text:
It can be difficult to shop with an autistic child.
They may have trouble understanding what is happening around them, they may become overwhelmed by the noise and crowds, or they may have a meltdown in the middle of the store.
Here are some tips to help make shopping with your autistic child easier and ways to create a more autism-friendly shopping experience.
Why is it Difficult to Shop with an Autistic Child?
Autistic children don't see shopping the same as their neurotypical peers. Some difficulties they face include:
For many autistic children, bright lights, loud noises, and strong smells can be overwhelming. A lot is happening around them which can make shopping a difficult and even painful experience.
Crowds and long lines
Large crowds of people can be overwhelming for anyone, but for a child with autism, it can cause a lot of anxiety.
Crowds also create noise which can be difficult for a child with autism to filter out.
Change in routine
Shopping is a deviation from the normal routine which can be difficult for a child with autism to handle. They may become agitated or have a meltdown because of the change in schedule.
Meltdowns are a common occurrence for autistic children. They may happen when a child with autism is overwhelmed, frustrated, or tired. Meltdowns can look different for every child but may include crying, yelling, hitting, or self-injurious behaviors.
Many autistic children experience high levels of anxiety. This may be due to the sensory overload they feel or from knowing that a meltdown is possible. Anxiety can make shopping an even more difficult experience.
Challenges children with autism face in a store
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can face several challenges when visiting a store. These challenges can stem from sensory sensitivities, difficulty with social interactions, and the need for routine and predictability. Here are some of the key challenges:
- Sensory Overload: Many children with autism are sensitive to sensory stimuli. Stores can be full of bright lights, loud noises, and strong smells, which can overwhelm these children and lead to distress.
- Difficulty Understanding Social Norms: Social interactions can be challenging for children with autism. They might not understand the social expectations in a store setting, such as waiting in line or interacting with store employees.
- Changes in Routine: Children with autism often rely on routines and predictability. A change in the layout of the store or an unexpected event (like an item being out of stock) can be extremely disruptive for them.
- Trouble with Transitioning: Transitioning from one activity to another can be difficult for children with autism. This can make it hard for them to move from one section of the store to another, or to leave the store when shopping is finished.
- Difficulty with Motor Skills: Some children with autism may have challenges with fine motor skills, making it hard for them to handle small items or money.
Strategies like providing a schedule, practicing and building tolerance, and preparing the child for what to expect can help manage these challenges. Additionally, making retail environments more autism-friendly, such as reducing noise levels and providing quiet spaces, can also be beneficial.
Tips for Shopping with an Autistic Child
By understanding what is difficult for your child during a shopping trip, you can be better prepared to handle any challenges that may come up.
Here are some tips to make shopping with a child with autism easier:
Prepare your Child for the Change in Schedule
The day before the shopping trip, tell your child about your plans. Explain that they will be going shopping and tell them what time you will leave. This will help your child prepare for the change in routine.
Make a Plan with your Child
Before you leave for the store, sit down with your child and explain what will happen. Use words and pictures to help them understand the steps of the trip. This will help reduce anxiety and make the trip more predictable.
Include what will happen once you get home by creating a social story.
For example, say we will get into the car, drive to the store and park in the lot. Once we enter the store we will choose a wagon, collect all of the items on our list and head to the checkout line. Once we pay for the items we will bag them and place them in the car. Once we drive home, we will undo and put away the items and then play a game of your choice.
Applied Pressure Techniques
Applied pressure techniques can help an autistic child with sensory processing disorder. Things like weighted blankets, vests, or stuffed animals can provide deep pressure input which can help calm the nervous system.
Bring along a fidget toy
If your child becomes overwhelmed, having something they love to focus on can help calm them down.
Fidget toys can be a helpful distraction for a child with autism. They may help them focus and stay calm while shopping
Reward them for Good Behavior
If your child does well on the shopping trip, be sure to reward them. This could be a favorite food, toy, or activity.
Rewarding good behavior will help encourage your child to continue following the rules while shopping.
Keep Trips Short
Autistic children can become overwhelmed easily, so it is best to keep trips short. This will help reduce the chances of a meltdown occurring.
Start with two or three items. If you have to make a larger purchase, break it up into multiple trips.
This will help your child stay calm and avoid becoming overwhelmed.
How ABA therapy can help a child go shopping
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy is a type of therapy that can be beneficial for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including when they go shopping. ABA therapy uses positive reinforcement to encourage desirable behaviors and reduce problematic ones. Here's how ABA therapy can assist a child with ASD during a shopping trip:
- Planning and Preparation: ABA therapy helps children with autism to understand and follow routines. Before a shopping trip, parents or caregivers can use ABA techniques to prepare the child for what to expect, such as making a list or discussing the steps involved in shopping.
- Visual Supports: Visual schedules, which are often used in ABA therapy, can be incredibly useful for children with autism. They provide a visual representation of what will happen during the shopping trip, which can help the child understand the sequence of events and reduce anxiety.
- Skill Development: Shopping trips can be used as an opportunity to practice and develop skills. For example, younger children may help gather produce, while older children might learn to compare prices or pay for items. ABA therapy can guide this skill development.
- Behavior Management: ABA therapy can also help manage problematic behaviors that may arise during shopping. This can include using positive reinforcement to encourage calm behavior, or teaching the child strategies to cope with sensory overload.
- Real-World Application: ABA therapy isn't just for the clinic – it can be applied in real-world situations like shopping. This allows children with autism to learn and practice skills in a practical context.
Remember, each child with autism is unique, and what works for one child may not work for another. It's important to tailor strategies to the individual child's needs and abilities.
Shopping with a child with autism can be a difficult and frustrating experience. However, by following these tips, you can make the trip more manageable for both you and your child. Remember to be patient and understanding, and most importantly, have fun!


Phillip Trelford's Array
POKE 36879,255
Life in a tweet
This week I had pleasure of meeting Vagif Abilov on Tomas Petricek and I's Advanced F# course at Skills Matter. Vagif mentioned a Ruby implementation of Conway's Game of Life being squeezed into 140 characters for tweeting and how that might look in F#.
Here's the 140 characters of Ruby:
And 127 characters of F#:
let f s g = g|>List.mapi(fun i x->match Seq.sumBy(fun o->
g.[abs((i+o)%(s*s))])[-1-s;-s;1-s;-1;1;-1+s;s;1+s]with 3->1|2->x|_->0)
Like the Ruby version, the F# implementation above takes a shortcut when computing points outside of the grid.
This is what the function looks like with added white space, variable names and comments:
let generate size grid =
 grid |> List.mapi (fun i value->
 /// Neighbours count
 let count =
 let s = size
 -1; 1;
 -1+s;s; 1+s]
 |> Seq.sumBy (fun o ->
 let offset = abs((i + o) % grid.Length)
 // Evaluate life
 match value, count with
 | _, 3 -> 1
 | n, 2 -> n
 | _, _ -> 0
The game grid can is expressed as a list:
let grid = [
Visualizing the grid on the console:
let show (size:int) (grid:int list) =
 for y=0 to (_URL_ do
 |> (fun x -> grid.[y * size + x].ToString())
 |> String.concat ""
 |> printfn "%s"
Or watch it running in your browser:
(I used Pit to compile the F# code to JavaScript)
Life.fs (1.77 kb)
What makes a good step definition
Following on from last week's What makes a good feature file article, this week it's time to tackle what makes a good step definition. To automatically test that an application's behaviour matches that defined by the scenarios in a feature file, a mapping is required. Step definitions provide that mapping from the lines in a feature file to the code that implements the feature.
Starting with a Given:
Given I have entered 0.1134 into the calculator
Ruby step definition for use with Cucumber::
Given /I have entered (.*) into the calculator/ do |n|
 # Some Ruby code here
The code above specifies a regular expression used to match lines in the feature file and an anonymous function to execute.
C# attributed step definition compatible with both SpecFlow and TickSpec:
[Given(@"I have entered (.*) into the calculator")]
public void GivenIHaveEnteredNIntoTheCalculator(int n)
 // C# code here
Again a regular expression is specified, however this time the function is public and reflection is used for invocation.
F# attributed step definition compatible with TickSpec:
let [] ''I have entered (.*) into the calculator''(n:int) =
 // F# code here
F# allows white space and special charecters in method names enclosed with backticks. This removes the need for both an attribute and a function name.
TickSpec also supports anonymous functions as Ruby with Cucumber, i.e.:
Given "I have entered (.*) into the calculator" (fun [Int n] –>
 // F# code here
From a terseness point of view it looks like Ruby and F# the advantage for writing step definitions. But that's only part of the story…
By default in frameworks like Cucumber and SpecFlow step definitions are defined globally, so that they can be shared or reused. Global functions are usually fine for small programs, but for larger programs we usually group them into classes or modules for maintainability.
With SpecFlow and TickSpec it is possible to constrain the scope of a step definition or set of step definitions via a StepScope attribute:
public class AdditionSteps
 public void GivenIHaveEnteredNIntoTheCalculator(int n)
 // C# code here
Here the step definition methods in the AdditionSteps class are only matched against the Addition feature. This allows the wording in the feature file to evolve without affecting other feature files, and it allows the actions in the methods to vary too. It also means that it is easy to find the step definitions that map to a feature file in one place.
Using a class level step definition scope is quite similar conceptually to using a View Model within the MVVM pattern, where the View Model is responsible for mapping from view to model. It adds a layer of indirection over binding directly to the model, but allows the application to evolve more easily over time.
Note: TickSpec can apply scope to both Step bindings and Event bindings like BeforeScenario and AfterScenario. There is currently was an open bug on this in SpecFlow (since fixed).
Fluent interfaces
So far the step definition examples have included a "code here" comment. This is where we arrange, act and assert. In the Given steps the preconditions are arranged. The When steps execute the actions. Finally the Then steps assert the outcome. This is almost identical to the steps you'd take in TDD for a unit test, except the parts are spread across multiple methods.
Note: The state for a scenario can also be initialized in a method marked with BeforeScenario attribute
For the arrange and act steps, DSL approaches like fluent interfaces can be useful for making step definitions more readable and maintainable.
In the arrange steps using the builder pattern is useful to build up the initial state:
public void constructPizza()
In the act steps a fluent assertion API is useful, for example the FsUnit F# library:
1 |> should equal 1
anArray |> should haveLength 4
anObj |> should not (be Null)
Using fluent interfaces inside the step definition functions can make them more readable and maintainable. For larger projects constraining the scope of step definitions helps make them more maintainable. Finally step definitions can sometimes be written more concisely in languages like Ruby and F#.


