite log (if enabled).
server log --follow -access
server log --follow --rewrite
Start server in console mode
You can use the --console flag to the server start command to start a server in the foreground. The console log will be live-streamed to the CLI and the log will continue streaming as long as the server is running. Press Ctrl-C to stop the server and stop streaming the log file.
server start --console
Debug Logging
You can get additional information about a server start with the --debug flag. When debug is set, the start command will not exit immediately, but wait for the server to come up and live stream the debugging information and server logs to the console while the server is coming up.
server start --debug
server start --debug --console
Maximum logging! (trace)
You may still really be having issues getting your server to start up correctly due to a setting not getting picked up, rewrites not working, or maybe a jar not loading. You can "drink from the firehose" so to speak by turning on trace level logging. This works best when starting the server via the console so you can watch the logging as it streams past.
server start --trace --console


Question: Is Cash Safe In A Recession?
What happens to your money in the bank during a recession?
Where should I put money in a recession?
Investors typically flock to fixed-income investments (such as bonds) or dividend-yielding investments (such as dividend stocks) during recessions because they offer routine cash payments.
However, they are low risk, so it makes sense to take one out if you want to protect your money from a coming recession. Talk to your bank and ask if they provide money market accounts. You may want to take a chunk of money from your savings or checking and put it into a money market account.
Is cash king in a recession?
How do you keep money safe in a recession?
How do you get rich in a recession?
Who benefits from a recession?
Should you buy a house during a recession?
The experts agree that buying a house during a recession can result in scoring a great value on a home that may have been out of reach during better economic times. But if you want to buy during a recession, you need to have: Stable employment. Plenty of savings.
What sells during a recession?
Any item that falls under the consumer staples umbrella is generally a lot safer to sell during a recession….1. Consumer staplesBeverages.Food and staples retailing.Food products.Household products.Personal products.Tobacco.


text:
Professor Dr. Michael Ristow's team along with Japanese colleagues from universities in Oita and Hiroshima demonstrated the physiological function of lithium.
To test their theory, the scientists examined the impact of lithium in a concentration that is regularly found in ordinary tap water.
"We found that the mortality rate was considerably lower in those municipalities with more lithium in the drinking water," said Ristow.
In a second experiment, the Jena scientists examined exactly this range of concentration in the model organism C. elegans.
"The average longevity of the worms is higher after they have been treated with lithium at this dosage", Ristow added.
The team also suggested using low-dose lithium as a potential dietary supplement in the future.
"From previous studies we know already that a higher uptake of lithium through drinking water is associated with an improvement of psychological well-being and with decreased suicide rates," Ristow said.
While low-dose lithium uptake on the basis of the new data is clearly thought to be beneficial, more studies will be necessary to thoroughly recommend such a supplementation, the scientists concluded.
The results appear in the online edition of the scientific publication European Journal of Nutrition. (ANI)


Three packages that port the tidyverse to Python
Working in Python but miss tidyverse syntax? These packages can help.
reference
Published
May 9, 2022
A woman holding an instrument while a man who is facing away from us paints her, the room has luxurious decorations.
As I've been saying every year for the past seven years or so, I am learning Python. (It's been a journey.)
Python packages like pandas have several ways to work with data. There are several options for indexing, slicing, etc. They have a lot of flexibility but also a lot of conventions to remember.
I am familiar with the grammar of the tidyverse, which provides a consistent set of verbs to solve common data manipulation challenges. I investigated ways to port tidyverse-like verbs to Python (hopefully making Python a little easier to grasp).
Here are three packages that do just that.
siuba
The siuba package, created by Michael Chow, allows you to use dplyr-like syntax with pandas. Siuba ports over several functions, including select(), filter(), mutate(), summarize(), and arrange(). The package also allows you to use group_by() and a >> pipe.
Let's check out a few examples using the palmerpenguins dataset (R, Python).
from palmerpenguins import load_penguins
penguins = load_penguins()
from siuba import group_by, summarize, _
(penguins
 >> group_by(_.species)
 >> summarize(n = _.species.count())
)
species n
0 Adelie 152
1 Chinstrap 68
2 Gentoo 124
library(palmerpenguins)
library(dplyr)
(penguins %>%
 group_by(species) %>%
 summarize(n = n()))
# A tibble: 3 × 2
 species n
 <fct> <int>
1 Adelie 152
2 Chinstrap 68
3 Gentoo 124
Thanks to the documentation and interactive tutorials available for siuba, it's easy to see the parallels and differences with dplyr so that you can craft these data manipulation tasks yourself.
from palmerpenguins import load_penguins
penguins = load_penguins()
from siuba import select
(penguins
 >> select(-_.isalpha(), _.species)
 >> group_by(_.species)
 >> summarize(
 bill_length_mm = _.bill_length_mm.mean(),
 bill_depth_mm = _.bill_depth_mm.mean(),
 flipper_length_mm = _.flipper_length_mm.mean(),
 body_mass_g = _.body_mass_g.mean()
 )
)
species bill_length_mm bill_depth_mm flipper_length_mm body_mass_g
0 Adelie 38.791391 18.346358 189._PHONE_.662252
1 Chinstrap 48.833824 18.420588 195._PHONE_.088235
2 Gentoo 47.504878 14.982114 217._PHONE_.016260
(penguins %>%
 group_by(species) %>%
 summarize(across(!where(is.character), mean, na.rm = TRUE)))
# A tibble: 3 × 8
 species island bill_length_mm bill_depth_mm flipper_length_mm body_mass_g
 <fct> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
1 Adelie NA 38.8 18.3 190. 3701.
2 Chinstrap NA 48.8 18.4 196. 3733.
3 Gentoo NA 47.5 15.0 217. 5076.
# … with 2 more variables: sex <dbl>, year <dbl>
plotnine
The plotnine package, created by Hassan Kibirige, lets you use a grammar of graphics for Python.
You can use siuba and plotnine together, similar to how you would use dplyr and ggplot2 together.
from siuba import *
from plotnine import *
from palmerpenguins import load_penguins
penguins = load_penguins()
(penguins
 # using siuba pipe
 >> ggplot(aes(x = 'flipper_length_mm', y = 'body_mass_g'))
 # creating plotnine plot
 + geom_point(aes(color = 'species', shape = 'species'),
 size = 3,
 alpha = 0.8)
 + theme_minimal()
 + labs(title = "Penguin size, Palmer Station LTER",
 subtitle = "Flipper length and body mass for Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo Penguins",
 x = "Flipper length (mm)",
 y = "Body mass (g)",
 color = "Penguin species",
 shape = "Penguin species"))
<ggplot: (314581751)>
Folks have heuristics to translate ggplot2 code to plotnine. These help understand the nuances between the two.
pyjanitor
OK, this one is cheating a bit because the janitor package by Sam Firke is not part of the tidyverse. One more package that uses 'tidyverse-like' verbs is pyjanitor. With pyjanitor, you can clean column names, identify duplicate entries, and more.
from janitor import clean_names
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
example_df = {
 'Terrible Name 1': ['name1', 'name2', 'name3', 'name4'],
 'PascalCase': [150.0, 200.0, 300.0, 400.0],
 'this_has_punctuation?': [np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan],
}
pd.DataFrame.from_dict(example_df).clean_names()
terrible_name_1 pascalcase this_has_punctuation_
0 name1 150.0 NaN
1 name2 200.0 NaN
2 name3 300.0 NaN
3 name4 400.0 NaN
Python's pandas allows you to method chain with pipes. They can be used with pyjanitor, as well.
from janitor import clean_names, remove_empty
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
example_df = {
 'Terrible Name 1': ['name1', 'name2', 'name3', 'name4'],
 'PascalCase': [150.0, 200.0, 300.0, 400.0],
 'this_has_punctuation?': [np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan],
}
(pd.DataFrame.from_dict(example_df)
 .pipe(clean_names)
 .pipe(remove_empty)
)
terrible_name_1 pascalcase
0 name1 150.0
1 name2 200.0
2 name3 300.0
3 name4 400.0
Conclusion
While Python syntax and conventions are still on my "to-learn" list, it is helpful to know there are packages that can bring the familiarity of the tidyverse to Python.
Additional resources
I came across other packages that port the tidyverse to Python. I didn't investigate them deeply but wanted to share in case they are helpful.
If you recommend these packages or know of others, please let me know on Twitter!


