The government and roles it plays in accident prevention in Kenya
The government and roles it plays in accident prevention in Kenya
As a driver, you need to ensure your car is in a safe state when it's on the road. You don't want to have an accident due to a faulty brake system or a defective steering wheel.
Road accidents in Kenya have been warring in the number of victims. It seems impossible to reduce these instances, as the numbers seem to increase.
The government plays a significant role in accident prevention in Kenya. It can impose rules and regulations that every driver can obey and lead to a reduction of road accident cases.
 1. The government fails to arrest corrupt police officers
Sometimes, you as a passenger see a police officer taking a bribe and fail to report that officer because of fear. You fear that you can get into trouble.
It can be because police officers seem to be associated with corruption, and reporting them can land you in trouble.
If the government fails to arrest corrupt police officers, drivers can break many road safety rules and regulations; this can increase the cases of road accidents.
 1. Un-maintained roads
Another major cause of road accidents in Kenya is improper or poorly maintained roads. It causes accidents to occur quickly. If a road has potholes, it's easy for a vehicle to get into them and cause its tires to burst and hence leading to an accident.
The government can help to reduce cases of road accidents by maintaining roads in good shape. It can ensure that roads have less or no potholes.
 1. Fewer road signs
Imagine driving on a path that has less or no road signs? Causing an accident is easy. If you approach a zebra crossing and there is no sign to show that, you can drive all along fast and cause an accident.
The government can try to put enough road signs on most roads to reduce instances of road accidents. If a road is steep, a warning should be placed to inform the driver that the way is steep and help him/her to adjust the speed.
 1. Imposition of rules and regulation
If there are fewer rules regarding road transport, there can be an increase in the instances of road accident. Rules make road transport safe. However, the imposition of those rules makes it more reliable.
The government though members of parliament can come up with rules that can lead to a reduction of accidents. It can impose such rules by using traffic police officers.
Your vehicle needs to be safe. People don't have to experience road accidents in Kenya. When everyone takes the initiative to ensure they follow road safety rules to the latter, road accident cases in Kenya can reduce.
We educate the public on road safety tips and security. Our products and services have earned us international recognition. Contact us today to get our vehicle speed limiters and fleet management devices.
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text:
This paper reviews the progress on nano-aperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The design, fabrication, and polarization control of nano-aperture VCSELs are reviewed. With the nano-aperture evolving from conventional circular and square aperture to unique C-shaped, H-shaped, I-shaped, and bowtie-shaped aperture, both the near-field intensity and near-field beam confinement from nano-aperture VCSELs are significantly improved. As a high-intensity compact light source with sub-100-nm spot size, nano-aperture VCSELs are promising to realize many new near-field optical systems and applications.
© 2008 Chinese Optics LettersPDF Article

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Norway is a beautiful country with a long and interesting history. But in addition to its interesting history and reputation for being friendly, active, and spectacularly beautiful, Norway has some distinctively odd characteristics and traditions. Here are five intriguing, strange facts about Norway.
1. It is illegal to die in Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen; the largest city on Spitsbergen, the largest island on Norway's Svalbard archipelago; has banned death. If someone falls terminally ill on the islands, he or she will be sent elsewhere to die. This may sound heartless, but it's for good reason – the Svalbard archipelago is far north in the Arctic Circle, and experiences frost all year round. As a result, bodies buried there won't decompose. This means that residents can't bury anyone here. If someone dies on Longyearbyen without warning, their final resting place will be elsewhere.
2. The Norwegian King's Guard features a king penguin
Sir Nils Olav has been the Norwegian King's Guard's mascot since the 1960s. When Lieutenant Nils Egelien visited the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland he found himself drawn to the penguins there. Shortly afterward, he arranged for the King's Guard to adopt a king penguin. Nils Olav I started as a lance corporal and earned a promotion each time the King's Guard visited Scotland. After Nils Olav I died in the late '80s, another penguin took his place, name, and rank. In 2008, Nils Olav II was knighted. The current holder is Nils Olav III.
3. A Norwegian invented the cheese slicer
Thor Bjorklund invented the cheese slicer in the 1920s after getting frustrated with attempting to make neat slices of cheese with a regular knife. Bjorklund was a carpenter, and he drew inspiration for his cheese-slicer design from his woodworking tools. When his standard knife didn't work, he tried out different tools in his workshop. When his wood planer worked well, he drafted the tool many use today. His cheese slicer was easy to use and worked for many different kinds of cheeses, and as a result, little of the original design has changed. If you've ever used this nifty device, thank Norway!
4. Ikea beds, wardrobes, and hall furniture are named after places in Norway
Yes, Ikea is a Swedish company, but it still has a fondness for its Scandinavian cousins. The company's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, is dyslexic. When he was coming up with names for his company's furniture, he found that naming them after existing words and places made them easier for him to identify and, as a result, Ikea beds, wardrobes, and hall furniture are all named after places in Norway. But Norway isn't the only country Kamprad used for inspiration: Ikea sofas, coffee tables, media storage cabinets, and bookshelves are named after places in Sweden; dining tables and chairs are named after places in Finland; and its carpets are named after places in Denmark. Other Ikea products are named after everything from berries to birds.
5. Norway rocks the Winter Olympics
In many ways, Norway's victories at the Winter Olympics are hardly a surprise. After all, the country receives a huge amount of snowfall and has a long winter season. Norwegians also have a unique bond with nature, known as 'friluftsliv'. However, the degree to which Norwegians dominate cold-weather sports is still astonishing. Norway is the unquestionable champion of the Winter Olympics, having won over 329 gold, silver, and bronze medals over the history of the Olympics. Furthermore, Norway has won the most number of gold medals over the history of the Olympics, with 118 gold medals. The US comes in second, with a total of 96 gold medals. Suffice to say, Norwegians rock the Winter Olympic events.
Want to learn more about Norway and its peculiar history and traditions? Head out on a voyage of coastal Norway with Hurtigruten.
Hurtigruten's Classic Coastal Voyages
One Hurtigruten journey will provide a thousand experiences. Sons of Norway members receive a 5% discount off the voyage fares for the Classic Coastal Voyages shown below, with daily departures in 2017 and 2018.
* Prices are per person, based on double occupancy, in an inside cabin, in USD, and valid for new retail bookings only. Offer is capacity controlled, and is subject to withdrawal at any time without notice. This discount can be combined with other offers such as our 1893 Ambassador's loyalty program discount of 5% for guests who have traveled with Hurtigruten before.
To learn more:


Analysis of European style copper lamp
by：EME LIGHTING 2020-01-23
Modern European style; Also known as neoclassical style;. Modern European-style all-copper lamp design style, from simple to complicated, from the whole to the part, finely crafted, inlaid with flowers and gold, gives a meticulous impression. On the one hand, it retains the general style of all-copper lamp materials and colors, making people feel the historical traces of stealing tradition and the rich cultural heritage. At the same time, it abandons the overly complicated texture and decoration of all-copper lamps and simplifies the lines. The modern European style of copper lamps is more like a diversified way of thinking, combining the romantic feelings of nostalgia with the needs of modern people for life, compatible with luxury, elegance and fashion, it reflects the personalized aesthetic viewpoint and cultural taste in the post-industrial era. 1, the shape is scattered; It is the main feature of modern European copper lamp style. While paying attention to the decorative effect, modern techniques and materials are used to restore the classical temperament of all-copper lamps. The neoclassical style all-copper lamps have both classical and modern aesthetic effects, the perfect combination also gives people spiritual comfort while enjoying material civilization. 2, stress style, all copper lamps in the design is not antique, nor retro but the pursuit of similarity. 3. Use simplified methods, modern materials and processing techniques to pursue the general outline characteristics of traditional all-copper lamps. 4. All-copper lamps pay attention to the decorative effect. Indoor furnishings are used to enhance the historical context. Classical facilities, furniture and furnishings are often copied to set off the indoor environment atmosphere. 5. White, gold, yellow and dark red are the common main colors in European style. A small amount of white is mixed to make the color look bright.
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Crossing the floor
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The Australian Senate, like other parliaments based on the Westminster system, uses a divided chamber
In politics, crossing the floor is when a politician changes their allegiance or votes against their party in a Westminster system parliament. Crossing the floor may be voting against the approved party lines, or changing to a second party after being elected to a first party. While these practices are legally permissible, crossing the floor can lead to controversy and media attention. As well, voting against party lines may lead to consequences such as losing a position (e.g., as minister or a portfolio critic) or being ejected from the party caucus.
The term originates from the British House of Commons, which is configured with the Government and Opposition facing each other on rows of benches. An MP who switched parties would literally need to cross the floor. A notable example of the latter is Winston Churchill, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904, before later crossing back in 1924.
Voting against party lines[edit]
The term has passed into general use in other Westminster parliamentary democracies (such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) even if many of these countries have semicircular or horseshoe-shaped debating chambers and mechanisms for voting without Members of Parliament leaving their seats. In most countries, it is most often used to describe members of the government party or parties who defect and vote with the opposition against some piece of government-sponsored legislation, but that usage is not widespread in Canada, where the term's usage is restricted to the original definition.
Most political parties let their members have a free vote on some matters of personal conscience.
In Australia, one of the major parties (the Australian Labor Party) requires its members to pledge their support for the collective decisions of the Caucus,[1] which theoretically prohibits them from crossing the floor; however, in practice, some Labor members disregard this pledge despite the disciplinary action which may result. Among other parties, crossing the floor is rare although Senator Barnaby Joyce of the National Party of Australia crossed the floor 19 times under the Howard coalition government.[2] Nonetheless, the record for crossing the floor in the Australian Parliament goes to Tasmanian Senator Sir Reg Wright, who voted against his own party (the Liberal Party of Australia) on 150 occasions.
Changing parties[edit]
In the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries, the term is also used to describe leaving one's party entirely and joining another party, such as leaving an opposition party to support the government (or vice versa), or even leaving one opposition party to join another. In both Canada and the United Kingdom, the term carries only this meaning and is not used for a simple vote against the party line on a bill.
In April 2006, the premier of Manitoba, Canada, Gary Doer of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba, proposed a ban on crossing the floor of the Manitoba legislature in response to "the concern some voters have expressed over the high-profile defections of three federal MPs from their parties in just over two years."[3] The resulting legislation, which amended the provincial Legislative Assembly Act, mandated that Members of the Legislature who quit their political party must serve out the remainder of their term as independents.[4]
An extraordinary example occurred in Alberta, Canada in December 2014 when Danielle Smith, the leader of the official opposition Wildrose Party, and eight of her MLAs crossed the floor together to join the governing Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta. [5]
See also[edit]
 1. ^ "Crossing the floor in the Federal Parliament 1950 – August 2004". Research Note no. 11 2005–06. Australian Parliament. October 10, 2005.
 2. ^ Debelle, Penelope (May 31, 2008). "Independently inclined". The Age.
 3. ^ Macafee, Michelle (April 11, 2006). "Proposed reforms would ban floor-crossing in Man.". Canadian Press. Archived from the original on March 23, 2007.
 4. ^ "The Elections Reform Act - Schedule E". Statutes of Manitoba. Manitoba Laws. 2006.
 5. ^


