From the outset, the RSV Aurora Australis was designed as a floating scientific platform. Many scientists had input into the design and placement of her working and laboratory spaces, and she has hosted hundreds of scientific research projects over her many years at sea.
Antarctic science is not limited to what happens on the shore, though this is important. Collecting specimens of seawater, sea creatures, temperature and chemical measurements, atmospheric science and mapping the seafloor are all critical parts of Antarctic research. The science programs conducted onboard the Aurora Australis reach from the ocean depths to the upper reaches of our planet's atmosphere.
The stern (back end) of the ship has large-scale trawling equipment, like a fishing vessel, which is used to collect biological specimens. On her forward (front) starboard side is a special door for the deployment of a large instrument called a conductivity-temperature-depth profiler (CTD). The CTD drops into the ocean and collects seawater at various levels for study of ocean water temperature, salinity, microscopic sea life and other data that measure the health of the ocean water and its inhabitants.
Multiple spaces across the ship allow projects to set up for meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic (physical, chemical and biological) research.
Not limited to collecting samples and data, the AA has facilities for storing and transporting a range of scientific specimens back to Australia for further work, including precious ice cores collected on the Antarctic continent under very difficult (and sometimes dangerous) conditions.
And of course, many zoologists and biologists have travelled to Antarctica and Macquarie Island on board the AA to study fish, seal, penguin and other seabird populations, adding to our knowledge of Antarctic ecosystems.
As the Australian Antarctic Program's "fifth station", the Aurora Australis has been a critical part of Australian Antarctic scientific research for over 30 years.
Get involved
Love the Aurora Australis? There are many ways to contribute such as volunteering, sharing your story with us, donations and more. Find out more here.
Get involved


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New high-speed technology 3D-prints complex objects and biological cells using holographic ultrasound
Feb. 14, 2023.
1 min. read Interactions
A radical new high-speed 3D printing process can print objects, solid particles, gel beads and even biological cells. The new process uses multiple acoustic holograms to generate pressure fields.
The research paves the way for creating novel 3D cell culture and for other biomedical tissue engineering, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and Heidelberg University.
With conventional additive manufacturing, objects are slowly constructed one line or layer at a time and mechanical or chemical stress is applied to biological structures.
Potential 3D printing breakthrough in biomedical engineering and rapid prototyping
The scientists have demonstrated how to form a 3D object in a single step, using shaped ultrasound (high-frequency sound waves commonly used for medical imaging tests). The process uses multiple acoustic holographic fields that drive a contactless assembly of solid micro-particles, hydrogel beads, and biological cells inside standard labware.
The process is promising for rapid prototyping, most notably biofabrication, since conventional methods are typically slow and apply mechanical or chemical stress on biological cells.
The researchers suggest that their technology is a promising method of forming cell cultures and tissues in 3D, because ultrasound is gentle and can travel deep into biological tissue. The structures can also be fixed (held in place) via gelation of the surrounding medium, assembling different classes of matter — solid particles, biological cells, and hydrogel beads — into 3D shapes in one shot.
In contrast to previous work, this approach handles matter with positive acoustic contrast and does not require opposing waves, supporting surfaces or scaffolds.
Science Advances paper (open access): Compact holographic sound fields enable rapid one-step assembly of matter in 3D

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


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Mitochondrial DNA analysis of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat–Skagerrak Seas and off the west coast of Norway
- Cite this article as:
- Wang, J. & Berggren, P. Marine Biology (1997) 127: 531. doi:10.1007/s002270050042
- 152 Downloads
Incidental mortality of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, from captures in fishing gear has been documented consistently as severe in some European waters. Since fishing effort varies greatly among regions, management units must be defined for more effective conservation of this species. In this study, analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction fragments was performed to investigate the population structure of harbour porpoises in the Baltic Sea, the joint Kattegat–Skagerrak Seas and off the west coast of Norway. Mitochondrial DNA of 65 harbour porpoises collected from three regions was analysed with nine restriction enzymes. Analysis of the heterogeneity in the frequency distribution of haplotypes among provisional subpopulations revealed significant differences, which supports the recognition of three different subpopulations and thus three separate management units. Furthermore, indices of haplotypic diversity (range: 0.211 to 0.628) and nucleotide diversity (range: 0.070 to 0.168) of these provisional subpopulations were much lower than for western North Atlantic subpopulations, which is consistent with the view that harbour porpoises in European waters, particularly in the Baltic Sea, are depleted.


text: This paper presents a numerical investigation of the hydrodynamic performance of a modified sandglass-type FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) with different geometrical parameters. The influence of the roll damping plate on heave and pitch motions of the FPSO was studied in regular waves. To estimate the hydrodynamic performance and utilize the results on the design stage of the FPSO, the boundary element method (BEM) was used. Furthermore, the hydrodynamic performance of two cylindrical and sandglass-type FPSOs under the same conditions was compared in different waves. Five sandglass-type FPSOs with dissimilar inclination angles were utilized with the constant draft. The effects of different inclination angles, including various radii of water-plane part of the floating object on hydrodynamic responses and wave forces applied to the FPSO, were investigated, and presented here. Numerical results were compared against published experimental data of a sandglass-type model, and good agreement was achieved. Based on the simulation results, a conclusion that a sandglass-type FPSO with the inclination angle of 35 degrees proposes proper hydrodynamic performance in both heave and pitch motions for all ranges of wave frequencies was reached. In addition, as it was predicted, the effect of heading sea on a sandglass-type FPSO was significant compared to other wave directions. Finally, by adding a damper plate to the floor of the platform, its hydrodynamic performance is improved. For numerical analysis of the modified FPSO, three different damper sizes are used to investigate its effect on the reduction of the pitch motion amplitude in waves.


Introducing dspec
With all the recent focus on baseline grids, keylines, and spacing markers from Android's material design, I found myself wondering how I could make it easier to check the correctness of my Android UI implementation against the intended spec.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could easily provide the spec values as input and get it rendered on top of your UI for comparison? Enter dspec, a super simple way to define UI specs that can be rendered on top of Android UIs.
Design specs can be defined either programmatically through a simple API or via JSON files. Specs can define various aspects of the baseline grid, keylines, and spacing markers such as visibility, offset, size, color, etc.
Baseline grid, keylines, and spacing markers in action.
Baseline grid, keylines, and spacing markers in action.
Given the responsive nature of Android UIs, the keylines and spacing markers are positioned in relation to predefined reference points (e.g. left, right, vertical center, etc) instead of absolute offsets.
The JSON files are Android resources which means you can easily adapt the spec according to different form factors e.g. different specs for phones and tablets. The JSON specs provide a simple way for designers to communicate their intent in a computer-readable way.
You can integrate a DesignSpec with your custom views by drawing it in your View's onDraw(Canvas) method. But the simplest way to draw a spec on top of a view is to enclose it in a DesignSpecFrameLayout—which can take an designSpec XML attribute pointing to the spec resource. For example:
<DesignSpecFrameLayout
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="match_parent"
 app:designSpec="@raw/my_spec">
 ...
</DesignSpecFrameLayout>
I can't wait to start using dspec in some of the new UI work we're doing Firefox for Android now. I hope you find it useful too. The code is available on Github. As usual, testing and fixes are very welcome. Enjoy!
Got something to add? Find me on Twitter and Google+


_USER_{NBERw4332, title = "Demographic Factors and Real House Prices", author = "Richard K. Green and Patric H. Hendershott", institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type = "Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number = "4332", year = "1993", month = "April", doi = {10.3386/w4332}, URL = "_URL_ abstract = {Real house prices are directly determined by the willingness of households to pay for (and willingness of builders to supply) a constant-quality house. Changes in the quantity of housing demanded will affect real prices only to the extent that the long-run housing supply schedule is positively sloped. In this paper we use 1980 census data to measure the impact of the age structure and real income per household on the willingness of households to pay for a constant quality house. Extrapolating these variables forward to 2010, we conclude that evolving demographic forces are likely to raise real house prices. not lower them.}, }


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See also: carinatae
- (dated) A taxonomic subclass within the class Aves – Birds having a pronounced keel-like sternum, to which muscles used in flight attach.
- A taxonomic clade within the class Aves – Birds descended from a certain common ancestral type of bird, possibly having a keel-like sternum and other bone-structure characteristics.
- Bird lineage remains particularly unsettled, so the definition and relationships of Carinatae is subject to revision and the name may become disused.
- (subclass): Eukaryota - superkingdom; Animalia - kingdom; Bilateria - subkingdom; Deuterostomia - infrakingdom; Chordata - phylum; Aves - class; Saurornithes - informal group; Ornithothoraces, Ornithurae - clades