Wood Carving: Trees as a Medium for Unique Art
Unless you've been to a logging competition, you probably haven't seen someone with a large chainsaw creating a beautiful piece of art out of a dead tree, but you may have stumbled upon their handiwork in the woods or sitting outside a boutique. When a tree dies (or sometimes, while it's alive), these tree carvers are able to take the remains and turn it into something beautiful. Here are some of the most gorgeous examples of tree carving:
(Images via treefellersronaldhankocimba7200, bruce aleksander and dennis milam)
Those who take up tree carving are typically nature lovers, and spend a lot of their time in the outdoors enjoying nature, and practicing their art. It's unsurprising, then that animals feature heavily in tree carving subject matter. The most common tree carving tends to be a giant bear, rough hewn out of a large tree and left in the lobby of a ski lodge. Large hawks and Pelicans, and even fish leaping out of imaginary water, are just a few of the more intricate animals also chosen.
(Images via ajftfields of viewgary and kathyneiliolndshlf72treefellers)
Human faces are difficult to carve because everyone is a well attuned critic, since we've all been studying faces since we first opened our eyes. Despite the difficulty, the idea of an old wise tree man, or beautiful and intelligent tree woman, is incredibly common, and by far the most intriguing tree carving subject matter.
(Images via ksgirl, chigmarofflinda, jafproject)
People are difficult to carve because they're tall, bipedal, and typically have some sort of tool or implement lying around; not to mention the fact that we're evolutionarily geared to be able to tell what is right or wrong about a person's face, making everyone much more critical. The difficulty doesn't stop tree carvers, however, and many create monuments to famous individuals from trees that have been around since they still walked the Earth.
(Images via gizmodocoasttocoastam)
It's surprising when a tree carver's subject matter is something besides a jumping salmon or wise-eyed old man, but that can make it even more enjoyable. Above are two such examples; an arcade machine and an alien, defying you to pass by without studying them even more intently than you would a depiction of a large bear.
(Images via halle0909, the eggplant, trying to keep still, jaana-mari, simon lawrencelwh1970)
A tree carver has to work with the shape and size of the tree he's working with, and this can spur creativity in a direction maybe the tree carver didn't even expect. They may reveal symbolic elements, or even the secret door to a dwarve's underground abode, or even create an area meant for meditation on nature. Whatever the tree carver decides, if they have the skills, it will become awe inspiring.
SyndicatedTV Widget


text:
DAVOS MATRIX by CTI Software brings AI to IoT
13 September 2017
Thanks to the presence of the IQRF wireless technology, the system has completely new functionality. Our intelligent lighting control allows remote management of public lighting and industrial luminaires, including monitoring of unusual operating conditions. It is designed for all types of luminaires.
In addition to automatic behavior of the lighting system, it is possible to change the settings of individual luminaires manually by an authorized user. If the luminaire provides the option of adjusting various lighting intensities (dimming), this parameter can be changed as well.
The control unit (including IQRF gateway) communicates with all the luminaires wirelessly via the IQRF mesh network. At a short point in time, it sends all the IQRF receiving modules in the luminaires requests to change settings or query the current status. The IQRF receiving modules send back to the control unit responses to its requests and, moreover, transmit all memorized error states since the last communication.
IQRF receiving module can be placed directly inside the luminaire's construction if the dimensions allow it, or attached to a plastic pocket above the luminaire (via the NEMA connector). The receiving module checks the connected luminaire for its functioning. At defined intervals, the drawn current is measured. It can then evaluate deterioration or degradation of the luminaire in order to prevent an early failure.
Next to this project we plan to use the IQRF technology also in our air quality sensors as it is the best solution for local stationary deployments. Together with our telephony alarm notification service DAVOS MATRIX can bring an excellent added value for many IQRF based devices and solutions.


text:
The photo above shows guttation on native strawberry. It's a funny-sounding word, but an interesting phenomenon. The drops on the leaf margins are not dew, but the result of a process called guttation. Guttation occurs at night, when plants accumulate excess water through their roots, but transpiration through stomata on leaf surfaces has stopped. The excess water is released through pores on the leaf margins. Plant is native wild strawberry, or Virginia strawberry, Fragaria virginiana, and photographed on 25 March 2012 in our Biodiversity Garden. Native wild strawberry is an incredibly fast-growing and spreading, sun-loving ground cover with pretty white and yellow flowers and delicious edible fruits. Plant it this season instead of non-native ground covers, such as the invasive periwinkle, Vinca minor.
Life Cycle of a Strawberry Patch
Updated 12 April 2012 Posted by Nina Zitani, 22 December 2011 All photos by Nina Zitani
The strawberry patch in our Biodiversity Garden is the subject of a mini photo-documentary. Every few weeks I'll photograph the same patch and post it here, in order to track the changes it undergoes throughout the year. Plant is native wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana.
12 April 2012
25 March, morning, water droplets on leaf margins are the result of guttation, not dew
2 March 2012
6 February 2012, early morning hard frost
3 February 2012, Approximately two feet of snow has come and gone
19 January 2012, Fresh snow covers the strawberry patch
19 December 2011
7 am, October 28th 2011, first frost of the season


text:
|dc.description.abstract||The nature of employment contracts has often been blamed to influence the flow of work and as the reason for poor operational performance in intergovernmental organizations across the world. Many studies have been done on fixed term employment contracts but very little have been researched on how these influence the flow of work in intergovernmental organisations. The study examined the influences of fixed-term employment contracts on the workflow of intergovernmental organisations using the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre, in Lusaka, Zambia as a case. It focused on how the flow of work at these organisations is affected when the contracts of those employees superintending long term projects expire. Data was gathered from respondents using questionnaires and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). It was found out that fixed term employment contracts, to a greater extent, negatively affected the workflow of intergovernmental organisations. It was shown that there was interruption of work at the expiration of employee contracts, some planned projects are not implemented, abandoned along the way and yielded unsatisfactory results. Intergovernmental organisations are therefore recommended to match their employment contracts with the length of their projects, renewing these until the employee reaches retirement age or even giving permanent positions to high performers. It is also recommended that further studies focus on the need for intergovernmental organisations to hire employees specifically for projects that have got a known life span and match this with the contracts of employment as well as understanding losses incurred in these types of institutions as a result of the expiry of employment contracts.
Key words: Fixed Term Employment Contracts, Workflow, Projects, Plant Genetic Resources.||en