Category:Polar Bear Expedition
The Polar Bear Expedition (also known as the Northern Russian Expedition, the American North Russia Expeditionary Force - ANREF or the American Expeditionary Force North Russia - AEFNR) was a contingent of about 5,000 U.S. troops that landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and fought the Red Army in the surrounding region during the period of September 1918 through July 1919.


When food costs at the York County Prison spiked by more than 50 percent last month, county officials suspected something wasn't kosher.
It turns out, they say, the problem was too much kosher -- food, that is.
Kosher food is food that meets the strict standards of Jewish dietary law. The law prohibits adherents from eating certain types of animals, directs how some animals are slaughtered and prescribes how some foods should be prepared and consumed.
Is kosher food better-tasting?
Some York County Prison inmates apparently think so -- at least they find it more appealing than the non-kosher menu on certain days.
Prison officials say they're suspicious of an increase in the number of inmates requesting kosher meals, especially because some of those prisoners specified a different religious affiliation when they entered the prison.
The big tip-off, they say, are the "flip-floppers." Those are the "converts" who suddenly aren't so Jewish on days when the regular meals are more to their liking.
Certified kosher meals, which are pre-packaged and delivered to the prison, are nearly four times the cost of meals made in house, and prison officials say they can't afford anyone gaming the system.
From now on, prisoners who are being served kosher meals and ask to return to non-kosher will be permitted, but those who later ask to return to kosher meals will be denied.
It's a logical reaction, but in practice it will likely be dicey determining who's scamming a meal and who, perhaps, is simply not as devout as others of the Jewish faith.
After all, everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs and the prison is obliged to accommodate them. Who are prison officials to judge what's in an inmate's heart and whether he or she is entitled to accommodations?
Prisoners denied kosher meals can file a complaint and request a hearing, at which time they'll be asked to provide proof of their religious affiliation, such as a statement from a rabbi.
But suppose one of them can't. That doesn't mean they aren't Jewish and don't try to follow kosher rules. It just means they can't prove it to the satisfaction of prison officials.
And will inmates of other faiths have to prove their affiliation before they receive any accommodations?
County officials are wading into very murky waters with this one.
They might be better off trying to find ways to bring down the costs of kosher meals, such as preparing them in house, and make sure they're on par with the non-kosher offerings.
That's better than unjustly denying anyone the right to practice his or her religion.


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Licensing and Regulatory Boards and Commissions
Nevada Dairy Commission
Dairy Commission Administrative History
The Nevada Dairy Commission was established by the Nevada Legislature in 1955 for the purpose of ensuring that an adequate and continuous supply of nutritious, wholesome, fluid milk and dairy products is available to Nevada consumers. Laws and regulations allow the Dairy Commission to monitor the dairy industry through auditing and investigative activities. The Dairy Commission is dedicated to promoting a business climate that is economically viable for those who produce and process dairy products in Nevada.
The original legislation established that it is the policy of the state of Nevada to promote, foster and encourage intelligent production and orderly marketing of commodities necessary to its citizens, including milk; and to eliminate speculation, waste, improper marketing, unfair and destructive trade practices and improper accounting for milk purchased from producers.
The purpose of the act to establish the Dairy Commission was:
- To provide funds for administration and enforcement of the act, by assessments to be paid by producers of fluid mild and fluid cream or both, and from licenses issued to distributors.
- To authorize and enable the commission to prescribe marketing areas which are necessary due to varying factors of costs or production, health regulations, transportation and other factors in said marketing areas.
- To authorize and enable the commission to formulate stabilization and marketing plans.
- To enable the dairy industry with the aid of the state to correct existing evils, develop and maintain satisfactory marketing conditions and bring about a reasonable amount of stability and prosperity in the production and marketing of fluid milk and fluid cream.
The original legislation in 1955 established a Commission of five members: one producer, one distributor, one producer-distributor, one operator of a retail store, and one member a representative of the consuming public. The Commission appointed employees necessary to carry out the provisions of the legislation.
The Dairy Commission is funded from fees collected through licenses, permits, and assessments on regulated dairy products. It does not receive funds from the State General Fund.
The 1955 legislation classified fluid milk into three classes with class one being milk marketed as milk, class two being ice cream and class three being butter and cheese. It also directed the Commission to hold public hearings in the State Marketing Areas to determine Stabilization and Marketing Plans for these areas.
The legislation did not provide adequate funds for the Commission to operate so it returned to the Legislature in 1957 and received supplemental legislation. This included increasing the Commission to nine members. The new Dairy Commission had its first meeting on May 22, 1957 and employed as its first Secretary-Administrator Clarence J. Cassady.
The Commission established three Marketing Areas for Nevada which were the Western Marketing Area based in Reno, the Eastern Marketing Area based in Ely, and the Southern Marketing Area based in Las Vegas. Public hearings were held in these Marketing Areas in 1956 and 1957 to establish area Stabilization and Marketing Plans which set minimum prices necessary to accomplish the purpose of the legislation. The categories of these minimum prices established were producer, wholesaler, and retailer. This price fixing on the producer, wholesale, and retail levels became the most controversial of all the duties of the Dairy Commission. The Commission always emphasized that these were floor prices and it was very rare for a retailer to sell milk anywhere near the floor and that high milk prices could not be blamed on the Nevada Dairy Commission.
Over the years the nine member commission which was made up of members of the Dairy industry was thought to be an inadequate regulator of the industry as too many of the members had conflicts of interest. A climax came in the mid-1970s when scandal ran through the Nevada dairy industry involving illegal rebates and kick back payments. In 1976 a Nevada Legislative Bulletin recommended a large overhaul of the Dairy Commission; the 1977 Legislature followed through with the interim study recommendations to change the makeup and the purpose of the Nevada Dairy Commission.
The 1977 legislation reduced the number of the members of the Dairy Commission to three and decreed that one member shall be a public accountant or a certified public account, one member shall be an agricultural economist, and one member shall be experienced in banking or finance. The legislation for the management of the Commission was greatly rewritten and the way that the Dairy Commission did its business greatly changed. Public hearings and commission meetings became much less contentious and the number of applications that were rejected dropped. The price fixing powers of the Commission were greatly reduced as minimum retail prices could no longer be set by the Commission. This legislation and restructuring of the Commission led to only minimum wholesale prices being set by the Commission through a formula established by the staff and members of the Dairy Commission for each of the classes of fluid milk.
The Nevada Dairy Commission when established in 1955 was placed administratively under the Governor's Office as one of the boards and commissions whose members were appointed by the Governor. In 1993 the Commission became a unit of the new Department of Business and Industry. The members of the Commission continue to be appointed by the Governor and the Executive Director of the Commission continues to function as the Secretary of the Commission.
Sources for further information:
Dairy Commission website
Biennial Reports of the Dairy Commission, available at the Nevada State Library 29-D14/1:-. Reports available for _PHONE_
Problems Confronting the Dairy Commission. Bulletin No. 77-12, Legislative Commission of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, State of Nevada, November 1976. Available as a pdf file.
Records _PHONE_ 23.0 cubic feet
Commission Meetings _PHONE_ 13.0 cubic feet
Meetings of the Dairy Commission are held monthly in each of the three marketing areas. The Marketing Areas are the Eastern, Western and Southern Areas.
Public Hearings _PHONE_ 8.0 cubic feet
Public hearings are held in each of the three marketing areas, usually on the same day as Commission meetings. The purpose of hearings is to amend the Stabilization and Marketing Plans of the Marketing Areas, and in recent years for amending the Nevada Administrative Code.
License Files _PHONE_ 1.0 cubic feet
Regulation Files _PHONE_ 0.5 cubic feet
Correspondence Files _PHONE_ 0.5 cubic feet
Top: dairy cattle at Reno, Nevada, ca 1911. From Agricultural Nevada by C.A. Norcross, Commissioner, Industry, Agriculture, and Irrigation. San Francisco: Sunset Magazine Homeseekers Bureau,.
Bottom: Governor Paul Laxalt promoting the dairy industry, ca _PHONE_. Courtesy of the Nevada State Archives.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Surgical Patient Entry and Exit Process Management System
- Use the medical/nursing information automation system to improve the efficiency of resource allocation and management in the operating room.
- Optimize the configuration of the operating room and the scheduling of surgery. Maximize the effectiveness of operating room resources, and be able to automatically grasp the movements of surgical patients in real-time.
- Improve management functions and strengthen patient safety, introduce bar code recognition (Bar code) or radio frequency identification (RF ID) and web-based display database query technology to develop a patient entry and exit process management system in the operating room.
Strengthen medical process control and
improve the accuracy of surgical patient identification