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Is there an algorithm for generating (some or all) subfields of a certain genus of a given function field (even a random one,I mean for example generating a random elliptic subfield of a certain given function field). I did a quick search and it seems to me that the problem is heavily treated in the case of cyclic and Hermitian function fields, but I was wondering what do we know in general case. Is there something that I can do in Magma?
On the other hand, do we have an algorithm to check if $F$ is a subfield of $E$, When $F, E$ are function fields (of one variable)? Florian Hess told me that somebody developed such an algorithm using his automorphism algorithm but I don't have much luck finding it.
In order to stick to the tradition, I give a motivation also: Subfields of function fields with a rich automorphism group are subject to cover attack in cryptography when they are not one of those few which are fixed by an automorphism of the cover.
Thank you very much indeed!
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This seems to be a hard problem. For example, given curves $C,E$ over a finite field, with $E$ elliptic, the zeta function of a given curve $C$ will reveal whether there exists a morphism $C\to E$, via Tate's theorem that $Hom(Jac(C),E)\otimes Z_l$ is the module of Galois-invariants in $Hom(T_l(Jac(C),T_l(T)$ (here $T_l$ is the $l$-adic Tate module). However, it's difficult to make Tate's theorem effective. OTOH a general curve will have no morphisms to any other curve of positive genus, so I'm not sure what you mean by "a random one". – inkspot Feb 26 '11 at 10:55
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The solutions to the subfield problem in the case of number fields should pretty much work here as well. For example, take primitive elements of $E$ and $F$ (random elements should do), find their minimal polynomials over $K[t]$ (solve linear system), find a completion of $K[t]$ over which both polynomials have a factor (find a prime ideal with solutions and use Hensel's lemma), and finally, you can use LLL to try to express the first element as a linear combination of powers of the second. For other methods for number fields, which have function field analogues, see Cohen. – Dror Speiser Feb 26 '11 at 15:09

@Dror, there is no canonical $t$. – Felipe Voloch Feb 26 '11 at 21:01

@Drar, As Felipe said, exactly the problem is that $K(t)$ is not as good as $\mathbb{Q}$ for number fields. This is why automorphism group is richer than the Galois group and why it's harder to be computed. I think the use of Hess's automorphism algorithm is to check all the (non-canonical but isomorphic)possible ways of embedding of $F$ in $E$ and check if it's work but I don't know the detail. – Syed Feb 26 '11 at 21:08

@Inkspot I don't get "a general curve will have no morphisms to any other curve of positive genus" part. If $F$ is a subfield of $F$ then there's morphism from the defining curve of $F$ to the defining curve of $E$. Isn't in second chapter of Silverman? By random, I mean given function field $F$. Is there a way to generate a subfield of it, of given genus. As much as I understand you say there's no subfield other than rational subfields (of genus zero)? – Syed Feb 26 '11 at 21:18
2 Answers 2
up vote 4 down vote accepted
The algorithm to embed function fields, ie. to test if a function field E can be embedded into a function field F has been developed (and implemented in Magma) by a student of Florian Hess: Gerriet Möhlmann as part of his Diploma work. His thesis (in German) can be found at _URL_ The method is an extension of Florian's automorphism algorithm, in Magma, it is available through the Inclusions command.
To generate function fields of a given genus there are a few possibilities, none of them worked out completely. If the field can be obtained as an Abelian extension (eg. (hyper)elliptic curves have a degree 2 model) then class field theory can be used to generate all such fields. Similar, soluble exxtensions can be constructed this way. For general extensions, one could use Hunter's theorem to get bounds on the valuations of a primitive element and then enumerate all polynomials that might have such roots. Both methods have in common that they produce too many field extensions that correspond to isomorphic curves. The class field theoretic approach has the advantage of being available through Magma.... (I can provide details if anyone is interested)
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Here is an algorithm (horribly inefficient) to generate all non-hyperelliptic, non-rational, separable subfields of a non-hyperelliptic function field $F$ over a finite field $K$. Let $\Omega$ be the space of global holomorphic differentials of $F/K$. For any $K$-subspace $V$ of $\Omega$, choose a basis $v_1,\ldots,v_m$ of $V$, compute the elements $v_j/v_1,j>1$ of $F$ (and compute the algebraic relations among these $v_j$), let $E_V$ be the subfield they generate. If $E_V \ne F$ and is not rational, then you found a subfield as above. All such subfields will appear this way (proof left to the reader). There are only finitely many such $V$ since $K$ is assume finite.
Don't even dream of implementing this algorithm as is. Using the numerator of the zeta function, its factors and the Cartier operator, you can perhaps cut down the number of $V$'s that need to be tested. Maybe hyperelliptic subfields can be dealt with by using quadratic differentials.
If Florian Hess can't do it, you are probably out of luck, as far as implementation goes.
Added later: For a hyperelliptic subfield of genus $>1$, one still has a subspace $V$ but the corresponding $E_V$ is the canonical rational subfield of the hyperelliptic field. In this case, the field will be intermediate between $F$ and $E_V$ and perhaps the suggestion of Dror Speiser of using number field arguments might lead to it. It's the elliptic fields that are going to be hard to get.
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1
"It's the elliptic fields that are going to be hard to get." Exactly, although Tate's theorem can be used effectively to exclude them. But if they are there, then Tate tells you what they are, but does not even bound the degree of the morphism $C\to E$. – inkspot Feb 27 '11 at 11:46
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text:
From Series: "Words in Red: Seven Last Sayings from the Cross"
Join us as we explore the final words spoken by Jesus Christ before his death. Each of the seven sayings offers profound insight into the character and heart of Jesus, highlighting his love, forgiveness, and concern for humanity. In your Bible, the words of Christ are often marked red, not only to set them apart, but also because of the red blood he shed for you. Let's delve deeper into the significance of these powerful words and their relevance to our lives today.


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Exploiting the definitions of pattern using methods and concepts in garment and building construction, the goal of this project is to produce a new type of surface that exists somewhere between the rigid modular assembly of the wall and the body-specific garment. A broader definition of architecture is examined, which implies a variety of interactions with our built environment and the ability to challenge our own bodies, as well as how we relate to each other. This is not an attempt to make a surface that can literally be applied to both body and space, but to make a new type of skin that challenges interaction with the surroundings.
Methods in patterning are explored based on two definitions: pattern as a model for reproduction; and twoand three-dimensional patterns as a visual recognition and/or a systematic arrangement through material properties and connections. Pattern-making as a model for reproduction inherently implies a prefabricated and standardized system, within which the ideal of production efficiency can be paired with customization. Systematic arrangement and visual recognition are inherent in typical construction methods because of the repetitive assembly of standardized parts.
Beginning with the cube as both a basic building block and an elemental architectural volume, it is deconstructed; its surface is unfolded and manipulated, creating new patterns for building components. Initially, the patterns are developed in heavy paper and three new modules are formed and assembled in aggregations - both as homogeneous arrays and as complex, heterogeneous fabrics. Based on the material properties and behaviors in paper, the patterns are tested for layout efficiencies, feasibility for production in a variety of materials, connective ability and overall visual impression. Ultimately, these pattern developments result in the fabrication of a self-structured surface from light-gauge aluminum with a variety of speculative applications.
[selected photos: Albert Chao]

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Having problems opening an ABK file?
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Opening ABK files
Did your computer fail to open an ABK file? We explain what ABK files are and recommend software that we know can open or convert your ABK files.
What is an ABK file?
Files that contain the .abk file extension usually contain backup files that may be associated with a variety of different software applications. These files contain a backup copy of a file that is currently in use by another software application.
The ABK file format is also used to recover files that have been lost due to computer crashes or corruption of a computer file due to virus attacks or hardware malfunctions. Popular applications that use the ABK file format for backup file purposes include the CorelDRAW and Avigo software programs.
The Need for Speed gaming software also uses the .abk file suffix. These ABK files contain audio files that are used by the application during a user's gameplay.
Try a universal file viewer
Try a universal file viewer like Free File Viewer. It can open over 200 different types of files - and most likely yours too. Download Free File Viewer here.
About File Extension ABK
File.org aims to be the go-to resource for file type- and related software information. We spend countless hours researching various file formats and software that can open, convert, create or otherwise work with those files.
If you have additional information about the ABK file format or software that uses files with the ABK suffix, please do get in touch - we would love hearing from you.


text:
China has launched an app that aims to reduce the spread of coronavirus by alerting users when they've been in close proximity to someone with the illness. According to a report in Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, the app — named the Close Contact Detector — lets users check their status by scanning a QR code using an app such as Alipay, WeChat or QQ. They will then be directed to enter their name and government ID number, and can check the status of three other ID numbers.
According to Xinhua, "close contact" includes people who work together, share a classroom or live in the same house, as well as medical professionals working with patients, and passengers on mass transit. If the app determines a user has been in close proximity to someone who has or is showing symptoms of the virus, they will be instructed to stay at home.
Xinhua has not disclosed exactly how the government-developed app works, nor how it determines the risk of exposure. However, the news agency reports that it has received support from several government agencies including the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Transport, China Railway and the Civil Aviation Administration of China to ensure "accurate, reliable and authoritative data."
The app's requirement for ID numbers as raised some concerns with privacy critics — the Chinese government is well-known for conducting high levels of surveillance on its citizens. Others, however, maintain that stemming the spread of the virus — so far responsible for more than 1,000 deaths — outweighs the need for individual privacy.


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This photo of the Campbell's Covered Bridge Marker was captured by Vincent Flores of Greer in 2010. The inscription on the marker reads:
This bridge, built in 1909, is the last extant covered bridge in S.C. Built by Charles Irwin Willis (1878–1966), it was named for Alexander Lafayette Campbell (1836–1920), who owned and operated a grist mill here for many years. Measuring 35 feet long and 12 feet wide, it is an excellent example of a four-span Howe truss, featuring diagonal timbers and vertical iron rods.


