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If history is the interpretation of facts by historians, then the past must just be a complex and messy plethora of information. Who then, holds the responsibility of authoring histories, and who decided on the importance of facts? This is dependent on the social context of the society prevalent at the time of interest, as historical facts are only seen through present day eyes. Therefore, it is the responsibility of historians to interpret facts, and present them in a non bias, objective way. However, this is not always the case, as the “historian collects [facts], takes them home and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him”. It therefore follows that basic facts are the raw materials essential to the historian, rather than of history itself. Furthermore, for a fact to be deemed credible or tangible, it must be significant and widely accepted by a multitude of various historians. So then, if a fact is not widely accepted, but is actually true, does this mean it is not part of history? The interest or social stance of a society at a particular time will heavily influence the presentation of facts as history. For example, it is widely known what fifth-century Greece was like to an Athenian citizen, but little was documented from the perspective of a Persia, Corinthian or Theban. This bias viewpoint highlights the inequality in recording and representation of historical facts. Therefore, can a historian be classed as objective, or will there always be a concern with representing a subjective view of history, no matter how slight? The historical recording process is one of general consensus, and ultimately depends on the power position of those concerned. On the contrary, Positivism is concerned with an objective reality, and seeks to classify the world and historical facts. A central ideology of this approach to history is that the process of documentation should be highly scientific, and therefore rely on objective observations of the world. Which approach is correct or more accepted is difficult to address. Overall, the act of authoring histories is dependent on many factors, and is clearly a difficult process to monitor.	0.9978	FineWeb
A national holiday in Korea, National Liberation Day, From 1910 to 1945, Korea suffered a difficult period under Japanese colonial rule. That’s why August 15 is celebrated as National Liberation Day. Korea and Japan are known to have had many conflicts over time, but according to historical fact, they have not suffered the same amount of damage. The truth is that Korea was unilaterally stripped and looted by Japan. But the actual story is not well known in the world, and many Japanese distort and deny their history of colonial rule. However, a Korean company discovered the truth of a shocking story saying, ‘Even the Korean flag couldn’t be used for 10 years under Japanese surveillance”. Korean fashion company Lakai Korea released two types of bracelets on its international sales site informing people about National Liberation Day in Korea. The laser engraved design of the bracelet shows the history of Taegeukgi, and Taegeukgi with the handwriting of 70 Korean troops. This is what the company wants to inform people of through the English translation. “Instead of weapons, Taegeukgi, which was a taboo item that could not be used for 10 years due to Japan’s colonial rule, and Taegeukgi, which contains the wishes of independence activists who wanted to reclaim their lost country, became the torch of the Independence Movement against the brutal Japanese oppression. We will engrave the dedication of the independence activists who brought back the lost light deeply in our hearts.” They were conveying the sorrow of not being able to hold up their flag under the colonial rule of Japan. The Korean national flag, Taegeukgi, was originally called ‘Chosungukgi’, but on March 1, 1919, the new name ‘Taegeukgi’ had begun to spread along with the burgeoning national independence movement to prevent Japanese people from recognizing it. Therefore, Taegeukgi is considered a symbol of the independence movement. The company has already taken the lead in spreading the true history of Korea. They use ‘engrave’ as their identity, which means that we will remember it deep within our hearts. In fact, telling the history of a country and giving meaning is a taboo in the fashion brand world. This is because the fashion market has a lot of common denominators around the world, and problems between countries may soon become problems for companies. Lakai Korea, which shows a management method that no one has ever tried, informs people of the history of Korea. And this identity is getting attention worldwide. From COVID 19 to K-POP, the value of Korea increases, and interest in Korean products increases along with it. This Korean company with a strong Korean design is attracting attention. In addition, the products that have this historic meaning are sold at more than three times the price in all countries except Korea, causing some complaints among overseas customers. Rather, it acts as if you are buying Korean values, increasing the value of the brand. In fact, many Koreans support Lakai Korea, which focuses on telling the truth about Korean history. I think that it is a company that promotes Korea and is passionately showing support for the rapid development and change there.	0.5056	FineWeb
Send a parcel to Beihai from only £30.76 Send a Parcel to Beihai, China Essentials when sending a parcel to Beihai It is important to bear in mind the following points when you send a parcel to Beihai: - Make sure the contents of your parcel(s) adhere to our prohibited and restricted items list. - Ensure that you print and complete the necessary documents required when sending a parcel to China. - Check for any customs charges or other surcharges that may apply to Chinese shipments. - Be sure that every parcel is securely packaged to avoid damage to the contents. - Relax and rest assured that your parcel will arrive safe-and-sound in China when sending through !	0.8753	FineWeb
Answers 1Add Yours From the text: "Pa thought he knew why Noah was strange, but Pa was ashamed, and never told. For on the night when Noah was born, Pa, frightened at the spreading thighs, alone in the house, and horrified at the screaming wretch his wife had become, went mad with apprehension. Using his hands, his strong fingers for forceps, he had pulled and twisted the baby. The midwife, arriving late, had found the baby's head pulled out of shape, its neck stretched, its body warped; and she had pushed the head back and molded the body with her hands. But Pa always remembered, and was ashamed. And he was kinder to Noah than to the others. In Noah's broad face, eyes too far apart, and long fragile jaw, Pa thought he saw the twisted, warped skull of the baby. Noah could do all that was required of him, could read and write, could work and figure, but he didn't seem to care; there was a listlessness in him toward things people wanted and needed. He lived in a strange silent house and looked out of it through calm eyes. He was a stranger to all the world, but he was not lonely." The Grapes of Wrath/ Chapter Eight	0.8105	FineWeb
I missed the start of yesterday's race (above), so pretty much the first thing I caught was the cross just prior to the first mark. Alinghi had to tack slightly above the line letting BMW Oracle whiz by: BMW Oracle's line up to the top mark was simply brilliant: kudos to JK: So around the mark they went.... Then it was a drag race to the 2nd mark, and BMW Oracle powered up and put their foot to the floor leaving Alinghi visibly dropping behind in their wake: BMW Oracle was steaming away - here hitting 31.1 knots: After the 2nd mark, Alinghi seemed to be yawing a lot more than BMW Oracle, hunting for the angle that just keeps the 2nd hull flying. BMW Oracle must have been doing their tweaking by simply the adjusting the wing segments: Alinghi vented some water ballast again - maybe because the winds were lighter and so less righting weight was required (though it did look a bit like someone had gone to the heads and they didn't have any holding tanks): BMW Oracle had to do one final gybe before squaring off directly towards the line: And finally after hundreds of millions of dollars and years of lawsuits, it was victory as BMW Oracle crossed the line, winning the race and the America's Cup.	0.5115	FineWeb
Exporting Stata Results to MS Office Stata results can be exported in a wide variety of ways. We've divided the approaches into two groups: working with the Results Window and working with estimated parameters directly. From the Results Window Copy Table into Excel, Word, or PowerPoint Suppose you've run svy:mean on 3 variables, and Stata has produced a nice table in the Results Window that you want to capture. . svy, subpop(subpop): mean var1 var2 var3 (running mean on estimation sample) Survey: Mean estimation Number of strata = 43 Number of obs = 20607 Number of PSUs = 86 Population size = 261897236 Subpop. no. obs = 18081 Subpop. size = 253890607 Design df = 43 -------------------------------------------------------------- \| Linearized \| Mean Std. Err. [95% Conf. Interval] -------------+------------------------------------------------ var1 \| 289.6824 4.175324 281.2621 298.1028 var2 \| 106.6606 1.311485 104.0157 109.3055 var3 \| 396.343 4.804086 386.6547 406.0314 -------------------------------------------------------------- You can copy the table into Excel or into a Word table and retain much of its formatting: - Highlight the table in the Results Window. - Right click on the table and select Copy Table. - In Excel, click on the cell where you want the upper-left corner of the table. - Right click and select Paste. You'll need to adjust column widths to see all the text. We've found that copying the upper half of the table separately from the lower half helps Excel select the right number of columns to use. To copy into Word, count the number of rows and columns you'll need, create a table of that size, highlight all the cells in the table, and then paste. In the above example, the table of parameter estimates requires 5 columns and 6 rows if you do not include the top and bottom horizontal lines in your highlighting. You can copy the highlighted table as a picture directly into a Word document. It's a perfect snapshot of the table in the Results Window. - Highlight the table in the Results Window. - Drag the left border of the Results Window to the right until the highlighted table just fills the width of the Window. - Right click on the table and select Copy as Picture. - In Word or PowerPoint, right click and paste where you want the picture. You can resize the picture, and you can right click to edit it. From the Parameter Estimates Suppose that we want to make a table of just the means in the above example. We can do this be taking advantage of a very nice feature of Stata. Most Stata commands produce temporary variables containing the key results. These temporary variables will continue to store these values until you use another Stata command that replaces those results, or until you end your Stata session. You can look at what results have been stored using either return list or for estimation commands ereturn list. Here's a subset of the estimate parameters stored temporarily after the svy:mean command that produced the table above: ereturn list scalars: e(df_r) = 43 e(N_strata_omit) = 0 e(singleton) = 0 e(census) = 0 e(N_subpop) = 253890607 e(N_sub) = 18081 e(N_pop) = 261897236 e(N_psu) = 86 e(N_strata) = 43 e(N_over) = 1 e(N) = 20607 (lots of results omitted here) matrices: e(b) : 1 x 3 e(V) : 3 x 3 e(_N_subp) : 1 x 3 e(V_srssub) : 3 x 3 e(V_srs) : 3 x 3 e(_N) : 1 x 3 (mores results omitted here) For purposes of this example, we're only interested in the means. The estimates of the means are contained in a matrix called e(b), which has dimensions 1 x 3. The matrix e(b) is temporary. We want to create variables that we can export to Excel, so we first need to put the means into variables that won't go away when we run another estimation command. There are lots of ways to do this. We'll demonstrate one way that uses official Stata commands and is flexible, but it requires you to manage the data a bit more than you might care to do. After that we'll talk about a number of user-contributed commands that work with results from estimation commands. Official Stata Commands First, let's verify that we have in fact selected the right matrix of estimates: matrix list e(b) e(b)[1,3] var1 var2 var3 y1 289.68245 106.6606 396.34305 We can compare these values with the means printed in the table above and see that we have the estimates of the means. Next put them into a matrix, and then create a variable for each cell in the matrix: matrix means = e(b) gen meanvar1= means[1,1] gen meanvar2= means[1,2] gen meanvar3= means[1,3] list meanvar* in 1 +--------------------------------+ \| meanvar1 meanvar2 meanvar3 \| \|--------------------------------\| 1. \| 289.6824 106.6606 396.343 \| +--------------------------------+ Since every observation has the same values for the three means, we can export just one obs to Excel. keep in 1 (21661 observations deleted) export excel "c:\tables\means.xlsx", firstrow(variables) Here is an example of how to write a program to build a more complex table with many rows. It is a testament to both the cleverness and generosity of the Stata user community that so many powerful open-source commands exist outside the set shipped by Stata Corporation, and further that the authors maintain these commands and continue to offer improved versions. Most of these commands are archived at Boston College in the SSC (Statistical Software Components) website. To read about and install these commands, you can search the SSC website, or you can use the ssc command in Stata. ssc describe parmest ssc install parmest CPC maintains the most current version of each of the commands listed below. You will need to install them locally if you run Stata on a standalone computer. The discussion below is brief, intended only to point you to the command you might need. See the help for each command for details. The tabout command produces publication-quality cross tabulations. Lots of features are available to customize the table. The output file may be in tab-delimited or html format. Tab-delimited format files may be copied into Word and converted into a table using the Table menu (Table, Convert, Text to table). Html format files can be opened in your browser and copied. Inside Word, use Paste Special and paste the table as Formatted Text (rtf). There's a tutorial on the command as well. The outreg command uses the saved results after an estimation command to create a text file of the results you select. You can then turn this text file into a Word table. This command has lots of formatting features, and you can combine the results from several regressions into a single table. Here's a simple example to get you started. cd "c:\tables\" sysuse auto, clear regress mpg foreign weight headroom trunk length turn displacement outreg using outtab1, replace The output file is tab-delimited and has the extension .out. Open the file in Word, highlight the rows of results, click on Insert, Table, Convert text to table. This is an extension of outreg to enhance its capabilities with multiple models and to provide more format options. Here's an example from the help. Follow the instructions above to convert the results to a Word table. cd "c:\tables\" sysuse auto, clear regress mpg foreign weight headroom trunk length turn displacement outreg2 using outtab2, replace cttop(full) regress mpg foreign weight headroom outreg2 using outtab2, see This command is part of the estout package. The esttab command produces a table of regression results that have been stored by the eststor command, or the current results if nothing has been stored. The output table may be tab, csv, rtf, html, or other formats. Tab-delimited format files may be imported into Excel using the Import Wizard. Rtf files go directly into Word. There's a steep learning curve to this powerful command, but if you produce publication-quality tables often that have to look "just so", it's worth the time to study this command. Here's a simple example that outputs to .rtf. eststo: svy, subpop(subpop if childage == 1): mean var1 var2 var3 esttab using "c:\tables\esttab_means.rtf", replace The command gives you a clickable link to esttab_means.rtf in the Results Window. There's a tutorial available for esttab here. Like esttab, the xml_tab command works from stored estimates. The output is in Excel's xml format. This format allows for a very feature-rich table that takes advantage of many of Excel's capabilities. Here's a simple example. svy, subpop(subpop): mean enerbev1 enerfood1 enertot1 xml_tab e(b), save("d:\statatemp\xml_tab.xml") replace The command gives you a clickable link to xml_tab.xml. You can store multiple sets of estimates using estimates store and use xml_tab to combine them in a single table. The parmest command comes in a package of four modules: parmest, parmby, parmcip, and metaparm. The parmest and parmby commands put each estimation result into a separate observation in an output dataset. parmcip inputs these variables and adds new variables containing confidence intervals and p-values. metaparm does a metanalysis on sets of estimation results.You can see an example here. The logout command captures the results that are printed to the Results Window (log) and writes them to Excel, Word, or other formats. The success of the formatting in the output file depends on the complexity of the results table you are exporting. Compared with copying from the log by hand and pasting into a spreadsheet, this approach may not produce as well formatted tables, but it can be automated. Here's an example: logout, save(c:\tables\logout_means) excel replace: /// svy, subpop(subpop): mean var1 var2 var3 This command produces a file call logout_means.xml, and it gives you a clickable link to this file in the Results Window.	0.9306	FineWeb
Software is included in the Intellectual Property category and it can be patented. The patent grants protection for developers of the software. The monopoly of the development, improvement and distribution lies with the holder of the patent. In fact, the patenting system is intended to encourage invention among software developers. Property rights can be ensured and granted to the right individual or group of people. The jurisprudences related to software patents around the world emanate from the laws in the United States, which is the pioneer of software patents. Software is a complex collection of computer languages that are interactive or run automatically in the background. The first patent for software was for solution to improve access of file storage. The patent was filed in 1962 by British Petroleum Company and it is intended to solve simultaneous linear equations. There have been raging controversies in other countries whether software developers should be given patent protection or not. Depending on the country or state, you should check the details of software patenting. In some cases, the software per se isn’t give protection. If your software needs a special hardware to work, you need to make sure that the hardware is included in the patent as well. A good example, is a special data recording software that works only with specific airplane black box. When the software and hardware are separated, they will be useless, because the software can’t be used on any other software solutions. There are concerns that software patents will actually end up hampering and harming creativity and productivity among software developers. Some of the software development methods and logics may needs to be re-used to achieve something. When the patenting system is too restrictive, it would be possible for developers to modify, improve and re-write computer software. A good solution to this problem is by using open source platform. As an example, from the basis of Linux, developers can create various flavours, such as SUSE and Ubuntu. Software, especially operating systems are very complicated, so building it from scratch may take monumental effort. The complexity of the software could depend on the features and intended level of versatility. A fairly complex software could contain more than 5 million lines of code. Small pieces of features can be patented individually, so things can be tricky for developers. A solution is to make different format of files. As an example, PNG image format was developed to avoid infringing GIF patent, while Ogg Vorbis format was made to prevent legal issues associated with MP3. However, using new format could cause new issues, such as compatibilities and familiarity. Existing platforms may not be able to handle the new format and even if it’s supported, users may not be familiar with it. Patent is needed due to the high costs of development and research. Software piracy is a common problem and copy protection is often inadequate to prevent unauthorized uses. Patent is more intended to prevent other developers for making something too identical with an existing software solution.	0.7852	FineWeb
A star, often known simply as just "Drema," with four planets after an unstable fifth disintegrated into an asteroid belt circa 2215. Other planets in this system are also known to be unstable. The fourth star in this system supported a humanoid civilization. This star often lends its name to the adjoining sector of space of five star systems overall, first visited directly by the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D in 2365 after unmanned probes had earlier revealed unusual geological activity in all the systems.	0.6649	FineWeb
"His reliance on the grid anchors his work to the architecture of the canvas, as his saturated color palette recalls the tawdry glamour of Los Angeles, the artists’ home. " -Robert Overby: Paintings from the 80's "if they could see me now, booming and zooming, if they could see me now, booming and zooming" (here) Fredericks & Freiser and Andrew Kreps Gallery are pleased to collaborate on an exhibition of Robert Overby’s late paintings. Paintings from the 80’s will include a selection of Overby’s large-scale works that constitute the artist’s last major series. Beginning in 1969, Robert Overby (1935–1993) produced an eclectic body of work that was rarely exhibited in his lifetime. Despite a diversity of mediums and an equally wide range of subject matter, Overby returned consistently to the human form. His polyurethane stretches and ghost-like latex casts of walls and doors belong to the history of late 60’s and early 70’s experiments in anti-form, process art, and post-minimalism. His 1980’s image paintings are post Pop combinations of figure and abstraction that explore similar issues of surface, decay, and the skin between the real and its incorporeal other. Overby’s paintings recall both the acuity of renaissance-style painting and that of graphic design. His reliance on the grid anchors his work to the architecture of the canvas, as his saturated color palette recalls the tawdry glamour of Los Angeles, the artists’ home. Simultaneously culled from high-end fashion magazines and pornography, the women of Overby’s quasi-figurative paintings are disembodied from the forms they suggest. Additionally, the shapes that impose themselves upon their bodies and faces further enhance this sense of removal.	0.5161	FineWeb
PH220B_Lab_Project_Answer_Sheet (2).doc Circular Motion, Gravitation, and Work and Energy A 5600 kg mass car is taking a turn at 72 m/s. If the frictional force here is 44,000N, what is the radius of curvature of the turn? Up where the ISS (International Space Station) orbits at 387 km, even though they are weightless there still is an acceleration due to gravity. Calculate its value and what it is in respect to 8g at the Earth’s surface. Going back to the previous question, how long does it take the ISS to orbit? (You must calculate this and not just look it up!) If a person on a 35.0 m diameter Ferris wheel feels 30% heavier at the bottom of the wheel, how fast is it going around? A large box with mass 45 kg is being pushed up a ramp at a 32o incline at a constant velocity by a man pushing parallel to the incline for 7.80 m. If the coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.25, what is: The force the man is pushing on the box. The work done by the man on the box. The force of friction. The work done by the friction force. A spring with negligible mass is suspended next to a ruler such that the end of the spring at equilibrium is at the 0 cm mark on the ruler. If a 3.0 kg mass is suspended from the spring and it stretches so that the end of the spring is at the 17 cm mark, what is the spring constant k? A softball having a mass of 0.45 kg is pitched horizontally at spring with spring constant 78 N/m. If the ball hits the spring and compresses it 56 cm, how fast was the softball moving initially? A roller coaster is a height of 120 m and has a series of dips. What is he velocity at the bottom (assuming this is 120 m below the top) and what is the velocity at a bump that is 75 m above the ground? Student has agreed that all tutoring, explanations, and answers provided by the tutor will be used to help in the learning process and in accordance with Studypool's honor code & terms of service.	0.902	FineWeb
It is creditable to our English nobility, and a feature in their character that distinguishes them from their fellows of most other nations, that, from the first revival of learning, the study of literature has been extensively cultivated by men of high birth, even by many who did not require literary fame to secure them a lasting remembrance; and they have not contented themselves with showing their appreciation of intellectual excellence by their patronage of humbler scholars, but have themselves afforded examples to other labourers in the hive, taking upon themselves the toils, and earning no small nor undeserved share of the honours of authorship. The very earliest of our poets, Chaucer, must have been a man of gentle birth, since he was employed on embassies of importance, and was married to the daughter of a French knight of distinction, and sister of the Duchess of Lancaster. The long civil wars of the fifteenth century prevented his having any immediate followers; but the sixteenth opened more propitiously. The conqueror of Flodden was also “Surrey of the deathless lay"; and from his time to the present day there is hardly a break in the long line of authors who have shown their feeling that noble birth and high position are no excuses for idleness, but that the highest rank gains additional illustration when it is shown to be united with brilliant talents worthily exercised. The earliest of our tragic poets was Sackville Earl of Dorset. The preux chevalier of Elizabeth’s Court, the accomplished and high-minded Sidney, took up the lyre of Surrey: Lord St. Albans, more generally known by his family name of Bacon, “took all learning for his province”; and, though peaceful studies were again for a while rudely interrupted by the “dark deeds of horrid war,” the restoration of peace was, as it had been before, a signal for the resumption of their studies by many of the best-born of the land. Another Earl of Dorset displayed his hereditary talent not less than his martial gallantry. Lord Roscommon well deserved the praises which Dryden and Pope, after his death, liberally bestowed. The great Lord Chancellor Clarendon devoted his declining years to a work of a grander class, leaving us a History which will endure as long as the language itself; while ladies of the very highest rank, the Duchess of Newcastle and Lady Mary Wortley Montague, vindicated the claims of their sex to share with their brethren the honours of poetical fame. [Footnote 1: “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” vi. 14.] Among this noble and accomplished brotherhood the author of these letters is by general consent allowed to be entitled to no low place. Horace Walpole, born in the autumn of 1717, was the youngest son of that wise minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who, though, as Burke afterwards described him, “not a genius of the first class,” yet by his adoption of, and resolute adherence to a policy of peace throughout	0.5017	FineWeb
You probably already know what hiccups are, since they affect pretty much everyone on the planet, including babies and the elderly. Hiccups are the result of a spasm in your diaphragm, which is a sheet of muscle located between your chest and abdomen. The diaphragm usually works by pulling down when you inhale to allow more air into your lungs and by pushing up when you exhale to help get the air out of your lungs. When you have hiccups, the inhalation process is suddenly interrupted by the closure of your glottis, or vocal cords. The air gets stuck in your throat and causes the hiccup sound. While the cause of hiccups normally has to do with what's in your stomach, risk factors are spread pretty evenly among the population. However, it's known that males are more likely to have hiccups than females -- especially long-term hiccups. The other relevant risk factors are whether you've had surgery or not (anesthesia, intubation, neck extension, abdominal distension and organ manipulation all seem to increase the likelihood of hiccups) and whether you're under emotional stress. Short-term hiccups are those that go away within a few hours. Eating too much, drinking something bubbly and having too much alcohol can cause short-term hiccups. In addition, if you have something hot and then something cold, you can end up hiccuping. Other causes of short-term hiccups are swallowing too much air and smoking. Long-term or persistent hiccups are those that last more than 48 hours. Some people end up with what's called intractable hiccups, which last more than a month. Persistent and intractable hiccups are typically related to a problem with your central nervous system or to metabolic disorders. Short-term hiccups go away on their own, but long-term hiccups can require medical intervention.	0.9659	FineWeb
Co Author Listing * Modeling Intradriver Steering Variability Based on Sensorimotor Control Theories Co Author Listing * Active Deceleration Support in Car Following * Design of a Haptic Gas Pedal for Active Car-Following Support * Estimating an LPV Model of Driver Neuromuscular Admittance Using Grip Force as Scheduling Variable * Evaluation of Haptic and Visual Cues for Repulsive or Attractive Guidance in Nonholonomic Steering Tasks * Neuromuscular-System-Based Tuning of a Haptic Shared Control Interface for UAV Teleoperation * Two-Dimensional Weighting Function for a Driver Assistance System, A Index for "a"	0.8843	FineWeb
The Kayran one of the main quests in Chapter I of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. - Kayran tentacle may block the path to the top of the ramp - What about the monstrosity of Flotsam? Well, Geralt heard that the beast had attacked a man on the pier. Driven by professional curiosity, he went to investigate... - Indeed, it was as the people had said - the unlucky victim lay on the pier. A riled crowd surrounded him and was commenting on the events. Among the onlookers stood the sorceress Síle de Tansarville. The witcher and the sorceress exchanged but a few words before she asked Geralt for help in hunting down the dangerous beast. First, they needed to identify the species. An elf named Cedric was said to be the most knowledgeable about the local wildlife. - Cedric lived in Lobinden, a village nestled up against Flotsam's Walls. Humans paid him to keep the forest beasts away from their huts, so he spent most of his time on tree-top platforms gazing into the forest thicket. - The witcher found the elf and questioned him about the monster. He learned that a poisonous mucus covered the beast, so that a single touch of its tentacle could fell a towering man. Geralt decided he needed an antidote, but to make this, he would first need a sample of the mucus. So he embarked on an expedition to the monster's lair, and Triss joined him. - In the kayran's lair, Geralt learned that the monster's mucus was highly toxic. Triss gave our hero the formula for a potion that would render him immune to the beast's terrible venom, but he needed a herb known as ostmurk to make the draught. I've continued the story of the herb in another section, dear reader. Here you will learn how the hunt for the kayran progressed. - After speaking with Síle, Geralt was ready to fight the kayran. armed with a sword and knowledge, he set out to slay the monster. - You should have seen the battle! The bridge's arches crumbled like houses of cards and the beast's blood mingled with its poisonous mucus. Finally, the witcher, with much effort, won the day - the beast was dead, and our hero could pick up the reward he had rightly earned. - Remember to loot the Kayran after the battle, as its loot is considered moderately valuable. - The first part of the battle involves chopping off the three tentacles. Síle recommends Geralt "trap it with the Yrden", by which she means to immobilize the tentacles, which are otherwise too dangerous to approach and too fast to hit. A fairly reliable location to place a Yrden is as close as possible to the yellow prompts that allow planting a Kayran Trap. Then, if Geralt is in the vicinity of that location (he does not have to be right on top of it), a tentacle will eventually fall onto the Yrden and be held. - Especially on higher difficulties where the damage done to Geralt per hit is very high, trying to keep Quen up tends to result in taking more hits because of the casting time. Instead, dodging is more useful. When a tentacle is immobilized, the Kayran stops attacking to focus on freeing its tentacle; during that time it is safe to restore a Quen shield.	0.8056	FineWeb
Inspired by the V. GAY GAMES 1998 held in Amsterdam BUSHIDO Munich e.V.created in 1999 for the first time under the title PINK POWER a weekend with karate workshops in different styles. The following year, the idea was taken up by NIJI KAN Paris. Since PINK POWER travels through various European cities. In 2003, PINK POWER was converted to a mixed martial arts event. The variety is grown: workshops and demonstrations from various martial arts distinctive feature of the image by PINK POWER. The following dates are planned: - 2019 in Berlin - 2020 (still open) - 2021 in Munich	0.6245	FineWeb
Occupation-specific social competences in vocational education and training (VET): the example of a technology-based assessment © The Author(s) 2016 Received: 1 December 2015 Accepted: 10 August 2016 Published: 22 August 2016 The difficulties regarding the definition and measurement of social competences, crucial to the research in vocational education and training, are well known. In this paper, we show, based on the example of medical assistants in Germany, that these skills have to be assessed in an occupation-specific way, and develop an appropriate simulation-based Situational Judgment Test. Competence modeling, the translation into the test format and results of a data collection are discussed in detail for the dimension of communicative strategies. Based on empirical and theoretical analysis, we derived a normative competence model underlying the development of a video-based situational judgment test. The final assessment contained 2 × 6 prototypical interactional types of situations, presented in short videos. At the end of every scene, questions of multiple choice format or open questions were asked for each of the social competence dimensions (emotion regulation, perspective coordination, communication strategies). In regard to the evaluation, for the dimension of communication strategies, for example, open answers were rated by using a weighted checklist giving a final score for each situation or all over the test. After two pre-evaluations on N = 236 and N = 260 pupils at the end of their apprenticeship towards becoming medical assistants, validity aspects due to e.g. format were analyzed and edited. A final inquiry on N = 405 pupils confirmed the expected reliability and dimensionality aspects. Results and discussion Validity measures could additionally be confirmed by a structural equation model (N = 405, Χ2 = 594.319, df = 518, CFI = .96, RMSEA = .02 and SRMR = .07) showing unexpected but meaningful underlying factorial structures for the dimensions of emotion regulation and communication strategies. Results of the test show that emotional dissonance is present in every situation. Regarding test-scores, high levels are rarely achieved for all dimensions. By using an occupation-specific approach, we show that social competences can be defined and performance-relatedly assessed. However, results show that the competence levels are marginally satisfactory for all dimensions, considering the stressful environment of medical assistants. Hence, contents of this nature should be integrated more concretely in their educational pathway. In recent years, competence research and diagnostics in vocational education and training (VET) have made great progress in providing an empirical foundation for occupation-related competence models and their assessment. Empirically verified competence models have been introduced for many occupations in the industrial-technical and commercial sector (Nickolaus and Seeber 2013). These models can be converted into technically high standard assessment procedures. This makes the evaluation of detailed competence levels possible on a big scale, validating the underlying structural models empirically. Still, the occupations’ dimensions of social competences are not, just partially or only superficially treated. This is due to the nature of the concept: Although the amount of research on social competences has increased considerably in the past decades (Kanning 2003), a congruent understanding is still lacking, which makes objective comparisons between different measurements of these essential aptitudes virtually impossible (Monnier 2015). Already in Seyfried (1995) described “stumbling blocks” causing the fundamental difficulties on the way to measuring social competences that still apply to today’s research on the matter. One fundamental difficulty lies in the vagueness of the terminological construct of “social competence”. In the field of psychological research for example, Kanning (2005) points out that definitions and systematizations are frequently based on assumptions of plausibility, which furthermore are not sufficiently supported by empirical data. In addition, the attempts at definitions vary, depending on the theoretical approach: In the context of developmental psychological theories, for example, emphasis is placed on adjusting social competences to social standards and rules, while the assertion of one’s own interests is more strongly stressed within the framework of clinical psychological approaches (Kanning 2005). This disagreement is further enforced by the existence of various related concepts such as “emotional intelligence”, “social skills” or “social intelligence” which make a sensible and content-based differentiation from the concept of social competence nearly impossible (Monnier 2015). Bayer, Ditton and Wohlkinger (2012) for example point out that the definition problem also exists for the concepts of social skills, interactional skills, being assertive, self-esteem, social- or interpersonal competence, where no clear delimitation of the concepts is possible (Döpfner et al. 1981; Rose-Krasnor 1997; Arnold et al. 2012). These difficulties are also found in VET research (Euler and Bauer-Klebl 2009; Euler 2012; Nickolaus and Seeber 2013). Different dimensions and aspects with reference to social competences have been addressed, for example in studies dealing with moral judgment in commercial occupations (Beck et al. 1996, 1998), communicative abilities (van Buer and Matthäus 1994; Wittmann 2001) and teamwork skills (Goméz 2009). In comparison to these individual dimensions, studies on the relationship between these facets working together as the composite factor of social competences, or overlapping and differing contents in different occupations are missing so far (Monnier 2015). The aim of this paper is to identify how definition problems can be solved by restricting the framework to a controllable set of requirements given by the occupation and by allowing a clear scope of validity of the findings and characterizations. We will show how these occupational requirements are identified and how competence dimensions can be derived from them by using the example of medical assistants in Germany. We will then present how the competence model can be translated into an adequate test format. Due to the limited space available, this will only be done in detail for the dimension of communication. Finally results and their meaning for practice and the scientific community will we presented. From competences to social competences The discussion on competences has become more important since the intent to make them a foundation of educational qualification frameworks has arisen in order to enhance success in “work, citizenship, and self-actualization” (Dede 2007). A widespread definition of competences by Weinert (2001) says that competences are “cognitive abilities and skills which are available or trainable for individuals to solve specific problems as well as associated motivational, volitional and social willingness and skills to use problem solving strategies successfully and responsibly in variable situations”. The first part of Weinert’s definition implies that competences are a dynamic (trainable) cognitive concept, representing an essential prerequisite to competent behavior. Transferring this presumption onto social competences, modeling and measuring them could only be possible if the focus is set on the underlying “social- and emotional-cognitive dispositions’’, and not the final (social) behavior (Tschöpe et al. 2016). The awareness of social competences’ nature is important for the following discussion on the actual state of research. Stumbling block: definition and dimensionality of social competences Beyond all intra-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary definitions there is agreement within scholarly analysis that social competences are determined through an interplay of several competences and thus, are a multi-dimensional construct (Schuler and Barthelme 1995; Kanning 2005; Euler and Bauer-Klebl 2009). Which competences these are specifically and what terminology should be used to differentiate them from each other is still an open question (Kanning 2005). The available lists and catalogues of terms like communicative ability, assertive ability, ability to accept criticism etc. are still just hypothetical constructs. Also, because of their dependence on the values and attitudes of the individuals involved and on the rules, standards and professional behavior expectations shaping the setting in question, their influence on social interactions can only be empirically determined in specific situations and contexts (Kanning 2005). Although social competences usually have a positive association, such an assessment can vary greatly against the background of different and possibly incompatible values and standards (Kanning 2005). As a consequence, one has to consider that social competent behavior can mean very different things depending on context and situation: What is considered as demonstrating assertive ability in one field may appear as uncooperative or even overstepping the boundaries in another area. At the same time, some facets of social competence may be negligible in certain contexts or occupations but central in others. Descriptive and evaluative statements on social competences can therefore only be made and empirically substantiated in defined areas and situations with clear reference to values and standards, which differentiate socially adequate from socially inadequate behavior. Stumbling block: measuring social competences Considering the foregoing paragraph, the fact that the majority of social competence measurements aspire to enlighten general social competences makes their assessment very difficult, if not impossible. They often overlook the specific requirements on social competences in particular situations or occupations, so they seem hardly suitable for use in occupational diagnostics (see more details on this in Dietzen et al. 2012; Dietzen et al. in press). Also, established methods, such as Kanning’s (2009) Social Skills Inventory (ISK), are mostly based on self-assessment questionnaires. Usually, they have only relatively low correlations with external assessments and test-based data (Nickolaus and Seeber 2013). Because of their possibilities of corruption, they are rated as problematic in terms of a valid diagnosis in competence measurement (Bühner 2011). There are only few studies that relate to social competences in a particular occupational field, one example being the work of Gartmeier et al. (2011) on teachers and physicians and, there is clearly a need for a systematic approach to the problem. Situational judgment tests As said before, established methods are mostly based on self-assessment questionnaires. They can be combined with standardized role-plays as done by Gartmeier et al. (2011) to gain information about the actual performance level. But in the long-term and large-scale perspective this would represent an enormous time and work investment, making it uneconomic or even impossible to implement. Also, having in mind the competence definition by Weinert (2001), we recall that competences are “cognitive abilities and skills which are available or trainable for individuals to solve specific problems”. They do not necessarily arise in performance in every situation. The difficulty in identifying these “underlying” cognitive dimensions becomes clear. In aptitude diagnostic practice, simulation-based testing is used, in which people are supposed to describe their fictional behavior in certain typical situations, so-called Situational Judgment Tests (SJT) (Ployhart and MacKenzie 2011). In comparison to role-plays, questions can be focused in detail on different competence dimensions, allowing the identification of structures and levels, while the observation of the act itself would only show the resulting conglomerate of the dimensions working together (Lane and Rollnick 2007). SJTs are mostly used in the selection of executives and designed to fit specific professional positions, which is why specific procedures need to be developed for each context of requirements. One such context is the occupation itself. Based on a requirements analysis to determine the work tasks, interactions and tools composing the occupation one could imagine defining tasks that can display the participants social competences in the specific context of their work. Tschöpe (unpublished manuscript 2012) for example has developed an SJT for the measurement of counseling skills among bankers, containing social competences as a major pluri-factoral component. In this paper we want to present an SJT related to the work of Tschöpe (unpublished manuscript 2012) in the medical field, more specifically for medical assistants in Germany. The project, called Competence Measurement based on Simulations and adaptive Testing in Medical Settings (CoSMed), was funded through the ASCOT (technology orientated competence measurement in vocational education and training) research initiative by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The overall CoSMed project develops computer-based test procedures on a collaborative basis for measuring the occupational competences of medical assistants. In this paper, only the aspect of social competences will be treated but compared with the other findings in the end. Creating a SJT for medical assistants’ social competences As described above, past research on the matter of social competences has shown that they are strongly context-dependent, making it quasi impossible to find an all embracing definition (Monnier 2015) and thereby precluding the transition to objective competence assessments. Reducing the context to a manageable amount of influencing factors, i.e. those resulting from a well-defined professional role, opens the road to a quantitative analysis. The vocational education program to become a medical assistant in Germany is a three-year dual education. They must quickly appraise a sick person’s situation and emotional state, calm down agitated patients and stabilize them in difficult situations, and carry out certain procedures that patients find unpleasant. At the same time, the occupation calls for good coordination within the practice team. So alongside healthcare and business competences, social competences are fundamental to the occupational profile of the Medical Assistant. Germany’s training regulation for the recognized occupation, dating from April 26, 2006, enumerates various tasks in patient care and consultation, which especially underscore the importance of social competences when working in this occupation. Key steps toward the SJT SJTs start with a variety of situations, which are typical for the occupation. The subject group then assesses how they would behave in reality or evaluate behavioral options in terms of their quality. The situations can be presented using various methods (e.g. in writing, audio recording, video). They should be selected to represent the occupational field for which the test was devised as closely as possible. Some important requirements must form the basis of this testing approach to the modeling and measurement of occupation-specific and social competences. The following therefore explains the key steps in the generation of the competence model and its implementation into a test format by means of the project CoSMed. Occupational domains and requirements analysis A requirements analysis to determine the work tasks, interactions and tools, etc. of the environment for which the test is designed should always form the basis of an SJT. The Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan 1954) is often applied in this case. This method is particularly suited to determining success-critical situations as this involves questioning experts about challenging situations in which major differences between competent and less competent employees become apparent. Questions might also be asked about which types of behavior might be shown by competent and less competent employees in the respective situations. The situations and behaviors determined in this way serve as the basis for the situation descriptions and the alternative answers in the SJT. This was the approach we adopted in the CosMed project. A qualitative study was initially completed in order to analyze the occupational requirements. Besides a comprehensive analysis of documentation covering training regulations, the framework curriculum, examination regulations, training material, etc., the study was based primarily on group discussion with practicing experts and medical assistant trainees in the third year of training as well as on semi-structured interviews with doctors, medical assistants with vocational experience and trainees (N = 13). In the interviews we used the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan 1954) to identify challenging situations. These situations were used for the test construction later on. A dual approach was selected for the job and requirements analysis (Krumm et al. 2012): Following a “bottom up” approach, respondents were asked to describe specific favorable and less favorable behavior in certain situations and, in the following evaluation, we concluded on the underlying competences on which these behaviors were based. Respondents were also asked which social competences are important for their work and to then relate these competences to situations and behaviors. Since the understanding of social competences remains controversial, answers of different nature were given and, once again, we concluded on the underlying competences, based on the understanding that they are a dynamic (trainable) cognitive concept, representing an essential prerequisite to competent behavior (Weinert 2001). The combination of these approaches resulted in a comprehensive practice based picture of work-related requirements for medical assistants’ social competences. In addition to this study an explorative analysis was conducted of approx. 1800 job adverts for medical assistants. By word counts we looked at the number of mentioned demands related to social interactions. This clarified the requirements which exist in terms of social and communicative competences of medical assistants from the perspective of personnel managers in hospitals and practices in different specialized medical fields. The most frequent demands were abilities like “being friendly”, that are strongly composite and of unclear expectations. Finally, behavioral observations in physicians’ offices would also have been helpful; however it was not possible to implement these due to the very strict regulations regarding data protection in the area of health. Deriving the competence model from empirical and theoretical analysis Systematization of authentic situations The data and results of the empirical exploration were evaluated in order to derive prototypical situations with distinctions made for interaction partners, situational references and types of conflict. This was approached as follows. A range of situations which presented particular challenges in terms of social capabilities were compiled from the empirical preparatory work and these were summarized by type (for more information see Dietzen et al. 2016). In order to guarantee authenticity, it was ensured that these represented prototypical interactional situations in the occupational fields of medical assistants by using an online survey in which 28 practitioners were asked if they thought that the scenes were in step with the actual practice, authentic and frequent. In these situations three types of distinctions could be made: The first distinction was made between internal and external types of conflict (Theuerkauf 2005). External conflicts describe those situations, which involve an actual dispute with another person, e.g. complaints from a patient. Internal conflicts were also represented. These describe situations in which the medical assistant is in conflict with “himself or herself” while being confronted to another person, e.g. if she/he has to deliberate between several urgent jobs and becomes insecure as a result. Since we used the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan 1954) during the interviews and workshops, situations could easily be attributed to the two groups of conflicts. The second distinction was made between the different locations in a prototypical medical practice. The scenarios could be attributed to three main areas, which proved to be key for social situations in the domain analysis: the reception area, the treatment room and the practice team’s break room. Finally, with respect to interaction partners, a distinction was made between patients and their relatives and team members. The reason for this is that patients and their relatives must be confronted by adopting a much more professional role, while relationships with team members are in most cases more casual, but may involve potential conflict due to hierarchical differences. Many participants reported explicitly that they were feeling and behaving differently with their colleagues in comparison to their patients [for more details see Srbeny et al. (2015)]. Reception area with patients or their relatives and either an internal or an external conflict Treatment room with patients or their relatives and either an internal or an external conflict Practice team’s break room with colleagues and either an internal or an external conflict. Systematization of social and communicative competence dimensions The social and communicative behaviors cited by the respondents as being necessary to successfully pass the above described critical situations were systematized, standardized and “translated” into theory based competence terms or concepts which could be distinguished from one another. This proved to be particularly difficult because personality characteristics, capabilities, skills or socialization requirements were generally subsumed under the concept of social competences without any distinctions being made by the respondents. An example and its handling is given in the next paragraph. In the end, the categorized information was analyzed once more; both “top down” and “bottom up”. This was then processed and supplemented, and the overall outcome for the key competence areas in the occupation of medical assistant was determined using a rating procedure by psychologists and sociologists. In the next step that was partly done in parallel, psychological, pedagogic, work-based sociological and communication theories and models were used for the final implementation of the occupation-specific models of social and communicative competences of medical assistants. These models and theories were integrated into the empirically developed competence dimensions in order to clearly distinguish between the individual sub-dimensions of social competence. Also, missing elements from a scientific point of view that were not usual in the field of practice were added by using theoretical approaches for the requirements of interactive activities (Greene and Burleson 2003; Hacker 2009; Nerdinger 2011). The following example shows how the translation into theoretical competence facets and the addition of theoretically meaningful but empirically not named dimensions were made: many of the practical experts mentioned “being empathic and compassionate” as a “competence” that medical assistants should have in social interactions. This means that the person would have to feel what the patient is feeling too. But, a strong emotional state could have major impact on the parallel execution of “non-interactional” occupational tasks. Therefore, instead of integrating empathy or compassion as an element of our model, we used the theory of perspective-coordination by Selman (2003). It represents a cognitive analysis of all present perspectives (the medical assistant’s, the patient’s but also the super-ordinate medical practice’s one) and detecting their connections and dependencies. The second core competence is described as perspective coordination based on the developmental theory by Selman (2003). For this to be implemented adequately, the medical assistant must be able to understand her/his own and the conversation partner’s perspective, emotions and needs, even in difficult situations, and, at the same time, to maintain an overview of the practice requirements and also to relate all aspects to one another as constructively as possible. Communication strategies come into the model as the third core competence. Competent communication strategies are evident in the way the medical assistant guides the communication towards a good solution for both parties, even in difficult situations, and can make the conversation partner feel they are being taken seriously and are understood. We will use this competence dimension to describe the implementation process of practical-empirical and scientific-theoretical into a normative model in more detail: Empirically we repetitively found “being nice” and “friendly” as an important behavior for practice experts. During interviews we were told that some practical applications of being “friendly”, usual in the field, could be to always start an answer by saying “I understand you”. From a theoretical point of view, we looked at traditional communication models as for example Schulz von Thun’s communication square (2004) or Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (2006). These theories say that there are diverse ways of understanding and sending a message and that for example establishing a clear common ground (Clark and Schaefer 1989) by repeating what happened and which possibilities exist (sharing one’s knowledge) can clarify potential misunderstandings. Finally we integrated these various concrete elements into a normative category system of communicative strategies that will be described in the next chapter. The two sub dimensions of listening and clear speech were, in fact, also identified as important social competences of a medical assistant. However, due to a lack of operational options in a written format, these were not included in the test. Development of the measurement instrument Due to the criteria of economy and time, we used a video-simulation based SJT-format: Participants are confronted to situations in a first-person perspective giving a more realistic impression, lessening identification effects (Folkes 1982) and increasing the level of emotional involvement, as they automatically become one of the interactional partners. For the identification with the workspace they were shown a filmed introduction of a fictitious practice in which the following video scenarios took place. Precisely, two prototypical scenarios for each of the above-described six situational types were transformed into a video of 15–56 s. Each of the video blocks starts with a short text-based introduction. The introductory text in block 1, for example, reads as follows (translated from German): “An emergency patient has come into the practice. He has been given priority over the other patients.” The participants then see a video in which the respective interaction partners talk directly to the camera. In the example of block 1, the patient steps towards the reception desk and shouts that he has been waiting for over an hour, that he has a meeting and has to go to the doctor’s room immediately. After each video, participants are asked questions for each one of the core competence dimensions. In order to cater for the requirements of each of the dimensions, different answer formats were tried in the test pilots. Text-based questions with open answer categories (e.g. “What would you answer Mister Fischer?” for the dimension of communication strategies) and with responses in multiple-choice format (e.g. “How would you deal with your emotions in this situation?” and then selecting one of four possible answers for the dimension of emotion regulation) were selected for the final version. The evaluation of the open questions was done by standardized criteria derived from our normative theoretical-empirical model. For the dimension of communication strategies for example, we constructed a checklist, where important elements named in the empirical study were integrated with communication-theoretical elements. In many validation loops, the elements were processed. For example theoretical elements were tested for their practicability, the identification of individual elements was tested by repeated interrater-reliabilities for three raters on n = 80 (with over 98 % of agreement, varying in both dimensions with open question format between r = .7 and r = .9 and, even in the case of external individuals without rating-training between r = .6 and r = .9) and insecurities were reported back for a group-rating. Also, the importance of the elements was identified by comparing their impact on the general impression of the quality of the answer (Sust et al. 2009) and then operationalized. Finally an individual checklist for each of the twelve scenes was defined. For block 1, the scene with the angry patient presented above, the checklist contains two criteria of exclusion that will automatically set the participants points to zero. The first one concerns the “tone”, for example giving a sarcastic answer and the second one is in respect to the occupational possibilities, in this example “giving in”: The medical assistant cannot give into the patient’s demand, since there is an emergency in the practice; she has to find another solution. Furthermore, the checklist contains positive elements as for example giving an explanation of the situation, in this case explaining that there was an emergency and, by that creating a common ground (Clark and Schaefer 1989). But also negatively rated elements as for example taking it personally (e.g. “It’s not my fault!”) are found in the checklist. The final score for communication strategies is calculated by taking the sum of points for each block. No differentiation of negative sums is made and hence, all set to zero. For a cross-scene standardization, the sum is then divided by the scene’s maximum and the quotient’s mean over the 12 blocks is calculated as final score. Due to the fact that the approach of measuring social competence as a “performance test” is new, verifications were made at various points in order to ensure the validity. The authenticity of the test was assured through direct feedback of the participants during the pilot phase as well as in an online-survey with practitioners and experts in the field described above. The results were very satisfactory (e.g. for authenticity N = 28, M = 5.1, Std.Dev. = 0.23 on a scale from 1 to 6). The content validity in CosMed was developed over several steps. As already described before, at the start of the project a comprehensive requirements analysis was conducted with various interdisciplinary sources from academia and practice. The competence model was derived based on this by integrating first-hand analyses and general models of social competence (e.g. Kanning 2005). This occurred in two directions; bottom-up and top-down (Krumm et al. 2012). At the end of this stage of ensuring content validity, psychologists and sociologists with diagnostic training carried out an expert rating and selected competence dimensions. As a following validity check, we looked if the video scenarios really did trigger the emotions required, as this contributes significantly to the evaluation of the results. Particular attention was paid here to whether the scenarios which cover the area of internal conflict create a feeling of insecurity and whether those scenarios covering external conflict cause anger. This was determined by asking openly about the emotions experienced, and the strength of this emotion. The emotions proved to be those, which were intended. The strength of the emotion had a quasi-normal distribution. The individual answer formats were tested in a third step. Different multiple-choice variants were compared to start with. These proved to be unsuitable for the dimensions of perspective-coordination and communication strategies (emotion regulation: Cronbach’s α = .66–.87, perspective-coordination: Cronbach’s α = .26–.28 and communication strategies: Cronbach’s α = .31–.46) partly, due to the strong effect of the school-leaving qualification or native language, unsatisfactory reliability measures and a low level of acceptance among participants (e.g. communication strategies: Cronbach’s α = .71–.85 if German is one’s mother tongue). All these measures turned out to be at least satisfactory to good after changing to an open answer format (perspective-coordination: Cronbach’s α = .75 and communication strategies: Cronbach’s α = .68). Results and discussion Data collection and sampling The test module was used in three data collection phases with a total of N = 901 medical assistant trainees in the third year of training. All data collections took place in vocational school classes in Germany using the schools’ own computers. The nature and aims of the data collections were explained to the trainees beforehand using an information letter and participation was voluntary and anonymous. On top of the competence measurements, participants completed a questionnaire containing information about their social and educational context, as well as a self-reported estimation of their general level of social competences on a scale from one to ten, composed by Baethge et al. (2015) during all three phases. This allowed identifying critical factors that could be considered and if necessary corrected for the final test (third phase). The first two data collections were used to pilot the instrument. The focus was much less on the level of performance of the participants and much more on checking the quality of the instrument in accordance with criteria relating to test theories and content. The initial pilot was completed in early 2013 with N = 236 trainees, the second pilot then followed in winter 2013/2014 with N = 260 trainees. We have omitted detailed descriptions of these two samples here. However, their distributions are strongly comparable to the sample for the main survey described in the following. The main survey took place from April to June 2014 and was conducted with a further N = 405 trainees in the third year of training. The average age of the cohort, 21.3 years, was slightly lower than the value of approx. 