a more substantial equity raise. In that circumstance the loans might convert at a specified discount to the price which is ultimately achieved in the more substantial equity round or at a default price if the substantial equity round is not completed by a specified date.
Some key considerations for the borrower
A key consideration for a borrowing company, particularly a borrowing company which is really seeking an investor prepared to take equity risk, is that a convertible loan is debt, not equity (unless and until such time as it is converted). This distinguishes a convertible loan from preferred equity.
That means that the company has a legal obligation to pay back the loan if it is not converted by the lender or does not automatically convert at a specified time.
Where the borrowing company is concerned about its ability to repay the loan (if required to do so), it should seek a reasonable time window from receipt of a notice from the funder (that the funder is not converting to equity and requires repayment) in which to effect that repayment (before any lender enforcement rights or penal provisions of the convertible loan agreement can be applied).
The directors of a company which is accepting a convertible loan in full knowledge that there is a high risk that the company will not be able to repay the loan may also be concerned about potential personal liability. In these circumstances the company may require the convertible loan to expressly limit recourse to net cash available from the realisation of assets and to provide for forgiveness or conversion of any residual debt which cannot be repaid from those available assets.
Another key consideration for the borrowing company is that a convertible loan may block other capital raising opportunities while it remains in existence. The company should ensure that it can trigger a requirement for the lender to either convert or accept repayment at any time after an agreed date (before the loan hampers other capital-raising activities).
Where the funder is not yet ready to commit to a long term equity investment and requires an exit right, the company may actually share the funder's preference for a convertible loan rather than equity. This avoids the company restructuring its equity and implementing any associated shareholder rights (which may include the introduction of preferential equity rights) on what could be just an interim basis. It also avoids dealing with more complex exit rights.
Conversion price
There are numerous potential mechanisms to determine an appropriate conversion price where a convertible loan converts (whether at the option of the lender or compulsorily). Examples of such mechanisms include:
 - a conversion price which is fixed up front based on the market value at the time the loan is made or the last price at which shares were issued before the loan;
 - a conversion price determined at the time of conversion which is equivalent to the price at which company shares were last issued before conversion;
 - a conversion price which is fixed up front, but reflects the anticipated value of shares if certain milestones are met (being the milestones, such as a successful pilot study, which must be achieved before the lender is prepared to commit to an equity investment);
 - A conversion price determined by a pre-determined valuation formula or mechanism;
 - A conversion price which is a specified percentage discount to the issue price of shares in the next equity round.
Interaction between conversion price and interest rate
Logically, the interest rate and conversion price should be considered together.
Arguably there should be no interest during the conversion period if the conversion price is based on the value of shares at the time the loan is made (rather than a future value at the time of conversion), otherwise the lender is 'double dipping' to some extent.
However it is not that simple for a seed investment, where typically a mezzanine level interest rate in the region of 15% will also apply, even though the loan is a substitute for equity and the conversion price is fixed up front. The justification for that is that the conversion price is largely contingent on the milestones being achieved (ie the lender doesn't put any value on the shares and is not prepared to commit equity until then). In the meantime it is the lender's convertible loan which is funding the milestones and proving value, so the lender should be compensated for the time value of money until the milestones are achieved.
The situation is different for a company which is further down the growth path, has already attracted investment capital and where the conversion price reflects current value before achievement of any equity conversion pre-conditions like IPO readiness (which would increase that current value). In that case there is a strong argument that interest should only apply if the conversion conditions are not met in the expected timeframe and the lender elects not to convert (and then only from that point in time). Alternatively, the interest rate should be discounted to reflect that the lender will also capture all of the upside of equity.
If the conversion price is the market price at the time of conversion then there is no reason why the interest rate should be reduced to reflect the value of the conversion right. If the conversion price is somewhere in the middle, then there might be some offset but a market-based interest rate is still likely to apply.
Where the convertible loan is in the nature of seed capital, for tax reasons it is common for the time value of money calculation to be incorporated in the conversion formula (in an attempt to avoid taxable interest being derived on what is still a high risk seed stage investment), rather than being reflected as 'interest'. Actual 'interest' is then only payable if the loan is not converted (and then only if demanded by the lender).
Should conversion be entirely at the lender's discretion for seed finance?
Where a convertible loan is provided before any equity investment has been made in the seed stage opportunity, conversion is usually at the sole discretion of the lender.
While the company may wish to define conversion conditions and achieve more certainty that the loan will be converted to equity if it achieves measurable targets, that is generally impractical in reality. Normally the lender will want discretionary general conditions in addition to any specific and measurable conditions like revenue or profit targets, so it can take account of all relevant factors at the time of making its conversion decision. Otherwise specific measurable conditions might be manipulated or might not reflect the full picture. Once lender discretion is introduced, there is limited value in trying to limit that discretion by drafting explicit conversion conditions.
Should the loan be secured?
As a convertible loan is debt, there is an opportunity to secure that debt, normally by a general security over the company's assets and undertaking.
Even if the borrowing company has no tangible assets which have security value, there are still good reasons why the convertible loan lender will take security. They include:
 - a security will give provide notice to other parties dealing with the company that the loan exists (otherwise there will be no public record of the loan);
 - a security will prevent any other lender from gaining priority over the convertible loan (otherwise, even though this will usually be prohibited under the terms of the convertible loan, a subsequent lender might still gain priority by registering a security);
 - a security will significantly increase the lender's leverage to achieve whatever exit might be available and allow the lender to take control of that process if necessary (through receivership provisions etc).
Do shareholder rights which will apply following conversion need to be agreed up front?
Unless any shareholder rights which will apply on conversion are agreed up front, the lender will only have leverage to require such rights later if the company wants the lender to exercise the conversion right at that time. However if the company has made good progress during the convertible loan term and consequently has other equity or debt funding options which are more attractive than the previously negotiated conversion price, the lender may have little or no leverage when it comes to conversion. In that case it will only be entitled to those rights specifically agreed upfront (to which it is contractually entitled) or which already attach to the class of equity issued on loan conversion.
It is often a dilemma just how far the parties go in spelling out all of the detail of the shareholder rights which will apply if the loan is converted. One of the attractions of the convertible loan is its relative simplicity and the fact that it can be agreed between the company and lender without necessarily involving other shareholders.
Often a pragmatic approach is taken of agreeing any fundamental rights up front (in sufficient detail to ensure that the lender will at least get the core elements of those rights) and specifying a process to resolve other detail at conversion time. While this may not offer perfect protection for the lender, it may be an acceptable base position (noting it should still have some further leverage at conversion time unless it is demonstrably 'in the money' at that time – in which case the base position should be acceptable).
Some Conclusions
The convertible loan is a versatile financing instrument and has particular application when an equity investor is not yet ready to commit to a long term equity investment in a company for whatever reason, but the company needs finance in the meantime (normally of a seed nature or for growth).
The convertible loan potentially offers the best of both worlds to the lender, debt priority and protection, but with equity upside. A key benefit for both parties is that it is relatively simple to put in place, although this will be influenced to some extent by the approach taken in respect of future shareholder rights which will apply on conversion.
The borrowing company needs to be aware that a convertible loan is debt, not equity. If it is not converted by the lender, there will be a legal obligation to repay the loan.
There is a trade-off between the conversion price (or associated mechanism) and the interest terms on the loan. The borrowing company should resist the lender 'double dipping' by capturing a market interest return plus all of the equity upside.
Because the convertible loan is a


Action Item: 3.3 Proposal (Writing Style)
From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 15:51:41 +0100
Message-Id:
To: _EMAIL_
Here's the last of my three action items (apart from one from the
server-side techniques list) -- which was originally to "deconstruct"
the "clear, simple writing" checkpoint. The problem is that I ended
up concluding that we don't want to have any sort of general rule
about this, and so my proposal is: Eliminate the checkpoint.
Read on for more:
Action Item: Deconstruct 3.3
3.3 Write clearly and simply.
 This checkpoint addresses the need to facilitate comprehension
of the content
 by all readers, especially those with cognitive disabilities. It
should not
 be interpreted as discouraging the expression of complex or
technical ideas.
 However, authors should strive for clarity and simplicity in
their writing.
Okay, let's look at what this checkpoint is trying to say.
* You shouldn't write in an overly obfuscated manner, if at all possible.
* This will have benefits for people who have lower reading levels, for
 whatever reason (cognitive disabilities, lack of education, lack of
 language skills, youth, etc.)
* This also has benefits for translation purposes; it's easier to translate
 a straightforward writing style than an idiosyncratic style.
* The checkpoint as written explicitly recognize that there are "exceptions"
 for technical writing.
The problems with this checkpoint:
* It's uncheckable since it sets no specific metrics to know if you have
 adequately met the checkpoint's requirements.
* No sense is given of the _audience_ of the content; content written for
 a specific audience (say, lawyers) can (and should) be more complex than
 information written for a "general audience." (However, often web
 content providers may underestimate the diversity of their audiences.)
* There is no exception for specific content that -mustbe written in
 certain "complex" formats, such as:
 - Transcripts of speeches: you should not rewrite what the President
 says just because you are putting the speech on the web
 - Legal documents: you should not rewrite legal language merely
 because you are placing it on the web
 - Literature: you can't rewrite shakespeare just because you are
 putting a version on the web
 -
* As well, there are a number of content types which specifically
 should not be forced into a "simple style", such as:
 - Rhetoric and opinion pieces: I'm thinking here of things such as
 sarcasm, parody, and satire
 - Riddles, jokes, and puns: explaining the joke often ruins the
 humor value
 - Poetry and creative writing: some works of writing are specifically
 meant to not be "easily understood" and the meaning must be inferred
 -
So, this checkpoint is problematic as written.
Suggestion: Remove the checkpoint entirely
This is based on the idea that while we can tell people how to present
content, we shouldn't be telling them what kinds of content to present.
Saying that text content must be written in a specific manner goes
beyond simply stating requirements for how to convey something in the
web medium; it demands fundamental changes to the content itself on
the expressive level.
(I maintain that...) There is no good way to craft a "write well"
checkpoint that is checkable, audience centric, and universally applicable.
Inclusion of a vague checkpoint of this nature serves to weaken the
guidelines and confuse the issue of accessibility.
Rather than requiring textual rewriting, we should concentrate on how
the specific features of the web medium can be used to enhance text
which is confusing -- for example, by suggesting links to a glossary,
annotation, or simpler explanation be added, as done in 3.5, 3.6, and
Here's an example. If you are placing the Constitution of the United
States online, you would not make it "more accessible" by rewriting it
in contemporary, simple language. Rather, you would provide the
text as is, but add, for example, sidebar links, glossary terms, and
most likely some simple explanations for complex information. But you
would _not_ rewrite the original text. The checkpoint as written
implies that you _should_ and thus it is defective. Instead we need
to concentrate on suggesting that users _supplement_ their text when
appropriate (and even _that_ is very hard to make checkable, isn't
Kynn Bartlett
Received on Monday, 12 March 2001 10:16:04 GMT


