Test of the equivalence principle using a rotating torsion balance.
We used a continuously rotating torsion balance instrument to measure the acceleration difference of beryllium and titanium test bodies towards sources at a variety of distances. Our result Deltaa(N),(Be-Ti)=(0.6+/-3.1)x10(-15) m/s2 improves limits on equivalence-principle violations with ranges from 1 m to infinity by an order of magnitude. The Eötvös parameter is eta(Earth,Be-Ti)=(0.3+/-1.8)x10(-13). By analyzing our data for accelerations towards the center of the Milky Way we find equal attractions of Be and Ti towards galactic dark matter, yielding eta(DM,Be-Ti)=(-4+/-7)x10(-5). Space-fixed differential accelerations in any direction are limited to less than 8.8x10(-15) m/s2 with 95% confidence.


Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: early evaluation of response to bevacizumab therapy at dynamic contrast-enhanced US with quantification--preliminary results.
To investigate whether there is any correlation between standard efficacy endpoints-specifically, tumor response, progression-free survival, and overall survival-and tumor perfusion parameters measured by using dynamic contrast material-enhanced ultrasonography (US) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with bevacizumab. The institutional review board approved the study, and all patients provided written informed consent before their enrollment. Between June 3, 2005, and September 28, 2007, 42 patients (33 men, nine women; median age, 62 years; age range, 23-84 years) participated in this phase II study of single-agent bevacizumab treatment. Tumor response (based on RECIST [response evaluation criteria in solid tumors]) at 2 months was assessed in 37 patients, and progression-free survival and overall survival were assessed in all 42 patients. Dynamic contrast-enhanced US (ie, dynamic US) was performed before treatment (day 0); on days 3, 7, 14, and 60 after treatment; and every 2 months thereafter. Tumor perfusion parameters were estimated quantitatively from contrast material uptake curves constructed from raw linear data. The changes in dynamic US functional parameters between day 0 and the later time points were compared between treatment responders and nonresponders by using nonparametric tests. Given multiple comparisons, P < .001 indicated significance. The percentage decrease in several dynamic US parameters between day 0 and day 3 showed trends toward correlation with (a) tumor response in terms of total area under the time-intensity curve (AUC) (P = .02), AUC during wash in (P = .04), AUC during washout (P = .02), and time to peak intensity (P = .03); (b) progression-free survival in terms of time to peak intensity (P = .028); and (c) overall survival in terms of AUC (P = .002) and AUC during washout (P = .003). Dynamic US can be used to quantify dynamic changes in tumor vascularity as early as 3 days after bevacizumab administration in patients with HCC. These early changes in tumor perfusion may be predictive of tumor response at 2 months, progression-free survival, and overall survival, and they may be potential surrogate measures of the effectiveness of antiangiogenic therapy in patients with HCC.


Q:

How does the removeSparseTerms in R work?

I am using the removeSparseTerms method in R and it required a threshold value to be input. I also read that the higher the value, the more will be the number of terms retained in the returned matrix.
How does this method work and what is the logic behind it? I understand the concept of sparseness but does this threshold indicate how many documents should a term be present it, or some other ratio, etc?

A:

In the sense of the sparse argument to removeSparseTerms(), sparsity refers to the threshold of relative document frequency for a term, above which the term will be removed.  Relative document frequency here means a proportion.  As the help page for the command states (although not very clearly), sparsity is smaller as it approaches 1.0.  (Note that sparsity cannot take values of 0 or 1.0, only values in between.)
For example, if you set sparse = 0.99 as the argument to removeSparseTerms(), then this will remove only terms that are more sparse than 0.99.
The exact interpretation for sparse = 0.99 is that for term $j$, you will retain all terms for which
$df_j > N * (1 - 0.99)$, where $N$ is the number of documents -- in this case probably all terms will be retained (see example below).
Near the other extreme, if sparse = .01, then only terms that appear in (nearly) every document will be retained.  (Of course this depends on the number of terms and the number of documents, and in natural language, common words like "the" are likely to occur in every document and hence never be "sparse".)
An example of the sparsity threshold of 0.99, where a term that occurs at most in (first example) less than 0.01 documents, and (second example) just over 0.01 documents:
> # second term occurs in just 1 of 101 documents
> myTdm1 <- as.DocumentTermMatrix(slam::as.simple_triplet_matrix(matrix(c(rep(1, 101), rep(1,1), rep(0, 100)), ncol=2)),
+                                weighting = weightTf)
> removeSparseTerms(myTdm1, .99)
<<DocumentTermMatrix (documents: 101, terms: 1)>>
Non-/sparse entries: 101/0
Sparsity           : 0%
Maximal term length: 2
Weighting          : term frequency (tf)
>
> # second term occurs in 2 of 101 documents
> myTdm2 <- as.DocumentTermMatrix(slam::as.simple_triplet_matrix(matrix(c(rep(1, 101), rep(1,2), rep(0, 99)), ncol=2)),
+                                weighting = weightTf)
> removeSparseTerms(myTdm2, .99)
<<DocumentTermMatrix (documents: 101, terms: 2)>>
Non-/sparse entries: 103/99
Sparsity           : 49%
Maximal term length: 2
Weighting          : term frequency (tf)

Here are a few additional examples with actual text and terms:
> myText <- c("the quick brown furry fox jumped over a second furry brown fox",
              "the sparse brown furry matrix",
              "the quick matrix")

> require(tm)
> myVCorpus <- VCorpus(VectorSource(myText))
> myTdm <- DocumentTermMatrix(myVCorpus)
> as.matrix(myTdm)
    Terms
Docs brown fox furry jumped matrix over quick second sparse the
   1     2   2     2      1      0    1     1      1      0   1
   2     1   0     1      0      1    0     0      0      1   1
   3     0   0     0      0      1    0     1      0      0   1
> as.matrix(removeSparseTerms(myTdm, .01))
    Terms
Docs the
   1   1
   2   1
   3   1
> as.matrix(removeSparseTerms(myTdm, .99))
    Terms
Docs brown fox furry jumped matrix over quick second sparse the
   1     2   2     2      1      0    1     1      1      0   1
   2     1   0     1      0      1    0     0      0      1   1
   3     0   0     0      0      1    0     1      0      0   1
> as.matrix(removeSparseTerms(myTdm, .5))
    Terms
Docs brown furry matrix quick the
   1     2     2      0     1   1
   2     1     1      1     0   1
   3     0     0      1     1   1

In the last example with sparse = 0.34, only terms occurring in two-thirds of the documents were retained.
An alternative approach for trimming terms from document-term matrixes based on a document frequency is the text analysis package quanteda.  The same functionality here refers not to sparsity but rather directly to the document frequency of terms (as in tf-idf).
> require(quanteda)
> myDfm <- dfm(myText, verbose = FALSE)
> docfreq(myDfm)
     a  brown    fox  furry jumped matrix   over  quick second sparse    the
     1      2      1      2      1      2      1      2      1      1      3
> dfm_trim(myDfm, minDoc = 2)
Features occurring in fewer than 2 documents: 6
Document-feature matrix of: 3 documents, 5 features.
3 x 5 sparse Matrix of class "dfmSparse"
       features
docs    brown furry the matrix quick
  text1     2     2   1      0     1
  text2     1     1   1      1     0
  text3     0     0   1      1     1

This usage seems much more straightforward to me.

A:

In the function removeSparseTerms(), the argument sparse = x means:
"remove all terms whose sparsity is greater than the threshold (x)".
e.g: removeSparseTerms(my_dtm, sparse = 0.90) means remove all terms in the corpus whose sparsity is greater than 90%.
For example, a term that appears say just 4 times in a corpus of say size 1000, will have a frequency of appearance of 0.004 =4/1000.
This term's sparsity will be (1000-4)/1000 = 1- 0.004 = 0.996 = 99.6%.
Therefore if sparsity threshold is set to sparse = 0.90, this term will be removed as its sparsity (0.996) is greater than the upper bound sparsity (0.90).
However, if sparsity threshold is set to sparse = 0.999, this term will not be removed as its sparsity (0.996) is lower than the upper bound sparsity (0.999).


..This study was conducted to estimate prevalence of CRC in patients with long lasting colonic symptoms (except for known risk factors for cancer and those with rectal bleeding) who underwent total colonoscopy...

..Therefore, we hypothesized that esophageal AC would also be lower than in the Western world. The aim of this study was to assess the clinicopathologic characteristics of esophageal cancer in comparison the data from western populations...

Clinical predictors of colorectal polyps and carcinoma in a low prevalence region: results of a colonoscopy based study


The Caenorhabditis elegans Model of Legionella Infection.
Caenorhabditis elegans can serve as a simple genetic host to study interactions between Legionellaceae and their hosts and to examine the contribution of specific gene products to virulence and immunity. C. elegans nematodes have several appealing attributes as a host organism; they are inexpensive, have robust genetic analysis tools, have a simple anatomy yet display a wide range of complex behaviors, and, as invertebrates, do not require animal ethics protocols. Use of C. elegans as a host model complements cell-based models, providing additional support and consistency of the experimental data obtained from multiple models. The C. elegans innate immune system functions similarly to that of the alveolar macrophage including the apoptosis [a.k.a. programmed cell death (PCD)] pathway located within the germline. The digestive tract of C. elegans is a primary interface between the innate immune system and bacterial pathogens. Thus, the C. elegans host model provides an alternative approach to investigate L. pneumophila immunopathogenesis, particularly in the view of the recent discovery of Legionella-containing vacuoles within the gonadal tissues of Legionella-colonized nematodes supporting the plausible evolutionary origin of the strategies employed by L. pneumophila to counteract macrophage cellular responses.