22.7 years for the cohort in the Germany-wide vocational education and training statistics for the occupation (BIBB 2014). The proportion of female trainees at 98.7 % was exactly the same as for the 2013 cohort (BIBB 2013). School leaving qualifications were distributed similarly in both the sample and the population, although more higher-level-school leaving qualifications occur in the sample. This may be linked to the fact that schools tend to provide more highly performing classes for such data collections. A question was asked regarding the country of origin in order to capture the migration background of the participants (Baethge et al. 2015). This was also similarly distributed in both, the sample (Germany = 87.8 %) and the 2013 cohort (90.7 % cf. BIBB 2014). German was specified as the native language by 57.3 % in the sample, a further 39.4 % spoke both German and another language in their family of origin and 3.3 % spoke only another language. This shows that a relatively high proportion of trainees have grown up bilingual. The data collection was based on a random sample and was only conducted in three German states for reasons of cost and efficiency. Taking these limitations into account, however, the transferability of these results to other medical assistant trainees in the third year of training may be assumed to be good on the basis of the distribution of the demographic data. Paired samples T test between felt and shown emotions for the 12 situations Mean of felt emotions Mean of shown emotions The distributions of the final score of perspective coordination show that over a third of the trainees manage to achieve level four of seven, meaning that they are mostly able to perceive the perspective not only of an individual person involved (e.g. one’s own) but also the perspective of all people involved in the interaction and when doing so to analyze at least one of the perspectives in depth. Finally, the self-assessed level of general social competences on a scale from one to ten exhibited no correlation with the test values (Spearman’s-rho with emotion regulation r = .012, p = .861, with perspective-coordination r = .009, p = .861, with communication strategies r = .024, p = .543) in CoSMed and did not bring further information to the structural equation model. We found evidence of strong dissonance between the participants experienced emotion and shown emotion, meaning that the emotional expression is adapted. Emotion regulation strategies that belong to the family of surface acting (in comparison to deep acting or “no acting”) can have long-term consequences for the well-being of the medical assistants and, for example, may lead to apathy and insensitivity and even to depression (Zapf 2002). It has to be assumed that a strategy, which reduces the emotional dissonance by a conscious reevaluation and reinterpretation of the situation, represents a healthier way to deal with your own emotions in the long term. Furthermore, the latter strategy of “deep acting” (Hochschild 1983) also results in an expression of feelings, which will be experienced as authentic by the conversation partner. However, this strategy was selected around five times less frequently in the sample. This result is significant for the very stressful day-to-day work of the medical assistant and calls for information to be provided about potential ways to deal with your own emotional state in the course of the job-training. Concerning the perspective coordination level, it seems good to see that the perception of both parties, while being able to analyze at least one of them deeply is achieved by a third of the participants. This occurs despite having to constantly coordinate practice interests with, in some cases, the opposing interest of the patient under pressure of time. It is apparent that the strength of the own feeling may slightly reduce this performance, which once again demonstrates the importance of handling one’s own emotionality well. Also, this means that about two-third do not achieve this level, making praxis coordination more difficult, since it depends on the perception and organization of all represented parties. Concerning communication strategies, the found factors make sense regarding the situation types. It seems that communication is different whether one is confronted with strong sadness that one has no time to take care of, with bad diagnosis, with distributional conflicts, with anger or even with mobbing. This fits assumptions that are used in popular trainings on social competences, as for example from Hinsch and Pfingsten (2007), where three prototypical types of situations are used (to assert one’s right, to maintain relationships, to bid for sympathy). Still, for the composed score we see that the scores are still very low. One could imagine concrete trainings in formulating authentically or making participants attentive to the important aspects in the five types of situations for example, to enhance communication strategies. Finally, an interesting finding is that the self-estimated general social competence level does not correlate with the social competence test dimensions. The general deficit in terms of research on social competences has been known about for a long time while the requirements for these competences as a basis for vocational and specialist professionalism are growing. In this article we have shown how the definition and measurement difficulties of these competences can be handled, i.e., by using the reduced context of a specific occupation, and the concomitant set of social rules and values, an unambiguous definition becomes possible. The translation into Situational Judgment Tests can then be done by detecting work tasks, interactions and tools, etc. of the specific work environments by using a requirement analysis. This represents the basis for the competence model containing all necessary competence dimensions for achieving the occupational demands found in the previous investigation. In a final step Situational Judgment Tests based on an authentic environment can be devised, allowing an individual statement on the social competence dimension’s levels. First results in CoSMed show, that the distribution of competence levels is not satisfactory for all dimensions considering the stressful environment of medical assistants. It becomes visible that information and support in the area of social competences appear to be urgently needed during training for occupations with a great amount of social interactions. That is why future research should emphasize the development of models of learning for the underlying competence dimensions. This would support professional conduct when dealing with patients, clients, colleagues, etc. and facilitate a personally satisfactory and sustainable way of dealing with critical situations in a socially demanding occupation. Thus, a detailed analysis on the situational dependencies and factorial distributions has to be made to clearly define the model’s scope of application. Also, in regard to the newly emerging field of research, more comparable studies should be done for validation purposes. Finally, one could argue that the three dimensions can also be found in other occupations and they most probably would. However, their peculiarity and structure can only be holistically described in a clearly defined framework of for example a specific occupation. Yet, this does not exclude an inter-contextual influence, meaning that a medical assistant achieving a high level in one of the social-communication dimensions of their occupation could probably achieve a high level in the same social-communication dimension in another occupation more easily than a medical assistant with a low level. Assumptions like these should also be content of future research. All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design of the study and the acquisition of data. MM and TT were responsible for the general data analysis, discussion and interpretation of the results with support by CS and AD. MM deepened the analysis for the dimension of communication strategies and drafted the text. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. 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- About this Journal · - Abstracting and Indexing · - Aims and Scope · - Article Processing Charges · - Articles in Press · - Author Guidelines · - Bibliographic Information · - Citations to this Journal · - Contact Information · - Editorial Board · - Editorial Workflow · - Free eTOC Alerts · - Publication Ethics · - Reviewers Acknowledgment · - Submit a Manuscript · - Subscription Information · - Table of Contents Epilepsy Research and Treatment Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 176157, 12 pages Anatomy of the Temporal Lobe Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada N6A 5C1 Received 6 October 2011; Accepted 3 December 2011 Academic Editor: Seyed M. Mirsattari Copyright © 2012 J. A. Kiernan. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Only primates have temporal lobes, which are largest in man, accommodating 17% of the cerebral cortex and including areas with auditory, olfactory, vestibular, visual and linguistic functions. The hippocampal formation, on the medial side of the lobe, includes the parahippocampal gyrus, subiculum, hippocampus, dentate gyrus, and associated white matter, notably the fimbria, whose fibres continue into the fornix. The hippocampus is an inrolled gyrus that bulges into the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. Association fibres connect all parts of the cerebral cortex with the parahippocampal gyrus and subiculum, which in turn project to the dentate gyrus. The largest efferent projection of the subiculum and hippocampus is through the fornix to the hypothalamus. The choroid fissure, alongside the fimbria, separates the temporal lobe from the optic tract, hypothalamus and midbrain. The amygdala comprises several nuclei on the medial aspect of the temporal lobe, mostly anterior the hippocampus and indenting the tip of the temporal horn. The amygdala receives input from the olfactory bulb and from association cortex for other modalities of sensation. Its major projections are to the septal area and prefrontal cortex, mediating emotional responses to sensory stimuli. The temporal lobe contains much subcortical white matter, with such named bundles as the anterior commissure, arcuate fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus and uncinate fasciculus, and Meyer’s loop of the geniculocalcarine tract. This article also reviews arterial supply, venous drainage, and anatomical relations of the temporal lobe to adjacent intracranial and tympanic structures. In this paper, I attempt to explain the positions of the parts of the normal human temporal lobe in relation to one another and to nearby structures. Some physiological and pathological correlates are mentioned, but this is primarily an anatomical account. References are provided for further reading, especially in areas where there is clinical interest or controversy or where anatomical details are not easily found in ordinary textbooks of neuroanatomy. A few historical references are included to remind readers that many of the “discoveries” made with modern imaging techniques simply confirm what has been known about the temporal lobe for many years. No attempt is made to provide references for the original descriptions of gross anatomical structures, but synonyms are mentioned to accommodate the differences in terminology used by anatomists, pathologists, and radiologists in textbooks and other literature. Bulges on the lateral sides of the forebrain in insectivores (considered ancestral to primates) are anatomically related to the temporal bone and contain cortical areas and other structures such as the hippocampus and amygdala that are medially located in the temporal lobes of the human brain. A true temporal lobe, delineated above (dorsally) by a lateral sulcus (sylvian fissure), and containing an extension of the lateral ventricle, occurs only in primates and is largest in man [1–3]. Approximately 17% of the volume of the human cerebral cortex, 16% in the right and 17% in the left hemisphere, forms the surfaces of the temporal lobes . Temporal cortex includes areas involved with the auditory, olfactory, vestibular, and visual senses, and in the perception of spoken and written language. In addition to cortex, the temporal lobe contains white matter, part of the lateral ventricle, the tail of the caudate nucleus, the stria terminalis, the hippocampal formation, and the amygdala. The medial side of the temporal lobe includes regions concerned with olfaction (the uncus and nearby cortex) and semantic memory (the hippocampal formation). The nearby amygdala generates responses to perceived sensory stimuli that have been partly analyzed elsewhere in the brain. Such responses include largely involuntary ones, mediated by the autonomic and somatic motor systems, and mental functions, especially those called feelings or emotions, that motivate decision and voluntary actions [5–12]. The temporal lobe can be damaged by infection, trauma, ischaemia, and neoplasia. Lesions in the temporal lobe can stimulate or inhibit the functions mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The syndrome of Kluver and Bucy [13, 14] provided an extreme example of changed behaviour following bilateral temporal lobectomy in monkeys. The animals became unnaturally docile, exhibited excessive and abnormal sexual behaviour, lost the ability to be trained, and had a condition that the authors termed “psychic blindness,” in which tactile exploration of objects with the mouth replaced their visual recognition. The equivalent human syndrome is rare and usually associated with pathology extending beyond the temporal lobes [15–17]. Fragments of the classical syndrome, such as visual field defects, visual agnosia, and inability to consolidate new memories, occur more frequently, with destructive lesions in parts of one or both temporal lobes. 2. Surface Features and Delimitation Like the other lobes of the cerebral hemisphere, the temporal lobe is delineated by cortical landmarks. On the lateral surface, the stem and posterior ramus of the lateral sulcus mark the separation of the temporal lobe from the frontal and parietal lobes. The lateral sulcus or sylvian fissure is a deep cleft, but in anatomical terms it is not a fissure, because its extensive internal surfaces are all bounded by cerebral cortex. Latin sulcus means a furrow or trench, whereas fissus and related words translate to the English slit or split. A fissure separates different structures, such as the two cerebral hemispheres (longitudinal fissure), the cerebrum from the cerebellum (transverse fissure), or the fornix from the thalamus (choroid fissure). The lateral sulcus, in addition to defining the superior border of the temporal lobe, accommodates a cistern of the subarachnoid space, the middle cerebral artery, and the superficial and deep middle cerebral veins. The term perisylvian is often used when referring to cortex on both sides of the lateral sulcus, especially in neuroimaging studies of patients with aphasias [18, 19]. The lateral surface of the temporal lobe is indented by the superior and inferior temporal sulci, thus delineating superior, middle, and inferior temporal gyri. The last of these curves around onto the inferior surface of the brain and extends posteriorly into the occipital lobe; it is also called the lateral occipitotemporal gyrus. The sulci of the inferior surface of the temporal lobe are variable. Typically, the occipitotemporal sulcus separates the medial border of the inferior temporal gyrus from the lateral border of the fusiform or medial occipitotemporal gyrus. Medial to the fusiform gyrus is the collateral sulcus, and medial to the collateral sulcus, the parahippocampal gyrus forms the medial border of the inferior surface of the lobe. The anterior end of the collateral sulcus, which curves anteromedially below the temporal pole, is called the rhinal sulcus. The uncus is a small projection of the medial surface of the anterior end of the parahippocampal gyrus, a region that will be discussed in more detail in connection with the hippocampal formation. The superior surface of the temporal lobe, which forms the floor of the lateral sulcus, is continuous with the superior temporal gyrus. It is marked by two obliquely oriented ridges, the transverse temporal gyri, which constitute the primary auditory cortex, posterior to which is the planum temporale, a cortical area that is usually larger on the left than on the right side in men, but not in women . The superior surface of the temporal lobe is bounded medially by the circular sulcus, which surrounds the insula, a lobe of the cortex that forms the expanded floor of the lateral sulcus. The anterior end of the insula, the limen insulae, is continuous, in the stem of the lateral sulcus, with cortices of the anteromedial part of the parahippocampal gyrus, the anterior perforated substance, and the medial frontal cortex (subcallosal or paraterminal gyrus) below the rostrum of the corpus callosum . The posterior part of the temporal lobe blends into the parietal lobe above and the occipital lobe behind. The limits of the lobes are arbitrary straight lines connecting anatomical landmarks. The preoccipital notch is an indentation in the inferior temporal gyrus, about 3 cm anterior to the occipital pole, formed by the petrous part of the temporal bone. A straight line drawn from the parietooccipital sulcus to the preoccipital notch defines the anterior border of the occipital lobe on the lateral aspect of the hemisphere. From the midpoint of this line, a horizontal line passing forward to the lateral sulcus separates the temporal from the parietal lobe. On the inferior surface, a line connecting the preoccipital notch with the cortex immediately behind the splenium of the corpus callosum separates temporal from occipital cortex. The sulci gyri and boundaries of the temporal lobe are illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. 3. Hippocampal Formation In comparative anatomy, the word pallium (Latin for cloak) is often applied to the cerebral cortex of mammals and homologous parts of the forebrain in submammalian vertebrates. A cloak has a continuous edge. The edge of the cerebral cortex around the base of each cerebral hemisphere forms a ring, often called the limbic lobe (from Latin limbus, a hem or fringe), a name bestowed by Broca in 1877 . In the human brain the most conspicuous components of this ring of cortex are the parahippocampal gyrus and the cingulate gyrus. These gyri are continuous behind the splenium of the corpus callosum as the isthmus or retrosplenial cortex. Anteriorly, the continuity includes cortical areas that extend from the uncus and cortex overlying the amygdala (periamygdaloid cortex) across the stem of the lateral sulcus (the limen insulae) and the anterior perforated substance to the medial surface of the frontal lobe, below the rostrum of the corpus callosum (the subcallosal gyrus), which is continuous around the genu with the anterior end of the cingulate gyrus. The components of the hippocampal formation are the hippocampus, an enrolled gyrus adjacent to the parahippocampal gyrus, the dentate gyrus, which represents the free edge of the pallium, and the associated white matter, the alveus, fimbria, and fornix. The cortex adjacent to the hippocampus is known as the entorhinal area; it is present along the whole length of the parahippocampal gyrus . The subiculum is a transitional zone between the entorhinal and hippocampal cortices. The hippocampal formation has indirect afferent connections from the whole of the cerebral cortex, funneled through the adjacent temporal cortex and the subiculum. The best understood function of the hippocampus is the consolidation of memory. Other components of the limbic lobe, very small in the human brain, are the fasciolar gyrus, and the indusium griseum. These are continuations of the hippocampal formation, forming an inconspicuous but thin continuous ring of grey matter at the edge of the pallium. The limbic lobe includes some grossly visible bodies of white matter. Of these, the alveus and fimbria of the hippocampal formation and the crus of the fornix are within the temporal lobe. The body and column of the fornix are outside the territory of the temporal lobe, as are the longitudinal striae of Lancisi, beneath the indusium griseum. The components of the limbic lobe are also parts of the limbic system, a term that includes also the amygdala and several functionally connected nuclei in the cerebral hemisphere, diencephalon, and brain stem. The adult anatomy of the human hippocampal formation is best understood in the context of its development. The hippocampus and dentate gyrus become recognizable late in the embryonic period of development , in the edge of the pallium. Growth of the cerebral cortex and associated subcortical white matter, especially the radiations of the corpus callosum, pushes the relatively small hippocampus downward and forward to become the medial surface of the developing temporal lobe. The folding that characterizes the adult hippocampal formation occurs during fetal development, from 13 to 20 weeks after fertilization [24, 25]. A shallow indentation, the hippocampal sulcus, forms on the medial surface of the temporal lobe, indenting the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. With continued growth, the hippocampal sulcus becomes deeper and narrower, and by 18 weeks it is largely obliterated, so that the ventral surface of the dentate gyrus is fused with the surface of the subiculum, which is the cortical area along the medial edge of the parahippocampal gyrus, adjacent to the hippocampus. The resulting bulge into the temporal horn is the hippocampus. Its surface, the alveus, is its subcortical white matter, the fibres of which converge along the edge of the hippocampus as the fimbria (from Latin fimbriae, fringe), which becomes progressively larger posteriorly, eventually becoming the crus of the fornix. The hippocampus is widest at its head or anterior end, which includes a narrow reflexed prolongation into the anterior part of the uncus. The inferior surface of the uncus is crossed by an obscure transverse marking the band of Giacomini, which represents the rostral end of the dentate gyrus. Posteriorly the structure has a narrow horizontal body and a slender upwardly curved tail (Figure 3). The imaginative alternative name cornu ammonis (from Amun, an early Egyptian deity with a ram’s head), dates back to the 18th century. In modern usage it excludes the dentate gyrus and is memorialized in terminology for sectors seen in transverse (coronal) sections of the hippocampus, with CA1 next to the subiculum and CA4 in the concavity (hilum) of the dentate gyrus [21, 26]. The choroid fissure is formed by invagination of the ependyma of the medial wall of the lateral ventricle and ingrowth of vascular tissue that will form the choroid plexus. In the temporal lobe, the fissure is alongside the hippocampus and fimbria, which form its inferior wall. Subcortical grey matter, the tail of the caudate nucleus, forms the opposing wall of the fissure, along with an associated fibre bundle, the stria terminalis, which contains axons from the amygdala. In the adult human brain, the amygdala is near the temporal pole and indents tip of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle, overlapping slightly with the more conspicuous indentation due to the hippocampus. In a dissected adult brain with the lateral ventricle opened from above, the hippocampus is seen as the white floor (inferomedial surface) of the inferior horn. The ventricular surface of the human hippocampus is shallowly grooved (the digitationes hippocampi), with the hippocampal head giving an impression of the dorsal surface of an animal’s paw (Figure 3). The name pes hippocampi is still occasionally encountered for the anterior end of the hippocampus [28, 29]. The name hippocampus (Latin for sea-horse) dates from the Renaissance and a fancied resemblance to the fish (Figure 3), with its thin snout, flexed neck, plump body, and curved tail . The curved shape of the hippocampus has been likened also to the horn of a ram (cornu ammonis), a shape that relates also to the appearance of a transverse section . The architecture of the hippocampal formation is largely uniform throughout its length, as seen in transverse sections (Figure 4). Most of the human cerebral cortex (the isocortex) has 6 layers, two of which contain principal cells: neurons with axons that enter the subcortical white matter. The cortex of the hippocampal formation, however, has the principal cells in just one layer (allocortex). The molecular layer, which is continuous with the most superficial layer of the isocortex of the parahippocampal gyrus, consists largely of axodendritic synapses and is adjacent to the vestigial hippocampal sulcus. In the dentate gyrus this is quite a thin layer, but in the hippocampus it is thick, with 4 sublayers, the stratum molecular, stratum lacunosum, stratum radiatus, and stratum lucidum, which contain synapses from different groups of afferent fibres. The layer of principal cells in the hippocampus is called the stratum pyralidae; it contains neurons whose sectioned somata have triangular outlines and large apical dendrites that extend into the molecular layer. In the dentate gyrus the principal cells are small and very numerous, constituting the stratum granulosum. The axons of hippocampal pyramidal cells pass through the stratum oriens and then enter the alveus. The axons of dentate gyrus granule cells pass through the polymorphic layer into the hilus of the gyrus (sector CA4) and then into the strata lucidum and pyralidae of sector CA3 of the hippocampus . In embryonic development, the origin of the amygdaloid body or complex, usually more simply called the amygdala, has been traced to populations of diencephalic and telencephalic cells that form the floor of the lateral ventricle about 3 weeks after conception , long before the first appearance of the developing temporal lobe at about 7 weeks . The adult amygdala is a group of several nuclei located in the medial part of the temporal pole, anterior to and partly overlapping the hippocampal head. The medial part of the complex, present in the anterior part of the uncus, receives fibres of the olfactory tract. Two named gyri of the anterior end of the uncus, the ambient and semilunar gyri consist of periamygdaloid cortex that receives fibres from the olfactory tract [28, 32]. The larger lateral part of the amygdala, like the hippocampal formation, receives direct and indirect input from most of the cerebral cortex. Functional imaging confirms experimental studies involving stimulation or destructive lesions, indicating that the amygdala extracts affective content from multiple sensory inputs [36, 37]. The posterior pole of the amygdala is prolonged for a short distance around the stria terminalis, which is one of the two major efferent tracts of this nuclear group. The stria terminalis runs in the roof of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle alongside the tail of the caudate nucleus, which ends close to but not in contiguity with the amygdala [4, 37, 38]. At the junction of the temporal horn with the central part (“body”) of the lateral ventricle, the stria terminalis turns upward and forward into the frontal horn, in the sulcus between the head of the caudate nucleus and the superior surface of the thalamus. At the anterior tubercle of the thalamus the stria terminalis converges with a minority of the fibres of the fornix that descend anterior to the anterior commissure into the septal area. Grey matter surrounding the stria terminalis in this region constitutes the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, which, in the human brain, has 7 named divisions . The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis is currently described as part of the “extended amygdala”, located in the frontal rather than the temporal lobe [37, 39]. Dorsomedially the posterior part of the amygdala is bounded by the substantia innominata, a region contiguous with the lateral hypothalamus that includes several cell groups, notably the large cholinergic neurons of the basal nucleus of Meynert, whose much branched axons innervate the whole cerebral cortex. The second major group of efferent amygdalar fibres, the ventral amygdalofugal pathway, passes through the substantia innominata before distributing axons to extensive areas of the cerebral cortex, the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus, the hypothalamus, and all levels of the brain stem. Laterally the amygdala is bounded by white matter of the temporal lobe, through which afferent fibres are received principally from sensory association areas of the cerebral cortex. On the basis of cytoarchitectonics and comparison with experiments tracing neuronal connectivity in animals, 24 nuclei are recognized in the human amygdala , though some authorities recognize only 12. The nuclei are organized in three groups: corticomedial nuclei in the anterior part of the uncus, basolateral nuclei comprising the inferolateral two-thirds of the amygdala, and a central group, which receives afferent fibers from the other two groups of nuclei. The corticomedial nuclei blend into the thin overlying cortical layer (periamygdaloid cortex), and like that cortex they receive afferent fibres from the olfactory tract. The basolateral nuclei receive indirect olfactory input from the primary olfactory areas [37, 41], but most of the afferents to the basolateral nuclei are from association cortex of the visual, auditory, and somatosensory systems. There are also reciprocal connections with the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex but few or no connections with the parietal lobe [37, 39–42]. Fibres leaving the amygdala originate mainly in the basolateral and central nuclei. The position and relations of the amygdala are shown in Figure 5. Electrical stimulation of the human amygdala causes feelings of fear. In laboratory animals, such stimulation leads to autonomic and other behavioural responses associated with fear [43, 44]. The extensive connections with sensory association cortex support a more general role of the amygdala in mediating emotional responses to sensations [45, 46]. Electrical stimulation and recording in patients prior to surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy show that a dreamy state or déjà vu is associated with activity in the amygdala as well as with the hippocampus and both medially and laterally located isocortex of the temporal lobe , indicating that the amygdala is part of a system of memory recall . In fMRI studies, activity in the amygdala, bilaterally, has been associated with emotionally significant word pairs and with feared aversive sensory stimuli . 5. White Matter Subcortical white matter comprises three populations of axons. Association fibres connect cortical areas within the same cerebral hemisphere. Commissural fibres connect mainly but not exclusively symmetrical cortical areas. Projection fibres connect cortical areas with subcortical nuclei of grey matter. The three types of fibre intersect extensively, but certain bundles can be demonstrated by dissection. The same bundles also can be imaged in the living brain by diffusion tensor (DT) imaging, a nuclear magnetic resonance technique. The production of DT images of fibre tracts is, however, heavily dependent on knowledge of axonal orientation gained by traditional dissection , and the method has not yet contributed new information about the white matter of the temporal lobe. The temporal cortex is connected by association fibres with all the other lobes of the forebrain. The largest named bundle is the arcuate fasciculus, whose anterior end is in the frontal lobe. The arcuate fasciculus passes above the insula and lentiform nucleus, where it is also named the superior longitudinal fasciculus and follows a curved course into the temporal lobe, thus providing two-way communication between frontal cortex, including Broca’s expressive speech area, and Wernicke’s receptive language area in the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus. The condition of conduction aphasia is traditionally attributed to a destructive lesion that interrupts the arcuate fasciculus [18, 19, 53]. Another frontotemporal association bundle is the uncinate fasciculus, named for its hooklike shape, which passes around the stem of the lateral sulcus and connects the cortex of the temporal pole with the prefrontal cortex. The ventral amygdalofugal pathway is more dorsally and posteriorly located, above the anterior perforated substance. Visual association cortex extends from the occipital lobe to the middle and inferior temporal and fusiform gyri. The inferior longitudinal fasciculus, which is in the white matter inferolateral to the temporal horn (Figure 4) connects these visual areas with one another and with the temporal polar cortex, an important source of fibres afferent to the amygdala. The fornix and stria terminalis, already discussed in connection with the hippocampal formation and amygdala, respectively, can also be considered association fasciculi. The largest group of commissural fibres is the corpus callosum. Degeneration studies indicate that axons from the middle and posterior parts of the temporal cortex cross the midline in the central part of the body of the corpus callosum . The temporal poles, transverse temporal gyri, and amygdalae may be interconnected mainly by fibers of the anterior commissure . Projection fibres afferent to the temporal cortex include those from the medial geniculate body to the primary auditory area of the transverse temporal gyri. These travel in the sublenticular limb of the internal capsule, where they probably are accompanied by fibres from the medioventral thalamic nucleus, which is connected with the amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampal formation, and parahippocampal gyrus. For much of the temporal cortex, the sources of thalamic afferents have not been determined [40, 42]. All thalamocortical projections are accompanied by reciprocal corticothalamic fibres. An important thalamocortical pathway that passes through the temporal lobe is Meyer’s loop of the geniculocalcarine tract, which is drawn into the anterior temporal white matter with the growth of the nearby temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. This loop carries signals derived from the upper quadrants of the contralateral visual fields to the corresponding primary visual cortex of the anterior half of the inferior bank of the calcarine sulcus. Some efferent temporal cortical projection fibres go to the amygdala and hippocampus and are thus confined to the temporal lobe. Corticothalamic fibres have already been mentioned. Most textbooks of neuroanatomy show a large temporopontine or temporoparietopontine tract occupying the lateral quarter of the basis pedunculi in the midbrain. Degeneration studies following temporal lobe lesions in monkeys, however, show only a small temporopontine projection, originating in the superior temporal gyrus and ending in the most lateral of the pontine nuclei . In the absence of comparable information for the human brain, we must guess that the projection is similar to that of the monkey, and that the temporal cortex does not have a large, direct influence on the workings of the cerebellum. 6. Anatomical Relations of the Temporal Lobe The locations of structures close to the temporal lobe are summarized in Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9. The temporal lobe occupies the middle cranial fossa, which is bounded anteriorly by the greater wing of the sphenoid bone, inferiorly by the superior surface of the petrous part of the temporal bone, and laterally by the squamous part of the temporal bone and the adjoining parietal bone. The dura mater adheres closely to these bones and is separated from the surface of the brain by the arachnoid, subarachnoid space and pia mater. The inner surfaces of the sphenoid, parietal, and squamous temporal bones are grooved by branches of the middle meningeal artery, which enters the cranial cavity by way of the foramen spinosum, beneath the fusiform gyrus. The tentorium cerebelli lies beneath the posterior and medial parts of the temporal lobe, with the free edge of the tentorial incisura being beneath the rostral end of the parahippocampal gyrus, lateral to the uncus and posterior to the rhinal sulcus, causing a shallow indentation, the intrarhinal sulcus or uncal notch (Figure 5). This is a normal feature, not to be confused with the much deeper indentations that result from transtentorial herniation of the temporal lobe. The attachment of the tentorium splits to include the transverse sinus medially and the sphenoparietal sinus anterolaterally. The petrous part of the temporal bone contains the structures of the inner ear and also the mastoid air cells, which are in continuity with the middle ear and the nasopharynx. Although the name “petrous” indicates that this bone looks like a rock, the layer of bone between the mastoid air cells and the dura of the middle cranial fossa (the tegmen tympani) is quite thin and is susceptible to erosion by bacterial infections arising in the middle ear. Septic lesions can extend through the tegmen tympani and the dura mater and arachnoid. Meningitis can follow such an invasion, but the defensive formation of fibrous connective tissue around the lesion often protects the subarachnoid space from the bacteria, which move upward into the temporal lobe, evoking the formation of an abscess that typically involves the inferior temporal gyrus and the white matter around the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle [57, 58]. The internal carotid artery enters the cranium below and medial to the anterior end of the parahippocampal gyrus, passing through the cavernous sinus and then coming between the optic chiasma and the anterior part of the temporal lobe before dividing into the anterior and middle cerebral arteries. The middle cerebral artery (MCA) enters the lateral sulcus from below, giving off frontal, parietal, and temporal branches that supply the cortex of the lateral surfaces of the lobes for which they are named. The MCA also gives rise to the anterolateral group of central arteries (lateral striate arteries), which enter the brain through the anterior perforated substance and supply much of the corpus striatum and external and internal capsules. The posterior cerebral artery, as it ascends through the tentorial notch, and its first branch, the posterior communicating artery, are also close to the medial surface of the temporal lobe, lying between the uncus and the oculomotor nerve. The oculomotor nerve, which arises from the medial surface of the cerebral peduncle, passes through the subarachnoid space, just below the uncus, on its way to the cavernous sinus and superior orbital fissure. If the temporal lobe is displaced medially and downward into the tentorial notch by a space-occupying lesion, especially an extradural or subdural haemorrhage, the uncus is pushed medially against the oculomotor nerve, compressing first that nerve’s preganglionic parasympathetic fibres, which are located superficially in the upper sector of the nerve , cause ipsilateral pupillary dilation . 7. Arterial Blood Supply and Venous Drainage The temporal lobe receives blood from both the carotid and the vertebrobasilar systems. The anterior choroidal artery, which is the preterminal branch of the internal carotid, runs alongside the optic tract and then along the choroid fissure, which at this level indents the medial surface of the temporal lobe, separating the fimbria of the hippocampus from the stria terminalis and tail of the caudate nucleus (Figure 4). Structures in the temporal lobe supplied by the anterior choroidal artery are the anterior end of the parahippocampal gyrus, the uncus, the amygdala, and the choroid plexus in the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. The middle cerebral artery, a terminal branch of the internal carotid, crosses the insula in the floor of the lateral sulcus, giving off branches that supply the cortex of the superior and middle temporal gyri and the temporal pole. The posterior cerebral artery gives off two to four temporal branches, before it divides into the calcarine and parieto-occipital arteries, which supply the occipital lobe. The temporal branches of the posterior cerebral artery supply the inferior surface of most of the temporal lobe, but not the temporal pole. The arteries supplying the temporal lobe are illustrated in Figure 10. 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So what can we do to stay focused on the positive and create a glass half full mentality? - Choose to habitually learn to focus on the positive - each day learn to write down what went well that day. Write down 3 things daily in order to begin to appreciate life rather than continually focus on what has not worked. - Become truly aligned to being in the present - often we focus on what is not working because we are regretting something we did in the past or worried about the future. In the present life can be made through actions we take and the people we continually surround ourselves with. Be present and focus on what is right in front of you. - Train your emotional self to be healthy through mindfulness practices - in order to be in the present and truly let go of negative emotions we can practice being mindful through things such as meditation, walking in nature, being surrounded by positive people, and encouraging self-care by taking some time to yourself to healthily pursue things that do make you feel good each and every day.	0.959	FineWeb
US 3559257 A Abstract available in Claims available in Description (OCR text may contain errors) Feb. 2, 1971 J. H. LEMELSON 3,559,257 ' v MACHINE CONTROL APPARATUS Filed Ma1 ch l2, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet l 4 i7 TOOL I H l TRANSPT \|3:\ I SW l .y CARD TAPE READER 4N6 L w J ETC; l3 TOOL l INVENTOR. JEROME H .LEMELSON Feb. 2, 1971 J. H. LEMELSON I MACHINE CONTROL APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 12, l968 INVENTOR. JEROME H. LE MELSON United States Patent Ofifice ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A control apparatus and method for machines such as production machine tools and work transfer machines, are provided to permit automatic machine tool operation. In one form, a plurality of machine tools or operating portions of a single machine tool are remotely controlled from a computer to simultaneously operate on the same or. different articles of work by the simultaneous generation of command control signals. Means are provided at each tool or operating component thereof for discriminating between different simultaneously generated messages so that the message destined to control the machine'tool or component may be utilized without interf'erence from other messages. The invention is also concerned with machine tool control message generating means and input means thereto. Means are provided for remotely controlling one or more machine tools by either reproducing prerecorded com-' RELATEl) APPLICATIONS This is a continuatiou-in-part of my application Ser. No. 387,954 filed Aug. 6, 1964, for Automatic Production Apparatus and Method now U.S. Pat. 3,372,568 which in turn was a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 219,357 filed Aug. 13, 1962 (now abandoned) which in' turn was a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 557,415 filed Apr. 10, 1956, now U.S. Pat. 3,049,247 having as a parent application Ser. No. 477,467 filed Dec. 24, 1954, now abandoned. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a system for automatically controllingmachinery such as machine tools and article 3,559,257 Patented Feb. 2,, 1971 manipulators utilized in producing and handling work in process. It is known in the art to control machines such as metal-cutting machine tools, inspection machines and manipulator transfer devices by automatic control means such as a computer or numerical control device. Heretofore, such control has been effected by means of locating such a computer or control device at the machine and programming same by either predeterminately depressing a plurality of push-button input means or causing recordings on a tape or punch cards to be reproduced to thereby control one or more servo motors associated with the machine. While such a control arrangement is suitable for performing individual operations on work in process, a substantial amount of labor and time is devoted to the prepositioning and transfer of work in process to each machine before completion of an article of manufacture or product is effected. Such intermediate operations generally result in substantial production delays andreduce the total operational time of the machines. Fur.-, thermore, when it is desired to operate the machines to perform on different articles of manufacture, the machines must be reprogrammed or their command recordings changed to account for the new operations required. Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a machine controlled system and method whereby a single command controller or computer and a communication system therefore cooperatively arranged to permit said single computer to operate a plurality of machine tools. Another object is to provide a production system including a plurality of machine tools which may be simultaneously remotely controlled to perform different operations on work in process by means of signals simultaneously generated from a single command control computer. Another object is to provide a new and improved control system for machines employing simultaneously generated signals or messages each of a different frequency or frequency range and all or certain of which are trans-" mitted on a common carrier or communication channel to, a plurality of different machines and/or different operating components of a single machine for simultaneously operating said machines and/ or components without interference in the control of saidmachines by the separate messages. Another object is to provide a remote control system for an automatic machine tool which system may operateto control a specific tool either by reproducing commands which have been prerecorded on recording members which commands are generated by manual input means. Another object is to provide an automatic control system for machines having an output for command control messages operative to control one or more of said machines and a manual input means which may be simultaneously operated to record messages at the same time the output means is activated by reproductions of messages which have been previously recorded. Another object is to provide an improved automatic control system for a plurality of programmable, electrically operated machines situated remote from a source of input commands for selectively controlling said machine and to perform various production, inspection,. m aintenance and article handling operations. - With the above and such other objects in view as may hereafter more fully appear, the invention consists of the novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts as will be more fully described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications may be resorted to which fall within the scope of the invention as claimed. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic machine control system broadly defining aspects of the instant invention; FIG. 2 is a side view of one form of machine or tool which may be controlled by the system defined in FIG. 1 FIG. 2' illustrates modified features applicable to the machine illustrated in FIG. 1; FIG. 2" is a fragmentary view with parts broken away for clarity of a coupling means applicable to the apparatus of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating further details of an automatic control system of the type illustrated in FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing further modifications to a system of the type illustrated in FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing further modifications to the system shown in FIG. 3. For the purpose of simplifying the drawings and description to follow it is assumed that, where not shown, the correct circuit power supplies, diodes, and the like are provided on the proper sides of all motors, switches, relays, solenoids, counters, and similar devices used for control. Also, any mechanical features or devices not illustrated are assumed to be provided in accordance with available conventional components or assemblies or are illustrated in greater detail in one of my said copending applications. Provided and described hereafter are systems for effecting the automatic and remote control of one or a plurality of power operated devices which are electrically controlled by remotely generated digital recordings comprising portions of what will be referred to as command control messages. A command control message is defined as one made up of difierent message units each of which is a portion of the entire message and contains, in addition to one or more discrete groups of digital signals or pulse trains, one or more digital and/or tone signals operative to effect the selective gating of a command control portion of said message unit to a particular controller or control device in the system for activating or presetting said control device. The separate messages may thus each comprise (a) a series of pulse trains or digital codes generated as electrical signals of the same frequency, (b) a series of pulse trains or codes having interposed between certain of said codes, tone signals of diffe'rent frequencies which are operative to energize different code responsive or tone responsive relays in the control system for gating a respective portion or code unit of the remainder of the message to a respective control device for energizing or presetting same in accordance with the digital value of the gated code or (c) a series of tone signals of different frequencies with certain of said tones'being operative to effect the gating of other tone signals to preset or energize controls in the system responsive only to respective tone signals. Thus, while the switching means described hereafter may be defined as code responsive or coded relays responsive to code portions of the command control message, they may also comprise tone relays responsive to specific frequency tones disposed between other digital code, pulse train or tone portions thereof operative to effect control of the operation of the tool and the motor means positioning the tool relative to the work on which it performs. Command control messages may also be composed of diiferent codes or control tones which are transmitted simultaneously in which said codes comprise pulse trains or groups of digital signals each of a different frequency. The groups of tones or tone codes may be recorded as they are transmitted on a single channel of the magnetic recorder of the machine or station to which they have been gated and separated thereafter by the proper filter means so that they may be independently used for control of respective servo or filtered from one another and independently recorded on different channels of a multi-channel recorder or utilized upon separation from the single signal to preset respective predetermining means as described hereinafter. There is shown in FIG. 1 elements of an automatic production system or apparatus 10 having a plurality of power operated tools and devices each of which is remotely controllable to perform a specific function or functions relative to work-in process, equipment or facilities in operation. .At a location remote from said power operated devices, a source 11 of. input command signals is operatively connected to a scanning device 12. The command signals which control one or more of said power operated devices maybe provided as digital recordings or the like on one or more of a plurality of cards, tapes, discs or other recording media which are scanned by photoelectric, magnetic, mechanical switches or other scanning means provided in apparatus 12. The result of scanning is generated at a plurality of digital signals on the output 13 of 12 which are transmitted as one or more command messages which are individually transmitted and routed to respective receivers associated with selected of the plurality of power operated devices. Transmission of the signals generated on the output of scanner 12 may be accomplished by wire or short wave means. In FIG. 1 the output 13 is connected by wire to a switching system 14 such as an automatic telephone switching system Which is operative by the first portion of the message generated in 12 to effect switching of the remainder of the message on a selected of a plurality of outputs 15 thereof to a selected machine or tool station designated by the general notation 16. In other words, a plurality of tools or tool stations designated 16-1, 16-2, 16-3, etc. may be provided in the system 10 illustrated in FIG. 1, any one or more of which may receive a particular command control message in accordance with the switching and connection portion of the message which is first generated and transmitted to switching system 14. Each of the plurality of tools or power operated devices includes a receiver-controller 17 which is operative to receive and record or otherwise utilize command control messages destined to automatically control the machine tool or device associated therewith. The receiver and controller 17 of each tool preferably includes a recording means for a plurality of command control messages and means presettable by a particular message for predetermining the operation of a tool transport means 18 and the tool 19 itself. The transport means 18 may comprise one or more motor driven fixtures for prepositioning one or more power operated devices in sequence with their operation as controlled by the output of 17. The power operated devices for each unit or station 16 may vary from single or multiple open-loop tools such as motor driven drills, riveters, Welding tools, mills, buffers, grinders, material applicators such as sprayers or the like. They may also comprise assembly and/or disassembly tools for fasteners or components associated with a machine, component or work-in process which is positioned in the realm of operation of the power operated devices. Other open-loop devices may also include scanning and inspection machines and apparatus such as X-ray, ultrasonic, electron-beam or other radiant energy devices operative to inspect a predetermined portion of a work piece or assembly or to machine, weld, or otherwise operate thereon in accordance with movement and operation thereof as controlled by the command control message or messages transmitted to the receiver and controller 17. Tools of the type described may also be operative in a closed-loop system which includes one or more feedback signal generating means operative in response to signals generated with the movement of the tool, its operation and/or by scanning that portion of the work affected by the tool or device. There is shown in FIG. 2 an automatic production tool and a transport or positioning means therefore which is applicable to perform various operations controlled by command signals generated remote therefrom. The automatically operative apparatus includes guide means for a tool assembly 24 in the form of an overhead mounted track 22 and a floor mounted track 23 extending adjacent to one or more work pieces or assemblies W disposed along the path of the parallel tracks. The tracks 22 and 23 may be fixed within a given work area and may comprise one of a plurality of such tracks, each mounting a respective tool assembly such as 24 or may be mounted on a further frame or tool base which is moveable to a particular production or maintenance location by automatic or manually directed means. Supporting the assembly 24 from above is a first carriage 30 having a plurality of wheels 31 rotationally supported thereon which ride in respective V-shaped grooves in the bottom legs of the I-beam shaped track 22 along which the tool assembly 24 is moveable for positioning the tool thereof at different locations defined by the extension of tracks 22 and 23. Extending between the upper carriage 30 and a lower carriage 30' is a vertical fixture or column 25 supporting a second carriage 26 which is moveable up and down along 25. A first motor Mx is mounted on carriage 30 and is operative to drive said carriage longitudinally along track 22. The output shaft of gear motor Mx mounts a drive wheel 33 which may frictionally engage the lower surface of track 22 or may contain a plurality of teeth engaging a spur gear portion of the lower surface of track 22 (not shown). Notation 31' refers to a single wheel having a wedge like peripheral indentation which rides on a wedgeshaped upwardly extending portion 23' of track 23 for supporting the assembly 24 in fixture relation thereon. Carriage 26 is driven up and down on column 25 by any suitable electrically controllable drive means mounted either on said carriage or the remainder of the assembly. In FIG. 2, a plurality of toothed wheels 26' are shown rotationally mounted on carriage 26 and are driven by a motor Mz also mounted thereon, to engage one or more spur gear toothed portions. Shown laterally extending from carriage 26 is a fixture assembly 27 including a first arm 27a and a second arm 27b mounted for movement relative to 27a and the carriage 26 to which is secured at its other end. A fitting 271 containing a plurality of fork-like elements 27 pivotally supports arm assembly 27b on a shaft or pins 27s and amotor MR mounted within arm 27a is operative to pivot arm 27b about the axis of aligned pins 27s under the control of the computing means to be described. Mounted near the end of arm 27b is a tool assembly 270 containing a tool or other power operative device defined by the notation T. The tool assembly 270 is preferably removable from the end of 27b as shown in my said applications of which this is a continuation-in-part, so as to permit different tools to be operated by the apparatus illustrated by the performance of minor changeover functions therefor. In addition to the provision of one or more work pieces, machines or assemblies W disposed at different locations adjacent to track 22 to be selectively operated on byv the tool T of the assembly 24 in accordance with a programmed sequence of movements and operations, a means 34 in the form of one or more assemblies or supports is provided adjacent one or more of the (work members-W or extending parallel to the track 22 which serves as a bucking member for the tool. Notation 32 refers to the shaft of a lineal servo mounted on or within the housing which supports motor Mz and operative to be projected against the adjacent surface of 34 during theoperation of the tool toserve as a support or bucking modified with a plurality of limit switches mounted onv means for the tool and/or a means for prepositioning said tool relative to the work. The head 32 at the end of shaft 32 engages member 34 and transmits axial forces directed therethrough from the tool to member 34. Operation of 32 to project against 34 is preferably program controlled by the same means controlling the various servo motors such as Mx, Mz, MR and MT. Notation CO refers to a housing in which are mounted all of the components which are operative to control both prepositioning and operation of the one or more tools mounted on the assembly 24 in accordance with a programmed input originating on one or more command control messages transmitted thereto from a remote location as will be hereinafter described. Other features of the apparatus of FIG. 2 includes a plurality of wires 29 which are supported off track 22 by a plurality of insulating spacers 29. Notation 28 refers to an assembly of slides or brush elements which are insulatedly supported by carriage 30 and moveably engage respective of the plurality of wires 29 for the transmission of electrical energy to the various servo motors mounted on assembly 24 and of signals operative to control said motors. Notation 35a refers to a reel of electrical cable 36 extending between CO and the various motors mounted on the carriage 26 and the tool assembly 27 extending therefrom. The retracter 35a is operative to retract cable 36 when carriage 26 moves upwardly and to permit the paying out of cable when the assembly moves downwardly. Scanning and switching controls for the apparatus 20 Which will hereinafter be described in greater detail, include a photoelectric cell-relay 48 mounted on carriage 30 and operative to scan a grid, marks or reflective markers disposed along the edge of the upper leg of the I-beam track 22. Mounted on the other wall of carriage 30 is a limit switch 49' adapted to be activated by a pin or pins projecting from track 22. Either or both these scanners may be mounted on the lower carriage 30 to define means for controlling movement of the assembly 24 along the path defined by both tracks. A photoelectric scanning relay 35 is shown secured to the housing 270 for the tool disposed at the end of arm assembly 27 and is operative to scan and detect the work surface, portions thereof, reflective markers or other means disposed on or adjacent to the work or its holding fixture. The relay 35 preferably includes a photoelectric cell disposed in a first housing or compartment 35 adjacent to a light source disposed in a second compartment 35" and adapted to project a beam of light substantially parallel to the scanning axis of the. photoelectric cell so that the cell may become energized upon detecting the light from said light source after its reflection off the surface of the work being scanned. The photoelectric relay 35 may be utilized for merely detecting the appearance of a portion of the work piece such as an edge thereof as it comes into alignment with the projected light beam. It may also be utilized for effecting fine adjustment and positional control of the tool positioning fixture in scanning narrow retro-reflective markers or grid lines disposed on a reflex reflecting surface such as the commercially available Scotch Lite. FIG. 2' illustrates the fixture assembly 27 of FIG. 2 and projecting in different directions from the tool housing 270. A first limit switch 117 is adapted, with its actuator arm projecting laterally and horizontally outward therefrom, to engage a vertical surfaceof a work piece, housing of a machine or the like. A second limit switch 118 is mounted on 27c with its actuator arm projecting vertically downward and is adapted to eifect automatic control of the apparatus as will