text:
Shorter school year
In Tennessee, Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman approved all of the requests from 42 of the state's 136 school districts this year to shorten their school calendars because of natural disasters. The waivers varied from one to seven days and in Southeast Tennessee included:
- Bradley County, seven days
- Cleveland City Schools, two days
- Hamilton County, two days
- Sequatchie County, two days
- Rhea County, two days
- Bledsoe County, two days
- Grundy County, one day
In Georgia, the Department of Education allows school districts to use four emergency days for school closings below the 180-day state minimum for the year. Additionally, six school districts were granted waivers to operate fewer than 176 days, including:
- Catoosa County, four days
- Walker County, three days
- Dade County, four days
Sources: Tennessee Department of Education, Georgia Department of Education
Meeting the standard
In Hamilton County, the school system met the state's overall requirement for 180 days of annual instruction with fewer days by extending the school day, counting partial days and getting a state waiver from minimum standards:
- Thirteen days were credited below the 180-day minimum by adding 30 minutes to the school day, expanding the typical school day to seven hours from the state minimum of 6.5 hours.
- Two additional days lost because of bad weather were waived from the state standard by the Tennessee Department of Education after the school board requested the waiver because of tornado damage in April.
- Two days were counted as instructional days when students registered for classes on Aug. 4, 2010, and when students picked up report cards on May 24. There was no actual classroom instruction on either day.
- Four days were scheduled half-days for parent-teacher conferences and for professional development days.
- Four or more days were shortened by delayed openings or early dismissals because of bad weather, tornado cleanup, school building problems or special events at individual schools. The state allows school districts to count any day as an instructional day when the school is open at least 3.5 hours.
Sources: Hamilton County School System calendar for 2010-11, Tennessee Department of Education
Tennessee public schools may need to lengthen their school year in the future to help students from the Volunteer State compete in a global market where most students study longer each year, Gov. Bill Haslam said.
But meanwhile, Haslam said more than a third of the state's school systems hard hit by snowstorms, flooding or tornadoes were granted waivers from minimum calendar requirements in the past year.
"Due to the storms this year and due to the budget, I think it was going to be hard to go back and force the folks there [to meet the state standard]," Haslam said in a recent interview as the school year ended across Tennessee. "I think you're looking at a unique situation this year with all of the storms and the flooding."
Many districts in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia had at least a week less of school in the past year than they did a year ago.
In Hamilton County, for instance, most schools operated complete seven-hour instructional days only 155 days in the school year that ended May 24 — nine days less than the previous year.
Schools in Hamilton County were open 165 days in the past year, but that included two weeks of days cut short for teacher-parent conferences, professional development, registration and report card pickups and weather-related delays or early dismissals.
Haslam said schools need to be going in the other direction to keep pace with some foreign countries that require as many as 50 more days of classroom instruction a year.
"If you look at the success of education in other countries or in charter school environments, a lot of it is tied to just going to school longer," Haslam said. "I know a lot of kids and some parents may not want to hear that, but if we're going to compete we can't be playing half a schedule."
Shorter calendar in U.S.
According to the National Center on Time & Learning, a Boston research group that advocates a longer school year, China, Japan, Korea and a half-dozen other countries have minimum school years longer than 200 days a year. The United States average school year ranked 39th among the world's 49 biggest countries and in the past year many Tennessee and Georgia schools had shorter school calendars than the U.S. average of just under 180 days.
Haslam said he hopes to look at Tennessee's education system over the summer, though he said changing the calendar and the way teachers are paid is "changing the very fabric of education, and we won't do any such changes lightly."
In a recent meeting with editors at The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, state Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said the state should consider adding more time to the school calendar, although his department has no specific recommendations as yet.
"We have a calendar in Tennessee not based on the modern world," he said.
States OK shorter schedule
Nonetheless, Huffman's office granted 42 waivers to school districts this year to allow the school systems to complete their school year without meeting the state standard for 180 days of instruction averaging 6.5 hours a day.
In Georgia, the state allows individual school districts to decide to drop four days below the state's 180-day school calendar for emergency reasons. A half-dozen school districts, including Catoosa, Walker and Dade, still had to get additional waivers to cut their school years even shorter after storms damaged schools in their districts.
In Hamilton County, the school system met state standards by operating most days for an extra 30 minutes beyond the state minimum school day of 6.5 hours. That allowed the school system to make up 13 days lost for bad weather this year. When repeated snowstorms and tornadoes ripped through the region in the past year, the state granted a waiver to allow the school system to give up another two days from its calendar rather than make up the lost school days.
"It would be very difficult and create a lot of confusion to add more time on at the end of the school year after many students have already graduated," said Danielle Clark, director of communications for Hamilton County Schools.
Hamilton County school administrators say they complied with the state guidelines and only asked for a waiver after students missed two days because of the April 27 tornadoes.
"The power was out and conditions just weren't good enough to report to class," said Kirk Kelly, Hamilton County Schools' director of accountability and testing.
The school board view
Hamilton County school board Chairman Jeffrey Wilson said the lost days from this year's storms couldn't be avoided. But over time, Wilson said Tennessee schools need to look at longer school calendars to stay competitive with foreign schools.
"I think we need to find a way to make the school year longer, but there are a lot of challenges and I don't know how we as a community will get there in the near future," he said.
Citing China's 12-hour, year-round school days, Hamilton County school board member Linda Mosley said U.S. schools must look at their schedules as a means to stay competitive.
"We know that the more time [students] spend away from school, the more they forget," Mosley said. "A longer schedule is something that would take a lot of planning and debate and community buy-in, but it would benefit our students."
Starting in 2004, Hamilton County attempted a year-round schedule at Hardy Elementary School. The seven-year experiment ended this year after school officials said parents and teachers lost enthusiasm.
Mosley said that if Hamilton County tries such a plan again, it needs to be a widespread effort.
"I think if we were to do it, we should spread it over a whole district," said Mosley, adding that such an effort would take years of planning and gradual implementation.
But with the typical American student in class less than half the year, Jennifer Davis, president of the National Center on Time & Learning, said U.S. schools need to lengthen their school year.
"Our current school schedule is based on the 19th-century agrarian calendar of 180, six-hour days, which does not offer the time necessary to prepare children for today's competitive world," she said.
As the state looks to reshape education, all options should be on the table, Haslam said.
"I think what we have to do with education is to take a whole, fresh new look at everything, from how long students go to school to how do we compensate teachers to make sure that we are rewarding them," he said.
"We spent a lot of time in this session talking about teacher tenure and collective bargaining. But the next piece that we need to discuss if we are really going to have a great education system is how do we attract and keep the very best people in education."
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned...


text: Results are presented on the shock response of a zirconium-based bulk metallic glass (BMG), Zr41.25Ti13.75Ni10Cu12.5Be22.5, subjected to planar impact loading. An 82.5-mm bore single-stage gas-gun facility at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, was used to conduct the shock experiments. The particle velocity profiles, measured at the back (free) surface of the target plate by using the velocity interferometer system for any reflector (VISAR), were analyzed to (i) better understand the structure of shock waves in BMG subjected to planar shock compression, (ii) estimate residual spall strength of the BMG after different levels of shock compression, and (iii) obtain the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) of the material. The spall strength was found to decrease moderately with increasing levels of the applied normal impact stress. The spall strength at a shock-induced stress of 4.4 GPa was 3.5 GPa while the spall strengths at shock-induced stresses of 5.1, 6.0, and 7.0 GPa were 2.72, 2.35, and 2.33 GPa, respectively. The HEL was estimated to be 6.15 GPa.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
for each center of the columns on one side.
- Repeat the procedure on all four sides and fix the proper nails.
- For markings, use white oil paint on the railing and write all column numbers by red oil paint, for ready identification near respective nails.
- Inform the Architect and get the centerline marking checked. The Architect should check all the nailing measurements and numbering of the same. He should also check the setbacks for the buildings, before giving N.O.C. for the work. This is a final N.O.C, for a line-out.
- After the final N.O.C. from the Architect is obtained, start line-out marking for column pits to be excavated, on the ground.
- A nylon string should be fixed to the nails for particular column numbers on both the axis, the Crossing point of both strings will be the center of that column.
- Put the plumb bob at the center of the column: mark by lime powder as (+) and then the side of excavation for footing should be marked on the ground by lime powder.
- Repeat the procedure to locate the center of the column.
- All mundhas (vertical wooden posts) should be fixed properly in concrete. Seven day curing period should be allowed, before fixing the railing.
- The railing should be straight and of a standard size.
- The joints of the railing should be flushed and properly nailed.
- Mundha top should be kept generally at the same level.
- The railing should be fixed at a fixed level, using a level tube or dumpy level.
- Railing fixing should be done by 50mm nails.
- Nails for the column center should be 40mm only.
- To ensure that the railing does do not obstruct any vehicular traffic, it should not be near a road.
- Stay for the vertical wooden post is necessary, after every fifth post.
- To avoid its bending, the staff labourers should not be allowed to sit on the railing.
- Periodical checking should be done by measuring the distance of each nail from the face marking. Variations, if any, should be rectified immediately.
- The height of the railing should be minimum to reduce the chances of error while plotting the center inside the excavated pits for the column footing.
- All column numbers marked on the railing should be visible.
- Nails should not be disturbed until the completion of the plinth beam work.
- Removal of the railings should be done with the consent of the site engineer.
- If adjoining building work is complete, checking should be done considering expansion joints before starting the new building.
- The previous building level and the column center should be used as a reference.
- In the case of adjoining buildings, the middle railing should be adjusted so that the execution work of the column footings at the location of the connection are not disturbed.
- Any discrepancies errors found at any stage should be immediately brought to the notice of the architect's higher authorities.
- All work should be certified by the Architects in Pune.
- ELEVATOR (LIFT) WORK PROCEDURE – TYPES, CHECKLIST, INSTALLATION, PRECAUTIONS, MAINTENANCE
- FIRE FIGHTING SYSTEM WORK PROCEDURE – FINAL INSPECTION, SPRINKLER, EQUIPMENT, COMPONENTS
- LAND DEVELOPMENT WORK PROCESS – BUILDING, TREE, COMPOUND, LIGHTS, OFFICE, GARDENING
IF YOU LIKE THIS POST LINE OUT OF BUILDING SETTING PROCEDURE – LAYOUT, PRECAUTIONS LIKE THIS GETTING GOOD INFORMATION SO PLEASE SHARE THIS POST-SOCIAL NETWORK EXAMPLE FACEBOOK, TWITTER SOCIAL MEDIA SITES SHARE IT