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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Risk-based design of horizontal curves with restricted sight distance Ibrahim, Shewkar El-Bassiouni
Current geometric design guides provide deterministic standards where the safety margin of the design output is generally unknown and there is little knowledge on the safety implications of deviating from these standards. Several studies have advocated probabilistic geometric design where reliability analysis can be used to account for the uncertainty in the design parameters and to provide a risk measure of the degree of deviation from design standards. In reliability analysis, this risk is represented by the probability of non-compliance (Pnc) defined as the probability that the supply exceeds the demand. However, there is currently no link between measures of design reliability and the quantification of safety using collision frequency. The analysis presented in this thesis attempts to incorporate a reliability-based quantitative risk measure in the development of Safety Performance Functions (SPFs). The thesis considers the design of horizontal curves, where non-compliance occurs whenever the available sight distance (ASD; supply) falls short of the stopping sight distance (SSD; demand). The inputs of SSD are random variables and appropriate probability distributions were assumed for each. A comprehensive database for the Trans-Canada Highway was used to compute the probability of non-compliance (Pnc) for 100 segments of horizontal curves. Several Negative Binomial (NB) Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) were developed and the predicted collisions were found to increase with risk (Pnc) and that the rate of increase varies by severity level. The likelihood ratio test showed that the inclusion of a risk parameter (Pnc) has generated better predictive models that have significantly outperformed the traditional models. Further, a spatial analysis was carried out which showed that the spatial models were successful in overcoming potential model misspecification resulting from incorporating only exposure and Pnc in the SPFs as relevant covariates might have been omitted. The optimization of cross-section design to minimize the risk associated with restricted sight distance was also considered using a multiple objective function that involves new Collision Modification Factors (CMFs) incorporating Pnc. The results indicated that accounting for the random variations due to drivers' behavior proactively at the design stage would decrease collisions in addition to achieving an overall risk reduction.
Item Citations and Data
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International


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Large-Scale Spinning Approach to Engineering Knittable Hydrogel Fiber for Soft Robots
mediaposted on 19.10.2020, 12:12 by Xiangyu Duan, Jingyi Yu, Yaxun Zhu, Zhiqiang Zheng, Qihua Liao, Yukun Xiao, Yuanyuan Li, Zipan He, Yang Zhao, Huaping Wang, Liangti Qu
Efforts to impart responsiveness to environmental stimuli in artificial hydrogel fibers are crucial to intelligent, shape-memory electronics and weavable soft robots. However, owing to the vulnerable mechanical property, poor processability, and the dearth of scalable assembly protocols, such functional hydrogel fibers are still far from practical usage. Herein, we demonstrate an approach toward the continuous fabrication of an electro-responsive hydrogel fiber by using the self-lubricated spinning (SLS) strategy. The polyelectrolyte inside the hydrogel fiber endows it with a fast electro-response property. After solvent exchange with triethylene glycol (TEG), the maximum tensile strength of the hydrogel fiber increases from 114 kPa to 5.6 MPa, far superior to those hydrogel fiber-based actuators reported previously. Consequently, the flexible and mechanical stable hydrogel fiber is knitted into various complex geometries on demand such as a crochet flower, triple knot, thread tube, pentagram, and hollow cage. Additionally, the electrochemical-responsive ionic hydrogel fiber is capable of acting as soft robots underwater to mimic biological motions, such as Mobula-like flapping, jellyfish-mimicking grabbing, sea worm-mimicking multi-degree of freedom movements, and human finger-like smart gesturing. This work not only demonstrates an example for the large-scale production of previous infeasible hydrogel fibers, but also provides a solution for the rational design and fabrication of hydrogel woven intelligent devices.


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of the arbitration will often be in the same jurisdiction as the relevant arbitral body. Its therefore worthwhile considering the laws of London and Singapore in this regard.
Both London and Singapore have robust laws related to arbitration, grounded in the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. Both are also parties to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the "New York Convention") so that Awards issued in London and Singapore should be enforceable in other jurisdictions that are party to the New York Convention.
Parties to arbitrations seated in both London and Singapore can also, if necessary, rely on an effective court system experienced in, knowledgeable and supportive of international arbitration. In both jurisdictions there are many decisions which show that the courts will strive to uphold arbitration agreements, enforce foreign awards and express a public policy that the decision of contracting parties to arbitrate their disputes should be upheld and given effect except in the most extreme situations.
Singapore is constantly evolving in order to ensure that it remains at the forefront as an arbitration friendly jurisdiction. For example:
- It has made regular amendments to the Singapore International Arbitration Act, including in 2012, 2016, 2019 and 2020. The most recent amendments which came into force on 7 December 2020 include provisions addressing:
- a default procedure for appointment of arbitrators in multi-party arbitrations; and
- express recognition of a tribunal and the Singapore High Court's power to enforce confidentiality obligations.
- In 2018 the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) was empowered to hear cases related to international arbitration and has heard a number of such cases.
The UK's departure from the EU is unlikely to impact its status as an arbitration friendly jurisdiction. If anything, it may improve the UK's position because it will likely allow scope for the courts to issue anti suit injunctions when litigation is commenced in an EU jurisdiction in breach of an arbitration agreement.
As a result, there is little to choose between the two jurisdictions in which an LCIA or SIAC arbitration may be seated and this is unlikely to be a determining factor in selecting one over the other.
Rights of Appeal
This is one issue where there is a clear difference between Singapore law and English law. However, in the context of LCIA Arbitration, it is unlikely to be a material factor for the reasons explained below.
Under English law, a party to arbitration proceedings may, unless otherwise agreed by the parties and with leave of the court, appeal to court on a question of law arising out of an award made in the arbitration proceedings (section 69, Arbitration Act 1996).
No similar right exists under Singapore's International Arbitration Act. Therefore, in England, a losing party in an arbitration potentially has another opportunity to put its case if it doesn't agree with the tribunal on a point of law.
However, the LCIA Rules expressly exclude this right to appeal to court, so this is not an important factor of difference between LCIA and SIAC. That said, for arbitrations seated in London and conducted under other rules or ad hoc, it may be a relevant factor.
Differences between the LCIA an SIAC Rules of Arbitration
The rules of arbitration of the respective arbitral bodies may be a relevant factor in deciding which arbitral body to use, though recently the differences between the LCIA and SIAC Rules have been reduced. For example, the LCIA published an update to its Rules which came into force in October 2020 which addressed a number of issues that were already covered in previous updates to the SIAC Rules and aligns them more closely (e.g. issues in connection with consolidation of claims and early determination of claims).
Notwithstanding the above, minor differences certainly remain between the LCIA and SIAC Rules. See for example the points outlined in section 2, (Speed: How quickly can you get your Award?) above, including the availability of the expedited procedure under SIAC. However, given the recent updates in most cases the differences between the rules are unlikely to be a significant factor in selecting one arbitral body over the other.
We note that SIAC are currently reviewing their Rules, which they do on a regular basis, and plans to publish a new version of its Rules in the third quarter of 2021. We will provide a further update on the new changes once published.
In addition to the factors outlined above, there may of course be other factors specific to particular parties that are relevant to the choice of arbitral venue. For example, the location of the parties and key witnesses or a desire to have the perception of a neutral venue where neither of the parties is located will often be key considerations in a particular case.
If these additional factors that are specific to the parties do not weigh heavily in favour of a particular arbitration venue, our conclusion from the issues discussed in this article is that a lot of the factors are relatively equal between the LCIA and SIAC. However, in terms of cost and speed to get your arbitration award there are slight differences and, based on the available published information, Singapore appear to have the edge in terms of both cost and speed. That said, both venues obviously offer excellent options for the conduct of international arbitration disputes.
About the Author
Simon Jones is a Partner of Mercatis Law Asia LLP and has over 16 years' experience handling disputes and international arbitrations in the energy and commodities sectors.
Please call him on +65 8922 6192 or click here to email him to discuss anything contained in this Client Alert or any other related queries.
The information contained in this Client Alert is intended to be a general guide only and not to be comprehensive, nor to provide legal advice. You should not rely on the information contained in this Client Alert as if it were legal or other professional advice.


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Positive Words That Starts With F. You know sometimes when you want a word in a particular sentence but just can't think of exactly the right one? You don't have all day (or year!) to go through the dictionary but just need someone to give you a few ideas. Here we have a list of inspirational adjectives and nice words that start with the letter F. This is a great resource for teachers, quizzers or even people writing appraisals. It's also very useful for crossword compilers or enthusiasts.
Positive Words That Starts With F
Have a look at our list of positive F words.
Meaning: Something that is excellent or with a glamorous edge.
Example: 'You look simply fabulous, darling.'
Meaning: Someone who is true to their word and is loyal in allegiance.
Example: 'Josh has always been a faithful friend.'
Meaning: When something is really good, great or you like something a lot.
Example: 'Last night's roast dinner was absolutely fantastic.'
Meaning: When someone finds something really interesting.
Example: 'The ancient artefacts were fascinating.'
Meaning: Someone who wears clothes or goes places that are considered stylish.
Example: 'The fashionable clothes were really expensive.'
Meaning: A word that that describes clothing as striking or colourful and usually showy.
Example: 'The man's clothes were rather flamboyant.'
Meaning: Someone who doesn't hold grudges and is able to forgive.
Example: 'The woman had a very forgiving nature.'
Meaning: A word that can mean clothing of an unconventional style.
Example: 'The band wore funky clothes during the concert.'
Meaning: When plants grow luxuriantly or something ends on a high note.
Example: 'The flowers were sure to flourish by the spring.'
Meaning: Something without faults or problems. Something that is perfect.
Example: 'The car's bodywork after the re-spray was faultless.'
Meaning: Someone who isn't scared of anything or a specific thing.
Example: 'The fearless family swam with sharks in Australia.'
Other positive words beginning with the letter F include:
F Words that are Positive
Hopefully our list of positive words with F helped with your project! Whether you were looking for 'good' words, 'nice' words or 'inspirational' words. We have compiled one 'positive words' for every letter in the alphabet. Have a look at our lists of suggestions for positive words starting with the letter of your choice.
It's great to have a dedicated list without you having to scour the whole dictionary!