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


- St Matthias
Remembrance Day
This year in school we have marked Remembrance Day slightly differently. Due to the current COVID restrictions we have not held year group assemblies so instead form tutors have shared a thought provoking presentation set to music. Students also completed a general knowledge quiz to help them to reflect upon the reasons for the commemoration.
A group of students in year 8 went on to work together to create a cascading poppy installation in the school corridor. They decorated multi-faith symbols of remembrance with thoughtful words and reflections. Members of our student leadership team were also filmed reading the poem 'futility' by Wilfred Owen. This was then shown to all classes on Remembrance Day. Our Graphics teacher also shared the fantastic way that year 11 students had explored the theme of Remembrance Day through their subject. The poppy images were made by GCSE Graphics students in response to a cross curricular Graphics/English project based on the poem 'Poppies' by Jane Weir. A selection of those images are shared in this article.
We are incredibly proud of the respectful attitudes that our students have shown and their enthusiasm for ensuring that St Matthias marked this important day in the most wonderful of ways!
School News


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The paper examines the evidence for slavery in the late antique and early medieval penitentials. This body of sources has only recently been rediscovered for the study of slavery. Most of the earliest extant penitentials contain canons that deal in one way or another with slaves (servus or ancilla) or slavery (servitium). These canons can roughly be grouped into three categories according to the aspect under which slavery is considered in them: In the first category of canons, slaves are merely mentioned in the description of a sin in which they are either involved in or the victim of. The second category of canons considers slavery as a penitential punishment. The third category, finally, offers more general rules or laws on slavery. Samples for these three categories and their analysis form the main part of the paper. The presented evidence is then evaluated with regard to the questions what kind of insights the penitentials offer for the study of slavery in general, and the involvement of the Church in slavery in particular.
In response to critiques of the 'slavery versus freedom' binary and its limitations, researchers at the international Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS—


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The Friends of the Petawawa Research Forest was established to support, promote, and protect the Petawawa Research Forest (PRF) for continued scientific study, environmental education, and public recreation.
The Friends of the Petawawa Research Forest, Inc. was established by a group of volunteers in 2002 to:
- create awareness of the valuable potential of the Petawawa Research Forest (PRF) for continuing scientific study, education, and public recreation
- generate support for the PRF through a non-political, non-profit organization with charitable status and which is at arms-length from the government
- help secure the viability and future of the PRF
- promote environmental awareness among children and youth through formal instruction and hands-on opportunities


A FPGA Based Bus Pirate Clone
XC6BP
A necessary tool for embedded development is a device that can talk common protocols such as UART, SPI, and I2C. The XC6BP is an open source device that can work with a variety of protocols.
As the name suggests, the XC6BP is a clone of the Bus Pirate, but based on a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA. The AltOR32 soft CPU is loaded on the FPGA. This is a fully functional processor based on the OpenRISC architecture. While the FPGA is more expensive than a microcontroller, it can be fully reprogrammed. It's also possible to build hardware on the FPGA to perform a variety of tasks.
A simple USB stack runs on the soft CPU, creating a virtual COM port. Combined with the USB transceiver, this provides communication with a host PC. The device is even compatible with the Bus Pirate case and probe connector. While it won't replace the Bus Pirate as a low-cost tool, it is neat to see someone using an open source core to build a useful, open hardware device.


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Bobs are having a moment, experiencing a level of popularity that almost rivals their original debut in the 1920s. During prohibition the shape was so well-liked that it was considered unfashionable to wear any other style. Many daring women chopped their tresses, but those that preferred to keep their length mastered the art of creating the short shape by tucking and pinning. Now that bobs are back on the rise, knowing how to create a temporary version is essential. Read on for steps to creating this timeless vintage look. –– Laura Martin
Step 1: Prep clean dry hair with a light, even spray of protective thickening lotion and curl with a 1″ iron or styling wand, working in small, uniform sections. Wrap strands from roots to ends to ensure an even wave formation.
Step 2: Mist completed set with holding spray and allow to cool thoroughly. Use a round paddle brush to soften and combine coils, creating soft waves.
Step 3: Section off hair below the occipital bone and wind into a tight bun. Secure firmly with bobby pins, making the shape as flat as possible.
Step 4: Fold remaining hair under at the chin, pinning ends into the bun. Refine shape with finger tips and embellish with a feather, headband, or other flapper-inspired accessory.