text:
Fighter pilots and team-sports players have more in common than a uniform, a taste for danger and a thirst for victory. Both can be trained to perform better by using brain-training software developed in Israel.
Basketball and hockey players, from professionals to pee-wees, are getting significant results from IntelliGym products made by Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE), headquartered in Hod Hasharon.
- Email this article to friends or colleagues
- Share this article on Facebook or Twitter
- Write about and link to this article on your blog
- Local relevancy? Send this article to your local press
Just recently, the US men's national under-18 hockey team — the first adopter of the Hockey IntelliGym three years ago — defeated Sweden 7-0 to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive world championship. And out of 30 National Hockey League draft picks in 2011, 16 had trained with IntelliGym.
It all started with military applications devised by cognitive psychology and engineering expert Daniel Gopher, a professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. When his video-game-like training methods were used in the 1980s and 1990s by the Israeli Air Force and the US Army Aviation Center, pilot performance in the air improved by 30 percent.
Decisions under pressure
How did ACE go from the airfield to the playing field?
"We found a lot of similarities between jet flying and competitive sports," says CEO Danny Dankner. "We realized we had the technology to improve performance of people in information-condensed environments with a lot of data coming in, and where fast decisions need to be made under duress."
Following extensive research and development led by Gopher and two of his former students, ACE introduced the Basketball IntelliGym in 2006. NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division 1 teams snapped it up, and Hall-of-Famer and former NBA coach Hubie Brown was so impressed that he joined ACE's advisory board.
"In the game of basketball it is not about who runs faster or jumps higher, but about who makes better decisions and fewer mistakes," Brown said in a testimonial. "This is the first time I see a training tool that can actually improve game intelligence skills of basketball players. The Basketball IntelliGym is revolutionary."
IntelliGym looks and feels like a video game, but it's a lot more sophisticated. Each session starts by presenting a plan for the 30-minute cognitive workout to help athletes "think" the game. Among the target skills are game awareness, reading and reacting to constantly changing situations, peripheral vision and the ability to anticipate a play before it develops. The program adjusts the skill level to individual players, and generates analyses and reports.
"In order to develop a basketball cognitive training tool, our researchers mapped the brain skills that are required for top performance in the game of basketball," according to company literature.
"These include (among others) reading plays, positioning, decision making, team work, and execution under pressure. Together, they constitute what is usually referred to as game intelligence. With this map in hand, the researchers designed a system that simulates the exact same skill set.
"Although the players are merely performing with a keyboard in front of a monitor, if you screen the trainees' minds during this brain workout, you'll find that the skills (or the 'brain muscles') that are working are exactly those that are required during a real basketball game."
Encouraged by the results of its first product for basketball teams, ACE followed with a consumer basketball version and then rolled out Hockey IntelliGym, whose results were presented at the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) International Youth Coaching Symposium in May.
Soccer and football to follow
There's no reason to limit the downloadable game to basketball and hockey, Dankner tells ISRAEL21c.
"We are now negotiating with potential partners in the US, Europe and South America to enter the two major sports of soccer and American football," he says. "Both are very interesting for us, because we believe we could contribute substantially to performance."
The program, available through monthly subscription or with a license purchase, also appears to protect trainees against sports injuries.
"Many of the injuries in hockey, like in football, are caused by unanticipated hits, and when players are trained to be more aware of their surroundings they can avoid those hits," Dankner explains. "We've been training national teams, and their medical records show a drop of nearly 25% in injuries, particularly concussions, for those teams that have gone through our training program."
ACE is even looking beyond sports altogether. "Another direction we're looking into is a solution for children diagnosed with attention deficit issues," says Dankner. "We have good evidence that cognitive training can help, and we want to develop a training environment for them."
ACE manages its US sales out of an office in New Jersey.


text: Translation of genomic discovery, such as single-cell sequencing data, to clinical decisions remains a longstanding bottleneck in the field. Meanwhile, computational systems biological models, such as cellular metabolism models and cell signaling pathways, have emerged as powerful approaches to provide efficient predictions in metabolites and gene expression levels, respectively. However, there has been limited research on the integration between these two models. This work develops a methodology for integrating computational models of probabilistic gene regulatory networks with a constraint-based metabolism model. By using probabilistic reasoning with Bayesian Networks, we aim to predict cell-specific changes under different interventions, which are embedded into the constraint-based models of metabolism. Applications to single-cell sequencing data of glioblastoma brain tumors generate predictions about the effects of pharmaceutical interventions on the regulatory network and downstream metabolisms in different cell types from the tumor microenvironment. The model presents possible insights into treatments that could potentially suppress anaerobic metabolism in malignant cells with minimal impact on other cell types' metabolism. The proposed integrated model can guide therapeutic target prioritization, the formulation of combination therapies, and future drug discovery. This model integration framework is also generalizable to other applications, such as different cell types, organisms, and diseases.


text:
In my world wide web exploration, I just learned today how to read and interpret a fen standard or notation.
FEN stands for Forsyth-Edwards Notation. It is used to describe the particular position in a chess game. As compared against a PGN (Portable Game notation) file, a FEN describes the position at that particular point in time, while PGN describes how the game went on from the first move to the last. It's weird that I was able to relate this two types of chess files to accounting and financial reporting. FEN is like the balance sheet, which presents the financial condition of an entity at a certain point in time. While, on the other hand, PGN is like the income statement, which presents how the operation went during a period of time.
Usually, when using chess applications, the program has the ability to save fen files as well as read and show automatically what is described in the fen file. However, what if you have no chess program to analyze this series of codes? How do you set up the position in say an actual chessboard to analyze that particular position?
One might wonder, why do you still need a fen file when you can have a position illustrated by an image (i.e., jpg, gif, bmp, tif, png, etc. type of files)?
- You cannot import the image file into your chess program and play through the game to analyze the position
- An image alone lacked a lot of data
To illustrate, take a look at the diagram below:
In this illustration, what do you miss?
- Active Color – which color is to move next
- Castling Availability – Is queenside or kingside castling (in-rook) still available to either black or white?
- En Passant Target Square – Can white/black make an en passant capture? In this specific example, how can you determine whether white can capture en passant at the pawn at d6?
This is where FEN comes into the picture. The following notation depicts the same position as above, with additional useful information to analyze the position:
r2qk2r/pp2ppp1/1n4n1/2ppP1Bp/1b1P2b1/P1N2N2/1PP1BPPP/R1Q1K2R w KQkq – 0 8
This notation is composed of six data fields. The first being:
…which is the piece placement data. It corresponds directly to the board coordinates starting from the eighth rank, from left to right. The small letters represent black, while the capital ones are white (where q-queen, k-king, b-bishop, r-rook, n-knight, p-pawn). The numbers represent the number of blank squares between last and next pieces described.
The second field, "w", describes the active color and tells that white is to move next.
Castling availability is the third field. "KQkq" enjoins that both colors can still castle queenside or kingside. Of course, without this field, how would you know if the white or black king or the rooks have already moved and back to prohibit castling on that side? Note that this pertains to the "potential" future castling availabilitty, regardless of if there are any other pieces that block the rook and king at the moment. Capital letters represent white, and small letters black. K/k=kingside, Q/q=queenside. Other possible combinations include: Kkq, Kq, kq, etc. White always precede black, and the kingside always precede the queenside. If there are no castling available a "-" is used.
The fourth field ("-" in this case)is the en passant target square. It is only given if the last move was a pawn advance of two squares. Otherwise, "-" is again used. If given, it should represent the coordinates of the square at which the active player can capture via en passant. Obviously, it should be one of the squares in the 3rd and 6th rank. Examples include: e3, e6, d3, f6, etc.
The fifth field (0 in this example) is the halfmove clock. It is the measure of the number of halfmoves since the last pawn advance or capturing move. This value is used for the fifty move draw rule.
The sixth and the last field (8 in this case) is the fullmove number. It is measured by adding 1 to the nth move by black.
So, in conclusion, it's not always true that a picture paints a thousand words.