HomeCultureAn Aghori's Path to Enlightenment
An Aghori's Path to Enlightenment
Aghoris believe that Shiva induced the best and worst of the world and nothing is profane, everything is sacred for them. Hence, what other Hindu sects regard as unacceptable or taboo, the Aghoris embrace it – the 'dark forces' or 'impurities' – leads them to a level of higher consciousness. Let's delve more into their world…
Aghori sadhu covered in ash
Aghoris, the tantric sages of India
They clothe themselves with the shroud of a corpse or clothes left by family of the dead, smear themselves with the ashes of corpses as a protection from diseases, meditate on a dead body and consume everything from human or animal flesh to excreta, urine, alcohol – all part of the Aghora ritual, which literally means non-terrifying, and Aghoris are its practitioners.
The Path of Non-duality
The aghoris have to eliminate thoughts of duality between pure and impure, good and bad; denying perfection of anything would be like disrespecting sacredness of life in its full manifestation.
Robert Svoboda, an American author and ayurvedic doctor in his book – Aghora II: Kundalini, explained – "The Aghori sets out to overcome human limitations by shattering internally every restraint, no matter how ancient or powerful the taboo, and also by creating a body/mind that is able to contain emotional, sensory and other experiences which would consume anyone not properly prepared."
Aghori Rituals
The use of Human Skulls and Tantra
Aghori wearing a garland of skulls and bones
Aghori wearing a garland of skulls and bones
Once initiated, the Aghori goes in search of a human skull or 'kapala', which is a real sign of an Aghori, to be used as a bowl. It is believed that after death, the prana or life force of the deceased clings in the top of the skull.
Using mantras and certain offerings, especially alcohol, an aghori sadhna summons the spirit to return to the body, and gaining control over it, harnesses its services. Aghori sadhana includes tantric practice, various forms of Yoga and meditation.
Svoboda explained in his book, Aghora: At the Left Hand of God: "Aghora is the apotheosis of Tantra…whose supreme deity is the mother goddess….Tantra has thus far been glimpsed in the West only in its most vulgar and debased forms, promulgated by unscrupulous scoundrels who equate sex with super consciousness. Sex is indeed central to Tantra, the cosmic sexual union of universal dualities. The aim of Tantra is Laya, return of the seeker to the state of undifferentiated existence."
The 48-mins documentary 'Living with the dead' shows the life of Aghori Ramnath, who is initiated by tantric master, and lives in the cremation grounds and follows the path of Aghora to be one with Shiva, an insightful video on this sect.
Each Aghori follows different practices depending on his capability; the only common factor is their degree of intensity and determination.
Eating human flesh
For 12 years he meditates in the name of Lord Shiva in cremation grounds, considered an ideal place to worship Shiva. They eat human flesh, which serves as a reminder to the Aghori that there exists no distinction between good or bad, human or animal flesh.
Such distinctions are only delusive, and seldom serve any purpose in the spiritual development of the human soul. It symbolises the transcendence of his lower self and a realisation of the greater.
The documentary below talks about aghoris and their rituals and powers which are beyond human imagination.
Another video shows an aghori eating human flesh, I'm posting a link, watch the video at your own discretion.
Meditating on a corpse
Aghori tantric performing ritual
Aghori tantric performing ritual
Aghoris perform a ritual known as Shava (fresh corpse) sadhana which means to meditate on top of a corpse, chant mantras to invoke the Smashan Tara (goddess of the cremation grounds), who will bless the Aghori with supernatural powers if the ritual is done in the right manner.
Aghoris do not fear death, they use intoxicants like alcohol or ganja, before performing a ritual that helps them to overcome their fears and go beyond their body.
The mentor of author Svoboda, Aghori Vimalananda, whose spiritual practices awakened his Kundalini and Svoboda's Aghora trilogy is based on him, said, "Meat, fish, wine, parched grain and sex are all intoxicants, and the purpose of intoxicants is to stimulate your nerves to be able to withstand the force of the Kundalini Shakti. You can use alcohol and the rest to make fast spiritual progress only if you know how to use them properly, otherwise you just bind yourself down more tightly to the wheel of existence."
Aghoris were a powerful group among the sadhus in India, today a handful remain who lead this unusual life. The ultimate motive for an Aghori is to seek liberation from this endless cycle of reincarnation and achieve salvation.
While in an urban setting, people see Aghoris as sadist who engage in black magic or are mentally ill, but they actually have a mystical way to transform the mind into one that connects with the universal soul, its a path not meant for all! Would you be able to take an Aghori's path to enlightenment?
History of Aghoris
Benares is the home and birth place of the Aghoris. This sect is an offshoot of the famous Kapaliks of Kashmir Saivism who carried human skull as a symbol of sect. In its present form the origins of the sect can be traced to Baba Kinaram, an Aghori ascetic who lived for 150 years, and believed to be the incarnation of lord Shiva. There is a Kinaram temple in Varanasi, where he was buried, which is the most sacred for Aghoris. Dattatreya who is believed to be the initiator of Aghor tradition.
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Cannibalism, rituals and beliefs
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Adding product to your cart
The Manilla 1:100 000 map sheet area (Manilla) includes rocks of the Tamworth Belt and Central Block of the New England Orogen, which are separated by the Peel Fault. Each block is characterised by its own unique assemblage of rock types, structures, tectonostratigraphic terranes and mineralisation. The Tamworth Belt contains Early Devonian to Late Carboniferous regressive marine to non-marine sequence of sedimentary and minor volcanic rocks. Most of these rocks make up the Gamilaroi terrane. The strata reflect a change from basal slope marine sedimentation through shelfal deposition, near-shore and shoreline marine, and ultimately continental fluvial and glacigene sedimentary and volcanic deposition. Olistostromal sedimentary and volcanic rocks are common throughout the marine strata, representing environments that were proximal to steep slopes, deeply incised submarine canyons, and island-arc flanks. The rocks show an evolution from andesitic and some basaltic volcanism in the Devonian and Early Carboniferous to rhyolitic and rhyodacitic volcanism in the Late Carboniferous. In Manilla, the Tamworth Belt is subdivisible into a number of structural domains characterised by distinctive structural suites. These domains increase in complexity eastward towards the Peel Fault. Low bedding dips, open first-generation folds with open second-generation cross folds and low-angle, bedding-parallel thrusts characterise the west of the area. Vertical and overturned bedding, accompanied by first-generation tight folds, second-generation isoclinal folds with well-developed slaty cleavage and folded, steeply dipping thrusts characterise the rocks adjacent to the Peel Fault.
Vickery N.M., Brown R.E. & Percival, I.G. (compilers) 2010. Manilla 1:100 000 Geological Sheet 9036, Explanatory Notes. Geological Survey of New South Wales, Maitland.
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source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Editing manual sources
Before making any changes to the manual - either English version ore translation, make sure you read style guidelines!
Editing existing documentation
Simply open the files and edit them.
Adding new documentation
When adding new functions or methods, there are a couple of options.
Option A: Generating files using docgen
This is preferred way to generate files for new extensions, classes, functions or methods using docgen. The script is found in the doc-base repository and uses reflection to generate documentation (DocBook) files.
Option B: Copy skeleton files
This involves copying the skeleton files into the correct location:
cp /phpdoc/RFC/skeletons/method.xml classname/methodname.xml _TAG_ new methods
cp /phpdoc/RFC/skeletons/function.xml functions/functionname.xml _TAG_ new functions
Note: classname, methodname and functionname are lowercased names of the class, method, or function, respectively, not a literal file name.
Remember the extension folder structure when copying those files.
Translating documentation
The translation process is described in the translating chapter.
Validating your changes
Every time you make changes to documentation sources (both English or translation), you have to validate your changes to ensure that the manual still builds without error. The necessary configure.php script is distributed with the doc-base repository, so you should already have it. All you have to do to validate changes is run configure.php:
$ cd phpdoc
$ php configure.php --with-lang={LANG}
If your language is English you can omit the with-lang argument. When the above outputs something like "All good. Saving.manual.xml… done." then you know it validates. You can commit your changes now.
Commit changes
If you have the appropriate [commit karma][karma], you can commit your modified files.
Viewing changes online
Documentation is built every night, at around 23:00 CST, then synced out to the website mirrors. However, there is a special mirror at docs.php.net - where the manual is updated from sources every four hours. If any errors occurred, a message will be delivered to the appropriate mailinglist (doc-{LANG}_USER_.php.net).
Read more about manual builds in the builds appendix.
The next chapter contains style guidelines that you are obliged to follow. Read them carefully.