The present disclosure relates in general to executing computer instructions that access, read, write and/or add stored data. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to executing floating-point add/subtract instructions that perform stochastic rounding using entropy from a register.
Although integers provide an exact representation for numeric values, they suffer from two major drawbacks, namely the inability to represent fractional values and a limited dynamic range. Accordingly, as integer machines computer are capable of representing real numbers (i.e., numbers that can contain a fractional part) only by using complex codes. Over the years, a variety of codes have been used in computers, but the most commonly encountered representation is that defined by the IEEE 754 Floating-Point Standard. In computing, floating-point is a trade-off between range and precision. A number is, in general, represented in floating-point approximately to a fixed number of significant digits (i.e., the significand) and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally two, ten or sixteen. A number that can be represented exactly is of the following form, significand×baseexponent. For example, using base-10, 1.2345=12345×10−4.
The term floating-point is derived from the fact that there is no fixed number of digits before and after the decimal point. In other words, the decimal point can float. A code representation in which the number of digits before and after the decimal point is set is known as a fixed-point representation. Because of the importance of floating point mathematics in computer workloads, many microprocessors come with dedicated hardware called a floating point unit (FPU) designed specifically for the purposes of computing floating point operations. FPUs are also called math coprocessors and numeric coprocessors.
Most floating-point numbers that a computer can represent are approximations due to a variety of factors. For example, irrational numbers, such as π or √2, or non-terminating rational numbers, must be approximated. The number of digits (or bits) of precision also limits the set of rational numbers that can be represented exactly. For example, the number 123456789 cannot be exactly represented if only eight decimal digits of precision are available. Providing approximations of floating-point numbers may also be done to obtain a value that is easier to report and communicate than the original. One of the challenges in programming with floating-point values is ensuring that the approximations lead to reasonable results. If the programmer is not careful, small discrepancies in the approximations can accumulate over time to the point where the final results become meaningless.
Floating-point numbers are approximated in computers using rounding. Rounding a numerical value means replacing it by another value that is approximately equal but has a shorter, simpler representation. For example, in base-10, replacing 23.4476 with 23.45, or the square root of 2 with 1.414. Rounding exact numbers will introduce some round-off error in the reported result. Rounding is almost unavoidable when reporting many computations, particularly when dividing two numbers in integer or fixed-point arithmetic, when computing mathematical functions such as square roots, or when using a floating point representation with a fixed number of significant digits. In a sequence of calculations performed over time, these rounding errors generally accumulate.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a simple and efficient system and methodology that mitigates rounding errors over time when performing repeated arithmetic operations such as addition or subtraction using floating-point numbers in a computer.


Four More Years!!!! Barack Knocked Money Mitt OUT By More Than 100 Electoral Votes!!!

Posted on November 7, 2012 - By
Bossip Staff

Barack won before Ohio, Virgina, and Florida’s votes even came in tonight!

With his voice strong but quivering with passion, Barack gave a heartfelt speech after a long night of waiting for the electoral votes to come in. POTUS let us know that “The role of citizens of our democracy does not end with your vote” after he thanked US ALL for campaigning and voting during the last few months.

President Barack Obama did not just win reelection tonight. His victory signaled the irreversible triumph of a new, 21st-century America: multiracial, multi-ethnic, global in outlook and moving beyond centuries of racial, sexual, marital and religious tradition.

Obama, the mixed-race son of Hawaii by way of Kansas, Indonesia, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, won reelection in good part because he not only embodied but spoke to that New America, as did the Democratic Party he leads. His victorious coalition spoke for and about him: a good share of the white vote (about 45 percent in Ohio, for example); 70 percent or so of the Latino vote across the country, according to experts; 96 percent of the African-American vote; and large proportions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Republican Party, by contrast, has been reduced to a rump parliament of Caucasian traditionalism: white, married, church-going — to oversimplify only slightly. “It’s a catastrophe,” said GOP strategist Steve Schmidt. “This is, this will have to be, the last time that the Republican Party tries to win this way.”

The GOP chose as its standard-bearer Mitt Romney, whose own Mormon Church until recent decades discriminated officially against blacks. His campaign made little serious effort to reach out to Hispanics voters, and Romney hurt himself by taking far-right positions on immigration during the GOP primaries. He made no effort whatsoever in the black community.

Obama reached out not only racially and ethnically, but in terms of lifestyle. Analysts made fun of, and Republicans derided, his campaign’s focus on discrete demographic and social slices of the electorate, including gays and lesbians. But the message was one about the future, not the American past.

U.S. Census numbers tell the story. In the first decade of the new millennium, the Asian-American population rose 43.3 percent, the African-American population 12.3 percent, the Latino community 43 percent — and the white population just 5.7 percent.

To be sure, the president won because of his stand on the issues — health care reform, Wall Street regulation, the auto industry bailout, among others. But his victory is something more: a sense that we are all in this together as a society, no matter who we are or how we live our lives.

I saw this new America at the heart of the Obama reelection effort, in their campaign offices. In one office in Virgina, for example, the local campaign manager was Pakistani-American, the volunteers were of every race and background, the people heading out to handle the signup drive were Hispanic, and the event they were working on was a concert by Bruce Springsteen.

Not only did Barack and his mayne man Joe win the electoral vote, they also won the popular vote too. While Mitt won the white vote (SMH), he failed to bring in votes with minorities.

Barack also brought in votes from more than 60% of young voters (those ages 18-29) and, even though he fell from 44% to 39% of the overall white vote this election year, he still stomped Robney with a huge lead.

To quote CNN “This is a crisis amongst the Republican Party”.

Crisis or not, we’re pretty sure POUTUS can get a lot more isht done than that shady Mitt Romney would’ve been able to over the course of the next four years.


The EU’s sanctions against Russia are to be expanded with more people added to the list subject to asset freezes and visa bans, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has said.

She said the action had been agreed in light of the latest events, as she also urged Russia to pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border.

Speaking after talks in Luxembourg with EU foreign ministers, Ms Ashton told reporters: “We condemn unreservedly the actions by armed individuals in the cities of eastern Ukraine.

“These attempts at destabilising Ukraine must stop. We strongly support the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

“We call upon Russia to do so as well and pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border.

“Any further actions aimed at destabilising Ukraine have to stop.

“In light of the latest events we decided to expand the list of those subject to asset freezes and visa bans.

“Utmost restraint is crucial. We commend the Ukrainian authorities for pursuing the law and order operations in a measured manner and we encourage the government in Kiev to contribute further to reducing tensions.

“Free and fair presidential elections on May 25th are the best way to express the will of the citizens as is the process of constitutional reform.”

Earlier Ukraine’s acting president urged the United Nations to send peacekeeping troops to eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian gunmen kept up their rampage of storming and occupying local government offices, police stations and airports.

The request came from a government that has proved powerless to rein in separatists in its eastern and southern regions, where insurgents have seized or barricaded government buildings in at least nine cities, demanding more autonomy from the new government in Kiev and closer ties with Russia.

The Kiev government and Western officials accuse Russia of instigating the unrest and of deploying armed Russian agents in civilian clothing to carry them out.

In a telephone call with UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, acting president Oleksandr Turchynov suggested that an “anti-terrorist operation” be conducted jointly by Ukrainian security forces and UN peacekeepers, according to the presidential website.

Peacekeepers, however, would have to be authorised by the UN Security Council, where Russia holds a veto. Mr Turchynov’s deadline for insurgents to give up their weapons and vacate their homemade barricades passed today without any visible action — instead, the violence continued.

A pro-Russian mob stormed a Ukrainian police station in Horlivka, another city near the Russian border. Later in the day, armed men in masks also seized control of a military airport outside the city of Slovyansk, also in the Donetsk region bordering Russia.

“The Russian Federation is sending special units to the east of our country, which seize administrative buildings with the use of weapons and are putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens in danger,” Mr Turchynov said, according to the presidential website.

The events echoed those in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last month after key regional facilities were seized by Russian troops aided by local militiamen.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Mr Putin has received “numerous appeals” from eastern Ukraine “asking him to help and interfere in one way or another”. Mr Peskov added that Mr Putin was “watching the developments in those regions with great concern” but would not elaborate.

The developments came three days ahead of a Geneva conference seeking ways to defuse tensions. Diplomats from the United States, Russia, the EU, Ukraine and Switzerland were expected at those one-day talks on Thursday.

Russia has warned the Kiev government not to use force against the armed protesters in the east, saying it could thwart the Geneva conference. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov again denied today that Russian agents were operating in eastern Ukraine, saying it would contradict Moscow’s interests. He challenged Ukraine “not to be shy” about backing its claims of capturing Russian security officers with facts.

In Horlivka, however, one of the men directing the raid on the police headquarters introduced himself as a lieutenant colonel in the Russian army to a line of policemen who had switched sides. He did not give his full name.

In a video posted online, the man, dressed in an unmarked green camouflage uniform, urged the policemen to obey their new chief and to attach St George’s ribbons to their uniforms, which have become a symbol of the pro-Russian protesters. The identity of the man was not clear and could not be independently confirmed. Oleksandr Sapunov, who took part in storming the police building in Horlivka, said the insurgents were fighting against appointees of the new Kiev government, including the local police chief, and wanted to appoint their own leadership. “The people came to tell him that he is a puppet of the Kiev junta and they won’t accept him,” Mr Sapunov said.

Acting deputy interior minister Mykola Velichkovych acknowledged on Monday that some police officers in eastern regions were switching sides. “In the east we have seen numerous acts of sabotage from the side of police,” Mr Velichkovych told reporters.

Ever since Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in late February, Russia has demanded that Ukraine change its constitution to turn the country into a loose federal state.

Ukraine has said that its giant neighbour has no business telling it what type of government to have. After refusing demands for a referendum by separatists in the east, Mr Turchynov indicated today that holding a nationwide referendum on Ukraine’s status was a possibility. He said such a vote could be held on May 25th, along with the presidential election. Mr Turchynov expressed confidence that Ukrainians would vote against turning the country into a federation and against its break-up.

Agencies


Last month, just days after the tragedy in Charlottesville, the Rev. Wendell Anthony of Fellowship Chapel in Detroit gave a fiery introduction at a town hall led by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It may have been a Tuesday, but watching it felt like Sunday service.

In his speech, Anthony praised Sanders’s effort to “take down the tributes to racism and division” through his work standing up for universal health care, jobs for everybody, a higher minimum wage, tuition-free education, and fair treatment and respect from law enforcement. Anthony called the senator someone who “stands up, speaks up, and keeps his eyes on the prize of freedom and justice and equity.”

You probably didn’t see his speech, because it doesn’t fit the narrative persistently pushed by the senator’s opponents: that black Democrats tend to be more socially conservative and “pragmatic” and thus don’t like Bernie Sanders. Last year saw a slew of such articles looking to explain “why black voters don’t feel the Bern” and what his “real problem with black and Hispanic voters” was. The trend is still going strong: This summer, Terrell Starr explored “Bernie Sanders’ black women problem” in the Root.

My biggest regret from the time I spent on the Sanders campaign as his national press secretary is the fact that we allowed this false narrative to fester and did not effectively combat claims that the senator’s economic message somehow didn’t speak to people of color. Jobs and the economy are “everybody” issues. As Democrats work to craft our message to voters for upcoming elections, we cannot allow this narrative to continue unchallenged.