SW Legal Educational Publishing
Direct Link to Physical Injury Not Needed to Prove Emotional Distress
Description Iowa high court held that in a case in which a driver suffered physical injury and later emotional trauma from a traffic accident, expert testimony was needed to show emotional distress, but for there to be recovery there does not need to be a direct link between the physical injury suffered and the emotional distress.
Topic Torts
Key Words Emotional Distress; Physical Injury
C A S E S U M M A R Y
Facts Roling, the driver of a semi-truck, suffered broken ribs and other injuries when a car crossed the center line and ran into his truck. The two occupants of the car were both killed. Roling was depressed by the accident and kept having flashbacks to seeing the mangled bodies. He saw a psychologist for two years. He sued the estates of the deceased for causing the accident for his physical injury and emotional distress. The jury awarded him $151,186, but the judge overturned the verdict, holding that he did not show there was a relationship between his physical injuries and the emotional distress, nor did he have expert testimony to prove his physical injuries. Roling appealed.
Decision Reversed. In such a case, the plaintiff does not have to have an expert witness testify as to the fact of his physical injuries; the record on that was clear. In cases claiming emotional distress, expert testimony at trial is required. Damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress are usually denied unless accompanied by some physical injury. Testimony of the psychologist that the accident caused depression and other mental problems was sufficient to establish a causal connection between the negligence of the other party and Roling's emotional injuries. The emotional distress recovery is not for observing the horrifying aftermath of the accident, but for the later emotional condition caused by the accident.
Citation Roling v. Daily, 596 N.W.2d 72 (Sup. Ct., Iowa, 1999)
Back to Torts Listings
©_PHONE_ South-Western, All Rights Reserved


text:
Gardening Articles: Edibles :: Vegetables
Sunflower Seeds Can Harm Plants
by Charlie Nardozzi
Sclerotinia fungal disease infects nearly 360 different plants, including such favorites as beans, cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, sunflowers, petunias, zinnias, and poppies. It's not the kind of disease you want to encourage in the garden
New research, however, indicates that by feeding birds, we may unknowingly be doing just that. Steve Nameth, a researcher at Ohio State University in Columbus, started noticing sunflower seeds infected with sclerotinia fungus while feeding his birds. The fungal infected seeds are about the same size as healthy seeds, but are irregularly shaped and white inside if broken open. As any good researcher would, he became curious about how much sclerotinia infected seed is in a bag of sunflower seeds.
Nameth bought a random sample of 10 commercial bird seed mixes and found that half had sclerotinia present in the feed. Birds won't eat sunflower seeds infected with the fungus, so they drop to the ground under the feeders, sometimes right next to plants they can infect. The fungus can stay dormant for years waiting for the right weather conditions to infect nearby plants.
If you're noticing disease on stems and flowers of plants near your bird feeder, particularly if infected parts are covered with white fluffy growth, consider moving your feeder away from your gardens. It's also important to keep the area around the base of the plants clean of plant debris, and to pick up and destroy dropped seed. Don't use the dropped seed as mulch in the garden or in the compost unless your compost pile heats up to 160° F.


Blade Path and the Ideal Blade
Defining and studying an "ideal blade" has informed our blade innovation over the years and has led to the development of our most efficient blades: the Smoothie2 Vortex Edge and Fat2 blades.
The Typical Blade Path During the Drive
Contrary to how it might look, an oar blade does not travel in a continual arc through the water as represented in Figure 1. This would only be true if the boat were tied up to a dock. The typical path of the blade, as the boat moves past the point of entry, is the complex movement shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1: The assumed blade path.
Figure 2: What the blade path is typically.
Below, the blade path is illustrated by an image taken from an overhead video of an actual oar in the water.
We define this typical blade path as having four distinct phases:
 - Phase 1: Forward Blade Motion—The blade moves significantly forward, toward the finish line.
 - Phase 2: Outward Blade Motion—The blade moves outward, away from the boat.
 - Phase 3: Backward Blade Motion—The blade moves backward, toward the starting line.
 - Phase 4: Inward Blade Motion—The blade moves inward, toward the boat.
Having identified the typical blade path, we can now examine how a theoretical ideal blade would move and what this might tell us about how to best harness the rower's effort during the drive.
The Ideal Blade
We define the ideal blade as having:
 - Zero slip perpendicular to the blade surface.
 - No resistance to movement in line with the shaft; in other words, it would glide.
 - The ability to rotate in the water. We will define the point of rotation as the point where the blade and shaft join.
Developing a New Blade Path
Keeping in mind that boat movement influences blade path, and that blade movement is defined by the characteristics of the ideal blade, we plotted what the ideal blade path would be. We have assumed that the boat speed would be the same as for the typical path, so the position of the oarlock is the same as in each frame of the typical path diagram. Each new oar position was then plotted between the oarlock and the new blade position as defined by our ideal blade. See Figure 3.
Figure 3. The ideal blade path
In Figure 4 we have superimposed the ideal path (green) and the typical path (red) with the blades removed for clarity.
Observation 1: Shorter Outboard Length
Our first observation is the handle positions noted by the circle. It appears as though the ideal oar has not completed the stroke. To adjust for this we shortened the outboard length used with the ideal blade and re-plotted as before. This is illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 4
Figure 5
Observation 2: Slower Rotation at Beginning of Drive
After superimposing the two blade paths, we noted that at the beginning of the drive, the ideal oar rotates more slowly than the typical oar and then speeds up in the second half of the drive.
To the rower, this means the ideal blade will feel heavier early in the drive and feel lighter after the oar reaches perpendicular. From a physiological standpoint, it makes sense to maximize blade efficiency at the same point of the stroke when the rower is using his or her large muscles to power the drive. From the perpendicular to the finish, only the upper body and arms are engaged, so it also makes sense that the load becomes lighter and handle speed increases in this phase of the drive.
Observation 3: Less Work Required to Move the Same Speed
Once the ideal oar was shortened, we were able to achieve the same catch and finish angles and the same amount of drive time as that of the oar in the typical blade path. The boat also moved the same distance, indicating that it moved at the same speed regardless of which oar was used. Because the outboard lever is shorter in the ideal blade path, the force on the handle is less, which means that less work is required to move the boat the same speed. This also means that if the same force is applied on the handle, the force on the end of the shorter oar will be greater. In other words, the rower will get more speed for equal effort.
Less effort, same speed
Equal effort, more speed
Observation 4: Less Slip
By observing blade movement during oar rotation, we noted that the ideal blade slips less. Note the image below. The slip pattern of the ideal blade is on the right. Of course, this is expected by definition of the "ideal blade."
We also see that the typical blade slips more during the first part of the drive and doesn't slip enough during the last part of the drive. The area shaded red indicates a backwatering condition where the part of the blade near the shaft produces some negative thrust, or drag. This is created by the combination of blade rotation and forward movement of the boat.
Typical Blade
Ideal Blade
Pursuing a Blade that Approaches the Theoretical Ideal
With an increased understanding of what would produce an efficient blade, we set off to design a new blade by targeting specific blade features.
 - Surface area—Increased surface areas tend to resist slippage perpendicular to the blade surface.
 - Curvature/hook—Flatter blades generate a heavier feel earlier in the drive, allowing for slower rotation.
 - Tip characteristics—Vortex generating features reduce slippage perpendicular to the blade surface.
 - Tip shape—Tapered blade edges create a force on the back of the blade, increase lift, and reduce slip, much like the delta wing effect in aeronautics.
We built these features into our Smoothie2 Vortex Edge and Fat2 blades, making them the most efficient blades we offer. Read more about how we conduct on water testing.