Jingle All the Way
"Jingle Bells" has been staple song of the holiday season in the United States for decades if not longer. Dozens of artists have recorded the song — often as part of Christmas albums — underscoring its popularity this time of year. And while that list of artists features the Beatles, Andrea Bocelli, and even the Three Stooges, none of those recordings are as historically significant as the one performed on December 16, 1965.
With history accomplished, the crews of the two Gemini spacecraft separated their ships from one another to prevent accidental collision and went off to sleep. But before they all called it a night, astronaut Walter Schirra of Gemini 6 came over the radio with a report. He purported to have just seen something weird — an unidentified object entering the Earth's atmosphere, as recounted by the logs (pdf):
Bonus Fact: While Jingle Bells is an iconic Christmastime tune, it wasn't intended to be. It was originally written in the 1850s (it's unclear when or where the composer, James Lord Pierpont, devised the song) and according to Reader's Digest, was intended to be used for a Thanksgiving celebration.
From the ArchivesHere Comes Santa Claus: How the U.S. military saved Christmas from Sears' screw up.
RelatedAnimal-shaped jingle bells.


text:
, I used a custom property to expose that field rather than further complicate the query. The code below shows a public property that provides a result based on the other data in the class if it was never explicitly set, but returns the explicit value instead if one was provided.
Private _referencedtable As String
Public Property ReferencedTable() As String
Dim result = _referencedtable
If String.IsNullOrEmpty(_referencedtable) Then
If String.IsNullOrEmpty(References) = False Then _
result = References.Substring(0, References.IndexOf("(")).Trim
Set(ByVal value As String)
_referencedtable = value
For each custom class, be sure to override the ToString() method to provide a useful display when used in any grid or list. Simply return the field or calculation of your choice based on its class. See the code below for the ToString() method for the DatabaseObject class that provides the Schema.ObjectName value as its display value.
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Dim result As String = String.Empty
If Schema.Trim.Length > 0 Then result += "[" & Schema & "].["
result += Name & "]"
Finding the index of a particular entry in a List (Of Items) is very easy with the FindIndex extension method if you use a lambda expression. Below is the code for the IdentitySeedRowIndex function that uses a lambda expression to find the index for the particular Schema.TableName value passed into the function.
Public Shared Function IdentitySeedRowIndex( _
IdentitySeedTables As List(Of IdentitySeedFields), _
SchemaTable As String) As Integer
Dim result = -1
Dim index = IdentitySeedTables.FindIndex(Function(x) x.SchemaTable = SchemaTable)
If index > -1 Then result = index
Enjoy, but Use with Caution
Be sure to carefully review the generated SQL script before running it, removing any tables from the script that you wish to retain data. Be sure that you have the right server connection and the right database selected in SQL Management Studio before running it. Finally, be sure to back up the database before running the script, just in case.
I have needed a utility to efficiently "empty out" a SQL Server database several times over the last few years and also have talked to other developers that agreed such a utility would be helpful. I present such an application here in this article for your use. Since it generates explicit actions in a script, it is very easy to see exactly what will happen and have a good comfort level with those actions before running it. I hope this utility enhances your professional toolbox.
Please let me know your experiences using this application, including any enhancements that you think would be useful. Would you like the code placed somewhere that you and other readers could contribute to enhancing it? Enjoy!


text:
Day treatment facilities (or day reporting centers) are highly structured, community-based, postadjudication, nonresidential programs for serious juvenile offenders. The goal of day treatment is to provide both intensive supervision to ensure community safety and a wide range of services to the offender to prevent future delinquent behavior. The intensive supervision is fulfilled by requiring the offender to report to the facility on a daily basis at specified times for a specified length of time. Generally, programs are provided at the facility during the day and/or evening at least 5 days a week. Special weekend activities may also be conducted.
The services provided by day treatment programs include a plethora of correctional treatment methods similar to those used in halfway houses, but day treatment facilities allow program participants to return home at night and therefore do not have the costs associated with residential facilities. Treatment services in day treatment facilities may include individual and group counseling, recreation, education, vocational training, employment counseling, education, life skills and cognitive skills training, substance abuse treatment, and community resource referrals.
Day treatment facilities originated in Great Britain in the 1970's and are currently being widely implemented in the United States. A 1990 study by the National Institute of Justice found only 13 facilities in the United States. By 1995 there were at least 114 in 22 States (Parent et al., 1995). A descriptive analysis reveals that these facilities are quite diverse with respect to the type of cases, administration, operation, caseload, and program content (Parent, 1990).
Despite the rapid spread of day treatment programs, to date there are no major impact evaluations examining the effectiveness of the day treatment programs. However, several exploratory studies (Williams and Turnage, 2001; Craddock and Graham, 1996; Howell, 1998) suggest that day treatment is an effective intervention.
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Title: A next generation processing system for edging and trimming
Author: Abbott, A. Lynn; Schmoldt, Daniel L.; Araman, Philip A.
Source: Proceedings, 28th Annual Hardwood Symposium. 141-149.
Publication Series: Miscellaneous Publication
Description: This paper describes a prototype scanning system that is being developed for the processing of rough hardwood lumber. The overall goal of the system is to automate the selection of cutting positions for the edges and ends of rough, green lumber. Such edge and trim cuts are typically performed at sawmills in an effort to increase board value prior to sale, and this depends on a balance between large board size and the removal of undesirable wood characteristics, such as wane and surface defects. This paper is primarily concerned with image acquisition and analysis. Off-the-shelf hardware components are used with in-house developed software to capture images of a board as it moves longitudinally on a conveyor. Unlike most board-scanning systems, the system described here analyzes rough (unplaned) boards. There are some advantages to this approach, such as increased image contrast due to surface moisture. There are also disadvantages, however, resulting from the appearance of the wood in its unplaned state, which pose new challenges in the development of image-analysis algorithms.
- We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
- This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.
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Abbott, A. Lynn; Schmoldt, Daniel L.; Araman, Philip A. 2000. A next generation processing system for edging and trimming. Proceedings, 28th Annual Hardwood Symposium. 141-149.
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Wheaton College Norton, Massachusetts
Wheaton College
Economics 242. Economics of Education
This course introduces economic theory related to education and engages students in critical analysis of education data and of actual and proposed eduction policies. Topics include the relationship of education to the economy, school funding mechanisms and the economics of education reform initiatives in the United States and selected other countries.


Zoho Inventory
Item Groups & Items
 1. How to create item groups and items?
 2. Can I add more items to an Item Group?
Theories, Doubts & Cases
 1. What does 'opening stock' or 'inital stock' mean?
 2. Can I add the item name in different languages?
 3. Can I have item price in multiple currencies?
 4. How is the stock-on-hand calculated?
 5. When does my stock-on-hand increase?
 6. When does my stock-on-hand decrease?
 7. What does 'Preferred Vendor' mean?
 8. How does the stock update occur in Shopify
 9. What does the Physical Stock and Accounting Stock value in each item details page indicate?
 10. Why do I see 'Accounting Stock' and 'Physical Stock' in place of 'Available Stock' while creating transactions?
 1. How to adjust stock for a particular inventory item?
 2. How to import item adjustments in Zoho Inventory?
 3. How to add or manage adjustment reasons?
 4. Is it possible to mark an item group as inactive?
 5. Can I set reorder levels for my items?
 6. Is it possible to add a product code for an item?
 7. How do I filter my Items?
 8. I need a price list where only particular item rates need to be changed and the rest remains unchanged. How do I go about it?
 9. Can I delete an item? It shows me an error message when I try
 10. An item from a Sales Channel has been mapped wrongly with another item in Zoho Inventory. What do I do now?
 11. How can I restrict other users of my organization from editing the item price in transactions?
 12. How do I update the details of all my items at one go?
 13. How to import categories for the existing items in Zoho Inventory?
 14. How to export only the items linked to marketplaces in Zoho Inventory?
 1. How to see the total inventory sold & purchased for an item?
 2. Which inventory valuation method is used by Zoho Inventory?
 3. How to see the history of transactions for a particular item?
 4. Where can I see the profit made by each Item?
 5. How do I get notified when the quantity of an item goes below its reorder point?
 6. How can I find my low stock items?