Last spring, a Harvard-Harris poll found Sanders to be the most popular active politician in the country. African Americans gave the senator the highest favorables at 73 percent — vs. 68 percent among Latinos, 62 percent among Asian Americans and 52 percent among white voters. It wasn’t a fluke: This August, black voters again reported a 73 percent favorability rating for Sanders. Critics, such as Starr, continue to point to the senator’s 2016 primary numbers among older African American voters to claim that his message somehow doesn’t resonate with people of color as a whole — and continue to ignore that, according to GenForward, Sanders won the black millennial vote in the primaries.

So why does the myth that black voters don’t like Sanders persist? It certainly isn’t because black voters can’t relate to his focus on the working class. According to the Economic Policy Institute, people of color will form the majority of the American working class by 2032. In other words, the white working class does not have a monopoly on economic marginalization.

Folks in McDowell County, W.Va., and inner-city St. Louis are encountering many of the same challenges. So, an economic message that includes advancing policies that will close the wage gap, raise the minimum wage, ensure equal pay for equal work, create jobs, make education affordable and ensure health care as a human right is a message that cuts across demographics.

Thus Democrats should be careful not to continue the false association of working class issues strictly with the white working class — a major fixation after last year’s election and an assumption of many criticisms of Sanders’s message. As someone who traveled across the country with Sanders during his campaign, I know firsthand that the narrative of working-class politics as exclusively white erases the stories of so many of the people who believed in and fought for a political revolution — and a government that works for all of us, not just a wealthy or connected few.

The senator’s message still resonates — perhaps now more than ever. Just look at the fight to expand health care: Poll after poll shows that Americans across the board are ready for “Medicare for all” — something the senator championed when it wasn’t politically popular to do so. Indeed, Pew polling found this year that 85 percent of blacks and 84 percent of Hispanics support single-payer health care — while whites are split on the issue roughly 50-50. Now, Medicare for all has the support of legislators such as rising star Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), who recently announced she will co-sponsor Sanders’s upcoming single-payer bill. As Harris said, “It’s just the right thing to do.”

There is no doubt we on Sanders’s 2016 campaign could have better communicated how the senator’s fight against a rigged economy held in place by a corrupt system of campaign finance specifically affected different communities. But let’s not pretend there isn’t broad-based support for the policies he’s fighting for. Instead of attacking Bernie, folks should follow his journey and witness the work. Whether it’s been standing with black union workers in Mississippi, standing with Conyers and Anthony in Detroit, or putting himself on the front lines of the fight to save the Affordable Care Act, the senator is using his voice and the weight of his popularity to fight for the policies that will benefit us all. And the polls show that people get it.


Mispatterning in the ommatidia of Apis mellifera pupae treated with a juvenile hormone analogue.
To further understand the function of morphogenetic hormones in honeybee eye differentiation, the alterations in ommatidial patterning induced by pyriproxyfen, a juvenile hormone (JH) analogue, were studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Prepupae of prospective honeybee workers were treated with pyriproxyfen and the effects on ommatidial differentiation were described at the end of the pupal development. The results show that the entire ommatidia, i.e., the dioptric as well as the receptor systems, were affected by the JH analogue. The wave of ommatidial differentiation, which progresses from the posterior to the anterior region of the pupal eyes, was arrested. In treated pupae, the rhabdomeres only differentiated at the apical axis of the retinula, the secondary and tertiary pigment cells did not develop their cytoplasm protrusions, and the cone cell quartet did not pattern correctly. Simultaneously, an intense vacuolization was observed in cells forming ommatidia. In a previous study we showed that pyriproxyfen exerts an inhibition on pupal ecdysteroid secretion. In this sense, the arrested ommatidial differentiation in pyriproxyfen-treated pupae could be due to a secondary effect resulting from an alteration in pupal ecdysteroid titers.


Q:

Migration 100 TB of data from SQL Server 2008 to 2016

We are planning to migrate to 100 TB of data from one of our client to new SQL Server environment. We just started receiving information from client. It will take couple of months to complete the project. But, can anyone please provide detail plan for migration such a large number of SQL Servers and data. New environment will have 4 fail-over cluster node at 4 different location.

Current environment: SQL Server 2008 R2
New environment : SQL Server 2014/16

A:

The most important part of your question is:

can anyone please provide detail plan for migration

And I've got great news: Microsoft used to build a really detailed Upgrade Technical Guide (429-page PDF) that covered all kinds of details. They haven't updated it since 2014, but the information in there is still really useful for folks who are just starting from scratch and looking for guidance.
The bad news: SQL Server has only gotten more complicated since then. The 429-page length should help explain why it doesn't get updated frequently - it's expensive to build.


Q:

How to use flash backend for new Audio()?

I've made a website, to test the html5 audio. Unfortunately some browser doesn't support it. How to use a flash backend? I haven't found anything useable. The flash backend examples on the web use the DOM element, not the new Audio(). I don't want to use JQuery for this little experiment.
My code:
<!DOCTYPE html>

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Audio test</title>

start

pause

volume

jump

speed

?/?

?

...

thanks in advance

A:

MediaElement.js implements the HTML5 media element APIs with only some small changes needed for initialization. You just have to use new MediaElement(document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml", "audio")) instead of new Audio.
Also, you shouldn't be using code like this:
if(canPlayMp3) {
var audio = new Audio("http://www.w3schools.com/html5/song.mp3");
} else if(canPlayOgg) {
var audio = new Audio("http://www.w3schools.com/html5/song.ogg");
} else {
//flash...
}

Just use <source> elements in one <audio> element.
var
  audio = new Audio
, mp3 = audio.appendChild(document.createElementNS(audio.namespaceURI, "source"))
, ogg = audio.appendChild(mp3.cloneNode())
;

mp3.type = "audio/mpeg";
mp3.src = "http://www.w3schools.com/html5/song.mp3";

ogg.type = "audio/ogg;codecs='vorbis'";
ogg.src = "http://www.w3schools.com/html5/song.mp3";


gorgeous beach gowns

(119)

furthermore, each of our merchandise is sent within quick rate, this means you don't need to waiting quite a while to obtain your products. gorgeous beach gowns will be for sale, shop class today just before the item’azines too far gone! life cannot be devoid of internet shopping, which often will save you you some time to send you advantage. gorgeous beach gowns is way too numerous form and you could do not know with regards to such several type. have you thought to accept the most cost effective goods but serious top quality? tbdress can help you seek out gorgeous beach gowns, insuring you actually’lmost all look for a site for you the following. as you major wholesaler / retailer worldwide, tbdress allows you to get the lowest priced, up-to-the-minute, almost all excellent goods constantly and at any time. along with thankful standing, tbdress pledges anyone high quality and also assistance.


{
  "dataset_reader": {
    "type": "swag",
    "token_indexers": {
      "tokens": {
        "type": "single_id",
        "lowercase_tokens": true
      }
    },
    "tokenizer": {
      "end_tokens": ["@@NULL@@"]
    },
    "use_only_gold_examples": true,
  },
  "train_data_path": "../../data/train.csv",
  "validation_data_path": "../../data/val.csv",
  "test_data_path": "../../data/test.csv",
  "evaluate_on_test": true,
  "model": {
    "type": "decomposable_attention_swag",
    "text_field_embedder": {
      "tokens": {
        "type": "embedding",
        "projection_dim": 200,
        "pretrained_file": "https://conceptnet.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/2017/numberbatch/numberbatch-en-17.06.txt.gz",
        "embedding_dim": 300,
        "trainable": false
      }
    },
    "attend_feedforward": {
      "input_dim": 200,
      "num_layers": 2,
      "hidden_dims": 200,
      "activations": "relu",
      "dropout": 0.2
    },
    "similarity_function": {"type": "dot_product"},
    "compare_feedforward": {
      "input_dim": 400,
      "num_layers": 2,
      "hidden_dims": 200,
      "activations": "relu",
      "dropout": 0.2
    },
    "aggregate_feedforward": {
      "input_dim": 400,
      "num_layers": 2,
      "hidden_dims": [200, 1],
      "activations": ["relu", "linear"],
      "dropout": [0.2, 0.0]
    },
     "initializer": [
      [".*linear_layers.*weight", {"type": "xavier_normal"}],
      [".*token_embedder_tokens\._projection.*weight", {"type": "xavier_normal"}]
     ]
   },
  "iterator": {
    "type": "bucket",
    "sorting_keys": [["premise", "num_tokens"]],
    "batch_size": 64
  },

  "trainer": {
    "num_epochs": 140,
    "patience": 20,
    "cuda_device": 0,
    "grad_clipping": 5.0,
    "validation_metric": "+accuracy",
    "optimizer": {
      "type": "adagrad"
    }
  }
}


Utrecht mayor inaugurates India Tourism and Kerala Tourism pavilions

Ambassador of India to The Netherlands Venu Rajamony and the Mayor of Utrecht Jan van Zanen inaugurated the 'Incredible India' and Kerala Tourism stalls on January 9 at the Vakantiebeurs (Holiday Fair), the largest tourism event in the country.

The mayor was the first to view India's major tourist attractions in Virtual Reality, a novel initiative taken by the Embassy of India in collaboration with India Tourism.

As a special attraction, visitors also received an opportunity to take pictures of themselves with monuments such as Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar etc as well as wildlife and natural landscapes.

The stalls were inaugurated with the mayor and Ambassador Rajamony lighting traditional Indian lamps. Indian refreshments were also served to around 500 visitors throughout the day.

Vakantiebeurs is held every year in the city of Utrecht at the heart of the Netherlands and attracts a large number of visitors. There has been a steady increase in the number of tourists from the Netherlands to India with approximately 21000 electronic visa issued in 2017.


<?php

namespace DummyNamespace;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Database\Eloquent\CastsAttributes;

class DummyClass implements CastsAttributes
{
    /**
     * Cast the given value.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model  $model
     * @param  string  $key
     * @param  mixed  $value
     * @param  array  $attributes
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function get($model, $key, $value, $attributes)
    {
        return $value;
    }

    /**
     * Prepare the given value for storage.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model  $model
     * @param  string  $key
     * @param  array  $value
     * @param  array  $attributes
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function set($model, $key, $value, $attributes)
    {
        return $value;
    }
}


Q:

Increment operator ++

Possible Duplicate:
post increment operator java
What is x after “x = x++”?