text:
The dynamic control of reservoir water level during flood seasons (WLFS) allows a trade‐off between flood control and water resources conservation. In this process, the WLFS dynamic control boundaries are key parameters. The channel flood routing affects the dynamic control operations. However, flood routing is seldom considered in multi‐reservoir aggregation (a popular method for tackling the curse of dimensionality in multi‐reservoir issues). To address this knowledge gap, this study conceptualises channel flood routing as a virtual channel storage reservoir (CSR) based on Muskingum flood routing in the aggregation method. The dynamic control boundaries for the multi‐reservoir WLFS are then derived using the following aggregation‐decomposition method: (a) the aggregation reservoir is created by considering channel storages, and the flood risk is quantified using pre‐discharge rules; and (b) the aggregated reservoir storages are decomposed by maximising hydropower generation with constraints. The Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba and Three Gorges reservoir system on the Yangtze River, China, were selected for a case study. The annual power generation is 175.40 billion kWh when using static operation rules. With dynamic operation, the output would be 177.05 billion kWh if CSRs were not considered and 177.53 billion kWh if CSRs were considered. Thus, the proposed method can efficiently determine the dynamic control boundaries for the multi‐reservoir WLFS.
This item's license is: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International


statement).
 - Generators are not supported.
 - If raise is used an argument must be supplied.
The trade-off for the improved performance (roughly twices as fast as bytecode) is an increase in compiled code size.
The Viper code emitter
The optimisations discussed above involve standards-compliant Python code. The Viper code emitter is not fully compliant. It supports special Viper native data types in pursuit of performance. Integer processing is non-compliant because it uses machine words: arithmetic on 32 bit hardware is performed modulo 2**32.
Like the Native emitter Viper produces machine instructions but further optimisations are performed, substantially increasing performance especially for integer arithmetic and bit manipulations. It is invoked using a decorator:
@micropython.viper
def foo(self, arg: int) -> int:
 # code
As the above fragment illustrates it is beneficial to use Python type hints to assist the Viper optimiser. Type hints provide information on the data types of arguments and of the return value; these are a standard Python language feature formally defined here PEP0484. Viper supports its own set of types namely int, uint (unsigned integer), ptr, ptr8, ptr16 and ptr32. The ptrX types are discussed below. Currently the uint type serves a single purpose: as a type hint for a function return value. If such a function returns 0xffffffff Python will interpret the result as 2**32 -1 rather than as -1.
In addition to the restrictions imposed by the native emitter the following constraints apply:
 - Functions may have up to four arguments.
 - Default argument values are not permitted.
 - Floating point may be used but is not optimised.
Viper provides pointer types to assist the optimiser. These comprise
 - ptr Pointer to an object.
 - ptr8 Points to a byte.
 - ptr16 Points to a 16 bit half-word.
 - ptr32 Points to a 32 bit machine word.
The concept of a pointer may be unfamiliar to Python programmers. It has similarities to a Python memoryview object in that it provides direct access to data stored in memory. Items are accessed using subscript notation, but slices are not supported: a pointer can return a single item only. Its purpose is to provide fast random access to data stored in contiguous memory locations - such as data stored in objects which support the buffer protocol, and memory-mapped peripheral registers in a microcontroller. It should be noted that programming using pointers is hazardous: bounds checking is not performed and the compiler does nothing to prevent buffer overrun errors.
Typical usage is to cache variables:
@micropython.viper
def foo(self, arg: int) -> int:
 buf = ptr8(self.linebuf) # self.linebuf is a bytearray object
 for x in range(20, 30):
 bar = buf[x] # Access a data item through the pointer
 # code omitted
In this instance the compiler "knows" that buf is the address of an array of bytes; it can emit code to rapidly compute the address of buf[x] at runtime. Where casts are used to convert objects to Viper native types these should be performed at the start of the function rather than in critical timing loops as the cast operation can take several microseconds. The rules for casting are as follows:
 - Casting operators are currently: int, bool, uint, ptr, ptr8, ptr16 and ptr32.
 - The result of a cast will be a native Viper variable.
 - Arguments to a cast can be a Python object or a native Viper variable.
 - If argument is a native Viper variable, then cast is a no-op (i.e. costs nothing at runtime) that just changes the type (e.g. from uint to ptr8) so that you can then store/load using this pointer.
 - If the argument is a Python object and the cast is int or uint, then the Python object must be of integral type and the value of that integral object is returned.
 - The argument to a bool cast must be integral type (boolean or integer); when used as a return type the viper function will return True or False objects.
 - If the argument is a Python object and the cast is ptr, ptr, ptr16 or ptr32, then the Python object must either have the buffer protocol with read-write capabilities (in which case a pointer to the start of the buffer is returned) or it must be of integral type (in which case the value of that integral object is returned).
The following example illustrates the use of a ptr16 cast to toggle pin X1 n times:
BIT0 = const(1)
@micropython.viper
def toggle_n(n: int):
 odr = ptr16(stm.GPIOA + stm.GPIO_ODR)
 for _ in range(n):
 odr[0] ^= BIT0
A detailed technical description of the three code emitters may be found on Kickstarter here Note 1 and here Note 2