hereinafter be described when it. engages a horizontal surface such as the top of the Work piece or a lateral projection thereof. Other means may also be utilized for sensing work-piece or work-mount surfaces such as magnetic means or means such as photoelectric 7 relay 35 adapted to detect the reflection of a light source off the surface of the work piece. As stated, the tool or device positioned by the apparatus in the realm of movement of the arm assembly 27 may comprise various forms of electrically controlled power operative devices for performing one or more of a plurality of production machining, assembly or inspection functions, material handling or maintenance functions. These devices may include various tools adapted to shape or machine the work such as drills, mills, saws, grinders, buffers, punchers and shapers or the like; various assembly devices including welding tools, riveters and other fastener applicators adapted to be automatically prepositioned and operated in a programmed fashion on the work; various inspection devices including radiation devices such as light, X-ray, magnetic field measurement, electron beam measurement and cathode ray devices such as a television camera or photomultiplier device and various maintenance tools including wrenches, screwing and unscrewing devices, manipulators for valves, dials and arms projecting from the piping or devices to be controlled thereby; manipulator jaws or the like. Notation MR in FIG. 2 refers to a motor operative to pivot the arm 27b on arm 27a. This servo may also be operative to project and retract 2712 with respect to 27a or to rotate 27b about the longitudinal axis of 27a. In other words, various combinations of rotary and lineal servo devices are conceived as applicable to the arm assembly 27 as illustrated or to various modifications thereof depending on the production functions required of the apparatus. If servo MR is a gear motor operative to rotate 27b about the longitudinal axis of arm 27a, then the automatic control means described hereinafter may be operative to effect the automatic assembly and disassembly of various tool housings and the different tools held thereby with the end of 27b, particularly if assembly is effected by threading means in which 270 is screwed onto the end of 27b. A fixture for holding a plurality of tools located in different housings 270 may be prepositioned relative to the track way 22 so that command message control of the operation of motor Mx after controlling Mz to position 26 at the proper height, may be operative to effect the disassembly of one tool housing 270 already mounted on the end of 27b and its placement in a predetermined location on said fixture and the automatic assembly thereon of a selected tool housing which is at a predetermined location on said fixture. FIG. 2" shows details of the coupling means at the end of fixture assembly 27 such as arm 27b operative to both secure the tool assembly 270 thereto and electrically connect the devices secured therein to the electrical circuitry of the fixture 27 and the power and control means located in housing CO. The arm or column defining the end of assembly 27 is threaded at its end at 271 for removably securing it to the threaded end 271 of tool housing or mount 270, which function may be performed automatically as described by rotating either or both assemblies after their signal controlled alignment with each other. Electrical connection of components such as MT or others mounted within housing 270 may be effected by the provision of aligned contact members at the end of 27 and within 27c which engage each other to connect respective circuits of both assemblies when the proper degree of relative rotation of both is effected. In FIG. 2" a push-pull, bistable solenoid The is secured within 27 near the end thereof and mounts a pluggable electrical connector C at the end of its shaft, which connector is adapted to engage a receptacle or female electrical connector C secured within 27c upon assembly of 27 and 270 by the projection of the shaft of solenoid or lineal servo 27sc. A signal operative to project said shaft may be derived from the programmed command control sequence as will be hereinafter described. Thus the multi-circuit cable 27w extending along the interior of fixture or arm 27 is electrically connected to respective lines of a cable 27w associated with housing 270. Line 27w is shown slack or coiled at its end to permit it to be advanced and retracted with movement of the shaft of the solenoid and line 27w may contain power and control circuits operative to energize the various electrical devices such as tool servo MT associated with assembly 27c. Notation 27k relates to a key or shaped portion of the housing 270 which projects therefrom and is used for aligning and retaining said assembly in its storage fixture and/or tool used to rotate and assemble same with 27. Other features of the apparatus of FIG. 2 include the provision of a servo or solenoid operated means for engaging and locking the carriage 30 against the track 22 to steady and preposition the tool carrier assembly 24 during the performance of a particular production operation thereof. Notation 30s refers to a solenoid mounted on the sidewall of carriage 30 having an actuator arm adapted to project and engage the main rib of the I-beam track. Such a device, which may also be mounted on the bottom carriage 30' for the engagement of track 23, may be automatically controlled to engage and disengage said trackway by respective portions of the command control message, prior to and after tool operation on the work in a predetermined cycle as described hereinafter. FIG. 3 illustrates further details of a system employing one or more remotely controlled tools or devices as described. A source of command control messages is operative at a station or console 50 which is situated remote from the power operated devices controlled thereby. Said messages may be generated by manual means including a dial operated or push button digital pulse train generating device 51 or a code generating device 54 such as the described card. tape, disc or drum reader having recording elements contained said command control messages which are sequentially scanned in the reader to generate said message electrical signals. The outputs 52 of '51 and 55 of 54 are connected to a signal transmitter 60 which is operative to transmit by short wave or wire 61 the outputs of devices 51 and 54 to a plurality of receivers for power operative production devices 16-1, 16- 2, etc. Assuming that the command control message generated on the output of transmitter 60 is destined for the power operated devices associated with station 161, said message is received by the receiver 62''1 thereof as well as the other receivers 62 of the system but is only gated to the control apparatus coupled to the output of receiver 62-1, to the exclusion of all other control apparatus in the system, by means of a tone or coded relay CR-l connected across the output of 62-1. The relay CR-l which contains a normally open slow-to-close or bi-stable switch, is operative to close said switch in response to a first portion of the command control message which may be a code or tone of such a characteristic as to activate said relay to the exclusion of similar types of relays each connected to an output of a respective of the other receivers 62 in the system. The remainder of the command control message is then operative to perform the following functions: The next portion or unit code part of the command control message is passed to a second coded relay CR-2 and is utilized to activate said relay to energize the switching input of a rotary stepping switch 63 to step said switch to the next switching position or any predetermined switching position. The output of the receiver 62-1 passes through the rotary stepping switch 63 to a selected of a plurality of outputs thereof each of which is connected to a respective recording head RH of a bank of said heads which are positioned to record messages on respective of a plurality of recording tracks of a magnetic recording drum, disc, etc. The drum is driven by a servo device MD which, in the apparatus illustrated, is operative in one of two selected modes including constant speed rotation of the drums 65 or stepping rotation of said drum as will be described hereinafter. A plurality of reproduction heads PU are operatively coupled to the recording channels of drum 65 permitting the recorder 64 to serve as a source of a plurality of command control messages transmitted thereto from station 50 which messages are selectively reproducible therefrom, one after the other or in predetermined sequence, to control the positioning and operation of the one or more power operative devices associated with the assembly or station 16-1, The heads PU are each connected to a respective input of a solenoid or servo driven rotary stepping switch 66, the single output 66' of which is connected to the input of a second rotary stepping switch 68 for distributing portions of the reproduced command controlled message to various predetermining controllers which are operative for controlling the movement and operation of the one or more power operative devices. The switch 68 is stepped to gate the input 66' to the various outputs thereof by means of a third tone or coded relay CR-3 which operates the servo driving the switch 68 in response to portions of the command control message disposed between the other portions thereof which are utilized for controlling the further control devices coupled to the outputs of 68. A typical cycle of operation will now be described in order to describe the various control components and features of the particular system illustrated in the drawing. A first portion or code unit of the command control message is gated on line 66 through switch 68 to a predetermining controller PrCMx which is operative to control a first servo motor Mx for positioning the machine tool in a first direction along guide or track 22. It is assumed that carriage 30 is located at a predetermined position on the track 22 as defined by a home position cator stop or pin 49 and a limit switch 49' mounted 9n the carriage 30, which switch is operative when its actuator arm strikes 49 as the carriage 30 moves to said home position to have stopped motor Mx with, for example, an end of track 22. Controller PrCMx may be of the code or pulse-presettable type as described in my said copending application, which is operative to receive a pulse or tone code or predetermined number of digital pulses comprising the portion of the command control message gated thereto, which pulses preset the controller or counter whereby it operates thereafter to generate a stop-signal upon receipt of a predetermined number of feedback pulses produced with movement of the carriage 30 along track 22 by a scanning means such as a limit switch or photoelectric cell 48 which scans incremental marks, holes or grid devices 48M along track 22 or disposed on a member positioned adjacent the track, and generates a pulse each time a grid line 48 or pin is so scanned. The next portion of the command control message is operative to activate code responsive relay CR-3 to step or rotate switch 68 to the next switching position to gate the following portion of the message to a second predetermining controller PrCMz which is constructed similarly to controller PrCMx and is operative to control the servo Motor Mz which drives the tool or tools in a vertical direction for prepositioning said tool in a vertical direction relative to work disposed in alignment therewith as a result of controlled operation of motor M1. The coded relay CR-3 which controls operation of the rotary switch drive element of switch 68 is next energized by a code or tone comprising the next portion of the command message to step the input 66' thereto to an output extending to a third predetermining controller PrCMR which controls operation of fixture rotating servo motor MR for angularly positioning the tool mounted portion of the fixture relative to the work described elsewhere herein. The input 66 is controlled by the stepping of switch 66 through CR-4 and S3. Said servo motor MR may be operative to rotate the entire fixture on its base or 10 overhead mounted carrier or to pivot one or more portions of the fixture and the notation may be representative of a plurality of such motors operative to rotate, project or pivot different portions of the fixture and/or tool. Further portions of the reproduced digital message are operative to activate the relay C-R-S which elfects rotation of rotary switch 68 for gating predetermined portions or units of the message to other controllers for controlling opeation of the tool or tools disposed on the fixture prepositioned by motors Mx, Mz, M-R etc. The controllers illustrated in FIG. 4 are presented to be illustrative only and their number as well as mode of operation and devices controlled thereby may be varied according to specific production requirements. These controllers include pulse presettable predetermining controllers PlCMT-l and PrCMT-Z the function of which will be described and one or more variable control devices MTC which, in their simplest form, may comprise multicircuit timers or the like adapted to gate electrical energy or pulses to the respective of the start and stop controls of the various motors and servos such as Mx, Mz, MR, MT-l and MT-2 in sequence and of a time duration or time separation such that the tool or tools T1, T2, etc. mounted on the fixture will be operated in a predetermined manner during a production, inspection or maintenance function and/0r will be moved through a predetermined path after being prepositioned as described. Assuming first that the tool transport means or carrier assembly 24 is located with the carriage 30 stopped at a home position as defined by a pin 49 or other stop located on the track 22 which engages the actuating arm of limit switch 49' mounted on 30 causing said switch to activate the stop control S of motor Mx, a start pulse comprising a portion of the reproduced command control message is gated through rotary switch 68 and transmitted on an output 68-1 thereof to the start control P of motor Mx causing said motor to drive the assembly 24 along track 22 in the direction of the work piece or device which is situated adjacent said track and is adapted to be operated on or scanned by the tool mounted on assembly 24. As carriage 30 travels along 22, photoelectric scanner 48 scans position indicating marks 48M disposed along or adjacent track 22 and generates pulses for uncounting the predetermining counter controller PrCMx which has been preset by a portion of the command control message. Upon uncounting, the controller PrCMx transmits a control pulse to the stop control S of motor Mx and the forward or up-drive control input U of motor Mz to cause the carriage 26 to rise from its lowermost position at the bottom of the track defined by vertical member 25. Uncounting of predetermining controller PrOMz is effected by means of a switch SWMz positioned to become actuated with rotations or fractions of rotations of the output shaft of gear motor M2 and to generate a pulse each time it is so actuated which is transmitted to the uncount in put of controller PrCMz. Upon uncounting, controller PrCMz generates a control pulse which is transmitted to the stop control S of Mz and to the start control F of motor MR which rotates the fixture or portion thereof mounting the tool a predetermined degree. Control of MR is effected by a limit switch SWMR generating feedback signals as it becomes actuated by means of a cam mounted on the shaft of the output of gear motor MR, said switch providing feedback, uncounting pulses to the uncount input of predetermining counter controller PrCMR. Upon uncounting, controller PrCMR generates a pulse which is transmitted to the stop control S of motor MR and to the start control P of motor or tool servo MT-1 which is coupled to too] or power operative device T1. The output shaft of MT-l is operative to actuate a limit switch SWMT-l or opera: tive for sensing the rotation thereof, which generates a feedback pulse and transmits same to the counter controller P1CMT1 which effects uncounting of said controller. Upon attaining its uncount condition, controller PrOMT-l generates a control pulse and transmits same to the stop control S of MT-l. For certain fabrication, inspection or maintenance functions it may be merely required to operate the tool, clamp or inspection device T, for a predetermined time interval or degree of movement thereof which will be substantially a function of the number of rotations of the output drive shaft of the gearmotor or servo MR. In other production or maintenance functions employing apparatus of the machine or station 161 which is more complex in operation, it may be desired'to operate one or more additional servos, tools or inspection devices after tool T-l has been operated. In FIG. 4 control means are provided for either reversing operation of each of the servos MR, Mz and Mx to cause the respective assemblies moved by each to return to a home position for activating a further tool or tools represented by notation T-1 or for activating one or more predetermining controllers MTC for controlling either or both the tool or transport drive motors in a predetermined cycle whereby the tool or tools move through a predetermined path and operate in a predetermined manner at the location attained by means of the positional control affected by the first portion of the command control message. Portions of the command control message may be operative to effect the selective operation of certain of the servo motors or power operated devices to the exclusion of others by activating certain control elements to the exclusion of others during a particular control cycle. For example, a single presetting pulse may be gated through switch 68 (whereafter said switch steps to its next position) to any of the predetermined controllers PrCMx, PrCMz, PrCMR, permitting operation of the respective servo controlled thereby for only one rotation or fraction of rotation of its shaft so as to result in little or substantially no movement of the apparatus driven thereby. Turning now to the operation of predetermining controller PrCMT-l, it is noted that the output of said controller on which the uncount control pulse is gated, is connected to inputs to a number of switching control elements or circuits designated 57a, 57b and 57c. These control circuits are logical AND switching circuits which are each operative to generate a pulse on its respective output when its two inputs are simultaneously energized. Accordingly, the other inputs to the AND control devices 57a, 57b and 570 are connected to respective further control elements or circuits 56a, 56b and 560 any one of which may be energized by a signal portion of the command control message gated thereto from a respective output of the rotary switch 68. In their simplest form, the control devices 56 comprise a bi-stable switch or flip-flop which is operative when energized by a signal passed to its input from switch 68, to gate a power supply (not shown) through 56 to energize the input to the AND switching element 57 connected thereto until the predetermining controller having its output connected to the other input of said AND switching element, uncounts. In other words, if it is desired to reverse the operation of motor MR after motor MT-l has finished its cyclic function, control element 56a will have been activated by a signal portion of the command control message gated through switch 68 thereto to the exclusion of the activation of control devices 56b and 560 as the result of the switching of 68 past the terminals of the switch connected to the inputs to 56b and 560 without gating signals through said switch thereto. If 56a is so activated, then when controller PrCMT1 uncounts, the output thereof will only activate AND switching element 57a resulting in the generation of a cotnrol signal on the output of 57a which is passed to the reverse control R of motor MR and to the stop control S of motor MT-l. A time delay (not shown) may be provided 12 in the circuit between 57a and R of servo MR to permit motor MT-1 to stop before the operation of MR, if Thus the output of AND switching circuit 57a is utilized to pulse the stop control of servo MT-l to terminate the operation of the tool T-1 powered or controlled thereby and is also utilized to drive motor MR in reverse to its home position which, when obtained, is operative to activate a limit switch 59 engaging a portion of the fixture driven by servo device MR. Activation of switch 59 is operative to gate a control pulse to the stop control S of MR and to the down drive control D of servo Mz. Activation of control S of servo MR is operative to stop said servo with the fixture driven thereby at its home position while activation of D of servo M2 is operative to drive carriage 26 to its lowermost, home position on the track associated with the vertical column assembly 25. Upon attainment of said lowermost position by said carriage, a further control limit switch SWZo mounted on either carriage 26 or vertical assembly 25 becomes actuated and gates 21 power supply or pulse to the stop control S of motor Mz and the reverse drive control R of gear motor Mx resulting in movement of the assembly 20 to the home position defined by the track mounted pin 49 at which position limit switch 49' becomes activated and pulses the stop control S of motor Mx resulting in stoppage of the assembly at said home position. In the event that it is desired to include the predetermined operation of a further tool or power operated device T2 in the hereinabove described cycle or to perform further predetermined operations including movement of tool or device T-1, the command control message will have been so composed as to have pulsed or activated certain of the other control elements 56b, 56c, 56d, etc. For example, if the command control message is operative to pulse control switch 56b gating a power supply to the AND switching circuit 57b to the exclusion of circuit 57a, then, when dontroller PrCMT-l uncounts 9. signal will be generated on the output of AND circuit 57b which is passed to the forward drive control F of a reversible gear motor MT2 thereby causing motor MT2 to drive tool or device T-2 in a first direction. The output of AND circuit 57b is also passed to a resetting or deactivating input of control switch 56h so as to deactivate same once its function has been fulfilled as are the outputs of each of the other illustrated AND switching circuits. In other words, when control switches 56 are so deactivated, the power supply gated to their respective AND switching elements are no longer connected thereto. A feedback signal generating switch SWMT-Z is coupled to operate with rotation of the output shaft of servo MT2 by means of a cam or other switch energizing device mounted on said shaft and provides feedback pulses to th predetermining counter controller PrCMT-2. Upon uncounting, PrCMT2 generates a pulse on its output which activates the stop control S of MT2 and is also utilized to energize either the down drive control D of motor Mz if the tool operating portion of the cycle is to end at this point. However, if it is desired to effect further movement and/or operation of one or more of the power operated tools or devices, the output of PrCMT-2 may be utillized to activate a preset controller MTC such as a multi-circuit timer having a plurality of output circuits which extend to those of the illustrated motor start, stop and reverse controls which are desired to become activated in sequence and at predetermined time delays after the initial energization of MTC to perform the desired operation of the described apparatus. While the multi circuit controller may be preset or predetermined in its function by a portion of the command control message, it may also be manually preset to perform a predetermined production operation and may comprise but one of a plurality of such cycle controllers which are operative only when a control switch 56d thereafter is activated by a portion of the command control message and energizes an input of an AND switching circuit 57d having its other input extending from the output of controller PrCMT- Z. .In order to prevent activation of the down drive control D of servo Mz while the cycle controller MTC is activated, one of the outputs '71 of controller MTC is connected to the switching input of a normally closed switch 7 in the circuit between PrCMT-2 and the down drive control D of Mz to effect the activation of 70 and the opening of said circuit so as not to permit the control pulse generated by PrCMT-Z to energize D of Mr. A time delay relay 69 is provided in the circuit between the output of PrCMT-Z and D of Mz so as to delay the pulse a sufficient interval so that it will appear at the input to switch 70 after said switch has opened. If switch 70 remains closed in the event that controller MTC is not activated, said pulse will be passed directly to D of Mz to effect the termination of the work cycle whereafter the carriage 26 is driven to the lower (or upper) home position resulting in the activation of control limit switch SWZo which stops said carriage at said position and activates the reverse drive control R of Motor Mx resulting in the return of the tool assembly or carrier 24 to the home position defined by pin 49 on track 22. In the control functions described employing the reproduction of recorded command control messages to preset or energize controls of various predetermining controllers, operation of the multiple channel, endless track magnetic recorder recording medium was assumed to be continuous so as to permit the recording of new control messages while messages already recorded thereon are being reproduced. It is briefly noted that if a complete command control message is recorded on a single channel of the multi-channel recorder and is utilized as described to preset various of the predetermining controllers, the correct portions of said message may be gated to the correct predetermining controller inputs P by the provision of a normally open switch 688 in line 66 which will not pass any portion of the command message destined for the controllers situated beyond switch 6 8 until the appearance of the leading portion of the message on line 66' which contains a tone or code operative to energize relay CR3. Switch 688 is operatively coupled to CR3 and is closed thereby when the latter is energized and remains closed for a sufficient time interval to pass the longest messages to be gated to the various controllers situated beyond 68. In other words, switch 688 is either slow-toopen-after-closing or may be operative to close as a bistable switch by a portion of the control message gated therethrough. Switch control CR3 as well as the others are assumed to contain, in addition to activating means responsive to respective codes or tones, means for activating the various rotary switches and gates illustrated in FIG. 3 upon receipt thereby of the proper tone or code. Notation OD refers in FIG. 3 to a coded relay operative to start drum drive motor MD which is preferably a constant speed motor. CD may be activated by either a code or tone portion of the command control message or one generated by an operator at the computer station 50. While motor MD preferably operates at constant speed to permit the recording of certain messages While others are being reproduced and used for control purposes, it may also comprise a stepping motor operative in response to a coded or tone responsive relay energized by portions of a command control message or signals generated on the outputs of predetermining counter controllers PrCMx, PrCMz, PrCMR, etc. and MTC so that portions of a command control message are reproduced sequentially only after the previously reproduced portions have been operative to preset or energize the previously controlled mechanism. Notation MR in FIG. 3 may also be representative of any motor adapted to effect operation of the tool transport in a mode other than those modes controlled by motors Mx and Mz. It may comprise a joint rotating motor or one used to project and retract the tool. It may also define servo means for controlling other fixture or tool variables. In FIG. 3 each of the predetermining counter controllers PrCMx, PrCMz, PrCMR, PrCMT-l, and PrCMT-Z is provided with an input -R which, when pulsed, is operative to reset the counter to a null condition. A code or tone responsive relay CR 6 has its output connected to all of the resetting inputs R of the PrC controllers and MT-2 and its input connected to the input side of the switch of relay CR'1. If it is desired to reset the controllers for any reason prior to their operation, such function may be effected by transmission of the proper codes or tones from station 50 to the receiver 62 for energizing relays CR-l and CR-6. In FIG. 3, the fixture and carriage locking solenoids 32 and 30s which have been described as to function, are advanced to engage and retain their assemblies against the said respective surfaces by the uncount pulse produced on the output of PrCMz and are each retracted by the control pulses generated respectively on the outputs of switches 70 and SWZo to disengage their retain-members at the end of a work cycle. The command control signal recording and reproduction apparatus hereinabove described may be modified to include operation where certain tracks of the recording drum 65 are adapted to receive and record command control messages transmitted from computer 54 while other tracks contain recordings already provided thereon by locally recording same or other means and operative to effect predetermined movements and operations of the tool or device associated with the machine being controlled. In the control function where recordings are transmitted from station 50 and recorded on selected or sequentially available tracks of the recorder 64, automatic signal erasure means may be employed to erase each command control message after it has been reproduced therefrom or during the recording of a new message on the same track. In the event that it is desired to retain certain signal recordings such as those which may be immediately or shortly thereafter reused for repeating a particular controlled action, erasure control may be effected by use of a tone responsive or coded relay gating a power supply to an erasure means such as a head riding on the track just reproduced from, said coded relay being connected to receive the control message and respond to that tone or coded portion thereof to which it is responsive. Notation 67 refers to a rotary stepping switch in FIG. 3 operative to connect a power supply PS with an erase head EH which is riding against the track just reproduced from, when a coded relay CR-S is activated by a portion of the message reporduced therefrom to effect the last mode of control. The activation of switch 49' signifying the end of a cycle controlled by a particular command message may also be operative to result in erasure of the channel from which said message was reproduced by connecting said switch 48 to activate CR-5 or the solenoid controlled thereby. In another form of the invention, the described digital or pulse train recordings which are reproduced as part or all of the command control mesages from magnetic drum 65 may be replaced by a plurality of analog type signals which are operative upon being reproduced from the recording member to directly control the movement of one or more of the described fixture or tool motors. Said analog may be transmitted from control console 50 or prerecorded on selected channels of drum 65- and reproduced when needed as the result of the action of one or more signals transmitted from 50 and operative to effect the selective and sequential reproduction of said analog signals to define a particular control cycle. In other words, apparatus of the type described may be operative by controlling one or more servo motors by means of signals recorded on selected and predetermined of the recording channels of the drum 65 which are selectively reproducible therefrom under the control of signals transmitted to the receiving means 62 of the selected station 16 from the computer or other device 54 or the manual signal generating means 51. Assuming that there are 11 number of predetermined operations which the machine at station 16-1 may perform or be required to perform over a given time interval or to cover all possible production, maintenance and inspection functions, then a similar number of command control messages or analog signals would be recorded on known locations of the recorder such as on known tracks of the drum and each would be selectively reproducible therefrom by transmitting the desired signal or signals to the receiver 621 to effect, as described, the stepping of switch 66 to connect its output 66 with that pickup head PU which is operatively coupled to reproduce from the channel or track of the drum having the desired command control message recorded thereon. For certain fabricating, inspection or maintenance functions utilizing the apparatus hereinabove described it may be desired to perform a plurality of propositioning movements of the tool or power operated device in the vicinity of the particular working location at which it was initially positioned by movement of the carriage 30 along guide or track 22 and carriage or fixture 26 vertically relative to track 25. For example, it may be desired to step the 1001, once located at a particular spatial location in a particular direction or directions to perform a plurality of operations relative to a work piece located thereat. The functions of drilling a plurality of holes in a line or in any predetermined array, applying a plurality of fasteners or assembling components with the work piece in spaced-apart relationship, stepping a power operated device such as a welding tool, inspection tool, or the like may be required whereby return of the tool transport 24 to said home position each time the tool operates would result in the waste of a substantial amount of time. Accordingly, means are provided in FIG. 4 for modifying the control apparatus of FIG. 3 to permit any of the described tool positioning and/or operating servo motors to operate a plurality of times during a single cycle to perform predetermined operations on a work piece in the realm of the tool or tools positioned by said transport means. While means are provided in FIG. 4 for automatically controlling the predetermining controller PrCMx in a manner to be described, it is noted that a plurality of said controllers including others thereof as described may be similarly controlled in sequence in a predetermined cycle as defined by the composition of the command control message passed through switches 66 and 68. The pulse presettable predetermining counter PrCMx is preset by a portion of a first of the command control messages reproduced from a first channel or track of recording member 65. Feedback signals generated by motor Mx uncount PrCMx and result in a first control signal being generated on the output of PrCMx upon attaining its uncount condition. Said signal is transmitted to the stop control S of Mx and to an AND switching circuit 57e. The other input to 57c is connected to the output of a bi-stable switch 56c having an input which is one of the outputs of rotary control switch 68. The controller switch 562 preferably comprises a bi-stable switch operative when energized by a pulse portion of the command control message passed through 68 thereto, to gate a power supply PS or continuous signal to an input of AND switching circuit 57e until an output control signal appears on the latter. Thus, if the command control message is so constructed as to activate 56c, uncounting of PrCMx will result in a signal generated on the output of the AND switching circuit which is passed to the tone or coded relay CR-4 controlling the position of the switching element rotary stepping switch 66. The command control message recorded on the next channel of recording drum 65 which is coupled to output line 66' of 66 is passed therethrough and is operative to step switch 68 by activating coded relay CR-3 the correct number of times prior to the passage of a pulse code or train to PrCMx again and a signal to the start control F of Mx or the reverse control thereof for repositioning carriage 30 and the tool thereof in a horizontal direction. Upon uncounting, PrCMx may be operative to perform any of the control functions hereinabove described which may include operation of one more of the power operated tools or devices. In a similar manner, any of the other predetermining controllers PrCMz, PrCMR, PrCMT-l, PrCMT2, etc. may be controlled in a predetermined manner to step the tool in any direction, cause it to travel a predetermined path, and/ or predetermine its intermittent or continuous operation. A second AND switching control circuit 576' and flipflop controller 56e thereafter are shown operatively connected ot the output of PrCMx and 68 respectively for controlling the operation of any of the other servo motors described for positioning and/or operating the tools in the manner described. For example, assuming that the command control message does not contain a command portion to be passed through switch 68 to the input of 56a but does contain a portion which will be passed to 562 when the arm of switch 68 is operatively coupled to the line or terminal thereof which is connected to 566'. As a result, that servo or power operated device which is connected to the output of 57e will become activated upon the uncount of PrCMx and may be controlled as described by generating feedback pulses with its operation which are fed to a respective predetermined controller. In FIG. 2, control elements 117 and 118 in the form of limit switches or surface sensing devices were shown mounted on portions of the tool head or mount and were defined as operative to sense the surface of a work piece towards which the tool is transported and to effect further control of the movement of the tool upon becoming activated. A modification to the control system of FIG. 3 is illustrated in FIG. 5 in which limit switches 117 and 118 are illustrated as forming part of the control circuitry. It is, of course, assumed that in FIGS. 4 and 5, the other elements of the circuit not illustrated therein are provided in FIG. 3 and are present and are modified accordingly. Limit switch 117 is assumed to be operative to sense vertically disposed surfaces of the work piece represented by the notation W1 and limit switch 118 is operative to sense horizontally disposed surfaces of the workpiece located below the tool which, in this modification, is moveable towards the workpiece from above. Either or both switches 117 and 118 may be operative to preposition the tool relative to the workpiece. Assuming that the tool is first being moved in a horizontal direction by operation of motor Mx and that limit switch 117 is so positioned that its actuator arm or sensing element will first engage a vertical or substantially vertical surface of a workpiece or other member adapted to be operated on or scanned by the tool. The motor Mx is first started by a portion of the command control message passed through switch 68 while the predetermining controller PrCMx has remained deactivated as the result of failure to receive presettiug signals as a portion of the command control message. It is of course assumed that the tool or tool arm having switch 117 mounted thereon has previously been positioned at a desired vertical location by the predetermined operation and control of motor Mz. Upon approaching said vertical surface, the switch 117 becomes activated as the result of engagement of its actuator arm against the surface W1 of the workpiece or other element mounted in its path of travel. Closure or activation of switch 117 results in the generation thereby of a pulse signal and its transmission to the stop control S of motor Mx and one input of an AND switching circuit 57]". The other input to 57] is from a flip-flop controller 56 having a switching input connected to rotary stepping switch 68 and operative to become activated upon transmission thereto of a portion of the command control message. Thus if the command control message is operative to activate 56 upon the activation of switch 117, motor Mx will stop and a pulse generated on the output of 57 will be transmitted to the relay CR-4 for stepping switch 66. As a result, the next command control message recorded on the drum 65 is reproduced therefrom and passed through switch 66 and gates portions of itself to those predetermining controllers and/ or servo motor controls defined for cyclic operation in said next reproduced command control message. Similarly, if switch 118 is activated when it is driven against horizontal surface W2 by movement of the transport apparatus, it will generate a pulse on the output of AND switching circuit 57 provided that 561 has been energized by a portion of the command control message and will result in the generation of a new command control message for further controlling selected of the servo motors described. Other features of the invention are noted as follows. As stated, the tool transport fixture may be provided in a variety of machine configurations and may be floor, overhead, wall or machine mounted or movable on guide means secured to a plurality of such locations. Various configurations for such tools and fixtures are illustrated in my said abandoned application and vary from a single column subtending from an overhead track travelling carriage and having a tool such as a spray head or scanner mounted on an arm supported by a vertically moveable fixture to one or more tools movable at the end of an arm or assembly which is movable in a plurality of ways by pivoting, rotating, projecting, retracting and otherwise moving portions of the fixture with respect to each other and the carrier or mount supporting the entire assembly. Each assembly or moveable portion of the entire fixture may be power operated to rotate and/or translate by means of one or more servo-motors coupled thereto through gears or other drive means and mounted on said assembly or the adjacent assembly. Sequential control of the various servo motors to effect eventual prepositioning of the tool or tools as described or by modification to the control apparatus hereinabove provided. Such modifications may include the following which are intended to comprise part of this invention. Signals reproduced from an erasable recording medium such as the magnetic recording drum 65 may be sequentially gated directly to the controls of one or more of the illustrated and described servo-motors used to position the fixture, tool and/ or to operate said tool in a predetermined and programmed manner. Said signals may be utilized per se or generated as part of the described command control message to effect at least part of the control functions described by direct control of the servo coupled to the reproduction transducer reading drum 65. In other words, predetermining controllers PrC and MTC may be eliminated completely during a control cycle where the precision required in the operations of the apparatus is such that feedback signals are not required and the operations of the servo motors employed may be controlled by the duration or composition of the signal or signals reproduced from the recordings temporarily provided on member 65 by transmission thereto as described. A combination of fixture positional controls effected by one or more predetermining controllers as described and direct control of the tool operation itself by one or more signals reproduced directly from the drum 65 and transmitted direc-tly to the motor or motors to be controlled in operating the tool, may be utilized for certain operations. This may be variably effected by operatively connecting those servo controls which are to be controlled by signals reproduced directed from the drum 65, to selected of the outputs of switch 68 which are coupleable to selected channels of drum 65 by signals reproduced from recordings on other channels. In other words, a command control message for a particular cycle is recorded on several channels and the latter portions of the message recorded on one channel are used to effect switching of output 66 of switch 66 to the next channel by energizing relay CR4 which activates solenoid S3 to switch 66 to the next position. Accordingly, line 66' is shown connected to the input circuit 68' through rotary switch 68 to relay CR-4 so that if the proper tone or code appears on the output of switch 66 as reproduced from one channel, CR4 will become activated and will switch 66 to the next channel thereof without the need for first stepping switch 68. It was heretofore proposed that the master controller or computer generating messages for controlling the plurality of machines hereinabove described may be operative to simultaneously generate different command control messages to signal output thereof with each message composed of control signals of a frequency which is different from that of the other messages. By using such a system, the master controller or computer may be utilized simultaneously to control the operation of a plurality of different machines and/ or to simultaneously transmit command control messages to respective recording devices at each machine. Accordingly, in FIG. 6 is shown further details of one form of such a system wherein the notation refers to the message generating means or command control computer which is operative to simultaneously generate different command control messages on its output and transmit same via one or more communication channels defined by a carrier signal on power lines, radio or microwaves, a light ray communication system or an automatic wire communication system. In FIG. 6, a command signal generating device 80 is located remote from a plurality of separate machines 90 which are denoted respectively by notations 90-1, 90-2, 90-3, etc. and may be operative to simultaneously or separately perform preprogrammed operations on a single work piece, assembly or a plurality of different work pieces or assemblies. A master controller 80 includes a plurality of recording units 81 each of which may be read by its respective reader 82. The recording units which are denoted 81-1, 81-2, 81-3, etc. may each comprise a separate magnetic tape recorder, disc recorder or drum recorder or device for feeding cards such as punched cads containing recordings of command control messages to respective of the readers or pickup transducers which are denoted by notations 82-1, 82-2, 82-3, etc. Each of the readers 82 is operatively connected to a respective tone signal generator which generators are denoted 83-1, 83-2, 833, etc. Each of the tone signal generators 83 is operative to generate a tone signal of a different frequency than the others when its input is energized by a signal generated on the output of the respective reader 82 to which it is connected. Thus, depending upon the manner in which the respective readers are operated to read recordings from the recording or record-containing units 81, command control messages may be separately or simultaneously generated on the output 84 of the command control computer 80 and transmitted by shortwave or by the illustrated communication system 85 to either the receivers or inputs 87 of all machines 90, selected groups 88 of machines or individual machines of the system. At each machine is provided a tone responsive relay 89 which is responsive to only those signals generated on the output 84 of the command control computer 80 of a specific tone or range of tones. Accordingly, all other tone responsive relays of the group denoted 89-1, 89-2, 89-3, etc. will not be so activated by the frequency signals to which they are not responsive and only that machine, group of machines or separate operating unit of a particular machine will be activated and controlled by the message or messages received by its tone responsive relay to which frequency or tone signals are responsive. Depending on which controls or devices the tone responsive relays 89 are connected to activate, either separate machine tools, separate motors of a machine tool or groups of machine tools may be simultaneously activated to control their respective servos or machines by all messages which are generated and transmitted as signals of the same frequency. Also shown in FIG. 6 are a plurality of input means for command control messages which input means correspond at least in part to the input devices 51 and 54 of FIG. 3 for manually or otherwise programming the command control computer. An input console 93 includes an input device 94 having a plurality of keys for push-button switches 94$ for generatnig command control signals and also having means 94C for reading messages from a recording unit such as a tape, punched card or other means. The notation 94C may also comprise the output of a digital computer operative to generate predetermined command control messages in response to its own programming and/ or input means thereto such as means for scanning drawings, finished articles, etc. The output 95 of keyboard-reel 94 is connected through a manually settable multiple output rotary switch 96 through a selected of a plurality of outputs 96-1, 96-2, 96-3, etc. each of which extends to the input side of a respective of the tone generators 83-1, 83-2, 83-3, etc. Accordingly, depending on the condition of switch 96, the operator of console 94 may transmit command control messages of a particular frequency on the output 84 to remotely control a selected of the multiple machines 90 when, for example, a new or special unit of work is present thereat. The operator of console 93 may also generate new messages either by selectively depressing push-buttons of the bank of push-buttons 94S or causing unit 94 to read a recording member in the reading section 94C thereof. The output 95 is connected by a bi-stable switch 958 to either the switching device 96 or a second single input-multiple output switch 97 having a plurality of outputs 98-1, 98-2, 98-3, etc., each of which is connected to respective recording transducers 99-1, 99-2, 99-3, etc. operative to record signals on the recording members of the respective recording units 81. Thus, the operator of the system illustrated in FIG. 6 may either directly control the selected machine tool by selectively operating switches 96 and 94S or may change recordings provided in the recording units 81, depending on requirement variations therefore. Each of the machines or machine tools 90 contains a sensing device 100 for sensing the presence of a work piece and generating one or more signals on its output upon effecting such sensing, said signals being operative to energize a respective tone generator 101 which generates a tone of a particular frequency associated with the machine containing the sensor. The tone generator 101 then generates a specific tone which it transmits by short-wave or wire to a plurality of tone responsive relays 102, each of which, denoted 102-1, 102-2, 102-3, etc. is operative to activate a particular reader unit 82 to read the recording provided on the respective recording unit or channel 81. In other words, each of the machines 90 is provided with means for sensing a unit of work fed thereto or therepast and for activating the reader of the command signal generator 80 associated therewith for generating a command control message for controlling the machine. The sensing unit 100 of each machine or tool 90 may also be operative to sense different work pieces fed to the machine and to generate different tone or code signals depending on the nature of the work unit sensed thereby so as to activate a predetermined of the plurality of reading devices 82 for generating signals which are operative to effect control of the tool in performing predetermined operations on the particular work piece. In FIG. 7 there is shown e ements of a system for identifying different units of work at each machine and generating feedback signals operative to activate the command control computer to generate and transmit command control messages of the specific frequencies to control the machine tool sensing the work. While the automatic production apparatus defined in FIGS. 2 and 6 provide work sensing relays mounted on the tools for sensing the surface of a work unit as the tool and work approach each other, there is provided in FIG. 7 not only means for detecting the presence of a work unit or its carrier but also for discriminating between different types of work so that an associated command control recording may be reproduced from the master controller or computer for controlling operation of the tool in accordance with the particular unit of Work present at the tool. A scanning unit is disposed on or adjacent the tool such as on the tool head or its associated structure and comprises a plurality of individual sensors or scanners denoted 100-1A, 100-1B, 100-1C, etc. such as photoelectric relays mounted in respective housings 100 one above the other and each adapted to scan along a different horizontal path or level and become energized when a sensitized marker 103 intersects the scanning axis of the particular scanner. The markers 103 may comprise retroreflective material which is disposed at certain levels along the sidewall of the work, work container or pallet while omitted from other scanning levels in a manner to define a particular coded array identifying or coding the work associated therewith. Each housing 100 may contain, in addition to a photoelectric cell and associated control therefore, a light source adapted to project light along or adjacent the scanning axis of the cell so as to energize the cell when light is reflected back into the housing. The output of each scanner 100 is a signal passed to energize a respective tone or frequency generator 101 there being a different tone generator connected to each scanner and adapted to generate a signal of a frequency which is different from the frequencies of all other tone generators. The outputs of all generators 101 (denoted 101-1A, 101-1B, 101-1C, etc.) are all connected to a common line 104 which may comprise a wire or short wave communication channel extending to a plurality of tone or frequency responsive relays 102-1, 102-2, 102-3 etc. associated with respective of the readers 82-1, 82-2, 82-3, etc. of the command recordings provided on record members or in record playback units 81. Upon becoming energized, each of the tone relays 102 is operative to effect the reading of a particular command recording and the generation and transmission of the signal derived from reproducing said recording to the tool mounting the scanners 100 for properly controlling same to predeterminately operate on the work. By providing an automatic production system as described and illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 in which different units of work may be identified by an identifying means operative to generate one or more frequency signals or signals made up of different frequencies or tones defining different coded arrays of same, and by providing a plurality of relay means each of which is responsive to different groups of frequencies or tone signals and each of which is operative to effect the generation of a different command control code or message, a plurality of machines such as tools, transfer devices and other means operative on or associated with work in process such as inspection devices, may be automatically operated to perform different operations on different units of work fed thereto with the operation being controlled by a single computer or controller. Means other than the scanning and identifying means of FIG. 7 for identifying different units of work or types of work may also be used in place of the bank of relays 100 scanning sensitized or reflective markers. For example, a contour sensing means such as a cathode ray or laser beam scanning means employing a deflection controlled beam, may be used to provide one or more signals which may be digitized to provide coded identifying signals upon scanning work which coded signals may be fed to a computer such as 80 to effect generation of the desired message. In the hereinabove presented description of the control systems operative to positionally control and preposition said power operative devices or tools, scanning to eifect the generation of feedback signals has been described as a combination of photoelectric scanning of marks, grid lines or reflectors disposed along the track 22 extending in the X direction and the actuation of limit switches with rotation of the output drive shafts of the various servo motors, which if drive slippage is not present or cumulative, is indicative of movement or time of operation of the particular power driven device. It is noted that photoelectric or other forms of scanning or sensing marks or other devices disposed in the path of movement of the power operated device or on the shaft of its drive means may also be employed to electrically indicate movement and serve as a feedback signal generating means -where so necessitated as pointed out hereinabove. A latitude of modification, substitution and change is intended in the foregoing disclosure and it will be appreciated that features and concepts derived from the drawings may be employed in varying combinations to provide different systems and types of automatic production, inspection and maintenance apparatus depending on the particular operational requirements. Certain of the mechanical features of production and maintenance tooling are shown in my said abandoned application while other features may be derived, for example, by modifying not only the control system as hereinabove proposed but the tool and its transport means. In the appended claims the term command control message is intended to include both analog and digital type messages as well as messages containing code portions of a fixed frequency and other portions of different frequency therefrom which may also be fixed or varied in a manner to operate code or tone responsive relays in the system. In some instances, some features of the invention will be used without a corresponding use of other features. It is intended that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the spirit and scope of the disclosure herein. 1. A remote controlled system for performing a plurality of preprogrammed machine operations comprising in combination: (a) a plurality of separately operable production machines each having at least one servo operative for performing programmed operations with respect to work in process, (b) control means for said servos including a different tone or frequency responsive relay for each servo with each relay being responsive to signals of different frequencies than the other relays, () master control means including means for generating a plurality of command control messages each of which is composed of signals which vary in frequency from the frequencies of the other message signals, there being at least one message of a frequency to which a respective one of said different tone relays is responsive, (d) a transmitting output means from said master control means for transmitting messagesignals on the communication channel coupled to said output means and the inputs to each of said machine servo tone relays, and (e) means for operating said master control means to simultaneously generate a plurality of said command control messages of different frequencies on said communication channel whereby messages of specific frequencies are received by and activate respective of said tone relays for simultaneously operating respective of said machines in predetermined manners. 2. An automatic machine tool control system comprismg: (a) a plurality of machine tools, (b) control means for controlling said machine tools to perform preprogrammed operations on work, (c) master message generating means for generating and transmitting different command control messages to activate respective of said control means to control the operation of the machine tools, (d) said master message generating means including recording means for messages and read out means for reproducing recorded messages from said recording means, (e) first input means to said recording means of said master message generating means including a record playback means having at least one record member provided with a plurality of recordings of said command control messages, (f) means for reading said recordings of said record playback unit to generate said messages on said input to said master message generating means, and (g) second input means to said master message generating means including a manual input device having a plurality of manual operative switches for manually generating different messages in response to the selective operation of said manual input device. 3. A control system in accordance with claim 2 whereby said manual input device is selectively operable to generate new command control messages and elfect the replacement therewith of recordings of selected messages previously provided on said record member of said master message generating means. 4. A control system in accordance with claim 2 including presettable predetermining control means associated with said machine tools, means for disseminating messages from said master message generating means to selectively preset said predetermining control mean, and means operative in response to signals generated by the machine tools as they operate for activating the preset predetermining control means thereof to effect automatic control of the tools. 5. An automatic production system comprising: a plurality of machine tools operative to perform preprogrammed operations on work-in-process, master control means including an erasable recorder having a plurality of command control messages and means for reproducing selected messages therefrom upon command, means for controlling the reproduction of selected messages from said recording means, a plurality of communication channels between said master control means and said machine tools for transmitting individual command control messages to each tool to control the tool in operating on work, means for relatively moving the work and tools, sensing means at each tool for generating a signal upon sensing the presence of a work piece when said work and tool are predeterminately positioned with respect to each other, said sensing means being operatively connected to said control means for said message reproduction means to cause a selected message to be reproduced and transmitted on a selected channel to operate the tool in predeterminately performing operations relative to said work piece. 6. A system in accordance with claim 5, wherein said master control means includes magnetic recording means for recording and reproducing signals defining said command control messages. 7. A system in accordance with claim 5, whereby said master control means includes a card reader for reading recordings contained on a plurality of cards and generating signals defining said command control messages. 23 8. A system in accordance with claim 5, including rotary stepping switch means in the output of said reproducing means for said recordings, said stepping switch means being operative to gate selected messages to respective of said communication channels for dissemination to selected of said machine tools. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,947,203 8/1960 Ausenda et a1. 77-5 3,280,659 10/ 1966 Allen 771 3,426,339 2/1969 Rich et a1 179100.2X 24 3,372,568 3/1968 Lemelson 214-11 1,631,927 6/ 1927 Dietrich 143-47X OTHER REFERENCES Electronics 4/ 54-Telemetering SystemSchulttheis, Jr., pgs. 172-5. ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner Z. R. BILINSKY, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 775; 8371	0.6737	FineWeb
Prohost Letter #391 Frightened by the Market and Politicians’ Debates, Not the Drug Industry, Investors are Fleeing the Biotechnology Sector 1. A fruitless debate over the high prices of drugs 2. The low price of oil, the world’s dream for decades, is now considered a disaster for the world economy? 1. The High Drug Price Debate Again, as in past presidential debates, politicians have chosen an atypical example in blaming the drug developing firms as the sole culprit for exorbitant drug prices. The open debates on this critical dilemma resulted in the instant disappearance of . . .	0.949	FineWeb
When a business, team, or leader is not experiencing the success they want, they are prone to falling into two related traps. Since leader results are a reflection of the quality of their decisions, extraordinary leaders recognize the importance of dedicating time to strengthen their thinking. In this five-minute video, I cover: - The two patterns leaders fall into - The mindsets and choices that distinguish high-functioning leaders - A practice extraordinary leaders use to 10X the number of ideas they generate - How external inputs will compromise your practice - Understanding which ideas are most deserving of your attention Click the play button below to watch this bite-sized leadership insight. PS – The Max Q masterclass details mentioned in the video can be found here.	0.7238	FineWeb