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Let $\mathbb Z_9=\left\{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8\right\}$ be the set of integers modulo 9 and $f:\mathbb Z_9 \rightarrow \mathbb Z_9$ be a function.
Assume $f(0)=1$, $f(1)=f(2)=...=f(8)=0$. What is the definition of $f(x)$? That is, can we find a polynomial with one variable satisfying these properties?
Actually, it would be better if there is a general method for finding polynomials whose values are determined like this one. For $\mathbb Z_2$, there is a method called butterfly algorithm. Using this, one can find the algebraic normal form of a function using the values (truth table of that function).
Thank you.
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$f\equiv 0{}{}$? – Git Gud Apr 29 '13 at 19:29
Sorry about the misprint... f(0)=1. I have fixed it now. – Math_D Apr 29 '13 at 19:53
FYI, the fact that $9$ is divisible by the square of a prime number makes things problematic. For a square-free modulus, every function is a polynomial function. – Hurkyl Apr 30 '13 at 10:20
6 Answers 6
up vote 6 down vote accepted
There is no such polynomial $q$.
We show this by contradiction. Assume that $q = a_k x^k + \ldots + a_0 x^0\in\mathbb Z_9[x]$ is a polynomial with $q(0) = 1$ and $q(x) = 0$ otherwise.
Since $0^2 = 3^2 = 6^2 = 0$ in $\mathbb Z_9$, we get $$-1 = f(3) - f(0) = (a_k 3^k + a_{k-1} 3^{k-1} + \ldots + a_1 3 + a_0) - (a_k 0^k + a_{k-1} 0^{k-1} + \ldots + a_1 0 + a_0) = 3 a_1.$$ But in $\mathbb Z_9$, $-1$ is not a multiple of $3$, so this is a contradiction.
Conclusion: In contrast to $\mathbb Z_2$, not every function $\mathbb Z_9\to \mathbb Z_9$ can be represented as a polynomial.
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There was a misprint in the question. I have corrected it now.. – Math_D Apr 29 '13 at 19:57
Maybe if f(0)=3 and the other values are 0, then we could find a function.. The question is, how? – Math_D Apr 30 '13 at 11:47
Okay, this works for any $\mathbb{Z_{n^2}}$ and then also for a bunch of other $f(0)$'s than 1. – NikolajK Apr 30 '13 at 15:00
There can be no such polynomial. In general, if $R$ is a commutative ring, and $p(x)\in R[x]$, then for any $a,b,c\in R$, such that $ac=bc$, we can show $p(a)c=p(b)c$.
Now, take $a=0,b=3,c=3$ in $R=\mathbb Z_9$.
You can solve the general problem in $\mathbb Z_m$ if $m=p$ is prime. In that case, you can think of the solution as a case of Chinese Remainder Theorem in $\mathbb Z_p[x]$, since we want a polynomial, $q(x)$ such that $q(x)\equiv f(a) \pmod{x-a}$.
If $m$ is square-free or twice a square-free number, my condition above is sufficient. (Essentially, the case $m=4$ is a special case.)
Unfortunately, the above condition is not sufficient otherwise.
Write $q(x)=\sum_{i=0}^n a_i(x)_i$ where $$(x)_i=x(x-1)\dots(x-(i-1))$$ is the $i$th falling factorial polynomial.
Then if $m=8$, then $(b)_i=0$ for $b\in\mathbb Z_8$ and $i\geq 4$. So we can restrict ourselves to cubic polynomials $q$.
Now try to find a cubic polynomial $q$ such that $q(0)=4$ and $q(a)=0$ for $a\neq 0$. I don't think it can be done.
If $p>2$ then consider the polynomial $q(x)=\frac{(x)_{2p}}{p}$. This polynomial (with rational coefficients) maps $\mathbb Z\to \mathbb Z$, and it has the property that for all $a,b\in\mathbb Z$, $a-b|q(a)-q(b)$. This means, in particular, that we can view this as defining a function which maps $\hat q:\mathbb Z_{p^2}\to\mathbb Z_{p^2}$ and we can show $\hat q$ matches my necessary condition.
However, it is impossible to find a polynomial in $\mathbb Z_{p^2}[x]$ which evaluates as $\hat q$. This is because if $h$ is such a polynomial, we have that $h(p+a)=h(a)=0$ for $a=0,1,2,\dots,p-1$. But $h(a+p)\equiv h(a)+ph'(a)\pmod{p^2}$. This means that $h'(a)\equiv 0\pmod p$ for $a=0,\dots,p-1$, and hence for all $a$. But that in turn means that $h(a+p)\equiv h(a)\pmod {p^2}$ for all $a$, which would mean that $\hat q$ is the zero function. Since we know it is not (that is where $p>2$ is needed) we are done.
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You claim that the problem can be solved if and only if whenever ac=bc, f(a)c=f(b)c.Could you give any referances about this?-Thank you. – Math_D Apr 29 '13 at 20:54
Actually, I'm not sure it is true. For example, if $m=8$ I don't thinh $f(0)=4$ and $f(a)=0$ for $a\neq 4$ has a solution. – Thomas Andrews Apr 29 '13 at 21:06
_USER_: I think that a paper by Carlitz titled Functions and polynomials $\pmod{p^n}$ that appeared in Acta Arithmetica in 1964 gives a necessary and sufficient condition. Or may be an earlier paper by Carlitz? He has a sufficient and necessary condition, but I'm not positive about the paper. – Jyrki Lahtonen Apr 30 '13 at 12:19
_USER_ Ah, glad it wasn't something obvious. My condition essentially means you can reduce the problem to the case of $\mathbb Z_{p^k}$ where $p^k|m$. But I was stuck from there. – Thomas Andrews Apr 30 '13 at 12:44
The (+1) answer by Azimut identified a fundamental obstacle: $p(0)\equiv p(3)\pmod3$ for all polynomials $p$ (and other similar congruences). IIRC in a paper by Carlitz a necessary and sufficient condition is derived (for a general modulus, not just $9$). I give a counting argument as a proof that not all functions from $R=\mathbb{Z}_9$ to itself can be described as polynomial function with integer coefficients (the coefficients can obviously be reduced modulo 9).
Consider the polynomial $$ p(x)=x(x-1)(x-2)(x-3)(x-4)(x-5). $$ If $x$ is an integer $\ge6$, then we see that $$ p(x)=6!{x\choose 6} $$ is divisible by $6!=9\cdot80$, and thus vanishes modulo $9$. As clearly also $p(x+9)\equiv p(x)\pmod9$ for all integers $x$, we can conclude that any polynomial multiple of $p(x)$ yields the constant function $0:R\to R$. The same holds for the polynomial $q(x)=3x(x-1)(x-2)$.
A result discovered independently by Singmaster in the 1960s and Niven & Warren in 1950s (and probably by others earlier) implies that the polynomials $p(x),q(x)$ generate the ideal $I\subset R[x]$ of polynomials yielding the constant function zero. We see that every polynomial in $R[x]$ is congruent modulo $I$ to exactly one polynomial of the form $$ a_0+a


Monday, January 31, 2011
Gabrielle Giffords, Madness and Violent Behavior: The Food Connection.
"The U.S. is still reeling from another tragedy -- the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and the murder of several civilians during the attempt.
Many are asking what the cause might have been -- whether it was pervasive, over-the-top violent rhetoric in the culture, or simply mental psychosis.
But, even if the former, there is still the underlying cause of mental psychosis to consider.
And what if people are lashing out with such destructive force, at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and now Arizona, not because of what they are hearing, but at least in part because of what they are eating?
"Loughner bought a doughnut, energy bars at a gas station at 2:34 a.m., source says"
It's not presently known whether Jared Loughner, the young man who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed several civilians, was taking medication, but there are indications that he did not have a healthful diet."
"I have long thought, it is not what's eating our young people that causes them to lash out with such destructive force, but, what they are eating." says Kimberly Hartke:
Kimberly Hartke is the publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education non-profit based in Washington, D.C.
Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies
Angry white male syndrome
"Hamburgers and fries are rarely accused of causing violent behaviour in male youth who subsist on them. But the standard junk food diet of North America is dangerously low in many nutrients, notably the omega fatty acids found most easily in fish and walnuts, fats that were likely crucial in early human evolution.
I say "dangerously low" not only because of the body's physical need for such fats, but because these fats deliver mental health benefits that counter depression. Washington-based National Institute of Health clinician Joseph Hibbeln created a momentary stir in 2001 with research showing lower murder rates among prisoners who ate fish regularly.
Harvard's Andrew Stoll wrote about EFAs as "the new pharmacology of aggression" in his 2001 book, The Omega-3 Connection, and expressed "hope that at least part of the answer" to such problems as intermittent explosive disorder "may be as simple as omega-3 fatty acid."" From:
Once again, we come back to "You Are What You Eat"!
Jay wanted to cash a check, I thought we were going to do some work first as it was going to be such a beautiful day, but he wanted to go right away.
But I still had to drive to Huntsville (TX) to pick up a door handle and lock for the guest house that I had ordered at McCoys. Neither Home Depot or Lowes had the right one, so as the door had been bought at McCoys, that is where I had to order it. So we decided that he could cash it in Huntsville.
As Convenience RV store is on the way, we picked up the cargo trailer's water tank drain faucet, so we can get that installed on the outside of the trailer. But they only sold the tank filling water line, that white and turquoise plastic stuff, and the vent and drain line in 10' lengths.
Jay looked in my Huntsville phone book, but still took us to the wrong bank. We finally went to the one in the Huntsville Walmart, and as you can imagine, anyone that receives a government check was there. So while he was waiting in the long line, I picked up a few groceries. I was done before he was. It is a much nicer store than our Walmart in Conroe, as it is newer, larger, with wider aisles.
We picked up the lock at McCoys, and tried to get the barb fittings for the water tank, but they didn't have them, so we just came home, as it was lunch time.
Later, I had to go into our little town to our very well stocked True Value to buy the rest of the barb fittings, plus the drain and vent line.
I still don't have the tank filler water line, so I will have to drive down to Camperland RV store another day.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Recycling sewer water into drinking water growing more popular.
If you watched Prophets of Doom on the History Channel last night, you would have learned that this country is running out of drinking water, debt, and oil. If any one of these is depleted, that makes everything else collapse.
About our vanishing water:
Ogallala Aquifer
The deposition of the aquifer material dates back 2 to 6 million years to late Miocene to early Pliocene age when the southern Rocky Mountains were still tectonically active. From the uplands to the west, rivers and streams cut channels in a generally west to east or southeast direction. Erosion of the Rockies provided alluvial and aeolian sediment that filled the ancient channels and eventually covered the entire area of the present-day aquifer, forming the water-bearing Ogallala Formation."
More at:
Aquifers are now a significant source of water for many Americans.
"Water quality in aquifers tends to be cleaner, but they replenish at a much slower rate. As a result, the water level in many aquifers across the country are dropping, unable to replace the withdrawn water at the same rate it it being removed.
Although it has previously relied almost exclusively on surface water, energy production is beginning to make greater and greater aquifer withdrawals to their needs. See the Energy Production Demand map for the magnitude of impact this could have on aquifer levels." Sources used for aquifer depletion map
See the Energy Production Demand map
"Electric power plants are among the greatest users of water in the United States, especially in northern and eastern parts of the country. The colored regions on the map are watersheds where 50 percent or more of the water withdrawals go towards energy production. "
So saving electricity is also saving water.
Water is the most important, so what are we doing about it?
"Sewer to Spigot: Recycled Water"
"Cities and counties across the United States have increasingly been turning to recycled sewer water as one way to meet growing drinking-water demand. Recycling sewer water, or turning toilet water into drinking water via purification, has often repulsed opponents due to the high costs of treatment and the drinking-former-toilet-water gag factor. However, despite sometimes vocal opposition from the public, communities with huge projected increases in water demand have been pursuing the option anyway in the face of stagnating supplies.
Earlier this year, Orange County, Calif., completed the largest and most high-tech water-recycling system in the world that churns out 70 million drinkable gallons of water a day from effluent. Los Angeles just announced plans to recycle 4.9 billion gallons of wastewater by 2019, and Miami-Dade County, Fla., is planning to convert 23 million gallons of wastewater a day into drinking water. So far, environmentalists have offered measured praise for water recycling; some have said that if the practice is adopted on a large enough scale, it might eventually make up for people crapping in drinkable water in the first place."
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Toilet to Tap: Orange County Turning Sewage Water into Drinking Water:
"Trying to build public support, waste managers have launched a campaign to inform residents of Southern California that they are already drinking treated wastewater. Large amounts of heavily treated waste is discharged from cities upstream that also tap into the Colorado River, like Las Vegas.
Orange County's wastewater recycling system currently produces water for $600 an acre foot, and experts predict the price of imported water will rise to $800 an acre foot in just three years. An acre foot provides a year supply of water to two families. Southern Californians are going to have to accept wastewater recycling if they are going to continue to provide water for all residents in times of drought."
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I wrote about "precious water" twice last year: and:
I hope you have been doing your part to save our precious water.
It is drizzling here, and even though it is warm, over 65 deg., it is still an overcast gloomy day.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Transmission Towers. Onions. Strokes. Heart Attacks. Misty. Cargo Trailer.
I know folks are always interested in earning additional income, for the upwardly mobile amongst us, a 1,700' climb to get to work, how would you like this job:
Someone has to do it! Do you think about that when you use your cell phone?
I think doing this would give me a stroke or heart attack.
Add These to Your Sandwich to Stop Strokes
"Whether you're noshing on a lean turkey with tomato or a veggie delight, add these to your sandwich to reduce your risk of stroke: onions.
Onions are brimming with flavonols, and new research suggests that these nutritional goodies could downsize the risk of stroke by as much as 20 percent.
Fabulous, Flavorful Flavonols
The key flavonol compounds for stroke prevention appear to be myricetin, apigenin, luteolin, kaempferol, and quercetin. But don't worry about pronouncing them. Just know that they have inflammation-cooling effects -- especially the quercetin -- and that translates into a lower risk of