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


Main Content
press
Class: matlab.uitest.TestCase
Namespace: matlab.uitest
Perform press gesture on UI component
Description
example
press(testCase,comp) performs a press gesture on the UI component comp.
example
press(testCase,comp,location) specifies the location to press within the component. You can only specify location with five of the available components: axes, UI axes, polar axes, panel, and UI figure. If you do not specify the location, MATLAB® presses at the center of comp.
example
press(testCase,spn,direction) specifies whether to press the 'up' or 'down' direction button in the spinner spn.
example
press(testCase,compst,'SelectionType',type) uses the specified mouse selection type type to perform a press gesture on the component compst.
example
press(testCase,compst,location,'SelectionType',type) specifies the location to press within the component using the specified mouse selection type.
Input Arguments
expand all
Test case, specified as a matlab.uitest.TestCase object.
Component to press during the test, specified as a UI component object that supports a press gesture. Components that support press gestures include images, buttons, check boxes, switches, menus, axes, and figures.
Supported ComponentTypical Creation Function
Axesaxes
Buttonuibutton
Check Boxuicheckbox
Hyperlinkuihyperlink
Imageuiimage
Menuuimenu
Paneluipanel
Polar Axespolaraxes
Push Tooluipushtool
Radio Buttonuiradiobutton
State Buttonuibutton
Switch (Rocker, Slider, Toggle)uiswitch
Toggle Buttonuitogglebutton
Toggle Tooluitoggletool
UI Axesuiaxes
UI Figureuifigure
Location to press, specified as the coordinates of the point:
 - Axes and UI Axes — A 1-by-2 or 1-by-3 numeric array containing x-, y-, and optionally z-coordinates.
 - Polar Axes — A 1-by-2 numeric array containing θ- and r-coordinates.
 - Panel and UI Figure — A 1-by-2 numeric array containing x- and y-coordinates. Specify the coordinates of the point to press as measured in pixels from the lower-left corner of the component.
Example: [32.5 13 0.25] (UI axes)
Example: [pi/2 0.5] (Polar axes)
Example: [100 200] (UI figure)
Spinner component to press during the test, specified as a matlab.ui.control.Spinner object. Spinner components are typically created with the uispinner function.
Direction of change for the spinner, specified as 'up' or 'down'. To increment the value of the spinner, use 'up'. To decrement the value, use 'down'.
Data Types: char | string
Component to press during the test using a given mouse selection type, specified as a matlab.graphics.axis.Axes, matlab.ui.control.UIAxes, or matlab.ui.Figure object.
Supported ComponentTypical Creation Function
Axesaxes
UI Axesuiaxes
UI Figureuifigure
Mouse selection type, specified as 'normal', 'extend', 'alt', or 'open'. This input provides information about how the mouse button is pressed in the component. For more information, see UI Figure Properties.
This table lists the possible selection type values and the actions that correspond to these values.
Value
Corresponding Action
'normal'
Click the left mouse button.
'extend'
Shift-click the left mouse button.
'alt'
Click the right mouse button.
'open'
Double-click any mouse button.
Data Types: char | string
Attributes
Sealedtrue
To learn about attributes of methods, see Method Attributes.
Examples
expand all
Create a slider switch.
s = uiswitch('slider');
A figure with a slider switch in the 'Off' state
Create an interactive test case and press the switch. A blue dot representing the programmatic push gesture appears and then disappears at the center of the switch. The switch moves from 'Off' to 'On'.
tc = matlab.uitest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
tc.press(s);
A figure with a slider switch in the 'On' state
Create UI axes and an interactive test case instance.
ax = uiaxes;
tc = matlab.uitest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
Press the center of the axes. A blue dot representing the programmatic push gesture appears and then disappears at the center of the axes.
tc.press(ax)
Press the axes at the coordinates (0.85, 0.2). A blue dot representing the programmatic push gesture appears and then disappears at the specified axes coordinates.
tc.press(ax,[0.85 0.2])
Create a state button.
b = uibutton('state');
Create an interactive test case and verify that the value of the state button is false.
tc = matlab.uitest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
tc.verifyFalse(b.Value)
Verification passed.
Press the button and verify the state changes to true. A blue dot representing the programmatic push gesture appears and then disappears on the button.
tc.press(b)
tc.verifyTrue(b.Value)
Verification passed.
Create a spinner with an initial value of 42.
s = uispinner('Value',42);
initVal = s.Value;
Create an interactive test case and increment the spinner. Verify that the new value of the spinner is the initial value plus the spinner step value.
tc = matlab.uitest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
tc.press(s,'up')
tc.verifyEqual(s.Value,initVal+s.Step)
Verification passed.
Decrement the value of the spinner and verify that the value of the spinner is equal to the initial value again.
tc.press(s,'down')
tc.verifyEqual(s.Value,initVal)
Verification passed.
Create a UI figure and an interactive test case instance.
f = uifigure;
tc = matlab.uitest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
Test a right-click at the center of the UI figure. A blue dot representing the programmatic push gesture appears and then disappears at the center of the figure.
tc.press(f,'SelectionType','alt')
Test a double-click on the UI figure at the coordinates (100, 200). A blue dot representing the programmatic push gesture appears and then disappears at the specified location.
tc.press(f,[100 200],'SelectionType','open')
Since R2023b
Perform a gesture on a component that is not in the viewable area of a figure by automatically scrolling to the component.
Create a scrollable figure with a state button that is outside the viewable area of the figure.
fig = uifigure("Scrollable","on");
b = uibutton(fig,"state","Position",[fig.Position(3)+100 100 100 22]);
Create a test case for interactive testing, and verify the initial state of the button.
tc = matlab.uitest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
tc.verifyFalse(b.Value)
Verification passed.
Press the button and verify that its state changes. Because the figure is scrollable, the app testing framework automatically scrolls to the button before performing the gesture.
tc.press(b)
tc.verifyTrue(b.Value)
Verification passed.
Version History
Introduced in R2018a
expand all


possible deployment topologies, it's not always trivial to select the most appropriate strategy suitable for your use case.
In this blog post, we cover the following aspects of running Kafka clusters on AWS:
 - Deployment considerations and patterns
 - Storage options
 - Instance types
 - Networking
 - Upgrades
 - Performance tuning
 - Monitoring
 - Security
 - Backup and restore
Note: While implementing Kafka clusters in a production environment, make sure also to consider factors like your number of messages, message size, monitoring, failure handling, and any operational issues.
Deployment considerations and patterns
In this section, we discuss various deployment options available for Kafka on AWS, along with pros and cons of each option. A successful deployment starts with thoughtful consideration of these options. Considering availability, consistency, and operational overhead of the deployment helps when choosing the right option.
Single AWS Region, Three Availability Zones, All Active
One typical deployment pattern (all active) is in a single AWS Region with three Availability Zones (AZs). One Kafka cluster is deployed in each AZ along with Apache ZooKeeper and Kafka producer and consumer instances as shown in the illustration following.
In this pattern, this is the Kafka cluster deployment:
 - Kafka producers and Kafka cluster are deployed on each AZ.
 - Data is distributed evenly across three Kafka clusters by using Elastic Load Balancer.
 - Kafka consumers aggregate data from all three Kafka clusters.
Kafka cluster failover occurs this way:
 - Mark down all Kafka producers
 - Stop consumers
 - Debug and restack Kafka
 - Restart consumers
 - Restart Kafka producers
Following are the pros and cons of this pattern.
Pros Cons
 - Highly available
 - Can sustain the failure of two AZs
 - No message loss during failover
 - Simple deployment