running the algorithm on an empty volume), while O(k) measures the algorithm dependent overhead which is determined by the complexity of the surface and the type of mesh generation. Since it is mesh generation that we want to study, ideally we'd like to keep n fixed and let k vary. Another way to say this is that we want to construct some family of volumes with ever increasing surface areas. A simple way to do this is to use trig functions of increasingly higher frequency. For example, consider the following volume which is described b a functional equation:
\sin( \frac{\omega}{2 \pi} x ) + \sin( \frac{\omega}{2 \pi} y ) +\sin( \frac{\omega}{2 \pi} z )< 0.
As \omega increases, the number of chambers increases as well, along with the surface area. This gives us a pretty good way to control for the complexity of surfaces in an experiment. I implemented this idea in a node.js script that takes as input a mesher and runs it on a volume of some specified size. To control for cache warm up and JIT issues, the script runs each program some number of iterations on a non-empty volume (in my experiments, I found 10 iterations to be sufficient on a volume where \omega=4). Garbage collection costs are amortized by repeated runs (10 in this case). All experiments were performed on a 65x65x65 volume with 0 \leq \omega \leq 10.
Here is the data from running this benchmark on the naive culling method:
Naive Meshing Results:
 0 81.80 0 0
 1 129.05 82488 20622
 2 147.85 114696 28674
 3 166.50 146016 36504
 4 180.80 178792 44698
 5 206.10 209256 52314
 6 208.45 243672 60918
 7 258.85 272304 68076
 8 267.60 306640 76660
 9 278.45 334968 83742
10 297.15 371496 92874
The first column is \omega. The second column is the average time required to mesh the volume in milliseconds. The third and fourth columns are the number of vertices and faces respectively. These results shouldn't be too surprising. As the frequency increases, the number of surface elements goes up, and so it ends up taking longer to generate the mesh. In the 0 frequency case, you get an empty volume, and so the time required is reduced to just the overhead of iterating over the volume. Just for fun, here are the results for stupid meshing:
Stupid Meshing Results:
 0 6.95 0 0
 1 2733.65 _PHONE_ 823296
 2 2848.05 _PHONE_ 823032
 3 2727.35 _PHONE_ 823296
 4 2673.40 _PHONE_ 822258
 5 2729.50 _PHONE_ 823296
 6 2741.10 _PHONE_ 823272
 7 2687.75 _PHONE_ 823296
 8 2729.20 _PHONE_ 821628
 9 2682.40 _PHONE_ 823296
10 2772.95 _PHONE_ 823284
This may at first seem a little bizarre, but it makes sense. For stupid meshing, iterating over the volume is basically 'free'. The only limit at the end is the memory bandwidth. Another weird thing is that the number of primitives in the stupid mesh does not scale with surface area, but rather with volume. In this case, the volume of each region is relatively constant and so the run-time quickly spikes to 2.7 seconds or so, then stays flat as the frequency changes.
Anyway, let's now get to the main point, which is how well greedy and monotone meshing stack up:
Greedy Meshing: Monotone Meshing:
 0 92.40 0 0 0 79.00 0 0
 1 99.10 20712 5178 1 92.20 20202 11034
 2 103.10 44068 11017 2 110.10 43326 23631
 3 110.35 61644 15411 3 122.30 60420 32778
 4 126.00 87984 21996 4 144.60 86328 47319
 5 134.25 102024 25506 5 155.80 100056 54033
 6 151.40 129344 32336 6 192.10 127074 68871
 7 153.60 142416 35604 7 197.40 139476 75273
 8 167.85 172140 43035 8 227.60 167410 92843
 9 164.90 182256 45564 9 239.60 178302 96081
10 198.30 213452 53363 10 297.60 209838 113559
A victory for greedy meshing! Not only did it beat monotone meshing, but for sufficiently complicated geometry it is also the fastest method overall. Though this is not exactly a fair apples-to-apples comparison, since greedy meshing spits out quads while monotone meshing generates triangles. This fact alone is enough to account for nearly a 30% difference in performance, and explains some, but not all of the discrepancy between these two charts. The remainder of the overhead is most likely due to the fact that Monotone meshing is a more complex algorithm and that it has to do a bit more work per triangle, while greedy meshing is a bit simpler, but does more work per voxel.
While I believe that the general conclusions of these benchmarks are valid, I wouldn't say that this definitively proves greedy meshing is faster than monotone meshing. Javascript is far from the best language to use for doing benchmarks, and these implementations are not particularly tuned for performance. There may also be subtle bugs lurking in the code somewhere, like silent out of bounds accesses, that could end up having disastrous consequences for performance (and account for nearly the entire gap between the two algorithms). I've also tried to control for as many variables as I could, but it is still possible that I overlooked something and that there is some systemic bias in these results.
Conclusion
We've now seen at least two different ways to do better than naive meshing in Minecraft, and there are probably many others out there. Portponky from r/gamedev sent me some C++ code to generate meshes, though I've not yet looked at it carefully enough to figure out how to port it to Javascript (sorry!). I am still quite curious about it though, since it seems to be doing something quite different than either the greedy method or monotone triangulation. Anyway, that's all for now. If you have any questions or other interesting thoughts you'd like to share, please leave a comment!
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26 Responses to Meshing in a Minecraft Game (Part 2)
 1. Anonymous says:
 The problem with T-junctions is roundoff error. Roundoff might make the fill rule miss pixels between the polygons, and leave small gaps.
 This is entirely dependent on your hardware. Testing it on just one card is not enough to conclude it is safe. Probably modern cards do less rounding and handle this better, but if you ran it on older hardware, you might see problems.
 2. Olreich says:
 The T-Junction aliasing only shows up at extreme angles, and to be honest, isn't that noticeable. But it is there, and does create some slightly more grainy terrain (such as what one would see in the distance in minecraft)
 3. This shit happens to me al the time. Try an intel card, with floating point values on the meshes, further away from 0.
 4. mikolalysenko says:
 Ok, I'm convinced that there is something to the whole T-junction thing, but it is pretty difficult to replicate consistently. If anyone has a good method for generically reproducing this issue, I'd appreciate any suggestions.
 - Ian Bullard says:
 The t-junction issue is mitigated in Minecraft-like engines because of the nature of the data. Every triangle is either parallel or perpendicular to their neighbor and each vertex is at a whole number.
 You can try to force gaps to appear by drawing far from the origin (as vanitylicenseplaten suggested) and rotating the mesh. Essentially that will force rounding errors on the video card. Cheaper video cards use smaller floating point numbers in hardware so they'll show up more often.
 Even then, I doubt it'll be that noticeable. If you were writing a terrain engine with smooth hills the t-junction problem is very noticeable. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.
 - JohnW says:
 Cracks in T-Junctions generally appear due to the hardware snapping vertices to sub-pixel locations. The less sub-pixel accuracy the more a crack is likely to appear. The PS1 for example would snap each vert to the pixel center at low screen resolutions and T-Junctions were rife on subdivided Polys (to counter the affine texture mapping). Modern graphics cards probably store the line equations for triangle edges during rasterization at very high precision making cracks very rare.
 The best way to test for T-Junctions is to manually quantize positions


text:
Researchers believe that ancestors of the rare Exmoor ponies may have been used by warriors in service to Queen Boudicca in the first century CE. The ponies are being imported to the Drumburgh Moss National Nature Reserve, maintained near Carlisle, England, by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust. According to naturalists, invasive grasses threaten to dry out the peat bog and destroy native mosses and other plant life. Six of the Exmoor ponies were moved to Drumburgh on June 8, 2006.
The ponies provide a natural way to remove the invasive grasses, and they are unusual in their ability (and willingness) to wade belly-deep into the bog to graze. They also are unusually resistant to the hoof-rot that would afflict many other equine species.
Thanks to David Boyes, Justin's modern-world boss, for providing this story lead.


text: Insects rely on their olfactory system to forage, prey, and mate. They can sense odorant plumes emitted from sources of their interests with their bilateral odorant antennae, and track down odor sources using their highly efficient flapping-wing mechanism. The odor-tracking process typically consists of two distinct behaviors: surging upwind at higher velocity and zigzagging crosswind at lower velocity. Despite extensive numerical and experimental studies on odor guided flight in insects, we have limited understandings on the effects of flight velocity on odor plume structure and its associated odor perception. In this study, a fully coupled three-way numerical solver is developed, which solves the 3D Navier-Stokes equations coupled with equations of motion for the passive flapping wings, and the odorant convection-diffusion equation. This numerical solver is applied to resolve the unsteady flow field and the odor plume transport for a fruit fly model at different flight velocities in terms of reduced frequency. Our results show that the odor plume structure and intensity are strong related to reduced frequency. At smaller reduced frequency (larger forward velocity), odor plume is pushed up during downstroke and draw back during upstroke. At larger reduced frequency (smaller forward velocity), the flapping wings induce a shield-like air flow around the antennae which may greatly increase the odor sampling range. Our finding may explain why flight velocity is important in odor guided flight.


thank you
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Webinar Overview
Genetically engineered strains of mice can be a labor of love as researchers are dedicating valuable resources towards the creation and management of these specialized mice. As a result, it's important to protect them against potential disasters, such as genetic drift, rapid depopulations, contamination, fires, and so on.
This webinar will discuss key aspects to confidently put together reliable and scalable cryopreservation solutions, including the advantages and benefits of both embryo and sperm cryopreservation. You'll learn best practices to reduce the risk and secure your precious genetic lines while saving time and money, and supporting the 3Rs.
Webinar Presenter
Philip Damiani headshot
Philip Damiani, PhD
Director, GEMS and Rederivation Operations
Charles River


Black Actress To Play Tudor Queen Anne Boleyn In New Drama
British TV's Channel 5 have just announced that a black actress is to play Anne Boleyn in an upcoming three part period drama.
Jodie Turner-Smith is set to play 16th-century Queen of England Anne Boleyn, who was a white woman.
The baffling choice to play Henry VIII's second wife has led to internet clashes with many suggesting that the move amounts to cultural appropriation.
RT reports: Turner-Smith's turn as the medieval monarch was announced on Friday. The project was described by entertainment outlet Deadline as being a three-part "convention-defying" psychological thriller by Channel 5, set to "shine a feminist light" on the life of Boleyn, famously sent to her death by her husband King Henry the Eighth.
Social media quickly began overflowing with complaints about Turner-Smith playing a white queen. Commenters demanded "historical accuracy" and called it "cultural appropriation" – a term usually used when white people emulate other cultures. Many said that, logically, the Turner-Smith casting as Boleyn should be no more acceptable than a white person playing a well-known black historical figure.
Others mocked the future series by riffing on the concept of 'whitewashing' prominent people of color in history, noting how ridiculous it would be for them to be played by white actors. Some proposed that the US civil rights era heroes Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks be played by Caucasian actors, along with the South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.