Tutorial: Installing Sovereign on FreeBSD
In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to install Sovereign on FreeBSD Latest. Sovereign is a set of Ansible playbooks that you can use to set up a personal server for hosting websites and services.
Prerequisites
Before we begin the installation process, ensure that you have the following:
Step 1: Install Ansible
Install Ansible using the package manager:
pkg install ansible
Step 2: Clone Sovereign Repository
Clone the Sovereign repository using git:
git clone _URL_
Move into the Sovereign directory:
cd sovereign
Step 3: Configure Inventory
The first step will be to copy an example inventory file:
cp inventory_example inventory
Then open the inventory file for editing:
nano inventory
The file has multiple sections, which are clearly marked. You will need to edit each of the sections to match your desired configuration for the server.
Step 4: Configure Variables
Sovereign requires several variables to be set before deployment. You will need to copy an example variables file:
cp group_vars/all.yml{.example,}
Edit the variables file using your preferred text editor:
nano group_vars/all.yml
Ensure that the variables in the file match your desired configuration for the server.
Step 5: Configure SSH
To use Ansible with remote servers, SSH keys are required. You can use an existing SSH key or create a new one:
Generate a new SSH key using the ssh-keygen command:
ssh-keygen
And press enter through the prompts.
Copy the public key to the remote server using the ssh-copy-id command:
ssh-copy-id <remote_username>@<remote_IP_address>
Replace <remote_username> with your remote username and <remote_IP_address> with the IP address of your remote server.
Step 6: Run the Playbook
Once everything is set up, it's time to run the playbook:
ansible-playbook site.yml
This command will execute the Ansible playbook defined in site.yml, which will configure the server based on the configuration in the inventory and variables files.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you have now successfully installed Sovereign on your FreeBSD Latest server. You can now start hosting websites and services on your personal server.
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!


text:
In real world,We can identify the people firstly by their unique names,same with the host name, which is a unique name or we can say a label name which is assigned to any device that is connected to any computer network. Assigned named to the devices are based on the naming system used. Sometimes it is also know by Hostname to Host name. A hostname may be alphabetic or alphanumeric name which can also include symbols which are used to identify the network connected device or node. A host name syntax and requirement vary and that depends on naming system is used.
Some of the examples of host name that are fully qualified Domain Name with its hostname


text:
An environmental engineer measures the suspended sediment in the water at two locations of a river over 15 days. The engineer expects a correlation between the two locations. Because one location is farther downstream, the engineer expects that the correlation pattern is consistent with the time that is needed for water to move between the two locations.
You can use this data to demonstrate Cross Correlation.
|Upstream||The suspended sediment in the water at location 1|
|Downstream||The suspended sediment in the water at location 2|
|Date||The date that the water was sampled|


text:
Trends and fluctuations of water levels in wells tapping the Floridan aquifer in west-central Florida during 1961-80 are described in this report. Water levels in most of the study area have not changed appreciably, except in parts of Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, Polk, and Sarasota Counties. In these areas, ground-water pumpage by industry and agriculture caused long-term declines of water levels. The largest declines are centered in the agricultural area of southern Hillsborough and northern Manatee Counties where pumpage lowered water levels more than 30 feet since 1964. Hydrographs of 10 wells show that, during 1976-80, the downward water-level trend discontinued in areas of heavy pumpage and, in areas not affected by pumping, water levels remained fairly unchanged. Water levels rose more than 20 feet from May 1975 to May 1980 in southwest Polk, Hardee , northeast Sarasota, northeast Manatee, and southwest Hillsborough Counties. In the heavily pumped area of northern Hillsborough County, water levels rose 5 to 10 feet. From September 1975 to September 1980, water levels in southwest Polk County rose more than 10 feet. (USGS)
Additional publication details
USGS Numbered Series
Trends and fluctuations in the potentiometric surface of the Floridan aquifer, West-central Florida _PHONE_
Water-Resources Investigations Report
7 maps on 1 sheet : col. ; 34 x 18 cm. and smaller, sheet 79 x 99 cm., folded in envelope 31 x 23 cm.


find
find(params)
Arguments
Params (required)
As parameter, pass the following object:
 - collection: Required, the name of collection you want to work with.
 - query: query in MongoDB-style query syntax. Optional, defaults to: {} (match all).
 - sort: sort order, as a string, array or object. Optional. Example:
 { name: 1, age: -1 }
 - limit: max. number of documents in one page. Optional, defaults to 25. Overridable through options object.
 - page: page number, starting from 1. Optional, defaults to 1
Example:
{
 collection: 'users',
 query: {
 age: { $gt: 20 }
 },
 page: 1,
 limit: 25
}
Response
Result
It should return an object like below:
{
 success: true,
 total: 120,
 data: [
 { _id: 'james-bond', name: 'James Bond', age: 20 },
 { _id: 'jack-bauer', name: 'Jack Bauer', age: 20 },
 { _id: 'jason-bourne', name: 'Jason Bourne', age: 20 },
 ...
 ]
}
If no document found, it should NOT yield error. Instead, it sould return an empty data with total = 0.
total is the total number of documents found matched with your query. Optional, but strongly recommended to return this value.
Error
In case of error, it'll yield a normal Node error object you can catch through promise easily.
Last updated


text:
I'm referring to the similar definitions of these four nouns – something raised and rounded. Why do these four rhyming words have similar meanings?
I have not found very specific sources for these words on the Online Etymology Dictionary and Wiktionary. Hump is "probably from Dutch homp." Rump is "from a Scandinavian source," "from Old Norse rumpr" ultimately from Proto-Germanic "rumpo." Lump is "perhaps from a Scandinavian source" and finally, Bump is "perhaps from Scandinavian," "probably of North Germanic origin."
Could these words come from the same root? Other than the fact that they all might come from northern Europe, the only hint I have in this direction is the following from Wiktionary, tracing the origin of Hump through Dutch, Middle Low German, Old Saxon and Proto-Germanic, to Proto-Indo-European *kumb-, *kumbʰ- ("curved"). Could this PIE root, which is not given in these online sources for any of the other three words, be a common root to all four words?
I find myself looking at other –ump words and "seeing" a curved or rounded line: jump (a curved trajectory), grump (a downturned mouth), pump (the action of the pump handle), clump (a rounded clod of earth, not sharp), etc. Am I just seeing this because the words sound similar, or is there something more to my tendency? For example, the Online Etymology Dictionary suggests the origin of jump is "perhaps onomatopoeic (cf. bump)" although this view is not echoed on Wiktionary. Is it possible that these words do all share a common root and are simply onomatopoeic variations of each other?
Are there other pairs or groups of words like these in English? (Wham! Bam! Ka-blam!) Does this phenomenon have a name?


text:
Learning is an important skill that needs to be developed in children. World Wide Education is thus proud to provide finance to enable children to acquire learning skills from the South African Memory Institute (SAMI).
SAMI which has helped over 12 000 children since 1997 with learning, life and reading skills. Learners who apply their proven techniques have experienced a significant academic boost.
SAMI's learning techniques can also help YOUR child to improve self-confidence, score higher marks and achieve goals. Give your child every chance to succeed with SAMI.


Hot Book Summer.png
What is Hot Book Summer?
A free reading initiative at The Bottom
centering Black youth in the East Knoxville area!
Who can join?
Though anyone between the ages of 7-18 can join,
Our Focus is on Students of the following schools:
Austin East High
Vine Middle
Green Magnet Academy
Sarah Moore Greene Elementary
Fulton High
Central High
Holston Middle
Emerald Academy
Maynard Elementary
Lonsdale Elementary
How can students get involved?
1. Complete this form to register & receive details
2. Pick up books to read
3. Give a quick review
4. Receive points + prizes!
How can the community get involved?
1. Donate prizes
2. Purchase books to be donated
3. Tell youth you know about this initiative
4. Cheer on students who participate!
What's included?
Through Our partnership with
The University of Tennessee's English Department
+ Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature,
free books will be provided each month.
Prizes will be awarded at the end of the program & will include: Pizza Parties, Merchandise,
Gift Cards, Cash & More!


- 3 frozen puff pastry sheets
 - 1 egg yolk
 - 2 tablespoons milk
 - 6 eggs
 - ½ bunch chives
 - Rice or peas for weighing down the pastry
Puff pastry bunnies with scrambled eggs
 1. Cut circles in the puff pastry using a 9 cm biscuit cutter and then press into the muffin moulds. Prick the bottoms with a fork.
 2. Cut the baking paper to size, place onto each puff pastry cup and weigh down with rice or peas. Brush the rims of the puff pastry with the egg yolk.
 3. Bake the weighed-down puff pastry cups blind at 180 °C for about 10-15 minutes.
 4. Cut 12 bunny ears out of the rest of the puff pastry using leaf-like biscuit cutters and brush with egg yolk. Place the ears onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake until golden brown.
 5. Whisk the 6 eggs with 2 tablespoons of milk, salt and pepper. Add the egg mixture to a frying pan and quickly thicken over a medium heat. Then slowly stir with a spatula until everything has thickened.
 6. Remove the rice and baking paper from the muffin moulds, fill with the scrambled eggs, place the bunny ears onto the scrambled eggs and sprinkle with the chives.