 - Very high operational overhead:
 - All changes need to be deployed three times, one for each Kafka cluster
 - Maintaining and monitoring three Kafka clusters
 - Maintaining and monitoring three consumer clusters
A restart is required for patching and upgrading brokers in a Kafka cluster. In this approach, a rolling upgrade is done separately for each cluster.
Single Region, Three Availability Zones, Active-Standby
Another typical deployment pattern (active-standby) is in a single AWS Region with a single Kafka cluster and Kafka brokers and Zookeepers distributed across three AZs. Another similar Kafka cluster acts as a standby as shown in the illustration following. You can use Kafka mirroring with MirrorMaker to replicate messages between any two clusters.
In this pattern, this is the Kafka cluster deployment:
 - Kafka producers are deployed on all three AZs.
 - Only one Kafka cluster is deployed across three AZs (active).
 - ZooKeeper instances are deployed on each AZ.
 - Brokers are spread evenly across all three AZs.
 - Kafka consumers can be deployed across all three AZs.
 - Standby Kafka producers and a Multi-AZ Kafka cluster are part of the deployment.
Kafka cluster failover occurs this way:
 - Switch traffic to standby Kafka producers cluster and Kafka cluster.
 - Restart consumers to consume from standby Kafka cluster.
Following are the pros and cons of this pattern.
Pros Cons
 - Less operational overhead when compared to the first option
 - Only one Kafka cluster to manage and consume data from
 - Can handle single AZ failures without activating a standby Kafka cluster
 - Added latency due to cross-AZ data transfer among Kafka brokers
 - For Kafka versions before 0.10, replicas for topic partitions have to be assigned so they're distributed to the brokers on different AZs (rack-awareness)
 - The cluster can become unavailable in case of a network glitch, where ZooKeeper does not see Kafka brokers
 - Possibility of in-transit message loss during failover
Intuit recommends using a single Kafka cluster in one AWS Region, with brokers distributing across three AZs (single region, three AZs). This approach offers stronger fault tolerance than otherwise, because a failed AZ won't cause Kafka downtime.
Storage options
There are two storage options for file storage in Amazon EC2:
Ephemeral storage is local to the Amazon EC2 instance. It can provide high IOPS based on the instance type. On the other hand, Amazon EBS volumes offer higher resiliency and you can configure IOPS based on your storage needs. EBS volumes also offer some distinct advantages in terms of recovery time. Your choice of storage is closely related to the type of workload supported by your Kafka cluster.
Kafka provides built-in fault tolerance by replicating data partitions across a configurable number of instances. If a broker fails, you can recover it by fetching all the data from other brokers in the cluster that host the other replicas. Depending on the size of the data transfer, it can affect recovery process and network traffic. These in turn eventually affect the cluster's performance.
The following table contrasts the benefits of using an instance store versus using EBS for storage.
Instance store EBS
 - Instance storage is recommended for large- and medium-sized Kafka clusters. For a large cluster, read/write traffic is distributed across a high number of brokers, so the loss of a broker has less of an impact. However, for smaller clusters, a quick recovery for the failed node is important, but a failed broker takes longer and requires more network traffic for a smaller Kafka cluster.
 - Storage-optimized instances like h1, i3, and d2 are an ideal choice for distributed applications like Kafka.

 - The primary advantage of using EBS in a Kafka deployment is that it significantly reduces data-transfer traffic when a broker fails or must be replaced. The replacement broker joins the cluster much faster.
 - Data stored on EBS is persisted in case of an instance failure or termination. The broker's data stored on an EBS volume remains intact, and you can mount the EBS volume to a new EC2 instance. Most of the replicated data for the replacement broker is already available in the EBS volume and need not be copied over the network from another broker. Only the changes made after the original broker failure need to be transferred across the network. That makes this process much faster.

Intuit chose EBS because of their frequent instance restacking requirements and also other benefits provided by EBS.
Generally, Kafka deployments use a replication factor of three. EBS offers replication within their service, so Intuit chose a replication factor of two instead of three.
Instance types
The choice of instance types is generally driven by the type of storage required for your streaming applications on a Kafka cluster. If your application requires ephemeral storage, h1, i3, and d2 instances are your best option.
Intuit used r3.xlarge instances for their brokers and r3.large for ZooKeeper, with ST1 (throughput optimized HDD) EBS for their Kafka cluster.
Here are sample benchmark numbers from Intuit tests.
Configuration Broker bytes (MB/s)
 - r3.xlarge
 - ST1 EBS
 - 12 brokers
 - 12 partitions

Aggregate 346.9
If you need EBS storage, then AWS has a newer-generation r4 instance. The r4 instance is superior to R3 in many ways:
 - It has a faster processor (Broadwell).
 - EBS is optimized by default.
 - It features networking based on Elastic Network Adapter (ENA), with up to 10 Gbps on smaller sizes.
 - It costs 20 percent less than R3.
Note: It's always best practice to check for the latest changes in instance types.
Networking
The network plays a very important role in a distributed system like Kafka. A fast and reliable network ensures that nodes can communicate with each other easily. The available network throughput controls the maximum amount of traffic that Kafka can handle. Network throughput, combined with disk storage, is often the governing factor for cluster sizing.
If you expect your cluster to receive high read/write traffic, select an instance type that offers 10-Gb/s performance.
In addition, choose an option that keeps interbroker network traffic on the private subnet, because this approach allows clients to connect to the brokers. Communication between brokers and clients uses the same network interface and port. For more details, see the documentation about IP addressing for EC2 instances.
If you are deploying in more than one AWS Region, you can connect the two VPCs in the two AWS Regions using cross-region VPC peering. However, be aware of the networking costs associated with cross-AZ deployments.
Upgrades
Kafka has a history of not being backward compatible, but its support of backward compatibility is getting better. During a Kafka upgrade, you should keep your producer and consumer clients on a version equal to or lower than the version you are upgrading from. After the upgrade is finished, you can start using a new protocol version and any new features it supports. There are three upgrade approaches available, discussed following.
Rolling or in-place upgrade
In a rolling or in-place upgrade scenario, upgrade one Kafka broker at a time. Take into consideration the recommendations for doing rolling restarts to avoid downtime for end users.
Downtime upgrade
If you can afford the downtime, you can take your entire cluster down, upgrade each Kafka broker


News Column
Smartphones Can Measure Earthquakes
Dec. 6, 2012
Researchers say they want to put smartphones, which account for about half of all mobile phones in the United States, to work detecting earthquakes.
Almost all smartphones contain accelerometers that can detect and record movement. Researchers at the Berkeley Seismic Laboratory in California say they are capable of monitoring tremors.
An app to record the shaking during major earthquakes and then report the data back to a central server over the wireless carrier's network is under development, they say.
With tens of millions of smartphones in use, researchers said, they could obtain very detailed information on how strong tremors were and where they were centered.
"Nowadays, smartphones carry all sorts of sensors, and we can put these to use in unexpected ways," researcher Qingkai Kong told BBC News. "Right now, we can only detect earthquakes above about magnitude-5, but with better accelerometers in future smartphones we would hope to detect smaller ones as well."
To see if mobile phones could be used as pocket seismometers, a number of the devices were put on the seismic lab's "shake table," which can simulate tremors of various strengths.
The researchers found the phone accelerometers -- primarily used to re-orient the screen display when the phones are tilted -- could pick up the shaking.
Of course, smartphone aren't generally sitting on a flat table but are moving with their owners, so the researchers say they've developed an algorithm that removes the movement "noise" from the phones' data.
Source: Copyright United Press International 2012
Story Tools


Interpreting Error Bars - BIOLOGY FOR LIFE.
Differences between means: type I and type II errors and power; 5.. and the way to do this is with estimates and confidence intervals.(1) Common questions. Why is the P value not the probability that the null hypothesis is true?
Confident limit (or confidence intervals) is a range of values in which you can be sure of finding the unknown parameter. Suppose you have some data and wish to find the mean.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
When standard deviation errors bars overlap even less, it's a clue that the difference is probably not statistically significant. You must actually perform a statistical test to draw a conclusion.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Introduction. Evidence based practice (EBP) is an approach to health care in which health professionals use the most appropriate information available to make clinical decision for providing high quality patient care (McKibbon, 1998).
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
We start with the one factor case. We will define the concept of factor elsewhere, but for now we simply view this type of analysis as an extension of the t tests that are described in Two Sample t-Test with Equal Variances and Two Sample t-Test with Unequal Variances.We begin with an example which is an extension of Example 1 of Two Sample t-Test with Equal Variances.

Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Descriptive and inferential statistics each give different insights into the nature of the data gathered. One alone cannot give the whole picture.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Confidence Intervals are based on the Overall Average SEMs. Values reported in the SEM column are based on the examinee's age. The GAI is an optional composite summary score that is less sensitive to the influence of working memory and processing speed.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Figure 2. Time-Dependent Reproduction Number Rt of the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea, with 95% Confidence Intervals for March 9 to April 10, 2020. Proposal on how to implement community quarantine after April 30. Successful as it may seem, an ECQ covering a wide area may not be sustainable over the long run.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Sway definition is - the action or an instance of swaying or of being swayed: an oscillating, fluctuating, or sweeping motion. How to use sway in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of sway.

Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Intervals adjectives are listed in this post. Each word below can often be found in front of the noun intervals in the same sentence. This reference page can help answer the question what are some adjectives commonly used for describing INTERVALS.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Confidence Interval Percentile Rank Descriptive Category Age Equivalent GSV Supplemental Composites Sound-Symbol Composite - 169 82 76 - 88 12 Below average - - Phonological Processing 36 - 94 86 - 102 34 Average 8:1 497 Nonsense Word Decoding 6 - 75 70 - 80 5 Below average 6:1 470 Decoding Composite - 163 80 76 - 84 9 Below average - -.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
Poker Variance Calculator for cash games. Displays variance,. Thirdly the calculator displays the 70% and 95% confidence intervals as light and dark green curves.. Meaning, by this definition a downswing is not over until the player has fully recovered its losses.
Extended Definition Essay Confidence Intervals
If the confidence interval is narrow, precision is high, and we can be more confident in the results. Larger sample sizes produce more precise results, so you must be wary of (i.e., not confident in) small sample sizes and large confidence intervals.