text:
Institute of Astronomy (former Astronomical Observatory of the University of Latvia) is participating in satellite observations and instrumentation design since the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite on October 4, 1957. Institute staff has designed a range of satellite tracking equipment including optical, photographic and laser systems. Institute of Astronomy is running a satellite laser ranging (SLR) system and a permanent GPS station. SLR station is a member of the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) and Eurolas. Permanent GPS station (RIGA_12302M002) is a member of the International GPS service (IGS) and EUREF permanent GPS network EPN. The SLR station (ILRS code name "1884 Riga") is capable of day and night observations and measurement of distances to the satellites in the range from 400 to 28,000 km with single shot accuracy around few cm, depending on the range and satellite signature. Baldone Observatory is involved in athe steroid observations including Near Earth Objects or NEO.
|Employees in space
|830 000 EUR

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


text:
- This article deals with the history of the word 'transvestite'. For information about cross-dressing, see there.
The term transvestism has undergone several changes of meaning since it was coined in the, and it is still used in all of these meanings except the very first one. Therefore it is important to find out, whenever the word is encountered, in which particular sense it is used. However, to understand the different meanings of transvestism it is necessary to explain the development of the term and the reasons behind the changes of meaning.
Origin of the term
Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term transvestism around in (from Latin trans-, "across, over" and vestere, "to dress or to wear"). He used it to describe a group of people who habitually and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. (The distinction between sex and gender had not been made at this time.) Hirschfeld's group of transvestites consisted of both males and females, with any sexual preference.
Hirschfeld himself was not particularly happy with the term since he realised that sexual reassignment surgery. Hirschfeld's transvestites therefore were, in today's terms, not only transvestites, but people from all over the transgender spectrum.were only an outward symbol caused by a variety of different internal psychological situations. In fact, Hirschfeld helped people to achieve the very first gender name changes and to get the very first
Hirschfeld operated very much in a three-gender framework, namely male, female and other, or third gender. Included in this third gender were all people who, in today's terms, violated heteronormative rules. Again, in today's terms, this is very much equivalent with the queer community, i.e. lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. Therefore, there was no pressing reason to find different terms for the different shades of Hirschfeld's transvestism.
Hirschfeld also noticed that fetishistic behaviour, even if the latter involved wearing clothes of the opposite sex.was often, but by no means always associated with, transvestite behaviour, and he also clearly distinguished between transvestism as an expression of a person's "contra-sexual" (transgender) feelings and
Today Hirschfeld's use of transvestism is extinct, but the modern term transgender is used in a nearly equivalent sense.
The rise of the sexuality. In both Europe and the North America transvestite behaviour (both by male and female bodied persons) was until the 1960s seen an expression of homosexuality or suppressed homosexual impulses. Also, the three-gendered framework of Hirschfeld disappeared, and the two-gendered framework became the frame of reference again (until the late 1990s.)to power and the had brought an end not only to Hirschfeld's work, but to also most European research in the field of
In the 1960s Harry Benjamin and others started working with people showing transvestite behaviour again. Trying to press transvestite behaviour into a two-gendered framework produced a very significant result: transsexualism. Unlike Hirschfeld, who had tried to find a social space where third-gendered people could live the way they needed or wanted, people showing other-gendered behaviour now were forced to find a way of living as "proper men" or "proper women". And if a person could not be "cured" of transvestite behaviour, it seemed the best to make them change sex. Those who refused or were refused this "cure" were labeled either homosexuals or sexual fetishists.
Since transsexuals had and sometimes still have to "prove" that they are not "just transvestites" to get access to medical treatment, people who see themselves as transsexuals occasionally discriminate against anything they see as "transvestism" even more strongly than the public in general.
Today, homosexuality, transvestic fetishism and transsexualism are still associated with transvestism both alone and in various combinations.
Divergence from homosexuality
Social changes brought about the next modifications.
The gay and lesbian rights movement after the Stonewall riots weakened transvestism's association with homosexuality, since more lesbians and gays became visible and most of them did not show transvestite behaviour. The extreme transvestism that is still associated with the LGBT community, which differs quite obviously from most other forms of transvestism, became known as drag.
That left transvestism as transvestic fetishism, in which transvestic behaviour is coupled with sexual arousal. It has been a standard (and unproven) assumption of most researchers that women do not have fetishistic tendencies. However, in most western societies it became almost impossible for women to engage in transvestism, because more and more pieces of male clothing were permitted or even fashionable for them. Also, the distinctive transvestic behaviour of butches in the lesbian community became "politically incorrect" and therefore rather rare. All this led to the term transvestism being applied to men or male-bodied persons only, because there seemed to be no need for a word for transvestic female bodied persons.
Today transvestism is still applied mostly to male bodied persons. However, some researchers never stopped using the term transvestism for female-bodied persons, and recently some groups of female-bodied transvestites have started to use the term to describe themselves, although the term "drag king" is more common.
Other groups distinct from these meanings
After all those changes which took place during the 1970s, a large group was left without a word to describe themselves: heterosexual males (that is, male-bodied, male-identified, gynophilic persons) who wear traditionally feminine clothing. This group was, for obvious reasons, not particularly happy with the term transvestism. Therefore the term cross-dresser was coined. This group is quite distinct from transvestites, in that they're not gay, transvestites, or transsexuals. Nor do they have any fetishistic intentions, either. Furthermore, a good many cross-dressers cite fashion history, in which men wore skirt-like garments for tens of thousands of years, and heels from around 1500 to the late 1800s. Many call themselves "bravehearts" after the 1995 film, which depicted a leading man in a kilt. For this reason, the term "cross-dressing" is no longer considered to be transgender in nature. Most cross-dressers simply view themselves as heterosexual males whose personal choice of fashion attire is currently out of style for their sex.
There are many different usages and meanings of the term transvestism. Most experts agree that the correct usages is limited to:
- When people dress in clothes normally worn by the opposite gender in order to identify with that gender in some manner.
- When people dress in clothes normally worn by the opposite gender for purposes involving sexual arousal (transvestic fetishism).
- A combination of the two definitions mentioned above.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 November 2007, 08:23 GMT
Brazil stops to mark black rights
Organisers said 30,000 people attended the events in Sao Paulo
Thousands of people have taken part in celebrations and protests in Brazil to mark Black Consciousness day.
Two of Brazil's biggest cities - Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro - shut down for the day. Events were also held in towns and municipalities across Brazil.
The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva designated 20 November as Black Consciousness day in 2003.
It commemorates the 17th Century slave leader Zumbi dos Palmares, who was beheaded by the Portuguese.
'Respect and equality'
In Sao Paulo, where organisers said 30,000 people attended the festivities, rappers and other black musicians performed outside the Se Cathedral.
Painting of Zumbi dos Palmares in the entrance hall of Unipalmares university
The public holiday remembers rebel slave Zumbi dos Palmares
Inside the cathedral, a Catholic Mass was celebrated that incorporated Afro-Brazilian religious rituals, reported Globo Online.
The state governor, Jose Serra, spoke of the "necessity for respect and equality".
Brazil has more people with black ancestry than any other country outside Africa.
But there are very few black people in the higher echelons of society, including government, Congress and top posts in the civil service and armed forces, say correspondents.
Studies point to a huge economic gulf between the country's black and white population.
Black Brazil seeks a better future
25 Sep 06 | Americas
Legacy of Brazil's slave leader
22 Sep 06 | Americas
Black Brazilians learn from Biko
25 May 05 | Americas
BBC delves into Brazilians' roots
10 Jul 07 | Americas
Brazil: Key facts and figures
28 Sep 06 | Americas
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit
Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific


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I'd like to define an unordered set of values using an Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF) context free grammar. It's easy to define an unordered list of values in EBNF, for example:
value = 'A' | 'B' | 'C';
list = value, {',', value};
However, I'm having doubts it can be done for an unordered set.
Below are examples of valid unordered sets of values:
A, B, C, D
A, B, D, C
A, D, C, B
...
D, C, B, A
Whilst invalid lists would be:
A, A, C, D
B, C, C, B
A, A, A, A
...
or lists of arbitrary length.
A, A, B, C, D, A
A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D
...
share|improve this question
1
You can define sets by defining multiple non-terminal productions for each possible state of the set, but it would mean n! (or worse) productions :) – Dai Jun 4 at 6:06
1 Answer 1
up vote 1 down vote accepted
You can define unordered sets in EBNF, but only by listing all possible enumerations. That's impractical for sets larger than about two elements.
The standard -- to the extent that EBNF is a standardized notation -- allows you to use English (or any other language you feel comfortable with) to describe a sequence which is not otherwise describable. For example, the EBNF for EBNF includes this production:
syntactic exception
= ? a syntactic-factor that could be replaced
 by a syntactic-factor containing no
 meta-identifiers
 ? ;
Similarly, you could write something like:
value = 'A' | 'B' | 'C';
list = value, {',', value};
set = ? a "list" where all "value"s are unique ? ;
or perhaps
set = ? a "list" with exactly three values
 where all "value"s are unique
 ? ;
That's not much use for building a parser generator, but it might be helpful for a human reader who understands the same language as you do.
For real parser generators, a common strategy is to allow any list, which might include repeated elements, and then reject invalid lists during semantic analysis. (Or even earlier. It's not a difficult analysis.)
share|improve this answer