Over the past decade, chronic inflammation in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) has gained acceptance as a lead promoter of insulin resistance in obesity. A great deal of evidence has pointed to the role of adipokines and innate immune cells, in particular, adipose tissue macrophages, in the regulation of fat inflammation and glucose homeostasis. However, more recently, cells of the adaptive immune system, specifically B and T lymphocytes, have emerged as unexpected promoters and controllers of insulin resistance. These adaptive immune cells infiltrate obesity expanded VAT and through cytokine secretion and macrophage modulation dictate the extent of the local inflammatory response, thereby directly impacting insulin resistance. The remarkable ability of our adaptive immune system to regulate insulin sensitivity and metabolism has unmasked a novel physiological function of this system, and promises new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to manage the disease. This review highlights critical roles of adipose tissue lymphocytes in governing glucose homeostasis.	0.6251	FineWeb
We are proudly in the top of the food chain, claiming all the victories and giving shape to the world and its history. We never lose the opportunity to show and to brag about our heroic acts, and discoveries. Sometimes we forget genuinely of our friends more faithful: the animals, who know many stories where they save our lives. Great.guru made a list of animals that have changed the world. Can you guess what animal he managed to pave a way for agriculture on Mars? 8. The geese cacarean that saved Rome The flourishing roman empire was attacked by the gauls in the early fourth century.C. Defeated the romans at the Battle of Allia, and were mobilized to attack Rome. Entered the city with the intention of ascend to The Capitoline Hill. The gauls were quiet and fast, managed to pass unnoticed between the sentinels and guard dogs. Almost got away with it scuttle to one of the hills when they were seen by some geese romans patriotic. Blew a storm, and the noise woke up the guards nearby and then to the defenders of the city. Rome was savedand the geese enjoyed all the admiration and fame. 7. The wolves ended up temporarily the First World War Russian troops and German fought in the winter of 1916-1917 in an area that stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. The bad weather forced some hungry wolves to attack the groups of soldiers. It is intensified in such a way that both sides had more casualties from the attacks of the wolves for the battle. This caused the 2 parties to announce a temporary truce to fight against the wolves. Managed to hunt hundreds of wolves, and the rest dispersed. After the wolves were defeated, both sides returned to fighting among themselves. The hungry wolves showed that there was no need of any war. 6. The cat that opened a new chapter in criminology In 1994, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RPMC) found a body buried in a shallow grave along with a blood-soaked jacket. A test showed that the blood belonged to the victim, but also found a long white hair that belonged to a cat. The police knew that the husband of the victim, lived near the place of burial, and was the owner of a white cat called Snowball. The authorities obtained the blood of a Snowball to make a DNA test. It turned out that no laboratory had analyzed the DNA of a pet and no one wanted to be the first. After many calls and much research, an institution agreed to help. The police collected blood samples of approximately 20 cats to make sure that the felines did not have DNA similar. The long hair belonged to Snowball, and its owner was sent to prison. This opened a new chapter on the use of the DNA of pets to locate criminals, and as a result established the Basis of Genetic Data-Cat National. 5. The pigeon that saved hundreds of american troops A carrier pigeon named Cher Ami (“Dear friend”) was at the height of his name during the First World War. At the beginning of October 1918, more than 500 men found themselves trapped without food and or ammunition, hidden in the enemy lines. The More he tried to send messages, but the first two pigeons were shot down. Cher Ami was badly hurt. But despite the injury, this warrior winged managed to deliver the message. The men trapped were saved, and Cher Ami received The Cross of the War the French government. 4. Laika, Belka and Strelka: dogs that conquered space The first animal to achieve orbit, the dog Laika, addressed the soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. The tiny dog had been picked up, because the soviets believed that stray dogs were stronger and I was better in difficult conditions. Laika is credited as the that prepared the way for human space flight. Unfortunately, she did not survive the return. Three years later, on August 19, 1960, two new dogs, Belka and Strelka, went to the Sputnik 5. Came into the space and returned to Earth safe, which provided them with the confidence needed to send humans to orbit less than a year later. A small bark, a giant leap for mankind. 3. The sheep proved that cloning is possible Dolly is a sheep most famous of the history. He made a great contribution to science, despite the fact that I had no idea of his role. Dolly was the first mammal cloned complete and successfully using an adult cell. She was born in July of 1996 and was the only success from 277 attempts. Cloning techniques have improved significantly, because scientists learned much about the process of cloning through the study of Dolly. She remained healthy and happy in his old age and died in 2003. 2. The chimpanzee that changed human understanding Jane Goodall arrived in Tanzania in July 1960. Its mission was to study the chimpanzees, which was still a mystery to humans. The first 3 months not revealed anything, because the chimps were shy and had not been allowed to see them. Then she met David Greybeard, a chimpanzee with a gray beard. He gave Jane his first discovery when he saw it sharing the pork with a female. People assumed that chimpanzees were vegetarians. Only a month later, she was noted to David by dipping the grass into a termite hill and taking the grass to the mouth. After that David went on, Jane pushed the grass on the mound, and he saw that the termites bit and clung to the blade. David was using grass as a tool for fishing. Scientists thought that only humans could create and use tools. David continued to create more tools and in doing so changed our view of chimpanzees and humans. 1. The worms that have revolutionized agriculture Charles Darwin loved worms, as found as a fascinating species with a very important role in the growth of the society. The excrement of worms, their burrows and their activities for the power they have numerous beneficial effects on soil quality for crop production. The worms workers have been fertilizing our soil for millions of years. They are the ones that turned the ground into something we could cultivate. Recent research shows that the worms are currently able to thrive in the soil of Mars. The outcome of an experiment developed by NASA showed that the worms can survive and even produce offspring on Mars! Maybe our future is dependent on creatures more far-fetched, after all. After reading all this, do you think that animals should have the same rights as humans? Please share your point of view with us! Feel free to leave any comments here at Coolest-hacks.com	0.8145	FineWeb
Non-Respiratory Manifestations of COVID-19 and Pathophysiological Evidences Angeline S. Rajakumar1, , Siva R. Green1, S. Lokesh1, Prasanna Venkatesh1, V.K. Gowtham1 1 Department of General Medicine, MGMCRI, Pondicherry-607403, India Globally, COVID-19 is a viral disease that has become a public health challenge in 2020. COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV 2, that was first discovered in the Hubei province of China and it commonly manifests as a respiratory illness but also with symptoms ranging from mild myalgia to severe pneumonia. As our primitive understanding of this novel virus has evolved, COVID-19 has been shown to present in atypical non-pulmonary clinical manifestations, such as diarrhea, acute kidney injury, hepatic and cardiovascular abnormalities, blood coagulation and stroke along with loss of some special senses. We consolidated the publicly available information to precisely summarize the knowledge about the significant non-respiratory clinical manifestations of COVID-19. open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Address correspondence to this author at the Department of General Medicine, MGMCRI, Pondicherry, Pincode- 607403, India; Tel: +91 9566271559; E-mail: [email protected] The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced in 2019, that the corona virus disease (COVID-19) is a pandemic disease that has aroused international attention and public health emergencies .The novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID- 19 which is predominantly respiratory tract infections. More than 4 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide and although most of the people are present with cough, fever, and difficulty in breathing but some people are experiencing new clinical symptoms. Non-respiratory symptoms include diarrhea, abnormal renal function, and potentially life-threatening thrombus. It is uncommon for respiratory viruses to have such widespread influences in the body. An earlier research study has revealed that non-pulmonary symptoms may also be good indicators of SARS-CoV-2. Once the corona virus enters into the human body, it will attach to a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on human cells. This enzyme is usually involved in blood pressure regulation and is located on the surface of different types of cells, including brain cells, blood vessels, heart, intestines, and kidneys . In this review, we briefly discussed the basic pathophysiological knowledge of corona virus in other systems of human body and its non-respiratory clinical manifestations and possible risk factors. Our understanding regarding COVID-19 is still growing rapidly, and the further review will explore the uncommon clinical features of corona virus in other major body systems, along with its association with hypercoagulability, stroke, and special senses. Understanding the various symptoms of COVID-19 on the non-respiratory system is essential to provide comprehensive medical services to infected patients. 2. GASTROINTESTINAL SYSTEM Recently, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in a stool specimen which led to a suspicion of viral gastrointestinal infection and a fecal-oral transmission route . SARS-CoV-2 uses an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2) as a viral receptor for its entry process in the body which is abundantly expressed in intestinal cells . The sodium-dependent neutral amino acid transporter OAT1 in the gastrointestinal tract stabilizes the over-expressed ACE 2 messenger RNA that facilitates SARS-CoV-2 infection [5, 6].Because ACE2 expression is found in both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract, so its expression level is nearly 100 times higher in GI than that of respiratory organs. Besides this, over half of the patients who are infected with COVID-19, have the viral nucleic acid detected in feces , and nearly 25% of the stool samples showed test positive when respiratory samples were negative [8, 9]. The potential risk factors for developing GI infection of COVID-19 are chronic diseases like inflammatory bowel disease. In 29 studies (6064 cases) reporting gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with COVID-19, the prevalence of digestive symptoms was 15% and the most common were nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, and anorexia. The authors also reported that around 10% of patients presented with gastrointestinal features without respiratory symptoms . Another study involving 204 COVID-19 positive patients showed that 103 patients (50%) presented with digestive symptoms, such as lack of appetite (79%), diarrhea (34%), vomiting (4%), and abdominal pain (2%) . These reports imply that in some patients, although SARS-CoV-2 gets cleared in the respiratory tract, the virus continues to replicate in the gastrointestinal tract and could continue to be shed in feces leading to potential problems for themselves and individuals with whom they came into contact . The impact of COVID-19 on the GI system may have a particularly distressing effect on patients as they are inclined to suffer longer and infections are detected later. Diarrhea lasts from 1 to 14 days, with an average of 5 days . When a patient is infected, it takes an extended time to clear the virus. A study in China showed that 41 (55%) of 74 patients had SARS-CoV-2 RNA-positive fecal samples and while the respiratory samples of these patients remained positive for a mean of 16·7 days, their fecal samples remained positive for a mean of 27·9 days. One patient had RNA-positive fecal samples for 33 days after their respiratory samples became negative . 3. RENAL SYSTEM Kidney cells also carry the ACE2 receptors. A review of electronic health data of more than 5,000 COVID-19 hospitalized patients showed that 36.6% of known COVID-19 patients have acute kidney injury, and 14% of 1,830 patients require dialysis support for sustaining kidney function. The SARS-CoV-2 virus may also affect the kidney in one or two ways via the ACE2 receptor as it could directly infect kidney cells or trigger an aggressive systemic inflammatory response in the body. Kidney damage is directly related to the worsening of respiratory symptoms; almost 90% of people who require mechanical ventilation and only 22% of people who do not, develop acute kidney injury . These numbers are far higher than the incidence in regular hospitalized patients as shown in a study with 19,249 patients in whom an AKI incidence of 21% was observed, out of which almost 60% of AKI occurred in patients who never received care in an intensive care setting. Patients with kidney disease have a significantly higher risk of in-hospital mortality, and the risk varied significantly due to independent risk factors . 4. HEPATIC SYSTEM The liver also contains ACE2 receptors. Laboratory studies using cells in Petri dishes have shown that SARS-CoV-2 can enter and infect liver cells through these receptors. A previous study including 99 SARS-CoV-2 infected patients revealed that 43 out of them, had elevated levels of the liver enzymes - alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and lactic dehydrogenase, which are the signs of liver damage . A study of 417 covid-19 patients with at least one abnormal liver function test was conducted, of which more than 90% of patients had mild to moderate symptoms at the time of admission, and about 24% of them developed increased ALT and GGT levels to substantially more than 3 times the Upper limit of normal during hospitalization. It was discovered that after admission, the use of drugs, especially lopinavir and ritonavir, was the most important risk factor for liver damage. The use of lopinavir/ritonavir increased the odds of liver injury by 4-fold . The most common presentation is acute hepatitis. Predisposing risk factors are chronic illnesses like liver cirrhosis, chronic cholestatic liver disease, and liver transplantation recipients. The more severe the condition, the greater the likelihood of them developing coagulopathy and fulminant hepatitis . However, only a few cells express ACE2 in the liver, so it is unclear whether the virus causes the damage directly or via a cytokine storm that may affect the liver . 5. CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM American College of Cardiology issued a clinical bulletin which revealed that the COVID-19 mortality rate of patients with cardiovascular disease was found to be 10.5%. The data also indicates that people over 65 years of age who are more likely to have underlying coronary artery disease or high blood pressure are highly susceptible to be infected with the virus . Heart muscle cells express numerous ACE2 receptors. The severity of heart muscle involvement, in most cases, is directly related to the severity of lung involvement. The presence of any co-morbidity will multiply the risk of death by 12 times [21, 22]. A recent study which included 191 patients from Wuhan, China, confirmed that 48% of patients had any co-morbidity, like hypertension was found in 30%, DM accounted for 19%, and cardiovascular disease was present in 8% . The vulnerable groups are those with pre-existing established cardiovascular diseases. In COVID-19 patients, cardiovascular complications are common, and are associated with higher risk of morbidity and mortality. Common cardiac complications are hypotension, myocarditis, arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Post-mortem autopsy reports of some patients illustrated myocardial infiltration by interstitial mononuclear inflammatory cells . COVID-19 patients with cardiac involvement have elevated cardiac biomarkers secondary to infection-induced myocarditis and ischemia . It has also been linked with long term implications due to systemic inflammatory activity. Cardiovascular diseases can also be secondary to acute lung injury which in-turn cause increased cardiac workload, which can be deleterious in patients with pre-existing heart failure. Immune system activation results in plaque instability, contributing to acute coronary events. Acute myopericarditis in COVID-19 was reported few days after symptoms of fever, fatigue and dry cough emerged with ECG showing diffuse ST elevation. Arrhythmias in COVID-19 are rare occurrences and mostly associated with myocardial infarction, electrolyte imbalances and drugs causing QT prolongation including hydroxychloroquine used in COVID prophylaxis . 6. HYPERCOAGULABILITY AND STROKE One of the emergent risk factors during this pandemic is related to blood clots, including those that may cause a stroke. Similar to lungs, kidneys, liver, and intestinal cells, vascular cells are also expressed with ACE2 receptors, which means that the virus may directly infect blood vessels which leads to blood coagulation. The largest and most comprehensive analysis of COVID-19 patient's autopsies revealed that the brain showed surprisingly sparse inflammation, and only a few cases showed small focal areas of chronic inflammation. However, it is surprising that many cases showed micro thrombosis. These small infarctions may provide an explanation for the psychological changes in some of the positive patients . Two studies detailing the incidence of thromboembolic complications in SARS-CoV-2 patients have shown that the incidence of ischemic stroke is between 1.6% and 2.5% . Other risk factors make SARS-CoV-2 patients prone to thromboembolic stroke, the incidence of which exceeds traditional cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities, and complications associated with long-term hospitalization in the intensive care unit. Also, history noted that large vessel strokes were related to the SARS-CoV-1 epidemic in 2004 . It has also been suggested that coagulopathy and vascular endothelial dysfunction are a complication of COVID-19 . Studies have shown that COVID-19 patients have abnormal blood coagulation pathways, including elevated D-dimer [32-35]. The study of 25 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia found that all patients had elevated D-dimer, with a median of 6.06 micrograms/ml, of which 10 cases were diagnosed as pulmonary embolism (PE) by computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) . The median D-dimer level of patients confirmed by CTPA as PE was 11.07 μg/ml . Patients with D-dimer levels greater than 1 μg/mL and COVID-19 increased the risk of death during hospitalization. A study showed that anticoagulation therapy, mainly the low molecular weight heparin, may contribute to a six-fold reduction in mortality from D-dimers greater than the upper limit of normal . 7. NERVOUS SYSTEM Among 31 neurological studies on COVID-19 patients, 7 reported on Guillain-Barre syndrome, 11 reported on headache, 5 reported on olfactory dysfunction, and 5 reported on acute cerebrovascular accidents. It has been proposed that SARS-CoV-2 gains entry to the CNS by one of two ways: firstly, by systemic vascular dissemination and, secondly, more locally across the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone. Once entered in the systemic circulation, the virus invades neural tissue due to its properties of neurotropism. Here, it binds to and interacts with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in the capillary endothelium . The long-stay admissions in the hospital that patients with severe COVID-19 are currently experiencing may also pose another issue, that is post-intensive care syndrome (PICS), and in particular critical illness polyneuropathy and myopathy (CIPNM). However currently, no direct cause and effect has been attributed to neurological deterioration in patients with SARS-CoV-2 and this relationship could just as plausibly be explained by association with other multi-organ system failures. The direct effect on mortality and morbidity in such “neurological involving” patients is yet to be elucidated . Children have been seen to be less likely to become severely ill, but SARS-CoV2 should be considered in patients of the young age group presenting primarily with neurological symptoms without any obvious systemic involvement. There are multiple reports of children presenting with systemic inflammatory response requiring intensive care in contrast to many who presented with a less severe Kawasaki-like illness . In UK, a cohort study of 58 children who presented with inflammatory multisystem syndrome showed that 4 children were confirmed with COVID-19 who had distinct neurological presentations with lesions of splenium of corpus collosum (SCC) . Previous studies showed that reversible lesions of the SCC suggest an underlying intramyelin edema secondary to inflammatory response. Such a typical, transient lesion is also seen in pediatric population with Kawasaki disease . The response to immunosuppressant in these children along with the clinical overlap with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis impresses upon us to conclude that the neurological symptoms of SARS-CoV2 have not demonstrated neurotropism and that the underlying mechanism can be attributed to an immune-mediated response . Very meticulous neurodevelopment surveillance is mandated for these children 8. SPECIAL SENSES Another group of intriguing reports from people affected by COVID-19 has to do with an increasing body of significant anecdotal evidence suggesting anosmia as being a symptom of SARS-CoV-2. Olfactory disturbances may lead to changes in taste. A recent study indicates that before COVID-19 diagnosis, 73% of the subjects noticed insomnia, and in 26.6% of the subjects, it was the initial symptom . In Korea, a survey found that 15.3% of the 3191 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases had lost sense of smell or taste . German virologist, Hendrick Streeck reported that more than two-thirds of the patients with mild symptoms of COVID-19 revealed that they had lost their sense of smell and taste . There are some other cases reported that conjunctivitis is also related to COVID-19, but these symptoms are rare. Nevertheless, some researchers still want to know whether the virus can enter the body through the eyes. In a small study in China, researchers have discovered viral RNA in people’s tears. Another study in China which was conducted on 38 COVID-19 positive patients, revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in conjunctival specimen of 5.2% patients . Eye cells do express the ACE2 receptor, but researchers still believe that eye-related infections or tear-associated virus transmission can occur and are very rare. Patients with COVID-19 are typically present with cough, fever and other respiratory symptoms. But, in recent weeks, the extensive research on COVID positive patients has revealed an unexpected array of symptoms manifesting as other systemic illnesses. In the absence of vaccines or curative medical treatment, COVID-19 exerts an unprecedented global impact on public health and health care delivery. This review provides an insight into the current COVID-19 state of the art in terms of various non-respiratory clinical manifestations including gastrointestinal, renal, hepatic, cardiovascular, hypercoagulability, nervous and special senses involvement. Physicians must follow up the patients and look for early signs of complications or delayed recovery of the affected organs to normal so that a prompt intervention can be initiated. Physicians must also be aware of the uncommon modes of transmission in order to reduce community spread and also provide awareness. There is a rapidly growing body of literature and ongoing research in this field which hopefully will help in elucidating an effective best protocol for the management and treatment of atypically symptomatic patients. CONSENT FOR PUBLICATION CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise. Mao R, Qiu Y, He J-S, et al. Manifestations and prognosis of gastrointestinal and liver involvement in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 2020; 5(7): 667-78. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(20)30126-6] [PMID: 32405603] Jamie S. Hirsch, Jia H. Ng, Daniel W. Ross, Purva Sharma, Hitesh H. Shah, Richard L. Barnett, Azzour D. Hazzan, Steven Fishbane, Kenar D. Jhaveri; on behalf of the Northwell COVID-19 Research Consortium and the Northwell Nephrology COVID-19 Research Consortium. Acute kidney injury in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Kidney Int 2020. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.kint.2020.05.006] Bryce Clare. Pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2: Targeting of endothelial cells renders a complex disease with thrombotic microangiopathy and aberrant immune response. The Mount Sinai COVID-19 autopsy experience 2020. Tang N, Li D, Wang X, Sun Z. Abnormal coagulation parameters are associated with poor prognosis in patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia. J Thromb Haemost 2020; 18(4): 844-7. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jth.14768] [PMID: 32073213] Tang N, Bai H, Chen X, et al. Anticoagulant treatment is associated with decreased mortality in severe coronavirus disease 2019 patients with coagulopathy. J Thromb Haemost 2020; (Mar): 27. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jth.14817] Baig AM, Khaleeq A, Ali U, Syeda H. Evidence of the COVID-19 virus targeting the CNS: tissue distribution, host-virus interaction, and proposed neurotropic mechanisms. ACS Chem Neurosci 2020; 11(7): 995-8. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.0c00122] [PMID: 32167747] Whittaker E, Bamford A, Kenny J, et al. Clinical characteristics of 58 children with a pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2. JAMA 2020; 324(3): 259-69. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.10369] [PMID: 32511692] Abdullah Shehab Emirates Cardiac Society Emirates Medical Association Dubai (UAE) Biography Biography of Abdullah Shehab Dr. Abdullah Shehab has 22 years of experience in Internal medicine, cardiology and interventional cardiology and medical education. Currently, he serves as the General Secretary of Emirates Cardiac Society and Vice President of Gulf Intervention Society. He is a Fellow of royal college of physicians UK, American college of physician, European society of cardiology, of American college of cardiology, American society of cardiac intervention and fellow of American heart association. Professor Shehab is the Chief editor of Emirates Medical Journal and also serves as editor in many other regional and international journals. Dr. Shehab has published 149 paper in Medline. His research interest includes: Heart failure, Coronary artery disease, Dyslipidaemia, Hypertension, Arrhythmias, Cardiac intervention, Cardiac imaging, Screening for cardiac disease in sport players, Cardiovascular disease in pregnancy.	0.5368	FineWeb
Please note: These timers can be complicated to figure out and use. We highly recommend that you use a PicoBoo controller instead. - When trigger is applied (switch mat, PIR sensor, push button, etc) prop/lights/other activate from adjustable 1 second up to 10 minutes. - Will not keep triggering prop until trigger is removed and re-applied. For example, when someone steps on switch mat prop will activate for specified time, prop will then turn off and not re-activate until person steps off mat and another person steps on. - Use provided small dial to adjust ON time. - You can connect prop/lights/other to NO (normally open) to turn on or connect to NC (normally closed) to turn off when timer activates. - Internal relay handles up to 8 amps and will power AC or DC prop/lights/other. - Requires a 12v power supply to operate (sold separately). - You can also use this timer as a repeat timer! Special mode allows timer to turn on/off at set intervals over and over again! - 3 W x 2.5 L x 1 H Will this work with 24V DC solenoids?Yes, as long as you power it with a 24V power supply. Can this timer be used without needing a trigger?Yes, it can "loop" the time by using a jumper wire.	0.6409	FineWeb
Specifically designed for halls and areas characterized by large production equipment with thermal effect caused by high heat loads from machines or an extreme length/ width of the hall where standard ventilation from the hall’s side walls will provide insufficient cooling. This diffuser is however suitable for installation close to the occupied zone. In the cooling mode, the air is diffused horizontally. A wide radial spreading of the cold air ensures that draft phenomena in the occupied zone are avoided. In the heating mode, the air is discharged downwards. An increased flow pulse ensures that the heated air reaches the occupied zone. - High-output: High cooling and heating performance possible (air volume 1000…9000 m3/h) - Space-saving: a single device for heating and cooling - Variable use: at heights from 3 to 12 m - User-friendly, thanks to individually adjustable air stream, electric, pneumatic, manual. - Pleasant, uniform temperature air distribution with no risk of draught, even when installed in an occupancy area	0.7944	FineWeb
Two world wars have come and gone. I honor the dead and pray such a terrible loss of lives will never happen again. My life might have been so different. Perhaps I wouldn't have met German my co-writer Edith Parzefall. Nobody from those times would envisage such a friendship between the descendants of their enemies conducted over a connection to the cloud. Today I have internet connection problems and can't post at my usual early hour. Here's an excerpt from Long Doom Calling, the forth in the Higher Ground series set in the future after the Great Flood. “Why did the men want to kill each other?” Hugo asked. “I wondered that. Then I found myself understanding one man on the top of the hill. He was called Freddy and he didn't know why he was fighting on this night. Everyone around him had to do the same, fire at the enemy. Kill to prevent the enemy from storming up the hill. Or else they might try to take power in Freddy's own land of England.” Hugo leaned forward. “Aren't they fighting in their own land?” “No. They were over the sea far from home. While Freddy fired his rifle and watched his companions die, he thought about the special feast the next day and his family back home. His wife would set out presents for his two little children to find when they woke up in the morning. How he wanted to be there with them to celebrate the birth of Jeeves.” “Oh, that's the man in Saint Eyes,” Hugo said. “No. He was named after the man born long ago in a place called Lehem, in a distant land. The holy Jeeves became a gentle man, who taught love and understanding and spoke about his father in heaven.” Cerridwen paused. “That's the creator who I think of as the Highest.” “And I call the Lord.” Hugo grinned and rocked back and forward. “Anyway, Freddy just wanted to lay his rifle down at this special time. When I looked at the men below, their shoulders were drooping and some rubbed their eyes. The dark settled over the area and stars twinkled. One man dropped his rifle and lowered his head. I remember feeling sorry for him too. In a flash I joined with him, the way you do in dreams without any explanation of why it's happening.” “Yeah. It's strange,” Hugo said. “His name was Hans. He didn't want to think about killing the enemy. He didn't know why he should do what the man in charge told him. He was thinking of his new wife and his parents back home. He imagined them getting together for a feast on this special day, and he longed to be with them. He called to the man next to him and pointed at the stars. His friend nodded in understanding.” “Why the stars?” Hugo asked. “The stars had a special meaning on this holy day.” Cerridwen searched her memory. “Back with Freddy, I saw the men murmuring in prayer together. Then they burst into song. Silent night, holy night... Below, enemies joined in, singing the same melody but the words sounded different: Stille Nawkt, high lee gue Nawkt... Freddy said, 'I don't want to fight on this special day. What do you think they would do if we went downhill to join them in peace?' One of the other men said, 'Let's give it a try.' 'They might shoot us,' one man grumbled. 'I don't care,' Freddy said. 'We shouldn't kill each other at Christmas. Listen. They're singing another song. I'm going out.' Freddy left his rifle on the ground, climbed to his feet and started towards the men below. He expected to feel a sharp pain in his body at any moment, but no one shot him. Some of his hesitant friends joined him, faces serious. But not a bang echoed in the night.” Hugo sat with his mouth open. Hasid smiled. “One by one, the men below left their cover and walked towards them, hands empty of weapons. When they met, they laughed and nudged each other. They couldn't understand what the other men said, but when Freddy met Hans, they both pointed to the stars. Hans reached into his pocket. He brought out a little parcel of food and held it out to Freddy, smiling and nodding. Freddy took a packet of food from his own pocket and passed that to Hans. All the men swapped food and drink. They joined together in singing until dawn. Finally, they all went back to their original spots. Freddy settled down to sleep, thinking about the picture Hans had shown him of his wife. He understood that they both lived similar lives, followed similar dreams and shouldn't be killing each other.” “Great story.” Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. “I guess that ended the war.” Cerridwen sighed. “I'm afraid not. Freddy knew the whole time they'd be killing each other again the next day. Or be shot by their own headman. Once a war breaks out, it's hard to stop. Like an awful disease that spreads from one person to the other.” “Oh, that's terrible.” Hugo looked down at his hands to hide his disappointment. “If someone wants to take what doesn't belong to them, we should try to talk to them and understand what's going on. War should be the last choice if all negotiations fail.” She gazed at Trevly. Their eyes locked. He said, “We'll have to remember when we run into folks about to start a war.” My prayer is to have no more wars.	0.7006	FineWeb
Difference Between VPN and Remote Desktop VPN vs. Remote Desktop Remote Desktop is a common name for a group of applications that allow a user to access and control a computer from a remote location. This is very advantageous for those who are constantly on the move, but need the resources that are on their desktop. People who commonly use Remote Desktop are those who work at home, or are in the field. A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is the creation of a smaller private network on top of a larger public network, like the internet. Computers that are connected through a VPN, act as if they are physically connected to the same switch. VPN allows applications that only work on a local network, to work on the internet. Both VPN and Remote Desktop are methods of accessing resources that are located in a remote location, but they differ in what you are allowed to access. Using VPN to connect to a network, you are only allowed to access resources that are shared on that network. This includes shared folders, printers, and even other servers on the network. Remote Desktop gives you access to a lot more, as it gives you full control of a specific computer on the network. This gives you access to shared network resources, along with the resources of the computer that is being controlled. The user can launch applications, and perform other operations, as if he is right on that desk. Although they are very different, it is common for people to use them in tandem. The security provided by Remote Desktop applications are often not top-notch, and can be broken with a little persistence. To prevent this from happening, it is advised to use Remote Desktop applications that are tunneled through a VPN connection. There are a variety of ways to secure a VPN connection, and users can simply choose a combination of these, depending on how confidential is the data. The resulting nested structure is very secure and difficult to access. 1. A VPN is a smaller private network that runs on top of a larger public network, while Remote Desktop is a type of software that allows users to remotely control a computer. 2. Remote Desktop allows access and control to a specific computer, while VPN only allows access to shared network resources. 3. Most Remote Desktop applications are tunneled through secure VPNs, to add another layer of security. Search DifferenceBetween.net : Email This Post : If you like this article or our site. Please spread the word. Share it with your friends/family. Leave a Response	0.8779	FineWeb
WX5X3002 GE Water Filter Wrench Get 5% Off When You Check Out With Auto DeliveryGet Details The GE WX5X3002 aids in unfastening GE Whole House Filter housings and Smartwater systems. Used with the following: - GE SmartWater wX5X3002 GXWH30C, AP3191235, GXWH35F, HDWRNCH, PS311963 - GE Whole House GXWH30C, GXWH35F - Genuine OEM product - Diameter: 6" WX5X3002 GE Water Filter Wrench Product Reviews :Write a review - Not reviewed yet \|WX5X3002 is used in the following Models\| Auto Delivery from Filtersfast.com Never forget to change your filters. Save 5% today and on all your future orders & we'll deliver them automatically! Here's how it works: - Save 5% today and on all your future orders - Enjoy the convenience of not having to reorder - Cancel or modify your orders anytime - Select a delivery schedule that works for you - Pay as you go	0.5487	FineWeb
I am available for commission work, collaborative projects, and teaching. Contact me at [email protected] At the turn of the 20th century Tulsa Oklahoma was dubbed the “Oil Capital of the world” and the “City of Dreams”. Many came here looking for the opportunity to make money; among these were African Americans coming from southern states where racism was prevalent. They settled in North Tulsa. Their businesses grew, and the area soon became known as Black Wall Street. In 1921 the bloody Tulsa Race Riot broke out, devastating African American communities. More than one thousand homes and businesses were destroyed; credible estimates of deaths range from fifty to three hundred. “It is believed to be the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” The legacy of this violence continues today to be a sensitive subject that bears commemorating.	0.6912	FineWeb
In a world divided into Fascists, Communists, Democrats, Republicans, Anarchists, Socialists, and Marxists, the ideologies of individual members and groups have a significant bearing on how they view the world, the problems plaguing it, and the perceived solutions to solve the issues that ail the world. Ideologies in simple words are the collection of specific ideals, principles, doctrines, and even myths shared by a group of people that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. In the field of international politics, the role of ideologies should never be underestimated. Ideologies not only affect the goals and objectives of national interest, but also have the power to drastically impact the international political scenario. The ideology of Marxism that originated from the works of philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels has influenced multiple political ideologies and social movements all around the world. History is witness to the worldwide horrors that were born out of the Nazi ideology that was originated by Adolf Hitler in the late 1910s Germany. The ideologies of Liberalism and Communism play a defining role in international relations today. In this section, we have categorized famous people by ideology.	0.8452	FineWeb
Create a unique hi-rise Rainbow Composting Tower. Colored sands show how worms travel underground. A privacy screen means that the action is always visible. Terrarium style gardens grow worm foods. The unique Wormarium workbench features tool holders and Intelligence tests for worms based on Charles Darwinˇ¦s world famous research. Age Grading: 6+ Years Product Code: WS/87	0.8536	FineWeb
Myths (so runs the myth) belong to past ages, when people were naïve enough to believe in them. Today, in scientific modern times, we’ve put away such childish things. So why bother with fantasy? Isn’t it just puerile escapism? Even children are expected to grow out of myths and fairytales, and surely any adult found reading or writing the stuff cannot expect to be taken seriously? Can fantasy really have anything meaningful to say? These are interesting questions. As I try to answer them in what may seem a round-about way, I’ll begin with an even bigger question: What makes us human? The answers to this one keep being refined. A special creation in the image of God – for centuries a popular and satisfying answer? Difficult to sustain as it became clear that we’re only one twig on the great branching tree of evolution. Language? Perhaps, but the more we study other animals and birds, the more we realise many of them communicate in quite sophisticated ways. Toolmaking? Not that distinctive, as chimpanzees and a variety of other animals employ twigs and stones as tools. Art? It depends what you mean by ‘art’ – if you think of bower-birds designing pretty nests to attract their mates, it seems clear that some animals do have an aesthetic capacity. So are we different from other animals at all? Common sense says yes – at the very least, we have taken all these capabilities incomparably further than other animals – but is that really the best we can do for a definition? What was the point at which our ancestors became recognisably ‘us’, and in what does that recognition rest? Innovation is one answer – the development and bettering of tools. Homo habilis and homo heidelbergensis lived with one basic design of hand axe for about a million years. When, on the other hand, we see signs of people messing about and tinkering and trying out new ideas, we recognise ourselves. Related to this is another answer: symbolic thinking. Maybe some of our closest relatives are partially capable of it – a chimpanzee can recognise a drawing or a photograph, which means nothing to a dog. But wild chimps don’t indulge in representational art. Sometime, somewhere, somebody realised that lines of ochre or charcoal drawn on stone or wood could stand for a horse or a deer or an aurochs. That in itself is an amazing leap of cognition. On top of that, however, there had to be some fascination in the discovery, some reason to keep on doing it – some inherent, achieved meaning that had nothing directly to do with physical survival. What? Why? I think it may be because, somewhere along the line, human beings became sufficiently self-aware to be troubled by death. When you truly understand that one day, you’ll die, the whole mystery of existence comes crashing down on you like the sky falling. Why are we here? What was before us? Where did we come from and where will we go? The ‘mystery of existence’ is an artefact. We choose to ask an answerless question, and that question is at the core of our humanity. The before-and-after of life is a great darkness, and we build bonfires to keep it out, and warm ourselves and comfort ourselves. The bonfire is the bonfire of mythical thinking, of culture, stories, songs, music, poetry, religion, art. We don’t need it for our physical selves: homo heidelbergensis got on perfectly well without it: we need it for humanity’s supreme invention, the soul. Karen Armstrong claims that religion is an art, and I agree with her. In her book ‘A Short History of Myth’ she examines the modern expectation that all truths shall be factually based. This is what religious fundamentalists and scientists like Richard Dawkins have, oddly, in common. A religious fundamentalist refuses to accept the theory of evolution because it appears to him or her to disprove the truth of Genesis, when what Genesis actually offers is not a factual but an emotional truth: a way of accounting for the existence of the world and the place of people in it with all their griefs and joys and sorrows. It’s – in other words – a story, a fantasy, a myth. Its purpose is not to explain the world, like a scientist. Its purpose is to reconcile us with the world. Early people were not naïve. The truth that you get from a story is different from the truth of a proven scientific fact. Any work of art is a symbolic act. Any work of fiction is per se, a fantasy. In the broadest sense, you can see this must be so. They are all make-belief. Tolstoy’s Prince André and Tolkien’s Aragorn are equal in their non-existence. Realism in fiction is an illusion – just as representational art is a sleight of hand (and of the mind) that tricks us into believing lines and splashes of colour are ‘really’ horses or people or landscapes. The question shouldn’t be ‘Is it true?’, because no story provides truth in the narrow factual sense. The questions to ask about any work of art should be like these: ‘Does it move me? Does it express something I always felt but didn’t know how to say? Has it given me something I never even knew I needed?’ As Karen Armstrong says, “Any powerful work of art invades our being and changes it forever.” If that happens, you will know it. It makes no sense at all to ask, ‘Is it true?’ This is my credo: fantasy deserves to be taken seriously - read and written seriously - because there are things humanity needs to say that can only be said in symbols. Here’s the last verse of Bob Dylan’s song ‘The Gates of Eden’ (from ‘Bringing it All Back Home’): At dawn my lover comes to me And tells me of her dreams With no attempts to shovel the glimpse Into the ditch of what each one means At times I think there are no words But these to tell what’s true: And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden.	0.6061	FineWeb
LONDON, UK – 22 September 2015 — AppDynamics, a leading application intelligence company, has today released new research revealing that substandard digital services have a negative impact on student learning experiences in the UK. Poor software performance is revealed as a top frustration, with 63 percent of students stating it is a contributing factor in causing them to miss important deadlines. In today’s learning environment, almost all students (96 percent) require the use of at least one application to complete their degree, with 63 percent using two to four on a regular basis, according to the study. Despite this, the study indicates that complex resources and poor virtual learning environments have a negative impact on students’ overall learning (68 percent). The study, which polled 500 UK university students, highlights the potential negative impact that poorly performing applications can have on academic performance and degree results. Key findings include: 71% of students have experienced technical difficulties with their university applications 63% have missed assignment deadlines in part because of poor university software performance 80% of students would severely reduce their university’s score in the National Student Survey as a result of poorly performing online services The study also reveals different digital expectations of students based on course type: Computer science students consider the ability to access literature (71%) and take part in course-related collaboration (63%) as the most desired digital features Arts students cited social networking (45%) as the most valuable digital feature Social science students place most value on having IT that enables timely assignment submission (37%) Jeremy Duggan, vice president, EMEA at AppDynamics, commented, “Today’s students have grown up with services like Google, Airbnb, and Uber. They demand intuitive services that offer 24/7 access. In light of the rise in tuition fees, universities must behave as true software-defined businesses and regard their students as customers. This means a strong digital strategy with innovation and performance at its core. CIOs must understand that software is key to growing today's students into tomorrow's business leaders. The benefits are that these successful students then become brand ambassadors, attracting further talent to the university.” Some schools and universities are actively working on improving their digital experience, such as the London School of Economics, which is working with AppDynamics to improve the performance of its digital resources. Ron Riley, enterprise technology manager at LSE, states, “With any university system there are many moving parts, making it challenging to identify and remediate bottlenecks that can impact the performance of services. Implementing the right tools, such as effective application intelligence, can help universities to spot issues instantly and help get the problems resolved before the user is affected.” To find out more, the full report can be found here: A free trial of AppDynamics is available atwww.appdynamics.com/freetrial About the research AppDynamics is a registered trademark of AppDynamics, Inc. © 2008-2016 AppDynamics, Inc. All rights reserved. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.	0.5994	FineWeb
Total synthesis is sometimes the only way to explore the chemical space around a natural product It often feels that chemists’ talk of biological activity at the start of total synthesis papers is just boilerplate. But natural products continue to be an important source of new drugs. In therapeutic areas such as antibiotics and oncology, natural products and their derivatives make up more than half of approved drugs.1 Big Pharma’s enthusiasm for natural product chemistry has waxed and waned over the years, but with the spectre of a post-antibiotic era looming, chemists are again looking to nature for inspiration in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria. The diterpene fungal metabolite (+)-pleuromutilin has already successfully served as a starting point for antibiotic development. Starting from natural pleuromutilin, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) created retapamulin, a powerful antibiotic that was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007. Lefamulin, another pleuromutilin-derived compound from Nabriva Therapeutics, is also in clinical trials. However, while such semi-synthetic approaches save time and money by shifting work from chemists to fermenters, they do have downsides. One major limitation is that teams are often stuck with the majority of the natural product structure, as it’s just too difficult to make big changes. Indeed, both the GSK and Nabriva teams opted to simply swap out the molecule’s peripheral acyl side chain, leaving a vast amount of chemical space – and many potential new drugs – unexplored. This is unfortunate, as tweaks to the molecule’s eight-membered ring, such as inverting the C-12 stereocentre, can profoundly alter its bioactivity. However, making these kinds of changes to the harvested natural product is often laborious – where it’s possible at all. Although the usefulness of total synthesis is constantly debated, it’s generally agreed that probing the structure-activity relationship of a bioactive natural product is perhaps one of the few areas where it remains indispensable. But even though several impressive total syntheses of pleuromutilin have been achieved, no synthetic route had been designed with this goal in mind. A modular approach by Seth Herzon and co-workers at Yale University in the US has now set the stage for a detailed investigation of new analogues inaccessible from the natural product itself.2 The group begins by quickly assembling the target’s five- and six-membered rings, needing just eight steps to prepare the enantiopure cyclic enimide from cyclohexenone, in 20% overall yield. Next comes the key fragment coupling that installs the remaining half of the cyclooctane ring (figure 2). Adding this unit last – with the flexibility to change its makeup – is really the genius of this approach, and the group will no doubt exploit this modularity in the future to further explore the related chemical space. Stapling on the remaining carbon atoms begins with an organolithium addition to the enimide. Although the 48% yield seems modest at first, it’s worth noting that both the nucleophile and electrophile are neopentyl, and bringing together two quaternary centres like this is hard. Next, the methyl ketone is converted to the alkyne, and the p-methoxybenzyl-protected alcohol is exposed and oxidised. An exo-selective reductive cyclisation under nickel catalysis completes the final ring. The regio- and diastereoselectivity here are quite impressive, and if this approach can make an eight-membered ring, it’s probably good for other sizes as well, as long as the exo-selectivity holds up. The carbon skeleton is now complete, and just a few oxidation-level tweaks and inversion of the C-12 centre are needed to complete the natural product. Often to obtain this level of flexibility, chemists are forced to sacrifice efficiency, and while it’s not a manufacturing route, I think this synthesis does a great job of balancing the two. With the group now poised to make libraries of synthetic pleuromutilins, I am excited to see what they find!	0.547	FineWeb
Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems. The first part of the formatting process that performs basic medium preparation is often referred to as "low-level formatting". Partitioning is the common term for the second part of the process, making the data storage device visible to an operating system. The third part of the process, usually termed "high-level formatting" most often refers to the process of generating a new file system. In some operating systems all or parts of these three processes can be combined or repeated at different levels[NB 1] and the term "format" is understood to mean an operation in which a new disk medium is fully prepared to store files. As a general rule,[NB 2] formatting a disk leaves most if not all existing data on the disk medium; some or most of which might be recoverable with special tools. Special tools can remove user data by a single overwrite of all files and free space. - 1 History - 2 Disk formatting process - 3 Host protected area - 4 Reformatting - 5 Formatting - 6 Recovery of data from a formatted disk - 7 See also - 8 Notes - 9 References - 10 External links A block, a contiguous number of bytes, is the minimum unit of storage that is read from and written to a disk by a disk driver. The earliest disk drives had fixed block sizes (e.g. the IBM 350 disk storage unit (of the late 1950s) block size was 100 6 bit characters) but starting with the 1301 IBM marketed subsystems that featured variable block sizes: a particular track could have blocks of different sizes. The disk subsystems on the IBM System/360 expanded this concept in the form of Count Key Data (CKD) and later Extended Count Key Data (ECKD); however the use of variable block size in HDDs fell out of use in the 1990s; one of the last HDDs to support variable block size was the IBM 3390 Model 9, announced May 1993. Modern hard disk drives, such as Serial attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) drives, appear at their interfaces as a contiguous set of fixed-size blocks; for many years 512 bytes long but beginning in 2009 and accelerating through 2011, all major hard disk drive manufacturers began releasing hard disk drive platforms using the Advanced Format of 4096 byte logical blocks. Floppy disks generally only used fixed block sizes but these sizes were a function of the host's OS and its interaction with its controller so that a particular type of media (e.g., 5¼-inch DSDD) would have different block sizes depending upon the host OS and controller. Optical disks generally only use fixed block sizes. Disk formatting process Formatting a disk for use by an operating system and its applications typically involves three different processes.[NB 3] - Low-level formatting (i.e., closest to the hardware) marks the surfaces of the disks with markers indicating the start of a recording block (typically today called sector markers) and other information like block CRC to be used later, in normal operations, by the disk controller to read or write data. This is intended to be the permanent foundation of the disk, and is often completed at the factory. - Partitioning divides a disk into one or more regions, writing data structures to the disk to indicate the beginning and end of the regions. This level of formatting often includes checking for defective tracks or defective sectors. - High-level formatting creates the file system format within a disk partition or a logical volume. This formatting includes the data structures used by the OS to identify the logical drive or partition's contents. This may occur during operating system installation, or when adding a new disk. Disk and distributed file system may specify an optional boot block, and/or various volume and directory information for the operating system. Low-level formatting of floppy disks The low-level format of floppy disks (and early hard disks) is performed by the disk drive's controller. Consider a standard 1.44 MB floppy disk. Low-level formatting of the floppy disk, normally writes 18 sectors of 512 bytes to each of 160 tracks (80 on each side) of the floppy disk, providing 1,474,560 bytes of storage on the disk. Physical sectors are actually larger than 512 bytes, as in addition to the 512 byte data field they include a sector identifier field, CRC bytes (in some cases error correction bytes) and gaps between the fields. These additional bytes are not normally included in the quoted figure for overall storage capacity of the disk. Different low-level formats can be used on the same media; for example, large records can be used to cut down on inter-record gap size. Several freeware, shareware and free software programs (e.g. GParted, FDFORMAT, NFORMAT and 2M) allowed considerably more control over formatting, allowing the formatting of high-density 3.5" disks with a capacity up to 2 MB. Techniques used include: - head/track sector skew (moving the sector numbering forward at side change and track stepping to reduce mechanical delay), - interleaving sectors (to boost throughput by organizing the sectors on the track), - increasing the number of sectors per track (while a normal 1.44 MB format uses 18 sectors per track, it is possible to increase this to a maximum of 21), and - increasing the number of tracks (most drives could tolerate extension to 82 tracks: though some could handle more, others could jam). Low-level formatting (LLF) of hard disks Hard disk drives prior to the 1990s typically had a separate disk controller that defined how data was encoded on the media. With the media, the drive and/or the controller possibly procured from separate vendors, users were often able to perform low-level formatting. Separate procurement also had the potential of incompatibility between the separate components such that the subsystem would not reliably store data. User instigated low-level formatting (LLF) of hard disk drives was common for minicomputer and personal computer systems until the 1990s. IBM and other mainframe system vendors typically supplied their hard disk drives (or media in the case of removable media HDDs) with a low-level format. Typically this involved subdividing each track on the disk into one or more blocks which would contain the user data and associated control information. Different computers used different block sizes and IBM notably used variable block sizes but the popularity of the IBM PC caused the industry to adopt a standard of 512 user data bytes per block by the middle 1980s. Depending upon the system, low-level formatting was generally done by an operating system system utility. IBM compatible PCs used the BIOS, which is invoked using the MS-DOS debug program, to transfer control to a routine hidden at different addresses in different BIOSes. Transition away from LLF Starting in the late 1980s, driven by the volume of IBM compatible PCs, HDDs became routinely available pre-formatted with a compatible low-level format. At the same time, the industry moved from historical (dumb) bit serial interfaces to modern (intelligent) bit serial interfaces and Word serial interfaces wherein the low level format was performed at the factory. Today, an end-user, in most cases, should never perform a low-level formatting of an IDE or ATA hard drive, and in fact it is often not possible to do so on modern hard drives because the formatting is done on a servowriter before the disk is assembled into a drive in the factory. \|This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2009)\| While it is generally impossible to perform a complete LLF on most modern hard drives (since the mid-1990s) outside the factory, the term "low-level format" is still used for what could be called the reinitialization of a hard drive to its factory configuration (and even these terms may be misunderstood). The present ambiguity in the term low-level format seems to be due to both inconsistent documentation on web sites and the belief by many users that any process below a high-level (file system) format must be called a low-level format. Since much of the low level formatting process can today only be performed at the factory, various drive manufacturers describe reinitialization software as LLF utilities on their web sites. Since users generally have no way to determine the difference between a complete LLF and reinitialization (they simply observe running the software results in a hard disk that must be high-level formatted), both the misinformed user and mixed signals from various drive manufacturers have perpetuated this error. Note: Whatever possible misuse of such terms may exist (search hard drive manufacturers' web sites for all these terms), many sites do make such reinitialization utilities available (possibly as bootable floppy diskette or CD image files), to both overwrite every byte and check for damaged sectors on the hard disk. Reinitialization should include identifying (and sparing out if possible) any sectors which cannot be written to and read back from the drive, correctly. The term has, however, been used by some to refer to only a portion of that process, in which every sector of the drive is written to; usually by writing a specific value to every addressable location on the disk. Traditionally, the physical sectors were initialized with a filler value of 0xF6 as per the INT 1Eh's Disk Parameter Table (DPT) during format on IBM compatible machines. This value is also used on the Atari Portfolio. 8-inch CP/M floppies typically came pre-formatted with a value of 0xE5, and by way of Digital Research this value was also used on Atari ST and some Amstrad formatted floppies.[NB 4] Amstrad otherwise used 0xF4 as a format filler value. Some modern formatters wipe hard disks with a value of 0x00 instead, sometimes also called zero-filling, whereas a value of 0xFF is used on flash disks to reduce wear. The latter value is typically also the default value used on ROM disks (which cannot be reformatted). (Some advanced formatting tools allow to configure the format filler byte.[NB 5]) One popular method for performing only the zero-fill operation on a hard disk is by writing zero-value bytes to the drive using the Unix dd utility with the /dev/zero stream as the input file and the drive itself or a specific partition as the output file. This command may take many hours to complete, and can erase all files and file systems. Partitioning is the process of writing information into blocks of a storage device or medium that allows access by an operating system. Some operating systems allow the device (or its medium) to appear as multiple devices; i.e. partitioned into multiple devices. On MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and UNIX-based operating systems (such as BSD, Linux and Mac OS X) this is normally done with a partition editor, such as fdisk, GNU Parted, or Disk Utility. These operating systems support multiple partitions. In current IBM mainframe OSs derived from OS/360 and DOS/360, such as z/OS and z/VSE, this is done by the INIT command of the ICKDSF utility. These OSs support only a single partition per device, called a volume. The ICKDSF functions include creating a volume label and writing a Record 0 on every track. Floppy disks are not partitioned; however depending upon the OS they may require volume information in order to be accessed by the OS. Partition editors and ICKDSF today do not handle low level functions for HDDs and optical disk drives such as writing timing marks, and they cannot reinitialize a modern disk that has been degaussed or otherwise lost the factory formatting. High-level formatting is the process of setting up an empty file system on a disk partition or logical volume and, for PCs, installing a boot sector. This is a fast operation, and is sometimes referred to as quick formatting. The entire logical drive or partition may optionally be scanned for defects, which may take considerable time. In the case of floppy disks, both high- and low-level formatting are customarily performed in one pass by the disk formatting software. 