Interpreting Error Bars - BIOLOGY FOR LIFE.
Criteria definition, a standard of judgment or criticism; a rule or principle for evaluating or testing something. See more.
The history of statistics in the modern way is that it originates from the term statistics, found in 1749 in Germany. Although there have been changes to the interpretation of the word over time. The development of statistics is intimately connected on the one hand with the development of sovereign states, particularly European states following the peace of Westphalia (1648); and the other.
In this article, I will briefly illustrate these four different study designs for dichotomous outcomes; I then briefly consider the extension of this classification to include studies with continuous exposure or outcome measures and I briefly mention other possible axes of classification.
Questionnaire Design and Surveys Sampling. USA Site. The contents of this site are aimed at students who need to perform basic statistical analyses on data from sample surveys, especially those in marketing science.
Frequentist probability or frequentism is an interpretation of probability; it defines an event's probability as the limit of its relative frequency in many trials. Probabilities can be found (in principle) by a repeatable objective process (and are thus ideally devoid of opinion). This interpretation supports the statistical needs of many experimental scientists and pollsters.
Research Glossary. The research glossary defines terms used in conducting social science and policy research, for example those describing methods, measurements, statistical procedures, and other aspects of research; the child care glossary defines terms used to describe aspects of child care and early education practice and policy.


text:
Dinosaur Fish Lurk in Wisconsin Waters
Believe it or not, the gnarly, bottom-dwelling lake sturgeon first appeared on the face of the earth about 150 million years ago - when the dinosaurs were still around! Lake Sturgeon can still be found in Wisconsin today. Look closely at the picture and you'll see that sturgeon even look like prehistoric dinosaur fish. Their tail is shark-like with the upper part longer than the lower and their long slate gray/black shape is covered with sharp bony plates all over.
If you want to find sturgeon, look along Wisconsin's major river systems, especially the Lake Winnebago waterway system which holds the largest single concentration of sturgeon in the world. You will also find them along the northern tip of the Wisconsin River, the Mississippi, lower Wisconsin, Chippewa, Flambeau, Manitowish, and Menominee Rivers. Actually, the Wolf/Fox River is thought to be the only place in North America where these spectacular fish can be seen when they spawn in late April into early May. Check out the towns of Shiocton, New London, Northport and Shawano for some excitement as lake sturgeon rendezvous in the deep, cool rivers, waiting to make their move.
When water levels and temperatures are just right, these armor-plated, torpedo-shaped giants come out of their hiding places and head for the river's rocky shallows on outside bends of river banks. Just imagine seeing their tails, sharp backs and snouts sticking out of the water like a shark infestation coming upriver. Here, the current is swelling and slowly roiling and rocks and boulders can be found at a steep angle in the water. In an ancient ritual, shark-like tails thrash the surface waters.
Eggs scatter randomly during spawning but they stick to rocks along the way. Depending on the water temperatures, it takes about 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 will survive long enough to hatch! The eggs make a great snack for crayfish, mud puppies, carp and even adult sturgeon. Eggs can also be in danger from low water levels and fungi. Those that do survive, hatch with an attached yolk sac to provide food for the first 3 weeks. They grow fast and begin to move downstream at night in a large school. At this point they are called "fingerlings" and begin to eat facing upstream to suck up nutritious insect larvae floating by on the bottom. By the end of their first year, the sturgeon has grown to about 2 feet in length. By the sixth year, they are 33 inches long, and at the eighth year they are 40 inches. At 15 years they reach 50 inches long. According to DNR records, in 1953 an 82 year-old sturgeon was speared on Lake Winnebago weighing 168 lb., the oldest ever caught in Wisconsin!
Most female fish spawn (lay eggs) every year, but not the sturgeon. They spawn every 4 or 5 years and they don't begin spawning until they're 25 years old. They come from different lakes and long distances to spawn together, but eventually they return to the lake they came from. In 1994 someone caught a sturgeon on the east coast of Michigan in Saginaw Bay with a tag on it. The fish was originally tagged at Lake Winnebago, which means that this fish traveled a total of 850 miles over 16 years, navigating 14 dams, 17 locks, Lake Michigan, the Straits of Mackinac, and Lake Huron. An amazing migration!
This fascinating fish species is listed as a rare species in the United States and in Wisconsin they are on a "watch" status, closely observed and managed by Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries managers. In the 1860s, sturgeon were looked at as a nuisance to commercial anglers and were deliberately destroyed in large numbers. Then, in the 1870s, people realized that sturgeon were useful for products such as: glue from their skeleton; oil from fat; leather from their tanned skins; roe (eggs) for caviar; and gelatin from their swim bladder, used for liquid clarifyers, jellies and jams. In the 1950s, fish biologists began to study sturgeon populations and spawning sites to help protect and increase their numbers. Today, people volunteer every spring to stand "sturgeon guard" at spawning sites to protect the fish from poachers. They watch in awe from the riverbanks as sturgeon come near shore to spawn. Meet a couple of sturgeon guardians and learn more about these amazing fish. For information on becoming a sturgeon guard, visit the DNR sturgeon guard page (leaves EEK!).
This Fish CAN Dance.
If you'd like to see a sturgeon up close, check out these spots during the spring sturgeon breeding season, (mid-April to early May).
Sturgeon Viewing Spots
Other Fish Viewing Hot Spots
State Record Catch Size: 170 pounds 10 ounces, 79 inches long, Yellow Lake, Burnett County, WI.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Monthly Archives: February 2015
Harmonic Functions
Throughout this course, a connected open subset of $\mathbb{C}$ is called a domain. Suppose that a function $f(z)=u(x,y)+iv(x,y)$ is analytic in a domain $\mathcal{D}$. Then $f(z)$ satisfies the Cauchy-Riemann equations i.e.
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:c-r}
u_x=v_y,\ u_y=-v_x.
\end{equation}
Differentiating the Cauchy-Riemann equations \eqref{eq:c-r} with respect to $x$, we obtain
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:c-r2}
u_{xx}=v_{yx},\ u_{yx}=-v_{xx}.
\end{equation}
Differentiating the Cauchy-Riemann equations \eqref{eq:c-r} with respect to $y$, we obtain
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:c-r3}
u_{xy}=v_{yy},\ u_{yy}=-v_{xy}.
\end{equation}
By the continuity of the partial derivatives of $u(x,y)$ and $v(x,y)$, we have
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:cont}
u_{xy}=u_{yx},\ v_{xy}=v_{yx}.
\end{equation}
Applying \eqref{eq:cont} to \eqref{eq:c-r2} and \eqref{eq:c-r3}, we obtain the Laplace equations:
$$u_{xx}+u_{yy}=0,\ v_{xx}+v_{yy}=0.$$
That is to say, $u(x,y)$ and $v(x,y)$ are harmonic maps in $\mathcal{D}$.
Example. The function $f(z)=e^{-y}\sin x-ie^{-y}\cos x$ is entire (i.e analytic on the complex plane $\mathbb{C}$), so both $e^{-y}\sin x$ and $-e^{-y}\cos x$ are harmonic. (You can of course check it for yourself!)
If two functions $u(x,y)$, $v(x,y)$ are harmonic in a domain $\mathcal{D}$ and their first-order partial derivatives satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations \eqref{eq:c-r} throughout $\mathcal{D}$, $v(x,y)$ is said to be a harmonic conjugate of $u(x,y)$.
Theorem. A function $f(z)=u(x,y)+iv(x,y)$ is analytic in a domain $\mathcal{D}$ if and only if $v(x,y)$ is a harmonic conjugate of $u(x,y)$.
Remark. If $v(x,y)$ is a harmonic conjugate of $u(x,y)$ in some domain, it is not in general true that $u$ is a harmonic conjugate of $v$ there.
Example. Let $u(x,y)=x^2-y^2$ and $v(x,y)=2xy$. Since $f(z)=z^2=(x^2-y^2)+i2xy$ is entire, $v(x,y)$ is a harmonic conjugate of $u(x,y)$. However, $u(x,y)$ cannot be a harmonic conjugate of $v(x,y)$ since $2xy+i(x^2-y^2)$ is not analytic anywhere.
Example. [Finding a harmonic conjugate of a harmonic function] Let $u(x,y)=y^3-3x^2y$ and $v(x,y)$ be a harmonic conjugate of $u(x,y)$. Then it follows from the Cauchy-Riemann equations \eqref{eq:c-r} that $v_y=-6xy$. Integrating this with respect to $y$, we obtain
$$v(x,y)=-3xy^2+\phi(x),$$
where $\phi(x)$ is some unknown function. We determine $\phi(x)$ using $u_y=-v_x$:
$$v_x=-3y^2+\phi'(x).$$
Comparing this with $-u_y=-3y^2+3x^2$, we get $\phi'(x)=3x^2$ and so, $\phi(x)=x^3+C$ where $C$ is a constant. Hence, we find a harmonic conjugate of $u(x,y)$:
$$v(x,y)=-3xy^2+x^3+C,$$
where $C$ is a constant. The corresponding analytic function is
$$f(z)=(y^3-3x^2y)+i(-3xy^2+x^3+C),$$
where $C$ is a constant.


text:
Ugur Kuter, Dana Nau, Marco Pistore, and Paolo Traverso
Although several approaches have been developed for planning in nondeterministic domains, solving large planning problems is still quite difficult. In this work, we present a novel algorithm, called YoYo, for planning in nondeterministic domains under the assumption of full observability. This algorithm enables us to combine the power of search-control strategies as in Planning with Hierarchical Task Networks (HTNs) with techniques from the Planning via Symbolic Model-Checking (SMC). Our experimental evaluation confirms the potentialities of our approach, demonstrating that it combines the advantages of these paradigms.


text:
Summary of: Hauser, R., Probst, R., & Harris, F. P. (1993). Effects of atmospheric pressure variation on spontaneous, transiently evoked, and distortion product otoacoustic emissions in normal human ears. Hearing research, 69(1-2), 133–145. _URL_
Pressure in the middle ear changes along with changes in atmospheric pressure. The tympanic membrane will push inward if atmospheric pressure shifts in the positive direction, or outward if atmospheric pressure shifts in the negative direction. The resulting tympanic membrane distention is a result of a pressure differential across the plane of the tympanic membrane. The pressure differential directly impacts how energy conducts through the middle ear. Since otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) depend on efficient conduction via the middle ear, such pressure differentials influence the measurement of all types of OAEs, including spontaneous (SOAE), transient-evoked (TEOAE), and distortion-product (DPOAE) OAEs. This paper discusses the effect of changes in atmospheric pressure via a pressure chamber on the frequency and amplitude of SOAEs, TEOAEs and DPOAEs within normal-hearing adults. In general, changes in atmospheric pressure reduce the amplitude for all OAE types more in the low frequencies relative to high frequencies, and small changes in atmospheric pressure result in large amplitude reductions below 4 kHz. SOAEs appear to be the most sensitive to pressure changes in the 4 to 5 kHz region. Observed changes in the TEOAE spectrum to pressure variations suggest an increase in stiffness in middle-ear transduction upon the presence of a pressure differential across the tympanic membrane (TM). These results indicate that OAEs are sensitive to ambient pressure changes and as a result, lend credence to the practice of obtaining clinically useful OAE measurements when the pressure differential across the TM is near zero, i.e., at tympanic peak pressure (TPP). Currently, the Titan is the only commercially available OAE device capable of obtaining OAEs at TPP.


text:
To avoid damage caused by rodents, a mechanical block of the animals' access routes into buildings is the most important preventive measure. Some buildings are especially costly or difficult to protect mechanically, and the TxGuardian system provides a solution, an electric "fence", which works even when doors or gates have to be left open. The overall goal of the TxGuardian equipment is to effectively prevent rodents from entering buildings without killing or hurting them. The equipment, as tested in a laboratory setting, was very efficient in demotivating rodents from crossing the electric barriers. The electric shocks received by the mice and rats did not cause pain behaviour beyond the immediate pain nor severe pathoanatomic lesions to the animals.
The use of electricity to protect buildings against rodents - Results from an experimental study
The report summarize results from an experimental study to use electricity to protect buildings against rodents.