Can somebody explain me the result of each one of the following small programs? :
public static void main(String[] args) {
    int a = 10;
    a = a++;
    System.out.println(a);
}

The result is: 10
Why not 11 since a should have been increased after the assignment? Is that the fact that it comes to different variables left and right of the opeartor = ?
The next one:
public static void main(String[] args) {
    int a = 10;
    a = ++a;
    System.out.println(a);
}

The result is: 11
Comprehensible, but the compiler presents the warning: "The assignment to variable a has no effect". The result dissents though.
Update:
I do not modify my original question but I add this comment to clarify that now I catch the meaning of the warning. That is, even without the assignment (by a plain statement ++a) the result would be the same (11).

A:

The value of a++ is a. ++ has higher precedence than =. So:

The value of a is taken.
a is incremented.
The value as at (1) is stored into a.

So the value of a doesn't change.
You can figure out yourself what happens in the second case.


Portable notebook-type computers using a built-in battery pack power source are generally well-known and have an advantage in being handy to carry about and freely used even in those places which are not accessible to the commercial power supply.
Such computers are compact in design for higher portability, so that their standard functions are inevitably more limited than those of desktop computers. Accordingly, such portable computers are generally provided with one or more connectors and ports for function expansion, usually on the rear face of its casing which supports a keyboard and a display unit. These computers are additionally furnished with new functions by connecting peripheral devices, such as a hard disk drive, mouse, printer, etc., to the connectors and ports.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a notebook-type portable computer 1 for use as a portable electronic device which is connected to an external expanding apparatus, commonly referred to as a “docking station.” The computer 1 includes a plastic casing 2 serving as an apparatus body. The casing 2 is in the form of a flat generally rectangular box having a bottom face 2a and a top face 2b, which extend generally parallel to each other, and a front face 2c, a rear face 2d, and side faces 2e and 2f, which are continuous with the bottom and top faces 2a and 2b. At least one such computer casing 2 further includes a tongue 2g projected from the front face 2c and having a bottom face 2h which may be continuous with the bottom face 2a of the casing 2, a top face 2i which extends generally parallel to the bottom face 2h, and a front face 2j that is spaced away from the casing front face 2c. The tongue 2g may include side surfaces 2k and 2l extending between the computer casing front surface 2c and the tongue front face 2j. Other surfaces of the casing 2, such as one of the side faces 2e, 2f may includes additional features, such as but not limited to a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM 3a and a main power switch 3b.
Arranged on the top face 2b of the casing 2, as illustrated in FIG. 1, is a keyboard 7 which is used to input information and commands. A pair of display supporting portions 8a and 8b, left and right, are formed at the rear end portion of the top face 2b. A flat display unit 9 having a thickness t is connected to the display supporting portions 8a and 8b. The display unit 9 is rotated about a hinge axis h on a pair of legs 10a and 10b, left and right, which are pivotally mounted on the supporting portions 8a and 8b, respectively, by means of hinge devices as is generally well-known. Thus, the display unit 9 is supported on the casing 2 to be rotatable about the hinge axis h relative to the casing 2 between a closed position, in which a display screen surface 9a of the display unit 9 touches the top face 2b of the casing 2. The display unit 9 thereby covers the keyboard 7 for protecting both the keyboard 7 and display screen surface 9a of the display unit 9 with a hard shell backing portion 9b of the display unit 9. The display unit 9 alternately rotates into an open position in which the display unit 9 stands upright with the display screen surface 9a exposed at the back of the keyboard 7, as illustrated. Furthermore, a hard shell lip portion 9c of the display unit 9 surrounds the sensitive display screen 9d, the display screen 9d is slightly recessed below the hard shell lip portion 9c.
FIG. 2 illustrates an input/output (I/O) connector or port 4 of the known portable computer being provided in the rear face 2d between interface apertures 4a and 4b on either side thereof. The I/O connector 4 includes a quantity of pins or pin receptors (shown) 4c are organized in a selected pattern. The pins or pin receptors 4c provided input/output (I/O) capability for communicating with various peripheral components that may provide such functions as for example but not limited to: a modem, a game port, audio output, a microphone input, serial connections, parallel connections, a video display output, USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection, a mouse connection, a keyboard connection, an external power supply connection. Alternatively, connection to these or other peripheral devices are provided by a separate and individual modem connector, a game port, audio speaker connectors, a microphone connector, two serial connectors, a parallel connector, a display unit connector, a USB connector, a mouse connector, a keyboard connector, and an external power supply connector, as are generally well-known in the art. A metallic terminal plate 5 is exposed on the rear face 2d and surrounds the I/O connector 4 and includes an open end of each of the apertures 4a and 4b. The apertures 4a and 4b each include a cylindrical aperture or a lengthwise slot (shown) or an aperture of another shape extending from the rear face 2d of the casing 2 toward the opposite front face 2c.
In transporting the computer 1 peripheral devices must be removed from their corresponding connectors or ports, or alternatively the single I/O connector 4. In restoring the computer 1 to its original state after using it elsewhere, any peripheral devices must be connected again via the I/O connector 4. In the case where a large number of peripheral devices are connected, therefore, the removal and connection require very troublesome operations.
To cope with this, there have recently been provided external expanding apparatuses or “docking stations” which are adapted to be interposed between a portable computer and a plurality of peripheral devices and relay signals transferred between the computer and the devices.
FIG. 3 illustrates one such docking station 13 having a plurality of connectors and ports connectable with the peripheral devices, external power supply connector, etc., and an expansion connector 15 is presented at a connector presentation surface 21 which is opposed to the rear face 2d of the computer casing 2. The expansion connector 15 is structured to engage the computer's I/O connector 4. The expansion connector 15 is mounted on a movable bracket 18 structured to engage apertures 4a and 4b on opposite sides of the I/O connector 4 as a prelude to the expansion connector 15 actually engaging the I/O connector 4. By example and without limitation, the bracket 18 includes a pair of guide pins or arms 18a and 18b that are positioned on opposite sides of the expansion connector 15 to engage apertures 4a and 4b on opposite sides of the I/O connector 4. The expansion connector 15 includes a quantity of pin receptors or pins (shown) 15a organized in a selected pattern to engage the pins or pin receptors 4c of the computer's I/O connector 4. The pins 15a of the expansion connector 15 are connected electrically to different ones of the connectors and ports that are connectable with the peripheral devices.
In known prior art docking station devices 13 the pair of guide pins or arms 18a and 18b positioned on opposite sides of the expansion connector 15 are extended forward of the expansion connector 15 and its pin receptors or pins (shown) 15a such that the guide arms 18a, 18b engage the apertures 4a and 4b on opposite sides of the I/O connector 4 before the expansion connector 15 and its pin receptors or pins 15a the I/O connector 4. Furthermore, the expansion connector 15 is typically loosely mounted on the bracket 18 with a little lateral play such that the expansion connector 15 is permitted to move relative to the bracket 18 and its pin receptors or pins (shown) 15a wiggle or “float” into final mating positions with the respective pin receptors (or pins) 4c of the I/O connector 4 after the guide arms 18a, 18b have established a nominal docking position. Thus, the guide arms 18a, 18b with the respective interface apertures 4a, 4b fine tunes the positioning of the pins (or pin receptors) 15a of the expansion connector 15 relative to the pin receptors (or pins) 4c of the computer's I/O connector 4 prior to final insertion.
The docking station 13 also includes a mounting platform 17 on which the computer 1 is removably mounted. The mounting platform 17 is, for example, adjacent connector presentation surface 21, and includes a bearing surface 19 on which the bottom face 2a of the computer casing 2 is placed. The docking station apparatus 13 also includes bullet-nosed engaging pins 23a and 23b, which are provided on the bearing surface 19 adjacent to the connector presentation surface 21. The bottom face 2a of the computer casing 2 includes a pair of locating holes 6a and 6b situated adjacent to the rear face 2d and the side faces 2e and 2f of the casing 2. The locating holes 6a, 6b each include a cylindrical aperture extending from the bottom face 2a toward the opposite top face 2b and sized to accept the bullet-nosed engaging pins 23a, 23b on the bearing surface 19 of the docking station 13. The locating holes 6a and 6b thus serve to locate the computer's I/O connector 4 relative to the expansion connector 15 on the presentation surface 21 of the docking station 13.
In connecting the computer to the docking station 13, the tongue 2g of the computer casing 2 is fit into a mouth 25 of a mating receiver structure 27 adjacent to the bearing surface 19 opposite from and facing toward the connector presentation surface 21. The computer casing 2 is rotated about the tongue 2g with the bottom surface 2a of the casing 2 guided toward the bearing surface 19. When the bottom surface 2a of the casing 2 is close to the bearing surface 19, the mating locating holes 6a and 6b in the bottom surface 2a of the casing 2 engage the locating pins 23a, 23b of the docking station 13, which positions the casing 2 relative to the docking station 13, and in particular positions the I/O connector 4 relative to the docking station's expansion connector 15.
Thereafter, the docking station's expansion connector 15 and the pair of guide pins or arms 18a, 18b on either side of the expansion connector 15 are moved together in the direction indicated by the arrow toward the rear face 2d of the computer 1 in a manner such that the pair of guide pins or arms 18a, 18b are fitted individually in the recesses of the respective interface apertures 4a, 4b by operation of a swingable operating lever 29. Such engagement of the guide arms 18a, 18b with the respective interface apertures 4a, 4b fine tunes the positioning of the pins (or pin receptors) 15a of the expansion connector 15 relative to the pin receptors (or pins) 4c of the computer's I/O connector 4. Continued operation of the operating lever 29 continues movement of the expansion connector 15 toward the computer's I/O connector 4, and engages the pins (or pin receptors) 15a with the pin receptors (or pins) 4c during final insertion.
As a result, the expansion connector 15 of the docking station 13 is connected to the computer's I/O connector 4. Additionally, the computer 1 cannot be removed from the docking station 13 because the guide pins or arms 18a, 18b engaging the interface apertures 4a, 4b conspire with the receiver structure 27 engaging the computer casing's tongue 2g, and the locating pins 23a and 23b engaging the mating locating holes 6a and 6b in the bottom surface 2a of the computer casing 2 to secure the computer 1 relative to the docking station's connector presentation surface 21 and the bearing surface 19, respectively.
In removing the computer from the docking station apparatus 13, the operating lever 29 is reversed to move the expansion connector 15 away from the computer rear surface 2d, whereby the expansion connector 15 is disconnected from the computer's I/O connector 4, and the guide pins or arms 18a, 18b are disengaged from the respective interface apertures 4a, 4b. The computer casing 2 can be rotated about the tongue 2g so that the bottom surface 2a of the casing 2 is disengaged from the bearing surface 19, and the computer 1 is disengaged from the docking station 13.
In the docking station apparatus 13 described above, the pins (or pin receptors) 15a of the expansion connector 15 are attached to a circuit board which is located within a casing 31 of the apparatus 13, and the expansion connector 15 is connected to the circuit board through a flexible wiring harness. The flexible wiring board is in turn connected through other flexible wiring harnesses to separate and individual modem connector, a game port, audio speaker connectors, a microphone connector, two serial connectors, a parallel connector, a display unit connector, a USB connector, a mouse connector, a keyboard connector, and an external power supply connector, as are generally well-known in the art.
FIG. 4 illustrates an input/output (I/O) plate 33 of the docking station 13 where the flexible wiring harnesses of external devices may be connected to, for example, a mouse connector 35, a keyboard connector 37, a display unit connector 39, one or more serial connectors 41, a game port 43, a parallel connector 45, a serial connector 47, one or more USB connectors 49, a microphone connector 51, one or more speaker connectors 53, an external power supply connector 55, a modem connector 57, or a power switch 59.
However, known docking station apparatus are limited in their ability to provide the above expansion efficiently and reliably.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cellulose acylate film showing favorable optical uniformity and a method for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has conventionally been attempted to increase viewing angles of liquid crystal display devices by using a cellulose acylate film obtained by stretching a cellulose acylate resin so that the film should have an in-plane retardation value (Re value) and retardation value along the thickness direction (Rth value) as a phase difference film.
As methods for stretching a cellulose acylate resin for such a purpose, a method of performing the stretching along the longitudinal direction (for example, the longitudinal direction in a roll-to-roll process), a method of performing the stretching along the transverse direction (for example, the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction in a roll-to-roll process, width direction) and a method of performing the stretching along the longitudinal and transverse directions simultaneously (simultaneous stretching) are known.
Among these, the longitudinal stretching has conventionally been used in many cases, because it uses a compact apparatus. FIG. 2 shows an example of a conventionally used longitudinal stretching apparatus, and in this apparatus, a cellulose acylate resin (4) is heated to a temperature higher than the glass transition temperature (Tg) and stretched between two or more pairs of nip rollers (5, 5) by using a transportation speed of the rollers on the exit side faster than that of the rollers on the entrance side.
Furthermore, for example, as for a method of stretching a cellulose acylate resin, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-42130 describes that the unevenness of slow axis angle can be improved by using reverse directions for casting for film formation and longitudinal stretching.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-315551 describes a method of performing the stretching by using nip rollers installed in a stretching zone with a short span represented by a length/width ratio (L/W) of 2 or less so as to improve the orientation along the thickness direction (Rth value). The length/width ratio (LAN) used herein means a value obtained by dividing the interval of the nip rollers used for the stretching (L) with the width (W) of the cellulose acylate film to be stretched (the same shall also apply to the present invention).
However, if a stretched film obtained by any of the methods described in these patent documents is used as a phase difference film, fine planar unevenness and frame-like failure are generated, and improvement of these phenomena has been desired.