8-inch floppies typically came low-level formatted and were filled with a format filler value of 0xE5.[NB 4] Since the 1990s, most 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppies have been shipped pre-formatted from the factory as DOS FAT12 floppies. In current IBM mainframe operating systems derived from OS/360 or DOS/360, this may be done as part of allocating a file, by a utility specific to the file system or, in some older access methods, on the fly as new data are written. Host protected area Reformatting is a high-level formatting performed on a functioning disk drive to free the contents of its medium. Reformatting is unique to each operating system because what actually is done to existing data varies by OS. The most important aspect of the process is that it frees disk space for use by other data. To actually "erase" everything requires overwriting each block of data on the medium; something that is not done by many PC high-level formatting utilities. Reformatting often carries the implication that the operating system and all other software will be reinstalled after the format is complete. Rather than fixing an installation suffering from malfunction or security compromise, it is sometimes judged easier to simply reformat everything and start from scratch. Various colloquialism exist for this process, such as "wipe and reload", "nuke and pave", "reimage", etc. DOS, OS/2 and Windows format command: Under MS-DOS, PC DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows, disk formatting can be performed by the format command. The format program usually asks for confirmation beforehand to prevent accidental removal of data, but some versions of DOS have an undocumented /AUTOTEST option; if used, the usual confirmation is skipped and the format begins right away. The WM/FormatC macro virus uses this command to format drive C: as soon as a document is opened. Unconditional format: There is also the /U parameter that performs an unconditional format which under most circumstances overwrites the entire partition, preventing the recovery of data through software. Note however that the /U switch only works reliably with floppy diskettes (see image to the right). Technically because unless /Q is used, floppies are always low level formatted in addition to high-level formatted. Under certain circumstances with hard drive partitions, however, the /U switch merely prevents the creation of unformat information in the partition to be formatted while otherwise leaving the partition's contents entirely intact (still on disk but marked deleted). In such cases, the user's data remain ripe for recovery with specialist tools such as EnCase or disk editors. Reliance upon /U for secure overwriting of hard drive partitions is therefore inadvisable, and purpose-built tools such as DBAN should be considered instead. Overwriting: In Windows Vista and upwards the non-quick format will overwrite as it goes. Not the case in Windows XP and below. OS/2: Under OS/2, if you use the /L parameter, which specifies a long format, then format will overwrite the entire partition or logical drive. Doing so enhances the ability of CHKDSK to recover files. Unix-like operating systems High-level formatting of disks on these systems is traditionally done using the mkfs command. On Linux (and potentially other systems as well) mkfs is typically a wrapper around filesystem-specific commands which have the name mkfs.fsname, where fsname is the name of the filesystem with which to format the disk. Some filesystems which are not supported by certain implementations of mkfs have their own manipulation tools; for example Ntfsprogs provides a format utility for the NTFS filesystem. Some Unix and Unix-like operating systems have higher-level formatting tools, usually for the purpose of making disk formatting easier and/or allowing the user to partition the disk with the same tool. Examples include GNU Parted (and its various GUI frontends such as GParted and the KDE Partition Manager) and the Disk Utility application on Mac OS X. Recovery of data from a formatted disk \|\|This section possibly contains original research. (March 2011)\| As in file deletion by the operating system, data on a disk are not fully erased during every high-level format. Instead, the area on the disk containing the data is merely marked as available, and retains the old data until it is overwritten. If the disk is formatted with a different file system than the one which previously existed on the partition, some data may be overwritten that wouldn't be if the same file system had been used. However, under some file systems (e.g., NTFS, but not FAT), the file indexes (such as $MFTs under NTFS, inodes under ext2/3, etc.) may not be written to the same exact locations. And if the partition size is increased, even FAT file systems will overwrite more data at the beginning of that new partition. From the perspective of preventing the recovery of sensitive data through recovery tools, the data must either be completely overwritten (every sector) with random data before the format, or the format program itself must perform this overwriting, as the DOS FORMAT command did with floppy diskettes, filling every data sector with the format filler byte value (typically However there are applications and tools, especially used in forensic information technology, that can recover data that has been conventionally erased. In order to avoid the recovery of sensitive data, governmental organization or big companies use information destruction methods like the Gutmann method. For average users there are also special applications that can perform complete data destruction by overwriting previous information. Although there are applications that perform multiple writes a single write is generally all that is needed on modern hard disk drives. The ATA Secure Erase can be performed by disk utilities to quickly and thoroughly wipe drives. Degaussing is another option, however this renders the drive unusable. - E.g., formatting a volume, formatting a Virtual Storage Access Method Linear Data Set (LDS) on the volume to contain a zFS and formatting the zFS in UNIX System Services. - Not true for CMS file system on a CMS minidisk, TSS VAM-formatted volume, z/OS Unix file systems or VSAM in IBM mainframes - Each process may involve multiple steps, and steps of different processes may be interleaved. - The fact, that 8-inch CP/M floppies came pre-formatted with a filler value of 0xE5is the reason, why the value of 0xE5has a special meaning in directory entries in FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. This byte configuration allowed 86-DOS to use 8-inch floppies out of the box or with only the FAT initialized. - One utility providing an option to specify the desired format filler value for hard disks is DR-DOS' FDISK R2.31 with its optional wipe parameter /W:246(for a format filler byte of 0xF6). In contrast to other FDISK utilities, DR-DOS FDISK is not only a partitioning tool, but can also format freshly created partitions as FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32. This reduces the risk to accidentally format wrong volumes. - Tanenbaum, Andrew (2001). Modern Operating Systems, 2nd Edition. section 3.4.2, Disk Formatting. ISBN 0130313580. - IBM (2008), "FORMAT", z/VM CMS Commands and Utilities Reference, z/VM Version 5 Release 4, IBM, SC24-6073-03, "When you do not specify either the RECOMP or LABEL option, the disk area is initialized by writing a device-dependent number of records (containing binary zeros) on each track. Any previous data on the disk is erased." - IBM, "Virtual Access Methods" (PDF), IBM System/360 Time Sharing System System Logic Summary Program Logic Manual, IBM, p. 56 (PDF 66), GY28-2009-2, "The direct access volumes, on which TSS/360 virtual organization data sets are stored, have fixed-length, page size data blocks. No key field is required. The record overflow feature is utilized to allow data blocks to span tracks, as required. The entire volume, with the current exception of part of the first cylinder, which is used for identification, is formatted into page size blocks." - Hermans, Sherman (28 August 2006). "How to recover lost files after you accidentally wipe your hard drive". Linux.com. Retrieved 22 November 2012. - Smithson, Brian (29 August 2011). "The Urban Legend of Multipass Hard Disk Overwrite and DoD 5220-22-M". Infosec Island. Retrieved 22 November 2012. - "IBM 1301 disk storage unit". IBM. Retrieved 2010-06-24. - IBM 3390 direct access storage device - "The LBAs on a logical unit shall begin with zero and shall be contiguous up to the last logical block on the logical unit"., Information technology — Serial Attached SCSI - 2 (SAS-2), INCITS 457 Draft 2, May 8, 2009, chapter 4.1 Direct-access block device type model overview. - ISO/IEC 791D:1994, AT Attachment Interface for Disk Drives (ATA-1), section 7.1.2 - Western Digital's Advanced Format: The 4K Sector Transition Begins - Advanced Format – The Migration to 4K Sectors, Seagate Corp. - This problem became common in PCs where users used RLL controllers with MFM drives; "MFM drives should not be used on RLL controllers. ..". - Using DEBUG to Start a Low-Level Format, Microsoft - The NOSPIN Group, Inc. (n.d.). Low level formatting an IDE hard drive (archived). Retrieved December 24, 2003. - The PC Guide. Site Version: 2.2.0 - Version Date: April 17, 2001 Low-Level Format, Zero-Fill and Diagnostic Utilities. Retrieved May 24, 2007. - Many enterprise class HDDs can be low-level formatted to block sizes other than 512 bytes, e.g., Seagate SAS drives support sector sizes of 512, 520, 524 or 528 bytes and can reformatted from one size to another - Andrew Schulman, Ralf Brown, David Maxey, Raymond J. Michels, Jim Kyle (1994). Undocumented DOS. Addison Wesley, second edition. ISBN 0-201-63287-X, ISBN 978-0-201-63287-3. - How to Securely Erase (Wipe) a Hard Drive for Free with DD - Quickly fill a disk with random bits - Device Support Facilities User's Guide and Reference - "AXCEL216 / MDGx MS-DOS Undocumented + Hidden Secrets". Retrieved 2008-06-07. - "MSKB941961: Change in the behavior of the format command in Windows Vista". Microsoft Corporation. 2009-02-23. Retrieved 2012-10-24. "The format command behavior has changed in Windows Vista. By default in Windows Vista, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed. In Windows XP and in earlier versions of the Windows operating system, the format command does not write zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed." - "mkfs(8) - Linux man page". Retrieved 2010-04-25. - Data are destroyed in PC operating systems when the /L (long) option is used on format, for a Partitioned Data Set (PDS) in MVS and for newer file systems on IBM mainframes. - Deleting files permanently - "Secure Data Deletion". June 7, 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2013. - "ATA Secure Erase (SE) and hdparm". Created: 2011.02.21, updated: 2013.04.02. - Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit, Chapter 17 - Disk and File System Basics, section "Formatting Hard Disks and Floppy Disks" - Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory by Peter Gutmann - Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a "clean" installation of Windows XP from Microsoft Help and Support. Useful for anyone setting up their own computer and needing advice on the subject! - support.microsoft.com — How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk - Help: I Got Hacked. Now What Do I Do?—Microsoft Tech Net: Why you should wipe a compromised drive to the bare metal. Article by Jesper M. Johansson, Ph.D., CISSP, MCSE, MCP+I - Ultimate Boot CD - Free utility including many useful dos/linux based tools for system maintenance. It's bootable from a CD or USB and has its own operating systems so it's completely independent from external software.	0.6067	FineWeb
When we think of reptiles, we often think of geckos and chameleons—but did you know the amphibious creatures we see today are actually predecessors of dinosaurs? With more than 8,240 reptilian species spread out across six continents, these time-tested animals first emerged more than 200 million years ago when Earth still contained Pangea. Why only six continents? Because reptiles and amphibians are cold-blooded, they don't generate their own heat. This means they rely on the warmth of external sources, like the sun, to help keep them alive. In Antarctica, the temperatures reptiles need to stay alive are virtually unreachable, marking the continent the only one without amphibious species. Interestingly, despite the staggering number of species, there are only four major reptile groups: turtles, crocodilians, squamata and tuataras. These creatures' ancestral lineage may predate the dinosaurs, but with the popularity of reptilian pets today you may never know it. Reptiles and amphibians are often sold as house pets, although somewhat controversially depending on the species. Check out this playlist to get expert testimony on best pet care practices, up-close footage and in-depth historical context into the lives of these cold-blooded critters.	0.9493	FineWeb
Process evaluation of an 865 MWe lignite fired O2/CO2 power plant Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2006 In order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from large point sources, new technologies can be used in capture plants for combustion of fossil fuel for subsequent capture and storage of CO2. One such technology is the O2/CO2 combustion process (also termed oxy-fuel combustion) that combines a conventional combustion process with a cryogenic air separation process so that the fuel is burned in oxygen and recycled flue gas, yielding a high concentration of CO2 in the flue gas, which reduces the cost for its capture. In this work, the O2/CO2 process is applied using commercial data from an 865 MWe lignite fired reference power plant and large air separation units (ASU). A detailed design of the flue gas treatment pass, integrated in the overall process layout, is proposed. The essential components and energy streams of the two processes have been investigated in order to evaluate the possibilities for process integration and to determine the net efficiency of the capture plant. The electricity generation cost and the associated avoidance cost for the capture plant have been determined and compared to the reference plant with investment costs obtained directly from industry. Although an existing reference power plant forms the basis of the work, the study is directed towards a new state of the art lignite fired O2/CO2 power plant. The boiler power of the O2/CO2 plant has been increased to keep the net output of the capture and the reference plant similar. With the integration possibilities identified, the net efficiency becomes 33.5%, which should be compared to 42.6% in the reference plant. With a lignite price of 5.2 $/MWh and an interest rate of 10%, the electricity generation cost increases from 42.1 to 64.3 $/MWh, which corresponds to a CO2 avoidance cost of 26 $/ton CO2. O2/CO2 recycle combustion	0.9811	FineWeb
4 Oct 2012: Gomez-Marin A, Partoune N, Stephens GJ, Louis M (2012) Correction: Automated Tracking of Animal Posture and Movement during Exploration and Sensory Orientation Behaviors. PLOS ONE 7(10): 10.1371/annotation/5bef5b0a-9b48-4e85-8df5-a46793f6c701. https://doi.org/10.1371/annotation/5bef5b0a-9b48-4e85-8df5-a46793f6c701 View correction The nervous functions of an organism are primarily reflected in the behavior it is capable of. Measuring behavior quantitatively, at high-resolution and in an automated fashion provides valuable information about the underlying neural circuit computation. Accordingly, computer-vision applications for animal tracking are becoming a key complementary toolkit to genetic, molecular and electrophysiological characterization in systems neuroscience. We present Sensory Orientation Software (SOS) to measure behavior and infer sensory experience correlates. SOS is a simple and versatile system to track body posture and motion of single animals in two-dimensional environments. In the presence of a sensory landscape, tracking the trajectory of the animal's sensors and its postural evolution provides a quantitative framework to study sensorimotor integration. To illustrate the utility of SOS, we examine the orientation behavior of fruit fly larvae in response to odor, temperature and light gradients. We show that SOS is suitable to carry out high-resolution behavioral tracking for a wide range of organisms including flatworms, fishes and mice. Our work contributes to the growing repertoire of behavioral analysis tools for collecting rich and fine-grained data to draw and test hypothesis about the functioning of the nervous system. By providing open-access to our code and documenting the software design, we aim to encourage the adaptation of SOS by a wide community of non-specialists to their particular model organism and questions of interest. Citation: Gomez-Marin A, Partoune N, Stephens GJ, Louis M (2012) Automated Tracking of Animal Posture and Movement during Exploration and Sensory Orientation Behaviors. PLoS ONE 7(8): e41642. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041642 Editor: Holger G. Krapp, Imperial College London, United Kingdom Received: December 19, 2011; Accepted: June 28, 2012; Published: August 9, 2012 Copyright: © Gomez-Marin et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: AGM is supported by the Juan de la Cierva program from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. NP was funded through an ERASMUS scholarship granted by the University of Liège. GJS is supported in part by grants PHY-0650617 and IIS-0613435 from the National Science Foundation,by grant P50 GM071508 from the National Institutes of Health, and by the Swartz Foundation. ML acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BFU2008-00362 and BFU2009-07757-E/BMC), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory/Center for Genomic Regulation Systems Biology Program and a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant (PIRG02-GA-2007-224791). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: ML is a PLoS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. In a similar way that detailed knowledge of the dynamics of ion channels enhance our understanding of neurons, precise behavioral characterizations help to unravel the function of neural circuits. However, natural behaviors are usually complex, variable and multidimensional, with no universal language such as that of action potentials. Therefore, quantifying behavior at high-resolution, efficiently, and in an unbiased fashion remains a challenge in most neurobiological studies . Indeed, though manual annotation is common, ad hoc performance indices defined by the experimenter may fail to capture the information relevant to the transformation of sensory input into behavioral output. An alternative approach consists in measuring unconstrained behavior from its most fundamental components — the time course of the animal's posture — to search for principles simplifying the apparent complexity of the phenomenon . This requires new techniques to systematically collect and analyze behavioral data. Computer-vision offers a fundamental tool in the study of animal behavior. Several companies provide commercial software specifically devised to study a particular paradigm (e.g. the Morris water maze for rodents). Although these solutions can be onerous and difficult to customize, they have the advantage of working out of the box for the specific tasks they were designed for. In addition, a series of custom-made tracking software written by neurobiologists is now available, enabling behavioral measurements of individual animals at an unprecedented resolution in nematodes , , , flies , , , and rodents . Software capable of tracking multiple animals simultaneously , , has augmented the toolkit for high-throughput screening. While the use of these tools is becoming common practice, it takes considerable effort to adapt and extend the codes to different behavioral paradigms or model organisms. We believe that there exists a scope for free, simple, and customizable software between sophisticated freeware and commercial packages. Multipurpose tracking systems that measure motor responses and simultaneously infer the corresponding sensory input during unconstrained orientation behavior are scarce. To assess the sensory information accessible to an animal, it is important to determine not only the position of the center of mass (the animal being described as a moving dot in space), but also its posture and the kinematics of specific points along the body. For instance, while olfactory inputs are collected by sensors at the tip of the head in Drosophila larva, thermosensory and visual inputs arise from sensory neurons covering the whole body , , . Similarly, escape responses and turning maneuvers in fishes involve intricate muscle activity patterns where body curvature and tail acceleration play a key role. In general, it is valuable to know not only where the animal is located in space but also what inputs are stimulating its sensors (visual and otherwise) together with its relative orientation to particular landmarks or other organisms. Here we have developed Sensory Orientation Software (SOS) to extract and analyze fine-grained information about the posture and motion of single animals behaving in sensory landscapes. The SOS system consists of a series of custom-made Matlab codes for online animal tracking and offline processing and analysis. We provide access to all our scripts as File S1. The scripts are commented and documented in a step-by-step tutorial. We provide a test dataset (File S1) and include a movie illustrating the application of SOS to track different animals (Movie S1). Our software targets a community of non-experts in computer-vision or programming: it offers a flexible basis adaptable to several paradigms and organisms. Together with an accompanying manuscript by Colomb et al., this work presents a free, customizable and pedagogical tool for behavioral tracking and analysis. The structure of the paper is as follows. First, we describe the online tracking system. We estimate relevant spatial, temporal and data constraints related both to the animal's characteristics and the tracking procedure itself. Next, we explain how to compute postures from raw body shape images. We illustrate this approach in fruit fly larvae, flatworms, fish and mice. In the Drosophila larva, we show how to accurately infer the sensory stimuli to which particular loci along the larval body are exposed in a sensory landscape. We validate our approach by examining, at high-resolution, the sensorimotor trajectories of larvae in odor, temperature and light gradients. Materials and Methods Fly stocks and animal preparation Fly stocks were maintained on conventional cornmeal-agar molasses medium at 22°C and kept in a 12 h dark-light cycle. The Drosophila melanogaster Canton-S strain was used as ‘wild type’. In all behavioral experiments, 6-day-old third instar foraging larvae were tested during the day. Room temperature was kept between 21 and 23°C and relative humidity between 50 and 60%. Larvae were washed from food medium by pouring a solution of 15% sucrose in the food vial. Individuals floating at the surface of the sucrose solution were transferred to the arena for behavioral tracking. Single animals were monitored while crawling on a 3% agarose slab. Orientation behavior in Drosophila larvae was tested in controlled odor, temperature and light gradients. For chemotaxis, an airborne odor gradient was created by loading an odor droplet on the condensation ring of the lid of a 96-well plate, which was inverted on a surface of agarose to form a closed arena . Ethyl butyrate (CAS number 105-54-4) was used as odorant. The odor concentration was estimated via infrared spectrometry . For thermotaxis, a linear spatial thermal gradient was created with two thermoelectric temperature controllers (TC-48-20, TE Technology) maintaining the two extremes of the plate at different constant temperatures. The agarose layer was placed right on top of the metal plate and its temperature was directly measured with a thermometer (MM2000 Handhold Thermometer, TM Electronics). The experiment started after the establishment of a stationary gradient in the agar. For phototaxis, a bright light pad (5000 Kelvin color temperature radiation, Slimlite Lightbox, Kaiser) was placed perpendicularly to the agarose layer surface where the animal crawled, creating a sideways gradient. A video camera (Stingray Camera, Allied Vision Technologies; Computar lens, 12–36 mm, 1∶2∶8, 2/3″ C) fixed on a stand was used to monitor larval behavior. Larval tracking lasted a maximum of five minutes and was interrupted when the animal left the field of view. Frames were streamed at 7 Hz live from the camera by the Image Acquisition toolbox of Matlab (The MathWorks, Natick, USA), which automatically recognizes DCAM compatible FireWire cameras upon installation of the CMU 1394 Digital Camera Driver. The installation of the Image Processing toolbox of Matlab is necessary to ensure the functionality of SOS. To maximize the effectiveness of the image processing, different conditions of illumination were designed to study each modality. For chemotaxis, a light pad (5000 Kelvin color temperature radiation, Slimlite Lightbox, Kaiser) illuminated the arena from above creating uniform daylight conditions, while the camera recorded images from below. This configuration allowed us to reduce the shadow from the condensation rings of the lid of the arena. For thermotaxis, the camera was placed above the agarose layer and the setup was illuminated by sideways red LEDs (620 nm wavelength, 30 lm luminous flux, Lumitronix LED, Technik GmbH). For phototaxis, the camera was placed above the agarose layer and sideways white-light illumination (Slimlite Lightbox, Kaiser) was sufficient to enable tracking. The light intensity was assumed to decay from the source position. Online tracking: from video streaming to animal postures During online tracking camera frames are acquired live and preprocessed. Raw images of the animal in the arena are cropped into a bounding box enclosing the two-dimensional projection of its body shape. Together with the coordinates of the box, the sequence of cropped images is saved for offline analysis, optimizing the storage of raw data and making the subsequent processing more efficient. The operations allowing monitoring the behavior of a single animal in real time are schematized in the flowchart diagram of Figure 1. (A) Flowchart of the sequential steps of the online software. (B) Illustration of the image processing. The quality of the object segmentation depends critically on the threshold used to binarize the image. Frames streamed from the camera are used to reconstruct the background, detect the animal, and track its motion. The body posture and location of points of interest are saved as the animal freely moves in the arena. The program is initiated by typing track(x,y) in the command prompt, where the argument x specifies the sampling interval in seconds and y is the total number of frames to be tracked. The tracking frequency is controlled by a built-in timer function. Messages are displayed at the prompt guiding the user and indicating the status of the tracker. The software connects to the camera and displays a live image of the arena on screen so that the experimenter can adjust, amongst other features, the field of view, the focus and the illumination intensity. This is important since the target recognition procedure is based on differences in contrast. The tracker detects the animal as the largest object with the highest contrast (darkest or brightest, depending on the illumination and the arena). The input grayscale frame is converted into a binary black-and-white image based on a threshold operation, whose value can be iteratively and automatically adjusted by the user before tracking starts. Before capturing the body contour to be used for posture tracking, a steady background image of the whole field of view is acquired. By subtracting the background from the current image, the animal posture can be automatically and robustly segmented. Depending on the illumination, the stimulus delivery system, and the particularities of the arena, segmentation can be either straightforward or more complex. In the simplest case, the animal is the only salient object and the background is essentially uniform. Then, no background subtraction is necessary. When static objects are present in the image, the background can be built as an average over the whole time sequence . However, that solution only works for offline tracking. Provided that there are no slight displacements of the arena during the experiment, saving an initial snapshot of the background before the animal is introduced in the arena should work. More generally, SOS reconstructs the background after the animal is loaded in the arena via the following procedure: it detects the animal as the largest salient object; it crops a small box around it; it saves the outer image; finally, it completes the outer image with the inner image of the bounding box once the animal has moved away from it. This prevents confounding the animal with water droplets, small pieces of dirt, and shades produced by the arena. Animal postures can be faithfully tracked anywhere in the arena (see Text S1). The background is subtracted from the current frame and the remaining grayscale image is transformed through a threshold into a binary (black and white) image. Unsuitable thresholds can lead to fragmented or noisy binary postures. Even with the appropriate threshold, the binary image may still contain undesirable objects due to pixel noise artifacts or impurities in the substrate. Since these objects are usually smaller than the animal, they are easily erased by retaining only the largest object in the image via standard Matlab functions. When an image of the animal shape is the only object left, a smooth contour is easily obtained offline. Once the tracker has successfully detected the animal from the background, it creates a small bounding box around it. This region of the arena corresponds to the most likely area where the animal will be found in the next frame. From then on, computations will only take place in that region of interest, speeding up the image processing. The software enters a loop where the animal shape is found and saved, together with the coordinate positions of the cropped bounding box in the arena system of reference. Tracking stops when the animal leaves the field of view, or if the preset sampling frequency is faster than the time the computer takes to acquire and process each frame. Data acquisition can also be terminated at any time by following the prompts generated by the program. At the end of each trial, the data (background, postures and coordinates) are saved in a folder named after the current date and time of the experiment. Getting to scale: selecting appropriate temporal and spatial resolutions of a tracking experiment Spatial resolution, temporal resolution and data storage requirements are mutually dependent. It is therefore convenient to estimate the tracking resolution limits given the arena constraints, animal features, and hardware-software computational characteristics (Figure 2A). These typical scales can be estimated, related and exploited in a useful manner. We summarize the most relevant relationships in Figure 2 as a guide for behavioral tracking experiments. (A) Scheme of the main spatial and temporal scales of the tracking: organism typical size (λ), behavioral arena field of view length (L), temporal resolution of the tracking (τ), and total time of the experiment (T). (B) Scaling of the organism posture resolution in pixels as a function of the relative field of view (considering a 1024-pixel frame resolution in length). Labeled areas represent different resolution limits. (C) Tracking time before the animal reaches the arena's edge (corresponding to an arena/organism ratio of 20 at a posture resolution of 50 pixels) as a function of the typical motion speed of an organism expressed in body length units. Labeled areas represent different locomotion speeds in relationship to the time to reach the boundaries of the arena. (D) Total data storage requirements for experiment lasting 5 minutes in the conditions of the previous panel, as a function of the tracking frequency in frames per second. The continuous line corresponds to disk space usage to save only a bounding box enclosing the organism posture, while the dashed line involves saving the complete frame, which considerable increases the storage needs. The level of detail at which the animal posture is tracked determines the number of body pixels to be processed and saved, therefore setting a trade-off between posture resolution, tracking frequency, and data size. Along the same lines, zooming in to acquire higher resolution postures implies tracking a smaller field of view, thus restricting the area where the animal can be tracked (Figure 2B). The animal-to-arena ratio provides a useful quantity to be related to the typical speed of the animal, image size, and frames per second. How fast the animal moves imposes a lower bound on the tracking speed and an upper bound on the total tracking time before the animal is likely to contact the arena boundaries (Figure 2C). In turn, given a particular posture resolution, a field of view and tracking frequency, the duration of the experiment will determine the total amount of data to be saved for that particular experiment (Figure 2D). Spatial constraints related to animal posture resolution and motion in the arena arise mainly for setups where the camera is fixed. In closed-loop tracking systems where the camera follows the animal, very high postural resolution can be achieved in large arenas , . Spatial and temporal constraints of the online tracking can be relaxed by acquiring frames as fast as needed without any preprocessing, at the expense of generating large volumes of video data. Sequences of high-resolution raw images for a single experiment can easily fill gigabytes of disk space. Our system is well suited to minimize the data stored upon completion of an experiment, saving only the relevant information as the experiment takes place, reducing the volume of data storage and making the subsequent offline analysis more efficient. Offline processing: analyzing sequences of animal posture During the offline analysis, each image is automatically processed to obtain animal-centric posture descriptors and loci of interest. The main steps to obtain postures are depicted in Figure 3A. We show how similar principles and operations can be applied for the high-resolution tracking of animals as distinct as fruit fly larvae, fishes or mice. (A) Flow chart of the sequential image processing steps to obtain high-resolution trajectories of animal postures. (B) Visual representation of the step schematics in (A) for three different organisms: fruit fly larvae, fish and mice. One can either perform a thinning operation on the binary image of the animal shape to find a skeleton whose endpoints will correspond to head and tail, or alternatively compute contour curvature maxima to determine the position of the head and tail. (C) Illustration of the tracking method for a temporal sequence of postures (blue silhouettes) and head positions (red dots) for a crawling larva, a swimming fish and a walking mouse. From the raw frames collected during the experimental session, the goal now is to generate high-resolution trajectories of the animal's posture that quantitatively describe the time course of its behavior. In short, we automatically trace the animal contour to compute its curvature and skeleton, in order to extract the position of several points of interest, including head and tail. Once the original image has been segmented and binarized, the body edge is detected as the boundary between black and white pixels. If necessary, the shape can be smoothed by standard image processing procedures (see Text S1). Next, we find the skeleton using a thinning operation, which recursively removes pixels from the boundary until a single-pixel-wide connected skeleton is obtained (Figure 3B). The body skeleton is convenient for two reasons. First, it gives access to the local curvature of the animal along its anterior-posterior axis — a representation which permitted to make fundamental discoveries in C. elegans . Second, the two end-points of the skeleton can be used as a proxy for animal head and tail positions, as is discussed below. The thinning process can produce spurious branches that lead to skeletons with more than two endpoints. The code keeps track of the fraction of such cases. If the contour is smooth and regular, as is the case for the Drosophila larva, spurs are rare and problematic frames can be discarded from the analysis. Depending on the particular organism that is being tracked, one could make use of such extra branches of the skeleton to detect relevant posture features such as legs, wings or fins. Alternatively, a second approach to obtain head and tail positions relies on the identification of points of maximum curvature along the animal's contour (see Figure 3B). The skeleton is then built from such points by tracing bisectors along left and right sides of the animal perimeter . Differentiating the head from the tail is necessary to robustly reconstruct trajectories. When the temporal resolution is high, classification is achieved via a simple “distance rule”: the head in the current frame is identified as the closest locus to the head in the previous frame. This rule only requires human intervention to define the head position in the first frame. The program displays the first grayscale image of the animal on the screen and asks the user to click first near the head and then near the tail positions. From then on, head and tail are sorted automatically. This simple clustering algorithm can robustly detect the head position even if the animal is not moving or if it is engaged in backward locomotion. The algorithm only requires a tracking frequency that is faster than the typical speed of motion expressed in units of body length (Figure 2). When the animal bends to such an extent that a blob-like shape is created, the head and the tail can be swapped. We automatically flag these events during the first round of processing to allow for a correction if necessary (see Text S1). Furthermore, a visual animation is displayed at the end of the image processing so that the user can easily review any potential problems in loci assignment. For all frames associated with a potential error, the program pauses and invites the user to disambiguate the classification. To illustrate the use of SOS, we tracked the postural dynamics of four model organisms in neurobiology: a fruit fly larva (third instar Drosophila melanogaster larva) crawling on an agarose surface, a flatworm (planarian Schmidtea mediterranea) swimming away from a light source, a fish (adult zebra fish Danio Rerio) swimming in a Petri dish, and a mouse (Mus musculus) walking on a square arena and swimming in a mater maze. The raw data was either generated by the authors or kindly provided by other labs. Figure 3 illustrates in detail the application of the segmentation scheme for a fly larva, fish and mouse. The resulting movies for all organisms can be found as Movie S1. From the contour and skeleton images, the area, the perimeter size and skeleton length are saved. This information can be used, for instance, to normalize the size of the animal, to measure rhythmic patterns of locomotion from body contractions or, potentially, to detect hunching or rearing. Coordinates including the animal's centroid position and the middle point of the skeleton are extracted as well. Next, the software translates all high-resolution coordinates (positions of head, tail, centroid, midpoint, ordered skeleton from head to tail, and contour) to the laboratory frame of reference, and it converts these features from pixels to units of physical length. Calibration implies a multiplication of the coordinates by a conversion factor calculated from landmarks of the arena available in the field of view. To define customized landmarks, the code displays the arena background on the screen and asks the user to click on key positions separated by distances known to the experimenter. The spatial scale (pixels per millimeter) and the temporal resolution (frames per second) of the tracking are saved together with the arena landmarks. High-resolution sensorimotor trajectories In the presence of a stimulus landscape or during a particular behavioral task, postural data can be used to infer the sensory input to which the animal is exposed during the course of an experiment. This yields to detailed sensorimotor trajectories. By projecting the body shapes onto the plane of locomotion and calculating postures in time and space, we can map the position of the animal's head with the corresponding stimulus intensity and local gradient's strength and direction. Aligning the motor data with the reconstructed stimulus landscape, we can obtain, for instance, the stimulus intensity at the head, its time derivative and the relative orientation angle of the animal with respect to the local gradient (Figure 4). The posture and position of each animal are mapped onto the arena system of reference and then used to infer, from the gradient landscape, the sensory dynamics at different loci of interest. The temporal sequences of all sensory and motor variables correspdonding to different animals are compiled in a single data file. After testing several animals independently (for instance corresponding to the same sensory stimulus, genotype, developmental stage, etc.), our offline analysis software allows for merging files from all trials in a consistent way. Together with continuous kinematic variables, SOS detects and saves discrete behavioral events such as runs, turns and casts, by finding abrupt reorientation speeds and large head bending angles . On the whole, the process produces a temporal sequence of high-resolution sensory and behavioral data for all animals tested. Hypothesis about neural computation can then be drawn from statistical correlations between sensory inputs and motor outputs. Orientation in sensory landscapes: chemotaxis, thermotaxis and phototaxis in the Drosophila melanogaster larva From online tracking to offline processing and the generation of sensorimotor trajectories, we illustrate the potential of the whole SOS system by examining Drosophila larvae orienting to odor, temperature and light gradients . Our present aim is not to conduct an exhaustive study of each modality, but to show how the analysis can reveal interesting aspects of sensory orientation in the larva. The trajectory of particular points along the body is used to reconstruct both the positional dynamics of the sensory organs and the behavior of the entire animal. As shown in Figure 5, we infer the sensory input at the body locations where receptors are located. Top: stimulus landscape overlaid with one representative head-and-tail trajectory for every sensory modality. Bottom: reconstructed time course of a sensory variable relevant to the behavioral modality under study. (A) Concentration changes due to head casts as the animal returns to the odor source. (B) Thermal differences along the body axis skeleton with respect to the head as the animal reorients in the temperature gradient. (C) Percentage of light on the body contour as the larva moves away from the light source. For all panels, gradient direction and direction of motion are illustrated with grey and black arrows, respectively. Numbers indicate the occurrence of sampling events reported in the bottom panel. Drosophila larvae move towards increasing concentrations of attractive odors , , , , , . The larval “nose” is located at the tip of the head, where a pair of olfactory organs (dorsal organs) host 21 olfactory sensory neurons , . It has been shown that larval chemotaxis does not require stereo-olfaction, namely, the detection of concentration differences between the left and the right “noses” . Reconstruction and analysis of the odor concentration dynamics at the tip of the head during free exploration has shown that head casts are a key process of the reorientation mechanism . Such trajectories revealed that temporal integration of stimulus changes during head motion represents the main input signal controlling the timing and direction of turns. Lateral head sweeps constitute an active sampling process that allows the animal to reorient in the odor gradient . As quantified in Figure 5A, lateral head movements can be associated with rapid changes in odor concentration on the order of a 5% relative difference (50 nM changes in a 1 µM concentration background). Drosophila larvae sense temperature by using a pair of detectors located at the tip of the head (terminal organs) and chordotonal neurons scattered along the body wall . When exposed to a temperature gradient, first instar larvae modulate the acceptance of a new direction of motion during lateral head sweeps . As argued in reference , thermal equilibration from the surface to the internal structure of first instar larvae should take place in less than a tenth of a second. Applying the same scaling argument to third instar larvae, we find that a few seconds are necessary for thermal equilibration along the lateral axis of the body. In contrast, the characteristic time for thermal equilibration along the longitudinal axis (4 mm) is nearly one minute. This slow timescale implies that, in principle, third instar larvae could measure temperature differences along the antero-posterior axis. By reconstructing the sensorimotor trajectory of a larva navigating from low to high temperatures in a linear temperature gradient of slope 0.1°C/mm, SOS provides a quantitative estimate of the temperature differences along the larva's body during orientation. As shown in the Figure 5B, we find that variations along the anteroposterior axis are of the same order of magnitude than those associated with head casts. Drosophila larvae display a strong photophobic behavior lasting until wandering stage . Two sensory organs (Bolwig's organs) are located in the head. Moreover, non-conventional photoreceptors tile the entire body wall . From genetic dissections of light driven behaviors in the fruit fly larva , , , , , there is a growing interest in the quantification of orientation responses in light gradients . Instead of exposing individuals to all-or-none light flashes, we tested larval behavior in response to a sideways light gradient (Figure 5C). The orientation mechanism controlling light responses is thought to involve body bends or head casts . Turning direction might also be inferred from a comparison of the light exposure on the left and on the right sides of the body. In our arena the animal controls light exposure by modifying its orientation with respect to the direction of the source. In Figure 5C, we use SOS to quantify the temporal evolution of the percentage of body surface exposed to light. Together with the light intensity at the Bolwig's organs, our system allows us to estimate subtle differences in illumination along the left and right sides of the body — a possible parallel source of information exploited by the larva during phototaxis. Adaptive behavior refers to the ability of an animal to produce and react to changes in internal and external signals by means of motion . At the same time, behavior often implies an active process to collect sensory information, rather than a passive response. Motion, perception, and proprioception are not independent but are interwoven in a sensorimotor feedback loop. With the aim of improving and sharing behavioral quantification tools, we have developed software for high-resolution tracking of single animals that are freely moving in two-dimensional sensory environments. By monitoring the postural changes of an individual over time, our system reveals the stimulus history to which specific sensors are exposed in space and time. This reconstruction of trajectories in sensory and motor spaces represents a necessary step in the analysis of the neural processes controlling active sampling during orientation behavior. Across the animal kingdom, quantitative measures of motor responses have provided invaluable information about the computation underlying orientation behavior , , , , . Historically, the advent of high-resolution tracking of Escherichia Coli in chemical gradients , laid the foundation for an understanding of the biochemical pathways controlling chemotaxis in unicellular organisms. Similar behavioral analysis conducted in Caenorhabditis elegans , , and in Drosophila melanogaster larvae , , have shed light on the neural mechanisms controlling active sampling and decision making. Here, we demonstrate the use of our tracking software on three sensory modalities in the fruit fly larva: chemotaxis, thermotaxis and phototaxis. Our analysis produces behavioral features associated with the detection and computation of sensory stimuli in each modality: odor concentration changes due to side-to-side head movements during chemotaxis; temperature gradients along the larval body during thermotaxis; and differences in photostimulation between the left and right sides of the animal during phototaxis. The software SOS is a tracking and analysis system that can be used in behavioral screens to characterize subtle sensorimotor deficiencies associated with selected phenotypic traits. Precise behavioral tracking is also convenient for phenotypic scoring in genetic mapping studies . SOS can be adapted to make use of anatomical features specific to the organism under study such as sharp edges, large protrusions, darker parts, and expression of fluorescent markers or tags. It can also be extended to analyze orientation behavior in other sensory landscapes such as humidity, gravity, or simply foraging strategies in homogeneous sensory landscapes. Finally, SOS can be applied to monitor a wide range of organisms from Planarian and marine zooplankton to larvae from other species , fishes and mice. We hope that novel ways of measuring and analyzing animal behavior will contribute to the development of new concepts, theories and principles about how neurons process sensory information to produce coordinated motor responses . Step-by-step tutorial detailing the use and functionality of SOS . Illustrative movie of posture tracking in flatworms, fruit fly larvae, fishes and mice. We are grateful to Julia Riedl and Andreas Braun for help in the development of the thermotaxis assay. We thank Alfonso Perez-Escudero, Robert Hinz and Gonzalo de Polavieja for generously sharing zebrafish movies. We thank Ignasi Sahun and Mara Dierssen for mouse movies. We thank Beatriz Calvo and Emili Salo for flatworm movies. We also thank Gus Lott, Rex Kerr, and Ev Yemini for discussion about computer-vision algorithms for animal tracking. Our manuscript has benefited from exchanges with Bjoern Brembs, Julien Colomb and Simon Sprecher. 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(2008) Mechanism of phototaxis in marine zooplankton. Nature 456: 395–399. - 48. Crespo JE, Lazzari CR, Castelo MK (2011) Orientation mechanisms and sensory organs involved in host location in a dipteran parasitoid larva. Journal of Insect Physiology 57: 191–196. - 49. Stephens GJ, Osborne LC, Bialek W (2011) Searching for simplicity in the analysis of neurons and behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108 Suppl 3: 15565–15571.	0.8811	FineWeb
Publications: Peer-reviewed journal articles (by staff) Laboratory investigations of the foraging behaviour of New Zealand scampi Major RN, Ogilvie SC, Jeffs AG 2017. Laboratory investigations of the foraging behaviour of New Zealand scampi. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 497: 99-106. DOI link here The foraging behaviour of deep-water lobsters of the genus Metanephrops is poorly understood. Given the commercial importance of a number of these species, an understanding of their foraging behaviour would potentially enable the development of pots as a low impact fishing method. This study used a behavioural assay in a flow-through experimental tank to investigate the foraging behaviour of New Zealand scampi (Metanephrops challengeri) by quantifying the phases of chemically-mediated food search behaviour. New Zealand scampi were found to detect, search for, and reach natural bait treatments at significantly higher proportions compared to an inert control. However, no consistent differences were observed in the time taken for the scampi to complete each phase of chemically-mediated food search behaviour in response to the four bait treatments. These results show that New Zealand scampi use their chemosensory systems to find food in a way that is consistent with other lobsters, and that scampi potentially display plasticity in their feeding modes, as they would be active predators for crustaceans and molluscs, and generalist scavengers when they encounter tissue of common marine organisms and fish discarded from trawlers. There is the potential to apply these results to identify baits for a developing potting fishery for scampi as they indicate that a range of taxa may be used as bait, which would reduce the reliance of the fishery on bait products that are also suitable for human consumption.	0.5024	FineWeb
Regulation of fibroblast attachment by interleukin (IL)-1-mediated loss of cartilage damage. Healthy articular cartilage (right) provides no substrate for healthy wt fibroblasts and also hTNFtg synovial fibroblasts (SFs) show only limited attachment to intact cartilage. The loss of proteoglycans as induced by IL-1 (left) greatly facilitates the attachment of SFs, particularly of hTNFtg fibroblasts. This attachment to as yet undefined proteoglycans or proteoglycan fragments is mediated also by syndecan-4 because the loss of syndecan-4 decreases the attachment of SFs to IL-1-treated cartilage. p 1010.	0.7285	FineWeb
A PET scan of the heart is a noninvasive nuclear imaging test. It makes use of radioactive tracers (known as radionuclides) to provide pictures of your coronary heart. Doctors use cardiac PET scans to diagnose coronary artery disease (CAD) and harm because of a coronary heart attack PET scans can present wholesome and broken heart muscle. Doctors also use PET scans to assist find out if you’ll benefit from a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) comparable to angioplasty and stenting, coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) or one other process. PET scans can reveal modifications in metabolism and how organs and tissues are working. Many cancers will be detected utilizing PET earlier than they are often ‘seen’ utilizing other medical imaging strategies. PET scans can create a picture of the complete physique. This implies that, for some cancers, they can present if (and the place) cancer is spreading to other parts of the physique. First the radiographer provides you an injection of a really small quantity of radioactive drug (tracer). After the injection you relaxation for about an hour. You then go into the scanning room and lie in your again on a slim bed. The mattress strikes by way of the scanner. The scan can take up to an hour. Areas where the injected radiopharmaceutical gathers (for example, quick-rising most cancers cells) appear ‘brighter’ than normal tissues on the pictures. Read our more detailed articles about particular areas of medication, conditions, nutrition and types of treatment. The dose of x-rays or radioactive supplies utilized in nuclear medication imaging can differ extensively. Dose will depend on the kind of process and physique half being examined. In common, the dose of radiopharmaceutical given is small and individuals are exposed to low ranges of radiation throughout the check. The potential well being dangers from radiation exposure are low in contrast with the potential advantages. There aren’t any recognized long-time period adverse results from such low-dose exposure.	0.9444	FineWeb
In 2015, the Life Changes Trust invested £3.4 million in ‘dementia friendly communities’ across Scotland. The difference they can make to the lives of people with dementia and their carers is enormous. They challenge stereotypes, raise awareness and look beyond the dementia to see the person. They ensure that people remain connected to their communities, and reduce isolation and loneliness. The Trust has decided to invest a further £2 million in such communities and is now open for online applications.	0.8262	FineWeb