text:
UPDATED 14:30 p.m. GMT with Tetley Tea's statement.
LONDON — The Great British cuppa could be in decline, according to new figures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Information collected from around 150,000 UK households from _PHONE_ for the National Food Survey was made available to the public Thursday, showing the changing food habits through the generations.
The figures suggest that the dearly loved British cup of tea has fallen into decline since the 1970s, with tea consumption dropping from 68g per person per week to 25g. With tea bags weighing on average 3g, these figures suggest that Brits are drinking on average eight cups of tea per week, down from 23 cuppas per week in 1974.
Bill Gorman, the chairman of UK Tea and Infusions Association, isn't convinced by the figures, however.
"In 1974, Brits were actually drinking 28 cups of tea per week, which equated to four cups per day," Gorman told Mashable.
"In 2015, that figure has dropped to 21 cups per week, and on average we are drinking three cups of tea a day. In 1974, tea accounted for 50% of the nation's daily intake of fluids. That figure has since dropped to 37% of the national intake of fluid, so it is still a significant amount.
"And, according to 2015 figures, 84% of the nation will have a cup of tea each day," he continued.
According to Gorman, the reason for what he describes as a "marginal decrease" in tea consumption stems from the wider range of beverages on offer, such as carbonated, pro-biotic and yoghurt-based drinks, fruit and herbal infusions and speciality teas.
"Tea is still the nation's number one choice of hot beverage and has a genuine place in our daily lives. It makes up for one in three drinks," A spokesperson for tea manufacturer Tetley told Mashable. "Everyday black tea still dominates the market, but as consumers continue to look for healthy lifestyle choices, we are seeing strong growth in Green Tea and Fruit and Herbal teas with natural benefits," they continued.
The National Food Survey also revealed a significant shift in food habits in the UK. Britons have cut down on the amount of bread they eat by 40% since 1974, falling from 25 to 15 slices a week, the figures revealed.
Brits' consumption of white bread has also decreased by 75% since 1974, and consumption of brown and wholemeal has risen by 85%.
Nonetheless, sales of junk food, including crisps, chips and frozen pizza have skyrocketed, and the number of ready meal purchases more than doubled since 1989. Adults in the UK now consume an average of 75g of pizza each week, whereas data from 1974 suggests that Brits didn't eat any pizza at all.
The consumption of baked beans has plummeted by a fifth over the past four decades; which could spell the end of yet another British favourite.
"Food is the heart and soul of our society and this data not only shows what we were eating 40 years ago, but how a change in culture has led to a food revolution," said Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss in an official statement.
"Shoppers are more plugged in to where their food comes from than ever before, the Internet has brought quality produce to our doorsteps at the click of a button, pop up restaurants are showcasing the latest trends and exciting global cuisines are now as common as fish and chips," she continued.


text:
In this workshop, participants are going to learn about storytelling using scratch, scratch combines creativity and block coding empowering the participants with the needed skills to create their experience of the past two days and represent it as an animated story that has multiple scenes and conversations between characters of their choice.
1- Who are we and what we do in Studio 56.
2- Which zone we will be in today.
3- Introduce the Client letter of the workshop.
4- What is Storytelling?
-Show a video that explains what is storytelling.
-Discuss with the participants the video and the definition of storytelling.
5- What is the importance of storytelling?
-Show a video that explains the importance of storytelling.
-Discuss the importance of storytelling with the participants.
6- Open Question: Tell us a story you like.
-Give a participant 1-2 min to tell us a story they like.


Documentation Center
 - Trials
 - Product Updates
Variable Names
Valid Names
A valid variable name starts with a letter, followed by letters, digits, or underscores. MATLAB® is case sensitive, so A and a are not the same variable. The maximum length of a variable name is the value that the namelengthmax command returns.
You cannot define variables with the same names as MATLAB keywords, such as if or end. For a complete list, run the iskeyword command.
Examples of valid names:Invalid names:
Conflicts with Function Names
Avoid creating variables with the same name as a function (such as i, j, mode, char, size, and path). In general, variable names take precedence over function names. If you create a variable that uses the name of a function, you sometimes get unexpected results.
Check whether a proposed name is already in use with the exist or which function. exist returns 0 if there are no existing variables, functions, or other artifacts with the proposed name. For example:
exist checkname
ans =
If you inadvertently create a variable with a name conflict, remove the variable from memory with the clear function.
Another potential source of name conflicts occurs when you define a function that calls load or eval (or similar functions) to add variables to the workspace. In some cases, load or eval add variables that have the same names as functions. Unless these variables are in the function workspace before the call to load or eval, the MATLAB parser interprets the variable names as function names. For more information, see:
See Also
| | | |
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text:
Hoverboard Safety Tips For Kidsadmin
Hoverboards or Segway scooter has been the "buzzword" for quite a while now, and with Christmas just around the corner, it is practical to assume that hoverboards will be a preferred gift choice for most parents. That's why, we put forth hoverboard safety tips for kids so that they stay safe and enjoy a truly joyful experience this holiday season.
Here are some safety tips and precautions to avoid accidents.
Especially for kids under the age of 12, pick up a model with maximum speed of 10 mph or less. If your kid is below 8 years, and she or he has mastered self balancing scooter, choose a model with 5 to 6 mph speed range. Tire type – choose tires made of either plastic or rubber – each having its advantages.
If your kids ride hoverboard or you are planning on gifting them one, make sure that you:
- Buy a good quality hoverboard from a reputed vendor
- Ensure that only high quality li-ion batteries are used (All our products use standard Li-Ion batteries. So you don't have to worry about exploding batteries)
- Charge it away from combustible devises.
- Do not let kids ride hoverboard on busy roads
- Have your kids wear safety gears, put on a skateboard helmet, knee and elbow pads, wrist guards, etc.
- Ensure that the battery is aptly charged before the next use
Segway PT precautions
When kids ride Segway PT, it is best to:
- Always wear right fitting helmet
- Ask your kid to begin with "Turtle' mode, low-speed mode for starters
- Instruct kids not to push Segway PT limits, like continue to ride when Stick Shake Warning is shown or by continuing to lean forward when you get a Speed Limiter Alert, or riding on steep slopes and very slippery surfaces.
- Accompany kids or teach them how to ride, stop and take turns while they ride for the first time until they get the knack of it.
The best way to ensure safety is by continuous supervision so that extra risks are not taken at the time of riding
Is Segway safe for kids?
The Segway is engineered as a safe, environmentally-friendly transport, but many people, including both adults and kids ride it for fun. Although, a vast number of parents buy this electronic vehicle as toy for their children, Segway PT is not meant for kids to ride.
It is clearly instructed in the instruction manual that the weight of the rider should be at least 45.35 kilo grams for all the models of balance boards from Segway. According to average weight chart, kids aging 13 years and above are fit to ride the vehicle.
And of course, always supervise kids so that they don't take extra risks while riding and also ensure that they stay away from traffic and slopes.
Know where to ride without being penalized
As far as riding a hoverboards is concerned, different states, establishments, cities and localities have different regulations and laws. Find out first if you are allowed to ride this eco-friendly vehicle, before you even buy one.


How to know if a file is a text file
Nobody nobody at
Sun Nov 15 19:50:55 CET 2009
On Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:34:10 -0800, Chris Rebert wrote:
>>> I'm looking for a way to be able to load a generic file from the
>>> system and understand if he is plain text.
>>> The mimetype module has some nice methods, but for example it's not
>>> working for file without extension.
>>> Any suggestion?
>> You could use the "file" command. It's normally installed by default on
>> Unix systems, but you can get a Windows version from:
> FWIW, IIRC the heuristic 'file' uses to check whether a file is text
> or not is whether it contains any null bytes; if it does, it
> classifies it as binary (i.e. not text).
"file" provides more granularity than that, recognising many specific
formats, both text and binary.
First, it uses "magic number" checks, checking for known signature bytes
(e.g. "#!" or "JFIF") at the beginning of the file. If those checks fail
it checks for common text encodings. If those also fail, it reports "data".
Also, UTF-16-encoded text is recognised as text, even though it may
contain a high proportion of NUL bytes.
More information about the Python-list mailing list


text:
- Poster presentation
- Open Access
Prevalence of fat by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging stratified by age in 940 patients referred for evaluation of arrhythmogenic (rv) dysplasia
© Medina-Zuluga et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011
- Published: 2 February 2011
- Right Ventricular
- Cardiac Magnetic Resonance
- Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia
- High Diagnostic Yield
To determine the prevalence and severity of RV fatty infiltration, stratified by age, in patients referred to cardiac MRI (cMRI) for suspected Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia (ARVD).
cMRI is frequently used to assess right ventricular (RV) morphology and function in patients with suspected ARVD and is the gold standard for fatty metaplasia amongst all non-invasive imaging tests. However, the incidence and severity of RV fatty infiltration by cMRI is not well defined. Here, stratified by age, we investigate the prevalence and severity of RV fat infiltration in a large population undergoing dedicated imaging for fat detection.
All consecutive patients referred for cMRI with suspected ARVD between 2003-2010 in our institution were included. RV fat was determined by cine-balanced SSFP, gradient-echo, and spin-echo sequences with and without fat suppression. RV fat severity was graded as mild, moderate or severe depending on the extension of its distribution. Age was stratified in tertiles (T3 oldest, T2 middle and T1 youngest) and fatty infiltration severity in each of these age sub-groups was analyzed.
The prevalence of RV fat during cMRI in patients referred for suspected ARVD is high and older patients tend to the highest prevalence of fat and higher proportions of severe and moderate fat distribution. Our findings suggest that the presence RV fat above the age of 60 may represent a common finding related with aging whereas the same finding in the first two decades of life is uncommon and may have a higher diagnostic yield for ARVD.
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (_URL_ which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