During Applied Felts' multi-stage production process, we continually test a number of criteria including density, thickness, fiber distribution evenness, strength and weld-ability of the finished product. Once the liner has been constructed, the material is then coated, using a "single pass" extruded process to ensure there are no pinholes present. During this phase, tests are again conducted to monitor coating uniformity, mass and weight distribution.
Continually checked throughout the process to ensure the product satisfies the specification of your order, the finished liner is then sampled and destructively tested across a variety of quality characteristics, including density at various pressures, tensile strength, coating distribution and more. Finally, samples are cut and tested across several additional criteria to make sure the circumference, density, length, coating integrity, weld strengths and other properties have not been compromised.


text:
The Broadband Development Program focuses on organizing, facilitating, and educating stakeholder groups to increase awareness of the impact of broadband and to support planning and policy to foster broadband deployment in Colorado. The primary goal that drives our efforts is to ensure all Coloradans have access to reliable, cost-effective broadband internet. We also are tasked with the coordination of broadband efforts across all state agencies and strive to facilitate the conversations surrounding broadband development throughout the public and private sectors.
Working with our local and regional partners across the state to support communities in their broadband planning and infrastructure development.
Goal: Ensure that 92% of rural households have broadband access by the end of 2019.
Collect and maintain broadband availability information in order to identify unserved areas, support planning and policy, and support stakeholders.
Goal: Strengthen Map Data Accuracy and Applicability
Working to ensure that all students in Colorado have access to scalable infrastructure, high-speed affordable bandwidth, and ubiquitous
Wi-Fi for digital learning.
Goal: Increase Connectivity and Affordability of K-12 Broadband Services through E-rate


text:
"The Business of Life" by Robert W. Chambers is a captivating exploration of the intricate tapestry that weaves together our personal and professional lives. With its insightful narratives and profound reflections, this book invites readers on a thought-provoking journey to unravel the complexities and find meaning in the everyday challenges we face. Chambers' eloquent prose and keen observations make this a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the human experience.
A Literary Tapestry of Intrigue and Emotion
Chambers' storytelling prowess shines through in "The Business of Life." Each chapter unveils a new episode, a different facet of life, from the bustling streets of New York to the tranquil countryside. The author masterfully blends elements of mystery, romance, and drama, captivating readers with his ability to evoke a range of emotions. From heart-wrenching tragedies to heartwarming triumphs, Chambers presents a literary tapestry that leaves a lasting impression.
Probing the Depths of Human Nature
Delving into the intricacies of human nature, "The Business of Life" offers a profound examination of our desires, ambitions, and the choices we make. Chambers skillfully dissects the characters' motivations, revealing the flaws and virtues that shape their actions. Through this introspective lens, readers are prompted to reflect on their own lives, provoking a deeper understanding of the complexities that drive our daily pursuits.
Unveiling the Duality of Success and Sacrifice
In this captivating narrative, Chambers delves into the notion of success and the sacrifices it often demands. Through a cast of diverse characters, he exposes the trade-offs and compromises that accompany the pursuit of professional achievements. With vivid portrayals and realistic dialogues, the author prompts readers to ponder the true cost of ambition. And invites introspection about one's own definition of success.
Evocative Descriptions and Sensory Delights
Chambers' descriptive prowess brings each scene to life, immersing readers in the sights, sounds, and smells of the world he has created. From the bustling city streets to the serene natural landscapes. His vivid depictions transport readers to a different time and place. The author's ability to evoke sensory experiences heightens the reading pleasure. Thats making "The Business of Life" a literary feast for the imagination.
Themes of Love, Loss, and Redemption
Love, loss, and redemption are central themes interwoven throughout the book. Chambers explores the depths of human relationships, portraying the complexities of romantic entanglements, familial bonds, and friendships. Through his characters' trials and tribulations, he exposes the vulnerability. And resilience of the human spirit, offering glimpses of hope and the possibility of redemption. Even in the face of adversity.
"The Business of Life" by Robert W. Chambers is a timeless reflection on the intricacies of the human condition. With its captivating narratives, profound insights, and evocative descriptions, this book offers a multi-faceted exploration of life's triumphs and tribulations. Chambers' ability to seamlessly blend genres and delve into the depths of human nature makes this a compelling read. That will resonate with readers long after the final page is turned. "The Business of Life" is a literary gem that encourages introspection. It inspires empathy, and leaves an indelible mark on the reader's soul.


text:
Oceans of Wine. Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste
This innovative book examines how, between 1640 and 1815, the Portuguese Madeira wine trade shaped the Atlantic world and American society. David Hancock painstakingly reconstructs the lives of producers, distributors, and consumers, as well as the economic and social structures created by globalizing commerce, to reveal an intricate interplay between individuals and market forces. Wine lovers and Madeira enthusiasts will enjoy Oceans of Wine, as will historians interested in food, colonial trade, and the history of the Atlantic region.
Using voluminous archives pertaining to wine, many of them previously unexamined, Hancock offers a dramatic new perspective on the economic and social development of the Atlantic world by challenging traditional interpretations that have identified states and empires as the driving force behind trade. He demonstrates convincingly just how decentralized the early modern commercial system was, as well as how self-organized, a system that emerged from the actions of market participants working across imperial lines. The networks they formed began as commercial structures and expanded into social and political systems that were conduits not only for wine but also for ideas about reform, revolution, and independence.


configure keychain add key
configure keychain keychain_name add key key_id key-string [text_string {active-lifetime {local} start start_time [end end_time | [duration [seconds | maximum]]]} | encrypted encrypted_string]
Description
This command configures a key to add to a keychain.
Syntax Description
keychain_name Specifies the name of the keychain.
add Specifies adding a key to the keychain.
key Authentication key entry.
key_id Specifies the unique identifier within a keychain. Range is 1-65535.
key-string Specifies the shared secret text string for the key.
text_string Specifies the string. Range is 1-127.
active-lifetime Specifies the time period the key will be active.
local Specifies the time in the local time zone instead of UTC.
start Specifies the start of the time period.
start_time Specifies the date and time the key will become active. Format is YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.
end Specifies the end of the time period.
end_time Specifies the date and time the key will stop being active. Format is YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.
duration Specifies the length of time the key will be active.
seconds Specifies the duration in seconds. Range is 1-_PHONE_.
maximum Specifies that the key will be active for 180 days from the start time.
encrypted Specifies the key string in encrypted form.
encrypted_string Specifies the encrypted string.
Default
N/A
Usage Guidelines
A maximum of 8 keys can be added to a keychain.
The maximum length of a key string is 127 characters.
The maximum validity period of a key is 180 days.
Example
The following command configures the keychain to add an OSPFv3 key:
create keychain ospfv3-keys1
The following command adds a key string to the keychain:
configure keychain ospfv3-keys1 add key 3 key-string auth3
The following command adds additional options to the keychain:
configure keychain ospfv3-keys1 add key 1 key-string auth1 active-lifetime local start 2021-06-01T00:00:00 end 2021-07-01T00:00:00
History
This command was first available in ExtremeXOS 31.3.
Platform Availability
This command is available on ExtremeSwitching 5320, 5420, 5520, and 5720 series switches.


This is a wooden puzzle. The two parts lock together and you give it to a friend, asking him to unlock and separate the two parts. A friend in Germany made this one. When he handed it to me to solve, I could not until he showed me the secret. This Instructable will not only show how the puzzle is solved, but will also show how you can make these to give as gifts, especially at Christmas.
I have learned through a link by Make! Magazine that this is called a Duallock Cross Puzzle and it was invented by Nobuyuki Yoshigahara.
Step 1: How the parts appear separated
Here you see the two halves of the puzzle separated. Each half has a center notch and a hole below it. Internally, there are two holes in each with a piece of dowel pin that can move freely in each hole. The dowel pins are each a bit longer than the center notch. The center notch is the width of the wood's thickness on the parts. I will use some 3/4 inch clear pine.
About This Instructable
216 favorites
Add instructable to:


text:
How to download your pictures from Instagram
For my first blog post, I will be posting a small trick that will enable Instagram users to download images from a desktop browser.
For this tutorial, I will use my own Instagram account to save a picture from the website. To open your Instagram account on a desktop browser, simply add your corresponding URL which looks like _URL_
Make sure you replace your username appropriately in the above URL to access your instagram account on a desktop browser. For those who configured their Instagram account to private, you will need to sign in to see your pictures.
Once loaded, you will see a collection of your posts which looks similar like the image below.
To view the image or video you wish to download, simply click on the image. The post will pop up as shown below.
I clicked on the first image and the image popped up larger in size. At this stage, some people make a screenshot and use picture editing tools such as Paint to get the image. Well, this does not enable you to get the image with the original resolutions.
One way to get download the image with original resolution is to perform the following:
Once you finish the above steps, you will see some lines of code. From here, it will take you seconds to download the image.
The highlighted lines of codes will give you direct access to the image where you can easily download it. Just copy the codes and paste them in a text editor.
To copy the codes, double-click on the highlighted text and press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C to copy.
After you paste it in a text editor like notepad, notepad++ or word, you will now remove unnecessary characters. This is explained furthur below.
The codes look as follows:
Perform the following steps:
That's it. Copy the link and paste it on the address bar. Just right-click and save your desired image to your desktop computer.
Hope you liked it. Feel free to share and follow me on my Instagram account.