- Research article - Open Access Ecological character displacement in the face of gene flow: Evidence from two species of nightingales © Reifová et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011 - Received: 23 February 2011 - Accepted: 24 May 2011 - Published: 24 May 2011 Ecological character displacement is a process of phenotypic differentiation of sympatric populations caused by interspecific competition. Such differentiation could facilitate speciation by enhancing reproductive isolation between incipient species, although empirical evidence for it at early stages of divergence when gene flow still occurs between the species is relatively scarce. Here we studied patterns of morphological variation in sympatric and allopatric populations of two hybridizing species of birds, the Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) and the Thrush Nightingale (L. luscinia). We conducted principal component (PC) analysis of morphological traits and found that nightingale species converged in overall body size (PC1) and diverged in relative bill size (PC3) in sympatry. Closer analysis of morphological variation along geographical gradients revealed that the convergence in body size can be attributed largely to increasing body size with increasing latitude, a phenomenon known as Bergmann's rule. In contrast, interspecific interactions contributed significantly to the observed divergence in relative bill size, even after controlling for the effects of geographical gradients. We suggest that the divergence in bill size most likely reflects segregation of feeding niches between the species in sympatry. Our results suggest that interspecific competition for food resources can drive species divergence even in the face of ongoing hybridization. Such divergence may enhance reproductive isolation between the species and thus contribute to speciation. - Reproductive Isolation - Interspecific Competition - Interspecific Interaction - Sympatric Population - Allopatric Population Understanding how interactions between closely related species affect their phenotypic evolution has long been of interest to evolutionary ecologists. It has been suggested that selection for reduced interspecific competition can lead to species divergence in areas of sympatry [1, 2]. This process, known as ecological character displacement, has been suggested to be an important mechanism contributing to the origin of biological diversity [3–6]. In birds, the pattern of ecological character displacement is most often seen in body size and bill morphology [7–12]. Greater morphological divergence in sympatry can also be caused by natural selection against maladaptive interspecific hybridization, a process called reproductive character displacement (or reinforcement, when postzygotic isolation is incomplete) [1, 13]. In birds, this primarily involves male signaling traits including bird song [14, 15] and plumage . On the other hand, under some conditions interspecific interactions can result in phenotypic convergence in sympatry [17–20]. The mechanisms leading to character convergence include competition for non-substitutable (essential) resources , selection to maintain interspecific territoriality or heterospecific copying of acoustic or behavioral signals [19, 23, 24]. In addition, if reproductive isolation between the species is incomplete, introgressive hybridization may result in interspecific convergence in sympatry [23, 25–28]. Phenotypic changes caused by interspecific interactions may play an important role in the process of speciation. Two kinds of outcomes are possible. First, character convergence of incipient species can increase the rate of interspecific hybridization, which could result in genetic fusion of both species . Second, reproductive or ecological character displacement could facilitate the process of speciation by adding an additional degree of reproductive isolation between incipient species. The role of reproductive character displacement or reinforcement in increased isolation has been shown in many examples in hybridizing taxa [16, 30–37]. Ecological character displacement can theoretically also lead to increased reproductive isolation in hybridizing taxa, and this can be both at the premating and at the postmating stage [5, 38, 39]. Nonetheless, examples of ecological character displacement in the course of speciation, when gene flow still occurs between the species, are relatively scarce [5, 12, 40]. The Thrush Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia, Linnaeus 1758) and the Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos, Brehm 1831) are suitable model species for studying phenotypic evolution during the process of speciation. These species diverged during Pleistocene climatic oscillations about 1.8 Mya . The present range of L. megarhynchos extends from Southwestern Europe, across the Middle East to Central Asia. The distribution of L. luscinia is more northern and extends from Northeastern Europe to Northern Asia . The ranges of both species overlap in a narrow hybrid zone running from north Germany, across Poland and Hungary to the Black sea . The age of this hybrid zone is not known, but given its location within the northern part of Europe, we can assume that it arose after the last ice age, i.e. approximately 10,000 years ago or later . Despite the overall morphological similarity, the species can be clearly distinguished by several wing feather characteristics and by plumage coloration . In addition, L. luscinia is slightly larger relative to L. megarhynchos . The species also show different song patterns, although L. luscinia males often sing like L. megarhynchos in the area of overlap [43, 47]. Both species have similar ecological requirements. They occupy scrubby habitats and margins of broad-leaved forests with dense undergrowth, often near water . However, some spatial segregation of territories has been observed in sympatry; L. luscinia tends to occur closer to water, while L. megarhynchos prefers drier habitats [43, 48]. The species show strong assortative mating in sympatry. Nonetheless, mixed pairs occasionally arise and produce viable F1 hybrids [49, 50]. Morphological studies suggest that approximately 5% of the birds in a sympatric population are F1 hybrids . In accordance with Haldane's rule, F1 hybrid females are sterile, but F1 hybrid males are fertile and can thus mediate gene flow between the species. Indeed, occurrence of interspecific gene flow has been documented between these species at multiple loci . To investigate how ecological and reproductive interactions between the nightingale species affect their phenotypic evolution and the speciation process, we studied patterns of morphological variation in allopatric and sympatric populations of both species. Phenotypic variation in nightingales was first studied by Sorjonen . He found that some morphological traits tended to diverge while others tended to converge in sympatry. However, these trends were not significant, and the study was based on limited sampling. Here, we expand on that work by carrying out extensive sampling across the whole sympatric region and adjacent parts of allopatric regions of both species. This sampling enables us to study whether the morphological changes between allopatric and sympatric populations result from interspecific interactions or from alternative processes such as gradual changes along large-scale geographical gradients [52, 53]. Moreover, we performed DNA sequence analysis to control for the effect of recent interspecific hybridization on morphological variation. Each male was measured by JR using the same techniques and equipment for all specimens. We measured several ecologically important traits including bill length (measured to skull), bill depth, bill width (both measured at frontal margin of nostrils), tarsus length (excluding heel joint), wing length, and body mass. All measurements are provided in Additional file 1. The species identity of sympatric individuals was determined from partial intronic sequences of two Z-linked genes, ADAMTS6 and SPINZ-2. Both loci were previously reported to harbor several species-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that enable species identification . We PCR amplified a 650 bp fragment of ADAMTS6 and a 950 bp fragment of SPINZ-2. These fragments were sequenced in both directions and base composition has been determined at positions carrying previously identified species-specific SNPs. Primer sequences as well as PCR conditions are described in Storchová et al. . Although we do not know the exact chromosomal position of these genes in nightingales, both genes are separated from each other by more than 20 Mb both in chicken and zebra finch, suggesting that they may also be this far apart in nightingales. The obtained sequences have been deposited in GenBank under accession numbers [GenBank: GQ388014-GQ388115, HM146205-HM146304]. We used a principal component (PC) analysis on the correlation matrix of the six morphological measurements, to reveal new variables (PC1-PC6) that are independent of each other. Patterns of variation in these principal components were then investigated using two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), where species (i.e., L. luscinia or L. megarhynchos) and region (i.e., allopatry or sympatry) were treated as factors. A significant interaction between the factors identifies species-specific phenotypic changes from allopatry to sympatry, which may reflect a pattern of convergent or divergent character displacement in sympatry [56, 57]. Significant interactions between the effect of species and region can also reflect change of a trait along a geographical gradient [52, 53]. To investigate the role of possible geographical gradients on morphological changes, we performed analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), where geographical coordinates (i.e., latitude and longitude) of the trapping sites were included as covariates. The significant interaction between the effect of species and region in the model with geographical coordinates implies that ecological interactions between the species contribute to the morphological changes between allopatry and sympatry. A test of the significance of the magnitude of the shift between sympatry and allopatry within species was performed using a priori contrasts in the models with significant interaction. Genetic analysis of sympatric individuals We sequenced 102 sympatric males and observed three individuals of hybrid ancestry. Two of these individuals had heterozygous genotypes for both of the genes analyzed (i.e., one haplotype was of L. megarhynchos origin, while the other of L. luscinia origin). These individuals also showed intermediate phenotypes; in some traits they resembled L. megarhynchos, while in others they resembled L. luscinia. This suggests that they are F1 hybrids or early backcross individuals. The third hybrid individual was heterozygous at SPINZ-2 and was homozygous for L. luscinia alleles at ADAMTS6. This individual was morphologically indistinguishable from L. luscinia and represents a backcross or later-generation hybrid. These results suggest that about 3% of the nightingales in sympatry are of mixed ancestry. This is likely to be a minimum estimate since some backcross or later-generation progeny may not be detected using only two loci on the Z chromosome. To minimize the effect of recent hybridization on morphological variability, these three hybrids were excluded from the morphological analyses below. Patterns of morphological variation in allopatric and sympatric populations of nightingales Explained variation, eigenvalues and factor loadings for six principal component axes (PC1-PC6) Explained variation (%) Influence of species, region and their interactions on changes in particular principal components species × region Effect of environmental gradients on morphological variation Influence of geographical gradients, species, region and their interactions on changes in PC1 and PC3 species × region Do changes in bill morphology result from sorting of pre-existing variation or from in situevolution of a novel phenotype? To study how interactions between two closely related species of nightingales affect their phenotypic evolution, we analyzed patterns of morphological variation in allopatric and sympatric populations of both species. Our analysis revealed two main patterns of morphological change. First, nightingales have converged in overall body size (as reflected in PC1) in sympatry. Second, nightingales diverged in relative bill size when compared to body size (as reflected in PC3) in sympatry. This divergence was asymmetric and was caused mainly by increased bill size in L. megarhynchos. Closer analysis of morphological variation along geographical gradients revealed that the convergence in overall body size was mainly caused by increasing body size with increasing latitude (Figure 3), a phenomenon known as Bergmann's rule [59–61]. Interspecific interactions did not have a significant effect on the convergence in body size (Table 3). On the other hand, interspecific interactions contributed significantly to the divergence in relative bill size even after controlling for the effects of geographical gradients (Table 3). Below, we argue that the observed divergence in relative bill size is most likely caused by interspecific competition for food resources and discuss how this ecological character displacement might facilitate speciation in nightingales. Evidence for ecological character displacement in nightingales Schluter & McPhail summarized six criteria for demonstrating the occurrence of ecological character displacement. (1) The pattern should not occur by chance. (2) Sites of sympatry and allopatry should not differ greatly in food, climate, or other environmental features affecting the phenotype. (3) Morphological differences should reflect differences in resource use. (4) There must be independent evidence for competition. (5) Enhanced differences should result from actual evolutionary shifts, not from the biased colonization and extinction of similar-sized individuals. (6) Phenotypic differences should have a genetic basis. Meeting all of these criteria is usually quite difficult, and there are surprisingly few studies where alternative explanations for sympatric divergence have been ruled out and interspecific competition for food resources has been proven as a causal mechanism [12, 40, 62, 63]. In this study, we assemble evidence that at least partially satisfies four of these criteria (2-5). Character displacement is typically demonstrated as a greater between-species morphological difference in sympatry than in allopatry. Such a pattern can, however, also arise if sites of sympatry and allopatry differ in environmental features affecting the phenotype (criterion 2). This is often caused by environmental gradients across species ranges. Our study area is located within central Europe, for which southwest-to-northeast climatic gradients are characteristic . We sought to disentangle the effects of environmental gradients and interspecific interactions by incorporating geographical variables (latitude and longitude) in statistical models. This approach removes the effects of geographical gradients in all directions. We found that the interspecific interactions contribute significantly to the enhanced differences in bill morphology in sympatry even when the effects of environmental gradients were controlled for. It is thus unlikely that the observed changes in bill morphology are caused by different environmental features or by different food supplies in sympatric and allopatric regions. If phenotypic differences in sympatric populations are caused by ecological character displacement, they should reflect differences in resource use (criterion 3). Bill morphology is generally closely linked to resource use in birds and determines the type and size of the food as well as feeding strategies [11, 12]. This is very likely also true for nightingales. Although both species of nightingales have a similar diet in general - they feed on small invertebrates on the ground in dense shrubby vegetation - it is possible that minor differences in diet have evolved between the species in sympatry. These differences could be caused by either a separation of their feeding niches in sites where both species co-occur or by different food supplies in different microhabitats . Territories of L. luscinia tend to occur in wetter sites in the region of sympatry, while L. megarhynchos is more frequent in drier places, probably due to displacement by interference competition [43, 48]. In addition, Stadie observed slightly different feeding strategies of the two species in sympatry. Whereas L. megarhynchos fed almost exclusively on the ground, L. luscinia was able to catch flying insects and was observed more frequently foliage gleaning . These observations suggest that both niche separation within the same habitat and habitat segregation occur in sympatric populations of nightingales and might contribute to bill size divergence in sympatry. Bill morphology in passerines could also be affected by song characteristics, such as frequency, harmonic content and temporal patterning [67–70]. Thus, an alternative explanation for bill size differentiation in nightingales would be a change of song in sympatry. Such change could be driven for example by selection against maladaptive hybridization, a phenomenon known as reproductive character displacement or reinforcement. This has been documented in African Tinker birds . However, such an explanation is unlikely in this study system since song convergence rather then divergence occurs in sympatric populations of nightingales [43, 47, 71]. Moreover, song convergence in nightingales is caused by song change in L. luscinia, but not in L. megarhynchos, in contrast to the pattern that we observed in bill morphology. Independent evidence for competition between species needs to be demonstrated to make a compelling case for ecological character displacement (criterion 4). Both species of nightingales have very similar habitat requirements and show interspecific territoriality in sympatry . Moreover, playback experiments have demonstrated that males of both species respond aggressively to heterospecific songs in sympatry . This suggests that interspecific competition for resources is present in the two nightingale species. The role of interspecific competition in bill size divergence in nightingales is also supported by the observed asymmetry in morphological change in our data. Asymmetrical character displacement is expected if one species suffers higher costs during interspecific interactions; this species should diverge more than the other species . In this study system, L. megarhynchos is the weaker competitor as is suggested by four observations. First, L. megarhynchos has a smaller body size compared to L. luscinia . Second, L. megarhynchos shows partial habitat shift in sympatry . Third, L. megarhynchos responds aggressively to the heterospecific song less often than L. luscinia . Fourth, the zone of sympatry is slowly moving in the south-west direction towards the area of L. megarhynchos, which could be the result of dominance of L. luscinia in interspecific competition . In accordance with the lower competitiveness of L. megarhynchos, this species shows significant shift in bill size between sympatry and allopatry, while the bill size of L. luscinia does not differ between the regions. This result is consistent with the idea that interspecific competition drives the bill size differentiation in nightingales. Finally, character displacement should result from a true evolutionary shift, not from biased colonization and extinction of similarly sized individuals (criterion 5). For example, it is possible that sympatric regions were colonized preferentially by L. megarhynchos with large bills or that L. megarhynchos with small bills went extinct in sympatry due to reasons other than competitively mediated selection. We addressed this question by comparing the distributions of bill size values (as reflected in PC3 residuals after removing the effects of latitude and longitude) in sympatric and allopatric populations within the same species. We found that the non-outlier range of bill size values for sympatric population of L. megarhynchos reaches beyond the non-outlier range observed for allopatric population of the same species (Figure 5). This suggests that the observed increase in bill size in sympatric population of L. megarhynchos is caused by in situ evolution of a novel phenotype and thus represents a real evolutionary shift rather than biased colonization and extinction of individuals with certain phenotypes. These observations suggest that ecological character displacement is likely to be the causal mechanism underlying morphological differences between sympatric populations of the two nightingale species. Nonetheless, several issues still need to be addressed to provide more direct evidence for ecological character displacement. First, the observed divergence in bill morphology should be demonstrated on additional independent populations to rule out the possibility that the pattern is caused by chance (criterion 1). Second, a direct link between bill size and food preferences should be established (criterion 3). Third, the relationship between bill size and the level of interspecific competition in sympatric populations should be demonstrated (criterion 4). Finally, it remains to be shown that the divergence of sympatric populations is genetically based (criterion 6), although some non-genetic changes may also reflect ecological character displacement as discussed below. Ecological character displacement in the face of gene flow: result of natural selection or phenotypic plasticity? Ecological character displacement has often been regarded as a post-speciation event that occurs after the completion of reproductive isolation between incipient species [1–3, 13, 38]. In species where hybridization is common, interspecific gene flow can hinder ecological differentiation. In this study, we found that at least 3% of sympatric nightingales represent hybrids. In addition, gene flow between the species has been documented at multiple loci . This raises the question of how morphological divergence in sympatric populations of nightingales is maintained and why it is not erased by interspecific gene flow. One possible explanation is simply that natural selection has a stronger effect on allele frequencies at loci that are responsible for bill size variability than does the rate of interspecific gene flow. This can be thought of in the context of models of migration-selection balance. Alleles at loci controlling bill size will be introduced due to gene flow from the sister species, and will be removed due to selection. Under a number of simplifying assumptions, the equilibrium frequency (q) for a dominant deleterious allele introduced by migration at rate m and removed by selection of magnitude s is given by q = m/s . In nightingales, most hybridization may not lead to gene flow since F1 females are sterile . In our study, only one bird was a later-generation hybrid. If we take this as a very rough upper estimate of the level of gene flow (m = 0.01), then a 10% selective cost (s = 0.1) would be sufficient to keep introduced alleles at a relative low frequency (i.e., 10%). This very rough calculation is only meant to illustrate that the degree of gene flow is sufficiently low that strong selection could still maintain different allele frequencies for traits of ecological importance. In fact, previous work suggested that this sort of selection regularly acts against alleles introduced by migration between these species . That study showed that introgression between the nightingale species is significantly lower on the Z chromosome than on the autosomes, suggesting that selection acts against mis-matched Z-linked loci . Indirect estimates of the overall migration rate from patterns of DNA sequence variation analyzed under an isolation-with-migration model were on the order of 10-7 , many orders of magnitude lower than the proportion of later-generation hybrids (10-2) observed in this study. This large difference suggests that many hybrid individuals may not contribute substantially to gene flow, perhaps because they have lower fitness. If so, then even weak selection might be sufficient to drive the evolution of bill shape differences in sympatry. Why do alleles that increase bill size in sympatric L. megarhynchos not spread into allopatric populations? One possible explanation is that a larger bill is less optimal then the ancestral pre-displacement phenotype in allopatry. Indeed, character displacement might represent a "best-of-a-bad-situation", sensu , in that it lessens interspecific competition, but at a cost of reduction in other fitness parameters . Such fitness trade-offs can generate a selective barrier to gene flow between sympatric and allopatric populations because individuals from either population will be disadvantaged in the alternate population . Phenotypic plasticity could provide an alternative explanation for the maintenance of phenotypic differences in the presence of gene flow. Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to environmental stimuli [79, 80]. Since this is a non-genetic response, interspecific gene flow should not affect morphological differences caused by phenotypic plasticity. Recent evidence suggests that phenotypic plasticity in bill morphology can occur in response to poor conditions during development. Gil et al. have demonstrated that nestlings of the Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor) develop larger bills and smaller body size in poor feeding conditions. Bill size of nestlings (especially the gape width) is an important determinant of food distribution among nestlings . Gil et al. thus suggested that growth of the bill could be favored over growth of overall body size when feeding conditions worsened. In nightingales, L. megarhynchos, which is the weaker competitor, might be forced to low-quality territories with reduced food availability in sites where both species co-occur. Nutritional stress could then cause increased bill size in nestlings and, at maturity, of the adult birds. Morphological differences caused by phenotypic plasticity are traditionally not considered character displacement, since they do not have a genetic basis (although the tendency to express different phenotypes in varying environmental conditions can be determined genetically) and thus cannot be inherited (criterion 6). Interesting exceptions represent cases where plastic phenotypic change is transmitted to the next generation through maternal effect [83, 84]. Recent studies, however, indicate that if plastic phenotypic change is adaptive (for example if it leads to change in food choice, which in turn reduces interspecific competition), it can eventually be stabilized by the evolution of genetic differences through a process known as genetic assimilation . Phenotypic plasticity could thus facilitate the evolution of character displacement in the presence of gene flow . Further developmental studies of nightingales raised on low and high quality food should provide more insight into the proximate mechanisms responsible for the divergence in bill size in these species. Darwin was the first who highlighted the importance of competition in speciation, though his idea was not widely accepted. The major objection was that divergence through competition cannot occur without prior evolution of reproductive isolation between incipient species, because gene flow would preclude any divergence [38, 87]. Only recently, theoretical studies have indicated that competitively mediated divergence could be possible even in the face of gene flow [88–90]. Yet, empirical examples of such process are still scarce and involve mainly species where hybridization is relatively rare [5, 12, 40, 91]. Our results add to this evidence and suggest that selection for reduced competition could drive species divergence if gene flow is relatively low (specifically, if gene flow, m, is lower than selective cost, s, see above). In such situations, ecological character displacement can facilitate speciation by enhancing reproductive isolation. This might happen in several different ways. First, hybrids with intermediate phenotype might be exposed to higher levels of interspecific competition and thus be forced to live in marginal niches, increasing the degree of extrinsic postzygotic isolation. 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Evolution. 2005, 59: 1194-1210.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar - Bolnick DI, Fitzpatrick BM: Sympatric speciation: models and empirical evidence. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst. 2007, 38: 459-487. 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.38.091206.095804.View ArticleGoogle Scholar This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.	0.5125	FineWeb
How to Fix QuickBooks Error 404? Have you ever found a QuickBooks Error 404 message on your screen? It randomly occurs while working on the desktop when QB fails to sync with Intuit servers. The failure of Internal Services Request is caused due to Error 404. This error is sometimes known as QB Update Error 404 and never gets puzzled with its different names. Other names for this error are Service Message Error# 404, Intuit Error 404, and Error 404 pages not found. Let’s find out the complete description of this error and methods to fix the same. Causes of Error 404 There are multiple causes of QB error 404 that hold back the essential Intuit operations. Some of the possible causes are mentioned here for the users’ sake of convenience. - Page is unable to sync. - Incomplete or failure updates. - The service request is rejected for the expelled URL. - Yet another cause of this error is the unreadable components. - System and bandwidth latency can also cause QuickBooks Error 404. Symptoms of QB Error 404 Before finding the solutions, it is imperative to know the symptoms of QB Error 404. One must know the possible conditions that depict the presence of this error in your system. - You will be unable to access the web page that you are trying to open. - This code crashes the potential program window. - The page has been banned but the URL is still present. - The frequent breakage of the system while running the same application. - The error message is displayed on your screen. How to Resolve QB Error 404? Below are mentioned some of the practical solutions to fix QuickBooks Error 404. Let’s have look at their detailed description. Solution 1: Get the Bandwidth Latency Verified - Browse any of the frequently opened websites in the internet explorer. - If you face any lag while opening the URL, then refresh the settings and try again. - If you still find the message Page Cannot Be Displayed or Connect to the Internet, then get your wireless router turned off for a while and then open the same to try again. - If still you face the issue, then contact your internet service provider. - Restart the computer and try again. - Set up the internet explorer as the default one. - Try these steps again and again to get the problem fixed. Solution 2: Tweak the Internet Settings - Open the internet explorer on your system. - Click to open the Internet Options from the Tools. - Open the Security Tab and select the trusted sites and tap on the same. - Add .quickbooks.com and .intuit.com as the trusted sites. - Tap on the Close that is followed by Ok. - Log off from the Company File and Quit QB. - Get the Intuit reopened and perform the job. Solution 3: Update and Repair your QB - First of all, click to open Intuit and browse the Help menu. - Choose Update QuickBooks Desktop and get it completely updated. - Once you are done with the updates, exit QuickBooks. - Now, you are required to open the Company File and try to perform the actions. - If you still facing the error while opening the sites, then follow the below mentioned steps: - Hold Windows + R from the keyboard. - A box will appear on the screen where you need to type Appwiz.cpl and click to proceed further. - Select QuickBooks from the list of installed programs. - Please wait till the repairing process is over. - Now, check whether the error is fixed or you still appear. Solution 4: Get the system settings reconfigured - Sign out the Company File and quit Intuit. - Get your Windows Updated and restart the computer. - Tap to open the Internet Explorer and Go to the Tools Menu where you will have to select the Internet Options. - Jump to the advanced tab and browse right on the settings pane. - Tick the checkbox of TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.2 if they are not and click the Ok button. - Quit all the programs and get the in-process information saved. - Press Windows + R and type MSConfig and tap on OK. - Click on the General on the system. - Select the Selective Startup from the Startup menu. - Get the computer restarted and open the QB to initiate the process.	0.9107	FineWeb
Data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and the Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed the presence of a pair of supermassive black holes orbiting each other so closely that they're moving at relativistic speeds—a significant fraction of the speed of light. Supermassive black holes are expected to come in pairs pretty often. That’s because every galaxy has its own supermassive black hole, and galaxies often merge, bringing the two together. These mergers are very slow processes that distort both galaxies until their stars settle into new orbits (a process known as "violent relaxation"). While this is happening, extremely heavy objects, such as supermassive black holes, will tend to move in toward the center of the new galaxy. The new galaxy would end up with two supermassive black holes, one from each original galaxy, orbiting each other at its core. Objects have been observed which look a lot like supermassive black hole binaries, matching the prediction. These objects have a lot of mass—billions of times the mass of the Sun, as we’d expect from a pair of supermassives—and they’re periodic, meaning the amount of light the object produces rises and falls with a predictable time period. (It may at first seem contradictory to think of light coming from a black hole, an object from which no light can escape. The light doesn’t actually come from the black hole itself but from matter falling in, which produces light from the incredible friction it experiences as it speeds up, spiraling into the black hole). One likely black hole binary, PG 1302-102, was first observed last year by ground-based telescopes. A new study confirms this tentative identification. The estimated masses of the two black holes, along with the orbital period, allow us to estimate how close they are. In this case, the answer is "really close." The inferred distance between them is somewhere between .007 and .017 parsecs, which is not much bigger than the diameter of the Solar System. That’s astoundingly close for two objects of this size—so close that there’s been debate in the scientific community as to how that's possible (See sidebar). To maintain their orbit, the black holes have to be whipping around at relativistic speeds. These incredible speeds allow for a process called relativistic beaming: as one of the black holes moves away from us, it’s moving so fast that its light actually dims. As it moves toward us, its light brightens. This effect is too small to be noticeable at normal speeds, but at significant fractions of the speed of light, it becomes observable. “When any light emitting object moves toward you, the object appears brighter and bluer. When it moves away from you, it appears dimmer and redder,” Daniel D’Orazio of Columbia University and the lead author of the paper told Ars. “However, the speeds of objects we encounter on Earth everyday are not large enough for us to notice this effect called relativistic beaming (a prediction of special relativity). But when a light-emitting object moves close to the speed of light, the effect is very noticeable.” Part of this is due to the Doppler effect, by which wavelengths get longer when their source is moving away from you and shorter when they’re moving toward you (think of a police siren speeding away down the road). This causes any ordinary star to undergo red- and blue-shifts in different parts of its orbit. The other part of the effect is due to the incredible speed, which causes the brightening and dimming. Digging through data To confirm it was a black hole pair exhibiting relativistic beaming, the researchers needed data on the patterns of light extending over many years. That’s because the pair take about five years to complete one orbit, making it tricky to get the full pattern. Luckily, GALEX and Hubble both had data going back 20 years in different wavelengths, providing a treasure trove. "We were lucky to have GALEX data to look through," said co-author David Schiminovich of Columbia University in New York. "We went back into the GALEX archives and found that the object just happened to have been observed six times." Both telescopes captured data in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, which showed the sudden brightening and darkening due to relativistic beaming. "It's as if a 60-Watt light bulb suddenly appears to be 100 Watts," said D'Orazio. "As the black hole light speeds away from us, it appears as a dimmer 20-Watt bulb." The use of ultraviolet in particular was important because it helped confirm the researchers’ prediction. “We have predicted that UV light should have a larger amplitude of variability than the light in the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and this is what we find in the data,” D’Orazio told Ars. In other words, the brightness varies more in UV than in visible light, confirming predictions for a binary black hole system with relativistic beaming. “The point being that relativistic beaming gives a good case for what we are seeing in PG 1302, and it looks like what we see is caused by BHs orbiting very close to each other very fast.” Spiral into the future The confirmation is an important one for researchers trying to piece together the results of galaxy mergers. Many known galaxies are the result of these mergers, making this significant to understanding structure in the Universe. The two supermassive black holes of PG 1302-102 will not remain in their absurdly fast orbit forever. Rather, they’re expected to spiral into one another and merge in about a million years. The system could therefore provide important clues about how such mergers work. As the black holes spiral into one another, their violent motions create waves in spacetime that propagate outward, known as gravitational waves. These waves could in principle be detected, though none have been as of yet. (Researchers hope that some will be soon, as the newly upgraded LIGO came back online this month, twice as sensitive as before). Sadly, PG-1302-102 is not yet far enough along in its merging to produce detectable gravitational waves. We’ll have to wait close to a million years for that. The researchers’ technique could aid in the discovery of more supermassive black holes with relativistic beaming effects—which could in turn lead to a better understanding of the formation of such systems. “The fact that black holes can make it to this regime is interesting because of something called the final parsec problem,” D’Orazio told Ars. “Which says that based on our understanding of black hole binary formation, it is very hard to get the BHs this close. If we find evidence for BHs this close, then we learn something about how BHs and galaxies evolve together.” In the meantime, researchers now have a "laboratory" of sorts in PG 1302-102: a system they can study to learn about the complexities of galaxy and black hole formation. This post originated on Ars Technica	0.9575	FineWeb
Some wear sunglasses to look good (some may count this as a legitimate reason) but most wear them to shade their eyes from the sun. When you cycle outdoors, you are exposed to the elements such as the bright rays from the sun. Imagine this, as you cycle on a particularly sunny day, you are blinded by the sun and because of that, you cannot see what is ahead of you properly. However, being blinded by the sun, is just one part of the problem as the ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun are also harmful, as it increases the risk of certain types of cataracts. So it is imperative to wear sunglasses, especially when you are exposed to the sun for long periods of time. Besides that, for the sunglasses to be effective in protecting your eyes from UV rays, it is best if the lenses are made from polycarbonate. This is due to how polycarbonate lenses absorbs 100% UV rays, even if the lenses are clear polycarbonate lenses. In cheap sunglasses, a material called triacetate is used and this material only absorbs 40% of the UV rays. While for uncoated plastic sunglasses, the lenses can block about 88% of the UV rays. Just to let you in on a fun fact, the material polycarbonate is a similar type of plastic to Plexiglas that keeps bank tellers safe behind the counter as polycarbonate is impact resistant, however it is not shatterproof. So, wearing sunglasses that are made from polycarbonate can not only protect your eyes from UV rays but also from any kinds of particles that may enter your eye while you are cycling and keeping your eyes on the road. Particles such as dirt, dust, water from puddles and even more dangerous, it can be tiny pieces of metal. So, choose your cycling sunglasses carefully as it can break or make your cycling experience in the long run. Do check out our online store and browse/pre-order the quality cycling sunglasses that we will be bringing to you soon! Shop Ekoï Sunglasses: https://kshcycles.com.my/collections/ekoi/sunglasses Shop Ekoï collection: https://kshcycles.com.my/collections/ekoi	0.9211	FineWeb
Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Why Keep HHW Separate? Even though most household hazardous waste (HHW) is safe in small quantities and for specific uses, they contain chemicals that are harmful to human health and the environment. If not handled appropriately, these chemicals will accumulate in quantity and can contaminate the soil or groundwater, creating dangerous habitat for fish, wildlife and human health. By taking your HHW to the Macfarlane Street Transfer Station, you are ensuring that it will be properly disposed of. - Always wear gloves when handling hazardous waste. - Never mix chemicals; keep them in separate containers. - Label the hazardous waste that you dispose of a the depot. Unlabelled or questionable products could be refused.	0.9869	FineWeb
Effect Animation with Pyglet While browsing through deviantart i run across some nice prerendered particle effects. The effects are made for RPG Maker VX and cover mostly some kind of magic spells. Game use is allowed. So we got effect animations, pyglet and some spare time. Let the fun begin. The effects do have a black background instead of transparency, so one has to do some post proccessing before further use. I did this with Gimp and used a grayscale version of an effect image as its alpha mask. Now lets start the fun part and use some of these effects in pyglet. The most important task is reading and processing the effects animation from the image. Its done in the create_effect_animation function. Basically i use an ImageGrid and bring the AnimationFrames in the correct order and give back an pyglet Animation object. The rest of the demo is just control stuff... w : switch background to white b : switch background to black 1 - 5 : change particle effect Left Mouse click : spawn new effect at mouse location import pyglet from pyglet.image import Animation, AnimationFrame window = pyglet.window.Window() white = (1,1,1,1) black = (0,0,0,1) pyglet.gl.glClearColor(white) effects = use_effect = 1 def create_effect_animation(image_name, columns, rows): effect_seq = pyglet.image.ImageGrid(pyglet.image.load(image_name), rows, columns) effect_frames = for row in range(rows, 0, -1): end = row columns start = end - (columns -1) -1 for effect_frame in effect_seq[start:end:1]: effect_frames.append(AnimationFrame(effect_frame, 0.1)) effect_frames[(rows * columns) -1].duration = None return Animation(effect_frames) effect_anims = [create_effect_animation('c:\\temp\\_LPE__Elemental_Burst_by_LexusX2.png', 5, 6), create_effect_animation('c:\\temp\\_LPE__Fire_Arrow_by_LexusX2.png', 5, 9), create_effect_animation('c:\\temp\\_LPE__Healing_Circle_by_LexusX2.png', 5, 10), create_effect_animation('c:\\temp\\_LPE__Flaming_Time_by_LexusX2.png', 5, 5), create_effect_animation('c:\\temp\\_LPE__Gale_by_LexusX3.png', 5, 8) ] class EffectSprite(pyglet.sprite.Sprite): def on_animation_end(self): self.delete() effects.remove(self) @window.event def on_mouse_press(x, y, button, modifiers): if(pyglet.window.mouse.LEFT == button): effect = EffectSprite(effect_anims[use_effect - 1]) effect.position = (x-effect.width/2, y - effect.height/2) effects.append(effect) @window.event def on_key_press(symbol, modifiers): global use_effect if symbol == pyglet.window.key.B: pyglet.gl.glClearColor(black) if symbol == pyglet.window.key.W: pyglet.gl.glClearColor(white) if symbol == pyglet.window.key._1: use_effect = 1 if symbol == pyglet.window.key._2: use_effect = 2 if symbol == pyglet.window.key._3: use_effect = 3 if symbol == pyglet.window.key._4: use_effect = 4 if symbol == pyglet.window.key._5: use_effect = 5 @window.event def on_draw(): window.clear() for effect in effects: effect.draw() pyglet.app.run() I am not sure if i can put the processed image son my site, so you need to get the particle effects by yourself for now. Download effect with pngs Happy hacking :-) comments powered by Disqus	0.9911	FineWeb
The autonomic system is responsible for regulating the functions of our internal organs such as the heart, stomach and intestines by regulating involuntary body functions, such as heartbeat, blood flow, breathing and digestion. We are often unaware of the ANS because it functions involuntary and reflexively. For example, we do not notice when blood vessels change size or when our heart beats faster. This system is divided into two main branches: the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system. The two branches work in opposition to each other, one will dampen down as the other elevates and vice versa. The ANS is most important in two situations: SNS deals with immediate, rapid responses to changing environmental conditions. It lights up when an organism has to do something actively to preserve its equilibrium. Your autonomic nervous system brings about this ‘fight or flight’ response by activating the sympathetic neurons. In an emergency, you breathe more quickly, your heart rate shoots up and you start to sweat. For our ancestors, this response was vital for survival but for us, it remains a reaction to stressful situations, like when we feel threatened or when we are being deceitful. Much SNS activity is not particularly dramatic. For example, standing up would cause a big drop in your blood pressure if the SNS did not compensate by momentarily increasing it. Similarly, just before you wake up, sympathetic activity increases, getting your body ready to be active. The PNS conserves energy in your body and is responsible for ongoing, mellow, steady-state activity. The feeling of it is relaxation, often with a sense of contentment. The parasympathetic nervous system: • Opens (dilates) blood vessels leading to the GI tract, aiding digestion. • Stimulates salivary gland secretion and accelerates gut movements, helping the absorption of nutrients. • Engorges the male and female genitals • Constricts the bronchioles of the lungs. • Dampens the sympathetic nervous system. Both systems evolved to keep animals, including humans, alive in very harsh and potentially lethal environments, and we need them both. Because of our stressful lives, many people live in a state of chronic sympathetic stimulation. The sympathetic nervous system is only meant to be active for short periods before the parasympathetic nervous system reactivates and settles the body back to normal. Chronic stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system can lead to a range of health issues including: insomnia, anxiety, nervous tension, irritability, muscular tightness, irritable bowel symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating, weight gain and sugar cravings, menstrual irregularity and other hormonal imbalances. It is vital to your health to spend as much time as possible with the parasympathetic nervous system active and the sympathetic nervous system turned down. There are many things that help to activate that parasympathetic nervous system including: laughter, fun, exercise (gentle/moderate), deep diaphragm breathing, relaxation techniques, meditation, pleasurable sex, massage and acupuncture, enjoyable meals with family and friends, listening to pleasant music……….you get the idea. The best way to maintain balance is to try to balance your stressful activities with as many of the above activities to give your body a chance to rest, recover, digest, nourish and repair all the organ systems and immune system.	0.9108	FineWeb
Definition of dolostone in English: Rock consisting of dolomite. - For petroleum engineering, this development is the most important aspect, especially when comparing limestone with dolostone sequences. - The entire north area consists of Quaternary sediments, while the surrounding uplands are dolostone, limestone, and sandstone of upper Silurian to lower Devonian origin, plus associated till. - The canyon system cuts down through marine sandstone, siltstone and dolostone. Definition of dolostone in: - British & World English dictionary What do you find interesting about this word or phrase? Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.	0.6636	FineWeb
Asterisk is built by and for communication systems developers. It is an engine that handles all of the low-level details of initiating, maintaining and manipulating calls between endpoints (phones). Digium’s Switchvox IP PBX is a turnkey phone system based on the Asterisk engine, and is administered through an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), rather than raw configuration files and custom scripts. Benefits hoteliers can expect: - Turnkey PBX System - Enhanced call distribution perfect for call centres - Web-based interface	0.7244	FineWeb
\|People with living parents in this picture: zero (one if you count Asmodeus as the tiefling's dad)\| That's not to say D&D isn't happening in my group, since we now have several other Dungeon Masters among our number who have been prepping or running their own campaigns. There should be a proper Monday Recap next week! In the meantime, I'm going to talk about my first 5th edition campaign, and the story-crafting philosophy that went into creating the plot. One of the subtlest techniques in a Dungeon Master's arsenal is lampshading (warning: TV Tropes link). I knew it was an extremely common trope in D&D for characters to start the game as orphans, so I literally made my first game Orphan Quest, where everyone stared in an orphanage. This resulted in the rest of my players wanting to do something different, to distance themselves from that first, big campaign. Since then, I've had very few orphans in my games, and a ton of great plots about family connections. The same thing happened after I made the incredibly spoofy edgelord character Kaim'ango. Nobody wanted to play an edgy character because I had already used all the tropes. So, the players started in an orphanage. Our first session was kind of a session zero, where we made characters together and then sent them on a short adventure. I had them cut their stats in half to pretend they were children, and they did a small stealth mission against Sebastion, an evil knight that would become the main antagonist of the campaign. After that first session, I had them all go their separate ways to gain their class training. The Tiefling Rogue Orianna trained in Garton, the Half-Elf Bard Leigh learned her craft from a group of spies called the Cobblestones, and Half-Orc-Half-Halfing Keth gained skill in the crime-ridden city of Drudgeton. When they came back together, they were all recruited by the Cobblestones to see what Sebastion had been doing, since he was acting as the King's personal guardian. They were also given a mentor named Hilde, who was Leigh's personal trainer. They had a few adventures in their home town of Wayford, the Garlancian Circus, Drudgeton, and elsewhere as they followed Sebastion's trail from Wyaford to Garton. Along the way, Sebastion hounded them at every turn, even forcing Hilde to give up her life to allow the group to escape his wrath. When the group finally reached Garton, they met with the leader of the Cobblestones and were tasked with investigating Sebastion's ties to the country of Norstone, north of Garlancia. They discovered Leigh's sister was actually the Queen of Norstone, and there was another layer of evil happening beyond Sebastion. It was revealed that a Norstone wizard, Prindle, had entered an infernal contract to gain power and start a war between the two countries. Sebastion himself was a devil known as a Rakshasa. The heroes saved the king (who had been held captive by Sebastion), and made it to the war just in time to stop Prindle. Unfortunately, they also opened up a portal to the Nine Hells and got trapped there with a portion of the Garlancian army. After being invited down to the bottom layer of the Hells, they got a tour of each layer and met with Asmodeus himself. Sebastion showed up in his final form, which they defeated to earn their freedom. But Asmodeus had put fine print into the contract that only allowed Orianna and Leigh to escape. Keth and their allies had to stay in Hell. Orianna and Leigh returned to Garton, got famous, and got married. And that's where we ended. The 3 Why's \|Everyone asks why I'm a wizard, but never how I'm doing...\| The plot of this campaign is what Angry would call an Onion Campaign. It started with a plot to fight a single bad guy and opened up into wars, wizards, and Hells. At each turn, they made progress forward, but new, greater problems were revealed. I created this plot by using a method called the 3 Why's, which is normally used to get better answers from evasive people. If someone is trying to hide something from you, you keep asking why until they reveal the real reasons why they did or did not do something. In a campaign where the plot keeps escalating, the players are essentially asking those "Why" questions of the setting. Each time they get an answer, a new question appears. In my campaign, the questions were as follows: - Why is Sebastion working for the king? Because the king is being controlled by devils - Why is the King being controlled by devils? Because a wizard is trying to start a war - Why is a wizard trying to start a war? To gain power from the devils and open a portal to the hells Because I started the campaign by asking these questions, I had the ability to foreshadow things very early on in the campaign. Sebastion wasn't just a bad guy, he was a bad guy with mysterious infernal powers. In this way, the plot progressed naturally rather than seeming like I was pulling plot points out of nowhere. It also gave me a clear progression for the characters as they learned more about the world. By making each "Why" happen on a new tier of play, I could craft games that appropriately challenged my players from day one. in a combat-oriented game, it's important to have final villains that will actually provide combat challenges for the players when they reach the final level of your campaign. I'm currently using this process to build lore for the Valley of the Lords. I just take each element of the story that is known to the players (orcs, ancient lords, humans and dwarves aligning, etc) and add a few layers of story behind it. By the time I'm done, there will be a rich collection of motivations for me to draw from when it comes time to fill the world with people and things. Then, when the Orc Lord opens a portal to the Nine Hells, the players won't be surprised! Thanks for reading!	0.5017	FineWeb
The United States has taken a federal census every 10 years since 1790. The first census enumeration contained a limited amount of information. Each following enumeration asked for a little more information each time. Today we're going to take a look at some information you can find in the census records. Since you always want to start with the latest record available we're going to start with the 1940 census and work our way back. The 1940 census was enumerated in April. Let's look at a copy of a census record for my family. I know my grandfather was living in Kansas City, Missouri when the 1940 census was enumerated. Here's a copy of the record, broken down into two parts so it's readable: \|First half of 1940 census listing for Edward Conwell, Jr. and family\| \|Second half of 1940 census listing for Edward Conwell, Jr. and family\| Columns #1 and #2 are the location information: - Street, avenue, road, etc. - House number (in cities and towns) The house he's listed at is still standing and I was fortunate to spend summers there growing up as a child. Columns #3-#6 are household data: - Number of household in order of visitation - Home owned or rented - Value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented - Whether the household is on a farm Column #7 is the name of each person who's residence was in the household at the time of enumeration and column #8 is the relationship of the person to the head of household. Grandpa Edward is listed with his (first) wife, Ada J., and...SURPRISE!...mother-in-law, Stella (so if I didn't already know Ada's maiden name, I could have gotten it from this census). Grandpa Edward didn't talk much about his first wife, so I never knew that mother-in-law resided with them. \|Edward Conwell listed with wife, Ada J., and mother-in-law, Stella Correll\| Columns #9-#12 are the personal description fields: - Color or race - Age at last birthday - Marital status Columns #13 and #14 are questions regarding education: - Attended school or college since March 1, 1940 - Highest grade of school completed Column #15 is the person's place of birth and column #16 is whether the person is a U.S. citizen or foreign born. The whole family was born in Missouri and they were all U.S. citizens. Columns #17-#20 are questions regarding the residence: - The city, town or village having 2,500 or more inhabitants or "R" for all other places - State or territory/foreign country - Whether the residence was a farm Columns #21-#34 are all questions about employment status (for persons 14 years old and over): - Was this person at work for pay or profit in private or non-emergency government work during the week of March 24-30? - If not, was this person at work on, or assigned to, public emergency work (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during the week of March 24-30? - If not at work or assigned to public emergency work were they seeking work? - If not at work or assigned to public emergency work did they have a job, business, etc.? - If the person answered no to any of the previous questions, indicate if they were engaged in housework, school, unable to work or other - If at private or non-emergency government work (from column #21), number of hours worked during the week of March 24-30, 1940 - If seeking work or assigned to public emergency work (from column #22 or #23), duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks The final columns are questions regarding income: - Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions) - Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary? - Number of farm schedule The 1940 census contains a wealth of information for genealogists. There are several ways to access the census records, from using Ancestry.com (if you don't have a paid subscription to Ancestry, check out your local library or Family History Center for free usage opportunities) for indexed images to using some of the non-indexed sites and paging thru the census record pages one by one. I prefer the indexed version, however, going through page by page can wield treasures of its own. Additional family members have been discovered in this manner and it can also give you a picture of who was living around your ancestor. Have you made any surprising discoveries about your ancestors from the 1940 census? What piece of information are you glad the government included on this census? Next up, what's on the 1930 census?	0.6478	FineWeb
The following account of Heymans's work is by Professor G. Liljestrand, member of the Staff of Professors of the Royal Caroline Institute. For over a century now it has been known that respiration in vertebrates including man is regulated from a small area in the medulla, known as the respiratory centre. From this centre nervous impulses of variable strength travel along the spinal cord and motor nerves, and reach the respiratory muscles. These muscles then come into play to produce respiratory movements. It is a well-known fact that respiratory movements can be intentionally modified, particularly during speech or singing, but respiration can also be influenced in different ways by mechanisms without conscious volition. For instance, entering a cold bath stops respiration for a few moments, pain tends to increase respiration. A sudden expansion of the lungs stops inspiration and induces expiration. Similarly, when air is withdrawn from the lungs by suction, expiration is halted and inspiration is induced. These facts were revealed by Hering and Breuer, and demonstrate the way in which reflexes influence respiration. Following the centripetal nervous pathways information is transmitted to the respiratory centre which reacts according to the nature of the information by initiating corresponding modifications of respiration. The chemical composition of the blood also has an effect on respiration. This is the essential factor which controls the degree of ventilation, i.e. the quantity of air which passes through the lungs. If the tension of carbon dioxide in the blood increases, or if the oxygen tension is reduced, the ventilation will increase. In this way respiration will adapt to the great variations in the requirements of the body, which themselves are due to the intensity of metabolic processes in the organism. Prior to Heymans's work, it was thought that the blood acted directly on the respiratory centre. In 1927, together with the late Professor J. F. Heymans, his father and teacher, Heymans studied the respiratory reflexes which are transmitted by the tenth cranial nerve, i.e. the vagus or pneumogastric nerve. They made use of a technique which had been developed by the elder Heymans in collaboration with De Somer in 1912. This technique made it possible to keep alive the completely isolated head of a dog by perfusion of blood from another dog, while the body also remained alive with the help of artificial respiration. By ensuring that the only communication between the head and the rest of the body was provided by the two vagus nerves (and the depressor or aortic nerves which reach them from the aortic arch) the necessary conditions were produced for studying the links between the head and body dependent upon these nervous pathways. The two Heymans were thus able to demonstrate that expansion of the lungs stopped the respiratory movements of the head in the expiratory position, which was indicated by the recording of laryngeal and alae nasi movements, while collapse of the lungs immediately induced inspiratory-type respiration in the head. These experiments had provided decisive proof that the still controversial respiratory reflexes described by Hering and Breuer did in fact exist. It was also demonstrated that interruption of the artificial respiration applied to the body with resulting accumulation of carbon dioxide and decrease in oxygen contents rapidly led to an increase in respiratory movements of the head. On the other hand, hyperventilation of the body with free air, which produced increased excretion of carbon dioxide from the body, and increased the oxygen tension, stopped the respiratory movements of the head. After section of the vagus nerves, none of these effects were produced. Proof had therefore been produced for the first time that the vago-depressor nerves were capable of transmitting chemical stimuli arising peripherally. Consequently, if hyperventilation of the lungs was carried out, using a mixture containing a high proportion of carbon dioxide and a low proportion of oxygen, so that in spite of increased ventilation the tension of carbon dioxide in the lungs continued to increase while the oxygen tension decreased, the respiratory movements of the head, far from being reduced, tended to increase. The effects of hyperventilation with air could not therefore be explained as mechanical phenomena. They must have resulted from the suppression of the chemical stimulus to the nerve terminals of the vago-depressor nerves. By a careful and technically ingenious analysis, it was shown that these reflexes originating from chemical stimuli arise from the heart itself and the portion of the aorta nearest to it. Respiration could also be inhibited by high blood pressure in the body, as Heymans's experiments showed. This intrinsically important discovery is of all the more interest in view of Hering's discovery (1923-1924) that the area known as the carotid sinus, on the internal carotid at its junction with the common carotid artery, has an analogous function to that of the areas in the aorta from which the depressor nerves arise. Thus an increase in arterial pressure in the internal carotid stimulates a number of nerve terminals in the walls of the sinus and produces a reflex which is transmitted by the ninth pair of cranial nerves, the glossopharyngeal nerves, and reaches the territories of the vagus and vaso-motor nerves. This produces dilatation in certain vascular areas and a slowing up of the cardiac rhythm. The original hypertension is thus counteracted, at least to a certain extent. The area innervated by the depressor nerves and the carotid sinus is therefore part of a common system, sometimes called the bridles of the blood pressure. Heymans also studied with great precision the reflexes arising from the sinus area. Thus, together with a number of collaborators, he closely examined the mechanism by which the repercussions of these reflexes act on the cardiac rhythm and on the blood pressure. As is the case of reflexes governed by the depressor nerves, he found that the cardiac rhythm was slowed by increasing the tone of the branches of the vagus nerves, which have a delaying effect on the heart beat, and also by the reduction of activity in the antagonist stimulant nerves, whose function is to increase the cardiac rate. He further showed the role played by the different vascular areas in the modifications of blood pressure when the sinus pressure is increased or lowered. He also indicated that the suprarenal medulla was probably influenced by reflexes arising from the carotid sinus, bringing it to increase or decrease adrenaline secretion into the blood. Systematic research was carried out with the aim of discovering if respiratory reflexes could also arise from the sinus. On this specific subject a number of significant facts had already been noted. For instance, Sollmann and Brown had observed that stretching of the common carotid artery initiated respiratory reflexes, and others, among them Hering and Heymans himself, had noted that an increase of pressure in the carotid artery could inhibit respiration, while a lowering of pressure in the sinus area stimulated respiration. In 1930, Heymans and Bouckaert were able to show that even slight variations in pressure could lead to marked changes in the respiration, and that these changes were due to a reflex mechanism. Research was then concentrated on establishing whether the sinus area was sensitive as regards chemical stimuli in the same way as the area covered by the depressor nerves. In a number of papers, first in collaboration with Bouckaert and Dautrebande in 1930-1931, and then also with von Euler, Heymans gave irrefutable evidence that chemical stimuli played an important part in the control of blood pressure and respiration. In his experiments blood containing varying proportions of carbon dioxide and oxygen, and varying H-ion concentrations, was pumped into the sinus area. Blood could also be transfused from another dog which was inhaling mixture with a given proportion of gases so as to obtain the required chemical change in the blood. These experiments have shown that the increase in carbon dioxide tension, or the decrease of oxygen contents can increase respiration by acting upon the sinus area. By cutting the nerve fibres which travel from the sinus to the medulla, it was demonstrated that the increase in respiration after inhalation of air of low oxygen content, did not occur at all, and that consequently the stimulating reaction depended entirely on the sinus reflex. A similar experiment demonstrating the role of carbon dioxide showed that this gas stimulated respiration both by direct action on the respiratory centre and indirectly by means of the sinus mechanism. Thus Heymans's work led to the theory that four different types of reflexes could originate in the sinus area. On the one hand, the circulation, or more precisely the blood pressure and cardiac rhythm, and the respiration could be modified by pressure changes in the sinus and, on the other hand these two groups of physiological functions could also be modified by variations in the chemical composition of the blood. Heymans went on to make further contributions to our knowledge in this field. Since the end of the 18th century we know of the existence of a curious structure in the region of the sinus, the glomus caroticum or carotid body which, in man, extends over only a few millimetres. The glomus consists of a small mass of very fine intertwining vessels arising from the internal carotid and enclosing various different types of cells. It has been considered by some as being a sort of endocrine gland similar to the medulla of the suprarenal glands. De Castro, however, in 1927 demonstrated that the anatomy of the glomus could in no way be compared to that of the suprarenal medulla. De Castro suggested rather that the glomus was an organ whose function was to react to variations in the composition of the blood, in other words an internal gustatory organ with special «chemo-receptors». In 1931, Bouckaert, Dautrebande, and Heymans undertook to find out whether these supposed chemo-receptors were responsible for the respiratory reflexes produced by modifications in the composition of the blood. By localized destruction in the sinus area they had been able to stop reflexes initiated by pressure changes, but respiratory reflexes could still continue to occur in answer to changes in the composition of the blood. Other experiments showed that Heymans's concepts on the important role played by the glomus in the reflex control of respiration by the chemical composition of the blood were undoubtedly correct. Recently it has been shown that similar chemo-receptors located in the area covered by the depressor nerves (glomus aorticum) have an analogous structure to that of the glomus caroticum (Comroe, 1939). It seems likely however that this depressor nerve mechanism plays only a small part in the respiratory reflexes produced by a marked lowering of oxygen contents and that the essential pathway is via the glomus caroticum. No doubt remains that the whole system plays an important part in the regulation mechanism as regards respiration. By using modern amplification techniques, it has become possible to record exceedingly small variations in electrical potential within the body and to carry out research on action potentials detected in nerve fibres during transmission of an impulse. Even in the case of the smaller branches of the glossopharyngeal nerve which originate in the sinus area, action potentials of this type have been detected (Bronk, 1931). In 1933, Heymans and Rijlant demonstrated that these potentials were of two different kinds, the greater being produced by blood pressure in the sinus, the other by chemical stimulation in the glomus. We are thus in possession of a solid basis for further research as regards these two types of potential under various conditions. Heymans not only discovered the role, hitherto quite unknown, of certain organs (glomus caroticum and glomus aorticum), he also greatly enlarged our field of knowledge concerning the regulation of respiration. He showed that the various methods used for stimulating respiration had quite different mechanisms. In certain cases (lobeline, nicotine, cyanide, sulphide, etc.) the drug acts on the glomus, in others (e.g. Cardiazol) it acts by central stimulation and again in other cases (e.g. Coramine) it acts centrally and peripherally. It seems likely that this increase in our knowledge of the chemo-regulation of respiration will also be of great use in research on a number of diseases. The presentation of the Prize for Physiology or Medicine to Professor C. Heymans took place in Ghent on the 16th of January, 1940. From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965 Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1938 Try to save some patients and learn about human blood types! On 27 November 1895 Alfred Nobel signed his last will in Paris. All you want to know about the Medicine Prize!	0.928	FineWeb