PortDataReference class
Definition
Models data associated with an output of a completed StepRun.
A PortDataReference object can be used to download the output data which was produced by a StepRun. It can also be used as an step input in a future Pipeline.
PortDataReference(context, pipeline_run_id, data_reference, step_run=None)
Inheritance
builtins.object
PortDataReference
Parameters
context
_GraphContext
The graph context object.
pipeline_run_id
str
The id of the pipeline run which produced the output.
data_reference
DataReference
The data reference object.
step_run
azureml.pipeline.run.StepRun
The StepRun object which produced the data.
Remarks
A PortDataReference points to data which was produced by a completed StepRun.
Get a PortDataReference from a PipelineRun and download the output data as follows:
 from azureml.pipeline.core import PipelineRun, StepRun, PortDataReference
 pipeline_run = PipelineRun(experiment, "<pipeline_run_id>")
 step_run = pipeline_run.find_step_run("<node_name>")[0]
 port_data_reference = step_run.get_output_data("<output_name>")
 port_data_reference.download(local_path="path")
A PortDataReference can be used as an input to a step in a Pipeline, similar to using a DataReference.
An example to using a PortDataReference as a step input is as follows:
 from azureml.pipeline.core import PortDataReference, Pipeline, PipelineRun
 from azureml.pipeline.steps import PythonScriptStep
 pipeline_run = PipelineRun(experiment, "<pipeline_run_id>")
 step_run = pipeline_run.find_step_run("<node_name>")[0]
 port_data_reference = step_run.get_output_data("<output_name>")
 step_1 = PythonScriptStep(
 name='train',
 script_name="train.py",
 compute_target=compute,
 arguments=["--input", port_data_reference],
 inputs=[port_data_reference]
 )
 pipeline = Pipeline(workspace=workspace, steps=[step_1])
In this example, the newly constructed Pipeline will use the output which was created by the completed PipelineRun as an input to the train step.
Methods
as_download(input_name=None, path_on_compute=None, overwrite=None)
Consume the PortDataReference as a step input through the "download" mode.
as_input(input_name)
Create an InputPortBinding and specify an input name (but use default mode).
as_mount(input_name=None)
Consume the PortDataReference as a step input through the "mount" mode.
create_input_binding(input_name=None, mode=None, path_on_compute=None, overwrite=None)
Create input binding with this PortDataReference as the source.
download(local_path, overwrite=None, show_progress=None)
Download the data represented by the PortDataReference.
as_download(input_name=None, path_on_compute=None, overwrite=None)
Consume the PortDataReference as a step input through the "download" mode.
as_download(input_name=None, path_on_compute=None, overwrite=None)
Parameters
input_name
str
Specify a name for this input.
default value: None
path_on_compute
str
The path on the compute to download the data to.
default value: None
overwrite
bool
Use to indicate whether to overwrite existing data.
default value: None
Returns
The InputPortBinding with this PortDataReference as the source.
Return type
as_input(input_name)
Create an InputPortBinding and specify an input name (but use default mode).
as_input(input_name)
Parameters
input_name
str
Use to specify a name for this input.
Returns
The InputPortBinding with this PortDataReference as the source.
Return type
as_mount(input_name=None)
Consume the PortDataReference as a step input through the "mount" mode.
as_mount(input_name=None)
Parameters
input_name
str
Use to specify a name for this input.
default value: None
Returns
The InputPortBinding with this PortDataReference as the source.
Return type
create_input_binding(input_name=None, mode=None, path_on_compute=None, overwrite=None)
Create input binding with this PortDataReference as the source.
create_input_binding(input_name=None, mode=None, path_on_compute=None, overwrite=None)
Parameters
input_name
str
The name of the input.
default value: None
mode
str
The mode to access the PortDataReference ("mount" or "download").
default value: None
path_on_compute
str
For "download" mode, the path on the compute the data will reside.
default value: None
overwrite
bool
For "download" mode, whether to overwrite existing data.
default value: None
Returns
The InputPortBinding with this PortDataReference as the source.
Return type
download(local_path, overwrite=None, show_progress=None)
Download the data represented by the PortDataReference.
download(local_path, overwrite=None, show_progress=None)
Parameters
local_path
str
Local path to download to.
overwrite
bool or optional
If true, overwrite existing file, defaults to False.
default value: None
show_progress
bool or optional
Show the progress of download in the console, defaults to True.
default value: None
Returns
The number of files successfully downloaded.
Return type
int
Attributes
datastore
Get the Datastore associated with the PortDataReference.
Returns
The datastore object.
Return type
datastore_name
Get the name of the Datastore associated with the PortDataReference.
Returns
The datastore name.
Return type
str
path_on_datastore
Get the path on datastore for the PortDataReference.
Returns
The path on datastore.
Return type
str


text:
Robert C. Weaver Federal Building
Closed to the public.
451 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20410
A key component of the 1960s urban renewal efforts in southwest Washington, DC, the construction of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Headquarters building occurred in the post-World War II era of rapid government growth. Capitalizing on the desire to feature contemporary architectural styles in new government buildings, the HUD building was constructed in the Brutalist Style by preeminent architect Marcel Breuer.
In 2000, the building was named in honor of the first HUD Secretary and first African American member of a President's Cabinet, Robert C. Weaver. Despite its relatively young age, the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its exceptional architectural significance.


Join us at TensorFlow World, Oct 28-31. Use code TF20 for 20% off select passes. Register now
tf.compat.v2.distribute.StrategyExtended
View source on GitHub
Class StrategyExtended
Additional APIs for algorithms that need to be distribution-aware.
The intent is that you can write an algorithm in a stylized way and it will be usable with a variety of different tf.distribute.Strategy implementations. Each descendant will implement a different strategy for distributing the algorithm across multiple devices/machines. Furthermore, these changes can be hidden inside the specific layers and other library classes that need special treatment to run in a distributed setting, so that most users' model definition code can run unchanged. The tf.distribute.Strategy API works the same way with eager and graph execution.
First let's introduce a few high-level concepts:
 - Data parallelism is where we run multiple copies of the model on different slices of the input data. This is in contrast to model parallelism where we divide up a single copy of a model across multiple devices. Note: we only support data parallelism for now, but hope to add support for model parallelism in the future.
 - A replica is one copy of the model, running on one slice of the input data.
 - Synchronous, or more commonly sync, training is where the updates from each replica are aggregated together before updating the model variables. This is in contrast to asynchronous, or async training, where each replica updates the model variables independently.
 - Furthermore you might run your computation on multiple devices on one machine (or "host"), or on multiple machines/hosts. If you are running on multiple machines, you might have a single master host that drives computation across all of them, or you might have multiple clients driving the computation asynchronously.
To distribute an algorithm, we might use some of these ingredients:
 - Parameter servers: These are hosts that hold a single copy of parameters/variables. All replicas that want to operate on a variable retrieve it at the beginning of a step and send an update to be applied at the end of the step. Can support either sync or async training.
 - Mirrored variables: These are variables that are copied to multiple devices, where we keep the copies in sync by applying the same updates to every copy. Normally would only be used with sync training.
 - Reductions and Allreduce: A reduction is some method of aggregating multiple values into one value, like "sum" or "mean". If doing sync training, we will perform a reduction on the gradients to a parameter from all replicas before applying the update. Allreduce is an algorithm for performing a reduction on values from multiple devices and making the result available on all of those devices.
 - In the future we will have support for TensorFlow's partitioned variables, where a single variable is split across multiple devices.
We have then a few approaches we want to support:
 - Code written (as if) with no knowledge of class tf.distribute.Strategy. This code should work as before, even if some of the layers, etc. used by that code are written to be distribution-aware. This is done by having a default tf.distribute.Strategy that gives ordinary behavior, and by default being in a single replica context.
 - Ordinary model code that you want to run using a specific tf.distribute.Strategy. This can be as simple as:
with my_strategy.scope():
 iterator = my_strategy.make_dataset_iterator(dataset)
 session.run(iterator.initialize())
 replica_train_ops = my_strategy.experimental_run_v2(
 replica_fn, args=(iterator.get_next(),))
 train_op = my_strategy.group(replica_train_ops)
This takes an ordinary dataset and replica_fn and runs it distributed using a particular tf.distribute.Strategy in my_strategy. Any variables created in replica_fn are created using my_strategy's policy, and library functions called by replica_fn can use the get_replica_context() API to get enhanced behavior in this case.
 - If you want to write a distributed algorithm, you may use any of the tf.distribute.Strategy APIs inside a with my_strategy.scope(): block of code.
Lower-level concepts:
 - Wrapped values: In order to represent values parallel across devices (either replicas or the devices associated with a particular value), we wrap them in a "PerReplica" or "Mirrored" object that contains a map from device to values. "PerReplica" is used when the value may be different across replicas, and "Mirrored" when the value are the same.
 - Unwrapping and merging: Consider calling a function fn on multiple replicas, like experimental_run_v2(fn, args=[w]) with an argument w that is a wrapped value. This means w will have a map taking replica device d0 to w0, replica device d1 to w1, etc. experimental_run_v2() unwraps w before calling fn, so it calls fn(w0) on d0, fn(w1) on d1, etc. It then merges the return values from fn(), which can possibly result in wrapped values. For example, let's say fn() returns a tuple with three components: (x, a, v0) from replica 0, (x, b, v1) on replica 1, etc. If the first component is the same object x from every replica, then the first component of the merged result will also be x. If the second component is different (a, b, ...) from each replica, then the merged value will have a wrapped map from replica device to the different values. If the third component is the members of a mirrored variable (v maps d0 to v0, d1 to v1, etc.), then the merged result will be that mirrored variable (v).
 - Replica context vs. Cross-replica context: replica context is when we are in some function that is being called once for each replica. Otherwise we are in cross-replica context, which is useful for calling tf.distribute.Strategy methods which operate across the replicas (like reduce_to()). By default you start in a replica context (the default "single replica context") and then some methods can switch you back and forth, as described below.
 - Worker devices vs. parameter devices: Most replica computations will happen on worker devices. Since we don't yet support model parallelism, there will be one worker device per replica. When using parameter servers (see above), the set of devices holding variables may be different, otherwise the parameter devices might match the worker devices.
 - Non-slot devices are some subset of the parameter devices where we put all the non-slot variables. We need to ensure that all non-slot variables are allocated on the same device, or mirrored across the same set of devices. If you have some variable you want to colocate all the non-slot variables with, you can use colocate_vars_with() to get the remaining non-slot variables on the same device. Otherwise you can use non_slot_devices() to pick a consistent set of devices to pass to both colocate_vars_with() and update_non_slot().
When using a tf.distribute.Strategy, we have a new type dimension called locality that says what values are compatible with which APIs:
 - T: different value for each replica (e.g. a PerReplica-wrapped value).
 - M: value is "mirrored" across replicas, i.e. there are copies with the same value on each replica (e.g. a Mirrored-wrapped value).
 - V(v): value is "mirrored" across all the devices which have a copy of variable v (also a Mirrored-wrapped value, but over parameter devices instead of worker devices).
 - N: value is "mirrored" across all the "non-slot" devices
Rules for methods with respect to locality and single-replica vs. cross-replica context:
 - with d.scope(): default single-replica context -> cross-replica context for d
 - with d.extended.colocate_vars_with(v): in replica/cross-replica context, variables will be created with locality V(v). That is, if we write with d.extended.colocate_vars_with(v1): v2 = tf.Variable(...), then v2 will have locality V(v1), i.e. locality V(v2) will equal V(v1).
 - with d.extended.colocate_vars_with(d.extended.non_slot_devices(...)): in replica/cross-replica context, variables will be created with locality N
 - v = tf.Variable(...): in replica/cross-replica context, creates a variable (which by definition will have locality V(v), though will match another locality if inside a colocate_vars_with scope).
 - d.make_dataset_