Thanks @rici, good idea about setting the requirement of no repeating elements. – LostInTheWeb Jun 5 at 0:53
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text:
Create a Stream Group
Once the Encoding profiles are created, the next step to controlling the quality of your video is to create Stream Groups. Since Stream groups are the grouping of different encoding profiles it may be likely to have stream groups for single video, Dual video, and Video plus slides among others.
The most difficult part of creating stream groups may be determining what stream groups need to be created. Once that has been determined, it is just a matter of adding a new group and choosing the encoding profiles to apply to each stream.
Since stream groups define the number of content streams and the type of media for each stream you might have a need for more stream groups than you would initially think. Regardless of how many stream groups you may need creating them always follow the same steps. Starting in the Management portal:
- Navigate to Recording > Stream Groups.
- Click Add New.
- Give you stream group a descriptive name that indicates each stream type. (i.e Camera (16:9 Video), Content (16:9 Video))
- Click Add Stream.
- Select the Input (Video1, 2, 3 or Slide) then click Add Stream.
- Click MP4 or Smooth Streaming then Add Media Type.
- Select the desired encoding profile for the media type.
- Click Audio and select an Audio encoding profile.
- Repeat steps 4-7 to add additional streams.
- Set Video 2, the content stream as primary by clicking and dragging it to the left-hand position.
- Once all streams have been added, click Save.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Introduction to the mathematical and Statistical Foundations of Econometrics by Herman Bierens published by Cambridge University Press in 2004 is becoming a popular graduate textbook for a course in Statistics and Probability and a solid reference for anyone who wants to study the statistical foundations of modern econometrics.
- The Human Capital Foundation has made a substantial gift to the center for 2013/2014 as part of an on going commitment to CAPCP. The funding will be used for an upcoming major conference, graduate students, and conducting research on asymmetric auctions.
- Vijay Krishna, in collaboration with John Morgan from UC Berkeley, was awarded a three-year grant starting in 2005 by the National Science Foundation on Mechanism Design with Imperfect Commitment.
- Kerem Cosar, _URL_ is Assistant Professor at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago
- Felix Tintlenot, _URL_ is Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Chicago
- Isa Hafalir, Carnegie Mellon University, Essays in Microeconomic Theory, advisor: Vijay Krishna.
- Daniel Xu, New York University, Structural Analysis of Productivity Heterogeneity, Firm Turnover and Industry Dynamics, advisor: Mark Roberts.
- Edward Green in collaboration with Hiroshi Fujiki and Akira Yamazaki are publishing the paper Incentive-efficient risk sharing in a settlement mechanism in the Journal of Economic Theory.
- Herman Bierens has a paper accepted for publication at the Journal of Econometrics on the Econometrics Analysis of Linearized Singular Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models.
- James Jordan has a paper accepted for publication at the Journal of Economic Theory on Pillage and Property.
- Robert C. Marshall in collaboration with Leslie M. Marx from Duke University has a paper accepted for publication at Journal of Economic Theory on Bidder Collusion.
Auction Theory by Vijay Krishna published by the Academic Press in 2002 is now a popular graduate textbook for courses in Microeconomics, Game theory and Auctions and a reference for anyone who wants to explore issues on auctions. A second edition in under preparation.


Edit Article
Tech Decks are fingerboards. They are for tricks. Each one has it's own unique design. You need to be able to pull off some tricks to impress people and have fun.
 1. 1
 The base position of finger-boarding is putting your index finger on the logo and the pointer finger on the tail, on the back bolts.
 2. 2
 Try a shove-it. Put your fingers into the starting position and spin the board with your pointer finger on the tail. You don't need to apply too much pressure.
 3. 3
 Learn the pop. Easier than the shove-it, this isn't really a trick, but you must be able to do a pop. Get your fingers onto the base position, and press down with your middle finger to launch the "nose" of the board into the air, while keeping the "tail" on the ground. This is a Pop.
 4. 4
 Try ollie-ing. The main motto for ollie-ing, is to pop up, and push forward. This isn't entirely correct but it's partly true. Put your fingers onto the position, and pop the board up - now, immediately slide your index finger to the "nose" of the board to level the board out evenly, and bring the board a few inches to the air. Land the board onto the floor. This is a trick that you need to learn.
 5. 5
 Learn grinding. Where there is a small, miniature rail, ollie the board into the air with a 90 degree turn to the side. Land the board onto the rail, and slide the board. This is a grind. To do a slide, do this without a 90 degree turn. Impressive, eh?
 6. 6
 Create your own tricks, check out _URL_ and also make up your own tricks. But don't bother registering on techdeck.com. When you do, it immediately deletes your account.
 - Practice, practice oh and practice
 - Have fun!
 - Don't break your decks.
Things You'll Need
 - Tech deck
Article Info
Categories: Fingerboards and Tech Decks
In other languages:
Español: hacer trucos en tu Tech Deck
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 37,465 times.
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Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in men aged 40 to 64 years with nonmetastatic prostate cancer (PCa) is associated with an increased risk for dementia and depression, according to investigators.
In an observational study of 9117 men aged 40 to 64 years diagnosed with localized PCa, a team led by Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, found that patients who received ADT had a significantly higher incidence of new-onset dementia and depression compared with those who did not (17.9 vs 7.5 per 1000 person-years and 30.2 vs 15.8 per 1000 person-years, respectively).
The ADT group had a 1.7- and 2.0-fold increased risk for new-onset dementia and depression, respectively, compared with no-ADT, Dr Trinh and colleagues reported in European Urology Oncology. In addition, longer duration of ADT is associated with a higher risk for either outcome.
Continue Reading
"Our results add to the evidence that the receipt of ADT is associated with depression and dementia, and emphasize the importance of neurocognitive assessment in patients undergoing ADT, especially in younger patients," the authors wrote.
They added, "In patients with advanced disease, who are likely to remain on ADT for the rest of their lives, it is crucial to screen them for these adverse outcomes, especially in the era of promising novel agents."
The investigators identified study patients using the TRICARE military database. TRICARE insurance covers all active and retired service members of the US armed services and their respective dependents. No patient had pre-existing diagnoses of dementia or depression. Of the 9117 men, 325 (3.6%) received ADT and 8792 (96.4%) did not. The median follow-up duration for the ADT and no-ADT groups was 9.3 and 10.0 years, respectively.
Tully KH, Nguyen DD, Herzog P, et al. Risk of dementia and depression in young and middle-aged men presenting with nonmetastatic prostate cancer treated with androgen deprivation therapy. Eur Urol Oncol. 2021;4:66-72. doi:10.1016/j.euo.2019.08.003
This article originally appeared on Renal and Urology News


text:
A method of transmission is the movement or the transmission of pathogens from a reservoir to a susceptible host. Once a pathogen has exited the reservoir, it needs a mode of transmission to the host through a portal of entry. Transmission can be by direct or indirect contact or through airborne transmission.
Direct contact is person-to-person transmission of pathogens through touching, biting, kissing, or sexual intercourse. Microorganisms can also be expelled from the body by coughing, sneezing or talking. The organisms travel in droplets over less than 1 metre in distance and are inhaled by a susceptible host.
Indirect contact includes both vehicle-borne and vector-borne contact. A vehicle is an inanimate go-between, an intermediary between the portal of exit from the reservoir and the portal of entry to the host. Inanimate objects such as handkerchiefs and tissues, soiled laundry, and surgical instruments and dressings are common vehicles that can transmit infection.


text:
Creating a Mailbox
You can create an email account associated with your domain to make your website appear more professional.
To create an email account with your domain name:
- Go to your website's Dashboard.
- Click on the Domain button.
- Select Set Unique Domain from the drop-down list.
- Click on Email Accounts then on New Email Account.
- Choose your account name and password.
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Massimo Bordignon, Enrico Minelli
Efficienza delle regole e responsabilizzazione dei politici
 - Abstract
Informations and abstract
Allocative and redistributive rules in the public sector are often less contingent on available information than normative theory would suggest. In this paper we offer a political economy explanation. Under different rules, even if the observable outcomes of policies remain the same, the informational content which can be extracted by these observations is different. Simpler rules are more transparent because they allow citizens to gain more information on politicians. Since there are limits to what voters can observe, this may be a relevant insight into the functioning of the political system. We present several institutional examples supporting our argument and discuss a simple model which supports our theory. By using the same model, we also carefully discuss the links and the differences with several other strands of literature, such as the macroeconomic trade-off between rules and discretionality and the principal-supervisor-agent model in the regulatory context. Finally, we offer suggestions for further developments and possible empirical tests of the theory dicussed here.
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Article first page
Article first page


text:
Knowledge Management Challenges in Public Sectors
The emerging trend in economy offers great opportunities, but at the same time it creates some concerns and challenges for private and public sectors. To overcome the issues and take advantage of the opportunities, governments need to consider the innovations and invest on some initiatives and adapt new management methods in private sectors. Knowledge Management (KM) is a way that needs to be explored for taking the opportunities and their implicit benefits in future. Therefore, it is also necessary to address the key issues and opportunities in public sectors. The aim of this article is to advance the understanding of KM concepts at the organization and the enterprise levels in the public and private sectors in knowledge economy and to develop a framework identifying good practices of KM. People, processes, and technologies are main elements to be considered for the public-sector KM framework.