Q:

How to serve Google Big Query output to a client web

I have exported Firestore collections to Google Big Query to make data analysis and aggregation.
What is the best practice (using Google Cloud Products) to serve Big Query outputs to a client web application?

A:

Google provides seven client libraries for BigQuery. You can take any library and write a webserver that will serve requests from client web application. The webserver can use a GCP service account to access BigQuery on behalf of its clients.
One such sample is this project. It's written in TypeScript. Uses NodeJS library on the server and React for the client app. I'm the author.


Discussing marketing technology concepts

Social Complaining: the evolution of technology and media

I recently interviewed several social media marketers in conjunction with a study being conducted with Florida State University’s marketing department. During these interviews the majority of marketers stated that they have deleted consumers’ negative comments from their firm’s Facebook wall. Mind you, the consumer comments that these marketers deleted did not contain any inappropriate or vulgar language (usually). Moreover, the marketers acknowledged that the consumers were right to justify their complaints related to some type of dis-satisfaction or service failure with their firm. However, the marketers wanted to maintain a clean Facebook wall without any negative comments. The remarks from one marketer summed up the group’s outlook of Facebook comments: “This is our firm’s Facebook page, not a blog. If a consumer wants to complain about something, they should find a blog. It’s my page, so I can control whatever content I want.”

Social Complaining: deleting comments is not the answer

Along with all the positive outcomes that firms associate with social media, one of the “dark” sides of such media is negative publicity. Firms don’t like to discuss this negativity in great detail. As illustrated by the marketers interviewed, they can simply make the problem disappear from their page with a press of the delete button. Some marketers view this situation similar to sweeping dust under a rug: out of sight, out of mind. Newsflash to firms: this does not solve the problem.

Social media has created a phenomenon that I refer to as social complaining. The Internet has enabled consumers to complain or post negative comments for several years. However, the power of social media tools to easily reach consumers’ personal social networks is now enabling social complainers to be heard by large masses. Most consumers on Facebook have 100-200 friends. These friends actively listen to a communication describing a malicious marketer, who has a heavy finger on the delete button.

I conducted several interviews with consumers asking about their experiences and reactions to having their social media complaints deleted from a company’s Facebook wall. The consumers’ frustration and emotions were immediately apparent. Several of the interviewees stated that they have had their complaints deleted. When this action occurs, this usually sets in motion a series of events that a company A) cannot control; and B) will regret. The consumers stated that the original complaint takes a back-burner to what they now consider an unethical company that does not care about their consumers. These consumers have their own Facebook wall, Twitter accounts, YouTube, blogs, and other easy to use, yet powerful self-publishing tools to inform their networks through social complaining. Not only does the original complaint get re-published to consumers’ personal networks, but also the action that the company took to hide the problem (deleting the comments) becomes a focal point of the communication. Hence, the social complainer is still heard, even though the marketer did their best to sweep the issue under the rug.

Advice to Companies

View a complaint posted to your Facebook wall as an opportunity to stand out and impress your consumers. Not only the original complaining consumer, but also those additional onlookers reading and posting to your wall. When a consumer complains they are asking for you to recognize them and communicate with them. A complaining consumer is really saying: I like your company, spend my hard earned money on your products, and now I need you to help me resolve an issue. Please talk to me! A good way to handle this is to address the consumer in an apologetic and empathetic manner (similar to how traditional brick-and-mortar customer service is conducted). Then, take the complaint offline. I don’t mean delete the complaint from the wall. Rather, ask the consumer to contact you via phone or e-mail to fully resolve the issue. Taking it offline allows for you to give more personal attention to the consumer, while also avoiding any messy details or additional negative comments to be posted for all to see on your wall. A good example of a firm that is using this strategy is Holiday Inn. The screen shots below illustrates their complaint resolution in action.

Holiday Inn resolves the issue by taking it offline. They also leave the original complaint viewable on their wall. This is a smart move by a strong brand. By leaving the complaint on the wall, the company is communicating to their customers that it cares. The company wants to let their consumers know that they are willing to talk with them. This level of interaction and engagement is what makes social media so powerful – and it can nip a social complainer’s problem in the bud before it leads to a larger problem that the company cannot control.

Todd Bacile is a marketing doctoral candidate and instructor for Electronic Marketing and Services Marketing in the College of Business at Florida State University. Outside of the classroom he enjoys cooking BBQ in his smoker and coaching tee ball. You can contact him on Twitter @toddbacileJennifer Bacile contributed to this post. She holds degrees in IT & Communication with technology. Follow Jennifer on Twitter @JBacile

This is an interesting byproduct of firms having a presence within social media. You probably saw the recent statistic that 95% of questions consumers pose to companies on brands’ Facebook pages go unanswered. What we have is a combination of the potential to reach a mass audience via social, but also a public customer service channel available for the masses to see complaint handling by firms.

May I just say what a relief to find somebody that genuinely understands what they’re discussing online.
You definitely understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important.
More people need to check this out and understand
this side of the story. I was surprised that you aren’t more popular
given that you most certainly possess the gift.

These three segments are: The zone of a general speculation most extreme part.
Publisher: Michael Nyleo A religious study is an academic discipline that
requires certain skills to be developed. The firm offering academic writing should be
able to provide revision if the client is not satisfied with the work.
Writing is a skill that is required in many contexts throughout life.

Neonatal nurse practitioner programs include two or more
years of additional study with coursework in advanced assessment, pharmacology, pathophysiology, and clinical hours with a preceptor.
If this could be you, find out more on our websites at Courtesy used cars!
Then determine where and how you want to deal with the opposition. However, an online class gives
higher chances for a teacher to deliver the same curriculum to
many regions at once. Apart from, it should not be ingested in a big quantity,
especially throughout being pregnant. Instead of being perched in a tenured Ivy League
post, I went through graduate school at a public university facing severe cutbacks even before the 2008 meltdown.


From ITree Require Import
     ITree
     ITreeFacts
     Basics.HeterogeneousRelations
     Events.State
     Events.StateFacts
     InterpFacts
     KTreeFacts
     Eq.Eq.

(* YZ TODO : Revisit the dependency w.r.t. Refinement *)
From Vellvm Require Import
     Util
     PropT
     DynamicTypes
     CFG
     Refinement
     TopLevel
     LLVMAst
     InterpreterMCFG
     InterpreterCFG
     Handlers.Handlers
     LLVMEvents.

From ExtLib Require Import
     Structures.Functor.

From Coq Require Import
     RelationClasses
     Strings.String
     Logic
     Morphisms
     Relations
     List.

From ITree Require Import
     Basics.Monad
     Basics.MonadState.

Require Import Paco.paco.

Import ListNotations.
Import ITree.Basics.Basics.Monads.

Module R := Refinement.Make Memory.Addr LLVMEvents.
Import R.

(**
   YZ: Trying to figure how to tidy up everything. This file is currently a holdall.
   In here, we have:
   * partial interpreters to each levels;
   * hierarchies of refinements of mcfgs and proofs of inclusions;
   * lemmas for each partial interpreter of commutation with bind and ret;
   * some misc proper instances;
   * admitted statement of inclusion of the intepreter into the model;
 **)

(** The module _Refinement.Make_ defines a series of refinements between
    [itree]s at the various signatures of events a Vellvm goes through during
    the chain of interpretations leading to the definition of the model.
    These refinements state set inclusion of the concretization of the
    returned under-defined values, but impose no constraints on the states.