Introduction: Electronics Necklace From Headphone Cable
For some time, I've been contemplating how I can make an intelligent, micro-controller-powered necklace, but I hadn't been able to figure out how to make it small enough to be attractive. Even if a microcontroller is small enough to fit in a necklace pendant, the battery to power it usually isn't. Then, I had a revelation: why not store the microcontroller and battery behind my neck/hair, where nobody can see it, and connect the necklace pendant to the microcontroller via a headphone cable? Modern headphone cables might contain 3 or 4 über-thin wires, so I would be able to move power, ground, and two data lines from the microcontroller behind my neck to the pendant hanging in front. Here, I'll show you a little bit about my experiments with headphone wires for wearables.
Step 1: Parts
 - 3-4 headphone cables. The larger (radially) the cables, the easier they will be to work with, but they might look more clunky. Best to get a wide variety.
 - Headphone jack breakout. Something like this, although it's a little large.
 - For this project, I'm using an Arduino Micro, but any Arduino will do, and an Adafruit neopixel
 - Solder, cables, breadboard--the usual
Step 2: Step 1: Break Out the Wires
Measure your neck to determine how long your wire should be. Then cut the headphone wire in half, such that there is NECK_CIRCUMFERENCE/2 wire connected to the headphone jack, and NECK_CIRCUMFERENCE/2 wire of separate headphone cable. I say this about the headphone jack because we'll be using it to control data messages and power on the wires from the microcontroller. Overestimate NECK_CIRCUMFERENCE so that you have some room in case something goes wrong. Strip the wire and see the inner wires as shown above. You might find some structural fibers (the yellow fuzz shown above), which is annoying and gets in the way. Cut it or burn it. Now, the remaining wires are covered in some fiber as well. In their current state, we cannot contact the conductive wires underneath the fiber, so for each fiber-covered-wire, burn the tips for 10 seconds or so until you see silver. This is tough, fume-y, and requires patience.
Step 3: Step 2: Identify Connections
Now you should have one headphone wire with its headphone jack in tact. Plug that jack into the female connector you bought, and using a multimeter, identify which prong on the female jack corresponds to which headphone wire. When you've done this, you're almost done! Except...
Step 4: Step 3: Solder and Done!
Here, I've soldered the headphone cables to this Adafruit neopixel. This is tough because the headphone wires are hard to solder, so use lots of flux, have patience, and keep backups! In my particular project, I soldered wires from one cable to power and signal, and one of the wires from the second cable to ground. I then used the headphone jack as a clasp for the necklace, as well as a switch to turn it on (Power goes from the battery through the neopixel, out through the headphone wire and back to the ground connection of the battery).
Step 5: Suggestions?
This method isn't the easiest/nicest/prettiest/most stable. Thoughts/feedback/improvements?


text:
Srinagar, Feb 14: To strengthen farmer welfare programmes and develop the agriculture sector across Jammu and Kashmir, two state seed certification agencies of Jammu and Kashmir will go digital through the centralised online seed traceability portal SATHI — Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory.
Additional Chief Secretary of the Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo said this during the formal launch of the SATHI portal for Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Atal Dulloo said that to make seed certification more efficient and transparent with provisions for effective monitoring and traceability of seeds, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, conceived and developed a centralised online system 'SATHI' for capturing various parameters such as grower details, seed testing details, lot details, sample details, certification agency, among others of notiied seed varieties.
He highlighted that this move will help farmers to buy quality and genuine seeds besides help in curbing the menace of spurious seed.
The ACS further said that with the help of smart phones, farmers can scan the Quick Response code on the seed pack and various details about the seed will flash on the screen, which will allow farmers to cross-check whether they are buying good quality seeds or not.
He added that the process will not only improve the credibility of seed producers by value addition for seeds in the market but will also help the seed law enforcement authorities to conduct spot assessment of the genuineness of seed and initiate action against offenders.
Dulloo further remarked that with digitisation and traceability in the seed industry, the quality of seed will be effectively monitored and help in better earnings for the farmers.
He added that this digital intervention will strengthen seed exports to developed countries also by ensuring conformity with seed quality and improved efficiency.
The SATHI is a national portal for automation of the entire life cycle of seed, which includes seed production, seed certification, seed traceability and seed supply chain.
Under SATHI, the seed certification system, a process is designed to maintain and make available to the farming community a continuous supply of high quality seeds and plantation material of notified kinds and varieties of crops.


text:
SENER has carried out, in a 50% consortium with IDOM, the design, the project management [+]
Primary Health Care Center and High Resolution Center of Specialties in Córdoba
- Client: Andalusian Regional Goverment
- Country: Spain
- Start date: 2006
- Ending date: 2010
The aim of this Project is the construction of a Primary Health Care Center and a High Resolution Center of Specialties located at the west of Córdoba.
The building is given sustainable design criteria and from the outset, a whole series of bioclimatic elements are integrated that seek maximum use of renewable energies and solar conditions.
This center is proposed as a solution to the population increase of the west of Córdoba, an area in expansion and its purpose is to enhance the development of a Primary Health care, Urgent health care and the single act consultation.
Accordingly to this approach, the main focus of the program for the Center is set on the following areas:
- Emergency Areas
- External Consultation Area
- Diagnostic Area
- Clinical support Area
- Parking for 600 vehicles
The building is oriented mainly towards the street Island of Lanzarote where, starting from a unitary building, the different areas of attention are differentiated, rationalizing so, the horizontal and vertical circulation.
The volumetric composition of the proposal is essentially horizontal. It's been structured by the means of four combs of assistance, three floors high each, which are embraced longitudinally by two opposite aisles, one for the public use and the other one for the staff.
- Conceptual Design
- Geotechnical Report
- Preliminary Design of Architecture, Structures, Electrical, Mecanichal and Data facilities
- Detailed Design of Architecture, Structures, Electrical, Mecanichal and Data facilities
- Urbanization and Access project
- Project and Supervision Site Management
- Waste management study
- Quality Control Plan
- Register Document Control
- Cost and deadline Control
- Teams coordination
- Health and safety coordination
Other programsSee all
EPCM of the Maritime Terminal of Costa Crociere in the Attached Quay of the Port of Barcelona, [+]


text:
WebMD Medical News
Laura J. Martin, MD
Aug. 23, 2010 -- Murine leukemia viruses (MLV), a family of retroviruses known to cause cancer in mice, may be linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a study shows.
The full name of the virus is xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus. It is part of a family of viruses known as murine leukemia viruses (MLV), which is a type of retrovirus known to cause cancer in mice.
The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conflicts with some earlier studies. Several U.S. studies, including a recent report from the CDC and research done in the U.K. and the Netherlands, found no evidence of MLV in the blood of people with CFS. One recent study, however, found evidence of an MLV-related virus called XMRV in blood cells of patients with CFS.
The new study shows that 86.5% of 37 people with CFS had evidence of murine leukemia virus in their blood, as did 6.8% healthy blood donors.
"There is a dramatic association with CFS, [but] we have not determined causality for this agent," said Harvey Alter, MD, chief of clinical studies and associate director for research in the department of transfusion medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., at a news conference. "Other labs have not found this virus, so a dilemma at present is how to reconcile that some labs find the association and others do not."
"We think it is in the patient populations, not the lab testing [contamination causing a false-positive lab result], but the latter has not been completely ruled out," he says.
Steve Monroe, PhD, director of the division of high-consequence pathogens and pathology at the CDC, tells WebMD that the new study "raises as many questions as it answers and there are still a lot of things about this virus that we don't know."
Andrew L. Mason, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, says it's time to act, not point fingers.
There have been several studies showing the presence of this virus in the blood of people with chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer, but other studies have not found it.
"We don't know why that is," he says. "It is baffling, and we need to sort it out rather than ignore it. It's there. Does it cause disease? We don't know, but it's there and that needs to be investigated."
"There is only one way to prove or disprove XMRV's role and that is to do a proper study with antiviral drugs," Mason says. In an editorial accompanying the new study, he suggests studies that compare antiviral drugs with placebo or dummy pills on viral load and CFS symptoms in affected individuals are now feasible.
Such drugs are used to treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and can cause several side effects.
"The drugs are well-tolerated, and we would be justified ethically to see if they work," he tells WebMD. He likens this situation to the now Nobel-prize-winning research that first tested antibiotics to determine if some ulcers are caused by the bacterium H. pylori.
"We didn't know that H. pylori was causative until they tried using medicine and it worked," says Donnica Moore, MD, a women's health expert and president of Sapphire Women's Health Group in Far Hills. N.J.
The issue is a personal one for Moore, whose son was diagnosed with CFS about six years ago. As a result, she has become an outspoken advocate for research into the cause and cures for CFS. Moore is also a spokeswoman for the Whitemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, the group that published a previous report linking XMRV and CFS.
"I hope this study puts to rest any question about the validity of the [findings] and will allow science to move on toward diagnostic, treatments, and causality studies," she says.
SOURCES:Harvey Alter, MD, chief of clinical studies and associate director for research, department of transfusion medicine, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Md.Andrew L. Mason, associate professor, medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Steve Monroe, PhD, director, division of high-consequence pathogens and pathology, CDC, Atlanta.Donnica Moore, MD, president, Sapphire Women's Health Group, Far Hills, N.J.Courgnaud, V. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online Aug. 23, 2010.Lo, S-C. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online Aug. 23, 2010.
Here are the most recent story comments.View All
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of NewsSource 16
The Health News section does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.


text:
Futurepump is a start-up producing solar-powered water pumps
Less than 2% of Kenya's agriculture is irrigated, making subsistence farmers especially vulnerable to drought. The only existing irrigation solutions made available to smallholder farmers are prohibitively expensive Futurepump is solving this problem by introducing the Sunflower pump. The Sunflower pump is a low-cost water pump designed to lift 13,000 litres of fresh water per day from underground reservoirs for irrigation purposes.
SOME KEY POINTS
For irrigation of small farms as an alternative to expensive and polluting mechanical pumps.