Get Random Number Using Liquid
Get Random Number Using Liquid
Generate random numbers in Liquid was once possible with built-in rand(), but it has been taken out because it's easy to replicate in JavaScript and doesn't benefits to server side caching. However, you can actually get a random number in Liquid through a simple trick: making use of both the date & modulo Liquid filters1.
For example in a Jekyll project, get a random number like follows:
 1. Get the current date, using site.time;
 2. Extract the nanoseconds value from the date, using %s date filter;
 3. Use the module filter to get the random number between the min & max settings;
 4. Eventually, add the min value to the result.
And here is an example, generate a random number between 50 to 100:
{% assign min = 50 %}
{% assign max = 100 %}
{% assign diff = max | minus: min %}
{% assign randomNumber = site.time | date: "%s" | modulo: diff | plus: min %}
However, the randomNumber is actually fixed because the site.time is fixed once you start building the static files. It's only random among different builds. You can, just replace the site.time with anything that can be converted into integers. So, I've decided to use the page.content | size to replace the site.time at present for a pseudo random number.
Did you know that you can generate numbers in SCSS?
The random(param:max) is available in SCSS.
THE END
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林宏
Frank Lin, PhD
Hey, there! This is Frank Lin (@flinhong), one of the 1.41 billion . This 'inDev. Journal' site holds the exploration of my quirky thoughts and random adventures through life. Hope you enjoy reading and perusing my posts.
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Liquid is a simple template language that Jekyll uses to process pages for your site. With Liquid you can output complex contents without additional plugins.
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Practising closures in JavaScript
JavaScript is a very function-oriented language. As we know, functions are first class objects and can be easily assigned to variables, passed as arguments, returned from another function invocation, or stored into data structures. A function can access variable outside of it. But what happens when an outer variable changes? Does a function get the most recent value or the one that existed when the function was created? Also, what happens when a function invoked in another place - does it get access to the outer variables of the new place?
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OpenSAFELY codelists
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ACE Inhibitor Medications dm+d
The codelist contains medicines that are ACE Inhibitors from the RAS section of BNF codes.
Absence of Appendix CTV3
Codes that indicate an absence of an appendix, either as a clinical finding or due to appendicectomy
Acute Appendicitis CTV3
Codes that indicate an episode of acute appendicitis
Acute transverse myelitis ICD-10 ICD-10
Acute transverse myelitis ICD-10 codelist for use with hospital and mortality data
Codelist aims to be specific rather than sensitive, and to describe acute transverse myelitis occuring on its own rather than myelitis as part of a broader disease process such as encephalomyelitis or ADEM. Does not include codes which are not specific to acute transverse myelitis, e.g. such as 'Encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis'.
Addictive medicines dm+d
Codelist for addictive medicines. Including Z-drugs, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids
Adrenaline Pens dm+d
This list contains dm+d entries for adrenaline auto-injectors, commonly know as pens, which are used by people when they experience an emergency allergic reaction.
Adrenaline auto-injectors BNF
Advanced decompensated cirrhosis of the liver and associated conditions (ICD-10) ICD-10
Codelist to identify patients with advanced decompensated cirrhosis of the liver.
Decompensated cirrhosis is defined as an acute deterioration in liver function in a patient with cirrhosis and is characterised by jaundice, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome or variceal haemorrhage. (Moreau et al, 2013)
The codelist takes into account the conditions which characterise advanced decompensated cirrhosis of the liver listed above as well as codes for cirrhosis.
Note: This version does not include codes related to primary biliary cirrhosis. Additionally reviewer by Dr Karen Waller.
Advanced decompensated cirrhosis of the liver and associated conditions (snomed) SNOMED CT
Codelist to identify patients with advanced decompensated cirrhosis of the liver and severe liver disease.
Decompensated cirrhosis is defined as an acute deterioration in liver function in a patient with cirrhosis and is characterised by jaundice, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome or variceal haemorrhage. (Moreau et al, 2013)
The codelist takes into account the conditions which characterise advanced decompensated cirrhosis of the liver listed above as well as the code for cirrhosis.
NOTE: This version has taken out codes related primary biliary cirrhosis as our study used this study population and we used the codelist to identify severe disease. We have also added some terms to make sure we capture all severe disease such as HCC and gastric varicies. The update was carried out with Dr Karen Waller at the University Sydney.
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This code list contains NHS dm+d codes for alpha-adrenoceptor blocking Drugs in the cardiovascular chapter of BNF codes.
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 Alexandria students raise money for pancreatic diseases after teacher's death
 ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WJLA) - Summer break is just around the corner for students at Hollin Meadows Elementary School.
 The school year has been especially tough for the sixth-graders - their math and science teacher, Jeffrey Firman, was diagnosed with pancreatitis before the school year started, leading him to miss school sometimes throughout the year.
 Sadly, Firman left for spring break and never returned. He died on April 16.
 "Even though we only knew him for half a year, some of us have been here since kindergarten, so we have seen him around. So it was sort of painful," said sixth-grader Richard Harrison.
 Teacher Angie Palma said, when the students returned to school, "they really needed something."
 That something was to keep Mr. Firman's memory alive. The students decided to raise money for all pancreatic diseases.
 "So we can honor him and help other people who are suffering the same illness," sixth-grader Daniel Schudlich explained.
 Before he died, Firman had explained to his classes how serious pancreatic diseases can be, and how limited both research and awareness is currently.
 While Firman didn't have cancer, the statistics are still startling.
 The American Cancer Society estimates that, in 2014, there will be about 46,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer, and roughly 39,000 deaths.
 "Other people are in need because of this illness," Daniel added.
 So far, the students have raised just over $1,600 - but their goal is to raise $2,100, because Mr. Firman taught at Hollin Meadows for 21 years.
 "I know their goal, for the kids, is just to reach it - but I know we can pass it," said Palma.
 For more information, click here.


Problem statement :
"In 2-D co-ordinate system, to determine whether a given trial point is inside or outside a given polygon -- the polygon may be concave or convex"
Input :
1. The no. of vertices.
2. The vertices.
3. The trial point.
Output :
I thought i'd try it out with graphics - it worked, but it was too compiler specific for me to try and accept it. could any of you propose a more general solution.


text:
Minimal height differences in full view.
Raised or recessed object details – such as embossed digits and characters on a credit card – are difficult to detect with standard image processing methods. Even use of lateral lighting generally results in poorly identifiable contours due to overexposure and shadows. The solution comes in the shape of SensoPart's VISOR® vision sensor series with the new multishot function.
With the help of the Multishot technology, contours now stand out clearly so that raised or recessed letters and digits can be easily read, e.g. using the vision sensor's OCR function.
Changing background colors – a frequent occurrence in the packaging industry – can be eliminated entirely from image processing thanks to multishot technology. Analysis is then based solely on detected height differences.
Finally, a VISOR® equipped with the multishot function can also take and analyze a picture with a standard lighting configuration, in addition to a height image, as it is possible to simply switch between multishot and standard lighting at any time. This therefore also enables part inspection with traditional image processing tools, such as pattern matching, contour detection, distance measurement or code reading.
The following application examples compare images taken with multishot technology (pictured at the bottom) and without (pictured at the top):
Detection of defects on shiny surfaces
Reading of raised or recessed digits/characters using OCR
Reading of needled data matrix codes on highly reflective surfaces
Reading of data matrix codes moulded directly into plastic surfaces
Our VISOR® Vision sensor with multishot technology was honoured with a Silver Level Award by the judges of this year's Vision Systems Design Innovators Awards, which were announced at the AUTOMATE 2017 trade fair in Chicago.