    In this module, we show that these refinements define a chain of growing
    relations when composed with the bits of interpretations relating each
    level.

    Finally, this allows us to lift these relations on [itree]s to a growing
    chain of relations on [mcfg typ].
 *)

(** BEGIN TO MOVE *)
Lemma subrelation_R_TT:
  forall A (R : relation A), subrelation R TT.
Proof. firstorder. Qed.

Lemma subrelation_prod_left :
  forall A B (R R' : relation A) (R2 : relation B), subrelation R R' -> subrelation (R × R2) (R' × R2).
Proof.
  intros A B R R' R2 H.
  unfold subrelation in *.
  intros x y HRR2.
  inversion HRR2; firstorder.
Qed.

Lemma eutt_tt_to_eq_prod :
  forall X R (RR : relation R) E (t1 t2 : itree E (X * R)),
    eutt (eq × RR) t1 t2 -> eutt (TT × RR) t1 t2.
Proof.
  intros X R RR E t1 t2 Heutt.
  unfold eutt.
  apply (eqit_mon (eq × RR) (TT × RR) true true true true); trivial.
  intros x0 x1 PR.
  eapply subrelation_prod_left. apply subrelation_R_TT. all: apply PR.
Qed.

(* Instance runState_proper_eqit {E A env} : Proper (Monad.eqm ==> Logic.eq ==> eutt Logic.eq) (@runState E A env). *)
(* Proof. *)
(*   repeat intro; subst. unfold runState. *)
(*   unfold eqm, ITreeMonad.EqM_ITree in H. *)
(*   rewrite H; reflexivity. *)
(* Qed. *)

Global Instance interp_state_proper {T E F S}
         (h: forall T : Type, E T -> Monads.stateT S (itree F) T)
  : Proper (eutt Logic.eq ==> Monad.eq1) (State.interp_state h (T := T)).
Proof.
  einit. ecofix CIH. intros.

  rewrite !unfold_interp_state. punfold H0. red in H0.
  induction H0; intros; subst; simpl; pclearbot.
  - eret.
  - etau.
  - ebind. econstructor; [reflexivity|].
    intros; subst.
    etau. ebase.
  - rewrite tau_euttge, unfold_interp_state; eauto.
  - rewrite tau_euttge, unfold_interp_state; eauto.
Qed.

Hint Unfold TT : core.
Instance TT_equiv :
  forall A, Equivalence (@TT A).
Proof.
  intros A; split; repeat intro; auto.
Qed.

(** END TO MOVE *)

Section REFINEMENT.

(** We first prove that the [itree] refinement at level [i] entails the
    refinement at level [i+1] after running the [i+1] level of interpretation
 *)

Lemma refine_01: forall t1 t2 g,
    refine_L0 t1 t2 -> refine_L1 (interp_global t1 g) (interp_global t2 g).
Proof.
  intros t1 t2 g H.
  apply eutt_tt_to_eq_prod, eutt_interp_state; auto.
Qed.

Lemma refine_12 : forall t1 t2 l,
    refine_L1 t1 t2 -> refine_L2 (interp_local_stack (handle_local (v:=uvalue)) t1 l) (interp_local_stack (handle_local (v:=uvalue)) t2 l).
Proof.
  intros t1 t2 l H.
  apply eutt_tt_to_eq_prod, eutt_interp_state; auto.
Qed.

Lemma refine_23 : forall t1 t2 m,
    refine_L2 t1 t2 -> refine_L3 (interp_memory t1 m) (interp_memory t2 m).
Proof.
  intros t1 t2 m H.
  apply eutt_tt_to_eq_prod, eutt_interp_state; auto.
Qed.

(* Things are different for L4 and L5: we get into the [Prop] monad. *)
Lemma refine_34 : forall t1 t2,
    refine_L3 t1 t2 -> refine_L4 (model_undef refine_res3 t1) (model_undef refine_res3 t2).
Proof.
  intros t1 t2 H t Ht.
  exists t; split.
  - unfold model_undef in *.
    unfold L3 in *.
    match goal with |- PropT.interp_prop ?x _ _ _ _ => remember x as h end.
    eapply interp_prop_Proper_eq in Ht.
    apply Ht.
    + apply prod_rel_refl; typeclasses eauto.
    + apply prod_rel_trans; typeclasses eauto.
    + assumption.
    + reflexivity.
  - reflexivity.
Qed.

Lemma refine_45 : forall Pt1 Pt2,
    refine_L4 Pt1 Pt2 -> refine_L5 (model_UB refine_res3 Pt1) (model_UB refine_res3 Pt2).
Proof.
  intros Pt1 Pt2 HR t2 HM.
  exists t2; split; [| reflexivity].
  destruct HM as (t2' & HPt2 & HPT2).
  apply HR in HPt2; destruct HPt2 as (t1' & HPt1 & HPT1).
  exists t1'; split; auto.
  match type of HPT2 with | PropT.interp_prop ?h' ?t _ _ _ => remember h' as h end.
  eapply interp_prop_Proper_eq with (RR := refine_res3); eauto.
  - typeclasses eauto.
  - typeclasses eauto.
Qed.

  Variable ret_typ : dtyp.
  Variable entry : string.
  Variable args : list uvalue.
  Variable user_intrinsics: IS.intrinsic_definitions.

  Definition denote_vellvm_init := denote_vellvm ret_typ entry args.

(**
   In particular, we can therefore define top-level models
   short-circuiting the interpretation early.
 *)

Definition model_to_L1  (prog: mcfg dtyp) :=
  let L0_trace := denote_vellvm_init prog in
  interp_to_L1 user_intrinsics L0_trace [].

Definition model_to_L2 (prog: mcfg dtyp) :=
  let L0_trace := denote_vellvm_init prog in
  interp_to_L2 user_intrinsics L0_trace [] ([],[]).

Definition model_to_L3 (prog: mcfg dtyp) :=
  let L0_trace := denote_vellvm_init prog in
  interp_to_L3 user_intrinsics L0_trace [] ([],[]) empty_memory_stack.

Definition model_to_L4 (prog: mcfg dtyp) :=
  let L0_trace := denote_vellvm_init prog in
  interp_to_L4 (refine_res3) user_intrinsics L0_trace [] ([],[]) empty_memory_stack.

Definition model_to_L5 (prog: mcfg dtyp) :=
  let L0_trace := denote_vellvm_init prog in
  interp_to_L5 (refine_res3) user_intrinsics L0_trace [] ([],[]) empty_memory_stack.

(**
   Which leads to five notion of equivalence of [mcfg]s.
   Note that all reasoning is conducted after conversion to [mcfg] and
   normalization of types.
 *)
Definition refine_mcfg_L1 (p1 p2: mcfg dtyp): Prop :=
  R.refine_L1 (model_to_L1 p1) (model_to_L1 p2).

Definition refine_mcfg_L2 (p1 p2: mcfg dtyp): Prop :=
  R.refine_L2 (model_to_L2 p1) (model_to_L2 p2).

Definition refine_mcfg_L3 (p1 p2: mcfg dtyp): Prop :=
  R.refine_L3 (model_to_L3 p1) (model_to_L3 p2).

Definition refine_mcfg_L4 (p1 p2: mcfg dtyp): Prop :=
  R.refine_L4 (model_to_L4 p1) (model_to_L4 p2).

Definition refine_mcfg  (p1 p2: mcfg dtyp): Prop :=
  R.refine_L5 (model_to_L5 p1) (model_to_L5 p2).

(**
   The chain of refinements is monotone, legitimating the ability to
   conduct reasoning before interpretation when suitable.
 *)
Lemma refine_mcfg_L1_correct: forall p1 p2,
    refine_mcfg_L1 p1 p2 -> refine_mcfg p1 p2.
Proof.
  intros p1 p2 HR.
  apply refine_45, refine_34, refine_23, refine_12, HR.
Qed.

Lemma refine_mcfg_L2_correct: forall p1 p2,
    refine_mcfg_L2 p1 p2 -> refine_mcfg p1 p2.
Proof.
  intros p1 p2 HR.
  apply refine_45, refine_34, refine_23, HR.
Qed.

Lemma refine_mcfg_L3_correct: forall p1 p2,
    refine_mcfg_L3 p1 p2 -> refine_mcfg p1 p2.
Proof.
  intros p1 p2 HR.
  apply refine_45, refine_34, HR.
Qed.

Lemma refine_mcfg_L4_correct: forall p1 p2,
    refine_mcfg_L4 p1 p2 -> refine_mcfg p1 p2.
Proof.
  intros p1 p2 HR.
  apply refine_45, HR.
Qed.

(* MOVE *)
Ltac flatten_goal :=
  match goal with
  | |- context[match ?x with | _ => _ end] => let Heq := fresh "Heq" in destruct x eqn:Heq
  end.

Ltac flatten_hyp h :=
  match type of h with
  | context[match ?x with | _ => _ end] => let Heq := fresh "Heq" in destruct x eqn:Heq
  end.

Ltac flatten_all :=
  match goal with
  | h: context[match ?x with | _ => _ end] |- _ => let Heq := fresh "Heq" in destruct x eqn:Heq
  | |- context[match ?x with | _ => _ end] => let Heq := fresh "Heq" in destruct x eqn:Heq
  end.

Lemma UB_handler_correct: handler_correct UB_handler UB_exec.
Proof.
  unfold UB_handler. unfold UB_exec.
  unfold handler_correct.
  intros. auto.
Qed.

Lemma refine_UB
  : forall E F `{LLVMEvents.FailureE -< E +' F} T TT (HR: Reflexive TT)
                      (x : _ -> Prop)
                      (y : itree (E +' LLVMEvents.UBE +' F) T),
      x y -> model_UB TT x (exec_UB y).
  Proof.
    intros E F H T TT HR x y H0.
    unfold model_UB. unfold exec_UB.
    exists y. split. assumption.
    apply interp_prop_correct_exec.
    intros.
    apply case_prop_handler_correct.
    unfold handler_correct. intros. reflexivity.
    apply case_prop_handler_correct.
    apply UB_handler_correct.
    unfold handler_correct. intros. reflexivity.
    assumption. reflexivity.
Qed.