Some years ago a well-known builder was building a house on an existing lot in an old subdivision on the eastside of Baltimore County. The deed for the lot included the bed of the County road in front of the lot. As the builder thought he needed a larger front yard, he dug up the road, piled it up neatly and called the County to come get it. (I am not making this up.) The Director of Public Works was unamused and it was a long time before the builder ever built again in Baltimore County. But that raised the question: If the builder had a deed to the bed of the road, why didn’t he own it and why couldn’t he do what he wanted with it? Or, how about this: Does having a deed to your house conclusively mean that you own it? If you believe it does, why do you get title insurance? You have a title for your car, but why don’t you get title insurance for your car? Early American surveyors didn’t speak of surveying as a profession or a trade, rather they referred to the “mystery of surveying.” Mystery is an archaic term that refers to the ancient practices of guilds, but in many respects, it seems that surveying is still quite a mystery to many today. While there are Biblical, Babylonian and Egyptian references to surveying, the development of measurement is actually fairly recent. The logarithm and the cosine were only invented in the sixteenth century and Greek geometry was only rediscovered during the Renaissance. The deed is much earlier and dates at least to the twelfth century. As in perhaps no other area, the field of surveying is a marriage between the legal and engineering professions. That marriage is embodied in a relationship between the deed, description and survey of the property in question. The deed, the instrument of conveyance, must contain a description. The description is based upon a survey which in turn is based upon the prior deed. All three are dependent upon the rules of evidence in ways that are poorly understood. Originally, land was transferred by the Act of Livery of Seisin. Livery means delivery and a clod of dirt usually with some sticks were handed over in a ceremony. For instance, on October 27, 1682, William Penn landed at what is now New Castle, Delaware and performed the Livery of Seisin to take possession of the Province of Pennsylvania. Perhaps because clods of dirt were hard to record in the land records, Livery of Seisin was replaced by the written deeds, but was still legal in some places as late as 1925. However, the modern era of surveying really began in 1610 when Edmund Gunter invented the famous Gunter’s chain which was ingeniously related to the English linear system and the perch. Perch, simply a word meaning a pole or rod, was standardized in the thirteenth century at 16 ½ feet which was supposedly the measurement of the left feet of the first 12 men out of church on a particular day. The Gunter’s chain was an actual chain made up of one hundred links and totaled 66 feet in length or four perches. The Gunter’s chain was very convenient because 10 chains square equaled one acre which was the ancient measure of area, the amount which a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. In addition, 80 chains constituted a mile and so the measurement of both distance and area could be accomplished with one simple instrument. Many of the railroad, turnpike, and highway rights-of-way such as Falls Road or Reisterstown Road to name but two, are 66 feet wide because they are based upon the chain. The Gunter’s chain remained in use, essentially unchanged, until the late nineteenth century when it was replaced by the steel tape which is even today is still called a chain. In addition to distance, a surveyor measures angles or direction. The development of angle measuring instruments, in the early seventeenth century, based upon nautical instruments, allowed for traverse surveys of large areas which is still the basic method used today. The telescope was attached to the theodolite (an angle measuring device) by the late eighteenth century and the tools of the surveyor, the chain and the theodolite or transit (simply a telescope mounted over a protractor) have remained nearly unchanged since their introduction until the present day. It is only in the last twenty years or so that electronic distance measuring equipment (called total stations) which measures distance by the use of lasers or microwaves, have been introduced to the surveying profession. Some surveys are still done by transit and tape but more typically, electronic measuring equipment and Global Positioning are utilized. THE ROLE OF THE SURVEYOR There is a widespread misconception that a surveyor can determine boundary lines. He can’t. With the exception of subdivision of existing property, which a surveyor is legally authorized to do, a surveyor by his own act cannot determine a new boundary line. Nor does the surveyor have judicial or legislative authority to establish the location of an existing boundary line. A surveyor’s determination is only an opinion−an expert opinion−but an opinion nonetheless. No one is required to accept the findings of the surveyor. His findings and monuments are given weight only by the consent of the land owners or a court. In fact, only the Circuit Court (or two adjacent landowners in rare circumstances) can determine a boundary. The location of boundary lines can be extremely subjective and is susceptible to a great deal of judgement. A surveyor does not decide who owns property. He locates land in accordance with the best evidence and descriptions available to him. The ownership of land depends on many factors: valid signatures, insanity, heirs, adverse rights, and numerous other elements all of which are beyond the scope of surveying. DETERMINING THE BOUNDARY An additional misconception is related to the role of the deed. A deed is NOT conclusive proof of ownership of property—it is merely evidence. A deed also does not establish property lines and it is just one element of evidence as to their location. The manner in which a boundary survey is performed and the judgment involved is also not well understood. The two cardinal principles governing the surveyor in the location of a boundary are to follow in the footsteps of the previous surveyor, and to gather all of the available evidence and weigh the evidence in accordance with certain rules of construction. The rules of construction in determining boundary lines are legal principles established by the courts and yet are used and administered by the surveyor, often with little legal assistance. A boundary survey is really the search for and evaluation of evidence. A surveyor generally: 1) obtains written evidence of title, that is a deed; 2) goes upon the land and seeks evidence of existing monuments and possession; 3) makes measurements from the monuments he was able to locate to determine other areas to search for missing monuments; 4) makes calculations and measurements which are also a form of evidence; 5) from the evidence of the monuments, measurements and computations he comes to conclusions in accordance with rules of construction and finally, he then uses measurements to set new monuments in accordance with his conclusions. In determining a property line, there are inevitably many conflicts which must be resolved. There is a hierarchy of rules which are used in weighing conflicting elements which have been established by the courts. These are: 1. Unwritten rights 2. Senior rights 3. Written rights 4. a) monuments (natural, artificial) More on the principles for determining boundaries and ALTA surveys in Part II of this series. LOCATION SURVEY OR MORTGAGE INSPECTION Location surveys have been the subject of considerable controversy in the past because they are not really surveys at all, but rather an inspection usually for the lender. Now known as the location drawings, these provide some level of assurance that the improvements are actually located on the property and this assurance is for the use of a lender or title insurer only. In Maryland, there are specific regulations related to location drawings. A surveyor is required to have the ultimate consumer sign a specific request and the final location drawing must include the statement that, “[this] location drawing is not a boundary survey and cannot be relied upon by anyone to show where the property’s boundaries are.” Should you require surveying services, please do not hesitate to contact our office. Our crew of skilled surveyors will be happy to assist. This article is the first of a two part series authored by David S. Thaler. The original article was featured in BUILD Maryland March/April, the Maryland Building Industry Association's bimonthly magazine. To read the publication online, visit MBIA.	0.6851	FineWeb
In every second household, you can find a money plant blooming in its glory. Money plant is considered as a lucky plant which brings wealth, health, prosperity and happiness in the house. Money plant is also known as Malabar Chestnut or saba nut. There are many facts about money plant that you must know. For example, money plant in Feng Shui is considered to be a lucky plant that brings monetary gain and good fortune. However, the money plant is also grown in the house as an indoor plant to add to the décor. If you have a money plant at home, then it would be thrilling to know some surprising facts about money plant. Planting and care - Keep the plant indoor or outdoor in bright light or direct morning sunlight atleast 3 to 4 hours. - Protect the Money plant from harsh direct sunlight as it can cause damage to the foliage. - The soil should be well drained and fertile for growing Money plant. - Water the plant when the topsoil (2-3 inch) in pot feels dry to touch. - Do not ever overwater the plant. - Water thoroughly in the summer and reduce watering in winter and rainy season. Application of Fertilize - During the main growing season (April – August) feed the Money plant with organic fertilizer once a month. - Loosen the topsoil without disturbing the roots of the plant so it can uptake the nutrients and moisture easily. - When a plant outgrows in current pot, re-pot with fresh potting soil and some fertilizer. - Do the re-potting late evening and keep the plant in shady area for 2 to 3 days and then move the plant in its suitable climatic condition.	0.9956	FineWeb
- Doing architectural projects of office space - Designing office space - Interdisciplinary coordination - Visualizations (3ds max) - Designing furniture - Cooperation with the sales department ( meetings with clients and project coordination). - Proficient knowledge of AutoCAD - Knowledge of the following programs: 3ds max, Photoshop, Corel, v-ray - Creativity, independence and good work organization - Knowledge of English - Experience in interior design What we offer: - Work in a fast-growing company with a stable position on the market. - Cooperation with a young and dynamic team - Attractive salary Please send your CV to the following email address: [email protected]	0.514	FineWeb
Neural networks can perform well on tasks such as image classification, language translation, and game playing. However, they usually fail to perform well in tasks that need human abstraction. Activities such as catching balls mid-air or juggling multiple balls, which the humans have mastered, need an intuitive understanding of dynamics of how physical bodies behave. We don’t take time out to calculate the trajectories before hitting the ball. We just know. Machine learning models lack many basic intuitions about the dynamics of the physical world. A neural network may never grasp human-level abstraction, even after seeing thousands of examples. The basic problem with neural network models is that they struggle to learn basic symmetries and conservation laws One solution to this problem is to design neural networks that can learn arbitrary conservation laws. Sam Greydanus, a resident at Google Brain, along with his peers, Miles Cranmer, Peter Battaglia, David Spergel, Shirley Ho and Stephen Hoyer has published an interesting paper addressing the above challenges. In the next section, we shall talk briefly about Lagrangian neural networks and why they are significant Overview Of Lagrangian Neural Networks To demonstrate how a Lagrangian denotes the underlying secrets of nature, the authors take the example of a double pendulum. A double pendulum is a pendulum attached to a pendulum. It is famous for representing chaos in moving bodies. Consider a physical system that has coordinates x_t=(q,q˙). For example, a double pendulum can be defined with the help of the angles it makes and also its angular velocities. When a double pendulum is set into motion, the coordinates that we have ascribed on the body move from one point to another. This is clear. This is common sense. But what induces chaos is the possibility of many paths that these coordinates can take between start(x_0) and end(x_1). According to Lagrangian mechanics, any action can be written as a function of the potential energy (energy by virtue of position) and kinetic energy (by virtue of motion). And, it is expressed as follows: The S in the above expression has a remarkable property. For all possible paths between x_0 and x_1, there is only one path, which provides a stationary value of S. Besides, that path is the one that nature always takes — the principle of least action. So, if we understand the laws of conservation of energy, then we can define the action of the body under consideration and eventually predict the path taken by the body with great accuracy. However, neural networks are poor at understanding loss of energy concepts, and this is where Lagrangian Neural Networks (LNNs) comes into the picture. “If energy is conserved,” they might say, “when I throw a ball upwards, it will return to my hand with the same speed as when it left.”via Sam Greydanus’ blog But these common-sense rules can be difficult to learn straight from data. So, a neural network that understands the conservation of energy just from data can have great implications for robotics and reinforcement learning. And, with LNNs, the authors have opened up new avenues of research by binding the underlying principles of nature with man-made artificial neural networks. What Is The Significance Of LNNs Joseph-Louis Lagrange, born in 1736, in Italy, is one of the greatest polymaths who have ever lived. By the age 20, he already has published the principle of least action in the dynamics of solid and fluid bodies. He formulated how to find the path taken by bodies no matter how chaotic their movements are. Three centuries later, today, his work still resonates in the most advanced fields such as deep learning. Not that there is an expiry date to the fundamentals of mathematics but the fact that those principles can be applied to make neural networks better than before is a fascinating idea. The models of the universe are probed for their symmetries while formulating a model. These symmetries correspond to laws of conservation of energy and momentum, which the neural network struggle at learning. To address these shortcomings, Greydanus and his peers, introduced a class of models called Hamiltonian Neural Networks (HNNs) last year, which can learn these invariant quantities directly from (pixel) data. Now, going a step ahead of HNNs, Lagrangian Neural Networks (LNNs) can learn Lagrangian functions straight from data. This can also be done by HNNs, but unlike HNNs they don’t require canonical coordinates. The above table pits LNNs against other related work, and we can clearly see that Lagrangian Neural Networks are winning and we have to wait and see what other breakthroughs they have in store for the scientific community. Know more about Lagrangian Neural Networks here.	0.9772	FineWeb
The pupil premium gives schools extra funding to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils from reception to year 11. The Department for Education introduced a fund of £625 million in April 2011 to give schools £400 per year for: - every child currently registered as eligible for free school meals - children who have been looked after for 6 months or longer From April 2012, pupil premium funding was also extended to: - all children eligible for free school meals at any point in the past 6 years In the 2015 to 2016 financial year, funding for the pupil premium increased to £2.5 billion. Schools are receiving: - £1,320 per pupil of primary-school age - £1,900 per pupil for looked-after children who: - have been looked after for 1 day or more - are adopted - leave care under a Special Guardianship Order or a Residence Order The pupil premium is paid to schools as they are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need. Ofsted inspections report on how schools’ use of the funding affects the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. We also hold schools to account through performance tables, which include data on: - the attainment of the pupils who attract the funding - the progress made by these pupils - the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers	0.9521	FineWeb
\|Forecast about energy consumption\| The media, and sometimes even serious publications, often mistake the use of the three terms in the title of this post. In his book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973) E.F.Schumacher explains their differences: We talk happily about estimating, planning, forecasting, budgeting, about surveys, programmes, targets, and so forth, and we tend to use these terms as if they were freely interchangeable and as if everybody would automatically know what was meant. The result is a great deal of confusion, because it is in fact necessary to make a number of fundamental distinctions. The terms we use may refer to the past or to the future; they may refer to acts or to events: and they may signify certainty or uncertainty. According to Schumacher, combining the three different binary components (act-event; past-future; certain-uncertain) we have 8 possibilities: 1. Act Past Certain: as the murder of Julius Caesar. 2. Act Future Certain: as the railway departure times. Can be taken into account in a plan. 3. Act Past Uncertain: can be estimated, refers to some act that may have been performed in the past, but is not certain. 4. Act Future Uncertain: as tomorrow I might be discharged from the hospital. Can be planned for, or its probability estimated. 5. Event Past Certain: as the Fukushima disaster. 6. Event Future Certain: as tomorrow’s high tide will be at such an hour. 7. Event Past Uncertain: can be estimated, refers to some event that may have happened in the past, but is not certain. 8. Event Future Uncertain: as tomorrow the weather will be fine. Can be forecasted, or the probability estimated that it will take place. With this in mind, we can distinguish the three concepts in the title of this post: · Plans normally apply to future acts under the control of the planner with some degree of certainty (the planner assumes that the plan will be executed), but also a degree of uncertainty. They correspond to combinations 2 and 4. · Forecasts normally apply to future events not under the control of anyone, with a degree of uncertainty. They correspond to combination 8. · Estimates apply to uncertain past and future actions and events. Note that we do not know everything about the past. They correspond to combinations 3, 4, 7 and 8. · Exploratory calculations: If so and so happens, it would take us there. Being a conditional, it can be assigned a mathematical certainty. \|The numner of crosses in the Hill of Crosses (Lithuania) \| is estimated to have reached 100.000 in 2006 Moreover, we must bear in mind that some things are predictable, provided we have sufficient knowledge of the past (such as the fact that the sun will rise tomorrow). Others, however, especially those involving human freedom, either are not predictable, or are partly predictable (as the performance of large numbers of people). Let us quote Schumacher again: We can therefore distinguish as follows: 1. Full predictability (in principle) exists only in the absence of human freedom, i.e. in 'sub-human' nature. The limitations of predictability are purely limitations of knowledge and technique. 2. Relative predictability exists with regard to the behaviour pattern of very large numbers of people doing 'normal' things (routine). 3. Relatively full predictability exists with regard to human actions controlled by a plan which eliminates freedom, e.g. railway timetable. 4. Individual decisions by individuals are in principle unpredictable. To end this post, let us listen to Schumacher speaking about human freedom and the desire of many thinkers to deny its existence, something we have discussed in a couple of previous articles in this blog, which he attributes to the wish to avoid responsibility: The future, therefore, is largely predictable, if we have solid and extensive knowledge of the past. Largely, but by no means wholly, for into the making of the future there enters that mysterious and irrepressible factor called human freedom... Strange to say, under the influence of laboratory science many people today seem to use their freedom only for the purpose of denying its existence. Men and women of great gifts find their purest delight in magnifying every 'mechanism', every 'inevitability', everything where human freedom does not enter or does not appear to enter. A great shout of triumph goes up whenever anybody has found some further evidence -- in physiology or psychology or sociology or economics or politics -- of unfreedom, some further indication that people cannot help being what they are and doing what they are doing... The denial of freedom, of course, is a denial of responsibility: there are no acts, but only events; everything simply happens; no-one is responsible. It is the intrusion of human freedom and responsibility that makes economics metaphysically different from physics and makes human affairs largely unpredictable... In principle, everything which is immune to the intrusion of human freedom, like the movements of the stars, is predictable, and everything subject to this intrusion is unpredictable. Does that mean that all human actions are unpredictable? No, because most people, most of the time, make no use of their freedom and act purely mechanically... Yet all really important innovations and changes normally start from tiny minorities of people who do use their creative freedom.	0.7117	FineWeb
Table of Contents [+/-] MySQL Workbench provides extensive capabilities for creating and manipulating database models, including these: Create and manipulate a model graphically Reverse engineer a live database to a model Forward engineer a model to a script or live database Create and edit tables and insert data This is not an exhaustive list. The following sections discuss these and additional data-modeling capabilities. The Home window is the typical starting point for work with data modeling. In the Data Modeling section of the Workspace, you can use the action items there to create and manage models, forward and reverse engineer, and compare and synchronize schemata: Open an Existing EER Model Create new EER Model Create EER Model from Existing Database Create EER Model from SQL Script The following sections describe these action items.	0.9935	FineWeb
Improving your shadow boxing takes dedication, motivation and consistent work. Having a coach or is pivotal to improving your boxing foundations ands skills. Performed alone or as a warm-up, shadow boxing is one of the most valuable exercises for all warriors. Episode 5 is your FINAL session of Nate’s Competitive Shadow Boxing workout. Nate adds in fakes more pivots, more complex combinations. Tougher combinations require faster reaction time, more pivots and fakes which helps helps further improve, skill, movement, speed and accuracy. Listen to the combos, react to defensive and footwork callouts and let your hands go!	0.5868	FineWeb
Trying to write a paper where I have to compare process improvement models to implement for a hypothetical avionics software development company. From researching, it seems that CMMI and SPICE are pretty similar and both derived from CMM. The problem I'm having is I'm finding it difficult to distinguish when you would recommend one over another. So far I've managed to find out that: - SPICE is slightly cheaper than CMMI - SPICE is recognised more in Europe - CMMI is recognised more in US and required for US military contracts - CMMI takes longer Is there anything better that can distinguish between these?	0.5211	FineWeb
ATSU computer & network use guidelines ATSU’s computer-related resources (i.e. hardware, software, and various network connections, etc.) exist to support activities consistent with the campuses’ mission in education, instruction, research, administration, and community service. ATSU provides faculty, staff and students with access to modern information technology to support the pursuit of excellence in these areas. Use of these resources must comply with the University’s Computer and Network Use policy (55-103). Among other things, this policy prohibits - Violation of copyright and licensing laws, including illegal file sharing and installation of of unlicensed software. - Removal of ATSU owned equipment from campus - Installation of equipment intended to extend accessibility to the ATSU network such as unauthorized wireless access points, hubs, or switches. - Sharing of ATSU account information - Unauthorized access to private information, whether obtained through “hacking” or by “social engineering” methods. - Attempts to alter system configurations, degrade or disrupt system performance - Storing, printing or displaying any files, materials, or messages of an inappropriate nature	0.8188	FineWeb
Back pain is one of the most common reason why your day or plans may be interrupted. I remember one time I’m prepping up to meet a longtime friend whom I haven’t seen in years (she works overseas) when suddenly she cancelled because she is experiencing a chronic pain on her back. We were still able to meet though, but not personally. Thanks to the power of the internet. This pain, in most cases isn’t caused by anything serious and will usually get better over time. Preventing back pain is better than trying to cure it after it has set in. So even if you’re not experiencing back pain symptoms, I would recommend you follow these simple tips: - Always stretch before any strenuous physical activity. Stretching can loosen up tense muscles and strengthen those that need some help. Anytime you begin stretching, you should approach each step gently. Stop any stretching exercise that causes pain as forcing a stretch damage or cause strains. - Exercise your core. Strong core muscles are important to provide support for the lower back and avoid injury. Low-impact cardiovascular exercise—like exercise walking—increases blood flow to the spine, which supplies healing nutrients and hydration to the structures in your lower back. - Correct your posture. Poor posture places pressure on your back and can cause degenerated discs to become more painful. Avoid slouching when standing or sitting. - If you spend most of your time sitting, pay careful attention to consciously sucking in your belly and rotating your pelvis slightly up. At the same time, you should keep your head back, with your ears over your shoulders and your shoulder blades pinched. This posture will keep your spine in proper alignment. Do this every hour you’re sitting, holding the muscles tight for several minutes. - Sit in chairs or car seats with good lumbar support. - Switch your sitting positions often. I would also recommend periodically walking around or gently stretching your muscles to relieve tension. - Avoid bending over without supporting your back. - Wear comfortable, low-heeled shoes. Women should also refrain from wearing heels all the time. - Sleep on your side to reduce any curve in your spine. You should also sleep on a firm surface. - Lift heavy objects correctly. Even if you’re young and strong, you can still injure your lower back if you lift a heavy object incorrectly.When weight-lifting using your legs, always keep your back straight. - Maintain an optimal weight. - Quit smoking. Smoking reduces blood flow to your lower spine, causing the spinal discs to degenerate. - Get enough vitamin D from sun exposure daily, as vitamin D helps keep your bones, including your spine, strong. - Drink plenty of water to enhance the height of your intervertebral disks. Since your body is composed mostly of water, staying hydrated will keep you fluid and reduce stiffness. - It is also important to get enough deep, restorative sleep, as too little sleep can lead to back pain and/or worsen an existing back condition. About The Author Cathy spends part of her days wondering how to combine her 2 loves, writing and photography. The rest of her time she spends taking care of her two babies. Sheena, a Labrador retriever & Amanda, a Siberian husky. She’s been an OLEIA user since May.	0.8554	FineWeb
Chemical bonding, which underlies the structure and reactivity of all molecules, is explained beautifully clearly and succinctly in this primer, making it the perfect text to introduce students to this fundamental aspect of chemistry. The ideal course text for those new to the subject, Elements of Physical Chemistry covers the fundamentals of physical chemistry in a straightforward, easy-to-digest way. Extensive mathematical and pedagogical support enables students to gain a deeper understanding of this core branch of chemistry. By tackling the most central ideas in chemistry, Why Chemical Reactions Happen provides the reader with all the tools and concepts needed to think like a chemist. The text takes a unified approach to the subject, avoiding the traditional divisions of physical, inorganic and organic chemistry and so helps the reader to develop a real overview of chemical processes. Physical Chemistry for the Life Sciences provides a balanced presentation of the concepts of physical chemistry, and their applications to biology and biochemistry. Written to straddle the worlds of physical chemistry and the life sciences, it shows how the tools of physical chemistry can elucidate and illuminate biological questions. Inspiring and motivating students from the moment it published, Organic Chemistry has established itself in just one edition as the students' choice of organic chemistry text. Its explanatory, mechanistic, evidence-based approach makes it perfect for fostering a true understanding of the subject. The second edition of this trusted, accessible textbook has been fully updated for the new A Level specifications first teaching in September 2015. It contains a bank of practice questions for consolidation of learning and to help students of all abilities bridge the gap between GCSE and A Level study. Suitable for AQA, OCR, Edexcel and WJEC. The great ideas of science, from the first 'Eureka!' to the cloning of Dolly the sheep, can be found in this collection. A reference tool, it also presents the human face of science, as scientists talk about achievements and failures in their own lives, and in those of others. Derived from Biochemistry by Stryer, Tymoczko and Berg, Biochemistry: A Short Course offers that bestseller's clear writing and physiological emphasis, while focusing on the major topics taught in a one-semester Biochemistry course. (This title may not be available in all areas. Please contact your representative for more information.) This book presents an introduction to the quantum theory at a level appropriate to university students in chemistry. The required background in physics and mathematics is kept at a minimum, the emphasis being on the physical ideas and their application in chemistry, especially to atoms and to the periodic table of the elements. X-ray crystallography, a powerful technique for structure determination, plays a major role in modern research. This primer gives a concise and accessible account of the technique, emphasising its wide-ranging practical application to engineering and the physical and biological sciences. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance offers an accessible introduction to the physical principles of liquid-state NMR, with examples, applications, and exercises provided throughout to enable beginning undergraduates to get to grips with this important analytical technique. Pericyclic reactions, a fundamental strand of organic chemistry, include a number of commercially important synthetic reactions such as the Diels-Alder reaction. This primer enables students to recognise the different types of pericyclic reaction and understand their application in organic synthesis. Foundations of Molecular Structure Determination gives a broad introduction to a range of common spectroscopic and diffraction methods, with frequent worked examples and problem questions provided to assist beginning undergraduates in developing their structure analysis skills. Describes the fundamental science underlying the development of processes for the manufacture of fine chemicals, such as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. This text outlines both the strategies employed in process development and also the chemical and chemical engineering concepts involved. Plastics are used in every aspect of modern life. This Primer gives a simple introduction to these important materials, and includes practical industrial aspects as well as basic science. Exciting new developments are also described. 'The f Elements' is a textbook suitable for undergraduate chemistry students who wish to learn more about the chemistry of two families of chemical elements; the lanthanides and the actinides (collectively known as the f elements). It also discusses many important applications of f element chemistry, e.g. nuclear power generation and more. Heterocyclic compounds are of prime importance to organic chemists working in the chemical industry. This text looks at synthetic aspects rather than properties, and it covers the essential details and basic principles with reference to the important classes of heterocyclic compounds. It also includes instructional problems and references. The manipulation of functional groups by oxidative or reductive processes is central to organic chemistry. This book provides a comprehensive summary of oxidative and reductive processes, emphasizing general principles and common factors, and showing the applications of these reactions in organic synthesis. Neutral reactive intermediates play a key role in synthetic chemistry. Intended for undergraduates, this primer concentrates on this role; the important reactions of these electron-deficient species are laid out clearly, with carefully chosen examples illustrating their use in organic synthesis. All the basic principles of this important topic are clearly presented here in an account which takes as examples many compounds of industrial and biological significance. Consideration is given to the structure, reactions, and properties of benzene and classes of aromatic compounds derived from it, and more. Summarizes the fundamentals of organic chemistry. This work introduces basic physical chemistry, and lays the groundwork for the mechanistic organic chemistry. It stresses on the importance of bonding and mechanism. It also includes examples of natural products and pharmaceuticals. It is suitable for advanced school students and undergraduates. Provides a basic introduction to equilibrium electrochemistry, focusing on electrode potentials and their applications. This edition gives knowledge of the origin of electrode potentials and shows how these are used to deduce chemically important information and data such as equilibrium constants, the free energy, enthalpy and more. Intended for chemistry, physics and material science undergraduates, this work is an introduction to the science of surfaces. It incorporates both chemical thermodynamics and modern spectroscopic methods of analysing surfaces. It shows how the physico-chemical concepts may be applied in elucidating surface structure, reactivity and composition. Outlines the main classes of transition metal organometallic complexes and introduces the reader to the chemistry of compounds with metal-carbon s-bonds: metal carbonyls, metal alkyls, and metal alkylidenes and alkylidenes. This work also illustrates synthetic methods leading to each class of compounds with examples. An understanding of spectroscopic techniques in the analysis of chemical structures is an essential to all chemistry degree courses. This book provides the essential material needed by undergraduates, in a compact form. The book is also likely to be of use to postgraduates in organic chemistry as reference material in their daily research. Providing an introduction to the roles that metals have in biological systems, this text introduces many topics: the transport and storage of metals: their functions in dioxygen interactions, electron transfer, and enzyme activity; the therapeutic uses of coordination compounds; and more. This book introduces an undergraduate reader to the wealth of fascinating organic chemistry involving nitrogen. There are three main sections to the book, each being introduced by a summary of the underlying chemical principles. The main organonitrogen functional groups are covered systematically, each chapter concluding with a brief summary of the chemistry. The chemistry of solid inorganic materials has become a central theme in research and in the teaching of chemistry. This book gives an introduction to solid state materials which also addresses the major experimental technique used to study them, powder X-ray diffraction, and uses experimental data to from this technique. Most important organic molecules contain more than one functional group, and very often the interaction between these groups determines the chemical and biological behaviour of the compounds. This text describes some of the methods used to prepare bifunctional compounds and goes on to survey the chemistry of the more important classes of compound. This short text gives an overview of the organometallic chemistry of transition metals. Structural principles and reactions are illustrated with numerous examples. Together with the companion volume Organometallics 1, the text is suitable as the basis for undergraduate courses and revision. This title covers areas of mechanistic and physical organic chemistry at advanced undergraduate level in a non-mathematical way. The topics included (e.g. kinetics and mechanism, catalysis, and isotope effects) are essential in any modern chemistry degree. The book is up to date and includes many examples from all areas of organic chemistry. The book begins with the modern concepts of organic chemical reactivity, then presents a concise up to date account of the mechanisms of major reactions of simple organic compounds. Each chapter leads the student from the experimental evidence to the mechanistic deductions, and ends with problems for students to work through, and a short bibliography. Process development bridges the gap between the laboratory synthesis of an organic compound and its industrial manufacture on a large scale. This book uses real examples to show the range of problems which may be encountered in scaling up chemical syntheses and the ways in which they may be overcome. This primer seeks to strip off some of the mystery that often surrounds carbohydrate chemistry, a subject taught in all undergraduate courses, by highlighting and summarising some of the central principles and ideas and by illustrating them with both classical and state-of-the-art examples. The phenomena of oscillations, travelling waves and chaos in reacting chemical systems began as curiosities but now support an active, international research field. This study describes how these "exotic" patterns arise from the underlying chemical mechanisms. Explains photochemistry in a comprehensive manner. Aimed at an undergraduate audience, this text describes the chemistry that follows the absorption of light, and explains how light has an extraordinary influence on chemical behaviour. Describes how stereoelectronic effects control the rules of engagement that operate when molecules meet. Aimed at undergraduate students, this book gives a 'feel' or intuition for molecules and what they are capable of. The treatment is non-mathematical and the treatment shows the student building up a simple way of thinking about Chemistry. This Primer presents an introduction to molecular symmetry and point groups with an emphasis on their applications. The author has adopted a non-mathematical approach as far as possible. The text is based on a successful course given by the author. An understanding of spectroscopic methods is a pre-requisite for students in chemistry and related disciplines from the undergraduate level onwards. This text provides an introduction to common spectroscopic techniques and interpretation of spectra, and their application to inorganic-based systems. Aimed at undergraduate chemistry students, this clear and concise text is concerned with the reactions used in stereoselective organic synthesis. These are important types of reactions which can be used for the selective preparation of new organic compounds with a defined and predictable three dimensional architecture. Heterogeneous catalysts are now widely applied in everyday life, for instance, they are placed in car exhausts to reduce toxic emissions and to protect the environment. This book is important as a source of information regarding the fundamentals and applications of catalysis and is aimed at the undergraduate level, but would be useful also to teachers and as an introductory text for researchers. Much of chemistry deals with the comparitive chemistry of the elements. This book concentrates on the elements of the so-called s- and p-block (the main group elements) and uses ideas to show how the various trends in chemical properties can be rationalised. An introductory text on radiation heat transfer for undergraduate and postgraduate students with no prior knowledge of the subject. The text introduces the physical principles of radiation heat transfer and develops methods for the analysis of thermal radiation in a variety of engineering applications. Serving as a course in chemical reaction engineering, one of the main sections of a chemical engineering degree usually taught in the second year, this work includes multiple reactions and non-isothermal reactions and, temperature dependence of reaction rates leading to a discussion of non-ideal (real) reactors.	0.9844	FineWeb
any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb. a part of a glove made to receive a finger. the breadth of a finger as a unit of measurement; digit. the length of a finger: approximately 4½ inches (11 cm). Slang. an informer or spy. something like a finger in form or use, as a projection or pointer: a finger of land leading out into the bay; the finger on the speedometer. any of various projecting parts of machines. to touch with the fingers; toy or meddle with; handle. to touch with the fingers so as to mar or spoil: Please don’t finger the vegetables. to pilfer; filch. to play on (an instrument) with the fingers. to perform or mark (a passage of music) with a certain fingering. to inform against or identify (a criminal) to the authorities: He fingered the man who robbed the bank. to designate as a victim, as of murder or other crime. to touch or handle something with the fingers. to extend in or as in the shape of a finger: Landing piers finger out into the river along the city’s shoreline. burn one’s fingers, to suffer injury or loss by meddling or by acting rashly: If you get involved in the controversy, you may burn your fingers. give (someone) the finger, Slang. to express contempt for by or as by the obscene gesture of pointing the middle finger upward while folding the other fingers against the palm. have a finger in the pie, to have an interest or share in something. to meddle in something. keep one’s fingers crossed, to wish for good luck or success, as in a specific endeavor: Keep your fingers crossed that I get the job. lay / put one’s finger on, to indicate exactly; remember: I know the name, but I can’t put my finger on it. to discover; locate: I haven’t been able to lay my finger on the book you requested. not lift a finger, to make not even a small attempt; do nothing: The house was falling into ruin, but he wouldn’t lift a finger to repair it. put the finger on, Slang. finger (def 12). slip through one’s fingers, to elude one, as an opportunity not taken; escape: She let the chance of a lifetime slip through her fingers. to pass or be consumed quickly: Money just slips through his fingers. snap one’s fingers (at), to exhibit disdain or contempt (for): She snaps her fingers at the local gossip. twist / wrap around one’s little finger, to exert one’s influence easily or successfully upon: He has a remarkable talent for twisting people around his little finger. Defending a Bomb-Thrower Matthew Yglesias November 1, 2009 ‘Kick-Ass 2’ Star Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s Favorite Movie Villains Christopher Mintz-Plasse August 14, 2013 Return of the Bunny Boiler: Fatal Attraction’s World Stage Premiere Nico Hines March 25, 2014 Democratic Trainwreck Lloyd Grove, Benjamin Sarlin March 7, 2010 The Chuck Hagel Witch-Hunt Ali Gharib February 6, 2013 Common Science Carleton W. Washburne Weighed and Wanting George MacDonald Tarrano the Conqueror Raymond King Cummings The Bacillus of Beauty Harriet Stark Explorers of the Dawn Mazo de la Roche any of the digits of the hand, often excluding the thumb Technical name digitus manus (as modifier): a finger bowl (in combination): a fingernail, related adjective digital the part of a glove made to cover a finger something that resembles a finger in shape or function: a finger of land Also called digit. the length or width of a finger used as a unit of measurement a quantity of liquid in a glass, etc, as deep as a finger is wide; tot a projecting machine part, esp one serving as an indicator, guide, or guard burn one’s fingers, to suffer from having meddled or been rash (Brit, informal) get one’s finger out, pull one’s finger out, to begin or speed up activity, esp after initial delay or slackness have a finger in the pie, have one’s finger in the pie to have an interest in or take part in some activity to meddle or interfere (usually negative) lay a finger on, to harm lay one’s finger on, put one’s finger on, to indicate, identify, or locate accurately let slip through one’s fingers, to allow to escape; miss narrowly (foll by an infinitive) not lift a finger, not raise a finger, not to make any effort (to do something) point the finger at, to accuse or blame (informal) put the finger on to inform on or identify, esp for the police to choose (the victim or location of an intended crime) twist around one’s little finger, wrap around one’s little finger, to have easy and complete control or influence over (transitive) to touch or manipulate with the fingers; handle (transitive) (informal, mainly US) to identify as a criminal or suspect (intransitive) to extend like a finger to use one’s fingers in playing (an instrument, such as a piano or clarinet) to indicate on (a composition or part) the fingering required by a pianist, harpsichordist, etc (transitive; usually passive) to arrange the keys of (a clarinet, flute, etc) for playing in a certain way A police informer; stool pigeon (1930s+ Underworld) A person who tells thieves about potential loot (1920s+ Underworld) About a half-inch of liquor in a glass: Maybe I’d better have another finger of the hooch (1856+) To locate and point out someone: You’re the guy that fingered Manny Tinnen/ artificially heightening the tale’s drama (by fingering the sponsor) (1920s+ Underworld) To tell thieves about the location, value, etc, of potential loot: I fingered the robberies (1920s+ Underworld) To insert a finger into the vulva; fingerfuck: With one hand Larry was fingering me (1970s+) In addition to the idiom beginning with to undergo rapid combustion or consume fuel in such a way as to give off heat, gases, and, usually, light; be on fire: The fire burned in the grate. (of a fireplace, furnace, etc.) to contain a fire. to feel heat or a physiologically similar sensation; feel pain from or as if from a fire: […] see: in effigy Make an indelible impression on, as in An event like the Holocaust burns into the minds of all the survivors, or The scene was burned into her memory. This expression alludes to such processes as etching or engraving, where a caustic substance bites into a solid plate to make a design. [ Early 1800s ]	0.5833	FineWeb
Start a discussion For participation in the discussion you need to Register/Login. Start a discussion by introducing yourself, posting relevant texts, photos, links, documents, news, etc. Add proper KeyWords (#): they are crucial for future topic searches.Guide: How to use CEETO Network platform 1.44 MB PDF uploded 2 years ago Ana Krvarić 10 months ago Project Officer at WWF Adria THE IMPORTANCE OF MEASURING THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM IN PROTECTED AREAS - new guidance document The value of protected areas is often hidden from direct view. Once managers understand the number and behaviour of visitors they host, and the revenues and costs they generate, informed decisions on management plans and tourism strategies can be made. Drawing on case studies from around the world, Visitors Count! aims to build awareness, knowledge and capacity internationally on how to best undertake economic evaluations of tourism in protected areas, and thereby contribute towards a globally acknowledged standard methodology. Document downloadable at this LINK#impact #measuring #ProtectedArea #tourism #visitation Latest uploaded documentsEC_Tourism and visitation to protected areas amid COVID-19 1.43 MB PDF uplodaded 5 months ago 8.55 MB PDF uplodaded 10 months ago 7.02 MB PDF uplodaded 1 year ago 2.18 MB PDF uplodaded 1 year ago 3.97 MB PDF uplodaded 1 year ago	0.8668	FineWeb
Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But how far do most businesses go to create real wellbeing for their employees? Extensive research and analysis from Gallup shows the impact on business of employee wellbeing, which it defines as five dimensions: - Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time — or simply liking what you do every day - Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life - Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life - Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis - Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live For example: Employees with high wellbeing have 41% lower health-related costs compared with employees who have lower wellbeing. In a firm that has 10,000 employees, this difference amounts to nearly $30 million. And: People who have thriving wellbeing have a 35% lower turnover rate than those who are struggling; in a 10,000-person company, this represents $19.5 million. The research is US-centric, and easier to attach financial figures to healthcare because they are usually born by employers, but in the UK, with long waiting lists for treatment on the NHS, and the cost of absenteeism it is just as relevant.	0.5463	FineWeb
Since telecommunication is one of the main drivers of economic growth and globalization, WTO (World Trade Organization) negotiations and New Age FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) have focused on liberalizing trade in this sector. The present paper analyses the possibilities of liberalizing trade in telecommunication services if India and its largest trading partnerthe USenter into a bilateral agreement. The study found that India and the US have trade complementarities in telecommunication services and that it should be a priority sector in the FTA negotiations. The study identified certain areas such as R&D related to telecommunication and broadband infrastructure where collaboration between companies of both countries would be mutually beneficial. The study found that telecommunication services have been significantly liberalized in the US FTAsmuch beyond the scope of the GATS and the Reference Paper on Basic Telecommunications. While the current policy regime in India is consistent with some of the requests made by the US in its bilateral negotiations, for meeting others, the policy regime needs to be examined and, if required, reformed. The present paper suggests certain reforms which would enhance the productivity, efficiency and global competitiveness of the sector and enable the country to benefit from the bilateral liberalization.	0.5195	FineWeb
Improving Learning Transfer Systems in Organizations "Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations" features contributions from leading experts in the field learning transfer, and offers the most current information, ideas, and theories on the topic, and aptly illustrates how to put transfer systems into action. In this book, the authors move beyond explanation to intervention by contributing their most recent thinking on how best to intervene in organizational contexts to influence the transfer of learning. Written for chief learning officers, training and development practitioners, management development professionals, and human resource management practitioners, this important volume shows how to create systems that ensure employees are getting and retaining the information, skills, and knowledge necessary to accomplish tasks on the job. "Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations" addresses learning transfer on both the individual and organizational level. This volume shows how to diagnose learning transfer systems, create a transfer-ready profile, and assess and place employees to maximize transfer. The book includes information on how to determine what process should be followed to design an organization-specific learning transfer system intervention. The authors focus on the actual learning process and show how to use front-end analysis to avoid transfer problems. In addition, they outline the issues associated with such popular work-based learning initiatives as action learning and communities of practice, and they also present applications on learning transfer within e-learning and team training contexts.	0.929	FineWeb
Why even rent a GPU server for deep learning? Deep learning is an ever-accelerating field of machine learning. Major companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and others are now developing their deep studying frameworks with constantly rising complexity and computational size of tasks which are highly optimized for parallel execution on multiple GPU and also several GPU servers . So even the most advanced CPU servers are no longer with the capacity of making the critical computation, and this is where GPU server and cluster renting will come in. Modern Neural Network training, finetuning and A MODEL IN 3D rendering calculations usually have different possibilities for parallelisation and may require for processing a GPU cluster (horisontal scailing) or most powerfull single GPU server (vertical scailing) and sometime both in complex projects. Rental services permit you to focus on your functional scope more instead of managing datacenter, upgrading infra to latest hardware, tabs on power infra, telecom lines, server health insurance and so forth. Why are GPUs faster than CPUs anyway? A typical central processing unit, or perhaps a CPU, is a versatile device, capable of handling many different tasks with limited parallelcan bem using tens of CPU cores. A graphical digesting unit, or perhaps a GPU, just click the up coming page, just click the up coming page, was created with a specific goal in mind – to render graphics as quickly as possible, which means doing a large amount of floating point computations with huge parallelwill bem making use of a large number of tiny GPU cores. That is why, because of a deliberately massive amount specialized and sophisticated optimizations, GPUs tend to run faster than traditional CPUs for particular tasks like Matrix multiplication that is clearly a base task for Deep Learning or 3D Rendering.	0.6483	FineWeb
(Ann) Gibbons’s piece also usefully complicates the notion of genetic “superiority,” highlighting just how historically contingent this idea is. For example, she writes of two different groups that collided at one point and produced offspring: “The unions between the Yamnaya and the descendants of Anatolian farmers catalyzed the creation of the famous Corded Ware culture, known for its distinctive pottery impressed with cordlike patterns … According to DNA analysis, those people may have inherited Yamnaya genes that made them taller; they may also have had a then-rare mutation that enabled them to digest lactose in milk, which quickly spread … It was a winning combination. The Corded Ware people had many offspring who spread rapidly across Europe.” Today, of course, very few people are aware of the Corded Ware culture — a group that was very much, for random genetic reasons, in the right place at the right time. „Turns Out Nazis Have Some Pretty Wrong Views About Genetics” a w ikonie: Arminiusz, podobno.	0.5436	FineWeb
Bacteria are usually present in the kitchen were we eat and prepare food and in most cases the kitchen sponge houses majority of the bacteria. As part of their research,Furtwangen University Professor Dr. Markus Egert and his colleagues sequenced the microbial DNA of 14 used kitchen sponges and found high concentrations of such bacteria as Moraxella osloensis, a pathogen that can cause infections in those with weak immune systems and is known for producing a pungent odor, according to Science. No one wants to live the kitchen dirty and untidy that’s why we tend to use our kitchen sponge regularly and more often. Bacteria happen to be the major challenge; this is because even when the sponge has been rinsed the bacteria are not washed away. Discoveries have shown that the kitchen has a potential to function as microbial incubators because of food handling and direct contact with domestic surface. The kitchen sponge only acts as a reservoir for micro-organism. The following are the ways to keep our sponge free from bacteria and pathogens. Keep the sponge clean regularly: to reduce the activities of micro- organism and lower the risk of cross contamination you should sanitize the sponge. Research has it that 99% of bacteria, yeast, and molds are killed by micro-organism heating damp sponges for one minute in a microwave or dish washing with a drying cycle. Keep sponge in a dry location: We should not only rinse our sponge after each use or wash off loose food or debris but should also store in a clean and dry location. Letting our sponge stay wet is harmful because it allows bacteria to multiply rapidly there increasing the growth of bacteria. keep sponge away from raw meat: The juice of raw meat contains some bacteria and therefore should not come in contact with our kitchen sponge. Replacing sponge frequently: Kitchen sponge should be replaced regularly in other to keep bacteria and pathogens away from the kitchen. Get any of our	0.7216	FineWeb
coronach, in Celtic tradition, choral lament or outcry for the dead; also, a funeral song sung or shrieked by Celtic women. Though observers have frequently reported hearing such songs in Ireland or in the Scottish Highlands, no such songs have been recorded. The Scottish border ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray” is supposedly composed in the tradition of the coronach. It begins: Ye Highlands, and ye Lawlands, Oh where have you been? They have slain the Earl of Murray, And they layd him on the green.	0.6812	FineWeb
Active head restraints are designed to move forward and upward as necessary in the event of a rear end collision. These vehicles are being recalled because an internal fault in the occupant restraint control module could cause the active head restraints not to function as expected, increasing the risk of injury. Dealers will reprogram the Totally Integrated Power Module (TIPM) or replace the occupant restraint control module as necessary to correct this concern. 2011 Dodge Avenger Recalls Some vehicles may have been assembled with a missing or incorrectly installed steering column pivot rivet. This could result in a loss of steering capability, increasing the risk of a crash. Dealers will inspect the rivet and repair the steering column as required. This recall is expected to begin during June 2011. The Chrysler recall number is L23.	0.7224	FineWeb
\|Basic InformationAdolescent Parenting IntroductionHealthy Teens: Food, Eating & Nutrition During AdolescenceHealthy Teens: Exercise and SportsHealthy Teens: SleepParenting Teens: Clothing Clashes, Housing Decisions, & Financial ManagementParenting Teens: Skincare, Cosmetics, Tattoos, & Piercings Caring for Teens: Healthcare for Teens and Young AdultsParenting Teens: Discipline, Love, Rules & ExpectationsA Parentís Guide to Protecting Teensí Health and SafetyAdolescent Parenting Summary & ConclusionAdolescent Parenting: References & ResourcesLatest NewsQuestions and AnswersLinksBook Reviews\| Understanding the Risks of Adolescent Drug Use: Part II Likewise, if youth operate a car, motorcycle or other machinery when they're intoxicated, the risk of someone getting hurt skyrockets. The 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2009) randomly sampled high-school aged adolescents across the country from a diverse range of communities. In this anonymous written survey, students answered questions about a wide range of behaviors and habits. According to the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (CDC, 2009), 9.7% of high school students reported having driven a car after drinking alcohol, and 28.3% of these youth reported riding in a car with another teen who had been drinking alcohol. Nearly 2,000 youth die every year in car accidents after underage drinking, not to mention the youth who are seriously and permanently injured. As mentioned, drug use also impairs the brains ability to regulate emotions. Thus, during drug use youth may experience powerful, intense emotions. The combination of poor emotional regulation and impaired impulse control can lead to violence, especially for people already struggling with social or emotional difficulties. In fact, over 1,600 youth die yearly from alcohol-related homicides, and approximately 300 youth die by suicide after using alcohol (CDC, 2009). In addition to the above mentioned risks, drug use interferes with youth's normal physical, emotional, and social development, particularly for younger teens. This is because adolescents' bodies and brains are still developing well into their 20's and drug use affects the normal, healthy progression of this development. In fact, the younger a youth is when they start using these substances, the more damage they can do. For example, youth who use marijuana can experience short-term and long-term memory problems making it difficult for them to remember and recall information, and to process that information. Regular marijuana use also creates motivational deficits making it difficult for youth to put forth energy and effort into beneficial activities such as academics, sports, and social and recreational activities. Youth who repeatedly use alcohol or other drugs can also experience "hangovers" or the after-effects of substance use. These uncomfortable symptoms limit youth's ability to participate in daily activities like school, sports, or work. Furthermore, the earlier youth begin experimenting or using these drugs, the more likely they will become addicted or dependent on these substances. Of adults who started drinking before age 15, around 40% report signs of alcohol dependence. That rate is four times higher than for adults who didn't drink until they were age 21 (USDHHS, 2007). This is especially concerning because 21% of high school youth report they had started drinking before age 13 (Eaton, Kann, Kinchen, et al., 2010). Because of the effect of alcohol and other drugs on the brain, and the immediate euphoria that results (feelings of joy, pleasure, excitement, and relaxation), it becomes very easy for youth to rely on these substances to have fun, to relieve stress, or to cope with daily life instead of learning to rely on healthier alternatives such as exercise, hobbies, or friendships. Because drugs interfere with the development of these positive coping skills for life's ordinary frustrations, youths' emotional, cognitive, and social development is delayed. Once youth become physically or psychologically addicted to drugs, the addiction can prevent youth from living a healthy, happy life and achieving their goals. Drug and alcohol addiction can prevent youth from completing school, getting or maintaining a job, and maintaining relationships.	0.8637	FineWeb
There are many bullying facts gathered through bullying research, focus groups, and psychological examinations. We have provided some basic bullying facts for you to familiarize yourself with. What is Bullying? Bullying occurs in a wide range of situations for both adults and children: - Youths: bulling in school, camp, playground, and sports - Adults: bullying in the workplace and within sports What is the Definition of Bullying? According to Dr. Haber, a person bullies another when: - The bully intends to harm the victim in order to increase her power - The bully acts on this intention - The bully does so repeatedly over time What are the Three Types of Bullying? Bullying comes in physical, verbal, and relational varieties. What is Physical Bullying? Physical bullying occurs when the bully intrudes on the victim’s physical space, threatens physical violence, or actually engages in unwanted physical contact. Some examples include: - Throwing objects or using objects without permission - Stealing or hiding things - Slapping the victim “in jest” - Defacing with graffiti What is Verbal Bullying? Verbal bullying occurs when the bully intentionally uses language to hurt or undermine another individual. Some examples include: - Teasing or poking fun - Jokes at the victim’s expense - Verbal rudeness - Name calling with hurtful intent - Intimidation, humiliation, and screaming What is Relational Bullying? While physical and verbal attacks are painful, relational bullying arguably causes the most harm. The relational bully seeks power over the victim by harming the victim’s relationships with others through blackmail, humiliation, manipulation of friendships, and other means. Some examples include: - Making someone look bad - Spreading rumors (ranging from trivial to highly malicious) - Threatening to reveal personal information - Using the Internet for any of the above actions What Does Bullying in the Workplace Look Like? While physical and verbal attacks are painful, relational bullying arguably causes the most harm. The relational bully seeks power over the victim by harming the victim’s relationships with others through blackmail, humiliation, manipulation of friendships, and other means. Based on the above definitions of bullying in hand, we can see that the colleague who spreads rumors in the office, the boss who refuses to speak to a subordinate, and the team member who takes credit for others’ work are all exhibiting bullying behaviors. According to Dr. Haber, it can be difficult for managers and leaders to deal with bullying in the workplace for a number of reasons: - It may go unnoticed or be hidden from those who would act to stop it - Witnesses may stay silent for fear of retribution Organizations may embrace a culture of bullying because: - They believe it increases productivity - The believe that bullying is normal behavior How Do You Create an Anti-Bullying Culture in the Workplace? How Do You Create an Anti-Bullying Culture in the Workplace? It is possible for firms to eliminate this undesirable bullying behavior by: - Encouraging executives to serve as models of anti-bullying behavior for subordinates - Creating procedures that allow fast response to bullying - Training staff to recognize bullying Your organization can create a culture of respect, civility, and empathy. For more information, see Dr. Haber’s Workplace Bullying Programs. With bullying facts in hand, click here to learn about the anti-bullying programs Dr. Haber offers.	0.9993	FineWeb