text:
Changes to SQL Server CXPACKET Wait Types
In many OLTP systems, parallelism is only truly useful on a subset of queries. Most of the typical workload is comprised of quick queries that affect a small number of rows and, in turn, consume very little in terms of resources. When queries do end up using parallelism, the end result can range from mildly beneficial, to downright disastrous, depending on a variety of factors.
Now, when parallelism is working well, work is distributed evenly across all of the "producer" threads, and they all finish around the same time, handing their results off to the "consumer" threads. While the consumer threads (and the controller thread) are waiting for all of the producers to finish, CXPACKET waits are accumulating (the "good" kind). When parallelism is not working well, for example when one producer thread is doing most of the work because of poor estimates, the producer threads that have finished their work sit around and wait, also accumulating CXPACKET waits (the "bad" kind). So in both of these scenarios – whether the query employs "good" or "bad" use of parallelism – SQL Server surfaces wait statistics in the same way: using the dreaded CXPACKET wait.
As you can imagine, and probably already know, this makes troubleshooting "bad" parallelism very hard, because all queries are reporting CXPACKET waits. In most cases, this simply indicates that parallelism is happening, which is usually a good thing. But because there are cases where we see skewed parallelism, you get all kinds of knee-jerk reactions to a system with high CXPACKET waits. The most common is to turn off parallelism at the server level (server MAXDOP = 1), and this is often deemed successful because, hey, look at our waits, we no longer see CXPACKET at the top. Often this just means two things: (1) the queries that were making good use of parallelism are now taking at least as long, and possibly longer; and (2) those waits are just surfacing in other places.
In SQL Server 2016 SP2, SQL Server 2017 CU3, and Azure SQL Database, you are going to see a huge change in the way CXPACKET waits are reported. The "bad" type of wait, where work amongst threads is distributed unevenly, will continue to be reported as CXPACKET waits. But the "good" type of wait, where the consumer threads are just waiting for all the producer threads to do their work, will now be reported under a new wait called CXCONSUMER.
The benefit of this change is that you can continue to monitor CXPACKET waits, and when you have high waits there, you know there is something relevant and actionable that's being reported. In most optimal systems, you should see the CXPACKET numbers dwindle, and the CXCONSUMER waits increase. CXPACKET waits will stay high if you have skewed parallelism, either due to the most common case of outdated statistics, or less common cases like intra-query blocking.
It is important not to suddenly have knee-jerk reactions to this new CXCONSUMER wait type because, as mentioned above, this wait simply means that parallelism is occurring. In fact, Microsoft recently added the ability to view wait statistics in a query's showplan output, and they ignored CXPACKET because of how often it really is a red herring; with this new change, CXPACKET will now be reported in the showplan output, but CXCONSUMER will be filtered out because it is benign.
That's the good news. Unfortunately, there is some bad news, and that is that you have to change the way you monitor, report, and react to high CXPACKET waits, depending on whether the current instance has the new behavior. Essentially, your scripts and other tools will have to be able to differentiate between CXPACKET waits that might be a problem, and CXPACKET waits that are most likely a problem, which changes with the build of SQL Server.
SQL Server CXPAKET Wait Type Example
Borrowing from Paul Randal's examples in his post, "More on CXPACKET Waits: Skewed Parallelism," it is easy to demonstrate what can happen to CXPACKET waits and thread workload distribution when estimates are inaccurate. On a SQL Server 2016 SP1 system, I built the following table, and faked out the statistics on the table:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.Test; GO CREATE TABLE dbo.Test ( [RowID] int IDENTITY, ParentID int, CurrentValue nvarchar(100), CONSTRAINT [PK_Test] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([RowID]) ); GO INSERT INTO dbo.Test (ParentID, CurrentValue) SELECT CASE WHEN (number % 3 = 0) THEN number - number % 6 ELSE number END, N'Test' + CAST (number % 2 AS Nvarchar(11)) FROM master.dbo.spt_values WHERE [type] = 'P'; GO UPDATE STATISTICS dbo.Test (PK_Test) WITH ROWCOUNT = _PHONE_, PAGECOUNT = _PHONE_;
Then I ran the following code in a different window, observing the session_id (SPID):
SET NOCOUNT ON; GO BEGIN DECLARE _USER_ nvarchar(100); SELECT _USER_ = [CurrentValue] FROM dbo.Test ORDER BY NEWID() DESC; END GO 20000
Then I watched the waits in another window, by refreshing these results frequently while the original loop was running:
DECLARE _USER_ int = 55; SELECT Wait_Type = wait_type, Waiting_Tasks = waiting_tasks_count, Wait_Time_ms = wait_time_ms FROM sys.dm_exec_session_wait_stats WHERE session_id = _USER_ ORDER BY wait_time_ms DESC; SELECT spid = session_id, Thread = exec_context_id, Wait_Time_ms = wait_duration_ms, Wait_Type = wait_type, Blocker = blocking_session_id, Resource = resource_description FROM sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks WHERE session_id = _USER_ ORDER BY exec_context_id;
Here were the results shortly into the start of the script (note that we caught some intra-query blocking, intermittently):
And here were just the waits after the script was finished:
Notice that CXPACKET waits are highest.
Then I applied Service Pack 2 (I had early access to a preview build), restarted the instance, and made sure the statistics were still inaccurate. I ran the loop in a new window, and here were the waits and blocking activity a few moments in:
And here were just the waits after the script finished:
CXCONSUMER isn't a huge portion of the wait profile, but at a little over 10% of the CXPACKET waits, you can see how it's already separating the good parallelism from the bad parallelism. This is of course a contrived test, and SQL Server is employing parallelism poorly because it still incorrectly thinks the table is huge. When you have a real workload against a big table that can implement parallelism properly and effectively, you'll see that CXCONSUMER becomes a much larger part of the picture, and CXPACKET waits will dwindle. Which means you'll spend less time troubleshooting benign parallelism waits (just make sure to add CXCONSUMER to the wait types ignored by your scripts or monitoring tools).
What To Do with CXPACKET Wait Types in SQL Server
If you can't get to the latest builds of SQL Server, you have to continue monitoring and troubleshooting CXPACKET waits the old way. Paul has some great advice in his two posts, "Knee-Jerk Wait Statistics : CXPACKET," and, "More on CXPACKET Waits: Skewed Parallelism."
In either case, typically, if you determine that some of your queries are suffering from the "bad" type of parallelism, the solution will involve re-writing the query, changing indexes, or coming up with a better strategy for keeping statistics up to date. If the system is too volatile for that, you may look at other avenues, such as reducing MAXDOP. But be careful – don't just automatically assume that 1 is the best answer; typically it will be something like 4 or 8. This will still allow some parallelism but it will reduce what I call "swarming" – where a bunch of query processes fight over consuming all of the cores. Another option (which you might do in conjunction) is to increase the Cost Threshold for Parallelism, from the default of 5, to a more reasonable number like 40 or 50. What this essentially does is tells SQL Server not to consider parallelism unless the estimated cost of a query is above a certain threshold. Pedro Lopes talks a bit about these (and provides links to other resources) in his recent post, "Making parallelism waits actionable."
Have a look at these tips and other resources involving SQL Server parallelism and CXPACKET wait types:
- A closer look at CXPACKET wait type in SQL Server
- What MAXDOP setting should be used for SQL Server
- How to Force a Parallel Execution Plan in SQL Server 2016
- Tracking Query Statistics on Memory Grants and Parallelism in SQL Server 2016
- Testing SQL Server Query Performance Using Different Levels of Parallelism
- SQL Server Performance Tuning Tips
- Knee-Jerk Wait Statistics : CXPACKET
- More on CXPACKET Waits: Skewed Parallelism
- Making parallelism waits actionable
About the author
View all my tips
Article Last Updated: 2017-12-18


text:
Difference between Moisturizing and Hydrating your Hair
Hello, Curlies! How are your curls doing? If you've been tending to your precious curls, you probably know how important moisture is – right from nourishing hair, eradicating dryness, maintaining the health and elasticity of your curly strands and even setting and styling them! But what about hydration? Aren't they the same? Well, no! Read on to discover the meaning and difference between the two and also how they help with guarding and garnering your luscious curls!
Akin to a lotion or body cream, moisturizers coat the outer layer of your hair cuticle for a softer texture and form a barrier with oils or emollients. Moisturizing has a bunch of benefits including retaining the water content within the hair shaft, boosting hair health by enriching it with minerals and also forming a seal to hold in shape, reduce frizz and add shine. Well-moisturized hair is less prone to breakage and boosts the growth of luscious locks. Moisturizers, especially for curls, can be either water based or oil based, the former being more efficient and also weighs down lesser on hair.
All about Hydration:
Hydration on the other hand is what penetrates the hair fibre and nourishes the hair from within. All hair types require hydration, especially curlier and kinkier hair. Hydrated hair nourishes curls from within and keeps dryness and frizz away. But that being said, hydration needs to be sealed with a moisture for it to work its magic. In hair products, hydration is generally achieved through the use of humectants that draw water into the hair shaft to ensure a well-hydrated environment. Hydration is a way to add water, humectants, protein and vitamins to permeate and enliven curls from within.
Well balanced curls need to be both hydrated and moisturized to achieve naturally bouncy and lively curls. Too much hydration causes breakage and can lead to brittle hair while excess moisture can weigh hair down and cause greasiness. Look up CG-friendly hydrating and moisturizing ingredients in products, and experiment to achieve an ideal balance.
Humectants (hydration) and Sealants (moisture) work cohesively to nourish your curls and help along the Curly Journey.
We hope this helped understand two basic principles in the science of hair health and how you can effectively achieve healthy, happy curls. Do let us know if you have any tips on the same and feel free to send us your suggestions too! Happy Curl Care, Lovelies!