) .
Because we chose our initial starting position z_i to be arbitrary, we might as well set it to 0 to obtain a final result of \mathbb{E}[X_n] = n(1 - 2p) .
Let's take a moment to think about this result and make sure it seems reasonable. Suppose p = 0.5 . This would mean we have an equal chance of moving left or moving right. Over the long run we would expect our final position to be exactly where we started. Plugging in p = 0.5 to our equation yields n(1 - 2 \cdot 0.5) = n(1 - 1) = 0 . Just as we expected! What if p = 1 ? This means we only move to the left. Plugging p = 1 into our equation yields n(1 - 2 \cdot 1) = n(-1) = -n . This makes sense! If we can only move to the left then after n steps we would expect to be n steps left of our staring position (the origin as we chose it), the negative direction in our problem setup. We could also choose p to be 0, meaning we only move to the right and we would get n , again just what we would expect!
We can also run a simulation in R to verify our results:
################################################################
# R Simulation
################################################################
# Generate random walk
rand_walk = function (n, p, z) {
 walk = sample(c(-1,1), size=n, replace=TRUE, prob=c(p,1-p))
 for (i in 1:n) {
 z = z + walk[i]
 }
 return(z)
}
n = 1000 # Walk n steps
p = .3 # Probability of moving left
z = 0 # Set initial position to 0
trials = 10000 # Num times to repeate sim
# Run simulation
X = replicate(trials, rand_walk(n,p,z))
# Calculate empirical and theoretical results
empirical = mean(X)
theoretical = n*(1-2*p)
percent_diff = abs((empirical-theoretical)/empirical)*100
# print to console
empirical
theoretical
percent_diff
Printing to the console we see that after 10,000 trials of 1,000 steps each our empirical and theoretical results differ by just 0.046%.
> empirical
[1] _PHONE_
> theoretical
[1] 400
> percent_diff
[1] 0._PHONE_
Finding the Expected Value of the Maximum of n Random Variables
My friend Ryan, who is also a math tutor at UW, and I are working our way through several math resources including Larry Wasserman's famous All of Statistics. Here is a math problem:
Suppose we have n random variables X_1, ...X_n all distributed uniformly, X_i \sim Uniform(0,1) . We want to find the expected value of \mathbb{E}[Y_n] where Y_n = \max\{X_1,..., X_n\} .
First, we need to find the Probability Density Function (PDF) f_Y(y) and we do so in the usual way, by first finding the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) and taking the derivative:
F_Y(y) = P(Y < y)
F_Y(y) = P(\max\{X_1, ..., X_n\} < y)
F_Y(y) = P(X_1,..., X_n < y)
We want to be able to get this step:
F_Y(y) = P(X_1 < y)P(X_2 < y) \cdots P(X_n < y)
But must show independence and we are not give that our X_i 's are in fact independent. Thanks to Ryan for helping me see that by definition:
F_Y(y) = \underset{A}{\idotsint} f_{X_1, \dots, X_n}(y) \,dx_1 \dots dx_n
However, note that in this case f_{X_1, \dots, X_n}(y) is a unit n-cube with area A equal to 1 . In other words f_{X_1, \dots, X_n}(y) = 1 . Our equation then simplifies:
F_Y(y) = \idotsint 1 dx_1 \dots dx_n
F_Y(y) = \int dx_1 \dots \int dx_n = [F_X(y)]^n where X here is a generic random variable, by symmetry (all X_i 's are identically distributed). This is the same answer we would've gotten if we made the iid assumption earlier and obtained F_Y(y) = P(X_1 < y)P(X_2 < y) \cdots P(X_n < y). Originally, I had made this assumption by way of wishful thinking — and a bit of intuition, it does seem that n uniformly distributed random variables would be independent — but Ryan corrected my mistake.
Now that we have F_Y(y) we can find f_Y(y) the PDF.
f_Y(y) = \frac{d}{dy}F_Y(y) = \frac{d}{dy}[F_X(y)]^n
f_Y(y) = n[F_X(y)]^{n-1}f_X(y) by the chain rule.
Recall that the PDF f_X(x) of a X \sim Uniform(0,1) is \frac{1}{b-a} = \frac{1}{1-0} = 1 for x \in [0,1] . And by extension the CDF F_X(x) for a X \sim Uniform(0,1) is:
\int_a^x f(t)dt = \int_a^x \frac{1}{b-a}dt = t\frac{1}{b-a} \bigm|_a^x = \frac{x}{b-a} - \frac{a}{b-a} = \frac{x-a}{b-a} = \frac{x-0}{1-0} = x .
Plugging these values into our equation above (and noting we have F_X(y) not F_X(x) meaning we simply replace the x we just derived with y as we would in any normal function) we have:
f_Y(y) = ny^{n-1} \cdot 1
Finally, we are ready to take our expectation:
\mathbb{E}[Y] = \int_{y\in A}yf_Y(y)dy = \int_0^1 yny^{n-1}dy = n\int_0^1 y^{n}dy = n\bigg[\frac{1}{n+1}y^{n+1}\bigg]_0^1 = \frac{n}{n+1}
Let's take a moment and make sure this answer seems reasonable. First, note that if we have the trival case of Y = \max\{X_1\} (which is simply Y = X_1 ; n = 1 in this case) we get \frac{1}{1+1} = \frac{1}{2} . This makes sense! If Y = X_1 then Y is just a uniform random variable on the interval 0 to 1 . And the expected value of that random variable is \frac{1}{2} which is exactly what we got.
Also notice that \lim_{n\to\infty} \frac{n}{n+1} = 1 . This also makes sense! If we take the maximum of 1 or 2 or 3 X_i 's each randomly drawn from the interval 0 to 1, we would expect the largest of them to be a bit above \frac{1}{2} , the expected value for a single uniform random variable, but we wouldn't expect to get values that are extremely close to 1 like .9. However, if we took the maximum of, say, 100 X_i 's we would expect that at least one of them is going to be pretty close to 1 (and since we're choosing the maximum that's the one we


text:
How do you determine uncertainty?
Uncertainty of a measurement can be determined by repeating a measurement to arrive at an estimate of the standard deviation of the values. Then, any single value has an uncertainty equal to the standard deviation. However, if the values are averaged, then the mean measurement value has a much smaller uncertainty,...
DA: 12 PA: 13 MOZ Rank: 31


text:
A multi-country research and learning initiative to provide rigorous evidence on the impact of large-scale national cash transfer programmes.
Visit the page
Gender-responsive and age-sensitive social protection
Gender and age play a disproportionately large role in how people experience risks, vulnerabilities, and opportunities. A new four-year research programme to understand the intersections of gender inequalities and norms with ages and stages in the life course mean women and girls are at a heightened risk of poverty.


BioStudiesUnknownhttps://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5742348biostudiesfalseStructural Validation of a French Food Frequency Questionnaire of 94 Items.Background:Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are used to estimate the usual food and nutrient intakes over a period of time. Such estimates can suffer from measurement errors, either due to bias induced by respondent's answers or to errors induced by the structure of the questionnaire (e.g., using a limited number of food items and an aggregated food database with average portion sizes). The "structural validation" presented in this study aims to isolate and quantify the impact of the inherent structure of a FFQ on the estimation of food and nutrient intakes, independently of respondent's perception of the questionnaire. Methods:A semi-quantitative FFQ (n?=?94 items, including 50 items with questions on portion sizes) and an associated aggregated food composition database (named the item-composition database) were developed, based on the self-reported weekly dietary records of 1918 adults (18-79 years-old) in the French Individual and National Dietary Survey 2 (INCA2), and the French CIQUAL 2013 food-composition database of all the foods (n?=?1342 foods) declared as consumed in the population. Reference intakes of foods ("REF_FOOD") and nutrients ("REF_NUT") were calculated for each adult using the food-composition database and the amounts of foods self-reported in his/her dietary record. Then, answers to the FFQ were simulated for each adult based on his/her self-reported dietary record. "FFQ_FOOD" and "FFQ_NUT" intakes were estimated using the simulated answers and the item-composition database. Measurement errors (in %), spearman correlations and cross-classification were used to compare "REF_FOOD" with "FFQ_FOOD" and "REF_NUT" with "FFQ_NUT". Results:Compared to "REF_NUT," "FFQ_NUT" total quantity and total energy intake were underestimated on average by 198?g/day and 666 kJ/day, respectively. "FFQ_FOOD" intakes were well estimated for starches, underestimated for most of the subgroups, and overestimated for some subgroups, in particular vegetables. Underestimation were mainly due to the use of portion sizes, leading to an underestimation of most of nutrients, except free sugars which were overestimated. Conclusion:The "structural validation" by simulating answers to a FFQ based on a reference dietary survey is innovative and pragmatic and allows quantifying the error induced by the simplification of the method of collection.S-EPMC5742348