text:
Overview of Church Records
From Ancestry.com Wiki
| Church Records
This article is part of a series.
|Overview of Church Records|
|Types of Church Records|
|Finding Church Records|
|List of Selected Denominations|
|List of Useful Church References|
Church records are a rich resource for the genealogical and historical researcher. In many parts of the country, church records predate civil records. They therefore document vital events, giving birth, marriage, and death information that might otherwise be lost. Besides providing names and dates, church records may reveal relationships between people and depict a family's status in the community. In addition, entries of a personal nature are not uncommon, and these can offer a glimpse into an ancestor's character or habits.
If church records are so valuable a tool, why do researchers often neglect these records? Perhaps the answer lies in the historical complexity of religious organization, evidenced by a large number of denominations. The Columbia Encyclopedia identifies more than two hundred religious denominations under the main heading "Protestantism."1 Furthermore, the majority of these denominations have undergone many changes—splits or mergers resulting in the formation of various branches or sects—or philosophical differences that, when unresolved, have ended with the demise of a denomination or sect. To further complicate matters, the records created about the members of a denomination may be housed locally, regionally, or nationally. These conditions can make the identifying of an individual church and the locating of its records quite difficult.
Another factor that contributes to the under use of church records is terminology. Churches use a unique vocabulary to describe who they are and what they do. Sometimes the same concept is described with different terms by different denominations. An example may be taken from denominational hierarchy. Baptist churches join together in associations, Lutherans and Presbyterians form synods, Methodists unite in conferences, and Episcopalian and Roman Catholic churches are linked to the diocese. Knowing these differences in terms helps to identify the records to explore.
Even within records, terms can differ. In some congregations, the arrival and removal of members were regularly recorded. While these records can be especially helpful in providing information about a member's old and new communities, and making it possible to track members from one location to another, they are often called by different names and are thus frequently overlooked. The Society of Friends typically called them certificates of removal, Baptists called them letters of admission, some called them letters of transfer, and some called them dismissions. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints they are certificates of membership.
Confusion over terminology also applies when one tries to interpret entries within a particular record. For example, marriage dispensations in the Roman Catholic Church authorize a priest to perform the marriage ceremony despite the presence of conditions that normally forbade this. The religious law that was being circumvented will be identified in the dispensation papers. Two laws are "Disparity of Cult or Worship" and "Affinity." Knowing that "Disparity" forbids marriage of a Catholic to a nonbaptized person and that "Affinity" forbids marrying the third cousin or any near-blood relative of one's deceased husband or wife helps the researcher understand more about the people who were to be wed. It is worth noting that the most frequently requested dispensation was from publication of the banns. Banns were the formal church announcement of an intended marriage, made on a specific number of Sundays prior to the marriage.
Finally, the practice of many ethnic groups to maintain congregational records in their native language can present an obstacle for a researcher who does not read or understand that language. Particularly in the decades following the establishment of a church by an immigrant group, it is possible to find church records in Dutch, German, Polish, Spanish, and so on. Many old Catholic parish registers were written in Latin. With logic and a dual-language dictionary, the record can usually be deciphered. In some cases, the services of a translator may be needed.
Despite these many obstacles and challenges, a search of church records is becoming less formidable with each passing year. Today's technology has merged with years of records preservation by archivists, curators, and researchers to make records more readily available. Improved access and knowing how religion developed in America enables a seeker to more fully utilize this important source.
Church records vary a great deal in content and emphasis according to the basic theology and the social role of each denomination. Studying the background of the "Old Country" churches helps us to better understand the organization of the "New World" churches. One useful distinction is between "state" churches and so-called "free" churches.
State Churches and Free Churches
The "state" churches were those European churches in which every Christian in the state or kingdom was considered a member. Because of doctrinal differences and the concept of the church's place in the political arena, the state church records took on a different degree of importance and significance to the local congregation and to the civil community. The keeping of parish registers in countries with state churches was obligatory. This task usually fell to the pastor or the parish priest.
In contrast to the "state" church, the "free" or "gathered" churches emphatically rejected inclusive and obligatory membership in the church from birth. Rather, only those who had been "born again" in Christ and baptized as an adult could be considered true members of the church. While the records of the state church required noting the birth of a child and his or her baptism, the records of the free church may have only mentioned a birth, perhaps as an occasion for celebration by the congregation; the free church focused instead on the importance of the person's rebirth in Christ and his or her conduct. These details were carefully recorded, while other events of the congregation were noted solely at the discretion of the church clerk.
Theology was not the only factor that determined the types of records to be kept. Sometimes it was the local church clerk or official who would decide what events would be worth recording. In Scandinavia and many German states, the Lutheran church was the established church. The Lutheran pastor was a quasi-public official who was the authorized recorder of births, deaths, and marriages. Similarly, in England, a 1538 Act of Parliament required all ministers of the Church of England to record baptisms, marriages, and burials in their parishes. In 1597, another parliamentary act reinforced the original law, requiring that duplicates of parish records be sent annually to the bishop of the pertinent diocese (thereby creating the valuable bishops' transcripts). Pastors were also official record keepers in Scotland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and certain German states where Calvinism became the established faith.
In areas of Europe where Roman Catholicism was the established faith, parish priests were the official recorders of baptisms, marriages, and burials. These priests were accountable to more than local parliaments, however. In 1563, the church's Council of Trent issued a decree requiring proof of baptism before marriage. Subsequent decrees reinforced this edict, notably that of Pope Paul V in 1614, which made parish registers obligatory.
Churches in America
This distinction between "state" or "free" church in the Old Country came with the immigrants who ventured to the New World. The churches established by these newcomers reflected the clergy, the doctrine, and the record-keeping practices of the congregations back home.
In most of the American colonies, state churches were established. In New England, the Congregational church generally held sway. To the South (Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina), the Church of England (Protestant Episcopal) became the established church. There were, however, important exceptions. Maryland, though originally founded as a haven for Roman Catholics, was for a time Anglican. And in New Netherland (now New York), as long as the Dutch were in control, the Dutch Reformed Church (the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church until 1867 and now the Reformed Church in America) was the established church. It was the only Christian denomination that could hold public worship. The Dutch minister married nearly every couple and baptized nearly every child in the city prior to the English takeover in 1664.
Some of these established churches functioned on a colonial or state level until well after the American Revolution. But the variety of immigrant groups, each with their own religious preferences, ultimately defeated most attempts to impose religious uniformity.
Following the American Revolution, traditional record-keeping practices changed to accommodate a more mobile society, intent on westward movement. As families left the established Eastern seaboard, they sometimes left the traditional church as well, adopting a pioneer spirit that included a different religious fervor. Churches along the migration routes still featured the established denominations, but they were decidedly less dominant. Instead, the more open, less restrictive, and less formal evangelical movements prevailed. Baptist, Church of God, Methodist, and Presbyterian took hold and flourished.
Despite their religious preferences, these pioneers did not always have the luxury of their particular clergy. For example, a Methodist in Louisiana could have married in a Congregationalist Church. A Kentucky Episcopalian may have been buried by a circuit-riding Baptist or Presbyterian preacher. If these events were not documented by a civil authority, they may have been noted in the records of the closest local congregation or painstakingly scripted into the diary of an itinerant minister. Your ancestor's records may have been kept but perhaps not in the county, parish, or congregation where you expect to find them.
While there are numerous and widely variant religious groups in the United States, there are at least five types of records that are kept by almost all churches. These are records of (1) baptism and christening, (2) marriage, (