text:
Natural gas cooling
A natural choice!
Over the last decade, manufacturers made significant advances in developing and producing a new generation of natural gas refrigeration, cooling, and humidity control equipment. As a result, today's natural gas cooling options can offer:
- Lower operating costs
- Reduced demand charges
- Quick payback on equipment purchases
- Improved indoor air quality
- A plentiful, domestic energy source
- Innovative financing plans and rebates from manufacturers, local gas companies and government entities
- Improved reliability of the electric grid, especially during the high summer demand period
- A cleaner, healthier environment
As deregulation and new temperature-based electric utility pricing mechanisms such as "real-time pricing?become more prevalent, natural gas will likely prove to be an even more economical choice, particularly for hybrid cooling systems.
Manufacturers offer a variety of sizes, types and configurations of cooling equipment for comfort cooling to the coldest refrigeration temperatures.
All major categories of gas cooling equipment are discussed in this site. Additionally, we look at combined heat and power (CHP) systems for the highly efficient on-site joint production of electricity and thermal energy. We examine how and where the technologies work, provide equipment specifications and available vendors, and share the stories of real-world applications.
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text:
Morphological study of the Lingual papillae of Jentink's flying squirrel (Hylopetes platyurus)
Keywords:Hylopetes platyurus, lingual papillae, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy
This study describes the anatomy and histology of the tongue in the Jentink's flying squirrel (Hylopetes platyurus), a
rodent native to Indonesia (Borneo and Sumatra). We examined the characteristics of the tongue using scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM). Macroscopic observations revealed three distinct regions: the
apex, corpus (body) and radix (root). The dorsal surface of the apex was characterized by a median groove and lacked
the lingual prominence that is common in many rodents. SEM and LM revealed the distribution of papillae over the
dorsal surface of the tongue. The papillae could be categorized as mechanical papillae (filiform, conical, large conical)
and gustatory papillae (fungiform, foliate, and vallate). Filiform papillae covered the apex and the anterior two-thirds
of the corpus. Fungiform papillae were distributed among the filiform papillae from the apex to the corpus, whereas
the foliate papillae were present only on the apex. Conical papillae were located on the posterior of the corpus, and the
large conical papillae were on the lateral surface of the lingual radix. Three vallate papillae were arranged in a "V"
pointing toward the larynx on the posterior part of the radix. This research provides the first detailed observations of
the lingual papillae in Hylopetes platyurus. The shape, structure and distribution of papillae are described and compared
with those in other rodent species.


Home » JVM Languages » Scala » Probability distribution for programmers
About Tomasz Nurkiewicz
Java EE developer, Scala enthusiast. Enjoying data analysis and visualization. Strongly believes in the power of testing and automation.
Probability distribution for programmers
This is one of these very simple programming puzzles I came across recently: given a function returning random integers from 0 to 4 inclusive with equal probability, write a function returning random integers from 0 to 6 inclusive.
Of course the solution should also return equally distributed numbers. So let's start from an input function sample definition:
def rand4() = (math.random * 5).toInt
Your task is to implement rand6() by only using rand4(). Give yourself few minutes and continue reading.
The first approach is pretty straightforward but happens to be completely broken:
def rand6() = rand4() * 3 / 2
As simple as that. In ideal solution each output value from 0 to 6 should appear with the probability of 1/7. Can you tell from the code above, what's the probability of rand6() returning 2 or 5? That's right, it's no more than 0, you'll never get these values. I hope it's clear why. So let's go for something more sophisticated:
def rand6() = (rand4() + rand4()) % 7
Looks better, but still pretty far. The code above has two major flaws. First of all the results of rand4() + rand4() expression range from 0 to 8 but we need 0 to 6. The obvious solution is to use % 7 operation. However this results in 0 and 1 being returned twice as often because 7 and 8 are overflowing to 0 and 1. So what about this:
def rand6(): Int = {
 val rand8 = rand4() + rand4()
 if(rand8 > 6)
I hope the recursion (which can easily be turned into loop, but I leave that work to the Scala compiler) is not obscuring the intent – if the sum of two rand4() invocations is above expected result, we simply discard it and call rand6() again. However there is still one subtle but striking bug, quoting Wikipedia on uniform distribution. The sum of two independent, equally distributed, uniform distributions yields a symmetric triangular distribution. If you don't quite get the above, have a look at this live demo in JavaScript using illustrating what Wikipedia means:
This program simply places pixels at random (X, Y) positions on each panel. In the first panel I use one Math.random() * 300 call scaled to fit whole canvas. As you can see the distribution is more or less uniform. But we can't tell that about second and third panels. On the second panel I am using the sum of two uniformly distributed variables, in principle: (Math.random() + Math.random()) * 150). Even though this expression can return anything between 0 and 300, the points are very biased toward the middle of the canvas (triangular distribution). The same behaviour is emphasized on the third panel where ten invocations of Math.random() are used.
The correct answer
The approach I'm taking is based on the observation that rand4() is capable of producing two random least significant bits. So let's start from implementing rand3() with known semantics:
def rand3(): Int = rand4() match {
 case 4 => rand3()
 case x => x
rand3() returns uniformly distributed values from 0 to 3 doing so by rejecting 4 output of rand4(). How will that help us? Well, we now have two random bits, each one being either 0 or 1 with 50% probability. We can easily widen it for larger sequences, e.g. rand15() and rand7():
def rand15() = (rand3() << 2) + rand3()
def rand7() = rand15() >> 1
You should be rather comfortable with the bit fiddling above. Having the ability to produce two random bits I can easily generate 4 and 3. Now rand6() is a no-brainer:
def rand6() = rand7() match {
 case 7 => rand6()
 case x => x
Just to make this lesson a little bit more interesting, let's implement randN(n: Int) on top of rand4(). randN() should return uniformly distributed natural values from 0 to n. I'll begin by implementing helper method atLeastKrandBits(k: Int) returning… at least K random bits:
def atLeastKrandBits(k: Int): Int = k match {
 case 0 => 0
 case 1 => rand3() >> 1
 case 2 => rand3()
 case b => (atLeastKrandBits(k - 2) << 2) + rand3()
Alternative implementation with foldLeft():
def atLeastKrandBits(k: Int) = (0 to (k + 1) / 2).foldLeft(0){
 (acc, _) => (acc << 2) + rand3()
…or if you really hate those to maintain your code:
def atLeastKrandBits(k: Int) = (0 /: (0 to (k + 1) / 2)){
Having any of the implementations above randN(n: Int) is simple:
def randN(n: Int) = {
 val bitsCount = java.lang.Integer.highestOneBit(n)
 val randBits = atLeastKrandBits(bitsCount)
 if(randBits > n)
You might ask yourself a question: why should I even care? If you fail to understand probability distribution your application might produce random output that's actually quite easy to predict. It's not a big deal if you are writing a game and enemies are more likely to appear at some places on the map (but the players will discover and abuse it!) But if you need random numbers for security reasons or you rely on uniform distribution e.g. for load-balancing purposes – any bias might become fatal.
Reference: Probability distribution for programmers from our JCG partner Tomasz Nurkiewicz at the Java and neighbourhood blog.
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One comment
 1. Hello,
 I think you could do with rand4 function only (and some additional function, say F)
 First divide 0..4 to two sets containing 2 arbitrary integers each, e.g {0,1} and {3,4}
 F would return 0 if rand4 returned 0 or 1 and 1 if rand4 returned 3 or 4 (or run rand4 again if there was 2)
 Then you generate binary sequence, and the first 3-element fragment of it different from, e.g 111 (but again, this is arbitrary, but taken for simplicity as it is 7 in binary) is our random number from 0..6. The are of course 8 different 3-element sequences, but all of them are equally probable, 1/8, and we are only interested in space of 7, so (1/8)/(7/8) gives us 1/7
Leave a Reply
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text:
Planning Project 2: The Ecological City
In the 2020 Ecological City planning studio, students created an ecological active transport corridor using streets and other public land near where they live during Covid-19 lockdown.
Students considered the planning and regulatory context as well as the implementation of design concepts. Final Projects focused on improving climate resilience and ecological processes, safety, and the corridor's general amenity and appeal. The corridor's function is to provide sustainable active transport options and enhance ecological processes, whilst maintaining any regional transport functions it may perform.