Lemma Pick_handler_correct :
  forall E `{LLVMEvents.FailureE -< E} `{LLVMEvents.UBE -< E},
    handler_correct (@Pick_handler E _ _) concretize_picks.
Proof.
  unfold handler_correct.
  intros.
  destruct e.
  cbn. apply PickD with (res := concretize_uvalue u).
  - apply Pick.concretize_u_concretize_uvalue.
  - reflexivity.
Qed.

Lemma refine_undef
  : forall (E F:Type -> Type) T TT (HR: Reflexive TT)  `{LLVMEvents.UBE -< F} `{LLVMEvents.FailureE -< F}
                      (x : itree _ T),
      model_undef TT x (@exec_undef E F _ _ _ x).
Proof.
  intros E F H H0 T TT HR x.
  cbn in *.
  unfold model_undef.
  unfold exec_undef.
  apply interp_prop_correct_exec.
  apply case_prop_handler_correct.
  unfold handler_correct. intros. reflexivity.
  apply case_prop_handler_correct.
  apply Pick_handler_correct.

  unfold handler_correct. intros. reflexivity.
  assumption. reflexivity.
Qed.

(**
   We prove that the interpreter belongs to the model.
 *)
Theorem interpreter_sound: forall p, model p (interpreter p).
Proof.
  intros p.
  unfold model, model_user.
  unfold interpreter, interpreter_user.
  unfold interp_to_L5.
  unfold interp_to_L5_exec.
  apply refine_UB.  auto.
  apply refine_undef. auto.
Qed.

End REFINEMENT.

(**
   Each interpreter commutes with [bind] and [ret].
 **)

(** We hence can also commute them at the various levels of interpretation *)

Lemma interp_to_L2_bind:
  forall ui {R S} (t: itree L0 R) (k: R -> itree L0 S) s1 s2,
    interp_to_L2 ui (ITree.bind t k) s1 s2 ≈
                 (ITree.bind (interp_to_L2 ui t s1 s2) (fun '(s1',(s2',x)) => interp_to_L2 ui (k x) s2' s1')).
Proof.
  intros.
  unfold interp_to_L2.
  rewrite interp_intrinsics_bind, interp_global_bind, interp_local_stack_bind.
  apply eutt_clo_bind with (UU := Logic.eq); [reflexivity | intros ? (? & ? & ?) ->; reflexivity].
Qed.

Lemma interp_to_L2_ret: forall ui (R : Type) s1 s2 (x : R), interp_to_L2 ui (Ret x) s1 s2 ≈ Ret (s2, (s1, x)).
Proof.
  intros; unfold interp_to_L2.
  rewrite interp_intrinsics_ret, interp_global_ret, interp_local_stack_ret; reflexivity.
Qed.

Definition interp_cfg {R: Type} (trace: itree instr_E R) g l m :=
  let uvalue_trace   := interp_intrinsics [] trace in
  let L1_trace       := interp_global uvalue_trace g in
  let L2_trace       := interp_local L1_trace l in
  let L3_trace       := interp_memory L2_trace m in
  let L4_trace       := model_undef Logic.eq L3_trace in
  let L5_trace       := model_UB Logic.eq L4_trace in
  L5_trace.

Definition model_to_L5_cfg (prog: cfg dtyp) :=
  let trace := D.denote_cfg prog in
  interp_cfg trace [] [] empty_memory_stack.

Definition refine_cfg_ret: relation (PropT L5 (memory_stack * (local_env * (global_env * uvalue)))) :=
  fun ts ts' => forall t, ts t -> exists t', ts' t' /\ eutt  (TT × (TT × (TT × refine_uvalue))) t t'.

(* Definition refine_cfg  (p1 p2: cfg dtyp): Prop := *)
(*   refine_cfg_ret (model_to_L5_cfg p1) (model_to_L5_cfg p2). *)


A larger detrusor wall thickness increases the risk of non muscle invasive bladder cancer recurrence and progression: result from a multicenter observational study.
Recent experimental study showed a higher incidence of bladder cancer in presence of bladder detrusor muscle thickening. The aim of this study is to assess whether a higher detrusor muscle thickness (DWT) may be a risk factor of recurrence of non-muscle invasive urothelial bladder cancer (NMIBC). Men with histologically-confirmed diagnosis of NMIBC were prospectively enrolled in 4 centers between December 2015 and April 2017. DWT was measured by ultrasound and DWT>2.5 mm was used as threshold for detrusor muscle thickening. Patients underwent to adjuvant local treatment in according to their progression and recurrence risk computed by European Organization Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Score for NMIBC. Every three months cystoscopy and urinary cytology were used to detect disease recurrence and progression. The main clinic-pathological variables were compared between patients with DWT≤2.5 mm and DWT>2.5 mm. One hundred patients (49.8%) with DWT >2.5 mm were significantly older, had larger and more tumors and experienced more prior NMIBC than 101 (50.2%) patients with a DWT≤2.5 mm. Recurrence and progression disease occurred more often and briefly in patients with a detrusor muscle thickening. At univariate analysis, DWT>2.5 was a predictive risk factors of cancer recurrence and progression, respectively: OR 4.9 (95% CI: 2.5-9.5) P=0.001 and OR 2.21 (95% CI: 1.71-4.73), P=0.001. Enclosing DWT in EORTC risk calculator significantly increased by 3% and 1% recurrence and progression risk assessment, respectively. Detrusor muscle thickening may have a role in NMIBC course with a higher recurrence rate, however further confirmatory and elucidating studies are required.


A student at the University of Hawaii filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming her First Amendment rights were violated when she was ordered to stop handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution to fellow students.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, claims an administrator ordered plaintiff Merritt Burch and another student to stop approaching students to hand out the copies. Burch is in the HU Hilo chapter of Young Americans for Liberty.

Both Burch and her friend, the complaint alleges, were at an outdoor event featuring other student groups who were distributing literature from various tables set up for that purpose. Burch claims she left her table and approached other students, and an administrator told her and her friend to get behind their table.

Burch then claims she protested about her rights and the administrator dismissed them.

A week after the incident, another administrator allegedly told Burch and fellow student Anthony Vizzone that if they wanted to protest, the proper place would be in the university’s "free speech zone." The administrator also allegedly said, "This isn’t really the ‘60s anymore" and "people can’t really protest like that anymore."

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is assisting in this lawsuit as it did in the case of a California student who also was ordered to stop handing out copies of the Constitution, which occurred on Constitution Day. His lawsuit was settled in late February.

"So far this academic year, students have twice been prohibited from distributing the Constitution on a public campus, less than four months apart. That is absolutely unacceptable," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff.

"The First Amendment is not optional at public colleges—it’s the law. Enforcing restrictive ‘free speech zone’ policies that prevent students from passing out copies of the Constitution is impossible to justify," Lukianoff said.


Squan Song Stakes

The Squan Song Stakes is a race for Thoroughbred horses held in early November at Laurel Park in Maryland.  The ungraded stakes race is open to three-year-olds, is run at one mile on the dirt, and offers a purse of $75,000.

This race is named for Squan Song (born 1981), who was a four-time Maryland Bred champion, from 1984 to 1987 and earned "Horse-of-the-Year" honors in 1985. A winner of 18 of her 36 career starts, with 12 placements (ten in stakes races), the mare earned $898,444, placing her fourth on the all-time list of top Maryland-bred money winners at the time of her retirement. She was sold by her breeder Linda Green, for $125,000 as a weanling at Keeneland.

Squan Song campaigned under the colors of owners Bob Brennan's Due ProcessStable, winning a total of 14 stakes races, including the Grade 2 Cotillion Handicap at Philadelphia Park, the Rare Treat Stakes and the Affectionately Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack. She set track records for a mile and one sixteenth in the Meadowlands Racetrack's Honey Bee Handicap and in Garden State Park Racetrack's Haddonfield Handicap.

Records
Speed record:
 7 furlong - 1:23.00 - Gazillion (2002)
  miles - 1:50.00 - Wait for the Lady (1990)

Most wins by a jockey:
 4 - Albert Delgado   (1988, 1991, 1992 & 2009)
 3 - Jeremy Rose   (2002, 2003 & 2006)

Most wins by a trainer:
 3 - Richard W. Small    (2004, 2005 & 2007)

Winners of the Squan Song Stakes since 1988

See also
 Squan Song Stakes "top three finishers" and starters
 Laurel Park Racecourse

References

External links
Laurel Park racetrack

Category:Triple Crown Prep Races
Category:Laurel Park Racecourse
Category:Horse races in Maryland
Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1988
Category:1988 establishments in Maryland


A reader points out this article by a liberal in the Atlantic. It is titled “The Left Needs a Language Potent Enough to Counter Trump.” The writer, George Packer, is mostly intent on denouncing President Trump’s “dangerously populist” speech. As usual, the author goes off on Nazi, Hitler, and fascist tropes without acknowledging that the reason why the things Trump says are “populist” is that they make sense to most people, based on their experiences and observations. That part of the article is too foolish and boring to be worthy of comment.

But when the writer moves on to a topic he understands better, the shortcomings of his fellow leftists, he makes some good points–points that are especially noteworthy because they come from inside the leftists’ closed world:

“[T]he language of the contemporary left is anti-populist. Its vocabulary, much of it taken from academia, is the opposite of accessible—it has to be decoded and learned. Terms such as centered, marginalized, intersectional, non-binary, and Eurocentric gender discipline separate outsiders from insiders—that’s part of their intent, as is the insistence on declaring one’s personal pronouns and showing an ability to use them accordingly. Even common words like ally and privilege acquire a resonance that takes them out of the realm of ordinary usage, because the point of this discourse is to create a sense of special virtue. The language of the left also demands continuous refreshing and can change literally overnight: A writer is told that the phrase born male is no longer okay to use and has to be replaced with assigned male at birth. Many of these changes happen by ambush—suddenly and irrevocably, with no visible trail of discussion and decision, and with quick condemnation of holdouts—which gives them a powerful mystique. The language of the left creates a hierarchy of those who get it and those who don’t. Mastering the vocabulary is a way of signaling entry into a select world of the knowing and the just. The system is closed—there’s an internal logic that can be accepted or rejected but isn’t open to argument or question. In this sense, though much of the language of the left has academic origins, its use in the public square is almost religious.

Italics in the original, bold added. “Almost religious” understates the case, but the author sums up quite well the bizarre world of public discourse in which we find ourselves. I think that Democratic Party politicians are lucky that most people pay no attention to the strange things they say.