Human Face to Enterprise Architecture
Nov 17, 2019
In the previous articles (Build Requirements Around Real Journeys and Design for Real People) we have explored the application of customer journeys to market analysis and requirements development. In this last article of the series we will discuss a method to use the customer journeys in enterprise architecture.
End to end requirements cycle
If we look at the previously proposed process end to end, it starts with the customer journey. The journey is mapped to the internal business processes, systems, and data sources. For both the customer facing and internal parts of the journey user stories are created to document the gaps between the as-is and to-be states - effectively form the backlog for the change. For each story, acceptance criteria are prepared in a way that enforces the expected behavior in the system. Ideally, those should be the scenarios that are likely to appear on the real life journeys and not the hypothetical future scenarios. These scenarios when implemented and tested feed back to the journey and underlying layers changing them as the new functionality is introduced.
The end to end cycle of experience driven development
Those familiar with the concept of enterprise architecture will notice some familiar notes here. Let us explore them further
Enterprise architecture through the lens of experience
According to the BABOK(r) Guide, an enterprise architecture is "A description of the business processes, information technology, people, operations, information, and projects of an enterprise and the relationships between them." [1] An organization's enterprise architecture generally describes how the business operates as a whole and defines the solution environment requirements. It also helps specify exactly which platform or other attribute of the environment is required for a particular solution.
The key challenge when defining an architecture of this scale is how to scope it. A project to build the architecture from scratch can last for months if not years in a large enterprise. Moreover, once built the architecture becomes obsolete really fast without proper updates and maintenance, which can cost a lot.
So businesses need to find a way to make this effort focused and to achieve a measurable ROI on these activities. Tailoring architecture slices to customer journeys is a way of achieving it.
Make architecture focused
The above mentioned process of end-to-end requirements development implies building an enterprise architecture blueprint in order to identify the requirements correctly. However, the nature of the process makes the blueprint focused exclusively on elements that are directly related to a single customer journey.
When performing market analysis and defining the journeys, an important step is to prioritize things accordingly. First step of prioritization is to define the customer personas or segments, that are of value or interest for the business. These may be the key target audience for the product or service, or they may be the most challenging segments (e.g. people likely to churn), so a business initiative can be focused on smoothing the experience for these people and reducing the likelihood of unwanted events.
When the key personas or customer segments are defined, the journeys can be prioritized next. The same user can have multiple potential journeys that interact with the business. They can come from a targeted acquisition campaign or discover the service organically. They may have a positive or negative previous experience with this type of services, etc.. Just like it is important to prioritize the customer types, it is important to prioritize the journeys for those customers.
Once those decisions are made, it is clear which customer journey the business is working with. This is when an enterprise architecture bit can be added into the picture. From the touch-points on the customer journey, an analyst can identify which internal processes, people and systems support them. In addition to these, the analyst can identify all the projects and initiatives that happen in the business in parallel, which may affect the journey. All of these data together forms a view of the enterprise architecture, focused around a specific prioritized journey. As the journey is considered to be of priority for the business, the elements identified during this exercise automatically become a priority. This is how a defined customer journey maps help build a focused slice of the architecture and help prioritize architectural effort.
Such architecture slices are often referred to as "service blueprints".[2]
A great summary of what a service blueprint does is given by the Nielsen Norman Group: "Service blueprints are companions to customer-journey maps: they help organizations see the big picture of how a service is implemented by the company and used by the customers. They pinpoint dependencies between employee-facing and customer-facing processes in the same visualization and are instrumental in identifying pain points, optimizing complex interactions, and ultimately saving money for the organization and improving the experience for its customers." [3]
Quantify ROI on architecture
It is always hard to calculate the return on investment when it comes to enterprise architecture work. Making the architecture customer centric simplifies this process.
Service blueprints help discover weaknesses in the businesses. Behind any unhappy customer there is a broken business process - the blueprint will help identify which processes lead to undesired results. It will also help to scope initiatives to improve those elements of the architecture that underperform. At the same time, as the elements are tied to experiences, it is easy to allocate business KPIs to them.
For example, let us imagine the data analysis shows our customers often abandon online checkout process at payment stage. The abandon rate is 75% on this stage. From the user interviews we have learnt that the payment form looks and feels external to the website, so people perceive it to be a scam. Building a service blueprint we identify the systems involved in the process. We may find out that the reason we cannot customize the payment screen is that it is a third party payment portal, so we don't have much control over it. Even though it cannot be customized visually, there might be a reason why this solution was selected. E.g. it may integrate nicely with downstream systems as a part of the business process. To resolve the problem, we may decide to change the process so the integration is not so important, or replace the payment system with another tool that satisfies both needs, or decide to bring this functionality in house. Introducing changes to this architecture will result in direct change in customer's behavior, bringing the abandon rate down. This change in customer behavior can be directly attributed to a new architecture decision, which can form a part of ROI calculations for architecture.
A similar process works with new opportunities that are identified on the customer journey. An opportunity needs a measurement or set of measurements to be assigned, so that the business can make a decision whether an initiative was successful. These KPIs will bring commercial flavor to architecture activities, as it will make it clear why an enterprise architecture is being considered and which outcomes it is aimed to achieve.
It is important a business (or customer's) KPIs are allocated to elements of your blueprint. This helps build a better system of internal metrics that measure the quality of the architecture, as those can be derived from the customers' level. This traceability helps keep the decisions focused on the valuable outcomes, and also supports the decision making process with real data rather than employees' opinions. As we have discussed in the previous article, decisions based on real evidence help solve real problems and avoid building products that no one dreams about!
How do we build a service blueprint?
In a nutshell, building a service blueprint consists of the following steps:
 1. Identify the customers
 2. Examine the customers' perspective of the service (customer journey)
 3. Identify the internal participants of the service (employees, technology and other actors supporting the journey)
 4. Link related activities and elements together
 5. Define and measure business KPIs for customer journey steps
 6. Translate those KPIs into internal metrics and make data driven decisions
Follow these steps, and you will elevate your enterprise architecture practice to a new level.
 1. A Guide To The Business Analysis Body Of Knowledge ®, Version 3, International Institute of Business Analysis, 2015
Author: Igor Arkhipov, Business Analysis Practice Manager
Igor holds Master of Business Informatics degree specializing in Business Process Modeling and Optimisation. Igor has broad experience as a Business Analyst and a BA Team Manager in the fields of software development, e-commerce and quality management. Igor's current role is a BA practice manager at Isobar Australia.
If you want to learn more from Igor, sign up for Igor's online training course on business analysis.
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Kusatsu-Shirane volcanoKusatsu-Shirane volcano is a complex of overlapping cones and 3 lake-filled craters (Karagama, Yugama, Mizugama) at the summit. It is located 150 km NW of Tokyo.
All historical eruptions have consisted of phreatic explosions from the acidic crater lakes or their margins. There are fumaroles and hot springs around the flanks of the volcano, and many rivers draining from the volcano are acid. Similar to Ijen volcano, the crater was the site of active sulfur mining for many years during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Background:The andesitic-to-dacitic volcano was formed in 3 eruptive stages beginning in the early to mid Pleistocene. The Pleistocene Oshi pyroclastic flow produced extensive welded tuffs and non-welded pumice that covers much of the east, south and SW flanks. The latest eruptive stage began about 14,000 years ago.
Yugama crater ("hot-water cauldron") contains the most active vent. Its lake is 270 m wide and up to 27 m deep and contains highly acidic (pH = 1.2 ) and salty (app. 1% salt) water.
The surface temperature of the lake is heated by vents at the lake bottom. In the interval 1910 to 1918, water temperatures reached a maximum of 100°C. Subaqueous fumaroles with molten sulfur pools exist in the center of the lake.
- Smithsonian / GVP
- B. Takano, K. Watanuki (1990) "Monitoring of volcanic eruptions at Yugama crater lake by aqueous sulfur oxyanions", Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Volume 40, Issue 1, January 1990, Pages 71-87
A small hydrothermal explosion likely occurred at Kusatsu-Shirane volcano on 7 February 1996.
Broken pieces of the ice sheet 20-30 cm in diameter were found washed ashore and discolored water was observed at the NW part of the lake. Probably, a sudden sudden discharge of fluid or a minor hydrothermal explosion was the cause.
A small eruption occurred from Yugama crater on 6 January 1989. It produced small amounts of volcanic ash on the frozen surface of the crater lake.
Kusatsu-Shirane volcano had 5 phreatic eruptions during 1982-83. Eruptions occurred on 26 October 1982, 29 December 1982, 26 July 1983, 13 November 1983, and on 10 December 1983. The water temperature at Yukama crater lake increased strongly and reached to 55.5 deg C after the first eruption, but did not increase further during the later eruptions.
(Source: GVP/monthly reports)
A phreatic eruption occurred at Mizugama Crater on 2 March 1976. A new crater 50 m in diameter and 10 m deep was formed in the NE part of Mizugama Crater.
The only event interrupting 34 years of quiet at Kusatsu-Shirane volcano between the eruptions in 1942 and 1976 was a small phreatic explosion in 1958.
An eruption occurred in 1942 and was unusual as it came from a different location than most activity at the volcano. A cluster of small craters was formed on the north flank of Mizugama Crater. A second group of craters formed on the south flank of Yugama Crater.
The largest historical eruption at Kusatsu-Shirane volcano was in 1932. It producing a 20 cm ash deposit reaching up to 2 km east of Yugama Crater.


Perturbative theory and Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction
Period of duration of course

Course info
Number of course hours
20
Number of hours of lecturers of reference
20
Number of hours of supplementary teaching
0
CFU 3

Modalità esame
Oral exam and seminars
Lecturer
View lecturer details
Prerequisiti
Functonal Analysis, Elliptic regularity theory. It might be useful some knowledge of topological degree theory.
Programma
Introduction and motivations
Perturbative critical point theory
Spectral theory for critical and subcritical problems
Semiclassical nonlinear Schroedinger equation
Problems in conformal geometry
Concentration on sets of positive dimension
Obiettivi formativi
The purpose of the course is to describe techniques for reducing a certain class of PDEs to a finite-dimensional problem, or to a simpler infinite-dimensional problem. An abstract method of reduction, which is very flexible, will be shown, and we will then move on to applications in relevant problems.
Riferimenti bibliografici
A.Ambrosetti - A.Malchiodi: Perturbation Methods and Semilinear Elliptic Problems on R^n, Birhkäuser, 2006.