Definitions
Specific thrust
Specific thrust
Specific Thrust is a term used in Gas Turbine Engineering to show the relative bulk of a jet engine (e.g. turbojet, turbofan, etc) and is defined as the ratio: net thrust/total intake airflow.
Low specific thrust engines
A modern civil turbofan has a low specific thrust (~30lbf/lb/s) to keep the jet noise at an acceptable level, and to achieve low fuel consumption, as a low specific thrust helps to improve specific fuel consumption (SFC). This low specific thrust is usually achieved with a high bypass ratio. Additionally a low specific thrust implies that the engine is relatively large in diameter, for the net thrust it produces. Consequently such aircraft engines are normally located externally, in a separate nacelle or pod, attached to the wing, or the rear fuselage.
High specific thrust engines
On the other hand, a modern military turbofan has a fairly high specific thrust (45-110 lbf/lb/s), which keeps the cross-sectional area of the engine low, so that (normally) the engine can be easily accommodated within the fuselage, thus minimizing aircraft drag. A high specific thrust implies a high jet noise level, which is not an important consideration for most military applications.
Maximum airspeed
Specific thrust has significant bearing on thrust lapse rate: the low jet velocity associated with a low specific thrust engine implies that there are large reductions in net thrust with increasing flight velocity, which can only be partially offset by throttle changes at rated conditions (e.g. Maximum Recommended Climb Rating).
Supersonic aircraft
Supersonic aircraft require a high specific thrust, since that gives a high exhaust speed- exhaust speed must exceed airspeed to maintain forward flight.
Afterburners
Dry specific thrust has impact upon the performance of afterburning turbofans.
A low(dry) specific thrust engine has a low tailpipe temperature, which means that the temperature rise across the afterburner can be high, giving a good thrust boost in afterburning. Nevertheless, the afterburning specific thrust is still relatively low. The total fuel flow (main combustor plus afterburner) is fixed by the temperature rise from air intake to nozzle and, for a given airflow, changes little with dry specific thrust. Consequently, the low afterburning thrust implies a high afterburning SFC. However, the dry SFC is low.
The situation is completely reversed for a high (dry) specific thrust.
Consequently engine designers must select a level of dry specific thrust that is suitable for the engine application. A compromise may be required.
References
See also
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text:
copyright © 2002, abouttajweed.com, all rights reserved
in verbs (continued)
the last tidbit lesson, we described the different types of verbs that hamzah
al-wasl enters as a first letter.
was stated last lesson that hamzah al-wasl may enter, as a first letter,
Vowel of the Hamzah Al-Wasl when beginning with it in verbs
The vowel of when beginning with it, in verbs, depends on the vowel on the
third letter of the
is considered a letter when counting the letters;
Starting verbs with a dhammah on the hamzah al-wasl
The hamzah-t al-wasl has a dhammah
on it when beginning the word starting with it
of this in past tense verbs are shown in the following aayaat:
we look at the verb:
from aayah 26 of surah Ibraheem, we see that
there is a hamzah wasl
of this in the command form of verbs are shown in the following aayaat:
Starting verbs with a kasrah on the hamzah al-wasl
begin hamzah al-wasl in a verb with a kasrah
when in the following cases:
If the third letter
of the verb has an original kasrah. This
is exemplified in the following aayaat:
When the third letter of the verb has a fat-h.
This is demonstrated in the following
When the third letter of the verb has a presented dhammah. It
is to be noticed that in these next six examples shown below the dhammah is a
presented one due to the plurality of the command form of the verb that has an
(either an alif, ya' or wow) as
the last letter in the essential make up of the verb.
When these verbs are the plural command form, there would have been a
ya' saakinah followed by a wow saakinah which is quite heavy for the tongue,
so the Arabs drop the ya' saakinah in these forms of the verb, and the third
letter acquires a presented dhammah. These
are the only five verbs in the Qur'an that have a presented dhammah in the
third letter, but it should be noted that some of these verbs occur in the
Qur'an in different forms of the same verb.
. As stated previously, when starting with one of these six
verbs, we start with a kasrah not a dhammah.
starting with the word
is read as ""
employing the rule of medd al-bedl which was previously discussed, which is:
whenever there are two hamzahs next to each other in one word, the first
voweled and the second non-voweled, the second hamzah is changed to a medd
letter from the same type as the vowel on the first hamzah.
Therefore, since the first hamzah now has a kasrah, the second hamzah,
which is saakinah, will change into a lengthened ya'.
another item to be noticed is that if the
means "and" precedes a verb that begins with a hamzah al-wasl, or another conjunctive
letter such a
we are beginning with this verb, we must begin with the
due to its
strong link to the verb. We
therefore read the wow with a fath, then continue reading the verb. We do not
apply the rules
in this case. An example of
this is in the following:


text:
is a piece of absorbent fabric
used for drying or wiping. It draws moisture
through direct contact using a blotting or a rubbing motion.
Types of towels
- A bath towel is used for drying one's body after bathing or showering. It is typically rectangular, with a typical size around 30"×60" (75×150 cm). A large bath towel is sometimes called a bath sheet. Some smaller bath towels are designed for use as bath mats.
- A beach towel is usually a little bit larger than a bath towel. Although it is often used for drying off after being in the water, its chief purpose is to provide a surface to lie on to relax or just to tan. They are also worn for privacy while changing clothes in a public area, and for wiping sand from the body or objects. Beach towels often have colourful patterns printed or woven into them.
- A change of towels, as supplied by maid service in an American-style hotel, is one bath towel, one hand towel, and one washcloth.
- A foot towel is a small, rectangular towel which, in the absence of a rug, carpet or bathroom mat, is placed on the bathroom floor to stand on after finishing a shower or bath.
- A hand towel is significantly smaller than a bath towel (perhaps 30x60 cm), and is used for drying one's hands after washing them.
- The term kitchen towel can refer to either a dish towel or to a paper towel, the latter usage being primarily British.
- A paper towel is a piece of paper that can be used once as a towel and then be disposed of. A perforated roll of paper towels is normally mounted on a rod a little longer than the width of the roll, or in an alternative type of hanger that has indentations on ears, the indentations fitting into the ends of the paper towel roll. Paper towels can also be found packaged like facial tissues, as individual folded sheets.
- A show towel is a sub species of the common bath or hand towel that has had trim, such as satin, lace or linen stitched onto it, or embroidery done on it, mainly to simply "look nice". They are used to add a decorative touch, usually to a bathroom, most commonly in the USA. They should not be used to actually dry anything, as regular washing ruins the added trim, and the towel buckles as well (because the towel usually shrinks differently than the trim).
- A sports towel or chamois is a towel used by swimmers and divers, it is a super absorbent towel that wipes water away and when it becomes too wet and can be squeezed to get the water out of the towel so it can be used again.
- A sweat towel is often of similar size to a hand towel, and can be required in gyms in order to wipe down the machines after use.
- A tea towel (British English) or dish towel (American English) is a cloth which is used to dry dishes, cutlery, etc., after they have been washed. In 18th century England, a tea towel was a special linen drying cloth used by the mistress of the house to dry her precious and expensive china tea things. Servants were considered too ham-fisted to be trusted with such a delicate job, although housemaids were charged with hand-hemming the woven linen when their main duties were completed. Mass-produced tea towels were produced during the Industrial Revolution. Today pictorial tea towels make humorous ironic souvenirs.
- A washcloth, wash cloth, flannel, or face cloth is a small square about the width of a hand towel, and is used by wetting, applying soap to the towel, and then using the towel to apply the soap to skin. This increases abrasion, and can remove dead skin cells from the skin more effectively than just manual application and rubbing of soap.
- A wet towel (oshibori) is used in Japan to wash one's hands before eating. It is often given to customers of an izakaya.
Towels are often used for purposes other than drying things. For example
- To sit, lie and stand on, to avoid direct contact with the ground, sand, rock, chair, etc. This may be for hygiene and comfort, and in saunas or other places where nudity is common.
- Barbers use steamed towels to prepare the skin for shaving.
- To reserve seats, for example sunloungers, by the side of swimming pools or similar locations (a source of annoyance to some and amusement to others).
- A towel can act as a make-shift garment or blanket. There is a variety of uses when a towel is applied in this manner. For example, the towel can be used as an extra layer of clothing for cold conditions; or can be worn on its own around the waist (similarly to a kilt or skirt) or just under the shoulders (similarly to a long dress), usually in a warm environment.
- In Asian countries, towels (smaller in size than hand towels - usually 30 cm square) are used as handkerchiefs. Men and women both carry them. The softness of the Turkish-type towel makes it a favourite for use.
- In some cases, a towel can be used to protect its owner (as well as other people). For example, a damp towel can be used to block the gap between the door and floor to help stop noxious gases or smoke from entering the room. This is especially useful in case of a fire, where, in most cases, people die of smoke inhalation before the fire reaches them.
- On cruise ships, towel animals are created for the patrons.
- Towels can also be used like a whip in what is known as towel snapping.
- To hold hot objects, much like an oven glove.
- Towels may also be used as a head dress for wet hair.
- Towels can be used as a "sling" for a broken arm.
- Towels are often used for "ice blocking."
- In boxing or other combat sports, a figher's cornerman could throw a towel into the ring to concede the fighter's defeat in that match. This is called "throwing in the towel."
- At sporting events, sometimes towels are handed out to fans to wave around to cheer on their team.
Appearances in popular culture
- Towels played an iconic role in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. They are described as the most "massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have," an example usage being to ward off the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. The fictitious time/space traveller and Guide Researcher Ford Prefect uses the idiom "a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is" to mean someone generally alert and aware. Some fans of Douglas Adams have seized on this idea, and towels are now considered a symbol of one's devotion to the Hitchhiker books, radio series, TV series, website, etc. Towel Day is held each year in memory of Adams.
- In the cartoon South Park a character named Towelie is a walking, talking "RG-400 Smart Towel" manufactured by Tynacorp. He frequently reminds people to bring towels, because you'll never know when you'll need a towel.
- Fans started using the Terrible Towel in 1975 to encourage the Pittsburgh Steelers as they sought (and eventually won) an NFL championship. The Terrible Towel has been in use by the Steelers since and is "arguably the best-known fan symbol of any major pro sports team". Other sports teams have since started using so-called "rally towels" in support of their team.
- In 1982 Roger Neilson, the then head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, waved a white towel on the end of a hockey stick in mock surrender at what he felt was a sequence of unfair penalties during a playoff game against the Chicago Blackhawks. This became known as Towel Power. The following game thousands of fans brought and waved towels and it has remained a traditional way for fans to show their support during the playoffs. During Playoff games, GM Place hands these towels out bearing the Canucks logo.
The invention of the towel associated, at least apocryphally, with the city of Bursa
. The city is still noted for the production of "Turkish towels."