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This page takes you through the general steps for upgrading product versions based on Carbon 4.4.6 to Carbon 4.4.7.
Preparing to Upgrade
The following are the specific prerequisites you must complete before an upgrade:
 - Before you upgrade to the latest version of a product, you create a staging database, which is essentially an empty database. Note that you should NOT connect a new product version to an older database that has not been upgraded.
 - Make a backup of the database and the directory prior to upgrading. The directory can simply be copied to the new directory.
 - Stop all the Carbon servers connected to the database before running the migration scripts.
 Note that the upgrade should be done during a period when there is low traffic on the system.
 - This upgrade can only be done if the database type is the same. For example, if you are using MySQL currently and you need to migrate to Oracle in the new version, these scripts will not work.
 - You cannot roll back an upgrade. It is impossible to restore a backup of the previous server and retry the upgrade process.
The downtime is limited to the time taken for switching databases when the staging database is promoted to the actual production status.
Upgrading the configurations
There are no database changes between Carbon 4.4.6 to Carbon 4.4.7. Therefore, only the new configuration options in Carbon 4.4.7 should be updated for the new environment as explained below.
 1. Copy the data from the old database to the staging database you created. This becomes the new database for your new version of Carbon.
 2. Download Carbon 4.4.7 and connect it to your staging database.
 3. Update the configuration files in Carbon 4.4.7 as required.
 4. Copy the following directories from the old database to the staging database.
 1. To migrate the super tenant settings, copy the /repository/deployment/server directory.
 2. If multitenancy is used, copy the /repository/tenants directory.
 Note that configurations should not be copied directly between servers.
 5. Start the server.
Going into production
The following are recommended tests to run on the staging system.
 - No labels


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Turn A Photo Into A Collage Of Polaroids With Photoshop
In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we'll learn how to take a single photograph and turn it into a collage of polaroids, with each polaroid containing a small section of the overall image.
You can use this effect with lots of different types of images, whether it's a photo of one person or several people. It's great for photos of family or friends, vacation photos, or even as a creative effect for wedding photography. This is a very easy photo collage effect to create, and as we'll see later in the tutorial, much of the work is simply repeating the same few steps over and over again until you're happy with the results.
This version of the tutorial is for Photoshop CS5 and earlier. Photoshop CS6 and CC (Creative Cloud) users will want to follow along with our fully updated Collage Of Polaroids tutorial.
Here's the image that I'll be working with in this Photoshop tutorial:
And here's what the image will look like when we're done:
This tutorial is from our Photo Effects series. Let's get started!
Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer
The first thing we need to do for this effect is duplicate our Background layer. With our image open in Photoshop, we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have just one layer, the Background layer, which contains our original image:
To quickly duplicate the layer, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Photoshop creates a copy of the Background layer for us, names it "Layer 1", and places it above our Background layer in the Layers palette:
Step 2: Add A New Blank Layer Between The Two Layers
Next, we need to add a new blank layer between our Background layer and the copy of it that we just created. Currently the copy is selected in the Layers palette (we can tell the layer is selected because it's highlighted in blue). Normally when we add a new layer, Photoshop places the new layer above the layer that's currently selected, but we want our new layer below "Layer 1", not above it. To tell Photoshop to place the new layer below "Layer 1", hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and then click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop adds a new blank layer named "Layer 2" between "Layer 1" and the original Background layer:
Step 3: Fill The New Layer With Black
We're going to use black as the background for our effect, so let's reset our Foreground and Background colors if needed by pressing D on your keyboard. This sets black as your Foreground color and white as your Background color, as we can see in the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette:
Now with black as our Foreground color and the new blank layer selected in the Layers palette, let's fill the new layer with black using the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac). Nothing will appear to have happened to the image itself, and that's because "Layer 1", which contains a copy of our original image, is blocking "Layer 2" from view. But if we look at Layer 2's thumbnail in the Layers palette, we can see that we've filled the layer with black:
Step 4: Add A New Blank Layer
With "Layer 2" (the layer we just filled with black) selected, click once again on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop will add a new blank layer between the black-filled layer and the copy of the original image above it:
Step 5: Drag Out A Rectangular Selection As The Inside Of Your First Polaroid
Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool either from the Tools palette or by pressing M on your keyboard:
Then, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, drag out a selection inside your image which will become the inside of the first polaroid (the part which contains the photo). I'm going to drag my selection around the baby's face. It doesn't really matter where you make this selection since you'll be able to move it anywhere you like later:
Step 6: Fill The Selection With Black
We need to fill the selection with black at this point. Technically, it doesn't matter which color we fill the selection with, but to keep things simple and since black is currently our Foreground color, let's use black. Make sure you have the new blank layer selected in the Layers palette, and then use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with the Foreground color, which is set to black. Again, nothing seems to have happened in the document, and that's because the image on "Layer 1" at the top is still blocking everything else from view, but if we look at the thumbnail for the blank layer in the Layers palette, we can see that the selected area has indeed been filled with black:
Step 7: Create A Clipping Mask From The Filled Selection
We're going to use the selection we just filled with black to create what's called a clipping mask for the layer above it. What this means is that the layer above it, "Layer 1" which contains the copy of our image, is going to be "clipped" by our filled selection on the layer below it. In other words, the only part of the image on "Layer 1" that will remain visible is the part directly above the section filled with black. The rest of the image will become hidden from view.
To create our clipping mask, click on "Layer 1" to select it in the Layers palette. Then go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and select Create Clipping Mask. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+G (Win) / Option+Command+G (Mac). Either way, Photoshop "clips" the image on "Layer 1", keeping only the area above the black-filled shape below it visible and hiding the rest of the image, revealing our black background on "Layer 2" in its place:
If we look in the Layers palette now, we can see that "Layer 1" is indented to the right with a small arrow pointing downward on the left. This indicates that the layer is being clipped by the layer below it:
Step 8: Add Another New Blank Layer Above "Layer 2"
We need to add another new layer, and we need it between the black-filled layer ("Layer 2") and the layer containing our filled selection ("Layer 3"). To do that, click on "Layer 2" to select it and then click once again on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop adds the new layer between "Layer 2" and "Layer 3" and names it, surprisingly enough, "Layer 4":
Step 9: Drag Out Another Rectangular Selection As The Border Of The Polaroid
With your Rectangular Marquee Tool still selected, drag out another rectangular selection, this time around the outside of the original selection, which will become the white border of the polaroid. Keep in mind that polaroid photos have some extra space at the bottom of the border, so add some extra space at the bottom of your selection:
Step 10: Fill The Selection With White
Since the border of a polaroid is usually white, let's fill our selection with white. Make sure that you have the new blank layer, "Layer 4", selected in the Layers palette. Then, since white is currently our Background color, let's use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with the Background color (white). Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) when you're done to deselect the selection. We now have our first polaroid in our image:
Step 11: Add A Drop Shadow Layer Style
We have our first polaroid, and we're going to use it to easily create as many polaroids as we want. But before we do anything else, let's add a slight drop shadow to it. We won't be able to see the drop shadow just yet, since we're using a black background, but we will see it once we start piling polaroids on top of each other. To add our drop shadow, with "Layer 4" selected, click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Select Drop Shadow from the list of layer styles:
This brings up Photoshop's "Layer Style" dialog box set to the Drop Shadow options in the middle column. I'm going to set my shadow Angle to about 120° and then lower the Opacity value at the top all the way down to about 30% so my shadow isn't too intense:
Click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. As I said, we won't be able to see the drop shadow just yet thanks to our black background, but don't worry. We'll see it soon enough.
Step 12: Rotate The Polaroid
I'm going to rotate my polaroid to add a bit more interest to it. In order to do that, I need to select both layers in my Layers palette which make up my polaroid. I already have "Layer 4" selected, which makes up the outside of it, but I also need "Layer 3" selected, which makes up the inside, so with "Layer 4" selected, I'm going to hold down my Shift key and click on "Layer 3", which will select both