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Managing Trade-offs in Adaptable Software Architectures
Book Description
Managing Trade-Offs in Adaptable Software Architectures explores the latest research on adapting large complex systems to changing requirements. To be able to adapt a system, engineers must evaluate different quality attributes, including trade-offs to balance functional and quality requirements to maintain a well-functioning system throughout the lifetime of the system.
This comprehensive resource brings together research focusing on how to manage trade-offs and architect adaptive systems in different business contexts. It presents state-of-the-art techniques, methodologies, tools, best practices, and guidelines for developing adaptive systems, and offers guidance for future software engineering research and practice.
Each contributed chapter considers the practical application of the topic through case studies, experiments, empirical validation, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, how to architect a system for adaptability, software architecture for self-adaptive systems, understanding and balancing the trade-offs involved, architectural patterns for self-adaptive systems, how quality attributes are exhibited by the architecture of the system, how to connect the quality of a software architecture to system architecture or other system considerations, and more.
 - Explains software architectural processes and metrics supporting highly adaptive and complex engineering
 - Covers validation, verification, security, and quality assurance in system design
 - Discusses domain-specific software engineering issues for cloud-based, mobile, context-sensitive, cyber-physical, ultra-large-scale/internet-scale systems, mash-up, and autonomic systems
 - Includes practical case studies of complex, adaptive, and context-critical systems
Table of Contents
 1. Cover image
 2. Title page
 3. Table of Contents
 4. Copyright
 5. Contributors
 6. About the Editors
 7. Foreword by David Garlan
 8. Foreword by Nenad Medvidovic Behold the Golden Age of Software Architecture
 9. Foreword by Paris Avgeriou
 10. Foreword by Rogério de Lemos
 11. Preface
 1. Introduction
 2. Part I: Concepts and Models for Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 3. Part II: Analyzing and Evaluating Trade-offs in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 4. Part III: Managing Trade-offs in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 5. Part IV: Quality Assurance in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 12. Chapter 1: Managing Trade-Offs in Adaptable Software Architectures
 1. Abstract
 2. 1.1 Introduction
 3. 1.2 Background
 4. 1.3 Trade-Offs in Adaptive Systems Design
 5. 1.4 Runtime Trade-Offs in Self-Adaptive Systems
 6. 1.5 Challenges and the Road Ahead
 13. Part I: Concepts and Models for Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 1. Chapter 2: Architecting Software Systems for Runtime Self-Adaptation: Concepts, Models, and Challenges
 1. Abstract
 2. 2.1 Introduction
 3. 2.2 Motivation: A Web-Mashup Application
 4. 2.3 Adaptation vs. Self-Adaptation
 5. 2.4 Foundational Concepts for Architecting Self-Adaptive Software
 6. 2.5 Reference Models for Architecting Self-Adaptive Software
 7. 2.6 Major Architectural Challenges in Self-Adaptation
 8. 2.7 Summary
 2. Chapter 3: A Classification Framework of Uncertainty in Architecture-Based Self-Adaptive Systems With Multiple Quality Requirements
 1. Abstract
 2. 3.1 Introduction
 3. 3.2 Study Design
 4. 3.3 Results
 5. 3.4 Discussion
 6. 3.5 Conclusion and Future Work
 3. Chapter 4: An Architecture Viewpoint for Modeling Dynamically Configurable Software Systems
 1. Abstract
 2. 4.1 Introduction
 3. 4.2 Architecture Viewpoints
 4. 4.3 Case Study: DDSCM Systems
 5. 4.4 Metamodel for Runtime Adaptability Viewpoint
 6. 4.5 Runtime Adaptability Viewpoint
 7. 4.6 Case Study—Adaptability View of the SCM Software Architecture
 8. 4.7 Related Work
 9. 4.8 Conclusion
 4. Chapter 5: Adaptive Security for Software Systems
 1. Abstract
 2. 5.1 Introduction
 3. 5.2 Motivation
 4. 5.3 Security Engineering State-of-the-Art
 5. 5.4 Runtime Security Adaptation
 6. 5.5 Usage Example
 7. 5.6 Discussion
 8. 5.7 Chapter Summary
 9. Appendix
 14. Part II: Analyzing and Evaluating Trade-Offs in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 1. Chapter 6: Automated Inference Techniques to Assist With the Construction of Self-Adaptive Software
 1. Abstract
 2. Acknowledgments
 3. 6.1 Introduction
 4. 6.2 Motivating Application
 5. 6.3 Shortcomings With the State-of-the-Art
 6. 6.4 Overview of Inference-Based Techniques
 7. 6.5 Learning-Based Approach for Goal Management
 8. 6.6 Mining-Based Approach for Change Management
 9. 6.7 Related Work
 10. 6.8 Conclusion
 2. Chapter 7: Evaluating Trade-Offs of Human Involvement in Self-Adaptive Systems
 1. Abstract
 2. Acknowledgments
 3. 7.1 Introduction
 4. 7.2 Motivating Scenario
 5. 7.3 Related Work
 6. 7.4 Analyzing Trade-Offs in Self-Adaptation
 7. 7.5 Analyzing Trade-Offs of Involving Humans in Adaptation
 8. 7.6 Reasoning About Human-in-the-Loop Adaptation
 9. 7.7 Conclusion
 3. Chapter 8: Principled Eliciting and Evaluation of Trade-Offs When Designing Self-Adaptive Systems Architectures
 1. Abstract
 2. 8.1 Introduction
 3. 8.2 Requirements for Automated Architecture Design and Analysis
 4. 8.3 The DuSE Approach for Automated Architecture Design and Analysis
 5. 8.4 Automating the Design and Analysis of Self-Adaptive Systems Architectures
 6. 8.5 Evaluation
 7. 8.6 Conclusions and Future Work
 4. Chapter 9: Analyzing the Architectures of Software-Intensive Ecosystems
 1. Abstract
 2. 9.1 Introduction
 3. 9.2 The Metropolis Model and Core-Periphery Structures
 4. 9.3 The Challenge to Architecture Analysis
 5. 9.4 Extending Architectural Analysis
 6. 9.5 An Example Analysis
 7. 9.6 Conclusions/Future Research
 5. Chapter 10: Architectural Perspective for Design and Analysis of Scalable Software as a Service Architectures
 1. Abstract
 2. 10.1 Introduction
 3. 10.2 Software as a Service Architecture
 4. 10.3 Software Architecture Perspective
 5. 10.4 Case Study
 6. 10.5 Software Architecture Perspective for Scalability
 7. 10.6 Related Work
 8. 10.7 Conclusion
 15. Part III: Managing Trade-Offs in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 1. Chapter 11: Managing Trade-offs in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures: A Systematic Mapping Study
 1. Abstract
 2. 11.1 Introduction
 3. 11.2 Background
 4. 11.3 Systematic Mapping Protocol
 5. 11.4 Systematic Mapping Process
 6. 11.5 Results and Discussions
 7. 11.6 Related Surveys
 8. 11.7 Challenges and Research Directions
 9. 11.8 Conclusions and Future Work
 10. Appendix A Primary Studies
 11. Appendix B Classification and Data Extraction of Primary Studies
 2. Chapter 12: The Many Facets of Mediation: A Requirements-Driven Approach for Trading Off Mediation Solutions
 1. Abstract
 2. Acknowledgments
 3. 12.1 Introduction
 4. 12.2 The Different Perspectives on Mediation
 5. 12.3 The Software Architecture Perspective: Mediators as Connectors
 6. 12.4 The Middleware Perspective: Mediators as Middleware
 7. 12.5 The Formal Methods Perspective: Mediators as Controllers
 8. 12.6 The Semantic Web Perspective: Mediators as Translators
 9. 12.7 Mediator Synthesis as a Service
 10. 12.8 Requirements and Mediation
 11. 12.9 Summary
 16. Part IV: Quality Assurance in Self-Adaptive Software Architectures
 1. Chapter 13: An Overview on Quality Evaluation of Self-Adaptive Systems
 1. Abstract
 2. 13.1 Introduction
 3. 13.2 Evaluation of Self-Adaptive Systems
 4. 13.3 Evaluation Based on Quality Attributes
 5. 13.4 Evaluation Based on Software Metrics
 6. 13.5 Trade-offs in Evaluation of Self-Adaptive Systems
 7. 13.6 Conclusions and Further Work
 2. Chapter 14: Identifying and Handling Uncertainties in the Feedback Control Loop
 1. Abstract
 2. 14.1 Introduction
 3. 14.2 Motivation
 4. 14.3 Methodology
 5. 14.4 Case Study: Identification of Uncertainties
 6. 14.5 Related Work
 7. 14.6 Conclusions
 17. Glossary
 18. Author Index
 19. Subject Index


in the phloem sap reaches the sugar sink, it must be unloaded
What happens once the phloem sap reached the sugar sink?
unloaded by the sucroseH+ transport protein and ATPase to sink cells, now V is lower outside the phloem (in the sink cells) so there is bulk flow of water through osmosis out of the phloem to xylem and sink, once there is increased water in the xylem bulk flow will start there as well and the water will be moved back towards the sugar source via the xylem
How is C stored and then mobilized?
C is stored as polysaccharides in granules in the chlpst of leaves or in plastids of parenchyma cells of storage roots or stems.
enzymes are utilized to either polymerized glucose into starch when sugar is plentiful, or, other enzymes depolymerize starch into glucose and then glucose is loaded into the phloem for transport to whatever the glucose is required.
What happens when C changes in C storage?
whether an organ is a sugar sink or source can change as demand for C changes, the demand may vary from season to season and even day to night in some cases.
How is water of the xylem sap held together?
cohesion: which is simply identical compounds sticking together
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text:
Charge Transport in Two-Photon Semiconducting Structures for Solar Fuels
Semiconducting heterostructures are emerging as promising light absorbers and offer effective electron–hole separation to drive solar chemistry. This technology relies on semiconductor composites or photoelectrodes that work in the presence of a redox mediator and that create cascade junctions to promote surface catalytic reactions. Rational tuning of their structures and compositions is crucial to fully exploit their functionality. In this review, we describe the possibilities of applying the two-photon concept to the field of solar fuels. A wide range of strategies including the indirect combination of two semiconductors by a redox couple, direct coupling of two semiconductors, multicomponent structures with a conductive mediator, related photoelectrodes, as well as two-photon cells are discussed for light energy harvesting and charge transport. Examples of charge extraction models from the literature are summarized to understand the mechanism of interfacial carrier dynamics and to rationalize experimental observations. We focus on a working principle of the constituent components and linking the photosynthetic activity with the proposed models. This work gives a new perspective on artificial photosynthesis by taking simultaneous advantages of photon absorption and charge transfer, outlining an encouraging roadmap towards solar fuels.