The BBC has refused to confirm or deny the story. Previously we knew he receives a salary as part-time Creative Director, and presentation fees for Imagine, and is likely to be drawing on his BBC pension.


A wet frictional material which functions in lubricant having both effects of cooling and lubrication is used in automatic transmission for automobiles, differential gear for four-wheel-drive vehicles, wet brake of tightly closed type, etc. With regard to an organic fiber material for the wet frictional material, there have been used acrylic fiber and fibrillated acrylic fiber which are less expensive as compared with aramid pulp and have excellent adhesive property to a bonding material where improvement in strength of the wet frictional material can be attempted and an appropriate porosity is achieved. For example, in an invention of the Japanese patent publication No. 05/45,808 B, there is proposed a wet frictional material where fibrillated acrylic fiber in an amount of 5 to 50% byweight to the total fiber is used and, in the Japanese patent publication No. 07/37,606 B, there is proposed a wet frictional material using a fiber base material by the joint use of acrylic pulp and aramid pulp. However, as a result of an increase in generating power of car engine and tendency of making efficiency and size of automatic transmission higher and smaller in recent years, sliding speed increases and load upon engagement becomes high resulting in high temperature of the wet frictional material whereupon durability of the wet frictional material has become a problem.
Thus, when acrylic fiber and fibrillated acrylic fiber which have been used as fibrous base materials for wet frictional materials are subjected to stress such as sliding and compression for a long period in a wet frictional material of high temperature, there is a disadvantage that elastic modulus extremely lowers and fiber is plastically deformed. As a result thereof, the wet frictional material is deteriorated, pores formed among the fibers are crushed and appropriate oil membrane is not prepared whereupon there is a problem that frictional characteristic lowers and that, finally, burning is resulted. Usually, a sulfur compound such as calcium sulfonate or zinc dialkyldithiophosphate is added to a lubricant as a cleansing dispersing agent and an anti-abrasion agent but such a compound produces acidic decomposition products by heat. They accelerate deterioration of not only jointly used cellulose pulp but also acrylic fiber and fibrillated acrylic fiber used conventionally for the wet frictional material whereupon durability lowers and that is another problem.


Catastrophic shifts in vertical distributions of phytoplankton: the existence of a bifurcation set.
A model of phytoplankton dynamics within a water column was analyzed with special consideration on the existence of a bifurcation set in the parameter space. We considered two resources, light and a limiting nutrient, for phytoplankton growth and assumed that the water column is separated into two layers by thermal and/or density stratification. It was shown that there exists a bifurcation set in the parameter space when the growth function meets several conditions that are general for growth functions of two essential resources. Specifically, these conditions include that a less abundant of the two resources limits the growth while the effect of the other is sufficiently small. Folded structure with two stable states separated by one unstable state appears in the catastrophe manifold when parameters move to a certain direction with a certain curvature from a point in the bifurcation set. These results suggest that occurrence of discontinuous transition between two alternative vertical patterns is possible nature of phytoplankton dynamics within a stratified water column.


When I last wrote about the evolution of the Cannonball, I talked about how the overall spirit of attempt was more important than the ultimate timecard stamp. The point was to have your own adventures, plant your own flag in the sand, and to do those things that nobody else is dedicated enough, or mad enough, to pull off. Little did I know, there was one man out there wholeheartedly carrying on this tradition.

In 2015, Carl Reese set multiple cross country records. So why haven’t you heard his name? Well, partially it is because none of them are the overall transcontinental record, and partially it is because Reese is a fairly understated man, at least compared to Alex Roy. No, Reese is not trying to break Ed Bolian‘s coast to coast record. Instead, he’s gone back to the beginning. Not back to the muttonchopped era of Yates and Gurney, but even farther, back to the man who would unknowingly lend his name to countless quasi-legal automotive events: Cannonball Baker himself. Baker set all manner of records, in all manner of vehicles over the course of his illustrious career. Consider it the shotgun approach. Why earn just one record, when you can win multiple? Hammer your way into the history books over, and over, and over. Each escapade was one more nail in the edifice of endurance driving.

Roy sums up some of Reese’s runs over at Jalopnik better than I could, so go read up on what the digital frontier of transcontinental driving consists of. But as impressive as all of the Tesla records are, Reese claimed another record that makes me weak in the knees, and sweaty in the groin.

Motorcycle.

Solo.

LA to New York City.

38 hours, 49 minutes.

Now, I’m no stranger to two wheeled shenanigans, which is explicitly why Reese’s escapades boggled my mind. A few years back, in a whirlwind of terrible decisions, I rode a Suzuki SV650 with no windscreen for 11 hours across the Midwestern United States. Then three days later, I rode 12 hours back home. Someday I’ll gather the scraps of that trip and try to turn it into a semi-coherent article. To sum up, it involved severe exhaustion, muscle cramps, nausea, self loathing, immense boredom, and random moments of sheer terror. So obviously I had to get Reese on the phone, to figure out how he did it.

I’ve now interviewed multiple transcontinental record holders. As different as they all are in outward appearances, they have a similar core. At the end of the day, once all the bravado and trash talk has fallen away, they are problem solvers. The cowboys and daredevils get arrested. The men and women who go coast to coast in less than two days with no police encounters are not reckless people. They are very focused, intelligent, people who love to deconstruct problems, and devise unique solutions to them. Reese is the same. His day job involves troubleshooting and resolving construction dilemmas. Crossing the nation on a motorcycle as fast as possible was just one more equation to solve.

The electronic countermeasures used for these types of events have been well documented, so everyone knows that that entails. Reese’s run used a similar arsenal, but he whittled it down to the absolute bare essentials. Needless to say, the dash of a motorcycle is slightly less spacious than that of a German luxury sedan. Of course there is the ubiquitous Valentine 1 and Unidan police scanner, along with laser jammers.

The BMW K1600GT remained relatively stock for this attempt. When you’re starting with a 160 horsepower motorcycle, adding more power isn’t exactly necessary. Think of it as the two wheeled equivalent of an M5. The German sport touring bikes have always been designed for exactly this type of use. So instead of adding power, Reese added usability. He had a custom, oversized gas tank that greatly increased his range. A larger windscreen was purchased to reduce the abuse his neck and shoulders would take from the wind. Because a large portion of the run would take place at night, a pair of 15,000 lumen driving lights were added. Reese bragged during out call that you could probably land a plane by these, and they could light over three quarters of a mile of desert highway. Lastly, but possibly most importantly, an aftermarket seat was swapped in, to protect his tender bits.

Reese agreed with me that mental focus was the largest hurdle to overcome. A day and a half of solo travel, with no co-driver, is a daunting prospect. I know that eight hours into my own trip, the mental and emotional strain became almost insurmountable. I may or may not have had a minor mental breakdown somewhere in western Kansas. With no company other than your own thoughts, be prepared to come to terms with who you are as a person. You will revisit every bad breakup, or argument with your family, or job loss you’ve ever experienced. So there’s something to look forward to. This is all without trying to make good time and stay aware and focused.

The correct mental outlook was the main subject of our conversation. Reese told me that he was in almost constant communication with his support teams the entire run via bluetooth in his helmet. They served as his eyes, his ears, his problem solvers, and his cheerleaders. Constant talk. Constant feedback. Constant updates. They would update him with weather reports on the fly, allowing him to adjust his strategy in real time. Think of it as outsourcing your co-driver.

Exhaustion is always a factor on endurance events, but that factor is increased exponentially on a motorcycle. The sensory overload that makes bikes so entertaining on back roads will wear you down on the open road. Even with a fantastic touring bike like Reese’s BMW, exhaustion the biggest enemy. As a precaution about this, Reese told me that his team utilized a scale of one to ten to measure wakefulness. Similar to how hospitals develop a scale for pain, this system allowed them to quantify an inherently subjective metric. Utilizing this, whenever he edged into the dangerous half of the scale, his team could instruct him to pull off the road for rest or caffeination. For six weeks prior to the run, he abstained from stimulants, which ensured both that any caffeine taken on the trip would be that much more effective, and also that he would not experience any drowsiness due to withdrawal. If this seems like overkill, you’ve never nodded off while piloting a motorcycle. I’ve had it happen once. Never again.

Speed is the aspect that everyone wants to know. How fast did he go? Where were the stretches of triple digit cruising? Honestly, I have no idea. I never asked. For me, the overall time is almost irrelevant. More important is the fact that he did it at all, time be damned. Sure, his time is what got him into the books, but I’d still be interested if it took him 48 hours. Maybe I’m jaded after having a bit of experience in this world, but I think the adventure itself is still more important. Yes, beating another record is what gets you the attention (it’s how I got involved, so I’m a hypocrite, I know, let’s keep going), but beating your own record, or your own expectations is far more valuable.

I know people dislike men like this getting press. I understand that. But I feel that these events are such an intrinsic part of our collective culture, that to ignore them is to whitewash our own history. The Cannonball is an undeniable aspect of the automotive Zeitgeist. My role in all of this is just to serve as a historian. Short of Yates and Roy’s books, and a handful of blog posts, there is little hard data on this phenomenon. Reese is seeking to change that. He is using his own record run to draw attention to a documentary being produced on the history of transcontinental motorcycle runs. For as little Cannonball information as there is, almost nothing is known about those few motorcycle madmen who set out to break records.

George Egloff got a handful of minutes in the infamous 32 Hours 7 Minutes documentary, but little else is known aside from a throwaway sentence or two about Cannonball Baker. Reese was passionate about wanting to share these stories of triumph and adversity with the public. These days, every motorcycle manufacturer has private racetracks and computer simulations to test durability of new machines, but that wasn’t always the case. For many years, the only hard data manufacturers had was when someone rode one of their machines some incalculable distance. Little was known about road conditions, or tire durability, until someone finally put them both to the test. Even today, manufacturers look to extreme real world tests to understand their products. Reese told me that Tesla made some software updates to the autopilot systems of the Model S after his record setting run. Nobody had ever used it for that long, at those speeds, so new data was brought to light.

So please, help out their project if you can. For all of us. These stories deserve to be told, and their accomplishments shared. To a large percentage of the populace, their knowledge of the Cannonball begins with Burt Reynolds, and ends with Raul Julia. This is one of those rare instances where the truth is less believable than the fiction.

Those stories have been lost in the fog of rumor and speculation. Until now.