text:
High Speed Research Car T-16
In November, 2000, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) began operating high speed research car T-16 to investigate methods for providing a safer and smoother ride for passenger and freight trains traveling at higher speeds. FRA's Office of Research and Development uses T-16 to study the dynamics of wheel-rail behavior, to investigate methods for improving track inspection, and to assess potential high speed rail corridors. T-16 also assists Amtrak, local and regional commuter authorities, and individual railroads in assessing their routes.
T-16 is a former Amtrak Metroliner passenger car which was refurbished and instrumented with advanced technology, with capabilities for measurement and data collection at speeds up to 160 mph. Measurement capabilities include track geometry, rail head profile, ride quality, and wheel-rail forces. T-16 can also be used as an instrumentation platform to collect data from sensors mounted on other cars in the train.
T-16 has the capability to process and display collected data in several formats. Monitors throughout the train can be configured to show the various displays. Exceptions are displayed in a list with specific details about each instance and on a GIS map to show their location in reference to other features. Raw data is streamed across a video strip chart that provides a graphical representation of measured parameters. The on-board system calculates and displays Track Quality Indices (TQI) based on track geometry data collected by the car. When requested by track inspectors onboard, data can be printed to an exception report or paper strip chart. Data can also be downloaded to removable media for offline viewing.


text: The objectives of the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) are to investigate the nature, severity, and impairment of mental disorders among national samples of the black and non-Hispanic white (n = 1,006) populations in the US. Special emphasis in the study is given to the nature of race and ethnicity within the black population by selecting and interviewing national samples of African-American (N = 3,570), and Afro-Caribbean (N = 1,623) immigrant and second and older generation populations. National multi-stage probability methods were used in generating the samples and race/ethnic matching of interviewers and respondents were used in the largely face-to-face interview, which lasted on average 2 hours and 20 minutes. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV World Mental Health Composite Interview (WHO-CIDI) was used to assess a wide range of serious mental disorders, potential risk and resilience factors, and help seeking and service use patterns. This paper provides an overview of the design of the NSAL, sample selection procedures, recruitment and training of the national interviewing team, and some of the special problems faced in interviewing ethnically and racially diverse national samples. Unique features of sample design, including special screening and listing procedures, interviewer training and supervision, and response rate outcomes are described. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd.


text:
The effective maintenance scheduling of power system\ud generators is very important to a power utility for the\ud economical and reliable operation of a power system.\ud Many mathematical methods have been implemented for\ud generator maintenance scheduling (GMS). However,\ud these methods have many limitations and require many\ud approximations. Here a Genetic Algorithm is proposed\ud for GMS problems in order to overcome some of the\ud limitations of the conventional methods.\ud This paper formulates a general GMS problem using a\ud reliability criterion as an integer programming problem,\ud and demonstrates the use of GAs with three different\ud problem encodings: binary, binary for integer and\ud integer. The GA performances for each of these\ud representations are analysed and compared for a test\ud problem based on a practical power system scenario. The\ud effects of different GA parameters are also studied. The\ud results show that the integer GA is a very effective\ud method for GMS problems
To submit an update or takedown request for this paper, please submit an Update/Correction/Removal Request.


ContentBlockerAction class
Action associated to the trigger. The action tells to the WebView what to do when the trigger is matched. When a trigger matches a resource, the browser queues the associated action for execution. The WebView evaluates all the triggers, it executes the actions in order. When a domain matches a trigger, all rules after the triggered rule that specify the same action are skipped. Group the rules with similar actions together to improve performance.
Constructors
ContentBlockerAction({required ContentBlockerActionType type, String? selector})
Properties
hashCode int
The hash code for this object.
no setterinherited
runtimeType Type
A representation of the runtime type of the object.
no setterinherited
selector String?
If the action type is ContentBlockerActionType.CSS_DISPLAY_NONE, then also the selector property is required, otherwise it is ignored. It specify a string that defines a selector list. Use CSS identifiers as the individual selector values, separated by commas.
getter/setter pair
type ContentBlockerActionType
Type of the action.
getter/setter pair
Methods
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic
Invoked when a nonexistent method or property is accessed.
inherited
toMap() Map<String, dynamic>
toString() String
A string representation of this object.
inherited
Operators
operator ==(Object other) bool
The equality operator.
inherited
Static Methods
fromMap(Map<String, dynamic> map) ContentBlockerAction