text:
Plate 375X. Blue Spring 1943 - 1948 - 1953 - 1961 - 2003 The Blue Spring Photo Plot Transect was established in 1943 and reread in 1948, 1953, 1961, 1973, and 1979. The transect consists of ten plots and is 1050 feet in length. The transect was designed to sample a small meadow near the junction of Blue Spring Creek and the North Fork of Blue Spring Creek on the southern side of Boulder Mountain. When the transect was established, range conditions were described as poor and soil erosion was widespread. The meadow was used "as a persistent bedding ground for [domestic] sheep. As a consequence of this misuse, forage was depleted…and a huge gully system was established through the old meadow…In 1946, the area was closed to sheep….but cattle [use] continued." In 1948, Dr. Walter Cottam, University of Utah plant ecologist, recommended that the entire allotment "should be closed to grazing." In 1953, range conditions were described as "very poor" with a net downward trend. Conditions continued to deteriorate and in 1961 the trend was still downward even though all sheep use had been discontinued in 1955. By 1973, however, conditions had improved somewhat and a new grazing system was implemented in 1974. In 1979, Dr. Jim Bowns, range ecologist at Southern Utah University, noted that "this transect tranverses an area that has received extremely heavy livestock use….Early photos support the discussion of the impoverished condition of this area and the poor species composition. The original gullies have healed and are presently revegetated. New gullies, however, have occurred primarily as a result of road construction [and associated logging]…This transect crosses the poorest range that we have seen in this area. The close proximity to water and [the] level terrain make this a natural concentration area for cattle. Utilization, therefore is extremely high. Any management, short of fencing, will probably have a negligible effect on this meadow. The area has improved somewhat since 1943, but range condition is still poor" (unpublished reports in the range files on the Escalante Ranger District, Dixie National Forest, Escalante, UT). Plate 375x is viewed northeast from the start of the Photo Plot Transect at the rock carin in the foreground. The person in the 1943 image is standing on the transect centerline. The rock carin is hidden from view in the 2003 retake by the low-growing juniper in the foreground. Conifers, primarily ponderosa pine, spruce, and juniper, have increased, while aspen has declined. The open hillside in the distance is now a pine forest. Aspen has not successfully regenerated in nearly 100 years due to excessive browsing of aspen suckers by livestock and wildlife. The area was heavily grazed by cattle in 2003 and erosion was common on the steep hillside around the photopoint. As conifers have increased, rubber rabbitbrush and other species have declined.
U.S. Forest Service photographs (unnumbered) taken by Ray J. Davis on August 6, 1943; Walter P. Cottam on August 4, 1948; I.H. Johnson on September 1, 1953; and I.H. Johnson on September 7, 1961; retake by Charles E. Kay on August 29, 2003 - - Photo No. 5272-9. Original photographs, negatives, and narrative reports held in the range files on the Escalante Ranger District, Dixie National Forest, Escalante, UT.
Conifer, Juniper, Aspen
South West: Section 3, Range 2 East, Township 33 South; UTM of transect starting point 441500 E, _PHONE_ N; elevation 8,240 ft.


text: The atomic rates for H and He-like ions are accurate for densities up to cm by taking into account the effects of 3-body recombination and lowering of the continuum ([Bautista et al. 1998], [Bautista et al. 1999]). However, these effects are not treated for other species which reduce the accuracy of the model results for these ions at high density. The density for which these effects become important for a given ion increases rapidly with effective charge of the ion, starting at about cm for z=1 and at about cm for z=8. At low densities numerical errors can occur; the user is urged to read chapter 6.


text:
The Weight of Price - On the Structural Fomation of (Nominal) Market Prices
41 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2012
Date Written: January 11, 2006
A new method to the investigation of nominal prices is presented. Taking into account (a) the weight of a number's digits, (b) the build-in characteristics of cardinal numbers in decimal notation, and (c) a probable misconception of decimal notation, the main features of nominal prices are demonstrated to be well predictable: the probability of market prices' first digits obeys Benford's Law due to (b); the length of prices, and the distribution of digits on the consecutive positions are determined by a price's first digit, as well as by (a) and (c). A secondary data analysis from el Sehity, Hoelzl and Kirchler (2005) is undertaken on price data from 10 EMU-countries before and after the transition to the euro. Price structures of the former national currencies re-established in euro within one year according to (a), (b), and (c).
Keywords: Nominal Market Price, Price Digits, Benford's Law, Money Illusion
JEL Classification: D49, E49, P22
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation


Principle of competitive exclusion and drosophila
Richard Borowsky
Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review
THE Volterra-Gause equations1 - the mathematical formulation of the principle of competitive exclusion2 - are illusr rid="illus1" where r1 is the intrinsic rate of increase of species 1, N1 is its population size, and K1 is the expected value of N1 in single species culture. The constants α and β, the coefficients of competition, denote the relative effect of the abundance of one species on the population growth rate of the other. These relationships imply that for a stable competitive equilibrium to obtain it is necessary that illusr rid="illus2".
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)409-410
Number of pages2
Issue number5293
StatePublished - 1971
ASJC Scopus subject areas
 - General
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Principle of competitive exclusion and drosophila'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
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text:
A memory chip is designed to hold a number of transistors and heat sinks. There must be at least 1 heat sink for every 2000 transistors to prevent overheating. Also, each transistor has an area of 2.0 x 10^-10 mm^2, each heat sink has an area of 3.6 x 10^-6 mm^2, and the total area of transistors and heat sinks must be at most 2 mm^2. What is the approx. max. # of transistors that the chip can hold according to this design?
A. 2.78 x 10^2 B. 5.56 x 10^5 C. 1.0 x 10^9 D. 1.0 x 10^10
Ans=C. S.O.S, PLZ!


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LED vs. Incandescent Trailer Lights
There are many differences between LED Trailer Lights and incandescent trailer lights, including the life expectancy, shock factor, power consumption, and even safety issues.
The incandescent bulbs that were traditionally used for trailers are an actual bulb; however, the LED lamps are called so because they are not a bulb at all and do not use filaments. Filaments have been known to stretch after much use and will weaken, and could even fail, causing both safety and legal issues.
Another major difference between LED and incandescent lights is the ability to absorb vibrations from the road. The LED lamps tend to last longer in this way because they have better shock than bulbs to withstand much more road vibration without dying out. The expected life of the LED light is around one hundred thousand hours, which happens to be about six times as long as a traditional style trailer light bulb. This extra life is not only a money saver, but having the assurance it will last longer means one will feel safer out on the road.
In addition to a longer life, the LED lamp lights consume a significantly less amount of power than an incandescent light would. The amps used during use is only a tenth of what the traditional bulbs use. You may ask, why do I really care if it uses less power than a traditional bulb? The answer is when a light is using less power there is more power being distributed to mother equally important electrical needs.
One of the main reasons people have been switching to LED lamps is the issue of safety. When a brake is applied the LED lights instantly respond and provide a more focused and brighter illumination than the incandescent ones. It only takes a fraction of a second to get to almost full brightness, and this quicker light could be what saves your trailer from getting smashed into by another vehicle.
For these many important reasons, more people have been switching to LED lamps for their trailer lighting needs. It is all a matter of knowing the differences and deciding for yourself if it is worth the switch for you. When it comes to power consumption, longevity, and safety, the better trailer light is the LED lamps.

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text:
This article will cover:
What does the flow look like from the Advocate point of view?
- Navigate to the AdvocateHub URL
- There are two scenarios:
- If they have previously logged in to your portal and the cookie is still present in the browser then they will be brought directly to the AdvocateHub.
- If they have not previously logged in and have no cookie they will be invited to enter their login credentials to your platform, upon successful entry of these, they will be brought to the AdvocateHub.
Note: If an advocate is already a member of another AdvocateHub with the same email address then there is one additional step in the flow. After they successfully enter their credentials into the customer portal, they will see a message like below:
An email will be sent to the Advocate which will include a link which they just have to click on and they will be brought back to the login screen to enter their credentials once more before gaining access to the AdvocateHub.
Here is a visual walkthrough of the flow the Advocate will experience:
How do invites work with SSO?
You can get Advocates into your hub in a number of ways:
1. Join Code/Join URL - These work exactly the same as they would on a non-SSO hub. Read more on them here
2. As enabling SAML means anybody with access to your Identity Provider can access Influitive, you can also provide your Advocates with just your hub URL and they will be able to access. The disadvantage of this is the lack of segmentation.
3. You can send out traditional email invites from our system or Marketo. If you send these the Advocate must use the link provided in these emails or else they may encounter permission issues.
Things To Think About If Implementing SSO On An Active Hub
What can you do to prepare for this?
Can I have Employees access the AdvocateHub via SSO but Customers access using the traditional method?
Using SAML, no, anybody who has an account setup in the platform you are utilizing SSO in will be able to access the AdvocateHub. This is a case of all or nothing. If you want to use SSO then everybody has to login using it. So for example, if you have employees who have accounts in your portal they can login through SSO, but if you have customers who don't have an account in your portal they have no way to login when SSO is enabled in your AdvocateHub.
Where are the 'Terms and Conditions' and Consent housed when using SSO?
How does the AdvocateHub App work with SSO?


text:
Shake, Rattle and Roll: Rhythm Instruments and More for Active Learning
Learn dozens of easy, fun learning activities using rhythm instruments, movement, Spanish, ASL and more. These classroom-tested activities support learning in literacy, math, science, motor skills, and social-emotional development. Available on Amazon.com and other bookselling sites.
101 Rhythm Instruments for Young Children
The perfect book to introduce rhythm instruments to young children! Contains easy actvities for rhythm sticks, maracas, jingle bells, sand blocks and more. Published by Gryphon House, 2004. Available on Amazon and other bookselling sites.
Teaching Creativity: Supporting, Valuing, and Inspiring Young Children's
The Musical Toddler: Singing, Playing, Moving, Creating, Listening, and Sharing the Joy of Music with Very Young Children


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Navigation: EmEditor Help > Macro Reference > Tutorial
EmEditor Macro Reference: Replace a String
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EmEditor Home - EmEditor Help - EmEditor Macro Reference - Tutorial
Replace a String
To replace a string in files, add the ninth and tenth line to our tutorial macro:
[JavaScript]
document.selection.Text = "EmEditor supports macros.";
document.selection.NewLine();
document.selection.Text = "\tEmEditor is a text editor.";
document.selection.CharLeft( false, 12 );
document.selection.DeleteLeft( 15 );
document.selection.CharRight( true, 9 );
document.selection.ChangeCase( eeCaseUpperCase );
if( document.selection.Find( "Em", eeFindPrevious ) ) alert( "Found!" );
n = document.selection.Replace( "editor", "######", eeReplaceAll );
alert( n + " strings found!" );
[VBScript]
document.selection.Text = "EmEditor supports macros."
document.selection.NewLine
document.selection.Text = Chr(9) & "EmEditor is a text editor."
document.selection.CharLeft False, 12
document.selection.DeleteLeft 15
document.selection.CharRight True, 9
document.selection.ChangeCase eeCaseLowerCase
If document.selection.Find( "Em", eeFindPrevious ) Then alert "Found!"
n = document.selection.Replace( "editor", "######", eeReplaceAll )
alert n & " strings found!"
Save the above macro and run it in a new EmEditor Window. Notice that two of the string "editor" has been searched case-insensitively and replaced with the string "######", and then a message box with the text " Two strings found!" is displayed.
The first argument of the Replace Method specifies the string to search for, the second argument specifies the string to replace with, and the third argument specifies a combination of flags. The method returns the number of strings that have been replaced. If you specify eeReplaceAll in the third argument, the method will replace the string at once and thus might return a number more than 1. See the argument explanations of the Replace Method for more details on flags for the third argument.
Normally in the Replace Method, similar to the Find Method, the execution of a macro is not terminated when the search string is not found. There is an exception, however. If you execute a macro with the Stop if Search Fails check box selected by selecting the Run with Temporary Options command under the Macro menu and bringing up the Macro Temporary Options dialog box, the execution of the macro is terminated when the search string is not found. See Find a String in our tutorial for more details.
Copyright © 2003-2016 by Emurasoft, Inc.