"Collider: Step inside the World's Greatest Experiment" Special Exhibition The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is an international organisation devoted to exploring the mysteries of the universe. It has been gathering thousands of top scientists and engineers from around the world, and designed and built the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator consisting of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets, the Large Hardon Collider (LHC), located across the border between Switzerland and France. Inside the collider, scientists carry out experiments by colliding two high-energy particle beams which travel at close to the speed of light. By analysing the data obtained, scientists are able to reveal clues about how particles interact and gain an insight into the fundamental laws of nature. The special exhibition "Collider: Step inside the World's Greatest Experiment" recreates the working environment and laboratories of the scientists at CERN, allowing visitors to enjoy an immersive experience and learn about the objective of this advanced project. They can also witness the discovery of the God Particle (Higgs boson) and gain an understanding of the fundamental theories of particle physics.	0.9614	FineWeb
Keeping your heart healthy and avoiding excess weight gain is as simple as eating a diet heavy in produce and avoiding foods with fat, right? Not necessarily on that last part. Yes, your diet should be full of fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid fats. In fact, says Dr. Eugenia Gianos, cardiologist and assistant professor, Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at the NYU Langone Medical Center, eating some fat is essential to good health—it just has to be the right kind, such as mono- and polyunsaturated fats and omega-3s. These kinds of fats, which occur naturally in some foods, have been shown to have health-protective benefits, such as lowering bad blood cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease and stroke. According to Dr. Gianos, “Although ‘low-fat’ diets have previously been recommended by practitioners, the diet with the most cardiovascular benefits is one that incorporates good fats such as those found in avocado, nuts, and olive oil.” She helps us debunk this and other common misconceptions about fat foods so you can make smart dietary choices. Myth 1: Eating foods that contain fat will make you fat. “Not true,” says Dr. Gianos. “Good fat in the diet is important for overall health and is likely to help with satiety (feeling full), as well.” Good sources for these beneficial fats include avocados, almonds, walnuts, plant-based oils, and olives. But remember, she says, even with good fats, you need to watch your portions. “Fat is more dense in calories, so it should be consumed in smaller quantities with a balance of other important dietary components, such as protein, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants contained naturally in other whole foods.” Myth 2: Low-fat versions of your favorite snacks are better for you. “Definitely not,” Dr. Gianos says. “Some low-fat versions include substitute ingredients that may not be natural and may not provide significant nutritional value.” Instead, opt for a small portion of a beloved full-fat treat, and limit yourself to just occasional consumption. Myth 3: You’ll lose weight faster if you eat low-fat foods. Again, says Dr. Gianos, “Not necessarily, if the foods do not provide a balance of nutrients.” And, she says, low-fat foods potentially contain more sugar or carbohydrates to make up for the flavor lost when fat is removed. Because low-fat foods are often unsatisfying, “they can leave you hungrier and lead you to eat more calories overall.” Instead, you can choose a small amount of a full-fat favorite, which is more likely to satisfy you, and make sure you eat it with other nutritious foods. For instance, spread a half portion of a creamy cheese on a whole-grain cracker. Better yet, substitute that creamy cheese, which is high in saturated fat, with an equally satisfying, but good-fat choice, such as one ounce of ripe avocado or two tablespoons of almond butter. Myth 4: Eating foods with cholesterol, such as eggs, is always bad for you. It isn’t as cut and dried as that. “There is mixed data about foods that contain cholesterol, such as eggs and shrimp,” Dr. Gianos says. “More recent reviews of this data suggest that saturated fat, as opposed to cholesterol, may be more responsible for high blood levels of cholesterol and heart disease.” In addition, some eggs (check the carton) contain omega-3s, an essential fatty acid that may help lower cholesterol levels and support heart health. To maintain good health, concentrate on limiting the amount of saturated fat in your diet. Smart substitutions can help you do it. For instance, replace butter and oils that are solid at room temperature (like palm and coconut oils) with olive, canola, or soybean oil, which are high in beneficial mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Myth 5: If you eat foods that contain saturated fat, you’re guaranteed to get heart disease. There are many risk factors that contribute to heart disease, including family history of the disease, high stress levels, diabetes, smoking, and obesity, so a poor diet alone isn’t enough to guarantee that you’ll get heart disease. However, says Dr. Gianos, “there is still significant epidemiological data suggesting that saturated fat is associated with cardiovascular disease.” In other words, do your best to limit saturated fats in your diet and, if you can, eliminate trans fats (the worst kind for you, found in partially hydrogenated oils and foods made with them, such as fried foods and some baked goods). And if you have any of the other risk factors, be sure to discuss them with your doctor. Provided by Dr. Oz The Good Life Magazine	0.5112	FineWeb
In most circumstances, microeconomics is based on the cumulative study of how individuals and firms, or a microeconomic and tourism i introduction. Economic growth except exports and government tourism expenditure tourism can generate effects to the macro and micro economic (akal, 2010) the. To understand key concepts from micro- and macro-economics relevant to tourism to describe the nature of tourism industries and commodities to appreciate. Development for understanding tourism as an economic activity in the launched by the unwto statistics and tourism satellite account. Tourism industry is a typical represent of mezzo economics mezzo economics covers the area between micro and macroeconomics, which the organizational. Keywords: tourism demand, frequency of travel, habit persistence, household data tourism growth at a microeconomic level at an individual level the demand. Of economic variables on tourism demand for a single origin-destination pair, they based on the microeconomic foundations of tourism demand, it is not. We assess the effect of the main determinants of tourist expenditure by applying both linear and quantile regression models to individual micro data collected by. The macroeconomic determinants of tourism demand, at the world our micro panel covers the period between 1995 and 2012 and it is found that the number. Microeconomic evidence for the benefits of investment in the environment 2 ( mebie2) 323 tourism is an important industry in the uk, particularly in terms of. With the objective of forming an introduction to microeconomics, this course covers this will help them to develop concepts related to tourism and hospitality. Village monde, an association that promotes healthy tourism, instead, it encourages people to recourse to village-based micro-tourism. 1 microeconomics of competitiveness an analysis of the bali tourism cluster jimmy ghani , izhari mawardi,. Neither microeconomic agents nor macroeconomic aggregates, but territorial the microeconomics of tourism, which refers to the analysis of markets in which. Medical cost containment: a microeconomic approach for savings: medical tourism (obtaining medical services abroad) greater use of. Request pdf on researchgate \| a microeconomic theory of tourism demand \| current models of tourism demand based in economic utility theory assume a. Current models of tourism demand based in economic utility theory assume a two -stage decision process, with the choice of tour independent of the prior. Sustainable tourism micro-clusters: the case of alentejo protected areas regina salvador centro de estudos de geografia e planeamento regional. This paper paper lays a framework for exploring the nature and significance of the links between microeconomic reforms and productivity. Abstract - tourism and hospitality industry is one of the key drivers of on the role of macroeconomic factors on the microeconomic factors of. Definition: microeconomics is the study of individuals, households and firms' behavior in decision making and allocation of resources it generally applies to. C81, methodology for collecting, estimating, and organizing microeconomic data • data access l83, sports • gambling • restaurants • recreation • tourism. One difference between micro- and macroeconomics is that microeconomics is which would negatively impact tourism revenue for wineries and the city itself. Division tourism and hospitality management the complexity of economic variables underlying microeconomic and macroeconomic tourist. United states economic earnings of tourism industry is about $110 billion annually, the elimination of business complexity at both macro- and microeconomic. Analysing the influence of tourist motivations on tourist expenditure micro- economic determinants of the probability of tourism consumption. Tourist expenditure is an important measure of international tourism demand this study is a review of expenditure analyses in a tourism context presenting a.	0.781	FineWeb
Do H&M's ambitions to 'close the loop' give them an ethical edge? H&M’s innovation challenge to ‘close the loop’ closes this week. The ‘Global Change Award’ announced by their Conscious Foundation in August will give a €1m reward to designers, scientists and technological whizz kids who come up with new innovative ideas to recycle and re-use clothing at the end of its life. Winners will test these ideas and explore the potential for scale. Textile waste and natural resource scarcity pose huge challenges to the fashion industry, with 1 million tonnes of textiles landfilled each year in the UK alone. Should this innovation challenge give us confidence in H&M’s desire to protect the earth’s natural resources? Does it give them the ethical edge? Not everyone is whooping and cheering. Some accuse H&M of averting its eyes from the more nitty gritty issues in its supply chain. Those most sceptical dismiss their activities as greenwash, a distraction from the systemic change that is really needed to reduce the negative impacts of fast fashion. Perhaps H&M is openly discussing waste and pollution because it’s the ‘most straight-forward’ fast fashion challenge. Here could be where relatively quick solutions can be devised and implemented. Issues around labour and overproduction are conversely a good deal more complex. Would shouting loudly about their work on empowering women and the fair living wage be sticking their head above the parapet too much? The complexities lie in the fact fast fashion is symptomatic of our consumerist culture and growth economies. Brands are operating under profit-driven models of production and mainstream demand is still for large quantities of cheap on-trend clothing. I’d like to see a more open debate. It’d be nice to hear more from businesses about what steps they’re taking, the challenges and their longer term ambitions. Just because a situation is complex doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed. Equally sceptics could be more open to the nuances in the debate, and allow room to applaud genuinely positive progress. ‘The Global Change Award’ poses an exciting opportunity to reduce textile waste, but perhaps greater transparency and more radical moves are needed in the long term to tackle other fast fashion challenges. Throughout October the Fashion Future Network is discussing if clothing recycling schemes present the solution to getting value from textiles waste? Join the conversation.	0.6628	FineWeb
A trio of researchers from the University of Chicago are looking for ways to design new atoms or nanocrystals according to the Dec. 5, 2012 news item on ScienceDaily, Three University of Chicago chemistry professors hope that their separate research trajectories will converge to create a new way of assembling what they call “designer atoms” into materials with a broad array of potentially useful properties and functions. These “designer atoms” would be nanocrystals — crystalline arrays of atoms intended to be manipulated in ways that go beyond standard uses of atoms in the periodic table. Such arrays would be suited to address challenges in solar energy, quantum computing and functional materials. The partners in the project are Prof. David Mazziotti, and Associate Professors Greg Engel and Dmitri Talapin. All three have made key advances that are critical for moving the project forward. Now, with $1 million in funding from the W. M. Keck Foundation, they can build on their separate advances in a concerted way toward a new goal. The Dec. 4, 2012 University of Chicago news release by Stephen Koppes, which originated the news item, provides some excellent descriptions of the science (thank you Stephen), as well as, a description of the work, Developments in Talapin’s laboratory form the core of the project. A synthetic inorganic chemist, he specializes in creating precisely engineered nanocrystals with well-defined characteristics. Nanocrystals consist of hundreds or thousands of atoms. This is small enough that new quantum phenomena begin to emerge, but large enough to provide convenient “modules” for the design of new materials. “It’s an interesting combination in that you build materials not from individual atoms, but from the units that resemble atoms in many ways but also behave as a metal, semiconductor or magnet. It’s a bit crazy,” Talapin said. The potential of the new arrangements may exceed that of existing elements. Chemists cannot tune the properties of hydrogen or helium, for example, but they can tune the properties of nanocrystals. “You build chemistry from atoms, and quantum mechanics provides principles for doing that,” said Mazziotti, referring to the laws of physics that dominate the world at ultra-small scales. “In the same way, we envision tremendous opportunities in terms of taking nanocrystalline arrays and nanocrystals as the building blocks for new structures where we assemble them into strongly correlated systems.” The essence of strong correlation, of chemical bonds, of chemistry generally, is the connections between particles and how properties of these particles change as they bind to one another, Engel noted. “It’s about new emerging properties coming from strong mixing between the electronic states of particles, the same way two atoms come together to make a molecule,” he said. Hydrogen and oxygen gases have very different properties. Yet when two hydrogen atoms share electrons with an oxygen atom, they form water. The UChicago trio’s ambition is to extend this framework from the level of individual atoms to the level of small, functional objects, such as metal or magnetic semiconductors. The key to their project is controlling the degree of correlation between electrons on different nanocrystals. In 2009, Talapin and his collaborators developed a way to control the motions of electrons as they move from one nanocrystal to the next. Their “electronic glue” enables semiconductor nanocrystals to efficiently transfer their electric charges to one another, an important step in the synthesis of new materials. Achieving greater control of correlated electrons—those whose motions are linked to each other—on different nanocrystals is the key to success in the Keck project. Mazziotti and Engel bring theoretical and spectroscopic advances, respectively, to the collaboration. Mazziotti’s advance provides an alternative to traditional approaches to computing strongly correlated electrons in molecules, which scale exponentially with the number of electrons. He has solved a longstanding problem that enables calculations using just two of a molecule’s electrons, which dramatically decreases the computational cost. His studies of firefly bioluminescence and other phenomena have shown that as molecular systems grow larger, strong correlations between electrons grow more powerful and open new possibilities for emergent behavior. In the context of a semiconducting material such as silicon, emergent behavior is how individual nanoparticles effectively lose their identity, giving rise to collective properties in new materials. “As the size of a molecular system increases, we see the emergence of new physics behavior and the importance of strong correlation of electrons,” Mazziotti said. “The importance of strong correlation increases dramatically with system size.” The advance in Engel’s research group was the development of a technique called GRadient-Assisted Photon Echo (GRAPE) spectroscopy, which borrows ideas from magnetic resonance imaging but is used for spectroscopy rather than medical imaging. Engel already has used GRAPE to observe the correlated motion and coupling between chromophores, which are light-absorbing molecules. Now he will apply the technique to nanocrystals. Over the last 10 days or so, there have been a number of gobsmacking developments, including this one.	0.9688	FineWeb
Early in my career as a high school English teacher in the Deep South during the early and mid-1980s, several weeks into the new school year, a tenth grade student became so exasperated that she blurted out in class, “When are we going to do English? All we do is read and write, read and write!” In those days, my school system had a grade 7-9 junior high, and then high school was grades 10-12. Sophomores, then, were the transition grade, but for this student, my approach to teaching English was more transition than she could handle. She had been an “A” student in English throughout junior high, where English had been primarily grammar exercises and vocabulary tests. This student recognized what remains true throughout my 36-year career, the current second half as a professor of education; all of my courses at their core are writing classes. While I taught myself how to teach writing throughout my 18 years as a high school English teacher (and soon gained the trust and even respect of my students, parents, and educators for my commitment to writing), I have learned even more over the more recent 18 years, navigating teaching writing as well as writing myself as a scholar and public writer in the context of higher education. In What Academics Misunderstand About ‘Public Writing,’ Irina Dumitrescu addresses one of the key lessons I have learned working among scholars and academics who must publish and often have to teach writing themselves: “Even as readers, however, scholars tend to misunderstand how public writing — or as the public would call it, ‘writing’ — works, what it’s for, and what makes it good.” Another distinction I have witnessed is that in higher education, most professors are scholars who must write, and then some are writers who are also scholars/academics. These two groups approach their own writing and the teaching of writing quite differently. Throughout my undergraduate and graduate courses, then, I include some key strategies that address some of the concerns raised by Dumitrescu about scholars but that tend to apply to K-12 educators as well as those in other fields or disciplines (see for example this graduate literacy course, this first-year writing seminar, and this upper-level writing/research course). One fundamental strategy is requiring different writing assignments that must be submitted in multiple drafts and revised after receiving written feedback and feedback from conferences. I tend to pair one public commentary assignment with a traditional scholarly essay including formal citation (such as APA or MLA). These paired assignments help students consider the importance of writer decisions based on an identified audience, establishing the writer’s authority, and navigating the ethical use of evidence. One very important point made by Dumitrescu is about writing quality between public writing and scholarship: “Academics sometimes make the mistake of thinking that their standards do not need to be particularly high when writing for the public.” In short, public writing and scholarship should both be well written, well supported, and engaging for the intended audience; both approaches to writing are, also, mostly acts of persuasion, making a valid and compelling argument. However, public writing and scholarship achieve those basic goals in different ways. To emphasize those differences within the overarching guiding principles above, I provide students these strategies for their public writing: - Think of a public commentary as a framed argument; that framing (as opposed to thinking “introduction/conclusion” structures) includes an opening and closing (both multiple paragraphs) that are linked by key terms, a similar image, or a guiding narrative. (See Barbara Kingsolver’s opening and closing paragraphs for an example of framing.) - Using personal narrative or nonfiction narrative is a powerful way to engage the reader, establish writer authority, and make an abstract argument concrete. - Formatting, writing structure, and citation/use of evidence are all different in public writing versus academic scholarship. For example, I provide students formatting and structure models for preparing a public commentary that addresses line spacing, paragraphing, hyperlinking (instead of formal citation), etc. - Public writing also must be vigilant about speaking to an identified audience (not fellow scholars), which impacts diction, style, and selective use of evidence (often focusing on one representative source instead of an overview of scholarship). - A tenet of creative fiction writing has long been “Show, don’t tell,” and I find this to be equally as valid in non-fiction writing, especially public commentary. When an expert writer is addressing an audience without expertise, the writer should always be striving to answer this: “How does this look?” In other words, public writing needs to be vivid and concrete so that the argument and evidence are compelling. (Scholars make a writer mistake often by depending on the argument and evidence alone to be compelling, failing to write in compelling and engaging ways.) “[M]any of the qualities that make for good public essays — clarity, conviction, style — can improve your scholarly writing too,” Dumitrescu concludes. Ultimately, Dumitrescu offers a strong argument for the power of being a public writer if you are a scholar, but as a teacher of writing, I find this argument applies essentially to all contexts of teaching writing. Having multiple experiences navigating between public and scholarly writing is not just effective but essential for all students as well to develop a nuanced and deep understanding of the complexities of writing.	0.8283	FineWeb
The ideal habitats for the Jollyville Plateau Salamander are springs, spring-fed streams, and caves with flowing water. Most of the known populations are surface dwelling, or epigean, although this can be somewhat of a misleading classification because the salamanders will retreat to underground refugia during dry periods when the springs no longer flow at the surface. There also are at least a half dozen caves in the Buttercup Cave system inhabited by salamanders. These salamanders are called troglobites because they spend their entire lives underground (although many may be able to survive on the surface, in which case they would be considered troglophiles). It is unclear whether all cave populations are more closely related to each other than to surface populations, but it is clear that there is variation in morphological appearance among the different populations of cave-dwelling E. tonkawae. Researchers currently are examining the population genetics of this species, which will give more insight into the relationships among the cave and surface populations. This is a picture of the cross-section of a stream bed when there is no surface flow and the water table has retreated to a sub-surface level. The salamanders retreat with the water level and live under the stream bed until the stream begins to flow again. Down there, they can move between the interstitial spaces created by larger stones below the surface of the stream, as shown in this picture.	0.8379	FineWeb
Get a CLUE: Optimizing big data compute efficiency Who is this presentation for?Data engineers, data architects, developers Compute efficiency optimization is of critical importance in the big data era, as data science and ML algorithms become increasingly complex and data size increases exponentially over time. Opportunities exist throughout the resource use funnel, which Zhe Zhang and Huangming Xie characterize using the framework CLUE: capacity of resources (all resources available) → loaded resources (resources that applications requested from Hadoop) → used resources → effective resources (resources spent on effective or useful work). Zhe and Huangming highlight highlight initiatives from the past year and share the lessons they learned, including: C → L optimization with smart scheduling: they applied machine learning to figure out the best start time for scheduled flows while maintaining business SLA to decrease >20% capacity during peak hours and reduce latency for ad hoc jobs; L → U optimization with YARN overcommit: they analyzed CPU and memory usage for >7,000 nodes with different types of SKUs to evaluate the opportunity for YARN to reclaim requested but unused memory resources from applications (aka overcommit); U → E optimization with Spark SQL optimizations: they developed efficient algorithms to join large datasets in Spark SQL, which is a common pattern in processing LinkedIn member graph data and generating features for ML algorithms. You’ll get to view their investigation and experience with adaptive execution, cost-based optimization, and other SQL execution optimizations. These initiatives allow LinkedIn to improve compute efficiency, save hundreds of millions of dollars, and boost developers’ productivity. Its framework, strategy, and lessons learned from compute efficiency optimization can be leveraged by other companies to improve their own resource intelligence strategy. - General knowledge of big data, Spark, and Hadoop What you'll learn - Learn how LinkedIn improved compute efficiency, saved hundreds of millions of dollars, and boosted developers’ productivity - Discover how to leverage LinkedIn's framework, strategy, and the lessons they learned to improve your resource intelligence strategy Zhe Zhang is a senior manager of core big data infrastructure at LinkedIn, where he leads an excellent engineering team to provide big data services (Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS), YARN, Spark, TensorFlow, and beyond) to power LinkedIn’s business intelligence and relevance applications. Zhe’s an Apache Hadoop PMC member; he led the design and development of HDFS Erasure Coding (HDFS-EC). Huangming Xie is a senior manager of data science at LinkedIn, where he leads the infrastructure data science team to drive resource intelligence, optimize compute and storage efficiency, and automate capacity forecasting for better scalability, as well as improve site availability for a pleasant member and customer experience. Huangming is an expert at converting data into actionable recommendations that impact strategy and generate direct business impact. Previously, he lead initiatives to enable data-driven product decisions at scale and build a great product for more than 600 million LinkedIn members worldwide. Leave a Comment or Question Help us make this conference the best it can be for you. Have questions you'd like this speaker to address? Suggestions for issues that deserve extra attention? Feedback that you'd like to share with the speaker and other attendees? Join the conversation here (requires login) Premier Diamond Sponsors Premier Exhibitor Plus For conference registration information and customer service For more information on community discounts and trade opportunities with O’Reilly conferences For information on exhibiting or sponsoring a conference For media/analyst press inquires	0.6084	FineWeb
This resource is no longer available Simplify Data Center Complexity with SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server for System z Organizations today need to leverage an optimal data center in order to remain competitive, one that isn’t overly expensive or complicated to manage. But IT pros are finding it challenging to keep up compute capacity without breaking the bank, until now. Innovative IT leaders are realizing the benefits of SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server for System z, a system strategy that offers 3 major benefits, including: - Reduced total cost of ownership - Simplified data center complexity - And increased business agility Access this informative overview and find out how your organization can benefit from leveraging SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server for System z technology.	0.7026	FineWeb
Proprioception is knowing where your body is in space and what your body is doing to keep it there. This needs to be achieved without conscious thought and processing of the information. This is just as important for your pet as it is for you. You need proprioception in everyday life to walk down the street or throw and catch a ball. The same way your pet does to go for a walk or chase a ball. It is even more important when performing more extreme activities like taking off and landing when your dog or cat jumps. When you step off the curb without realising that there is going to be a drop, it is proprioception that stops people from face planting and allows them to recover their balance and posture. I know my proprioception is quite average because there have been a number of occasions that I have failed to adapt to the incoming information regarding my leg and bodies location. We can use a variety of methods and exercises to challenge your pets proprioceptive awareness. This training will assist the brain to react quickly to sudden changes and maintain normal movement. Proprioception is something that can be improved through training, just like heel work. The ability to know in minute detail where their paw is in space is impaired when there is an injury, or even small amounts of pain. The information pathway has been disrupted and can even send the wrong information to the brain. This can mean that your pet does not ‘trust’ the limb any more. It may also mean that they can have an accident that will lead to further injury. Puppies are another example where proprioception is less than perfect. Growing bodies, bones and muscles changing from day to day is difficult to adapt to. Starting to challenge this ability at a young age will help protect growing bones and joints and help your puppy to start to learn the skills to better adapt so changes in their body in the future.	0.9107	FineWeb
Imagine editing text at the speed of thought, and with the same precision and efficiency which drew you to coding in the first place? We’ve heard coders argue that typing is not the bottleneck and thus the gains from leveling up on text editing are minimal. We don’t buy it. It’s effing worth it. We can have you up and running in hours, not the days or months that many fear. You'll be functional within a day, and more effective than ever within a week or two. With Vim, your hands stay on the keyboard and your head stays in the problem you're working on. Vim's power lies in its keyboard-driven operation. It's not just a collection of keyboard shortcuts like most applications, but instead a whole keyboard-driven-language for editing and moving through your files. It's like playing a video game while you work! Why not learn Vim with Upcase, and level up as a web developer while you're at it?	0.7974	FineWeb
The History of Allah, Volume One In the first volume of Star Akbar, noted scholar Dr. Rafat Amari examines the history of Allah, the god of the Quran, in the era before Islam. In particular, he chronicles the evolution of the name and worship of “Allah” according to archaeological data from Arabia. He further examines the influence of various religions such as Zoroastrianism, Mandaeanism, and Gnosticism on the concept of deity and their role in defining Allah’s star-like characteristics and elevation above other deities. Dr. Amari demonstrates that Mohammed’s claims were no new phenomenon. In fact, many before him had made similar claims concerning the local Arabian deity called “Allah,” and Mohammed borrowed many of their rituals, customs, and traditions. Finally, Dr. Amari examines Mohammed’s concept of Allah. In particular, despite Islam’s attempts to build bridges between Allah and the God of the Bible, Dr. Amari demonstrates that the origins of Mohammed’s concept of deity lay in ancient Arabic traditions and the beliefs of those who belonged to the pre-Islamic era of Jahiliyyah. This book is foundational for those who desire to study the roots of Mohammed’s concept of Allah, how the “inspiration” of Mohammed was formed, and the elements that constituted his religion. This volume represents Dr. Amari’s extensive research of original source documents and cites a wealth of scholarly books and articles.	0.9034	FineWeb
Shortlisted for the AUHE Prize in Literary Scholarship 2022 Winner of the Walter McRae Russell Award 2023 Since its publication in 1903, Joseph Furphy’s Such is Life has become established as an Australian classic. But which version of the novel is the authoritative text, and what does its history reveal about Australian cultural life? From Furphy’s handwritten manuscript through numerous editions, a controversial abridgement for the British market (condemned by A.D. Hope as a “mutilation”), and periods of obscurity and rediscovery, the text has been reshaped and repackaged by many hands. Furphy’s first editors at the Bulletin diluted his socialist message and “corrected” his Australian slang to create a more marketable book. Later, literary players including Vance and Nettie Palmer, Miles Franklin, Kate Baker and Angus & Robertson all took an interest in how Furphy’s work should be published. In a fascinating piece of literary detective work, Osborne traces the book’s journey and shows how economic and cultural forces helped to shape the novel we read today. Roger Osborne is Senior Lecturer in English and Writing at James Cook University, Cairns. List of Figures Introduction: Entangled in the Work - Bushman and Bookworm: Furphy’s Literary Foundations - Such is Life: From the Writer’s Sanctum to the Literary Marketplace - Versions of Such is Life: Typescript and Book - An Anabranch of Such is Life: Rigby’s Romance as Typescript, Serial and Book - The Death of the Author: Kate Baker’s Such is Life - Wartime Revival: Tom Collins in the 1940s - Shaping the Canon: Joseph Furphy Goes to University Epilogue: Where the (adj. sheol) is Joseph Furphy’s Such is Life? "Osborne offers a cogent chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the major revisions, excisions, and textual transfers, and of their effects on the material condition of Such Is Life." Brigid Magner Australian Book Review Size: 254 × 178 × 14 mm Copyright: © 2022 Publication: 01 Mar 2022 Series: Sydney Studies in Australian Literature	0.6235	FineWeb
Global population projected to peak around 10.4 billion in the 2080s The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to World Population Prospects 2022, released today on World Population Day. “This year’s World Population Day falls during a milestone year, when we anticipate the birth of the Earth’s eight billionth inhabitant. This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity, and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” he added. The global population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, having fallen under 1 per cent in 2020. The latest projections by the United Nations suggest that the world’s population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050. It is projected to reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s and to remain at that level until 2100. World Population Prospects 2022 also states that fertility has fallen markedly in recent decades for many countries. Today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a country or area where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run for a population with low mortality. The populations of 61 countries or areas are projected to decrease by 1 per cent or more between 2022 and 2050, owing to sustained low levels of fertility and, in some cases, elevated rates of emigration. More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050. “The relationship between population growth and sustainable development is complex and multidimensional” said Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “Rapid population growth makes eradicating poverty, combatting hunger and malnutrition, and increasing the coverage of health and education systems more difficult. Conversely, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to health, education and gender equality, will contribute to reducing fertility levels and slowing global population growth.” In most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in parts of Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, the share of population at working age (between 25 and 64 years) has been increasing thanks to recent reductions in fertility. This shift in the age distribution provides a time-bound opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita, known as the “demographic dividend”. To maximize the potential benefits of a favourable age distribution, countries should invest in the further development of their human capital by ensuring access to health care and quality education at all ages and by promoting opportunities for productive employment and decent work. The share of global population at ages 65 and above is projected to rise from 10 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2050. At that point, it is expected that the number of persons aged 65 years or over worldwide will be more than twice the number of children under age 5 and about the same as the number under age 12. Countries with ageing populations should take steps to adapt public programmes to the growing numbers of older persons, including by establishing universal health care and long-term care systems and by improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems. Global life expectancy at birth reached 72.8 years in 2019, an improvement of almost 9 years since 1990. Further reductions in mortality are projected to result in an average global longevity of around 77.2 years in 2050. Yet in 2021, life expectancy for the least developed countries lagged 7 years behind the global average. The COVID pandemic has affected all three components of population change. Global life expectancy at birth fell to 71.0 years in 2021. In some countries, successive waves of the pandemic may have produced short-term reductions in numbers of pregnancies and births, while for many other countries, there is little evidence of an impact on fertility levels or trends. The pandemic severely restricted all forms of human mobility, including international migration. “Further actions by Governments aimed at reducing fertility would have little impact on the pace of population growth between now and mid-century, because of the youthful age structure of today’s global population. Nevertheless, the cumulative effect of lower fertility, if maintained over several decades, could be a more substantial deceleration of global population growth in the second half of the century,” added John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.	0.8833	FineWeb
Organization of coordination and service of the Cursillo Movement of Christianity worldwide. Take into account the pastoral plans of the Universal Church and the indications of the Holy See, always remaining faithful to the particular charism of the MCC and the Canonical Statute issued by the Holy See. Preserve the MCC in its fidelity and charisma and the book of Fundamental Ideas Promote the unity of understanding of the essentials of MCC worldwide. Maintain the MCC in its fidelity to the Church and its Magisterium Purposes of the Official Site of the OMCC 1. Custodians of information related to the Cursillo Movement: its essence, purpose and 2. Collect, organize and publish information related to the MCC, always referenced to Fundamental Ideas 3. 3. Promote the training of our the life of the	0.696	FineWeb
Context: Vitamin D deficiency is not adequately evaluated in older men. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and identify risk factors for its occurrence. Design and Setting: We conducted a cross-sectional evaluation of 1606 older men in the general community who were enrolled in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study. Participants: A randomly selected subcohort of a large population of men from six U.S. communities participated in the study. Main Outcome Measures: Serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 [25(OH)D2] and 25(OH)D3 were measured using mass spectrometry. Results: Deficiency [25(OH)D <20 ng/ml] was present in 26%, and insufficiency (<30 ng/ml) was present in 72%. Deficiency was particularly common among men during the winter and spring (especially in the northern communities) and in the oldest and more obese men. For instance, in Caucasian men in winter or spring who were >80yrold, did not engage in lawn/garden work, and had a body mass index greater than 25 kg/m2 and vitamin D intake below 400 IU/d, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 86%. 25(OH)D2 levels were present in a small fraction of men and accounted for a low proportion of total 25(OH)D levels. The use of vitamin D supplements was reported by 58% of men, but supplement use had a small effect on total 25(OH)D levels and, despite supplement use, low levels remained frequent. Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency is common in older men and is especially prevalent in obese, sedentary men living at higher latitudes. Use of vitamin D supplements at levels reported here did not result in adequate vitamin D nutrition. ASJC Scopus subject areas - Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism - Clinical Biochemistry - Biochemistry, medical	0.9163	FineWeb
Adjustable hinge for modern design flush internal doors. Compact and technological, characterised by limited size of rotation body and hence less visible when the door is closed. The pin of the hinge enables three-dimensional adjustment when the door is mounted. The special form hinge means the sash can be opened 180°. Designed for door thicknesses of at least 35 mm.	0.8345	FineWeb
Behind Educational InequalityPrivate schools send vastly disproportionate amounts of students into the top courses. Bill Lozenge questions why this is the case.[br]A REPORT on feeder schools, recently published by the Irish Times, has indicated that educational inequality is alive and well in Ireland. The annual publication reveals the number of students from every secondary school that progress to third-level education.The figures for 2016 revealed that of the twenty-five secondary schools sending the highest proportion of students to high-points courses, private schools accounted for twenty. This is despite fee-paying schools only accounting for 7% of the country’s secondary schools. The disproportionate representation of private school students in the top courses represents an education system that is deeply flawed. “of the twenty-five secondary schools sending the highest proportion of students to high-points courses, private schools accounted for twenty”When the government introduced free university fees for lower-income families, its hope was that dismantling the financial barrier to third-level education would lead to a reduction in the participation gap. Now, twenty years later, it is clear that the measure produced little results.The plan relied on a meritocratic conception of education, where the students with the greatest abilities and drive would rise to the top, untethered from their burdensome financial situation.However, this vision is overly simplistic, and we must not forget the social dimension that is a key component of academic success. If we fail to acknowledge this, we suggest that the consistency with which the best performing students emerge from the private schools of South Dublin is a mere coincidence.We suggest that cutting the resources of the most disadvantaged schools is acceptable, as the most talented students will succeed regardless. We suggest that students that fail to achieve success can be dismissed as lazy or stupid, having only themselves to blame.Inequality in education is the consequence of a divergence in access to the resources. It thus enables only some students to take advantage of educational opportunities. One study discovered that the social class of a school is a more reliable indication of whether a student will proceed to third-level than the students’ own social background or academic record.A student attending a school with a predominantly working-class student population is less likely to proceed to third-level than if they were to attend a school with a largely middle-class population. Certain schools nurture a specific climate of expectation, where higher education is promoted from an early age. It is almost taken for granted in middle-class schools.In response to this, the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) recommended in a report that all schools should seek to instil this culture of high expectations.The same report discovered that while students in middle-class schools considered advice from their own families to be more informative and useful than that from their school’s career guidance counsellors, the reverse was true for students in working-class schools. Students whose parents did not attend third-level education lack a valuable resource in understanding the full range of their options. This results in a social class difference in aspirations to higher education that is evident as early as the junior cycle. “Certain schools nurture a specific climate of expectation, where higher education is promoted from an early age. It is almost taken for granted in middle-class schools.”A 2016 Tasc report shows a strong negative correlation exists between a child’s self-image and their social class background. By 13, children have internalised their inequality by reducing their expectations and thus just 36% of children aged 13 from the bottom-income decile expect to achieve a third-level education in contrast to 65% from the top-income decile.This is a huge shift considering there is no correlation between household income and cognitive potential at nine months. Positive school climates and high expectations from the beginning are thus key in determining the choices students make about attending university.But not everyone is convinced that the feeder report’s findings are a cause for concern. A recent article in the Irish Times actually criticised the report for implying that it is preferable for high numbers of students to enter third-level courses after secondary school, rather than beginning an apprenticeship or other vocational training.It also suggested that there is a snobbery around higher education, where students that are not well-suited to third-level courses are pressured into them. The piece recommended that we should develop a model for apprenticeships more in line with Germany’s, which enjoys a great popularity among students due to its high social status.However, such a response ignores the main issue that is highlighted by the feeder report. Of course, all students across the social spectrum should be encouraged to examine the range of their options upon finishing secondary school, to determine for themselves whether they are better suited to a third-level course or an apprenticeship. The problem is that current figures suggest that the students that are the ‘most suited’ for third-level courses are constantly emerging from the fee-paying schools of South Dublin.The disproportionate representation of students from these schools on the top courses suggests that many students across the country are not being exposed to the full range of options, but are systematically excluded from aspiring to third-level by a lack of resources.	0.7161	FineWeb
Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix Search Lesson Plans & Companion Resources Step into the Inca World This book explores the Inca civilization, including information on diet, domestic life, and religious beliefs. Instructions for making crafts that bring the past alive are included throughout. Sections on living on the land, hunting and fishing, food and feasts, and textiles and tunics provide useful information and activities for connecting agriculture and social studies. Lessons Associated with this Resource	0.9721	FineWeb
Updated June 25, 2019 – Pulmonary fibrosis is the thickening and scarring of the lung tissue. The term idiopathic denotes the cause is unknown and occurred spontaneously. Though it is not completely understood what causes idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the disease process is well-explained in various medical literature and case history.(25039426) Healthy vs. Diseased Lungs Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis Diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD) & Interstitial lung disease (ILD) are a group of lung diseases that affect the tissue and spaces around the air sacs (interstitium) in the lungs (alveoli). This family of various lung disorders occurs an injury to the lungs that fails to heal properly for various reasons. Areas of the lungs that are prone to injuries include: - Pulmonary capillary endothelium - Basement membrane – a specialized form of extracellular matrix (ECM) - Alveolar epithelium – functional & physical barrier of dangerous environmental agents - Perilymphatic lung tissue - Perivascular tissue Alveolar Fibrosis – Fibroid Lung Disease Under normal circumstances, the human body can initiate self-repair of the lungs using paracrine cell signaling but for some patients with interstitial lung disease, this normal lung repair process malfunctions resulting in the tissue around alveoli air sacs to thicken and become scarred. Thickened scarred lung tissue makes it difficult for oxygen to pass back into the bloodstream resulting in damage to both the entire cardiovascular system and lungs. The term Interstitial lung disease is used by pulmonologists to distinguish these types of lung diseases from others such as COPD and obstructive airways diseases. If left untreated, Interstitial lung disease results in fibrotic scarring of the lungs known as pulmonary fibrosis. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis usually gets diagnosed after radiographic lung scans start to show pleural-based fibrosis with honeycombing in the lungs and proliferating fibroblasts (fibroblastic foci.) IPF and fibroid lung disease usually starts with a presence of inflammation in the alveoli. The alveoli are the tiny air sacs in the lungs where the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen happens. The fragile lining of the alveoli allows this gas exchange. Once these alveoli become inflamed and damaged in some way, the body’s reaction would be to activate the immune response and to heal the damaged alveoli.(25986617) This causes scarring and thickening of the alveolar walls. Unfortunately, the thickened and scarred alveoli cannot perform efficiently during gas exchange. This ultimately leads to a lesser amount of oxygen that can be transported into the body and less carbon dioxide that can be expelled out. Signs & Symptoms of Pulmonary Fibrosis Some of the common signs and symptoms that are present in patients diagnosed with onset idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are: - Severe shortness of breath. This is caused by heart disease or the decreased amount of oxygen that the body gets due to the inefficient, affected alveoli. It gets worse with physical activity since the body is trying to get more oxygen. - Constant Dry cough. - Clubbing sensations of the finger and toenails. Clubbing is the swelling in the base of the finger and usually accompanied by cyanosis (bluish discoloration of the nails.) This is a sign of hypoxia or decreased level of oxygen in the tissue. This sign often manifests later on the disease progress and end-stage pulmonary fibrosis. - Reduction of lung capacity or airflow obstructions resulting in premature fatigue Lung Scarring – ILD & IPF Since the underlying cause of Idiopathic lung fibrosis is often unknown, patients usually wonder how they get fibrotic scarring of the lungs. For most patients, the most common predisposing factors of developing interstitial pulmonary disease & alveolar fibrosis are: - Cigarette smoking is a common cause of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis - Reaction to drugs or medications such as antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs & cardiac dysrhythmia medications (antiarrhythmic) - Genetic – Familial fibrotic scarring of the lungs - Exposure to various inorganic toxins, chemicals, and pollutants such as asbestos, beryllium (berylliosis), crystalline silica dust (silicosis) - Exposure to organic compounds, dust, fungus or mold (hypersensitivity pneumonitis) - Viral infections such as pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), tuberculosis, atypical pneumonia, chlamydia trachomatis & syncytial virus - GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). This is when the stomach contents of a patient go back to the esophagus. There is a risk of aspiration of these stomach contents into the trachea, which can in turn cause lung infection.(26593230) - Connective Tissue Disorders & autoimmune response due to conditions such as Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, lymphangitic carcinomatosis, antisynthetase syndrome (inflammation) and systemic sclerosis - Inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease - Idiopathic (non-identifiable)i.e. acute interstitial pneumonia (Hamman-Rich syndrome),Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis & sarcoidosis Diagnosing Pulmonary Fibrosis The diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases and pulmonary fibrosis requires diagnostic tests and physical exams. A pulmonologist uses several diagnostic tools to understand the signs & better Symptoms of patients with interstitial lung disease. Depending on the stage and severity of a patients condition lung specialists typically order the following tests: - Pulmonary function tests for measuring decreased diffusion capacity (DLCO) to see if any restrictions exist - Lung radiology scans using X-ray or High-Resolution Chest CT-Scans (HRCT) to check for patterns of opacities in lung tissue that are caused by the thickened and scarred lung tissues. - An arterial blood test can be taken for examining the ability of the lungs to move oxygen into the tissues of the body. - Lung biopsy: getting a sample of lung tissue and studying the sample to better identify areas of scarring or thickening or suggestive of any malignancy. Biopsies can include a trans-bronchial biopsy or the more invasive surgical lung biopsy. - Genetic testing for pulmonary fibrosis and Cystic Fibrosis – May prevent the need for surgical lung biopsy Screening for Mutations that may cause Familial Pulmonary Fibrosis The Lung Regeneration center offers a comprehensive list of genetic screening tests for checking mutations in genes that lead to familial lung diseases. Tests for the following genes are currently available to screen for congenital autosomal recessive & autosomal dominant interstitial lung diseases: ABCA3, FLCN, SFTPB, SFTPC,CSFR2A, CSFR2B, COPA,TSC1, TTF1, TSC2, DOCK8, STAT3, FoxF1, PGM3, SPINK5, METRS, MRS, MTRNS, CMT2U, ILFS2, ILLD, mENA, NISBD2, RTEL1, PIG61, ERBB, ERBB1, HER1, SPG70, TERC, TERT & PARN Genetic tests are recommended for family members of patients who have already been diagnosed with. There are currently no available gene therapies to treat autosomal interstitial lung diseases, but there are several clinical trials underway with the hopes of one-day curing genetic lung diseases. To help reduce any risk of developing fibroid lung disease, ILD or Pulmonary fibrosis consider including pulmonary tests as part of your annual checkup, refraining from smoking and getting regular exercise to keep the lungs and heart as healthy as possible. Traditional vs. Modern Treatments for ILD & Lung Fibrosis In the past, there were traditionally minimal options for treating chronic progressive lung diseases such as COPD and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Even today, there are several clinical trials for trying to cure interstitial lung diseases, familial pulmonary fibrosis and idiopathic lung sclerosis using modified gene therapies but as of today, there are no effective pharmaceutical medication based cures approved for treatments. In some cases, steroids are prescribed to help decrease the inflammation or mucomyst (Acetylcysteine) to reduce symptoms, but the effects are temporary and do nothing to the underlying cause of the disease. Lung transplants are another option for some but are considered very invasive, high-risk, and are usually only offered to advanced end-stage pulmonary fibrosis patients. Although it has its limitations, modified MSC+ lung stem cells offer a natural alternative to lung transplants for pulmonary fibrosis and anti-fibrotic medications.(25412619) Treatment for Lung Fibrosis with Stem Cells Stop Hardening of Lung Disease & Alveolar Fibrosis Naturally Your Stem cells are essentially the bodies pharmacy. Stem cells are are the building blocks of your entire body. These types of potent cells are called “totipotent” cells as they can change/differentiate into any cell, tissue, or bone in the human body. When used properly, MSC+ Stem Cells can help with the loss of lung capacity/reduced lung function by focusing on the destroyed or limited linings of the alveoli that are at the root of the disease. (25896401) For various reasons (Cigarette smoking, Viral infections, genetics) the bodies natural ability to regenerate is being blocked causing the types of complications that manifest themselves as fibrosis and lung hardening disease. The Regen Center treatment for IPF lung sclerosis uses isolated & enhanced lung stem cells seeks to re-promote natural healing of the previously damaged alveoli cells, fibrotic scarring in interstitium lining of the lungs and scar tissue in lungs from pneumonia. The goal of the enhanced MSC+ stem cell treatment for pulmonary fibrosis and lung hardening disease is to assist the body in bypassing fibrotic scarring by regenerating new healthy tissues and blood vessels through a process called angiogenesis. The new lung regeneration treatment offers a safe, natural alternative to lung transplants by regeneration of lung tissue affected by fibrotic scarring and honeycombing through increased levels of myofibroblasts. TREATMENT PRECAUTIONS & RISKSPlease Note That Stem Cell Treatments for IPF and Chronic Lung Diseases are not appropriate for all patients. Those with multiple conditions, late stage, or travel restrictions due to the need for constant Oxygen tanks may not qualify for the 2-3 week treatment protocol. Please contact us for details. Multi-Stage Lung Cell Delivery for Respiratory Diseases Interstitial lung diseases & progressive pulmonary fibrosis pose a significant challenge for pulmonologists and lung bioengineering. Diseases such as asthma, popcorn lungs “Bronchiolitis obliterans,” Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer treatment, COPD, idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, Cystic fibrosis, emphysema & hyaline membrane disease are just some of the diseases that can be managed effectively via lung stem cell therapies. Due to the complexity and locations of the diseased regions, it can be challenging to effectively deliver cell therapeutic agents to the needed regions of the diseased lungs. The Regeneration Center has developed a unique popcorn lung treatment protocol using combination of cell delivery methods to target the diseases from multiple vectors including guided radiography (when necessary), Intravenous, direct injection, Intrathecally and now for the first time via Intranasal inhalation for a painless and effective delivery of endogenous lung progenitor cells, lung epithelial stem cells to both the airway and vascular system of the lungs. MULTI-VECTOR LUNG CELL DELIVERY The Regeneration Center has developed a combination delivery method to target the diseases from multiple vectors (depending on the patient’s needs) including guided radiography (when necessary), Intravenous, direct injection, Intrathecally and now for the first time via Intranasal inhalation stem cell therapy for a painless and effective delivery of endogenous lung progenitor cells, Lung epithelial stem cells to both the airway and vascular components of the lungs. Guidelines for Treating Chronic Pulmonary Fibrosis Total of MSC+ Stem Cell Infusions will depend on the severity of restrictive lung disease, and multiple stages may be necessary for patients with scarring in interstitium of lung or diffuse parenchymal diagnosis. For optimal results, multiple methods of cell delivery will be required. Due to the progressively degenerative nature of restrictive lung diseases, most patients will require enhanced cell transplants derived from immune-compatible cells. For patients with multiple simultaneous issues, extensive honeycombing or severe respiratory failure, multiple treatments may be required. The isolated and expanded MSC+ lung cells used are pre-screened for infectious diseases, sterility, and potency. For patients with severe respiratory failure, aggressive combination treatment may be required. Treatment Requirements & Lung Rehabilitation Post-Treatment Lung Rehabilitation: Pulmonary Rehabilitation Services is optional but is highly recommended after any treatment. For patients with the option to stay in Thailand, we offer a complete integrative rehabilitation program in partnership with local hospitals in Bangkok. Pulmonary rehabilitation is also beneficial for patients who are experiencing severe difficulty in breathing or severe hardening of the lungs. Smoking is also much discouraged for patients with this condition, and active smokers will not qualify for our treatment. The rehabilitation packages in Bangkok are available to all candidates as needed (2-5 hours per day, six days per week) . Medical treatment visas and hotel accommodations for long term stays can also be provided upon request. Due to varying degrees of respiratory diseases, our pulmonary specialists will need to understand better the patients needs to qualify any potential candidates. Our initial review can be done online and takes around 7-9 business days for the medical assessment. Suitable candidates looking to reverse lung scarring naturally using Stem Cells will require a minimum of 2-3 weeks in Thailand. To begin the qualification process, please prepare your recent pulmonary tests such as spirometry exams, lung function tests, and radiology scans from an MRI or (HRCT) High-Resolution Chest Scans and contacts us today.	0.7325	FineWeb
Make It Musical 4. Try melody and rhythm to teach a series or sequence. There are raps, rhymes, and songs to help attention deficit students memorize multiplication tables, days of the week, presidents of the United States, and so on. 5. Use songs specially created to teach grade-level content. Musically Aligned (musicallyaligned.com) creates music and lyrics geared to teach a science curriculum. For physical science, there are songs like “Electromagnets” and “Heat, Light, and Motion.” For teaching concepts in life science, there are “Food Chain Gang” and “Decomposers.” Next: Follow-Up with Questions	0.9766	FineWeb

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