In today's times people are getting more workaholic which involves a continuous and glued sitting position, more exposure to computers and lack of body movements, in such people the problems of the spine, muscles and skeletal tissues of neck and shoulder arise. Greeva Basti addresses these issues effectively.
The word Greeva refers to neck and Basti stands for retaining something inside mainly medicated oil. It is an Ayurvedic neck care and basically a hot oil therapy. Greeva Basti is bathing the neck region with medicated oil or freshly prepared herbal decoction. The procedure does oleation and sudation around the neck region simultaneously.
1) Relieves the burden of stress and congestion in nerves, bones and muscles of the neck and shoulders and thus relaxing and rejuvenating them
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3) Improves circulation around the neck and shoulder region.
4) Relieves pain and stiffness.
Cervical spondylosis
Cervical disc lesion
Tingling, numbness of hands
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The purpose of improving the insulation of platform screen doors (PSD) is to increase the insulation resistance between PSDs and station building structure which will indirectly causes PSD and EMU having same potential. In this case where voltage difference between PSDs and EMUs are avoided, electric shocks that may be experienced by passengers and station staffs can be prevented. If PSDs unfortunately encounter grounding failure, the negative return current in the rail may burn the control unit circuit board of the PSD. Since the PSD s and rail tracks adopted floating grounding, the insulation resistance between PSD and station structure is regulated to exceed 0.3MΩ/250Vdc.
Upon on-site inspection and test results, insufficient insulation areas were discovered and the MRT Engineering Office of BOHSR demanded the contractor to show correction and improvement. Reasons of insufficient insulation include design factors such as damages of the insulation gasket caused by uneven pressure and the additional base plate causing the insulation gap being too narrow; Construction factors such as extended stationary bolts of piers causing direct contact with the door frame, improper installation of metal washers resulting in direct contact with the base, iron scraps of segmented bolts were not properly removed, and uneven surfaces were not corrected and smoothed. In addition, the PSD contractor should hold CIP meetings with civil engineering tender contractors in advance for verification to prevent disturbing issues such as torn up sandbags causing Cement Asphalt Mortar to fill up the platform door base grooves and disrupts insulation.
After correcting the above deficiencies, insulation still fluctuation on account of weather change (fog, rain, etc.) at some stations. Fortunately, the door panels are anodized and an insulation film is applied under the platform surface within 2.5m range nearby PSD so that there would be no casualties if this happens.


text:
Definition of Anglocentric in English:
Centred on or considered in terms of England or Britain: an Anglocentric, white view of Australian history
More example sentences
- He's critical of the Anglocentric view which defines Caribbean literature as Walcott, Naipaul and not much else.
- Few things are so hypocritical than the cry of 'racism' when an outsider correctly skewers both England's arrogant, underachieving football team and the grossly Anglocentric British media.
- His Scottish kingship was not in any way a trial run for kingship of England; modern scholars of Anglocentric persuasion may make the mistake of thinking that it was, but his English subjects never made that mistake.
Definition of Anglocentric in:
- US English dictionary
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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Events Marketing
Examples of SMART Goals for Event Planners
So why are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals needed for events? Event marketing is one of the most complex, expensive, and risky activities. This means that each event should have its own goal and should solve certain problems. Setting SMART event goals will help you to succeed.
What is an event goal?
If an event is a house, your event planner goals are the foundation. The event planner is the one who benefits the most by creating SMART event objectives because they can incorporate all key reasons for developing the event plan.
What is a SMART goal?
A SMART goal is aimed at long-term results. The main and final goal of a marketing event is to create favourable conditions for the promotion of events and to attract customers or attendees. A SMART goal is used to help guide the goal-setting process.
Benefits of SMART goals for your events
Communication time is cut in half when people have a clear set of guidelines and achievable goals. They will always know what to do if something goes wrong. Everyone must be on the same page when planning an event. Having a set of SMART goals to continually be able to refer to acts as an added security blanket. SMART goals for event planning are your safeguard when organising your event and also measuring the results afterwards.
SMART goals vs. traditional goals
According to conventional wisdom, goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. But SMART goals undervalue ambition, focus narrowly on individual performance, and ignore the importance of discussing goals throughout the year. so, there are adherers to rather FAST than SMARt goal planning.
FAST goals
Examples of SMART goals
When organising an event for a client, knowing how to define goals that are SMART goals can be considered part of building relationships. When it comes to an event for employees, the goal may be to increase staff loyalty, increase business efficiency, and build relationships within the team as well as facilitate communication and develop unity between company divisions. As a result of such an event, an employee should feel like a part of a larger group, or it does not work.
How to use SMART goals
Set SMART goals to clarify your ideas, focus your efforts, use your time and resources productively, and achieve what you want for your event. It's fundamental to set objectives and goals for yourself, but don't generalise your goals. Use examples of SMART goals for an event to help you get started. Remember that SMART goals work, but you need a few additional points to maximise their achievability. This guide will help you set SMART goals and actually reach them.
How to set SMART goals
If you are not sure how to set SMART goals for your events, you should apply our examples of SMART goals for event planning.
The task should be relevant not only for the company but also for employees and attendees. This is a significant task if your goal is team development. Employees become motivated to work better, and you will become a more qualified specialist. In the future, this will benefit your event business.
To make sure any task meets the SMART criteria, you must do the following:
 - State what needs to be done and what results should be achieved.
 - Write down a statement of the problem on paper or in the appendix to show to your employees.
 - Make sure that the whole team understands the task correctly and is looking for the same result.
 - If the task is not clear, keep changing the wording until it is no longer ambiguous.
 - Set the criteria for evaluating the task.
 - Make sure that the team has all the resources they need to complete the event task.
 - Give the team the resources they need, or hand over the task to someone who already has them.
 - If there are no resources available, the task will need to be reviewed.
 - Verify that the task is important to the project, team, or individual. If not, there is no need to carry it out.
 - Demonstrate the importance of the task to employees as this will increase their motivation.
 - Set the exact deadline for your goal achievement so that the whole team knows what is expected.
 - Set the time period when the result should be measured.
 - Provide feedback to all event participants and gather their feedback as well.
You also need to consider that when the significance of the task is obvious, employees put more effort into its implementation. Therefore, it is important to explain to the team why they should attain a particular goal.
Mistakes to avoid
First of all, the goals and objectives should be determined by the client. However, if the goal set by the client is vague or not well formulated, the organiser's task is to help him or her come up with a clear definition and wording. At this stage, the help of marketers and other specialists may be needed. Ideally, the event organiser should have all the qualities and resources available to help the client in this matter. Only after the SMART goals and objectives of the event are well defined can you begin to implement them.
Always have a contingency plan for events as a part of your SMART goal. Consider all possible threats to an event or possible risks in advance. Include them in your event budget and strategy. Insurance and useful contacts with local security, municipal administrations, and other support will also be helpful if they can be arranged.
Tips for setting event goals so you can maximise the event's impact
Use these simple tips to set event goals so you can maximise the event's impact:
 - Understand the purpose of the event.
 - Set real event objectives.
 - Know your target audience.
 - Select the right venue.
 - Set appropriate timing.
 - Create content that attracts your target audience.
 - Come up with a message you want to share throughout the event.
 - Choose the lead capture mechanism.
 - examples of SMART goals for event planners.
Call to action
Event managers often seek useful ideas and apps for event planning, such as SMART goals for an event manager, because this significantly simplifies their difficult task and increases event attendance. Use our useful resources to make your event successful.
Event organisers are responsible for observing the events and creating the necessary conditions for the personal safety of participants and spectators to ensure safe and high-quality events. Planners are responsible for everything from the event's organization to health care, trade, communications, transport, consumer services, and mass media. Organisers should set SMART goals and follow the best SMART goals for event planners examples
What do you think? Leave your comments below. Good luck! is the leading event technology provider offering automated solutions for the MICE industry, Corporations, Government, and Education sectors. If you're up for event management automation, contact us and we'll amp up your event.
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NATIONAL FLAG MATCH
National Flag Match is an educational game for kids to practice matching countries with their national flags. A national flag will appear on the left and four countries will be listed on the right. Children must click on the country that matches the flag correctly to advance to another question.
Recommended for Grades: 3,4,5