text:
Buffalo bur, sometimes called Kansas thistle and prickly nightshade, is an taprooted annual weed. It bears long, yellow spines on stems, leaves, and flower heads and can grow up to 2 feet high. Drought resistant, its highest occurrence is in dry, exposed soil. The oblong leaves are 2-3 inches long with deep rounded lobes and are covered with very dense, stiff, and sharp spines. Bright yellow flowers can be seen in summer. In the fall, berries up to 3/8 inch in diameter are enclosed in the dried flower parts and are filled with black, wrinkled, flat pitted seeds.
Control of this plant is important as it is a host for the Colorado potato beetle. When mature, the main stem breaks near the ground and the plant rolls like a tumbleweed, widely scattering the 8500 seeds that each plant produces.
Buffalo bur can be pulled when the soil is moist. Be sure to wear gloves to avoid injury from the spines.
Herbicides should be applied between late bud to early flower. Dicamba, Triclopyr and 2,4-D can be effective in controlling Buffalo bur. Glyphosate in a 2% solution can be applied as a spot treatment.
Photos: Judy Sedbrook.
© CSU/Denver County Extension Master Gardener 2010
888 E. Iliff Avenue, Denver, CO 80210
Date last revised: 01/05/2010


text:
Blue Tails and Autotomy: Enhancement of Predation Avoidance in Juvenile Skinks
Article first published online: 26 APR 2010
1985 Blackwell Verlag GmbH
Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie
Volume 70, Issue 4, pages 265–276, January-December 1985
How to Cite
Cooper, W. E. and Vitt, L. J. (1985), Blue Tails and Autotomy: Enhancement of Predation Avoidance in Juvenile Skinks. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 70: 265–276. doi: 10.1111/j._PHONE_.1985.tb00518.x
- Issue published online: 26 APR 2010
- Article first published online: 26 APR 2010
- Received: March 3, 1984; Accepted: February 18, 1985
Blue tail coloration in hatchling skinks (Eumeces fasciatus and E. laticeps) appears to be an antipredatory adaptation that distracts attention away from the body to the tail. The tail itself serves as a decoy that may be autotomized as a final defense against capture. The effectiveness of intact tails in deflecting attacks from the body was 50% against scarlet kingsnakes in the experimental conditions used. Brightness rather than hue presumably accounts for the higher attack frequency on blue than black tails in this study, but the blue color may have evolved in response to avian predation.
Repeated predation without ill effects by several predators allows rejection of the hypothesis that the blue tail is aposematic for the predators tested. The hypothesis that blue tails provide stimuli inhibiting aggression or predation by adult male conspecifics is untenable for E. laticeps because adult males readily eat intact hatchlings. Although this study provides no statistical evidence that blue tail coloration inhibits attack by female E. laticeps on hatchlings, the trend of predation rates on blue- and black-tailed hatchlings is in the direction predicted for inhibition.


Last updated: July 29, 2014
National Breaking News
WA chopper crash caused by jerry can
A HELICOPTER pilot was lucky to escape injury when an inappropriately stowed jerry can caused his Robinson R22 to crash and flip during a cattle muster in Western Australia's far north.
Before the man began mustering on a property near Fitzroy Crossing on March 22, he had refuelled the helicopter from a jerry can and then secured the empty can in the passenger seat using the seatbelt.
He was climbing out of a descending turn to the rear of a mob of cattle and was only three metres above the ground when a gust of wind blew through the left door opening and dislodged the jerry can.
It became wedged between the seat and the cyclic stick, which looks like a joystick and changes the pitch angle of the rotor blades.
Despite the pilot's efforts to regain control of the helicopter, it crashed, with the main rotor blades chopping through the tail boom.
The helicopter flipped forward and bounced back up to about 15m above the ground before landing upside down.
The impact dislodged the top of the front dashboard and struck the pilot's helmet, but he escaped injury.
The helicopter was substantially damaged.
"This incident highlights the importance of ensuring all items are securely stowed," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.
"It also provides a timely reminder to pilots of the benefits of safety equipment such as a helmet."


New insights into how excitement, anticipation and dread factor into people's decision-making are reported on in research from the University of British Columbia.
"This stems from the phenomenon known as 'the sign effect'. A person's desire to get positive things right away is stronger than their desire to put off negative ones. However, the timing of when a person wants to handle negative things is less obvious,"
says UBC Sauder assistant professor, David Hardisty, author of the study[1].
Savoring Vs. Dread
"When you're booking a vacation, you're vicariously enjoying the vacation, which is great, but you're also contrasting it with your current situation, which is bad. So you have that mix. And for losses, it's more of a unidimensional bad feeling. When you have a dentist's appointment coming up, you don't like thinking about the pain in the dental chair,"
says Hardisty.
Positive And Negative Experiences
Hardisty says some people procrastinate and put off negative events, but not as much as many would expect, because the negative anticipation is so unpleasant. The researchers' findings also counter earlier research that argued people put off positive events so they can savour the sweet anticipation.
Practical Applications
They found that remembering bad events feels bad, and remembering good events feels good, effectively wiping out the sign effect. The more events recede into the past, adds Hardisty, the more muted our emotional responses to them become.
"It's exciting to have an explanation for why people make choices the way we do. Hopefully it will lead to better interventions that can help people make better long-term choices about their finances and other life events,"
he says.
[1] Hardisty, DJ, Weber, EU. Impatience and Savoring vs. Dread: Asymmetries in Anticipation Explain Consumer Time Preferences for Positive vs. Negative Events. J Consum Psychol. 2020; 00: 1– 16.
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What happens when procurement rules are breached?
PQQ Process
Public sectors buyers in the UK must follow the EU rules for public procurement when issuing invitations to tender. The rules are designed to ensure equal treatment, transparency and proportionality; suppliers going into the process know how the tender is going to be structured, evaluated, and ultimately how it will be awarded.
When applied properly, these guiding principles safeguard the fairness of the whole exercise, opening up opportunities to SMEs and reducing barriers to participation.
But what can a bidder do when the authority doesn't abide by the rules?
More specifically, what remedies are available when the authority sets out the process for the tender, but then doesn't follow that process when awarding a contract?
Since 2007, the recourse available to contractors has been relatively well understood. During the standstill period, commonly referred to as the Alcatel period after a ground-breaking pair of court cases, tenderers can challenge a decision before a contract is formally awarded to a successful tenderer. But what about disputes beyond this point? Once the contract has been signed, it has been possible for an aggrieved contractor to issue proceedings, triggering an automatic suspension of a disputed procurement process. A contract can be set aside by court and declared ineffective and, understandably, complainants who find themselves out of pocket as a result of procurement rules being breached can seek damages.
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority 'not playing by the rules'
However, a recent high-profile case in the UK Supreme Court has cast increased doubt for contractors seeking damages due to rules breached in EU public procurement. The case, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority v EnergySolutions EU Limited (2017), arose when EnergySolutions missed out on a major nuclear decommissioning contract by a mere 1.06%. Most tenderers will have felt the sting of narrowly missing out on a contract, but in this case EnergySolutions, a consortium of US-based firms, was left feeling particularly sore having spent an estimated £10 million on preparing their tender. More to the point, it was suspected that the outcome was not only unfortunate but unfair. The consortium looked into the circumstances around the outcome, and ultimately uncovered a number of alleged issues:
 - The scoring mechanism was substantially changed late in the procurement process
 - Scores were altered during the evaluation period, but appropriate records of the reasons for these changes were not kept
 - Scores generally did not reflect the quality of the tenders submitted
 - Records of the evaluation process were kept to a minimum
 - The evaluation process was not consistent with the information presented to bidders, and was not applied consistently to all bidders
 - Clarification was not sought consistently for all bidders
 - Bidders who had failed a mandatory pass/fail question were not excluded from the process.
Health & Social Bid Management
Many of these reasons will not be unfamiliar to tenderers and can certainly be grounds for a challenge to a decision. Most striking in this case is how many issues were alleged for a single process. As a result of the discrepancies, EnergySolutions stood to lose not only the £10 million they spent on tendering, but the lost £100 million in fees from not being awarded the contract.
Ultimately, the UK Supreme Court found in favour of EnergySolutions, awarding damages to the amount of £110 million. At face value, the case sounds relatively simple: the evidence sounds clear-cut, and the claimant who lost out as a result of procurement rules not being followed was compensated in line with existing legal precedent. Under the surface, however, the case was very complex and took two years to settle, and has led to some key terminology from the legislation being placed under the spotlight.
What happens now?
Prevailing uncertainty comes from the need for a "serious breach" to have taken place for there to be grounds for an aggrieved contractor to seek damages: but who decides what is and isn't serious? It will probably take several more complex, protracted court cases to establish the standard. For the time being, bidders should be vigilant when reviewing the feedback received post-tender. If a process failure is suspected, tenderers should challenge the decision early, during the standstill period; authorities, not wanting to incur huge costs paying damages after a contract has been awarded, will take challenges during this period seriously, and decisions can and will be overturned when appropriate. Beyond that point, the onus will be on the complainant to prove that a serious breach has taken place.
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