text:
So im up visiting my grandma, and i asked if she had any duckweed growing in her pond so we went out and looked and sure enough she does, so im planning on taking some home for my tanks, but i wanted to know if i need to clean them or not and if so how do i do that? lol i know may be a weird question
Not a weird question at all. Collecting plants from ponds and streams can be a lot of fun. you can also introduce unwanted snails and other parasites unintentionally. There are a couple of ways to disinfect plants, but with floating plants that can be a little more challenging. One method is potassium permangenate. That can be difficult to get hold of and, from personal experience, does not kill snail eggs well. The other common option is to make a bleach dip. Some people use a 5% bleach, others 10% bleach. Here is a pretty good reference link:
Jake's Planted Aquarium Pages | Disinfecting Plants – Before or After
Some plants are bleach-sensitive, so I'd say use two small containers (I use 1-quart plastic wonton soup containers form my local Chinese restaurant!). Separate your duckweed into two groups. One group, do a bleach dip, submerging the duckweed by using a paper towel or rag. Remove the now-bleached duckweed, put it into a plastic container, fill with clean water and add a good amount of dechorinator. Let stand, mixing gently. Drain and replace with some dechlorinated water. Put the now-treated duckweed and untreated container of duckweed into a spot where it gets some light and wait a few days. If it doesn't die, treat the other bunch and add to your tank!
Keep an eye on both treated and untreated containers for snails or other things you might not want in your tank!
The real danger in my view are pathogens, bacteria and parasites. I don't know if the previously-mentioned treatments will kill all of these. One must remember that a pond in nature (whether outdoors in the back garden or in the "wild") has a host of bacteria and microscopic life that cannot be seen. Some of these might be harmful to fish.
For example, one should absolutely never use plants, wood, rock etc from a pond which ducks frequent. I can't remember the particular bacteria, but it is there.
Most fish stores have duckweed in some of their tanks, and would be happy to give some to you. Only last week I brought home several plants in a couple of bags of fish. I keep it (under control) as I like what it does. But from the fish store it will not be any less "safe" than the fish themselves.
Bleach will kill viruses (Ebola on down!) and most non-spore forming bacteria easily at the 5% concentration, but disinfection success does depend on exposure length. Microbiology laboratories use bleach solutions to disinfect surfaces but leave it on for 10 minutes - not good for plants!
There is always a risk of pathogens from fish stores that don't maintain their stock in a healthy manner, but as Byron indicated, the risk of other unusual "stuff" should be reduced by purchasing from an LFS. Forum members may be a good source also! Quarantine of plants is recommended for plants as well as fish after purchasing or wild-collecting!
I prefer hydrogen peroxidethat way there are no traces to be introduced to the tank. (H2O2 decomposes into water and oxygen relatively quickly.)
Also, on the potassium permagranite, try a wal-mart or pet store. There's a product called 'clear water'
that's mostly potassium pomagranate. Add it to water until you get a very purple, yet translucent, solution and soak the plants for a few hours, or for more durable plants, overnight.
Also kills snail eggs, and adds quite an interesting touch to wild-found driftwood. (Doesn't dye it purple, but darkens it to almost black)
Hmmm... I might have to try that on some pieces. Thanks for the tip. ;-)
Not sure I like the sound of that. If this product kills anything like bacteria and snail eggs, I would not want it leeching out of wood in a fish tank. Presumably it colours the wood by staining it, so this would be a concern.
I agree, Would be very careful adding anything like that to my tank. Fish first, plants, wood later.
Well i was thinking maybe set up my 10 gallon and put it in there with all new water besides the little bit of water thats in the bag with it right now, so this way once it starts to take over my tank i can take some out at a time and add it to my other tanks, my tought is that there isnt going to be anything else in this tank so eventually all those other small things die off, i can see them when i look at the bag of duckweed under some bright light, yucky in my opinion lol
I use this to kill anything on plants I get from outside auctions that I bring home.
Alumin the spice rack at grocery stores like a white powder
Prepare 1 gal. of water to 2 TBS. of Alum soak for 2-3 days then rinse well before planting in tanks.
This is what I use to kill snails or algae on aquarium decorations
19 prt/water to 1 prt bleach 2 min. soak/ rinse well before adding to tanks.
Are you sure you want duckweed as it grows like crazy in tanks. I got some( Salvia Minima)- Looks like duckweed but has larger leaves so it is easy to remove in tanks unlike duckweed.
I took down my outside tub pond and have a little bit of it I can send you. I do not have alot but it will grow and expand once it starts to grow for you.(PM) me if you want some in an envelop sent priority mail.
|All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:00 AM.|
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2


text:
On 28 October 2019 the Africa-China Reporting Project (ACRP) hosted the Open Forum: Key Voices on Digital Identity and Data Privacy at Wits University. The following is a summary of the main themes discussed at the event.
- Thea Anderson: Policy Director, Omidyar Network
- Liesl Muller: Attorney, Statelessness Unit, Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme, Lawyers for Human Rights
- Kim Dancey: Head Payments Risk, FirstRand Rest of Africa and India
- John Carneson: Former head of policy, strategy, planning and evaluation at South African Home Affairs
- Professor Jane Duncan: Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of Johannesburg
- Professor Keith Breckenridge: Wits Institute For Social & Economic Research
- Grace Mutung'u: Associate, Kenya ICT Action Network
The meaning of digital identity is complex
Digital ID refers to one's ability to prove who you say you are through technological means. There are however differing ideas of what makes 'good' or credible ID, across states as well as sectors.
Countries have their own laws over which ID documents are deemed credible with limited standardisation between them. This is because there are multiple ways to prove 'who you are' such as biometrics (like finger print identity, iris scans), mobile phone numbers, bank cards, national IDs, PINs or personal questions. The digital space has also opened the possibility of verifying one's identity through social habits – like social media accounts, school records and e-commerce history – that provides granular information that a government-issued ID or utility bill cannot. At the same time some authorities still require proof of a person's identity through others who can vouch for them (like a village, chief, employer, place of worship).
Variations in what constitutes 'good ID' are also due to the differing interests in utilising it. For example banking institutions require information to monitor their clients in order to avoid reputational and financial risks; meanwhile states have the responsibility of regulating populations and movement along increasingly porous borders.
The social impacts (cultural, historical, economic and security)
Digital ID is also creating new ideas of what society means. The use of identification is increasingly creeping into daily life in order to access services (such as healthcare and grants) and to participate in social life. In fact the digital space is also where a person can construct how they are 'seen', as a self-defined identity. This leads to a debate over what it means to be under-identified versus over-identified across various platforms.
Cultural sensitivities are important in the African context. Identities already exist from a cultural and ancestral perspective (i.e. how one's community knows or refers to them may differ from what is formally captured). Yet the decision over what aspect of identity and how one's background is utilised, as well as who is deemed as 'undesirable', depends on the state and institutions in question. This leaves the question over whether nationality laws – that are often historically inherited – fit the local culture and society adopting it. Historical sensitivities are also important. For instance, the use of fingerprints and photos in 'pass books' was a means of racial segregation under apartheid South Africa.
Other relevant discussion points included:
- The use of digital forms of ID as social progress or a new means of control
- What are citizens' rights? There are concerns over giving away personal data (that could be sold off to corporates) but also fear of not receiving services by denying such information
- Whether it is safe to have one system/ administration as a 'keeper of all things' (data). More broadly, is technology the only solution?
- Security considerations highlight the implications of increased surveillance, the transfer of technology to authoritarian African states and concern over data protection and fraud. Indeed as the digital identity space expands and more people get involved, so will breaches become more likely
- The reality of being blacklisted and unable to access employment, as well as being wrongly blacklisted and then the difficulties of undoing this process
- The use of data for political purposes (such as the exposure of political figures through emails and bank accounts)
Issues of access and 'statelessness'
The discussion on access needs to go deeper than the digital space, as many citizens on the African continent still have no access to a national identity. Close to 1.1 billion people do not have access to formal identification across the world. Half of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover the majority are children who have no formal identification from birth.
There is the case of the Nubians in Kenya, for example, who live in the country yet are not recognised by it. Addressing administrative justice should precede the migration of identity online. Likewise access to mobile money, an increasing trend in East Africa, also requires access to mobile devices.
The very steps of modernizing ID systems could itself cause statelessness, as the criteria to prove one's citizenship and identity becomes more stringent. There needs to be clear and conscious application of digital ID, in order to avoid discrimination.
Important duties of the state were outlined at the event. John Carneson (Former head of policy, strategy, planning and evaluation at South African Home Affairs) mentioned that:
- No African should be required to travel more than four hours to access services related to identity
- There needs to be an open information policy, available in all required languages
- Government policies require regular scrutiny and public engagement
Who owns the process and whose responsibility is it?
The Open Forum highlighted differing views of what institutions and who should be responsible for ensuring ethical use of digital ID – and moreover, who should hold them accountable. For instance, some participants suggested that intermediaries like banks are important actors to bring about harmonization of digital ID between countries. It was also suggested that the input of neutral intermediaries, such as lawyers and journalists, were required in mediating the ties between governments and citizens. There is clearly no agreement regarding the process.
The media's role
In closing, the participants were asked how the media and journalists could be more active in this space. The suggestions included:
- To be aware of the risks involved in covering such topics
- They should be neither overly positive nor negative in their reporting but realists regarding the issue
- To include more collaboration between journalists and experts
- The appeal to journalists to keep actors in this space honest and accountable
- To do their background homework, such as look into other country examples and approaches. To start to build expertise in this area
- To remember the social effects and cultural sensitivities when reporting on digital ID