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The widely distributed ant genus Tetramorium is among the most species-rich ant genera in the world. Currently, we know 600 species, but scientists expect the total count to be closer to 700 or more species. Most of those species are found in the tropics and subtropics and Madagascar is the place where it is by far the most species-rich ant genus.
Colleagues have now found and described a new member of the genus: Tetramorium cavernicola
The name of the new species is Latin and means "cave dweller" or "cave inhabitant". It refers to the fact that the species is known only from a cave in Ankarana.
Abstract: In this study we provide an update to the taxonomy of the ant genus Tetramorium Mayr in Madagascar. We report the first record of the T. setigerum species group in Madagascar and describe the only Malagasy representative as T. cavernicola sp. n., which is known only from a cave in Ankarana. In addition, we provide an overview of the 19 proposed Malagasy species groups, and discuss their zoogeography and relationships to other groups and larger lineages within the hyper-diverse genus Tetramorium. At present, we recognise a highly unique Malagasy Tetramorium fauna with 113 species endemic to the island of Madagascar out of a total of 125 translating into an endemism rate of 93%. We hypothesise that this fauna is based on one or a few colonisation events from the Afrotropical region, with subsequent adaptive radiation in Madagascar. Furthermore, we present an updated and illustrated identification key to the Tetramorium species groups in the Malagasy region.


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Micronesia (from Greek: μικρός "mikros" small + Greek: νῆσος "nēsos" island) is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest.
The term Micronesia was first proposed in 1831 by Jules Dumont d'Urville to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Melanesia.
Champagne Pool is a prominent geothermal feature within the Waiotapu geothermal area in the North Island of New Zealand. The terrestrial hot spring is located about 30 km (20 mi) southeast of Rotorua and about 50 km (30 mi) northeast of Taupo. The name Champagne Pool is derived from the abundant efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2), similar to a glass of bubbling champagne. The hot spring was formed 900 years ago by a hydrothermal eruption, which makes it in geological terms a relatively young system. Its crater is around 65 m (213 ft) in diameter with a maximum depth of approximately 62 m (203 ft) and is filled with an estimated volume of 50,000 m3 (1,800,000 cu ft) of geothermal fluid.


text:
Decomposition Analyses Applied to a Complex Ultradian Biorhythm: The Oscillating NADH Oxidase Activity of Plasma Membranes Having a Potential Time-Keeping (Clock) Function
Seasonal decomposition analyses were applied to the statistical evaluation of an oscillating activity for a plasma membrane NADH oxidase activity with a temperature compensated period of 24 min. The decomposition fits were used to validate the cyclic oscillatory pattern. Three measured values, average percentage error (MAPE), a measure of the periodic oscillation, mean average deviation (MAD), a measure of the absolute average deviations from the fitted values, and mean standard deviation (MSD), the measure of standard deviation from the fitted values plus R-squared and the Henriksson-Merton p value were used to evaluate accuracy.
Decomposition was carried out by fitting a trend line to the data, then detrending the data if necessary, by subtracting the trend component. The data, with or without detrending, were then smoothed by subtracting a centered moving average of length equal to the period length determined by Fourier analysis. Finally, the time series were decomposed into cyclic and error components. The findings not only validate the periodic nature of the major oscillations but suggest, as well, that the minor intervening fluctuations also recur within each period with a reproducible pattern of recurrence. biological clockdecomposition analysesultradian rhythmtemperature compensationcircadian rhythmcultured cells.
Foster, Ken; Anwar, Nasim; Pogue, Rhea; MorrE, Dorothy M.; Keenan, T. W.; and Morr', D. James
"Decomposition Analyses Applied to a Complex Ultradian Biorhythm: The Oscillating NADH Oxidase Activity of Plasma Membranes Having a Potential Time-Keeping (Clock) Function,"
Dose-Response: An International Journal: Vol. 1
, Article 4.
Available at: _URL_
This document is currently not available here.


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Recent wildfires in Minnesota and Wisconsin highlight the threat to homes and property in communities across the Midwest. According to news reports, the Germann Road Fire in Douglas and Bayfield Counties in northwest Wisconsin burned 9,000 acres while just across the border in northern Minnesota, the Green Valley Fire has consumed more than 7,000 acres. Dry and windy conditions continue to contribute to an outbreak of wildfires across both states, and many homes and commercial properties remain under threat.
The Germann Road Fire is one of the largest Wisconsin has seen in the last couple of decades, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Red-flag warnings have been issued across most of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and residents are being urged to use extreme caution when participating in outdoor activities including camping.
Many local residents, however, have already taken steps to reduce their wildfire risk. Using proven principles for wildfire safety, 15 communities in Wisconsin and 14 in Minnesota have participated for several years in the national Firewise Communities/USA® Recognition Program. Located about 10 miles northwest of the Germann Road Fire in Wisconsin, Potawatomi Estates has been a recognized Firewise Communities/USA site since 2010.
A list of all Wisconsin and Minnesota Firewise-recognized sites can be found on the Firewise website.
Wildfire doesn't have to burn everything in its path. A comprehensive Firewise tips checklist for homeowners is available, along with tips on how to reduce your risk.
Video from DNR in Minnesota on the importance of being Firewise.


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Advancing Medical & Pharmaceutical Innovation
Our W2G Nursery uses top-of-the-line tissue culture micropropagation breeding equipment that creates disease-free plants and increases plant yield. We are able to customize unique medical-grade strains of cannabis cultivars and psilocybin spores in a completely sterile production environment while reducing disease, pests, and pathogens.
Identifying new bioactive compounds to determine interactions with specific genes responsible for chronic conditions. Future research will examine the potential application for cannabis and psilocybin to help reduce specific chronic conditions or diseases.
W2G's extensive research and IP approach is focused on the development of several new plant based cultivation techniques, hybrid strain development, genetic profiling & tissue culture. We have developed a consistent phytopharmaceutical feedstock growth-plan through the use of tissue culture and molecular biology.
Our new technology and process allows us to rapidly clone cannabis cultivars and psilocybin spores with desirable traits and elite genetics.
These methods developed allow for the standardization of the procedures used to ensure high quality and consistent biopharmaceuticals.