BlogBlogging and Content WritingThe Introvert Writer's Guide to Promoting Freelance Services
The Introvert Writer's Guide to Promoting Freelance Services
Jennifer Xue
Jennifer Xue
Staff Blogger at ProWritingAid and Corporate Content Specialist
Published Oct 29, 2018
Many writers are introverts. And introverts make up 47 to 55 percent of the population. However, since most modern societies appreciate extroverts' traits more, namely aiming for the limelight and being outspoken, introverts must learn to navigate the world in order to succeed.
In this article, we'll discuss what being an introvert means and how an introverted writer can effectively promote freelance services without having to "pretend" to be an extrovert.
 1. Background
 2. First Things First: Understand the Strengths of Introverts
 3. Second, Recognize Your Strengths as a Writer
 4. Third, Set Up an Online Portfolio
 5. Fourth, Revise Your LinkedIn Profile
 6. Fifth, Develop Several Query Templates
 7. Sixth, Automate Your Business
 8. Conclusion
According to C.G. Jung, there are two significant types of personality: extroverts and introverts. The primary difference between the two is the source of their mental energy. Extroverts tend to be energized by social interaction, while introverts recharge their energy through solitude, tranquillity, and reflection.
This being said, their communication styles also differ. Extroverts are likely to be outspoken and decisive, while introverts are more reserved and tend to think before they speak.
Introverts are often misunderstood as being shy, which is actually a myth. Shyness is about fear and social anxiety, not about the source of inner energy. This explains why many public figures, including those whose jobs involve communicating with crowds, are introverts.
In other words, not all introverts are shy and not all shy people are introverts.
Now, if you're an introverted freelance writer, how can you grow your writing business? Because, most likely, you aren't that keen on going to business functions to introduce yourself while smiling from ear to ear and handing out your business card.
First Things First: Understand the Strengths of Introverts
Introverts often express themselves best through writing. That's because writing gives them the opportunity to analyze, edit, revise, and rewrite their thoughts before sharing them.
Of course, the level of "appropriateness" is relative from one introvert to another. According to MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), there are at least 8 types of introverts: ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ, ISTP, ISFP, INFP, and INTP. Each type comes with its strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics that determine how they think, feel, make decisions, communicate, and build relationships with others.
Writing also allows introverts to communicate clearly without the pressure of face-to-face interaction. How an introvert's brain works is itself an advantage, as it enables the writer to be comprehensive in observation and expression.
Second, Recognize Your Strengths as a Writer
What are your strengths as a writer? They can be related to the genre, the subject, the topic, the angle, the viewpoint, or anything else. Perhaps you have impeccable grammar and an advanced vocabulary. Or, you can turn complex ideas into simple step-by-step explanations.
Whatever they are, show them off in your work. Always project the real you and your strengths in writing. After all, when you're comfortable with yourself, it shows in your writing and communication.
Third, Set Up an Online Portfolio
Create a simple website that showcases your writing portfolio. Remember to include live links to articles, e-books, or white papers, so they can be easily found, clicked, and read. Include a photo of yourself and a few paragraphs of your biography so your readers can learn more about you.
The key is to make your portfolio professional and up-to-date while reflecting your own individuality as a creative person. A good online portfolio can act as your 24/7/365 salesperson. Thus, it's crucial to design it well with clear navigation and simplicity.
Fourth, Revise Your LinkedIn Profile
Treat your LinkedIn profile as a second online portfolio. It's as essential as your writer's site. Storify the summary, expand each job description in a way that quantifies the workload, milestones, and achievements, while at the same time project your kindness as a human being. (This is actually an introvert's strength, as we tend to reflect, analyze, and present information in a well-structured format.)
You can earn an "All Star" profile if you include and update information on each sub-header, such as experience, education, volunteer experience, skills and endorsements, recommendations, accomplishments, and interests.
"All Star" profiles are likely to show up in search results, which can open up plenty of new and exciting opportunities. Also, make sure that you turn on the career interest option, so recruiters can easily find your digital resume for any writing-related position.
Fifth, Develop Several Query Templates
An introverted writer should take precautions against anything that drains his or her mental energy. One of the most effective ways is using templates for communication, particularly when sending queries. Create several different templates for each type of writing query.
For instance, if you write corporate blogs, journalism articles, and technical white papers, consider creating separate templates for each project type. For corporate blogs, you can create multiple templates based on the industry verticals targeted.
For journalism articles, you can develop several query templates based on the target readers, such as women's fashion magazines, parenting magazines, and vending machine trade magazines. For technical white papers, you can target each template for a specific industry type, such as fintech, IT, and blockchain technology.
Sixth, Automate Your Business
In this digital age, automation is an important part of doing freelance business. Use simple Typeform contact forms for preliminary client surveys so they can choose what services they need from you.
Next, you can connect it with Zapier, so you'll have a notification on your smartphone as soon as you receive a new contact. You can also nurture prospects with Drip or Mailchimp for automated e-mail responses, so you can spend more time reading and writing instead.
But don't go overboard with automation. It can feel less personal and "robotic." Make sure every e-mail is written as if you were talking to an intelligent friend. Just use a simple template, so it reads like it's sent by an individual, not a part of an automated drip e-mail marketing campaign.
Being an introverted freelance writer in this digital age is unprecedented. You don't need to attend tons of face-to-face events just to spread the word about your services. Instead, you can focus on completing assignments and brushing up your craft. Your website, LinkedIn profile, copied-and-pasted query templates, and business automation tools will continue to work on your behalf.
As long as you keep up with the latest technologies and humanize them with your writer's wit and charm, you can leverage a great deal. Today, despite being an introvert, promoting freelance writing services efficiently shouldn't be an issue.
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Jennifer Xue
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Jennifer Xue is an award-winning e-book author with 2,500+ articles and 100+ e-books/reports published under her belt. She also taught 50+ college-level essay and paper writing classes. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, Cosmopolitan, Esquire,, Business2Community, Addicted2Success, Good Men Project, and others. Her blog is Follow her on Twitter _USER_.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
We are produd to present: Tea Dances at 2 PM Sundays
On Sunday afternoons (SLT), we will hold Tea Dances at the newly opened Blue Hall.
What is a Tea Dance?
A tea dance, or thé dansant (French: literally dancing tea) is an afternoon or early-evening dance. The function evolved from the concept of the afternoon tea, and traces its origin back to the French colonization of Morocco. Books on Victorian Era etiquette even included instructions for hosting such gatherings. A frequent feature of tea dances was the presence of a live orchestra – often referred to as a palm court orchestra – playing light classical music. The types of dances performed during tea dances included Waltzes, Tangos and, by the late 1920s, The Charleston.
To attract a live orchestra is not easy so we have chosen to book up Shasta Soulstar and Jean Munro in the coming months.
See you in SL's new ballroom on Sunday at 02:00 SLT (23:00 CET)