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A: I had a user the other day who insisted his Deleted Items folder was empty, but his mailbox was still pushing against the company's mailbox size limit policy. I've seen users accidentally move content to unexpected places without realizing it. For example, in Outlook it's possible to drag and drop a mail folder into the Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, or even Notes folders. Or the content could still be in Deleted Items, even if it doesn't appear to be so to the user.
The person who assured me his Deleted Items folder was empty was actually selecting the Deleted Items folder in the Navigation pane, highlighting the content in the main pane, then deleting the highlighted content. This method works, although it's somewhat tedious, but it misses content that might have been deleted from within subfolders. When you delete a folder, its contents are moved to Deleted Items as a subfolder. The contents of the subfolder aren't visible in Deleted Items unless the subfolder is selected in the Navigation pane. Also, when you select Deleted Items, it doesn't show the folders in the main pane; you have to click the little plus symbol (+) or arrow beside Deleted Items in the Navigation pane for those folders to appear, as Figure 1 shows.
To delete these folders, you have to either do so one at a time, manually (not a good idea), or use the more logical Empty "Deleted Items" Folder or Empty Folder option from the right-click menu on the Deleted Items folder. You can also use the Empty Folder button on the Folder tab of the Ribbon in Outlook 2010 or go to Tools, Empty "Deleted Items" Folder in Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003.
In addition, Outlook makes it easy to view the size of folders within the hierarchy so that you can identify where the greatest mailbox volume resides. You can right-click the account in the Navigation pane and select Data File Properties (or Properties) from the bottom of the context menu. On the General tab of the Properties dialogue box, click the button for Folder Size to open a window listing individual mailbox folder sizes in KB. Figure 2 shows an example with a small amount residing in Deleted Items. Unfortunately, this window isn't resizable, so if you have many folders, you'll have to scroll through them to see the full list.
Figure 2: Viewing actual folder sizes in Microsoft Outlook
Although the user I was working with claimed the Deleted Items folder was emptied, I was able to use this method to find a large amount of content still in that folder. Exchange administrators can also access this information without using the Outlook client, of course, by using Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and the Get-MailboxFolderStatistics cmdlet.


trial balance worksheet template
A trial balance worksheet template is a type of document that creates a copy of itself when you open it. This copy has all of the design and formatting of the trial balance worksheet sample, such as logos and tables, but you can modify it by entering content without altering the original trial balance worksheet example. A professional designed trial balance worksheet template can help maintain consistent appearance of related documents.
the last two steps in the accounting process are preparing a trial balance and then preparing the balance sheet and income statement. the trial balance worksheet lists the prior-period balance, unadjusted balance, all journal entries, and the adjusted balance for each account. the trial balance worksheet prints out a blank report with columns where you may write in your own information. there are three worksheet formats available: trial balance is always a crucial aspect of a company's financial department with its report on ending and debit and credit balances in every account by the the trial balance worksheet contained in the attached file is designed to save you time and money in preparing the trial balance yourself. on a trial balance worksheet, you tally all the data for a specific period that you'll need to complete your final financial statements. – – how to find the adjusted trial balance of the worksheet. most charts of accounts are numbered in balance sheet order, so the unadjusted trial balance also displays the account numbers in balance, list of debit and credit items in trial balance, prepare trial balance, trial balance example questions, trial balance example questions, trial balance exercise with answer, trial balance format in excel, trial balance format in excel, proforma of trial balance, trial balance format pdf, trial balance format pdf, trial balance items list


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Letters Section Editor: Stephen J. Lurie,
MD, PhD, Senior Editor.
To the Editor: We have 2 concerns about the
study by Dr Rosenheck and colleagues.1 First,
the average dosages of olanzapine (14.1 mg/d) and haloperidol (13.6 mg/d)
do not reflect similar levels of dopamine D2 receptor occupancy
in each treatment group: about 75% for olanzapine and about 90% for haloperidol.2 Although the dosages that the authors used are
common in practice, they do not reflect optimal dosing for haloperidol. Given
the relationship between dopaminergic neurotransmission and extrapyramidal
symptoms and aspects of cognitive and motor functioning,3 differences
in dopamine D2 receptor occupancy could partially explain the small
advantages found in favor of olanzapine.
de Haan L, van Beveren N. Olanzapine vs Haloperidol for Treatment of Schizophrenia. JAMA. 2004;291(9):1064. doi:10.1001/jama.291.9.1065-c


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When It Happens Panel Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email
Museum amusement: children have fun learning
2:00pm Saturday 26th January 2013 in News
Children found a rather unusual way of telling the time at a workshop. The Museum of the History of Science, in Broad Street, Oxford, held a day of Chinese Dragon Fireclock building. The clocks, invented more than 1,000 years ago, tell the time by burning specially calibrated incense sticks.
Alice Kelly and her five-year-old son Luis Garnaut, pictured, coloured parts of the clock.
She said: "I had a lovely time at the workshop, we had lots of fun."
Meanwhile, animal magic helped excite young minds for an event at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum when education trainee Carly Smith-Huggins, pictured, ran a new workshop called Woof! Woof! last week for under-fives.
She used a canine glove puppet to show about 45 children around the museum. They then got to make their own puppet and to transform themselves into their furry four-legged friends with an art class.
She said: "The children had lots of fun trying out barking, howling and wagging their tails."


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After several decades of research on how (and if) animals perceive colour, and the threshold at which animals can detect differences between colours, we still know little about how animals process highly contrasting colours. Second, how these colours interact in complex patterns that provide signaling or camouflage mechanisms is poorly understood. Given the ecology and evolutionary importance of animal colour patterns, and the ubiquity of colour patterns in nature, we are hoping to fill these knowledge gaps.
We are using Picasso Triggerfish in behavioural experiments to understand how visual models work when colours go beyond the discrimination thresholds.
We are also using anemonefish (clownfish) to understand the role of different visual pigments and photoreceptor cells that supports vision across a wider spectrum of light such as the ultraviolet region, an area outside of our own visible spectrum. How clownfish use ultraviolet vision on the reef is also a topic we intend to explore.


text: 1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data I've attached the problem, it involves reducing a 3x3 matrix determinant to row echelon form, but the leading diagonal elements have to be linear in a and b afterwards. 2. Relevant equations 3. The attempt at a solution I've managed to convert it to row echelon form by: r3-ar2 ; r2-ar1 ; r3-br2 The problem is that this leaves a diagonal element having cubic terms. Can anyone see a way to acomplish this? Should be an easy problem, but I've spent over an hour trying different combinations.


KDnuggets Home » News » 2017 » May » Tutorials, Overviews » Must-Know: What is the idea behind ensemble learning? ( 17:n17 )
Must-Know: What is the idea behind ensemble learning?
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In ensemble methods, more diverse the models used, more robust will be the ultimate result.
"In statistics and machine learningensemble methods use multiple learning algorithms to obtain better predictive performance than could be obtained from any of the constituent learning algorithms alone."
Imagine you are playing the game "Who wants to be millionaire?" and reached up to last question of 1 million dollars. You have no clue about the question, but you have audience poll and phone a friend life lines. Thank God. At this stage you don't want to take any risk, so what will you do to get sure-shot right answer to become millionaire?
You will use both life lines, isn't it? Let's say 70% audience is saying right answer is D and your friend is also saying the right answer is D with 90% confidence because he is an expert in the area of the question. Use of both life lines gives you an average 80% confidence that D is correct and gets you closer to becoming a millionaire.
This is the approach of ensemble methods.
The famous Netflix Prize competition took almost 3 years before the goal of 10% improvement was reached. The winners used gradient boosted decision trees to combine over 500 models.
In ensemble methods, the more diverse the models used, the more robust will be the ultimate result.
Different models used in ensemble improves overall variance from difference in population, difference in hypothesis generated, difference in algorithms used and difference in parametrization. There are main 3 widely used ensembles techniques:
 1. Bagging
 2. Boosting
 3. Stacking
So if you have different models built for same data and same response variable, you can use one of the above methods to build ensemble model. As every model used in the ensemble has its own performance measures, some of the models may perform better than ultimate ensemble model and some of them may perform poorer than or equal to ensemble model. But overall the ensemble methods will improve overall accuracy and stability of the model, although at the expense of model understandability.
For more on ensemble methods see:
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Nowadays, whether it's for a sandwich or a 10-course tasting menu, many people don't think twice about getting a bite to eat at a restaurant. In fact, nearly every street corner presents a new opportunity to enjoy a meal without the hassle of messing up our own kitchens. Of course, it wasn't always this way, and our ancestors survived quite well for millennia long before the birth of taco Tuesdays. But the restaurant as we know it is nearly unrecognizable from the earliest eateries of ancient Rome and China—and even a far cry from the first dining establishments in Paris and New York.
When Romans didn't feel like cooking, they could stop by their local thermopolium, a precursor to today's fast food joints. There, deep stone bowls inlaid in L-shaped counters are believed to have held such delicacies as cheese baked with honey and herbs, savory lentil dishes and mulled wine. The ruins of Pompeii feature many well-preserved examples of thermopolia, and experts think much of the population regularly patronized them; indeed, the majority of homes in the town lacked cooking facilities. For all their convenience, thermopolia could apparently draw a rough crowd and were often the scenes of crimes. Claudius once demanded their closure, and Caligula had a man killed who dared sell food at a thermopolium during a mourning period for the emperor's sister.
The closest ancestor to today's restaurant originated in Hangzhou, a city in eastern China. Beginning in 1123, Hangzhou was the seat of the Southern Song Dynasty, and it quickly became home to well over a million people. (By contrast, London and Paris counted just tens of thousands of inhabitants at the time.) Hangzhou's flourishing economy and bustling population set the stage for a restaurant revolution. Industrious cooks rolled up their sleeves in tents, taverns and tea shops along Hangzhou's broad Imperial Way, lined with street performers, rice wine vendors and cafes specializing in roast pork, noodle soup and other snacks. Unlike at a thermopolium, where diners simply ate whatever was being served that day, patrons received menus from which to choose their meals. Marco Polo visited Hangzhou and reported that delicacies like silkworm pie, bean curd soup and pork-stuffed dumplings were enjoyed by many a weary merchant or traveler.
But what of the first American restaurant? That distinction is generally given to Julien's Resorator, a Boston establishment opened in 1793 by Jean-Baptiste Julien. A chef to nobility before the French Revolution, Julien specialized in a common treat of the day: turtle soup. In fact, he went so far as to take out advertisements in local papers exalting his "fresh supply of green sea turtles, of a midding size" prepared "in the best manner." Taking a cue from eateries in his native land, Julien emphasized the healthy nature of his dishes, promising to nourish, invigorate and strengthen bodies with his various cordials, broths, soups and meats.