numbers are better (indicative of a faster and/or more efficient CPU). We recommend using this number when quoting results. The results are also copied to the clipboard.
File Queue
Selecting this command lets you look at the queue of files ready to be processed. You can add a file to the bottom of the queue or delete a file (you have to select it first by clicking on it). Once you have made your changes to the file queue, press OK to confirm the changes or Cancel to leave the queue as it was before you called up the screen. You can select multiple files in the file browse dialog box by using Control or Shift when clicking on them.
The File Queue dialog box has two checkboxes in addition to the normal controls (like add/remove file etc.)
The first, Reload on Startup, when selected, causes the contents of the file queue to be stored to disk each time it is accessed. When POV-Ray is started up with this option active, and the file queue had entries in it, they are loaded off disk and back into the queue. If Auto Render was also selected, POV-Ray would then start rendering them.
The second, Auto Render, instructs POV-Ray for Windows to render whatever is in the file queue (see File Queue below). When you switch Auto Render off, any files dropped onto the POV-Ray window are added to the queue but not rendered. In other words, while Auto Render is turned off, the file queue is inactive. However, any file selected with the Render/Start Rendering command will still be processed. Once you switch Auto Render back on again, if there are files in the queue, they will begin to be processed.
Note: Due to the way that some versions of Windows returns multiple file selections to us, if you use Ctrl or Shift to select more than two files in the Add to Queue file browse box, and then click on OK, the first and last entries will be transposed. (We can't swap them back to their original position since we can't tell if the transposition has happened in the first place).
Clear Queue
If you want to clear the entire queue in one go, this is the way to do it. The command shows you how many entries you will be throwing away.
Animation Pane
The Animation sub-menu contains options relating to running renders for the purposes of generating an animation. See the section on making animations in the tutorial for information on how to set POV-Ray up to do this.
Minimize Shellouts
The Minimize Shellouts options tells POV-Ray to run any specified shell-out in a minimized, non-active window. This can be important if you are doing some work in the foreground and do not want to be interrupted. Note that the command that you are starting must be capable of running in the background under Windows.
No Shellout Wait
If you specify a post-scene shell-out command in an INI file, POV-Ray for Windows hands over to the program specified. If you are running Windows 3.1x and Win32s, POV-Ray for Windows has no way of telling when the program shelled out to has finished, especially if it was a DOS program. All POV-Ray can do is show a screen explaining this and ask you to click the OK button when the external program has completed or if you don't want to wait for it to finish. If you do not want POV-Ray to display this message, select No Shellout Wait.
NOTE it is very important to note that if POV-Ray doesn't wait for the program, it must return immediately. If it returns immediately then obviously the program's return code cannot be monitored. In this case the return code will always be 0.
Render Priority
The higher the Rendering Priority, the more resources are devoted to rendering.
Some users have expressed surprise that changing this setting does not seem to significantly affect rendering times. This will of course be the case if the computer in question is not doing anything else at the time. The time when this setting starts to matter is when you are running another CPU-intensive process on the computer, one that would compete with POV-Ray for the CPU. It is then that changing this setting will make a noticeable difference. On the Vista™ platform (or later) the render priority can also be set to background.
See also Speed Considerations.
Duty Cycle
The Duty Cycle setting is provided only for unusual cases of heat accumulation. It is not intended to be used in other circumstances (as it offers little benefit other than as described below). Unless you are using a laptop in a restricted environment (or perhaps in orbit), this menu will be of little interest to you.
Some computers - particularly laptops or notebooks - cool their CPU's by convection. No CPU fan is used. This can make this type of device prone to overheating in certain circumstances (for example, where circulation of air is restricted, such as in a confined space, or where hot air does not, by its nature, rise, such as in zero-gravity).
POV-Ray makes extensive use of a processor's Floating Point Unit (FPU), a portion of the CPU that is not normally prone to high activity over long periods. Such use can potentially cause the CPU to generate more heat. Additionally, high CPU activity can cause the unit's normal heat-reducing facilities (such as lower-power CPU modes) to be inactive.
The Duty Cycle setting is used to tell POV-Ray to only use a certain percentage of the CPU's available time, even if nothing else is competing for the CPU. For example, a duty cycle of 10% would cause POV-Ray, during a render, to sleep for 90% of the available time, and only render during 10% of it.
During rendering, if the duty cycle is not set to 100% (the default), POV-Ray will update the status bar at the bottom of the window if it is in sleep mode. This update will show how many seconds remain until rendering starts again (which is based around a ten-second cycle). For example, a duty cycle of 70% would see POV-Ray render for seven seconds, then sleep for three.
Note: While it may seem far-fetched to include a feature in POV-Ray that seems primarily to be of use in zero-gravity, it in fact is for this exact reason it is here. On 25 April 2002, African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth was blasted into space in a Russian Soyuz capsule. Accompanying Mark on this launch was a copy of POV-Ray for Windows v3.5 beta 15, and a special scene written for the purpose by two of the word's best POV-Ray artists. Whilst on the International Space Station, Mark rendered a 6000x8000 pixel version of that scene. This scene is now available as a poster; see our website for more information and purchasing options.
Sound Settings
In the sound setting dialogue you can enable POV-Ray to signal the finishing of a render, a parse error and a render error or cancellation of a render. For each of the three signals a specific sound (WAV-file) can be set.
On Completion
The On Completion submenu allows you to specify what POV-Ray will do when it completes a rendering (or series of renderings, in the case of animations).
Do Nothing
No special actions are taken.
Display Message
This will cause POV-Ray for Windows to display a message window indicating that it has finished.
Exit POV-Ray for Windows
POV-Ray for Windows will exit after the render has completed.
Rerun SubMenu
This sub-menu contains commands related to re-running (re-rendering) files that you have already rendered (or started to render).
Rerun Dialog
Selecting this command brings up a list of the last rendering jobs performed (up to 16). You can select any one of them by clicking on it. You then have the option of rendering the job with the same POV-Ray settings used for the original job or viewing the rendering statistics for that job. If you select Render, you are shown the current render settings, which override any settings that the file was originally rendered with. See Edit Settings/Render in the Render Menu.
This command, like the following, is only displayed if you have interrupted rendering of a scene (by selecting Stop Rendering from the Render Menu). The command shows the name of the interrupted file, and selecting it instructs POV-Ray for Windows to re-render the scene from the start.
Like the previous command, this one restarts a current render, with the difference that any portion of the scene already rendered is taken up again. This only works if there was an output file being written.
File List
The file list shows the last 16 rendering jobs the same way that the Rerun Dialog does. It also lets you select a recent file for re-rendering, but it does not let you view the rendering statistics beforehand.
Options Menu
This menu contains settings that change the operation of POV-Ray for Windows as a whole.
Keep Single Instance
This option prevents more than one instance of POV-Ray for Windows from running at a time. If you attempt to launch a new one, the currently running one is activated instead. This is handy if you are using File Manager or Explorer to launch POV files by double-clicking. (Explorer users can get even more control by using the right mouse button menu.)
Use Render Animation
Turns on or off the use of the animated image in the top-right-hand corner of the tool bar. If it's turned on, and POV-Ray is rendering, an animation will be shown to indicate that a render is in progress. This animation is done from pre-generated images and uses very little CPU time.
Show Toolbar
This option will alternately show or hide the toolbar, and can be used if you want more room for the editor. Note that POV-Ray for Windows does