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Applying visual effects to the desktop - Shoot
, 31 Jul 2003
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This article discusses how an application can apply visual effects to the desktop, by copying desktop contents, applying effects on it and then re-displaying it.
Sample Image
This article discusses how an application can apply visual effects to the desktop, by copying desktop contents, applying effects on it using GDI functions and then re-displaying it. Additionally this application also demonstrates how to play wav files using Win32 API.
Shoot comes in handy when you are frustrated with your computer and would like to literally shoot the brains out of it. This application when run, converts your mouse pointer to a gun's target finder and wherever you click, it makes a gun shot sound and burns a hole through the desktop. To close the application just hit the escape key.
Like all other windows, the desktop window also has a device context associated with it. The Win32 API GetDCEx(...) can be used to get a handle to this desktop device context. Using this handle, you can copy the desktop window contents to some device context of your application. Then using any combination of GDI operations, various visual effects can be applied to it.
Using the code
We start copying the desktop window in the constructor of the dialog class, since we need to do this before, the window for this application comes up. We first get a handle to the desktop device context and then convert it to a pointer to a CDC object. We also get the screen resolution.
int screenMaxX = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN);
int screenMaxY = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYSCREEN);
Then we create a device context in memory that is compatible with the desktop device context.
m_pProcDC = new CDC;
m_pProcDC->CreateCompatibleDC (pDesktopDC);
When a memory device context is created, a 1x1 pixel sized bitmap is selected to it and hence GDI operations on it do not produce the required effect. We circumvent this by creating a bitmap of the same dimension as the desktop and selecting it to the memory device context.
m_pBMP = new CBitmap;
m_pBMP->CreateCompatibleBitmap (pDesktopDC, screenMaxX, screenMaxY);
m_pProcDC->SelectObject (m_pBMP);
The memory device context is now ready for use and we can copy the contents of the desktop device context to it.
 m_pProcDC->BitBlt(0, 0, screenMaxX, screenMaxY, pDesktopDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY);
Once this is done you can apply any visual effect to the memory device context and then redisplay it.
However in this application we will not apply the visual effect right now. We need to create a bullet mark on the screen when the user clicks. For that we use a bitmap resource named IDB_SHOTMARK which is like a gunshot mark. To use this bitmap, we load it and select it to another device context created in memory.
m_pShotDC = new CDC;
m_pShotBmp = new CBitmap;
m_pShotBmp->LoadBitmap ( IDB_SHOTMARK );
m_pShotDC->SelectObject ( m_pShotBmp );
When we are done with copying desktop contents and loading bitmaps, we are ready to display them.
In the OnInitDialog we make the dialog cover the whole desktop, by giving it the size of the desktop and making it stay always on top using a call to SetWindowPos.
::SetWindowPos( this->GetSafeHwnd(), HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0,
 GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN), GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYSCREEN),
We also keep the gun's view finder cursor, which is another resource, ready, by loading it.
HINSTANCE hInstResource = AfxFindResourceHandle (MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDC_TF),
m_hCursor = ::LoadCursor(hInstResource, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDC_TF));
In the OnPaint handler we display the desktop window by copying it from the device context in memory where we had stored it previously to the dialog's device context.
CDC *pDC = GetDC();
pDC->BitBlt (0, 0, screenMaxX, screenMaxY, m_pProcDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY );
The only thing that is left is to show the gunshot mark and make the sound, when the user clicks. For this we handle the message WM_LBUTTONDOWN where we copy the contents of the gunshot bitmap loaded in the m_pShotDC device context to the point where the user clicked. We also play the wav file using the PlaySound function. To use this function you need to link the VC98\Lib\WINMM.LIB with your application and include the mmsystem.h header file in your application.
void CShootDlg::OnLButtonDown(UINT nFlags, CPoint point)
 // Show gunshot mark
 CDC *pDC = GetDC();
 pDC->BitBlt (point.x - 10, point.y - 10, 48, 48, m_pShotDC, 0, 0, SRCAND);
 // Play gunshot sound
 ::PlaySound((LPCTSTR)soundFile, NULL,
Points of interest
The project assumes that the winmm.lib is available as..\..\VC98\Lib\WINMM.LIB. So you need to extract the shoot sources in the MyProjects folder or change the relative path before building the application.
The application assumes that the gunshot.wav file is present in the same folder as the executable. If it does not find the wav file, the gunshot sound will not be made.
 - v1.0 - This is the initial version.
A list of licenses authors might use can be found here
About the Author
Web Developer
United States United States
Comments and Discussions
Generalcapturing the mouse cursor Pinmemberstealth kid1-Nov-04 0:54
Generalerror MFC42D.DLL Pinsusselmic30-Aug-03 12:29
GeneralRe: error MFC42D.DLL Pinmemberabhinaba31-Aug-03 9:51
GeneralRe: error MFC42D.DLL Pinsusselmic1-Sep-03 5:38
GeneralBombs out when I run it Pinmembertufwheels6-Aug-03 11:12
GeneralRe: Bombs out when I run it Pinmemberabhinaba7-Aug-03 21:11
GeneralRe: Bombs out when I run it Pinmembertufwheels23-Aug-03 10:45
GeneralRe: Bombs out when I run it PinmemberPhilippe Lhoste8-Jun-04 1:29
GeneralAnother Way PinmemberSuperEric4-Aug-03 9:45
GeneralRe: Another Way Pinmemberabhinaba4-Aug-03 18:51
GeneralLinkage error. PinmemberWREY2-Aug-03 22:50
GeneralRe: Linkage error. Pinmemberabhinaba3-Aug-03 18:09
GeneralIt's working now!! Thanks!! PinmemberWREY3-Aug-03 21:29
QuestionHow 2 Close IT?!! PinmemberSuperEric2-Aug-03 11:40
AnswerRe: How 2 Close IT?!! PinmemberJohann Gerell2-Aug-03 11:50
GeneralRe: How 2 Close IT?!! PinmemberSuperEric2-Aug-03 20:41
AnswerRe: How 2 Close IT?!! Pinmemberabhinaba3-Aug-03 17:58
GeneralRe: How 2 Close IT?!! PinmemberSuperEric4-Aug-03 9:32
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text:
Modulation of laser induced-cracks inside a LiF single crystal by fs laser irradiation at multiple points
Spotlight summary: One of the most attractive and unique capabilities in laser material processing is that of selectively modifying the optical and physical properties of materials through structural changes constrained to within the focal volume. Femtosecond (fs) laser processing in transparent materials has received special attention since the laser beam can be tightly focused, and therefore induce various nano and microscale structures such as cracks, dislocations, and voids inside the material without compromising the properties of other regions not so highly excited by the laser, including the material's surface. Such structural changes inside the material are extremely difficult to achieve through other processing technologies. To make use of this unique benefit of fs laser processing with a higher precision, the size and shape of the structures need to be well controlled, since they critically affect the volume and properties of the laser-processed region. Therefore, finding new ways for accurately controlling these structures and achieving a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that lead to structural changes following fs laser pulse irradiation is of great importance.
Recently, the authors of this article showed that thermal stress waves can be generated inside rock salt crystals following fs laser pulse irradiation. These waves then propagate away from the fs laser-excited region, and subsequently induce permanent dislocations in certain orientations of the crystal structure. Cleverly using their previous discoveries, the authors reveal in this Optics Express article how the fs laser-induced dislocations and thermal stress waves affect the formation of fs laser-induced cracks, and find a way to control the size and shape of these cracks in LiF by irradiating with three pulses, either sequentially or simultaneously. First, to understand the effects of dislocations on the formation of fs laser-induced cracks, two sequential pulses are applied inside the LiF crystal, producing dislocation bands in the crystal. A third pulse is then applied for which the dislocation bands can either affect or not the formation of cracks, showing that these bands, due to the higher mechanical strength, can prevent the formation of fs laser-induced cracks. Next, the authors use three simultaneous pulses instead, and control the interference of the fs laser-induced stress waves where the crack formation is expected. If compression waves are generated by the interference of the pulses and propagate from the tip to the center of a fs laser-induced crack in the time range of 2400-3000ps, the formation of fs laser-induced cracks is highly disturbed by the compression waves, and the length of the crack is shorter than the one without the waves. On the other hand, with a different distribution of the three simultaneous pulses, the authors generate tensile stress near the crack at 3500ps without strong compression waves, and find that this tensile stress helps the propagation of the crack, leading to the production of longer fs laser-induced crack.
In summary, the authors demonstrate sophisticated control of fs laser-induced cracks by using the permanent and transient change of mechanical properties in LiF: the dislocation bands and thermal stress waves, induced by fs laser pulse irradiation. The results reported in this article not only show control of fs laser-induced cracks but also potentially provide a new way of controlling many other types of fs laser-induced structures, possibly leading to the generation of new optical and physical properties in materials.
--Taek Yong Hwang
Technical Division: Optoelectronics
ToC Category: Lasers and Laser Optics
|OCIS Codes:||(_PHONE_) Lasers and laser optics : Laser materials processing|
|(_PHONE_) Lasers and laser optics : Ultrafast lasers|
|(_PHONE_) Materials : Ionic crystals|
|(_PHONE_) Ultrafast optics : Picosecond phenomena|
|(_PHONE_) Ultrafast optics : Ultrafast processes in condensed matter, including semiconductors|
|(_PHONE_) Fourier optics and signal processing : Spatial light modulators|
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text:
Multi-view Similarity Learning of Manifold Data
In recent years, multi-view learning methods have developed rapidly where graph-based approaches have achieved good performance. Usually, these learning methods construct information graph for each view or fuse different views into one graph. In this paper, a novel multi-view learning model that learns one similarity matrix for all views named Multi-view Similarity Learning (MSL) is proposed, where adaptive weights are learned for each view. The multi-view similarity learning method is further extended to kernel space. Experiments of classification, clustering and semi-supervised classification on different real-world datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
KeywordsLaplacian Eigenmaps Multi-view learning Similarity learning
- 8.Hsieh, P., Yang, M., Gu, Y., Liang, Y.: Classification-oriented locally linear embedding. IJPRAI 24(5), 737–762 (2010)Google Scholar
- 9.Kumar, A., III, H.D.: A co-training approach for multi-view spectral clustering. In: Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Machine Learning, ICML 2011, Bellevue, Washington, USA, 28 June–2 July 2011, pp. 393–400 (2011)Google Scholar
- 11.Nie, F., Cai, G., Li, X.: Multi-view clustering and semi-supervised classification with adaptive neighbours. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-First AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 2408–2414 (2017)Google Scholar
- 13.Wang, X., Tang, X.: Dual-space linear discriminant analysis for face recognition. In: 2004 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 564–569 (2004)Google Scholar


JetBrains Rider 2021.1 Help
Complete Statement
Code | Code Completion | Complete Current Statement
Ctrl+Shift+Enter
This command inserts necessary syntax elements (parentheses, braces, semicolons and so on) and gets you in position where you can start typing the next statement.
Complete current statement
 1. Type the core of a statement (see scenarios below for examples).
 2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
The command is helpful in numerous scenarios, including auto-closing parentheses, adding semicolons, completing if, while and for statements, and more.
For example, whenever you declare a new method, complete statement comes handy after specifying method parameters:
public void Foo(string input
At this point, to start writing the method body, you normally have to:
 - Insert a missing parenthesis.
 - Press Enter.
 - Insert an opening brace.
 - Press Enter once again.
With JetBrains Rider, you only have to press Ctrl+Shift+Enter, and it will automatically insert a closing parenthesis, as well as both braces, and put the caret right where you can proceed with writing the method body:
public void Foo(string input) { // the caret is here }
In similar ways, Complete Statement works with the following language constructs:
 - Types and type members: class, interface, struct, enum, delegate, field, event, and method declarations.
 - Statements: if, while, do, switch, using, lock, continue, break, and return statements; case and default clauses; conversion of single-line statements to block statements.
 - Expressions: invocation, element access, string/char literals; object, member, and collection item initializers; expressions that create anonymous types and implicitly typed arrays.
Below, you can find a number of examples of applying the complete statement command in different contexts.
Use caseBefore Complete StatementAfter Complete Statement
Class declaration
public class Foo/*caret*/
public class Foo { /*caret*/ }
Delegate declaration
delegate void ChangeHandler(object sender/*caret*/
internal delegate void ChangeHandler(object sender); /*caret*/
Nested method invocation
myVar.DoSomething(foo.Bar(value/*caret*/
myVar.DoSomething(foo.Bar(value)); /*caret*/
if statement
if(myVar != null/*caret*/
if(myVar != null) { /*caret*/ }
case clause
switch (position) { case _URL_ }
switch (position) { case Position.Last: /*caret*/ }
Conversion of a single-line statement into block (case A)
if(myVar != null) position = Position.Last;/*caret*/
if(myVar != null) { position = Position.Last; /*caret*/ }
Conversion of a single-line statement into block (case B)
if(myVar != null) /*caret*/position = Position.Last;
if(myVar != null) { /*caret*/ position = Position.Last; }
Element access expression
var myValues = new Value[10/*caret*/
var myValues = new Value[10]; /*caret*/
Last modified: 08 March 2021


Take the 2-minute tour ×
Let's say we are given $a$, $b$, $d$ with $1 \leq a, b, d \leq 1000$ and inequalities $x \geq a$, $y \geq b$, and $a+b < x + y \leq a+b+d$.
I need to combine all this and the following into one inequality. Is there a common factor that we can multiply to one or the other or something? Can we exploit the fact that ranges are known? How do we proceed in such a case? Any help is appreciated.
share|improve this question
Instead of writing $1 \leq a \leq 1000$, $1 \leq b \leq 1000$ and $1 \leq d \leq 1000$, I instead wrote $1 \leq a, b, d \leq 1000$ which is equivalent. – Michael Albanese Feb 6 '13 at 8:12
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1 Answer
The range defined for one set of value(s) is independent from the range of some other. For instance, $a+b