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EXCALIBUR and the story continues….
Watch this session recording:
Groups of language learners, young and old, meet in immersive environments like OpenSim, Second Life or Minecraft and are asked to build a spaceship together. Or a village, or a power plant. They come from Italy, Finnland and Germany and need to communicate in English to achieve the lofty goals. Can building in OpenSim provide a venue to communicate in English in real-time? This potential will be explored in EXCALIBUR, a new EU funded project to come in 2022.
zz Heike Philp
Heike Philp is CEO of let's talk online sprl, an immersive education specialist for language teaching and learning. She is co-initiator of EU funded LANCELOT (virtual classroom) and AVALON (virtual world) and the CAMELOT project (machinima for language teachers) and GUINEVERE (games in virtual worlds). She is founder of the Virtual Round Table Conference and co-owns EduNation in Second Life and in OpenSim.


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I've brewed up a few batches of extract beer so far & all have come up crystal clear. I've just sampled my first batch of beer (ginger ale) that's come up quite cloudy.
What causes cloudiness? Is it intrinsic to certain styles or is it a byproduct of certain conditions? Or both?
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2 Answers 2
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Cloudiness in Beer
Cloudiness in beer has several main causes. For some styles of beer, such as a witbier, it is desirable, and for others, it is regarded as a flaw. It is, therefore, important to understand what factors influence clarity and cloudiness of beer so that you can control the appearance of your beer as best possible.
1. Suspended Proteins
Suspended proteins usually make a beer look dull and ugly, regardless of style. Proteins in beer can contribute to chill haze, in which cooling the beer to around fridge temp drives proteins out of solution, creating lumpy clouds that disappear as the beer warms.
The hot break and cold break are important parts of the brewing process. The hot break is proteins coagulating as the boil begins to roll. The cold break, which drives even more protein out of suspension, happens as a result of rapidly cooling the wort after the boil.
These proteins settle to the bottom of the wort after it sits for only a few minutes, so it's easy to rack the beer into your fermentor and leave these proteins behind. Additives such as Irish moss or whirlfloc will also help to clear these proteins.
2. Unsettled Yeast
Yeast that has not flocculated, or settled, is generally the biggest factor in the clarity of homebrew. Some strains of yeast have been selectively bred to be more flocculent than others, so when choosing a yeast, check the level of flocculation of the yeast and compare that to how the style of beer should look.
Highly flocculent yeast will settle out after 3-5 days. These yeast are often so ready to become a cake of trub that they need to be roused to finish fermentation. Medium-flocculent yeast generally take 6-15 days to settle, but with enough time will settle out on their own. Yeast strains with low flocculaiton, such as hefeweizen and witbier yeasts, don't settle much with time. These yeasts will leave your beer looking cloudy - which is good for certain styles.
Yeast will also flocculate more after fermentation as the beer temperature drops, so if you can cool your beer in a basement or fridge during secondary fermentation, then you have a reliable method for making your beer significantly more clear. Using this method, you'll notice that after a week or two, the beer is much less cloudy, and that after the first 5-10 days, very little additional yeast drops out of suspension.
Beer that looks clear can still have up to one million yeast cells per mL, so for standard-strength beers, you don't have to worry about not having enough yeast left for bottling - it's still there. Whether or not it's healthy is another question, but generally repitching yeast for bottling is unnecessary.
3. Other particles
The most significant contributor here is hop particles. Hop debris tends to stay in suspension a little longer than yeast, and is particularly noticeable when dry-hopping a beer. As with yeast, giving a beer time on secondary at lowered temperatures is the best way to clear, although with beers that have massive amounts of hops, like double IPAs, cloudiness is just an expected byproduct - it might take longer to try to clear the beer than what the brewer deems best for beer flavor.
Any other ingredients that you add to your beer will influence color and clarity. Fruit tends to cloud beer, as some fruits leave pectin in the beer. Other additives may cloud beer, depending, obviously, on their color and how readily they settle.
Clearing your Beer
Again, the best agent for making your beer less cloudy is time. Over time, many of the suspended particles will fall out. Lowered temperatures will help this to happen more quickly. However, other things can be done to help make a beer more clear.
 1. Select malts with lower protein levels.
 2. Use more flocculent yeast.
 3. Add Irish moss or whirlfloc at the end of your boil.
 4. Use a fining agent like gelatin, isinglass, or polyclar.
 5. Filter your beer. This method, being the most challenging and costly, would be a last resort.
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In addition to what Brandon said, pH in the mash and kettle has a huge effect on beer clarity. get the pH into the 5.4 area and your beer will be much clearer. It isn't alwyas practical to use ingredients with lower protein levels without significantly altering a recipe.
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Creekside Science
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Creekside Center for Earth Observation was founded in 2006 by Drs. Stuart B. Weiss and Paul M. Rich to apply the latest science and technology to address challenging conservation problems.
We specialize in experimental design, field measurement, and quantitative analysis. Our clients include city, state, and federal agencies, private companies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations. Projects include protection of the threatened Bay Checkerspot
Dr. Stuart Weiss, Chief Scientist
Butterfly (Euphydryas editha bayensis), evaluation of biodiversity impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition, characterization of habitat for federally listed aquatic organisms such as steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and modeling of climate change impacts in mountain ecosystems.
Our Philosophy: We subscribe to the worldview of Aldo Leopold, who expounded a "land ethic", in which the basic ethical considerations given to human beings are expanded to include the natural world around us. As such, while our work is founded in science, it is also rooted in a deep philosophical commitment to achieve and maintain ecosystem health, preserve vital ecosystem functions, protect rare and endangered species, and expand consciousness about conservation through education and outreach.
CS crew cropped
Creekside Science employees on San Bruno Mountain, December 2019
Why do we care about conservation?
Our natural environment is the single most important place we will ever protect. We list a few reasons why we continue to strive for greater awareness of conservation.
Ecological Services = from a utilitarian perspective, the broad set of
essential functions provided by healthy ecosystems, such as flood control,
water purification, waste decomposition, absorption and detoxification of
pollutants, pollination of crops, soil formation, and moderation of weather.
Economic Value = from an economic perspective, the importance of key natural resources (food, fuel, fiber, building materials, etc.) on which human existence and modern civilization depend.
Research plot at Tulare Hill, Santa Clara Co.
Research plot at Tulare Hill, Santa Clara Co.
Scientific Value = from a scientific perspective, the importance of the
natural world as a source of knowledge and living laboratory.
Aesthetic/Cultural Value = from a nonutilitarian perspective, the natural
world as a source of beauty and in a vital role for continuance of many of our
cultural practices.
Intrinsic Value = from an ethical perspective, the basic right of living
organisms to exist. Aldo Leopold's land ethic expands the concept of
intrinsic rights beyond humans, to encompass "soils, waters, plants, and
animals, or collectively, the land."


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Data Analytics and Decision Support for Health Informatics
This course is designed to familiarize students with the different types of healthcare data, assure the quality of the data and how to understand and communicate the information provided in support of effective decision making by the various stakeholders of the healthcare system. Study and discussion topics will include how to choose the correct information for different decisions and communicate its meaning to users. Students will evaluate statistical methods and tools. The difference between research databases and operational databases will be covered along with techniques to effectively communicate quantitative healthcare data using tables and graphs. Methods for choosing the right medium will be explored in depth.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
Identify different types of administrative and clinical data and their uses in decision support.
Describe similarities and differences in healthcare information stored in Electronic Medical Records vs. relational databases.
Describe the elements of high quality reliable data.
Develop analyses and reports designed to communicate trends and recommend actionable next steps.
Evaluate ways to report and graphically display data.
Identify and use various statistical methods and tools for the analysis of data.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Tamahagane (玉鋼) is a type of steel made in the Japanese tradition. The word tama means "round and precious", like a gem. The word hagane means "steel".[1] Tamahagane is used to make Japanese swords, knives, and other kinds of tools.
The carbon content of the majority of analyzed japanese sword historically lies between 0.5~0.7 mass%, however the range extends up to 1.5%.[2][3]
Tamahagane is made of a very pure iron sand (satetsu), which is found in Shimane, Japan.[4] There are 2 main types of iron sands: akame satetsu (赤目砂鉄) and masa satetsu (真砂砂鉄). Akame is of lower quality and masa is of better quality. The person who decides the amount of the mixing parts is called the murage. Depending on the desired result, the murage mixes one or more types of sands.
The iron sand is put in a tatara, a clay tub furnace. The clay tub measures about 4 feet (1.2 m) tall, 12 feet (3.7 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. The tub is then dried and heated. The clay tub is heated to a high temperature, about 1,000 °C (1800 °F). Then, it is mixed with charcoal to add carbon to the steel so it can be hardened.
The process of making tamahagane continues for 36 to 72 hours (a day and a half to 3 days), depending on how many people work and how much metal is to be obtained. Within an hour of smelting, the iron sand sinks to the bottom, called the bed of fire, in which it will be assessed by color on whether or not it has become Tamahagane. The iron sand is added every 10 minutes and the mixture is frequently turned over. When the tamahagane is finished, the clay tub is broken and the steel is removed. The best steel is on the edges of metal block, because this is where the oxidation process is stronger. The quality of tamahagane is determined by its color: bright silver pieces are very good for making blades.
Related pages[edit]
 1. ^ "Japanese-English translation :: hagane :: Dictionary". Kanjijapanese.com. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
 2. ^ "Study of Microstructures on Cross Section of JAPANESE SWORD" (PDF). _URL_. 2009. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
 3. ^ "Info". _URL_. Retrieved 2019-12-16.(in Japanese)
 4. ^ "Forging a Katana ( Japanese Samurai Sword )". YouTube. 2012-11-27. Retrieved 2019-12-16.